The Juicy Woman

Closing my blog for a few months - Will be back after my book baby is born

Hey gals,

I'm going to be closing my blog for a few months while I concentrate all my efforts on finishing my book. Please feel free to look around, peruse and enjoy reading my older posts.

I've come to think of the experience of writing my book as being much like being pregnant. It is truly an all consuming process that requires my full attention. I promise I'll stay in touch and share my comings and goings with you via email broadcasts.

If you'd like to get in on the latest of what I'm up to, you can follow me on Twitter, Facebook or join my Juicy Woman Lovin' the Skin You're In Meet up group.

See you soon with an armload of goodies just for you.

Much love,

Andrea

Connect with Your Inner Wisdom: Making Time for a Piece of Quiet in Your Day

In her New York Times best selling book, Naomi’s Breakthrough Guide: 20 Choices to Transform Your Life, county music superstar, author and singer, Naomi Judd, shares her secrets on how she overcame a life-threatening health crisis by first changing her thoughts. She talks about the importance of having a piece of quiet in your day to create the peace of mind you want. She says, “Peace of mind isn’t the absence of problems; peace of mind comes from your ability to deal with them.”

After ironing out the emotional kinks that come with any source of panic, I’ve learned the value of just sitting quietly each day and listening to my own inner wisdom, my loving intuition. I first learned this technique when I was just about 11 years old, at my first Silva Mind Control training. Since then, the founder, Jose Silva has passed away and his daughter, Laura is at the helm, continuing to lead and teach millions of people how to use the Silva Mind Method. Jose Silva was a man ahead of his time, discovering and pioneering a technology to help people tap into more of their mind. Jack Canfield endorses them and every other personal growth leader for the past 40 years has been influenced by Silva's trainings.

Passive vs. Active Meditation

You see there are actually two kinds of meditation, passive and active. It's a proven and well researched fact that meditating daily will improve  your life dramatically. As a stress reliever, there's nothing better than to allow your body the gift of full and total relaxation. It slows down your thinking and moves you to what is called an Alpha level.

Introducing My Media Buddy, Sally Shields, Amazon.com Best selling Author

  As you may have heard, I’m taking steps to get covered in national media, TV, radio, and print. My message of empowerment for women and kids is way too big to be kept small any longer. As a sexual abuse survivor, and body image/self esteem expert, I'm here to say that, "No woman or girl should ever be afraid of food or hate her body again!" And it's up to me a big, beautiful plus sized gal to convey that message with courage, poise, authenticity and power, because it just won't fly coming off the lips of a micro mini-stuck in the box, formally credentialed expert, so I’ve decided it’s time to come out of the closet, so to speak.

To do that, I’ve realized the need to find role models, people who have a passion for doing what they do, who can help me do the same.

Last year I took a media training course with Wayne Kelly, Media training coach, extraordinaire. In the process, I met a gal named Sally Shields, also known as the Mother-In-Law Manager, author of the book, "The Daughter In Law Rules" By some coincidence, Sally and I are actually neighbors, living a few minutes apart. After meeting one day for lunch, we decided that we are a great team and decided to be buddies. Our plan is to take the media by storm and promote our work to empower women.
It turns out that we are a mutual admiration society for each other and Sally said the only difference between us is that I haven't finished my book. So she challenged me to get it done and thanks to her inspiration, I am so close, only two chapters away now.

My Take on Being a "Bad Girl"

I’ve got to say, now I really dig the phrase being a “bad girl”, because to me it is so incredibly freeing to be able to look at an old former limiting belief of mine stemming from a history of sexual abuse where I spent years thinking that I was indeed a bad girl. By believing that I was in any way responsible for the hurt that was perpetrated upon me by others, I wasted years feeling shameful about myself and my body.

Now thanks to EFT, I can associate a new meaning to the words, “Bad girl” or any other phrase or stinkin’ thinkin’ thought that used to get my panties in a twist. It’s so nice to know that I can choose to feel empowered, rather than disempowered.

The takeaway for you in this is to know that you, too can change your associations. You run your brain, nobody else. If something is causing a disconnect and creating some emotional pain for you, you now know that you don’t have to take it lying down. You can change the way you feel about yourself, your body, sex and anything else that doesn’t already feel good. “ Bad girl” That’s just my preference for words. You may not feel as inclined to enjoy the phrase as much as me. Nonetheless I’ll ask you to take my words with a grain of salt and as with everything else I’ve shared, run it through the filter of your own experience and see what works for you.

So let me ask you--would you like to learn to be a bad girl or some other fitting description that you may like more? When you get right down to it, would you like to enjoy sex more just because you deserve to have more fun?

Can "Being Bad" Really Be Good?

According to relationship expert, Marcia Martin, most women in the United States have grown up a little prudish, a little conservative, fearing their sexuality, judging women who like sex as “bad girls.” We cover ourselves up. We don’t talk about it. We pretend it doesn’t happen. “

In places like Europe, the Netherlands, South America, girls are brought up to know that sex is a good thing and being sexy is part of being a woman. In these countries, the women recognize and revel in the knowledge that they’re sexy. They love to flirt, tease, laugh and play with men. They don’t try to hide the fact that they’re sexy or that they want something.

If the idea of having more sex and being more sexual gets you just about as hot and bothered as a trip to the dentist, then I’ll encourage you to put on your detective hat and find out what makes you feel that way. Think about what pops up for you when you think of enjoying more sex and being what Keesling calls a “bad girl.”

What are you thinking about? Is it a junkie strung out on drugs desperate for her next fix, a trashy streetwalker, a woman on the prowl engaging in dangerous one night stands, a gal with no self control unable to say “NO” having lots of indiscriminate sex, the image of the other woman who can’t get off unless she’s with some other woman’s man or maybe you’re thinking that enjoying more sex means that you would have to seek validation outside of yourself and give away pieces of your self esteem to your partner. Not so.

Not Tonight, Honey...

“Not tonight, honey. I have a headache” How many times have you used that very phrase or some other variation on that theme, as a sneaky way of getting out of being intimate or having sex? Not tonight, honey,… ! I’ll bet dollars to donuts we’ve all said that and can relate to not being in the mood, feeling pressured, and not being up to it. But what happens when, “Not tonight, honey” becomes your mantra?

Energetically speaking, having a lack of desire for sex means that something is out of balance and your energy is not in alignment. In her book, “The Good Girl’s Guide to Bad Girl Sex: An Indispensable Guide to Pleasure and Seduction, author and Ph.D., Barbara Keesling, says, “ it is important that you start viewing your sexual appetite similarly to your physical appetite. Your sexual hunger is as natural as your physical hunger. Your sexual hunger is an innate part of who you are as a human being.”

Do you apologize for being hungry or having an appetite and wanting to eat to survive? Most likely not, because you recognize that you have to eat to live, and as we already know, food is a huge source of pleasure, but many times we feel inhibited by our sexual appetite. How many guys do you know who apologize for being horny? Probably not a single one.

Interview with Plus Size Model, Mia Amber Davis

Recently I’ve been altering the direction of my book, “Lovin’ the Skin You’re In: The Juicy Woman’s Guide to Making Peace with Food and Friends with Your Body” Because I am a practical woman seeking to provide easy do it yourself solutions for you, I've decided to give you even more goodies.

In addition to the bells and whistles of all the great coaching tools I provide in the book, there are tons of great hands on functional get it done now resources that pack my pages.

One of the women that I've interviewed is Mia Amber Long, a model, actress and producer who is a fierce activist for size acceptance. She’s the lovely face on all the Ashley Stewart campaign ads. Mia represents the new Butterfly Bra. If you're an ample bosomed woman who's tired of bras digging into your shoulders leaving horrible marks and grooves because your bra doesn't support the weight of your breasts all around then the Butterfly Bra is definitely for you.

In October 2008, Mia represented Plus Model Magazine as the Creative Editor at Large and answered a request to appear on an episode of Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency with a storyline of "helping Janice save the agency through the use of plus size models"

Success Leaves Clues: The Power of Role Models

Last year I walked into a Lane Bryant store to do some shopping, and for the first time, I noticed a poster of a woman shapely and curvy like me wearing a variety of outfits  the store carried. I later learned this is a plus model. (Pictured left is professional plus size model, Mia Amber Davis. she's one of the gals I interviewed as an expert for my book, "Lovin' the Skin You're In: The Juicy Woman's Guide to Making Peace with Food and Friends with Your Body.")

Being newly inspired by seeing the photo of the model, that day I broke out of my rut and bought a bunch of beautiful clothes because I was able to see a variety of different cuts, jewelry, colors and style combinations and visualize them on someone who actually looked like me.

The truth is it can be really tough to fit our curvy bodies and shopping in the wrong stores can be a harrowing experience. If you’ve ever tried to squeeze into a pair of pants two size smaller, you know what I mean. Most national stores carry plus sizes but let’s be honest, they’re ugly as all holy hell. For the most part, plus size clothing has been sadly ignored for years, despite the fact that we make up 65% of the entire market.

Shape Shifting: Reclaiming Your Perfect Body

“At every moment, your body is in the best condition that your mindset allows.“

-         Lisa Bonnice, author of Shape Shifting: Reclaiming Your Perfect Body

If you want to feel better about anything in your life, you have to change the way that you think about it. Remember, your body's listening. In your body, you have chemical messengers that tell your brain how you will feel about the thoughts that you think. These are called neuropeptides.

Based on the quality of your thoughts, your body responds to the messages. Whenever we think a thought or speak a word that is hurtful or negative, the chemicals that are produced in your body suppress your immune system and eventually you will get sick. If you continually reinforce the message, I'm fat and I'll never change, your body listens and will manifest that too. Instead you can say, "Every day I'm making more progress and moving closer and closer to my natural comfortable weight."

Lisa Bonnice is the author of a book called Shape Shifting: Reclaiming Your Perfect Body. She’s an example of a woman who has been successful in using the principles of the law of attraction to shift her shape and become thinner without dieting.

Think Thin and Tap into "The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe

If you’re like most women you’ve probably been trying unsuccessfully for years to reshape your body through diet, deprivation and exercise. The problem is that it’s not your thighs in need a makeover, it’s your thoughts. You’ve been taught to think like a fat person, and to paraphrase Dr. Nancy Bonios, “you can’t be thin, if you’re thinking fat.

Intention Expert and best selling author of several books including The Intention Experiment, Lynne McTaggart says, “Your self talk has become equivalent to sending yourself a consistent stream of negative intention.”

To neutralize that negativity, you have to learn how to set a powerful intention by changing the focus of your thoughts. If your goal is to get thinner as you eat the foods you love, then you must learn how to use the power of your mind to create your ideal body from the inside out. The only thing that holds us back from using the power of intention and focused meditation to shape our bodies is a limiting belief. We wonder does it really work?

Lynne McTaggart  is an American Investigative journalist who is the award-winning author of five books, including the international bestselling sensations  The Field and  The Intention Experiment. She is an internationally recognized spokesperson on the science of spirituality.