Wrap Thingies

Have you guys heard of the It Works! Wraps?  They are supposed to shrink your fat and loose skin significantly over a course of a few wraps.  They're pretty cool, actually, and the before and after photos I've seen have intrigued me.

So I'm thinking about selling them.

But after talking to my distributor, and hearing that part of the process was to drink half your body weight in ounces of water, or it wouldn't work, I decided I better test this out.

So this morning I measured my middle.  (Insert shameful head drop here).  I marked it on a piece of string because Lord knows I don't want to know how many inches that is.  I also weighed myself, and came up with a certain number of ounces of water I need to drink.

So I will be drinking my ounces of water over this weekend, and then remeasuring to see if water alone will shrink the middle.  Then I'll do the wrap along with the water and see if it makes a difference.  If it does, then let the selling begin!  If not, well, at least we'll know, right?

Wish me luck!

Update:  After a weekend of drinking copious amounts of water, I remeasured myself, and I had lost maybe 1/4".  Basically nothing when it comes to seeing a difference.  

This afternoon I wrapped myself in the wrap.   Let me describe this for you.  The wraps are folded up, and they unfold to reveal what looks like a giant Icy Hot patch.  The directions state to use Saran Wrap or a compression garment or an Ace bandage to hold it in place.  I opted for the Saran Wrap.  If any of you have seen "Fried Green Tomatoes", think of Kathy Bates wrapped up in cellophane to meet her hubby at the door.  

I felt like that.  But more awkward.  It was a pain to get wrapped up (literally a pain because my joints have been so achy the last few days, it hurts to maneuver around all that tacky wrap).  I got it on finally, and the first thing I noticed is that is smells like an Icy Hot patch too.  

I'm left wondering, "am I wearing an Icy Hot patch Saran Wrapped to my body for the rest of the afternoon?"  We shall see.  I plan on leaving it on until tonight, then I'll measure before bed, and when I wake up.  Hopefully there's more gone than 1/4".  Oh, and I'll still be drinking lots and lots of water.

2/11/14

And the results are in!  After leaving the wrap on for 6 hours, drinking half my body weight in water for days and days, and massaging in the excess lotion, I remeasured last night before bed and this morning.  Last night before bed, I was still at about 1/4" loss.  I wasn't surprised.  I really thought this morning I would see more of a difference.  

I didn't.  

I was still at about 1/4" loss.  

Now, I understand that a full treatment is 4 wraps, and I only did the one, but it makes me wonder if just drinking water consistently over the course of those 4 wraps would show the same difference with or without the wrap itself.  

That, coupled with all the supplements they try and get you use, along with a "healthy lifestyle", of course you'll see a difference.  

For now, sadly, I'm saying no to the It Works! wraps.  I was really hopeful there would be more of a difference, but until I can test this with a full arsenal of wraps and supplements, I am basing my opinion on the small sample size I did attain, and it didn't work.  Any time you change to a "healthy lifestyle", you will see a difference in your size and measurements.

I was really looking forward to more of a difference because I was considering becoming a distributor for this company.  But now, I don't think I could sell them in good conscience.  

Permanent Marker

This is another test request from Shauna.  Have I mentioned I love requests?  I do.  It makes my Pinterest searching so much easier.

This one comes from this adorable website, so go check her out.

Anyway, this one is near and dear to my heart, both as a mother, and a wood floor owner.  Luckily, knock on wood, I've never had to deal with this particular problem.  Yet.  I'm sure my day will come.

Taking permanent marker off anything sounds impossible at worst and scary at best.  I thought I better try this one just to make sure it didn't make it worse before it got better.  

First I found a part of some wood that I knew I would never see

And then I grabbed a Sharpie out of the junk drawer

Then I (gulp) drew a heart on the wood.

Insert heart stopping moment right here.

Then I grabbed me some white toothpaste because that's what it says on the website

And applied that toothpaste directly to the heart.  Please note that I let the Sharpie dry completely between these steps, even if it went against my better judgement.

Then I started to rub vigorously.  And by vigorously, I mean I didn't have on a bra, so there was some serious breast reverb action going on.  I know, too much info, but it was funny to me.

And you can see the toothpaste is turning blue, and the Sharpie is indeed coming off!  I was shocked!

I wiped it off with a paper towel, and all is well in the wood world once again.

So to sum it up,

Is it worth the money?  Yep, as long as you have white toothpaste on hand, and if you don't, go buy a trial size one for .59.  Also, depending on who put the Sharpie there, you may need to come up with bail money.

Is it worth the mess?  Yes. There is little to no mess, unless you have a full on Picasso on your hands, then get them into art classes, or find them a nice neighbors house to play at that has wood floors.

Would I recommend it?  Absolutely!  I can't believe this works.  I'm not sure about the science behind it, and I will find out, but it definitely works.

As a side note, there was no discernable damage to the wood after this test, so yay.

White Toenails!

I came across this little beauty of a picture and thought it deserved a try.  I love love love white toenails.  I had mine done white one summer when we lived in Chicago, and that whole summer I spent sunbathing next to the wave pool at Six Flags, and my legs and feet have never looked more tan.  I swear it was the white toenails in contrast to my sort-of tannish legs.

Anyway, this lovely picture makes you think you'll get these perfect white toenails, when in fact it links to this blog, and the toenails are clearly painted white.  Browse around her blog, it has some really cute stuff on it!  I'll try it out anyway, just to see what happens.

Here are my toenails before.  Unpainted for months now, don't judge me, but they were a perfect blank canvas.

So it says to start with a paste of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide.  I used 2 tsp of each, and it is a runny paste, but it's a good consistency, I think.

Then you're supposed to scrub it onto your toenails for a few minutes with an old toothbrush.
I scrubbed.

It got a little messy here.  This solution reminds me of cornstarch and water, that kind of not-quite-liquid, not-quite-solid situation going on.  I scrubbed it for a few minutes, then it says to soak for 5-10 minutes in the solution.

I soaked for 10 minutes, I timed it.  My foot was freezing, btw.
I rinsed, per the instructions, and this is what came out:

They look exactly the same.  Well, in the after picture, I obviously have a hair of some sort on my toe, I apologize for that, but in a house with 3 dogs and 2 cats, that will happen.

So to sum it all up,

Is it worth the mess?  Really there is very little mess, unless your 14 year old decides she wants to try this on her fingernails, and then proceeds to cover the bathroom in that sticky mess.  But for me, there was no mess.

Is it worth the money?  I had both baking soda and hydrogen peroxide on hand, as I'm sure many of you do as well, so it cost me a few cents at the most.

Does it work?  Nope.  No 2 ways about it.  Your toes will NOT look like the ones in the picture on Pinterest.  Unless you break out the white paint, then of course it will.