Evolving Stacey

#OurVoices – How Does Your Family Celebrate Valentine’s Day?

Stacey — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:00:37 +0000

I had a blast shooting this Valentine’s Day segment for a new video series on TheChicagoMoms.com called #OurVoices. You can join the conversation by making your own video, uploading it to YouTube and tagging it with #OurVoices.

Participating TheChicagoMoms.com bloggers:
Stacey Weckstein, Alison Ray, Melisa Wells,
Vanessa Druckman, Dwana De La Cerna, Beth Rosen.
Produced by MJ Tam.

Ghirardelli Chocolate is My Small Indulgence

Stacey — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:56:04 +0000

Room for Indulgence

If you saw my Weight Watchers video last week, you’ll know that I’ve had a hard time getting back into a healthy eating routine. Truth be told, I haven’t been 100% on my Weight Watchers program since mid-December. I start with good intentions every morning and by 4pm I somehow find a piece of bread or pita chips in my mouth and it goes downhill from there.

I love Weight Watchers because it’s a lifestyle more than a diet and because the PointsPlus system guides me towards smarter choices (when I follow the program) and gives me room for indulgences (indulgences with boundaries).

I will get back on the program (this is a public commitment to myself) starting February 23, 2012.

Premium Chocolate Extravaganza!

For me, indulgence means chocolate or spa treatments. Both at the same time? Even better! I can’t always afford a day at the spa, but I can afford to splurge on a 2 point Ghirardelli chocolate square. Y-U-M!

In January I received a gift pack from Ghirardelli that included their new milk chocolate line, Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk. My gift pack included Gourmet Milk Creamy Devotion with creamy 32% cacao milk chocolate, Gourmet Milk Sea Salt Escape with sea salt and almonds and Gourmet Milk Coconut Rendezvous with toasted coconut.

I was told I could offer this gift pack as a prize on my blog or keep it for myself!

Did I mention I had fallen off of Weight Watchers and that I love chocolate? Needless to say, my family (yes, I shared) has been in a chocolate oasis for the last few weeks. Even the coconut infused chocolate was divine.

Going forward with my weight loss journey, I won’t intentionally eat that much chocolate in such a short amount of time, but I will incorporate chocolate into my daily Weight Watchers point allowance.

If I stay within my daily points, I know adding premium chocolate to my lifestyle will add a bit of indulgence to my daily routine without breaking the bank or breaking my scale.

Discloser: The Ghirardelli chocolate mentioned in this post was provided to me free of charge. Opinions are 100% our own.

Escaping Corporate America (Starting with How I Got There in the First Place)

Stacey — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:24:49 +0000

(This is part one of the My Story series.)

Before I tell you how I left Corporate America, I’d like to start out with how I got there in the first place.

It was March 2005. A time before Twitter and before I even knew blogs existed. My husband was doing a post-doc at the University of Illinois – Champaign/Urbana and we were living in central Illinois, surrounded by corn fields. The corn fields stifled my essence and suffocated by soul.

It was also a time when I only had one little baby, when our expenses were low, and when I was able to work part time and be home with my little one part time. Being home with my little one was amazing, but otherwise, I was going stir crazy.

My part time job was becoming more and more menial, so I decided to quit and be independent contractor. I got a few gigs and spent a lot of time searching online for contract positions. During my freelance job hunt, I saw a job opening just outside of Chicago.

The job description for this corporate training consulting position looked exciting, intellectually stimulating, and it promised 10-15% travel (not too much time away from my family, but enough to be able to jump on a plane for a few adventures).

Long story short….I applied and got the job, which came with the largest starting salary of my career!

Ka-Ching!

By mid-April, we packed up our house and moved from Cornfield, USA, to Chicago’s North Shore.

And by May, 2005, I was a full-time working mom and corporate training consultant for Fortune 500 companies. A new chapter of my life began to unfold.

Weight Watchers Wednesday: My Struggles

Stacey — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:05:11 +0000

January was a struggle regarding my weight loss. I was not in control and did not feel on track towards my weight loss success. I failed to meet 2 out of my 3 new year’s resolutions, which including exercising more and going to Weight Watcher meetings every week.

The truth is, the more off track I went, the more I didn’t want to go a Weight Watchers meeting.

**Sigh**

I know success is standing up every time I fall. So here I am, standing up again. Tomorrow is another day.

Click here if you can’t see this Weight Watchers video.

Checking Out In Home Spa Services

Stacey — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:42:14 +0000

Add a some back fat to this picture and you’ll get a sense of what I’ll be looking like tomorrow…. read more.

Where Living My Dream Unfolds

Stacey — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:44:29 +0000

This morning I changed my blog’s tagline to “Where living my dream unfolds” because I am living my dream and am finally reading to write about it. I want to write about…

How I left my corporate job.
How I started my business.
How I’m growing my business.
How I’m living my passion.
How vital my support team is to me.
How I use the law of attraction to work with my dream clients.
How much I love social media engagement and relationship marketing.
And…oh…there is still so much more I want to write about.

Living my dream means being full of gratitude, listening to my intuition, and being open and receptive to abundance and prosperity.

Living my dream means…

Sending out my ships knowing some will return full of treasures.
Trusting the Universe.
Being mindful about my business choices.
Taking responsibility for my financial decisions.
Allowing myself to take a nap in the middle of the day if I’m tired.
Embracing courage and letting go of fear.

Are you living your dream?

photo background credit

Meditating For Five Minutes A Day

Stacey — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:00:52 +0000

Can You Meditate For Five Minutes A Day?

Last Friday, I saw this tweet and decided to join @upsdownsyogamom in a daily 5 minute meditation practice for one week.

I know there are different ways to meditate and different meditation techniques out there, but I prefer guided meditation because it helps my mind from wondering.

I love all things spa and find it extremely relaxing listening to guided meditations that have spa-like tranquil meditation music. I have several meditation CDs, but when I want something new to meditate with, I can find endless free online meditation options on iTunes (podcasts) and YouTube.

This is How I Have Been Meditating for the Past Week…

Day 1: Grounding Meditation by Sunny Dawn Johnston

Day 2: Mommy Meditations by Kerri Parks

Day 3: Archangel Michael Protection Meditation by Sunny Dawn Johnston

Day 4: Tranquility Meditation by Stevan Pasero

Day5: Morning Chakra Meditation

Day 6: Ocean Guided Meditation by Deepak Chopra

Day 7: Mindfulness Guided Meditation with Deepak Chopra

Do you meditate? If yes, how do you meditate?

Weight Watchers Wednesdays Are Back!

Stacey — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:36:04 +0000

Needless to say, December was a very challenging month, with temptations everywhere I looked. But I did manage to lose 1.6 pounds on Weight Watchers last month.

The hardest part now is getting back into weight loss mode, to track everything I eat, and to really get focused on hitting my goal weight. On some winter days, there’s a sabotaging voice inside my head trying to convince me that eating comfort food really is better than losing weight….

…and I’m guilty of sometimes listening to that sabotaging voice inside my head.

Moving Forward!

Chore Charts for Kids

Stacey — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:19:29 +0000

A new year for this evolving family means new rules and new chores for my kids.

New chores means I need some sort of system or chore chart for kids to ensure this is going to be successful. I was invited to review chore charts for kids from GoalForIt.com and thought it was a perfect tool to try because it’s free, interactive, and online (3 of my favorite things).

I created a chore chart for both of my kids on GoalForIt.com using pre-populated chore options. We are starting with the following chores on our charts…

Ready for school
Put things away
Clean my room
Practice my reading
Help clear table
Go to bed on time
Brush my teeth
Exercise

The chore charts were easy to create and I hope my kids will be motivated to fill their charts in everyday (and I hope I’m motivated enough to remind them).

There is a “moolah bank”, which is an optional point system I can use as an incentive for my boys to complete their goals each day. I can assign point values to each goal and the boys can spend their moolah points on things like watching TV and Wii.

Love the concept…but will it actually work in this household?

Time will tell. Stay tuned.

Disclosure: I was compensated for this review. Opinions are 100% my own.

Still Talking About 2012 New Year’s Resolutions

Stacey — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 23:07:31 +0000

I’ll Start Monday

It’s January 7 and so far I am not meeting 2 out of my 3 New Year’s Resolutions (exercise and tracking my Weight Watcher points). I know it’s a cliche to say “I’ll start Monday”, but I’m going to say it anyway. My kids were out of school the first week of January and it was too much for me to get focused on anything not related to my boys.

So, I’ll start Monday.

How are you doing with your New Year’s Resolutions?

Here’s what some of my blogging friends had to say about their New Year’s Resolutions…

photo credit: http://www.jucoolimages.com

Disclosure: I am working on the Trop50 True Resolutions campaign and was compensated for this post. My opinions are 100% my own.