Back from Belgium!

I am back from Belgium.  I have actually been back a week now, just have not had any time to post.  I have also not had anything interesting in my head on which to write about.  My brain is at full capacity with all the new information I have been taking in for this new gig that I honestly don’t have it in me to form sentences and thoughts outside the world of job.  I am sure that once I get the hang of things I will find some brain cells who are unoccupied and in need of a hobby and as soon as I find them, I will put them to work on this blog.

For now, call it a mini hiatus.

I did want to share some pretty pics of Belgium, though, so as not to leave you hanging.  All in all, it was a really nice trip and unlike any I’ve taken before.  While I have taken overseas trips before, I have never gone 100% solo and I must say it was a great experience.  I got lonely here and there.  OK, I was lonely often, but in a good way.  Being on my own amidst a world of strangers forced me out of my comfort zone.  And as far as I am concerned, anytime you step outside of your comfort zone you experience growth.

Best part about the trip, I discovered that  I love my company, I like all the colleagues who I met in Belgium, and I love the product.  So now I am really excited for this new challenge.  My trip reinforced the fact that I made the right decision and that felt good.

I managed to visit at an unseasonably warm and sunny time, which worked out well considering that I accidentally left my trench coat at the departure gate at JFK shortly before departing.  So I was there sans coat!  Luckily I didn’t need one.  As these images will reveal, it was blue skies for days!

I stayed in the town of Hasselt, a lovely little shopping village with tasty restaurants and a couple cool museums, one of which I managed to check out on my Sunday off.  The people were all super friendly and more than gracious to speak English to the stupid American girl, who unlike the general population of Belgium only speaks ONE language.  OK, un poco Espanol.  But still, I felt so embarrassed that I didn’t at least know French or German!  Most of the people there spoke English, Flemish, Dutch and French.  Some  spoke all that and German.  Others a mix.  Why don’t we put more emphasis on learning languages here in the states?  If I ever have kids they will be forced to learn another language.  Period.  Finis.

I also saw a tiny bit of London.  I was only there 2 nights and one day.  The first night I stayed in a Sofitel at the Heathrow airport.  It was a nice hotel, but doesn’t really count.  The second night we stayed near our trade show, at a little boutique hotel in the city of London.  I was fortunate enough to have an hour to walk along the River Thames and snap some shots.  It was also a lovely day in London!  I really lucked out on the weather.  So rare for me.  In the past I’ve have a tendency to show up right before or during a natural disaster.  So it felt like a treat.

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It’s Never Too Late To…

• Learn something new
• Change your mindset
• Exchange your bad habits for good ones
• Say you’re sorry
• Find love
• Start an exercise program
• Improve your diet
• Reconnect with old friends
• Tell someone you love them
• Become a success
• Learn to keep a tidy desk
• Start saving your money
• Get a hobby
• Go back to school
• Conquer your fears

I started my new job last week.  I am leaving tomorrow for an 11 day training excursion which will take me to London and Belgium.  I am excited to meet my new colleagues and I am also nervous as hell.  (Will they like me?  Will I like them?  Will I be able to grasp buildings physics?)  

10 years ago I drove to NYC sight-unseen.  I drove because I feared flying and didn’t want to get on a plane.  Then I sold my car because I grew afeared of driving in the NY-Metro area (after a very traumatic alternate-side parking experience in Prospect Heights).  Now I am in a career that involves both planes and cars.  I guess it’s never too late to embrace your fears and in doing so, move forward!  Now to work on that “tidy desk” thing…

Can people change? I mean, really change.

On January 1st Andrew and I sat down to hash out some goals.  We both knew we needed to light a fire under our own (or each others) arses because neither of us felt content with where we were in our lives personally or professionally. So we did what every good American does at the start of a New Year and we made a list of goals we wanted to work toward and habits we each wanted to change.   I wrote a wee post about it in which I called myself out on being too snarky about resolutions and then pondered a bit as to why resolutions don’t typically stick for most people over the duration of the year.

Well, I guess calling myself out worked!

Fast-forward to March 1 and:

• We’re engaged!
• We are saving money (or at the very least budgeting it).
• He got a gig in North Carolina working on a TV show (which we hope will lead to future gigs).
• He enrolled in school to get a screen-writing certificate and started taking classes.
• I am starting a new job March 12 that offers room for growth and an improved quality of living!
• I was accepted to CUNY to finish a degree (and change it from Thee-a-tah to Biznazz).
• We are both healthier, happier and more productive.

But it’s only been 2 months.  So the snark and the critic in me are saying, HA!  This won’t last.  While the optimist and the loving, compassionate, hippie in me is saying, “YAYAYAYAYAYAY!  Keep going!  This is only the beginning!”

Who will win?  The snark or the hippie?

Can people change?  Can we continue to grow as adults?  Are habits able to be broken or even revised?  Can we really take control of our lives, fix our shortcomings and in doing so change our future?

I had been thinking about this quite a lot when I stumbled upon a blog post by Alwyn Crosgrove called, “How to Change”.  This post lead me to Dr. John Bernardi who has a 4 part video series on the subject.  This series is in relation to a nutritionist/personal trainer working with a client so if you are in the health and fitness profession then I would highly recommend you give them a look-see.  But even if you are not, Dr. Bernardi hits on some crucial issues that are relevant to all humans when it comes to change.  It really comes down to how we process the concept of change and how much capacity our brains really have to do so.

In the third installment of the video series he recommends a couple of books to help you along.  I have ordered three of the four and am over half-way finished with the shortest of the four, “The Power Of Less”.  As soon as I am finished reading it I will review it for you.  I can prematurely recommend it to you however, because it is really good.  And I am already thinking about all the things I am going to work on and work towards as I continue this momentum toward a happier and more successful future.

However, if you don’t feel like watching the 4-Part video series, or buying the above mentioned book, then allow me to share one interesting lesson that stuck in my mind.

• Adopting one new habit at a time – 85% chance of success
• Adopting two new habits at once – 35% chance of success
• Adopting three or more new habits at once – less than 10% chance of success

 

So, moral of the (unread) story is: Don’t try to do too much at once!  I am keeping that in mind as I barrel through Q1 of 2012 and doing so is making it easier because I am cutting myself a little slack.  This is a lot of change.  I need to take it slowly.  I need to work on improving my level of productivity while also erasing some bad habits that I know tend to slow me down.  The new me will not manifest overnight or even over the course of 12 months.  But she will evolve.  How I feel about my life this moment – March 1 2012 – is miles away from how I felt on January 1, 2012.  But I am still the same in many ways.   So change is cumulative.  You might not see results immediately.  But this does not mean that you are on the wrong path.  It will come.

And while we are on the subject of “cha-cha-cha-CHANGES” I want to share another great article I read recently.

This is a post by one of my favorite bloggers, Lauren Slayton of “Foodtrainers” who penned, “I Can See The Future And You Still Hate Broccoli And Exercise”.   In this post she explores the concept of “The Future Self” with regard to changing habits and improving ones health or ones life.  It’s really well written and short so go check it out!

Questions for you:  Did you make any New Year’s resolutions, and if so are you on track?  Do you think of yourself as someone who embraces change or do you fear change?  

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A Clothing Exchange Party as a Rite of Passage

This weekend I attended a Clothing Exchange Party!  Have you ever been to one?  Here’s how they work: Everyone brings items from their closet that are (ideally) in good shape but perhaps too big, too small, or that just don’t suit their style any longer.  Each woman takes a turn and goes through her bag of give-aways, item by item, and as she holds up her article of clothing for all to surmise she tells a story about the piece.  Or you can do what I did and hold things up and say, “This is something I don’t want anymore, anyone else want it?”  If one person wants it it is theirs!  If two or more people want it you roll dice to see who gets it.  Bartering, up sales, trash-talking, wine-guzzling, and general mayhem highly encouraged!  If nobody wants it, everybody shouts out “TO THE LADIES!” and it goes into a pile to be donated to charity.

By the end of the night “THE LADIES” had a lot of clothes!

I did not realize just how much stuff I was holding on to, literally and figuratively, until I began to excavate my wardrobe.  By the time I was done raiding my closet I had gotten rid of a good three-quarters of my clothes.  It was a feat in strength and determination to lug it all from Astoria to Jersey city via public transport.  My largest suitcase was packed to the gills – at least 45 pounds of clothes I kid you not – brimming with clothes that I had outgrown either physically, emotionally, or sartorially.

As I went through each article I had brought I thought about how I felt about myself when I made the purchase.  There were teeny-tiny dresses from my days of uber strict dieting and rigorous exercising that (sadly/happily) will never zip again.  There was jersey material galore from my months in physical limbo as I worked through my muscle disease and my past issues with body image and dieting.  There were pieces I’d bought in my 20′s that suddenly looked like something off the set of Jersey Shore (namely a micro-mini, camo skirt that I think I actually wore to the JC many years ago), and pieces from impulse shopping trips (when clearly my impulses were very wrong).  I saw 10 years of my life in a pile of fabric and as I looked at each item and thought about where I was in my life when that piece made sense to me.  The clothes that I had decided to part with represented who I was.  They were pieces of my former self-perception.  They were no longer me.  And there were a LOT of them!

It was the ultimate in letting go of my past and more specifically, letting go of my body-bashing days when I believed that the size on the label was a symbol of my worthiness. 

As I rolled my empty suitcase back home I felt conflicted.  Part of me was so proud of myself for letting go of a closet-full of clothes that no longer fit me – in any sense of the word.  Another part of me felt defeated because in going through those piles of my clothes and the varying sizes therein, it became crystal clear just how much time I had spent not being comfortable in my own skin and wishing I looked different.  And that made me sad.  I asked myself, “Am I any better today than I was 4, 5, 8, 10, years ago?  Or am I still hanging on to a perception of who I should be that is unattainable?”  Maybe I am no longer obsessed with a size or a number, but now I find myself discouraged with the signs of aging, with not knowing what my style is, with fear that I just plain and simple, have let myself go.  But will I look back at 36-year-old Cameo and think, “Why didn’t she see that she was beautiful?  She didn’t have wrinkles even though she thought she did (these are wrinkles, I hear my 80-year-old-self exclaim).”  When I look back on 28-year-old Cameo I am in awe at the fact that I didn’t see how great I looked back then, with a body that I should have been proud of but instead could only see as not good enough.  I don’t want to be 50, 60 or 70 and look back on my life wishing I had spent less time worrying about my body and more time living.  I want to live NOW.   I want now to be the time that I look in the mirror and accept what I see without feeling the deep-seated self-doubt and disappointment.

Then I started to think back on the evening’s festivities.  There were women of every shape and size; teeny-tiny, busty, hourglass, short, tall, medium, small.  And all of them were gorgeous in their own unique way.  One dress could fit two totally different shapes and take on a whole new look when embodied by each. Size became a non-issue.  Personality prevailed.  It became very clear that although we all have our imperfections and our insecurities, when we own ourselves we can take on an entirely new level of beauty.  When we own who we are our size becomes irrelevant.  And isn’t that what living is about?  Being free to enjoy it without the constraints of image and self-imposed rigidity?

So here I sit, the day after, looking at a fairly empty wardrobe that is just waiting to be filled with clothes that represent who I am today.  And who I might be tomorrow.  And who I hope to be years from now, a woman who is so solid in her self-acceptance that she can look back on her life and say, I may have struggled along the way, but I finally figured it out!  And once I did I flourished.  I LIVED.  And look at who I AM NOW!

Healthy Living Blogs, Exercise Chat, and Defending Dori

On being a Healthy Living Blogger:

I am healthy, I am living, and I am a blogger.  The end.

The truth of the matter is, the “Healthy Living Blogger” label scares the pants off me.  It’s a label that gets tossed around far too loosely for my liking.  Just because one happens to love making fancy oatmeal and smoothie concoctions and takes pretty pictures of them does not make them a culinary expert.  Just because a person lost a good deal of weight through diet and exercise, doesn’t mean you should copy their diet or their exercise routine.  Blogging is an audacious enterprise.  It’s opinion-based content, often supported by fact, compounded by experience, but in the end, it’s only one person’s perspective on whatever subject matter they find bloggable.   It is not martial law. It’s not a college course.  It’s not a religion.  It’s a blog.

On Blogging (and defending Dori):

The thing that drew me to blogging is that it offers like-minded people the opportunity to connect and share.  We bloggers are essentially journaling (while sharing tips and trends and recipes and giving away cool products).  We are sharing our opinions and experiences.  We are not encyclopedias or gurus or professors.  Some bloggers are legitimate nutritionists and RDs, and professionals, others are real-life, certified, Personal Trainers, but the majority of the popular HLB bloggers are young women with a passion for health and fitness.  End.

My friend Dori (a righteous little blogebrity) recently got attacked over her post, “Breaking up with Barre”.   The vitriol from which was astounding, to say the least.  She – like I – used to go to Core Fusion.  She – like I – wrote about it, tweeted about it and shared her love for it with everyone she encountered because she – like I - are the personality types who like to share our lives and our passions with those around us.  Then she – like I – discovered Refine Method.  Eventually she – like I – gave up her Exhale membership.  It should be noted that Dori had developed an injury (while taking a barre class) and was no longer able to perform the majority of the exercises that are done in Core Fusion, so it’s not like she just mamby-pamby changed teams, in fact it was actually a very tough decision she made because she really valued her experience over at Exhale.  Then she did some research on the philosophy behind Refine Method and after many months and much consternation, she made the decision to give up barre for good.  She took the risk and wrote about her decision on her blog because her blog has always been a very honest documentation of her own personal journey to fitness.  Her post as to why she made the decision to “Break up with Barre” is incredibly respectful to Core Fusion while being immensely honest and open.  I think that it took a lot of courage for her to write the article and the resounding opposition blew me away.  (Just read the comments to see what I mean!)

Here’s the thing about blogging:

A blog (a portmanteau of the term web log)^[1] is a personal journal published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete entries (“posts”) typically displayed in reverse chronological order so the most recent post appears first. – Wikipedia

It is not a medical journal or a thesis or a research paper or a publication.  It is the author’s interpretation of their subject matter as seen from their own unique perspective.  So, to see people get personally offended by Dori’s decision to leave barre behind was to me, quite bizarre.

And it further illustrated to me why I have been so hesitant to talk too deeply about my experience with regard to writing about Core Fusion and then totally giving it up and now only doing Refine method as my mode of choice.

I have mentioned my own move away from the barre here and there, but I never came right out and said, “Refine is a better and smarter and more efficient a workout than Core Fusion”.   I didn’t want to offend all the lovely people at Exhale (and they all are so lovely) nor did I want to come across as contradictory because I had gushed about my personal training session here.  I really did enjoy working out at Exhale.  But not necessarily for the results.  More for the ambience and the attention and the way I felt so relaxed at the end of each class.  At that time in my life, it was exactly what the doctor ordered.

Life throws us curveballs (or injuries) and our opinions are going to change over time based on many variables.  Dori’s article was merely her way of telling us that she had ”moved on and here’s why”.  Exactly what a blog should do.

On Barre vs. Metabolic Resistance Training:

I am currently a die-hard Refine Method fanatic and see this as a Camtrend that is here to stay.

My story is much different from Dori’s though.  I sought out barre classes knowing that they were not going to be as challenging to me physically because I had just discovered I had a rare metabolic disease.  At the time I joined Exhale I was just coming off of the first 3 month span in 15 years in which I did NO exercise.  I was miserable.  I had gained 25+ pounds and I just wanted to do something that was not too intense and that was monitored and that maybe just maybe would help me get back in shape without hurting my body.  I was content to lift 4-5 pound dumbells and do plies.  I just wanted to move.  And nothing I said previously about my love of Exhale was a lie.  I loved my year there.  I loved all the instructors.  And I loved the way I felt after class.  They have a good thing going!

But to be perfectly honest, if I had attended a barre class back in 2008 or any time before my muscle disease diagnosis, I would have left class laughing at how silly it all seemed because I had a 15 year foundation in traditional body-building and resistance training.  I had spent those years studying how muscles work and how best to train them.   I was the girl at the gym with a page torn out of “Muscle & Fitness” or “Men’s Health” as my routine. I was a firm believer that in order to change your body, you need to lift heavy weights.  I was 118 pounds and squating 140!  I had never been more lean in my life and the way I got there was by lifting heavy weights, changing up my routine on a regular basis, and performing High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) for my cardio.

But then I got diagnosed with a disease that made exercising complicated.  I was told by my first specialist that all types of exercising would be incredibly dangerous for me and  so I begrudgingly quit the gym cold-turkey after fifteen years of being a meat-head.  For me, going from body-building to barre method classes was like a marathon runner who gets restrained to running only 3 miles a day.  They will still be healthy, but they won’t be crazy fit.  They will get a nice endorphin rush, but they won’t feel that spiritual experience that pushing the body past its breaking point will produce.   If they watch their diet they might stay lean, but it will be a lot more challenging.

Since I had put on a good deal of weight post-diagnosis/pre-Exhale, I did see results from my Core Fusion and yoga classes.  (Note that most of the weight I put on was a result of eating too much and not simply because I stopped exercising!)  Then Core Fusion Cardio was introduced to the Exhale schedule and I saw some more results.  But it was taking a long time.  After about 6 months of doing Core Fusion, Core Fusion Yoga and Core Fusion Cardio, I found myself having to take 2 back to back classes (Core Fusion/Core Fusion Cardio or Yoga/Core Fusion Cardio) in order to keep seeing results.  I think there were even days when I took 3!  This worried me because working out for 2 hours straight seemed quite dangerous for someone with a Glycogen Storage Disease, not to mention it is plain and simply an excessive amount of time to spend exercising.  I knew that Core Fusion and Core Fusion cardio were no longer  working for me and I was dying to get back to heavier lifting, compound body exercises, and running.  So I forked out the dough for a second opinion.  I wrote about it here.

The second specialist I saw said that I absolutely should be doing conditioning exercises.  He lead me to believe that I could start training again…not overtraining mind you like I admittedly had in my late 20′s to early 30′s and which is what landed me in the hospital and uncovered this metabolic disease.  He was of the opinion that my muscles were very strong and that I could train harder.  And with that, I headed straight to Refine.  And I fell in love.

Refine combines all of the things that I did on my own when I was a gym-rat into one concise hour.  I get my resistance training and my HIIT type cardio and then I am out.  One hour.  No doubles.   And the results speak for themselves.  I am fitting back into clothes that I hadn’t touched in 3 years.  I lost more inches in 3 months of Refine than one year at Exhale.  And I couldn’t be happier to be supporting a method of exercise that harkens back to my own training roots.

In conclusion:

I believe that you should do what you love and what makes you feel good.  If you love running, you should run.  If you love barre, you should take barre classes.  If you love lifting, go lift!  If you hate all those things but enjoy walking or hiking, do that!  The fact that you are exercising at all is really what counts.  Experiment.  Read actual exercise and fitness articles published by certified personal trainers and sports medicine doctors.  Try a Refine class, try a Barry’s Bootcamp, go check out Figure 4 or Core Fusion or Physique 57.  But don’t base all your decisions on one bloggers own personal journey.   That’s just silly.

If you want to learn more about the philosophy behind Refine Method, check out the founder of Refine Method (Brynn Jinnett’s) blog and these posts.

http://www.refinemethod.com/blog/2011/01/dancer-workouts-on-pointe/

http://www.refinemethod.com/blog/2011/05/refine-method-lowering-the-barre/

http://www.refinemethod.com/blog/2011/05/refine-method-lowering-the-barre-part-2/

Questions:  What is your opinion of blogger responsibility?  If you read the comments section on Dori’s blog, did you feel like they had valid points?  Or do you think it was a bit much?  

Miracle Skin Transformer WINNER ANNOUNCED!!!

Well, I jinxed myself.

Yup.  After posting that crazy close-up of my face I broke out in a constellation of blemishes.  My face got the yips.   Actually, this happens to me quite often.  I yip out all the time.  If you tell me you like the way I dress, I will inadvertently spend the next 3 weeks dressing like an idiot.  If you like my hair, it will be the day before I am planning a major color or cut that you let me know.  If you think I am good at something, I will yip out the second I am asked to demonstrate.  I am someone who craves recognition and praise, but the minute I get any I just fall apart.

OK, I just looked up, “the yips” and I guess my interpretation is a bit loose.  But I can assure you, if I were on a golf course, you would yip out in my very presence.

Enough about me.

On to the Miracle Skin Transformer Winner.

This will go down in Verging On Serious history as the biggest and most challenging give-away to tally up and count.

It was hard to count because some of you did not follow directions…no names.

But I fancy myself a nice person so I hand wrote (with a pencil) all your names out, giving each of you the number of entries you deserved…even if you didn’t post your entries separately like I asked (thus making me have to do math which I don’t enjoy…yes, counting is math) and I came up with the big weeeeener.  

As always I used www.random.org.  By the way, I have no idea how you other bloggers do that trick where you can input the results into your blog.  I am not smart enough to figure that thing out.  So, just trust me when I say, I did it correctly.  I counted up all the names (many of you were in there 2-4 times if you commented, tweeted, liked and liked) and I got a grand total of 52 entries.  I then typed that number in to the random integer generator thingy and the resulting winning number was:

#46 – Debbie Christie!

My sincerest apologies to all my real-life friends, my mom, and my sister who didn’t win.  Please don’t hate me!

Debbie, dahling, please email me your mailing address at cameomorningstar (at) gmail (dot) com and I will have the booty bag sent out stat!

And in the future, please follow directions!  I am far too new school to be bothered with pencil and paper.  And far too old school to figure out how to get Random.org to cooperate.  And far to cheap to pay $4.95 for the widget.

In closing, I love you all!

Suggest a Blog?

Clearly, YOU have exquisite taste (or else you wouldn’t be here), so perhaps you can help me spice up my blog roll.

Here are the categories I am interested in, but I am open to your suggestions:

• Opinion - I love a blog with no point that has a strong point of view.
• Health/Fitness/Nutrition – Not too “HLB”-y, if you catch my drift.
• Fashion – I need to be inspired, my wardrobe is stuck in 2005.
• Recipes – Again, not the fluff, I know how to make smoothies and oatmeal.
• Home Improvement/Interior Design – for my future home, of course.
• Political – humorous, opinionated, and/or informative.
• Wedding Planning – I have no clue what I am doing.  Or how.  Or when.  Or where.
• Life Skills – I need more of them! Any and all!

Do you have any favorites in these categories?  I’d love to hear which blogs you recommend!

And now I shall suggest a blog for you!

Fit-A-Licous - Which I am honored to be submitting a couple articles a month on topics such as health, fitness, nutrition, beauty, and life!  My first article was, “Super-Bowl Detox”.  Leave a comment over there, if you are so inclined.  I hope you like it!

Miracle Skin Transformer Review and Give-Away!

CONTEST CLOSED! WINNER ANNOUNCED FEB. 14, 2012!

I’ve never been big on foundations and powders.  I like the look of natural skin.  I even like a little shine.  I figure that the time will come, soon enough, when age will take its toll, so I might as well go as close to au natural as possible for as long as I can!  That, and I’m lazy.

So when I was offered the opportunity to sample Miracle Skin products I agreed, but I did not set any expectations.

Then I tried it.

Oh-My-Gawsh, YOUS GUYS!

It is amazing!  I love it.  It does the work of three products in one; acting as a foundation, lotion and SPF.  It goes on like silk and once applied it doesn’t feel like you have make up on.  It is truly a miracle!!!

The details:

Miracle Skin Transformer SPF 20

From the website:

Miracle Skin Transformer SPF 20:

An antioxidant-rich tinted skin enhancer that leaves your skin airbrushed, hydrated and protected in one easy step. Who knew that one product could transform skin instantly? Miracle Skin Transformer SPF20’s first-ever naturally derived silicone formulation is designed to improve skin texture, minimize fine lines and pores and reduce pigmentation spots over time.

Miracle Skin Transformer hydrates, enhances and protects your skin with our M3 Complex, a unique combination of natural active antioxidants and vitamins designed to:

• Hydrate and nourish skin
• Transform skin tone and provide an instant matifying effect
• Neutralize free radicals
• Reduce redness, calm and soothe skin
• Minimize pigment inconsistencies and discolorations
• Refine pores’ texture while softening and soothing fine lines
• Provide broad spectrum SPF 20/UVA/UVB protection

“Miracle Skin Transformer is an “all-in–one” product that can help to protect your skin from the sun, maintain proper skin hydration, and also reduce unwanted pigmentary changes caused by the effects of chronic sun exposure.” – Lance H. Brown M.D.

Along with the miraculous face stuff, they sent me Miracle Skin Transformer Body 20.  I took it with me when I went down to Florida in January because I had planned on spending hours soaking up rays.  At the very least I planned on wearing short skirts and strappy tops.  Sadly, it wasn’t all that warm.  But I did have a couple of occasions for baring my arms and legs and the Miracle Skin Transformer Body 20 worked like a charm, evening out all my blotchy pigmentation.  It even has a subtle sparkle to it so it’s great for an evening out.  

Catching up with long-lost college buddies in Flahrida.

And lastly,

The Miracle Skin Treat and Conceal.  This product is ideal for anyone who suffers from dark circles under the eyes.  

From the website:

Miracle Skin Transformer Treat & Conceal Eye & Face

This product can also be used to cover blemishes and red areas.  Again, it is super lightweight and silky smooth.  

Best part?  Miracle Skin products are safe and natural and free of parabens, fragrance, SLS/SLES, hydriquinone and are not tested on animals.  Hooray!

I give Miracle Skin products an A+!  (“But Cameo, you said that about Hydroxatone, too…how do we know you are not being paid to say such nice things?”)  Trust me, all opinions are completely honest and I was not paid to give a good review.  I was comped the product, but that’s it!  What can I say?  I am a lucky girl with good connections.  (Thanks, DORI!)

And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for.

I am giving away three products of your choice to one lucky reader!

How to win:

To enter to win (Miracle Skin Transformer products) worth  up to $120.00, leave me a comment in the comments section below telling me which Miracle Skin Transformer products you’d most like to try. Visit miracleskintransformer.com to see all the fabulous products they have.

Get additional entries by doing each of the following (Feel free to include your social media pages as well):

o             Like Sarah McNamara Beauty on Facebook (let me know you did so in your comment)

o             Follow Sarah McNamara Beauty Miracle Skin Transformer on Twitter (let me know you did so in your comment)

o             Tweet the following: @MiracleSkin and @CM_Star are giving away Miracle Skin Transformer products!  http://wp.me/p1mksl-Bi (let me know you did so in your comment)

I must receive all entries by February 12th, 2011.  Winner will be announced on February 14th, 2011.

The odds of winning are determined by the number of entries received.  No purchase necessary to enter.  There are only 4 max entries per person.

And, in honor of full disclosure, here is an uber close-up shot of me in my Miracle Skin products.  I know, my eye-brows are wonky and the lipstick looks terrible that close-up!  But the skin looks pretty good, right?  I promise there was no photo-shopping done.  I only cropped it!  If I were to photo-shop I would have erased those persnickety fine-lines and that freakin’ eye-puff.   I may have used a flash…

I wish I could say a 4-year old colored in my eye-brows and lips. Can't hide anything from the macro lens!

How to Succeed while Failing!

Let’s face it; we can’t all be type A’s.  Some of us are lucky just to find two matching socks (as we run out the door spilling coffee on our only clean blouse).  Here are 5 tips on how to improve your overall success in life, even while “failing”.

1. Get a Sense of Humor! If you take yourself and your daily blunders too seriously you will only feel and perform worse.  I’m not suggesting that you should stop striving for success, but when you do fall short, or into a puddle, look for the funny.  There is always funny to be found!  And when you lighten up, things tend to work themselves out.
2. Develop your Personality!  Many a gaffe can be mended with a little panache.  From simply using your smile to calm other peoples nerves, to having great one-liners at the ready, people like interesting people.  Included in this would be owning your mistakes.  The ability to do so shows great  character.
3. Become a problem solver!  If you are going to cause yourself problems, you best get good at finding solutions!  Forgot deodorant because you got sidetracked by cleaning up your spilled breakfast?  Pop in to the nearest Sephora or Department Store and take advantage of the free spritzes!   Get lost a lot?   Buy a GPS!  Bottom line, be open to doing things your own way and don’t feel bad if you don’t always follow the plan.
4. Be a nice person.  Plain and simple: If you are a nice person, people will be more willing to help you out in a jam or forgive you for doing something stupid.
5. Don’t be afraid to ask for help!  Pride can be a virtue but often times it doth precede a fall.  Don’t be too proud to ask for help when you need it.  If you’ve followed tips 1-4 then there is no doubt that you will receive the assistance you need and quite possibly, build a relationship in the process.

What about you?  Are you the plan ahead type who manages to get things right the first time?  Or are you more like me…failing at normalcy and making it up as you go along?  What advice would you give to fellow flailers?

Never mind the mismatched boots, what was up with my hair?

 

I visited 4 clients on foot around Manhattan before noticing that my boots didn't match.

wish I could say that I was practicing my upward dog here. Nope. Just retrieving pieces of my camera.

Stop Looking For Perfection

It would be an understatement if I said that the past couple of weeks have been stressful.  I started the year with a laundry list of things I wanted to change about myself.  No, I am not being hyper-critical, fact of the matter is I have been too lackadaisical in life for the past 35 years and it all came to a head as I stood facing my 36th year.  Which begins next Friday.  (Cash accepted)

I won’t bore you with the dirty details of it all, fact is I was feeling super overwhelmed in absolutely every sector of my life: career, home, health, social-life, head…you get the idea.

Then last night happened.

It had been an unusually anxiety-ridden day for both myself and Andrew.  He is on the job hunt and has been for quite some time, plus he’s been trying to go back to school in order to help him with his screen-writing skills because ultimately, that is his life’s dream, to write scripts.  That people watch.  On the TV.  And in the movies.  Big dream.  And as the lady who loves him unconditionally, I made the decision years back that I would support him in his endeavors.

This can be a bit stressful at times as I am sure you can surmise.

So, after a really long day of both of us feeling like we were spinning our wheels (him with the job hunt, me with my…well, me being me) and feeling overwhelmingly as if there was no silver lining in sight, I went to my exercise class.

Class was tough.  I thought, man, what is wrong with me?  Why does everything suddenly feel so hard?

I returned home to Andrew at the stove.  He is typically the best cook and our meals are usually quite delectable.  That night as I left for class I had mumbled out some order at him: prepare me some chicken-vegetable soup, blah, blah, blah (Did I mention I’ve been “dieting”?)

I got home and he said that the soup sucked.  I apologize for giving bad soup instructions and promised to eat it anyways because I was starving and if I didn’t eat soon I would turn into major, crazy, b-word.

*change of tense*

He takes the dog out and when he returns he looks scared.  I get a little scared.  He comes charging at me and gives me the most gigantic hug.  I am thinking, ‘Great, on top of everything else, now Andrew is dying.  Just what I needed!’  He says “I Love You.” and just keeps hugging.

We change into PJs, and sit down to eat bad soup.  He sits next to me.  He is acting really odd.  ”I love you, Cam.”  (I’m flattered with the onslaught of affection but it seems a little weird still.)  We hug.  I say the soup is fine.  I tell him I love him too and that everything is going to work out.  I tell him not to worry.  I give him another giant bear hug.

Then we just sat there, staring around at our crappy apartment and at the dying Christmas tree that is still up (we were out of town last week…but still) and all of the sudden he gets up and runs in to the other room.

‘I got you something…

I know it’s not very nice, it’s not what you deserve, but I want to give it to you because…’

(I am thinking, it can’t be a…)

‘This is just temporary until I can replace it with something nicer…’

Here.

He presents me with a beautiful, antique, sterling silver ring with the most lovely topaz stone set in the center.

“Cameo, will you marry me?”

And the answer was a resounding YES!  Yes, of course I will.

He said he had ordered it online (did I mention he is a little quirky?) and had expected it to arrive before we headed down to Florida but it didn’t.  When it arrived it was chipped and he felt terrible so then he wasn’t going to give it to me. Then he was going to wait until “the right moment” but he said that as he looked around at our crappy apartment, the dying tree, the terrible soup, and me sitting there in a Mickey Mouse T-Shirt, loving him unconditionally, that the least perfect time suddenly seemed like the most perfect time.

(Sidenote: Sadly the ring didn’t work out so I ended up getting a new ring…with a diamond in it!!! I will wear the original ring around my neck and the sparkly one on my ring finger.  I have 2 rings!  I am a happy girl.)

And ever since that moment I have felt like the weight of the world has lifted.  Of course all the same things still sort of suck and yes, as a team, the two of us really have our work cut out for us, but really, it’s all so perfect in its imperfection.

This got me to thinking about other aspects of my life.  First, my bod.  Yes, I have been struggling again.  I mentioned above I have been dieting which isn’t exactly the right word to use.  Refine Method has resulted in my dropping a good deal of the weight that I had put on when I was diagnosed with my muscle-disease, went on anti-depressant and spent two years wallowing. And historically when I get into a “losing streak”  I start obsessing.  Suddenly a size that seemed like a good goal sounds too big and frumpy.  Suddenly I am nit-picking this jiggle, that bulge, thinking “why am I so…ugh…ME????”  and am constantly seeing the imperfections rather than just focusing on loving myself as is.  Or better yet, celebrating the fact that I got back in shape!

Then there is my job which I am thrilled to have but which comes with its own flavor of imperfection.  And my apartment, which is an overpriced dungeon that I fear I will never save enough money to move out of.  And lastly, my head space and my coping mechanisms….not ideal.  All of these things are so imperfect.  But when I sit back and look at everything from an objective viewpoint, I realize that I am blessed.

I have a job, I live in New York, the most exciting and wonderful city on earth (we moved here sight-unseen 9-1/2 years ago without a dime to our names and made it!), and I am sharing my life with a man who I love.   We share a genuine, true, unconditional understanding of one another and that, in and of itself, is amazing!  And I am working on my savings so we can move and, ultimately, I know that things will get better.

Here’s the moral of the story and my advice to you.  And to myself:

STOP LOOKING FOR PERFECTION BECAUSE IT DOES NOT EXIST!

If perfection existed there would be 10 million Hollywood celebrities with no issues and no need for plastic surgeons!  This would make our day-to-day so boring, I mean who would we read about like voyeuristic vultures while at the hair salon?

If perfection existed, there would be no reason to strive.  No reason to try.  No reason to work toward goals. How boring would that be?

If perfection existed than we wouldn’t be human.  And I don’t know about you, but most of the aliens I have seen are fugly!  Who wants to look like an alien?

But seriously.  If there is something in your life that you are putting on hold because you are waiting for the perfect time, or you are waiting till you are perfect, or you think there is someone more perfect for you, maybe it’s time to stop.  Stop looking.  And you might be surprised to find that imperfection is actually exactly where you want to be.

First ring. Only 5 sizes too big!

He’s thinking, “Crap.”

Ring number two! Pefect fit. (and so sparkly!)