My Alli

According to recent statistics one out of three women and one out of four men, at any given time, are on a diet.

If that dieting statistic is not enough for you, Americans spend over 40 billion dollars, that's right it reads BILLION, a year on dieting and dieting supplies.

America is the land of milk and honey, and outrageous diets to purge ourselves of the milk and honey.

I have had my fair share of milk and honey and tries at weight loss.

I am the queen bee of diets.

I have tried the peanut butter diet, the ice cream diet, Richard Simmons Food Mover diet, the hospital diet, Slim Fast, Weight Watchers, counting calories and those are the ones that I can remember at this time.

I even tried meeting with a nutritionist for a year, in which I was on a low-carb diet and lost about 50 pounds with the diet and prescribed diet pills.

But, after the pills stopped working so well, my doctor pretty much said that I would have to lose the weight on my own and really did not give me any options.

I had felt like I had failed, just like I had done with all the other diets.

So, I did what I do best when I get upset and I ate and put on about 20 of the 50 pounds that I had lost.

This brings me to about a month a go when I decided I really need to lose this weight, and lose it for good.

My biggest motivation is the cruise we are going to be taking in October. Since most of our time will be spent in a bathing suit, I want to make sure I feel comfortable. (Notice I said "feel comfortable" not "look good" not "look hot." This is one of the biggest changes I have had to make in my mindset; I need to just be comfortable with who I am, not be skinnier or look better than the girl next to me.)

So after we signed the papers for the cruise, I decided to dig out my Weight Watcher books and give it a try again. The diet was fairly simple. I could eat what I wanted to as long as I remained in my allotted amount of points for the day.

I also have decided to give the diet pill another shot and this time I am trying Alli.

I know everyone has heard about the "treatment effects." But, if I stay in my allotted amount of fat, than I have nothing to worry about. This will at least keep me honest.

So this morning, I took my first pill. I am a little nauseous, but that could just be my nerves because of ingesting a new pill.

I also used my Wii Fit this morning and I had lost 5 pounds since I last weighed myself 24 days ago!

I am just determined to make it work this time and say farewell to the fat for good!

If anyone is reading this, and has any questions about Alli or Weight Watchers please feel free to leave a comment and I will get back to you.

Chocolate, Hearts & Roses!

After taking a hiatus because of the holidays and the gloomy winter weather, I am back with a vengeance and the February edition of "Living With Martha."


This month's cover of Martha Stewart's Living is full of sugary sweet hearts and pink colored goodness. That can only mean one thing: Valentine's Day!

As usual, Martha has included my favorite part of each month's magazine, "Martha's Calendar".

This month, she has activities such as hand washing sweaters, sanding cast-iron garden urns and repaint them and organize basement and take inventory of wines.

But, as we know, all work and no play makes Martha a dull girl, so she has some fun activities scattered about like Mardi Gras dinner (beads optional), watch the Super Bowl and watching the Winter Olympics.

Martha wants to make sure her readers understand the importance of a good breakfast. So in her "from My Home to Yours" section she shares some of her favorite breakfast recipes.

The recipes actually look really good and they include Maple Granola, Donn's Waffles, Steamed Salmon with Avocado and Breakfast Quinoa (whatever that is).

What really gets me about this section is not the recipes, or even the fact that she is cheer leading for team breakfast.

It is the photo on the front of this section. There is Martha all decked out in a quilted vest holding a china teacup filled with some foamy hot beverage in one hand, and a live chicken in the other. What is really scary, it is probably her chicken from her farm.

Now, if you know chickens, you know how they will almost peck at anything that moves. But, not this chicken. It is sitting, no posing, without a drop of blood lust in its eye.

I think they drugged the chicken. But, do not let PETA hear me say that or else they will start going after Martha.

If anyone knows me, they know that I love cupcakes!

I love how cute they are, I love how they taste and I love that they can come in a variety of colors.

Under Martha's "Good Things," she shows how to do Filigree hearts to place on top of your sweets for your sweetie!

These delicate chocolate hearts are just the perfect addition to her raspberry cupcakes with pink butter cream frosting.

Actually, the hearts don't seem that hard to make.

Basically you trace a heart cookie cutter on some parchment paper, melt some chocolate, put it into a piping bag and trace the hearts. Pop the bad boys into the freezer for about 15 minutes and ta-da, beautiful delicate chocolate hearts!

Continuing with her Chocolate theme, Martha profiles a couple who sells specialty chocolates on an island located in Maine's Penobscot Bay.

The couple who own Black Dinah Chocolatiers, make beautiful handcrafted chocolates in fun shapes like multi-colored frogs and exotic flavors like blueberry-pepper truffles.

After reading this article, I want to move to my own island in the sun and sell chocolates.

My husband loves to make bread. I can tell it is going to be a great day in our home when he brings out his old 1990s bread machine that he purchased from Ebay a few years ago.

Even though it is a little old, the bread machine, not my husband, it manages to turn out some really great bread. (As I type this, the smell of baking bread is wafting into my office at home!)

This month, Martha shares with us some of her bread recipes.

Of course she does not use a bread machine, but some of the recipes look easy enough I might just try a few.

She shares the recipes for classic white bread, multi grain, rye and my favorite cinnamon-raisin.

In a beautifully photographed article, Martha takes a closer look at the poster child for Valentine's Day, the rose.

I never knew there were so many varieties of roses available. I knew they came in beautiful pinks, reds, oranges and lavenders, but I never knew of the softer almost grey colors and and the almost brown oranges.

I think I will need to demand that my husband bring me home orange roses sometime!

Even if you do not feel like reading the entire article, you must just enjoy the beautiful photos.

Along with the roses, Martha takes an even closer look at rice. She talks about how to make the best steamed rice, fried rice, Persian rice and even mouthwatering mushroom risotto.

After you have had your fill of rice, we get to what I love most about Valentine's Day, the crafts.

Martha has outdone herself and shows how to make sweet tarts, a bejeweled box, a beautiful necklace, jewel candies and cloud cupcakes.

In my eyes, those were the noteworthy parts of the February edition of Living. There are other articles and little treasures for you to discover at your newsstand or supermarket checkout counter.

All-in-all the magazine is a great buy because it really gets you into the Valentine's spirit.

Check it Out

Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginning's End

Well, we are at another end of a year. It is hard to believe that it is already 2010!

When I was little, I thought 2010 sounded so far away and imagined that we would have flying cars, robots to clean our homes and we would be all working at "Spacely's Sprockets."

Even though all of those dreams of the future haven't come true, (too bad, I would really like a robot maid to clean my house), there still have been plenty of innovations that make our lives a whole lot better.

Over 20 years ago, who would have thought that Web sites such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter would be available, let alone the idea of social networking over the Internet.

Who would have thought that such a wide database of information would be available at our fingertips thanks to sites such as Wikipedia.

Is is virtually impossible to not find what you are looking for while surfing the net. From how to carve a turkey to how to solve difficult math equations it is right within our grasp and imagination!

But, no matter how far we have come, as part of our human nature, we try to make things better every year, including ourselves.

This brings me to my New Year's resolution part of my blog.

Everyone and their mother and brother have a New Year's resolution.

I could always go with my old tired and true resolution of dieting and exercising. But, when I don't live up to my expectations, I am disappointed and feel like I failed.

This year, I am going to do things a little different.

In the spirit of Social Networking sites, I am going to try and make my 2010 all about networking.

This year am I am going to reconnect with past friends and acquaintances and create new ones. I am going to find a place to volunteer. Not just any place to spend some idle time, but a place that I really feel passionate about.

I am going to find a choir or theater group to join. I have really missed having those two elements to my life.

And, I am going to count my blessings and be thankful for the friends and family that I have. Unfortunately, as many of us know, life can change in an instant.

I am not really sure who reads this blog, or if anyone does, but if anyone is reading these words on this page I hope that you and your loved ones have a very happy and safe New Year, that is filled with many pleasant surprises and blessings.

"Those glist'ning houses that seem to be built of snow ..."

As I sit here typing this, snow is falling gently outside laying a nice blanket to wrap all of the neighboring houses and trees, I have the Charlie Brown Christmas Soundtrack playing on the CD player in the next room, and the Christmas tree is lit.

Too bad my husband had to work today, or else it would be the perfect snowy morning!

I am not a person who really enjoys winter and snow. In fact, I hate it because I can't wear flip flops!

But, there is just something so magical about the very first snowfall of the season right around Christmas time.

It is like walking into a Thomas Kinkade or Currier and Ives painting!

So, if you live in a place that is blessed with the gently falling snow today, go out and enjoy it before it is all turned to a chalky, salty or cindered mess.

December is all about Sparkle

Each month Martha Stewart comes to our home.

Well, not actually, but technically she is here in spirit in the form of her Living magazine.

My awesome Mother-in-Law gives me her copy of the magazine once she is done reading it.

Each month, I love looking at her different articles about how to spin your own wool and how to crochet a pair of socks or even how to make the most complicated recipe in the world.

So in the spirit of Martha's visit, I am going to try and review her magazine each month. I will pick out the good parts and the ridiculous parts and share them with you in this blog segment called: Living with Martha.


For this month's cover, Martha and her crew went all out. Not only is there one cover, not just two covers but three separate covers on this bad boy.

On the main cover, Martha promises to share with me 138 of the Best Decorations, Recipes and Gifts from A to Z. (She also wishes me a "Sparkling Season" which I thought was very nice of her.)

The second cover features "Martha's Famous Croquembouche" and she assures me that it is easier than it looks. When I can't even pronounce it, I know nothing is going to be easy about this recipe.

The final cover has a photo of "Ombre Glitter and Luxurious Bows" and tells me that I should "Dress up with Bells, Bows and Glittering Decorations". Apparently Martha is all about the sparkle this year.

After the barrage of covers, there is my favorite part of the magazine, Martha's Calendar. (I talked about my love for this in my previous post).

Skip past all of the children clothing and car ads plus the Editor's Letter and finally on page 35 there is something to sink your teeth into: "From My Home to Yours (Faux trees are genuinely beautiful and making a deserved comeback)."

In this article, Martha talks about the shinny aluminum trees that were created in the 1950s to provide people with a reusable and environmentally friendly option for the family's Tannenbaum.

She also talks about feather trees and wood trees and how much she prefers these vintage trees to regular ones.

She goes on to say that even though these trees were originally sold for $25, their new cousins can cost hundreds of dollars in retail stores today.

The recipe for the fancy dessert that I can't pronounce is on the next page. (You know the one that is going to be easy.) It takes up a whole page. She even makes her own caramel to go over the whole thing. Way too much work for me.

For the Jewish readers, Martha has a recipe to make marshmallow dreidels. This is actually a really cute idea!

She dips the bottom of 1 chocolate kiss in 8 ounces of melted semisweet chocolate and presses it on to one marshmallow. Cut a slit in the bottom of the marshmallow and insert one thin pretzel stick. Then dip the whole dreidel into chocolate and refrigerate for about 15 minutes. After set, she says to pipe white chocolate onto the sides of the dreidel by writing Hebrew letters.

In her craft section, Martha shows a new knit solution to weave really cute adornments that can be placed on sweaters and scarves any anywhere else that needs a little extra pop of color.

The only catch is that you have to go out and purchase a kit called the Knitwit for about $20.

In my opinion $20 isn't that much to spend on something that can make all of these cute different baubles like this knitwit purse.

Also in her crafts section, Martha shows how to make different kinds of candles including scented soy votive candles and frosty salted pillars.

When I see her candle recipes, I always say that I am going to give them a try. Unfortunately, because of our two cats, having lit candles in our house is really not an option.

Now for the meat and Potatoes of the magazine: Holiday ideas from A to Z.

This section features several beautiful photographs and different ideas to make your Christmases bright.

There is so much information in this section, that it makes the magazine worth purchasing.

I am not going to get into too much detail on the blog about all of the projects, but I will list what the A to Z items are.

Snow Angels (maybe stretching for the letter A a little bit)
Bells, Bows and Bowwow
Christmas Cookies
Deck the Halls
Elves at Work
A Family Feast (complete with several recipes for your family feast)
Giving Gifts and Handmade Cards
Cool as Ice
Jolly Kris Kringle (I feel like I was cheated out of a letter)
Light up the Night
Making Spirits Bright
Naughty or Nice
Oh, What Fun it is to Make a Peppermint House
Quietest
Remembering
Let it Snow
Trim the Tree With Treasures From the Sea
Uncommon Vision
Winter Welcome
Traditional Xmas Breads
Yuletide Treats
Just Add Zest

All of the recipes and instructions for the crafts and decorations are included in the magazine along with some detailed photos of how to do some of the steps.

For those who are trying to watch their waistline so they don't end up with a "bowl full of jelly" will want to check out Fit To Eat: Cocktail-party foods with a healthy streak. Some of the recipes include Shrimp and Avocado Salad on Endive Leaves, Warm Spinach-White Bean Dip with Crudites and Chicken Skewers With Walnuts and Cilantro.

All in all, the December edition of Living is worth the purchase price. It is filled with delicious holiday recipes that will warm your home and your tummy, cute crafts that the whole family can make and some decorating ideas that will add some sparkle to your home.

In my opinion, this issue is "A Good Thing."

To Do or Not To Do, That is the Question.

I am a huge fan of To Do Lists. They help me keep organized, plus when I am able to cross of something on the list, I feel this huge sense of accomplishment.

There is also someone else who is a fan of a To Do List, or a calendar as she calls it. She is pretty famous, and because she pretty much does everything herself (including making her own honey from her own bees) it is no wonder that she needs a To Do List.

I am talking about the infamous/famous Martha Stewart.

Love or hate this woman, she does have a system worked out and she can make a sweater out of bellybutton lint. (I know during one of her episodes she showed how to do this.)

Martha loves her To Do List so much, that she likes to have them printed in her Living Magazine.

Every morning, I love to see what wacky things she has planned for today.

For Example:

Wednesday, December 2:
* Clean out gutters for the last time, and add leaves to compost
* Send invitations for eggnog party.

OK, first of all, cleaning out gutters full of leaves sounds like a good idea. I think everyone should do it. In fact, if we had more trees around us, I would suggest to the hubby that he climb on a ladder this weekend and dig the suckers out.

Even adding the leaves to a compost pile is a good idea. I am sure there are some avid gardeners and HGTV hosts out there that have compost piles and would be able to use their gutter leaves.

But the biggest problem I have with this is, do you really think Martha Stewart, herself, is at her country home today, up on a ladder digging leaves out of her gutters? I do not think so. Come on, she probably has a gardener or his assistant up on a ladder while she is down below telling him he is not using the proper technique.

As for the eggnog party, who does this? Who sends out hand calligraphy invitations that tell people to join them for an eggnog party?

Can you imagine what this party would be like? There is no way there would be plastic jugs of eggnog sitting around for everyone can taste the subtle nuances that make each one different. I am sure her eggnog would be hand crafted and in beautiful crystal punch bowls and have exotic flavors like caramel and Irish Cream.

Hopefully the eggnog is full of alcohol and everyone can have a good time.

Just for the sheer ridiculousness, I think I am going to have to include Martha's daily activities in my blog posts.

Now, my To Do List is a little different. I kind of treat it like a wish list. It is what I wish gets accomplished today. A lot of the things on the list are completely doable, but some might be carried over to tomorrow.

For example: Create this year's Christmas card list. This is something I might get to today, but will most likely be finished tomorrow. Where as, showering and spraying the cat with water to get out of the Christmas tree will most definitely be finished today.

But as I know, I am not Martha Stewart, so I guess it is OK to let some items on my To Do List go until tomorrow.

And in my world, "That's a good thing."