BzzAgent Campaign: Schick HydroSilk Razor

Very recently, I became a BzzAgent (which you can read about here), and my second Campaign was for the Schick HydroSilk razor. Let me just tell you - I used this razor before the Campaign, and will use it for a long time.   
The shave itself is great. The moisturizing aspects keep my skin smooth and I barely have to shave once a week! It does a great job, and the razors themselves and the refills are pretty cost-effective, and are available everywhere.

If you're in the market for a new razor, I would definitely recommend checking out the Hydro Silk. I've been a user for a long time, and would tell anybody to try it out and see how they like it!
Keep checking back for more product reviews - next in line are a few hair care product Campaigns I've really fallen in love with! 
Also, FYI: coming up later this week are some more great posts, as well as a new feature! I have been sick this week, and feeling like crap = not posting with any sort of frequency!

30 Day Shred: Day 10 Update

Wow. I honestly cannot believe that 10 days have already passed since I started Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred. Considering when I started I just thought it would be a good idea to work out once a day, it has been different to know that when I get home from work, I have to work out before I can do anything else I have planned. And I haven't skipped a day, and it makes me so proud to say I haven't! If I would have wanted to skip one, I would have, but excuses don't get results, and this is one thing I have really held onto and kept going with. I am creating a new lifestyle for myself, and it feels great.

Along with the 27 minutes worth of working out every day, I have been using the MyFitnessPal app to keep track of what I'm eating, so that I don't just jam whatever I want in my face and not have to be accountable. I know they have a community of other people with forums, but I'm not really that good at keeping up with forums... so I'll come back to that, I think.

All in all, it has been a great experience. The first few days were HARD. It was hard to get up in the morning because my entire body HURT. It was hard to walk up and down the stairs at work (down was absolutely the worst). But from what I read, starting at around Day 3 or 4, it wasn't going to hurt so bad. And you know? It didn't. Yesterday was my 10th day of doing the workout, which means that I am officially done with Level 1! I start Level 2 today, though, which has me feeling like I'm going to wind up in a big ball of muscle pain for the next few days - but Rome wasn't built in a day, right?

The other day, I took a photo of where I'm at now (I didn't take measurements when I started and I don't own a scale - yet), and I can tell you that I can't really believe the difference. It doesn't feel that different, but it looks different, and that's good enough for me. I think I was pushing out my gut in the first one, but you get the idea!

If you're thinking of starting to work out, or even getting the idea and thinking of thinking to start a workout regimen, DO IT. I feel a hundred percent better than I have in a long time, and I can say that it's likely due to working out and not treating my body like garbage. You should try it!

Book Club Monday #18: This is Gonna Hurt by Nikki Sixx

This Book Club Monday is a little bit different. It’s on a book I haven’t just read, it’s on a book that is always my go-to when I need a little bit of help in the inspiration department. This Is Gonna Hurt: Music,Photography, and Life Through the Distorted Lens of Nikki Sixx is that book. 

I have been a fan of Motley Crue for as far back as I can remember, but the day that I picked up The Heroin Diaries, Nikki’s first book, and read it cover to cover in the matter of about two days was when I realized that he was inspiring. He has led a hard life, yes, sometimes by his own hand, but the fact that he has come out of it to create some of the most popular songs of the past few decades, has a successful radio show and is a successful photographer tells me that he must be doing something right. Of course, he hasn’t had a heart attack yet, either, which is pretty amazing considering the sheer amount of heroin in dude’s system in the late 80’s. 

This Is Gonna Hurt came out at the same time as Nikki’s second band, Sixx: AM, released an album of the same name. When it came out, I was going through a rough patch (must like the one I’m in currently), and needed something, anything, to help. Along with pictures of the homeless, prostitutes, burn victims and amputees are some of the most beautiful and inspiring words I have ever found.

Among those words are stories of the individuals in each photo, strewn throughout the world. Stories of heartbreak. Stories of depression. Pictures of individuals who have seen and been through the worst of life. All ugly by the world’s standards. And it all comes together in the most beautiful combination of words and photos I have ever seen. It makes you re-think what you see on a daily basis. How you treat people. How the world sees you. It is a very powerful book, full of photos and words I will never forget.

Words that make you want to get off of your ass and do a little bit more with your life. 

Words I needed, and still need, to this day. I picked this book up again last night and breezed through it in one sitting. I wouldn’t call it self-help, but reading this book is definitely a way to help yourself.

Women Connect: I Don’t Know How to Make Friends

Now, admittedly, this is a little silly, but true. 

For most of my life, I have had one or two good friends. Even though I don’t see them every day, I know they will always be with me (since we do have some miles separating us). But do you know what I’m missing? Friends I can actually hang out with and see on a regular basis. 

Part of it is my fault, I’m sure – I’m very much a homebody, someone who likes to make things, watch movies, and things like that. There are many people who can do this as well as having a burgeoning group of friends. 

As a kid, I suffered from social anxiety. I didn’t really want to be around people, and thus didn’t have a whole lot of friends like everybody else. As I grew up, I grew out of it, but I think the scars are still there.

Does that make me weird? Probably. The funny part about all of this is I actually really love people, I just don’t know how to meet them and build up the great relationships it seems like everyone has but me.

A few years ago, I thought I had a lot of friends… except these were only people I saw at the bar once a week, who never talked to me outside of it. Now that I don’t go to the bar nearly as often, it’s like I don’t exist. And if that’s the case, I feel okay about it. Someone told me the difference between ‘bar friends’ and ‘real friends’ once. And until you’ve lived it for yourself, it doesn’t make any sense. But let me tell you, there is a marked difference between the two. 

I don’t exactly know how I wound up in this place. Maybe it was too many years of being introverted and wanting to make things more than wanting to go out. And in a lot of ways, that’s what it feels like. 

I may not have many friends, but I have a lot to be thankful for in that I have a good job, business, family, and pets who I absolutely love. But that’s not all I need. Of course, there are a lot of successful people who don’t have a lot of friends but have a successful life. I think I would fit into this group.

When most people want to get out and meet people here in Wisconsin, they go to the bar. But where are you supposed to go when you’re over the bar life? How do you have those magic moments with people and wind up with lifelong friends? That’s what I’m trying to figure out.

Sunday Social Week 38: Taking It Back

1. What was your biggest middle school fashion mistake? In middle school, I had weird hair, but that won't ever beat this great hairstyle I had in high school:

"Who's that boy on the right?"

2. Who were your best friends in high school? Pics? Laura was probably my best friend in high school. She's in the pic above, but there's a couple other good ones: 

3. What was a typical weekend like for you in high school? Probably working at any of the several jobs I had in high school: McDonald's, a call center, and a bead store. 
4. Did you have any boyfriends/girlfriends? Tell us about that. I had a few near misses, but nothing solid. Oh well.
5. Did you have any secret codes with your friends? Spill your secrets! Not so much a secret code, but Laura and I had (and still have) a notebook called Da List, which is basically our version of the Burn Book from Mean Girls.
6. If you could relive one day/moment/experience from middle school or high school, what would it be? The pep rallies were pretty fun. Other than that, I would probably relive my senior year in order to try a bit harder and do better. 
Next week is Top 5s! Stop back!