Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii..........

I love my husband. I mean really, really, deep down inside, guts churning, heart thumping, dizzy giddy, make your toes wanna curl, kinda love.

Ok, so you know I recently started The Plan to lose those last pesky baby pounds (yup, he'll be 18 leaving for college, I'll still be blaming the weight on him...lol). So anyway, over the years, I've heard around and about this whole Wii and Wii fit thingy. Y'know, here and there. Sounded great, never paid it much mind until a couple of my NS buddies started really raving about the Wii Fit. They swore it was better than any workout they'd ever done (course that's relative, I've kicked butt in the gym a time ot two myself) and any training they'd ever had (can the Wii really take the place of a hot trainer?). Now, my curiosity began to peak. In my never ending quest for perfection (or my perception of it), I began to really investigate this whole Wii phenomenon. And I must say, I liked what I saw/heard.

Now for those who might not know, a Wii is basically an interactive gaming system by Nintendo, somewhat along the lines of your standard Playstation, X-box etc but the difference is that instead of pressing buttons to play, you have to physically make the motions with your body. So you're basically on your feet, swinging, jumping, whooping and hollering up a storm. It's eerily intuitive and a crapload of fun. I'd heard, I'd seen, I liked and I wanted. Bad, really bad.

So I'm sitting here a-plottin' and a-schemin', trying to figure out how to justify to the hubby (and myself), spending $300-400 on a glorified video game (especially as our Playstation II lay dejectedly cast to the side) when darling hubby that I love, walks in today with not only the Wii, but the Wii Fit too! All this time, when I was just thinking about it, he had seen and knew that I would absolutely love it and he wanted me to have it. Because, he's just amazing like that, this man is, that I love. I could not believe it, it was too surreal. And it wasn't even that I had it, it was more the way in which I got it. I mean, it was almost like he was in my head (kind of like a genie), granting my wishes:

So I'm standing there, alternately screaming at the top of my lungs and smothering him with kisses and he's got his goofy "I done good" grin on. It was too funny. I finally calmed down enough to tell him how I'd been really thinking about getting it and I asked him how he knew. And he said simply "I saw it and I knew you would love it so I bought it". Simple, just like that, no bells no whistles. Wow. I know I'm being a little dramatic about all of this but it's just that, how often do you find someone so in tune with you on every level and sublevel? I am just the luckiest girl in the whole wide world. Really, I am.

We tried it out in the basement, it's fun already. Gonna hook it up to the big screen later...go for that whole HD effect:

BTW, did I mention that I love my husband?

The Plan

So a while back, I told you all I was thinking about starting the NutriSystem plan right? Because after trying every diet plan under the sun known to God and man (yup, and that one too), I finally deduced that I could lose these last 20 pounds if someone would just buy my food, portion it, cook it and hand it to me to eat. Sounds simple right? Well, unfortunately, I couldn't find anyone willing to put their life aside to cater solely to me so I had to look at other options (I know, people right? And they call themselves my friends *rolling eyes*).

Enter NutriSystem. I mean, of course, I've seen the commercials, who hasn't? But do you really pay them any mind? I didn't, not for the longest time. But then, in my neverending search for the perfect body with the least amount of effort, I decided to see what the The Plan was all about. After a bit of research, I was actually pleasantly surprised to find that it was uncomplicated, affordable (relatively) and free of all the bells and whistles that normally accompany such a publicly advertised diet plan. I was intrigued, and then (with $100 in discounts) I was sold.

So I've been on The Plan for 6 weeks and am down an undisclosed number of pounds. I have not been 100% on plan and yet, I have continued the downward trend. I won't bore you with the semantics of it but suffice it to say, you get out what you put in. The plan is simple, easy to follow and i find the food quite palatable. I won't post my numbers here cos I have my good and bad days but I did take before pictures and plan to take after pictures and those I will post.

The food gets delivered every month and there's no contract so you can start and stop when you like. You get breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert and you supplement meals with fruits and veggies. Basically, it teaches you the way that you should eat (which we all know) and teaches you portion sizes (what? you mean I shouldn't eat the whole box of Entenmans in one sitting?).

Here's what the food looks like:

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner


Dessert

So that's my thing for now. I figure I'll do it for 3-4 months, lose the weight and then hopefully continue the good habits I've learned to maintain my weightloss. We'll see though, we shall see...

Renaissance Woman

Today I was called a Renaissance woman. There were six of us in the room, notepads and pens prepped and ready to begin the arduous task of recording all that would transpire in the next hour. We began with small talk, easy anecdotes, light banter. We were there to brainstorm, but there was no hurry.

Just to backup a bit and give you some perspective, I live in New Jersey, attend graduate school in North Carolina and work in California. All from the comfort of my Park Village Townhome nestled snugly in the sleepy town of Sayreville. Now I do not think this arrangement is unusual, and i certainly didn't plan it, but the needs of today's society and the never ending search for a school-work-life balance had brought me to this point. I truly thought nothing of it and certainly did not view myself as special (although many have openly declared their envy at my ability to work from home).

However, here I was, at a marketing meeting for the NY/NJ AETC HIV/AIDS initiative, fulfilling the 140 hr credit requirement for my PH practicum (i know, acronyms up the wazoo right?) and I had 5 amazing and very accomplished women staring at me as if i had just dropped from Mars (or Venus if you will) as I described to them a day in the life of me. "We need to do an article on you", declared the PR rep. "I would love to run an article on you about today's wo(man) and how they are adapting to today's society." I was actually quite embarrassed by all the attention (yes i was!) but it was made worse when my Preceptor declared "And she has two kids too!" I think I almost fell out! "You are a Renaissance Woman", the PR rep said. "I will be contacting you to do an interview and will run the article in our August issue." I demurely acquiesced.

Look out, Renaissance woman coming through...*blush*.

Lost in the West

I love my heritage. i absolutely love my background and my culture. I do not fully understand much of it but i do know that it is rich, robust and enviable. So why am i suddenly extolling the virtues of my heritage and background? Well it's because i had a "cultural moment" this weekend which got me thinking...am i losing myself in the western culture?

So an old schoolmate of mine came down from Canada for the weekend. She had a wedding to attend in Long Island and wanted me to come along. Now of course, i wasn't too concerned about what I'd wear or how I'd look (I was pretty much just along for the food....lol). I picked a simple, pretty high waisted, A-line, aqua, floral printed, knee length sundress to wear along with some pretty, 2 inch heel, aqua, strappy sandals. It was fun and flirty and summery but elegant enough to wear to a wedding and still look respectable.

Well, the night before, we were up talking and I asked her what she was wearing. So she pulled out this very pretty tailor made green and brown dress and then...the most beautiful green "gele" (headdress) I had seen in a long time. Now a headdress or "gele" is a standard part of any traditional attire, without it, you are incomplete. It is your crowning glory and is expected to be worn as high and as wide as you can possibly manage without putting out the eye of the person sitting next to you (or two rows over).

And i had a whole suitcase of "gele" sitting upstairs in my closet...why hadn't I thought to wear those? Was I so lost in the western culture that it no longer even occurred to me to wear my traditional outfits? Was my "gele" destined to sit in that suitcase, gathering dust and reminiscing about their glory days? Right then and there, I decided that i too would wear traditional and tie "gele" (or do the best I could). As luck would have it, my friend had an extra piece of the headdress allowing us to look like we had matching outfits. I think we looked hot (if i do say so myself):