Rendez-Vous and Support For YOU!

So as you’ve seen on here a lot lately, Rendez-Vous New England was this weekend, and I have been REALLY excited for it as it’s my first blogger meet-up!  I could not have been more elated and inspired by the ladies I met this weekend, and the amazing network of support they have already become for me!  Let me explain why this was all so perfect...

It’s my vision for ‘That’s Better’ to be a community of young women where we can all be striving to constantly improve something in our lives and support one another in those attempts.  Whether it’s building your self-esteem (which, let’s be honest, we can all use some days...), developing healthier, stronger relationships with other girls, striving to think more positively, or working to be physically healthier, the young women of ‘That’s Better’ are always trying to improve SOMETHING in their lives, and are always supportive and encouraging of everyone else who’s a part of the community.  

My point in bringing that up is that we can ALL use a little more positive encouragement and support in working towards our goals in life, and I’m not excluded from that group!  One of the main thoughts that has driven the development of ‘That’s Better’ is my own experience with depression and other battles I see girls fighting everyday that I know they can get through {because I’ve done it myself}.  

Of these challenges, one of the most paralyzing and insanely prevalent ones is self-doubt and negativity.

These kinds of thoughts are just consuming and can literally stop you from where you want to go in life if you don’t actively fight against them.  And you don’t have to do it alone!  There are soo many other girls who have been in that place and want to support you!!  Prime example: After meeting tons of great, new girls at Rendez-Vous and just explaining my idea for ‘That’s Better’ to them I garnered so much support it nearly brought me to tears!!  The echoing agreement that I received of how much we as young women need a place to:

-provide ways by which we can develop every aspect of our lives to live healthier and happier,

-see that others are going through or have gone through the same feelings/situations/mentalities that we are going through...and that they got through it {and so can we...}

-support one another in our goals and lives

was amazing!  I would be a phony if I said that I haven’t had immense thoughts of self-doubt and discouragement for this project, but my experiences this weekend have simply reaffirmed, even in my own mind, that the world needs ‘That’s Better’.  

I need ‘That’s Better’.

And it is my overwhelming gratitude to be the one to start it.

So join me, join us, in launching a movement in support of our health and in support of each other.  The world doesn’t need more women to compete, it needs more women to compliment.  And it’s our goal to see that happens, because THAT’S BETTER.  :)

With love,

Stephanie

Presentation with Typography

So I'm hard at work on some fun projects right now, and stumbled upon this amazing graphic on Typography I just had to share!  

With visual stimulators being the primary method through which we take in information, it is critically important to present things in visually the right way so as to appeal to your audience most effectively.  

Enjoy!

Check out the original post here: 

fastcodesign

'arry Potta

So this is definitely just a fun post, but I had to share it because it was so awesome!   

I'm definitely a Harry Potter movie fan, but to say that I'm in love with them goes a little too far.  On the other hand, my friend Chelsea LOOVES Harry Potter, and for the past 3 years has been hosting a Harry Potter party at her house for each of the past movies.  

And can I just say, Chelsea knows how to throw a party!!  That girl had the most delectable treats, all in Harry Potter theme of course, bubbling magic potions and even dark side tattoos we all put on so you'd know we were serious when we went to the midnight showing afterwards! :)

Some of Chels' delicious treats! 

On the way to the movie it came out that I've never read any of the books, nor seen any of the other films at a midnight showing.  To which the ever-hilarious Colleen responded, "So why are you here?!!"

Well Colleen, I was there for the tattoo!!  :)  How sweet is this bad boy?!

Here we are at the movie after it got out, proudly bearing our Death Eater tats. :)  In my opinion tey were wayy better than any of the costumes people wore.

But I may be biased... :)

It was a great experience for my first midnight showing of a movie!  Too bad no more Harry Potter movies so I could go to another one! :)

Community Health Events: Much Better!!

I love love loove events that encourage the community to be more active, and in my current practicum position @ Healthworks I've been able to promote numerous activities which focus on just that- getting people to get up and move it!  Most of these events are free classes which we normally have in the club but move outside for anyone to join in on!  (Think Zumba, kickboxing, etc...)

Our latest venture was an Urban Rebounding class at Copley Square, a beautiful community grass area across from one of my favorite buildings in Boston, the Boston Public Library.  Here are some pictures from the event, the weather was much more uncooperative than we wanted!!  Definitely wet from not just sweat but the rain!  Oh well, it felt kinda nice since it was a little warm!

I love these kinds of events so much because they model engaging, positive health behaviors to the community.  This is Public Health in ACTION!  This is AWESOME!!

This little boy was sooo cute!!!

Maria is awesome!!  Lovee her energy level, totally contagious!

Healthworks Marketing Department +1 Secret Weapon

This was one of the pictures we used for the promo materials.  Recognize those Thunder Thighs??! ;) 

Summer Bodies: Get One.

So I've finally looked past my paper due dates on my calendar and noticed that, hello!!, it's almost summertime!!  Time to bare it all at the beach... oh sh**!  haha  I've felt pretty good with the 15 or so lbs I've shed from moving to Boston (it's a walking city for sure) and being in grad school (aka I'm poor and have no money for food), but I'm definitely ready to finish the job!  So, as any burnt out student who's one semester away from graduation would, I spent class Wednesday night looking up awesome workouts (while still paying attention to Professor G. :) )  I found this gem of a combo from Women's Health called the Ultimate Beach Body Workout, and, duh, since it's going to take some Ultimate work to get this body in shape, I figured I could stop my search there.

So yesterday I went to Healthworks, an all women's fitness center with locations all around Boston, and the place I'm going to be doing my marketing/advertising practicum this summer (yay!  Oh I'm so stoked!) and hit it hard.  Normally I'm just a 60 min cardio/random free weight exercises kind of worker-outer, but yesterday I had the Ultimate Beach Body Workout to do!

Here's what it looks like:

I started with 30 min of cardio on the eliptical (looove it!) and then hit the bench for the workout.  It's a killer combo where you superset (do 2 exercises back to back then take a 1 min break) 4 different pairs of exercises.  All you need for the whole routine is a bench, 2 dumbbells (I alternated between 10 and 12.5 lbs), a mat and an exercise ball.  When I started, I felt like I could do a little more, so I ended up pushing my weights up a little bit, extending some of the reps, and adding weights to the lunges.

Today, I woke up feelin it, and it makes mah happy!  I highly recommend this one if you want to feel the burn all over and if you're pressed for time.  The actual workout itself only took maybe 20 min, so I decided to do another round of cardio afterwards just to reheat my muscles for some stretchin.  Need to get limber again!  :)

Since making goals public tends to help people commit to them, I'm plannin' on trackin' my progress on here with some pics, so just as a fair warning, you might want to skip over my next few posts to make sure you don't see my squeezable love handles and my thunder thighs, as my sister called them when I was growing up (Thanks, V!!!  Ya jerk!! :)  )

Better Movie Concepts: That's Better.

I've thought many times over the past 10 years how movie plots are just going down the drain as far as creativity is concerned.  I feel like every scriptwriter these days is busy either rewriting an old story or adapting a novel into a film.  It's so boring and dismal.  I've been thinking about that old dream I had when I was a little kid that I wanted to write movies when I was older, and I honestly still think I could do better than what's being put out right now.

I was reading in bed the other night and had the TV on mute in the background and looked up to see the trail for Water for Elephants.  Since the sound was off I couldn't tell what was being said, and I have to admit, the movie looked really captivating.  It reminded me of older movies like Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken and Moulin Rouge where screenplays were more dramatic and took you back in time to a new perspective from our world.  I later saw the trailer again but with the sound on and was highly disappointed about it being a typical chick flick story line about a girl in a relationship who falls in love with someone else and wants out.  Borringg.

User-Friendly Technological Innovations: That's Better

So I'm trying to get more in the up on technological innovations, and we're startin' real small here with RSS feeds and TinyURLs.  Super simple stuff that I just haven't cared enough about to start using.  SO!  In case you're sometimes considered a part of the 'Late Majority' or fall under the 'Traditionalist' label like me (see Diffusion of Innovations Theory for more) here's the brief!

RSS
Real difficult..haha Not really, it's the opposite.  Real Simple Syndication.  Basically, it's a listing of what's new to sites since the last time you visited them.  It's the concept behind GoogleReader, one of my favorite google products.  It allows you to basically build your own magazine, based on the websites you enter.  It automatically takes the RSS feeds from all of the sites you enter and allows you to view them at your convenience without having to go to each individual page!  It's perfect for anyone who frequents sites with RSS feeds.

The down side, however, is that some sites don't have such feeds, so you have to go directly to their site in order to see what's new.  Hope you really like 'em, cause if not, it's easy to keep track of all your favorite sites and remember to visit them all.  Want to learn more?  Go here.

TinyURL
I've recently joined the twitter craze and it was only a matter of time before this one came about!  As everyone knows, if you're on twitter your tweets are limited to 140 characters or less.  Thus, posting a url link to a page can be burdensome if the url is especially long, as they often are.  Que www.tinyurl.com.  It's like a foreign translating site for your url link.  You put in what you want to say in less characters (aka original url) and it spits out how to say it in shortlink (aka tinyurl)!  Super easy!

It allows me to turn this url: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/495410
Into this tinyurl!: http://tinyurl.com/48upp9n


And they both lead to the same place!  Fabulous.  Want to learn more?  Go here. 


Alright, time to get back to my paper on breach of confidentiality.  It's crazy, last semester I was super into law and my legal future as it related to health, and now I'm obsessed with marketing and advertising!  Dr. Michael Siegel in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department has really done a number on my career path with his amazingly engaging and, for me, now somewhat consuming course!  Bravo!!  :)

Justice: That's Better.

I came out of a networking event on campus the other day to see this and thought it so justified since I get probably 1 ticket a month in this damn city.

Too bad the truth of the matter is this cop most likely could get it dismissed with the wave of his hand. If only justice were real...

The Tiny Piney: That's Better.

I've been getting into unique edible plants as I've begun to plant my garden for this year (one of my favorite things about summer!) and I ran into the 'Tiny Piney', a relatively modern GMO which was originally developed to provide a fast growing source for its smell to be used in the fragrance industry. It's most often consumed in New Guinea by being dipped in a coconut milk and beetle shell batter and deep fried. While that wouldn't be how I would consume it, (not the biggest fan of beetles... ever) I am adoring this miniature version of my favorite Christmas aroma. Oh, and FYI, it is only 2 cm when full grown!