Beyond being a #noexcusemom, I am a mom. My goal is to raise hardworking, humble and heart-centered human beings. I constantly ask myself, “am I preparing them enough for the real world?” My middle man, who is often the most money-savvy, has asked me how he can make money outside of waiting for the next birthday to arrive. He thought of selling cookies, which makes sense since we have done that in the past together. He created a business plan…
Every year I go on a one-day-escape. I look forward this quiet time nearly the whole month of December when I am drained by parties, presents and people. I am ‘one of those moms’…who bake for the whole neighborhood, who buys presents for every teacher, employee, NEM leader, family, friend, and carehome resident, who have two (soon to be three) kinds of Christmas trees and mail hundreds of Christmas cards. I am an overachiever through and through. I remember saving…
The other night we celebrated my Lola’s 89th birthday. We sat enjoying our favorite sushi dishes rich in Omega-3’s such as salmon. My grandmother (lola) was vibrant – slow but healthy, beautiful and classy. She has the kind of eyes that brightly smile and a voice so quiet, it requires your full attention. She inspires me to grow old gracefully. Besides her busy social life, her petite frame reflects the healthy diet abundant in Filipino food rich in fish. Whenever…
A couple months ago, while driving home from a No Excuse Mom meetup, I saw a fellow member, Kimmy, walking home. I slid down my window and said, “Hey, you live near me! Do you want to go running sometime?” (I’ve seen her run before) She agreed and we both scheduled a 6am run in two days. Asking her to run that day was going to benefit me in multiple ways. I wanted to started getting up earlier. I wanted…
I didn’t want to bake my husband a birthday cake. We were a few days deep into a serious argument and my stubbornness wouldn’t let up. I was pissed. For the last several months I felt overworked, underappreciated and overlooked. I felt I wasn’t a high priority in his life and our family tasks weren’t equally shared. I fell back into my old feelings of resentment and desire for emotional independence. It’s been three years since I filed marital separation…
Dear Followers, I’m sorry. I don’t like regrets, but I have a few in life. As I look at my scarred, numb and deflated breasts today, I regret ever thinking they weren’t good enough. I fell into the insecurity trap. I remember the day I made the decision to augment my breasts clearly. I didn’t research. I never thought about needing or wanting it before. But, when I was told it was something I “had” to do to win –…
July 10, 2019 This time two weeks ago I was preparing for my breast explant surgery. I was cool as a cucumber, anxious but ready to get this surgery on the road. I’ve been wanting to explant for years but was nervous about the risks, the recovery and the reality that I wasn’t born with fuller breasts. The chronic fatigue, joint issues, heart palpitations, chest pressure and inflammation was still aggressively impacting me. Instead of staying nervously awake, I was…
For months my husband teased me about going to Croatia. His Marine-tempered jokes about people stealing his kidney went on until the day we boarded our flight from Sacramento to Seattle, then off to our connecting flight in Frankfurt, Germany then Dubrovnik, Croatia. I chose to go to Croatia because I kept reading about Medjugorje, a small city in Bosnia where six children witnessed the apparition of Mother Mary in 1981. I first read about it from a book I…
Last year I started having rapid heart palpitations. Alongside chest pain, I decided to book an explant consultation with a local plastic surgeon recommended by a good friend who also explanted with him. I explained that since my surgery in 2003, I’ve had numbness, swelling and pain. The chest pressure had become uncomfortable for months and I wanted to discuss options. We talked about explanting. We talked about risks and the reality of being left with small, deflated breasts when…
May 19, 2019 I filmed my first infomercial for the Flat Belly Ball a few days ago. It was exciting to walk through halls lined with images of iconic TV brands like Jack Lalanne’s juicer, the ab roller, genie bra and copper chef. As I stepped onto my set, a clean room with a gym-like atmosphere and my large logo, I got excited. Really, really excited. It’s been exactly seven years since I first drew the image of the Belly…