What Not to Wear - Manly Style!!!

The other night, Ryan and I watched a What Not to Wear episode featuring a guy. Surprisingly, he was interested in what was going on! He's been wearing casual clothes to work all summer, but once school starts for the kids he has to switch to business casual. His business casual wardrobe right now is AWFUL, and so, while he's actually being open to suggestions, I'm going to try to help him build it. He actually suggested skin care for himself!! I bought him a line with a scrub, shaving cream, and aftershave and so far so good! I'm impressed :-)

Any ideas right off the bat? It won't take much to make an improvement. What he would wear at his old job on a regular basis was black dress shoes, WHITE SOCKS (holy crap.), meh pants, and polos, which quite frankly are not that flattering on someone who carries his weight in the stomach.

While this picture isn't business casual, maybe it'll give you some idea. And, it will show you the atrocity of the white socks :-P

Just the pic!

Here's the pic from the Nest GTG. It made me VERY happy to know that other people were nervous!!! :-D I'll write more later, and probably take pictures as I will be visiting family this weekend.

On Feeling Good

I may not be buying clothes much lately, so I don't have as much to say, but I think the effects of this blogging experiment are permanent.

Tonight, I went to a Nestie get together for my new local board. While I'm not proud of the fact that I was pretty nervous, I still think it's pretty damn good that I went at all. I'm not good at meeting new people, and I'm terrible at making friends. Flash back maybe, eh, a year and a half ago and I couldn't really even make polite conversation in classes. So this, this was pretty big, and it went pretty darn well.

To be fair, a lot of the credit for this should go to Ryan. Knowing that I have him at my back (even when he's not physically there) helps me to feel more secure. When I'm nervous, because of this blog I now have an easy way to give myself a confidence boost. If I'm sure that I look nice, I feel so much better. I don't focus on that anymore, which is huge. I don't think I really spent any time tonight pulling at my clothes or wondering if I was dressed appropriately or if people thought I was fat.

It gives me hope that the time in my life during which I only have friends that I've known forever (who I love dearly, but have lives of their own in places I am not!!), my family, and Ryan, are over. It has become exceedingly clear to me that I need more people in my life, and I feel like I am actually ready to seek them.

Another awesome thing was that a couple of the girls mentioned this blog, and told me how brave they think I am. They cajoled me into taking a picture, which I'll post when I get it. I also got to explain the concept of this blog to someone who hadn't seen it, and I was able to talk about it without feeling ashamed or embarrassed, and it was just very cool for me to be able to do that.



Progress is not just in terms of fashion and beauty.

Wii Fit Review

We pre-ordered Wii Fit, and so got it right when it came out. I decided I would go ahead and post a review here, since I've only really gotten to use it now that we've been in the new place.

It starts out by measuring your weight and BMI, and then it does a couple little tests (ex. stand on one foot for 30 seconds, lean to the right and left to make a ball hit a block, etc.) to determine your wii fit age.

Then, there are a serious of training areas. The first is yoga. This is the one that I use most frequently. I REALLY like yoga, but I have issues making myself do videos and such, and I wasn't able to find a class in Peoria that wasn't yoga+pilates. Yoga+pilates is certainly a better workout, but I like yoga because of the stretching aspect. I feel really loose and comfortable afterward, and it also makes me feel more awake if I am dragging a bit. I haven't done yoga regularly in a really long time, so even the poses here on wii fit are a little challenging. For the most part, they are a nice little stretch, but not overly difficult. For the Sun Salutation, I've always learned it as a fairly long series of poses, including Downward Dog, but this one is very short. My favorite is the Warrior pose, which always makes me feel strong and stable. I do all of the yoga poses that I have unlocked (there are still a lot left to go!) each time I use the Wii Fit.

Next there are Strength Training Exercises. I haven't done hardly any of these. The only one I tried was pushups+side plank, and it was REALLY hard. Pushups are hard for me anyway, but I really think doing it on the Wii Fit made it harder.

The third category is Aerobic Exercises. Ryan loves the Hula Hoop game for some reason, and he's unlocked advance Hula Hoop on his profile. Let me tell you, that is a fun one to watch! There's also a jog-in-place game, and then my favorite, Basic and Advanced Step! It takes you through a fairly simple 3-5 minute step routine, using the wii fit board as your step. It's not an intense cardio workout, but it's enough to make my out-of-shape body breathe hard!

The final category is Balance Games. Ryan loves these. I think they are stupid. Examples include heading soccer balls while avoiding other things that are thrown at you, navigating a downhill ski slope, leaning to roll balls into holes, doing a ski jump, and walking a tightrope. I'm not a fan. I don't think they really have a lot to do with balance. How much balance does it take to lean??

Overall, I think the Wii Fit is a fun supplement to a workout program, particularly if you're interested in yoga or the strength training. There's NO WAY you could lose any significant amount of weight on just the Wii Fit.

Now, I just need to work on the Wii Fit AND THEN walk downstairs and use the treadmill that we bought for a while. It was really hard for Ryan to get into the basement and I've only used it once. Yikes!

***UPDATE***

Today I unlocked what's called Free Step. This keeps going even if you change the input on the tv by giving you the rhythm through the wii remote. This way you can watch tv while you step! Awesome!

I'm back!!

...with a slightly different purpose, but hopefully a refocused drive.

Since I've slowed down on this blog, I've gained about 25 pounds, I stopped using the Mary Kay face care line and my face shows the results, and I've stopped dressing as well. I feel like crap. I just got very busy, and stressed, and all that stuff just seemed to fall by the wayside. It's been even worse in the 3 weeks since we moved. I didn't wear make up until two full weeks were up, and went I put it on I FINALLY felt like myself. So, once I get a bank account up here I've found a place to get MK cheap, and I'm looking into places to get my hair permed again. When they tell you that your hair will be permed until they cut it off, they are full of bs. It uncurls. I MISS having it be pretty with minimal effort. It looks like crap no matter what now!

So, this is the plan: by the middle of next week, I'll finish getting our place put together, and then there will be even less of an excuse than there is now for looking like a slob all the time. Instead of talking about buying new clothes... well, I'm not sure what we'll talk about. Weight loss strategies? Make up? Hair? All sorts of things. I'm trying to recommit myself, if you're along for the ride!

I'm so sorry!!!

I know I have been gone forever! I just haven't known what to post. I'm not in a buying mode right now, because I am pretty much set until summer. Then we'll have lots to do, I'm sure, though the budget will possibly be tighter. My husband has a job interview with a public school district Tuesday, and we're shooting for moving June 14th. When he gets a job up there, we'll work out finances and see how much I get to spend! :-p

I do know a couple things I want to work on though. I can't seem to find any cute sundresses. Old Navy is generally my standby for practically everything, but I am not loving their dresses this year. Sad! Also, I have made it my mission to go and try on some walking shorts to see how I feel about them. Shorts are a definite no, and I've been told capris aren't great, but I just can't see myself wearing skirts all the time, especially since I won't be working all summer.

Anyway, I'm trying to come back. Any requests for things to talk about? While we're waiting for warm weather (seriously - it snowed here Monday. Not enough to stick, but still), I'm happy to branch out to other stuff!

No More Grumping!

I was going to wait to post these pics, but I decided I wanted to post them tonight, because the last post made me a little grumpy, and made me SOUND a little grumpy, so I wanted to get some happy thoughts in here too! :-)

I hope you'll like these. My hair doesn't look very good in any of them, just as a warning!! Sleep deprivation was a major issue this week :-P

This is my least favorite picture, just because my hair was up all day so it looks crappy, and the angle is bad.


Again, bad angle, but hopefully you get the idea.


I think my skirt is twisted a bit. Sorry about that. These sandals are nude. Is that what most of you would have preferred for St. Patrick's Day instead of the yellow?



And, in my humble opinion, the best so far:






Good, right? You should click on it so you can see it bigger and check out my AWESOME necklace from Etsy.


Another bit of good news: Depending on how close you're looking, you might notice that my boobs look high and huge (comparatively, anyway!). This is apparently where a 22 year old's boobs are supposed to be. And I am apparently between a B and a C cup, and bras are supposed to fit relatively tightly, causing me to be a 40B, not the 44B I measured myself as. I bow to you all. Let the I Told You So dance commence! :-D