Winners!

First up, the winner of the Food, Inc. DVD is...


Drumroll please...


I know you're all on the edges of your seats...



Can you take it anymore?!



The suspense is overwhelming!!!!



Without further ado, the winner is...


tessat at 3:22pm!


Hope you are having a wonderful weekend. We're doing pretty good here so far. Pics and posts later...

xoxo,
Erika

A Different Kind of Giveaway

(Photo courtesy The American Red Cross)

Unless you really do live under a rock, it's been hard to ignore the complete and heartbreaking devastation caused by the 7.3 magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday.

We watch these images on television and on our computers, read about the devastation online and in newspapers. It's easy to feel totally helpless.

But we are not. We can help and we can be the hands and feet of God to help the people of Haiti get back on their feet.

We can each give, as our situations allow, to help those affected by this horrific tragedy. A dollar, ten dollars, a prayer...every bit helps!

I have been inspired to do a different kind of giveaway today.

For every person who comments to this post between now and midnight tonight, our family will give $1 to the American Red Cross for the Haitian Recovery Efforts.

Go, go, go!

Together we can make a difference!

xoxo,
Erika

Giveaway!

Yea for a Giveaway!!!

Yup, I'm doing another one. I'm giving away one DVD copy of the movie Food, Inc. Read all about why I think it's amazing and life-changing here.

This giveaway starts RIGHT NOW and ends Friday at 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time (that's California time to me).

Just leave a comment to be entered. Post a link to this contest on Facebook or on your blog to get 5 extra entries!

I will ship anywhere in the whole wide world. So, Sarah, you'd better enter!
:-) Justyn, I will even ship to you! I'm not sure if this DVD will play overseas. If nothing else, it would make a great coaster!

Lesson's I've Learned This Week - Skinny Tuesday

This past week, I have learned a few things.

1) The first thing I learned is that when you've lost over 50 pounds, it's time to buy new pants. The pants in this picture are my maternity capris from when I was pregnant with the twins.



I wore them this past weekend when we were hiking, and I had to pull them up every 10 seconds otherwise they would have been around my ankles. For some reason my stomach is so much flatter now than it was back then. Go figure!

I am not a big fan of capri pants anymore. They make my legs look shorter than they are and highlight my ankles, which incidentally, aren't my best feature. Back when I was pregnant, they really weren't my best feature.

So, next item on the agenda is buying some new pants. I guess I've been reluctant to buy new pants because I have 30 more pounds to lose. I don't want to buy them and have them swimming on me 10 pounds from now. But, after this week's hike, it's clear to me that the old maternity capris are really just not cutting it anymore.


2) The second thing I learned is that whenever these two people are in the kitchen, it's gonna be hard to resist anything they make:



Mr. Mustard and Paprika have been very busy making organic banana bread lately. They have perfected their recipe, and it is divine. I am not going to share it with you because if I did, you would all gain 20 pounds. It's that good.



It's not JUST that it's warm and gooey, and has dark chocolate chips and brown sugar on top. It's made by two of the people I love most in the world, which makes it just the most wonderful food ever. I think that's the definition of comfort food, right? Love.



Well, what wasn't comforting was the scale after eating it for three days straight. I didn't gain weight, but I didn't lose weight either. And that is very frustrating to me.


3) So, thirdly, I learned that it's okay to say no to food. It's okay to JUST SAY NO! There will be other opportunities for comfort food, for banana bread, for it all. We are lucky to live in a society where food is plentiful and it's a pretty sure bet that if you really want something, it will be available again.

That is a big lesson for me. The cookies, the cakes, the sugar...they are all very available and I know if I say goodbye to them for awhile, they will always be ready to take me back...at any point.

My desire for these foods is definitely tied into my view of them as scarce, as precious. The food my family makes for me is so precious, so rare, that of course I want to eat the whole thing. Part of lowering my intense desire for these foods is to realize that 1) these foods are not really scarce, and 2) that they are keeping me from my goals.

So, what do I want more? To feel healthy and fit and alive? Or to enjoy the momentary pleasures of taste?

If I really think about it, I know that my big goals of health and wellness mean so much more than a few fleeting tasty bites.

4) The fourth thing I learned is that giveaways are very fun and a great way to connect! Check out my Giveaways Tab to find out if you are the Skinny Tuesday winner from last week.

Just for fun, I am going to announce another Skinny Tuesday Giveaway tomorrow. Yea!!!!

Skinny Tuesday Winner!

I am happy to announce that Lost In Space (8:53 PM) is the winner of Alicia Silverstone's Book, The Kind Diet!

Please contact me with your mailing address so I can get the book to you!

For everyone else, please check back. I am doing another giveaway tomorrow! It's just like the lottery, except you don't have to pay a dime to enter. And the prizes are only slightly less fabulous! ;-)

Skinny Tuesday Giveaway!

The response from last week's Skinny Tuesday post has been overwhelming! So many of you have emailed me or Facebook messaged me to tell me how much that post impacted you.

Let's start a community to get healthy, fit, and feel good in 2010!

As you can see on my sidebar, I've created a Skinny Tuesday button. Feel free to grab it and put it on your blog to keep yourself inspired and to inspire your readers!

I've been doing great this past week with my fitness and weight-loss goals. I am feeling really good since I gave up my old diet of highly processed foods. I am down another pound, which puts me at a total loss of 56 pounds total! That's six pounds since THIS post!

I have also cut out all high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). All of it! This includes soda made with HFCS (but still sometimes I have a soda made with natural sugar). What am I replacing soda with? Water and herbal tea. At first I didn't want to drink water or make tea, but now that I am used to it, I crave it. Can you imagine...craving water instead of soda? Believe it!



One of my big inspirations these past few weeks has been the book The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone. I saw it in a bookstore and loved the things she said. She talks about eating well, and eating healthy in order to feel better and impact the planet in a beautiful, kind way.

She is vegan, and so the book has a vegan angle. But I think anyone who reads it (even non-vegetarians and non-vegans) will get something beautiful out of it. She talks about how your diet impacts your health and vitality, and how even a few small changes can really change your life.

I wish I could buy everyone a copy of this book. But I'm not Oprah. I've got my copy, and I am buying (yes, out of my own pocket) a copy for ONE LUCKY READER!

Yup, this week I'm doing my First Ever Give-Away!

It starts right now and closes on Monday, January 11, 2010 at 11:59 PM PST! Winner will be announced next Tuesday (1/12)!

The Rules:
To get ONE entry, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post!

To get THREE entries, post this contest on your Facebook status and leave a comment letting me know you did!

To get FIVE entries, all you have to do is do your own Skinny Tuesday post on your blog and link back to this post in your blog post. Leave a comment letting me know you posted and the link to your blog!

To get TEN entries, do all of the above!

I am so excited to share in this journey of getting healthy, getting fit, feeling good (and, of course, getting skinny) together!

Enter to win, and BEST OF LUCK, my friends! :-)