100 Followers!!!!! BOOK GIVEAWAY (your choice!)

Okay, I'm pretty stoked to have just reached 100 followers!

As promised, I am going to do a giveaway to 1 lucky reader.

I thought that I'd give the winner of this giveaway options.  I also decided to cut out the "middle man" and to order from Amazon or Borders.com and have whichever book you decide on shipped directly from there to you!

YOUR CHOICES for giveaway-

1) The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone
2) Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnuoin
3) PETA's Vegan College Cookbook
4) Intuitive Eating by Elyse Resch and Evelyn Tribole

Here's how you enter:

1) For one entry- Leave a comment on this entry.  Please include your email address in the comment.  Also let me know which book you want if you win! -THIS PART IS MANDATORY, since it's the only way that I can think of to keep track of the entries!  Leave that comment, folks.  ;-)
2) Link to this giveaway on your blog for 3 more entries!  Please let me know that you did this in your blog comment, too...
3) Follow this blog for 2 more entries!!  Whether or not you already follow, please let me know in your comment.

GOOD LUCK!  And thanks for following and reading my blog.  :-)

Entries will be closed in one week, on June 1st.  Winner will be announced June 2nd!!!

Rewards for weight loss?

I've been asked by some people what I'm going to "give myself" as a "reward" for getting to my goal weight.

In the beginning of my WLJ, I had a clear image of what I wanted to reward myself with once the scale announced to me that I weighed a mere 135.0: a trip to NYC, where I would buy myself a pair of ridiculously expensive designer jeans in my new size! It was a pretty motivating goal for a couple of months.

...Then I lost sight of it. My rewards became mental, completely mental. As in: Just seeing a smaller number on the scale was enough of a reward for me! Those NSVs (non-scale victories) are so rewarding. Here are some amazing and free (or nearly free) rewards that I have "given" myself over my WLJ:

1) old shirts that used to show my rolls that now look awesome!

2) luxurious bubble baths with a cold beverage on the side and a good book or magazine to read (okay, the bubbles, drink, and reading material cost some $, but not much)

3) the ability to wrap a towel around myself, and not a beach towel... a regular towel!!! Walking around the house (er, apartment) wearing the towel, doing homework in the towel, folding towels in the towel, etc.

4) Cooking a healthy meal, enjoying every bite.

5) Dark chocolate. (yep, I went there. Food rewards are still valid to me!!!)

6) Amy's pizza (again with the food rewards! Do I have a problem?) ;-)

7) old jeans that were boxed away because they were way too small. I love giving myself my own old clothes!!!

8) me time: an hour at the gym, a long walk, a bubble bath (I know this was already mentioned, but it needed repeating), permission to read for pleasure for an hour, permission to watch an episode (or 4) of Buffy or Charmed, and my favorite daily reward: The Young and Restless (which is often combined with good food or exercise, double reward!)

9) Blogging. Sometimes, this blog is very cathartic for me, and it helps me to get through a tough day. Today is one of those days, people! Trying to write a bit about positive things to remind myself that the bad days are few and far in between.

As much fun as the cheap/free rewards are, I decided to finally break down and reward myself monetarily recently. I got a haircut, bought some new work clothes, and just now ordered myself three guilty-pleasure books from Amazon.

Two of them are... embarassing! But I want to read them, and will definately be sharing exerts from them if I enjoy them as much as I think that I will...

1) The Black Book of Hollywood Beauty Secrets, by Kim Douglas and Cindy Pearlman.

Sound exciting, no? This can only be helpful for my quest to work on my outer beauty more.

2) The Black Book of Hollywood Diet Secrets, by same people This book looks totally lame! It also sounds completely mindless. And like stuff that I've read a million times in several different magazines... and yet, I'm so excited to read this! Why not enjoy some mindless and fun reading, that may possibly contain the secret to weight loss? (Please know that I'm joking about believing in any such secret, okay? Eat less + move more = only "secret" to weight loss out there) 3) Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited to try making these. I have recently discovered a bakery right here in Memphis that sells vegan cupcakes and cakes, and have been enjoying a few every couple of weeks. Making vegan goodies myself will only save me money, right? ;-) I can't wait to share a recipe with you guys, and let you know how it goes!

P.S. Stay tuned for Tasty Tuesday post late tonight, which unfortunately will NOT have a lunch photo, since I completely forgot to take one. Bad blogger, I know. Sorry! I will describe my boring leftovers lunch in detail, don't worry. :-)

Two exciting Christmas presents to share with you...

I got plenty of amazing Christmas presents. I am spoiled and lucky, I know.

The two that I received that will most help me with this blog are the ones pictured:


The Magic Bullet (Thanks, Mom and Dad!)
PETA's Vegan College Cookbook (Thanks, Kevin!)


Both of these are pretty cool for anyone, but especially for a vegan on a budget.

The Magic Bullet is something that I desperately needed and wanted. I have been dying to try a "Green Monster" since I joined Weight Watchers. And now that fruits are zero PointsPlus, these powerful smoothies are way more point-friendly than before. I'm way excited to try this out! I will share any and all recipes that work and/or fail right here on this blog.


Plus, my kitchen was lacking a food processor and a blender, and this is both!


My brother Joel and I used it once to make salsa. It was very onion-y, but to me that worked. I looooooooove onions! I do think that next time I will use more tomatoes, though. It would be nice to have salsa that is red. (Ours was green).


Next up, PETA's Vegan College Cookbook. When I first opened this present, I thought: Another cookbook that I probably won't use, since cooking takes so much time and effort!


But upon opening it, I was hooked. I've already "cooked" from this. I put cooked in quotes because no recipe in this book required a stove or oven. It's all microwave or less. Some recipes are just like mine: open a can or two, stir together, add sauce, and you're done.


It's amazing. I love this book. It is everything that a lazy vegan such as myself could hope for. Please look at this book, especially if you ARE NOT vegan. It's a great testiment to veganism made easy. One of the first chapters mentions that most ingredients in this book can be bought at a DOLLAR STORE.


Tonight I am going to make a recipe from this book using the following: a can of chickpeas, an apple, some diced celery, and vinegar. I will post the recipe tomorrow, especially if it turns out okay. This book will be coming up again and again in this blog, so look forward to that! :-)

Is it Weight Watchers friendly? Of course it is. Not all of it is points-friendly, though. Especially the desserts section! And a lot of the recipes call for something like 5 TABLESPOONS of olive oil, for something that has 2 servings. That's crazy points. But, I plan to modify some of the oil amounts and to eat everything in moderation. In that sense, all cookbooks are WW friendly. This one, I will have to experiement with. I look forward to plugging in some of these to the ww.com recipe builder and finding out!

Time for me to re-read The Kind Diet

I need to re-read The Kind Diet. I really feel like I've gotten too Weight Watcher-y lately, and less focused on The Kind Diet/Weight Watchers combo: whole foods and on a transition into a more "Superhero" diet/lifestyle. (If you do not know what I mean when I say "Superhero" please read The Kind Diet along with me! It's a great book about transitioning to veganism).

Weight Watchers has been amazing for me. I lose about a pound a week, which is my goal. Slow and steady weight loss is what I'm going for, for the first time in my life. My slow and steady losses are what make me believe that this is the time that I will get thin and stay thin. :-)

Anyway, it's time to re-read the book that inspired this blog. I will update with thoughts about each chapter of the book as I re-read it. If anyone wants to read (or re-read) along with me, I will be starting tonight with the introduction and the first chapter.