Evolving Stacey

Ghirardelli Chocolate is My Small Indulgence

by Stacey on February 7, 2012 · 0 comments

Room for Indulgence

If you saw my Weight Watchers video last week, you’ll know that I’ve had a hard time getting back into a healthy eating routine. Truth be told, I haven’t been 100% on my Weight Watchers program since mid-December. I start with good intentions every morning and by 4pm I somehow find a piece of bread or pita chips in my mouth and it goes downhill from there.

I love Weight Watchers because it’s a lifestyle more than a diet and because the PointsPlus system guides me towards smarter choices (when I follow the program) and gives me room for indulgences (indulgences with boundaries).

I will get back on the program (this is a public commitment to myself) starting February 23, 2012.

Premium Chocolate Extravaganza!

For me, indulgence means chocolate or spa treatments. Both at the same time? Even better! I can’t always afford a day at the spa, but I can afford to splurge on a 2 point Ghirardelli chocolate square. Y-U-M!

In January I received a gift pack from Ghirardelli that included their new milk chocolate line, Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk. My gift pack included Gourmet Milk Creamy Devotion with creamy 32% cacao milk chocolate, Gourmet Milk Sea Salt Escape with sea salt and almonds and Gourmet Milk Coconut Rendezvous with toasted coconut.

I was told I could offer this gift pack as a prize on my blog or keep it for myself!

Did I mention I had fallen off of Weight Watchers and that I love chocolate? Needless to say, my family (yes, I shared) has been in a chocolate oasis for the last few weeks. Even the coconut infused chocolate was divine.

Going forward with my weight loss journey, I won’t intentionally eat that much chocolate in such a short amount of time, but I will incorporate chocolate into my daily Weight Watchers point allowance.

If I stay within my daily points, I know adding premium chocolate to my lifestyle will add a bit of indulgence to my daily routine without breaking the bank or breaking my scale.

Discloser: The Ghirardelli chocolate mentioned in this post was provided to me free of charge. Opinions are 100% our own.

{ 0 comments }

Escaping Corporate America (Starting with How I Got There in the First Place)

by Stacey on February 5, 2012 · 0 comments

(This is part one of the My Story series.)

Before I tell you how I left Corporate America, I’d like to start out with how I got there in the first place.

It was March 2005. A time before Twitter and before I even knew blogs existed. My husband was doing a post-doc at the University of Illinois – Champaign/Urbana and we were living in central Illinois, surrounded by corn fields. The corn fields stifled my essence and suffocated by soul.

It was also a time when I only had one little baby, when our expenses were low, and when I was able to work part time and be home with my little one part time. Being home with my little one was amazing, but otherwise, I was going stir crazy.

My part time job was becoming more and more menial, so I decided to quit and be independent contractor. I got a few gigs and spent a lot of time searching online for contract positions. During my freelance job hunt, I saw a job opening just outside of Chicago.

The job description for this corporate training consulting position looked exciting, intellectually stimulating, and it promised 10-15% travel (not too much time away from my family, but enough to be able to jump on a plane for a few adventures).

Long story short….I applied and got the job, which came with the largest starting salary of my career!

Ka-Ching!

By mid-April, we packed up our house and moved from Cornfield, USA, to Chicago’s North Shore.

And by May, 2005, I was a full-time working mom and corporate training consultant for Fortune 500 companies. A new chapter of my life began to unfold.

{ 0 comments }

Weight Watchers Wednesday: My Struggles

February 3, 2012

January was a struggle regarding my weight loss. I was not in control and did not feel on track towards my weight loss success. I failed to meet 2 out of my 3 new year’s resolutions, which including exercising more and going to Weight Watcher meetings every week. The truth is, the more off track [...]

Read the full article →

Checking Out In Home Spa Services

January 31, 2012

Add a some back fat to this picture and you’ll get a sense of what I’ll be looking like tomorrow…. read more.

Read the full article →

Meditating For Five Minutes A Day

January 13, 2012

Can You Meditate For Five Minutes A Day? Last Friday, I saw this tweet and decided to join @upsdownsyogamom in a daily 5 minute meditation practice for one week. I know there are different ways to meditate and different meditation techniques out there, but I prefer guided meditation because it helps my mind from wondering. [...]

Read the full article →

Weight Watchers Wednesdays Are Back!

January 11, 2012

Needless to say, December was a very challenging month, with temptations everywhere I looked. But I did manage to lose 1.6 pounds on Weight Watchers last month. The hardest part now is getting back into weight loss mode, to track everything I eat, and to really get focused on hitting my goal weight. On some [...]

Read the full article →

Chore Charts for Kids

January 9, 2012

A new year for this evolving family means new rules and new chores for my kids. New chores means I need some sort of system or chore chart for kids to ensure this is going to be successful. I was invited to review chore charts for kids from GoalForIt.com and thought it was a perfect [...]

Read the full article →

Still Talking About 2012 New Year’s Resolutions

January 7, 2012

I’ll Start Monday It’s January 7 and so far I am not meeting 2 out of my 3 New Year’s Resolutions (exercise and tracking my Weight Watcher points). I know it’s a cliche to say “I’ll start Monday”, but I’m going to say it anyway. My kids were out of school the first week of [...]

Read the full article →

My Trop50 True New Year’s Resolutions for 2012

December 30, 2011

New Year’s Resolutions. I often don’t think too much about them or I start them in September when the kids go back to school. But this New Years I was asked to participate in Tropicana’s Trop50 True Resolutions campaign that includes submitting my 2012 New Year’s Resolutions. I’m really glad that I found the time [...]