I’m generally a pretty positive person; not one to harp on the small potatoes problems in my life (like how sick I am of eating – and cooking – said small potatoes). And while I still stand by a lot of the fabulous benefits that led me to take on this challenge in the first place – I really am becoming a domesticated w-o-m-a-n (roar!) and I’m saving lots of cashola – this week brought up some obstacles in this “genius” idea of a four-week challenge.

We’re college women. We’re busy studying, we’re lazy, we want an excuse to not have to cook… and we eat out. A lot. And when we do, it’s really easy to convince ourselves that we are eating healthy. (It’s one of the many skills we’ve mastered over the years.)

It’s a brand spankin new me, people.
A domesticated me.
A Martha Stewart – but with more inflection in my voice while speaking – me!

So, unfortch we’re a week into April and it’s still cold. Which really puts a kerfuffle in your plans to wear your newest spring purchases. Colorful spring tops, shorts, peep toe pumps, cute spring dresses and springy cardigans are all sitting in your closet watching you take your same black wool sweater and boots out day after day.

Truth be told, after living in my apartment for over two years, a friend had to teach me how to use my dishwasher after a party I had. Yes, you just read that correctly. Two years. Never used my dishwasher. If only my mom (and world’s best cook) could see me now; she’d be BEAMING with pride.

Spring is here! Okay, so at the moment you might not know it, what with a major snow storm beating the crap out of the East Coast (I mean, dear weather, are you fo’ real? This is one April Fools joke I am not laughing at). But by all other accounts (mainly clothing store window displays and themed Starbucks gift cards), Spring is in the hizzy.

Soy is found in just about EVERYTHING these days. So much so that soy consumption in the U.S. has skyrocketed since the early 1990s. Sales climbed from $300 million in 1992 to over $4 billion in 2008. It’s cheap to produce (mainly because the government subsidizes its growth) and is in tons of packaged products.

For many of us, this week brought the first real warm, gloveless days of the year. Ah, how I love that first day of 55 degree weather, when we all think 55 degrees means summer and you actually see people walking the streets in shorts and flip-flops, pretending they are perfectly cozy when they’re really covered in goose bumps and their leg hair is growing back. Not that they’ll admit it, or suck it up and rock their puffy jackets on a day like today. Not. A. Chance.

We all know that drinking adds extra calories. I mean, how many times have we heard someone tell us “If you want to lose weight, cut out alcohol”? But let’s face it, for a lot of us, that is pretty much asking us to give up going to college.

This spring is all about bright bottoms, and mixing and matching big, bold colors. I love pairing two complementary colors together – think bright blue and orange, or pink and green. It just makes everything more exciting.