What Was I Thinking???

I gave up chocolate for Lent. It's more of an experiment really. I wanted to see if I could deny myself the one thing that gives me an unconditional emotional kickback for the whole '40 days'. I'm not ultra-traditional so I've never been a pracising Lentee before, but I thought to myself at midnight Tuesday, with no preparation or withdrawal whatsoever, hey, I think I'll give up my favourite thing in the whole world tomorrow. Shoot me. Shoot me now.

Do you know how HARD it is to avoid chocolate? I'm seeing it everywhere! Every checkout at the supermarket has it. The smell of it somehow manages to permeate the entire food court in my local suburban shopping centre (what are they doing? Serving up Fried Chocolate Burgers? Now there's an idea...) There are easter eggs on the shelves already! And they were giving away samples of Cadbury Creme eggs when I tried to do some innocent grocery shopping last night! I had to say no to free chocolate! Help!

I buy my meat and produce from the 'market area' of the shopping centre and both shopfronts are within eyesight of not one, but TWO specialty chocolate stores. I have to smell the awesomeness that is hot roasted nuts and sweet, sweet cocoa-ey nectar while I'm bagging up, you know, broccoli or something. And let me tell you, I was a regular at that particular nuts/chocolate store. To the point of having a 'usual' order. To the point of, one day, having my order already bagged and waiting for me when I reached the counter because the ladies had recognised me from clear across the walkway. To the point of running into one of these Purveyors of Bliss in the ladies restroom and having her express concern for my recent lack of chocolate buying! I have a feeling I'm putting this woman's children through school...

Today marks Day 3 of Sans Choc 2008 (Lent began on Wednesday). It's not like my avoidance of chocolate has actually yielded any results on the badonk-a-donk field - trust me, I'm making up for my missing intravenous cocoa injections with other sugary treats - but a gal can only concentrate on sawing off one leg at a time, you know?

And also, could somebody PLEASE explain to me why, why, WHY I did this when Valentine's Day and our wedding anniversary are both this month??? For that matter, why those Roman martyrs happened to get all, well, martyr-y in February. Why not June? Nothing much happens in June! I could eat Valentine's chocolates in June! Of course this doesn't explain Hubs and my choice to get married (the other main chocolate-eating event on my calendar at least!) in late February, but we'll gloss over that point. And also, Chaucer has a lot to answer for - he was the first to connect love with Valentine's Day in 1382, thus sealing the much-maligned fate of men the world over. There you go men, blame the comically Middle Ages-spelling Chaucer :P

But back to the point...

Chocolate or its derivitives are in just about every one of my favourite comfort foods. Where do you draw the line? Does the ban apply to just chocolate bars? Can I have chocolate pudding? What about hot chocolate? Is it okay to snort the sprinkled cocoa on my cappucino? Sob.

To compensate for the 'can I have....' questions, I've gone - shudder - cold turkey. For a gal that usually eats/drinks chocolate in one form or another every single day, three days on the clock is actually a pretty good record. I also haven't had any fizzy drinks in that long also, although that's nowhere near the addiction chocolate is. It's amazing though, how often a soft drink (soda) kind of sneaks into your everyday eating. Just about all the 'value meals' include soft drinks. I actually had a girl faintly snigger when I requested a bottle of water to go with my Big Mac - you know, kind of like that old joke - "I'll have a large Big Mac meal, two cheeseburgers, and a chocolate sundae...but make my drink a diet Coke because I'm watching my weight." No, I didn't order all that, LOL. But hey, paper-hat wearing "I know everything because I'm a teenager" serving person? Don't judge me! Not everyone who chooses water is trying to lose weight!

Three days down, 42 to go. Yeah, that's another thing about Lent - it's forty days not counting Sundays!

Cheers,
Lizzie

Quick Lenten Question

Do you observe Lent? Do you go traditional and give up meat (and sometimes dairy) or do you give up a different food vice? Do you concentrate on something non-food?

Ash Wednesday (and therefore Lent) is this week. I'd love to hear if you're giving something up!

Cheers,
Lizzie

You Know You're Unfit When...

You start sweating before you've even taken the cellophane off the new exercise DVD!

I bought this DVD before Christmas on an impulse. I promptly stuck it in my drawer where it continued to mock me whenever I reached for the unmentionables. I finally got sick of the smug look on Miss Freytag's face so I put her little torture device into the DVD player.

This is NOT a hard workout. But Oh. My. Goodness.

I'd came prepared. I had on my industrial-strength sports bra, plus a sporty crop top. Those babies were strapped in. I waited until everyone had left for work or school. And then I procrastinated for an hour with the cover mocking me from the bench. And then I just did it.

I'm more than a little unfit, sure. I'll own that. And the sight of me prancing about our loungeroom would have been a surefire YouTube classic. By the third or fourth circuit (there are six 'circuits' in all, each lasting around 6 mins, hence the 3, 2, 1 thing) I was staring longingly for the door leading to the kitchen...and all the food...saliva forming at the corner of my mouth :P

And my feet! They simply would not co-operate. Box steps? Shashaying? Yeah right!

But I kept going. And when my glutes were screaming for mercy and I was bathed in a river of sweat, the workout ended and I curled up in the fetal position on the loungeroom floor and shook violently.

As workouts go, it was actually very easy - I'm just horribly out of practice and naturally unco-ordinated, LOL. The instructor's had two 'helpers', one of whom did low-intensity beginners modifications of all the routines and one that did high-intensity. So that was a nice touch. And though the instructor was ridiculously buff (in a nice, girly way), she was at least better in the sincerity stakes than a lot of other exercise workouts I've watched.

But the most important thing? I exercised.

And I didn't die, LOL.

Cheers,
Lizzie

Meme Madness ~ Music

I came across a neat little music meme on Enjoy The Journey and I'm in the mood for something a little lighter today, just like Lindsey, so here goes.

On my iPod - my 'sixth' child, after the three real ones, then the dishwasher and my laptop, LOL - I have playlists such as Walking, Romantic, Mellow, Country Rock and various artist-specific ones. I usually don't so much get the urge to listen to a particular artist, as I do to a particular style of music. For example, the songs in the Walking playlist are all jumpy and upbeat - great housework songs, by the way - and those in the Country Rock playlist help me heal when my cat gets run over by my best friend's boyfriend.....I'm kidding! LOL.

Disclaimer: I make no apologies for my very obvious weepy music taste! If you scroll right down to the bottom of the page, you'll see a glimpse of the types of movies I enjoy. 'Nuff said! Also, this is the list today. Next week it could be an entirely different list :P

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The song that makes me want to sing: Mine All Mine (SheDaisy - from the Sweet Home Alabama soundtrack). I can trill with the best of 'em baby!

The song that makes me smile: Mr Mom (Lonestar) Oh, this one cracks me up every single time! It's also a great vacuuming song, LOL.

My chill out song: Crazy Love (Aaron Neville - from the Phenomenon soundtrack). I can imagine husband, wine and good food being a part of a night with this song. Of course, Hubs' tastes run a little less - ahem - mainstream, LOL.

The song that makes me want to dance: Depends on what kind of dancing! I've never been much of a dancer but certain songs appeal because of their beats, hence Superstar (Jamelia)

Favorite song for the kids: The kids have moved past that 'Wiggles' stage and on to 'real' music, so this one is a bit more tricky. They do go absolutely nuts for anything on the Shrek/other children's movie soundtracks though, including Accidentally In Love (Counting Crows), I Like To Move It (Madagascar soundtrack) and Master J does a mean rendition of I Need A Hero (Jennifer Saunders/Fairy Godmother from Shrek 2) which always has us in stitches. This is the same kid who is currently in hog-heaven now that this show is on TV :)

The song that moves me and makes me think: I can't narrow this down, so here are a few. I Can Only Imagine (Mercy Me), Love Alone (Caedmon's Call), Carried To The Table (Leeland), and For The Love Of A Woman (Martina McBride). I always see Dick and Rick Hoyt when I hear I Can Only Imagine because of this. *Sniffle!*

The song I feel guilty liking: Anything For You (Lee Harding). Lee was one of the Top 12 in Australian Idol a few years back. His career was short lived. But this song just can't seem to get off my iPod. Something about the beat I think. Yeah, that's the story I'll go with...

The song that makes me think of my parents: We played Fly (Celine Dion) at Mum's funeral in May '06 :( Dad is a Vietnam veteran and there's an iconic Australian song called I Was Only Nineteen (Redgum) which has become the unofficial 'anthem' for Australian Vietnam veterans over the last couple of decades.

The song that makes me think of my hubby: Our wedding song, I'll Always Be Right There (Bryan Adams). But not just any version. No, it has to be from the Unplugged album (hence live and acoustic :) I walked down the 'aisle' (down some steps and around the corner of an old winery) to this song. Sigh.

The song that always makes me cry and smile at the same time: Gosh, this one is hard. It's probably a tie between In My Daughter's Eyes (Martina McBride) and There Goes My Life (Kenny Chesney) *sniff, sniff*

The song you'd be most surprised to find on my iPod: I have a whole playlist dedicated to the - shhhhhh! - Backstreet Boys. Any one of those songs pretty much scoops the pool, LOL.

The song with the most awesome beat: Say It Right (Nelly Furtado). Makes me want to belly dance! Also, Something Beautiful (Newsboys) has a really fun, upbeat tune - great for walking :)

The song I could listen to while driving coast-to-coast with the top down: Coast to coast (at least east to west coast) in Australia is a really, really long way, LOL. You'd have to play something iconically Aussie, like Touch or Take Me Back (both Noiseworks). I didn't really get into music until it was the nineties (pre-teen through to the end of teens for me) so this was just a tad before my time (*wink*) but when a song is done right it can surpass normal age boundaries, LOL. Plus I had older siblings, so...

Favorite song from a movie: I'm such a sap. I 'overdid' the movie Jerry Maguire when it first came out in, what was it? 1996 or 1997? Anyway, I loved it to death at the time and now I can't stand it. But Secret Garden (Bruce Springsteen) is just lovely :) And most of the contemporary romantic comedies down at the bottom of this page have a corresponding song on my iPod too...

What would be my workout song if I actually worked out: They're very 'Good Charlotte/Simple Plan' but I don't mind me a bit of Dance Inside (All-American Rejects). There are heaps of songs that overlap in my collection though - 'coolest beat' and 'makes me want to dance' songs totally fit into this category as well. Although I call them Housework Songs, LOL.

My favorite "fun" song that is really just a stupid song: I get a giggle out of the kids' favourites from the Dreamworks/Disney/Pixar flicks. I Like To Move It is hilarious when you imagine a lemur singing it!

The song I want at my funeral: Hubs thinks it is totally morbid that I have one several of these! The Scientist (Coldplay) and In The Arms Of An Angel (Sarah McLachlan) are the two main ones, but then there are probably a dozen others that I want to 'leave' for my kids as special messages. In My Daughter's Eyes and There Goes My Life are two of them (see above) but I also have I Hope You Dance (Lee Ann Womack) and I'm Already There (Lonestar) on my list.

My love makin' song: Ahem. Nothing very obvious - anything that puts me in a romantic mood!

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Oh, that was fun - finding the songs on the computer and having me a little concert right here at the dining room table, LOL.

Hat tip to Lindsey - and pass the meme around folks!

Cheers,
Lizzie

And We Have A Winner! Actually We Have Three Of Them!

Drum roll! The winners have been randomly chosen!

The International-Only giveaway (the homeschooling book) goes to Sarah from Toddler World.

The Australian-Only giveaway (the cookbook) goes to Lightening from, funnily enough, Lightening.

The Open-To-All giveaway (the scrapbooking supplies) goes to new blogger LaughNLove.

The scrapbooking stuff was by FAR the most popular at 120 entries and it is with a certain degree of irony that it was won by what appears to be the only male entry!

Congratulations to all of the winners - this was a BLAST to participate in and I'm already thinking of stuff for the next round of giveaways in three months :)

Cheers,
Lizzie