I’m Getting Better For BlogHer (and beyond) With Healthy Choice

blogher,healthy choice

BlogHer 2010 is next week, I’m so excited!  Every year I wish the same thing – that I could lose 25 or 30 pounds in the week before. Obviously that’s not going to happen, but thanks to Healthy Choice and BlogHer, I am going to get a chance to learn about new items in the Healthy Choice frozen entree line, meet some of the people who create Healthy Choice meals, and consult with a dietician about how to make better choices in my diet.

Healthy Choice will be working with me and a group of bloggers for the next 90 days,  providing me with free product coupons, financial support, and tips for success. They’d like me to replace one meal a day with a Healthy Choice meal, I’ll most likely do lunch since I usually either skip it or go out for fast food with Kaitlyn.

Here’s some tips from nutrition expert Tara Gidus, known as “The Diet Diva”. She’ll be meeting with us during a special lunch Healthy Choice is holding for us during BlogHer.

  • Eat light and often. Eat only what you need to sustain yourself for three or four hours, then follow up with a light snack to tide you over until the next meal or snack. Healthy Choice meals are perfectly portioned to provide delicious, calorie controlled, nutrient-dense meals to help you stay on track.
  • SLOW DOWN. Food is meant to be enjoyed, so slow down and taste every bite. Take sips of water and put your fork down throughout the meal to remind yourself to slow down. What type of eater are you – slow, fast or someone in between?
  • Move a bit more. Go for a 15-minute walk during your lunch break, walk up and down the stairs a few times or get off the subway a stop or two early and walk the rest of the way. What gets you motivated to move?
  • Need an energy break? Move major muscle groups instead of reaching for a cup of joe. Do a set of lunges right near your desk to get that oxygen flowing, supplying energy to your brain – a natural pick-me-up that is better than coffee! How do you keep your energy up during the day?
  • Get enough sleep! Not having enough sleep can throw off your hormone balance and contribute to gaining weight. How many hours of sleep do you get each night?
  • Drink up! Even mild dehydration can leave you feeling sluggish. Women need about nine cups of fluids a day from food, water and other beverages. Do you get enough water each day?

Learn more about Healthy Choice and print coupons here. Watch for more posts from me as I try new meals from Healthy Choice and hopefully start to feel (and maybe even look) better in the next 90 days!

disclosure: Healthy Choice is providing me with free product coupons and financial support in exchange for my participation in this campaign. All opinions are, as always, 100% mine.

Friendly Friday 07/30/10

I almost forgot about Friendly Friday! It’s been a busy day here. I decided we needed to do a thorough cleaning of the kids’ playroom today, and we spent three hours filling boxes for Goodwill, dusting, moving furniture, and vacuuming. It was exhausting and I was achy by the time we stopped but it felt good to be so productive!

I most likely won’t be putting up a Friendly Friday linky next week since I”ll be in New York for BlogHer ’1o and will have a jam-packed schedule. If I do get a chance I’ll put one up. Remember, YOU can host the link list on your blog, too! Just click “Get the code here…” at the bottom of the list. The code is different every week, so be sure to get the new code when hosting Friendly Friday on your blog. Hosting the list is a great way to get even more traffic to your blog and make Friendly Friday more beneficial for everyone.

There are two “rules”, more like suggestions, for participating in Friendly Friday. First, join Google Friend Connect and post the widget code on your blog so that others can follow you. Two, follow the hostesses of Friendly Friday by looking for the Google Friend Connect widget on their blogs and clicking the Follow button. The hostesses are Xenia at Thanks, Mail Carrier, Christi at Frugal Novice and Charla at Healthy Home Blog. Also, I’d really appreciate if you would follow me on Google Friend Connect too!

If you posted the Friendly Friday code this week, leave the link to that post in this linky. If you’re a new follower on Google Friend Connect, let me know in your comment so I can follow you back. Have a great weekend everybody!

Update on my American Girl Doll Giveaway

I was looking for a way to boost the number of entries in my American Girl Doll giveaway, so I emailed a popular giveaway blogger who gets hundreds of entries on every giveaway and asked her for suggestions. She asked if she could give me some feedback. I said of course she could!

She told me that the main entry requirement for the giveaway was too complicated. That it sounded like entries needed to be an impassioned plea and that I would pick the “best” entry as the winner. That was totally my fault for not explaining it correctly.

American Girl is encouraging girls to be active in their communities, to help others. What I SHOULD have said in the main entry requirement is “tell me who you’ll give this doll to if you win, and whether they do anything to help their community, such as helping with food drives, giving unwanted clothes and toys to Goodwill, etc.”

I use a plugin called “And the Winner Is” to choose the giveaway winner, it searches through the comments on the post and pulls one at random. If it’s a bonus entry, I go into the post and verify that the person left the required main entry, if they did, I close comments and email the winner.

One last thing – even if you don’t want to enter to win an American Girl doll, please take a minute and go to Shine On Now to donate virtual stars to the program. All you have to do is type in a child’s name and a parent email address, then click to drag a star into an outline. You can do that up to 100 times a day, and when 1 million stars have been donated, American Girl will give $1 Million to four childrens’ charities.

Both my giveaway and the Shine On Now program end this Saturday, July 31st.