Vegas: The Gathering

My last business trip to Las Vegas in July was by far my most memorable so far in my career. I had the opportunity to meet and take a photo with John Paul and Eloise Degoria (everyone thinks he is "Paul Mitchell" but actually he is one of the founders of the brand). I wont lie, I was star struck! He is such an inspiring individual and the story of how much perseverance and gusto his rise to the top required always leaves me energized and ready to press on towards my goals!

Here is my favorite Vegas skyline shot!

Here is the view of the arena where the main show was held. Over 3,000 people attended!

The show was a mixture of artistic hair cutting and styling performances, with acrobatics, dance, music and plenty of runway stomping!

After the show was the "Inspiration Party". This acrobat was directly over the dance floor, the WHOLE night, with a huge smile on her face. I love my job too, but dang!

These lovely ladies were oozing style. I wanted to make friends with them!

And here are the cool kids! The girl on the left had the BEST style! I saw her several other days when we were in meetings etc and I wanted to follow her around with my camera (totally not in a creepy way)!

This guy pushed his way past us in line to the after party, swearing his boyfriend was ahead in the line, uh huh sure, I used to use that line (pre-Kyle of course!). But I was obsessed with his jacket and his awesome hair so we let him slide by!

This lovely lady said her inspiration was Minnie Mouse!

This fabulous femme is a stylist at the ARCs salon in Vegas. I loved her rock and roll edge, but she was such a sweet person!

Another ARCs stylist. I LOVE her confidence! It was her hair/bow that made me chase her down for a photo!

Pretty. Simple. Pretty simple!

Loved this girls ensemble! I sat next to her in a training earlier in the day and she had a leopard bow in her hair, and when I complimented her on it, she promptly informed me that it was a baby bow! Note to self!

Destiny and I caught these girls walking around right outside the party with their own bottle of wine. We thought it was funny and liked their look so we struck a pose!

Erin, Tammy and Destiny holding down our post at the inspiration party. This is where we stalked our style prey :)

Part of the DBE team posing with the new Awapuhi Wild Ginger!

Obsessed

With this dress. Click here http://www.dvf.com/dvf/browse/productDetailWithPicker.jsp?productId=D2286036S10&categoryId=cat200004 for a bigger picture!

Meet Molly!

So, I know I've been missing in action lately. My excuse is that the past few months of my life have consisted of two big focuses:

1. WORK! WORK! WORK! I have neglected blogging and a slew of household chores because I have been so focused on my job for these past few months. I've been traveling quite a bit and have some fun photos that I will be posting up soon from several of my trips!

2. My Health. I decided earlier this year that it was time to lose those pesky lbs that have been following me around for the past few years. I had a few "Aha Moments" including the realization that I have been obsessing over losing weight since forever and that I didn't want to live the rest of my life spending so much energy on that goal. The good news is that I have lost about 20 lbs in the last few months! I still have a little ways to go to be where I want but I am SO EXCITED about my progress and want to share with you one of the keys to my success so far:

Molly Wong Vega!

I met Molly through my dear friend Tehina years ago. I knew that Molly is a Registered Dietitian and on a whim one day I decided to contact her to see if she would be interested in working with me. It was a great decision! Molly was excited to work with me, helped me clearly define my goals, recognized my challenges and gave me the tools to overcome them! Working with her has been a true pleasure.

To be honest, I thought I knew everything there was to know about eating healthy/losing weight (even thought I hadn't been successful, go figure). After all, I had read every women's health/workout magazine published since the age of 16, but she gave me some amazing tips and put things in a really healthy and productive perspective for me. The best thing about working with Molly was that we did all of our correspondence by email! She lives in the Houston area and is open to meeting in person, but I found her web based services to work best for my lifestyle. If you are interested in getting some help with your weight loss/health challenges I would definitely recommend getting in touch with Molly! Here are some of the things that Molly helped me to understand that were key in my success:

1. There are no bad foods. There are things that are better for you and that will make you feel better, but food is not something to feel guilty over or beat yourself up about. Moderation is the goal. You can't have bread, wine and dessert with dinner and expect to lose weight. Chose the one you want the most and savor it. Its really the same as you budget your money!

2. On that same note, portion sizes are key. Molly taught me what a correct portion was and I quickly realized that I had been consuming way more calories than I thought because of large portions. I also realized that when I really savored my food, it took much less to satisfy my taste buds!

3. You don't need to use food to relate to people or as a social tool. Molly helped me see that I was using food as a way to connect with people and it was really unnecessary, I have amazing family and friends who love me and want me to be healthy! I don't need to eat dessert just because my dinner companion is.

4. I feel so much better both physically and emotionally when I make healthy choices for myself.

5. Find what works for you and your lifestyle and do that! Molly actually created two eating plans for me because of my crazy lifestyle. She made one for when I am at home and one for when I am traveling. They are both very specific to my food and restaurant preferences with small tweaks to create options conducive to reaching my health goals.

Here is what to expect when you work with Molly towards your goals:

-First Molly will ask you to fill out a very detailed questionnaire about you eating habits and preferences. She will also ask that you eat as you always do for a week and keep a food journal so that she can see what you are currently eating and use this information as she builds your plans.

-Molly will then create a meal plan for you (or two in my case) that will have healthy options along with portion sizes. This is more of a guideline for you to use when you aren't sure what the right option is. As you begin to build better habits you will not need to eat strictly off of the plan she creates but will need to draw from the things you've learned to make good choices.

-After a couple of weeks on your meal plan, Molly will consult with you about what is working and what challenges you are facing. She will then make any necessary tweaks to your plan!

-You can expect to receive periodic emails from Molly, following up on your progress. I found her emails to be extremely inspiring and I could really tell that she was sincerely rooting for me to succeed!

Here is some pricing information (check with Molly directly for more detailed information):

Initial Health Assessment, Diet Record Analysis, and 4 weeks of follow up correspondence: $100
Meal Plans: from $20 depending on needs/detail desired
Monthly Follow-up and Meal Plan Adjustment after first month: $50

Here is her contact information:

Molly Wong Vega MS, RD, LD
Nutrition By Molly LLC
Houston, Texas
Email: molly@nutritionbymolly.com
(832) 380 – 4906
http://www.nutritionbymolly.com/

Thanks again to Molly for believing in me and helping me make some permanent changes to my life! I am so happy, have so much more energy and just feel generally better about myself. You are amazing!