WLW – Victory is mine!

Greetings Readers – yes, it’s Wednesday again. I know it’s painful and I feel for you. So put down your Snickers bar and strip down to your bare skin – it’s scale time. Since I started up WLW again, I’ve lost a total of six pounds.

Well – I think it should be 6.2 pounds because I was wearing my socks on the scale.

It’s been a struggle – no lying here. And we’re heading into the most calorie laden time of the year. Some of my tricks to keep my butt from taking over my zip code are:
– Water, it’s all about the water. The more you drink, the more you’ll lose. It keeps you hydrated and it helps you to feel full sooner.
– Going to a friend’s for dinner? Volunteer to bring a fruit or veggie plate.
– Don’t deprive yourself. I’m not a fan of stuffing so I’m safe there, but I do love mashed potatoes and gravy. My trick is to take a smaller portion and for every bite of that decadent dish, take two bites of veggies and big water.
– Desserts – did you know pumpkin pie has the least amount of calories of all pies? 1/8 of a pie sans whipped cream, is about 300 calories. Light whipped cream (in a moderate amount!) can add 25 – 50 extra calories.
– Snacking – think raw and avoid processed. Veggies w/ cream cheese are tasty and filling.

What are your strategies for watching the calories?

WLW: Where I Am Now

The Numbers – 6

Yes ma’am – I’ve lost a total of six pounds and let me say, each pound has been a struggle. I admit, I’m having a really difficult time just keeping myself on my program. I accept full responsibility for what I put in my mouth – and I realize that willpower alone will accomplish nothing – but I feel like every meal is an uphill battle lately.

What’s really frustrating for me is that in general, I eat pretty healthy. I love veggies, salad, fruit and while I have a weakness for carbs, it’s already ingrained in me to eat the bulk of my carbs by lunchtime. I just seem to be HUNGRY all the time! GRRR….

I am an emotional eater and it doesn’t help that it is abnormally cold here in Ohio. I have a tendency to hibernate when the weather is really cold so I’m fighting against staying inside and being warm and getting my chubby butt outside in the cold for some exercise. Lame excuse – I know. The good news is that I have been hitting the pool three times a week and that is helping out a lot.

So my goal for the week is get back on track, stay on track and have a good week. What’s your goal?

My blog has won an award!

Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs – I can do that too – I love to hit blogs and add comments.

Corporate Bad Guys

Book Recommendation: Hot, Wicked and Wild: Desiree Holt

Blurb: Tracie Hill is having a bad day. Her boss has sold the investment company to a much larger corporation, a new boss with a reputation as a tyrant is arriving tomorrow morning, and she’s just torn her last pair of pantyhose. As she’s stripping them off to toss in the trash, she sees the most gorgeous man ever standing in her doorway. Then the power goes out, locking them inside.

It is a wild beginning for Tracie and sexy Pete Montgomery, but as they move in together and he introduces her to the erotic delights of a BDSM relationship and the excitement of an occasional ménage, she learns what she’s been missing all these years. It isn’t, however, until she accompanies Pete to a secluded island in the Caribbean, to a house party where the theme is “anything goes” that she learns just how uninhibited she can be. And whether Pete will finally claim her as his forever.

Excerpt:
She looked at him helplessly.
Then he burst out laughing.
“I’m glad you think this is so funny,” she spat at him.
“It’s priceless, is what it is.” He took off his blue blazer and dropped it and his tie on an armchair. “Do you know how many men would love to be marooned like this with a gorgeous female?”
Gorgeous? He thought she was gorgeous?
“I beg your pardon?”
“You heard me.” He moved closer to her.
She backed up until the desk hit her ass. “W-What do you have in mind?”
He flashed his wicked grin at her. “Well, let’s see. It appears we’re liable to be here for a while so we need to do something to pass the time.”
“Pass the time?” She sounded like a parrot.
“Mm-hmm. I’m not much of a card player. Chess, maybe but only an idiot would waste time alone with a beautiful woman playing chess.” He rubbed his jaw. “There’s always word games.”
She stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. “You want to play word games?”
“Nope. I want to do this.” He was right up against her, his obviously swollen cock pressing into her belly, his face not more than an inch from hers. Then his arms came around her, pulling her tight against him and his mouth came down on hers.
Too shocked to even move, she opened her mouth to protest and his tongue swept in like a marauding bandit, tasting, touching stroking the lining of her mouth. His hands slid down to her ass, gripping it and pulling her closer. She couldn’t believe her own hands actually crept around his neck and her fingers threaded through his hair. This was a kiss beyond belief. He tasted of mint and fresh air and smelled of something delightfully spicy.
I’m kissing a man and I don’t even know who he is. My god! Well, wasn’t this her fantasy? Hadn’t she dreamed of this after the last fiasco with Rex? Meeting a gorgeous, sexy man, totally unknown and having wild, uncontrollable sex with him?
She pulled her head away a fraction. He hadn’t given her much room to maneuver.
“I don’t even know your name,” she gasped.
He flashed his magic grin. “Pete. Just call me Pete.”
“Tracie.” She was surprised she could even get out the word.
“What?” He stared at her with those hot emerald eyes, his face co close she could count his eyelashes. “What did you say?”
“Tracie,” she gasped. “My name is Tracie.”
“Oh. Well. Hi, Tracie, nice to meet you.”
Then his mouth came down on hers again, his tongue invading the inside of her mouth like a candle lighting the sensitive tissues and she felt herself melting again. What was left of her brain kicked in and she found the strength to pull back from him. She tried to push him away but he held her too close for any movement. His hands moved up and down her back, creating friction under the cloth of her dress.
“We can’t do this.” Her breath fell in uneven pants as she pushed at his chest again.
“I don’t know why not. Here we are, trapped in these offices, no idea when we’ll get out of this place. I’ve had a hard-on since the minute I laid eyes on you. And if the way you returned that kiss is any indication, you don’t exactly find me unappealing.”
“B-But we don’t even know each other.”
“Sure we do,” he grinned. “We just introduced ourselves. And we’re about to get to know each other a whole lot better. Right?”
While they were talking, he slid one hand down over her hip and ever so lightly eased up her skirt until his palm touched bare flesh.
Tracie jerked. What the hell does he think he’s doing?
“Touching that ass that looked so appealing when you were doing your mini-strip tease before.” He grinned at her.
She hadn’t realized she’d spoken aloud and her face flooded with embarrassment. But she couldn’t make herself move away from him. His hand was like a burning coal on her ass, leaving traces of fire wherever he touched. Her mind shrieked Stop! but her body said, Don’t stop, you damn fool.
Pete dropped his mouth to her shoulders and began biting gently at the place where her neck and shoulder met. She felt liquid begin to seep from her body and wished she had panties on to absorb the moisture. This was nuts! She was creaming over a man she’d known for five minutes and letting him feel her bare ass.
And loving it! His presence somehow surrounded her and his male essence drugged her, put her off guard. All she had to do was look at him and she was wet, soaking, dripping.
“I… We… That is…” She couldn’t figure out what to say. He made her mind foggy with just the lightest of touches.
“Look at it this way.” He was still nipping her shoulder, sending feathers of sensation skittering along her spine. “Haven’t you ever wondered what it would be like to have hot, sweaty sex with a stranger? Someone you didn’t even know but who made you hotter than a burning log? Someone you could do anything with because you didn’t think you’d ever have to face them again?”

Hero: Lucy Burns

Lucy Burns was a pivotal figure in the National Woman’s Party. With her distinctive flame red hair, she is characterized as charming and a firebrand – she was crucial in supporting Alice Paul (the figurehead of the NWP) in the fight for the right to vote.

Born in Brooklyn, she attended Vassar College, Yale, Oxford and the University of Berlin in Germany. While at Oxford, Burns witnessed the British suffragist movement which was far more militant than the American movement.

In 1909, Burns became an activist and she perfected the art of street speaking. During her work for the Women’s Social and Political Union, she was arrested multiple times and imprisoned four times.

Burns met Alice Paul in a London police station after both were arrested during a suffrage demonstration outside Parliament (London). Their alliance was powerful and ultimately changed our nation forever.

Burns returned to the US in 1912 (Paul in 1910) and they began to work with the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) as leaders of its Congressional Committee. In April 1913 they founded the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CU), which later evolved into the NWP. Burns organized campaigns in the western states (1914, 1916), served as NWP legislative chairman in Washington, D.C., and, beginning in April 1914, edited the organization’s weekly journal, The Suffragist .

Burns was a driving force behind the picketing of President Woodrow Wilson’s administration in Washington, D.C. in early 1917. Six months later, she and other NWP members erected banners outside the White House declaring that America was not a free democracy as long as women were denied the vote. Later that month, Burns (and others) were arrested for obstructing traffic.

Burns was arrested and imprisoned six times during this time. She declared suffragists were political prisoners and she was among those in the Occoquan Workhouse who instigated hunger strikes in October 1917. Ultimately they were placed in solitary confinement.

She was jailed again while protesting the treatment of the imprisoned Alice Paul, Burns and others joined Paul and others in another round of Occoquan hunger strikes. Burns was present in Occoquan for what became known as the “Night of Terror” on November 15, 1917, during which she was beaten and handcuffed with her arms above her head in her cell. Brutal force feedings followed and the public outcry ultimately forced the President to release all of the suffragist from the workhouse.

After her release, Burns commenced nationwide speaking tours. After the success of the 19th amendment granting women the right to vote, Burns retired from public campaigns and spent the rest of her life working with the Catholic Church.

JC’s Comment – Who said civil disobedience was a bad thing? If it wasn’t for the NWP and their willingness to be arrested for their convictions – how long would women have had to wait for the right to vote? The suffragist movement began before the Civil War and the woman who’d started it all – Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were long dead.

Sometimes you have to be willing to take one for the team in order to accomplish what is best for many others. I think we forget that when it becomes crunch time.

Go, Vote.

Michael Moore – Free movie!

Michael Moore has released his new movie online for FREE. Yes, free. You can download the entire movie here: http://slackeruprising.com/