A Girl Can't Live Off Cheetos Alone

Though sometimes I'd like to.

Yesterday my boyfriend and I seized the rare opportunity to drive to the supermarket by hitting up a Safeway about a mile away from his northwest DC apartment. (Normally neither of us has a car but I drove down from my family's house in NY to go on job interviews this week.) I'm not a big soda fan and shouldn't indulge his habits, but I did...for the sake of an awesome sale. Buy two 12-packs of soda, get three free. Yes, buy two, get three free. I've never seen a promotion like that. So as long as he's going to drink soda we might as well get it for a bargain price. And without a car there's no way we could carry five 12-packs plus groceries back to his place!

We got four Coca-colas...and one diet root beer for me. :) I also had a coupon for a free Frito-Lay product, but alas, there were only crunchy Cheetos and not puffy ones. Puffy Cheetos are probably my favorite junk-food indulgence. (Cheez Doodles are probably my all-time favorite bright orange cheese puffs though. I mean, in case you were curious.) So I resigned myself to a salad, seltzer, champagne grapes and part of a rice crispy treat for dessert. Tasty and healthier than cheese puffs!

What I really wanted to discuss though is living healthy. The past few months - largely since I took an interest in reading beauty blogs - I've become more conscious about caring for my body. And far from just superficially, especially since I don't think cosmetics and products can be well showcased if you're not taking care of the canvas on which you put them.

Less stress has probably helped my body too. During college I didn't sleep much and was always busy working or studying. I never took 'me' time to nurture my mind and body. However, I probably exercised more then than I have been in the past few weeks by virtue of being car-less and walking two miles to-and-from work five days a week. So maybe it balances out. And then last month I started taking some medication that made my face break-out -- yuck! (It's thankfully subsiding.) Even still, in the past two weeks or so I've woken up and been surprised by the way my skin glows.

As you saw with my recent facewash post, I've been trying to be vigilant in cleaning and moisturizing my skin. Combine that with sleeping enough and trying to stay hydrated/eat healthy, and I think I've found a decent formula for pretty skin. And more energy. It feels good to take care of myself.

Hopefully I'm not jinxing myself! And who knows what will happen when work starts full time in early September?

Anyway, I am going to try hard to complete my care-transformation by trying to eat healthy and exercise more. (Hopefully I'll live close enough to my job to walk most of the time.) So I figured I'd share with you this *brief*, interesting New York Time's guide to "The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating." Beets, cinnamon and canned pumpkin make the cut...Oh, and I'd love to hear any suggestions you have for tasty, healthy foods. I'll be back with more soon.