1. Wear high heels every day – this will lead to damaged and painful body pain – back, joints, shoulders, and tendons. Ouch.

2. Binge drinking – we all know this is bad. Have you ever seen an old drunk? They don’t look so good. I shudder to think what their livers look like. Go see The Bodies exhibit if you want to see.

3. Smoking – can I get a witness? Ugh. The bane of my existance. The lung exhibit at The Bodies ain’t so cute either. Plus smoking leads to wrinkle city. Don’t start, so you don’t have to stop.

4. Tanning – ooooh this is bad. I am thinking of a girl I went to school with from 2nd grade on – she had a savage tan at ages 10, 15, and 20, and now she looks 20 years older than me at 39. Hope she enjoyed herself in her bronzed youth.

5. Wearing heavy earrings – ha – here is one you don’t hear often, but just the other day, I saw an older woman (probably around 60) that had big ol long stretched out earlobes AND earring holes. It really wasn’t cute, and beyond plastic surgery, what are you going to do about it?

Post from: eBeautyDaily

As you can see from my *oh so lovely* videos, we have a problem. I have never, ever been truly skinny – at my skinniest as an adult, I was around 140 pounds (and am 5′ 9 for reference). Which, compared to now, was damned skinny. *Oh* to bring back those days – but they came along with lots of partying and what I call the beer diet – beer and bar food and dancing til the bars close. Awesome exercise!

So fast forward 15 (or so – ha) years – I was still pretty skinny (for me) 8 years ago when I met my hubby for the first time – about 165. That still feels way skinny to me now, although it doesn’t sound so skinny! Then I fell in *luv* and quit running the bars and dancing and not drinking… So up we go. Slowly creeping on up there. I was about 185 when we got married, and hung on to that pretty well for awhile. When my hubby got sick with MRSA is when I really started to go up (or down, depending on how you look at it…lol). So after that ordeal, and a good 20 stress pounds, I got skin cancer. No stress pounds there, but since then, along with being an indoor goddess with a life behind a computer and a fear of the sun, I have now seriously attempted quitting smoking about 6 times. Have you tried that before? I have whined about it a lot on eBeautyDaily over the last couple of years, but I watched my weight go up a solid half a pound a day for two full weeks all the while I was eating minimally, drinking lots of water, and exercising daily to try to avoid the weight gain. I quit watching after that.

I have been on soooooo many diets over the years. I have been to numerous weight loss centers, have done Weight Watchers, Protein Power, Dr. Atkins, soup diets, cookie diets, juice diets – just about all of them. The one thing I have never really tried were diet pills – no Phen-fen for me (or is that Fen-phen – I have no clue…lol) – not sure why I never did those. Some worked for me, some didn’t, but obviously none of them were a long term solution.

So, right now I am working on 60 pounds that I desperately need to get rid of. Desperately for ME, and my health, and my vanity. I am sick of being the fat girl (surely you have seen enough of that in the recent months that I don’t need to show more pictures…lol). So after months and months of consideration, I have chosen the lovely Jenny Craig to do it. I think it was that darling Valerie Bertinelli to be honest. I just love her – I always have! I am still upset she and Eddie Van Halen got a divorce, but I suspect that she is long over it now, I should be too. If you are unaware, Jenny Craig is one of the programs that you eat their food for awhile, and then eventually you wean off their food and onto your own. Ideally in much smaller proportions than you were eating before! You also have to meet with a counselor for 15 minutes, once a week. I am on their Jenny Direct internet program , so I do everything from home and have my weekly meeting via telephone. I thought our little town was sort of half grown, but I was shocked they don’t have a Jenny Craig here. Maybe sometime before too long…

My initial impressions of Jenny Craig so far:

1. 85% of the food is really good.

2. The other 15% isn’t awful, just not my favorite (I have already made one reorder and could nix the food I didn’t want and replace it with something I did).

3. I LOVE a diet where I can have an occasional dessert (and their deserts are YUM).

4. I am sick of going no carbohydrate and relish eating things like what I had for dinner tonight – macaroni and cheese!

5. I like meeting with the counselor once a week – it keeps me on my toes and keeps me from cheating knowing that I have to report in.

6. Damn, my mother was right. It’s all about moderation.

7. I like fake chicken (Chick’n), turkey burgers and Veggie sausage! Who knew??**

**Now, just a few products have meat replacements in them – not all, by a long shot (in case you were scared). The meatloaf is awesome. I might even say better than mine. Oy.

Ok, if you haven’t fallen out yet, I will wrap this up. As of today, I have dropped 11 pounds in about as many days – no doubt its water for the most part and will slow down dramatically from here, but so far, so good. I have been a little hungry on a couple of days – but I think its emotional hunger (I figured out I eat when I get mad!) and a little of that “time of the month” need for munchies. I am going to use eBeautyDaily to help me stay on track, so if you don’t hear me give a report every few days, I hope that you will poke me and ask!

I would sure love to hear from any of you that might be on JC or have done it in the past and how it worked for you, so please speak up – I need all the support I can get!!! And if you are in to weight loss, please keep an eye on Claire over at Burning The Scale – she is writing a wonderful blog over there that is chock full of useful information!

Post from: eBeautyDaily

I have some serious poundage to work off, from (how many is it now?) about 5 attempts over the past 2 years at quitting smoking, but I am geared up to do it. I have also been drinking my water, taking my vitamins and washing my face every night. Good for me. How are you doing on your resolutions?

Post from: eBeautyDaily

Must mean Christina is back on the wagon (yeah, I fell off a little, but am crawling back on) and on that dreadful psychedelic dream patch. Shh. Don’t tell Hsien, she will kick my butt.

Post from: eBeautyDaily

I am sitting here watching my very favorite movie, The Full Monty – and if you have never seen it before, it is the story of 5 “regular” men who are down on their luck and decide to do a Chippendale’s type show to make some money. And it is oh-so hilarious – rent it if you have never seen it before, you will have to watch it a few times to get all of the heavy accented English. Dave, the “fat” guy, who isn’t very fat really, is all worried about his pudgy tummy and is going through all kinds of insecurities about it – pretty much like I am over mine. He says: “Anti-wrinkle cream there is, but anti-fat bastard cream there is not.” LOL What a shame. We are what we are, and no overnight sweating it with Saran Wrap or mad amount of exercise during the last week is going to make any difference. Mine is particularly bad from my last bout with quitting smoking – and the 2 or 3 attempts over the last couple of years – I packed on about 20 pounds with each time. *sigh* I am very thankful I am tall.

But, I was never a skinny chick before, and I likely never will be – but I keep trying to eat healthy, get a reasonable amount of exercise, and hope that someday it will all kick in. And I hope my classmates from 20 years ago still love me for my charming personality! Ha!

Post from: eBeautyDaily

Joey Chancis, the founder and CEO of Joey New York will be featured on QVC this weekend – Saturday, June 17th to be exact. She will be there promoting Joey’s new Quick Lunchtime Face Peel. I cannot find an exact time, but I am guessing she is going to be on the AM Style program, which airs from 8-11 am, Eastern time. She is going to be on the Saturday Night Beauty Show, from 7 – 8pm.

Here is the info about the peel from their web site:

Get the same results from this multi-functional gel peel at home as you would if you were to go to the dermatologist during your lunch hour. Instantly removes dirt that is embedded deep in the pores, plus exfoliates exhausted surface skin cells. Skin glows.

One big thing to note about this peel is that it does not leave your skin red and irritated afterwards, which is why I assume they call it the Lunchtime peel – you could go right back to work afterwards without worry. This usually retails for $40, but it looks like it is going to be on sale for $36.36 at QVC. Don’t miss it!

Post from: eBeautyDaily

Enter Skin Medica. They have products for the good ol normal and dry folks, which, at age 37 I should be one of those, but am not, so I am looking at their acne line. A couple of things that I have sampled and particularly liked are their Retinol Complex, which provides antioxidant protection and increases cell turnover, getting rid of the old, dry, wrinkly skin making room for newer fresher skin – and their Purifying Mask. I love masks! This one is a deep pore cleansing mask, and it does a fantastic job.

The catch here is that you can only purchase these products through a dermatologist, you can find one that carries the line here, or you can go through a small consultation process at The Skin Store to purchase them online.

Post from: eBeautyDaily

Oh – guess what? Today is my one month non-smoking anniversary. I joined this group – QuitNet – and they sent me an email this morning to remind me of these things:

Your Quit Date is:Sunday, May 07, 2006 at 8:00:00 PM
Time Smoke-Free:30 days, 9 hours, 59 minutes and 7 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked:912
Lifetime Saved:6 days, 23 hours
Money Saved:$162.75

I am trying not to even really think about it, much less obsess about how long it has been down to the second – however, I do think I deserve a $162.75 prize. Don’t you honey??? LOL

Post from: eBeautyDaily

Anyway, if you have been thinking about quitting, I hope that at the very least you are still thinking about it – and if you are quitting too, please feel free to talk about it, it is a bit of a lonely thing to do, especially if, as most smokers are, all of your friends are smokers and you just can’t hang out with them right now. I understand, I really do.

Post from: eBeautyDaily

Post from: eBeautyDaily