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If you’d rather just buy a pair with a discount, Whooga is offering TBGB readers a 10% discount for the next week. Just use discount code: 1506BIGGIRL

Happy Shopping!

Remember when I went to Miami and got my first Brazilian Wax?

Well, getting waxed has slowly become something I do regularly. I like the hygienic benefits and with my active gym schedule (swimming, changing in public etc.), I like not having to worry about maintenance “down there”.

The first brazilian I got was at Completely Bare, a hair removal spa with locations all over New York City. The experience and process was stellar. If I had my way, I’d go to them every time. Unfortunately, Completely Bare is on the pricey side and CeCe’s on a budget so I’ve started exploring other places to get it done.

Last weekend I went to Spa Ja on 56th and 8th avenue for my brazilian. I’ve spoken before about being a Plus Size Princess with “nooks and crannies” (some might call them rolls). One of my initial fears about waxing was that my nooks and crannies would make the process uncomfortable. Thankfully, it hasn’t been an issue.

At Completely Bare, I just laid back and let the esthetician do her thing. At Spa Ja, the experience was a lot more “hands on”. The esthetician who gave me my wax had my lifting my lower belly, moving my fat to the left and right so that she could get rid of every single strand of hair.

The woman who did my wax was older with a thick Russian accent. For some reason that made me more comfortable putting my “little CeCe” in her care. She said she’d been waxing for most of her life and she had a process that worked for me. She used a combination of old school hot wax/paper strips and the new paperless self hardening wax. She also gave me some good advice on maintaining my brazilian.

“Ven een zee showah, uze cree-stahl soo-gah scrrrab” (translation: when in the shower, use crystal sugar scrub). She also advised me to use an oil based moisturizer down there to prevent dryness, but to avoid baby oil.

I rate my experience at Completely Bare a 10 and my Spa Ja experience is a 7.5 (mostly due to the ambiance). But at $55 , Spa Ja is a lot cheaper than Completely Bare. I’d definitely go back, but I’m going to check out a few other places first.

I’ll keep you posted!

Happy Monday!

I’ve lost the ability to sleep in but I’m so happy to have the day off of work.

Usually a day off work means I can watch trashy daytime TV (“you are NOT the father!”) and hang out… with my refrigerator. Staying at home on a weekday can easily become a party with me, Maury and the fridge in heavy rotation. I’ll have breakfast, a snack, lunch, two more snacks and somehow I’ll make a light supper followed by a heavier one late at night (and there will be lots of picking and munching in between all of that).

Maybe its just me, but its hard to be at home and not eat.

On the other hand, when I’m at work I have a set amount of food and specific times to eat it. I pack my lunch most days, stock my desk with fruits, veggies, oatmeal and I keep low calorie frozen entrees in the office freezer for lunch.

When I’m at work, I don’t have access to my favorite foods and I’ve realized that a lot of my diet success (I’ve lost 15 pounds since January) is contingent on that.

I think my normal stay-at-home-and-eat behavior is based on boredom and I really don’t want to fall into those patterns today, so I’m planning to stay out of the house as much as possible.

When I’m done with this post, I’m going to make breakfast and then I’m going to take an afternoon yoga class. I’ll pack some apple slices, then hopefully I’ll meet a friend for lunch, do some shopping and come home for a normal dinner in the evening.

If all goes well, staying out of the house will keep me from eating my way through the day… wish me luck!

This weekend I had an epiphany: I am no different now than I was before I started dating Robert.

Being with Robert is so much fun, I find that even strangers enjoy us as a couple and its an incredible feeling. It’s also a feeling I’ve been waiting for since I was a little Plus Size Princess trying to find her way with boys.

For as long as I can remember I’ve been obsessing over having a boyfriend. I have old diaries filled with pages of me longing for a boyfriend. I’ve imagined how every birthday, holiday and special occasion would have been sooo much better if I had someone to share it with. I’ve also been super hard on myself, making a list of a million things that I needed to do or change so that I could get a boyfriend.

I can honestly say that between then and now I’m not prettier, smarter, cooler, or funnier (and I’m definitely not skinner) but I have him.

The truth is, I’m as much of a mess as I always was. I still struggle with things and work hard for things. I still have triumphs, successes and/or failures and the list of things I need to do or change gets longer every day! When it comes to my life, I’m still trying to figure it all out. I have a long way to go and having a boyfriend won’t change any of that.

I used to think a boyfriend would validate me, but Robert doesn’t make me prettier, smarter, cooler or funnier.

Sometimes we have to wait for someone who “gets us”, but that doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with who we are. A diamond is beautiful and precious long before someone discovers it. Which means there’s a good chance I’ve been this pretty, smart, cool and funny all along.

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day!

As you all know, I’m a huge fan of online dating and there’s a new site that’s taking a fun approach to meeting people online.

HowAboutWe… is dating site that is all about activites (which I love!) instead of the same old coffee shop or dinner/movie dates, you can link up with someone who wants to have a fun, adventurous, romantic or sexy experience!

I’ve lived in NYC for a few years now, but I’ve never been to the Empire State Building. If I had a first date there, that would be super memorable and different. I also saw someone on HowAboutWe.com suggest grabbing digital cameras and doing photo shoots in Central Park! No matter what city you live in, the possibilities are endless….

Happy Wednesday!

I just wanted to give you all a heads up that I’ll be doing a radio interview tonight at 9pm EST on The Single Edition Radio Show!

I’ve never done anything like this before, so if you’re interested in being a part of our conversation (or if you just want to hear my voice ) you should tune in.

This is an online radio broadcast, so you can listen from anywhere in the world!

The theme for the evening is “Loving Yourself” and I’m pretty flattered that they’d consider me a good person to discuss that topic.

I plan on multitasking for this, so I will be tweeting during the show (follow me on twitter @thebiggirlblog). See you tonight!

xoxo,

CeCe

As Robert and I continue to date, I’ve started thinking about the type of girlfriend I want to be. Not to him, but to my female friends. There are so many annoying things my friends do when they’re in relationships, but I don’t think they notice it because they’re not single. So in the spirit of last months Big Girl Rant, today I give you: A Single Girl Rant.

Because TBGB is such a personal blog, I didn’t tell very many people about it when I first started. As time went by, I decided to share it with three close friends. All three of these friends were in serious relationships and although I was very specific about not wanting everyone to know about and/or read my blog… all three of them told their boyfriends.

Of course, they told their boyfriends about TBGB because they were excited about it, proud of my writing and wanted to be the bearer of good news; but it wasn’t their news to tell. If I wanted their boyfriends to know what I was doing, I would have told them myself!

Sometimes I feel like people in relationships need to be reminded of a few things:

• You are an individual!
• You are my friend/confidant, your boyfriend is not
• You are in a relationship with your boyfriend, but I am not
• You may feel the need to tell your boyfriend everything, but I don’t
• You may trust your boyfriend, but I don’t (I barely know him!)

It takes a lot to build a friendship. Trust, vulnerability and sharing aren’t things that happen over night. Those are things you earn, and sleeping with my friends isn’t a quick pass into my personal life.

Its frustrating because once I figured out that my friends were sharing things I asked them not to with their boyfriends, I suddenly had to reevaluate what I decided to share with them moving forward and that was awful. I had to accept the fact that things that used to be sacred, weren’t anymore.

The crazy part is, now that Robert and I are dating I find myself wanting to update him on my friends lives. I feel like such a hypocrite, but he knows a lot of them, has met their boyfriends and sometimes I want to mention things that are going on, but then I remind myself what it feels like. I know when my friends confide in me, they don’t expect things to go farther than me, and if course… I know how it feels.

I don’t know… maybe my expectations are too high and this is just what happens when people are in relationships.

Has this happened to you? What do you think?

I mentioned a few posts back that I spent the beginning of 2011 quite sick and in the hospital. For most people that would be a perfect recipe for weight loss, but as a PSP with Polycycstic Ovarian Syndrome, spending 10 days in bed right after the holidays meant a ridiculous amount of weight gain for me.

Unfortunately, if I’m not constantly working to lose weight with exercise, I will pack on the pounds with no effort at all. So, I started 2011 at my highest weight in a long time but I also started with a new found desire to get back on track.

My New Years Resolution before I got sick was to lose 10 pounds in January, February and March and then to reassess my fitness goals and lose some more. But I wasn’t physically able to step foot into a gym until mid-January so I knew I had to just do my best. I changed my eating habits by eating fruits and veggies with every single meal.

• A banana in my oatmeal
• Green Beans with my lunch
• An apple with my afternoon popcorn
• Fresh pineapple slices while I cooked dinner

I found that doing this filled me up a lot and helped me to make better choices throughout the day. I combined that with 30 minutes of cardio, 3-4 times a week and in the last two weeks of January, I’ve lost 9.2 pounds!

Not too far off from my goal, now lets see if I can get 100% back on track for February. Maybe this time next year I’ll be shopping for new JDWilliams Womens Coats…

How’s everyone else doing?