I can’t believe there was a Kickstarter campaign for “Anti-Thigh-Gap” jeans; all I can say is HALLELUJAH!!! http://youtu.be/DoFrpZ4QXwo
This video gives me confidence that the lunatics who still push the very unhealthy Kate Moss definition of beauty are FINALLY fading into obscurity!!!
Don’t get me wrong, I fully appreciate people who have a naturally small frame like Kate Moss or Keira Knightly. With that said, I’m fed up with that cookie-cutter stereotype still existing. Mindy Kaling is a great example!
Look at these Elle covers:
Granted, this happened in March, but it shouldn’t be happening at all!
I’m so excited to help women be mad scientists; I’ll give them as many tools to help them be successful in their life-long experiments with food, exercise routines, menus (I’m officially banning the word diet because it says “die” for crying out loud!!! — menu is intended to reveal your “New Me!”), makeup and fashion that will solidify their Aphrodite Attitudes!
Last night I was debating what I should write about in my next post: I couldn’t decide if I wanted to write about makeup or food. Then I saw this in my Facebook news feed:
I really connected with this quote and I realized that I had to be willing to expose more of my struggle if I truly expect to connect with anyone else.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve HATED every picture of myself. The running joke with my friends in.high school and college was that if you wanted a broken camera, let me catch you taking a picture of me. Everyone knew I’d never actually break their camera, but I got scolded many times for untagging myself in pictures on Facebook. Even now I’m rambling to prevent you from seeing me…. Here it goes — this is the most current picture I have of myself:
Me in July 2014
There’s so many flaws I’m cringing at right now, but I want to turn over a new leaf and proudly put my health journey out there for the world to see.
Like I’ve mentioned in previous posts, weight is not the end-all, be-all in my definition of healthy, but it’s also not something you should completely ignore.
So, rather than get into nitty gritty details I know I can become absurdly obsessed with, I want to share with y’all the different things I’m doing in my life to solidify my own Aphrodite Attitude: whether it’s in the kitchen, my home gym or in fashion.
I will end with a positive reflection on myself: I see the beginnings of a beautifully curvy, yet healthy woman.
A couple months ago, I wrote about how the NutriBullet was an awesome way to get your fruits and veggies in every day (especially if you hate grazing as much as I do 😜).
For my birthday, I that I wanted to try the NutriBullet for myself and I couldn’t be happier!!!
Here’s a couple of the nutriblasts I make regularly:
Mixed Berry kiwi:
*1/2 organic kiwi
*handful of organic blueberries
*handful of organic raspberries
*2 large organic strawberries
*2 or 3 organic baby carrots
*1 leaf of organic kale or lettuce
*a pinch of cinnamon and ginger
*1 scoop of soy protein powder
*6-8oz of water
Mango berry kiwi
*1/2 organic kiwi
*1/2 organic mango
*1 leaf of organic kale or lettuce
*handful of organic blueberries
*handful of organic raspberries
*pinch of cinnamon and ginger
*1 scoop of soy protein powder
*6-8oz of water
I’m sure you can tell I love organic foods, haha!! Seriously though, you don’t have to use organic, but I love how organic makes me feel and I encourage y’all to give it a shot! 😀
Every time I have my nutriblast, I know I’m doing right by my body now and in the long run. Over the past month and a half, I’ve noticed my sugar cravings decrease DRAMATICALLY!! To give you a sense of how bad my sugar addiction was, I bought a gallon of vanilla ice cream and a case of Mt. Dew every week when I went to the grocery store. Now, I can barely drink a can of soda without feeling my teeth rot.
A NutriBullet may not be the best option for you, but I just hope you’re willing to try it.
Remember, that all we have is our health and EVERY investment (whether you’re eating healthy once a month or every day) counts!!
In my last post, I explained why makeup is not the burden most women make it out to be. Yes, it helps us bring out our best features so that we can be more attractive to potential mates, but we should really use it to protect and preserve our natural beauty.
Our faces are analogous to a business card, and our eyes are the business’ logo. Think about Nike for a split second… what comes to mind? I know, I know. Dumb question because everybody knows about the Nike Swoosh. We should treat our eyes like Nike treats it’s Swoosh. Nike would NEVER let anyone steal or tarnish that logo, so why are we so willing to dismiss our eyes as ordinary.
Remember that old adage: “The eyes are the window to the soul?” Anyone who hesitates to agree that that statement is most apropos is quite frankly kidding themselves. Every woman I’ve ever met has gorgeous eyes and we should do whatever we can to highlight them. In this post, I want to share with you the first of three secrets to ensuring that your eyes are always exquisitely exhibited. Step #1 is to pay special attention to our eyebrows.
Our eyebrows are important because they frame our eyes – they should be thick and properly shaped. Whenever I see a picture of Marlene Dietrich, I cringe a little – not because she is ugly (she is absolutely GORGEOUS – but because she aged herself unnecessarily. Look at a picture of her in her prime:
How old would you guess she is here? When I first saw this picture, I thought she was in her late 40s, but she was actually in her 20s!!
How old would you guess she is? She will be 42 this year!!
Unfortunately for Marlene, she lived in an era before Adonia Organics from Greek Island Labs. Adonia Organics is a fabulous company that specializes in creating various organic serums that will undo the many faux-pas we commit over the years. Marlene would have benefited tremendously from their Brow Revive serum (pictured below).
Brow Revive was formulated using only the purest natural botanicals and plant extracts, also used by the ancient Greeks, to encourage over-plucked, overly-waxed eyebrows to grow back thicker and fuller. This serum sells for $99, but it lasts for about nine months, depending on how often you use it. Adonia recommends applying the serum on your brows in the morning and just before you go to sleep for the first 21 days, minimum; depending on how comfortable you are with your results, you can reduce the frequency to three days a week.
I know all about having eyebrows that are way too thin from waxing and tweezing more often than you should. Back in February 2013, I bought a tube of Brow Revive (out of sheer desperation and I really didn’t expect any results – I guess I was protecting myself from disappointment!). After using the serum as recommended for about five weeks, my self-esteem sky rocketed!! I used the serum twice a day for those first five weeks; after that I used it twice a week. Here are my eyebrows circa January 2013 – I am still in shock about how thin they are.
It took me a good eight months to see the results I wanted, but I’m so happy I stuck it out because this is what my eyebrows look like now:
In my next post, I want to share with you the second secret to expose your exquisite eyes — by reinvigorating your eyelashes naturally.
In my last post, I discussed how Kim Kardashian is a fantastic ambassador for Aphrodite Attitude because:
1. She KNOWS that she is a beautiful woman and
2. She ALWAYS accentuates her her incredibly beautiful face.
However, if you think about Kim’s rise to fame, you’d see how the mainstream media wants us to feel about ourselves. When Kim first came onto the scene, as Paris Hilton’s friend, everyone buzzed about the curvy girl with a beautiful face and scrambled to find out who she was. They fawned incessantly over her striking, exotic facial features, as if she had won some genetic lottery.
I’ll let you in on a little secret. The mainstream media WANTS us to perpetuate their myth that woman has to win some sort of genetic lottery to be touted as one of the most beautiful women in the world. Think about the last time you saw a countdown for Maxim’s annual “Hot 100” list – as you get closer to the top of the list, the commentary becomes increasingly hyperbolic.
Need proof of this? Look at these two photos and tell me what you see.
Can you see what the common denominator is? If you nearly identical bone structures, you’re very smart and intuitive, which is a great quality to have if you want to embrace, develop and maintain your new Aphrodite Attitude.
The truth is that Mother Nature, however, determined that ALL WOMEN are equally beautiful; as evidenced by the women in the above photos. And since Mother Nature blessed us with intrinsic beauty, we should do everything we can to preserve it and the best way to do that is with makeup.
One of the biggest “burdens” most women complain about is the pressure to wear makeup because we have to look good for men (I believed this wholeheartedly!); however, contrary to popular belief, that is NOT the primary reason we should wear it.
One day I was watching QVC and Leslie Blodgett, the founder and CEO of Bare Escentuals explained that makeup, be it liquid, pressed powder, but especially mineral, serves as a shield from all of the nasty things in our environment. Every day when we walk outside the house, we expose ourselves to the sun, pollen, car exhaust, smog, etc. and when we wear makeup, we can walk around with confidence knowing that, not only are we accentuating our natural beauty, but that when we return home at night we will wash all of those awful irritants off of our faces and preserve our natural beauty.
I’ve been a huge fan of bareMinerals foundation for almost 10 years. Bare Escentuals is very different than the majority of cosmetics companies on the market; all of the products her company offers is all natural, from foundation to blushes to shadows, is made from all natural materials.
What I really love about Bare Escentuals, besides their dedication to bringing us high-quality mineral makeup, is their willingness to take as much time as is necessary to develop a breadth and depth of formulations. Here, I’ll give you a few videos about the foundations that they have made available to us.
This video sums up the key pieces of their breakthrough foundation:
In this video, you’re introduced to their READY Foundation. This is the pressed version of their incredible mineral powder formulation. I adore that they didn’t cave in to mounting pressure to just turn out a mediocre pressed powder — not only did they come up with the pressed form, they designed a unique brush to make applying it as easy and flawless as possible.
Earlier this month on QVC, bareMinerals finally revealed a liquid version of the mineral foundation. I’ve seen so many snarky comments about how it apparently so easy to make a high-quality liquid version of their foundation. I believe they will have the last laugh because they found a way to combine a moisturizing skin serum with the minerals to give the women who have wanted to switch a reason to finally try the bareMinerals difference. One last point is that Leslie and her team have made the point that they are not trying to get their existing customers to switch from their favorite formula. If they love the loose minerals or the pressed powder, they’re ENCOURAGED to stick with it.
This final video walks you through two things: 1. their revolutionary new brush that will give you the coverage you want with minimal product (sticking with their philosophy that makeup shouldn’t feel or be cakey and that less is more!), and 2. how to properly prepare, dispense and apply this new formulation.
I’d love to know what y’all think about Bare Escentuals/bareMinerals!! Are you interested in trying it? Are you a long-time fan, like me? Do you have any special tips and tricks you’d like to share?
In my next post, I want to give you another glimpse into my favorite makeup brand, Bare Escentuals with their absolutely fabulous Lash Domination mascara. I’ll also introduce you to Adonia Organics and their incredible lash and brow regrowth serums that are formulated to help us frame our best feature (our eyes!!) with beautifully full eyebrows and eyelashes.
In my last post, I highlighted why I love Jessica Simpson. She embodies a fully developed Aphrodite Attitude because she is secure in her beauty and isn’t willing to hear anyone tear her down for trivial things – particularly a 10-pound weight gain (like at the beginning of a pregnancy)!
Believe it or not, I think Kim Kardashian is an even better ambassador to the Aphrodite Attitude concept!!
This is how we first met Kim. She is an undeniably beautiful woman, she KNOWS it and she ALWAYS ACCENTUATES her assets.
I’m sure you’ve heard about the scuttlebutt surrounding the most recent cover of Vogue featuring Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. Frankly, I’m a tad bewildered at why the issue is causing as much controversy as it is; I completely understand that people are on Kardashian overload because of all their past hijinks and histrionics, but we’re missing the point. Anna Wintour would NEVER even consider placing someone on the cover of Vogue if they weren’t able to sell magazines. Unfortunately, her standards are somewhat unrealistic because of Vogue’s intrinsic relationship with the fashion industry.
Media overload or great Aphrodite Attitude??
However, you have to admit that despite all of the kerfuffle that the Kardashians create, Kim is INSANELY GORGEOUS and could have had a career riving Gisele or Heidi or Tyra or Naomi (if the industry’s standards were more realistic)! And that is the lesson we need to keep in the front of our minds.
Kim is another celebrity who fully embraces her Aphrodite Attitude — she knows what her assets are and she has absolutely no qualms about being able to flaunt them. Look at these pictures of her throughout the years.
Kim had an incredibly beautiful body from the moment she first came on the scene.
Kim is even more gorgeous with the glow of impending motherhood!
Shortly after giving birth to North, she exudes that sexy confidence she’s always had.
Kim started a firestorm when she posted this on Instagram — but why shouldn’t she flaunt having a body like that after having a baby??
Here’s some amazing (and fully clothed!!) shots of Kim after North
Taking a cue from Kim, in the next few posts I want to delve into how we can accentuate our best features, mainly our gorgeous faces and breathtaking eyes (I don’t know a single woman who doesn’t have beautiful eyes!).
Jessica’s confidence and beauty shines through regardless of what the scale says, and THAT is an Aphrodite Attitude!
I remember back in 2004, I saw Maxim’s countdown of the “Maxim Hot 100” on VH1 and I loved that Jessica Simpson took the number one spot. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is that makes me so drawn to her. Scratch that… I know EXACTLY why I love her so much, but I’ll let you see why:
She epitomizes the Essence of an Aphrodite Attitude, not because she’s blonde bombshell, but because she UNABASHEDLY LOVES who she is NOW!! She admits that’s she’s not always following her “diet” perfectly because she’s only human and she wants to enjoy her life.
An Aphrodite Attitude can and will have many faces; Jessica’s just so happens to be more focused on healthy eating habits and being happy and in love with herself, despite what a scale might say.
I want every woman to have the same confidence that Jessica has.
“Yoga has really helped me feel more comfortable with the idea of being present, the simplest idea of spirituality, the power of now.” -Russell Simmons
In my last post, I explained that hypnotherapy, is one form of meditation, and when practiced regularly, it will markedly improve the amount of success you achieve in your personal and professional lives; Russell Simmons epitomizes this concept. I believe it was last Tuesday when I saw Larry King interview Russell on his show Larry King Now.
Larry and Russell were discussing Russell’s new book, Success Through Stillness: Meditation Made Simple, and Russell explained how his discovery of meditation (specifically yoga) changed his life. I’m sure you’ve heard of Russell’s prepaid debit card called the Rush card – ironically, that card bears part of his nickname before he discovered meditation, Uncle Rush! In this clip, Russell tells Larry the story of how exactly he became addicted to the powerful peace of mind meditation gives him and how it’s impacted his career (watch from the beginning until about 7m30s):
What struck me the most is Russell’s cogent explanation of meditation being a practice; it may take a few minutes for our impatient minds to calm down, but once they do, stressful problems are easily solved. We must remember two key points:
The adage that “Rome was not built in a day,” and
the fable of the tortoise and the hare
Faster results and instant gratification is not always best.
Russell Simmons reaped such astounding benefits from the simple practice of meditation, and you can too!!
Now that you know that simple changes in your lifestyle can make a huge difference, I want to share with you the many ways we can transform our own lives by “exploiting” the expectations society places on us. We all have to eat, so why not use the foods we have (ideally, organic) to continue to build and reinforce our Aphrodite Attitudes? The same idea can be applied for makeup, skin care products and fashion.
Hypnotherapy audios help illuminate your strengths.
With my last post, I hope that I was able to elucidate that hypnotherapy is NOT the sorcery that some ultraconservatives would have you believe; rather, it serves as a means of self-empowerment. Hypnotherapy is just one method of meditation that you can use to begin your journey to building a solid and healthy Aphrodite Attitude.
I am a firm believer in the power of hypnotherapy because it has yielded consistent results since my first experience with it back in my junior year of high school. I can’t remember exactly why, but my social studies teacher said she wanted to reward us with a relaxing exercise. I think she saw the stress of the college application process was starting to wear on us (and to make matters worse, we had just experienced the unsettling events of September 11, 2001!). We began by closing our eyes and taking several deep breaths. Then, in a hushed tone, she told us to let the stress from our feet, shins and calves melt away – I’m assuming that the exercise itself only lasted for maybe five minutes because it was so effective that I actually fell asleep! When she was done, it felt as if I had been in a deep sleep for about an hour and I had this incredible sense of peace and determination that made every other responsibility I had seem easy.
I would love it if we all had the freedom to set aside about 20 to 30 minutes every morning (just after you wake up) and every night (right before you go to bed). Those are the ideal times because you are the most receptive to the messages of empowerment – remember that hypnotherapy is not meant to put you to sleep, but place you in a deep enough trance that its messages of empowerment sink in most effectively.
However, I know that life gets in the way (usually when we try to do anything to improve ourselves). I guess that is the universe’s way of testing your dedication to yourself and you can get around that test by starting small. If your life is unusually hectic right now, you can listen to an audio once a week and build up to making it a daily habit. Remember that Rome was not built in a day, so finding the perfect cornerstone for you is worth the time and effort.
Here are some free hypnotherapy audios that can help you see that no matter what your circumstances are, you CAN AND WILL break through them!
I found Ray Sullivan via Google search; I listened to his first audio when I was having a really stressful day with school and finding a new job and it was just what I needed to get through the rest of my day.
I’ve listened to a few of Joseph Clough’s audios over the last five years and I really love how extensive his collection is. Another great thing about him is that his audios are usually nine or ten minutes long, so they can fit in to any hectic lifestyle.
Another important thing to remember is that hypnotherapy is the most effective when you have a coach you trust and that will take some time. I must note that great hypnotherapists, you can truly connect with, can prove that they’ve been certified in the process (and when you’ve found someone you connect with, I highly suggest you see if you can make them your “mindset success coach”).
I’ve been listening to various hypnotherapy audios for about five years. At first it was very sporadic because I was trying to find the right coach for me; that changed in June 2013 when I found my mindset success coach, Jenn August. Her audios genuinely resonate with me because she asks me to visualize golden staircases, doors and suns – my class at Wellesley College renamed ourselves “The Golden Class of 2007” because we weren’t fond of our class color: Big Bird Yellow.
I listen to one of Jenn’s audios, in the morning and at night, at least three times as week. If life gets too hectic and I skip it for a week or two, I can absolutely notice a change in my outlook. It’s not that I lose faith in myself – It’s just that society’s proclivity to be so pessimistic can be overwhelming (especially since I’m known as the happy-go-lucky one in my social circles).
Once you’ve found your mindset success coach, you’re ready to move on to the last, and probably most important step in reinforcing your new meditation practice: doing at least one thing every day to remind yourself that you deserve to treat yourself as the goddess you ARE!
Again, you can start with the things we have to do every day and eventually, you’ll want to find other ways to pamper yourself. A good place to start is by improving the tasks we do on a daily basis anyway: eating, bathing, and sleeping. In my next few posts, I’ll share some of the small adjustments I made that completely changed my life for the better!
Meditation and hypnotherapy audios are two INCREDIBLE methods to erase the Negative Nellies in our lives and rebalance our focus.
If you are ready to join me in building a healthy Aphrodite Attitude, I’ll give you the cornerstone of the new mentality we’ll build together: daily meditation.
Remember the examples of the “acceptable” milestones we are bombarded with incessantly from a very young age? Well, to erase those you need to have a new recording ready to play at a moment’s notice (especially when the haters will do their damnedest to knock you down!).
The way I broke through those stupid boxes was twofold: I had a picture of a woman dressed as a queen taped to my wall (above my bed) and I found a daily hypnotherapy audio I could play in the morning and just before I went to bed. I know some of you might be a little wary about hypnotherapy because mainstream society views that as “hocus pocus,” but if you think about it, you’ve experienced hypnotherapy many times in your life (and if you’re a mom or older sibling, you’ve actually done it as well!).
Remember when you were a child and you had a bad dream? What would you do? I ran into my parents room and clung to my mother and sobbed uncontrollably. Without fail my mom would hug me and let me know I was going to be OK. After a few minutes, she’d take me back to my room and stay with me until I fell asleep again. She’d help me fall asleep by singing my favorite lullaby in a very hushed tone. It’d only take 10 or 15 minutes before my eyelids got heavier and heavier and I eventually fell back into a peaceful, deep sleep.
That is all hypnotherapy is; using hushed tones and positive messages to relieve stress and replace negative thoughts and messages from the world at large with messages of empowerment.
Don’t worry about whether what people would think of you if they knew you listened to these incredible audios because YOU are the focus. I know I felt a little weird when I first started to include audios in my daily routine, but after a couple weeks, I noticed a huge change! Before I started listening to the audios, I’d take every criticism to heart and I’d dwell on it for days. After the audios became an integral part of my routine, I noticed that it was so much easier to tune out the negative people in my life and the different tactics they’d use to bring me down.
Again, reprogramming your mentality will take some time, but every little bit helps.
Aphrodite Attitude 