Favorite Things April 2011 - Better Late Than Never :)

well sheesh!  The months just fly by don't they?  March just came and went with no favorites at all (I was too busy being lazy) and here we are in the first week in May and what have I been up to?  Well, online shopping, tv watching, Royal Wedding obsessing :), planting, dieting, p90x sweating, babysitting, and preparing for D's family to come in town for his brother's graduation party (more on that later).  Yowzer.

1.  AeroBed.  Yes.  David and I have sealed our pact with adulthood by buying our very first air mattress.  Now people can stay the night and enjoy the sensation of sleeping on a giant soft life raft.  I did some online research and actually looked for airbed alternatives for a while to avoid the noxious off gassing, but nothing was as easy to store or set up as the ol airbed option.  We got AeroBed at Costco for like $110 and set it up in the living room so it could "air" out (heheh) and after only a few hours that nasty pvc smell was pretty much gone.  That day was two weeks ago (or was it three?) and AeroBed has been inflated in the living room ever since.  I'm giving it a "very extended test run," and have been very pleased with the results.  It's seriously sooooooo addicting to just lay three or four feet in front of the tv, with all these blankets and pillows, and the laptop, and snacks, etc.  On the weekend nights, I even sleep on it.  I leave the windows open to let the cool breeze in, I snuggle under the comforter, and sleep like a baby.....on an air mattress.  I HIGHLY suggest buying one, even if you don't have guests.  (Our guests will be here for two weeks starting on Saturday, and I'm not looking forward to giving up my living room nesting spot).

ours is all beige, but has the same headboard which is good at keeping the pillows on the bed

2.  Helpful "gotta lose weight" websites.  On MyFitnessPal.com you enter your weight, age, goals, lifestyle, activity level, etc. and it tells you how many calories you burn on an average day and subtracts a healthy amount so you have a deficit and will lose weight.  Everyday you enter in the food you ate (using the huge database of stored nutritional info that has everything from Carl's Jr. to Amy's frozen dinners to Cheerios -- and if they don't have it, you can add to their database using the info on the back of your food) and it gives you a breakdown of how many grams of carbs, protein, fat, etc. that you have left in your allotted totals.  It's been very helpful.  It also helps me pay better attention to what I'm eating (getting the most nutrition and energy from my meals without overeating, consuming empty calories, or losing my balanced diet) and has made me more aware of serving sizes and calorie intake. (Now when I watch man vs. food I feel sick). It's like the facebook of health and nutrition, but I choose to ignore the 'social aspect' part of the site, and just use it to keep track of my stuff.  And it acts as my conscience too.  I still cheat on Saturdays and eat out -- even though i try to make good choices and limit my servings -- so I don't log in during the weekends and I always have an email waiting for me "Rebecca hasn't logged in for two days"... but i ignore, I don't want to make myself super crazy : /

The other one is EatingWell.com.  Also known for it's food magazine, the website has a zillion recipes organized according to whatever kind of diet you are on.  Low-cal, gluten free, vegan, vegetarian, diabetic, low-carbs, etc. You can login in, browse through the recipe collections and 'add' them to your recipe box for later reference. I've been SUPER good at making multiple meals throughout the week and I love that it tells you all the nutritional information right there so you don't make a meal and find out it's gonna fatten you up.  ANDDDDD all of the nutritional information for these recipes is on MyFitnessPal.com so I just need to say, yes, I had one serving of chicken tikka masala, and it already knows how many cals, carbs, protein, etc.  THANK YOU INTERNET.  ANNNDDDD maybe it's not so much dieting as it is eating ideal healthy balanced fresh food, because I feel full most of the day and have good energy, and go to bed feeling like the weigh in won't be successful the next morning...but it almost always is!

 3.  Sunset magazine.  I have been reading the same three issues that I stole from D's mom's house a year ago and still love them.  Yesterday I picked up the new May issue and flipping through it has convinced me to just pay for a year's subscription.  It's soooooo pretty and interesting.  It gives me all these yearnings to go explore all the beautiful places in the Southwest, and at the same time makes me want to beautify my home and DIY.  It will seriously spark some good ideas, no matter what your interests are.  Plus, I feel like all of the vacations, projects, and businesses / products they plug are fairly within my income bracket and there aren't just ad-ridden pages showing me stuff out of my reach (like many magazines, I think).  I feel like it's a real magazine for real people. 

4.  Pinterest.  Talk about an overload of ideas!  This website lets you make collages / idea boards based on products / art / ideas / fashion / recipes / diy / furniture / music / travel / funny pictures that other people have 'pinned.'  Every member contributes ideas and then shares them with the online community.  I haven't really taken the time to create my own board yet (I would be there all day), but I did spend like 2hrs at work one day looking at the 2,000 pictures from YoungHouseLove.com's board.  AND you can browse all you want, but if you want to become a member and pin things, you have to "Request an Invite" and it took two or three weeks before I was officially "invited."   that's ok, the wait was totally worth it because I'M IN LOVE.

5.  Pirate Booty.  I'm probably the last person on earth to discover this yummy snack, and I love it!  mmmmm it's like a bag full of airy light white cheddar Cheetos and you can eat almost half the big bag and not kill your diet.  I like to eat them when I just need to put something in my mouth and get some flavor, snacky snack.  And David, Luka and Lola love them as well :)

Editor's Note:  I also love spring flowers, warm days, cool breezes, little babies, pregnant ladies, whole wheat crust pizzas from Bricklight Dive, my mommy, my baby boy nephew, 30 Rock, a glass of red wine at the end of the night, spring planting, the smell of hose water, shopping at CostPlus, royal weddings, etc.

Okay, that's all I can really think of right now.  I gotta clean the house up and down, in and out before D's dad and girlfriend come to stay with us tomorrow...I'm already behind : /