Beautify Me by CANFO

I am excited to be staring the new year off with a healthier diet and brighter outlook on life. I have been increasing my veggie and fruit intake and have increased my exercise routine. I have also made an effort to look for great vitamins and supplements to help me to be a healthier and better me. I recently found out about Canfo's BeautifyMe.

"Beauty is simply a reflection of the body's condition: every woman has the ability to become beautiful. Hair, skin, and nails are often the most obvious reflection of the body’s condition. When the body and more specifically, when a woman's reproductive system is deprived of nutrients, hair often appears less full and vibrant; nails have bumps and ridges and are even brittle; skin becomes drier and more prone to inflammation. BeautifyMe™ works to replenish and enhance the reproductive system and its ability to absorb and maintain nutrients. As the reproductive system more efficiently absorbs nutrients, the byproduct is a healthy, replenished body with healthy, hair, skin, and nails." To learn more about Canfo and their pro-better-health products, go to Canfo.com.  I am excited to add BeautifyMe to my new healthy diet!

Excercise For Back & Chest Muscles

With the new year coming in, I am all about self empowerment and bettering my health. My friend and I got together and created a list of our 2012 goals. We also decided that we are going to encourage each other to lose weight, have better out health and make better choices over all.   With this, I have started eating better and working out more... I am already feeling so much better.   As of today, I have lost 6 pounds and I am off to a great start.

While watching the new tv show The Revolution, they talked about how with age, women's breast start to sag a bit.  They also suggested some great exercises that will help to strengthen your chest and back muscles.  I search for a few key words on youtube and found some great exercise videos that demonstrated the recommended exercises. The recommended exercises to strengthen your chest and back muscles are Reverse Fly, Bicep Curl (Helps to strengthen upper body. If you don't have and exercise band, you can use hold two bottles of water or two cans of food, and still do the same moves.), and the Superman (strengthens back and front muscles).  Here is an example of the Reverse Fly below.

Rue's visit to the White House

Rue Mapp created a great website called Out Door Afro. It is a site the encourages African Americans to get out and enjoy outdoor recreation. Activities like skiing, rock climbing, hiking, sky diving, and more...  are all things that people from any culture can go out and enjoy.  Because of Rue's great work with her website, public speaking and for reaching out to the community, she was invited to go the White House for the first ever America’s Great Outdoors conference.  "This event was designed to bring leaders from around the country to discuss ways to re-connect Americans to the Great Outdoors and also hosted the historic signing of the Presidential Memorandum on the topic."

"President Obama, who stood mere feet from where I was seated, impressed upon us in his speech that reconnecting all Americans to the outdoors  honors our collective national heritage. The President said “few pursuits are more satisfying to the spirit than discovering the greatness of America’s outdoors,” which referenced his personal family value of outdoor recreation."

Check out Rue's interview on the Naturally Beautiful Hair Websites interview page.  I was also interviews by Rue, and had a chance to talk about my own experiences with learning to love outdoor activities. To see my interview, click here.

20% and 80% ?!?

Last week on on the Tyra Banks show, Tyra talked about her new healthy choice lifestyle: Get your shape in shape.
Most of the information she gave is stuff we already know. But in my case, I just don't apply it! Which is why I continue to struggle with my weight till this day. But Tyra's nutritionist, Heather Bauer, talked about how weight loss is 20% exercise and 80% diet! I have never heard of that before or thought of it that way. But it makes perfect sense.

I work out at the gym 4 to 5 times a week. Although I have not gained any weight over the last couple of years, I am not losing any weight (which is my goal). So basically the reality is setting in that no matter how much you work out, if your diet sucks - it will not make a difference.

So I really want to make an effort to pay attention to what I put in my mouth and follow some of these tips from Tyra and Heather:

#5 Portion Control: Do you eat more than you should? To be sure you are eating a healthy, well-proportioned meal, follow this guide to build your plate… Protein: Picture 2 iPhones stacked together…that’s how much meat you should have on your plate. No more, no less. Carbs: Make your hand into a fist…that’s the maximum amount of carbs you should be eating. If you've been eating more than that amount on a regular basis, well, that could explain the extra pounds. Veggies: When it comes to vegetables, you can never have too much, says Heather. Try to fill half of your plate with veggies (come on, there's got to be one green veg you like!) and you're on your way to a healthier life.

#4 "Phase Eating": A "phase eater" is someone who picks one or two things to eat (while dieting for weight loss) and sticks with it. It's actually not a bad idea, Heather says--if it's a healthy choice of food (like a tuna/no mayo sandwich). Many dieters actually prefer this way of dieting; it’s an easier way to keep up with their plan. If you feel this is a route you’d want to take, go for it!

#3 Breakfast: In today’s busy world, who has time for breakfast? You should! You've heard it before and now you're hearing it again. It's the most important meal of the day. Sometimes when we wake up without an appetite it could mean you ate BIG the night before. However, waking up hungry is a very good sign of being healthy…it means that your body is working. Also, when it comes to weight loss (and brain food) you miss b-fast and you're working against yourself. Need some ideas for a healthy (low fat) breakfast? Pick something from the menu below.

BREAKFAST MENU: Yogurt w/fruit, High fiber cereal, Eggs (scrambled), Tomato and mozzarella, Oatmeal(You can pick one of these things and "phase eat" it too!)

#2 Exercise: A good work out is always a great idea. Even if your diet is fierce and you’ve been on it without any cheating, you could still use a good workout at least 3 times a week. Take a walk or run on a treadmill, you'll immediately see and feel the difference.

#1 NO Smoking: You may be a smoker (we hope not), but if you’re trying to get fit and lose weight, you've got to stay off the smokes! It’ll do nothing but hinder your plan, kill your workout and leave you literally, breathless. It's not easy gving up the habit, but if you are really ready to Get Your Shape in Shape, it's the only way to go.

City Farm Girl

My family and I live in the Bay Area, which is located in the Northern part of California. We got lucky, because when we moved, we found a great place that has a nice size back yard. My husband and my daughters work together with our neighbor to create a cool garden in our back yard. When the garden is in full bloom, we get tons of great veggies - squash, zucchini, tomatoes, lettuce and more. We also have 5 chickens, and get fresh eggs every morning.

With this, comes our pets that stay in our home. We have a lot of pets. Right now, we have 2 cats, 8 fish, and we are taking care of a friends snake. There are also deer in our neighborhood, if you can imagine that! So its no surprise to wake up and find a deer in your yard, just chillin'. But I love it all. I never thought in a million years, that I would have a little farm. I am a city girl at heart. But I have to admit, that this farm life is kinda cool... :-)

How I beat Diabetes

I was diagnose with Diabetes about 2 years ago. For the first year, I was in total denial. I didn't make any changes to my diet or lifestyle. And I paid for it. I was physically suffering; and I started to have vision problems. By the second year, thanks to my family and research, I started to take my diagnoses seriously. Being Diabetic is very serious. If not careful, a person can have the following problems: lose of vision, heart attack, stroke, and more. Also, because a Diabetic is unable to heal wounds like someone that is healthier. So a small cut/infection can turn into a huge infection that is so bad, that it can cause a limb (hand, leg, arm, foot, toes or fingers) to be amputated. So with all this news, and because I did not want to suffer any more - I started working out regularly and eating healthier.

When the economy started to fail, I was laid off from my corporate job. This was definitely a financial hardship on my family. But being laid off was also a blessing in disguise. I decide to work from home as a Personal & Administrative Assistant for a local business owner. With this job, came the ability to make my own hours. So for the past 4 to 5 months, I have been able to work out for 1 to 2 hours per day, 5 days a week. My work out routine includes cardio, weights and core exercises. With this, I have decrease my food portions and I also cut down on sugar intake. Because of this, I received some amazing news!!! I have been to 2 different doctors in the past two weeks, and both have told me that my Diabetes is no longer an issue!!! It's gone... :-D. I am so so very happy for this second chance. Diabetes is not joke. Even with this great news that I have beat my Diabetes, I am going to continue to live a healthy lifestyle so that I don't' have to fear the return of this illness.

I know that saying "go workout 2 hours a day" may be an impossible and unrealistic suggestion. This job, that has allowed me to have this schedule, is very temporary, so I two, will need to go back to the 9 to 5 type job soon. When that time comes, even with limited free time, I hope to continue to be able to exercise at least and hour to half and hour a day, some kind of way. And I am committed to doing this in the future.

For those of you who may be struggling with your weight, or have a desire to live a healthier lifestyle, check out Spark People. You can track you food, share photo's, blog about your goals and share and receive encouragement from fellow friends on the site. Best of all its free. To see my page, go to HealthyKB.