Tamsin talks maintenance and The Four Day Win

Eden and I continue our NutriSystem maintenance through the summer, as we negotiate our way through summer-social commitments (why do they all somehow involve yummy food!?) and nasty hip injuries (Feel better soon, Bargainista). If you’re looking summer reading that doesn’t involve torrid romance or scandal, I’ve got a book for you!

I’ve been reading a new book by one of my favourite writers – “The Four Day Win: End Your Diet War and Achieve Thinner Peace” by Martha Beck. The concept of small wins isn’t new; it’s a simple method of breaking a goal into digestible pieces (pardon the pun!) that you can accomplish over a four-day period. You can do this with help quit smoking, start an exercise regimen, tackle chores around the house, or your entire to-do list. Martha Beck applies the concept to gradually changing the way we think about food and our bodies. She talks about rewarding yourself for a 4-day win with something you love (a pedicure or massage), and then creating another goal. (OK, it’s much more introspective than that, but I won’t give it all away.)

In general, I’ve been pretty good about staying the NutriSystem course – but bags of chips (Miss Vickies, plain or jalapeno) bring challenging times. You see, I still find myself struggling as an emotional eater. In my case, I’ve noticed that the better I feel, the more permissive I am about “treating” myself with food. I feel so good about where NutriSystem has helped me get to that I am determined to undo my self-sabotaging habits. This book has got me thinking about stomping out my self-indulgent, reward eating by gradually sneaking in small changes.

I always admired people who are able to give up white flour, white rice, and potatoes (way to go, Donna Papacosta). Seemed impossible to me! But I can see how achievable that could be by taking it 4 days at a time. Maybe that’s be a longer term goal for me.

In the meantime, I’m continuing to eat NutriSystem meals a few times a week and starting to chip away at my conscious, healthy eating goals 4 days a time. Can’t wait to treat myself with a pedicure – less fattening than those chips!

Four questions for Ali de Bold from ChickAdvisor

I recently had the pleasure of emceeing Third Tuesday Toronto with guests Ali and Alex de Bold from ChickAdvisor. Donna Papacosta from Trafcom News also interviewed Ali and Alex for the first Third Tuesday Toronto podcast.

I still had a few questions, particularly about social shopping, so I interviewed Ali this weekend. I thought you might be interested in her answers too...

Why did you decide to start the Queen St. Shop Crawl?

Our members were asking for the longest time to get together. We wanted to create an event that would be a lot of fun and get the word out. At first I was thinking of booking out a nail bar and having drinks, snacks and manicures but we realized there was no way to accommodate a large group of people.

I started thinking about the things I love to do with my friends and of course shopping came to mind. I got the idea one night last spring (2007) as I was tossing and turning not able to sleep. (I suffer from insomnia quite a bit and have had many of my best ideas when I can’t sleep.) I immediately worked out how I would do it, and in August 2007 we had our first Shop Crawl.

Are you planning Shop Crawls in other locations besides Queen West?

Definitely. We did the strip between Spadina and John twice because there are so many independent boutiques and it is an easy walk, but we plan to hit up other areas of the city for future crawls, and eventually expand the idea to other major cities in North America.

Have you ever considered negotiating volume discounts for products or services like a hot new gadget or purse for ChickAdvisor members?

Yes. That is actually part of our original business plan. ;)

What advice do you have for PR or marketing professionals wanting to pitch you?

We are very careful to ensure that anything advertised on ChickAdvisor is appropriate and useful for our members, and that it delivers value for the advertiser. We are also flexible and have on a number of occasions worked out custom strategies/campaigns.

As a social network/platform, we have many ways to work with large national brands (we’ve worked with Maybelline New York, TravelZoo, Herbal Essences, etc.), as well as local businesses and smaller companies.

We have the ability to incorporate brands in our video series, “Where’d You Get That?” and Product Review Club (companies provide product, members review it).

There are opportunities for:
• email newsletter sponsorship
• category level sponsorship (Beauty, Shopping, Wellness, Deals, Restaurants); and,
• we also have a business service we just launched www.chickadvisor.biz, where local businesses can create profiles on ChickAdvisor similar to other business directories, for $300/year.

If you have something you’d like to promote, email us. If we believe it will be of value to our members, we’ll work something out.