It’s amazing how useful Campaign is!

Teaching me about all the latest ideas produced around the advertising industry.

The latest thing is insideyoursearch.com by WCRS for Weetabix.

The idea behind it, is obviously how to show the effects of having Weetabix in the morning. But I do think that it has had an influence by the very popular viral from a few years ago – subservientchicken.com.

The idea of seeing an old librarian lady behind the scenes at Google is quite fun, but interacting with this is not as good as with the chicken I feel. Certainly as you search for something she does move around quickly and there are some specific search terms that make the animation slightly different, like searching for the weather for a certain area etc., but this has something missing. It is a nice touch to have a reversed image of a search page and results, but I tried typing the same search terms in both the site and in Google at the same time and sadly, they did not come up with exactly the same thing. This is something that people who come into contact will try and I feel that it is missing out on, but even worse, the time it takes to search is longer when it is through insideyoursearch.com, even if only half of a second, I feel that this is a part which doesnt actually meet the proposition.

Otherwise this is a nice idea.

x

Brief summary of some inspirational work suggested on Twitter on the so called interactive Monday.

1. Inside your search. What empowers world’s smartest search engine? Brilliant idea 4 the wholegrain cereals Weetabix
   

http://www.insideyoursearch.com/

1. Skoda offers consumers to customize cars in a very comprehensive way
   

http://www.stickanddrive.com/

1. Adidas positions the new German jersey as the key to team identity, well done
   

http://bit.ly/6wLkSe

 

Prost,
F

We all know how hard it can be to decide which cereal to have for breakfast, what with the many dozens of delicious options to choose from. Fret no more mi amigo, with this handy flowchart you’ll no longer have to make those early morning decisions. Now you can spend that time making your “bed-head” sustainable throughout the day or redoing your fauxhawk.

You may also enjoy our handy Where Should I Eat? Fast Food Edition (Flowchart).

What Should I Eat? Cereal Edition

Twitter is just one more source and its uses are versatile enough for anyone to be able to tweek its application for one’s own purposes.

For me it’s a valuable communication tool and often preferable to the cell and emailing: it’s quick, succinct and easy to access. Would I want it used for business? Beyond a few, VERY limited occasions, probably not. The VERY limited ones subject to my express permission, of course.

Aggressive businesses tried to intrude on cell phones – the market responded rather quickly with an expanded “Do Not Call” registry. Any business who tries to breach my privacy will find itself reported to the appropriate authorities. If businesses invade Twitter, even more people will select the Direct option. Or opt out of it altogether.

Furthermore, anyone who will intrude on my privacy will definitely NOT get my business. You’re product or service is not THAT unique.  I am like most people: I know what I like and know how to use search engines to find your business and plenty of others. I prefer to think that I am capable of choosing for myself by myself. When comparing similar products, I will seek advice from Amazon’s commentators and bucket sites. The best advice comes from those who are seriously, yet constructively, critical of the product. Nothing that marketers can manipulate here. What may be a serious shortcoming for some users, to others may be of lesser, if any, consequence.

That’s how I learned about Canon. I am now a fan, even if their customer care and follow up could use a major overhaul. Come the day they offend my present enthusiastic interest, I will never again as much as consider the brand.

Toyota: at least their ads tell me why I want to buy their car for moi, rather than watch a possessed ad editor’s frenzy of speeding cars full of teenage drivers, or a road menace of a bad driver. Toyota’s after-care is of legend.

Ditto Weetabix and Alpen – my favourite breakfast cereals since forever. However, the day I find out that they make their product with wheat manipulated by Monsanto – t’will be a day of sad and sudden parting. Caveat manufacturers!

The new marketing menace: coercion of social websites to do the manufacturers’ or service providers’ bidding, posing as word-of-mouth. It will work for a short while. Anyone I know who tries to foist unsolicited ads on me gets one polite cease and desist, then the emails are directed to the Junk folder. Once a fortnight, just before hitting “Delete All”, I will quickly scan the Junk folder. If my request is ignored, that person is out of my life. I love Google Voice! I care about and trust my friends and anyone who tries to take advantage of that is not worthy of my consideration.

Are you a business with designs on tweeting your product to me? Consider the number of businesses in existence, a growing number of which share your enthusiasm and have already implemented your cogent points. Now imagine thousands of tweets going out every hour… to your private Twitter account.

Do you remember the early days of email and the marketers who came up with the idea to impose on your privacy to sell, sell, sell – using your email address? That idea was a reasonable success in the first few months. Then, and almost suddenly, it became a menace that was given a name: SPAM. The cell phone users were ready for the onslaught with an expanded Do Not Call registry. Disposing of, and getting a new Twitter account is a matter of 30 seconds.

No business is going to push its product or service by saying it’s bad, faulty, even that it could be better. The majority of consumers know this and, as a result, tune out the ads. Just ask your local sewer service about the huge surge of water usage during TV commercial breaks! That same lack of interest spills over to websites overwhelmed by ads. Ads blocking software is doing brisk business. Solution: make a great product with superb back-up service. Don’t just ask buyers to register: promise and provide prompt feedback. Result: you have just saved yourself a fortune on PR BS and marketing mumbo-jumbo. Instead plow that money into making your business a great place to work. It will, in turn, inspire the troops to great feats. Oh, and the $rest into R&D.

What to do with the PR and marketing gurus, you ask? Simple. Many are communication and/or psych grads: make them write easy to follow user manuals, think of packaging and disposal of the expired or about-to-be-replaced product in Green terms, deal with complaints in a constructive manner. As users and employers they are in the perfect position to contribute to the product’s success with user-friendly suggestions – all far more valuable and longer lasting than a glitzy and very costly PR event. The list is endless. No, fancy packaging, no well-endowed starlet, will make me buy your product. Oops, I’m repeating myself.

Last, but not least, if a business wants my consideration, it had better offer a great product or service, a helpful, knowledgeable customer support with a direct phone number (without the endless laundry list of for whatever press 79, kind), a civilised working environment for its employees (see prof. R. Sutton’s book “The No Asshole Rule”), AND an enthusiastic word of mouth from real customers or consumer service organisations whom I know and have learned to trust.

Caveat no.2: this trust is more fragile than an ancient glass goblet. But it can be just as long lasting and become just as valuable.

© 2009

I found this an amusing video which is an ad for the morning cereal, Weetabix. Have you had your Weetabix this morning?

Papers. Does anyone else have trouble getting them started? Now that midterms are over I have several paper due dates looming in the next few weeks and I find the hardest part is getting them started. I never know where to begin! So I put them off. That certainly doesn’t help. I’m working on trying to at least get some kind of start going for each but I feel so clueless! I guess the only way to do it is to dive right in but there ahead lies some very chilly waters. Brr…

Speaking of chilly, that is one thing my breakfast was not.

How about a nice steamy bowl of blended oats to warm up on a chilly morning?
– 1/3 cup oats cooked in candy cane lane tea with banana, flax, cinnamon and a dollop of peanut butter on top.

I’m getting ahead of myself though as some backtracking is in order:

Tuesday

Oh Minibix Chocolate Crisp cereal, will I ever stop obsessing over you? Only when your box is empty. I kind of love them just plain so I ate a bunch just like so, then threw a handful into a bowl of pumpkin yogurt to feel less like a munchy rat.

After some kindergarten class time spent listening to a Humane Society talk and learning the proper ways to approach a stranger’s dog, as well as the proper procedures when being attacked by a dog (‘stand like a tree’ or ‘lie like a log’) it was home for a speedy bite to eat and a speedy treadmill run before class.

Finished up the second half of my killer hubbard squash spread with roasted red pepper hummus. Sided by spinach, honey mustard dressing and tempeh.

Tuesday felt quite long. Probably due to the early morning and lengthy back to back classes. By the time I was done and home I was in need of a cracker feast so that happened. 
Dinner happened soon after.
Egg whites, salsa, spinach, cheese slice on toasted english muffin.

I know I partook in a bit of emotional-driven evening eating while feeling lame and undriven to work on school business. I did manage to crack out a mini assignment nice and early so I wasn’t a complete slacka.

Wednesday

That would be some more Minibix (with some pumpkin yogurt mush going on there). Apologies, how boring of me. The box is not yet finished though! Still over half to go.

Well let’s see, how did Wednesday go.
Started bright and early with a Geography lab.
4 hours of lab and classes later I came home.
I ate lunch.
I did something special with this lunch salad.
I made and doused it in the incredible Sesame Mustard Tahini Sauce!

I didn’t quite have everything on hand so I had to sub honey for agave, a bit of soy sauce for tamari and dijonnaise for dijon mustard but these clearly subs didn’t affect the YUM factor. This dressing is deeeeeelicious.

Then I made some Pumpkin Pie Cake that I made the mistake of not adding any extra sweetener to.

Don’t get me wrong, it was still good. But my crazy sweet tooth wasn’t as happy as it could have been so a bit of raspberry jam and maple fro yo on top made it all better.

I also indulged in a few Christmas Mints because they have arrived! Mmmm creamy mint lovin.

I wanted to do some textbook reading, I really did… ehem.
But I wanted to run more. So I did a nice sweaty hour on the treadmill before dinner.
I liked it, it was a good run. But I felt kind of ill not long after. I thought crackers would fix this. They didn’t really, but they tasted good.

My slight tummy troubles didn’t deter me from wanting dinner. I had other food plans in mind but the only thing I decided I wanted was savoury oats.

This bowl included oats cooked in water, hot sauce and random seasonings.
Towards the end I stirred in egg whites, salsa and spinach.
Off the heat I stirred in a bit more salsa and a Laughing Cow wedge cut into chunks. I waited until it got melty, poured it into the bowl and ate this probably much too fast.

I was plenty un-hungry after this but I had to have something not long after to cleanse the palate. So I had a mini bowl of plain yogurt with cranberry sauce and flax. Oh so good.

Wednesday night consisted of a bit of school stuff, Starbucks with a friend, and an early bedtime as my energy levels were zero by the end of the evening.

Now it’s time to get back to more school stuff and try my very darndest to get started on those papers. Thumbs down.

But on a much better note:
Thumbs UP to Operation Chocolate-Covered Kindness.

Visit. Click around lots. Explore. Check out all of Katie’s amazing recipes. Better yet, MAKE them. And keep on clicking to help her out with her Page View Charity Drive

I am a little bereft of things to write about today, but I managed to get a lot off my chest last night and was fortunate enough to have the chance to vocally express my dismay at last night’s television to a sympathetic audience in this afternoon’s lecture. It is the most I have said all semester I think, certainly in one go. I am mulling over the notion of regularly spending my evenings scripting everything I intend to say throughout the following day. What I would lose in spontaneity I could claw back with the demeanour of a particularly reasonable person who can put across a considered argument in double quick time.

Some of my arguments in the past have not been particularly considered and few are actually based on the instinct of my irrational guts. I might lament the fact that a Weetabic is tapered, therefore depriving one of at least one mouthful per three Weetabix that would still have comfortably fitted in the box had they been levelled off at the edges. I would, however, be neglecting to appreciate that in their current form they fit in bowls better. It is the same science that dictates that Shredded Wheat do not fit in bowls very well. It is physically impossible to eat Shredded Wheat without getting milk all over the table and indeed most of one’s immediate family. Eating three Shredded Wheat? Piece of piss. Doing it and not emerging looking like a lady porn star after a multiple money shot is a much sterner test. With Weetabix that is not a problem, although they do make breath smell a bit like rennet in my experience.

I think I need to start being a little more controversial. I sometimes just wish I believed in something that people could argue with me about. I don’t like the term sitting on the fence. If I were to sit on a fence it would certainly not be with a leg either side so I could never be completely impartial. If it was a reasonably thick wall it might work, bit sitting on a fence with a leg either side would mean I would inevitably fall one way or the other and probably damage my anus. I could always wear trousers I suppose. The closest I’ve come to a passionate argument is when a former colleague adamantly claimed that Roy Keane had started his footballing career at Manchester United. I knew that was nonsense and argued to that effect but he would not have it. I think I actually started to cry in the end.

Anyway, as I have nothing to say tonight of any great consequence to mankind I googled ‘Things To Blog About’, and found a page that had 102 things to blog about. I have to admit I didn’t really understand many of them, but number 44 was ‘Write a funny post’, so I might try that tomorrow.

Sunday

Sunday was gorgeous. I think Spring is making a brief reappearance. It was basically warm enough to wear t-shirts outside. And last week there was brief snow. What’s going on Weather? I’m not complaining though, I’ll take warmth over snow any day. I’m not looking forward to winter… brrrrr.

I started the morning off the Weetabix way with a big bowl filled with Weetabix and Minibix (the chocochip version), pumpkin, cinnamon, frozen banana, almond milk, bit of plain yogurt, bit of raspberry yogurt, bit of perfection.

Then I spent a good chunk of the morning sipping on coffee, coffee and more coffee while reading blogs, blogs and more blogs. I’m terribly behind.

Then Mom came home with clems.

The dirty evidence. Their deliciousness level isn’t quite skyrocketing yet but I’m still digging them. Maybe the next batch will be a juicier haul.

On account of the good weather I decided it only made sense to enjoy it during its brief visit and go for a bike ride. Haven’t had the chance to do that since the summer! I went for about an hour and it was lovely. I think the whole city was out doing the same, meandering about outdoors and soaking up the Vit D.

Before my bike ride some eats were in order. Loading up on my rainbow colours – red tomatoes, orange carrots, yellow peppers, green spinach… I just need some blues and purples in there! Topped with plenty of tempeh and honey mustard dressing.

Followed by a foamy blended iced coffee. This wasn’t just any old iced coffee though, it was an iced coffee made with Stevia! I usually use Splenda (bah yes I do use Splenda, pretty much only in my iced coffee though) but I figured it’s about time that I give this Stevia business a try. So this was the first try. Verdict? Success! I couldn’t tell the difference. I just may be doing a switcheroo from now on, though I don’t dig the Stevia price tag quite so much.

For dinner my mom and I wanted to eat some shrimp (I used to refuse to touch these things. One day I finally changed my mind). There were some tomatoes on their last leg so we broiled them in balsamic vinegar while the critters defrosted, then served it all over salad greens with greek feta.

I ate a whole lotta this. Please broil your tomatoes. Mmmm.

Then I went out last night to do some Retro dancing. I busted some sweet moves at the beginning but the rest of the night involved binge liquid consumption and very random social minglings. Somehow I didn’t spend a dime and yet completely lost count of the number of drinks I had. I really need to stop going out for Retro nights… yeah right.

Monday

I went to bed at about 3:30. I woke up at 7:30. I could have slept in until 8:40. Hey internal alarm clock, why you gotta be like that? Not nice, not nice at all.

I didn’t know what the heck I wanted to eat. I thought about actually making some kind of real breakfast but my appetite wasn’t huge considering I chowed down on bread and crackers among other things when I got home last night. And I thought it might be good to load my body with some nice clean fruit nutrients so I went that path with some apple and banana drizzled with a bit of pb, plus more unpictured banana and pineapple.

Then it was off to class. Nothing eventful there. One of my classes had the AC or something equally ridiculous cranked right up though and I was freezing my buns off the entire time therefore I couldn’t concentrate on anything he was talking about. I swear I’m such a cold wuss, no one else seemed to be shivering but that room was icy.

Despite the icy temperatures inside, outside was nice and warm in the morning. No jackets needed! I was planning on going for a nice walk in the sunshine during the hour in between classes but when I got outside again the skies were cloud covered and a chilly breeze had showed up. How rude. So I went home for some eats instead.

Leftover salad with shrimpies, balsamic vinaigrette and cocktail sauce. I had a couple small cups of coffee too but that was about it. My appetite’s been a little off today, probably from the overindulging this weekend…haha… boo.

I headed back to school for one more class, came home to snack on crackers with salsa, tempeh, mushrooms and carrots, then did a treadmill run and a wussy attempt at weights and squats before I decided I felt too weak and called it quits for the day.

After my run it was time to get the oven cranked and do some squash roasting.
Prior to the roasting though comes the squash cutting. It was during this process that I risked my life in an attempt to open up the damn near impossibly rock hard hubbard squash that I decided to try for the first time.

It was not easy. Pretty sure I almost drove a butcher knife right into my stomach. But I did it.

This squash doesn’t compare to buttercup/kabocha but it’s still pretty darn tasty. Don’t know if I’d buy it again though, the struggle doesn’t quite make it worth it. That and the fact that the skin isn’t edible. Squash skin is my favourite part most of the time! I really wanted this skin to be edible, I really did. I gave it multiple attempts. It had the taste and consistency of tree bark. Sigh.

The Danger shell

Sided with spinach and mushrooms topped with one of my favourite dressings. I put this on nearly all my salads.

This dinner filled me up good and plenty but habit makes me want to eat something sweet after so I gave it a wait and then ate a mix of pumpkin, plain yogurt, cinnamon, flax and vanilla soy protein powder topped with a small piece of a frozen pumpkin pie bar. 

The junk today was right to a minimum! Most of my “junk” was small dips into the peanut butter jar. I attribute it to the lack of appetite but we’ll see if it’s back with a vengeance tomorrow…

Now I should probably get started on some textbook readings… but what I should probably do and what I actually do are often two different things so I might just call it a night and get some sleep catch up instead.

Dreams of sweet!

Why is it weetbix here and weetabix there and which came first?

Don’t worry about the answer, just look at the advertisement:

Hat Tip: Idealog.

While eating weetabix this morning:

“I eating bikkie squix!”

This is the sort of thing that makes me want to re-evaluate my goddamn career.

So much has happened these past few days that I don’t know how to go about talking about it. Mainly this is because I still hold a lot of pain in my heart regarding the death of my dog, Cosmo. We had to put him to rest yesterday afternoon at about 4:25 PM at age 14. I’d like to dedicate this post to commemorate him. He was a great dog whom brought joy and happiness to my family’s home for 9 years and will continue to live within our hearts for as long as we live.

I love you so much, Cosmo! I hope you are having a wonderful time in doggy heaven with your sister, Cleo. Tell her I’ve missed her dearly, my love.

—————————————–

Well, how should I start? Should I start off with how I baked muffins, didn’t calculate the calories, and ate one with my family on Saturday? Or should I mention that I tasted my first Almond Joy in two years (I thought it was too sweet) and didn’t feel TOO guilty that night too? Or maybe I should let you all know that I plan on actually making my calorie goals today? Or that I adopted a new kitten named Pie?

Goodness me, I just have so much to share!

Sunday morning started off with a delightful bowl of oatmeal. I cooked a 1/2 c. in hemp milk & rose water with 1/2 a almond trail mix Honest Foods bar. Then I topped it with soy nuts, sunflower seeds, a kiwi, cottage cheese, and strawberry jelly. I enjoyed a mug of hot chocolate on the side.

I had to get ready within about 3 segundos (seconds in spanish) and frolick with my mom, Tia, and Tio at the yearly Renaissance Festival. Unfortunately, I got no pictures there since my camera was “broken” and my Tio and Tia forgot theirs. Turns out my camera wasn’t broken but my rechargeable batteries were, and that is why my lens wasn’t working properly. Thank goodness my cammie is okay… my parents just do not have the money to buy me a new camera right now, and what would have happened to my blog without a camera? :O

Bad things.

I challenged myself to an old favorite at the festival, a Think Thin bar. I used to eat those all the time during refeeding in April thanks to the high calorie count, but grew afraid of them over the summer as ED crept back in. But… they’re back!I may be going back this weekend since the theme changes every week and I want the rest of my family to experience it. Hopefully I will see the boy who worked at the German pastry stand, the one I played “eyesies” with, again!

Everything was well that day until I stayed home and ate chili. I sat to rot in the kitchen with my Eating Disorder instead of eating an extra tbsp. or two of PB.

Not a single time that week did I make my calorie goal, thanks to ED’s lies. I was spiraling deeper into him. I felt depressed. I felt hopeless. I felt low.

Why does ED trick us all the time? It tells us it is our friend, but it simply lies. And lies do not make friends… yet we never cease to take its hand and follow it when it make false remarks like this:

“Well, since you didn’t work out today… you have the right to restrict.”

“Your vital signs are normal so you don’t need to gain weight.”

“Since you don’t need to gain weight (see above), you don’t need to make your calorie goals.”

“You probably underestimated the calories in your lunch anyway, so go ahead and shave off some calories at dinner or snack time.”

THIS IS ALL BULLSHIT. If ED says any words along these lines, ring the alarm! Call out “fire!” Ask a family member for help! Snap some sense back into yourself!

Or you’ll end up on massive ED probation like me (not fun) thanks to the negative effects your body will show. I’m fighting my way back to be trusted again though. And that is what counts.

—————————————–

Meet Pie, the 4 month old Tabby!

Twas a Monday afternoon the moment Pie and Karina met. A ball of fluff that lodged in a cage, just begging to be adopted, lured Karina in and got its only wish.

The second her dark chocolate eyes met Pie’s butterscotch eyes, she knew it was love. Her motherly instincts took over as she took the baby into her arms and whispered,

“You’re as sweet as pie now, aren’t you?”

When she placed the pet carrier inside her mother’s white van, she knew she’d picked the right one. The right one to pass her love on to and become a part of the family.

No one would take the special place of her poodle Cosmo in her heart, but someone could create their own special place within it and receive a bounty of love… which is just what Pie wanted.

—————————————–

Wednesday.

I realize that I jumped from Monday to today, but Tuesday (yesterday) is really not a day I am ready to talk about. The loss of my dog is still too tender a subject to touch.

In the bowl: 2 Weetabix biscuits, 1/2 c. Lucky Layla drinkable Mango yogurt, and a crumble Key Lime Pie Larabar. On the side: 1 egg & 1 white and a slice of hemp bread spread with almond butter. Washed it down with a glass of soy milk.

I visited both my psychologist and my nutritionist yesterday. They both agreed that ED had gotten the best of me that week (and the week before) and that if I wanted to let go of ED without IP, I’d have to increase my weight at a steady rate. No more of those UPdownUPdownUPdown shenanigans I’d been pulling.

I walked out of both appointments with a sense of empowerment.

The nutritionist said there was no ballet unless I made the 2XXX calories that day.

I made those calories today and I am damn proud. ED can go to hell. I will never stop dancing.

For lunch I enjoyed a delicious bowl of kidney beans with vegetarian italian sausage chunks topped with cheese straws. Carrots on the side.

My mother made broccoli cheese pizza calzones for my Tio and Tia’s anniversary tonight. They were so delicious! Not only were they delicious, but they were a challenge. A challenge that nourished me and helped me dance

I can hear Sanura attacking Pie from my bedroom so I am off to rescue the baby!

Have a fantastic evening and a wonderful Thursday!

Reasons I have not written lately:

1. School. I don’t know so many of you juggle regular posting on top of school work. Maybe my time management skills need some refinement.

2. My Halloween was lame and I didn’t want to talk about it. Therefore I’ve kind of avoided the window where that was the hot topic.

3. Lack of things to say. This goes along pretty closely with school. I don’t have a whole lot of excitement going on right now, that’s for sure.

4. A rut. A body and eating rut. I’ll admit right now that I’m not happy with the way I’ve been eating and I’m not happy with my body. I’ve put on a couple pounds but even with numbers aside: I’m not as comfortable with my body as I was a few months ago and I don’t like the way my clothes are fitting. I’ve lost some of my physical strength and personal motivation therefore I don’t feel as fit right now. And I’m just generally not very impressed with my overall lifestyle habits as of late. The snacking adds up, the little forgotten bites add up, the drinking adds up, the lack of strength training adds up, the sitting around studying adds up. And it’s all been adding up to a not-so-happy me who doesn’t feel right about writing here when half of what I’ve eaten all day is unaccounted for and is junk, when all I want is sugar and carbs, when I don’t feel like exercising.

This being said, I’m getting tired. Tired of my bad habits, tired of mediocre constant snacking to fill voids unrelated to food, and tired of being disappointed in my reflection in the mirror these days. I’m really aiming from here on to give myself an extra little kick in the behind to smarten up. I know I’m capable of doing so, I just need to rediscover my inner discipline, which I’ve been ignoring for the last little bit. I’m not much of an all-or-nothing person so it’s not like I’m going to be cutting out all sugar or running a marathon next week, but a little more attention to planning and thought about what my body actually wants and needs should help.

(And no, I haven’t put on a ton of weight or anything. My clothes all still fit. It’s more of a “where the heck did my muscles go and why do I now have a large tummy pooch and jiggly thighs?” deal. I know it’s my body’s retaliation to some of the crap I’ve been feeding it. And no I’m not eating ALL crap. I still eat lots of veggies and all of the other good stuff. But the balance is closer to 50:50 than 80:20 so it’s time for a fixer upper)

And because I’ve now rambled plenty enough, here are some of my food highlights from the past week:

Oats in a Mug. Oats are oats but I had an urge to eat them in a mug. So it happened, deeming this breakfast a highlight.

Do you believe in ghosts? Well I sure believe in this one as it was the most delicious ghost I’ve ever eaten. The white chocolate outside covering a chocolate fudge center might have helped.

And sticking with the Halloween theme, some mini chocolate treats were also had in the spirit of the season. Amazingly enough this is nearly all of the Halloween candies I ended up eating in total, if you add in another bar or two and a few Tootsie rolls. Power to the resistance!

The Post-Halloween morning I got to enjoy an extra special breakfast: Oat bran in a jar! Not only was it special because it was oat bran… in a JAR… but also because it was decked out in Reese’s pieces. Thanks Halloween.

Following the oats theme, I discovered a lone packet of Apples and Cinnamon reduced sugar instant oatmeal in the cupboard and ate it on a more rushed morning. I threw in extra plain oats because those reduced sugar packs are still just a tad too sweet. And my sweet tooth is large and in charge so that’s saying something.

A slightly embarrassing admittance: I’ve polished off an entire box of Minibix Chocolate Crisp this week (sometimes in bowls but mostly in handfuls). In my defence, the box is small! Oh this stuff is addicting. It was on sale at Costco so I had to buy it, but it comes in a two-pack so I now have a whole other box to indulge in…oh boy.

I also finally tried the coveted Peanut Butter & Jelly Larabar! Oh yes I did. Oh yes it was good. Oh yes it tasted just like a perfect blend of peanut butter nuttiness and jelly sweetness. Oh yes I’ll be eating it again.

I DID eat things other than oats and sugar. I think… Let’s see what we’ve got.

That looks like some veggies.

So does this.

Mushrooms and green beans?

I DO eat veggies.

I also have a new obsession with Mary’s Gone Crackers crackers. And veggie burgers hidden under spinach piles but that’s not a new obsession.

Once in a while I follow recipes like the one I found in the Nutrition Action Newsletter for Moroccan-style Couscous (bottom recipe).
For the record, it was okay but I probably wouldn’t make it again. The combo of flavours wasn’t my fav.

Apples are good. I’ve eaten them on the regular. Sometimes chopped, heated and topped with plain yogurt and cinnamon.

With all of that said and done, let’s just polish this off with some food porn:

In conclusion, I’m going to try to start eating better. Try to start really THINKING about what I want to eat and put an end to the mindlessness. Plan out better meals. Put a little more care into my body. It probably deserves it.
And with that, hopefully I’ll become a bit more consistent of a blogger too.

A big Merci to anyone who actually read through these ramblings and continues to read on a regular basis even though all I do is complain about school and post sporadic recaps of days and days of random foods. You guys are pretty awesome

Funny film for Weetabix by WCRS, UK.

Weetabix are returning to TV with a new advertising campaign, kicking off with ‘Steeplechase’, and resurrecting their famous strapline “someone’s had their Weetabix” .

The activity, which started during an X-Factor ad break, has been thought up by WCRS and the first round of advertising features a new ‘humourous’ direction for the brand.

The advert, which will be present in 30, 60 and 90 second formats, includes a talking horse which, when taking part in a race, falls at the first fence and encourages his jockey to go on and try and win the race. Of course, the jockey does.

Here is the 90 second version.

This seems to be a lighter take on the Compare The Meerkat campaign, by including a talking animal with a ridiculously over the top accent.

Now what I want to know is, how much did Weetabix pay to get that 90 second prime time slot, and could that money have been better put to use with a social media campaign?

There are no social media elements to the current activity and I somewhat think they’ve missed a trick here. On first viewing, 90 seconds is far too long, and I think thats even in it’s shorter incarnations, the novelty will soon wear off, and I predict it will soon become “that annoying Weetabix” advert.

This is the fundamental problem with advertisingt. Once you’ve had the message pushed at you, you tend to switch off and ignore it. There is no refreshing of the content, simply the same images, sound and video being peddled 10 times a day.

Three Things Weetabix Could Have Done

Create a character to tell the Weetabix story, make the horse the ’star’ of the advert and leveraged the obvious affection for it as a way of connecting on Facebook and Twitter. With this advert, there is no Weetabix story being told except “buy our cereal, it will make you run faster than a horse”.

Kept the advert to 30 seconds and engaged with the blogosphere, offering the fuller cuts as exclusives to certain writers. This gives the brand a more personal edge and encourages the bloggers to share their exclusive content.

A quick Google blog search tells us there is no activity taking place around Weetabix. Blogger sampling would provide an opportunity for bloggers to try Weetabix, re-acquaint themselves with the brand, AND share that video.

What do you think of the new campaign?

Just imagine if you could outrun a horse. Weetabix makes you want to eat their cereal every day, but it doesn’t explain the talking horse!

Weetabix, ein englischer Frühstücks-Getreide-Hersteller geht mit einem charmanten neuen Spot an den Start. Pferde werden sowas von überbewertet bei Pferderennen…

Werbeagentur: WCRS, London, Großbritannien
Creatives: Larry Seftel, Dave Day
Produktionsfirma: Rattling Stick
Regie: Ringan Ledwidge

via Ads of the World

Weetabix, ein englischer Frühstücks-Getreide-Hersteller, geht mit einem charmanten neuen Spot an den Start. Pferde werden sowas von überbewertet bei Pferderennen…

Werbeagentur: WCRS, London, Großbritannien
Creatives: Larry Seftel, Dave Day
Produktionsfirma: Rattling Stick
Regie: Ringan Ledwidge

via Ads of the World

One word for today: BLAH.

I spent almost the entirety of it on my bum, laptop and textbooks glued to each side of me, scanning page after page of blurring words in attempts to be somewhat caught up with the chapters and chapters of readings I should be done by now. I’m not a fan of this school thing right at this moment, I’ll tell you that much.

Didn’t help that I was out too late and had a wee bit too much fun last night, resulting in my feeling tired, cranky and crappy all day today.

Which definitely didn’t help with making good food choices either.
Which consequently definitely didn’t help in making me feel good in any way, shape or form. It’s all the cereals fault.

Upon waking this morning I was not hungry in the least. Probably a result of the late night leftover pasta attack I had. Eventually when the tiniest hunger hit I attempted to make a combined breakfast/lunch meal out of cereal.

Here’s a bowl that I ate the contents of. It had some cereal in it, along with some pumpkin, yogurt and frozen banana. It was good. Very good.

However, before this bowl I had a field day with the Weetabix family.

I dug into all of these boxes. Many times over (The Chocolate Crisp is my new addiction). Consequently I had brick-in-stomach syndrome for many many hours after this.

Nearing dinner time I was ready for a wee snack-attack alongside my geography readings. Much leftover pasta is unshown but was not unconsumed.

Dinner was feeling a little fiesta-y. Here we’ve got some chicken, some rice, some corn, tomatoes, black beans… all good stuff. It lacked a bit of flavour but a dash of buffalo sauce and a stir of salsa later and it was rolling in tastiness.

And I just very regretfully realized that I forget to take pictures of the Halloween COOKIES I ate later on this evening! Good thing Google knows what I’m talking about. These things are amazing straight out of the oven. Next day not so much. But out of the oven… hot and melty addiction. I was going to have half. Instead I had two and a half.

Roollllllback to…

Saturday

The Chocolate Crisp cereal addiction presented itself high on mighty as part of this breakfast, alongside fresh chopped fruit and a big swirl of pumpkin mixed with strawberry yogurt and cinnamon.

I worked Saturday, where I ate a not-so-pretty salad, apple, Fibre One bar lunch.

Saturday night dinner was where the pasta that was the culprit of the leftover pasta attacks was first born. This was a pasta dish that included pasta sauce, sundried tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms. It was darn good, so much so that I ate like thirty helpings + thirty more helpings of fresh hot-from-the-oven bread slathered in roasted red pepper hummus. No wonder I felt like a rock after this.

I tried to do a sprint interval run post dinner. Worst idea ever. I literally almost lost my dinner.

Then I went out for a night of drinking, dancing and glowstick waving. I guess they decided it would be cool to throw glowsticks at the crowd. I guess I agreed because I spent the rest of the night hoarding every single one I could find. I gave a few away (reluctantly) to people who asked nicely. I should have taken advantage of the people who thought I was selling them and instead of telling them no, told them a buck a piece. I could have had some good cash flow coming in that night!

Then I came home, pasta attack happened, sleeping happened.

Rewind further…

Thursday + Friday

We’ll go over this one quickly and in a combined day fashion.

I strained some plain yogurt to make makeshift GREEK (get your butt to Canada already Greek yogurt, would ya? And that one single tub of the very full fat stuff on the grocery shelves does not count) and it made my breakfast a happy moment.

And there was some more Weetabix family cereal feasts going on… with pumpkin, yogurt and fruit joining in on the fun.

It was on Friday that the Chocolate Crisp first came into my life, courtesy of Costco.

Also courtesy of Costco: Great big duo pack of Jalapeno Sabra. Boo yeah!

Courtesy of our garden: Lovely little picturesque baby tomatoes

And the rest, courtesy of our food stash:

Slaw, carrots, Fu, leftovers.

That would be cottage cheese rolled inside a turkey slice. I wanted some kind of cheese in there… that was the first one I came upon after the mold-topped cream cheese. I thought ah what the heck and went with it, why not?

Salad and pasta salad. The salad was double this size but I contained half after I accidentally went haywire with the pasta salad and gave myself pasta-salad-brick-in-stomach. What is my deal with pasta this week?! And bread… and cereal…

See, I eventually ate the containered other half of the salad, topped with a few pieces of chicken and a blob of Sabra Baba.

Oh fresh bread. Oh mound of roasted red pepper hummus. Oh bites of heaven.

So after this weekend I’ve concluded that I need to:
- Work more diligently on class readings
- Work more diligently on eating like a normal human being
- Never eat pasta again Yeah. RIGHT.
In all honesty though I think I need to be a little more sound in my eating habits this week. Smarten up sonny! We’ll see how it goes.

Oh, and I’m trying to bring back the alternating days of 100 squats/pushups/abs. I did it back in March without missing a day and I’m slowly but surely trying to reintroduce it again to bring back some muscle def. I missed today. Whoops. But otherwise I’ve been pretty good and come October it’s crackdown.

With that, I need to get to bed. I’m hoping tomorrow will be more of a case of the Marvelous Mondays than the Miserable Mondays. That could very well be determined by what time I succeed in getting to sleep though, so I’m off to try to up my luck before it’s too late literally.

Night!

I was afraid I might have jinxed young Taylor with my excitable predictions, but, no – I see that he scored another unbeaten century yesterday at Chelmsford.  Unfortunately he’ll probably need to do the same thing again today if we (Leicestershire) are to avoid a hefty defeat.

I wasn’t there (not easy to get to Chelmsford by train)  but at the exciting middle-of-the-table clash between Northants and Glamorgan at Wantage Road.

A few highlights of the day -

The moving video screen that sits where I think the old scoreboard used to be was advertising the club’s end of season do – a 3 course dinner, dancing and disco apparently, and all for £40.00 to members, £45.00 non-members. The dress code is ” lounge suits and cocktail frocks” - might be worth going, if only to see how some of the members interpret the dress code.  Also the possibility of seeing  Monty Panesar doing the military two-step.

A pugnacious fifty from James Allenby.  Until last month JA was a Leicestershire player, and something of a stalwart, particularly in one-day cricket.  Unfortunately the wantaway all-rounder then issued a come-and -get- me- plea (saying that he wanted to improve his chances of playing for England).  Leicestershire told him that if he felt that way about it his services were no longer required, and Glamorgan have apparently come-and-got-him.  Little chance of him playing test cricket whoever he’s playing for, I’d say, though an outside bet for a one-dayer or two.

The high winds blew down half of an advertising hoarding on to the head of a spectator, to general hilarity.  The hoarding had originally read Hot brands – in its reduced state it then read Rands – a useful reminder to the massed Kolpacks of what they’re playing for (a jaundiced observer might say).

The chance to observe poor Monty Panesar (who must feel that he’s been very ill-used recently) grazing in the outfield.  For a man who is alleged to have no cricket brain, he did seem sunk very deep in thought about something- perhaps what he was going to wear to the end of season dinner dance.  He did take three wickets, though, and seemed to have got some of his Tiggerish bounce back.

A wonderful selection of secondhand books in the “signal box” – the supporters’ club bookshop : I replenished my supplies. A slightly melancholy aspect of this, though, is that I always suspect that I’m looking at a dead man’s (or indeed woman’s) library, lovingly assembled and now scattered to the winds.

Displeased to see that the advertisement for Weetabix, that fine Northamptonshire product, that’s graced the pavilion for as long as I can remember, has been replaced by one for some firm who claim to be Creating energy solutions.  Bah!

A delicious Eccles cake with my tea.

Hello Blog Friends!  No overnight oats for me this morning since we did not have the ingredients for it in the house and when I went to the foodstore last night to get the ingredients- it was closed! the horror!!  So this morning my sister went to the farmers market and came home with some loot for breakfast:

in the mix: 6 oz container of plain Chobani, sliced banana, peach, strawberries, cherries, Weetabix Crispy flakes and Fiber, honey & cinnamon + red/green grapes on the side! (yes there is yogurt somewhere in the bowl! )

I was going to go into my Dad’s office to work but my mom said she didnt need me to go in…and that is just fine with me.  I need a day off to so absolutely nothing!  No teaching spinning, no metermaid…just relaxing!  and today is a rest day, too!  Tomorrow night is the 10 mile race that my sister and I (and possibly my oldest sister, too) are running in.   

I will leave you with a inspirational quote from my one and only, Mr. Lance Armstrong:

“If you worried about falling off the bike, you’d never get on.”

I laughed to myself when I read this quote because since getting my new (and first) road bike in June I have fallen off of it about 5 times (each time do the fact that I was clipped in).  So I like this quote not only because it provides me some comic relief but also because how true it is in regard to EVERYTHING in life.  You cannot live life in fear- you must go after the things you WANT the things you LOVE.  Sure you may fail- but you have to fail in order to eventually find happiness.  the end.

 Not sure what the plans are for the rest of the day…but i will be back later to update   Have a wonderful day!

<3 Christina

P.S. what do you think of the new layout?  I was getting sick of the old one- mostly because all of my page titles did not fit on one line (OCD?) haha.  when i made the switch i lost my other background picture…and i am not sure about the new background picture i picked- for the past month ive been trying to find something related to running/biking/yoga/beautiful scenery/food and i just cant seem to find anything!  maybe one day ill stumble across something cool

Okay, I really need to stop being lazy here!  I have to start updating regularly.

Well, let’s jump back to Wednesday night.  I had dinner at home with Todd, my mom, & my dad.  I roasted some carrots in the oven & sauteed string beans in EVOO & garlic.  My mom roasted a Pork Tenderloin with a dry rub she made up.

The pork was perfect & it had a bit of spiciness to it.  So delicious!  I also just love roasting carrots with a little olive oil & kosher salt.  The natural sweetness of the carrots is released and I LOVE it.

Oh yeah…Todd bought a pre-owned car tonight!  A little black VW Golf.  The car isn’t under his possession yet though!

After dinner, I drove Todd back to his house in Philly and spent the night there.

Thursday

Thursday morning we woke up to rain.  Thursday was a rest day and it was kind of nice to wake up to a rainy morning.  I would have loved to relax in bed for a while, but I was up a little before 7 because Todd had to leave for work. So, I woke up and headed home.

When I got home I made myself a big bowl of hot oats.  Now, I thought I would be craving these since the temperatures were down and it was raining.  But….no.  After experimenting with overnight oats, it’s going to be hard to transition back to regular hot oats.

This bowl contained oats, cherries, banana, peach, blueberries, milk, cinnamon, and honey.

After breakfast, I relaxed & spent some time on the computer reading blogs and not updating my own blog!

Later, we went to a few stores…Crate & Barrel (love that store), The Container Store, & Macy’s.  As I said before, I was shopping for a few things like a bed, dresser, bath towels, & other miscellaneous items.  I am moving to Philly to live with my older sister towards the end of August.  I am REAL excited.  I love Philadelphia.  Also, it will be nice to spend some time with my older sister since I hardly get to see her now.  The reason I am moving to Philly is for Grad School.  I will be going to UPenn’s Graduate School of Education working towards a Master’s in Reading/Writing/Literacy.  I will also be obtaining my Reading Specialist Certificate.  I am REALLY excited…but at the same time REALLY nervous.  Ahhh…I hope that I enjoy it.

I found some nice things shopping.  I found a nice set of pull out drawers that I have not purchased yet.  I will most likely go back to purchase them though.  We have limited space since it is a one-bedroom apartment so I will be sticking this tower of pull out drawers in a spare closet space.  We also ordered a day bed from West Elm.  Nice bath towels were also purchased!  While in Crate & Barrel, I saw some cute mugs, so I decided to buy 2…one for me and one for my sister.  She has some mugs but they are pretty boring!  We drink tea a lot, so why not…

If you’re reading, Hi Danielle!  Your mug is on the left! haha.

During our shopping adventures, we stopped at Animo Juice.  I ordered my usual Chilly Palmer Smoothie (Acai Berry, Apple, Banana, Yogurt, and Flax Seed).  I also split a Chicken Burrito with my Mom.

This place sells 2 burritos…chicken or roasted veggie.  Before today I had only ever had the roasted veggie.  Turns out, the Chicken Burrito is just okay…the Veggie Burrito is much better.  This burrito had organic kidney beans, organic brown rice, free range chicken, & All-natural Cheese. I think that the added roasted veggies makes the burrito more flavorful!

My mom wanted to get a manicure, so my sister & I went along with her & got pedicures.  It was SO nice to get my feet fixed up! haha.

haha.  Sorry if this grosses any of you out.  My feet are not pretty.

Afterwards, we came back home & waited for my Dad to finish up golfing.  When he got home, we decided to meet my older sister in Philly for dinner.  I ordered a pizza with broccoli & spinach.  I shared it with my sister.

After dinner, we got Frozen Yogurt from Phileo!  I made a decent sized cup of Plain Tart & Vanilla FroYo with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Strawberries, Bananas, and Granola.  So GOOOOOOD!

I was pretty beat when we got home.  I did a little more reading in The Time Traveler’s Wife.  Only 100 pages left.  Hopefully I will get some time today to read.  I am enjoying the book so much!  I had no trouble falling asleep last night.

Friday

This morning I was woken up bright and early from AAA out front of our house and my sweet little dog ANDIE.

This is actually of Andie being bad at the dinner table.

Andie slept with me last night and she woke up bright and early asking to be let out of my room.  So, I let her out.  That wasn’t enough for her.  Twenty minutes later she is back up in my room laying on my stomach & licking my face.  Now, I am up.

AAA was also outside making all sorts of noises.  We have a truck that we NEVER use.  Well, probably because we never use it, it does not start.  So, we called AAA.  They failed to start it as well.  So, they pushed it down the driveway and put it on the tow truck.  They are towing it to Toyota to get it looked at.  My dad is actually thinking about selling it or trading it in for a different car.

Today is another rest day.  Second day in a row.  Tomorrow is the 10 mile race that I have been doing every summer for the past 4 years I believe.  I always like to take 2 days off.  That way, my legs are nice and fresh.  Last year, I actually ended up winning my age category in this race.  Although, I have lost some speed over the year so I do not expect to do as well.  I’m not bummed about it though, because I haven’t lost that much speed & I am enjoying myself…that is all that matters to me!

ANYWAY, enough on that.  I did NOT want hot oatmeal this morning.  I did want overnight oats.  Too bad, we had no yogurt or dried fruit for me to make this last night. boo hoo.  So instead, this morning I went to the store and bought Chobani Yogurt, red & green grapes, strawberries, honeydew, cereal, & bananas.

I came home and made myself a yogurt bowl.

I promise, there is yogurt in there somewhere.

This bowl had Chobani Plain Greek Yogurt, Cherries, Strawberries, Peach, Banana, Weetabix cereal, cinnamon, & honey.

I highly recommend trying out this cereal if you haven’t ever tried it.  I actually used to buy this all the time throughout the school year.  I would go through a box every 1-2 weeks.

Organic Weetabix Crispy Flakes & Fiber

I’m so glad I decided to pick this up this morning.  Why did I ever stop buying it?!

For your info, the nutritional facts are pretty impressive as well.  For 1 1/4 cups of cereal, you get:

• 170 calories (10 calories from fat)
• 0 grams saturated fat
• 11 grams fiber
• 10 grams sugar
• 6 grams protein
• 25% of vitamin C, Iron, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Zinc
• 50% Folic Acid

Pretty darn good, right?  Plus the ingredient list is nice and short and I can identify the items!

After breakfast, I am definitely OVERLOADED from fruit…hence my title, Fruit Coma.  I once again ate way too many grapes!  Even though I am completely stuffed, I did enjoy each and every grape I ate.  The green ones are especially good.  I swear though, I’m addicted.  I just went to grab a few more grapes as I was writing this…hahaha.

Yesterday, I received an email from UPenn.  I already have two articles to read for the first day of one of my classes.  They also gave us the name of a book to order & to start to read.  I’ve already printed the articles, but have not read them yet.  This is really not helping with my nervousness!!!

Anyway, I’m not sure what I will be doing today.  I will definietly be headed back down to Margate, but probably not until much later.  My sister and I were thinking of seeing one of the MANY movies on our to-see list.  The ones I remember off of the top of my head are Funny People, Whatever Works, and 500 Days of Summer.  Well, enjoy the rest of your day!  I am going to make plans!

Oh yea, my new picture on the top is temporary.  I really wanted to make a personal picture like many of you have.  I am not quite sure how to go about doing that though! Does anyone have any pointers?

ONE MORE THING! I want to wish my best friend, Kristin, good luck in her first 5k race tomorrow morning!!!!!  I’m so excited for you & I want to hear about it afterwards!!