The Logo~

Well, earlier today, I submitted the rough draft of my logo to a company to complete the finished product! The name/logo is the essential calling card for a business and I intend to keep it 100% professional. I will have 3 sample designs on Tuesday, I can't wait! After I get my logo the way I want it, I'm all set to send it to the government to make it my official Trademark. Anyone contemplating starting a business has GOT to check out LegalZoom.com. I have been up late at night on LegalZoom.com for a few months now. I called the customer service department this afternoon and the representatives were awesome. They helped me understand things in the business world that I needed to know in order to be successful. Research, Research, more research...and Research some more.
did I mention research???????

This is exciting and exhausting at the same time. I'm officially turning my hustle, into my Business. Praise God for the next level!

Clean up your mouth...and I'm not just talking about your language~

I am a self-proclaimed dentist scardy-cat. I had a bad experience at the dentist at a very early age and from that point to now I have been completely terrified of going to the dentist. Unfortunately, that fear has caused me some serious dental woes. In 2007, while I was losing weight and getting in shape, I was also busy getting my mouth in tip-top shape. I was blessed to find a hilarious Italian dentist who is a magician with dental tools. The guy did a filling on me without numbing me! True story; it was my 2nd wedding anniversary and I didn't want my mouth numb when my husband took me to dinner. Dr. Thomas Mannino DDS is amazing with his craft. If you're interested in visiting him drop me a line and I'll give you his office number to make an appointment!
Flash forward to 2008 after 2 extractions, 2 root canals, 4 fillings and a crown, my mouth was finally "stable". Meaning, I can now go to the dentist without him finishing a dental nightmare that he couldn't complete at my last appointment. My cleanings now take 5-10 minutes! I don't like being there as it is so the less work the hygenist has to do the better. Let me get in and get the heck outta there! I have added a few tools to my dental routine that keep the cavities at bay.

The Rinse(s)

I now use a pre & post rinse in addition to brushing. Dr. Mannino reccomends the purple Listerine rinse because of it's flouride. I personally think it tastes way better than the others so I happily swish the germs away! I love the pre-rinse with whitening, it keeps my teeth looking vibrant. To anyone who thinks the white strips are a gimmick, I'm a witness that the Crest white strips work! Buying them from a dentist is more expensive but the peroxide level is higher than the over-the-counter strips hence whiter teeth.Of course my awesome dentist told me that too! I used the strips once in 2008 and again in early 2010 and my teeth are bright as can be. I have noticed a bit of sensitivity in my teeth after the whitening. It is a side effect of the strips sometimes. Just thought I'd put that out there cuz it ain't like the commercials are gonna say anything.

Floss~

The biggest tool to help reduce the cavity creeps from tearing your teeth apart. I use the regular floss in the AM & PM and I use floss pics during the day and when I have down time. Yup, I'll be watching TV with a floss pick doing my thing. Don't laugh, them picks are the reason why the last time I had my teeth cleaned it took less than 10 minutes! You can get these babies at the $1 store, this is one of those products that works just as well no matter how much or how little you pay.

People, dental problems can trickle down and affect other areas of your body. Make an appointment to get your teeth cleaned and get a thorough x-ray of your teeth. DO NOT assume that because your mouth doesn't hurt that you're teeth are healthy. If you're tossing back Orajel like it's a part of your daily recommended diet, you need to get to a dentist and handle your business. Also, I learned that some recent studies show brushing directly after eating is not as healthy as you may think. It's actually best to floss and rinse your mouth with clear water. If you just HAVE to brush, you should wait at least 30 minutes.I read that somewhere so this is DEZ talking and not my dentist. 
What are you waiting for? Get to a dentist TODAY. Brushing is beautiful.

Meat free is for me!

Happy Monday everyone! Well, I’m trying to tell myself that anyway. I’m like Garfield, I hate Mondays…

I was on a bit of a hiatus over the weekend; my husband & daughter surprised us and came down for a visit on Thursday evening. They’re leaving today while I’m at work. The baby and I still get emotional when it’s time to say goodbye. I don’t think that will ever be easy for me. The weekend was great, we were out and about shopping and exploring the city. The biggest part of my weekend was yesterday because I celebrated 30 days of meat free eating! I have tried it many times in my life time and never seemed to make it past a few days. Yes folks, you read it right, I have gone 30 full days without meat! There was one day I did have shrimp fried rice but my goal is not to eliminate fish completely. How cool is that? I have also been eating organically but not 100% with that.

I have had a lot of people emailing asking what I have been eating.  LOTS of salads, LOTS of juicing with my Healthmaster by Montel,  baked potatoes, fried rice, and water out of this world! My skin looks amazing!!! I’ve never had complexion issues to begin with but I can say that my face glows; I’ve had folks tell me that an I think I can see it too. I have also noticed fewer gray hairs on my noodle too.

I’m all about keeping it real but I know people are gun shy about the subject so I’m going to touch lightly on it. The goal of bowel movements should be to have one after every major meal. I was experiencing some “issues” with clogged pipes but this way of eating has eliminated all of that; including the gassy and bloated feelings  after  eating sometimes.  I can’t tell you the last time I had a hot flash; yes… I started having them and they ain’t fun! And menstrual cramps and bloat has been at an all time low for yours truly!

I know you’ve been wondering….have I lost any weight? The answer is yes. How much specifically I don’t’ know but I can definitely tell you that all of my shirts are loose, my belly bubble has significantly been reduced to my sheer delight. Anybody looking to get rid of a belly need to give this way of eating a try! My pants are all saggy and I have moved my belt to the next notch. The only exercise I have done is my walking and a few days on the elli machine when we had rain.

So there you have it folks…I survived 30 days without meat and I plan to keep at it. If I ate any meat at this point I’m sure I’d get sick. I don’t wanna go vegan; I like my dairy and that has been 100% organic. I plan to have seafood as a treat but my goal is to eat at least 75% raw. We shall see how the next 30 days work out!

Weight on it…

One of the best kept secrets of weight loss among women is weight training or strength training; they’re really the same thing but women seem to take “strength training better.”  I have heard countless women say, “I don’t fool with weights because I build muscle fast and muscle weighs more than fat so I’ll weigh more” or my personal favorite, “I don’t like to use weights because I’ll bulk up and look manly” Today, I’d like to attempt to give a different perspective on both statements.

 Muscle DOES NOT weigh more than fat. If you take 5 pounds of fat and 5 pounds of muscle, they’d pretty much weigh the same. Muscle is denser than fat and takes up less room, hence a slimmer silhouette as you gain muscle and lose the fat. Also, muscle burns more calories because it is more metabolically active which explain why some people can eat more than others and not gain weight. Their metabolism is probably through the roof! I’m working on becoming one of those blessed folk!

Now as far as the “bulking up” statement; you know the ladies you see in the fitness magazines that have allllll the muscles? Those bodies take A LOT of time in the gym and a super strict diet. Unless you’re pushing some serious steel for hours on end 5-6 days a week as well as eating tons of steel cut oats, chicken breast, and veggies it’s safe to say that you don’t have anything to worry about. Weights are such a win/win for a woman. Weight lifting and not simply cardio alone can help prevent osteoporosis related fracture. As a matter of fact, there has been studies done that have shown that weight lifting over time can not only help prevent bone loss but can have a hand in building NEW bone. How cool is that? Postmenopausal women especially need to get cracking with the weights; women suffer bone loss at a much higher rate than men.

Weight/strength training doesn’t mean lifting a gazillion pounds at a time. I believe anything that involves slower, steady movements with a nice resistance falls under this category. I said RESISTENCE people. Put them 2lb baby weights down and feel the burn! If the day after a strength training session you aren’t at least a little sore, you didn’t’ do enough. You want to aim for a nice soreness the day after a workout. It’s a sign that you have broken down the muscle so that it will begin to rebuild itself a little bigger; bigger is better in this sense.  Now if you’re ready to check yourself into the ER after your work out, pull it back some. Exercise should always be functional.

I have been nic- named Mizcardio for obvious reasons but I make it a point to include weights in my workouts. I always alternate muscle group workouts. One day I will work upper body, and the next I’ll work lower. It’s absolutely vital that you allow your muscles at least 24 hours to recover from a workout. Personally I prefer to do my strength training before my cardio for a couple of reasons. In my mind, if you’re worn out from an hour of cardio, how the heck are you supposed to be able to push a decent amount of weights? You know that burning you feel when you lift weights? That’s lactic acid building up in your muscles. Cardio increases the circulation of fresh blood through your body and reduces that build up. I tend to feel “achy” after a weight training session if I don’t follow it with cardio. I can do sore but “achy” just annoys me and it hurts! There have been studies that have also proven that cardio after strength training burns more calories and I’m always out to get the most bang for my workout buck.

Try some weight today! Start out small and build from there. Kettle bells, a weighted exercise ball, strength bands, a Bowflex machine, dumbbells or a full blow weight set- give up some of the cardio and give resistance a try.

PS. Please stop walking with ankle weights on; you’re going to do damage to your knees, ankles, and hips. Ankle weights were never designed to be work while walking or running. If you want to add some weights to cardio, try a weighted vest or walk on a more difficult terrain. If you change the terrain in which you walk, please also be sure you’re wearing proper shoes.

Clean up your prayer life~

In September of 2010 I had the bottom pulled out from under me. A job that I had been faithful to for over 10 years announced that my department was being outsourced and our sister company in Kentucky would absorb the work. The announcement was made 09/29/10. We were offered and option to “follow the work” but that would require relocation to the new state and the kicker was…the start date was 11/29/10. My husband and I decided that it was our best option for me to follow my job and so here I am, over 6oo miles away from him and our daughter trying to make this thing all work. People give me that “you poor thing” look everyday and tell me, “I honestly don’t know how you do it.” My answer is simple…I have cast my cares on the Lord. It’s funny because I’ve never considered myself a super spiritual person, well not in the sense of what I was raised to believe what being “super spiritual” meant.  During the first 2 months, I cried all day every day. I was very angry, and felt alone. My friends were a great comfort to me but it was still torture in many ways. One day I decided to try a fast and really pray; God must be trying to tell me something. Within a matter of days I had many answers to my questions. I’m not saying that it will always be like that but in my case I got a response quickly. The tears dried up and I felt a sense of peace that I hadn’t felt since the move. In addition to my fast I listen to Joyce Meyer all day at work every day and I began reading this book every morning before I started my work day.

For the last month, I have my clock set for 5 am and I pray for as long as it takes to get it all out. I pray for my husband FIRST and then many others.  I’m not saying that everything is roses but what I am saying is that God is doing just what he promised. He took some bad stuff away and the stuff he left, he has equipped me with the ability to manage it. *PRAISE GOD*

Cleaning up your eating shouldn’t just begin in the kitchen. The WORD is spiritual food and far too many Christians are seriously malnourished. Get yourself right with God and pray. No fancy words are needed. No special clothing, music, or rituals, just humble yourself to the Lord and open up to HIM. You haven’t been to church in a while? Well get up and go! Get back to Bible study, give an offering instead of passing the basket; put SOMETHING in there on Sunday.

Forgive some folks. Are you wondering why you are having difficulty in certain areas in your life? You may need to let some stuff go. Pray with your spouse and your children. Pray for folks who you KNOW don’t like you. Pray for YOURSELF.

Make up your mind to renew your walk with God in addition to your fitness walk.

Pick your poison~

When you make up your mind to shed some pounds, one of the biggest decisions will be the HOW of it all. My goodness, there are so many weightloss options on the market today, there is bound to be something that will work for you. Structure is powerful! To make a blanket statement, "I'm on a diet" is a recipe for failure in my opinion. You need to be specific about what your plan is going to be. One of the BIGGEST obstacles for my clients has been, "what the heck am I supposed to eat to lose this weight?" Yes, exercise is important, but what people don't understand is that what you put IN your body is far more important. You can do 1,000 crunches a day for months on end, but if you're breakfast comes from McDonalds, lunch from the office cafe', and dinner is a $5 Hot N Ready, you're simply waisting your time. Clean up your eating with a structured eating plan and see what happens.

Please don't dive into a new eating plan based soley on the success of others. Yes...be inspired to want to make a change in your life but be honest with what you can and cannot do; you might not have the same drive to pull off a particular eating / exercise plan. Everything ain't for everybody! I'm the first in line to give JHud mad props for her weight loss success with Weight Watchers. The chick looks awesome! I have seen soooooo many people run out and sign up for the plan KNOWING they can't afford the monthly cost of it and thoroughly annoyed with the portion control needed to make the diet work. Do your homework before you embark on a new way of eating and base your final decision on what YOU can commit to for the long haul. If you know you don't like meat, I don't care how excited you get looking at my weightloss pics, Atkins will not be a good fit for you.

Finally, DO NOT alter an already structured eating plan and still run around telling people you're following it. If you're going to go with the Fat Smash plan then please follow the directions. Don't "tweak" it and call it the Fat Smash "remix"...and then get mad when you're not losing the weight. People are excited to try new things, especially if they see it working. On the same note, if you're having little to no success you might be giving the plan a bum rap. Not cool if you're doing your own version of a particular plan. Follow the plan to the letter, there's a reason it works based on the rules you MUST follow. Atkins is successful because of a chemical reaction your body has based on the foods you reduce from your diet in a given time. (YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GIVE UP BREAD FOREVER)  Ketosis/Lipolysis will not occur if you're busy sneaking bread into the diet when you're not supposed to.

I would like to encourage you to make a decision today to change your eating so you can meet your weight loss goals once and for all. You can do it!! Spring is right around the corner and if you're anything like me, you've got a closet full of cute summer stuff you caught on sale last fall that had BETTER fit come May! *smile* 

When it comes to eating plans, be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there... 

Exercise ~ Schmexercise!

My name is a Dez and I'm a cardio junkie. Ahhhh but please understand that this is something that has progressed over the years within me. In the beginning, when I weighed 205lbs, it was all I could do to make it up a flight of stairs without passing out! All I could do was walk. Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds dvd's were my initial ticket to exercise success.

Then, as I began dropping the weight, I was able to move into Billy Blanks Tae Bo dvd's. Talk about a killer workout!

From there I moved into running on my treadmill and time on my elli machine. What I don't want to do is give anyone the excuse..."But I don't have a gym membership or a treadmill so I can't exercise!" Nope...I'm not buying it. If you can walk, you CAN exercise. Remember this guy?? He lost weight by simply walking.

During my 30 days of meat free and organic eating, I decided to take things back to basics and begin walking. I am living in Kentucky right now and the one thing this state is NOT lacking is hills. I happen to live in an area with a nice walking path and hills with my name on them.
Check it out...(taken with my phone)

Everyday after work, I come straight home, change clothes, and hit the pavement. As much as I want to sneak in a nice trot, I am determined to simply walk a brisk walk instead. I didn't think I'd feel anything but I was sadly mistaken! Armed with my ipod Touch and my thoughts, I have tackled my hills faithfully 5-6 days a week. Some days, I walk and pray, somedays I get in a good cry, but EVERYDAY I come back feeling exhilarated from my walk. I would like to encourage everyone to get up and take a walk today. I'm tired of seeing fat dogs! If you're s single parent, get your little one a bike and walk along side him/her. You can listen as your child happily babbles on about this or that. You can lose weight and bond with your child, it's a win/win!
Lace up those tennis shoes, get out there and WALK!

Clean Eating~

I'm always looking for the next "BIG THRILL" where my fitness and or diet is concerned. My hubby had me watch an awesome documentary on Americas food and the things "they" don't want us to know. It's called "Food Matters" If you haven't seen it, PLEASE check it out. You will probably be horrified as I was and decide to make a few changes in the things you put in your mouth. I came away not wanting to eat another bite of meat EVER again. I also decided I wanted to give eating more raw and organic foods a try.

This is my new favorite place to shop! And I love it because the staff knows the products they are selling. Yes, organic foods are more expensive than non-organic foods but the way I see it, you'll pay up front for better food or you'll pay on the back end because of the chronic conditions you have from eating all the garbage foods. The latter of the two is usally more expensive because of all the doctor co-pays and expensive prescriptios. Oh, and don't forget all the refills on those scripts! I stand not in judgement, you gotta go with what you can afford, but please be honest with yourself. If you are eating out 3-4 nights a week, and going out to lunch everyday, you can cut that out and afford to buy some decent food. 
I have noticed a drastic change in my complexion, my mood, hair & nails...this food is awesome! Please believe me when I say that organic foods even taste better than the other stuff. I made a 30 day commitment to myself to try an organic, no meat eating lifestyle. I'm on day 21 I think and I can see this as a permanent way of life for yours truly. I encourage everyone to at least give it a 2 week trial and see how you feel. You might surprise yourself...I sure did! 

In the beginning~

Once upon a time, there was a cool chic who woke up one day tipping the scales at 205lbs. This was too much for her to handle since she spent all of her life as the skinny chick. Three babies and a divorce later, she was more than "big boned" or "thick in the waist" she was FAT. There, I said it. I had been in denial for far too long and something had to be done! I had no energy, my feet hurt, I worked full time, and my size 18/20 clothes were screaming, "Lady get the next size up!" In 2007, the Monday after Easter, my husband and I started a low carb lifestyle. It was actually more easy than I thought it was going to be. I lost 15 pounds the first 2 weeks...so you can understand why I stuck with it as long as I have.

One year after I began my weight loss journey, I had lost over 50 pounds and dropped an amazing 11 dress sizes! I enrolled in a school to get certified as a personal trainer. It was pretty intense but in 4 months I was offocially a Certified Personal Trainer. In May of 2010 I got licensed to teach Zumba. 2 weeks later I had a fitness studio contact me about teaching Zumba. I happily accepted and enjoyed teaching until I had the bottom pulled out from under me. My full time job of over 10 years was eliminating my department and I had 2 months to decide what to do. I did contimue with the company but I have come to the realization that my love for fitness is my passion and I am going to pursue THAT and not this crummy job. Soooooooooooooo...I'm setting the wheels in motion to open my OWN fitness studio in the summer of 2012. I wake up everyday saying..."This will be the last company I EVER work for." The very thought gives me goosebumps. I feel everyone should follow their passions and I plan to lead by example.