blogging

I mentioned awhile back that I wanted to do a couple new fun things with the blog - and one of those is to bring some outside perspectives (every once in awhile) on what others believe to be the essentials for a happy healthy life.  Afterall, that's the goal of this blog!!  I am soooooo excited to bring this first post in the series to you, from my blogger friend Lauren.  I haven't been in this "blogosphere" very long, but from the first moment I "met" Lauren, she was such an encouraging friend.  This weekend at the upcoming BLEND Retreat, we'll be hanging out for reals, taking bootcamp ... Read more » about Guest Post - Oatmeal After Spinning!

So you may or may not know this, but Google KNOWS.  Google knows what you search for and reports that data back to website owners.  It also follows where you click from one site to another, documenting your path.  It's actually kindof eerie how MUCH they know!!  So everyday I get a list of all the search words/phrases/gibberish that people searched for on Google who then ended up at my blog.  Most are normal, "no sugar sweet life" or "no sugar blog" or "no sugar recipes" etc... ... Read more » about Google Searches: if you look, you will find

You may not know this, but I am a part of a larger group of bloggers called "Healthy Living Blogs."  They have weekly recipe round-ups, where they solicit all of us bloggers' best recipes around a certain food, like avocado or strawberries.  You can see an example here.  They also have weekly blogging tips for those of us who spend so much time talking to our readers.  And they have monthly features around a specific topic.  Last month's was "Workout Must-Haves."  This month, they are asking for posts on ... Read more » about A Letter to my Future Self

Sugar. So sweet.  So yummy.  So addictive?  So TOXIC???  I know. It sounds extreme.  But with so many of us struggling with health and weight and heart disease and diabetes, might we be doing something wrong?  Dr Robert H Lustig thinks so.  He has been researching the effects of sugars on the endocrine system since 1998 warning about the dangers of fructose and its involvement in the obesity, heart disease and diabetes epidemics in adults and now children.  He was recently interviewed for a segment on 60 Minutes. ... Read more » about Is Sugar TOXIC???? + {Sweet Potato & Carrot Fries}

Janetha called it lazy, but I (& the other 433+ readers of her blog) called her recent Wins & Losses blog post super fun and creative!  She's also the clever gal that came up with the "Get to know the blogger" survey in this past post.  Anywho, in the spirit of her blog post, I will start out with a recent win.

Win: My hubby and I just refinanced our mortgage. ... Read more » about Wins & Losses + {Home, the Perfect Nest}

It's Monday.  Not just any Monday... the Monday after daylight-savings... UGH! It was so hard to pry myself out of bed this morning!  I did it, though I was about 10 minutes late to work.   And yet, I was still the first one here. It seems everyone had a hard time getting out of bed this Monday morning!  Janetha (a new blogger I found this weekend!) created a survey on her blog, and provided a template so others could copy it to their own blogs. ... Read more » about Getting to know me + Power Yogurt

Each day as I would write my next blog post, it just didn't feel completely right.   The structure was good.  The key elements were there; but it was missing something.  The site was too bland, too gray, too techy to fully express who I am and this exciting journey that I'm on.  So last night, my live-in web developer (dear hubby) helped me redesign the blog to infuse more style/artistry, more of me.  I am very happy with the new look!  Being married to the best Drupal developer in Denver definitely has its benefits!  Next item for refinement: my food pictures. 

As you may know, I'm two weeks into this thing...into the daily blogging experience, into the newly focused weight-loss mode, etc.  And though I do have specific short-term and long-term goals set out that I'm working towards, I'm finding there are little milestones along the way that are so fun to celebrate as well: ... Read more » about Mini-milestones - Are those new jeans?

Isn't funny how in every stage of life you think you're soooo busy, and then as each stage progresses you just get even more busy?  In college I thought life was so busy - all those classes, all that studying, and all that free time to work out and hang out with friends.  Yeah, life was hard... ha!  Then came marriage and the "real world."  Whew, that was busy - finding my first real job, paying bills, shopping for a house, taking our dogs on walks, and all those free quiet evenings to do whatever we wanted.  Yeah, life was hard... ... Read more » about Busy, Busy, Busy....Join the Club.

That would be THIS morning.  It started off just like any other morning: with an initial angry glare at the alarm clock (seriously, it's already 6AM?!?!), followed by a quick look at the video monitor to check on my sleeping munchkin.  I had my usual cup of coffee, ate breakfast, and checked gmail and facebook on my phone...alone.  My husband and 2 beagles were still asleep in our room.  The house was silent. 

Honestly, I don't get much "quiet" in my life these days; so I soaked it all in. So much so that I was late waking Babycakes up. ... Read more » about The Morning I woke up and decided to Blog