A Walk Down the Hall..

For the past 3.5 years I've walked the halls of the University of Phoenix increasing my knowledge and getting a higher education. Now 18 credits from graduating, I am being mistaken for one of the instructors. 

This Thursday I walked down the hall to get a cup of coffee, (my first of 2 cups before 10:00 pm) one of UOP's professors stopped me in the hall and asked me what class was I teaching. I responded by telling him I wasn't teaching a class. He didn't believe me and asked me again in a different way. He said, "so, you're a new instructor sitting in a class tonight"? I said, "No, I'm not a teacher, I'm a student." He said, well I've never seen you here before and you sure look like you could be one of our instructors. NOTE: I am always representing the Dalton Brand... always dress for success, you never know who you might run into. I told him I was a student and I shared with him how many more credits I had left before graduating. He told me not to stop once I graduated and to continue on in my education. (that would mean go and get my masters) I told him I didn't have plans on continuing with another business degree and that I was leaning toward a more spiritual walk. He said, "you know Livingstone has a great Theology Program." I said,  "how did you know that's what I was referring to"? he said, "because a sinner like me can see the Jesus in you." I responded and said, "I believe it's the Jesus in you that sees the Jesus in me." We both laughed and I told him that there are a lot of hurting people in this world that need love, spiritual guidance and healing. He said, "God bless you on your journey."

I received that smiled and walked away. :).

What I know for sure, - You'll never know what could happen while walking the hall.. It could be at work, at the mall, or even at school but someone is watching you and your Brand (your personal message). Always remember, your presentation to the world will be that of whom you serve. Your heart must be pure and genuine. 

This weeks lesson.... Always be a good representation of Holiness...that is if your Father is Holy.  How you carry yourself in the hallways of life  will be a good mirror of the way you carry yourself throughout your life.

Live the same in and out of the hallways 

Find peace within,
Ms. Lisa

The Love of a Hurting Mother

The summer after 10th grade (1980) I became pregnant. I was 15 that summer.  I went back to school as a pregnant teen. I turned 16 that November 1980. My baby came 4 weeks early March 24 1981. I was now a teenage mother. I graduated high school June 1982. I didn't go to college...I'm there now... :). 

I guess you're trying to figure out where I'm going with this story. Well let me tell you. All things are lessons God would have us learn. Now, at 50, I understand the lesson.

You know in the word of God, Paul reminds us that we must make our calling and election sure. 34 years ago God knew the day would come when I would be ministering to hurting mothers. This is why God had me DO MY WORK. I did my work, now I am ready to work.

This week God allowed me to minister to the hurt of hurting mother's and daughters. One adult child's
desire from the Lord was that her mother would  accepted her as she was and love her instead of criticizing her. The next young lady was (14) she wanted the Lord to help her to stop lying. You know children only lie to their parents when they don't trust their parents with their truth. However the real issue was not with the lies or desire of the child, but the truth was the lies and lack of truthfulness and love from the mother. You see in both situations the children was only looking for the love and acceptance from their mothers.

What has happened here was the mother's were trapped in their own hunger for love and acceptance from their own mothers. We only know how to do what we do with the information we have at the time. It's hard to show love or even give love when we ourselves are looking for the same love and acceptance our little girls or adult daughters are looking for. So as a result, mothers get mad and upset with the child because they cannot give the child what she needs. The Love of a hurting mother is often hurtful, unforgiving, and absent.  We only give what we have to give. The pathology continues when healing and acceptance doesn't take place.

So what does the adult child do who wants her mother to love her and accept her as she is when her mother does not know how to love or even accept herself? The daughter teaches her mother how to love through the eyes of Jesus Christ. She accepts her mother and loves her for who she is and not for who she wants her to be. How does a teenage child stop lying to her mother? She stops when the mother makes her heart a safe place for the child.

How's does a hurting mother learn how to love? First, have the love of Jesus, forgive herself for not loving herself enough to be honest about her own hurt. Tell the daughter she's sorry for not loving her because she too was hurting. Shed tears together, hug each other and grow from where they are.

What I know for sure.. It always helps to be honest with our children even when they become adults. We only can do what we do with the information we have at the time. Our children will love and respect us for our honesty. My son Adrian and I have a very close relationship. He's been through every journey of my life with me. It was his voice that helped me make the decision to LIVE AND NOT DIE!

Mother's trust your heart with your daughters and they will trust you with theirs THAT I KNOW
NOW FOR SURE. :). 

Find peace within,
Ms. Lisa

Know He Didn't Call Me Out.. College... WHY?

This week has been filled with some exciting events. Last week I shared with you about the incident with my toe on my right foot. Well the toe has gotten a little but not enough for me to go back to my normal high impact workouts. What I realized this week, was this... I was using my sore toe as an excuse not to work out hard. It was hard for me to do any of the DVD workouts because I cannot do any plyometric moves, I can't do planks or jump up and down. I can't do lunges and squats hurt my knees. So I just basically was doing upper body workouts, which did not help me with burning a lot of calories. Then to top it off, my dear Loving Husband called me out. You see, I was preparing to settle down Wednesday night and my Love asked me if I was going to do the Wrap Thing from Angie. Angie is my sister-n-law. I told him that I was thinking about. He said, yell, I think you should try it. The wrap is this thing that you put on your belly to help it go down. I have this little muffin top on my lower ab and for the life of me I can't get it to go away. Many days I think it's because of me going through menopause.  He asked me if I was still doing my crunches... I laughed and said ahhh yell...My Love told me that I was getting slack...and I gave him the sad face... 

I didn't get mad about it, I thought about what he said and said okay Love. I know the intent of his hurt, that's why I didn't get mad. He likes what He likes... and I'm the wife to make sure he gets what he likes... lol.  You want believe what I did next.... LOL. I immediately got in my car and went to Blast Fitness and joined for $12.00 and $10.00 a month. I have been there every day since I joined. My Love's comment pushed me into getting back in the gym. I miss working out at the gym, I call it my studio, my second home. DVD's are good when you just can't make it to the gym, but there no place like the gym.... Surprised I didn't say church was my second home. I really love the gym. I jumped in just like I never left. Man, it's been at least 2 years since I've been inside a REAL gym and it's only 5 minutes from my house. LOVING IT!  So I'm back in training mode... and back to eating CHICKEN... I don't know how to be in training mode without CHICKEN... :).

Then the most amazing thing happened  in my career. Tuesday I had the amazing opportunity to speak to a group of future leaders at ITT Technical College. My friend Marjorie invited me to speak to her Business class. She asked me to speak on Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility. It was an awesome time of sharing with the students. You just don't know where or when God is going to use you. After the class, Dean Walker told me I had to come back and of course I said yes. Many of the students thank me for sharing my story and encouraged me to continue sharing. On the way home from the school, I began asking myself WHY DID I GO TO COLLEGE AND WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH MY BUSINESS DEGREE...??? I didn't get an answer on the way home but I did have this conversation with myself. 

Who was I to be speaking on a college platform? I don't have a college degree, I am not a college instructor, I am not a professor, nor am I a preacher. What I am is just a person who enjoys sharing my story and am committed to helping people transform their lives by educating, empowering, and encouraging people to CHANGE their lives for the better. During my Thursday morning meditation, I asked the Lord, Why did I go to College? He said, "You went to college because you got promoted on your job, but the college degree is going to open doors for you and allow your gift to be on platforms where you will share my experience." Now I know why I am in college. It's not to open my own gym, or manage a team of people for someone that does not value my gift, but it is for me to get the knowledge I need to help others succeed at life.

This weeks lesson has taught me two things, there are no-excuses for not working out. The gym has many options available regardless of your limitations. Second, I learned that we may start out doing a thing for one reason and God will turn it around and show us the REAL reason. 

What I know for sure: It doesn't matter what situation you're end, there is always another way to get it done and it is important to first believe and trust in God and second  believe and trust in yourself. 

Find peace within,

Ms. Lisa

Tell A Different Story - My Vegan Life

This past week has been one filled with revelation and dealing with the truth. I have not shared this in my previous post but I jammed 3 of my toes on my right foot on Memorial Day and because of that I have not been able to workout the way I normally do. I did not stop working out until 3 weeks ago when I noticed my toe was not healing. I did not go to the doctor because I knew they couldn't fix it, so I just diagnosed myself by looking up my symptoms on the internet and it said to wrap the toes together, so that is what I did and it has been 2 months now and I am still wrapped. SMH do you think I need to go to the doctor? Not...

This past week I decided not to go to a new company with my former co-workers because I knew where God positioned me. So, I decided to stay with CDHA and be a helper. Sometimes you just have to say NO to the crowd. With that decision I have been responsible for training three new people and making sure the day to day operations continue even though I am not in charge. This is called being a Servant Leader.

During this time I had to deal with a real issue I was having of my own. You know sometimes you will tell yourself a story that just isn't true. I was doing that this week, well actually for two weeks. But this week more than any other. You see, I was telling myself because my Love was not reading ALL my blog post, he was not in support of my dreams and my vision. I even found myself getting into a funk about it. Boy was I wrong. Did you know you could tell your story to yourself so many times that you actually begin to live that story out and you get anxious with the person who is in the story with you and on top of that, they have NO CLUE why you're acting special.

Because I am ALL about PEACE, I thought it would be best to address the issue. My Love and I are studying a book about marriage, it's called, "The Covenant Marriage" by Gary Chapman. On Friday we sat down as we always do at the end of the month to study our chapter. It was during this time I expressed to my Love what I was telling myself about him and him not reading all my post. He just smiled and said "Love I am your biggest support even if I don't  read all your post".  I smiled back and said, "Thank You Love".

What I know for sure.: There is a difference between the Fact and the Truth: You see the FACT is: He doesn't read all my post, but the TRUTH is he IS my biggest supporter. The lesson learned for me this week: stop making up stories in your head about stuff that is not true. Tell yourself a different story. Stop repeating the same story over an over in your head and to others. Get a different story. Often times we tell the SAME story because we want sympathy from others and sometimes it's because we do not want to take responsibility for the part we are playing in what is going on in our lives. I began to tell myself a different story. The Fact is He does not read them ALL but the TRUTH is He does support me. This I can live with.  :)

Find Peace Within,
Ms. Lisa

Put Some Berries on Those Thighs

Summer is here and I don't know about you but I am trying not to stay in the kitchen much this summer. So I started looking for some good cool recipes to cook on the grill and here is what I found. I love fruit, apples, oranges, nectarines, grapes, and strawberries, pineapple, and peaches that's about it for me... lol  But I do like a good fruit salad and since Friday is the 4th of July, I thought I would share some good recipes I found on line. Actually they were sent to me through Fitnessmagazine.com. You'll find Chicken Thighs with Blueberry sauce, Chili-Stuffed Sweet Potato, Grilled Shrimp with Mango Couscous. (Couscous is cheap at Aldi). Chili-Rubbed Flank Steak with Watermelon-Jimama Salad (not sure what that is) Strawberry-Bacon Pizza ( this one has to be easy) and Nectarine Sundaes, just to name a few.

So pull out the grill and create some awesome new dishes for the 4th of July and this summer. The link is below:.

What I know for sure: God has placed me in a place where I can make a difference in the lives of others. When I walk in a room I expect for the atmosphere to change. I expect for a light of hope to show up when I walk in the room. I expect for the atmosphere to adjust to the energy that I am giving when I arrive. One of my new co-workers told me yesterday that I set the atmosphere in the office. Granted our office is small, maybe 17 people, but it only takes one to change the atmosphere. The change can be HOT or COLD, but there will be a change. I take no credit for it, but I did acknowledge her kind words and said thank you. She asked me what makes me that way, I told her I walk in peace, love and joy. That is what people feel from me when I enter the room. This also happened to me a few weeks ago when I was at the Buy Here-Fry Here store on the Plaza getting some fish for my Love. This stranger walked up to me a I was waiting and said, "there is just something so pleasant about you and I can tell you are a woman of God". Now, I ain't one to go to church and I drink a lot, but I do know what a woman of God looks like and you are it." I kindly said thank you Sir and God loves you too. He said "God bless you" and I said, "May God bless you too."

Have you ever been in a room and this one person entered the room and changed the atmosphere? I am sure we all have experienced that at some point in our lives. What type of energy are you putting out into the atmosphere? I once heard this saying, " You are either the thermostat, where you control the temperature in the room, or you are the thermometer, where you adjust to the temperature in the room." Which one are you, the Thermostat or the Thermometer?

Find peace within
Ms. Lisa

Enjoy your 4th of July -
link to recipes
http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipes/healthy-eating/healthy-summer-barbecue/easy-fruit-recipes/o

Why Can't I Lose This last 10 pounds - Super Charge Your Slimdown

So many times people ask me about losing weight and what they need to do to get rid of their belly. I usually said, STOP RIGHT THERE. Why... because I believe it is about taking care of the heart and not about getting a quick fix. I ask the question, "What happens if you never lose your stomach, will you you stop your journey?" Often times this question stops them in their tracks. Why? Because most people do not have the answer to this heart wrenching question.

We should always try to deal with what caused the weight gain to begin with and not look for a quick fix. But because I do understand everyone may not be ready to deal with the TRUTH about themselves, I will GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT. I subscribe to the online Fitness Magazine (Fitnessmagazine.com) where I get daily tips on health and fitness. I received this tip last week and wanted to share it with those of you who want a quick fix.This is the SUPERCHARGE YOUR SLIMDOWN. This link provides a weekly meal plan for breakfast, lunch,dinner, and snacks. I'll say most of the recipes are Vegetarian recipes but I do not see any harm in you trying a few of what I would call HEALTHY RECIPES FOR THE HEART. For breakfast you can choose from: Banana-Walnut Pancakes, Mango-Oat Smoothie (sounds good doesn't it?) Avocado Eggs Benedict. For lunch there are recipes for Kale Grilled Cheese, Shrimp Tacos with Avocado Dressing, Chicken, Feta, and Strawberry Salad. And let's top it off with some great recipes for dinner: Kale Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken, Turkey Chili Fries (now this I will try). The link provides healthy snacks as well.

As an added bonus there is a workout routine included in the meal plan. These exercises are designed to target your Abs, Shoulders, Back, Butt, Thighs and Legs. There is Pilates Workouts, Yoga, and it even provides music for you to stay motivated and keep you moving. WOW WHAT AN AWESOME FREE GIFT!

I hope you find this website useful in your lifestyle journey. :) The link is below:

What I know for sure:  Many of us are looking for something called LOVE. Not many of us understand what Love really is. We know God is Love and with God all things are possible. He is our Father, our Mother, our Sister, and our Brother. He can be a husband to you if that is what you want Him to be. However, God did say, " it is not good for man to be alone".  But what we have to remember, we may have the desire to have Love, have a partner, or even be married. But what we have to be mindful of is this. We all have a picture of what we think Love is and what we think Love should look like. What we have to be ready for is the reality of what Love is with the person you decide to partner with. The "Love" I share with my "Love" may not be the same type of "Love" you share with your "Love". With that being said, be very careful not to compare your Love to the Love of another. Everyone has their own way of Loving... the question is, Are you willing to Love that person the way they are and the WAY they LOVE..... What picture are you painting of Love?

Find Peace Within,
Ms. Lisa

http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/workout/you-can-do-it/better-body-plan/energy-boosting-recipes/?

What's in Your Lunch Box - My Vegan Life

How many of you carry your lunch to work or school? Are you the one that eats out every day? I am not one to eats out a lot, maybe once a week and that's usually on Wednesdays when I have to go to class. But did you know that if you're trying to change your lifestyle, eating out could actually sabotage your efforts. If you are not ordering your food from a sit down restaurant where you have control of how the food is prepared you may be eating more sodium that you need or you could be eating food cooked in saturated cooking oil, and even covered with butter.

The only way to know what is actually in your food is to cook it yourself. It is easy to prepare your meals for the week on Sunday evening or which ever evening you have more time to prepare multiple meals. Tupperware is always a good way to store your foods, freezer bags are great as well. Preparing your food ahead of time will guarantee good healthy food in your lunch box. Not only will you have good healthy food in your lunch box, but you'll have some extra money in the bank or backyard. The average lunch meal will cost you between $7.00 to $10.00 a day depending on where you go. If you're spending $5.00 a day on lunch for 5 days that's $25 and that x 4 is $100. That's a pretty nice piece of change to put away in a month.

I personally carry my lunch to work and when I do not I regret it. Why, because I have to think about where I'm going to eat and that's when I find myself looking in the work refrigerator for the COMMUNITY FOOD....LOL. Usually that sweet tea and a piece of cake, which I refuse to eat. The safest place for me to eat out is Subway. I'll be like Jared and stick to Subway because I know the meal is healthy and I can control what is on it. Usually it's just bread with my salad... it's really called a Veggie Sandwich. All there is to it is vegetables between a bun with vinegar and sweet onion sauce... yummy to my tummy. But that's what works for me and it's $5.00 for a foot long. It's my modern day Now-N-Later.

I was surfing the internet for some new dishes to prepare as I continue in my Vegan Lifestyle change I cam across this link so I think I would share it with you. It is 27 different ideas for lunch box lunches. The food selections look really good, easy to prepare, and affordable.... stay tune and I'll let you know how some of my lunch box meals turn out.

Here's What I Know For Sure.... Think about this.....Are you driving your life or Is your life being driven. When you drive your life you are in control of your life, when you are being driven, your life is controlled by others. Be the driver or your life. Do not allow other people to define you or you feel you need to be validated by others. Know from way deep in your being that you deserve the best life has to offer. Know that not everyone wants to use you, take your gift and then throw you away. There are some people that are really in your corner and will be your biggest cheerleader. And when those that do not agree have good things to say, you let them know that you are the CEO of your decisions and you are on your way to success. Everyday do something that is taking you closer and closer to your dreams. Do not let a day go by that you don't look your dreams in the mirror and say, "Hold on, I'm Coming."



Find Peace Within,
Ms. Lisa

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/awesome-easy-work-lunches