Happy about NOT Dieting!! Happy about MY Body Image

So about a month ago I bought a book called Thin is the New Happy by Valerie Frankel. I bought this in the height for my 4 hour a day exercise regimen (which I exhausted my self and my time every day accomplishing) and finished this book this morning.

This must read novel if for ANY woman out there : in all shapes and sizes. It teaches you now to break the dieting cycle and rid yourself of the negatives that cause you to eat. The book takes you on an emotionally disturbing memoir of the poor body image her mom bestows  on her at 11 years old. Her mother Judy, calls her Fat, puts her on diets, sends her to Weight Watchers. This preadolescent girl is burned with the thought process that skinny is the only way to get love, to be loved, and succeed. After years of crash dieting she rids her mind of her emotional baggage and the idea of dieting and gets to her predetermined goal weight. She drops "The INNER BITCH" talk and thoughts and starts to think of herself positively.

Valerie does continue to exercise but she allows herself to eat and enjoy life. We all should not be basing our inner worth on food and calorie counting and the guilt that is brings with it.


"Amen, sister! We shall overcome! Among all oppressed peoples throughout history, we women hold the dubious distinction of being the only group to persecute ourselves. We are our own enemies. We choose the battle that we could never win. Call it the Thousand Years War. If every woman on earth were to suddenly release her far obsession into the wind, the world would change profoundly for the better. The world around us, and world within." Valerie Frankel


I love this book and the emotional and mental process has changed in me. I do not want to diet. I just want to be healthy. So today I vow to change my thinking and way of life. I want to live happy and not worry about the guilt of dieting.

Rise up women...It is time to stop wishing we all looked like Victoria Secret models. Our bodies are all not predisposed to be that way.

I recommend this book as an immediate ready. Feel free to click on the Amazon.com link today to purchase your copy.

With love, Natasha!!!

My man!! He makes me so Happy!

So Ryan stepped it up major for me today and this has proved he would do anything for me. Nutshell...my dream car is for sale. I filled out an application to purchase the vehicle. When did this the loan amount was still high because I have not saved for a down payment...cause I was not looking for a car. With my student loans they are saying that I need a co-signer even though my credit is great. So Ryan offered to co-sign for me today because he knows how much I want it. I am not sure if this will work out but this is awesome. This would be better than getting a ring...and that is something that I have wanted to have happen for about a year and hasn't. Yes I love this car so much that this is better than diamonds! We will see...it is just to have him offer. I did not even ask

Memorial day weekend -bathing suit season is here

So I am so happy that it is memorial day because I love warm summer weather. I am unhappy Memorial day is here because someone at work 2 weeks ago told me that I have a little belly that can be seen sometimes when I bend over. Hello. So I got home and went on the scale. I am 5' 6" and weight 135.6 lbs. I have not problem saying that because my goal weight since I was 160lbs at the end of high school was 135lbs. Yes I have a little pouch but that happened when I got pregnant. So for the last 2 weeks I have been running or walking 5-7 miles a day and doing some ballet inspired moves. I have decided that after memorial day weekend I am picking up the pace.

1. I want to lose 10 more lbs and I am done. Some would say too skinny and just maybe to them. I know when I was my thinnest was 127lbs. If I finish there I will be happy too.

2. I will do this by losing 2 lbs a week- eating 1400 calories a day

3. Each morning will be sent starting with a 5 mile /walk or run. I will continue to walk another mile on my lunch break every day

4. After work I will rollerblade to work on MY troubled area MY LEGS. Yes that it right. I don't consider my stomach poor...I sit on a stability ball every day at work...if anything it is tight...but has a little pouch. Rollerblading will be days a week.

5. Yoga, pilates, or ballet stretches will finish each work out.

6. 2 times a week 30 day shred circuit training Jillian Michaels style followed by resistance band training.

7. I am going to do a total body system cleanse in the month of June

Lots of Great things to come

So I have not blogged in such a long time and it has not been for lack of thoughts, feelings, or happenings. First, I just want to congratulate Tara and Steve on their engagement and wish them nothing but more of the undying happiness and love they already share.

Any how...Life has been going very well. Since my last blog entry Melissa and I have done another wine tasting but this time in CT -we started the wine trail at Taylor Brooke vineyard with our pooches. We then came home and grilled lobsters, corn on the cob and asparagus. It was a perfect night. We finished it up by watching It's complicated! Great movie.

Last weekend we kicked off the Country concert Mega ticket series with Sugarland. There was some great tailgating with even better friends. We grilled and played games of cornhole and some got hammered. Melissa and I then took off Monday and went to the beach...cause who doesn't need a recovery plan.

Tonight we went to see Sex in the City 2 and went to the Burton's premier party. 1. We had Sec in the City martinis and they were the best I have ever had. While we there we had our pictures taken on CTNOW.com. There are many mixed reviews out there but I surely enjoyed it.

This weekend is memorial day and I am getting ready to do many picnics! It will be a great time!!!

I forgot something important. I had dinner with an old best friend. Someone I have not seen in 6 years. It was one of the best dinners I had in a while...

These are a few of my Favorite things

I love when I come home from a long day of work and I pull into my parking spot and my little Hunter's head pops up and looks for me out of the window.

I love french fries with honey mustard (that is actually what I had for lunch)

I love cuddling up in bed when it is really cold and hibernating

I love when I get a new haircut and it comes out great even when you are nervous. That is what happened last night. I printed out a picture that I loved of Kimberly Caldwell and it came out perfect!!

Good Times Never Seemed So Good

I love my friends. I guess we will get right to the point with the things that I love today. Last night Amy, Eileen, Lindsay and I went to Fenway to watch the Red Sox. It was awesome eventhough they are not playing a super awesome season. When you are a die hard sox fan the love is infinite even though they continue to break your heart. I love the "green" of Fenway. The Green Monster and the plush green grass. I love singing Sweet Caroline in the 9th inning while swaying and hugging my girl friends. I hate riding the T but thank you to Eileen and Lindsay it flew by with the crazy conversations, people watching and laughs. Amongst the most funny phrases of the night were: Lock it up. Winner, winner, chicken dinner! I will never forget that grill. I ate my weight in meat. Don't get me started on your sausage. I also got to share in Lindsay's first beer at Fenway. This great time made up for the fact that I got home at 1:30am and needed to be up at 7am. Oh that and the help of a Great One Dunkin Donuts coffee.

I started really working out as I am training for a 1/2 marathon! It is a slow process but I love the way my endorphins kick in about 15 minutes into a great workout. I did 3.75 miles today. I still feel great. It is going to take me awhile to come down. Another bonus is that it is a great natural medication for my anxiety so I do not have to take my pills. And last but not least I love that I decided to run a 1/2 marathon in October because I will be confident enough to wear a bathing suit in no time. I wanted to do so some Yoga to stretch it out after but decided to take it easy today!

Hand and hand with any running regime is the great music I listen to on my ipod. I am building up a pretty great mim. Amongst my favorites are some Justin Beiber -Baby and Carrie Underwood. Lots of Carrie Underwood. My favorite workout song is Undo it by Carrie. The more and more I hear her sing the more I am upset by this continuing wave of Taylor Swift. How does Taylor win all of these awards when she is not a good singer. I have never seen her sing good live once and I have seen her 4 times...never mind the sound in the awards show. She has no vocal range and she is always flat. They say she is a performer well I have only seen that on award shows. She was never doing anything out of the ordinary when I have seen her live. When I saw Carrie in February she did set changes, outfit changes and was never off pitch. Sounded just as good as her cd. Oh wait and she things about adult things and she is gorgeous! Phew I had to get that off my chest. I just don't get the phenomenon anymore.

I am super excited because I have a haircut tomorrow. It is going to be a drastic change. I love changing my hair. I do it almost every cut. Tomorrow it going to be one of the most daring in awhile!

There you have it. My most positive thoughts for the day! Pictures of fenway and carrie are posted on FB!

Thankful for my Mom

I am glad that I started this blog when I did because there is just so much to love. Today is mothers day and most people I know are thankful for their mothers. I am not thankful for my birth mother nor do I love her but I do love my step mom and am super thankful for her. She has changed my life and without her and my father in my life, it would be super different. I would have probably turned out to be such a low life. There actions, love, support and positive reinforcement have lead me to where I am today.

Mother's day was great. We had brunch with Ryan's family. I love all of them, they really are a great bunch of girls (except Ryan...He is like the one boy in the family). I could not be part of a better family and I am excited to one day call them all in-laws :) Anyway...we had eggs, hash-browns, bacon, crepes, fresh fruit and english muffins. I love hash-browns. We sat and we all just talked and talked and laughed and talked.

I think one of the highlights was watching Ryan's mom open her gift from us. We bought her an awesome beach birdhouse and she loves the beach. She even has her own. We also got her a flamingo holding a pina colada for the back yard because she collects them. Her face just lit up. I love giving people really great gifts. Success.

We then we to my parents house for dinner which was lasagna, meatballs, sausage and awesome garlic bread. We had an extra surprise. My cousin Jim, his Wife Mandy, and daughter Emma (who is 2 years old and cute as can be) came down with my Oma for dinner. After a great dinner we played hours of scrabble. Scrabble is a tradition in our family. We must play with my OMA after dinner at every holiday. She is the champion so she plays on her own team and the other 3 teams are couples. It was Ryan and me, Joe and Mike, And My dad and mom...and then my OMA. I love family scrabble. We misprounce words...search for words in the scrabble dictionary for help, steal each others spaces...try to make up words...it is just full of laughs everytime. It is just plain great. You have not seen scrabble until you play with our family. My brother Justin, who lives in NY and couldn't be home called in while we were playing. My dad put him on speaker so he could say hi to all. He was even making up words on the phone for us...laughing when he heard us playing. My Oma was getting so competitive she even slipped out and "OH SHIT". My Oma barely swears. Awesome day.

Yay for family!!! I love all mine!!! I will be posting pictures of Emma tomorrow on Fb!