I stumbled across some old photos last week from childhood. And while the last thing I want to remember are my awkward looks (Read: a perm [yes - PERM], horrid bangs, and purple braces), the pictures reminded me of all the must-have fads that I had to be a part of.

Like that photo of me with my shirt bunched on the side by one of those large plastic things. Or the ones of me when Christina Aguilera made bandanas and hoop earrings the size of my arm so cool that I thought it was the perfect look to rock with silver eyeshadow/fairy dust for… Hebrew School.

So here is a look back at some of our most favorite fads that will always hold a special place in our hearts:

1) Butterfly Clips. Let us not forget the years we spent sectioning our hair into mini “corn-rows” – and by corn rows I mean mini braids, or twisted hair pinned down by mini plastic butterfly clips that came in a plethora of colors, including my favorite, glitter.

True Story: I thought it was a good idea to enter a contest to be in a Got Milk ad. I put on a my best fake milk mustache, a cute (I use this term loosely) butterfly skirt, those clunky Steve Madden sandals that clippity clopped like a freakin’ horse everywhere you walked and, of course, what goes best with a butterfly skirt than a head full of… butterfly clips. I then made my poor mother take numerous pictures of me posing thinking “Teen People Here I Come!!” I don’t know how she didn’t laugh in my face. Or give me up for adoption.

I never did win that contest.
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Running on a treadmill is a great workout, but it gets boring. Kick boxing spikes your heart rate and burns major calories, but you’re sick of taking the same class….again. And if you eat one more salad (with the dressing on the side!) you are going to kill someone.

Eating healthy and staying fit don’t have to be so….monotonous. Nutrition experts are constantly coming up with new forms of exercise and new research on dieting that may be just the new thing you (and your body) need. The latest? Combinations of our favorite things to get even better results:

1: Piloxing

Joseph Pilates, meet your match. In the boxing ring, that is. There’s a new exercise contender in the draw now: Piloxing!

Here’s the blow-by-blow: LA-based fitness trainer Viveca Jensen bases the classes off of the best of both worlds, by combining the intense power moves of boxing (like the one-two punch) with the softer toning moves of pilates (like those pesky 100′s). Supposedly, it has a “Swedish twist” to it, which apparently makes it better/more efficient. (Swedish fish do taste better than regular fish, so I guess there is a truth to that.) Celebrities like Hilary Duff and Alexis Bledel have signed on to this new exercise trend, claiming it helps to attain a “sleek, sexy, and powerful” self-image. Read More »

VH1’s “I Love the New Millennium” premiered this week. Much like its fabulously entertaining predecessors mocking the 80’s and 90’s (sorry, the 70’s one predates me), it doesn’t fail to deliver laughs and amusing sound bites. Although I think I Love the New Millennium might be jumping the gun time-wise (they are discussing things that happened, like, last week!), I adore the short-attention-span-theater for the distraction-inclined:

Exploring all the pop cultural guilty pleasures, memorable products and people, disgraces and debuts, fads and fashions, scandals and sensations.

With clever and over-animated comedians dissecting and reflecting on everything from metrosexuals to Dance Dance Revolution to Sudoku, you can’t help but giggle at the off the wall and politically incorrect observations. In honor of the show, I decided to take a yummy walk down pop-culture memory lane from 2000-2004. Here are some of my personal favorite memories from the new millennium…and the ones I despise.

New Millennium Favs:

Napster- The inspiring illegal innovation that started it all. Thank you, Shawn Fanning, for changing the musical and digital landscape.

Uggs- I don’t care how hideous they are and how far-gone the trend is, these babies keep my tootsies toasty on the way to class or, if I’m feeling really lazy, at the bar. Read More »