24 Nov, 2024
4 mins read

Should You Leave Your Dream to the Experts?

For me, it was Maria’s processional as she walked down the aisle of the Austrian Cathedral to marry Captain von Trapp; nuns and children looking on lovingly, the Fairy Tale coming true. Maybe, for you, it was Ariel as she professed her love for her animated prince in his puffy shirt. Or maybe it was the 1900 guests Kate Middleton walked through to wed England’s real-life Prince Charming. Image via PixabayWhatever the scenario, chances are you’ve had some romantic notion in your psyche of the ideal wedding.From The Knot to “Say Yes to the Dress” to your very own Pinterest wedding board, we’re obsessed with making the occasion absolutely PERFECT. Remember when you and your significant other made it official? You said “yes”, you chose a …

4 mins read

7 Ways to Improve the Health of Your Household

In order to take good care of your family, you probably try to eat healthy and visit the doctor regularly. Unfortunately, hidden dangers at home can pose a serious hazard to your family. The following tips will help you track down the dangers that may be lurking in your home. Keep it Old School As a parent, you probably look for ways to protect your family and keep them healthy. Although you may try to rid your home of dust and debris through weekly cleanings, the commercial products could be doing more harm than good. The cleaners can also be pricey and wreaking havoc with your budget. Hit up your pantry in search of some natural home cleaning alternatives. Vinegar is a cost-effective option that can …

5 mins read

The Number One Rule for My Daughter’s iPhone

We gave our oldest daughter an iPhone for her 11th birthday. She is now 13. For two years, we have followed a consistent rule for the phone, and I believe this rule has helped our family adapt to technology in a balanced way. Image: Simon Yeo via Flickr via Creative Commons license The Rule Is Simple The number one rule for my daughter’s iPhone is that every single night, the phone is powered off and stored in the dining room drawer. Powering off a phone and storing it in a common area overnight does not sound revolutionary. The rule does not contain parental controls or overbearing stipulations. The rule is simple, and maybe that is part of its effectiveness. The Rule Involves the Whole Family The rule does …

8 mins read

How to Work Out to Beyonce’s Lemonade

For the most part, discussion around Beyonce’s new album, Lemonade has been focused on some pretty deep discussions about race, women empowerment, and Beyonce/Jay-Z marital drama. But aside from all that, there’s some great material for getting turnt during gym time. So I thought I would give perspective on how to work out to Beyonce’s Lemonade. By the way, only a Bey album gets the type of excitement that leads to a post like this. But hey, I can’t fight the urge. Image: © Yui Mok/PA Wire via ZUMA Press Pray You Catch Me Verdict: Skip it at the gym, but use it to wind down This is actually one of my favorite tracks on the entire album. It has very pretty vocals and …

2 mins read

Help! My Twin Wants Her Own Birthday

Dear Mouthy Housewives, My twins are about to turn seven and one of them is up in arms about it. She does not want to celebrate her birthday with her twin sister. She wants her own birthday. Her own everything! I don’t have the money to throw them two parties and that seems ridiculous anyway. What can I do to calm her down? Signed, It’s Her Birthday and She’ll Cry If She Wants To Public Domain Image via Pixabay. Dear It’s Her Birthday and She’ll Cry If She Wants To, Yes, at some point, it dawns on every twin (or triplet, etc) that they don’t have their own birthday. Except for the parents who figured out how to have one twin at 11:50 p.m. on one day …

1 min read

What the #BlogHerFood Conference Is Really Like

Thinking about joining us for #BlogHerFood16 in Austin, but not sure what it’s all about? Check out some of the highlights from #BlogHer15 in Chicago — it was incredible. We partied with celebrities including Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond, Catherine McCord of Weelicious, and Buffy herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar — who’s a delightful human being on a serious mission to make kids’ food better. But it’s not just a two-day party: The #BlogHerFood conference is always an inspiring learning experience, with hands-on demos and passionate discussions about food techniques and issues. You’ll also take advantage of all the opportunities to network with brands … and with each other. And then, of course, there’s the food. Austin is an unmissable food destination, and we’re thrilled to be …

6 mins read

3 Times When You Should Hit Pause on Parenting

The word “pause” is a very familiar term. In my house, pause usually represents either the button I hit on the TV remote to (loudly) announce that dinner is ready. That’s for the younger kids. For my older crew, I pause the house’s internet access, which flushes the older kids out of hiding in all corners of the house like cockroaches. But the word PAUSE has entirely new meanings in my life as of late. Public Domain Image via Pixabay. Learning to pause and give myself time has really had a great impact on several areas of my life. This concept may seem like a no-brainer to some people, but I tend to “go-go-GO!” and plow through my day’s tasks and moments, often …

2 mins read

“Feeling your Feelings” is not the full story…

We often hear “emotional eating experts” encourage women to “feel their feelings” instead of “numb out” with food. Which is somewhat sound advice, as there is no doubt in my mind that getting in touch with your emotions is incredibly important for reasons that have nothing to do with whether or not you eat over them — I encourage my clients to feel their feelings whether they eat while doing so or not.  That being said,   thinking we can live a life without coping mechanisms is totally unrealistic — it goes against our biological instincts to seek pleasure and avoid pain.  You will experience discomfort for the rest of your life, and you will reach for some kind of coping mechanism to deal with at least a …

2 mins read

“I MUST lose weight to feel better about myself”

When I ask women why they want to lose weight, they almost always tell me… “because I want to feel better in my body.”  which is such a funny answer to me, because I know that how we feel in our body has nothing to do with our weight…I feel a million times better in my body today than I ever did at my lowest weight, and I’m at least 30lbs heavier now than I was then. Here’s a little story to make my point even clearer:  There are two woman, who both weigh 160lbs. One woman recently lost 50lbs, she’s down from 210lbs; the other, recently gained 20lbs, she’s up from 140lbs. They are the exact same size today. But one feels thin, sexy …

3 mins read

What does "normal" eating even mean?

So the first question that usually comes out of people’s mouths when I say the phrase “normal eating,” is something along the lines of “what does ‘normal’ eating even mean?” Like, most of us “get” that there are people in the world who don’t really think about food, and just eat what they want, and naturally end up eating an “appropriate” amount food without really trying, because they don’t really care about food that much to begin with.  but we don’t understand how. “What are they doing that I’m not?!” “I don’t understand people like that!” It took me a really long time to understand and emulate “normal eaters,” and that’s because I was approaching “trying to be normal” in all the…

3 mins read

Reality check: ALL eating is “emotional”

People often ask me, do you really never eat emotionally anymore? To which I usually reply something along the lines of, “of course not, everyone eats emotionally sometimes…and anyone who tells you differently is either lying OR pretty f’ing crazy around food (read: restrictive).” As my friend Wendy Shanker once said, “there are only 6 people who eat food righteously as fuel, and all six of them are Kenyan Marathon runners.” More on that here… Lately, however, I’ve been re-framing my answer to this question, because at this point in my eating career, I don’t really categorize my behaviors as either “emotional” or “for physical hunger” in my mind anymore. The truth is, my food choices are rarely, if ever, either “emotional” or “physical.” …

1 min read

What is your “I-can’t-stop-once-I-pop” food?

Sweets drive you crazy? Can’t have one bite of ice cream without eating the whole pint? Maybe it’s chips? Peanut Butter? Kentucky Fried Chicken? Feel free to get weird. And let me tell you a little something about your favorite “addictive” foods. The only time you will ever feel “out of control” around a specific food, is when you’re trying to control it to begin with. Somewhere, somehow, you are judging, shaming, or limiting yourself around that food. You are calling it “bad.” You are wishing you didn’t want it. You are worrying you will lose control, gain weight, get caught. You are handing that food power over you, by fearing it. If you don’t believe me, try naming one food that “drives you crazy…