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If you are looking for a quick and dirty – and incredibly easy to follow – diet and exercise plan we have just the thing for you!
It’s easy to follow, relatively painless, and works for every woman, no matter how busy her schedule is!
The plan is simple – start every week day with 20 minutes on the treadmill. Walk for 2 minutes, and then speed it up for 18 minutes of jogging. If you have more energy push yourself for a harder run, or if you are feeling slugglish set your treadmill to a slower pace – as long as you’re running!
If you don’t have a treadmill it’s no problem – jump rope, take a bike ride, or go for a swim. The important thing is that you’re jumpstarting your day – and your metabolism – with 20 minutes of exercise every week day.
After your morning exercise eat a light and fibre filled breakfast. Our fave is 1% milk with a small handful of old style muslix. The milk fills us up, and the muslix gives us protein and all sorts of great vitamins. You can also try no fat cottage cheese and an apple, or plain oatmeal with a spoonful of honey and a few berries.
Come lunch time you’ll notice a big difference. Since you already exercised and started your day with a healthy breakfast you’ll be much more motivated to keep yourself healthy – and you don’t want to waste your efforts from the morning by eating crap now – so staying to a healthy plan all day just comes naturally!
Try it out – run for 20 minutes every morning, followed by a light and healthy breakfast – you’ll be amazed what it does for your body, mind and waistline and you should start to see a difference after just one week
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As the nights get cooler and a little more crisp, it’s time to abandon transitional trenches and embrace warm wool coats for the winter nights ahead. The good news is you don’t have to settle for the safe, or sacrifice high style. Here are Tamika Auwai’s (from Shop Socials) are five gorgeous wool coats in unique silhouettes that effortlessly embrace the season’s trends.
Pick 1: The Camel: Mackage “Bessie” $470 CDN
Pick 2: The Bright: Valerie Dumaine “Simonetti” $259 CDN
Pick 3: The Collared: Snoflake “Amaya Coat” $450
Pick 4: The Fur: Matthew Williamson $2695 USD
Pick 5: The Poncho: Tory Burch “Liam” $695 USD
Today’s post is from Tamika Auwai, a recovering shopaholic and founder of Shop Socials, a start-up that gathers Toronto’s everyday socialites in the name of friendship, fashion, and shopping Toronto’s emerging designers and independent boutiques. Learn more about Shop Socials online at www.shopsocials.com.
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That’s right, there’s ONLY 2 MORE DAYS TO WIN 1 OF 10 PAIRS OF TICKETS TO THE NATIONAL HEALTH SHOW on October 23rd and 24th at the Direct Energy Centre In Toronto!
HOW TO WIN!
Go to the Cashmere Clutch Facebook page and post on our wall why you want to win a pair of tickets to the National Health Show.
All the industry experts will be available to you under one roof in an exciting 2-day event, become inspired to look good and feel great at any age. Hundreds of exhibitors are on hand to give advice, offer services and products on healthy living at Canada’s National Health Show!
We’ll pull the winners on Friday at noon, so better post on the Cashmere Clutch Facebook page now so you don’t miss out!
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Recently we heard from many of you that you would like to start your own business. Being an entrepreneur is amazing – you have control over your own destiny, you reap the rewards of your success instead of the big corporation you work for, and you manage your own schedule.
But according to Scott Belsky, having too many great ideas can actually work against you! This article was originally posted on Entreprenuer.com, and we’ve re-posted it here to here to help you clear the idea clutter & get focused.
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Belsky, 30, author of Making Ideas Happen (Portfolio, 2010), argues that most entrepreneurs suffer from idea-to-idea syndrome, jumping from one big idea to the next while executing none.
Startup failure rates suggest he’s right, and he’s built a business to address the problem. Belsky is the founder of Behance LLC, a firm in New York City which operates a networking website for creative professionals called The Behance Network, a tip site for productivity junkies called The99Percent.com, and sells web-based productivity software based on the Action Method.
The Action Method breaks work into a series of steps represented by verbs that specify the next things to be done in executing an idea. Write the plan. Ship the product. Invoice the customer. Here are Belsky’s three tips for using the Action Method to create a company that executes.
1.Hire the killjoys.
The first step to activating the Action Method, Belsky says, is to create an “immune system” that kills ideas. This means hiring killjoys to capture every action step and say no to new ideas — rightfully so, in most cases.
“It’s important for entrepreneurs to hire people they don’t necessarily want to have a beer with but who can be the immune system in their startup,” Belsky says.
Founders sometimes play this role, too. Francis Pedraza, a long-time Reserve Officer Training Corps student from a military family, enforces focus at his Ithaca, N.Y.-based startup of 17 fellow Cornell University students, The DoBand Campaign.
DoBand is a social network where participants hold each other accountable to get things done. Each participant has a wearable band that identifies them and their proposed tasks.
Pedraza, who manages the company using Belsky’s Action Method productivity software, says the team’s performance slipped during the summer months while working remotely. Upon their return in the fall, he brought in new team members, challenged others and cut those who weren’t performing.
“If you’ve got enough guts to fire one or two people on the team, miracles start to happen,” Pedraza says. In this case, he and his team raised $75,000 in funding just a few months into the life of the business.
2. Work with a bias toward action.
No doubt accountability is a key feature of the action-oriented startup, but perhaps the most important attribute is a propensity to act. For that to occur, Belsky says entrepreneurs need to unlearn some things.
“It’s important, in the early stages of a creative project, to almost do the opposite of what we’re taught growing up, which is to think before we act,” Belsky says. “Startups have to recognize that their competitive advantage against the big guys is that they have the space to [experiment].”
What they don’t have is time. Today’s startups build and release products in days rather than months. In that environment, action is a survival skill, Belsky says, especially if the original concept was right all along.
Evan Saks, founder of build-to-order mattress maker Create-A-Mattress.com in Needham, Mass., learned this lesson the hard way. He says his team spent two months talking with suppliers about adding options before his design agency pushed him to focus on getting the company’s website live. Feedback would dictate changes, the agency’s owner said. It was just the wake-up call Saks needed.
“Following that meeting, I created a roadmap that let the other vendors see there was a place for them in the future. Then, I set the roadmap aside and put all energies into launching the core website the way it was originally conceived,” Saks says.
3.Change your vocabulary.
While taking action can be the key to getting unstuck, talking action is often necessary to produce growth. “You need an environment where people are obsessed with taking action steps,” Belsky says.
This behavior manifests in various ways. Belsky says he’s seen action-obsessed managers run meetings in which no one’s allowed to sit. The thinking: Weak-kneed participants are more likely to keep discussion short and focused. Others force meeting participants to speak aloud the action steps assigned to them. The theory? If you speak what you intend to do aloud, you’re more likely to do it.
Atlanta-based brand development agency Matchstic uses this second tactic to improve how its teams and project managers work together.
It wasn’t always this way. In the past, project managers would take client requirements and pass them along to team participants and wait for results. When team members failed to get things done, the project manager would bear the consequences.
Recognizing this problem, Matchstic chief strategist and co-founder Craig Johnson says management bought Belsky’s book for everyone on the team. They read it together in the spring, and as an agency, began to change their approach to getting things done. Now, no meeting ends without every participant reviewing his or her action steps. Revenue is up 30 percent since, Johnson says.
“Adopting action-oriented vocabulary in our office has made a huge difference in how things get done,” Johnson says. “If something doesn’t get done, it’s clear who’s dropped the ball, which means people drop the ball much less often.”
Uniting Against Idea Overload
Belsky isn’t the only business thinker who sees having too many ideas as potentially toxic. In addition to Behance’s networking group, the company also hosts a popular productivity think tank called The 99 Percent, a tribute to legendary inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Edison, who famously quipped that genius is “one percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration.”
This same community also gathers annually at a conference attended by many of the business elite, including venture capitalist Fred Wilson, partner at Union Square Ventures and early investor in Twitter who spoke at last year’s confab. The next conference is scheduled for May 5-6, 2011, at the Times Center in New York City. Idea generation will play no part in the agenda.
“Most entrepreneurs focus more on the ideas and less on how they organize themselves for action,” Belsky says. To him, and his inspiration, Edison, making ideas happen is all about the other 99 percent.
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WIN 1 OF 10 PAIRS OF TICKETS TO THE NATIONAL HEALTH SHOW on October 23rd and 24th at the Direct Energy Centre In Toronto!
HOW TO WIN!
Go to the Cashmere Clutch Facebook page and post on our wall why you want to win a pair of tickets to the National Health Show.
Canada’s National Health Show is the largest consumer show dedicated to promoting healthy lifestyles for Canadians. Quickly becoming the must-see event of the year, this show encompasses everything about health, beauty, fitness, healthy eating and well-being for the MIND, BODY and SOUL!
All the industry experts will be available to you under one roof in an exciting 2-day event, become inspired to look good and feel great at any age. Hundreds exhibitors to give advice, offer services and products on healthy living at Canada’s National Health Show!
TOP 10 REASONS PEOPLE LOVE THE NATIONAL HEALTH SHOW:
•Pick up secret tips and healthy tricks – ask the experts
•Beauty advice and FREE samples
•Try the latest exercise craze
•Marvel at the new technology and equipment
•Experience a relaxing express spa treatment
•Weight loss advice and diet tips
•Learn from the “sExperts” on how to spice up your sex life
•Rebalance your mind with the well – being and holistic experts
•Relax and take – in the vast knowledge of gifted motivational speakers and talented special guests
•It’s fun! Come alone and meet new people or bring the entire family out!
WINNING IS EASY! Just write on the Cashmere Clutch Facebook page wall why you want a pair of tickets to the National Health Show & 10 lucky winners will be selected!
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Congratulations to all the lovely ladies who completed the 30 Day Fitness Challenge! Our final challenge – to complete the challenge survey – got a gazillion responses, and 7 lucky ladies were picked randomly as the final winners.
The big winners are:
Allison McManus – winner of the Burts Bees Beauty Package
Catherine Martens – winner of the 4 week Booty Camp gift certificate
And the following 5 ladies who won a copy of Women Food and God from Simon and Schuster Canada
Ekaterina Trapeznikova
Lauren Biggs
Amanda Marseille
Megan Richardson
Sonya Rogozynski
Congrats ladies! Well Done
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This fall the folks over at UGG have some amazing designs for their boots. These looks are all really versatile and can go from weekend looks, to brunch, to around town, and best off all you’ll keep your feet super warm with these super stylish looks!
Top Pick #1: Lynnea Clog Shearling-Lined Ankle Boots
The thick shearling-lined cuff brings warmth to this rich leather style with stud trim. The detailing is cool, they look amazing and you can match this with jeans and a funky jacket for a great look.
$190 CDN
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Pick # 2: Maxene Tall Wedge Boots
The rich leather with exposed seams and tonal stitch details work well for a modern, city-girl appeal. The low heel means you can wear them all day – perfect for runnng errands, fall walks, and coffee dates with your best girlfriends followed by boutiqu shopping!
$290 CDN
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Pick # 3: Tall Lug-Sole Suede Boots.
The Shearling-lined suede is shaped into a durable silhouette with strap accents. We love this colour, and the wedge heel adds height with edge!
$250 CDN
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Thanksgiving is the best holiday. There’s no pressure, no presents, it’s still nice outside, and it’s all about being thankful! Does a holiday get any better than that?
And, it’s also a time to reflect and really think about what you have to be thankful for.
Here’s my list of things to be thankful for in 2010:
- I’m thankful for my husband. He’s a great guy, very loyal and someone who I really look up to. I’d been looking for someone just like him, and I finally found him!
- I’m thankful for having the guts to start my own business. It was a big jump…and took some serious chutzpah at times, but I did it, and it’s growing and I was able to surpass my income goal by June!
- I’m thankful for my aunt and uncle. They stood by me when things were at a very low point in my life, helped me grow to be a better person, and we have a lovely relationship now.
- I’m thankful for facing some of my biggest fears in life, being honest, and moving on. Getting married was a big worry – having to trust someone so much after growing up in a family where you couldn’t trust anyone was a big deal. But, I pushed through. And soon after being married we were arguing all the time. But we put it all on the table, scrapped it out, and I stood up for myself where before I would just let everything go. I was worried that really fighting would tear us apart…but guess what, it brought us closer together! Now we argue whenever things come up, we deal with it, and we move on in peace. It’s great!
There are many other small things to be thankful for, and I really try to appreciate them on a daily basis…things like a good cup of coffee, a sunny day, a nice chat with a good friend. Those are real heart warmers that I’m exceptionally grateful for.
What about you? What are you thankful for?
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While there are dozens and dozens of amazing international designers that we love (hello Prada!) there is also boatloads of local talent that deserves some of our attention (and pocket money). Today’s post is from Tamika Auwai, a recovering shopaholic and founder of Shop Socials, a start-up that gathers Toronto’s everyday socialites in the name of friendship, fashion, and shopping Toronto’s emerging designers and independent boutiques. Learn more about Shop Socials online at www.shopsocials.com.
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I adore a designer bag. Buttery soft leather, rich hardware, and attention to detail that you just don’t find in the no-name variety. I’ve always ogled Kors, Vuitton, and Chanel, and of course they’re still on my haute list, but in my quest to shop and support the local luxe, I’ve fallen in love with some amazing Canadian handbag designers that deserve to be household names. If you’re looking to invest in a designer bag this fall, look no further than your own backyard.
A structured leather bag like Jessica Jensen’s Woven Box Satchel(above) is the perfect companion for corporate gals this fall. The relatively compact shape forces you to take only the essentials, the texture adds interest to an otherwise basic black bag, and the glossy finish is apropos for dinner or drinks in the evening. Get The Woven Box Satchel, $848, online or buy in-store at The Room or TNT.
If you’ve fallen in love with the very feminine, vintage-inspired looks of the season, a modern take on a classic shape like this Marsha Bag by 442 McAdam should make your heart sing. The embossed leather and scroll-like name plate are just a few of the details that inject lady-like charm, but the sturdy cross-body strap means you can go from work to weekend without being too dainty. Get Marsha, $450, at Poor Little Rich Girl and Heel Boy, or shop online.
If structure isn’t your thing, or your life lives in your purse, The Oliva in leather and wool by Cha Cha Lifestyle offers tons of room and relaxed style. The draw-string closure and studded accents are of the moment, but not overly done, and I love the whimsy of the hand-printed canvas lining that includes a collection of quotes and phrases in fun fonts on the inside. Get Olivia, $195, online but do allow up to two weeks for delivery as each bag is hand-crafted for you by designer, Lori Chalmers.
Happy shopping!
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You work hard at work so you can be rewarded with a big salary, but what about in your personal life? If you are like most women you often make food you reward, or in some cases your relief! You packed up all your summer clothes and tidied up your house so you reward yourself with a big glass of Cabernet, or your favourite chocolates. You worked, hard, so you deserve it….right? Before you know it you are rewarding everything you do, and you’ve gained 5 pounds!
Learning how to reward yourself so that you feel satisfied, but don’t overdo it, is hard. Here are some tips to help you curb your bad habits, so rewards end up making you feel good and pampered.
Know what you’re rewarding
Before you establish your perk system, you have to decide what behaviour you’re reinforcing. Just as you want to be specific when setting goals, you want to be detailed in how you’ll congratulate yourself for meeting them. Are you going to treat yourself when you’ve eaten healthy for a few days or when you’ve dropped 5 pounds? Choose bigger payoffs for more challenging accomplishments such as losing 40 pounds, dropping 10 percent of your body fat, or lowering your cholesterol by 20 points. Have smaller, stick-with-it bonuses in mind for days when you need just a little pick-me-up to keep going.
Write down rewards on the calendar
We’ve encouraged you all along to log your goals as well as what you’re eating and doing for exercise. Now look at your calendar and set “treat” days ahead of time. Then keep a list of perks you’ll dole out as you meet your goals or make it through tough tests of your newfound resolve.
Know your motivators
Choose things you’re excited to work for, like a massage or pedicure, a night out with friends, or new clothes. One caveat: Never use food as a reward. It can give a bad habit -emotional eating- traction and thwart your progress.
