The Sanskrit word “Ahimsa” means “non-violence.”  Deepak Chopra started The Alliance for a New Humanity based on this principle.  Gandhi said: “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Taking this to heart, Deepak took a vow of non-violence.  And now he is taking this one step further, asking each of us to do the same thing.  Can you commit, honestly and sincerely, to non-violence in your thoughts, speech and actions? If so, then take the vow.  And pass it on. This is a global movement for transformation.  If we can get 100 million people to make the same commitment, then we will have reached a critical mass, and the world will be transformed.  What a wonderful way to start the New Year with love and intention.  Visit the site: itakethevow.com for all the information.

Technorati Tags: Ahimsa, Alliance, change, Deepak, Deepak Chopra, Gandhi, heart, Humanity, New, principle, Sanskrit, speech, step, thing, vow, word, world

Get ready for some yummy, lowfat treats this summer! Baskin Robbins just came out with a more extensive line of ice creams, frozen yogurts & sorbets that are running around 130 -140 calories per scoop, AND with more flavors than the typical gross ones that most ice cream shops offer. I’m eyeing the Raspberry Chip and Butter Almond Crunch for sure. The Vanilla frozen yogurt is only 90 calories per scoop, and will be perfect to get a pint to take home for some fresh smoothies with yummy fruit when the weather warms up.

To kick-off the season of making New Year’s resolutions, Baskin-Robbins®, America’s favorite neighborhood ice cream shop, is ringing in the New Year with the introduction of BRight Choices treats. BRight Choices are better-for-you light ice cream options including fat free, dairy free, no sugar added and light ice cream offerings. BRight Choices flavors have all the great taste and quality customers expect from Baskin-Robbins but with less guilt. It’s a great option for moms looking for a healthier option while out with their kids.

Be sure to sign up for their Birthday Club program to get a free scoop on your birthday, as well as a discount on a birthday cake (which I totally will not use, but it’s great to sign up for your kids!).

To celebrate the launch of BRight Choices, Baskin-Robbins is celebrating the bright choices customers make each day with BRight Choices Day on Jan. 15, 2009. On BRight Choices Day, participating Baskin-Robbins shops nationwide will offer a free BRight Choices scoop to any customer with proof of a gym membership. BRight Choices flavors are indicated by a pink star decal.

Technorati Tags: Almond, Baskin, birthday, Bright, Butter, Chip, cream, free ice cream, Ice, line, lowfat, Raspberry, Robbins, scoop, summer, vanilla, yay, yummy

Last week, I used some Pedi-Relax Protective Barrier cream BEFORE I put my socks & spin shoes on to see if it would make a difference - in especially - the smell funk factor, because after a spin class, you have to swap out your shoes and my feet are going from shoe to shoe. I’m finding that as I get older (next week is the big 38!) my skin in general is changing with it’s needs. If I’m not careful with my moisturizing regemine, I’m getting a chapped feeling right at my ankle during my workout.

As you can see, spin shoes have a super thick bottom, kind of like cleats, with absolutely no give at all. The shoe is stiff and if your socks rub up against your ankle at any strange angle, you are getting chapped. I use the Pedi-Relax barrier cream as a base moisturizer on the top of my foot, my full ankle, and a thin layer on the bottom of my foot. No one ever told me this could make such a comfortable difference, and so here, I am telling you.

So the bottom line… Pedi-relax barrier cream worked like a gem, AND it also helped keep my feet way more dry than if I didn’t put it on. I’m not sure if that is what is supposed to happen, but it did, and I like it! It doesn’t hurt either that it has some nice smelling almond oil in it too for that smellgood factor.

Technorati Tags: foot care, foot cream, indoor cycling, pedi-relax, pedi-relax barrier cream, protective barrier cream, santeactive.com, spin class

Hello 2009! I have streamlined all my reviews to get up and posted this week, so be sure to bookmark, this is going to be a heavy week!

Next up, we have JellyBath which I got as a gift over the holiday season as a small stuffing stuffer thingie. I decided to do a trial run with the package while watching the Laker game so I grabbed a bowl and followed the directions and began my soak. What I didn’t do, however, was log on to the website Jellybath.com so that I could at least know what was I in for, because to be perfectly honest, it totally creeped me out. As the seconds went by, the soak kept getting thicker and thicker, turning into a jello consistency…trapping my fingers into the goop.

I kept trying to squish the little granules and didn’t really know what to do, so I just let it soak until it got lukewarm and just started feeling gross, and then figured that I should toss the goop down the toilet, because where else could I get rid of it? I did happen to see a tiny pack of salt crystal things that said ‘dissolve when finished‘ but didn’t really get what I was supposed to do with them - so I figured that maybe once I tossed the goop down the toilet, I would run some more hot water and dissolve, then soak. So that’s what I did. I’m still not sure exactly what I’m supposed to do with the dissolve step. Afterwards, I’ve got to say that my hands felt amazing, and my nails looked great and moisturized!

I followed with a papaya enzyme peel by Elemis on the tops of my hands to rid of any old skin, and viola - instant high quality manicure! Thanks ladies, for the lovely home-kit, and I actually think I will be buying some JellyBath stuff for more of my manicures, and at least now I know what to expect! If anyone has any info on the actual dissolving method, that would be appreciated lol.

Technorati Tags: bookmark, didn, elemis, Gift, goop, hand peels, Holiday, home manicure, jellybath, jellybath.com, Manicure, package, papaya enzyme peel, review, run, season, stuffer, thingie, toilet, trial, week

Personally, I don’t eat fast food, because it’s gross. But if you DO eat fast food, and somehow want to calculate how many calories are in the gross stuff that you actually eat, you can download this software app for your blackberry and get the probably unsurprising news that fast food is gross and ladden with  empty calories.

It might also help some moms who still feed their kids junk food (and even as TREATS) to get a reality check and see what you really are providing your kids with. And keep in mind that fast food is gross. That’s all. LOL.

Technorati Tags: blackberry apps for moms, fast food and health, fast food calorie counter for blackberries, fast food realities

Well, the graphics say up to 75% off, but I haven’t seen THAT great of a sale. Regardless, if you’ve got money to spend and want to get some beauty products on sale, be sure to check out Sephora.com for the list of available discounted items.

Technorati Tags: sephora sale

Quicklist to looking & FEELING fabulously posh!

1. Moisturize your skin no matter what.
2. Choose “Brightening” over “Matte”
3. Floss your teeth EVERY DAY.
4. Moisturize your feet EVERY DAY
5. DRINK LOTS OF WATER EVERY DAY!

Have a great January 2!
xoxo SG

Technorati Tags: 5 steps to polished, Brightening, day, drink, drinking water, dry feet, EVERY, FEELING, Floss, Hydrate, January, LOTS, Matte, matter, moisturize, Quicklist, Skin, water, xoxo

I bought an abs ball from my local Jenny Craig center (probably for more than I had to, now that I think about it) but I really do like it. At my age, it seems that it’s SO hard to get rid of the chubs around the mid section, as well as keeping my abs strong to help strengthen my back.

Anyway, it comes with a DVD workout with a hot guy doing the series, unfortunately he says ‘guys’ all the time. Like ALL the TIME. “Ok guys, good job guys, we’re almost done guys” etc. It didn’t occur to me that there was an 8 lb ball that is marketed to MEN-the one I got- and a 6 lb ball that is targeted to women, so I guess that is where the whole ‘guys’ thing comes in on the workout. It’s only like 20 minutes long, it’s not too difficult, and it does have some exercises that are different from the regular run-of-the-mill 80’s style crunches.

Another plus, is that Gaiam is a fair trade merchant, and uses recycled materials to make and distribute their items. This abs ball is made of recycled tires, and if you are curious, yes it does smell like tires. A couple nights out on the patio took care of the smell though, so all is good with the nose and the earth…and the abs!

Technorati Tags: abs ball, Fitness, fitness for moms, gaiam, live fit, recycled fitness products

If you were anything like me last night, you had your fill of festive food, spirits & sugar-loaded alcohol drinks for most of the evening, and all the way through until midnight. Sure, I woke up with a bit of a headache (ok, more than a bit, more like a big headache) but a couple of advil & 4 bottles of water later, I’m feeling no hangover. Water is truly a miracle liquid. We need it, we love how it makes us feel, and it’s SO good for you in many, many ways. It always surprises me when I hear about people who don’t ‘like’ water, and I think to myself…how can that be possible? That’s kind of like a car not liking gas. It just doesn’t make sense!

If your skin is dry, if your teeth are a bit yellow, or you seem to get uber-funky when you sweat or rarely sweat when you work out, you probably could use some more water in your life. I’m not a water specialist, but I’m just using some common sense advice. And if you don’t like the way water ‘tastes’, I must ask you to really ask yourself if you even know that water doesn’t really taste like anything, so how can you allow your mind to deny your body from such a fundamental source of goodness? Be good to yourself - it’s a new year, a new you!

Technorati Tags: beauty fluid, drinking water is good for your, hydrating your body, the health benefits of drinking water, water, water for your skin

Technorati Profile

While some of you may have already realized that the Por Homme section on Spa-View is a small tiny section for products for men, OJ and Yong are going to start submitting their product reviews for

a more manly-man lounge area on the NEW AND IMPROVED spa-view section. I still haven’t figured out the exact title for the section, but you can rest assured that it’s on it’s way, with full on reviews directly from OJ and Yong and their experiences with all the products being aimed at the posh man in 2009.

Also joining the crew for the Man-review is my son Mikey, who is 17 years old and will be giving me his direct feedback with products that he uses to get his teenage acne under control. While I realize that the main demographic of Spa-View are women in their 20’s to late 40’s, we typically all have men in our lives, somehow or someway that need wellness and goodness in their lives, and well, we are the women, who are the ones who can introduce them to new ideas, reviews and actually find the products for them.

Stay tuned!

Technorati Tags: area, fora, haven, Homme, IMPROVED, lounge, Man, man massage, manscape, men get pedicures, men's skincare, Northridge, Pedi, PediSpa, Por, Por Homme, product, products for men, section, View, Yong

Okay…so I’m sure your looking at that title thinking “what the heck is that?”  Let me tell ya…its the next best thing!!  Shu Uemura is actually a Japanese guy, make artist and founder of the cosmetic line.  I recently needed some eyelashes and found the mac lashes to be over dramatic, I couldn’t handle it!! Some of us ARE NOT eyebrow-nista’s like Ms.Syl; therefore we cannot handle applyling indiviual lashes. So I proceeded to ask the make-up chicks “Natural lashes..I need natural looking lashes?”  That’s when I meet Nicole, my new eyelash artist.  Nicole had a wide array of lashes, some super dramatic others lavishing.  I was impressed.  What most impressed me was the simplicity of applying lashes. She showed me how to snip a corner of the front and then use a q-tip to apply the lashes.  After the lashes are applied, use mascara to blend and Wah-la!

Next time your looking for lashes, I personally recommend Shu Uemura.

Technorati Tags: artist, cannot, couldn, founder, guy, heck, indiviual, line, MAC, Ms.Syl, Natural, Nicole, NOT, Shu, thing, title, Uemura

I’m wondering - there are a bunch of “Fashion for the Cure” Breast Cancer awareness products on the clearance tables and online, at TJMAxx and Marshall’s, but do any funds on marked down products actually go to the charity?? Anyone?

Technorati Tags: breast cancer awareness products on sale

Since its inception in 1998, “Tow to Go” has safely removed more than 8,600 drunk drivers from the roads and is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. Click here for your location.

* FREE and open to both AAA members and non-members (100% confidential)
* Call 1-800-AAA-HELP — the call will be directed to a ERS Call Center
* The AAA tow truck takes the vehicle and the driver safely home

2008 Tow to Go Holiday Schedule
Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day Weekend

Technorati Tags: aaa sober tow