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Feb 22, 2011

The Right Gear Helps (Jockey Active Review)

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Bootcamp is still going well. After the end of week 2, I’m down to 176.5 lbs, although considering how much I ate in the 24 hours AFTER weigh-in, that number has little chance of going down this week.

When it comes to working out, I’m very picky about my gear. I want clothing I can move well in, my hair has to be tied up using a certain ponytail holder so it won’t slip, and my shoes have to be lightweight and easy to move in.

At Blissdom this year, Jockey was one of the sponsors and in the expo area they were showcasing their new Jockey Sport line of activewear for women. We all had codes in our conference gift bags that we could enter at their table for the chance to win free activewear.

I had already browsed the Jockey website long before I arrived at the conference, and I was excited to see the Jockey Sport line in person. While I have a few sports bras and tops that I like, I am lacking in workout pants. Most are either too heavy, don’t wick away sweat well enough, or simply don’t fit a woman with curves.

In the expo area, I first admired the bright, colorful tank tops, each with a built-in sports bra. The tone-on-tone stripes are pretty, and the way they fade from light to dark makes me think they’d give me the illusion of a smaller waist. I’ll happily accept any illusion I can get!

Then I began looking more closely at the pants. They offer three styles of pant: relaxed, modern and performance, in both full-length and cropped. The relaxed pant felt more like cotton, soft and loose in design. The performance pant was fitted and sleek, clearly designed for maximum wicking. And the modern pant was somewhere in-between the two: semi-fitted, but fabric that was more similar to the nylon performance pant.
The code I received awarded me a pair of pants – my choice on style. I picked the modern crop pant and nearly sprinted up to my hotel room to try it on. At first, I worried it was too small as I wiggled it over my hips – turns out, they just know how to make pants for women. The waistband was small, but once past my hips the pants were amazingly comfortable – plenty of room in the hips and seat without any gaping at the waist.

I’ve since worn these pants to a couple of my bootcamp sessions and they’re wonderful. They’re lightweight, easy to move in, wick away sweat quickly, and they have a neat little zipper-pocket at the back of the waistband just big enough for a key.

Overall, I’m happy with the Jockey Sport modern crop pants. They’re comfortable, they’ve held up well through a couple of washes, and they look great when I wear them.

Full disclosure: I won a free pair of Jockey Sport pants at Blissdom and decided to share my experience here. No review was expected or promised, and no further compensation was received. All opinions expressed are my own.

Filed Under: reviews ·


Sep 10, 2010

Review: Healthy Choice’s New Steaming Entrees

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Many of you know that in July I agreed to take on the Healthy Choice Better for BlogHer Challenge, replacing one meal a day with a Healthy Choice entree. (Which has been an incredible success – I feel great, I’m looking better and better, and I’ve lost 7 pounds!) While I was at BlogHer, I was given the opportunity to have lunch with Healthy Choice representatives and learn more about the new steaming entrees that were just introduced last month. It wasn’t until I got home, though, that I really had the chance to try them out.

The new steaming entrees utilize a special steam film that creates a simple and fast way to cook a delicious, fresh-tasting meal. The steaming process locks in the steam to create an ideal amount of pressure while cooking, and does not require poking any holes in the film or stirring halfway through. Cooking time is about four minutes for most meals, making it an easy choice for a quick lunch – take it out of the box, toss it in the microwave, and a few minutes later enjoy a yummy meal. The less work I have to do, the better!

While the steaming process is cool, what I really like is the food itself. The vegetables are large and vibrant in color, looking like they were just picked yesterday. These aren’t your old frozen meals where the veggies are chopped so small you can’t be sure what they are. These are big cuts of vegetables, like whole cherry tomatoes and big stalks of asparagus. The meats are equally large, with whole shrimp and generous chunks of chicken. There’s also no filler – just healthy, simple ingredients. It’s total truth in advertising – what you see on the package photo is what you get.

There are eight new steaming meals, and I’ve tried five of them so far. I’ve loved all but one of them – and the one I didn’t like was simply because the flavor wasn’t bold enough for me (and I like strong flavors). My favorite has to be the Honey Balsamic Chicken – if you only try one, make it this one! The meat is tender, the vegetables are crisp, and the flavor of the sauce is fantastic. I bring this one to work with me at least twice a week.

All of the meals have a suggested retail price range of $2.00-2.79. The meals also range from 170-320 calories each, all with no more than 600mg (25% daily recommended value) of sodium. They’re also certified by the American Heart Association.

Want to try them for yourself?

I have a coupon for a free Healthy Choice frozen meal to give to three lucky readers! To enter, just take a look at the eight new steaming entrees and then leave a comment below telling me which one you’d like to try first. Comments will be open until 11:59pm eastern time on September 17, 2010. Don’t forget to leave an e-mail address so I can contact you if you win. One entry per person.

Three winners will be selected at random after the giveaway ends. US residents only. (Sorry, Canada!) Good luck!

Full disclosure: Healthy Choice provided me with samples of the new steaming entrees to facilitate my review as well as the three coupons for the giveaway. I am also participating in their Better for BlogHer Challenge where I was provided with free meals and compensation for my time. All reviews are my honest opinions, and I never lie where food is concerned.

Filed Under: food, reviews · Tagged:


Sep 6, 2010

Adding a Little Stretch To My Routine

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My back is slowly getting better. Not great, but better. I still need to visit a chiropractor to determine where exactly the problem is and how to fix it, but for now the pain has resolved to a low-grade ache and I do my best to not aggravate it in any way.

I did a lot of thinking while I was hurting, and I realized how little time I put into stretching. I know stretching is important and can help reduce injuries, but after a run I only want to put the bare minimum effort into stretching because I’m so worn out already. I quickly realized that I needed to incorporate stretching into my days off, and the best way to do that, while also working on strength and mind-body relaxation, was through yoga.

Yoga is something I’ve tried a couple of times in the past. At the encouragement of friends, Aaron and I joined a small group of friends for a yoga class at the university when we were students. It lasted six weeks, and I kinda enjoyed it, although if I remember correctly, Aaron declared it to be boring and not for him. We never signed up for any further classes.

I then used a workout video in my mid-20’s that was a combination of yoga and pilates. I liked it, although I never felt very relaxed or lean at the end of the video.

This time, I’m determined to start slow with easy yoga and then progress into moves that provide greater strength training at a gradual pace. For the moment, relaxation and stretching are my only goals.

Not knowing where to start, I fired up Netflix and searched for yoga, looking for anything available as streaming content. I read a few reviews and finally settled on Crunch: Candlelight Yoga. It even sounds soothing with “candlelight” in the name. I admit, I’ve seen other Crunch videos before, and I was a little nervous that they wouldn’t somehow find a way to make every muscle in my body hurt the next day, but it promised to be a gentle workout.

The result? I think I could get into yoga. It was very relaxing, with easy moves that gave you the option to only move as far as is comfortable without reaching into painful stretches. For those who are less flexible (I’m somewhere in the middle myself), the instructor provided information on ways to modify each move to make it even easier. Thankfully, I only had to use the modification once.

When the instructor told me it’s OK to close my eyes through most of the video, I thought she was crazy. How can I know what to do if my eyes are closed? But most of the time she gave very clear direction when and how to move, requiring little time looking at the screen. That still didn’t stop me from occasionally craning my neck to make sure I was in the same general pretzel shape that the fitness models on the screen were effortlessly putting themselves into.

Honestly, the hardest part was the breathing. OMG, I’ve never worried so much about breathing! The video started with an instruction on the “proper” way to breathe, which is nothing like how I normally breathe. I practiced it with them, and even during the practice I found myself slipping. It’s only breathing – how hard can it be?

So the full 40 minutes went something like this for me: relax, stretch, breathe, change positions, HEY, BREATHE RIGHT! YOU’RE NOT BREATHING RIGHT!, OH, WAIT, RELAX…right, relax, stretch, hold, breathe…DAMMIT BREATHE THE RIGHT WAY!, HOW CAN YOU FAIL AT BREATHING?…stretch, hold, relax, change positions, breathe…WOULD YOU STOP HOLDING YOUR BREATH! HOW ARE YOU GOING TO RELAX WHEN YOU WON’T BREATHE PROPERLY!…wait…stretch, relax…

Breathing. It’s not as easy as you might think.

At the end of the workout, I felt strangely good. Laying on the floor for the last part of it, I felt like I could just melt into the floor and sink all the way to the core of the earth. OK, that probably wouldn’t feel so good, but you get the point – I was a well-stretched puddle of goo, relaxed and calm.

I realized at that point I was breathing properly, too. Figures.

I’m going to work yoga into my routine at least twice a week for now, possibly more if I can find time. Once I get bored with this workout (or if Netflix takes it off of streaming downloads), I may try moving up to something slightly more challenging. Recommendations, anyone?

Full disclosure: Crunch: Candlelight Yoga was something I found through pure luck of Netflix streaming availability, and they likely don’t even know I exist. (And yes, I pay for my own Netflix subscription.) The link to the DVD above is an affiliate link through Amazon, meaning if you click through and purchase the DVD, I get a few cents in return to then experiment with other DVDs in the future.

Filed Under: reviews · Tagged: ,


Jul 21, 2010

An Early Love of Reading

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Earlier in the summer, I was invited to visit the Columbus Metropolitan Library to learn about their programs, specifically their summer reading club. This was something the girls were only mildly excited about, because going to the library is a semi-regular occurrence for them. But little did they know that was the day the library was kicking off the summer reading program, and there were all sorts of special events going on at the library all day to celebrate.

Now, we don’t just have any old library here in Columbus – we have the TOP library. Columbus Metropolitan Library was named the top library of 2010 by Library Journal, along with several other honors they’ve received before. Our library is awesome – the diversity of their offerings is unmatched.

Cordy and Mira were both excited to sign up for their first summer reading club. Aaron signed up, too – adults are welcome to participate. Cordy already had a library card, but Mira got her first library card that day. (And wouldn’t you know it – it was PINK.) They each received a sheet to track their progress and selected several books to start with.

For the next few weeks, this was how we usually saw Cordy at home:

Yes, it’s a comic book, but there are words, so it counts!

Her nose was buried in a book, trying to earn time to get another box marked off of her sheet. But Mira wasn’t slacking, either – she brought me book after book and begged me to read until my eyes crossed.

And with only half of the summer complete, they have both finished their summer reading club tracking sheets. Aaron took them to the library on Saturday to turn in their tracking forms, and each girl received a library tote bag as her reward. They now use those tote bags to take library books to and from the library.

I’ve been thrilled to see Cordy’s interest in reading develop over the summer. I think she’s a stronger reader now than she was at the end of the school year. She may have trouble with social skills in kindergarten, but at least I feel confident that she’ll do fine with her academics this fall.

There’s still time to get your child enrolled in a summer reading club. Even if you don’t live in Columbus, this is something many libraries do each summer. Even my small hometown library had a summer reading club when I was a kid, although back then I had to give a verbal book report to the children’s librarian to earn my stamp. (You kids these days have it soooooo much easier! *said in my best old person voice*)

And if you have more time for reading that doesn’t involve navigating to Facebook, check out any adult reading club activities your library might have as well.

Locals: should you happen to live in the district of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, be aware that a levy to help fund the library will be on the November ballot this year. This will replace an expiring levy and help fund new services, as well as bringing back Sunday hours to the suburban branches. Don’t forget to vote for this levy!

Full disclosure: I was invited to come to the library as a special guest, and received a very nice presentation about all of the library’s services while my children were entertained by library staff during storytime. I received no compensation, other than the time of the Executive Director and other staff. Our family loves and supports our local library, and encourages you to love and support your local library, too!

Filed Under: Cordy, daily life, growing up, Mira, reviews ·


Jun 18, 2008

I’m Keeping Her Away From Cosmo While I Still Can

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I’m sure Mira is a girly-girl in the making. For example, she has a strange fascination with shoes. Any shoe in our house is sure to be picked up and examined, and if she finds one that she thinks is pretty, she tries to put it on her foot. She loves satin ribbons, jewelry, and feather boas.

And she steals every one of my magazines. Mira watches me read magazines, and has decided she needs to be doing the same. I think she likes the pictures, or maybe it’s the smooth glossy paper. But Self and People aren’t exactly ideal reading for babies – she doesn’t need to start thinking wafer-thin models are the norm and makeup and accessories are a must. I’m also getting tired of trying to read around the half-ripped pages. She always seems to tear out the article I want to read.

Now she can have a magazine designed for her age group. Parent Bloggers told me about Babybug, a magazine designed for children 6 months to 3 years old. I’ll admit I wasn’t sure what to expect, since I didn’t know how a periodical could be designed to interest someone who can’t read or understand that many words yet. But I was pleasantly surprised.

Click to read my full review of Babybug magazine.

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Filed Under: Mira, reviews ·