Shrinking Sisters Reviews

A Publix perimeter treasure hunt (and gift card giveaway!)

Another chance to be a fangirl over Publix -- gotta love a grocery special that encourages shoppers to focus on the perimeter of the store. That's where all the healthiest items hang out.

Starting April 24, shop the perimeter of Publix to and load up your cart with fresh produce and proteins. I always start in the produce section, then make my way up and down the aisles for the extras while finishing up in the meat and dairy sections and finally frozen. (I am an organized FIEND when grocery shopping.)

When you purchase participating products, you can save on store-brand items such as bagged salad, chicken breasts, eggs and fruit. And before you head out, visit  www.freshsavingsevent.com to download and print.

Savings on fresh foods are only available through May 8.

And if you haven't tried Publix's digital coupons and you have a smartphone, you're missing out on a really simple and cool way to get extra deals. You don't even have to bring your phone with you -- all you do is punch in your phone number when you check out and it'll automatically deduct the coupons you "clip." (Find out more about that HERE.)

And here's the best part -- I'm giving away a $25 Publix giftcard (go spend it on something healthy and tasty). 

My favorite thing in the produce section right now are those little mangos, which are usually a buck apiece. They're great because the pit inside is really small and they're pretty easy to peel. A bowl of mango mixed with Greek yogurt is a lovely thing.

What's your favorite perimeter item? Let me know in the comments below by 5 p.m. SATURDAY, APRIL 20 and I'll choose a winner.

Disclosure: The information and prize were provided by General Mills and Publix through MyBlogSpark. I was also given a giftcard and I bought kale -- lots and lots of kale.

Who's your convenience store? (Publix gift card giveaway)

Publix Fangirl here with another "Running Out? Run In" deal from Publix. If your idea of a convenience store involves scratch-off tickets and buckets of slush, you should reconsider. Your local grocery store can be just as quick a stop as the corner mini-market (with a much better selection of products).

During the "Running Out? Run In" event, which runs through Sept. 26, you'll receive rewards for buying General Mills and Procter & Gamble items -- things like Cheerios, Crest toothpaste and Charmin toilet paper.

More details:

• Buy any 6 participating items such as, Pampers diapers, Tide Pods, and Yoplait Yogurt Kids, and receive a free gallon of Publix milk.
• Don’t forget to look in stores for more than $13 in coupon savings -- coupons are valid Sept. 20 through Oct. 4.(You'll find them at the checkout stands.)
• For more details on this rebate offer, visit RunningOutRunIn.com.

Now for that $25 Publix gift card. Want to win it? Just leave me a comment below, letting me know if you can actually run into the store for "just one thing" and leave with that one thing. I actually did it Wednesday -- I needed a bag of onions and that's all I bought!

Deadline for the giveaway is Saturday, Oct. 6 at 8 p.m. ET.

Disclosure: The Publix gift card, information, and additional gift card has been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

One pod to rule them all (in the laundry room)

Ever since detergent pods were invented, we've been big fans. No measuring, no spilling and the ability to shoot free throws in the laundry room.

And with the kid wearing two sets of clothes pre- and post-camp, plus my sweaty workout duds on top of the usual family loads, we've been angling for a spot on the Miami Heat.

What could be easier than Tide Pods? How about having them shipped directly to your front door?

Now through Aug. 31, if you purchase Tide Pods through the P&G eStore, you'll get  free shipping with a $25 purchase and 10 percent off for new shoppers. (I earn a commission on any sales at the P&G eStore from Shrinking Sisters readers who purchase products through the widget below.)

We've tried Tide Pods Spring Meadow, and while we don't feel quite as free and breezy as Julie Andrews in the opening scene of The Sound of Music, laundry time is simpler and the clothes smell great.

In addition, you can find P&G eStore deals on lots of Olay, CoverGirl, Crest, Oral-B, Swiffer and more products from Procter & Gamble.

But get shopping -- the deal ends Aug. 31. And the deal isn't just for you -- let all your laundry-lovin' friends know about this, too.

Running Out? Run In (and win a Publix gift card)

Publix Fan Girl here again with another chance to win a $25 Publix gift card. And even if you don't win, you can easily earn a $5 Publix gift card with the store's Running Out? Run In event, which features brands from General Mills and Procter & Gamble.

It's all meant to get us to think differently about running in for a few quick things at the grocery store. Convenience stores are anything but convenient. They're cramped, overpriced and have a really limited selection of items. So why not stop in where you usually shop, especially now that some Publix stores have added self-checkout stations. You can grab a tube of Crest or a box of Cheerios, check yourself out and be back in your car in 5 minutes -- that's convenient.

More deets on the deal:

• Now through May 23, look for the “Running Out? Run In” event at Publix to take advantage of savings on brands from General Mills and Procter & Gamble.
• Also, look in stores for more than $15 in coupon savings – coupons are valid through June 2.
• Receive a $5 Publix gift card to use on your next shopping trip when you purchase $30 or more in participating items during the event (now through May 23); simply mail in the rebate form found in-store or online at runningoutrunin.com along with your original receipt(s).
• For more details on this rebate, visit RunningOutRunIn.com.

So, that Publix $25 gift card -- how to win? Just let me know in the comments below what you're always running out of. For me, it's snack foods, since we house the Teen-age Eating Machine. Deadline for the giveaway is Friday, June 1 at 8 p.m. ET.

Disclosure:  The Publix gift card, information and additional gift card have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

Publix Italian Days is back -- want to win a gift card?

 

Break out the pasta strainers, Southern babies, it's time for Publix Italian Days. I'm a big fan of making sausage and peppers with Publix Greenwise hot Italian chicken sausage. I saute a bunch of red and green bell peppers, red onion and garlic in a little olive oil. Then slice the sausage into rounds, toss it into the pan with the vegetables and saute until done.

 

It can go over anything from pasta to rice to a baked potato to slice 'n' bake polenta (really good).

During Italian Days,which starts today and runs through Feb. 29, you can find special prices and coupons on brands including Progresso, Green Giant and Muir Glen.

You can also enter the Taste the Tradition Italian Days Sweepstakes for a chance to be one of 500 shoppers who will win a $100 Publix gift card, sponsored by General Mills.

To enter to win the Taste the Tradition Italian Days Sweepstakes and download  coupons and recipes, look in-store or follow the instructions below:

1. Click - Stay up to date with the latest General Mills promotions happening at Publix, by visiting ClickCallMail.com. Once you´re registered and logged in, you can participate in any of the current promotions.
2. Call - If you´d prefer to enter the sweepstakes and participate in other promotions via telephone, feel free to call the General Mills hotline, at 800-627-6059, and be sure to say that you want to enter the 2012 Italian Days Sweepstakes. Please be sure to provide your complete contact information (Full name/address/ZIP code/phone number).
3. Mail - If you prefer to participate via mail-in entry, print and mail your complete contact information (Full Name/address/ZIP code/phone number) to 2012 Italian Days Sweepstakes, P.O. Box 44257, Atlanta, GA 30336.

And, to sweeten the deal, I'm giving away a $25 Publix gift card!

To enter

Leave a comment below, telling me your favorite healthy Italian dish. (Mine is a pumpkin risotto I found in the cookbook Weight Watchers: Simply the Best Italian.) Contest deadline is noon ET on Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012. (Giveaway over.) We'll choose one winner at random by pointing blindfolded at the computer screen after being spun around 50 times on the office chair.

Extra entries

• Subscribe to Shrinking Sisters.
• Follow me on Twitter.
• Become a fan of Shrinking Sisters on Facebook.

Disclosure: The Publix Club gift card, information and giveaway have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 notebook: Week 5 and wrap-up

Thank you to Ubisoft for providing me with a copy of Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 and sponsoring this fitness diary series. Please click here to learn more about Ubisoft. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own.

The game lines up your warrior pose for correct form. Photo: Ubisoft

While others around me and in the twitterverse are bemoaning their tight jeans and weight gains, I'm pretty cool with the fact that I didn't gain any holiday weight. I would have liked to report some miraculous December weight loss but that didn't happen. 

But!

I'm definitely fitter than when I began the Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 challenge five weeks ago. And I have a whole new appreciation for "exergames."

Let me count the ways:

1. This one works because it really tracks your movements well -- it realizes that you don't have eyes in the back of your head or on your backside. Seriously, that's a huge plus. I've spent many times cursing the robotic avatars on other games because I couldn't see what was going on or the game couldn't see me.
2. The variety in Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 is fantastic. You can simply take a yoga class, play fitness games with the kids or go all out and schedule a full workout with warmups, cardio, strength training and a cooldown.
3. Dancers have a wide variety to choose from -- African, Bollywood, hip-hop and Latin can satisfy your global whims.
4. Your junior athletes can even train for football or soccer with the sports prep programs.

Really, the only downside is that you should think about putting wheels on your coffeetable to make the living room more Kinect friendly.

My recipe for success with Your Shape? Add it into your fitness repertoire -- variety is the key to sticking to any exercise plan. Since the weather is getting colder up North, Your Shape is perfect to workout at home without heading outdoors. But down here in Florida, the weather is finally cooler, so I'll be relying on Your Shape for the sweltering, stormy summer months.

But my favorite combo workout is to start with a little Run the World, add in some Body Focus workouts (upper body and abs one day, lower body the next), and end with a yoga practice or Zen Zone for a calming cooldown.

Want to win your own copy?

It's the end of my five-week series, and I'm going to choose a random comment from the five weeks of posts. That person will win a copy of Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012, so comment away! Deadline for commenting is Friday, Jan. 6 at 9 p.m. ET.

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 notebook: Week 4

Thank you to Ubisoft for providing me with a copy of Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 and sponsoring this fitness diary series. Please click here to learn more about Ubisoft. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own.

("Is it heavy?" I asked him. "Mom, it's virtual!")

Unlike many fitness games for Xbox, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 can really involve the family with fitness activities that don't feel like exercise at all.

So this week I roped the kid into demonstrating a couple. (It's much easier to take pictures when someone else is doing the working out.)

First up was Stack 'Em Up, which was a favorite of ours in the first version of the game. The 2012 version ups the fitness by making the balance board larger and able to hold more bricks, but you have to balance on one leg, which is great for core strengthening and improving balance.

Wall Breaker is another kid fave -- you punch big bricks that shatter into pieces. You punch left and right across your body to smash 'em. Later on, you can kick them and knee them, too. He mastered Wall Breaker, as you can see by his glowing gold visage at left.

Both activities are great upper-body workouts and help work on core strength and balance. And the kids will never know it was exercise.

Mom and Dad will also find it cathartic to punch away the stress of holiday traffic and last-minute shopping (just sayin'...)

Exergames like this will be increasingly important to get young gamers off the couch and help stem the tide of childhood obesity.

Success!

Want to win your own copy?

At the end of my five-week series, I'll choose a random comment from the five weeks of posts, and that person will win a copy of Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012, so comment away!

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 notebook: Week 3

Thank you to Ubisoft for providing me with a copy of Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 and sponsoring this fitness diary series. Please click here to learn more about Ubisoft. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own.

(Pay no attention to the footless apparition holding the camera.)

"Short Attention Span Theater" is not just the name of an old Comedy Central show -- it is my life, which is why I have dozens and dozens of workout DVDs, gadgets, gizmos and various shoes for various workouts.

I get bored easily, so I constantly need to mix things up -- anything to keep the fitness momentum going. Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 makes sure I don't get stuck in a workout rut. There are more than 90 hours of activities.

So this week I laced up the virtual gloves and took a cardio boxing class. My virtual workout partner was a burly bearded dude (I should have dressed better).

Turns out, I am a champion boxer. The voiceover instructor, who I refer to as "Nice Lady," had all sorts of words of encouragement as I did punch-squat combos, threw jabs and hooks and bobbed and weaved. She also gives you technique tips and makes sure you're not doing things like locking your elbows.

When you do the moves really well, a sparkly golden halo envelops you, and I was a golden girl.

The workout was a great upper body-intensive complement to my 40-minute run this afternoon.

Want to win your own copy?

At the end of my five-week series, I'll choose a random comment from the five weeks of posts, and that person will win a copy of Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012, so comment away!

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 notebook: Week 2

Thank you to Ubisoft for providing me with a copy of Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 and sponsoring this fitness diary series. Please click here to learn more about Ubisoft. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own.

(Remember last week when I said the motion tracking is better with this version? Here's a photo of me taking a photo of the TV screen -- it's kinda hard to shoot a photo while exercising. If you're at all familiar with Xbox Kinect fitness games, this is pretty darn impressive.)

This is the week I officially fell in love with Your Shape. Also the week my 13-year-old explained how to pause the game while I checked on dinner (I was roasting a chicken while doing mountain climbers -- multitasking!)

Since I'm really digging running (at least this week), I have my cardio accounted for, so I focused on toning with Your Shape.

I love the encouragement from the disembodied voice on the game. She also calls out tips to improve your technique, and thus, your score. Case in point: mountain climbers. Every time that exercise comes up on a DVD, I ALWAYS say "Mountain climbers? I can't do mountain climbers!" But unlike a DVD, your Kinect is "watching" you, so you can't blow 'em off. So I did them and apparently I did a good job because The Voice kept saying "good job!"

After the toning workout, I had a little fun with some Bollywood dancing and cooled down with the yoga-tai chi combo, which I absolutely aced.

I'm not sure about the calorie counting on the game, though. It said I only burned 60 calories during my workout, but my BodyMedia FIT registered 181 calories.

Some tips from this week's workouts:

• The toning workouts use weights, so make sure they're nearby before you begin. I had to pause the game and run into the bedroom for the dumbbells.
• The game is the most accurate if it can really scan your body, so try not to wear anything too baggy. I switched from a long-sleeved shirt to a T-shirt halfway through Thursday's workout and the Kinect was better able to track my upper-body movements, but I had on some baggy Adidas cropped pants and my lower half looked a little blobby on the screen (aside from the usual blobbiness).
• You'll also score higher on proper technique if you don't crane your neck to look at the TV while you're down on the floor.
• But how do you follow the exercises that way? There are sound cues to get the right pacing. My score rose impressively when I kept my nose to the virtual grindstone.

Want to win your own copy?

At the end of my five-week series, I'll choose a random comment from the five weeks of posts and that person will win a copy of Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012, so comment away!

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 notebook: Week 1

Thank you to Ubisoft for providing me with a copy of Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 and sponsoring this fitness diary series. Please click here to learn more about Ubisoft. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own.

Usually, the Xbox is the domain of the teenager, but Mama's got an appointment with it now -- I'll be letting you know about my fitness journey every week with Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012.

I get sent a lot of workout DVDs and "exergames" and the first version of Your Shape: Fitness Evolved was definitely my favorite of the bunch. It was the easiest to follow, it had the best variety of workouts and we liked the Gym Games for recreational fun.

So I was psyched to get to try out the latest version of the Ubisoft program. New this year is improved motion tracking (it really is better); Bollywood, hip-hop and Latin dance aerobics (cha cha!); and just more of everything.

As soon as it arrived, the kid and I popped it in the Xbox. He liked the Wall Breakers -- apparently punching things is a great way to get out your after-school hostilities.

(That's the Wall Breakers above. Blam!)

I liked the jump rope and the Hu-la-las because there were no real jump ropes to trip over or hoops to fall off my hips. Finally, I can do those!

I'll be tracking my progress at the online YourShapeCenter and I'll also be letting you know how I'm doing on the scale, because being accountable to someone other than myself is extra motivating.