Defining "Healthy"

For months upon months now, I have been "meaning" to put myself on the list! It's an interesting concept - finding time for yourself as an individual not just pertaining to being an independent business owner, wife, or mom! It's a CRUCIAL concept!!! For Christmas, my mom treated me to a gym membership which propelled me into a let's get back into shape mentality. While thinking about having a second baby (whenever that ends up happening), the fact that I hadn't been to the gym in 3.5 years, the chronic Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome I have dealt with for the last (almost) 15 years, and a desire for a healthier lifestyle there was no option but to do this the right way!
Let's be blunt for a second shall we? I get it a lot - when I go into Starbucks and order a skim drink - when I talk about needing to watch what I eat - when I even dare to make a comment about being out of shape...that "what are you talking about?! You're so skinny!" comment. Since when does "skinny" define HEALTHY?! Never once have I said I wanted to lose weight - in fact I have never cared what the scale says because it can be VERY misleading when trying to define healthy! I order skim drinks because (due to the IBS) my body cannot process milk fat and I don't think the Starbucks people want me to puke on them - I talk about watching what I eat so I don't send myself into an inflammation flare up and end up in the hospital (in fact, A LOT of people suffer from inflammation from eating processed foods without even knowing about it!) - and I am out of shape - FOR ME!
Here's some evidence that knocked my socks off today:
I went in for a "My Health Score" at Life Time Fitness - the gym I am going to right by our house. I got an 84 - that's a B - for ONE reason. My triglycerides were through the roof!! Those are a way that your body stores fat for energy - but this one is in your blood stream not your waist. Sure, it could be stress related, but it could also be the fact that I LOVE carbs. Say it with me - LOVE CARBS!!!
Before you think I'm about to go off on an "I'm giving up pasta, bread, and brownies forever" kick, let me assure you I am NOT! I wouldn't survive! BUT.....I can make smarter choices! Quit going for the "quick and refined" carbs - go for whole grains. Not necessarily the things that say "multi-grain" or "whole wheat", I'm talking about literally the grains are there right in front of me and I do the cooking. Knowing when to time what food group I consume around my physical activity, and actually knowing what the label says on the food I consume. You literally are what you eat, and I don't want to be something I cannot pronounce!
Of course, this lead to a pantry clean out and a quick blitz grocery shop for a few new starting points. What I've realized is our economy profits from our population not knowing what "healthy" really means and jacks the prices up on anything organic, whole grain, gluten-free (you get the picture). Why?! Maybe it has something to do with it still being a niche market while fast food remains accepted by the masses. I would love to see the day that the "dollar menu" no longer exists simply because they can't buy in the volume they need to support the crazy low prices.
So what do you think? As part of this journey to get healthy I'll be sharing some meal tips and lifestyle tricks with you - but until that next post it's time to get the homemade banana bread out of the oven! *Don't worry - I added wheat germ for a protein and fiber boost* :)

Until next time

Pay it Forward

In case you missed the Pink Bubble introduction to 2013, you can find it here! One of the MANY reasons that I love being a part of Mary Kay is the nonprofit efforts the company supports. Even with incentives like a Makeover Contest, part of the Grand Prize is a donation to a charity benefiting women and children.

So what do you need to do? 

Get on the books for a makeover and set aside an hour to be pampered! You'll have before and after pictures of your looks, and YOU get to upload them to tell your story. The submissions will be accepted starting in March, but the sooner you get your new look done the more buzz you can create! You get to share your fabulous New Year New Look with friends and family and get votes! Best part is that on top of the prizes you can win, you can also win a $5,000 donation to your favorite charity benefiting women and children. 

Enthusiasm and Confidence can be contagious, and I cannot think of a better way to pay forward your satisfaction than to create an opportunity for other women to have the same feelings about themselves!

If you're interested, email me!

"Act as if what you do matters. It does!"

Pucker up 2013!!

Hello again everyone!! It's been WAY too long since I got myself on here and shared with everyone! Every time I come to write something, something else pulls me away, and I have finally said "ENOUGH!"
I have learned so much this past holiday season from so many inspiring people. I took a seasonal position with Crate & Barrel doing visual merchandising and have LOVED it! I am a completely different type of shopper now, and can thoroughly appreciate the brains behind the beautiful displays we all see that make us think "I could live like that"! Through all of the challenges and growth that opportunity has provided me, I have still been looking for that thing that makes me say "I will live like that!" and seize my tomorrow today!

With Dablet now more of a little lady than ever, I have been hunting for an answer to the question: 

How do I provide for my family financially, maintain a flexible schedule, preserve the family fundamentals and priorities I have, and still feel fabulous as a woman?

I researched all kinds of independent sales opportunities. Some of them didn't have business models that made sense to me, others didn't provide a repeat customer base. Then two days before New Year's Eve I was perusing Facebook and it hit me....so I made the phone call. "Sign me up! I'm going to take 2013 by storm, look and feel fabulous doing it!" I was nervous and unsure of myself, but I took the leap! On New Year's Eve I officially started my own Mary Kay business!

I have been beyond inspired by the women who not only work their business, but also mother their children in a hands on way, and provide an incredible support system to all of the recruits like me! My eyes have been opened to an amazing world of reward so far outside the same hourly rate for your efforts. For being accountable to yourself and to the rest of the people you meet. This is not a sales industry...you don't have to believe me on that one (but I could prove it to you!), this is a people industry! 

The National Area I came into has a mascot, the giraffe. Why?! Because it has the largest heart of all land mammals, and it sticks it neck out! Also, the biggest natural predator to the giraffe is the hyena ..that would be all of those people laughing at the fact that they just read I started a Mary Kay business! It's OK though, it's not for everyone! However, if you would like to know more about how you can make your dreams a reality by doing this yourself, I would LOVE to chat with you about it. Maybe you dream is to just improve your skin and learn once and for all just how to use all of those products you convince yourself you need! 

It is a blessing to not only be able to say "I can help YOU", but to know that while doing so I can provide for my family and spend more hands on time with my fabulous little girl and husband!

This is Dablet recently "looking ahead" to 2013! I will make all of our dreams come true!

I ask you to help me "pay it forward" by sharing my enthusiasm with yourself, or maybe someone you know who could use an opportunity like this! Maybe let me pay it forward by treating you to a facial! The more I grow the more I will have to give. I have already thought of campaigns like Hearts for Home - donating goodie bags with Mary Kay products for military moms, wives, and girlfriends of deployed military - or- Pucker up for Paws where a portion of sales can go to a local animal shelter when they host a virtual party! I have always loved working for a cause, and so does Mary Kay! My immediate cause may be my family, but the year is young and I'm ready and willing to grow! 

You can shop online here

or email me by visiting the Contact page! 

Have a FABULOUS 2013 and remember to be your own kind of beautiful!

Perseverance...My 2012 Resolution

I am going to start this long overdue blog with a quote:
"If I had to select one quality, one personal characteristic that I regard as being most highly correlated with success, whatever the field, I would pick the trait of persistence. Determination. The will to endure to the end, to get knocked down seventy times and get up off the floor saying. "Here comes number seventy-one!" Richard M. Devos

I do not think it is a secret to any of my friends, family, readers, or even a select group of total strangers, that my life is absolutely normal chaos. Not to mention, it's the holidays. The holidays always bring their own fabulous group of challenges from finding the "perfect" gift, cooking, balancing a 3 month old and the rest of your family, to somehow finding a way to keep yourself cool, calm, and collected throughout the entire process. Well, last year I got pregnant over the holidays. Seemed all of the pressure of trying in the preceding months with no success fell to the wayside from the pressure of the holidays, and alas! Baby!
This year I'm hoping for another success at finally having the baby I've been dreaming of. No....I'm not talking about getting pregnant again just yet (after all Abby is only 3 months old), but rather the baby of the start-up business.
It seems that start-ups are never really out of their start-up phase until all of a sudden they are...kind of like infants to toddlers. Bam! How'd that happen?
Well right about now I feel like we're going through the terrible twos phase on our way to true bubbly enjoyable interactive toddler-hood. So my New Year's resolution is to persevere.
"If at first you don't succeed, you're running about average." M.H. Alderson
They say that 95% of new companies will fail in the first 5 years. WOW! With a "joyful" combination of things we have managed to stumble our way across the one year mark with a very bright future for Q1 of 2012. I guess that means that we're 20% of the way into making it out of the very dark tunnel that is on the path of every new company. To try and write everything I have learned during 2011 would take a book of its own, and probably a very nice bottle of wine (after all I'd need one to bring up all of the memories and not suppress some). But just like raising children, you don't start a company because it's a "cute idea", you do it out of a complete level of selfless love.
However it is not enough to just keep trudging on. It is not enough to keep TRYING to raise your children right, you have to find a talent for it.
"Perseverance is the most overrated of traits, if it is unaccompanied by talent; beating your head against a wall is more likely to produce a concussion in the head than a hole in the wall."
Sydney J. Harris
If you keep banging your head, you might not get the desired result. Sometimes I feel like I am doing the above, working more towards a concussion than a hole in the wall. Maybe I need to take a step back and grab the sledge hammer, accept assistance, and approach the wall again with the same amount of drive I had when I was beating my head against it. If there is one thing I have learned since becoming a mother that speaks to running a start-up company it is this:

Just because something works today, don't expect it to tomorrow. Yesterday's solution has a variable that today's problem does not...it was yesterday. If you feel like you have run out of options take a look at your child; they will show you the way to a new set. You have to be open to the possibility that your surroundings know more than you do.

Until next time....

Dabble