My first day at the gym....with a personal trainer.

So I had to buckle down and get a gym membership since I moved and there is really not a lot of space to workout at home.  I got one workout with a personal trainer to start me out and it was rather interesting to say the least.  If you are a personal trainer, I really feel like it is your job to LISTEN first ask questions second and THEN develop and idea and a plan.  In that order!  Lol.  If she had listened to me, she would've heard that I know all the basics about health and wellness and just really needed to get back on track and learn some new exercises especially with the weight machines.  Either way I am really pumped to starting working out again especially at the gym.  It is time that I get the rest of this weight off for once and for all and get into the maintenance phase.  I am a much better person mentally, emotionally and physically when I workout and live a healthy lifestyle and I owe that to myself, my boyfriend and my businesses.  On that note, I'm out!  Oh yeah, it was less than a week since my last post!

Who lets 2 months pass between posts?!?!

Ok so if you someone of you don't even bother reading this, I completely understand.  Aside from a whole new busyness in my life, I really need to be better, ok A LOT better at posting on here.  There is so much that I want to share and get from this blog but I can only do that by posting right?!?!  Ok so I have a ton of new stuff going on in my life right now and I plan on documenting as much of my journey as possible.  I am going to try to dedicating myself to at least one post a week.  VERY doable!!!  In the mean time, I wanted to let you all know that I have a new Facebook page so you can catch up with me there as well.  You will see a couple of things I have been working on the past two months which are my Pure Romance business and my new makeup artistry business.  I am very excited about these and I will provide more info about them later as well.  In the mean time catch me at https://www.facebook.com/NatashaSharnee and also you can place a Pure Romance order at natashaadkinson.pureromance.com  Until next time......meaning this week!!!!  Haha.

Your Worst Prepares You for Your Best

Since the beginning of this year, I have been dealing with one of the toughest situations in my life, my father's battle with cancer.  Finding out was very shocking and devastating to say the least.  Through faith in God and love and support however, it hasn't been as bad as we could have allowed it to be.  It's amazing how God was using this situation with my father to prepare me for my new mate.  You truly understand unconditional love when you watch your parents display it for one another when facing such a challenge.  They have been married for 21 years so it was never a question of staying or leaving but an example how selfless love really is and should be.  They both are concerned with the other more than they are with themselves and they would go to the ends of the earth to bring happiness and peace to the other.  I have recently met the most amazing man ever.  Through the opportunity that God has given me to witness my parents marriage as a wonderful example, I was prepared for the man that God has been waiting to bless me with.  I really can grasp the concepts of selflessness, dedication, loyalty and patience like never before.  It's one thing to hear about it but it's another thing to witness it.  When you watch a close loved one like a parent fight the battle of their lives, you value life that much more.  You understand how valuable every minute is and the entry of B.S. in your life is quickly removed and greatness entering your life is quickly received and accepted.  I now KNOW that I can be that great partner that my man deserves because I am a better woman from my worst preparing me for my best.  God bless!

Where have I been!?!?

I feel like I am always leaving for an extended amount of time and then coming back saying sorry that I've been gone and I promise I'll stay. I know, I know! Lol. There has been so much that has taken off in my life this past month and I have been just trying to take it all in and figure out how and where everything fits together. My personal and professional life have both changed for the better and now it's just time to put things in order so that everything can get my time and attention. I have a few posts coming up this week with the hope of posting at least twice a week now, especially with the help of the Blogger App. Have a wonderful Resurrection Sunday All!

My Personal 21 Day Habit Reset Challenge

I hope everyone is all doing well!  So we have all heard that it takes 21 days/times for something to become a habit.  I have slightly fallen back into my old eating habits for about the past 6 months on and off.  I have become very complacent and lazy with not consistently eating right and now that I am on the 2nd half of my weight loss journey, everything I eat and don't eat is more so crucial now then ever.  I have been doing Weight Watchers through my insurance and since I have become some lazy with counting points all the time, I tend to not enjoy it as much as I used to.  For the next 21 days starting today, I plan to eat near perfectly everyday and exercise 6 days a week with additional exercises being done throughout the day.
I have also become extremely complacent with my hair journey.  I started a Waist Length in 2013 group on www.hairlista.com to get me back on track to my ultimate length goal of waist length hair.  I am not as consistent as I used to be with my hair thus, I'm not retaining nearly as much length as I should.  I will also focus on being more consistent with my skin care regimen and become more disciplined with my spending habits and couponing as well.  I have a lot of lofty goals to achieve within the next 21 days but these are things that I should be doing all the time anyway so I figured if I can get through these next 21 days ending on 3/14/13 then I should develop some very good habits in the end. 

My Grammy's Recap

Of course the biggest night of music last night; The Grammy's!  I actually forgot that it was coming on until I saw someone post about it on FB.  When I saw the performance line up, I wasn't too impressed.  The only performance I wanted to see was Justin Timberlake and halfway, kinda sorta Ms. RiRi to see if she was going to actually try to bring a decent performance.  All in all this year was a borderline snoozefest that I watched on and off throughout the night.  It was not good enough to keep my full attention.  Mind you I do have the attention span of a 2-year old sometimes so you really have to keep me entertained to keep my full attention.  At any rate, one of the highlights of the night for me was JT himself, Justin Timberlake.  The big band that he had behind him was just the icing on the cake for me and it gave me another reason to fall in love with music again.  Carrie Underwood sang her butt off like she always does.  I am not a huge country fan but when Carrie sings, you listen because she is about to take you to country university!  The other American Idol alum performer, Kelly Clarkson gave it to us too.  She never disappoints.  I accidently caught the tail end of the Maroon 5/ Alicia Keys performance and I heard it was pretty good.  I am sure Adam from Maroon 5 carried most of the performance because Alicia has not being doing very well in the singing department lately and has resorted to yelling and screaming and missing every note and key.  She used to have some of THE BEST vocal arrangements music and now she just sounds terrible.  Rihanna wasn't great like that was a suprise so I am just going to move on from there.  The 2 minutes that they gave Miguel were awesome even though they should've gave him a real amount of time being that he had so many nominations and this is his second album.  Maybe they will be nicer to him next year.  Grrrr to you on that one Grammy's!  Lol.  Bruno Mars was my other highlight of the night and he sealed the deal bringing out Sting and the Marley boys.  Rhi Rhi wasn't any kind of special addition but it was what it was.  I loved that performance and it made me wish I was in Jamaica on the beach somewhere.  My biggest let down of the night was Frank Ocean.  Lawd help me here....Sigh.  I was already not the biggest Frank Ocean fan from what I saw on the MTV Video Music Awards but I kept and open mind.  I am pissed that I wasted my time on an off key off pitch performance about Forrest Gump!  He has many fans out there and even a Grammy to go with it but I was not impressed and I don't think I will ever be sold on him.  I wish I would've just drowned in Frank's ocean.  Oh yeah next time y'all see The Dream, tell him don't wear his gym and flea market clothes and jewelry and actually put something more appropriate on.  His stylist and the rest of his team need their behinds whooped for that one!  On that note, I'm out!  Lol.

Booty and Belly Day! What did I do?

Hello everyone.  Yes I know I have been a complete stranger.  Crazy week last week with some family health issues but all is getting back on track now which means I can get on track with blogging now.  ANYWHO!  I have a weightloss countdown started that ends on Memorial Day which in my head is the official summer kick-off day.  We have 120 days until then to get our summer bodies together y'all!  Mon, Weds and Fri are my abs and butt days.  I have found two great killer workouts on Youtube on Buffie the Body's channel http://www.youtube.com/user/Bootynomics. 

Here are the abs

And here is the butt

As most of you know she was a video vixen now fitness expert and she is amazing!  I love, love, love her vids and fyi, that ab workout is a BEAST!!  I have already seen improvement from the butt workout after only a couple of weeks so this will be my workout for now until my body plateaus or I get bored.  Ladies try this and let me know what you think.  I'm sure you won't be disappointed!

Snippet of my photo shoot

Sorry for being away for a while again.  There has been some family matters that really needed my attention but now that those are being dealt with, hopefully I can really give my blog some attention and *crossing fingers* some YouTube vids up.  This past weekend I had the pleasure of doing a photo shoot with my amazingly talented sister Kendra of www.kendralynece.com photography.  Here are a few preview pics with the rest coming soon.  :)

Get the Puck Out of Here

Forgive me for having not blogged in almost a week.  This is something that I am demanding from myself to be consistent on.  But anywho.  Last week I went to my first hockey game with a few of my friends.  As you read in one of my last posts, one of my New Years resolutions was to start getting more socially active.  I went out after some hesitation and had a BALL.  When I got there I made it a point to count how many black people I saw because less face it, black folks and hockey don't always come together, lol.  I am making it a point to live outside of my comfort zone this year and experience life like never before.  I challenge any of you that may have the same stay at home syndrome as me to just GO!  It may not be where you would normally go and it may be somewhere completely new, but take it from me, life is too short to not try something new and have fun while you're at it.  I have also learned that white people love Journey's "Don't Stop Believing".  I found out on my FB page that I've committed a cardinal sin by not knowing the entire song verbatim, lol.  It's now my duty to learn this song before I catch a beat down from my white friends.  Lol.  If you got nothing else from this extra sleepy post of mine, I hope that you at least got to live outside of your comfort zone because you never know the kind of fun that you may be missing out on.  Until next time....
Oh and for the record the count was 15, lol.

Random Acts of Kindness Movement 2013

Hello everyone.  I hope that the second day of the year is treating you well and that you are giving it your all too.  Around November I had an idea for myself to begin a Random Acts of Kindness Movement for myself.  I have been blessed by so many people between family, friends and strangers that I figured I really wanted to make a conscious effort to return the good back to others.  The idea is pretty simple for whatever month you are on, you have to do that many random acts of kindness.  January = 1, February = 2 so on and so forth until we get to December where you are doing at least 12 randoms acts of kindness.  I was recently blessed with the opportunity to help someone and the high that I got from it was so overwhelming.  It doesn't even have to be a big thing either.  It could be something small from shoveling a neighbors yard or helping an elderly person to their car with their groceries.  You could also volunteer to babysit a friend's or family member's children so that they can run some errands in peace or have a date night.  It's really whatever you decide to do.  So many times we get caught up with our own problems and plights and if we just took a second to think about somebody else and actually turn that into an action, we would see so much in our own lives change.  I think this also takes some of the time and opportunity off of peoples hands to be mean and cruel and observe people being kind and actually try to attempt being kind themselves.  I really hope that this turns into something life changing for yourself and the people that you touch.  I will periodically do check in posts with the some of the acts that I have done to hopefully provide some ideas, motivation or inspiration.  If you choose to join me in this, I hope that you do the same so that I and others may get the same as well.  Let's change our worlds!

Are you ready for 2013?

Happy New Year everyone!  Are you ready for 2013?  Many people come up with resolutions to finally change the behaviors and habits that they have talked about changing forever.  They make the same resolutions year after year because they all have the motivation for about the first week and a half and then they drop out.  Are you actually ready to put in the hard work and dedication even when you are ready to digress in April?  I personally have decided to come up with a list of goals for 2013.  The resolutions that I have come up with are nothing too serious like taking myself to a movie at least once a month and to become more social and active.  Don't let the next 365 days be wasted merely on what sounds good for a day.  Make yourself a list of goals for 2013.  When you see yourself start to check things off of your goal list, you become more motivated and apt to set more goals and achieve them.  I made my list a few weeks ago which include things like hitting my ultimate weight, goal, discover new fitness options, complete as many 5/10K's as possible and to get my blog and a Youtube channel started among many other things.  I have also updated my personal goal chart to reflect those things and when I would like to achieve them throughout the year.  I encourage you all to really sit down and think about what you are willing to contribute to 2013 and to really challenge yourself to be dedicated.  365 days is a lot of time to change your life!