The Fat Girl's Guide to Living

I realize that not everyone owns an iPhone, or even wants to. But one look around any public space and you’ll notice that like it or not, the smartphone is here to stay. The good news: the technology is rapidly advancing in terms of performance and the array of inexpensive downloads (known as “applications,” or “apps”) available to users. These babies are only going to get better, faster, and able to perform more tasks to simplify and amplify our lives. Even if you have no immediate plans to purchase an iPhone, there are some good web sites associated with some of these apps that are worth checking out.

Shopping – Red Laser is the first app I discovered (thanks to my friend Jennifer) that made me feel like the new millennium had finally arrived. Sure, we don’t have jetpacks or flying cars (yet), but we can use our phones to scan stuff to compare prices! That’s close, right? Okay maybe not, but still . . . it’s a simple, cool, useful app you can use to instantly comparison shop in ways we’ve never really been able to do before. The down side: it only compares prices among a set amount of retailers, but I’d watch for this one to expand. For groceries, Grocery IQ and Shopper are handy grocery list apps (I use Shopper but wish it had a menu planning function) and Relish has a seriously delicious-looking app for meal planning and shopping (and making our foodie columnist Michelle drool) and Big Oven has a free app that lets you browse their burgeoning recipe database.

Nutrition & Fitness Tracking – Not all of our readers are looking to lose weight, but for those who are, the SparkPeople iPhone app received props from our readers when we gave a shout-out for faves on Twitter. Membership on SparkPeople is free, and it works a lot like Weight Watchers, My Food Diary, and other sites that allow you to track food intake and exercise – and it’s free! (We love that!). Speaking of Weight Watchers, members can take their points with them via the Weight Watchers Mobile app, which is also free.

Health & Wellness – hLog is a comprehensive app that tracks your overall health, including medications, sleep cycles, and other information.  GoMeals helps diabetics track nutritional information, find nearby restaurants, and record daily food intake. Diabetes Pilot allows users to record blood glucose levels, insulin doses, and produces trends summarizing your diabetes care. There are even apps to track your menstrual cycles – yes, really. For time zone and otherwise numerically challenged people like me, this is ideal (though I just circle the date on my wall calendar). iPeriod estimates your future periods and also helps you predict ovulation, for girls who are trying to conceive. New millennium, indeed. ShapeWriter is a company dedicated to making typing easier and more intuitive. For those of us with tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome, having easier ways to type that put less stress on overused tendons is definitely worth considering. Finally, I use Ambiance daily for relaxation while meditating and background music while working, and there are tons of white noise sounds to help you get to sleep.

Good Eats – Urban Spoon offers city-specific restaurant recs, and I love the simplicity of TripAdvisor’s Local Picks. And not to tempt you Starbucks addicts too much, but they have two positively dreamy apps: one to find the nearest ‘bux and another to record the balance on your Starbucks card. Hello Vino is a free app that pairs the perfect wine with whatever you’re dining on at the moment.

Just for Fun – I may have an addiction to Words with Friends (a Scrabble knockoff with a social networking twist) and Crosswords, but they’re relatively healthy and inexpensive brain workouts compared to my former Starbucks jones. The Gratitude Journal and Vision Board apps are not only a blast to use, but they’re a perfect way to kick off a new year by giving thanks and dreaming big. I included this one just for Tee: Star Walk is a stargazing guide that shows phases of the moon, meteor showers, and constellations. Tell me that isn’t fun! And just today, I just discovered the Lego Photo app, which instantly turns your photos you into bright plastic brick works of art – for free.

Before You Buy - Talk to your friends and ask them about their favorite apps – a fun rite of passage for new iPhone owners. You’ll be sure to get an earful and/or an inbox filled with suggestions. A quick shout-out on Twitter (using Tweetie2, my favorite Twitter app) asking people for their favorite apps related to any topic under the sun will net you at least a few good responses. Also, read reviews before you buy and write them afterward; developers want to keep customers coming back and will listen to your requests for tweaks and additions. Finally, many apps associated with social media sites are free – like the flickr and Facebook applications, allowing you to bring your friends with you wherever you go.

So, girls: dish on your favorite iPhone apps, fat-girl-specific or not. And from all of us at FGG, have a wonderful new year!

I’ll even add a hot sparkle for emphasis

As 2009 lumbers on out of here, taking the first decade of the new century with it, we thought this would be a great opportunity to bid the year farewell. Why? Looking back and letting go allows us to make room for new and better things to enter our lives.

We know how hard women can be on themselves, and we fat girls can sometimes be even more brutal in our self-talk. So today we invite you to use the comments to kiss off whatever didn’t serve you in 2009. I’ll post in the comments, too. Ready? Set? Pucker up!

Toni’s cute Keens

Here’s a recent question for Ask FGG:

Can you help a sister find some wide width shoes that don’t look like they belong to someone’s grandma?

We loved this question, because we get it. Although not all fat girls wear a wide width and not all grandmas are dowdy, we are familiar with clothing stores that offer plus size “styles” only a sack of potatoes could love. Why the fashion industry relies on assumptions such as “larger size = tall woman” and “plus size women don’t care about fashion” is beyond us.

But fortunately, when it comes to wide width shoes, the tide appears to be turning in the fat girls’ favor. If you haven’t seen it already, here’s our guide to fall boots that fit wider calves, and here’s a few retailers that offer cute shoes in wider widths:

Zappos.com – The reasons to love this company are myriad. First off, you can search for your size and width from the home page. Second, they have a decent selection of dress shoes in wide widths, including the Bella-Vita Sante in silver patent leather – how cute are these? Third, they offer free shipping on purchases AND returns. And finally, nce you find a brand you like, you can sign up for email updates when new styles arrive in your size.

Avenue’s Cloudwalkers – An entire line of fashionable shoes in a wide width. How great is that? Check out these Paige Peep Toe Woven Wedges–adorable! While they only offer two styles in a WW width, these cute, current styles are a step in the right direction. Since Avenue recently added size 7 to the Cloudwalkers lineup, they seem like a company who will listen to customers’ input, so drop them a line and let them know what you’d like to see in your size.

Torrid – The name says it all: these are not shoes for shy girls, and they’re sized to “fit a wider foot and calf.” Take the Red Patent Quincy Cuffed Heel. ‘Nuff said.

Designer Shoes – Efficient shoppers who like to get in and out of a site quickly will love this site, which lists shoes by size and width in the sidebar. Click your size/width combo and instantly see what they have in stock. They carry a lot of the Naturalizer line, especially for WW widths,  and while this isn’t the most cutting edge in terms of style, we found a notable exception: these Princeton strappy heels. (The Naturalizer web site has two pages of styles in an extra wide width).

For you girls out there who wear a wide width shoe – what are your favorite brands, and where do you buy them?

Surely we can’t be the only ones who think gingerbread consumption should be encouraged year-round. Its rich flavor is so satisfying that it’s tough to over-snack on them. We also love yoga for its restorative powers and the way regular practice encourages us to slow down and be in tune with our bodies, so these cookies represent a perfect – and adorable – pairing of style and substance. Every order of gingerbread yogis comes with this yoga pose chart. How sweet is that?

We also fell hard for these plump doves and these cool camera cookies – nice inspiration for our 2010 self portraiture challenge. Visit the Baked Ideas web site for more ideas – they’ll even make custom cookies of your fab figure!

Got any great finds we should know about? Tell us about them in the comments.

Who you callin’ fat by Jamie Bates

Choosing this month’s photo challenge winner was tough because so many new and colorful photos landed in our FGG Girls photo group. Jamie’s image (above) is December’s winning photo because of her distinctive, electrifying, and inspiring self portraiture style. Congrats, Jamie! Send us your mailing address and we’ll send you a prize.

If you can’t relate to the sentiment expressed in this photo, we might have to revoke your honorary fat girl card and boot you from the clubhouse. Okay, we’re kidding, but we know that struggles with the scale can be epic for women of every size, and that’s what made this photo as evocative as it is funny. And while not everyone worries about this issue, however you feel about weighing yourself (or not), it’s sometimes easy to forget that there’s so much more to us than our waist size or weight. Taking racy, playful, or soft self portraits – or having a friend or professional photographer take quality photos of us – is a great way to capture and celebrate who we are now.

If you saw our Mid-Week Mini Challenge from last week, we’re extending it by 24 hours, because 01.01.10 is such a tantalizing kick-off date for a creative self portraiture challenge.

Here’s the scoop:

Join a Flickr self-portrait project group like 52 Weeks or 365 Days, upload your first self-portrait, then commit to at least one self-portrait each week for a year. When you’ve joined the group and added your photo (which should be taken just for this project), come back here and link to that photo in comments, which then enters you to win the mini-challenge mystery prize. Deadline: 11:59 p.m. (PST) on January 1, 2010, and the winner will be chosen at random on January 2.

I’m having another go at 365 Days of self portraits (my first 365 was in 2007), but of course *I* can’t enter to win the prize. We welcome other takers, however, so show us what you’ve got, girls!

Hopefully everyone’s still off enjoying the day, but I wanted to share with you a quick and easy recipe (I wish I could remember where it came from) that’s great for the cold, snowy weekend that many of us are experiencing. I think these lasagna rolls are easier than regular lasagna and — bonus — they’re easily portioned out. They pair wonderfully with a salad and a piece of crusty bread… and maybe a glass of wine if you’re so inclined.

You can also double the recipe and make a second pan to give to a friend or to freeze for an easy dinner on another night. Enjoy!

Lasagna Rolls
6 lasagna noodles (whole wheat works great)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 pound ground turkey breast
1 onion, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
16 ounces marinara sauce, your own or pre-made
1/3 cup water
1 cup fat-free ricotta cheese
1/2 (10-ounce) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Cook lasagna noodles according to package. Drain and rinse noodles, lay flat on wax paper.

Heat oil over medium-high heat. Add turkey, onion, and bell pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until pan juices evaporate and turkey browns (about 10 minutes). Stir in marinara sauce and water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until slightly thickened and flavors blend (about 5 minutes).

Preheat oven to 375. Meanwhile, combine ricotta, spinach, basil, Parmesan, egg, and nutmeg in medium bowl. Spread ricotta mixture over the length of each noodle and roll up from one short end.

Spread 1/2 the turkey mixture in the bottom of an 8 x 12 inch baking dish. Add the rolls. Top with the remaining turkey mixture. cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil, sprinkle with mozzarella, bake until heated through and the top is golden (about 10 minutes).

Yield: 6 servings

Looking for more great recipes? Visit my blog at
http://culinography.wordpress.com

A handmade ornament from Toni’s childhood

We hope you’re all as busy as we are with holiday prep and cheer, but I wanted to break for a shout-out to all our fantastic readers: we hope your holidays are full of all the yummy goodness – in the kitchen and out – that you can imagine. We’re used to traveling all over for Christmas but logistics have us tethered to home this year and I’m SO very looking forward to the quiet, low-key day tomorrow.

If you’re celebrating, what are (or were, if you’re tuning in later) your plans this year?