My 3rd Big Fat Why for Isagenix - raising healthy children and stop worrying what you did wrong

We are born, we grow up, we become the people that we are destined to be and then some of us choose marriage.  That was a choice I made.  I chose to marry the man of my dreams and with that choice was the desire to have a house full of children.  That didn't happen to me but I certainly lucked out with the one that's in the belly in this photo.  My incredible daughter Aysha.

I've often thought that when I miscarried and then was never able to get pregnant again "what did I do wrong."  Always blamed myself.  Carried around that huge burden.  My husband was happy with what he got but my father-in-law wanted to watch all his yougins running around the lawn and I always felt like I had disappointed him - even though in reality I always knew he was also happy with what he got.

When I went to the first IsagniexSuper Saturday with Jim Rhoades and Elisabeth and Darian Andersen there was a man who got up to speak and it was through him that I truly got to understand the power of the Super Food Isagenix.   His story was different than mine - his son was born with a genetic birth diffect - but he kept on saying over and over again "what did I do wrong."  After talking with him, he had me watch a video called Ten Americans.  It's a three part you tube series but you only really have to watch the first part which is about 8 minutes long.  If you have never seen it, it is a must.  While watching that you tube video I knew what I had done wrong - I had conceived while my body was in a toxic environment.  Didn't have proper nutrition to sustain another life.  Didn't know then anything about toxicity but certainly do now.

What we did wrong was that we were never educated in "nutrition".   No matter how many times my mother took me to the doctor and no matter how many times I took my daughter to the doctor - never once was that a word I heard mentioned.   I heard a lot about prescription drugs, a lot about vaccinations but never a word about nutrition.   It was after I heard Dave speak that I knew what I could have done wrong and that was I did not know how to feed  my body the healthiest food on the planet while I was preparing to get pregnant, while I was pregnant.   And therefore I also got what I got.

A lot of times I read posts - will Isagenix cure this, will Isagenix cure that and it is when I hear these questions that I totally get that by feeding oneself or our children the healthiest food on the planet,

and keeping the body in an alkaline state that there would be not be as many - "what did I do wrongs. " It is my belief system that we give ourselves, our families, our children a running jump start with Isagenix.  

A lot of times though I hear people say "wow" that is certainly an expensive super food and I think while they are texting on their $500 cell phones, or using their $800 i pads or dressed with their $200 Uggs on their feet or talking about their $300 purse - "what planet do these people live on?"  

What are our priorities in life?   Do we want to be as healthy as we can possibly be or do we want to have perfect nails and pedicures, perfect clothes and constantly update new tech toys.  Suprisingly most people chose the latter.  So this is dedicated to all those people like me who spent half a life wondering WHAT I DID WRONG. 

My Second Big Fat Why for Isagenix - dedicated to my husband Shahid - may he rest in peace

When I was a little girl, growing up in Brooklyn, New York - there were no computers, no internet, no cell phones - there was just the kids that you played with on the street after you came home from school and you had your after school snack.  What we did is we roller skated, we rode our bikes but the big thing in my neighborhood was punch ball and handball.   Being the competitive type that I am I had to master those two male oriented games.  I had to become the best of everyone in the neighborhood.   That needing to be the best, was the beginning of establishing the skill set for myself on learning how to become "the fixer."  Once I mastered and became the best - better than anyone else at it - I then had to teach everyone else how to do it as well.  That became what I did the best.  I became the person that always was there willing to help the next person become the best at what I knew they already were good at.   That skill set was what brought me skating through life into a very successful career.

 

When I met my husband I knew I had met my match.  We had two different sets of skills.  He was the risk taker and I was the practical one.  They blended well.  We worked well together.  And I knew he was the right man for me - because when I was a little girl growing up I always asked my mother when will I know I met the right man to marry and she would say "there is a little boy growing up on the other side of the world waiting for you" and he was definitely from the other side of the world.  In that first meeting, he told me, 20 minutes into the conversation, that he was going to marry me.  And I knew that was the truth.  I knew that he was the one.

So it brings me up to today.  He is no longer with me.  I had to take the two different set of skills that we had combined together into a relationship and become both of those people in one.  Thankfully I have an exquisite child who has walked every foot of the path of life with me.  Thankfully I have wonderful friends who are here to pick me up when I fall down. 

 

What I am most thankful for though is Isagenix.  Isagenix gives me and everyone around me the ability to use the skill set that I found and developed at such a young age.  Isagenix lets me offer everyone around me the opportunity to experience better health, greater wealth, empowers us as a community.  The community is spectacular.  We all bring our own learned skill sets with us into a community of loving, caring, wonderful people who all have the same desire - to impact everyone around them in their lives.  Isagenix is my skill set.  Isagenix is the fixer.

So it is why I always speak about Isagenix with such passion, such enthusiasm.  It is why I become a pain in the butt to those around me that I care about so much.  It is why it is my Big Fat Why.

So I am asking all of those around me who I care so deeply about - to join me in this life journey.

I want you all to know how fortunate I feel every day of the week when I get on facebook and read all of your wonderful comments about your lives, my life, Isagenix, our children.  We as a community are a SKILL SET on our own.   I am blessed.

So my dear Shahid - rest in peace - you left me in good hands.  I found a community that won't ever let me down.  You would be proud of the woman I have become.

Mama said there'd be days like this..............

You never know when you get up in the morning what the day will bring.  You wake up set to start the new day and then with that day the phone rings or you read an e-mail or you get a text or you go on facebook and the world starts coming in with either joy or sadness, happiness or sorrow.  Never thought when I got up today that I would see the beautiful face of an old friend's daughter holding the hand of her new husband that she married today.  Nor did I think that I would get the e-mail from my brother telling me that my cousin who is very ill lapsed into coma and that he was going to have to go home and tell my mom.  Didn't think that I could feel such great happiness and sadness all within minutes of each other.  The day just goes and with it I notice that I am radically impacted and matured by the world around me.  The morning after Thanksgiving would be the day the phone rang and I would find out that my husband died.    You just never know.

What I do know though is that when I wake up each morning that I have the same constant in my life that makes it all worth getting up and looking forward to.  I know that my Isagenix shake cannister is going to be sitting in the same spot with all the add-ons next to it that I am going to be taking.  That I am going to go and check the computer and look in the IsaMasterMinds and I am going to see spectacular posts from all those in my Isagenix life that share.  That I am going to read, laugh, cry, share with the wonderful people that come along when you become part of the Isagenix culture.   It just isn't the products but a way of life that I have come to rely on as my constant.

Today was a day filled with a lot of sadness but with it always comes the constant friend that I have come to heavily rely on - Isagenix.   Isagenix changed my life in more ways than one.  With it I became friends with so many wonderful people.   With it came laughing yoga.  With it came learning how to blog and tweet.  You just never know once you submerge yourself in the Isagenix culture.  So even though Mama said there'd be days like this........ I think she also knew that I would always find my way.

Dedicated to the Magnificent Jo-Ann DiLorenzo and the spectacular Francisca Ruiz

Sometimes in life you get more than you give and even though I didn't know it that beautiful Sunday afternoon that Jo-Ann and Franny showed up on my back porch that my life was about to change - IT DID.

My friend Laura who had just started the Isagenix products brought these two magnificent women to visit me this particular Sunday afternoon.  Did not know that the two most powerful forces in my whole life had just appeared before me.  But Franny knew it.

Jo was interested in knowing more about the Ionix Supreme but as our conversation went on it was very clear to me that she knew more about organics and health than anyone I had yet to meet.  They both asked me to bring out the whole array of Isagenix products and then proceeded to do the process of kinesiology (also known as muscle testing) - (Based on the concept of internal energy fundamental to traditional Chinese medicine, muscle testing is a noninvasive way of evaluating the body’s imbalances and assessing its needs. It involves testing the body’s responses when applying slight pressure to a large muscle, to provide information on energy blockages, the functioning of the organs, nutritional deficiencies, and food sensitivities, among other things. It can also be used to test the body’s responses to herbs and other remedies.)  

I watched for a few hours as they both muscle tested each item and I became more and more intrigued by these two forces of life.  They walked away with a bottle of Ionix and a canister of IsaCrunch because those were the only two products that worked for both of them.   As time went on - building their bodies with the Ionix they both found out on a future muscle test that all the products worked for them.  I happened to be with them in Franny's house when they discovered this and beside the huge glow on my face - I secretly was saying to myself   ummmmmmmm -  we got it right.   Even though when I do an Isagenix super Saturday I always do a little skit on them they both know that it is because of how much I love them and how much they have added to life.   They brought love in to a space that had so little room for love.

They became my friends,  they became my  mentors, I became their mentor, we blended our families, we started our IsaMasterMinds group together.  But most of all they both gave me a reason for wanting me to become the best I could become.  When Jo calls me and tells me to do something on the spiritual realm I do it without even asking why.  When Franny tells me to do something on any realm I do it because I always know she has my back.  We fell madly in love with each others spirits, minds, ideas, goals.

So that is what Isagenix does - it allows you the space to grow and learn, share and rejoice.   These two IsaSpectacularAngels brought with them Dr. Nidia Carrero, Dr. Carles Vilches, baby Franny Ruiz, Marina Bellow, Lily Ruiz and a whole incredible group of amazing human beings that continue to touch my life.

I can't say anything more about them, then you all already know.  They both are active in being there for everyone in their down-line, up-line, cross-line, any line.  They are women of service.  They are women of peace.   They are women of love.

Dedicated to my wonderful daughter Aysha - could never have done Isagenix without you baby.

Every once in a while I have an a-ha moment and today realized that without the kiddo I never could have been successful with the Isagenix program.   She rooted me on from the sidelines, cheered with each lb. that was shed, watched me go from a couch potato to a living participating human being and most of all she opened all my Isagenix boxes and lovingly put the products on the shelves for me.  She became my reason for wanting to make the change in my life that finally got me back or as close back to the space I was in before our major loss.

So my darling sweet Aysha, just wanted to acknowledge that you are the reason for all the wonderful changes that have happened to me in the last three years.  Sometimes I don't tell you enough how much you sacrificed when I got to depressed to be able to do the things that were the memories that your childhood was made up of.  So today is the day that I get to say it out loud.   Sometimes tragedies change our directions, and sometimes sadness changes our pace but never do they take away the bond and love between a mother and her child.

Love you sweetheart.   Just wanted you to know how proud I am of you.

My Big Fat Why for Isagenix-In Memory of My Husband

Life is a mysterious journey.   Different for everyone, but in some ways the same. We are all thrown curve balls and it is what we do with those balls that defines us.  I chose to fall apart, scream and shout, go insane, lose my mind, dive off of the highest diving board when my husband died.   No one could help me.  I didn't want to be helped.   I wanted to wallow in that pain.  I started the slow long journey of self destruction that not everyone does - but it was a choice that I made for not being able to save him.  His death became my fault - I couldn't fix it.  And that is what I do for a living I fix things.   You can tell me anything and I always know that I can fix it.   But how can you fix death.   I was in the wrong spot at the wrong time when the accident happened.  If I was in the right spot he would still be here - or  that is what I perceived.  In reality after reading his medical files I found out that there were other issues but that took me two and a half years to understand.

I became a prisoner of my couch.   It gave me comfort.  I let my hair turn grey and I let my body grow.  140 lbs later and through the divine intervention of the Dali Lama coming to Woodstock, NY - Isagenix found me.  I thought that if I could visit with the Dali Lama that I could be fixed.  As it turned out, my friend, who did have a visit with him,  had a beautiful incredible halo around his head, which I desperately wanted and wanted to snatch away from him - wound up telling me that the glow was from a system that he was doing called Isagenix.   He gave me a 30 day for free but I never touched it.   Left in the closet. 

 Through a series of events I found Isagenix on my own and went and looked at that box that I had and decided to give it a try.   And then God brought me an angel named Elisabeth Andersen and with her came her wonderful husband Darian and "my hero" Jim Rhoades. Elisabeth, Darian and Jim came to visit me and literally plucked me off my butt and made me their cause.  Jim blessed my home when he knew that there was no longer energy in it and I no longer had any room for God.   Elisabeth, Darian and Jim carried me on their backs.  After speaking at Top Achievers (thank you Travis Garza for stepping into my life), Jim and Kathy had a meeting in their room.  Everyone was given a few moments to speak and I asked Jim if I could be last.  It was there, in that room, with mostly strangers but with the comfort of Kathy and Jim, Elisabeth and Darian that I found myself again.

So my big fat why for Isagenix is huge.  Yes I wanted to lose the weight, yes I wanted to be healthy again.  But the real reason is that I wanted to give to others what had been given to me.  The gift of Life.

The Beauty of Isagenix

After a very hectic week with the East Coast being so impacted by the storm called Sandy - adjusting to normal has been quite difficult.  But adjust we must as that is what we do - we have a new normal.  But what stays consistent in my daily life is my commitment to Isagenix.   Isagenix is a constant that I can count on.  I know that if I remain a product of the product and I share from my heart and my personal experience that I consistently and continuously make a difference in the lives of those  around me.

So you can imagine my surprise when the following showed up at my house today.  Answering the doorbell and finding this bouquet of flowers being delivered to me made my face light up like a Christmas tree.  The sender wishes to remain anonymous so a I will respect that wish but I needed to share the beauty with all those in my life.   To all those that I coach, I want to tell you that you have all impacted my life in ways that you will never know.  The fact that I make a difference in your lives humbles me.  I am so grateful that Isagenix gave me this vehicle to be involved with so many people that I otherwise would have never gotten to know. 

Why Mentoring Is IMPORTANT

Hi Everyone...Andrea Hameed knows everything about Isagenix...she teaches me everything, and is the greatest Isagenix coach a person could ask for.  I am the blogging guru, and know pretty much everything there is too know about blogging.

1.  Really proud of Andrea's efforts and enthusiasm for blogging.
2.  I need to work more with her more, provide more mentoring as I woke up this morning to find she has written not one but two beautiful blog articles that I had not seen...why you ask...she found some kind of a magical way to turn her two articles into two new blogs.

So, I am reposting them in her real blog for her.  Hope you all will go revisit them and toss her a like so that she has all those wonderful things to cheer her on in her stats area.

The Day the Electric Came Back

Life for all of us on the East Coast has been a little hectic as the storm named Sandy ripped through our communities.  No matter how we have coped with our personal experiences, tragedies and losses I know that we all will stand back up, brush ourselves off and move forward in our lives.  I know that I  pull into myself as tight as possible to try to fight the depression that I am so used to dealing with.   So I find myself distraught instead with nowhere to go with it.

Stuck in the house with power lines down on both sides of my driveway gave me a lot of time to reflect on my purpose.  In my life I have let a lot of people down by my decisions to become reclusive when I can't deal with life.   So when Isagenix came along I realized that there was a support system there that I never knew existed in life.  I could say anything I felt and noone took it personally.   I could cry every November mourning the loss of my husband.   I could share that my daughter made the Dean's list and everyone rooted her on.    She could post in Masterminds and ask everyone to vote for her to win a contest at her school.   I could cry my eyes out and scream and shout that Star (my miracle dog) was run over in a hit and run and was going to die.  I found myself and with that I found all of you.   All of you wonderful people who are walking through life with me as I am walking through life with you.

The electric company opened the left exit out of my home on Halloween evening and I was able to get out to take this photograph for my daughter.  This is a local farm stand where she and I always go to celebrate Halloween.    And it was still standing.  The day before a tree came down on the road opposite it - into their driveway - and it was still standing.   This photograph means more to me than anything else because I was able to still give her the joy while she was stuck in Long Island dealing with the hurricane there.

 So then we come to yesterday.   My local electric company had not responded to the many requests to get us up and running.  We were 18 houses out on a small road.   And then I could hear the ringing noise that comes when big trucks back up and knew that something was going on outside on the road.   I walked out to see what it was but discovered when I tried to talk to the first lineman that noone spoke English.   On my second trip out  I had grabbed my camera to take photos of what was going on and I was introduced to Patrick Katulka, Vice President of Operations for AMPCO Electric out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  He told me not to worry, that he was not leaving until the power was on.  And I believed him.  I could see the commitment and the dedication in his eyes.   I knew he was a man used to dealing with danger.  Did not realize until I started to crop the photos and could zoom into all the electrical joints how really really reallty hard a job these people had.  It was when that reality hit, that I realized that my reality of not putting my butt on the line was a lot of what led me to becoming depressed and distraught.  When I do put my butt on the line I am committed and dedicated.   Caring what people think about me has kept me a prisoner.   So I am ready to let that go and just be.

This is dedicated to everyone in my life - those who are pissed at me for dropping out - those who love me just the way I am.  Those who want me to be different and those who want me to be the same.  I love you no matter what.