**Beautiful In Your Skin**

There is a lot of buzz about weight and being healthy, or I should say being skinny. I don't want anyone to think I am being a hypocrite with this post. I work out four to five days a week, and am a pretty fit person. This is a personal choice and isn't done because I am obsessed with being skinny. Working out is a true passion and something I enjoy.

I'm not on the elliptical for hours on end, or starving myself all week. I do a few group fitness classes like Absolute Core, and Cycle. These classes are so inspiring and uplifting.

I also work in some weight training for healthy strong muscles. Every women should know how to through a freaking killer punch...and hurt the person their hitting, not themselves. :)

There is a big difference between being healthy and being a skinny waif. Being healthy entails eating the right foods, integrating exercise into your routine, getting enough sleep, and drinking plenty of water. Someone can be skinny and be unhealthy. Your body needs food. We sometimes don't eat the right kinds.

There are certain vitamins and nutrients your body needs and fast food and soda isn't part of that at all.

We all need to maintain a healthy body fat level but it's hard to do that if you have no clue what yours is or what the numbers mean. Any local gym can test your body fat levels.

For women, the average body fat level is 25%-31% but keep in mind obese is 32% or more. Fitness is between 21%-24% and athletes are between 14%-20% below that we get into the Essential fat, 10%-13% which is the minimum amount of fat your body needs.

Body fat is only one measure of health, but there are dangers to having excess body fat. It's linked to things such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. If you are obese, it takes more energy for you to breathe, causing your heart to work harder to pump blood through your veins. All this extra work can cause your heart to become enlarged and result in high blood pressure and erratic heart beats.

Your body fat levels can also be too low, making you more susceptible to getting colds/flu. This can also stop your menstrual cycle making you temporarily infertile. If you stop menstruating, you could develop a condition known as amenorrhea, you may experience a decrease in hormones that can cause premature bone loss due to insufficient estrogen production.

The most important thing is to know your health. Know your blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Our minds are fixated on fatty, sugary foods because they give us a quick boost of energy. But do you ever notice how quickly your energy plummets?

Beauty and health isn't whats on the outside, it's what's on the inside.
If you eat half a bag of baby carrots, I promise you won't feel full and sluggish the way you do when you eat half a bag of chips.

If you take care of your body, it will take care of you. Ask yourself this: would you sit down and eat little pieces of shit? Or drink processed chemicals? Probably not right? Well... take a good look at the ingredients of what you consume on a daily basis and think again!

You don't have to go on some freak diet, or starve yourself. You really don't. Just change your habits. Instead of going through the drive-thru, take an extra five minutes to pack your lunch for work. Eat more whole grains and minimally unprocessed foods. Toss that bag of Doritos and take an apple and a handful of almonds. You will feel more energized and remember a healthy you is a beautiful you no matter what size, shape, or color your body is!

YOUR BEAUTIFUL! Stretch marks are beautiful, shape is beautiful. Your body tells a story of the amazing journey you have been through as a woman.

Throwing Stones

My facebook status has been inspiring blog posts so writing a blog post two days in a row is freaking awesome for me.

I was thinking about how easy it is to point fingers and judge other people for their actions or choices. We are all so quick to criticize, even I'm so guilty of this at times.

Here is a little test for you:

You're walking down a city street and you see a homeless man laying on top of a cardboard box. His teeth are rotten and brown, clothes tattered and dirty. Completely shameless, he holds out a cup trying to collect money for his next meal. He is weak and mumbling.

Now, do you feel badly for him and throw some change in his cup, or are you annoyed and grossed out by this man?

What if I told you this man's family was killed in a house fire and he watched his daughter slowly burn to death because he wasn't able to reach her. Because of this tragedy he began drinking to cope with the pain and lost his job. Not caring what happened to him, he fell victim to the streets without any motivation to pick him back up. So now what do you think about this man?

Here's another one:

You read about some thug who shot two police officers and tried run when arrested for dealing drugs. You immediately think he is a horrible person right? Someone who deserves to rot in jail forever.

What if I told you that this particular man grew up in poverty with six brothers and sisters and never knew as a child when or if he would eat. He repeatedly watched his mom bring home different men and barely stayed in one apartment long enough to remember his address. He was always hungry and cold so he found a way to make money and protect himself. He was never motivated, felt loved, or even hugged.

Our actions as friends, as parents affect the way other people's lives turn out. We are more powerful than we think we are. Have you ever been starving or had your heat or electricity cut off? Have you ever experienced a death of a loved one so horrible it was impossible to shut your eyes? Have you ever been terrified of falling asleep?

You never know what your capable of doing when when put in a compromising situation or what you would do to ensure your children had some kind of food or shelter. Maybe your the person right now who is thinking these people should have known better or found God or reached out to someone.

These are easy suggestions and people do desperate things in desperate situations. No one has the right to judge someone or point a finger. Open your mind and think about the series of events of that particular person's life that may have lead them to where they are.

Maybe you can be the one to make a change or offer help. You never know until you try. All it takes is one person to say, "I'm here for you and I want to make a difference."

People might just surprise you if you give them a chance. Keep your head up and your eyes open. Race, clothes, class, even someones behavior does not always define them.

First impressions suck! Sometimes we need to take a deeper look.

Keep Moving Forward

This is my first post of the New Year. I know, shame on me for waiting almost a whole month before getting to it.

Whether it's a job, or friends,the weather--if you live where I do! Things in life hardly ever stay the same. Life itself is constantly changing and growing, maybe even getting better is some ways.

I was out with a good friend of mine last week and we got talking about life and how fast time passes us by. We then realized that this year we turn twenty-seven and are only three years away from being thirty. This concept seriously freaked me out because I don't feel almost thirty or think I look like it either, but hey, I'm hopeful.

Having that conversation made me realize how short life is and that in any given moment fate can throw us a curve ball and things can spiral into a new direction, sometimes for the better and other times for the worst.

All we can do is keep moving forward, surround ourselves with inspiring and loving people and never loose faith that what is meant to be with happen when it is supposed to. Not to say you aren't allowed to do whatever it takes to speed up the process because nothing in life is handed to us... unless you're the child of a celebrity.

"**Sometimes we have to endure things we don't want to and deal with pain so deep it hurts to breathe-- Staying strong and moving forward is half the battle--Waking up one morning and realizing you got through it in one piece is winning the war**"

The most important thing to remember is no matter what you go through in life, or how bad the pain you're feeling is, it will fade with time, it will end one day and you will be a much stronger person.

Everyone has made mistakes or did something to hurt somebody else, so... apologize, or admit to being wrong. Things won't fix themselves and someone has to take the first step.