I am not exactly what someone would call a beauty expert by any means.  I am not girly enough of a girl to have makeup how-to's or hair tutorials.  That being said, I do try to take care of my skin as much as possible, in hopes I can keep it as healthy and age well! I've been told many times that I have nice skin.  To me, its a big compliment, especially when I am not wearing makeup.  I have noticed since I started taking my health seriously, my skin has improved greatly! So here are my personal rules or things I do to take care of my skin. 1.  I eat lots of veggies and cut out the crap!       We all know that eating healthy is great for keeping a healthy body weight as well as upkeep of our internal organs.  Remember that your skin is also an organ, therefore it also benefits from healthy eating.  There aren't a whole lot of studies that I could find on a direct link between food and skin damage, but the general consensus is that proper eating of vitamins, minerals a

We had a busy weekend filled with Ju Jitsu and family time. Friday was our usual, teaching kids class and training; then Saturday we went to a Ju Jitsu seminar at KP that was put on by mine and Ernie's Sensei, Joseph. Joe was our Sensei who brought us up to black belt level and now we instruct what he taught us.  It was awesome this past Saturday to have so many of our martial arts family members come out to learn some of what he taught us over the years.  I felt like it was a great refresher to practice drills and moves we've forgotten about or haven't worked on lately. One of my favorite things we worked a lot on was doing lots of throws!  When I was a younger martial artist, I hated drilling throws.  They were difficult for me, I could never get the timing right or I was too small to be able to move a person around enough to knock them off balance.  I never really did realize the importance of being able to do a great take down or a throw until I got older. As much

I've heard many different excuses for people not wanting to go to the gym.  I've heard they have no time, no motivation, they hate working out, etc.  One excuse that actually surprises me is that people feel embarrassed to go to the gym because of their weight and what people will think of them.  They are afraid to go to the gym because they are insecure about what they look like and feel like they are being stared at or judged. It bothers me that people really think that other people at the gym are staring and judging them.  I know for myself, I am usually so lost in my own little world in my workout, I hardly notice there are other people even at the gym!  If I do notice an overweight or out of shape person at the gym, I think that is awesome because they are striving to better themselves and their lives, which is the same reason I am there! So, I thought I could do everyone a public service and alleviate some of the worries of making an ass out of yourself at the gym.  It

I know I've been pretty MIA lately with my blog, I am preparing for the first part of my personal training test this weekend, so I've been spending my blog writing time studying instead.  I make my promise that I will be better about writing once my test is done this weekend! Last time I wrote, I talked about the first part of my journey of confidence.  This type of journey is similar to my fitness journey in that there is no end point when it comes to confidence because always a struggle.  Some days I don't feel so hot about myself.  Either my skin breaks out or I'm bloated or I screwed up at my job and feeling low about myself.  But I tell myself that I know what my real abilities are and I am just having an off day and to keep pushing on and it will get better. The second part of my journey is about applying my hard learned lesson about confidence I talked about in part 1 of this blog ( see here ).  Last time, I talked about how I had a hard time figuring myself