I have a yummy giveaway for you!

Since I’ve been asked to do some reviews and I don’t want to necessarily turn this, my personal blog, into a contest or a shill, I’ve started Rebekah Reviews It for both sponsored and un-sponsored giveaways and write-ups.

Click here to go to http://rebekahj81.com/reviews and check out the review and giveaway for Fruit2O Essentials.

This is a post testing the WP2Tumblr plugin that’s supposed to be an option for putting some of my blog posts directly to my Tumblr.

Yes, I started a Tumblr.

My intention is to use it to post SOME of my stuff because my family always asks me about my blog and why they can’t read it – especially now that I’m being asked to do reviews and have parties because of my blog presence. They think I must be quasi-important (hah!) and I think that my unwillingness to let them read my blog in its entirety is making them feel a little left out. I just don’t want them futzing through all the back posts about E, about Tim… and I don’t want them reading about when I’m mad or depressed and whatnot. My family worries a lot. But I write about a lot of innocent things too, so why not share those? Or even slightly-edited versions of the mostly-innocent stuff, like Operation PANTS?

So I’m thinking that the Tumblr could be a sort of edited version of Swinging from the Chandelier. The WP2Tumblr plugin gives me a box on my “Write Post” screen that I can check if I want the post sent to my Tumblr, or uncheck if I don’t. And I can add little update-y bits on there too, just to keep them posted on things that I otherwise wouldn’t write an entire post about.

Could this be a good idea that allows me the opportunity to let the family in a LITTLE bit while not giving them access to all of the details?

What are your tumbly thoughts?

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Update: WP2Tumblr WORKED!

On day two of Operation: PANTS I was shuffling through one of my still-unpacked BlogHer swag bags, looking for a little USB drive to loan to a friend, when I found a fitness DVD!

After the first Operation: PANTS post, I got a number of comments and emails about structuring gym routines and such. Entirely my bad – I left out the key fact that I do not belong to a gym, nor do I really want to dish out the money to join one. I own some little weights, yoga mat, cushy workout mat, and other stuff that I should use but don’t. I think I chould start at home with what I have before I commit to a gym membership. My problem is always motivation, it seems – gym or no gym.

The number one suggestion in comments and in emails was that I buy new workout clothes to motivate myself.

I couldn’t protest. Really, how can you ignore your readers?

So I have a new top and new striped pants* to wear while I do this free surprise DVD.

I got the workout DVD at the Elations booth at BlogHer while I was trying out the yummy flavored waters that have supplements to promote bone and joint health. The DVD says it includes workouts that are good for people who suffer back, neck and other joint pain. I come from a family of bad joints (along with that blood pressure and cholesterol fun), so this is pretty important to me. Mom has bad knees, both grandpas have titanium hips. I’ve already had one knee surgery and I still have residual pain from it when I do any sort of impact workout. I only run if something is chasing me.

So I’m going to try the DVD today, in my new pants and top. I can’t imagine that pilates will require me to jump… will it?

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* I can’t buy the Skechers Shape Ups just yet, but I tried them on and I waaaaant them. I’m saving my pennies for E’s birthday present. However, if you represent Skechers shoes and would like to send me a free pair of the yellow and silver ones in size 6.5, I will review them for you on this blog.

What an awesome way to enter the blogosphere!

A friend of mine and I were talking after BlogHer and about all of the news and hubbub surrounding the mommy-blogger contingent. We talked about the way some of our friends’ mommy blogs had begun, as chronicles first of their pregnancies and then day-to-day development of their children, solely for the purpose of keeping faraway friends and family updated on their lives. A sort of “e-mail to everyone you know” thing, just to keep in touch with loved ones.

“I know some kids who just started doing that,” she said. This friend is technically old enough to by my own mother, so when she said “kids” I thought she meant people my age. “Two kids. They just moved to Washington, D.C. so they’ve started a blog to keep their family up to date on their move and new experiences.”

She sent me the link to “Katie and Jack in DC” and I clicked over, expecting a pretty family blog written by a gushing mommy. Maybe there would be a scrapbook paper background and a family picture with everyone in coordinating outfits.

Well.

Katie and Jack are the bloggers. They are 8 and 6. How awesome is that?

It’s their own little blog and their own words, and I kind of love that more than a mommy-blogger writing about her children. They can speak for themselves and a blog is now a platform for everyone.

They don’t write much – just post pictures and little snippets here and there. Like many blogs, it’s just a “what I did today” thing. But what a wonderful habit for a kid to pick up at such a young age! I thought I was so cutting-edge for having a Geocities site when I was fourteen and I am obviously super cool now, so these kids are going to trump all of us.

Will you go over and say hello to Katie and Jack and encourage them in blogging?

http://katieandjackindc.blogspot.com/

It’s official: I do not fit into any of my dressy dress pants. AGAIN. This is the second round I’ve outgrown in 12 months. I have exactly two pairs of pants that I can wear to work, both casual chinos that do not make me look important. This is unacceptable.

The most common place for a woman to gain weight is around her hips and thighs. This is also the unhealthiest place for her to gain weight. And it’s the ONLY place I’ve gained weight, resulting in a curiously pear-shaped frame that’s still skinny on the top (sigh) and towards the ankles.

Even if my pants did fit – and even if I had oodles of money to buy new pants and not worry about that anymore – I know I’ve developed a pretty unhealthy lifestyle lately. I eat crappy food and drink beer and god knows I don’t exercise. The fact that I’ve gained 25 pounds in the last year and a half is a red flag – something about my body is changing, so something about my lifestyle must change too, right? Many people who are really overweight got that way because they didn’t attack the problem when it was manageable. I don’t feel like I’m in danger of becoming obese… but who thinks that when they’re still pretty close to their healthy weight range?

Uh, no one.

So we eat and eat and sit on our couches and barstools and gain just one more pound at a time. I’ve rolled with the good metabolism for long enough; now my luck is wearing off and my once rock-solid abs are hiding under a little layer of mush.

E and I have decided to make some changes together. He’s a lot like me, habit-wise: beer and crap food and laziness. We play volleyball and walk to and from the bars for exercise. So we have decided:

• Light beer only from now on. We will accomplish this by sharing a pitcher of Bud Light so neither of us is tempted to make that second glass a Budweiser (him) or a Landshark (me).
• Take walks together. Ride the bike (him only, because I can’t – bad knee).
• Eat grilled chicken strips instead of fried (seriously, we eat a lot of chicken strips so this is huge).
• Buy Lean Pockets instead of Hot Pockets. Stock the house with healthier snacks overall.
• Find a new vegetable to like AND EAT IT.

He’s also said he won’t go through the free buffet at the Very Nice Restaurant more than once per shift. I’ve added a few little things of my own too. I know I don’t really need to lose much weight (10 pounds would make me happy and put me in a healthy-weight range) but I do need to stop being such a sedentary bum. I’ve always been kind of a slacker in the exercise department and for twenty-eight years I’ve gotten away with it because that’s how my family rolls. We start off skinny, sometimes too skinny, and it’s not the Freshman Fifteen but the late twenties that pack ‘em on. Add that to the family history of high blood pressure (check), weight gain (check) and high cholesterol (safe so far) and it’s pretty clear that the time for change is now.

I don’t want to end up struggling to lose 50 or 60 pounds down the road. I know that if I do better now, I probably will never have to do that.

So I am going to…

• Clip on that iPod-looking pedometer from the Wal-Mart swag bag at BlogHer and make sure I walk at least 2 miles per day.
• Walk to and from the work parking garage as long as it is not raining and I am not wearing dress shoes.
• Look at books about healthier eating habits that are not super-restrictive, like the F-Factor Diet and the Small Changes, Big Results method. Then I will try to do those things.
• Not eat candy.
• Get some of those Skechers Shape-Ups so I can tone my muscles more as I walk AND improve my posture and my abs. They’re supposed to be easier on my bad knee too. (I will keep you posted on how those work out.)

Today I weigh 137 pounds, top of the healthy range for my five feet and three and a half inches. It ends here. “Operation PANTS” has begun.

Got any tips for a lazy girl who doesn’t like vegetables and can’t afford a trainer?