The Pleasure of Food

Last week I attended a class by a nutritionist where I work on Appetite Management. I love anything food/diet related... so it's interesting to me to learn about why people eat what they do, etc. Anyway, a new topic that I hadn't really thought about before was the psychological visual satisfaction of food. Everybody knows that people don't only eat because they are hungy and to fuel their body. People eat for emotional reasons, bordom, etc,  There are other ways to be psychologically satisfied by food without eating it. I think this is why me (and so many others) are totally hooked on Food Network, Travel Channel, etc.... we find it enjoyable to look at food.

I have heard that how food looks is 50% of how 'good' tastes to you, only 50% is the actual flavor/texture. So I think this is why I always post pictures of the foods with the recipes on here.

Ok so enough with all of that... on to the food pictures! Also, I posted Hello Kitty Cupcake pictures a few weeks back if that's your thing lol!

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 So obviously my thing is desserts. Back to what I learned in the Appetite Management class, when some (probably most) people see sweet foods it registers as a 'reward' in the brain. The 'higher brain' interjects no, this is not healthy for you don't eat it... but the mouth/stomach signal the brain that it is a 'reward' to eat and if not eat, it can still be a reward just look at these items. Appetite is controlled by three things: 1- Brain (it's time to eat, visually the food looks good to eat), 2- Stomach (telling you that you are hungry) and 3- Mouth (taste, chewing, etc). Pleasure chemicals, like dopamine, are released in your brain when you eat high fat, high sugar foods. This is why eating chocolate and ice cream actually "feels good." The body responds positively to this chemical release.

Other options (instead of eating all the not-so-healthy foods) are food scented and/or food-like visual objects. Examples... Philosophy and Demeter make AMAZING body products that smell exactly like the food-items:

And OF COURSE one of my favorite Etsy sellers of all time... AJSweetSoap's "guiltless indulgence" soaps! You guys, they seriously not only look, but smell EXACTLY like your favorite treats! I gave them as holiday gifts this year (and I admit, I kept many for myself lol!) and these are the BEST soaps ever. Oh, and yes, they are vegan! But they smell so good and look good. I don't even bother with my normal Dove or Ivory soaps anymore, these are so kind to your skin and smell AMAZING!!!

Here are some of my fav's of AJSweetSoap:

Easter Sweetness Vegan Sampler

Blissful Banana Cream Pie Soap








Auntie's Soap Bar








Strawberry Waffle Delight Vegan Soap









So the next time you find yourself watching a Throwdown with Bobby Flay marathon, just know it doesn't have to mean you are a food addict or destined to be overweight forever... or even that you miss or crave the foods being served. Looking at food is a way to 'reward' yourself without actually eating these unhealthy items and gaining weight. Just be sure that you eat every 4 hours, have lots of vegetables, whole grains and fiber and you will be less likely to be tempted to eat the unhealthy (but oh so lovely looking) foods.

Tuesday Feet Photo

Here is this Tuesday's Feet Photo for My Teacups in Peony's Blog... (her blog is so beyond fabulous if you haven't checked it out). Today I'm linked up as # 4. If you would like, you can check out my previous week's Tuesday Feets by clicking here.

So where was I? What was I doing in this one? lol... well I was on the treadmill. I have kind of gotten into running on my lunch hour. I know, I know, what is that about right? But since I've been doing the working out thing, I feel really empty if I don't work out... like I am missing something. This is a good thing I think!  Anyhow I am excited that I've been able to run a mile (actually more! like almost 2)without stopping. That is I think the first time ever in my life I have done this. Kinda sad right? I really like the treadmill because it's easier than running outside for sure! Plus it's all even and no hills are involved (don't hate lol, I'm new to this).

But even though I'm doing good exercising, I feel guilty because I had been walking outside prior to now. I still walk outside on the weekends (thought about getting a jog-stroller but thats not going to happen). So I have been taking a nice leasurly walk outside... to the gym lol! It's just across the street (like not even a 5 min walk) but I get a tiny bit of sunshine. Here are a couple pictures I took outside yesterday on my phone on the way over:

 

And here's one I randomly took last week when I had a program at the grandover. I was there at 7:15am just as the sun was coming up over the golf course.

Robin's Egg Lipstick... everyone does this, right??

Easter is hands down my favorite holiday. I love spring, the colors and Easter candy! Last week was my 5 yr wedding anniversary. We got married the day before Easter in 2005 (depending on the moon and spring, etc. is when Easter falls... in '05 it was in march). Anyway, as a family tradition we always get our annual robin's egg lipstick photo. Because my wedding was the day before Easter I had the fantastic idea to incorporate robin's eggs in the favor box. I had the DJ announce it was time to put on robin's egg lipstick... and I'm going to guess 75% of the guests were like "what the...??" and it was then I learned that some people actually EAT robin's eggs without first putting on the lipstick. It's crazyness! The only explination is that maybe people just don't know about it?? Well I'm here to enlighten you. here are photos from my wedding of me and the fam rocking the robin's egg lipstick! So when you are at the store this week picking up your easter candy, throw in a bag of robin's eggs and be sure to wear it as lipstick!

Oh! I guess I should mention how to make it into lipstick... all you do is lick the robin's egg for a few seconds... and you are all set!

(it will stay on for hours!)

Lotus root, leeks, eek!

Remember when I was flipping out over my most delicious lunch ever post? I had made a version of the Leek, Maple, Lotus etc. (whatever it's called) dish from The Kind Diet and was flipping out about how good it was. (Click HERE for recipe, review, pics etc). So the week before last when I was all sick I went to my favorite international grocery store Super G Mart (click here for my very first international shopping adventure with Gav). It was nice (even though I was sick) going grocery shopping during the week and w/ out my child because I really could take my time and look at everything... and get ingredients I hadn't taken the time to find. Above is a picture of my Super G purchases from that day. I got it all for about $20 which is a pretty decent deal considering the tahini (I am going to make my own hummus. I love hummus!). So while I was there at Super G I found the illusive lotus root! It looked like a sweet potato (not pictured, that actually is a sweet potato above). Then, over in the tofu section, I saw pre-sliced lotus root (that is pictured). I was like wow let me get this and save myself some time/effort! Yeah... BAD idea!

I was SOoo excited to do the lotus/leek/maple recipe again finally having lotus roots. I even cooked the delicious Hearty Pinto Bean Stew (click for link w/ recipe) thinking it would be the most delicious meal ever... uh yeah... back to lotus roots... they are so gross!

I don't see how something that looks so cool (it reminds me of a little sun!) can be so nasty. I really really think it was me not following the recipe correctly because the dish was AMAZING when I didn't use the lotus root.  As you can tell in the below picture I roasted the crap out of everything. The leeks and onions turned non-existant and the stupid lotus roots just kept their same size/texture. I would describe these as possibly pickled? They were really thick, spongy, starchy and bitter. They seemed almost raw even after a ton of cooking. Maybe if I had boiled them or sauteed them up on the stove first they would be better? Ugh... sucked. Plus I made like a good 2-3 servings of them so I had to eat this for more than a day. Good thing I didn't feel well and couldn't taste anything because it was rought! LOL!  

I did a google search (I still have 3/4 a bag of these bad boys!) and saw a couple other recipes. I think if I cook them in a way so they are meant to be starchy they will be better? who even knows... I'll update as soon as I figure something out! In the meantime... here are some pictures of them looking kind of decent!

Yeah... i think fried is the way to go! everything is good fried lol!

So this would be even better, right?

Oh! so yesterday was my 5 yr wedding anniversary. We are both pretty much un-romantic so we went to dinner and then the mall, just like we did like 10 1/2 yrs ago when we first started going out. Kind of a full circle evening considering we just moved to back here after the past 5 yrs in virginia (we moved right after we got married). Ok anyway so the mall here is kind of... well... it's gone downhill big time since we have been gone... However it still has some fun mall stores like forever 21, journeys, journeys kids (have you seen this? omg beyond cute!) and hot topic, etc. Just random stuff.

So jason was going to look at some sports store for a new tapout shirt (don't ask, he has a million and I didn't even know he liked mma all that much). And so I was like I'll take Gav into hot topic because they generally have a pretty good hello kitty selection (yes our child was with us on our 5 year anniversary). So we all go in hot topic and jason comes in there too they had this shirt that jason was like OMG you need that! (hello kitty nerd shirt on right) haha so he thought it was awesome because I wear glasses all the time pretty much (really I'm too cheap to buy more than 2 boxes of contacts at a time). So he is fully aware of my HK obsession (oh this is funny...I wore a Hello Kitty garter in our wedding. I was just looking for the picture (it's in the album) but I can't find the proof from online. Oh well! So he was like you totally should get this, its so YOU!

**OH so update as I'm typing (I seriously thought jason was gone all day, so it totally caught me off guard when he walked in.) check this out - he came in w/ a bag and I was like ooh what did you get me? He's like uh nothing, but I got myself 2 mma shirts. I'm like oh uh nice, where did you find those? And he said there's a mma store kind of near where we live, on the other side of a tattoo shop. I was like wow sketchy (I promise I live in a nice area, this is a random store that I didn't even know about in a decent area for real)! So he looks at the back of one and apparently it had some fighter who sucks so he had to go take it back (and I got to finish my blog). But before he left I told him to ask how much a HK tat on my foot would be. He was like uh no Im not going to ask that is not what you talk to people about in a mma store. boo :(

But what do you think about the hello kitty with glasses idea? It seriously gave me a flashback of Lisa Loebs CD which Im 99% sure Im the only one who loves her and declares her as a rolemodel... but now you all know too... so does this make it weirder? ok yeah... thoughts? OH! and if you have no clue what I'm talking about, here is the post from a week ago or so where I finally picked out where I want to get the HK tat Ive wanted for over 10 yrs!

Ok so randomly online I found it! like this is the biggest picture I can find right now...

indian / jamaican 2 recipes-

So I was pretty sick all of last week, this week, etc. Everybody's sick of hearing me talk about it, I know. Anyhow so I made 2 comfort food dishes and I dont exactly know what culture they are from. They are both (I think) supposed to be jamaican... but anything with curry and corriender is indian tasting to me. . Here are the recipes just if you are looking for something different/easy to make. Both are good... and if you are sick, these feel like they are 'healing' or something. Ok I don't know. It's the whole chicken noodle soup kind of feeling.

Sweet Potato lentil stew:

 I got the recipe from the Kind Diet, except I switched out most of everything except the recipe called for except the spices. So if you are looking in the book, i think it even had spinach in it (I wasn't in the mood).  

• 1/4 c. olive or canola oil
• 2-4 cloves garlic
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 
  
  2 tsp. turmeric
•  tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. curry powder
• 1/2 tsp. chili powder
• 2 tsp. coriander
• 1/2 – 1 tsp. cinnamon
• sea salt &cayenne pepper to taste (or black pepper if you don’t like heat)
• 1 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2″ pieces
• 2 c. stock
• 1 c. lentils of your choice

Heat oil over medium heat in a large dutch oven. add onion and garlic, stir for 2 minutes. now add sweet potatoes, broth, spices and lentils. let it come to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes, or until sweet potatoes and lentils are tender.

I served both of these over brown rice. Not the most exciting thing but it was good and had a totally indian feel.

2nd recipe:

Jamaican Red Bean Stew (supposed to be a crock pot recipe. I don't have a crock pot so I just cooked it way shorter and it was still good.) This one is crazy spicy.  

• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups sliced baby carrots
• 3 scallions, chopped
• 1 sweet potato, diced
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (I'd use less)
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice (I didn't have this so I just added some mrs. dash lol!)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 (16 oz) cans dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed*
• 1 (14 oz) can unsweetened light coconut milk
• 1 - 2 cups vegetable broth or water
• I added Green peas because it seemed like it needed to be sweeter and in my mind peas are sweet? Ok so this isn't in the real ingredients, so throw some in if you want.

Instructions:
 Pour the oil into a 4-quart slow cooker and set the cooker on high. Add the garlic and put the lid on the cooker while you prepare the rest of the ingredients

 To the cooker, add the carrots, scallions, sweet potato

Stir in the curry powder, thyme, red pepper flakes, allspice, and salt and pepper to taste

Add the beans, coconut milk, and broth

Reduce heat, cover, and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours (yeah I totally just cooked this maybe 30 min and was all set).

 Ok so this is random, but here's a picture of Gav in his boat bed! I uploaded it by accident and just kept it in here lol! Lauren made him this amazing and cute pillow. It's awesome and he loves it!  

Ut-oh... It's ON Biggest Loser at Work!

So you all know I'm in the Biggest Loser competition at work, right? and I lead our office's team (Every week we meet for an hour over lunch and I have a theme, handouts, etc.). So we had our mid-way weigh-in last week (when i was sick, but I was able weigh on Friday when I came back to work) and the results are in... out of 250 ppl in the contest, I'm in 7th place (well 8th on the sheet, but I'm tied with the #7 person). I'm at 6.8% weight lost. So I can totally win this, right? I can kick it up the last 5 weeks (this past week was my 'break' lol!). And this is also exciting... my team is #4 out of the 26 teams in the competition with a 2.9% weight loss overall. Holla!!! hahah!

So I'm pumped because we not only have a first place prize for the overall winner out of the 250 people (I think there's a top 3 with $250 visa gift cards). The top team gets $150 visa gift card for each member. AND our team w/ in the office has collected $2/week so the top person out of our 10 in the office gets $207 cash and the 2nd place person gets $75 cash. Exciting stuff!

I can totally do this, right? When the dietician weighted me last week and high-5'ed me (lol!) she asked what I was doing. I said I had given up meat/dairy and was thinking of giving up gluten too. She was like wow you look great and I can tell you have dropped a size or so! (She works in my same bldg). So good motivation. Anyhow go me!

Oh, so if you were wondering, in the 1st 6 weeks of the competition I lost 10.8 lbs (not even 2 lbs a week, I seriously was slack 1/2 the time haha). And then since January I've lost 18.7 lbs. total. I probably will lose another 10 lbs and be good. I used to weigh like 20 lbs less than i do even now back in the day (like 6 yrs ago) so of course that's a goal for me... but I was tiny tiny then and people said I looked sick so probably not a good idea.

Bon Bon Rose Girls Spring Fling Giveaway!

So I L.O.V.E. following Bon Bon Rose Girl's blog. They are the coolest and offer the best fashion advice, tips, deals and... giveaways! And the items they give away are totally fabulous! Anyhow this whole week they are having a Spring Fling Giveaway! (click on button below or on the right of my page to go there).

Head on over to the blog and get caught up with entering for the week. I have been out of town, sick, you name it on my excuses. But I'm getting caught up today w/ my entries right now because... this is good stuff!

Fruit till Noon!

You should eat fruit till noon. Period. Pretty much everyone I know is absolutely sick of hearing me talk about eating fruit for breakfast, fruit before noon, etc. The strange thing is even though I preach it like a crazy-girl, no one seems to really try it or believe me. They freak out and either don't eat anything for breakfast, or eat something that weighs them down. Yes, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. However, this does not mean you need like 5 food groups in order for it to be important. you dig!? Anyhow, I found this exerpt online today when I was discussing fruit till noon and figured I'd c&p it here just as a resource (so I don't forget it lol!) But please try it. Just for me. try it for a week. I GUARANTEE you will 1- have wayyy more energy. 2- feel wayyy more allert/aware 3- lose weight (and not be hungry)! Just Nike it already.

Nourish Your Body With Proper Food Combining

Combining Foods to Support Your Natural Body Cycles

Beyond ingesting the most nutritious foods, you must consider eating the proper foods at the right times. The sequence in which our society eats foods uses an alarming amount of energy for digestion. Since energy is the foundation of life, it is essential for regaining and maintaining your health. With proper food combining, your body uses minimal energy for digestion. And the less energy you spend on digestion, the more energy you will have for healing, and your daily life.

Food combining supports the three natural daily cycles of your body, all of which are continuous, but more intense at these times:

First Cycle Cleanse by Eliminating Wastes & Toxins Morning, 4 am - noon
Second Cycle Eating & Digesting Daytime, noon - 8 pm

Third Cycle Absorption & Use of Nutrients Nighttime, 8 pm - 4 am

By eating the proper foods, at the right times, you enhance the functions of these natural cycles.

The First Cycle
Foods to Support Elimination of Body Wastes & Toxin
(Morning, 4 am – noon)

From approximately 4 am until noon, your body’s natural cycle is in cleansing and eliminating mode. The foods you eat during this time must support and enhance toxin elimination. And those foods are fruit. Fruit, fruit and more fruit, in unlimited quantities, until about noon. And only raw, unprocessed fruit or fruit juices (not pasteurized). It is essential to eat fruit on an empty stomach, allowing 30 to 45 minutes before eating other foods. As fruit requires less energy for digestion than any other food, you will have more energy for healing. Eating any other foods at this time will slow or stop your natural elimination process, adding to your storage of toxins, and your ill-health.

Fruit is virtually the perfect food, and the most important food that you can put into your body. All your nutritional requirements are contained within fruits and vegetables; vitamins, minerals, proteins, amino acids, enzymes, carbohydrates, and fatty acids. When eaten during your natural elimination cycle, nothing can match the befits of fruit. We are biologically adapted to it, as our ancestors subsisted mainly on fruit. It has the highest water content of any food, which makes it highly effective for removing toxic wastes, and transporting nutrients to cells. Waste that has been built up over your lifetime will be eliminated. This way of eating will cleanse you to health, not clog you into sickness. To be vigorously alive, you must eat more foods that are high in water content, raw and unprocessed.

Supporting your natural elimination cycle by eating only raw fruits before noon is unquestionably the most important aspect of regaining and maintaining your health.

The Second Cycle
Foods for Eating & Digesting
(Daytime, noon - 8 pm)

This is the time to start eating all other foods. These foods will require more energy to digest than fruits, but when eaten in the proper combination, you will spend less energy on digestion than ever before. Remember that the less energy you spend on digestion, the more energy you will have for healing, and your daily life.

The foods to eat during the first part of this cycle include fresh vegetable juices (not pasteurized), raw salads, vegetables, nuts (almonds, apricot nut, hazelnuts) and seeds (hemp seed hearts, flax, sesame). Next in this cycle you may add grains, breads, potatoes, and legumes (beans, peas, lentils). The latest foods in this cycle would include any of the aforementioned, along with dairy foods and protein, which should come mostly from non-animal sources.

The way to properly combine foods is to make your meals almost entirely high water content vegetables, with only ONE other type of food. It’s really quite simple: vegetables with meat OR vegetable with something else (grains, potatoes, pasta, legumes, or dairy products). We repeat to emphasize: you will spend less energy on digestion than ever before. Remember that the less energy you spend on digestion, the more energy you will have for healing, and your daily life.

The Third Cycle
Support Absorption & Use of Nutrients
(Nighttime, 8 pm – 4 am)

Now it’s time to be finished eating, early enough for food to leave your stomach, before you go to bed. Food empties into your intestines about 3 hours after eating a properly combined meal (8 or more hours if the meal was not properly combined ). Your body needs to extract, absorb and use all the nutrients that you took in throughout the day. This takes most all your energy; to mend and heal, rebuilding a high state of health.

For more information on food combining, read the book “Fit For Life” by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond.

Or if you are super into this stuff, I have this link I found on Amazon and it seriously tells you everything you need to know. I went ahead and purchased the book and it's good, but very very long. Anyhow click HERE to read the exerpts you need (just start wherever and read on until the end of the chapter).

Italian Ziti Tofu Bake - Husband Gave it 10/10!!!

OMG YUM x infinity! I would not lie about this people... I made probably the most delicious thing ever... and it was pure veggie! Sometimes for fun I trick my husband into eating veggie/vegan things. He always asks if it's made of soy cheese, tofu, etc. and I totally lie until he tries it. Then I come clean and by that time he's 1/2 way finished eating and I high-5 myself for another victory. I know... I'm hilarious like that LOL!

So anyway, yesterday I was at work thinking of what I wanted to make for dinner. I knew I had a block of tofu on hand and wanted to use it (tofu is only like $0.99 for a pound at the international foods store... so much cheaper than meat and so much better for you. I think people don't eat it b/c they are scared or had a bad experience when it was gross or something.)

I did a google search of 'tofu recipe kids' because lets face it, if it's 'kid friendly' it's 'husband friendly' espec. a non-veggie husband. I saw quite a few interestign looking recipes, but most had eggs or ricotta or somethign like that. Anyhow I found this one and not only did it look good... I had all the ingredients on hand... which is a miracle! My friend from college Mary (who has an awesome new blog!) had sent me a yummy stuffed shell recipe last week that used tofu and this totally reminded me of that. I thought I had stuffed shells but realized I didn't :( So I made this instead! Anyhow, long story short... it was delicious, my husband said it was the best thign I ever made, told me it was a '10 out of 10.' I told him it was tofu, not ricotta and it did slow down his eating pace... he said he was trying to 'taste' the tofu.. which hi? it has no taste. But totally understandable. Ok anyhow here's the recipe and a million pics!

Tofu Italian Casserole (I would have called it Baked Ziti)

          1 pound firm tofu

2 tablespoons oil

1 tablespoon minced garlic (I just used a couple cloves)

1 small onion chopped (feel free to add more veggies if you like or less!)

1 green pepper, chopped

2 teaspoons oregano

1 teaspoon basil

1 quart spaghetti sauce (I have no clue how much that is. I used 1/2 a jar and some left-over my mom and I had made this weekend)

1/2 pound ziti (I used pinne b/c it's what I had and all the same to me!)

1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated (or more to taste... this is where you can add your vegan cheese. *Just be positive it doesn't have caisen in it... that's BAD NEWS and they put it in vegan cheese to get it to melt.)

Using 1 tablespoon oil, saute garlic until soft; add green pepper and onion and cook until onion turns yellow. Set aside. In separate skillet, cook drained, mashed tofu in remaining 1 tablespoon of oil. Add all spices and continue to cook on low heat until tofu stops steaming (5-10 min.) Add one cup of sauce to veggie mixture; simmer 5 minutes. Boil ziti until tender but not soft; rinse. In 2-quart baking dish, layer half the cooked ziti, 1-1/2 cups of spaghetti sauce/veggies, half the tofu mixture, and half the cheese. Repeat, using all remaining cheese on top. Bake on 350 deg. about 30 min., or until all cheese melts and sauce is bubbly.

Ok now for my amazing pictures! So this is the tofu and spices. I used a potato masher and it was PERFECT. It kinda looked like ground turkey or maybe ricotta.

This is the sauce my mom and I made this weekend with the onion and green pepper added. I used this as the 1st layer of sauce in my baking dish. For the 2nd I just dumped 1/2 a jar or regulr spaghetti sauce.

Here is where I started layering it all in the baking dish.

Please ignore the dirty oven hahah!

Finished Product! YUMMM!

ShopLeah's Suede Poppy Got Featured!

Yay, so It's always exciting when one of my ShopLeah items gets featured by someone else. This time is was in a blog called PaperJot and her theme was "poppy obsession." Cute! My ShopLeah hair accessory is the red suede poppy 2nd down on the right (it's actually a set of 2). I need to make more accessories for spring. I just need to take some time and get my Etsy shop stocked back up again. I know I'm probably missing out on the moms buying accessories for their daughter's Easter outfits, and need to hop back in the mix before prom season which is... probably just about now!

Anyhow, if you love poppies (poppys? You all know I have spelling issues lol!) check out this blog because she lists where to buy all of these cute poppy items!

Y'all... I'm sick :(

So here's the thing... I never get sick. Never ever. Then 2 days ago I was discussing how I never get sick and guess what, that night my throat started to hurt. So I gargled salt water, and figured I'd be okay. Well the next day (yesterday) I woke up and felt like crap. I went to work anyway (we don't get sick time, we just get time we can use for sick/vacation/whatever) and had a runny nose, and sore throat, but was doing okay. For my lunch hour I thought it would be good for me to get some fresh air and take a walk outside. Not sure if this helped or hurt me. I came back feeling slightly worse. Then I felt slightly better (endorphins? probably not, was walking slow). Then around 3pm I started getting chills... and was like oh no I'm getting a fever! So I did the right thing and left. But I had to get Gav and came home to play with Gav and the new puppy until 11:30pm on my own! Sucked.

Props to Gav for playing by himself and the new pup for sleeping so much, but it still was not the best situation. In all my eating right/vegan books it says that when you have a fever it's your body's way of fighting off whatever sickness you have and not to take medicine. I tried really really hard to go w/ out medicine. At one point I couldn't even lift my head. I took a couple small naps, but finally about 4 hrs after getting home I broke down and took some tylenol cold/sinus. I started feeling SO much better! So by the time Jason got home at 11:30 I was alright. 

So I really did have every hope of going to work today. We have our biggest loser mid-way weigh in this morning and I felt really good about where I am and was actually excited to hop on the scale. I also lead the meetings at work and had a cool activity with worksheet etc. on the topic of motivation for the group today. After hitting snooze maybe 10 times on my alarm clock lol Jason was like you aren't going to work, right? I'm like uh I have to! He's like dude you are sick! So he got Gav ready and took him to school and took care of the puppy this morning and here I am. I sent a super long e-mail to a couple of girls in the Biggest Loser group and told them what to do for the meeting today and about the weigh-in etc. But it's probably best I stay home and get better. I really will go to work tomorrow really for real. I hate missing work (I don't think I have anything too life or death happeing today) and don't like using up my time. Plus I'll be out on Monday so it doesn't really help I'm out today. 

So here's a polyvore I made expressing how I'm doing today lol. I know my mom will flip out when she sees this because it's like soul collage. 

I finally picked a spot! And Hello Kitty Sweets!

...for my Hello Kitty tat! It's only taken me 10 years. I finally figured it out... my plan was it to be somewhere that I could see it (my others are on my back), and I want it somewhere that it can be seen or covered easily. And I kept thinking about my foot, but idk... not near my ankle, I had a dream about a year ago of having it on my heel and it didn't work out (yes, seriously! I even blogged about it HERE!) So the final decision of the design is: just the HK face with a pink bow. Final location is: on the top of my foot, just under my pointer/middle toes on the right foot. Then I was thinking my left foot will look uneven... so I am thinking get another open purple star in the same location but on my left foot. YAY! Now I have to find a time/and more importantly... a place I trust. I LOVE Creative Ink where I went in VA, and I'm not driving to Winston, where I got my other one done 2x... plus there are a ton around, i just need to find a place that's good. So in honor of this major decision (ok not really hahah) Here are pictures from somewhere I just found tonight... ENJOY!

Thank you so much Mike for these fantastic pictures! I need to head to Taiwan ASAP to visit this amazing shop! 90, Da-an Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市大安路一段90號)