Arbonne: My Why & First Fave Products

As many of you know, I have launched a business with Arbonne, and I'm loving it! I wanted to share about my favorite products so far and also a little about why I decided to link arms with amazing women in this company.

Why Arbonne?
As many of you know, I have a career I love, in education as a literacy coach. I serioulsy never dreamed of having such a rewarding gig, and I'm so thankful for the work I get to do every day!

But, teaching is never going to afford me the kind of life I envision for myself. For instance, I have three months off in the summer, but I'm usually too broke to go anywhere... especially not the places I want to see, like Napa, Cabo, and Tuscany.

But then I found Arbonne, which is a Mulit-Level Marketing (MLM) company. I always thought these kinds of companies were kinda a scam, I mean, what, you work your bum off and then the people above you collect all the money? But, since beginning with Arbonne, and reading lots about MLM, I have figured out a lot of misconceptions, and I now believe that people who get into this kind of work are pretty smart, working on something (else) they are passionate about in order to build a future full of opportunities.

Since beginning, I've not only collected a little bit in the way of a 'Thank You' check, but I've begun to switch over all my self-care products to Arbonne at a great discount. Also, and even better, I've been able to spend time with people who are so positive and uplifting, making new friendships and learning a whole new set of skills (which I also see transferring to my work as a coach). So why would I say no?

Aside from the business opportunity, I also love the products that Arbonne offers because of thieir ingredient policy. They formulate products on many lines: baby care, skin care (both men and women), nutrition, hair, makeup, and sun. All of their products are formulated to be pure, safe, and beneficial, which means they are formulated without:

• Animal products or by-products, including collagen, elastin, hydrolyzed animal protein, keratin, lanolin
• Benzene
• Diethanolomine (DEA)
• Hydroquinone
• Petroleum-based ingredients, such as mineral oil
• PABA
• Parabens
• Phthalates
• Propylene Glycol
• Sodium Laurel/Laureth Sulfate
• Triclosan
• Toluene

Anyways, I love that I can feel safe knowing that any product from Arbonne will be healthy for me. That is why I want to share with my friends and family!

That being said, here are a few of my favorite items from the various Arbonne lines!

Protein Powder - Chocolate and Vanilla

Stats: 20 grams of vegan protein, gluten free, fructose free, dairy free, low glycemic index (Diabetic-friendly) so it does not cause a spike in blood sugar, 20 vitamins and minerals, no saturated fats, trans fats, or cholesterol, and no artificial sweeteners, flavors and colors

Both options are delicious. I use the vanilla mix usually with berries, kale and/or spinach, fresh OJ, and ice. The chocolate I like just straight with water or almond milk, but have also added berries, cherries, and/or a banana. Oh, and I just realized I could freeze coffee into cubes and mix that with the chocolate for a mocha-flavored shake!

I began drinking these shakes for breakfast around April and haven't quit. They will keep you full for hours!

Herbal Detox Tea

I got this as part of the 30 Days to Healthy Living Plan (which is an awesome program to detox and clean up your eating for 30 days, including online support with holistic health coaches!)

Anyways, here are the stats on the tea:

• Helps support liver and kidney health
• Hydration supports toxin elimination
• These processes help support optimal health

Extra perk for me was it has been helping me sleep better. Usually I wake up a few times in the night, but not since starting this tea. I would also eat stuff (granola bars) and maybe OJ in the middle of the night, and that has also subsided! (Such bad habits I have had!)

I guess what I'm learning from Arbonne, is they want to drive beauty from the inside out, so their nutrition products all support that. I could go on and on about the nutrition products because I love them all, and they are my new daily essentials.

Arbonne Intelligence Genius

Moving on to skin care, I have to lead with the resurfacing pads. The Arbonne girls call this product 'botox in a bottle' and even though it's botanically based, it sure feels strong!

These are used at night after you wash you face. You swipe your skin (especially where there are wrinkles and color spots) upward to resurface skin.

I have those lines by my eyebrows from giving students 'the look' and I can see a change in them in just the last month that I have been using them. Of all the skin care, this is my favorite so far!

RE9 Intensive Renewal Serum

I also have begun using the RE9 line which is their anti-aging skin-care line. I have super dry skin which is the first reason I love the serum: Stabilized Vitamin C boosts and maintains moisture by supporting collagen, resulting in improvement in the appearance of fine lines as well as proving moisture barrier protection to restore a natural, youthful glow. And of course, it's formulated without synthetic fragrance, parabens, or dyes. Win!

CC Cream

I am not someone who used to wear foundation, or even knew what a CC Cream or a BB Cream was. I did use a product from Benefit though called Erase Paste to cover up the bags under my eyes and the zits I would get. I have now switched that to the CC Cream and I'm loving it!

A CC Cream is a 10-in-one product: 1. Primer; 2. Protector; 3. Concealer; 4. Hydrator; 5. Mattifier; 6. Brightener; 7. Blemish Cover; 8. Pore Refiner; 9. Comforter; 10. Complexion Controller.

So my Benefit product I used to cover zits and bags under my eyes has been replaced with this all-over product. I was never one for lots of makeup, but this is a great base for the little extras I do put on after, like eye makeup and blush. The CC Cream feels like a light version of concealer and definitely feels hydrating. Color wise, I'm medium (third one down).

That's just a taste of the products so far. I love so many others, too - Digestion Plus, the Fizz Sticks, mascara, eye primer, Tea-Tree Oil Shampoo, and the Shea Butter lotion. Pretty soon there will be nothing left of the products I used to purchase at Target. Why not shop with a company that can give back to your family?

To see these products and others, check out my website. Do you shop with Arbonne? What are your favorites? Keep the conversation going in the comments section below! :-)

Be well,

Tiny Beautiful Things

It's 4:28 and I'm still in my pajamas and it's amazing.

With this first week of summer, my main goal has been to sleep in later. When you get up at 5:30 every day for 9 months, it takes time to sleep to 7:30 again, so when I was still in bed at 9:15 this morning, I was so proud of myself, even if my stepmonster called me a slug for it! :-)

That turned into reading blogs online until 10:30, then a Skype date with a friend, an Amazon delivery, and then, spending the entire day reading a book I bought as a birthday gift, here it is:

This book is a book of letters, letters to Dear Sugar that are responded to bluntly, matter-of-factly, with some explicit language, but always with empathy. That's exactly what this book is about - a book of empathy on many different complications in this long, lovely life we all lead.

I wanted to share the last letter with you, it's lovely. Also, share some commentary. So here it is.

Tiny Beautiful Things

Dear Sugar,

I read your column religiously. I'm twenty-two. From what I can tell by your writing, you're in your early forties. My question is short and sweet: What would you tell your twentysomething self if you could talk to her now?

Love, Seeking Wisdom

Dear Seeking Wisdom,

Stop worrying about whether you're fat. You're not fat. Or rather, you're sometimes a little bit fat, but who gives a shit? (A-fucking-men.) There is nothing more boring and fruitless than a woman lamenting on the fact that her stomach is round. Feed yourself. Literally. The sort of people worthy of your love will love you more for this, sweet pea.

In the middle of the night in the middle of your twenties when your best woman friend crawls naked into your bed, straddles you, and says, "You should run away from me before I devour you," believe her.

You are not a terrible person for wanting to break up with someone you love. You don't need a reason to leave. (But when one of your reasons involves the content of the first paragraph of this letter, best be on your way.) Wanting to leave is enough. Leaving doesn't mean you're incapable of real love or that you'll never love anyone else again. It doesn't mean you're morally bankrupt or psychologically demented or a nymphomaniac. It means you wish to change the terms of one particular relationship. That's all. Be brave enough to break your own heart. (Wish I would have read that last line last September, but still feels good to gloss my eyes over that one today.)

When the really sweet but fucked-up gay couple invites you over to their cool apartment to do Ecstasy with them, say no.

There are some things you can't understand yet. Your life will be a great and continuous unfolding. It's good you've worked hard to resolve childhood issues while in your twenties, but understand that what you resolve will need to be resolved again. And again. You will come to know things that can only be known with the wisdom and age and grace of years. Most of those things will have to do with forgiveness. (So true that as our lives unfold, as we see more, learn more, spend more time with new people, with the same people, our experiences are recolored through a new set of lenses. The work of understanding is never done.)

One evening you will be rolling around on the wooden floor of your apartment with a man who will tell you he doesn't have a condom. You will smile in this spunky way that you think is hot and tell him to fuck you anyway. This will be a mistake for which you alone will pay.

Don't lament so much about how your career is going to turn out. You don't have a career. You have a life. (Work to live, my friends.) Do the work. Keep the faith. Be true blue. You are a writer because you write. Keep writing and quit your bitching. Your book has a birthday. You don't know what it is yet. (Ahhhh, love these joyous words. However I build an amazing future, be it via writing, sharing Arbonne, consulting regarding teaching, or some new way I haven't figured out yet, all I know is that the stuff on my vision board most certainly will become a reality.)

You cannot convince people to love you. This is an absolute rule. No one will every give you love because you want him or her to give it. (Got a good understanding of this in the months since last August. Amazing what a little distance and new people can do for you.) Real love moves freely in both directions. Don't waste your time on anything else.

Most things will be okay eventually, but not everything will be. Sometimes you'll put up a good fight and lose. Sometimes you'll hold on really hard and realize there is no choice but to let go. Acceptance is a small, quiet room.

One hot afternoon during the era in which you've gotten yourself ridiculously tangled up with heroin, you will be riding the bus and thinking what a worthless piece of crap you are when a little girl will get on the bus holding the strings of two purpose balloons. She'll offer you one of the balloons, but you won't take it because you believe you no longer have a right to such tiny beautiful things. You're wrong. You do. (Please substitute any shit in your life for the heroin. We always deserve the tiny, beautiful things.)

Your assumptions about the lives of others are in direction relation to your naive pomposity. Many people you believe to be rich are not rich. Many people you think have it easy worked hard for what they got. Many people who seem to be gliding right along have suffered and are suffering. Many people who appear to you to be old and stupidly saddled down with kids and cars and houses were once every bit as hip and pompous as you.

When you meet a man in the doorway of a Mexican restaurant who later kissed you while explaining that this kiss doesn't "mean anything" because, as much as he likes you, he is not interested in having a relationship with you or anyone right now, just laugh and kiss him back. Your daughter will have his sense of humor. Your son will have his eyes. 

The useless days will all up to something. The shitty waitressing jobs. The hours writing in your journal. The long meandering walks. The hours reading poetry and story collections and novels and dead people's diaries and wondering about sex and God and whether you should shave your arms or not. These things are your becoming.

One Christmas at the very beginning of your twenties when your mother gives you a warm coat that she saved for months to buy, don't look at her skeptically after she tells you should though the coat was perfect for you. Don't hold it up and say it's longer than you like your coats to be and too puffy and possibly too warm. Your mother will be dead by spring. That coat will be the last give she gave you. You will regret the small thing you didn't say for the rest of your life. (How fragile life is, remember that. It could change in an instant, so tell the people you love that you love them. Be patient when your family annoys you. Go visit your Grandfather, hell, take him to a Cubs spring training game. Do the things of importance every day to show those you care about just how much you love them.)

Say thank you. (Be thankful, people. Think in small moments of gratitude, for your family, for your old friends, for all that is new, for the books you had delivered from Amazon, and the gift your bff won't mind you reading before you give it to her. Appreciate this beautiful life.)

Yours, Sugar

Has anyone else read this book? Thoughts?

How to Spot a Great Teacher

This morning I went to my favorite Yoga class - Hot Power Fusion (HPF) at CorePower Yoga. Our teacher was amazeballs, and it got me to thinking about how you can really spot a great teacher. Here's my take.

1. Care for Students
First and foremost, great teachers show authentic care and concern for their students. They want them to achieve, and are there to help them though difficulties. When we began our session this morning, Terri told us that if we got stuck or didn't feel well, that we should stay in the studio so she could help us. Fast forward about 30 minutes when someone left: she told the rest of us to take a quick break and grab some water so she could check on the other student. I thought that action right there spoke volumes about the kind of teacher Terri is. At the heart of her work with us is a care for students.

Similarly, I've always believed in my work with students they will work harder for you and take more risks for you when they know you are on their side. Do some kids screw up? Absolutely. And they will definitely receive consequences for it. But it's *because we love them - rather than in spite of it - that they earn consequences for bad choices. I told a student once, "The day I stop asking and nagging and having the "talks" with you - that's the day you should worry." This was met with a middle school eye roll, but I just smiled to myself as I saw a bigger picture that this particular student couldn't quite envision just yet.

2. Thoughtful Planning
Great teachers also take time to plan thoughtfully for their sessions. One of the reasons I love HPF is that in the best classes, the teachers offer up an intention for our practice. They bring some kind of knowledge or wisdom to share with us that we can use to drive our practice for the day. Today, Terri brought the book You are a Badass: How to stop doubting your greatness and start living an awesome life. And then, as our eyes were closed and we were standing at the tops of our mats with our hands in prayer at our heart, she read to us about "sweeping out the self-doubt." Clearly that has stuck with me (and I have a new book to read).

And it wasn't just the reading, it was also the thoughtful planning of her music. There was noting haphazard about it. In the moments in the class when we were working hard, the music was faster and more up beat. When the class slowed down, so did the music, including a new version of Bulletproof that was amazing.

Thoughtful planning takes time and effort. The best teachers rehearse for their lessons, us writing teachers read the Calkins curriculum and make slides that we can use along with it to show students what we mean. We write memoirs along side our students so we see where they might get stuck.

Thoughtful planning takes time, but it really shows up on the execution of the lesson!

3. Specific Feedback
Another one - specific feedback. Teachers have to give great feedback so students can adjust their practice. In yoga, this takes on two forms, verbal cues and hands-on assists. When the teacher cues verbally, he or she will narrate what he or she sees and then give verbal cues to the whole group so everyone can adjust. Even more specific are hands-on adjusts, where the teacher will come over to someone and adjust their postures and positioning so that everyone can focus theirs more, and see exactly what the teacher means by watching!

As a classroom teacher, specific feedback is equally important. A long time ago, in my early years, I learned about how to 'SIP' kids - provide them with feedback that is specific, informative, and positive. Like Terri, in my class I might say something like, "Alright I see that Zach is ready to go - he has his notebook and pencil and is looking at me for more directions. Thanks, Zach!" That cue will let the other students know exactly what I'm looking for. Additionally, feedback takes on a written form as we read student writing, highlighting the things they did in such an awesome way, and also press them to think further by asking questions.

Feedback makes a difference as we learn!

4. Positivity
Another thing about great teachers is that they are positive. They're not just positive when giving feedback (although that is really important) but they are just positive people in general. I don't know about the Yoga Teaching World, but the education world can be really intense, and it's really easy to fall into those holes of negativity. It's really easy to get caught up in gossip and never smile. The best teachers? They remove themselves for negativity that drains their spirit and they keep on simling, remembering that teacher balance is so important, and that by doing something for themselves, they are in turn, making themselves better when they step in front of kids.

This morning, Terri was so positive, from the smile I got when I checked in at the front desk, to the eye contact in class, and the jokes about a certain posture potentially leading to a whole night's worth of sleep, and that maybe it might be a bunch of baloney, but we'll try it out anyways.

Positive teachers make their students want to return to their classrooms.

5. Ability to laugh at their mistakes
The last thing is that great teachers don't take themselves too seriously. They understand that there's *no way* for them to know everything or to do everything perfectly, and so when they screw up, they laugh it off and move on. They get that life it too short to worry about what someone else might be thinking about their actions - that kind of conversation in our minds only depletes our energy. One thing that master teachers excel at is constantly learning and growing and improving, and they don't let the little mistakes derail them from their greater purpose.

So - that's just what I was thinking in class today. I love Core Power Yoga and especially HPF, and I will definitely be returning to Terri's class... highly recommend!

What do you think? What else makes a great teacher?

Hashtag Blessed

Old St. Pat's is my favorite.

And the best thing about it? When we (the congregation) get to do the blessing for someone, like a few Sundays ago, we blessed the graduates of 2016 and the Veterans.

My first experience with this at Old St. Pats was at a mass in September when I began RCIA. There was a ceremony for us (maybe it was one of the Sacraments? I'm still a newbie, forgive me!) Anyways, they had us all come up to the altar, and the choir and congregation sang, and our sponsors put the sign of the cross on our thoughts (crossed our foreheads), our sight (crossed our eyes), our words, (crossed our lips), heart, feet, etc. So there I was, up in front of a church of people I hardly knew, having this special thing happen to me, trying to hold it together and not cry.

But then...

Then, Father Hurley asked everyone in the church to hold up their hand in blessing of all of us who were discerning if the Catholic faith was the place we were really being called to, and a whole church full of people raised their hands to bestow a blessing on all of us, and I lost it.

I tired not to do the ugly cry but it was super overwhelming and so so beautiful.

Fast forward to the Easter Vigil, and I knew this was going to happen. I knew that after the Priest did the official ceremony part, then he would ask the people of the congregation to raise their hands and then together they would bless us. At the Easter Vigil, I was expecting it and excited for it, and totally didn't cry, well, until I saw Peg who was hollerin' for all of us... then I did the ugly cry. But it's just so beautiful and it's my favorite part of church at OSP's.

So a few weeks ago, when Father Novak asked all the graduates to stand up, and then asked each of them to share what program they just finished, and then asked all of us (me included) to raise our  hands in blessing, I was just so so happy to be on the other side of it.

I really love it there at Old St. Patrick's. Finally found a place that feels like home.

Do you have a special church like this? Please share!

What I'm Lovin' Monday

There's been so many wonderful things going on lately. Let me share!

I felt compelled to write right now because it's 6 in the evening, the sun in coming in my windows on one side of the apartment, and the wind has the trees rustling right outside the other side of the apartment, right through the window directly behind me. I love this time of day, in the summer, in this apartment, in this city. My seven year anniversary of moving to Chicago was just last Saturday! Still loving this amazing city, on this beautiful day, in this lovely apartment.

Loving that I was part of the 5th Grade Farewell last week. I actually coached two of our kiddos in publishing their memoirs about endings and beginnings. Check them out; I'm so proud of the writers that we're able to support with the high quality instruction that is given via the Writing Workshop and the Calkins' curriculum!

Also, I love middle school aged kids. Check us out doing the new dance that I just learned about: Lean and Dabb:

Loving Arbonne's Detox Tea. It's part of the 30 days to healthy living program that I'm doing this month. The tea is meant to be taken before bed and is to support healthy functioning of the liver and kidneys, but it's also been making me sleep so much better! Usually I wake up three or four times a night, but the past few nights, I've only woken up once! And not even until like 2:30 (Usually I'm up just an hour and a half or two hours after I go to sleep!)

Speaking of Arbonne, so excited for Jess to join our team share and recommend this wonderful brand this summer. It's so awesome to have someone who is such a great friend already at my side for a new adventure. As always with Arbonne, we're all about bringing the joy, positivity, and light out to be shared. Be sure to check out and follow Jess' new blog, too!

I'm loving being a coach. This is the third year I'm finishing up and it's a bit different. This year, more than one person has brought me a gift. And it's not about the stuff - although each gift I was given was so thoughtful, so me - it's the fact that I have done stuff over teh last year, and maybe last three years, that has made a difference. How lucky am I that I have a career path that allows me to make a difference every day? So amazing. Thank you for the gifts, my friends, and even more than that, for the words in the cards that were poured out from your heart. I will treasure those notes for years to come!

Lastly, I'm loving that I have.... wait for it.... only ONE MORE WAKE UP separating me from a fab summer break!

What are you lovin? Leave a comment and share!