Back in skinny jeans

Nosh bites: Protein packed chocolate chiller and updates on my 7-day gluten-free vegan experiment

Over at Noshtopia for your eating wellness pleasure:

• Doesn't this chocolate chiller look delicious? It's easy to make and is packed with 8 grams of protein. No joke! Find out what the secret protein source is to this chocolate delight.

• I'm on Day 5 of my 7-day gluten-free vegan experiment. Here's how it went after 2 days, and here is at Day 4, what I have been eating during the week, and what I am missing the most.

• For a cool presentation tip, here's a quick way to make parmesan-looking shavings for salad that aren't actually made of cheese. Great for vegans and raw eaters.

• Here's a recipe for Candied Ginger Pepitas. Yum!

• This recipe I made up for raw-ish mock vegan salmon pate appears to be a tasty hit on the Internets along with 7 easy snack ideas to make with the pate.

Cats on a treadmill and Nivea lotion gets into the dieting game along with other nibbles around the skinny-sphere

• Nivea lotion is getting the dieting game with their "Goodbye Cellulite, Hello Bikini Challenge" to help get us damsels get bikini ready not only with sleek supple skin using their succulent lotions but with cottage free thighs and less junk in the trunk. You can even win cash & prizes at the end of the 4-week challenge if you show the best "Hello Bikini" results...Ok, for crying out loud, I think this is a total stretch for a lotions company to get into the dieting game. It's one thing for Special K, a food company to do it, but lotions? What's next the Hawaiin Tropic Aloha Bikini Challenge? [Nivea USA]

• Our gal FitSugar has some pretty awesome Healthy Gift Ideas for Mother's Day. Oh, and if you haven't bought a card yet for mom, go to your nearest Hallmark Gold Crown store and buy one of those recordable Mother's Day cards. You can record your own voice in the card. It is so cool! My mom is getting one. [FitSugar]

• Oh no! Beyonce is glamazoning little girls in her new kids line from her House of Dereon. Geez Bee! What are ya thinking?  [Perez Hilton]

• Is it me, or does Angelina Jolie's arm look a wee bit photoshopped to look like a giraffe arm. I dig all the fierce tats, but her arm looks too long and skinny for that bad ass gun. I so can't wait to see her movie Wanted with my man Morgan Freeman. I love Angie with guns kicking bad guy ass. [Ain't It Cool]

• Did you know that Martha Stewart blogs? Oh yeah, the Martha has her own blog, and in today's post she shares pictures from her boyfriend's helicopter of her farm, and what a farm it is. CEO Susan Lyne of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia talks at Financial Times about the blog, and that Martha does indeed blog herself, and that they are warming up to getting into more user generated content. Martha goes Web 2.0. I'm liking her more and more. [The Martha Stewart Blog]

• Merry goes on about Skanky Fitness. Oh, I can't stop laughing. [Cranky Fitness]

• Wanna see two cats running on a treadmill? This video below is pretty amusing for a Friday giggle. [Jezebel]

If you missed Cher & Tina Turner on Oprah, here are the best parts (video)

I sooooo badly want to see Cher's new show at Caesar's in Vegas which opens May 10. She'll be doing 200 shows total. If you missed Cher and Tina on Oprah yesterday, here are the best parts. Boy howdy do these women get my addrenaline going. And oh yeah, Tina is canoodling with a younger hottie who is not threatened at all by her success. Where do I find me one of those? Go Tina!

Cher opens the show and sings. She can "take me home."

Tina sings. Those legs! Tina is still kickin' it with those hot gams.

Cher & Tina sing Proud Mary together. Oprah even chimes in and sings too. This clip gave me goose bumps.

Coming to Sci-Fi Channel: Aliena Wintour and Battleship Voguestar

More proof has surfaced for my conspiracy theory ala Hodgins on Bones that Vogue is really science fiction. Behold Aliena Wintour at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute's annual gala in her couture spacesuit. See!

And behold, her coif looks awfully similar to that other diabolical menace, Professor Chaos. Aliena Wintour cruises around in her Battleship Voguestar to inflict mayhem and disarray to our normal sense of beauty sensibility. According to her sinister plan, Aliena has done away with the Sixes and has replaced them with the Zeroes.

Her right hand Darth Andre uses the dark side of the force to spellbind talented yet insecure princesses that a size 8 might as well be Jabba the Hut, so start jumping rope cause you can't hologram that size 2 even though you can sure photohallucinate the shasizzle out of it. Oh, Princess Hoochie-be we know you're under the evil spell of the Voguestar but we so hope that your new Prince Cannon can save you from the evil crutches of Ego=MyCareer2.

In a mall far far away, Aliena and Darth Andre have us humans behaving more like Cling-ons rather than Klingons fighting for our way of life. They have their Gisele looking Clone army to do their bidding in the pages of women's magazines across the land. But even though, they try their best to frakk us up in the head, we can prevail. Remember, even in every science fiction story there is a happy ending, and good conquers evil.

May the Spritz be with you.

More people care about losing weight than keeping it off according to Google search

We are a culture constantly trying to get back into the skinny jeans. In fact, this is a glimpse into just how much we want to skinnify. I did a Google search for terms related to losing weight, and here's what I got (as of 5/5/08):

"losing weight":  9,170,000
"weight loss": 88,200,000
"diets": 29,500,000
"get thin": 302,000

When you search on Yahoo, the numbers are even higher. For example, "weight loss" gives you 195,000,000 results.

Now let's look at how many Google results come up for searches related to weight loss maintenance, basically, info to help you stay at your weight goal.

"weight loss maintenance": 65,600
"weight maintenance": 330,000
"keep the weight off": 420,000
"stay thin": 137,000

There's like about a 300% difference between the numbers for getting to a weight loss goal versus staying at that weight loss goal. Truthfully, how many people you know trying to lose weight have a good plan to keep that weight off once they get there? Most of us are so focused on just getting there that we'll worry about it once we get to our goal. This is why I believe there is a definite difference between weight loss and weight management mentality. Perhaps, because we don't plan for the long term, that's why we get into the yo-yo cycle in the first place, you think?

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On TODAY: 5 Tips to help you with your body image

Pal Leslie from The Weighting Game was on the TODAY Show yesterday where she offered 5 ways to pump up your confidence when it comes to body image.

At the end, the all important question is asked, "And what about those skinny jeans? Should we hang onto them or not?" I agree with Leslie's answer. I would add that your jean's size does not determine your self worth or esteem. You are more than a number on a pair of jeans or an a scale.

At the core, this blog is really about the dream and why we hang on to an illusion of thinness & beauty the media pushes on us and that we as women, in many cases, buy. The skinny jeans are really a symbol of that illusion. Yes, I do offer tips & advice on how to shed the pounds but it's about living a healthier life not a skinny one, and there is a difference.

Life does not magically become a story book ending even if you do get back into those skinny jeans. You can have a happier and more fulfilling life today, if you just start making the conscious decision to start making it happen. You only need heart & desire, not thin thighs & a six pack. So go grab you some hunk of that fabulous life. Right now. Go! Go now.

Back in Skinny Jeans joins a group of kick ass women on AllTop

AllTop is a site that collects stories from “all the top” sites on the web on various subjects, and is more easily described as a “digital magazine rack” of the Internet. There are 9 top categories covering the subjects of Work, Living, Culture, Interests, Geekery, People, Doing Good, News, and Geos.

I'm thrilled to say that Back in Skinny Jeans was recently chosen as one of the top sites for the Women category. Woo-hoo! This is kind of a big deal because all the sites listed in AllTop in all categories are pretty darn awesome. I almost feel like a Jefferson moving on up to that deluxe apartment in the sky.

Some pals and folks you've seen quite a bit around BISJ who are also listed in AllTop include:

MizFit Online
Workout Mommy
FatMan Unleashed
The FitShack
Vital Juice Daily

Divine Caroline
Tango Diva
BlogHer
The Runway Scoop
StyleDash

Centernetworks
Conversation Agent
It's Different For Girls

If I forgot anyone, please inform me of my faux pas and I will fix it pronto!

So, check out AllTop, there is some definitely cool stuff to see!

Photoshop phantasm: This is SO not Catherine Zeta Jones Elizabeth Arden

By far, this has got to be the worst photochop job I have ever seen. I mean this doesn't even look like Catherine Zeta Jones one iota. Nothing! Looks like a younger franken-version of Posh with some Kate Beckinsale.

And really, what is up with that eye makeup when this is a lipstick ad. Elizabeth Arden is shaking things up with an utter fantasy. Seriously, I am speechless here. And you?

[via StyleFrizz]

Wii Pole Dancing and other wiggles around the skinny-sphere

• Pole dancing is coming to the Wii. Oh for Pete's sake, is nothing sacred. The game maker emphasizes that the game is for "fitness purposes only." Righty! If I see Super Mario on that pole, someone's gonna get a can of whoop-ass. [The Sun]

• The economy may be tanking but lipstick sales are soaring. Forget expensive Manolos, lipsticks are the new indulgence when gas prices are soaring and rice is being rationed. [NY Times]

• Latest study: If young women are prone to anorexia nervosa because of reading the fashion mags, young men are now prone to "athletica nervosa," the desire to beef-up (unhealthily using steroids and over exercise) in order to look like the hunky male models in the "lad mags" like Maxim and FHM. Now, we're sadly equal opportunity. [BBC]

• Photoshopping the nipples off this lingerie model is just kinda creepy [Photoshop Disasters]

"Two Tiny Changes": 5 fat cutting tips + update

Last week, many of you liked the sugar cutting tips, so this week, I thought I'd offer some fat cutting tips. If you're like me, next to sugar, the next yummy hot mess you love to eat is the fat. Oh how I love French fries, and loads of cheese! The Inner Resistance Monster really loves Fried Mozzerella sticks dipped in Honey Mustard. If you are trying to cut back on your fat intake, here are some tips that have helped me.

• Not all fat is created badly. Mono-unsaturated fats (MUFAs) are made by Mother Nature and come from things like nuts and avocados and are thumbs up. Then there are the Trans-fats which are made by the lab coats and come in mostly processed and fast foods and these are a thumbs down. Look at your food labels, and consciously choose this week to start cutting out the trans-fats. Going cold turkey may be too tough for some of you, so just start with 25%-33%, then cut more the next week, and so on.The MUFA's are better fats but still are fat heavy so remember moderation.

• The next time you order a burrito, if you just cut out the cheese and sour cream you could cut out 230 calories and 19g of fat from that burrito if you're getting it from Chipotle. Guacamole will add another 140 calories, but you're getting mostly the MUFAs, so if you're going to have fat it's better from the guac than the cheese and sour cream.

• At Asian restaurants, for appetizers there are usually fresh or steamed versions of rolls so order those versus it's fried version. For example, if you want wonton, get the soup versus the fried ones. At Thai places, get the fresh rolls over the fried spring rolls, and use the peanut sauce sparingly because it too is loaded with fat from the peanuts.

• Do you know how much fat you are consuming in a week? For 3 days, food journal your fat intake. Don't judge just jot the grams. You may find that the percentage of fat you are taking in is much higher than you think. When you look at your food list, you can see where you over do it and can start cutting back.

• Think your fruit smoothie is healthy and fat friendly? It may not if that smoothie is made with ice cream or sherbert. In this case, you actually have a milk shake. Make sure you drink smoothies made with low or non fat yogurt.

Here's what I did last week:

• This is not a tiny change, but I started weaning from dairy, meat, and gluten as I am doing this "Great Food Reboot Experiment" for 7 days to see how some of the foods I eat on a regular basis are affecting some health issues I've been having lately.

• I tried this raw mock salmon pate made from almonds, and my goodness it tasted like the real thing.

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