Sometimes, I just want some ice cream.

April 29, 2011 By 70 Comments
Chevrolet Thriftmaster 194X pickup truck at QF...

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It’s been a series of days where I’m fighting myself to work out, because my inner fat girl really doesn’t want to try and fail in losing weight.

The baby has been a handful and things seem to either REALLY go my way or really NOT go my way.

So my normal fallback pre-Mamavation was food. Now that I’ve made the decision to not use that, I have no fallback.

So I’ve been cleaning.

We had the organizers in. And I got rid of one pickup-truck-full and one Land-Rover-Full of stuff.

Filled the Overlord’s whole car with garbage and took it to the dump.

I’m feeling a little better after that, but still incomplete.

So I started researching doula training. I’ve wanted to train as a doula since before I got pregnant with my daughter, and had done extensive research before I started massage school, thinking that I could do both…in tandem.

So I am.

I signed up for training with the Penny Simkin school for Birth Attendants through the Seattle Midwifery School and will be taking the course from Penny herself in June.

I’m pretty thrilled to have found something that allows me to help people. Especially women in childbirth. There’s something awesome about bringing new life into the world.

I also get to hear Ina May Gaskin speak on Mother’s Day, so things are looking pretty up :)

Filed Under: Stuff I Like Tagged With: , , ,

Ahhhhh, Rio.

April 18, 2011 By 85 Comments


I was lucky enough to win a pair of VIP tickets to see an advance screening of Rio last week. I took Short Stack, and we met up with Tania from Love Big Bake Often and her oldest and had a pretty wicked sweet Mom-Son date.

I was not expecting much from this movie. I never expect much from cartoons, having grown up with Snow White and Cinderella and other tame Disney offerings.

I was pleasantly surprised. From the opening number to the little jokes made (that only parents will get) to the voices (Wanda Sykes and Jane Lynch as a pair of rather rude Canadian Geese and Tracy Morgan as a drooly crazy bulldog) and the fact that I was laughing OUT LOUD and I never laugh out loud at movies.

I would rehash the whole movie for you, but I’d rather you went and watched it yourself. Explaining my dance moves when you can’t see me is just not the same.

Related: I REALLY want to be on a float for Carnivale in Rio one day, so if any of you can make that happen, I’d be very appreciative. :D

And because this post is sort of short (I didn’t want to ruin the movie for you, GO SEE IT AND TAKE ALL OF THE KIDS YOU KNOW), here is a semi-related video for you. You’re welcome for this one, kids.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Rooty Tooty, Fresh and Tofutti!

April 17, 2011 By 62 Comments
Tofu

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I don’t eat a lot of red meat, so tofu usually fills in that void in my diet.

Recently, Richard from Tofu Xpress sent me one of their sweet little devices to try out. I was a little skeptical about the benefits of squeezing all of the liquid out of tofu….isn’t the point of tofu to be a meat replacement? And don’t you kind of WANT your “meat” to be moist?

So I did some research. Read a bunch of tofu recipes (normally I hand Chef the tofu and say “abracadabra!” or something equally odd and he makes it into food for me). Figured out that YES you DO want to squeeze the water out of tofu.

photo from TofuXpress.com

This makes room for the marinade to soak into the tofu, since tofu itself doesn’t really have a taste, per se. When you press the water out of the tofu, it also changes the texture of it, making it easier to grill or bake.

Enter the Tofu Xpress.

I checked out a couple of homemade ways that you could squeeze all of the water out of the tofu….but since you kinda need to refrigerate the whole shebang while pressing, they weren’t really convenient. Or a good use of your kitchen items, as shown to the left there….

So here’s how you work the TofuXpress:

  1. Take your tofu.
  2. Put it into the bottom half of the TofuXpress.
  3. Press the top half on and rotate until locked.
  4. Put in the refrigerator.
  5. Done.
No need to build a tower of bowls, no tofu water all over your counters, done.
Just pour out the water and that’s it. Simple, right?
You can also use it to squeeze your frozen chopped spinach, chopped onions, sliced eggplant…you can use it to make vegan cheese too (make sure you use the optional Light Tension Spring to do that last one)! We used it to squeeze the water and gunk out of a can of black beans a few days ago.
So if you eat tofu, I’d totally recommend looking in to getting one. It’s a pretty handy gadget to have.

I received a Tofu Xpress from TofuXpress.com to review for my blog. No other compensation was provided for this review.

Filed Under: Reviews and Other Sundry Items, Stuff I Like, Vegan

Liar Liar

April 14, 2011 By 62 Comments
The emblem of the Archeosophical Association. ...

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The post I wrote for Mamavation Monday a few weeks ago….was really hard for me to publish.

It’s one thing to write in my own little journal about being fat and how it feels living in sweatshirts and yoga pants and hiding behind other people in photos, and how painful it is for me to realize that nobody did this to this body but ME….but it’s another to take photos of my pale self and post them on the internet for everyone to see and comment on.

Like my high school friends. And people who knew me back in the day when I weighed 115 pounds.

But you know what?

It’s ok. It’s part of my healing process, and the more people I know have seen me at my worst (in shiny booty shorts and a sports bra, apparently), the more I’m compelled NOT to eat all day long, and not to bag off on a workout. And to stick with my diet and even tell you that I have only lost a pound in the past few weeks.

Taking my scale picture to send to Leah was really hard for me. I was disappointed in myself, I was horrified I was letting people down…I just wanted to eat something and make it all go away.

But I didn’t.

I worked out a lot…but I also snacked a lot. And I made some pretty crappy food choices. And I could have pushed myself more.

But I didn’t.

And if I told you I ate all of that crap in my daily food journals on Bookieboo and I faked losing weight this week, it would do me no good. And as a Mamavation Mom, it would do you no good.

Reminds me of an episode of House where a lady who’s a weight loss guru and pushed NOT having the stomach surgeries….turns out she had her stomach stapled or something.

She was putting on a mask, pretending to be someone she’s not.

And that’s part of my weight loss journey is not lying. Not pretending that I’m trying really hard when I’m not. Admitting that I fall down sometimes and that I’m not perfect.

But the biggest part that I have to hang on to is that I am no one else but me. This Mamavation Mom journey is mine, and nobody else’s. I cannot compare myself to other people, or I will lose every time.

And I’m in it to win it.

Filed Under: Mamavation, Weight loss Tagged With: , , ,

Winner winner, Chicken Dinner!

April 6, 2011 By 67 Comments

Thank you all so much for voting for me for Mamavation Mom and pimping my giveaway out! If you had not heard already, I won! And I’m super excited to be able to work hard and inspire people.

But now, the part of the show that you really want.

WINNERS:

$25 GC for Amazon:

Megan @mnmspecial
Apr 01, 2011 @ 17:59:06 [Edit]

I voted for you. Good luck!

The extra special Baker’s “Basket”:

Tania
Apr 04, 2011 @ 12:58:42 [Edit]

I VOTED!

Congratulations ladies! Please send an email to mia DOT cupcake AT yahoo to claim your prize!

Stay tuned – I’ve got some more fun stuff to give away at the beginning of next week :) And thank you SO MUCH for making the first Bruises in the Frosting giveaway such a success!


Filed Under: Uncategorized
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