Drinking Responsibly for the Holidays

This post is sponsored by Diamond Links. Any opinions expressed are my own.

I work in a hospital. Everyday I see people that are injured. There’s a lot of reasons for a person to end up in the hospital. Everything from acts of natures to self-harm, to mistakes, accidents, to downright negligence. Some of the hardest ones are seeing people effected by drunk drivers. There they are driving along having a normal day or a fun night then BOOM everything changes.

I took a bartending class years ago. It was my idea for a fall back career if my first career didn’t work out. One thing I remember them offering is something called TIPS certification. TIPS stands for Training for Interventional Procedures. It’s used to train people for the responsible sale, service, and consumption of alcohol. Bartenders, waitstaff, restaurant managers, etc can all be TIPS certified. The idea is to educate people to know when to stop serving people and serve legally. One thing I learned is drinks with a lot of alcohol in them like Alabama Slammers and Long Island Iced teas have 4 shots of hard liquor in them. You are not supposed to serve more than 2 to any person in a day. If it is obvious that a person is impaired, you should stop serving them as well. Not all places have TIPS certified staff.

I actually made the choice to pay the extra money to get TIPS certified. I never ended up using my bartending certificate except for person parties but it’s kinds of a neat skill to have. There’s bars in every state in the US.

Many places will also have no problem calling a cab, Uber, or other form of transportation for you if you need. While an individual is at fault for their own choice of drinking and driving a bar or restaurant can be found liable too if they are sued. I’ve heard instances of drunk drivers wrecking their vehicle then suing the bar because they served them too much. And guess what? They won. Sounds crazy I know but it just begs to show how making responsible choices all around can save lives and money.

With the holidays coming, there will be many holiday parties and seasonal spirits flowing. Have fun but make sure you’re enjoying your holiday parties responsibly. Line up a ride home with a DD, ride share service like Uber or Lyft, or cab service number on hand. For those that know this story all too well it’s good to line up a good lawyer like this tampa personal injury attorney I pray you never need to.

My Gift Stop Luxury Goods at Amazing Prices and Give Back + Sweepstakes

This post is sponsored by My Gift Stop as a Dealspotr Influencer. I will be compensated for this post. Any opinions expressed are my own.

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My Gift Stop has a nice selection of Luxury watches that include: Fossil, Bulova, Citizen, Casio, Invicta, Kenneth Cole, and more. Use my personal coupon code: LUVSAVINGMONEY1 to save an additional 10% off anything on the site!

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Starting Personal Trainer Food

I have the great opportunity of trying Personal Trainer Food at no cost as part of the Tryazon Tryabox program. Any opinions expressed are my own. I’m not required to do a blog post. I just decided to post for anyone that might be thinking about Personal Trainer Food.

So I had to buy bigger pants for the fall. I’m definitely not proud of that. The bad part is I got 5 pairs of jeans I ordered from an online consignment site. 5 pairs all the same size, different companies. 3 of them fit, one I got on but was kind of snug, the 5th one I couldn’t even pull up over my butt. It was the first time in my life that I actually wanted to cry when trying on clothes. I’ve had to buy a size bigger pants and shorts the last two years. I don’t want to continue this trend.

I tried a popular program about 2 years ago. I did it for 4 months following it pretty strictly. Following the diet (but I was always hungry) doing the daily exercises (but I never progressed far with certain ones because they bothered my joints). I lost 12 lbs in 4 months. Then I injured my back at work. within 2 months I had gained it all back and then some. I’m not good at meal prepping.

Well after the “pants incident” I knew I needed to do something I just didn’t know what. Then Tryazon sent me an email that peaked my interest. Apply for the Personal Trainer Food Challenge. I read about it and said, you know what this just might work for me. I applied and they chose me. I even get to bring my brother Derek from the blog Help Me I’m a Father along for the ride. We’re teammates now whether he likes it or not lol.

I got to choose my food and I was excited about the choices I had. No meal prepping! When my box was delivered it was absolutely stuffed with food and their sweet butter garlic sauce.

I got to choose from things like: teriyaki chicken, chicken tenders, angus burgers, sausage, meatballs, and more. Y’all I can have bacon! The top thing that really appealed to me was NO MEAL PREP. I just go in my freezer, choose what I want to eat, heat it up, enjoy! I’m on my 3rd day so far. The meals are filling I DON’T FEEL HUNGRY! This is the first eating plan I’ve been on where I didn’t feel hungry. Sometimes I don’t even know if I can finish my whole meal. I can eat unlimited amounts of meat, veggies, eggs, and even diet soda if I want. So what’s the down side? No sugar, no carbs, like …at all. But honestly, the meals are so filling I don’t even miss it so far.

So this is my photo before I started the PTF Challenge. What do I hope to accomplish in 28 days? I would love to see a reduction in my midsection, thighs, and butt. I’m not asking for miracles just for my current pants to be a little more loose. I’d like to break bad habits. I’d like to have a little more energy. I’d like to see my face less round. I’d like to see a few pounds down. If I’m dreaming I’d like to lose 20 lbs but I’d be happy with even 5 or 10 when it’s over.

There is no strenuous or non-joint friendly exercises. Walk 20 minutes per day is what they want. I love walking. I actually did a 33 minute walk today according to my fitbit. Lots of places to go for support. The Personal Trainer Food Support facebook group lets you ask questions and find encouragement. I opted into the Personal Trainer Food text message support which sends friendly reminders, encouragement, and achievable challenges.

I also signed up for The Biggest Loser Challenge at my workplace with some great coworkers who jumped on board. Accountability, goals, good food. That’s going to go a long way.

Follow me here and on the Luv Saving Money Facebook page for more updates!

Resource and Idea for Entrepreneurs

This post is sponsored by Diamondlinks.

Starting, owning, and running a small business is not for the faint of heart. It takes money, knowledge, proper resources, and lots of hard work. Each type of small business or idea has it’s own obstacles to tackle. For entrepreneurs, it can be hard to figure out how to sell an idea or get investments in your idea.

You’ve seen the shows like Shark Tank where people present product idea in hopes of getting the “sharks” to invest in their products or idea. But not everyone can get onto Shark Tank. So what resources do the rest of us have?

Rusty Tweed from Tweed financial services shares his journey to starting his company on ideamensch. He is asked some interesting questions that I might not think to ask an entrepreneur myself. Ideamensch is full of interviews that are both inspiring and full of ideas. You can read Rusty Tweed interview and many others.

A friend, who is a mover and shaker in direct sales, had an awesome quote that made me think. “If your mouth is shut your business is closed”. She got to where she is in the company today because she believes in her products, she uses her products, she’s not afraid to talk to strangers about her products. She inspires me in the realm of direct sales. But there are inspirations out there for any type or business or idea. The tactful way she can start conversations about her business…well I have a lot to learn.

Don’t be afraid to show people your product or talk about your business. Carry your business cards with you. If you truly believe in your products or business potential customers will be able to tell.

6 Tips on How to Get a Stunning Figure Without an Expensive Gym

If your goal is to lose weight, you don’t need to spend a fortune on a gym membership or some
fancy superfoods that have to be imported from halfway across the world. What you need is a
well-balanced and rather simple diet, YouTube, and a lot of motivation. As long as you provide
your body with all essential nutrients and burn off more calories than you consume in a day, you
will be able to lose weight and tone up your body as much as you want.

6 Tips for Weight Loss That You Can Afford

1. Learn to control your portions
One of the main causes of weight gain is overeating that occurs simply because people don’t
understand portion sizes well. Specialized (and expensive) weight loss programs come with
exact portion sizes included. However, you don’t need that guide to understand how much is too
much.
This or this portion size guide will teach you exactly how much food you should be serving
yourself.

2. Use foods to enhance supplements
Did you know that natural foods are the best appetite suppressants? Avocados, eggs, and flax
seeds are only a few of the bunch. Eating these foods at the right times of the day will help you
reduce your intake of supplements.
You might still need to get some pills that will help you kickstart your weight loss program.
However, in a few weeks a well-planned diet can help you deal with cravings just as well.

3. Make YouTube your personal trainer
YouTube is definitely the best source of all things fitness.
Free videos available there show exactly how you should be performing every exercise. Many
YouTubers are also open to sharing entire classes targeting different zones in your body. All in
all, this web portal gives you all the benefits of having a personal trainer except for their
assessment of your form.

4. Ditch red meat
Cheap weight loss tips do not only include advice on cheaper alternatives to a weight loss
program’s components. They also explain how you can save money in your daily life and
enhance weight loss at the same time.
Giving up red meat is one of the best methods as this meat is full of fats, even the ‘best’ kind,
which is lean beef. This will cut your calories and boost your overall health in one go.

5. Buy in bulk

Buying in bulk is always cheaper and using the portion size guides from above will ensure
measuring the amount of the food you need won’t be a problem.
In this case, ‘buy in bulk’ means the same as ‘not buy portioned’ which pertains to all kinds of
foods. Salads are a particular concern as salad bars overcharge for them quite a bit. You should
always buy whole fruits and vegetables and make the salad yourself. Not only will this be
cheaper, but you will also get a chance to use a low-calorie healthy seasoning.

6. Exercise at every opportunity
If your work keeps you so busy you can’t find time for a daily workout, you should get creative
with your exercising methods. Any activity can be turned into a mini-workout. And the best
thing is that both an hour-long training or six sets of 10 minutes will be effective for boosting
weight loss.
Go up and down the stairs, do sit-ups and standing pushups while in the office, or take a walk
during lunch.