I Work Out

Yes.. Like the song. That one that goes "Uhhh I work out." No clue what the name of it is..

Regardless, this is my initial post about working out, wooh whoo..  Not too long ago, before muh best friend's wedding, I made a goal to get tone and be able to fit into the tiny bride's maid dress we purchased. Wellll.... I failed miserably, at least at the getting tone part. I started off very well but just could not keep motivated. In the end, I fit (quite snugly) in the Bride's Maid dress and lost all motivation afterward.  I stopped working out and started eating a lot more (and not healthy like I was previously.) Needless to say, I noticed a huge difference. I felt more slugish and definitely heavier; I hated what I looked like and did not feel comfortable in any of my clothes (which is currently still true.) I am by no means heavy, I just am not comfortable in my skin.  That is what my journey is about: being comfortable in my own body.

Now that I'm living with my boyfriend and wanting to start focusing more on modeling, I felt that it was time to get in shape (again.) My boyfriend and I are doing home workouts together: Monster Mass Workout by Mike Chang of Six Pack Shortcuts.  I'm not sure that it's the right plan for me yet (my boyfriend loves it); until I've maxed out on this one or feel like I'm not see results, I'm fine with doing it {mainly because my boyfriend is keeping me motivated :x} What's pretty awesome is my boyfriend's motivation at getting us healthy. He bought me protein, a shaker cup, and some other supplements yesterday (forgot what they're called... I'm good at this.)  The company that I currently work for actually purchased the entire company Nike + Fuel Bands; I've been using this all week to track my progress (although I'm not sure how accurate or effective it is.)

Just from eating better and smaller portions (other than lunch... that gets me every time) I feel much better. It's amazing how much your body bloats from eating too much.  I purchased an Anti-Bloat formula just to see how it works. I'm curious.

This is me currently (picture taken on Monday):

As you can tell, I really am not big. I just need to tone and burn the fat away from certain sections of my body {PS: I only take "workout progress" pictures at night. I feel like pictures at the beginning of the day are cheating because you're the skinniest of the day because you've got less water and food!} 

The supplements: 

• C4 for Pre-workout (I get all jacked off half a serving because I don't do a lot of supplements like caffeine, etc.)
• Starwberry Whey Protein (Being a vegetarian, I'm mostly excited about this one. I'm glad to be getting more protein in my diet.) 
• Labrada Lean Body by Jamie Eason (I just started taking this tonight, so I'll update next post.) 
• Nike + Fuel Band 
• & my shaker cup. c: 

Here's a picture of my cat laying on our T.V. remote :) 

New Modeling Pictures & Some Interesting Design

This weekend I got to shoot with Brittney Bergstrom Photography again and naturally she captured some very beautiful photos.  When I saw some of them, I got the itch to get back into some design work.  Below are the photos I edited and links to the tutorials I used. I do not have formal training in Photoshop, so these are my first attempts. (Make it to the bottom and there's an introduction to my cat!)

This photo and tutorial were the ones from which I worked. 

Photoshop Splatter / dispersion photomanipulation Tutorial - Eric Schaap

This one was a sort of "on the fly," figuring out the pen tool again. It's been quite a few years since I've done actual creative work in Photoshop. 

I'm not super happy with this one at all. I'll be redoing it, but like I said, these were the first attempts at these styles. 

Tutorial Video: Photoshop Tutorial: How to Make Lightning! -HD- - RiverCityGraphix

Mewman's Clog: 
A few people have told me and so has the internet, that cats rule on the lines. So in light of that, going forward, every other post I will be including "Mewman's Clog" (that's Cat Blog, if you were curious.)  Every other post will be body work out progress. But as this is his first clog post, I will be using it as an introduction!

Without further ado, I'd like to introduce everyone to Chicory Cosmo Toothless "Mewman" Radley, Mewman for short. ;)  Mewman is a 4 year old handsome little domestic short hair who's favorite thing to do is... well... mew. That's how he got his "name."   He loves being an only cat and really does not like other animals. He takes a long time to warm up to new hoomans, but I like him. He cuddles a lot and greets me at the door every day when I get home from work.  He's my favorite little dude.  He has been married once, to a lovely little lady named Boo (get it... Boo Radley?) but she actually wasn't very nice and neither was her mom. I'm glad they're divorced now.

I'll have updates on him as we go. He's not very... cat interesting. But we'll make something up. ;) 

A Touching Tribute

As many people know, or most of you may not know, I am in school for my M.B.A.  Today in my Consumer Behavior class, while commenting on another students discussion board posting, I was presented with the videos below: 

The prompt was Cause-related Marketing; the question was: "What would happen if a major retailer were to run a national television ad featuring a gay couple?"  Many people spoke about the recent debacle with Chick-Fil-A, including myself, but one student shared the two videos above.  In all honesty, the videos almost brought me to tears.  I am all for equal rights for all people, whether they are gay, straight, tattooed, interracial, etc.  The viral opportunity that Honey Maid jumped on not only got over 7 million views, but was presented in such a great way to show their support for all types of families.

The actual commercial itself was very well done. I'm not sure how it got so much backlash, but I'm very glad to see that it got over 10 times more acceptance. In this day and age, I don't understand how people can be so small minded as to comment out against any differences in people. I know I've been one to call someone stupid, but that's a different aspect than talking about someone's lifestyle.

Regardless, I have much more respect for Honey Maid and Nabisco than I did before.  To those people that disapprove of this type of marketing, they better get used to it. As America becomes more and more acceptable of differing cultures, more and more different marketing styles will expose themselves. 

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