Two years ago I was a hot mess. A tyrant really. Like a dictator would seem like a nice guy compared to my bridezilla-ness.

I was about to get married. Well, on the 23rd of May. But trust me, on the 20th I was still in a frenzy.

Oh-my-gosh-the-favors!! They all need to have identical bows.

And oh my gosh the picture uploading cards (that NO ONE USED).

And holy hell I am eating like a cow and this dress HAS got to fit. There is no plan B.

Who isn’t coming? That’s MONEY down the drain. WHY AREN’T THEY COMING!?!? It is my wedding daaaaaayyyyyy!!

Yeah. Anyone who has gotten married knows exactly what I am talking about..those moments where you just want to elope and stuff your face with cake.

But alas, I didn’t, so now I get to relive those memories and laugh.

Though I am still pissed at the no-shows. Yeah, I am. –Sigh-

The next couple of posts will be me sharing my wedding pictures with you all. Today we’ll start with some engagement pictures and some of my bridals courtesy of the uber talented Kate Lemmon.

I promise I look nowhere near as pretty on a daily basis- this took a talented MAC artist & lots of Photoshop.

My poor husband.

Have a good weekend, we’re off to celebrate in San Antonio!

Well, the title says it all, so peace out.

I kid.

As of last Saturday’s weigh-in, I’ve lost about 26 pounds. This week I am super stressed, so I am pretty sure it’ll be about 24 pounds total after Saturday’s weigh-in. Which leads me to my update.

I feel like a car who is stuck in mud: spinning wheels, lots of effort, yet no movement forward to progress out of the dirt. The awful dirt that is being a fat 26 year old girl.

And I am trying. Like honestly, I’d get an A+ for effort. I stopped doing my 100 days challenge because I really, really hurt my knee and had to take time off. I just had to. Between Zumba and Turbo Jam and strength training, my knee hurt. Going to pee was a mental pep talk because bending down sucked that much. For reals.

Thank goodness for Arctic Ease wraps. I was fortunate enough to receive 2 of them to try out, and lucky for me because both knees were hurtin’. I’ve had ankle and knee problems ever since I can remember, and I’ve tried SO many different wraps and braces and ziploc bags of ice to try to mend quickly. I won’t bother with that stuff anymore. Arctic Ease wraps offer the coldness of ice packs with the mobility I like/need to move on with my day.

I wrapped up my knees just like the picture above. It stays in place! I hate having to fidget with stuff repeatedly. I kept it on for hours while reading or doing housework, and I even wore one while installing crown moulding. And guess what? My knee is doing a lot better, which shows that rest + a good wrap helps me bounce back from a bit of a setback. No weird odor, no sticky residue. I don’t know how they make these miracle wraps, but they work, they’re affordable and THEY WORK! Can’t emphasize that enough. If you need more a spot healing kind of thing, they do also sell patches instead of wraps:

 

They’re sold at plenty of places online, but I think Amazon usually has the best price. They’re reusable, so don’t discard the nifty pouch they come in! Two thumbs up for Arctic Ease. If you have any questions, the company is fab at social media, so just tweet at them or find them on Facebook.

But, overall, I am still actively trying to lose weight. This time seems a lot harder than usual (I am a professional dieter, remember). I am exercising more, eating less and I still feel like the results I have to show for it are kind of lackluster, and plenty of people on Twitter tell me such (bummer). A blogger I follow has been using a program for about the same amount of time I’ve been counting calories and she’s lost almost 60 pounds. That is over twice as much as I have lost. Stings a bit (ok, I am green with envy…), but I told myself I absolutely wouldn’t do anything I couldn’t maintain for the long haul. Nothing crazy, nothing drastic.

And that’s what I’ll keep doing.

26 pounds down, about 70 more to go.

I just want to feel beautiful.

One of the MOST popular posts on my blog happen to be the two posts in which I basically totally diss Skinnygirl Margaritas by Bethenny.

Because they taste like crap.

And, if you peruse the comments, you’ll see most people agree with me. And on Twitter when anyone asks about Skinnygirl Margaritas, it never fails that someone tweets something like this: “Ohmygosh you have to read @MonicaBenavidez review on that crap. Seriously. She says it’s crap.”

And I smile a little. <3

Now, Bethenny isn’t alone in making stuff that is low calorie, but tastes awful when you actually make the margaritas/long islands/mojitos.

There’s Baja Bob’s. Didn’t like ANY of their stuff either because it had a funky after taste. Now granted, I tried their mixes about 5+ years ago, but I remember I didn’t like them enough to try them ever again.

And there’s also this stuff I found at Wal-Mart:

Nasty. Nasty. Nasty.

There’s also the “skinny” margarita at Chili’s that is like $7 for ONE drink. ONE y’all. ONE.

Insanity! Can’t we just have good drinks and small asses?

Yes, we can.

I was contacted by Bonita’s Mixes last month and they offered to send me some mixes to try out, and I was like, “Yes. Please. And Thank you.” And would ya believe they got delivered the day I was so frustrated with my darn cabinets? Sign from the Gods people, seriously.

And they were packaged well, which is awesome because they are in glass bottles. Which I like, because I can use them to make stuff like this:

Gorg.

But anyway, I was super excited to try them out. So excited that by the time I took pictures for this review about 20 minutes ago, I had only this much left of the margarita mix:

Enough for one drink. Yup. I never, ever EVER finished any of the Baja Bob’s or Wal-Mart light drink mixes. Honestly, I just threw out the Wal-Mart one last week to make room for milk in the fridge.

Nutrition facts:

Cute logo. I lurve sweetheart necklines.

And best of all:

ZERO GUILT. Zilch. Nada.

And it’s all natural and I love their about us page.

How do you whip up a low calorie margarita? Well, it’s easy. Fill a pretty glass with some ice…

Add 3 parts margarita mix:

To 1 part tequila:

Or 2 parts. Hey, it might be that kind of a day. Don’t judge.

Swirl around with a bendy straw.

Sip, enjoy and know you don’t have to go run on the treadmill.

By my calculations, my yummy, delicious, ohmygoshsogood margarita comes in right around 100ish calories. Probably less actually. Today I omitted the salt (sodium…which I had enough of this weekend), but you could garnish with some lime and salt to make it a fiesta.

What do I like about Bonita’s Mixes? Well, they’re affordable. At $6.99 per bottle, I can easily make about 8 drinks from that. Compare that to 8 calorie filled drinks at a bar…and yeah. You’re looking at a huge savings in money and calories. Let’s face it- both matter.

The other thing I like about Bonita’s mixes is that they taste good. Something that has alluded other low-calorie mix makers. There’s no weird after taste, it’s not overly tart nor overly sweet. It’s like they’ve found a way to strike perfect harmony.

I also love that I can serve these to friends who could care less about calories, and they wouldn’t be able to tell much of a difference. My girlfriend had a margarita I whipped up for her, and she thought it was fabulous that she didn’t have to negate the calories we burned at Zumba earlier that day.

So, how can you get your hands on these bottles from heaven? Well, they do sell online, or you can see if they’re available at a store near you. The company is pretty new, so they aren’t available in a ton of places, but you can buy directly from them. I finished my margarita bottle tonight, so I will need to be placing an order stat. And if you like them, why not like them on Facebook, too? As an entrepreneur myself, I love hearing about success stories and I have a feeling that Bonita’s Mixes are going to be something big. Quality ingredients, great customer service and a fantastic product sound like a perfect concoction for success. I wish they were available locally here in South Texas because I’d be buying the mixes on the regular. Mmm hhhm.

And hey, the mixes were in the Oscar & Grammy goodie bags. Really! Isn’t that cool?

I like to think Lady Gaga had some after being cooped up in that egg.

And hey, if she didn’t, I wonder if she wouldn’t mind sending her bottles my way?

So, there’s my review of the margarita mix. I’ll be back later this week with recipes using their sweet & sour mix and mojito mix, which are also only 5 calories. Yup, I am hooked.

Disclaimer: I was provided these products for free to try, but my slight buzz and opinions are all my own. Don’t drink & drive!

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve enjoyed your weekend, and that your mother’s day was simply fabulous.

Hi mom, love you!

I bet you think I am writing because I have a new and shiny dining room to show off…but not quite. I’ve finished about 60% of the cabinets. I know, I know. Didn’t I devise a plan to get it all knocked out by now? Well, yes. But life doesn’t always go as planned, now does it?

I can give you an itty bitty sneak peek to hold you over.

A reminder of the before:

And a sneak peek of the after:

Gorgeous, ain’t it?

All the drawers are done, so I just have to get the cabinet doors done, let them cure and then hang them. So, yeah, hopefully by July. I hate painting. Hate, hate, hate it. I did not think I could feel this strongly about painting cabinets, but I can safely say I probably won’t be doing it again anytime soon.

My husband and I also attempted to install crown moulding. Yeah. That’ll be it’s own post, but let me preface it by saying that crown moulding is right next to cabinet painting on my list of “Hire people to do that shit.”

Just sayin.

I know that I should just buckle down and FINISH THE CABINETS. Right? I will. I have to.

Other than that, coming up tomorrow is going to be a review about some kick ass, low calorie mix for margaritas, mojitos AND long island iced teas. You will NOT want to miss tomorrow’s post. The stuff I am reviewing is way better than that awful Skinnygirl Margarita crap, and it’s  affordable. And you’re going to love it. LOVE IT.

What else? Oh, on Wednesday will be a weight loss update complete with some info on a knee wrap that is probably made in heaven.

There will also be some free pillows and lots of spray paint.

What Monica wants, Monica gets, so this summer will be all about making my home a bit more beautiful one rant at a time.

One time I read a blog post that recommended if you haven’t blogged in awhile not to blog about not blogging in awhile. Yeah. So, I’m going to ignore the big pink elephant in the room staring at me in the face telling me I haven’t blogged since March 22nd, 2011.

Yeah.

I think my issues with blogging are that I am tired and busy, and also that I talk and talk all day long about stuff on Twitter leaving me with nothing to say on here. I feel like Twitter allows me to micro-blog all day long. But honestly, I have a lot to say. Just ask my husband. Bless his heart, I have no clue how he puts up with me.

For now, I’m going to just give you all a rundown of my progress in life.

Weight loss:

I am kicking ass. Sure I haven’t lost 50 pounds or gone down 11 dress sizes or done anything ridiculously fabulous and fantastic, but I have improved my health. I’ve dropped 25.4 pounds, dropped about 11% of my body weight and exercised EVERY FAAAAAH-REAKING day of 2011. Yes, EVERY SINGLE DAY. Insane? Perhaps. Tiring? Always. Impossible? HELL NO. Not everyday is easy, lord knows that. There are some days where I am like, “Monica, just do the f-ing 30 minutes and you can have a popsicle.” Yeah, I bribe myself. But those days are few compared to the days where exercising the highlight of my day. I feel strong, empowered and fit. Me, I know, FIT. I couldn’t do what I am doing now back in January. I was weak and out of shape. And in 110 days (yes, keeping count…) I’ve improved. I’m sore, tired, and happy. I’m about 25% of the way to my goal, and I know I’ll get there eventually because I am addicted. It’s my life.

The Dining Room:

Ugh. This is where I suck. You all know my last post was about the cabinets. And maybe I feel so defeated that I have just been putting off the inevitable; I have to finish the cabinets! My personality is weird, and it appears I have better success when I tell people what I want to accomplish. Which is why I tweet incessantly about my struggles with weight loss. Hopefully someone will feel inspired, a little less alone and it keeps my chunky butt accountable. However, let’s keep me accountable to finish the dining room, mkay?

The Plan: To finish painting the cabinets.

Thursday: During lunch, make a list of materials and buy anything not already on hand in garage. Section 1 will be primed in the evening on Thursday April 21st. It will dry overnight.

Friday: In the morning, section 2 will be primed and in the afternoon section 3 will be primed and in the evening section 4 will be primed.

Saturday: Zumba in the morning, in the afternoon coat 1 of paint will be applied to section 1 and 2.

Sunday: Coat 1 of paint will be applied to section 3 and 4.

Monday: Coat 2 of paint will be applied to section 1 and 2.

Tuesday-Friday afternoon I am out-of-town in Austin.

Friday: Coat 2 of paint will be applied to section 3 and 4.

Next Saturday: Touch-ups on all paint, apply polycrylic (still debating on this because I don’t want my paint to yellow…suggestions?)

Next Sunday: Let paint cure. Lay in snuggie watching HGTV.

Next Monday:  Apply hardware & install molding above cabinets.

I think that maybe I could get it all done this weekend (I have a 4-day Easter weekend), but I always overwhelm myself and give up. This plan of mine now gives me time to do it right and take my time. Mostly because if I can’t get it right this time, I’ll give up. I don’t want to give up because I know this project has the potential to rock and make our home so much better and add value.

I can do this right? I can exercise for 4326 minutes in 100 days, but these cabinets are intimidating me? No way! I got this.

Maybe.

Now that I’ve put it out there, you all have got to encourage me and keep me accountable. Harassment is totally fair. I’m game.

And I promise to try to blog regularly. Maybe 3-4 posts a week. Luckily I have some sponsored posts coming up with some awesome stuff to review (Margaritas, knee wraps and paint! Squee.)

Also, I do have a topic on my mind that I want your opinion on:

Isn’t my little niece Ava just a total cutie pie? She was born last week, and my ovaries exploded with delight.

Baby rabies- I gots it.