Are you a week away from a photo shoot, wedding or special event?

Here's a few tips to help you look your best!

• Drink Water! Drinking water will help to hydrate and naturally moisturize your skin which helps you look like you're glowing!
• Take fish oil! This also helps you look like you're glowing. It gets to your skin and keeps it healthy, not to mention how it helps your digestive health. I take pharmaceutical grade fish oil that i just pour into a spoon and slurp up.
• Coconut Oil! Do a coconut oil hair treatment, apply and massage into hair and let it sit for up to an hour or two, wash it out and Re-Apply a VERY small amount to the tips if you find it necessary. It will make your hair shiny and strong! Coconut oil on your skin is also really good, after a hot shower rub it on and allow it to soak in before dressing (because it will get on your clothes) 
• Take a 10 minute run BEFORE you eat every morning. It boosts your metabolism and helps you to burn only fat and continue to burn it off through out the day. 
• Shave your face! Thought only guys did this? You're wrong! That "peach fuzz" that everyone has actually causes your make up to cake up and look uneven. Shave your entire face the day of the event, moisturize, apply primer and do your make up. It will look hundreds of times better especially if pictures are being taken. And don't worry, contrary to popular belief it does not grow back thick and dark. I've done this a few times now for my senior photo shoot and for home coming and such, it grows back perfectly normal and you look stellar. 
• While we're talking about make up...Did you know anti-chaffing cream is an excellent, inexpensive primer? Go buy a tube and try it, you'll love it!
• Beauty Sleep really is what it is! Your skin especially around your eyes and your posture is affected by your sleep. So make sure to get plenty of sleep before your big event!
• Lastly but not Least, eat healthy! You don't want to deprive yourself from food. (If you're counting calories.....that's really unnecessary.) Simply eat tons of spinach, fresh (organic) fruits and veggies and lean meats. You will slim down, feel great and you won't starve your body! (The reality of the starving technique is that you will not be able to keep it up forever. That's why people do the yoyo thing. It's best if you change your LIFESTYLE.) And let me just make a side note...if you want to look like a Victoria's Secret model, don't. They are extremely unhealthy in the way they keep themselves for the days before a photo shoot. The starve themselves, workout hard and do not consume water for up to three days prior to the shoot. Don't do it guys!

Some of these aren't new, some of them are un-heard of! After doing these things, just remember that you don't want to load your face down with make up. Accentuate your features, don't hide them! Got pretty eyes? (for example) pluck the eye brows, apply mascara and curl curl curl! Don't cake on the eye shadow. ;)

changing your diet up

I've talked about eating healthy before. Here's just a few new tips I've thought of that are tasty, easy and healthy.

1) DRIED fruit and veggies vs potato chips.
I'm tellin' you, I had a potato chip the other day and then had a dried plantain. Guess what tasted better to me!! That's right. The plantain. No joke, it didn't taste processed, fake, or too salty like the potato chip. I wonder why?....that's sarcasm my friends.
It was all natural and so delicious! Great crunchy snack. I can't stress this enough to those of you who crave crunchy snacks during the day. If you have a dehydrator, great! dehydrate your produce! If not, publix has a dried fruit section with their nuts and produce. Go buy a bag. Make sure there's no sugars or salts added.
Let us remember that salt encourages fat cells to form. Here's a little info about salt's effect on your body.

2) substitute beef for ground turkey.
Sounds gross now, but it tastes the same and it's so much healthier. yumyumyum. Make some turkey patties, grill 'em up, and pack 'em away. During the week on your lunch break you can throw a patty in your salad. Delicious, and it's getting that protein in. :)
If you really really REALLY need that burger, cut the carbs by eating it like a pizza. That's right, only one side of the bun. Or, if you're really good, leave the bun out and only eat the patty with the toppings. Add more lettuce, less mayo, mustard and ketchup.

3) Every girl has that time of month that it's really hard to deny chocolate. So let's at least try to be good. Chocolate covered bananas or strawberries. Not graham crackers or pretzels...stay with the fruit. It's satisfying and delicious. My boyfriend is NOT a health-freak like I am, but even he gets jealous when I say I had chocolate covered fruit for dessert.

There's your three tips for now!!!
PS: I've posted three entries today. But they've been waiting for me to publish from my drafts folder for quite some time. My bad.
Keep it up guys!

new perspective!

Okay, I've come to the realization today that I need to work harder. So, I've started the Insanity Asylum workout from beachbody.com and P90x.
This workout system is "insane" (herher, pun-pun-pun). There really are no other words to describe it though. You will work your tail off.
Here's the thing: be careful about over-training if you're doing this system. (or the Insanity system, for that matter)
But I looked in the mirror today and decided "hey, I can do way better than this." So I'm going to do it. I want to look better and I want to be super physically fit. (to put it a different way, I don't want it ALL to be looks, I want it to be for fitness. But the way I look is always there too ;)  )
It's going to be hard. I'm going to sweat. I'm going to get up early before work. I'm going to be coming home  after 8 hours at work to workout. It's not easy. But if it was easy everyone would do it. And I know I'm capable of doing this.

A friend of mine posted on facebook an excellent idea that I may actually use, as weird as it sounds.

"Lacking on motivation?
Go ahead! Eat your emotions away...
In front of a mirror...
Naked. "

haha, Now if that's not motivation to eat good and workout then I don't know what is!!!


Another tip that I forgot to mention wayy earlier is this: Take before/progress/after photos!!!

Put on a bikini (or underwear. It doesn't matter.) and take a full body photo of yourself.
Workout, diet, do all the stuff and stick to it. In two weeks, take another photo in the same clothing. Continue working out and keep taking full body photo's, FRONT AND BACK. Watch your progress. Think about how "hard" it was to get to a certain place and really ask yourself if it was really that hard that you couldn't keep doing it OR go harder?

A bit of encouragement.

okay, By now, if you're still really working out and dieting, I know you've come across a few days that you've come home from school or work and you're exhausted. You haven't gone on your run or any strength training. You're tempted to just "blah" and let it go.

DONT DO IT! haha I've come across those days too. You are not alone. Here's what I do to encourage myself.
1) I look at myself in the mirror. Do I want to stay looking like this? Or can I do better? Can I do more?
2)I put my sneakers on and....
(if it's a running day, for example) Run three minutes, walk for one. Endorphins may not even kick in, but at least I can feel good about going out and just doing it even when I didn't feel like it. (and quite frankly, I find that when I go to run or workout the next day, those lovely, addicting endorphins kick in almost right away)

Having a hard time keeping to your diet? yeah, me too sometimes. That wendy's cheeseburger sounds so yummy....
BUT, is that cheeseburger worth giving up your dream body? Ask yourself and be honest.
Have you not had any food off your diet recently? Are you willing to pause your progress for a few days? Is this momentary treat worth the long-term result?

A lot of what we have problems with when we're trying to loose weight is the psychological side of everything. We think we're not strong enough, that we will never achieve what we want to see etc etc...
But let's get tough and be your own personal trainer. You are capable of going the extra mile. You really are! Don't doubt yourself.

Call Me A Tree-Hugger!!

This post is going to be about some of my personal beliefs about medicines, the FDA, prescriptions, all this stuff.

My story begins in November 2009. I developed what is called a pilonidal cyst. (I do not recommend looking this up for yourself. Photo's that come up are both graphic and REALLY gross. The link I posted is a safe-ish, informational site.)

Now before you go on saying "eww Lisa you're disgusting, you weren't taking care of yourself and that's just disgusting stop talking about this!", let me get out the points I want to make.

This particular cyst is extremely painful because it's located near the coccyx. (which is near/on/at a place on your body where LOADS of nerve endings are. To have any problem at this place on your body is excruciatingly painful)  What is believed to happen is simply one ingrown hair that goes drastically wrong. In World War II it was prominent and many soldiers were diagnosed and hospitalized with this condition due to taking long and bumpy rides in jeeps.
I rode horses a LOT during the time when this happened to me.

Now, when I went to the doctor and they told me this is what had happened, they prescribed me two different antibiotics and a narcotic pain killer.
Addictions runs in my family, so I opted to not use the narcotic pain killer. The nurses and doctor told me I could take up to 6 ibuprofen every six hours and 6 acetaminophen every six hours. I alternated it to where every three to four hours I would take 6 pills.
Please keep in mind that this was so painful that without painkillers I couldn't stand, walk, sit or lay down. I didn't go one night without waking up to take my pills.
With all these pain killers AND antibiotics going in me constantly, it really beat up my digestion system. I didn't eat much because I was too full of pills. By the time I was done with all my drugs I had to do some major digestion "therapy" I had problem after problem and to this day I have issues with my stomach and what I can and can't handle.

So, all that to say, I strongly disagree with taking pills to "make things better" for my body. I try to go without in most cases. Now that I am over 18 and I have a choice in what goes in my body a lot, I do not allow a doctor to stick me with a needle to give me a shot of this or that. Most of what doctors produce is full of synthetics and will "gunk" up your body. It may make one thing feel better but it will surely mess something else up.

With this said, I've turned to essential oils and other natural ways to help soothe and ease ailments in my body. For example, for my cyst I started heating gauze pad of castor oil up and putting it on the spot, not only to ease the pain a little bit but castor oil dries stuff out. So it dried out the skin and cyst a bit so I didn't have to have surgery. I also started taking pharmaceutical grade fish oil. It was organic and all natural. I didn't take it in a capsule. I poured a tablespoon of it into a cup and washed it down with water. Fish oil is good for your skin and pores. I also straightened up my diet up a lot by not eating grains at all and not having sugars and slicing my salt intake in half. I was on an extremely clean diet and I think one of the only "fatty" things I had was yogurt to help with my digestive health. My cyst drained (without the need of surgery!!) and healed up just fine.
Since 2009, I've occasionally felt pain in that area. The risk for it to pop up again is always there if I don't care for myself. As a matter of fact, I need to do better and get fish oil back in my daily diet.

It's important to take care of yourself, think for yourself, and do research for yourself. Don't depend on doctors alone because they are lorded by the FDA (food and drug administration). That doesn't even sound like a health-friendly title...

That's all I have to say about that. Go for a natural healing process. Maybe it'll take a little longer but when you go natural, you're actually FIXING the problem, not just covering it up.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't do or take everything a doctor prescribes you!!! I know all this is hard to believe seeing as how I'm not a doctor or health professional and because doctors HAVE 8 years of education....
But it is true. Clean up your diet and find organic, clean alternates for the medicines you're taking. You'll feel so much better!!
I'm actually in the process of cooking up an acid-reflex remedy. My sweet boyfriend has severe, extremely active acid reflex mostly at night when he sleeps. It's been so bad that is was mistaken for asthma for YEARS! They have pumped so many steroids and crap in his body only to find that he's got acid reflex!
But even now that they know this, they've prescribed a generic for Prevacid. I'm not convinced that this is the best for his health. I'd like to marry this guy, and I want his to be around for a while. So this chick is finding an effective, organic, all natural alternate remedy. I've got aloe vera drinks and apple cider..not convinced yet about apple cider. But I'm open for suggestions and comments about this. Please take note, your suggestions will be researched. I'll be looking at the ingredients and whether it's completely organic or not. And I'm not even sure he will want to do what I want to suggest to him. But we shall see. I hope he at least tries it for a month before deciding completely against it...
Thanks for reading!

let's add to it!

Hey ya'll! It's been a while...
How is your workout plan going? Are you sticking to it?
Confession: I ate an entire footlong sub after work today. "veggies" or not....that's a LOT of bread and I felt horrible after it. It was one of those "rush here and there" after work, between school kind of day. That and I think my allergies (but maybe a cold?) has hit pretty hard today. SO ANNOYING!

But I want to share with you something that I added to my workout this week!
In addition to adding weight on EVERYTHING for my leg workout, I have also added walking longes with 15-20 lb weights in each hand. Make sure your posture is correct, you don't want to mess that up on this one.. Let's just say that I feeeeel my booty and that I almost lost my protein shake on the way home that day.
Have I said anything about that??? I don't think so...
If you feel nauseous during/after a leg workout (especially, because you're using large muscles) IT IS OKAY. I've been told before why we feel like this, but I honestly can't remember right now. Thank you stuffed up nasals...
After a really hard leg workout, just sit down and rest for a few minutes. Stretch all of your muscles. Drink some water. Consume a protein shake. All of these things help me get over that.

Again, make sure you make an effort to keep your diet clean after a workout like that. You don't want to have a lot of muscle with fat on top..
Think of all the jocks at your gym. What do they look like? The ones at my gym have huge muscles but they're fat. No cuts...eww. that's just gross. Let's avoid THAT effect by watching your diet (even though you're ravenous...) and by doing a correct amount of cardio. (approx 40-60 minutes a day depending on how much muscle you really want to keep. Remember, more cardio, less weights = less muscle. This will make it slightly harder to loose weight fast.
Lots of weights, less super hard cardio and dieting =  more muscle which turns up the heat in your metabolism and causes you to burn more fat/calories just standing still than by running alone.)
whabam. that's the secret.
Ladies, let us also remember that men do not want us to look like Victoria's Secret models. A healthy layer of fat and muscle is perfect. Just tone yourself a little, be happy with yourself. Don't completely deprive your body of food. Be happy!!! yay. haha

So that's that for now! I'll post again later. Give me some feedback! text, email, comment!!! 

Arms, Shoulders and Chest!

This is quickly becoming a girls' fitness blog. Whatever, men can learn something too..

Ladies, we ignore our arms, shoulders and chest a lot of the time, don't we? We come up with these excuses saying "well, I don't want to look like the olympic swimming girls...who look like men."
Our main excuse to ignore these parts on our body is because we don't want to look manly. Another popular excuse is "well, I don't like going to my gym and only lifting 5 lb weight because everyone else will judge me for it."

Okay, reality check! Part one: Who cares what people at the gym thinks about you! I go to my gym and every.single.time. there is some "jock" huffing and puffing SO loud that you can hear him from the ladies locker room. eww. come. on.
Part two: if you don't want flabby arms, you're gonna have to work that out. (ladies especially, want your ladies to look better? WORK OUT THAT CHEST!!!) Shoulders and arms go hand in hand. I do some free-weights, usually (5-10 lbs, any more weight and I could hurt myself. Don't be afraid of using just a tiny bit of weight and TONS of reps and sets. You're bot supposed to be able to lift as much weight as men, and if they give you any lip about it send them to me. I'll take care of them.)
any movement that pushes your hands (and weight) away from your chest will work that out. Do a rowing machine. Go swimming with a buoy. Also, do assisted pull-ups! I looove that machine because it's kind of like a ride at the local fair, except at my gym all the time. SO FUN! Do dips! skull-crushers. Any and all of this will make your upper body look magnificent. ;)

I also want to briefly touch on one more thing.



See this picture? This is how the government and the FDA says we should eat each meal. People, belieeeeve me, eating like this will not help you! It's NOT healthy.
I've heard of people being allergic to gluten, carbs and anything dairy. But have you ever heard of anyone that's allergic to all vegetables? Or anyone who is allergic to all lean meats? Or anyone who is allergic to all fresh fruits? Here's my own little philosophy; If you can develop an allergy with that food, you might not want to be eating a buttload of it all the time. It's OBVIOUSLY not that good for you. Also allow me to point out that people who eat a lot of bread are...FAT. People that eat a lot of dairy? Also overweight. Not trying to be mean, I'm just being real. I've read article after article about people who ate like this picture above every day and ran marathons who got cancer. "Healthy" people!!! They switched to an all-raw diet (fresh fruits, vegetables) and the cancer disappeared. I've also heard these same reports with several other life-threatening and/or annoying diseases. (Here's a youtube video that explains some of it. If you are reading this blog you're old enough to do the research too. This should point you in the right direction: Video!)

1) You do NOT need that much dairy at every meal. Big no-no for losing weight and for staying healthy and disease-free. Almond milk is a great substitute. Less calories and fat! But at the same time, if you want a cup of milk once or twice a week, have it! All I'm saying is that you don't NEED it to function every day.

2) That much grain, really? whole-grain or not, it's not necessary. Carbs make your body blow up like a balloon. Here's another challenge (this is challenge number two!! By the way, how are we doing on that 2-4 week 1 hr/day cardio challenge!? feedback!!) Completely cut out carbs for 21 days. No whole grains, no bread. Exchange that with fresh veggies, fruit and nuts! After those 21 days I want you to eat a sandwich and tell me how you really feel digesting it. (example: Do you feel bloated? energized? skinny? fat? sleepy?)

3) I don't agree with consuming canned fruit or vegetables. You will get sooo much more nutrition and stuff that will actually feed your body if you go buy raw green beans and steam them by yourself. Or if you buy a fresh orange vs. a canned one. Try your best to keep it fresh!


Changing your eating lifestyle and your exercising lifestyle will change your body remarkably fast!!
Have a shared a typical day for me yet? These are my typical eating habits:

For breakfast I'll have a cup of coffee with sugar free hazelnut creamer. yummm! And eggs with *gasp* grated cheese on top!!! (let me point out that I'm not completely depriving myself ;)) and if I'm still hungry I'll have a banana or an apple.

Lunch I'll have a salad with lean chicken or turkey meat balls on top. I'll put walnuts, almonds or sunflower seeds on top with lemon juice or lime juice on it. Sometimes I'll put balsamic vinaigrette. (This is where you need to be creative. If you have a salad every.day., you need to mix it up. Find new and different, lowfat, low carb toppings for your salad!)
Some days for lunch I'll make my protein shake before going and doing my muscle workouts at the gym (whey shake mix, banana, oatmeal, ice!) pre-shake and post-shake!

And for dinner my Mom makes chicken, soups, casseroles salads...This is where I go off my diet sometimes. But she makes an effort to stay on the same diet that I'm on. So we stay away from lots of grains, dairy and eat lots of veggies and lean meats. yumyum!!

I'm not a doctor. This is my own personal experience on what works for me. Every one is different and what works for me may not work for you in the same way. Please feel free to leave your comments and suggestions! I'm not here to argue over what diet is best or what workout is better than another...This is what works for me, and I wanted to share it with people because America especially battles with weight and health!
Thanks for reading!!!