Chronicles of a Curly Head: Gumaholic anonymous..

Good morning and Happy Wednesday everyone!

I have a pretty good case of the morning curls today.

Quite pleased with my 8 am afro.

I can't begin today's post without eating breakfast first - it just isn't possible!

While I prepare breakfast - I always eat dark chocolate - 85% dark chocolate to be specific. I have to get my antioxidants for the day....and my chocolate :)

What's on the menu: Peanut butter and honey toast with 2 fried egg whites on top, cottage cheese with pinapple, a veggie sausage pattie, orange juice and coffee!

Yummmmmmm. So good!

Now that i'm fed - let's get this post up and running!

I have a lot to talk about - so do your best to keep up....

I am a gumaholic...

Yep, you heard me. I’m a gumaholic. What is a gumaholic? Exactly what it sounds like. I constantly chew gum. I am at about ½-1 pack a day - I can’t stop. Chewing gum is one of my only vices – and it wont be very easy giving it up.

The main reason I chew gum: It prevents me from gaining 3947239847 pounds. How?

I’m the kind of person who gets hungry every hour on the hour. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ll feed myself if I’m actually hungry, but sometimes it’s not really hunger – it’s just my body tricking itself into thinking I’m hungry. (Did you know that the act of chewing and salivating begins the process of digestion?) By chewing gum, I’m tricking my trickster stomach into thinking that I’m eating. (Take that stomach!!).

Gum = maintained weight = happy Jenna.

I hope gum chewing doesn’t negatively impact my jaw in the long run…..or my teeth.
I’ve been seriously thinking about giving it up. Is there a such thing as “Gumaholics Anonymous? I need help.

This video is equal parts: amazing, mesmerizing, and absolutely fantastic...

I can’t keep my eyes off. How does he do it!?

I think I might have a new favorite Clif bar flavor….

Crazy isn’t it? I’ve been a firm believer that there is no better flavor than the ‘Oatmeal raisin walnut’, and I’m usually a very big advocate of my protein bars tasting like protein/ energy bars on opposed to some sort of dessert. BUTTTT…..I’m a person who can admit when they’re wrong, or being a little too hasty. And this is me admitting….that I’ve been wrong, and I’ve been hasty.

My new favorite clif bar encompases everything I hate about most energy bars.

Chocolate brownie is absolutely delicious! I didn’t think I would like it at all! I assumed that, like all other chocolate and/or candy flavored energy bars, I would hate it for being too sweet, or too desserty (desserty? Lol) or not enough to satisfy my hunger. But I was wrong.

My top 3 Favorites:

1.) Chocolate brownie 2.) Oatmeal Raisin Walnut 3.) Black Cherry Almond
Please give one of these bars a try. They’re a very good meal substitute, and great snacks on

Hey girls - have curly hair and don’t know what to do with it?

Fear not! Watch this video! Maiysha has amazing tips, and uses a lot of the same products I use in my hair every day! Make sure to pay close attention to what she has to say, because some of these tips could make or break the way your curly head looks!

I love how she finishes off by saying “Happy curly”. Made me smile J

I used to talk so much about my hair, and curls in general, but now curls have kind of fallen to the wayside – and food has taken over. I’ve decided to begin featuring more curly hair tips, more products, and I’m going to feature more ‘real’ curly headed people (not just celebrities).

So for all of you fellow mop heads – be on the look out!

It’s official – I am once again obsessed with the once popular now cancelled television series Pushing Daisies…

What is Pushing Daisies?
Only the best television show EVER.

This explains everything....well....everything within the first season:

Why the love for a tv show?

For one, it’s absolutely amazing down to every last detail. The dialogue, the characters, the actors, the wardrobe, the set design, the music, EVERYTHING is amazing. This show is complete perfection. I could talk about Pushing Daisies for days. I leave you with this lovely/old interview with Anna Friel and Lee Pace:

This is usually the part where I post pictures and such that I find noteworthy.....

beautiful, interesting, etc. – but since I have so many photos every day, I decided to turn it into a featured section! This section will not have a tab at the top of my blog like the rest do, but that’s only because there are so many pictures, and no way to organize them. So each day you can find art right underneath the featured restaurant section, and right above the kitchen gadget section!

I hope you enjoy this new improvement.

I hope you all have a wonderful day!!

Let us begin….

[[Today’s music]]

(1) NEON TREES – ANIMAL

I love this song. Makes me wanna dance.

Here we go again

 I kinda wanna be more than friends 

So take it easy on me 

I'm afraid you're never satisfied. 

 Here we go again 

(2) BRANDON FLOWERS - MAGDANELA

Brandon Flowers is a beautiful beautiful beautiful hunk of a man.
It’s safe to say that he makes me weak in the knees.

“Please don't tell me I can't make it

It aint gonna do me any good

And please don't offer me your modern method

By fixing the carpets out of wood”

[[Today’s restaurant]]

LE’ATELIER de Joel Robuchon

(Locations abroad: Check out the website to see one nearest you)

http://www.restaurants-joel-robuchon.com/index_fr.php

[[Today's blog findings]]

While going through my daily "blog check" (which is where I peruse through the many blogs I follow) today I came across a lot of pictures that I find interesting, funny, cool, beautiful, and/or wonderful in one way or another:

[[Today’s kitchen gadgets]]

ZYLISS 5 WAY OPENER

5 functions: pops open bottle caps, lifts soda can pop tops, unseals machine-tightened bottle caps, removes pull tabs, and breaks the seal of jar lids.

[[Today’s food clip]]

BEN & JERRY’S TAKES ‘ALL NATURAL’ CLAIMS OFF ICE CREAM LABELS

"Indie ice cream pioneer Ben & Jerry's will be dropping the phrase "All Natural" from some of its ice cream and frozen yogurt cartons, it announced today.

The flavors containing alkalized cocoa, corn syrup, and partially hydrogenated soybean oil particularly irked the folks over at the Center for the Science in the Public Interest, who had asked the company to stop using "all natural" claims last month in a letter to parent company Unilever. That leads us to wonder, if Ben & Jerry's — Insert catchphrase "Peace, Love and Ice Cream" here — isn't natural, then what is?

Apparently, the USDA allows meat and poultry to be labeled "natural" if they don't include artificial colors or ingredients, and are not more than "minimally processed." But the rest of the food supply's definition of natural is up for grabs. The FDA doesn't define the word "natural," so it's used by a variety of food manufacturers in an effort to imply their products are somehow better for us. We've seen it on everything from potato chips to cereal boxes.

“The Food and Drug Administration could do consumers and food manufacturers a great service by actually defining when the word ‘natural’ can and cannot be used to characterize a given ingredient,” says CSPI's Michael Jacobson. According to MediaPost, a media and marketing pub, Ben & Jerry’s CEO Jostein Solheim stressed that the company uses the most natural ingredients it can find, and feels its products are “all natural” in the way reasonable consumers would understand the term."

Want to read more?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/09/27/130158014/ben-jerry-s-takes-all-natural-claims-off-ice-cream-labels?ft=1&f=1001

[[Today’s random]]

NIKE EXTREME JUST EXPERIENCE IT

"When you are Nike, you just do it. There’s absolutely no point being timid or ordinary. You blaze trails, create trends, draw attention. Here at
Access, we are creating Nike Extreme experiences around the globe. Here are a few of our concepts in which we use the Nike singular swoosh power to create serious buzz. The kind of buzz that goes viral because people love it. Because they are having fun doing it.

This kind of concept/campaign ticks all the boxes. It creates a unique, fun offline experience and then shares it with the online world. You film it, and that becomes the TV ad; you photograph it and that becomes the print ad; and both are used in online and social network campaigns. Put all those together with individual participants’ own social network buzz and you have a run-away funfest across channels.

But it all starts with an offline experience that is big enough to create that initial pick-up spontaneously and authentically. It must be worth their while. Then people will talk about it online, bloggers will feature it, and the rest of media will cover it. When serious, authentic viral kicks in, it proves that consumers loved what you did and want to share it. That is worth more than any push campaign result because it has become THEIR experience.

We start with a swoosh-shaped Nike Extreme Swoosh Toboggan Ride – a toboggan slide shaped like the swoosh. Of course, the toboggans themselves are shaped like swooshes, too. You can try this at the coolest ski resorts of the world.

As it isn’t snowing everywhere, those more inclined to enjoy themselves on the beach get to try the Nike Extreme Swoosh Slide. A fun and bouncy inflatable megaslide in the shape of the swoosh, appearing at the world's coolest beaches.  And who would want to remain bound to the ground? Not those who take off in the Nike Extreme Swoosh Hot Air Balloon. Flying over big cities, the Swoosh can be seen from miles around. When you’ve ticked off all three from your “Must-do Fun” list, you’ll probably be in the need of some new Nikes and you’ll certainly have something to talk about. - Bill Tikos "

http://www.thecoolhunter.net/article/detail/1797/nike-extreme--just-experience-it

[[Today’s food clip]]

IS THERE MORE TO PHILLY STREET FOOD THAN CHEESESTEAKS? HELL YEAH.