Win an XBox Live living room makeover!
Mar 5, 2010 Product Giveaway
My XBox Life
XBox has been a big part of my life for years. We started out with an original XBox – it was actually our very first DVD player! When the XBox 360 came out, I got my husband one for Christmas, then an XBox Live membership, and as a reward got to sit next to him on the couch as he talked into a little microphone strapped to his head. I amused myself by telling him that yes, I would like fries with that.
Once Jake was old enough to hold a video game controller – a day I think my husband had been waiting for since our firstborn had emerged from my womb, pointy-headed and be-penised – the two of them would sit on the couch together, shooting two-dimensional people and blowing things up and driving fast in cars to get to other places to blow other things up. Sometimes it’s a plane. Sometimes there are soldiers, sometimes girls in bathing suits. I think I might be talking about more than one game here, but they all look basically the same to me. When Jake and Daddy play XBox together, Fiona and I exchange a look that says it all: we don’t get it, and we don’t want to.
But then Rock Band came out, and suddenly I had a use for the XBox. Fiona, who was born singing, grabbed the mic immediately (she had always been a loud child and definitely didn’t need amplification, so we learned quickly how to turn off the mic’s sound and still have it register in the game). We discovered that Jake actually had a talent for drums, complete with rock-star like tantrums when he can’t master a section of a song (seriously, he’s throwing his sticks at a fifth-grade level). The Ass showed his inner Hendrix on guitar. And then there was me, all thumbs, stuck in the back playing bass: our little band’s very own Mike Huckabee, playing the same few notes over and over again, knowing I would never be as cool as the rest of the band.
Well, eventually I got better. Actually at this point I kind-of kick ass at Rock Band, on bass and guitar (but no drums, it’s truly embarrassing how uncoordinated I am). And thanks to the good people at XBox we’ve got more family games to play together, like Sing It and Scene It, and an XBox Elite to play them on. We’ve moved beyond just gaming with our XBoxes, using them to watch Hulu and Netflix and stream music from our computers. Someday I expect them to cook me breakfast.
XBox Live Giveaway – enter by March 8th
XBox Live is running a fantastic giveaway, the XBox Live Just Press Play giveaway, but you have to hurry: entries will be accepted until a minute before midnight on March 8th. And you want to enter, because here’s the prize:
- a $2,500 gift certificate to Crate & Barrel
- an XBox 360 Elite
- a 47 inch LG HDTV
- a Bose speaker system
- an XBox 360 game pack
- a Netflix account
- 4,000 Microsoft points
- some wireless stuff to help you get everything set up and play wirelessly
It’s all worth about $5,000. That’s right, $5,000. You can register here, and good luck!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 1 & 8. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information. Amy also blogs at Filming In Brooklyn, Behind the Screen, and the NYC Moms Blog.
Win a Your Shape to get yours in shape!
Feb 24, 2010 Product Giveaway, Weight Loss
UPDATE: Congratulations to the winner of the Your Shape game, Christine W.!
The Challenges
So I completely killed the week five challenge for the Your Shape challenge that I’m participating in. The ten participants get weekly challenges, like drink more water (which I did OK at, not great) or walk 10,000 steps a day (which was easy when I was at home, not so much when I was sitting my ass in sessions at the Blissdom conference). But week five I was awesome on. OK, I really didn’t do anything special at all, it’s just that the challenge was to get outside every day, getting some kind of exercise, even if it was only for ten minutes. And it was the week that I was at Disney World. I walked miles and miles around the parks every day. If that challenge had happened last week, though, I would have totally lost. My family was out of town and I didn’t leave my house for four solid days. I would make an awesome hermit. That is, as long as I had access to the internet and could have things delivered to me.
Anyway, the week six challenge was to be innovative with healthy snacking. Each participant was given a Wal-Mart gift certificate to buy food to make the snacks. Only problem was, there’s no Wal-Mart anywhere near me, and they don’t sell food online. So, instead, I tried to stick to the spirit of the challenge, and I bought a few things that would help me to eat at home more. When I go out to eat, I tend to go a little crazy. It’s not that the food I’m eating is necessarily all that terrible, it’s just that I have no way of knowing the calorie content. So, I usually say “screw it” and eat whatever. Therefore, the more I eat at home, the more likely I am to eat less and better. So, I bought three things to help me cook at home more, stuff that I love to get at restaurants. That way, I can control what goes into it and know exactly how many calories I’m eating.
I love getting sandwiches in restaurants, they’re just fancier than what I make. So I bought a cast-iron panini press. I love getting nice, creamy soups in restaurants, and I like to make homemade soup but I hate cleaning my blender, so I bought an immersion blender. And last, my kids – Jake especially – are always dragging me to the coffee shop for Belgian waffles, so I bought a waffle iron. Besides eating better, I’m hoping I’ll save a little money too!
The Giveaway
What I love about the Your Shape Challenge is that it involves more than just the game. Drinking more water, walking more, these things all contribute to healthy living and weight loss. But the heart of the challenge, of course, is the Your Shape game for the Wii. And I get to give one away! (Sorry, Wii not included.)
All you have to do to enter is leave a comment stating what you weight loss or health goal is: lose ten pounds, be able to do a pull-up, walk up stairs without getting winded, etc. For a second entry, you can tweet about this giveaway (don’t forget to leave a separate comment linking to your tweet or it won’t count; instructions on how to link to your tweet can be found here). Just make sure to mention what the prize is and link back to this post, or you can just copy and tweet this:
Win a #YourShape exercise game for Wii from @SelfishMom! http://bit.ly/9se1iF
So, that’s a maximum of two entries per household, please. The comments will close at noon-ish on Friday, February 26th and random.org will draw the winner. Contest open to residents of the U.S., and shipping is available in the continental U.S. only. Entrants must be 18 years or older. For complete rules, please see my Giveaway Rules page.
Good luck!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 1 and 10. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Wii, Your Shape
French Fries & Progresso Light Soup cancel each other out
Feb 14, 2010 Product Giveaway, Product Review, Weight Loss
The Soup
I just got back from a couple of rather decadent trips. They were both conferences, and I’ve found over the last couple of years that conferences feed you very well. The food is plentiful and usually very good, and at these two the food was particularly fantastic. So, it’s time to get back on that weight loss wagon. Or perhaps jog behind it.
Last night I was in Orlando International Airport, kidless, with two hours to kill. I headed straight for McDonald’s. I know most vegetarians don’t usually make a bee-line for Mickey-D’s, but I love their French fries. And since I was alone, I was able to really savor them. And I wasn’t breaking any kind of weight-loss rule either. It’s all about balance, so today’s job is to make up for the French Fries.
I started with a yummy egg-and-cheese sandwich for breakfast, which at 326 calories wasn’t terrible, but also not making up any ground from the fries. So for lunch I just reached for a can of Progresso Soup. Progresso was nice enough to send me more than a dozen cans of soup along with a nice mug and a jumprope, although I’m honestly not sure if the soup I ate was from them or already in my pantry – I always keep Progresso Light Soup around. This particular one, Zesty Southwestern-Style Vegetable, is probably my favorite. I can eat the whole big can and it’s only 120 calories!
The Contest
Progresso is hosting a fantastic “Souper You” contest (that I’m totally entering) where three people will win a make-over in NYC! And while I won’t have much use for the airfare, I’m salivating over the rest of the prize: two nights in a luxurious hotel, a make-over, and a $1,000 shopping spree! This is what I need, because it falls right in line with my theory that you can’t wait until you lose weight to love yourself and how you look – loving your look NOW will help motivate you to lose weight! And a thousand dollar shopping spree would be a crap-load of motivation. So go here and enter. Maybe you’ll get one of the other two spots. 
And whether you enter or not, you can download Progresso Soup coupons.
The Giveaway
Progresso is also giving one of my readers a cute little prize pack, including two cans of Progresso soup, a soup mug, and a digital jump rope. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment with one of the following: either saying that you entered the awesome “Super You” contest, or what your favorite flavor of Progresso soup is (you can see the full Progresso Soup line here). For a second entry, you can tweet about this giveaway (don’t forget to leave a separate comment linking to your tweet or it won’t count; instructions on how to link to your tweet can be found here). Just make sure to mention what the prize is and link back to this post, or you can just copy and tweet this:
Win a Progresso Soup prize pack from @SelfishMom! http://bit.ly/9otphh
So, that’s a maximum of two entries per household, please. The comments will close at noon-ish on Friday, February 19th and random.org will draw the winner. Shipping available in the continental U.S. only. For complete rules, please see my Giveaway Rules page. Good luck!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 10. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Progresso Light Soup
Dry skin giveaway
Feb 2, 2010 Product Giveaway
***The contest is now closed. Congratulations to the winner, Marci!***
Don’t worry, I’m not giving away dry skin. Although I could. I have the driest skin I’ve ever come across. In the winter if I don’t slather lotion on all day, my palms look like I colored in the lines with White Out. And my feet? Forget about it.
I was sent a bottle of Skin MD Natural to try and while I haven’t been using it long enough to know whether or not it will solve my dry skin problems, it does feel fantastic going on. I’ve used a lot of heavy-duty lotions that go on like spackle, but this lotion is smooth and silky, and feels completely un-greasy.
According to the Skin MD site this is a “shielding lotion,” which helps my own natural oils moisturize my skin. I’m not sure I have any natural oils left! But we’ll see. This is directly from Skin MD:
“Skin MD Natural is a shielding lotion that helps the skin restore its integrity and enhance its protective functions so that the skin is able to heal naturally and regain its youthful appearance. Skin MD Natural works by bonding with cells of the skin’s outermost layer to form an invisible shield. This layer of protection prevents environmental irritants and pollutants from penetrating the skin, while locking in the skin’s own natural oils and moisture, helping heal dry skin, leaving skin feeling silky and smooth. It is dermatologist recommended and hypo-allergenic. It is also fragrance, colorant and paraben free, so it is safe to use for the whole family.”
I have a bottle to give away as well. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment about your worst dry skin area. For a second entry, you can tweet about this giveaway (don’t forget to leave a separate comment linking to your tweet or it won’t count; instructions on how to link to your tweet can be found here). Just make sure to mention what the prize is and link back to this post, or you can just copy and tweet this:
Win a bottle of Skin MD Natural lotion to help your winter skin. Head over to @SelfishMom’s giveaway: http://bit.ly/9J0PvS
So, that’s a maximum of two entries per household, please. The comments will close at noon-ish on Monday, February 8th and random.org will draw the winner. Shipping available in the continental U.S. only. For complete rules, please see my Giveaway Rules page. Good luck!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level 10. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Shop Amazon
Weight Loss Tuesday: A Little Better (and the scale winner)
Jan 26, 2010 Product Giveaway, Weight Loss
So I listed two goals in last week’s Weight Loss Tuesday post: drink more water, and do my Your Shape exercises three times in the second week of the Your Shape challenge. How did I do? Well, I did better than the first week, when I only exercised once. Last week I exercised twice. I’m really shooting for three this coming week. And since the special challenge for the participants this week is to add time to our workouts, I’m not only going to try to do three workouts, but three 30 minute workouts.
As for water, after drinking practically no water, at all, for a very long time, I had two days where I drank 64 ounces and one day where I drank 32 ounces. OK, it wasn’t water. It was watered-down Crystal Light (Fruit Punch flavor, if you’re interested – it’s the only one I like). But I hate water. Hate. And don’t try to tell me I would like it with a twist of lemon or a splash of juice. I would not. But I drank the watery Crystal Light and will continue to do so until I find a nutritionist who tells me that fizzy drinks filled with caffeine count as water.
So, improvement. I’m not going to beat myself up about not meeting last week’s goals, I’m just going to be happy that I did a little better.
My two-week weight loss is very encouraging. As of this morning I’ve lost seven pounds! Yay me! Yes, I know the first couple of weeks you always lose a lot, but still, it’s a nice way to start.
And as for my two Your Shape workouts? Yelling at Jenny McCarthy is fun. And helps keep me motivated. I’m experimenting with the sound features on the game. I don’t want to hear Jenny correct my form every five seconds, but I do want to hear the other things she says – when she names an exercise, for example, or says we’re almost done. But while there’s a volume control specific to her voice, there’s no way to turn off the critiques but keep the other chatter. So I’ve just turned her down most of the way. And that’s my big suggestion for Ubisoft if they do another version of the game: let players choose which parts of Jenny they want to hear.
Everything else with the game is going really well. Granted I’ve only done three workouts so far, but they’ve all been interesting. Yesterday I had done a core strengthening workout and woke up with sore abs, so today I added my 3lb hand weights and did an upper body strength workout. I like that I don’t know which exercise is going to come next. With DVDs I always knew what was coming and got bored easily. Jenny keeps me on my toes.
***
I just picked a winner for the EatSmart Digital Bathroom Scale, and it’s Lydia! Thanks so much for entering, and thank you to EatSmart for providing the great prize!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 1 & 10. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: EatSmart Digital Bathroom Scale, Jenny McCarthy, Your Shape
