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EatSmart Kitchen Scale Review

Mary — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 06:44:11 +0000

Waaaaay back in June (JUNE!) I mentioned in a post that I needed to review my EatSmart Kitchen Scale. Today I’m finally doing that because today my kitchen scale died.

Hold on, don’t get the wrong idea about the product… I actually killed the scale.

I was making dinner (mmm, stuffed chicken breast) and got raw chicken juice on my scale accidentally. I freaked and then ran water over my scale instead of just wiping it off. Stupid idea since it destroyed my kitchen scale.

It no longer turns on without being funky but I’m hoping after drying it for a while it will come back to life.

Fingers crossed because we use that scale for every meal and snack we both eat.

By now you might have guessed that this is a positive review of the EatSmart Kitchen Scale. This isn’t because they sent me the scale for free (they did… FTC disclosure). If it was because of that I probably would have reviewed it OVER YEAR AGO when they first sent it to me. Instead this is just a positive review because I really freaking loved that kitchen scale and plan to replace it.

Reasons I Love the EatSmart Kitchen Scale

It’s accurate. Precise to 1 gram.
Extremely easy to use. It only has two buttons! :)
Can show ounces, lbs, grams or kgs (We use grams now but I previously used ounces.)
Great battery life. Despite all the use it gets I’ve never replaced the batteries. But Kepa did apparently (he told me after I posted this).
It cuts off automatically after 3 minutes to save battery life (see above). Since I often forget to turn things off this helps a lot.
Reads negative numbers which is really helpful!
Light but sturdy. It’s actually surprising how sturdy the scale is but I love that it’s really light and not a chore to bring out and lug around the kitchen.

Reasons I Recommend the EatSmart Kitchen Scale

If you count calories you need to measure food. Therefore, you need a quality kitchen scale.
It’s pretty durable. Despite my incident it has survived quite well sans running water. I used it regularly for a year and pretty hardcore for the last few months in NZ.
Inexpensive. Right now it is $25 on Amazon which is a great deal for such a useful kitchen tool.
It has range. It can measure up to 10/11 lbs. You know, in case you need that.
Good customer service. Though I haven’t needed it I read a few stories on Amazon and on blogs about people being helped or receiving a replacement scale when problems occurred.
Everyone loves it. Just check out the ridiculous amount of positive reviews on Amazon:

Problems with the EatSmart Kitchen Scale

Can be hard to read with a big bowl or pan on top. You can still read it but it takes more effort.
Kepa wanted something that fit perfect with the scale instead of using our own bowls.
Mine died before I finished making dinner so I had to estimate!

It’s okay though, I did end up finishing dinner of stuffed chicken and broccoli:

I think this is the best review I’ve done because this is possibly the best product I’ve ever reviewed. It helps that I have a full year of experience using the scale rather than just a few days or weeks…. you know it’s 100% my opinion!

So, if you are in the market for a kitchen scale to measure and weigh your food, I recommend the EatSmart Kitchen Scale.

EatSmart Kitchen Scale Review is a post from: A Merry Life! If you aren't reading it via RSS or on amerrylife.com it has been stolen!!

Easy Lunchboxes Winner

Mary — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:46:43 +0000

Happy Monday!

Weekends aren’t my favorite thing right now so I’m super happy to be at work today. It’s going to be a lovely day!

Right now I want to announce the Easy Lunchboxes Giveaway winner.

According to Random.org, the winner is…

… comment #50!

Which was….

… Heidi!

Congrats! Send me your details and you’ll get the most awesome lunchbox system soon. :)

And if you didn’t win, remember you can buy the lunchboxes on Amazon or on the Easy Lunchboxes website.

Easy Lunchboxes Winner is a post from: A Merry Life! If you aren't reading it via RSS or on amerrylife.com it has been stolen!!

Easy Lunchboxes Review and Giveaway!

Mary — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:56:35 +0000

This contest is now closed! You can buy the lunchboxes on Amazon or on the Easy Lunchboxes website.

I’ll be honest – one of the coolest things about being a blogger is getting free stuff. Not just any free stuff because believe me, I turn a lot of offers down. But getting free stuff that I actually need? That is something I was looking for and couldn’t find to buy? That is the coolest.

That is what happened with Easy Lunchboxes. When I started my new job I started taking my lunch every day (part of my Operation Wedding Sexy Goals). I was taking it in random containers, plastic bags, ziploc bags, plastic wrap – anything I could find. It wasn’t convenient and it wasn’t pretty.

I looked around for a lunchbox that would help me get organized with my lunches but couldn’t find anything in my area that was exactly what I wanted. (I actually had trouble finding many lunchboxes at all). I mentioned this online and Jen hooked me up with Kelly, the CEO of Easy Lunchboxes. She sent me a free container set and lunch bag and it’s changed my life for the better.

I seriously looove these lunchbox containers.

They make putting lunch together so much easy. They are microwave and dishwasher safe which makes them very convenient too. Another benefit is that they are free from any chemicals or things that could harm you or make your food taste bad.

My only problem with them so far is one of user error – I like to fill the areas with too much food and then it makes it hard to close. It can be hard to close when you have uneven things like baby carrots sticking in all sorts of directions. But other than that? These are amazing eco-friendly lunchboxes.

GIVEAWAY

The second best thing about being a blogger is giving away free stuff. It is especially exciting when it is a product that I love and that has made my life much easier.

Today I get to give away a container set (4 lunchbox containers) and a lunch bag (you can choose the color). Retail value is $21.90. If you take your lunch or pack lunches for your kids, then trust me – you want this.

How to Enter: All you have to do to win is visit the Easy Lunchboxes website, come back here to my blog, and leave me a comment telling me one neat thing you learned on the website about these lunch boxes. Seriously check the website out because it’s pretty nifty and has some great ideas on there!

Giveaway Rules: This giveaway is offered to US & Canadian residents only. Please do not enter this giveaway if you have won or received free product from EasyLunchboxes within the past 3 months. Giveaway is open through Sunday, winner will be chosen and announced on Monday. Good luck!

Oh and if you don’t win, don’t want to enter, or just want to buy the lunchboxes on your own, consider using my affiliate links to buy them so I make a tiny bit of change: you can buy on Amazon or on the Easy Lunchboxes website.

Good luck!

Easy Lunchboxes Review and Giveaway! is a post from: A Merry Life! If you aren't reading it via RSS or on amerrylife.com it has been stolen!!

Smelly Shoes, Oh Smelly Shoes

Mary — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 11:30:40 +0000

I wear my running shoes a lot.

I probably wear them more than I should. I don’t wear them to run anymore because I’m not running. But I used to. I wore them to run every week and I wore them during my triathlon. Now I wear them to walk, bike, elliptical, and lift weights at the gym. I basically wear them for anything active which means I wear them 4 to 5 times a week.

Yesterday I was showering at the gym after a workout and I noticed my shoes smelled. They didn’t just smell, they REALLY smelled. They did not smell pleasant.

I’ve never noticed this problem before despite how often I wear my shoes. I know they are way past needing to be replaced (both in age and wear) but up until this week I didn’t know they also smelled bad.

I don’t normally keep shoes forever like this but right now finances are super tight and tennis shoes feel like a luxury item. I can’t really replace them until I start working and get paid toward the end of May yet I don’t want to walk around with smelly feet.

So what did I do?

Yep.

I febreezed my shoes. It does say right on the bottle that picture of shoes? That means it’s a perfectly acceptable way to get rid of smells.

By the way, I had no idea how to spell Febreze. I had to google it because I couldn’t figure it out. If I was going to spell it the way I say it then I would have written Fabreeze, but I knew that wasn’t right. I suppose it’s just a brand I’m not that familiar with since I hardly ever use it.

It worked well though because my shoes smell much better now. It’s a happy, clean smell now instead of a more embarrassing odor. I know I’ll have to replace my shoes soon but until then Febreze will take care of everything and no one will know. No one at my gym reads my blog, right?

I’m not sure if Febreeze is the right/only option for smelly shoes. Anyone else have this problem? Have advice on how to handle it?

Smelly Shoes, Oh Smelly Shoes is a post from: A Merry Life! If you aren't reading it via RSS or on amerrylife.com it has been stolen!!

How Polar Changed The Way I Workout

Mary — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:30:54 +0000

I hope you’ve checked out and entered Jen’s contest to win a Polar FT7. It’s a great contest with an even cooler prize.

I’m not just saying that because I’m a Polar Ambassador too (I am). I’m saying it because having a Polar heart rate monitor completely changed the way I work out – even before I became an ambassador (maybe that’s why I am one!).

my workout from today

Polar sent me an FT7 heart rate monitor last year and I finally got around to reviewing it in October after using it for a couple months (here’s more about it). By that time I had already fallen in love with using it for every workout. It had completely changed how I exercised.

Before using it I had no idea how hard I was working. I’ve never been great with PRE (perceived rate of exertion) scales. How hard did that feel? How tired am I? How hard am I working? These questions have never been easy to answer for me since I spent so long being completely disconnected from my body. It’s almost ridiculous to expect someone who binge ate her way to 250+ pounds to understand her body and how it’s working with exercise. So usually when I tried to gauge my exercise I used other methods like distance traveled or time.

I still use those methods but now I focus a lot more on my heart rate during exercise. I want to get my heart rate high enough that my body is working hard. I want to get to the zone where I will burn fat. I want to get to the zone where I will improve my heart. This is what I strive for now.

I know for a fact that before I used my heart rate monitor I wasn’t working hard enough. I know this because the first couple times I used it I did the same workout I had been doing at the same level and my heart rate wasn’t even close to my target heart rate zone. I was working out but I wasn’t doing enough or going hard enough! I hadn’t even realized that though I was exercising I was doing much less than I should because I was letting it be so easy. That first week of wearing a heart rate monitor to workout was eye-opening about my workouts and my need to push it up.

After that I started training for the triathlon. I spent a couple months using my heart rate monitor every day because it was very important to train within the right heart rate zones. I have no idea how I would have done in my triathlon if I didn’t have my FT7 for the training. It was my coach that was constantly with me telling me to go harder or even to take a tiny break when needed. And best of all it was with me during my triathlon too! It was there guiding me and reassuring me that I wasn’t dying – I was actually doing great!

Now I use my Polar FT7 to push myself to work out harder to improve.

Kepa’s heart rate monitor

When I became a Polar Ambassador I got a new FT7 and I gave my old one to Kepa. (He actually just wrote a post about it!) Now we are both heart rate monitor addicts. We wear them for both cardio and weight training. It’s a more accurate way for us to calculate the calories we burned during strength training than just guessing based on time. I also try to keep my heart rate above a certain level so in between sets of weights I sometimes end up doing small bits of cardio to achieve that. Wearing a heart rate monitor even changed the way I lift weights.

To say it changed everything about the way I workout is an understatement. It made me more aware of my body and it made me push myself to go harder. Using a heart rate monitor is an awesome way to see how you are doing while exercising and to push yourself. I obviously use and recommend Polar products, especially the FT7, but you don’t have to have the same one. Any heart rate monitor will achieve similar results and if you aren’t currently using one you might want to try it.

Do you use a heart rate monitor? Do you love it?

How Polar Changed The Way I Workout is a post from: A Merry Life! If you aren't reading it via RSS or on amerrylife.com it has been stolen!!

The Dairy Free Experiment: Listening To My Body

Mary — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 20:31:12 +0000

Last night at Kepa’s family birthday dinner I ended up breaking up with the dairy free experiment. I had wanted cheese sooo bad for the last couple days (I didn’t even know I loved cheese so much) and caved with one of the pizzas that was on special. It even had two different cheeses. It was amazing and you can read all about the little bit of Italian heaven in NZ here.

I decided that I’m going to end the dairy experiment after a week instead of forcing myself to do two. (Update: I am going to do two weeks after comments encouraging me to wait it out. I will forget about the cheesy pizza goodness and try again for another full week to see if things improve, so consider this week 1 update!!) It hasn’t helped my asthma. If anything it’s gotten worse, especially at night. There was no positive change in that area. I’m not sure if sticking it out and waiting would show any improvements.

There were some improvements this week though and they didn’t have anything to do with my breathing issues. Not eating dairy actually made my stomach and digestive system really happy. I hadn’t noticed the turmoil eating so much dairy cause before, but eliminating dairy made me realize my body as a whole is a lot happier without it. Or at least without so much of it. I didn’t feel sick after eating the pizza or anything, but after the pizza last night and a glass of milk this morning I’m noticing my body is not ill but not functioning as well as it was without dairy. I suspect that going through with the second week or more of no dairy would only confirm and improve that.

I also noticed that it was easier to eat healthy and stay within my calories for the week. Without adding the high calorie cheeses and extra glasses of milk I previously consumed I had a lot more calories to play with and my food was healthier overall. It even led me to try some amazing things like creamy avocado and spinach pasta that I will continue eating.

So I’m left with some interesting things to think about. Dairy doesn’t necessarily make me sick but I do feel better, especially my digestive system, when I’m not eating a lot of it. I also have less trouble staying within my calories and choosing healthy options for meals and snacks. However, I love dairy and want to eat dairy.

My solution from here will be to try to eat LESS dairy, although not going strictly dairy free. I don’t think completely dairy free will be an option for me, but after listening to my body I realize I need to cut back and eat less. I think my body will appreciate it.

Update: A few people mentioned I should give it more than just a week. Okay. I will try to be dairy free again this week. Forget about that pizza I had!

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Remember how I mentioned I was a Polar Ambassador? I’m a bit behind the others and finally got my first package with Polar stuff in it! (Disclosure: Polar sent me these things free of charge as part of our relationship of awesomeness. The opinions on all products are my own.)

It seriously made my morning/day/week/month to get the stuff, because it’s actually all stuff I was about to go buy. Now instead of buying something generic I can rep Polar everywhere I go!

Like when I am wearing my new red (one of my favorite colors ever) heart rate monitor watch….

Or going to the gym with my Polar bag and gym towel (which says “Listen To Your Body” – awesome!)….

Or wearing my Polar jacket when I’m cold (which seems to be all the time)….

Yeah. I’m overwhelmed and excited. It’s so much fun to talk about a company I really love. I mean, their whole “listen to your body” slogan is basically my whole life/weight loss/healthy living philosophy. It’s the phrase I use when people ask me what they should do, when I’m trying to decide if a workout is going well, when I’m eating, etc. Man, Polar gets it.

Product reviews and more, soon! I can’t wait to share! ;)

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Do you eat a lot of dairy? How does your body process dairy products and foods? Have you ever made the decision to cut back?

The Dairy Free Experiment: Listening To My Body is a post from: A Merry Life! If you aren't reading it via RSS or on amerrylife.com it has been stolen!!

Green Lite Bites Cookbook Review

Mary — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 23:19:38 +0000

I have some pretty talented blogging friends.

One such friend is Roni Noone, weight loss and cooking blogger extraordinaire. She recently self-published her first cookbook GreenLiteBites: Favorites From the First 3 Years (Volume 1). The cookbook is a collection of the best recipes from her blog Green Lite Bites.

Lucky me, being a blog friend and all, she sent me a copy! I love that Roni decided to create a physical cookbook. Recipes on blogs and websites and in e-books are nice, but it’s so much better to have an actual cookbook. I love to have that page right in front of me that I can read and touch and consider without looking at my computer screen.

The book is beautifully illustrated and broken down into recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, soups, sides, and desserts. In the beginning there is a helpful introduction to Roni, her style and approach to cooking, and her pantry.

Kepa and I have been a Green Lite Bites fan for a while and have used many of the lunch and dinner recipes we found on the site. It’s actually Roni’s website and her recipe for sausage, potatoes, and cabbage (not in the book) that made me start eating cabbage. Through her ideas I’ve learned to like a lot of different foods and combinations.

The book has some of the recipes we’ve cooked before and loved but a lot of the recipes are new to me. I’ve never cooked any of her breakfast or dessert recipes but as soon as I browsed through the book I knew I wanted to try making them. The pictures of each recipe drew me in and made me want to try my hand at making them. The food photography in the cookbook is really artistic and saliva inducing at the same time.

The cookbook has a lot of great ideas: she even loves roasted cauliflower like I do! The best part about the cookbook is that Roni gives really, really helpful tips with each recipe about how to adapt the recipe if you are missing ingredients or want to experiment. She encourages you to take the recipe and make it your own. This is something I love to do when I cook so I’m super excited to finally have a cookbook full of yummy recipes that actually encourages me to do my own thing as well.

I’ve actually decided to use Roni’s cookbook to achieve one of my new year’s goals. I wanted to cook through a cookbook this year and I’ve chosen GreenLiteBites cookbook as the cookbook I will be cooking through. I already trust Roni’s tastes and her recipes are very easy to follow so I won’t have any huge problems working my way through all the recipes (you can follow along on the food blog). Plus each recipe has calorie counts available so I will be able to seamlessly incorporate the meals into our calorie counting.

I’m extremely excited about working through the cookbook and I know that anyone who wants to eat good healthy food will feel the same.

GreenLiteBites: Favorites From the First 3 Years is available on Amazon. Get it today and start cooking!

ps – Sorry if I sound like an overly excited infomercial salesperson. I just really love Roni and her blog and now her cookbook. She is one of my healthy cooking idols and I’m so super excited to have her cookbook in my hands! YAY!

Green Lite Bites Cookbook Review is a post from: A Merry Life! If you aren't reading it via RSS or on amerrylife.com it has been stolen!!