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Last night, my contribution to dinner was a salad. I used several weird things that we just happened to have on hand, things that you wouldn’t normally think go together, but even the hubz commented that the salad was delicious!

Start with some greens, a cup to a cup and a half per salad. I like Wegmans Organic Spring Mix:

Then get some baby beets and slice them up, about 3/4 cup for two salads. I use these Melissa’s baby beets, which are steamed and peeled:

Add about a tablespoon per salad of marinated, roasted garlic cloves. I get mine off Wegmans olive bar:

Toss all of that together. Because of the olive oil and stuff on the garlic cloves, and the beet juice, you won’t need any dressing at all. Finally, top with about a teaspoon per salad of slivered, honey roasted almonds:

Sounds strange, tastes delicious, full of healthy things that are good for you (and negligible amounts of things that aren’t).

Wherein I give you unsolicited advice on all manner of products and services. Hey, FTC! I received nothing from anybody! All products reviewed were purchased by me, with real (not imaginary) money.

True Lemon – True Lemon is actually not just lemon – it also comes in orange and lime! What is it? It’s basically crystallized citrus that you can carry with you anywhere, and add to water to give it a little kick. It has no calories! The flavor is fantastic! It’s all-natural! I think the orange is my favorite, though lime is close. I add it to bottled water and also to plain seltzer, but there are lots of other ways you can use this stuff: in recipes, sprinkled on salads and other food, in plain iced tea, etc. You can find True Lemon (and True Orange, and True Lime) at some grocery stores, though I haven’t had much luck and had to order mine from their online store. (They also have two varieties of lemonade mix where are really good, but only available online.) Find them on Facebook for coupons and free offers.

Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer SPF 15 – My skin tends to get oily, especially in the T-zone and especially in the summer. I’m also obsessed with protecting my skin from the sun, and wear sunscreen religiously. I’ve struggled trying to find the right tinted sunscreen (to wear alone) or moisturizer with sunscreen (to wear under other makeup) that doesn’t make my T-zone a shiny mess by 10am. I’ve tried so many, I had just about given up and resigned myself to the fact that I was just going to have to blot my face several times a day (these work great, by the way). Then I ordered something from Sephora (I don’t even remember what it was anymore), and along with it came a sample of this primer from Hourglass. Whoa – it’s a miracle! I ordered a full size bottle right away. Super pricey ($52), but one bottle will last a very long time (at least until the hot weather subsides, which should be around November). The texture is thin and liquid-like, and you can definitely feel the silicone in it. It’s nice and slippery, yet dried to a matte finish, giving you a nice canvas for makeup application. Best of all, it helps keep the oil at bay for much of the day, and I often don’t need to blot or apply additional powder until late afternoon. The sunscreen is an effective combination of zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, so it does give full-spectrum (UVA and UVB) protection. I know, I KNOW it’s a lot to spend on a primer/sunscreen/moisturizer, but I couldn’t help myself. It just feels so elegant on the skin, and it’s doing its job perfectly. To me, that is the definition of a good investment.

Clarisonic Mia – And now, the negative review. Not so much negative, as “meh.” People seemed to be raving about this powered facial brush from Clarisonic, so I decided to give it a try. And…I wasn’t impressed. Did it give me a “silky-smooth, fresh complexion”? Not so much. Actually, I think my complexion is pretty good but I chalk that up to the regular exfoliation I do on my own (scrub and washcloth), regular facials (every six weeks), and common-sense products (BHA for breakouts, retinol for anti-aging). However, I might have been willing to stick with the brush if it hadn’t been so darned inconvenient. Maybe I’m just a klutz, but every night when I used it (exactly as instructed, by the way), I ended up spraying water all over the mirror, the sink, and my shirt. Then after I was done, it had to be cleaned, and I usually had to leave it out overnight in order to dry completely (and I loathe counter top clutter). Overall, it just didn’t seem worth it, so I’ve ordered a new cleaning head and will be putting that bad boy (girl?) up on eBay this week.

Argiolas Costamolino Vermentino 2008 – Ah, booze. You make every dinner better! This is by far my favorite white wine ever, and in fact may have somewhat converted me from the red-wine-loving snob that I used to be. This lovely white is made from the Vermentino grape, courtesy of Sardinia, and it is fabulous. Seriously – if you see a bottle of this, buy it! It’s sold out on Wine.com, but I know for a fact that they still have bottles at Wegman’s. That is, unless the hubz and I have gone over there and bought them all already!

So there you go. Some stuff to sprinkle in your water, put on your face, drink with dinner, and probably NOT cleanse your skin with. Arrivederci!

YouTube – Shark Vacuums Suck Balls!.

I just ordered one of these (refurbished) from Woot. We are not planning to suck any balls with it.

Image from fitbit.com

So, I bought a Fitbit. Check out the very good website for lots more detailed info, but in short: the Fitbit is a little clip-on device, about the size of a USB thumb drive, that you wear (nearly) 24 hours a day. It has an accelerometer inside (like what makes the Wii controllers work), and it keeps track of how active you are, how many steps you’re taking, and how many calories you’re burning.

It uploads all that data to a web server, where you can access it on a very well-designed (even though there’s some Flash involved) dashboard. Here, you can also enter what you ate to track your calories consumed, as well as entering specific activities (like swimming or showering, which you can’t wear your Fitbit for; or biking, which it’s not so good at tracking).

So far I like it a lot. It’s very small and convenient. During the day, I wear it clipped to the center of the front of my bra. It’s quite secure there and I never worry about it slipping off; plus it’s well-hidden. When I first got it, I wore it on the waistband of my underpants or sometimes my jeans, but then I had to worry about it every time I went to the bathroom etc. Front of bra is better, but you can also wear it on a bra strap, in your pocket, or on your belt (it comes with a belt clip for thicker belts). At night, I wear it in the soft cuff that was included, and where they recommend putting it for sleeping.

I think it’s too early for me to say whether I think it’s a really helpful tool in weight loss or fitness. I know my first week, I was pleased with how active I was (it really brought home to me how everyday activities also burn calories, not just going to the gym). I was burning about 500 calories less a day than I was consuming, and anyone familiar with dieting will know that should result in about a pound of weight loss in one week’s time (5oo calorie deficit per day x 7 days = 3500 calories, you must expend 3500 calories more than you eat to lose one pound). Unfortunately, I weighed myself the following Monday and had gained two pounds.

WHAT?!?

Well, as it turns out, I was retaining water or something on Monday, because when I weighed myself on Tuesday it turned out that I actually had lost about a half pound. But still, that morning weigh-in was a little discouraging. Which is why I want to wear the Fitbit longer and collect more data before I start drawing any conclusions about its effectiveness as a tool for improving fitness and health.

One thing that is VERY enlightening for me already is the sleep monitor. Let’s take a look at how I slept last night:

Not bad. About seven and a half hours, which is a little less than ideal for me, but there were few interruptions, which means it was restful (efficient) and that’s why it was easy for me to get up at 6am (aka “buttcrack of dawn”) this morning.

Compare that to the night of May 2-3:

Quite a difference. Although my sleep “efficiency” is still in the 90s, and I still got about seven and a half hours of sleep, I can tell you I felt a lot different on the morning of May 3 than I did this morning, and it’s easy to see why. I woke up, at least partially, 21 times that night. Ouch.

So in this respect, so far the Fitbit is very helpful in showing me why I feel like crap some mornings, and not so much like crap other mornings!  One change I’ve made because of this is, I’ve pretty much stopped taking Advil PM before I go to bed, and I’m sleeping better because of it. While my broken arm was still healing, I really needed it, but since my arm is mostly better I was still taking it on weeknights because it helps me fall asleep so quickly. The problem is, I tend to wake up more in the middle of the night when I have taken it, than when I don’t. Why? I have no idea, but the proof is there.

More updates on the Fitbit as I use it longer. But now for the bad news.

If, after reading this, you’re convinced that the Fitbit is the greatest thing since sliced whole-wheat bread, and you just HAVE to have one, I have something discouraging to tell you: it takes FOREVER to get one. They are so back-ordered it’s not even funny. I ordered mine on January 11, 2010. I received it on May 1. Yep, that’s almost four months of waiting, four months of my “expected ship date” being pushed back farther and farther. Every time I’d log into the website to look at my order status, there would be a new, later “expected ship date” and I’d get more frustrated!

All that being said, I do think it was worth it, especially for the price, which is extremely reasonable ($99 plus shipping). But be prepared to wait, and wait, and then wait some more. Unless you go to eBay, where you can take your chances and pay $150 or more for one.

Note to the FTC: I did not receive a Fitbit for free (if only!!). I paid for it all by myself and this review is only my opinion.

If you’re a Facebook user, you’re probably seeing tons of ads for flowers right now, in anticipation of Mother’s Day. In particular, ProFlowers is running a series of ads touting “$19.99 Flowers for Mother’s Day!” as some kind of “special for Facebook users.” Sounds like a great deal, right?

Don’t fall for it.

At a minimum, that $19.99 order of flowers will cost you $34 and change. They add a standard $9.99 delivery charge (much more if you want the Friday or Saturday before Mother’s Day), plus tax and a charge for “care and handling.” You know, I figure if I order flowers from you, I can figure that caring for them and handling them is included. I mean, don’t you pretty much HAVE to “handle” something in order to deliver it?

Look, I’m not opposed to sending flowers. Ask any of my friends or family. I have an incredibly generous flower budget for funerals, birthdays, and graduations. But when I do send flowers, I send FLOWERS, usually worth $100 or more. At that price, what’s another $9.99 for delivery, right? But I find it offensive that companies advertise “$19.99″ flowers that end up costing $35. And really, who knows what you’re going to get for 20 bucks anyway? I suspect you’re better off going to Costco and getting one of their very large, very reasonably priced bouquets.

That’s what I’ll be doing next weekend.