My Life These Days…and a Winner is Announced
First and foremost I need to address the business of the giveaway and announce the winner. At about 530am I went to my blog and using excel notated the names of everyone who entered. There were 17 entries in total so I used random.org to generate a random number for me using 1-17 as my range and the lucky number was….drum roll…..da da da da da da….eleven! Number eleven is my friend Racheal and I contacted her this morning to let her know the good news. She had chose prize number 3 which was the Michael Pollan books. I am hoping she will let me know her thoughts of the books and whether or not they changed her eating/purchasing habits at all. Maybe I can even get her to guest post about the books, who knows. It’s totally up to her but Racheal, if you are reading, let me know if you would be interested in doing something for the blog.
Thank you all who entered and thank you to those who tweeted the link! You guys are awesome and if I could afford everyone who entered would have won! I am looking forward to the next giveaway, whatever it might be, and am open to any suggestions 
In other news, life has been pretty hectic- especially this past weekend. The first half of my Nia White Belt Intensive is behind me and I can’t wait to write a post dedicated to the whole experience that includes a schedule and details as to what it entailed. For now I am just going to give you a few thoughts running through my head. I love Nia, which you already know, but do you know why I love Nia? Nia is a great workout; it is a cardiovascular activity yet it’s not too intense. The dancing, the music, and the community make it such an amazing way to spend an hour of my life. But I love other activities too like yoga and tai chi but I don’t have the same emotional connection to them as I have with Nia. This weekend I realized why that is, why I love Nia so much.
I was talking with DG, another Synergy member and Nia participant yesterday about her weight loss- she looks fabulous by the way. I had asked her about her story and she told me that she was at her heaviest about ten years ago, while still in high school. Then she started running and going to the gym and she lost a lot of weight which she subsequently gained most of it back. Then about two years ago she found Nia and it has brought her to where she is today- about 80 pounds lighter and in great shape. I asked her if she changed other areas of her life or was it just Nia and she told me how she needed something that was spiritual as well as physical and that Nia gave that to her. It made her whole as a person.
I knew exactly what she meant. Nia is good for your body, mind and soul. It has changed my life because it is the first time that I actually love myself. Nia has taught me acceptance and self love and that is why I am where I am today. I have dieted/exercised before and lost weight and it never stuck because I never fixed the cause instead I just tried to fix the effect. Once I found Nia and the self-hate, self-doubt, embarrassment, disgust, all of the negative feelings I had about myself, started to go away I started making better decisions for myself, putting my health first, and really wanting to change and become a better person. I truly understood what I wanted out of my life and set out to try to make it happen. Do you know why? Because I freaking deserve it. I am good enough. I know now that as long as I keep my mind, and my body, and my spirit whole then I will be successful at anything I set my mind towards.
Another great thing about Nia is as I learn more about the principles and ideas it was built on, the mystery of why it has been so life changing is uncovered. As we are taught to ‘dance through life’, view ‘life as art’, and live in ‘the joy of movement’ (in universal joy which is a sensation, opposed to joyfulness/enjoyment which is an emotion) it becomes more and more clear why this practice has transformed my life. I couldn’t be more thankful for where I am today and having the fortune to be learning more about something I hold so dearly. I hope one day to dance with you, my readers, my friends and have you experience this with me.
One last thing before I go I wanted to share this with you.
Pretty cool, huh? One of the owner/trainers asked me if I would write up a testimonial for the gym’s website. The version on the site has been edited since I tend to go a little overboard when I write (I know that’s a shock to you, right?) and if you want to see the full piece, I think it’s three paragraphs, let me know and I will post it. I was just so thrilled that they had asked me to be on their website even though I am still 1/3 of the way from my goal but they said they want to inspire others, people that were/are in my shoes, to not be scared to try boxing. Isn’t that great?
Thanks for reading!
Weight Watchers Update and Giveaway Winner!
Before I get to my Weight Watchers update I wanted to announce the winner of the ‘Echotone’ giveaway. There were only three people who entered and they all tweeted and commented about the film so each received two entries.
| 1 | Veronica |
| 2 | Veronica |
| 3 | Sidney |
| 4 | Sidney |
| 5 | Kathleen |
| 6 | Kathleen |
I used random.org to select a winner and lucky #2 was chosen.
Congratulations Veronica! I will be contacting you shortly to get your mailing address. I hope you love the film as much as I did!
Weight Watchers
I was in Houston last Tuesday so I missed my regular workplace Weight Watchers meeting. In order to be eligible for my company’s WW fee reimbursement I had to attend another meeting last week to make up for the one I missed. Unfortunately this meant I would be weighing in Saturday the 12th,11 days from my previous weigh-in, and then again today, the 15th. Saturday I weighed in at 200 pounds even for a loss of seven pounds bringing my total weight lost on WW up to 80 pounds even.Yay! I hit my 75 pound milestone and was just an ounce away from leaving the 200’s- I was pretty excited Saturday to say the least.
All morning the only thing I could think about was whether or not I would be under 200 at my Weight Watchers meeting. I had made it to‘onederland’ six days ago but since my home scale and the WW scale never match I wasn’t sure how long it would take for me to get below 200 at a WW meeting. I was thrilled to see 199.2 on the scale today. I think I can now officially say I am in the 100’s and I will do whatever it takes to never see the 200’s again!
My next WW milestone is coming up pretty quickly at 196 pounds which represents 30% weight loss from my starting weight. Since we don’t have a WW meeting next week I am hoping to reach this goal by our next at work meeting on November 29th. Also, by hitting the 100’s I reached another goal which was to be under 200 by the end of the year. I reached that goal early, way ahead of my expectations, which is crazy. About a month ago my BF told me that I would be below 200 by Thanksgiving and I laughed her off. Crazy that I achieved that goal more than two weeks before Thanksgiving and seven and a half weeks before the end of the year. Since I reached the sub-200 pound goal early I have decided to set a new end of year goal- to be at or below 186 by the end of the year. Hitting 186 would put my weight loss at 100 pounds and it would be really cool to hit that 100 pound mark prior to 2012. Wish me luck!
I would just like to say something in regards to achieving the sub-200 pound goal as well as my last few monthly goals. If you have been following then you already know this so I apologize but I just wanted to point out that up until August I hadn’t been hitting any of the goals by the date I had set. For example, I had a monthly goal of losing ten pounds and after hitting that goal the first month I had 4 months in a row when I didn’t. I also had set date goals to hit my 5% loss and 10% loss and didn’t make them either. I didn’t give up though because I was focused on the more important issues; eating better and moving more. It took about six months until my body started to lose regularly and yes there were times where it was difficult to push through I never let it stop me. We are all different, we all lose weight differently, we all eat differently, we all enjoy different activities and that is really important to remember. Just find what works for you and stick with it….you’ll get there. So will I !
Thanks for reading!
Updates, Updates, Updates
Shrinkvivor
It’s Wednesday which means it’s time to check in for Shrinkvivor. I woke up this morning and hopped on the scale and was very excited to see this number when I looked down:
Damn I am getting close to leaving the 200’s! I can’t wait!
Last week I weighed in at 206.8 pounds so today’s weight of 204.0 pounds gave me a nice weekly loss of 2.8 pounds. Over the past five weeks of Shrinkvivor I have lost 13.2 pounds which is 6% percent of my starting weight of 217.2 pounds. Yay!
I know that every week I talk about our Shrinkvivor challenge- exercise minutes- but I haven’t mentioned the mini-challenges they set up for us as well. This is because the past mini-challenges were things I already do. One week the mini-challenge was to eat something green with every meal. Since I already eat a metric shit-ton of veggies I didn’t see any point in mentioning it here. We also had a mini-challenge to drink 64-oz of water per day which is also something I do regularly. Actually I try to drink at least 128 oz of water a day. Aside from my morning tea (or coffee on the weekends) I only drink water. It’s a great habit I picked up on this WLJ. I am happy to report that this past week’s mini-challenge was one that I did participate in; the Halloween candy challenge. We were asked to avoid overindulging on Halloween candy and limit ourselves to two fun-sized pieces. I opted to challenge myself to avoid Halloween candy altogether and am pleased to say I made it through without eating any candy whatsoever. I think this challenge was easier for me because I am more of a salty food eater not so much a sweets eater and because I have been following a vegan diet for a few weeks now and most Halloween candy is not vegan.
Since I gave up eating dairy (October 8th was the last time I had any) I have pretty much been following a vegan diet. For whatever reason once I decided to stop eating dairy I also stopped eating meat. Not sure if I will stay with a vegan diet or if I will slowly incorporate meat back in but so far I am loving how I feel, I have tons of energy, and I don’t feel limited by food choices. There are so many great cookbooks and vegan bloggers out there it is never hard to find new recipes to try out. Heck, even this week’s ‘Menu Plan Your Butt Off’ on the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans was all vegan recipes. I am not too concerned about sticking with it through the holidays since I will be the one cooking. I foresee a Thanksgiving dinner that includes Pumpkin Mac n’ Cheeze and Holiday Soup for the Soul and Vegan Lasagna for Christmas. Of course, we will still have turkey for Thanksgiving and steaks for Christmas; I just won’t be eating that.
All in all this was a great week for me for Shrinkvivor; I lost 2.8 pounds, racked up 878 exercise minutes, and avoided Halloween candy. I definitely consider it a success. Let’s hope it’s enough to keep me in the game for another week. Go Tribe Hodari Gray!
Weight Watchers Update
As you know, if today is my Shrinkvivor weigh in then yesterday was my Weight Watchers weigh in. I woke up feeling great and weighing in at home at 205.0 pounds. That was a 2.2 pound difference from what I weighed at home last Tuesday so of course I expected to see a 2.2 pound loss on the scale. Unfortunately, that’s not what I saw. I weighed in at 207.0 for a weekly loss of 1.2 pounds. Still a loss, I am still super happy about it, but not really sure why it wasn’t 2.2 pounds. Oh, well. It happens. Even though I wear the same clothes and eat the same foods every Tuesday I still can’t control how my body is retaining the food/water. By the time 12p rolls around it’s pretty much a crap shoot as to what number is going to appear on that scale. Still, a 1.2 pound loss is nothing to complain about and I am super excited to be only two pounds away from earning my Weight Watchers 75 pounds lost star. Does anyone know if there is charm for my WW key ring that goes with 75 pounds lost?
Next Tuesday I will be in Houston and so I will miss my Weight Watchers meeting. I am not going to be able to make up the meeting until Saturday November 12th so it’s going to be a long stretch between WW weigh-ins followed by two very close together (the 12th and the 15th) followed by another long stretch because we have no at work meeting on November 22nd. No worries. I am still going to attend my meetings weekly, although the days may be all screwy, and continue to track, portion, hydrate, and exercise and I know I will make it through November successfully.
Monthly Update
Since yesterday was the first of the month it was also time for me to weigh in to see how I did against my monthly weight loss goal. Back in September I set up a monthly goal of losing 7 pounds a month for each of the remaining months of 2011. These monthly goals, if reached, would help me achieve another goal; to be below 200 by the end of the year. I weighed in on October 1st at 217.2, yesterday morning I weighed in at 205.0 for a loss of 12.2 pounds this month and a two month total loss of 23 pounds. Yay!
Yesterday was also the day for measurements and BMI and body fat percentage results. I have been slacking pretty hard on the weekly BMI and body fat%; the last time I took it was the week of October 18th. I keep forgetting to do the measurements on WI day but I will try to get back in the habit of tracking them weekly. I haven’t updated the monthly measurements or the weekly weigh in pages yet so here are some results I wanted to share with you.
Inches lost in October: 7” (most of which came from my chest, goodbye boobies – LOL)
Total inches lost since initial measurement (07/02) is 31.5”
BMI as of 11/01: 33.6, body fat % as of 11/01: 35.2%
BMI on 04/02 (first recording): 45.2, body fat% on 04/02: 41.8%
BMI difference: 11.6 points, body fat % difference: 6.6%
*Goal is a BMI below 25 and a body fat % below 32%
Wow! What a huge difference. More than any number on a scale I really just want to get that BMI and body fat percentage to a healthy range.
Echotone DVD Giveaway
One last update; yesterday I posted a giveaway on my blog, which I am very excited about, for the Echotone DVD. I forgot to include blogging as an entry method so I have gone back to the post and made that update. If you read the post via email subscription or if you read it yesterday please go back and check out the update. There are now five ways to enter giving you five chances to win this amazing movie. The contest runs through November 14th and I am hoping for a big response. You should enter even if music documentaries aren’t your thing; you can always re-gift it 
Thanks for reading!
Echotone Giveaway
Today is November 1st and I thought it the perfect time to start a giveaway, kicking off my month of thanks. I feel so indebted to you, my readers, for helping guide and support me through my journey so I decided to host three giveaways this month to show my appreciation. I am very excited for this first one because I love the prize so much. The winner of the giveaway will receive a copy of Echotone on DVD. Aren’t you excited?
After my last post about the film I thought about doing a giveaway for the movie because I just loved it so much and really wanted to continue getting the word out about this film. A few days after the post went up I found out that Nathan Christ, the director, had actually read it. I was fortunate to be able to start up an email conversation with Nathan about the giveaway and his thoughts. It turns out, which you will learn in more detail below, they are currently in the midst of creating a 6 part, 6 hour series for television that will tell not only Austin’s story but will also include Chicago, NYC and LA and are putting together the pilot for the series to show to interested networks. In order to get that pilot finished they need to raise a significant amount of money ($15,000) and have recently started a campaign on Kickstarter in order to do so. Once I found this out I knew that I wanted the giveaway to be based around their Kickstarter project. It made me feel like I had a legitimate opportunity to help this pilot get made and hopefully the giveaway entries will make you feel the same way too. Throughout our lives we are given chances to be part of something greater than ourselves and I hope you don’t pass this one up.
Nathan also graciously allowed me to share with you an email I received which can better explain their vision and hopes for Echotone far better than I ever could.
Dear Friends, Family, and Colleagues,
Since I last wrote you, Reversal Films and I have been hard at work getting the political music documentary I directed, Echotone, out to the world. The journey has been monumental for us. The percentage of truly independent films that actually find a home (i.e. we have a distributor and a nice download spot on iTunes) is extremely small. The story really resonates with audiences of all stripes. We have received almost universal critical praise, recently winning the New York Times Critics’ Pick and nabbing an excellent review in the Village Voice.
I see the issues raised in Echotone resonating in cities around the country, no matter where I travel with the film, whether it’s the rampant gentrification pushing artists and families deeper into Brooklyn, a controversial series of legislation threatening the creative class in Chicago, or the major music industry collapsing in LA. All of these stories are interrelated and I am now convinced we must continue filming the story. My vision is to create a 6-part, 6-hour television miniseries intercutting Austin, LA, Chicago, and NYC together to great a nationwide tapestry, a true historical document of a very uncertain time in our country’s history.
We simply can’t make it the same way we made Echotone, though (by fundraising on our own). We must get picked up by a major network – the project is just too vast and we will need too much money and promotional support. That said, we’ve already begun shooting. We must prove the concept to the networks, thereby creating a “pilot.” Thanks to some extremely generous donations, my crew and I worked tirelessly all summer long in Chicago (during the inauguration of newly-appointed Mayor Rahm Emanuel) and New York (during the 10-year anniversary of 9/11) and captured some gorgeous, captivating footage. Our goal now is to shoot the remainder of our pilot in LA, edit the four cities together, and go into sound design (our sound in the original Echotone is one of the most critically-praised aspects of it, thanks to an incredible company called Voodoo Highway).
I’m calling our pilot “the chicken that lays the golden egg.” If we can just make it over this current financial hump, I believe we will be in the position to continue telling this story for years to come. We are already in talks with networks and will be primed to pitch the material in February if we can finish the pilot in time.
15k sounds like a lot, but every dollar truly helps. I feel like all my work making videos in high school onward has been building to this moment. The inertia is huge. Please help in any way you are able. The incentives for pledging are attractive (you can see them all on the Kickstarter page linked below). I’ve also created a new video which visually shows what I’m writing about, including some great new footage from Chicago. Click here to watch the video and to pledge.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to write or call me.
My Best,
Nathan
Contest Details
The contest will run from November 1st through 11:59pm CST November 14th. Winner will be chosen at random (using random.org of course) and announced on this blog November 15th. Once notified, the winner will need to supply their mailing address to me so I can have the DVD sent to you.
You must leave a separate comment for each entry method; i.e. one comment about the trailer, one comment stating you tweeted, etc. Please DO NOT leave one comment saying you did all five. If you do that you will only receive one entry in the contest opposed to five. Also, only one entry per method per person. This means you can tweet that message 1,000 times but it will only be good for one entry. There are five ways to enter, giving you five chances to win.
If you have any issues leaving comments you can email (axid200@gmail.com) or DM (@dacialee33) me and I will add them for you.
How to Enter
1) Head over to the Echotone website and watch the trailer for the film. Then leave me a comment as to why you want to win the DVD. It would be great if you could include something from the footage that piqued your interest but I trust you will enter a comment only after watching the trailer.
My goal for this giveaway is to get as many people as possible over to the Kickstarter and Echotone websites and help them raise funds for the series pilot but I am not going to ask you to contribute in order to be eligible for the prize. Yes, I would love for you to make a donation via the Kickstarter site but I know not everyone can afford to do that so instead I am asking for your help spreading the word about the Kickstarter campaign.
2) Tweet ‘Please help Echotone expand to a multi-city music documentary series. Find out more info about the project here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/reversalfilms/echotone-expands-multi-city-music-doc-series’. Leave your twitter handle in the comment so I can verify.
3) Share the above message and the Kickstarter link on your Facebook wall. Leave your FB username in the comment so I can verify.
4) I know not everyone uses FB or Twitter so share the Echotone and Kickstarter info via word of mouth or email and I will give you an additional entry. There really isn’t an easy way for me to verify this so I will take you at your word just tell me in the comments what you did to get the word out.
*UPDATE* I forgot the fifth way to enter so I am adding it now
5) Talk about this giveaway and the Kickstarter project including a link to this post. Leave a link to your blog in the comments.
Side note: the great thing about the Kickstarter fundraiser is any donation you make will come with a gift. The gifts range from a virtual high five/special thank you for a one dollar donation, yes you can donate just a dollar, up to a private screening and live performances for donations of 5K- so not only do you get to feel good for supporting Echotone you also get cool stuff in return. The donation details can be found on the Kickstarter page
In closing I leave you with a message from Nathan Christ. I asked him if he wouldn’t mind writing up a little blurb for the giveaway post and he so graciously did so.
Echotone has been a labor of love from the gate. We are now more than 3 years deep in this project with no intention of stopping. As you’ll see from the Austin film, the issues we are documenting are universal. The goal is to raise money to tell this story not only in Austin, but in Chicago, NYC, and LA. We just launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise enough money to fund a pilot. This will give us the fuel we need to tell this quintessential American story during this time of great national uncertainty.
You can pledge to our campaign here:
I hope that you are as excited for this giveaway as I am. If you can’t or don’t want to donate to the Kickstarter campaign please help me in getting the word out there. Who knows, you could end up winning the DVD and at the same time we can help make history.
Good luck and thanks for reading!
*No purchase necessary for entry, all opinions and viewpoints expressed are mine and I did not receive payment for or was solicited for this giveaway.
Naan Pizza and Giveaway Winner Announced
I think I have found a new addiction in this vlogging stuff. It’s so much fun. I like it even more when I get to make something for the video and then eat it afterwards That’s what I did tonight, made some yummy Naan Pizza and then I devoured it as soon as I was done recording. Not to toot my own horn but it was mighty yummy. You’ll see Paul in the video telling you what he likes best about the pizza but I would like to add that my favorite thing is the garlic. I hope you try this recipe out some time and if you do you have to let me know what changes you made to the recipe and how it turned out. Also, I neglected to mention in the video what exactly Naan is. It is a leavened flatbread. It is common in Indian cuisine but it is eaten all over Asia, not just in India. I used to eat it all the time when we lived in WA and shopped at Trader Joe’s. Now though you can find it at most grocery stores. It’s usually near the deli or wherever your store carries pita.
This is the package the Naan came in. There are lots of different varieties available and I know stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s carry their own brand Naan.
Veggie Naan Pizza
1 piece of whole grain Naan
1/4 cup of sauce (marinara, pomodoro, pizza sauce- whatever you have on hand)
2 Tablespoons shredded mozzarella
1 Tablespoon grated pecorino romano cheese (parmesan will work great too)
1 clove of garlic, chopped
Few sprinkles of crushed red pepper flakes
Assorted veggies of your choosing. I used; sliced/chopped mushrooms, thinly sliced onion (about 1/2 of a small onion), sliced red bell pepper (1/2), sliced roma tomato (1)
Pre-heat oven to 450. Assemble pizza. Cook on baking sheet or directly on oven rack for 10 minutes (check progress around 5-7 minutes), broil for an additional minute to get it crispier and cheese golden brown.
My pizza was:
468 calories, 15g fat, 69.5g carbs, 10.5g fiber, 17.5g protein and 12 WWPP
Paul’s pizza with turkey pepperoni, mushrooms and extra cheese (1/4c instead of 2 tbls) was:
538 calories, 21.5g fat, 62.5g carbs, 9g fiber, 28g protein, and 14 WWPP
What we learned;
-1/4c of mozzarella cheese is too much, stick with 2 tablespoons
- turkey pepperoni is pretty tasty and adds a decent amount of protein to the pizza. I will try it on mine next time
- yeah, there isn’t much of a difference between my recipe (nutritional value wise) and maybe eating a personal sized takeout pizza or even two slices of pizza but this tasted much better, left me satisfied, and was much more fun adding whatever toppings I wanted. I will definitely make this again!
Enjoy!
Oh, and in case you didn’t watch (or couldn’t watch) the video, the winner of this week’s giveaway is Ashley! Her word was zealous, by the way. Although I am thinking I should probably pick another winner, I mean the girl is in Germany for Oktoberfest right now. Lucky!
Just kidding Ashley! You are still the winner. You should probably pick me up a stein or some lederhosen while you are there just to make sure I don’t change my mind
Thanks for reading!
My Cooking Vlog: a Healthier Version of a Breakfast Taco and a Surprise Giveaway!
Hello and welcome to my first ever cooking vlog. This was far more difficult to do than the last vlog. Hopefully you can actually see what I am doing and hear me talk as I move around my kitchen. Paul was going to record it for me but the idea of having him behind the camera kind of made me nervous. Instead I chose to prop up my iPhone on top of a bottle of Fiber Choice, leaning against one of those cardboard 6 wine bottle carriers. Classy, I know Just to be safe I am including the recipe below for your reference. As I mention in the video; this recipe is pretty basic so feel free to add whatever ingredients you have on hand and change it up however you please. In my opinion, wrap anything in a tortilla and it will taste good.
Veggie Sausage Breakfast Tacos
1/4 cup Southwestern Egg Beaters
2 Tablespoons shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 Tablespoon Salsa or Pico de Gallo
1 Morningstar Farms Veggie Sausage patty
1 Mission Carb Control Whole Wheat Tortilla
1. Heat sausage patty in microwave 35-45 seconds
2. While sausage is cooking, warm tortilla in an ungreased nonstick skillet 10-15 seconds per side
3. Once tortilla is warmed, remove from pan and set aside. Lower the heat on the pan to medium low and add some nonstick cooking spray. Cook the egg beaters until done, about 1-2 minutes. Not very long so pay attention.
4. Once cooked, place the egg beaters on top of warmed tortilla and top with 1-2 tablespoons of cheese, sausage patty which has been cut into bite size pieces, and 1 tablespoon of salsa.
Voila! Breakfast is complete. I do however recommend serving some fresh fruit alongside.
Nutritional Info using ingredients listed above/featured in vlog:
Fat: 9.5g, Protein: 21g, Carbs: 19g, Fiber: 11g
WW PP: 6
This meal is cheap to boot- only .93 cents per taco! The price may need to be adjusted for COL as I am in TX and shop on post; things are cheap here. So maybe 1.50 might be more accurate for you. Still pretty cheap for what you get!
Now for my giveaway, in case you were unable to watch the video, to enter all you need to do is leave me a comment (or you can text, email, Facebook message, tweet, whatever) telling me your favorite 7 or 8 letter word. I know, it’s random as is the prize which will be determined once I see who the winner is. You will basically be receiving a care package, for lack of a better term, featuring some of my favorite things customized with items I think you will like. It will possibly contain one or more of the following; non-perishable food items (yes, Biscoff spread for sure), books, music, or even some of my homemade soaps. Yes, there is also a good chance I will make you a mix tape CD because that is how I roll. You’ll just have to wait and see. You have until 11:59PM CST Friday September 16th to enter. On Saturday, September 17th I will choose a winner at random and announce it here on my blog that day. The only thing required from you in order to enter this contest is that you feel comfortable enough to give me your home address so I can send you the prize!
*Disclaimer: I have not been solicited by or received anything in exchange for mentioning products on this blog. All of the products featured are ones I enjoy and use regularly. I have not been compensated in any way for my opinions. Same goes for any of the items in prize package for the giveaway.
Thanks for stopping by and watching my vlog! Make sure you enter the giveaway! If you make the breakfast taco let me know what you think of it!
P.S. After I was finished with the vlog Paul ate the breakfast taco, his first time eating veggie sausage, and he loved it. Yay! Score one for the healthy breakfast taco!
And the winner is….
I am sure you were all waiting with bated breath for this moment to come. It was probably difficult to sleep last night you were so excited, right? I figured as much- it is a pretty amazing prize. Yes, the time has finally come for me to announce the winner. Oh, happy day! Of course, it would only be fair to show you how the winner was chosen before I make the announcement.
First, I went to the comments section of my blog and wrote down, in chronological order, the names/blog names of everyone who left comments and assigned them each a number. There were a total of thirteen entrants.
Then I went to random.org and used their true random number generator using 1 as the minimum value and 13 as the max value in order to find the winning number. I pressed the generate button and voila- we have a winner. It’s #2.
Oh, I am guessing unless you scrolled back up to see the list that you probably want to know who is #2. It’s Yerttle! Congrats Yerttle, you have won an 8×10 print of Subha’s beautiful Positano photograph. Please contact me at axid200@gmail.com so I can get your address for shipping.
Thank you to all of those who participated and of course a huge thank you to the talented Subha for donating her amazing photograph for this giveaway. I know I can speak for everyone when I say we were all in awe of the beauty you shared with us. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
*On a non-contest related note, as of this morning I am down to 256 (home scale, different than WW weight) which means I have lost 30 POUNDS since I started on 2/22, 15 weeks and three days ago. Can you believe it??? I can’t. I am amazed I have made it this far and gotten my life on this new, exciting path. I am happy with these results, to say the least, and excited to be able to share them with you.
Thanks for reading!
Versatile Blogger Award
I am excited to announce that today I received this:
This is my first blog award so I am pretty thrilled. I kid you not; I almost did a little dance when I saw my blog listed in Ginger Couturier’s post as one of her recipients. I love Ginger and was honored to receive this from her. Her blog was one of the first one’s I subscribed to when I started blogging and have been faithfully following her journey ever since. In case you don’t subscribe to her blog, which you totally should, you may remember it from this post that included the best-ever brownies which I won from her blog giveaway. This chick is pretty rad; brownies and then a blogger award. I am so lucky!
As I read through her post and checked out the other blogs she listed I realized that this meant that I would have to figure out who I would be giving this award to. I was excited to accept this award but in order to do so I had to meet two conditions: share 7 things about yourself and pass on the award to other wonderful bloggers.
I am ok with the sharing part but trying to pick others to receive this award is comparable to Sophie’s Choice. This decision is made only slightly easier by having two blogs eliminated from contention; Ginger’s and Yerttle’s- as she was another recipient of this award from Ginger. I really would like to give this award to everyone on my blogroll but I will follow along with the conditions and will choose seven, although it doesn’t specifically say how many, bloggers to receive this award. I hope I get more of these in the future so I can pass them along to other bloggers not on the list this time. You all deserve this!
Recipients of the Versatile Blogger Award- please show them some love!
* In no particular order…..
Haath Se [By Hand] / Simple Beauties – one blogger, two blogs
Kitchen Tutor / Team Dewhurst – one blogger, two blogs
Hopefully you are still reading and not unsubscribing from this blog instead Seriously, it was very difficult choosing just seven because I love and read so many that are deserving of this award.
Well, I still have another condition to fulfill which is to share with you seven things you might not know about me. Here you go:
- I am a licensed aircraft mechanic
- As an adult I have lived in nine different states, six of which I have lived in with Paul since we were married six years ago.
- My career goal is to become a college professor and to get a PhD
- I have a birthmark on my upper left thigh that somewhat resembles the state of Florida
- I only cut my hair once a year.
- I am very superstitious and believe that any change in my routine or even wearing certain articles of clothing can impact the outcome of things.
- Oh, and for those of you who don’t know me outside of this blog, Dacia is my real name and it is pronounced day-sha; the –cia make a sha sound like in Marcia or Patricia.
Don’t forget to enter my blog giveaway- the deadline is 1159 pm CST TODAY! Thanks for reading!
It’s time for my second blog giveaway!!!!
I am honored that my friend and blogging comrade has offered to donate one of her amazing photographs for this giveaway. A few weeks ago I asked for giveaway ideas and Subha graciously volunteered to donate an 8×10 photograph as the prize. Since I follow both her blogs and had already perused her photography website I knew that this would make for an amazing prize. I love photography and have fun toying around with my digital SLR camera when I can but most times I can be found trying to capture life using my iPhone camera. So, I am thrilled to be able to give away one of Subha’s beautiful (and professional) photographs. She is simply an amazing artist and hopefully you can take some time to visit her websites and blogs and take a look for yourself.
About Subha
Subha Airan-Javia is a health professional by training, but realized early on that she needed a more substantial creative outlet than her career would allow. Therefore, she started a photography business, JAS Photography LLC, while she was still in training and has been having tons of fun with it ever since! In fact, she has since become a mother and decided to work part-time, so that she could spend more time with her daughter and explore her other interests. Since then she has taken up many other hobbies such as graphic design (
http://LABELit.etsy.com
), creating tools to teach children how to speak Hindi and Gujarati (
http://BabyCultureCards.etsy.com
), knitting, sewing and many other handmade crafts (
http://haathse.wordpress.com
). She is also currently trying to practice the art of appreciation, by recognizing something she is thankful for, or one of life’s “simple beauties”, each day for a year, on her blog Simple Beauties (
http://simplebeauties.wordpress.com
).
Although I knew I wanted to feature her photography as the prize it was quite a difficult decision figuring out which photograph we should offer. Subha asked me to pick which photograph to give away in order to make it more personal. This was a challenging task because there were so many amazing photos to choose from. I was, thankfully, able to narrow it down to six. From those six, Subha told me which were her favorites and narrowed it down to two. Then Subha sent me the dandelion photo, which was not posted on her photography website, and I fell in love with that one as well. So here they are; our top three photos. We couldn’t pick just one so we are leaving that up to you. To enter the contest all you need to do is leave me a comment telling me which one is your favorite and why. The winner, picked at random, will receive the photograph they picked as their favorite. Easy peasy, right?
Dandelion:
For my birthday, my hubby bought me a new macro lens, which I had been wanting for a long time. This image it the result of play time with my new toy on the coast of Maryland. What really makes the shot is the blue sky in the background, for which I had to lie almost completely on the ground to capture!
Positano:
This is a view of the breath-taking Amalfi Coast in Italy- more specifically, it is of Positano. This little town is perched on the cliff side of the coast with unbelievable views from almost any vantage point. This shot was taken from a bus stop off the “highway” with my point and shoot camera with the flash turned off. It is amazing what you can get even with a point and shoot!
Yellowstone Springs:
Grand Prismatic is perhaps one of the most picturesque views in Yellowstone National Park. We try to visit a national park every year, and from the moment we entered Yellowstone, I saw pictures of this amazing “rainbow” spring everywhere I went. Instantly I thought: I want to see that! Well, sadly when we got there, the smoke coming up from the spring obscured pretty much everything. It wasn’t until we hiked up a nearby hill that we were able to see this commanding view of the spring displaying all the different colored bacteria creating its characteristic rainbow appearance!
Contest Rules
To enter, simply leave me a comment as to which photograph is your favorite and why, only one entry per person please. The contest will be open from the time this is posted up through 11:59pm CST June 9, 2011. On Friday, June 10th, 2011 we will choose a winner at random and announce it here on my blog that day. The only thing we require in order to enter this contest is that you feel comfortable enough to give me, or Subha directly, your home address so we can send you the photo.
Good luck and thanks for reading!
Thoughtful Thursday
In place of my normal thought-provoking Thursday posts I wanted to share with you some ‘thoughtful’ things instead.
Not sure if you remember me talking about the San Antonio food trucks and how much I love them. I posted about them a few months ago here. Well, the owners of two of our local trucks, Tin Can Tacos and Wheelie Gourmet, packed up the TCT truck and have headed north to Oklahoma and Missouri to prepare/serve food for those displaced by the tornadoes as well as those involved in the search and rescue efforts. This is an amazing thing they are doing and to help out with their costs they are accepting donations. Several local organizations have contributed to this effort which fills me with a great sense of pride for my community. Here is the link to their Facebook page if you would like to read more about their efforts, there is also info about this on Yelp’s tornado relief drive and here is their donation site if you would like to make a contribution. I have not been asked nor am I being paid to promote this, heck I doubt Wheelie or Tin Can even know who I am let alone read my blog, I just wanted to share with you something I think is amazing; small businesses and community members in a different state, hundreds of miles away, coming together in order to help others.
Also, while I have you clicking on a bunch of links to different websites you should go to this one and vote for my BF’s blog James & Jax. Circle of Moms is looking for the ‘Top 25 Mental Wellness Blogs by Moms’ and James & Jax is on that list. You can vote once per day, now through June 15, and I know she would really appreciate your support. She is an amazing mother who battled through PPD and shares her experiences with others. I have learned so much about parenting because of her and she will be a great role model for me if I ever have children of my own. So please go vote for her!
In closing I would like to share some big news in regards to my second blog giveaway. The giveaway item has been decided and I think you guys will love it. Myself and item’s creator have been in discussions working out the last of the details and it looks like we will be doing this giveaway in the next week or so. I will keep you posted. It will be amazeballs! I hope everyone loves it as much as I do and that you all choose to participate!
Thanks for reading!
