Back in skinny jeans

Fitalicious Reads From Healthy Living Bloggers Around the Skinnysphere

I am so very honored to know these fabulous healthy living bloggers who have parlayed their writing talents from blog to book. So fitalicious! Take a gander and consider these books for a healthy holiday gift.

 

You're Amazing! by Claire Mysko blogger of 5 Resolutions

• btw. Yours truly has a mention in the book :-)

Why Your Last Diet Failed You and How This Book Won't Help You on Your Next One by Charlie Hills blogger of Back to the Fridge

• Charlie is the master of the funny graphs & charts. He also was the inspiration for my noshie health-upped grilled peanut butter & jelly sandwich. So yum!

Half-Assed: A Weight-Loss Memoir by Jennette Fulda blogger of PastaQueen

• Jennette shed 200lbs. Back in May, I did a podcast with Jennette about her weight loss journey and how blogging helped her. The girl has a hot voice so do listen.

The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl by Shanua Reid blogger of The Amazing Adventures of Diet Girl

• Shauna is hysterical. Coming this January 9th, Shauna and I will be doing a podcast so check back then to hear her Aussie in Scotland accent. I think I will explode with excitement! Did I mention that I want to marry a clone of Scottish Kevin McKidd aka Dr. Owen "McBadass" Hunt on Grey's Anatomy? "Anything can happen on the vent." {like a steamy smooch}

 

Locker Room Diaries: The Naked Truth about Women, Body Image, and Re-imagining the "Perfect" Body by Leslie Goldman blogger of Never Say Diet on iVillage

• I got to interview Leslie about her book and about getting naked in the locker room. Yeah, it's hot in a "oh I hear ya girl!" kinda way. If you wanna see Leslie working on the quads, I snapped her in action in the hotel gym.

101 Foods That Could Save Your Life by Dave Grotto blogger of Ask the 'Guy'-titian

• Dave is a a Registered Dietitian (RD), Licensed Dietitian/Nutritionist (LDN) and a comedienne. Seriously. He is very funny! In my Noshtopia interview, Dave gives us pointers on how to add nutritional bling to your oatmeal. This too is yum!

Enter to win fabulous giveaways from Joe's Jeans, Steaz, and Sephora during BISJ Birthday Week!

 

Back in Skinny Jeans celebrates her 3rd birthday and we would be nothing without you our fabulous readers. To show our gratitude in a FUNTASTIC way, this whole week, Nov. 17-21, we're giving out some fabulous giveaways to some lucky readers, thanks to the graciousness of these awesome sponsors whom we love and use too!

The folks at Joe's Jeans not only make some of the hottest jeans on the market, they have given us 5 pairs of jeans to giveaway this week in Women's & Men's styles. Sweet! Best yet, if you win, YOU get to pick whatever style you want from their online Joe's Jeans store. Here's Women's and here's Men's. Oh yes indeedy!

In all the BISJ birthday shots, I am wearing a pair of the Cigarette cut because I have a boyish slim cut, and lemme tell you, in these jeans your bootee will be bangin'! The jeans come with this really cool dog tag, which I think is so cool that I've been wearing it as a fun necklace as seen in the BISJ birthday ad above. And heavenly, the denim is soft and stretchy & Steph likey very much :) You can enter to win a pair of Joe's Jeans each day this week, M-F, look for details.

The folks at Steaz have got to be some of the nicest people I have ever met, and check out this awesome basket with teaz and swag, they are gifting 3 lucky winners. Steaz has a new line of Organic Teaz featuring the fair trade farmers they do business with on the can which I reviewed on Noshtopia. Part of the proceeds from the sale of Steaz beverages benefits the Sri Lanka Foundation to rebuild homes and lives in the tsunami ravaged region. I love businesses who do good! If you want to try the new Organic Teaz now, you can get a coupon here for buy one get one free. You can enter to win a Steaz gift basket, M,W,& F, look for details.

Sephora, my "other" candy store, must have read my mind when they created this color "Skinny Jeans" for their new line of Sephora by OPI branded nail polish. You know this nail polish is awesome because OPI is the brand the Pros use when you go in for that fabulous mani/pedi at your favorite salon. I love that slick feeling! And now, 3 lucky winners will have a chance to bask your lovely nails in "Skinny Jeans" blue. You can enter to win a bottle of "Skinny Jeans" nail polish, M,W,& F, look for details.

Details on entering

All winners for all prizes will be picked randomly. To enter to win any of the Joe's Jeans, Steaz, and Sephora giveaways this week, you only need to submit a comment in the specified post of the day. You will see the details at the end of the post. So check each day this week, M-F, Nov. 17-21.

You can enter every day this week but only one entry per post. All designated giveaway posts will remain open for comment entries until midnight PST Saturday Nov 22. You will need to use a valid email to win. And as per respect, your email will remain between you and BISJ. We will not do anything with your email without your permission.

All winners will be announced on Monday Nov. 24 on Back in Skinny Jeans. The giveaways are open only to U.S. residents. Much apologies to my international readers. When I have more money and can afford international shipping, I'll have giveaways for you too.

Better than Nothin': Drive Yourself Happy Instead of Crazy

It's Better Than Nothin' Tuesday, the day where we focus on tiny changes or efforts towards our health goals because anything even if it's just walking 5 minutes or eating one less cookie a week is better than zero.

Because of the stress of the financial crisis, lots of people are driving themselves and each other crazy. Naw! You say. Come on be honest. I'm sure some time in the last couple weeks, you've been going a bit nutzoid either because you're doing it to yourself, or because you're around so many people that are, and you're absorbing their loco energy.

In this video, I share a few ideas on how to drive yourself happy instead of crazy. (video 2min 42sec)

Now, to add to the fun, since I'm all about abundance this week, in my own effort to drive people happy, I'm going to do a random act of kindness for one of you my readers based on this new online game I'm playing called Akoha which is based on paying forward random acts of kindness.

The game is still in Beta which means it's closed to the public, but if you're chosen, not only will you be the recipient of my goodness, you'll get into the game. Akoha is an awesome new way to do good and have fun at the same time. To learn more about how Akoha works, you can watch CEO Austin Hill's presentation at TechCrunch50. By playing, we'd be helping out this startup by being Beta users, and I'm all for helping out those who want to make cool technology to make the world a better place.

So, I am going to donate one hour of my consulting time to one lifestyle blogger or "would like to be a blogger or start a blog", on how to monetize your blog better, get more traffic or exposure, or any blog related topic you'd like to discuss. Lifestyle blogging is my specialty, and covers anyone who blogs about stuff like health, food, fashion, parenting, hobbies, self help, your own life, etc. Basically, you get me for one hour to pick my brain, and get help to take your blog to the next level.

To enter and play, leave a comment and share what is abundant in your life right now and why you're grateful for that abundance. I will leave the drawing open until this Thursday 12 midnight PST, and announce the recipient on Friday (10/17).

So remember, drive yourself happy instead of crazy!

Update (10/17): The recipient of Steph's one hour blog consulting time is Beth Dargis of My Simpler Life. Congratulations!

Window shopping: Fun or Frustrating?

This weekend, pal Diane and I decided to stroll around Stanford Shopping Mall in Palo Alto to enjoy looking at beautiful things like this Michael Kors Satchel I absolutely fell in love with. Of course, it was one of the most expensive things in the store because I have a knack for picking things that have high price tags. Diane says it's just because I have uber excellent taste. Perhaps, I could be a more positive Rachel Zoe.

One thing I personally love about Silicon Valley is that you can't tell who's rich or who isn't simply by dress or attire because some of the very uber-rich dress way down. Therefore, sales people are nice to everyone. For example, Steve Jobs is famous for wearing jeans with holes in them and often wears New Balances around campus. Larry and Sergey from Google are often seen in jeans and casual shirts.

With the economy crashing around us, people are doing 44 times the number of Google searches on fashion than on the financial crisis, I believe, because it's way more fun and distracting to look at pretty outfits, bags, and shoes. Because I'm in bootstrapping mode, I'm refrained to window shopping.

But while walking through the mall, looking at cool things like this outfit from Burberry, I wondered to myself if window shopping in itself is a very fun thing to do, or in actuality frustrating because 1. I can't afford the clothes but wish I could and 2. I'm not even close to being as skinny as the mannequins, so the outfits would never look that good on me.

Stepping into the Betsey Johnson store I started drooling looking at all the really fun and colorful dresses. I saw at least 6 dresses I wanted to wrap up and take home, but alas, to even just go and try them on I could not because the largest size they had of anything I liked was a size 6. In fact, the majority of the dresses on the racks ranged from size 0-6, mostly size 2-4.

The sales girl told me that the dresses do go bigger up to a 10 (oh wow! that is like so ginormous Steph thinks to herself sarcastically). However, she mentioned that there usually only 1-2 of the "bigger" sizes (8's and 10's) so you pretty much have to be in the store when the new shipment gets in. Suddenly, I feel a bit saddened because I'm an 8, therefore close yet still far. And too, why is an 8 considered a "bigger" size?

For a moment, I felt a flashback, I'm once again the fat girl who couldn't wear any of the cool clothes. The really sad part though is that I'm an 8, far from fat in reality but practically plus size model in the fashion world. Yet in single digits, I still can't wear the cool clothes.

I swing between feeling pissed off and depressed. At the same time, I want to wring Betsey Johnson's neck for only making her dresses available in tiny sizes, and I want to go workout and diet until I can get into a 6. The dichotomy is maddening, and yet an every day reflection of a battle that is not uncommon.

I decided that this instance in the Betsey Johnson store was not worth holding onto the upset or depression. In actuality, this situation is absurd. "So what", I told myself. I can't wear a BJ dress. There are bigger issues going on in the world. This is where I'm getting much better about not letting things like clothes get me down. I'm learning to focus more on the abundance in my life versus the lack, and what I have is an abundance of health, a lovely day to hang out with a good girl friend, and a sunny fall day.

Diane and I went to Kara's Cupcakes and enjoyed a Java and Chocolate Velvet cupcake, and I reveled in every single bite! It was a blissful gulit-free moment.

For sale: Cool Fit Blogging and Back in Skinny Jeans inspired t-shirts and stickers

For a long time, I've been meaning to share with you all Back in Skinny Jeans and Fit Blogging inspired t-shirts and products I've designed. Most of the current products I have in my Zazzle store are more weight management and fit blogging related, but they are still cool none the less for workouts or just hanging out.

You can pick the color and style of tee you want

I have also enabled buyers to pick and choose the styles and colors of t-shirt that you would like. So, although, I have selected a suggested t-shirt for the logo design, you are free to pick another shirt style or color. You'll be shown the options. Coolio huh!?!

You can make money too

And lastly, I'm all about sharing the wealth. If you are part of the Zazzle affiliate program, you can sell some of these BISJ inspired products on your blog/site, and make 7% off the sales. When applying and using links, be sure to use this url: http://www.zazzle.com/backinskinnyjeans*

Or, better yet, get your creative juices flowing, and start making products of your own. There is so much to be made. In fact, you can even make Ked's shoes. Pretty amazing!

I have 28 total products in the Back in Skinny Jeans Zazzle store, and here's some of the highlights:

"i blog: you've been warned" t-shirt

Moo: The most amazing business cards that will help boost your personal brand

Yesterday, I received my new business cards I ordered for the BlogHer conference and these puppies made by Moo.com are the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life. I am rarely impressed like this. Look at these cards. They are stunning. (I blurred out my cell # in the picture just in case the stalkers are watching. The lettering is perfect.)

The best part is that they only cost $21.99 for 50 cards each with it's own unique image on one side, and if you are Green conscious, you can have them printed on recycled fibre. For my cards, I used 50 different food shots I used at Noshtopia. Oh yes people! If you tried getting cards like this made at places like Office Depot or your local printing shop it would cost hundreds of dollars, and somehow Moo.com as figured out how to do it for the price of a pair of jeans at Old Navy. The black cardboard box the cards come in is also way cool. I'm telling you the folks at Moo.com are brilliant.

These business cards are so beautiful I almost don't want to give them out. They look like tiny billboards, and something of this quality can only make your personal brand look hot and hip. Creatively, you don't even have to use them as business cards. You could make "We're moving cards", gift tags, bookmarks, inspiration cards, or pictures of the kids to pass out at the family reunion. There are so many possibilities.

If you have some cool photos and need new business cards, you ABSOLUTELY MUST go Moo.com!

I love this vision in pretty blue

I found this divine blue outfit over at Polyvore, a site that has some of the best fashion porn. Seriously, you can easily get lost there for hours. Wow! I want to wear this for a night out on the town.

Plenty of fun: Play fashion stylist with the addictive Polyvore

Here's an awesome work time killer for a Friday. Thanks to pal Franki at Life in a Venti Cup for the scoop on Polyvore, a site where you can get lost creating all kinds of fun outfits.

I started playing Stylist on the computer and an hour went by pronto! Here's an example of a fun outfit I created for blogging at the cafe, and below that an outfit for a first date, casual style.

Go play on Polyvore, and be sure to check out the Explore section to see other people's creations. There's some mighty coolio stuff there! And be sure to share your creations with us here at Back in Skinny Jeans!

For race day, the Insignia KIX mp3 player may just do the trick

It's no secret that I can't exercise without my cute pink iPod Mini, but the one thing that I wish it had was an FM tuner. When I run races, I like having a radio so I can get news and traffic reports. Some local stations cover races, and yeah, I should be focused on running, but I'm no hardcore racer. I run to finish and to have fun, and music and current events is crucial to my sense of fun during a 13.1 mile run.

Yeah, I could add an accessory to my iPod to get the radio but I really don't want to add on another thing just for a race, like the Kaiser SF Half Marathon I'm signed up for. I like to go as light as possible. So, Best Buy gave me one of their Insignia brand 1GB KIX mp3 players to try out. Here's my list of "Turn-ons" and the "Turn-offs" and what I think overall of the KIX. The Apple Shuffle has a run for the money! Read on...

Books and DVDs to help you stay focused on achieving your goals