Jan 24 2013

Scale Me Up!

So this is scary… I’m (kind of) putting my weight out there to the world (yes, this has officially been an international blog for weeks) and I’m showing my vulnerable side here people so please BE KIND!

With that said, I got on the scale yesterday and today and I’ve maintained my weight since last week. I dropped 8 pounds fast in the first two weeks of this challenge and I tried to slow it up a bit this last week by eating that lovely Truffle Mac & Cheese and Bacon-wrapped dates at my first Starbucks Evenings (come on… anything with bacon is BETTER!) but I’m back to watching this figure and hand-writing my daily diet diary to keep track (Jillian Michaels your app is still going haywire!). So far this week has been all about Evolution Fresh wraps, noodle bowls hard-boiled eggs and of course their green and spicy lemonade juices (also trying to utilize that 20% off coupon till Feb. 7th!). I picked up a bunch of the almond nut packs at the Starbucks store yesterday and have been enjoying the Tazo Tea, the Refreshers or good old fashion water as my drink choices. I hope to lose another 2-4 pounds before Valentines month pops up because I already have special plans for a get-away weekend in which a special person is planning on purchasing everything from Starbucks and bringing it with us! (how thoughtful and supportive is that?!)

So far, so good… this Starbucks diet thing really is working. Don’t believe me still? Check out the news from Christine Hall “Starbucks Diet” last year. Christine and I offer living proof that this calorie counting/losing weight option from the Starbucks menu works!

Jan 16 2013

Movie night

Last night I was tending to a couple of colds in our family so we decided to make it a movie night on Netflix by seeing The Lorax and having some… what else? Starbucks butter popcorn!

The bag is only 150 calories and is nice and buttery, just like movie popcorn!

But even with 240mg of sodium, one bag of Starbucks popcorn has much less sodium than the average small bag of movie popcorn coming in at a whopping 550mg! *center for science in the public interest*

We have been laying low this week making sure the kids get better so that we can take our first trip this weekend to Nana & Papa’s farm. Taking a trip to the farm wouldn’t normally be an issue except now because of mommy’s challenge it makes me a bit nervous because the fact is that Nana & Papa’s farm is at least 20 minutes from any Starbucks! I will be posting all about the trip, what I packed and if we needed to make any trips to the local Starbucks?!

My family is also interested in what items Evolution Fresh offers compared to the juices they stock in the local Starbucks store so I’m going to bring samples to have them test out and report back on with this weekend’s wrap up.

Jan 14 2013

Weekend Wrap Up 1-13-13

This weekend wrap up is back on topic with the month of January’s focus on New Years Resolutions of weight. Weight loss, weight maintain… and hopefully not weight gain when eating/drinking ONLY Starbucks items!

I weighted myself again on Saturday and found to have lost over 3 pounds this week again. BOY, I never knew I would drop pounds so quickly on a Starbucks diet?! BUT, I do think that is dropping weight a little too quickly (thanks for the discussion on our FB page Morgan) so I am incorporating some baked goods again and ate 1/2 a molasses cookie with my son on Saturday and 1/4 of an oatmeal cookie (again with both my son’s) on Sunday. I’ve been trying to keep track of all my food choices for weeks on the Jillian Michaels app but found out last week that the app is having some “bugs” and is doubling up certain items on some days and deleting the entire food log of other days?! So, I think I’m going to just take notes the old fashion way from now on and make sure that I don’t lose information anymore.

Weekend choices:

Saturday: oatmeal, decaf tea, nut pack, Evolution Fresh orange juice/nut pack, 1/2 molasses cookie, Tarragon chicken salad sandwich,water/chicken chipotle wraps (not my favorite), water, 1/2 cup java chip ice cream

Sunday: oatmeal, decaf tea/1/4 oatmeal cookie, nut pack, goat cheese bistro box/Kevin’s Quinoa hot simmer, water and Defense Up Evolution Fresh juice (feel a tinge of this cold coming on)

Besides the watching calories portion of this challenge (and because of comments from readers all over the world this last week) I’m also now tracking my sodium levels and making my future purchases based off of four main criteria: 1) Cost 2) Calories 3) Sodium 4) Volume. I’m hoping that this updated equation helps me keep my weight consistent (or at least only losing 1-2 pounds a week) and keep those average daily costs down. I think that I freaked everybody out last week when the media went crazy with the $18-$20 dollars a day average that I was spending (on the day that I was interviewed) but NO, I’m not averaging that high of a daily cost! And I’m also trying to see how much money I can save on this challenge too, so the cost is going into the equation from now on too.

Speaking of saving money… Sunday night I used the Evolution Fresh COUPON that just came out for 20% off your entire order (one customer, one coupon per day). I was SO EXCITED to save money! *Thanks for the coupon (available to anybody) Starbucks, I really needed that!*

One of the reasons I was so excited about the coupon was because I attended Lina’s (the Bellevue Evolution Fresh Assistant Manager) juicing event with my kids! So actually that coupon was for multiple people and for multiple days worth of my food/drink intake, but at least I can use the coupon again up until February 8th. So between the excellent juice information from Lina (on her own time with friends and NOT as a representative of Evolution Fresh) and spending the time with my family, it was a most enjoyable evening! Just look at how much fun we all had…

Our family enjoying their Evolution Fresh juice tastings…

Lina filled us all with tons of information and a lot of the great Evolution Fresh juice flavors too!

Thanks to Lina and friends, Evolution Fresh Bellevue staff and my family for a great end to this week!

Jan 12 2013

Starbucks Style Saturdays Vol. 1

This week I met up with Kerry Moore for the first Starbucks Style Saturday photo shoot. Kerry is a friend on Foursquare and the owner of an absolutely fabulous boutique in Pioneer Square called Vintage & Moore.

Vintage & Moore has incredible vintage and designer items that sparkle, shine and glimmer when you walk in the door! It is a grown-up girls dress-up dream in one spot AND it is right next door to a Starbucks! How perfect is that for our first post blending my challenge with the styles found on Starbucks regulars?!

Just look at a recent outfit inspiration in her shop…

Thanks Kerry, you are a beautiful model that has a fabulous smile and amazing clothes! See you on social media (or a local Starbucks) real soon!

Jan 12 2013

Getting Schooled

Today, for the majority of the day, I spent all my time with over 400 Tweens (and my son) at a Seattle-area museum. Half the time was on a bus… fun!

Between bus trips, herding people and trying to catch some information from the displays I found my phone was out of juice! I usually carry a backup battery for such occasions but not today. I also came to the realization about the same time that I was running out of juice! I didn’t get the best sleep last night so today’s trip was a bit harder to get through.

For lunch I brought a ham & cheese Panini and a bottle of Mocha frappuccino. I thought the caffeine would help my tired condition but shortly after lunch I found myself feeling a little bit too caffeinated, so I pulled out my Venti water and finished it off quick which helped.

The museum trip turned out great with all the kids back at school and my son invited to another birthday party (so important as a tween) and mommy did get to capture some great moments of art and history!

I’m looking forward to this weekends Starbucks Style Saturdays post and my Evolution Fresh juice fast. After the slight caffeinated feeling I think a 3-day juice cleanse will be perfect!

Decaf is my new best friend.

Jan 9 2013

Let’s do lunch

Today I enrolled a few family members to join me in a Starbucks lunch at the Mercer Island store before a meeting.

I had been talking about just how wonderful I thought the Turkey Rustico Panini was for the last week so that was on the menu as well as a Roasted Tomato & Mozzarella Panini, bananas, latte’s, San Pellegrini and a nice Goat cheese and Garden veggies Bistro box! What a lovely lunch we all had and everybody was in agreement on the Panini’s… wonderful!

This evening I tried to go back to something that I adore doing during the colder winter months… baking! I have been hesitant to bake because I often like to “try” the goodies I make but knew with this challenge that I had to just get the temptation over with and do it! And with today’s ultra-rainy weather I really got my mind fixed on using those browning banana’s in my pantry to make a few muffins for the kids.

I tried my hardest not to eat any of the baked items and instead took a couple of bites of my Starbucks Caramel Macchiato ice cream that I bought at QFC yesterday. I will admit to you all right now that I did indeed lick the batter-covered spoon, initially it happened out of bad habit… but it happened. I guess you can say that this was my first “Oops” moment of this year of eating/drinking only Starbucks. All I know is that I’m gonna have to be REALLY CAREFUL when I make cookie batter in the future… but maybe if Starbucks decides to make Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream then I might not be so tempted to lick those spoons?!

Jan 6 2013

Weekend Wrap Up

Over the weekends of busy families, it’s not always easy for a mommy to post every little thing that goes on even though there are many things to talk about! So today is the introduction to my #WeekendWrapUp posts. Basically a small blow-by-blow of topics from Friday to Monday mornings. So here is the first Weekend Wrap Up!

1. #GoHAWKS

Today is a big day for our local Seattle Seahawks and our whole town has gone #12thMan on everybody! Including this blog with my own Starbucks version of my support. This time SUPER BOWL ALL THE WAY!!! (last time we were ROBBED!)

2. Besides the obvious that’s about to take up an entire Sunday for most Washingtonians… I would like to say that two of my newly tried dishes from Starbucks and Evolution Fresh have been so YUMMY! The Turkey Rustico Panini is going to become a staple sandwich for me, and the Quinoa-Kale-Spinach dinner (hot simmer) is just so low in calories (305 cal) and so filling that I had to have a second one this weekend!

3. My January plan to monitor my weight and possibly LOSE WEIGHT is working! Happy to report that this week I have lost 2 pounds! I didn’t hit the treadmill hard yet because of an auto-accident last year that keeps me in pain a lot with limited lifting and maneuverability most days. But the doctor does want me to get more active so hopefully the added exercise will help shed more pounds! But I do have to keep to my Jillian Michael’s app and watch those calories, no splurging on cookies and Venti Caramel Macchiatos yet!

4. GO HAWKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jan 5 2013

Introducing… Starbucks Style Saturdays!

Today was the first Saturday of my challenge year and I thought it would be a good time to introduce my #StarbucksStyleSaturday posts! This week Linda Thomas from KIRO asked for a photo of me with a Starbucks sign in it for her story. I’ve been running around to different stores trying to capture some fun image on Instagram to give to her and it made me think about how I wanted to do these style postings. Basically the concept is that on Saturdays of this year-long challenge I will be showcasing a really great outfit – ensemble – style that I’ve encountered while frequenting all the Starbucks and Starbucks-inspired stores (such as Roy Street Coffee, Tazo Tea and Evolution Fresh) for viewers!

I came up with this integration of coffee and fashion since I used to design my own children’s environmental clothing line (EdgeweaR) AND I am a thrift-fashion-blogger for a great local nonprofit (Lifelong Thrift) so basically I like to keep current with recent fashion trends.

Lucky for me these #StarbucksStyleSaturday posts will allow me to showcase both the challenge and Starbucks fashionistas(ers)!

I have not captured any regulars or partners yet but since Linda asked for a photo I’ll start the show with a couple of my own to get the ball rolling….

I hope you like this weekly switch from a foodie-focus to the fashion one!

MI Starbucks Headshot

Jan 2 2013

And so it begins…

Today is the first day of only eating/drinking Starbucks items for all of 2013 and I have lots to share! First of all I started my day with Evolution Fresh orange juice that I purchased at Whole Foods yesterday to make sure I stocked up my fridge. I already am getting great tips from partners on how to buy larger quantities of Starbucks products that I will share in my $$$money-saving-month$$$ but for January I’m focusing on New Years resolutions of weight loss, so back to today’s findings…

I started my day with only some fresh orange juice and waited to eat until a little later because I had a baby shower to attend and wanted to make sure I was not going to the party hungry because I knew there would be so many goodies there!

See, I brought my Starbucks Refresher and Turkey & Swiss sandwich in the car on the way to the party!

As I mentioned above this whole month of January I am focusing my Starbucks challenge on the topic of weight loss. I chose to focus on weight loss for a couple of reasons; first I have had many comments already made about how I’m going to gain weight this year, this I know doesn’t have to be true because when I decided to do this challenge last summer I heard about a woman who did a similar challenge to loose weight! So I knew that it was possible to not only keep my current weight but to also possibly loose weight if I coordinated it properly. Thirdly, I decided to focus on weight loss because at this time of year for millions of people loosing weight always tops their New Years resolution lists.

So to prepare for this month I downloaded Jillian Michaels app on my phone so I can keep track of my calories and workouts based on my current weight and my target weight (about 20 pounds less) which is harder if I keep attending parties with goodies like today?!

I have been using this app for over two weeks prior to starting my challenge and not only love the exercise and diet recommendations but the already extensive food lists and especially the UPC code scanner/reader! I’ve been using the scanner a bunch and adding Starbucks items already today. Like my second trip through the Juanita drive-through I picked up dinner with a Ham & Swiss panini but was given the sandwich in a hot bag with no calorie information. I asked for their caloric chart but they did not have any so they suggested that i look up the information on the Starbucks app (which is really helpful BTW) and I did get the information I needed for my Jillian Michaels records.

And so it begins… 365 days of Starbucks with each month a special topic to focus on such as weight loss, saving money and even attending social events! Stay updated, the adventure has just begun!

Dec 30 2012

Ready, Set, Starbucks!

These last couple of holiday weeks I’ve been receiving many gifts to aid in my year-long challenge in 2013 to only eat/drink Starbucks (Tazo, Evolution Fresh) and I’ve been so grateful! One of the many comments I’ve gotten from people who know about my challenge is “that is going to be expensive!” So I have been asking for gifts to help and boy did my loved ones come through!

Thanks for everybody that has been supporting this project so far, I do plan to save all my receipts this year and do a tally monthly and at the end of the year.

Another Starbucks topic came up this week when I was with my mother and sister (who works at Starbucks) and it was around Starbucks high value on customer service…

My mother had a recent experience at a Centralia store where she was denied breaking a $100 bill when paying for her coffee. She ended up leaving and breaking it at a bank then going to another coffee shop and getting her mocha. When my sister heard this she asked who the person was that denied to break the $100 bill and then went into how much Starbucks really emphasizes customer service and that they shouldn’t have gotten “pissy” about the big bill.

This is one of the reasons I decided to do the year-long challenge with Starbucks; I wanted to help show others what I already knew from family and friend partners (Starbucks code for staff) about all the environmental and job-creation/job-benefits and community building this local company does! Things like their high customer service standard which is almost obsolete now days with most other companies! I have two days left till my entire year of ONLY Starbucks starts and the message on my cup from the Centralia store sums it all up…

1 Woman, 1 Year, 1 Challenge

Welcome to my year of challenge living!

Tag Archives: Starbucks and Stripes Forever