That's on a salad plate. Last week I read The Skinnygirl Rules: For Getting and Staying Naturally Thin by Bethanny Frankel. Don't judge. I love her on Bravo, and since I've gotten the Kindle App for my Blackberry, I've read more books in one week than I have the entire 2 years since I had the toddler. Anyhoo, one of her rules is to serve your meals up on smaller plates. Seems easy enough and it does seem to help trick your mind into thinking you've gotten a bigger portion .

Then we finished off with a little dessert. I love summer.

So what's with the food photos, kim from kimworld, you ask? Well, I got lost in a wonderful blog today called Carrots 'N' Cake. Tina, the blog author started her blog by photographing everything she ate to keep her on track on her goal to lose weight before her wedding. Something just struck me when I read that, and, well, I can use any help I can get to keep me on the eating healthy/exercising/losing weight trend. I'm going to borrow the idea for awhile and see if it sticks.

Does banana creme pie photograph well? Hope so. Just kidding. I think.

I jotted some notes down so that I could shop at home. I've collected them all into a page on amazon. Hopefully this can help others who weren't there or didn't have time to discover some great books! Here's the link:

63 Books from BlogHer 2010 Bookstore

What's your favorite of the bunch?

First, please calm down. Breathe slowly  into the brown-bag-o-panic with me. Life is so good with the internet, but it is important to remember that, in fact, the internet is so good because of life. Your life. My life. Our lives. And life will go on.

Our passions really make up who we are, and the internet is the tool we use to communicate about those passions. So the day after tomorrow, I might not blogging about my latest find that makes me feel like a supermom (tm), or living vicariously through a favorite blogger who has moved. to. Paris. for three months (the nerve!), or reading tweets with pride that the peeps over at Baby Bargains have discovered my favorite baby gear and toy store in all the land, but I will still be sharing my passion with you wherever we meet.

I love ink pens and paper; fancy hotels; and trashy reality series. I love my baby's blue eyes and his daddy's great smile. I love products that make life easier and also ones that are beautifully useless. And, please, do not step in between me and a banana creme pie. And, one thing that I really love is hearing about the passions that fuel you - the running, the knitting, politics, and more.

So, please oh blogosphere, don't you forget about me because I certainly won't be forgetting you.

After our little bundle arrived, we've been wondering how to give him a little taste of giving back in toddler terms during the holiday season. We have lots of ideas as he gets a little older

• decorating stockings for ladies at WLP;
• selecting and delivering the coloring sheets we provide for the kids that attend the holiday dinner at the WLP
• picking presents for a child of the same age in a family that we sponsor at the WLP

It will still be a work in progress this year as he's still a little too small at 15 months to grasp what we're doing.

In the meantime, one of our favorite brand of shoes, Robeez, is doing something awesome to give back this year.  Robeez will be donating a pair of soft sole shoes to K.I.D.S. with every soft sole purchased through December 23rd. K.I.D.S. is a charity, Kids in Distressed Situations, that helps children in need all over the world.

The little one loves his Penguin Robeez. I think he'll like his new pair of boots too! Take a look at their soft soled shoes - boys and girls. Trust me, they make fantastic gifts. And remember for every pair you buy, a needy child will receive a pair.

How about you? Any ideas for getting little ones involved in Giving Back Projects during this time of year?

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FTC Disclosure: While we love Robeez, this was not my brainchild. Help spread the word!

Live in the Boston area? Click here to find out the many ways you can help the Women's Lunch Place.
Everyone can click here to donate to the Women's Lunch Place.

It's no secret that I'm not sure what I'm doing around here yet. But I've been hanging around twitter for a little bit getting to know a pretty awesome group of people 140 characters at a time. Back in October, the stars aligned in the form of a visit from grandma that allowed me and mr. kimword to attend the aiminglow in the city event sponsored by hp. I got to meet a handful of the people in person that I follow on twitter including Anissa Mayhew.

We had a fairly brief discussion that covered so many topics, but one topic keeps running through my brain and making me laugh out loud. She was on her way to New York City later in the week for another aiminglow in the city event, and she said that someone had given her a list of all of Museums and Gallerys and their corresponding days of the week that they offered wine and cocktails for free. We both laughed at the creativity of a person that would put together that list. A list for some sort of grown up pub crawl...a gallery crawl really. Perfect! Anissa is definitely my kind of funny lady.

I'm writing today because Anissa had a serious stroke yesterday that has her in the hospital. There's lots of thoughts and prayers going out to Anissa and her family and a process has been setup quickly to handle the bucketloads of help that is sure to follow. If you are reading this, please stop and say a prayer and send a wave of goodness to Anissa and her family. They are bound to need every little last bit of it. Then, if you don't know Anissa (or really even if you do), head on over to twitter and read some of the lol-full-o-funny-ness of this very cool lady including her last tweet before this awful event:

One of my favorite funny posts is the play-by-play of Anissa's Twitterstalking of Ralph Macchio. And after scanning the twitter feed this morning, I came across this little doozy that Anissa is going to LOVE.

You can find more Anissa at Free Anissa; at AimingLow; at Mayhew Review; and at Blog Nosh Magazine.

Update: Link to Today Show Segment about Spanking feature Anissa that aired today

There's no better time than the present they say, and, frankly, I am sick of the excuses. The excuses that come out of my mouth, and especially the ones that I tell myself. Time to get a move on. The baby is 14 months old. That makes it TWENTY FIVE months since the pregnancy started. That's a long time to hang onto the I'm pregnant/I've just had a baby excuse. Enough.

So, for the next 16 weeks, I'll be taking things up a notch on the exercise front.  I've been doing strength and cardio workouts about three times a week at a gym that does small group training. I'll be continuing that. In addition, once a day I'll be doing an exercise video.

Weeks 1-6
The Biggest Loser: The Workout - Boot Camp and The Biggest Loser: The Workout - Weight Loss Yoga

Weeks 7-12
The Biggest Loser Workout: Cardio Max and The Biggest Loser: The Workout - Weight Loss Yoga

Weeks 13-16
Jillian Michaels - 30 Day Shred Lord. Help. Me.

I'll also go on walks with the boy and try to squeeze a swim in where I can. It seems like a lot to take on, but this doing a little here and little there is just not working.

Plus I'm going to update my progress on this blog...stay tuned.

Are you looking to lose weight? Now thanks to his blog, Conquering Diabetes, on WebMD, you don't have get weighed in front of all of America to benefit from his diet and exercise wisdom. Have diabetes or know someone who does? Don't wait, start reading now!

I thought this was an inspiring story of how a regular person told diabetes to take a hike:
A Diabetes Reversal Story, Part I
A Diabetes Reversal Story, Part II
A Diabetes Reversal Story, Part III

• Now the mother of an 8.5 month old. Whaaat? Where does the time go?
• Dr. D and I are on  a mission to get some of this weight off.
• Which has led to working through a six week program to boost willpower based on The Beck Diet Solution. I'm on day 9 of 42. More to come on this.

There's a lot going on, and the real world reality of work/life balance has slapped me in the face. I'm looking forward to trying to sort all of that out here now that I'm back in the swing of things.