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Women in Business, Changing Lives, Building Communities & Taking Leadership

January February 2017

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FROM 3906

I believe each day gives us something; a few minutes of afternoon light casting intricate shadows on a dining room wall, or a delicious Pesto because the basil got knee-high. Maybe some things broke my heart....... I write about them all. My name is Becca. I live in Dallas but I left my heart in Florence, Italy. I'd like to thank you for reading.

From3906.blogspot.com

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The mission at Hope’s Seed is multidimensional in s cope and a big job for founder Shelley Simon , who also has a beautiful daughter, Zoe, with special needs.

Thus, she has first -hand knowledge of what families go through on a regular basis. and her goal is to plant seeds of hope and to show families they are not alone. The vision created by Ms. Simon for Hope’s Seed to:

To inspire families of children with special needs to know that there is hope in every situation, To support, educate, and encourage families of children, To promote a philosophy of normalcy for children with special needs, To educate medical professionals regarding the importance of support for families, To enrich the lives of children, To connect communities and families with special needs children in order to promote understanding, To empower families to look outside of their own issues in order to support other families with special needs children. .

Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, Texas has four (4) ICU floors, six (6) Critical Care Step Down Units and general pediatric floors that can care for an average number of 495 children at one time. Hospital Inpatient programs include specialized feedings/nutrition, rehabilitation and pulmonary programs.

Children’s Medical Center has an Intensive day patient program which includes a neuro-day program and a feeding day program. In 2014, approximately 6 million children in America receive special education, according to the U.S. Department of Education. One out of every 10 children under the age of 14 has some type of special need, which includes any physical, cognitive, or medical disability, or chronic or life threatening illness.

Donate now to help us provide ongoing, uplifting programs with a special touch to critically ill children and their families.

E-mail: shelleycolquitt@hopesseed.com US: (214)673-7047

January February 2017 ON THE COVER The 2017 femmes INTERNATIONAL Achievement Award Winners Congratulations femmes!

Photography by Melinda Cooper, Becca Menig & Susan Hamilton

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Publisher & Editor femme = femme, sister = sister Robin & Becca

The Top 10 Reasons You Can’t Lose Weight That the Experts Haven’t Told You

By Betty Murray

Are you stuck in a weight loss rut, or a cycle of weight loss/weight gain/weight loss/weight gain?

If you are struggling to lose weight and keep it off—and if you are, you’re no doubt frustrated—your inability to shed those unwanted pounds might be due to one or more of these factors.

Here are the top 10 reasons you aren’t losing weight: 1. You are eating a one-size-fits-all-diet without taking into consideration, the diet your genetics was designed to eat.

Genetics may predispose you to being overweight or obese. There are several genetic mutations that can cause weight gain, and it’s by understanding these mutations and which, if any, you may have, that you can find the right gene-based diet that is tailored to your genetic predispositions, such as metabolism and taste preferences, to help you lose more weight and keep it off.

2. You think your weight loss resistance is because your metabolism is slow and you must have a slow thyroid.

Slow metabolism and slow thyroid may contribute to weight gain, but the answer to your weight loss resistance may actually be found in your hormones, four in particular: adiponectin, ghrelin, insulin, and cortisol. Here is an explanation of how these four hormones affect weight gain, from Dr. Steven Sisskind, founder of RealDose Nutrition.

Adiponectin — This is the hormone that tells your body to burn fat for fuel. Not enough adiponectin and you will find it more difficult to melt away unwanted fat and keep a slim waistline. The more fat you have, the less adiponectin, so if you need to burn fat, you’ve got to boost adiponectin levels. To do so, first increase your metabolism intake.

Ghrelin — Also known as the hunger hormone, ghrelin is the hormone that tells your body you are hungry and causes cravings. Ghrelin also activates the brain’s positive response to sweet and fatty foods. It’s easy to see how too much ghrelin could be a problem. The good news is that lowering ghrelin can be as simple as getting more sleep. Research shows that sleep deprivation increases ghrelin levels and more body fat storage. If you aren’t getting between six and eight hours of sleep a night, it’s time to adjust your schedule to give your body the rest it needs and you’ll notice a difference around your middle.

Insulin — Insulin resistance or imbalance causes excess glucose (sugar) in the body. An insulin imbalance isn’t necessarily a sure sign you are diabetic, but it does mean that your body is not effective at lowering blood sugar levels. If you have insulin resistance, losing fat can be next to impossible, but one simple trick may help your body better metabolize carbs and reduce blood glucose levels. One study suggests that consuming two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar before a high-carb meal will significantly reduce blood glucose levels and may even be as effective as prescription drugs at regulating blood sugar.

Cortisol — Also known as the stress hormone, cortisol is produced in response to stress.

Excess cortisol levels will increase your cravings for sweets and carbs and cause you to feel constantly hungry. Cortisol also causes your body to break down muscle tissue instead of fat, for energy, which isn’t doing anything for your waistline as the more muscle you have, the more effective your body will be at burning fat. High cortisol levels can also cause the body to store more fat in the abdominal area and has also been linked to depression in both children and adults. If your cortisol levels are out of whack, cut out caffeine, get more exercise, and practice breathing exercises to reduce your stress level.

3. Your gut bacteria—the microbiome—and antibiotic use has made your gut a fat making machine.

Changes in gut bacteria can raise or lower the efficiency of your body’s digestive system.

Antibiotics are used to accelerate weight gain in livestock, and antibiotics may be doing the same thing to you.

In a study comparing normal mice to mice with a genetic defect rendering them unable to produce lymphotoxin—a molecule that regulates interactions between the immune system and gut bacteria—the mice lacking lymphotoxin did not gain extra weight, even on a high-fat diet, while the mice that did produce lymphotoxin gained more weight.

What does this mean? Essentially, an increase in good bacteria in the gut is correlated with weight loss (or at least not gaining weight). The fewer bacteria you have in your gut, the more likely you are to gain weight.

4. You may have genetic mutations in how your body metabolizes amino acids — proteins—and the CBS genes that may lead to weight gain.

People with high levels of the amino acid cysteine carry 6-10 kilograms more fat than people with low cysteine levels. It is not clear if cysteine levels are determined purely by genetics, or if diet also influences cysteine. Research on this could help to prevent and treat life-threatening obesity.

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“Lord, be with those families of those police officers.�

He Has a Gun! Run!

By Robin Roberson

When the shooting started at the Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas on that fateful evening of July 7, 2016, Shetamia Taylor shouted at her four sons to run. “They started running up the block and I was running behind them and I felt the bullet,” she stated quietly. Her last vision was of her eldest son, Kavion Washington, grabbing Jermar, her youngest, by the shirt front and throwing him down behind a stone pillar at a parking garage. Moments before, the 12 year old who wants to be a policeman, had beamed while marching and exclaimed to his mother, “I’m making history!”

Taylor had been shot from behind, in her right calf. Still standing, she looked to a police officer ahead of her, a heavyset, balding white man. Then he was shot, too.

When asked why she took her sons to this protest rally, especially after all the dissention around the country, she explained, “I raised my sons in a Christian home and have always taught them to respect themselves. If they do that, then they will respect others. After seeing senseless fear which lead to death, I wanted to show my sons that you should respect anyone in authority whether it be a police person, teacher, minister. Repeatedly I have told them to call home if they were ever stopped or in an unsettling situation; but to always be polite and respectful and most of all to do what they are asked. The situation can be discussed after all calms down.”

Taylor admired police but was increasingly disturbed by the recent spate of police shootings involving black men, and she feared for her boys. It had been her idea to go to the protest, the family’s first, which she saw announced on Facebook. She felt it would be a learning experience.

Taylor is not an activist, protestor or even very outspoken. She and her family live in Garland, a Dallas suburb, and she works as a customer service representative for a national retailer. She likes her job and cannot wait to get back to work, which is still weeks away. Laughing she said, “We don’t know our way around downtown Dallas and had to follow GPS to even get there.”

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Amid the spray of bullets, this mother

frantically

threw

herself in front of her children as the boys tried to run to safety. She was shot in the leg while shielding her 15 year old son on the ground. The other three boys scattered.

The policeman in front of Taylor shouted, “He has a gun!

Run!” All she could think about was her sons as she watched them dart in different directions.

After she was shot, Taylor managed to grab her 15 year old son, Andrew Humphrey, and push him between a car and the curb, shielding him with her body.

“I was just laying on top of him,” she said. “If it was going to happen to one of my sons, it was going to happen to me first.” She watched police stream up the block toward them and the shooting. One of them shouted, “Is anybody hit?” Andrew yelled no, unaware that his mother was injured. Taylor didn’t want to alarm him, and called out quietly to one of the officers, “Yes Sir, I’m hit in my leg.” Adrenaline pumping, she would not realize the severity of her wound until a short time later.

Police rushed over, most of them white officers, and jumped on top of her and Andrew. With a far off look in her eye, she calmly remembers, “There was a policeman at our feet and another one over our heads and several of them lying against a wall. And they just stayed there with us. I had never seen anything like that before, the way they came around us and guarded us like that.”

Andrew was crying for police to move them, but they said it wasn’t safe. “It is not at all like you see on TV. Loud, scary, surreal. It must be like war,” she said as she recounted the ordeal. “It was hundreds of rounds, shots all around us.”

When the police decided it was time to move them to a nearby patrol car and get her to a hospital, she could see her leg was “riddled with bullets.”

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It appeared a scene out of a Hollywood movie: the automobile was covered with bullet holes, the car’s tires were flat and they were driving on rims. She remembers the driveway lined with medical personnel and police, and outside the emergency room, Taylor could see a police officer on a gurney.

Hours later she learned the fate of her other three sons, ages 12, 14, and 18, and of the dozen officers shot, five of them fatally, by 25 year old Micah Xavier Johnson who wanted to kill white people, especially white officers, in retribution for police killings of black men. But Taylor was only a mother of four black sons, who wanted to show them a peaceful protest could happen.

Later, she was just a loving mother who was determined that nothing would happen to her boys. “I just kept praying for everyone; for my sons to be safe, for the officers,” she said.

The bullet had indeed fractured a bone in Taylor’s leg, but a surgeon repaired it with a metal plate and screws and said she would be able to walk in a few months. But her biggest concern continued to be the safety of her sons. She now says it felt bad to “be celebrating my kids being alive while I’m listening to how many officers didn’t make it. It hurt. Of course I was thankful that my babies were okay, but somebody’s dad, somebody’s husband, was not.”

Taylor and her strong, brave sons are all doing well. The memories exist, but they have resources, family, and professionals to help them through this time of healing. Her faith is strong and she knows they will make it through.

Reverent, thankful, and supportive of Dallas police officers, Taylor and her respectful sons praise those responders who gave no consideration to their safety but rather were totally concerned for all the citizens they were there to protect, especially them. Her family members report that all she kept repeating was, “Lord, be with those families of those police officers.” She said it over and over. And it was repeated many times as we spoke about that night in July.

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Mary Ann Thompson-Frenk, Consciously Shaping Our World

By Becca Menig

Once upon a time, a baby girl was born on Mother’s Day, at 7:11 a.m. Five days later, she was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. John Philp Thompson. Thompson was the eldest son of the founder, Joe C. Thompson, and at the time was the CEO of the Southland Corporation, commonly known as 7-Eleven.

outside Mexico City. As the polio threat moved closer, they all escaped to their friends’ ranch located even farther out from the city. There, her grandparents fell in love with the people and the culture and decided that when they could, they would return and build a home of their own.

Instrumental in Mary Ann Thompson-Frenk’s adoption, was Father William B. Wasson, who founded an orphanage near the Mexican town where the Thompson house, referred to as Casa Thompson, was built by her grandparents. When a polio epidemic hit Dallas, her grandparents were invited by friends to seek refuge in their home just

“The story that we’re told today,” says Thompson-Frenk, is that the grandparents drove and drove looking at land, her grandmother exclaiming, “Further, further,” until finally her grandfather stopped when they were in the middle of nowhere and said, “I’m not going any further.” There was a big, flat rock on a hill and he said, “That is 19

as far as we’re going, and you can choose any piece of land that’s for sale out here, except that rock.” “So of course,” she explains, “my grandmother said, ‘I want the rock,’ and so that rock is where we built Casa Thompson.

At the time, the only thing in that area was a monastery and my grandparents were very social people and they always loved having people over for dinner, so that meant, they had a lot of monks for dinner! One of the monks was Fr. Wasson and he spent a lot of time with my grandfather and my dad. They quickly became very, very close friends and they influenced each other’s lives greatly.”

homework as she thought of them--and in one column were countries listed, in another were amounts of money ranging from fifteen cents to twenty-five dollars. “What is this about?” she asked. He explained that the shareholders wanted to manufacture something but they didn’t want to do it for more than seven dollars and fifty cents. His daughter said, “Well then, go to the people asking for the least at fifteen cents and then give them the seven dollars and fifty cents you already have approved; you change everyone’s life and you’ve done something good and your shareholders are happy too.”

Just after, her father got on his knees, close to her so they made eye contact, and he said, “Thank you for reminding me what my job in this world is.”

The younger Thompsons had tried to adopt, but with little notice had been denied adoption of twins because they were of a different race. Grandmother Thompson suggested they reach out to Fr. Wasson, which they did, and when this baby girl was born that day and time, Fr. Wasson said, “I think God has other plans for you.”

Thompson-Frenk’s childhood visions for globalization grew with her, and she is today, the Co-founder/President of the Memnosyne Institute in Dallas, Texas. “The mission of the Memnosyne Institute is to help the diverse people of the world consciously encourage an evolution for themselves and for future generations by providing humanity with the means to encourage positive, peaceful global collaboration in seven main areas of knowledge.”

John Thompson made a pointed decision to raise this second daughter like he raised his sons. Thompson-Frenk recalls sitting in his office when he had meetings, her father instructing, “Don’t say anything. Observe.

I’m going to quiz you later.”

“When they would leave,” she says he would ask, “Who had something to offer that they didn’t put on the table? Who was lying? Who was nervous?” Her father taught her how to read body language, how to take command of a room by the way she entered, how to stand, to articulate. “It was a different kind of education, but he said this is what men have taught their sons forever.”

Global and Local Outreach Interfaith Inquiry & Innovations Indigent Cultures Spirituality Art Health & Medicine

The teacher-student role reversed one day when, in fourth grade, she was looking at her father’s stack of business papers--his

Environment, Science, Economics & Technology 20

we buy something, how we interact, the decisions we make on a daily basis, are building the culture around us. Now, more than ever, we are creating that world. It’s really not a choice of whether you want to do it or not. You’re doing it by being alive in this time. The question becomes, ‘Are you going to create the world around you consciously or unconsciously?’”

That question and others are put to the young people of the world by the Nexus Global Youth Summit. Nexus is an international organization of millennial philanthropists, soon to inherit the majority of the world’s wealth. Thompson-Frenk says, “A humanitarian has to be a conscious capitalist as well as a philanthropist. You can’t make your money hurting people. How you’re making money has to be as important as how you donate it.”

As people, we focus on different issues and interests, with wealths of information to be shared. One exercise Thompson-Frenk offers, to help people understand how we connect, is demonstrated with a ball of yarn.

She asks who is concerned with environmental issues and hands go up so the yarn is passed with each person holding on as it passes. But that we can’t talk about environmental issues without talking about economics raises more hands and the yarn continues to go around. Economics are influenced by human rights issues and human rights issues can break down into diversity concerns such as gender, and then there are faith issues and more. The human graph of yarn has, in the end, visibly shown how connected each issue is to another and how our approach needs to be viewed as such in order for strategic solutions to be viable.

Mary Ann Thompson-Frenk’s story, from birth to this day, may seem to some like a fairytale come true. “I had nothing to do with having the opportunity that it gave me. It’s not earned,” she says. Many people beg to differ. As a steward of a fortune, determined to do and promote only good, she holds the rest of us up to high but achievable standards. “To be given this opportunity means the opportunity for an education, the opportunity to meet and fall in love with my husband, the opportunity for all the different things that helped create my life, respective. All of these things came about because of one moment. It creates a great deal of gratitude.”

“It’s a very exciting time where we get to consciously shape our world the way we want it. To me, one of the best ways to serve humanity is to try and help all people become Conscious Cultural Creators. How

Becca Menig, www.from3906.blogspot.com

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Shattering the Asphalt Ceiling Awesome, dynamite, unbelievable, amazing, outstanding ... all describe Danielle Girdano, D’fine Your Health physical trainer and radio show host who shattered the 44 day world record for cycling Across America from

Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years.

Chicago to Los Angeles on Route 66. She did it in only 23 days and made it look easy.

benefit multiple areas of life,” states Girdano.

The percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 18% in 2012.

Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12– 19 years who were obese increased from 5% to nearly 21% over the same period.

As an overweight child who was ridiculed, she shares her story and

In 2012, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese.

But easy it was not! Danielle's belief that all of us need to be healthier, live healthier, eat healthier led her to this journey to bring attention to obesity the and bullying. “It's the small steps that lead to giant leaps. In reaching your greatest potential goals, both external & internal are equally as important as short and long term timelines. Qualities that

motivation to audiences across the country. This grueling ride only shows that you can do whatever you want as long as you're dedicated and you prepare well for the journey.

As a trainer/coach, Danielle approaches each client with the same doggedness and as her ride, focus for an extremely positive outcome. She says we make choices and her goal is to help as many people as possible make the healthier ones, especially for children. Danielle can be found sharing health tips, advice, conversing with experts in related industries and inspiring others through her radio show, D’Fine Your Health with Danielle Girdano on PegasusNetWaves.com and by following the Highway for Health (.org). Change It!

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Overweight is defined as having excess body weight for a particular height from fat, muscle, bone, water, or a combination of these factors. Obesity is defined as having excess body fat.

Overweight and obesity are the result of “caloric imbalance”— too few calories expended for the amount of calories consumed—and are affected by various genetic, behavioral, and environmental factors.

People with diabetes frequently experience certain symptoms.

These include:



being very thirsty



frequent urination



weight loss



increased hunger



blurry vision



irritability



tingling or numbness in the hands or feet



frequent skin, bladder or gum infections



wounds that don't heal



extreme unexplained fatigue

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a disease in which the body is unable to properly use and store glucose (a form of sugar).

Glucose backs up in the bloodstream — causing one’s blood glucose (sometimes referred to as blood sugar) to rise too high.

There are two major types of diabetes. In type 1 (formerly called juvenile-onset or insulin-dependent) diabetes, the body completely stops producing any insulin, a hormone that enables the body to use glucose found in foods for energy. People with type 1 diabetes must take daily insulin injections to survive. This form of diabetes usually develops in children or young adults, but can occur at any age.

Type 2 (formerly called adult-onset or non-insulin-dependent) diabetes results when the body doesn’t produce enough insulin and/or is unable to use insulin properly (insulin resistance). This form of diabetes usually occurs in people who are over 40, overweight, and have a family history of diabetes, although today it is increasingly occurring in younger people, particularly adolescents.

Myth #1: Diabetes is caused by eating too much sugar. Myth #2: Taking insulin means you have “failed.”

Myth #3: If you have diabetes, you can’t lead an active lifestyle. Myth #4: Injecting insulin is painful.

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Are Your Knees Knockin’?

By Susan Hamilton Ever get so scared you tremble? See yourself walking to the front of an unfriendly room to share bad news and possibly be recorded, shared on social media and ostracized?

Yeah, it could happen to you.

You saw it, didn’t you? You understood exactly how awful that would be, in just a sentence that created a picture AND an emotion in your mind.

We have this habit of creating picture stories for ourselves. Without any way of knowing the outcome, we think that if we imagine the worst case scenario, we’ll be safer somehow. We use our imaginations to conjure up all the meddlesome details and things that could go wrong until we might actually talk ourselves out of that opportunity or strategy or relationship or next step.

We do it all the time.

We do it for our kids, our husbands, friends and coworkers. We do it not even realizing we do it. We do it in everyone’s ‘best interest’.

But the future is unknown. Whether the awful sequence you imagine happens or not, the time you spent worrying about it was stolen from you. In truth, you have no way of knowing whether your worst case scenario OR the most incredible and amazing thing EVER would play out.

Isn’t it weird how we gravitate to worry and doubt, and call that being careful? Isn’t it strange that people around us are so willing to pour water on our anticipation of an amazing experience, in the hopes that they keep us from getting our hopes up?

Yeesh! I’ve so heard enough of that garbage. If either way, you have no idea what the outcome will be, how is it any worse to expect good things? And on top of that, your imagination happens to have a purpose. You create everything you experience first in your mind, and then through your words. You MUST have extreme vision because it evokes passion and fire that you do not have when you expect the worst.

Passion keeps us in the game when it inevitably gets hard. Vision keeps us focused when every cell in our brain is looking for a way out. Stick-to-it-iv-ness, as my grandfather would call it, is something our culture

lacks today. We’re too fluffy. We want to feel good throughout the process and we want everything we endeavor or consider embarking upon to make us ‘happy’.

But the reality is that if it doesn’t make you tremble, if it doesn’t make you a little - or a LOT - scared as hell, it will never grow you into who you need to be to manage success. Ever watch a plant coming out of the dirt? It will ALWAYS stretch to the sun. It knows what encourages its growth. Do you?

Ask yourself, “If everything I ever wanted happened today, could I manage the volume? Could I manage the task force? Could I manage the record-keeping? Could I manage the celebrity?”

Because odds are, you have a few steps to take before here becomes there. Change doesn’t feel good, friends. And we never stand still. We’re either growing or fading - nothing exists that’s just in-between.

Whether you are moving forward, achieving your dreams one step at a time, or refusing to move and therefore dwindling - both feel like hell. Neither is pleasant. You think forward motion should feel great, but eventually you will shake and shiver as you are faced with the next step. You think your safety zone is better than facing your fears, but the truth is you’re suffering, and it’s lonely and dark and helpless.

Both are painful, full of emotion, and horrifying.

But you get to choose. Every time. Good or evil, abundance or loss, integrity or deception, great big dreams or a money-pit that never develops into anything useful for anyone.

I’ve got news for ya. Your community needs a powerful, capable, influential, lucrative YOU. That will never happen without a major leap. It will feel like a fault line just broke, but it’s really a breaking free of all the things that held you back. Don’t freak out, keep going!

Children, women, and men are hungry, abused, uneducated, untrained, in need of clothes and a place to live, and the solution lies not only in the beautiful hands of those who are willing to reach out physically in spite of their own circumstance, but the solution lies MAINLY in the ability of the business sector willing to shake a bit. More money = more time = everything necessary to solve the problems we face in our families, communities and organizations.

When your knees knock, will you be willing to imagine that everything you need is available to you to conquer and solve? Will you be willing to imagine laughing at your screw ups so your attitude doesn’t alienate the people you love? Will you be willing to go forward, even if it hurts?

Practice this: Look in the mirror. Square your shoulders. Raise your head. SMILE. Look yourself right in the eye and say, “TODAY, I am one step closer to the life I desire, to the purpose inside me, and I am capable of successfully addressing all I encounter. Today, I am not afraid to do something new, to stretch beyond my limitations and to raise the bar.”

Susan Hamilton is the owner, host and 214-714-0495 or Susan@OffBeatBusiness.com

editor

of

The

OffBeat

Business

And then remember to go encourage somebody else.

It’s hard out there.

Show

&

Magazine

“Walk into the Sunset” for Autism

By Deborah Ricci

So, once again, an evening to remember, with the unbeatable collaboration of Binzario Couture and “Round-Up for Autism” was hosted by The Space, in downtown Dallas. Everyone rallied to further the dream of getting crucial care for kids and their families all over Dallas Fort Worth. In addition, you couldn’t help but be touched, moved, and inspired by the breathtaking designs that graced the runway, all for the sake of raising essential funds and heightening awareness for this very worthy cause.

I’m sure you would agree … it’s all about location, location, location … and that is exactly why an esteemed gathering of colorful and committed guests came to support the incredible work the Autism Treatments Centers of Texas is tirelessly providing all over the DFW area. This dedicated group of people, headed up by Bobby Norris, its founder, Gina Marx, the executive director, and a cast of many others, are making it their business to ensure that everyone who attends, has the opportunity to get the much needed help they deserve. And, with one in every 68 children being diagnosed with autism, there is an overwhelming need for a great deal of funding, to be able to provide the kind of care families need.

Therapies of all kinds are being used to create amazing breakthroughs. For instance, children with social deficits are being helped with the implementation of robotics. This innovative method is being used to help them move into a more comfortable place and be able to communicate more easily, thus increasing their language and communication skills.

Over the past 25 years, there has been a core of 10 very generous people who have kept this ship afloat.

However, as we know, it takes an entire crew of very devoted and skilled people to make sure the vessel stays upright. And, for that to happen, fundraising is an absolute must if they are to continue providing the expert services of their remarkable crew.

Nathan and Lindsey Witherell, just one of many grateful couples, have been the recipients of exemplary care for their son who was completely non-verbal when he first arrived. He has experienced an unbelievable amount of growth that they attribute to the work that is continually offered at the Autism Treatment Centers.

It was my pleasure to personally witness the Texas sized hearts that came and supported this lovely and exciting event. It was a multicolored evening of awakening, all wrapped up in the uplifting promise of a brighter tomorrow for autistic children everywhere!

Deborah Ricci is a fashion stylist and freelance writer living in McKinney with her husband Wil. She continues to count her many blessings each and every day.

Beauty All Around You!

By Melinda Cooper As we enjoy the changing of the weather, I look around my humble home and realize life is all about beauty. Yes, that is right: beauty of the tree bending with the wind or the magnificent flower allowing the soft wind to flow through the petals.

I look also at many businesses, seeing the beauty from their very beginnings. Look at the various entrepreneurs who work in the world, spreading their beauty while helping others. They build, they create, they shift, and they grow simply as nature in their own realm.

Pay close attention to the ins and outs of how business works: it goes like the natural flow of the ocean.

In then out, it stirs from deep within while taking in the fullness of its surrounding, creating the life of the business to blossom and grow as others are ready to move forward.

Many entrepreneurs who begin small, grow into a bigger circle, collaborating with other entrepreneurs and building a space to nurture and support yet others. There are many entrepreneurs who begin their business as a helping hand to immediately nurture others to grow and spread their wings as quickly as possible. They become the music of blending different forces, different views, and different voices, together, in order to continue to grow.

Yes, just as in nature, entrepreneurs have a time for growth, a time for creating, and a time for accepting what has been brought to their table.

I take a special trip at the beginning of every April, to Florida, to soak up the sun, the beach, and the magnificence of the mighty ocean, while I get ready to revamp my business. I go to be with family and rejuvenate the love that stands so many times as my support, as I go through my business year. Yes, I sit and listen to what the ocean has to say. I hear the waves rolling in as they softly roll back out. I sit and watch as the force stirs up the ocean bottom while bringing newness at a moment notice to the top surface so that we can experience the power surrounding us. Just as in the song by Lee Ann Womack, “I Hope You Dance,� there is a certain magic in realizing you are small, when you stand beside the mighty ocean. Yet it brings you beauty that is so engulfing it becomes second nature, just as the trees within your own backyard.

Life is about the beauty you see within yourself as well as those around you. It is about the excitement of allowing others to shine around you while knowing it takes nothing from you. I am happy when I am able to capture the moment of someone’s smile, that special shine within their eyes letting us see their soul coming through. It is the excitement of sharing those moments of truth from within them whether it is happiness or a struggle. I find there is a beauty, in their process of growth and in watching them live to their next greater level from deep within their selves. Yes, life is all about beauty and how you see it within others.

Melinda Cooper, Living the Dream, www.livingthedreammagazine.com I ask you to reach out and share how you are living your dream with us.

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Thinking Like a CEO

By Katherine L. Clausen As business owners, we normally go into business because we are really good at something and we no longer want to do it for someone else. We want to do it for ourselves and our families. We want to be the boss. We hang out our sign and work really hard to be the best we can be in our chosen field. We become the doer, the technician - which is great and one way in which we make a name or build a reputation for our businesses.

As owners, we have a vision of what we eventually want our businesses to become in order to provide for ourselves and our family. Things like how large the business grows, the income it provides, the number of employees we have, the range of services and products we are able to offer and the lifestyle we are living. We have sold ourselves this dream, and we want it.

We want it badly.

However, as any business owner knows, life gets busy, and the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly tasks add up. They take priority. These tasks become our focus -- the phone calls, emails, customers, and the list keeps growing. Emergencies, a cause of major stress, must be taken care of right away, so are bumped up on our daily to do list, causing us to fall behind on the usual daily and weekly tasks.

Our nights and weekends become full trying to keep things on track and running smoothly. We are of the doer mindset. We have become the task master, as in we are the master of accomplishing tasks. Unfortunately, being a task master does not necessarily move us forward, towards the visions and dreams we have for our business.

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In order for us to move our business forward we must shift our mindset. We must start thinking like a Chief Executive Officer (CEO). We must start thinking about our business as a whole, how we want to move and change things, and how to make our business worth more.

Now, we might be thinking, “My business is small,” or “I am not running a corporation,” however, at some point, if we really want the business to grow, to be able to take non-working vacations, to retire and have a business worth selling, we have to step out of the doer role and become the planner, the organizer, the marketer, and the big picture person.

You know, the person that you fired from being your boss.

We now need to become the Big Boss Woman, the CEO.

We must make plans for what we want our business to become, that align with our dreams.

Not only must we make plans, we have to act on those plans. Two things must happen. As the CEO, we must accept that we are responsible for making the plans and we must WRITE the plans down. Then we must take action every single week on those plans. No exceptions and no excuses.

My challenge for all business owners: Take some time today. Consider your business. about where you want it to be. Now, write both down.

Dream

How far apart are they? Define one step you could take today that would move your business closer to that dream and then take the action needed to achieve that goal. See, we were just in the role of CEO. Not too bad is it?

Katherine L. Clausen, licensed business coach, entrepreneur, author, speaker.

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP …ALL IT’S CUT OUT TO BE? If you want it, you can be cut out for it. Do you want it? Can you cut it?

How to determine if your ‘business’ is a business or a hobby?

Do you ‘truly’ want to grow your business?

Need help understanding the steps for acquiring business development and growth?

Learn from business expert and social media strategist, Melinda Cooper and the Living the Dream team.

The hobby2LOBBY Entrepreneurship Resource Center Assess and Evaluate Your Entrepreneur Potential Opportunities for Entrepreneur Development Online Expertise/Courses, Videos, Tips & Tools

In Mud-Kicking Cowboy Boots, This Publicist Shines Brightly

By DeeDee Lowder Looks can be deceiving! She speaks eloquently

Under her direction, the Isabell Rossignol PR &

but she knows how to stomp through the mud

Marketing team has flourished with exceptional

and the alligators, without smudging her high

international business relationships, providing

heels. Growing up in Lafayette, (pronounced

and leveraging opportunities worldwide for

laaaa-fay-ette), Louisiana, Isabell Rossignol

firms looking to grow not just one business, but

learned how to ride, fish, and spit the length of a

an entire empire. Her commitment to the client’s

pickup truck. According to her, in the bayou

image and reputation makes her an invaluable

state you learn discipline, self-reliance, and

and trusted resource for any company.

problem solving, which was good practice for her first career, working for what is known as the

Building a multi-million-dollar construction

Marines of high tech. There you learned you

business gave Rossignol time to hone her sharp

were only as good as your last effort and to be

negotiating skills, and much practice using those

paranoid about the competition.

sturdy ‘Luziana’ boots served her well as she entered and excelled in the public relations

“I may wear heels, but I still have my cowboy

industry. According to her, “Being a publicist is

boots. There is nothing more exhilarating than

not an easy endeavor. It takes dogged

the thrill of the hunt. Considering the art of the

determination and fortitude to reach the

possible, the nuances of different markets, and

important decision makers and it requires

the eyes of a client when they know they have

finesse in gaining the apple at the end of the

reached their pinnacle, is exciting and rewarding.

rope! Intricate and refined delicacy are

Nothing beats a creative strategy that brings my

necessary when you are trying to accomplish

clients or sponsors recognition, new business, or

public relations exposure. You have to use your

great marketing and public relations. And that is

cowboy boots in a subtle and gentle manner.”

where I shine; brainstorming a new marketing program or approach, designing the story and

Many entrepreneurs do not truly understand

bringing it to life. There’s no better way to

what public relations is and does, states

provide value.”

Rossignol. It is so much more than just writing a press release and emailing it to select

35

destinations, hoping for coverage. “People ask

commanding persona by building a relationship

me all the time, ‘Why do I need a publicist?’

between them and the public.”

Chances are you probably need one if you are asking the question. Why? Because by not

The formal practice of what is now commonly

knowing the rules of the game or having valuable

referred to as public relations, dates to the early

contacts in place, there are too many angles,

20th century. In the relatively brief period

stories, and opportunities you might miss. I ask

leading up to today, public relations has been

them, ‘Would you ask someone to run your

defined in many different ways, the definition

business while you take a vacation, if they knew

often evolving alongside public relations’

nothing about it?’ Same principal! One’s zeal to

changing roles and technological advances.

tell the world their story, often results in stumbles

that

cannot be corrected.

They send pitches that are too long, or send them to the wrong person. Or they get a media person on the phone and

fumble

their

elevator pitch. You only get one first impression and that is why a publicist can

The earliest definitions emphasized press

be instrumental to success.”

agentry and publicity, while more modern definitions

incorporate

the

concepts

of

When posed with the question of what public

engagement and relationship building. The PRSA

relations really is, she replied, “the professional

National Assembly initiated a crowdsourcing

acquisition and/or maintenance of a favorable

campaign

public image by a company, organization or a

following definition:

famous person. You are basically giving a client a

strategic communication process that builds

36

in

2012

and ‘Public

produced relations

the is

a

mutually

beneficial

relationships

among

educated through the ranks of business

businesses, organizations, people, and their

participation and interaction with the best in the

publics.’ And this is why, Rossignol says, “Never

industry. Her strength in strategic planning,

burning bridges is key to becoming an effective

branding and market research make her an asset

publicist.”

when directing public relations and marketing strategies.

By definition, a publicist is one who is in charge of publicity. While this may sound easy, a great

Specializing in word-wrangling, storyboarding

publicist not only generates a positive image for

and concise billboard messaging, she is able to

their client, but also successfully spins any

weave a campaign around a single word. The

negativity. Rossignol explains the importance for

combination is incomparable!

reputation

management.

“Companies

and

people garner lots of baggage along the informational highway and as a publicist it is my job to spin a positive picture. I LOVE this challenge. One of the favorite aspects of being a publicist, is for me, creating a storyboard. While it might sound like an extra step in the process, trust me, it's a step you must not ignore because it allows you to map out the game plan.

It shows a client, existing or potential, a picture of what you envision from start to finish and gives you a visual of your plan. You are able to use it as a checklist, so nothing falls through the cracks. For me, it is my creative palette. And it makes it infinitely easier for others to understand your concept.”

Rossignol carries more than 25 years of experience when she walks in the room. Born and raised with that pleasant southern etiquette model, Isabell is a seasoned professional, 37

Living in Paris for a number of years, traveling

with, the foods you eat, and the entertainment

extensively, both with work and for pleasure,

you attend daily. If you do not encounter new

and seeing much of the world, has allowed her

experiences from other places, people, cultures,

to think on a broader, more open plane when

you may find you have become very rigid in your

planning effective campaigns. One of her

thinking, eating, and living. Now imagine that

favorite adventures was to Thailand with her son

like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, you are plopped

a few years ago. “It is a beautiful country that

down in a strange land where absolutely

transcends modern cultural differences,” she

EVERYTHING is different. People look and speak a strange language; they eat food you have never seen, tasted or smelled before, and they entertain themselves in completely different ways.

For me, that is exactly the reason why you need to travel. By exposing yourself to new cultures where everything is unfamiliar yet wonderful, you create a life-changing

states and says she was influenced by the vastly

experience.

different values shaped centuries ago by their

As a publicist, by having the opportunity to see

religion, culture, and unique history, as well as

how other people live, work, and play, you open

the hustle and bustle of the cities contrasted

your mind to new creativity and see things in a

with the quiet elegant serenity of the

new light, both stimulating and educational. For

countryside. “It is like a two-sided coin and I try

me this is reflected in the stories I weave, giving

to look at strategies for clients in the same

my clients a broader base for market appeal and

manner.

share. I would not have this if it were not for personal exploration and growth.”

“You become accustomed to the sights and DeeDee Lowder lives in Dallas with her family and enjoys

sounds around you, the people you interact

writing about outstanding women

38

Women in Business

By Sheryl Jones

The United States is home to 27.9 million businesses and about 30 percent of these businesses are owned by women. That is incredible and women are opening businesses at a faster rate than men. It’s a GOOD time to open the business of your dreams.

Women give business LIFE, because we operate differently. Most women are naturals at business because most of them are managers of their home and family. I have spent over 20 years in my own company and I know I operate my company much differently than most men.

I believe women have been given six Unique Characteristics that make them DYNAMIC in business: Women are caring. Most women began their business because they saw a void in the world that they knew they could fill. They really care about the product or service that they provide. For example, I knew I wanted to build a company that had a “HEART” because I have been a mother in need of services. I wanted a company that I would have chosen when my special needs son was alive, and I operate that company in honor of him today.

Women become knowledgeable. When a woman decides to do something, she spends time researching the industry that she is pursuing. Personally I spent 2 years learning about owning a business in my field before leaving my job.

Women ask for help. Women are 10 times more likely to ask for help when they realize something is not right. There comes a point in her life that she realizes that she must receive and share knowledge, and it is key to her growth.

Smart women are always open to change. When women get new information, we do our due diligence.

We look at the information and determine if it is better than our plan and decide if we should abandon our plan and go with the new plan. We always are willing to learn and hear new information if it can help our business, our clients or our family. Change is a constant in business. Nothing stays the same.

Women are relentless. When women decide to go into business, we have no intention of failing. We will work longer and harder than anyone if we see the business is in trouble. We will win in the game of entrepreneurship due to our relentless behavior. We will change any and everything needed so our business can THRIVE. Women build community. One of the most unique things about women is they have the ability to build community. We tend to find similarities within minutes of meeting each other. When community is built, one’s business becomes a very exciting part of everyone’s live.

Women have the ability to change the world thru business ownership. Women, I encourage you to discover if business ownership is for you. It is an AMAZING way of life and I invite you to join me. If I can help you feel free to contact me.

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Sheryl Jones affectionately known as The Queen of Hearts, is a Social Worker turned International Motivator. Go to with Sheryl.

Sheryl Jones affectionately known as The Queen of Hearts, is a Social Worker turned International Motivator. Sheryl is on a MISSION to provide LOVE to everyone she meets. Sheryl began the LOVE OF HEART MOVEMENT Radio Show to help identify entrepreneurs, service providers and community volunteers who ALWAYS serve from the Love of their Heart when dealing with others. She truly believes what the World needs NOW is LOVE!!! Sheryl’s primary focus is on teaching STRESSED OUT women who can’t figure out how to earn money doing what they LOVE, to formulate a plan to spotlight their genius. Sheryl takes women from “CONCEPT TO CASH”.

Go to http://www.sheryljonesqueenofhearts.com to connect! connect with Sheryl

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Changing the World as We Know It… The Memnosyne Institute What would life be like if people of all ethnicities and cultural backgrounds around the world came together for a deeper understanding of peace and conscious encouragement of positive global collaboration in critical areas of knowledge? The Memnosyne Institute has a unique concept addressing the idea that interrelationships between the world, the human beings, the environment, the economy, even peace itself, are interwoven and what happens on one side of the world affects what happens on the other side.

Quintana Roo, Mexico: Phillip E. Collins, Mary Ann Thompson-Frenk, Tania Rodriguez, and Coke Buchanan at the site of Memnosyne’s first School-Out-Of-A-Box.

help the diverse people of the world to themselves and for future generations by providing mankind with the means to embrace a global world, to forge alliances between people of all races and cultures and to peacefully seek understanding of other’s value; to give humans the opportunity to empower themselves, to be resourceful in identifying with world social issues and developing cognizant cultural creativity and an understanding of the need for change in the world today.

Founded by Mary Ann Thompson-Frenk and Joshua Frenk, The Memnosyne Institute’s vision and philosophy is that “the sky is the limit” if we learn to embrace each other’s intelligence, cultures, sciences, arts and learn to be fascinated by each other. If we perpetuate a state of “awe and respect” for what we could accomplish as a collaborative people, one world, so to speak, then we can truly make a difference in life as we know it today, not only for ourselves but for generations to come. It was created because the world is facing globalization, the processes that promote world-wide exchanges of national and cultural resources, and if, as a global people, we do not learn to collaborate respectfully with the exchange of information, ideas and open dialogue we will implode as humanity.

Wouldn’t sharing information between countries strong in science with those rich in art or others with a higher understanding for economics and math be amazing? What could we accomplish as one people forging a united world? How far could we grow and expand man’s humanity to man? What could we learn about each other, our beliefs and traditions?

Find out with the Memnosyne Institute!

The mission of the Memnosyne Institute is to 41

Center for Global and Local Outreach

Center for Interfaith Initiatives

Center for the Environment, Science, Economics, & Technology

Center for Indigenous Cultures

42

And You Thought Chocolate Was Only Candy!

Backyard BBQ Eats!

By Phoenix Sagen

Â

Fire up the grill for these unbeatable savory dishes! These side dish recipes will compliment any bar-b-que and will excite your guests. Enjoy!

Dark Chocolate Red Wine Baked Beans

Springs of thyme Sour cream, for garnish, optional

Ingredients: Two 16 oz. cans great northern beans, drained

Directions:

1/2 cup chopped yellow onions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.

¼ cup. brown sugar

2. Mix all ingredients in a small greased

1 Tbsp. prepared mustard

casserole dish.

½ cup water

3. Bake for 1-1½ hours, until sauce has

1 cup DCD Dark Chocolate Red Wine Cooking

thickened. Serve in small bowls with a small

Sauce

spring of thyme and sour cream, if desired.

2 Tbsp. DCD Sweet ‘N’ Spicy Cocoa Rub

Cocoa Spiced Corn

Directions:

Ingredients: ¼ cup mayonnaise 3 tablespoons sour cream

1.

and Cocoa Rub. Place the cheese in a shallow

Juice from ½ lime

dish that is at least as long as the corn. Set

¼ teaspoon salt 2-3 teaspoons DCD Sweet ‘n’ Spicy Cocoa Rub, plus additional for garnish

Stir together the mayonnaise, lime juice, salt

aside.

2.

Preheat grill to high and grill corn, turning every 2-3 minutes, until tender and slightly

¾ cup crumbled cotija or feta cheese

charred, usually 10-12 minutes. Let cool.

6 ears of corn, husks and silk removed, cut in half

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Chocolate Chipotle Chicken Tacos Who knew you could have chocolate for dinner? Create a chocolate fiesta for your family with our mouth-watering Chocolate Chipotle Chicken Tacos! Add our refreshing White Chocolate Margaritas for a citrusy twist!

Ingredients: 3 Tbsp. Sweet ‘n’ Spicy Cocoa Rub, divided 2 cups DCD Sweet ‘n’ Smoky Chocolate BBQ Sauce 4 cups precooked chicken, shredded or cubed 16 ea. DCD Pure Dark Sea Salt or Espresso Rounds 8 oz sour cream 2 tomatoes, diced 3 cups shredded lettuce 2 cups shredded cheese 6-8 medium flour tortillas Directions: 1. In a large sauté pan over medium heat, toast 2 tablespoons cocoa rub for 30-60 seconds, or until fragrant.

2. Add BBQ sauce and chicken and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and drop in chocolate rounds. Stir until completely melted. Keep warm.

3. In a small bowl, stir together remaining cocoa rub and sour cream. Assemble tacos by spreading a thin layer of Cocoa Sour Cream on each tortilla, then topping with a spoonful of the chicken mixture, lettuce, tomatoes and cheese. Enjoy!

46

Breast Cancer Risk Assessment

By Kathryn E. White, M.D.

All women are concerned about their risk of cancer and especially breast cancer. One out of eight women in the general population will develop breast cancer. Only about 510 percent of breast cancers are the inheritable type associated with the BRCA genes. Most breast cancers are sporadic and therefore 80 percent of women have little or no family history.

There are some new testing options available however, which can help us identify those women at higher risk.

cancer, and Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry associated with breast or ovarian cancer in the same person. Having either of these mutations markedly increases the risk of cancer and it may be as high as 87 percent for breast cancer and 44 percent for ovarian cancer.

This knowledge is extremely helpful in modifying the risk of developing either cancer as well as changing screening protocols for earlier detection. The large majority of women who develop breast cancer however have no significant risk factors. The challenge for physicians then is to figure out who these women are!

BRCA testing has been available for around 20 years and helps to identify those women with a genetic mutation which may cause not only breast, but also ovarian cancer.

There are very specific guidelines on who is appropriate for testing and include: breast cancer diagnosed prior to or at age 50, history of ovarian cancer in yourself or close family relative, two unrelated breast cancers in the same person or family, male breast

There is some new testing now known as BREVAGen. This is a simple cheek swab which looks at your DNA for patterns that suggest an increased risk of breast cancer.

This data is then combined with your clinical information which is obtained using the Gail Model.

The Gail Model is another assessment which helps determine the risk 49

for breast cancer. This involves a series of questions including the person’s age and race, age of menarche (menstrual onset), age of delivery of the first child, family history of breast cancer, personal history of breast biopsies and if atypia was present on pathology. The combination of this information gives an individual their five year as well as lifetime risk of developing breast cancer. Those women found to be at higher risk (>20-25% lifetime risk or >1.65% 5 year risk) can now be managed in a different fashion.

knowledge also allows management protocols.

HALO breast testing is another option which has been available for about eight years.

This is essentially a “PAP test” for the breast.

The device looks similar to a breast pump and takes about 5 minutes to perform in the office. Two suction cups are placed over the breast and gentle suction and massage are applied to try and elicit nipple aspirate fluid.

This fluid can then be sent for analysis.

These different tests now give us much more information about an individual’s risk for developing breast cancer. This may allow your physician to recommend a different screening protocol but also allows for being more pro-active about other treatment options such as risk reduction surgery or chemoprevention with medications.

Approximately 50 percent of women will produce some nipple aspirate. The presence of atypia in the fluid confers a 4-5 times increased risk of breast cancer.

This

for

different

Contact us today to inquire about this additional testing so you can really understand your risk. Options are available to lower your risk and enhance your screening. Knowledge is power!

Kathryn E. White M.D. is the owner of Azure Med Spa in Frisco, Texas www.azuremedspastonebriar.com 972-294-6992

The Importance of Vitamin D3

by Dr. Donna S.Barsky, PharmD

Are You Deficient?

For a number of reasons, many people aren’t getting enough vitamin D to stay healthy. This is called vitamin D deficiency.

You may not get enough vitamin D if: 

 

You don’t get enough sunlight. Your body is usually able to get all the vitamin D it needs if you regularly expose enough bare skin to the sun. However, many people don’t get enough sunlight because they spend a lot of time inside and because they use sunscreen.

It’s also difficult for some people to get enough vitamin D from the sun during the winter.

You don’t take supplements. It’s very difficult to get enough vitamin D from the foods you eat alone.

Your body needs more vitamin D than usual, for example if you’re obese or pregnant.

Are certain people more likely to have vitamin D deficiency?

There are some groups of people that are more likely to have vitamin D deficiency. The following people are more likely to be lacking in vitamin D: 

 

People with darker skin. The darker your skin the more sun you need to get the same amount of vitamin D as a fair-skinned person. For this reason, if you’re Black, you’re much more likely to have vitamin D deficiency that someone who is White.  People who spend a lot of time indoors during the day. For example, if you’re housebound, work nights or are in hospital for a long time.  People who cover their skin all of the time.

For example, if you wear sunscreen or if your skin is covered with clothes.

People that live in the North of the United States or Canada. This is because there are fewer hours of overhead sunlight the further away you are from the equator.

Older people have thinner skin than younger people and this may mean that they can’t produce as much vitamin D.

51



 

Infants that are breastfed and aren’t given a vitamin D supplement. If you’re feeding your baby on breast milk alone, and you don’t give your baby a vitamin D supplement or take a supplement yourself, your baby is more likely to be deficient in vitamin D. Pregnant women.

People who are very overweight (obese).

What are the symptoms of vitamin D deficiency?   



Some people may not have any symptoms of vitamin D deficiency and still be deficient.

The symptoms of vitamin D deficiency are sometimes vague and can include tiredness and general aches and pains. Some people may not have any symptoms at all.

If you have a severe vitamin D deficiency you may have pain in your bones and weakness, which may mean you have difficulty getting around. You may also have frequent infections. However, not everyone gets these symptoms.

If you think you may have vitamin D deficiency, you should see your physician, or have a blood test to check your vitamin D levels.

How do I know if I’m deficient in vitamin D? The way doctors measure if you’re deficient in vitamin D is by testing your 25(OH)D level, but most doctors just call this a vitamin D test. Getting this blood test is the only accurate way to know if you’re deficient or not. Please see our testing page for more information.

How can I get more vitamin D? There are two ways to get more vitamin D: by exposing your bare skin to the sun, but remember protection, or by taking vitamin D supplements.

If you have any questions concerning your Vitamin D3 levels, or want to know how you can reach your best physical health for a longer life, please, call us at TexaStar Pharmacy, 3033 W. Parker Rd., #100, Plano, TX 75023, 972-519-8475 or fax 972-519-8477 and make appointment with our Certified Clinical Nutritionist, Christina. She will be happy to see you.

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Don’t Give Up …

You Can Ease Your Pain!

Brenda Briscoe, Licensed Massage Therapist 16 years of experience Certifications in: Clinical Massage Therapy Bowen Technique (BowTech) Neuro-Structural Integration Technique (NST)

Work toward permanent resolution of pain syndromes.

Now offering LED Light Therapy to increase circulation as it reduces pain and swelling.

Specializes in Migraine Recovery

“My mission is to help as many people as possible gain healing and get back their normal life.”

Brenda Briscoe

14330 Midway Rd, Bldg 1, Ste 121, Dallas, Texas 75244 (972) 930-0260 or email bowenguru@gmail.com

What really calls to you?

By Denise Ackerman

Do you ever have those moments when you are in the midst of something and you lose all sense of time? You feel totally present within yourself, within the activity, and within the moment? Think about it. When does that happen to you?

This happened to me recently as I worked with a fellow coconspirator on an upcoming event. She’s a coach too; the kind of person I love to hang with. The class is all about vision and purpose, two of my favorite topics. It is in fact, something I am passionate about.

With our heads together and our hearts totally in the moment, we got lost in time. Before we knew it, three hours had zipped by. We were astounded that so much time had elapsed yet those hours were sweet with delight and an inspiration for both of us. We were in our zones.

What is your zone of delight? Do you ever allow yourself to play there? Think about a moment so delicious you can still close your eyes and feel it. We are all gifted with a passion for something and it is in this place in our soul that real magic happens. My magic happens when I’m creating and/or inspiring others. For someone else it could be serving others, leading, teaching, or building something.

The author, Danielle La Porte, says in her book, The Desire Map, that it’s our “light to steer by.” Our deepest desires for completeness and connection to ourselves are where we find our own zone of delight. Imagine how sweet it would be if those moments were knitted together in a daily tapestry called our life? How different life could be.

Today, take a moment to consider your own zone of delight. What calls to you? If you are not having enough moments like that in your life, then find some time to allow yourself to do it. Put some delight back into you!

Denise Ackerman/Business and Life Strategist, Speaker and Coach/The Radiance Coach/Theradiancecoach.com/denise@theradiancecoach.com/214-478-3244

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“I hope. Because hope is probably the best thing that ever happened to mankind.”

Jane Mwangi

By Robin Roberson

Every now and then you are blessed to meet someone who inspires you to be the best person you can be, to offer a kind word or act for no reason other than you should, to understand that life is about sharing and caring. In this fast paced, materialistic world we live in, it is easy to forget the real meaning of what is truly important.

I met such a person, Jane Mwangi, who traveled across the planet to gain back the life that she was robbed of, one fateful night. She is amazing in her determination to go forward, telling her now paralyzed legs to move, to walk, and to be ready to dance at her wedding. In her heart she knows this will happen. With determination, love of family and friends, and the kindness of strangers, I know she will too! Her story is one of faith, hope and inspiration.

Walking home after church one evening in May of 2015, Jane Mwangi’s life took a turn she never expected. She had just completed her masters in communications studies at the Communication University of China, returned home to Kenya, and was excited about a bright future. But on this night, in the blink of an eye, her world was changed forever when three men accosted her, robbed, and shot her.

They took her purse with valuables and asked for her M-Pesa PIN, which is the equivalent of an ATM card.

When asked, scared and dumbfounded, she mumbled her four-digit bank code to the thugs, but one of them was not satisfied, and to prove it, drew his gun and shot her. Now a year later, her dreams of a bright future are delayed as she fights to walk again, paralyzed by that single bullet to the chest.

"I remember the day very well. It was a bright Thursday, and the sun had pushed away the dark of the night quite early in the morning. May 28, 2015. Bright and promising. Not even the threat of a cloud anywhere in the horizon. Nothing could go bad. Yes, I remember the day very well.

That bright morning made me feel quite upbeat. You know that saying about ‘feeling under the weather,’ though? I think there are some days when it acquires a literal meaning, days when the elements plot the trajectories of the day for us. They had done just that for me on May 28, 2015, only this time I did not feel under the weather, but over the moon. It was a bright Thursday. I remember very well.

I had just come back home from China, had a meeting a friend, and then attended an evening church service at Hotel 680 in Nairobi’s central business district.

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The service over, I started the short journey home. It was around 9:30 pm when I alighted from the bus.

While the morning had been bright, the evening was the exact opposite; so dark you could feel the darkness caress your cheeks. No moon in the sky, the stars so far away to make any significant impact, and no electric power as this part of the city was experiencing yet another one of its many power blackouts.

There was an ominous feeling about this evening in Kariobangi, but I had stepped out of the matatu, and had to walk the few metres to my house at Civil Servants quarters. I had grown up here, and so I knew the place well. For some reason, maybe the familiarity that comes with it, or the au fait feeling that growing up in a place gives you, my heart never skipped a beat as I started walking to our doorstep.

Then I saw them: two men, silhouetted in the dark. Even though I could not see their eyes, I was sure they were observing me. Instinctively, I turned around to scour the surroundings. Another figure was looming behind me. I had been cornered.

Oh my God! The clear outline of a gun protruded menacingly from one of the silhouettes in front of me. Of the three, only the one with a gun was hooded. As the distance between me and them grew shorter and shorter by the second, I noticed, also, that the armed man was the jumpiest of the three.

They stopped me in my tracks and the armed man asked for my mobile phone, handbag and M-Pesa PIN. I heard the orders, but my motor senses had gone numb on me, and so I just stared ahead, into nothingness, into the empty, dark abyss that lay in front of me.

And then I snapped out of that momentary loss of my senses and handed my handbag and mobile phone to the thugs. However, at the moment when I most needed to remember my M-Pesa PIN, I could not. The armed man threatened to shoot me if I didn’t give him the PIN, and that made the situation even worse as I started trembling.

He was in a particularly foul mood. The other two seemed composed, somehow in control of themselves, but their leader had a foul mouth and a pretty short fuse. I blurted out some digits and waited for them to disappear into the dark Kariobangi night.

But they didn’t. Instead, and without as much as uttering a word, or a warning, the man with the gun lifted it, pointed it at me, cocked it and, with the casualness of a soldier in a particularly hostile territory, pulled the trigger.

The impact of the bullet lifted me off my feet and send me flying in the air before collapsing me in a heap.

The bullet had ripped through the right side of my chest and exploded out through the thoracic spinal cord.

As the world around me turned into a dark, ominous cloud, I saw the man with the gun walk towards me, gun still in hand. He then stepped on my chest with his heavy boots and, again, asked for my M-Pesa PIN. I opened my mouth to tell him something, and then immediately went into a sleep so deep, so peaceful I couldn’t care less whether he was holding a toy pistol in his hands or a machine gun. I blacked out.

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The rest of what I am going to tell you, therefore, is not first-hand information, but what I have since gathered from different sources. A neighbor who heard the gunshot rushed to the scene and found me lying on the ground, immobile and bleeding profusely. The thugs had vanished. He rushed to my parents, who in turn rushed me to the nearby Metropolitan Hospital in Buru Buru, from where I was transferred to Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH).”

Jane was stabilized but remained on a gurney for 16 hours before a doctor attended her. He drilled a hole near her rib cage and drained blood that had collected there as a result of internal bleeding. Immediately after the procedure, her parents transferred Jane to Coptic Hospital, where she was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. On the second day, a neurosurgeon operated on her spine, without success of movement. The seemingly simple things that she could do before, like sitting up in bed or putting on a pair of slippers, became monumental tasks. Even though she had regained consciousness, she was still in a dire situation and states, “My hopes and the entirety of what remained of my life now lay in the hands of the doctors at Coptic Hospital.” And so the eternal waiting started....

Two days later, the final medical report was delivered to my bed: I had been paralyzed from the chest all the way to my legs.”

“I’m sorry Jane,” the doctor advised, “but you will never walk again.” I turned my head and looked at him, then asked, “Doctor, don’t you believe in God?”

“Doctor, don’t you believe in God?”

In answer, he embarked on a long speech about how “these things” happen, how there are a lot of people going through the same transition Jane was facing, how she could still live a normal life, how she should not view a wheelchair as a limiter -- basically the good things that doctors are trained to tell patients in difficult situations. A month later she was discharged from the hospital. On arrival home, the reality that her body had really changed hit her.

“I could not sit well, could not take care of myself, could barely leave the wheelchair, and was using a catheter, which made me susceptible to infections.

A month later I was re-admitted to the hospital for a week, with a serious infection and a bedsore. Two weeks after discharge, the infection re-occurred and I was again treated at the hospital.

Two months later, I suffered yet another infection and was taken to Jamaa Mission Hospital in Buru Buru. Doctors treated the infection while at the same time preparing me for yet another surgery to stop a bedsore wound that has developed just below the end of what remains of my spinal cord.

The doctor at Coptic Hospital was right; life has really changed for me.

While I was an able-bodied woman who travelled the world and had plans for a future as bright as the morning of the day I was shot, now I rely on other people to do the most mundane things for me.

For instance, I could not even turn in bed, and so someone had to be on standby to turn me every two hours; Simple steps we perform every day, now mean the world to me.

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As I spend my days limited in movement, I use the only thing that really means much to me: my brain. I focus on the good, like the fact that I can still reason, think, pray, or speak. I tell my parents, siblings, friends and those I speak to, whose lives were also changed and are really affected by my condition, to look at the brighter side of things because it is all we have now. All I care for.

I believe I will walk again. My family sought a second opinion from a neurosurgeon who assessed me and said that if given intensive physiotherapy and rehabilitation in a specialized facility, my mobility could be restored. There is no such unit in Kenya as the National Spinal Injury Centre has a capacity of only 30 beds and lacks in equipment. Thus I sought treatment at a rehabilitation center that offered me hope and great care and Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation in Dallas was the one I chose.”

Jane says she is the victim of what happens when a gun falls into the wrong hands. Many people across Kenya, and indeed across the world, find themselves in her situation, or worse, are killed by illegal firearms. A year after that man shot Jane, he is still free, roaming the streets and maybe shooting more people. Neither he nor his cohorts have been arrested and the police do not seem to be making much progress in the matter.

Yet, she says, ” I am happy and humbled, though, to report that my friends have become my ‘army’. They have walked with me all along, sharing in the pain and the hope that I can indeed walk again.”

Family and friends have mounted the vibrant #IstandwithJane and the #100,000pple100bob4Jane campaigns on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms within their networks and personal contacts, hoping to raise the $70,000 needed for the rehabilitation.

Their campaigns have gone viral have gone viral reaching the diaspora where strangers unknown to her have set up a gofundme account to raise money for Jane’s treatment. “I am overwhelmed by the response,” she states. “It still gives me the hope that the world is still a good place. I know that I am not alone in this, only that I have a great support system. God uses people, He appeals to people’s compassionate hearts and that is how it has been for me.

At the forefront of the #IstandwithJane and #100,000pple100bob4Jane campaigns is Daniel Nyutu, my boyfriend of five years. Daniel has stood by me through thick and thin. Though the incident shook him, he has held my hand all along and this has lifted my spirits. He has shown me that love really does conquer all. I have no medical insurance and I am still unemployed. It is the power of friendships that has paid my bills this far.

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The Jane Support Group on WhatsApp has given me the moral, material and spiritual support I desperately need, and this has strengthened not only me, but my family too.

“In the horizon, I can see this dark night starting to ebb. The light has started streaming through the sky, and I know it is only a matter of time before the day becomes bright again for me, as bright as that Thursday morning in May this year.

I hope. Because hope is probably the best thing that ever happened to mankind.”

When I met this quietly eloquent young lady at Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation for this interview, and shed tears with her, I knew I was in the presence of a very, very special person. She is firm in her belief that she will walk again, but more importantly Jane knows in her heart that she has been extremely blessed throughout her life and she will continue to be blessed through this bump in the road. And I know she will be as well. Never have I met someone with such faith and trust that all will be as it should. If you meet Jane Mwangi you will feel exactly the same. When the interview was over, this beautiful lady said,

“You will feel, you will move, you will walk and you will dance at my wedding!”

This writer hopes she is invited to the wedding!

Robin Roberson, Founder of femmes INTERNATIONAL & Publisher of femmes INTERNATIONAL Magazine.

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A NEW Direction

By Kim Andrews well-done when a goal was attained. I wanted to feel that big rush again when I achieved a goal.

I have always been a woman with a plan. I have always been goal-driven, even to the point of getting a small rush when crossing off individual items on my daily to-do lists and an even bigger one when the entire list was complete. Years ago any wrench thrown into my plans would elicit frustration, stress, and sometimes anger because my carefully devised strategy was thwarted. However once the flood of emotions dissipated I would emerge even more doggedly determined to make my original plan work.

Nine times out of ten I would attain that goal but I would reach the finish line at great emotional and physical cost.

So I decided to be more open-minded. I let go of my dogged determination and my “my way or the highway” attitude. I started to consider that perhaps what I thought was a wrench in my works was actually an opportunity. Perhaps fate was offering me an easier, more fulfilling way to my goal or a goal that was better than I one I had envisioned. Perhaps the door closing was blessing, not a curse.

Now when I am working towards a goal or just proceeding through my daily list of items to complete, I pause when the “wrench” appears. I take a deep breath. I affirm that an opportunity, perhaps even a golden opportunity, has been presented to me and with joyous expectation I proceed in a new direction. Yes, I still plan. Yes, I am still focused and driven. I still reach my goals but I take time to smell the roses along the way.

I take time to do a dance like a football player under the goal post after a touchdown when I finish a big job or tick off the last item on my daily to-do list.

After reaching a goal I usually ended up sick with the flu or catch bad cold. I felt no joy or sense of achievement and that made me quickly move to work on the next goal because attainment of the last one left me empty. After a couple of years, I realized my week long bouts of sickness offered me time to think about my journey. I knew I was tired of getting sick a couple of times a year and I knew I was tired of the constant frustration that I allowed to cloud many of my days. I discovered I was losing my passion for my mission and rarely enjoyed the day-to-day work towards its accomplishment.

So work but proceed with joy. Plan but remain open. And when you reach a goal, be it large or small, take time to do a happy dance.

“What did I want instead?” I pondered. I yearned for a return to feeling joy in my work and a greater feeling of satisfaction and a job-

Kim Andrews, Speaker & Writer at Global Red Circle. www.globalredcircle.com

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ADAPTIVE BRAS … A FRESH NEW FORM OF COMFORT

By Maria Valencia For women who are recovering from a stroke, suffer from arthritis, diabetes, dexterity movement, or have gone through a surgical procedure that has left them with limited mobility of their arms and hands, an adaptive bra is something to consider. An adaptive bra can make a positive difference in women’s selfesteem and give them back the ability to dress themselves as they go through their recovery.

What exactly is an Adaptive Bra? An adaptive bra is typically a front-closure style that makes dressing easier by having large hooks, a zipper, snaps or Velcro® closures, and allows women to dress themselves without too much help from a caregiver (depending on the severity of their mobility challenge).

What to consider when shopping for an Adaptive Bra: Is the bra easy to put on?

Does is offer all-day comfort?

Do the straps stay in place?

Does it give enough coverage or does the cup runneth over?

Are the fabrics & elastics comfortable on your skin?

Is the bra machine washable?

For everyone, but especially for well-endowed women, comfort is important. It is imperative for large busted women to have a well-fitting bra to avoid skin-to-skin contact under the bust which can result in rashes and skin breakouts that are painful and difficult to clear up. A comfortable bra for daily use is the best way to keep skin healthy.

An Adaptive Bra is the perfect solution for both support and all day comfort. And the best news is that they are now available online and in stores.

Maria E. Valencia, Fresh Comfort, Inc., Founder and President, offers FREE bra fitting sessions in the DFW area for a group of 4-6 women. Grab a few friends, call 214-705-0408 for an appointment and finally get the best fit your breasts deserve.

Maria E. Valencia, Founder and President, Fresh Comfort, Inc. “Adaptive Intimate Apparel for a Better Life”

If you're thinking of taking a yacht vacation, no need to look any further than SELECT CHARTERS! – Carlene Robinson Dailey

www.SelectCharters.com Peggy@SelectCharters.com 4020 N. MacArthur Boulevard Suite 122-183 • Irving, TX 75038 (972) 659-8941

Holiday Vacation Hot Spots There are many great holiday vacation locales to choose from if you are planning a holiday trip.

Whether you want a seaside resort or the hustle and bustle of a metropolis, the myriad of selections can be enticing. Beautiful vistas, seductive beaches, international cuisine, family fun, bright city night lights combined with destinations offering unique, spectacular ocean views, luxurious spa treatments, scenic golf and activities for kids. Here are some of the best Christmas vacations.

Travelers can plan a relaxing family Christmas in California where charming coastal towns offer a number of holiday events where you can visit unique museums, attractions, wineries and shops in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Monterey, Newport Beach, Healdsburg and other amazing places along the west coastline.

One of the best Christmas vacation destinations in the U.S.

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Celebrate

the

holidays

surrounded by snow and ice at the

picturesque Manoir

Hovey in Quebec, Canada. If you are looking for a fairy tale spot, enjoy Holiday Brunch, a horsedrawn sleigh ride through the North Hatley village center, followed by s'mores by the fireplace. Le Hatley restaurant will treat you to a 4-course traditional festive dinner and a gourmet breakfast in the morning. Manoir Hovey is set on 20 wooded acres next to the scenic Lake Massawippi.

There are many winter activities to choose from that the whole family can enjoy, including relaxing spa treatments, snowshoeing, a private cross-country ski trail, skating and downhill skiing.

There is something magical, otherworldly about the place!

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Located on the Central Coast of Vietnam, Banyan Tree Lang Co is a luxury getaway with 49 spacious private villas, each with its own pool, perfect for relaxing in the sun and getting outdoor massages on the deck. Many of the villas are set on a hill above the ocean and offer incredible views from the bedrooms and living areas. The property offers a Sea Sports Center, Marine Lab, Fitness facilities, Yoga, nature and cultural tours. Take romantic walks along the shore or try a variety of water sports.

Bathrooms offer deep soaking bath tubs surrounded by tropical plants. The Golf Club offers a Sir Nick Faldo-designed 18-hole, par-71 championship golf course surrounded by mountain and ocean views.

An idyllic locale!

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Angsana Resort & Spa Bintan overlooks Tanjung Said Bay and the South China Sea located in the northwestern tip of Bintan Island, Indonesia,. The property has a stylish spa, calm tropical ambiance and attentive service. In addition to relaxing by the pool and getting pampered at the wellness center, guests can choose from a number of activities, including tennis, banana boat rides, Catamaran sailing, mountain biking, snorkeling, fishing and canoeing. Guests receive special privileges at the Banyan Tree Resort golf course. If you are planning a family trip, there is a Kid's Club for children ages 3 to 10.

Fun & Adventure for the family!

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A winter vacation at Hotel Cristallo in Cortina, Italy, is filled with great skiing, gourmet food, romantic views and relaxing at the spa. Cortina is a famous European winter destination. Guests are accommodated in tastefully decorated rooms and suites with rustic touches. Each room has a Carrara marble bathroom with hydro massage tub, perfect for relaxing after a day out on the slopes.

Amenities include natural hypoallergenic latex mattresses, flat screen LCD television, jacuzzi tubs and high speed Wi-fi internet connection.

In addition to downhill skiing, there is snowboarding,

cross-country

skiing,

sledding, snowshoeing, fitness and more.

The wellness center has an indoor swimming pool, spa and gym.

Snowy Winter Wonderland!

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