OPI e-romance collection: even too geeky for me

Okay, two of my favourite things are manicures and hanging out online with my friends. But a mash-up of the two, that just seems silly to me. Have you seen OPI’s e-romance collection? Did you know it’s wired for love? There’s even OPI e-romance e-cards. Why?

Maybe OPI’s marketing team thought they’d get more coverage from the bloggers. Maybe they were right. Doesn’t mean I’m buying. What about you?

Tip of the Week - Monthly Boxers

Still looking for a Valentine’s gift for that practical man in your life who doesn’t like shopping for essentials like undies and socks? Have no fear, you can order him a supply for an entire year!

Monthly Boxers and Monthly Socks, two websites run by one Vancouver-based company, selling Canadian-made men’s boxers and socks by online subscription. There are limited choices, styles and colours are kept simple.

The idea is you can subscribe and receive one free pair of boxers (or socks) every month. Of course for those of you who want to have a looksee before committing to a 12-month supply, can choose their trial pack or another plan. No more grungy undies for your man.

And that’s not all. If you’re already a subscriber and you refer a friend to Monthly Boxers, you’ll get free underwear! As a thank you, they’ll send you either a free pair of boxers or a women’s tank top.

What a smart idea. These are some pretty smart guys who are making it surprisingly simple for other smart guys (or their gals) to shop for the things they need. I think Seth Godin would approve.

Weekly Wish – Pretty in Pink

Okay, so truth be told, I have no business buying new clothes right now. I just started a 12-week weight-loss plan. Besides, I haven’t been terribly inspired by affordable fashion over the past six months or so.

All that’s changed. I have a new motivation and a new outlook. I also have a bunch of family and business functions this spring and I’ll need some new clothes.

Club Monaco’s spring line has given me some hope. I think their current collection is incredible. The colours caught my attention – they’re my favourite – raspberry, black, grey and white. I fell in love with the raspberry “Celine” dress – perfect for an evening out. Everything seems to mix and match too. It’s crisp, it’s fresh, it’s me. Well almost.

Right now I don’t like how anything looks on me. So this week, I’m wishing I’ll lose enough weight on time to fit into their smaller sizes and more tailored looks. And if this collection is any indication of the things to come, I’m feeling pretty inspired. ; )

Which spring collections inspire you?

Day 1 of the NutriSystem Challenge

Okay, so the delivery was a bit messed up but Tamsin and I are on track now. We started the program today. I’m on a 3-day training course for work so my routine is out of whack. We tossed around the idea of delaying our start and decided if we did that, we’d always be able to find an excuse. Here goes nothing...

Initial observations:
• Nutrisystem’s website needs to answer more of my questions without requiring me to log in first. I didn’t know how much of my own food I’d be combining with NutriSystem products. Tamsin and I had a lot of questions but we needed to wait for our kits to get answers. Fortunately, I had enough fruit and veggies in the house to get started.

• A lot of reading is required and we’re supposed to watch a motivational exercise DVD. As for me, I read what I needed to know to get going. I did a fair amount of walking– not bad considering the storm we had in Toronto today.

• NutriSystem food comes in colour-coded packages and are easy to sort into meal categories.

• The breakfast and lunch meals are portable.

• NutriSystem assumes everyone who needs to lose weight has a sweet tooth. There’s a ton of breakfast pastries, breakfast and lunch bars a plus a daily dessert.

• The program includes a daily diary. The concept is similar to Weight Watchers but instead of itemizing everything you eat and their point values, you check off items divided into 5 meal categories. Here’s what I ate today:

Breakfast
I didn’t have time to eat breakfast at home. I drank a glass of skim milk lactaid, and grabbed a banana (should have only eaten half) and a NutriSystem Cranberry Orange Pastry (yuck, this sounds much better than it looks or tastes).

Lunch
NutriSystem Chocolaty Raspberry Flavoured Bar (tasted better than your average energy bar), steamed veggies with tofu, shrimp, green beans and green tea.

As much as I wanted to follow the rules, I had to break them the very first day because of my change in routine. I figured it was better to follow as much as I could rather than not starting at all. I skipped the lunch salad and ate my dinner veggies at lunchtime instead. I ended up at a Chinese restaurant so I ordered them steamed. I realized I needed some protein so I had a taste of steamed tofu and about 2 oz. of small shrimp (the sauce was probably a no-no) and some stir-fried green beans with fresh garlic and ginger. I counted this as my fat serving for the day (probably at least a bit more than a teaspoon of oil – oh well!)

Afternoon Snack
½ c unsweetened applesauce.

Dinner
NutriSystem Beef and Mushrooms with Pasta (comparable to Lean Cuisine, bigger portion than I expected), salad with low-calorie dressing, 1/3 c edamame (leftover from snacktime).

Dessert
NutriSystem White Chocolate Flavoured Chunk Cookie (hard and dry but edible).

I had 2 decaf coffees with a splash of 2% milk. (I shouldn’t be drinking milk at all since I’m lactose intolerant, and the program favours skim milk.) I’m still working my way through the 8 glasses of water. I’m used to snacking at night so I guess I’ll fill up with water instead.

Stay tuned for next week’s check-up when Tamsin and I will tell you what happened when we stepped on our scales.