Expert Tuneup
Dayna Spitz, Professional Fashion Stylist

Denim Dilemma

One of the most popular requests I get from my clients is to help them find the perfect pair of jeans!  With so many brands to choose from, it can be a totally overwhelming experience! Not to mention, within each brand there are tons of different names, shapes, style and finishes. It’s no surprise that when I was the Jeans Whisperer at last years LUCKY SHOPS event the women were lined up 2 feet deep waiting for me to help them find that perfect pair of jeans!!!!  

And let me tell you, I think I saw every shape out there---from round, lean and everything in between!  And I am happy to report that every single woman left with a smile on her face and a new pair of amazing jeans that she looked hot in!  I am told that 800 pairs of jeans sold over the weekend!

The first step is to grab your most brutally honest girlfriend (you know, the one who has no problem telling you when your butt looks as big as a house…in a loving way of course).  Be prepared to try on tons of jeans, (after all, Rome wasn’t built in a day) then get ready and hit the stores! 

Here’s a simple guideline for you to follow:

1. Don’t be over influenced by trends.  The shape of your body should be the determining factor for what style and brand you buy….not necessarily what style or brand your favorite celebrity is wearing!!

2. Size Matters!  Pay attention to back pocket size and placement.  A good guideline is to avoid small pockets that are set close together if you are well endowed in the bottom region; they will emphasize your butt! If you have a small rear, go for back pockets with lots of detail like flaps…a great way to add some extra padding.

3. Look for Lycra.  It will help the denim retain it’s shape so they won’t stretch out so quickly, and will make them more comfortable.  But be careful, denim with too much stretch can also emphasize cellulite.

4. Splurge if you can!  A great fitting pair of jeans doesn’t come cheaply.  However, when you break it down by cost per wear, you totally get your money’s worth! 

5. Make sure to tell the tailor to use the original hem when shortening your new pair of fabulous jeans.  That is the #1 mistake most people make.  Almost all jeans have either a distressed or unique hem, and when it gets chopped off, they just never look the same!

Remember, the perfect pair of jeans exists for everyone!
Good luck and most importantly, HAVE FUN!!!

xxDayna 

Dayna Spitz is a leading authority on fashion and style. With over 15 years of experience as a fashion editor, she now spends her days enthusiastically showing women around the country how to create their own style and step into their greatness (with the right shoes.. of course)!

Whether Dayna is scoping out the latest looks or coming to the rescue of a fashion fiasco, she always has great style solutions that are creative and clever.  For more information go to www.daynaspitz.com 

Spirit Tuneup
Angelica Mercado, Newark, NJ Facilitator

Simply The Best

“You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” – Unknown

How often do we spend our time and energy trying to give our love away to those who are sometimes undeserving of it, while we ourselves continue to starve for our own love and affection? What are you currently doing for yourself to ensure you are giving yourself all the love you know you need and deserve? Do you take the time everyday to treat yourself like the Queen that you are?
 
This month’s focus is on self love. You want to make sure you do something every day that reminds you of the immense love you have for yourself.  Personally, I like to take a few moments every day to love myself while listening to Tina Turner’s song “Simply the Best”.

You can decide what would work best for you. You can do this while taking time out for a nice bath at the end of the evening; or maybe you want to play your favorite song and dance and sing as if no one is watching; or you can just look at yourself in the mirror, give yourself a huge hug and tell that incredible woman in the reflection how much you love her and all that she stands for.

The goal this month is to remind yourself of the beautiful, special and gifted woman you are and all that you have to offer, not only to yourself, but to the world.

Take a few moments, sit back, and think about all of the things that make you unique and special.

• Think about how wonderful you are and all that you have to offer.
• Think about the amazing gifts the world is waiting for you to share.
• Do not shy away from it, stay fully present and allow the love to flow.
• Allow your love to wash over you and overflow in your heart.
• Do not be afraid to allow your emotions to run like a river filling every cell in your body.
• You are a woman: free and open
• Open your heart, mind and soul: YOU DESERVE THIS

Remember to remain fully present during those moments when you are expressing self love. Allow the troubles of the world to dissolve around you. Nothing else exists, except for yourself and this immense feeling of love.  Do this every day and watch your love grow larger.

Eventually it will penetrate every aspect of your life and positively impact your relationship with yourself and your relationships with others.

“You come to me, give me everything I need. Give me a lifetime of promises and a world of dreams. Speak the language of love like you know what it means. And it can’t be wrong, take my heart and make it strong. You’re simply the best, better than all the rest, better than anyone, anyone I’ve ever met!” – Tina Turner

Business Tuneup
Oludee Ajayi, Southern CT Facilitator

Balancing your professional and personal privacy on Social Networks such as Facebook.

With the explosion in the use of social networking tools such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and so on, it is important to be able to balance the use of it while keeping professional and personal lives separate.

Most of us use Facebook to stay in touch with friends, but are also Facebook “friends” with professional contacts, and social acquaintances with whom we are not particularly close

Like the average Facebook user, you have most likely been  tagged in a variety of pictures; family pictures of yourself as a kid as well as pictures of yourself going out with the your fellow girlfriends. How do you balance sharing these pictures with those that are close to you while remaining professional with your work contacts and cordial with your acquaintances?

Think of social networking as a big highway that everyone has access to. Our profiles are a network of highways that we can decide to make available to people.

To effectively manage this, remember in life, there are public roads and there are private roads that you need special access to get to. Likewise on most social networking platforms, most of the profiles are public until you make them private.

We will use Facebook as an example.
 
You can create categories such as: Friends, Family and Professional. Once you do that, put each of your friends in the appropriate category. Then, set the properties for each of those categories so that each category can see only what you decide is relevant to them. If you want your family to have access to all your pictures and albums then you can set that up the property settings.  If you want your professional contacts to only have access to certain picture albums of where you have attended work events, then you can set that up as well.

You can even determine who has access write on your wall. All in all, if you take 5 minutes to manage your social networking preferences, you can have a liberating, safe and dually private and public social networking experience.

Relationship Tuneup
Susan Baker, Highlands Ranch, CO Facilitator

Tapping Into Feminine Energy

One of the challenges that we have today as women is being able to come home after a long day of working (whether in the home or outside the home) and take off our robe of what I like to call "kick butt energy," also known as more masculine energy, and get back to our core of femininity. Getting back to femininity is important to our relationships with the men in our lives. Feminine energy brings out the masculine energy in our men and encourages that spark of attraction that is so important to a successful relationship.

When women who are feminine at their core stay in their masculine energy there are potentially negative consequences. A woman with masculine energy and a man with masculine energy experience a lack of polarity, that is attraction from opposing forces coming together. At my last Tuneup event I learned that 20% of Americans live in a sexless marriage and I believe that lack of polarity is one cause of this! The other potential consequence of women displaying their masculine energy in their home is that your man may tap into his feminine energy to balance you and feel emasculated.

n order to avoid potential conflict and lack f attraction to their mate the man actually  takes on more of the role f feminine energy in the relationship. One of society’s most popular terms for this situation is when the woman “wears the pants in the family”. As women we will feel the best when we get back to our feminine core. It is where you will have the most energy, your relationship will be the most fulfilling and you will have the reserves to go out and "make it happen" in the world. There are some simple ways to tap back into your femininity. One of the easiest ways is to have a ritual when you arrive home at night. Some ideas for this ritual can be lighting candles, putting on feminine clothing or jewelry that makes you feel sexy.

Another way to get back to your feminine core is to put on some music and move your  body – yes, DANCE! You can dance in the privacy of your own room or in public if you’d like. Dancing is a very powerful way to tap into your feminine energy and womanly body. Some women also find that taking a long bubble bath brings them back to their feminine core, while others feel more feminine from wearing a certain perfume or smelling a special fragrance. So put on your date night perfume and breathe deeply!

This month, I challenge you to take a few minutes each night to find a ritual that works for you. Experiment, have some fun, and enjoy yourself! I promise you it will be worth the effort. Tap into your femininity, let your man take charge, and HAVE FUN!

Until next month, HAPPY LOVING!