In 2017 March 8th became A Day Without A Woman in the United States. It stands for the March on Washington movement that took place on January 21st, 2017 after Trump's inauguration. Where women from all over were encouraged to wear red to show solidarity and asked that they take a day off and participate in either a charity or a protest. This topic is so controversial that it's been breaking up friendships, families, and even the work place. People like myself that feel so strongly that our government needs to stand up and recognize that women are still being underpaid, under-educated (in some countries), undervalued, and even sexualized. Don't assume that because it doesn't take place in your work place that it isn't happening somewhere else. Don't be so ignorant to say "well go find another job". Should a woman of color (any color) go look for a new place to work because there is someone there that has hate towards her "color"? What about age or marriage? As a man have you ever been asked what age you are or if you were married in an interview? Sounds crazy, right? None of these things are new for us, but having a president that clearly looks at women like sexual objects doesn't help these matters either. Having a president that indicates that grabbing a woman by the pussy is "normal" locker room talk has made many people feel that these actions are okay.

     Don't you want your daughter to grow up with the strength to succeed at work and in life and the sensitivity to be empathetic? How can such a woman exist with men (and sometimes women) are around to knock them down for no other reason than they are a woman. If nothing else at least read this book Strong Fathers Strong Daughters. This book should give you another look at what women go through as they age. There is also a book called Strong Mothers Strong Sons which I would recommend.

It took me almost a year to keep up my job duties while I searched for another company to to work for. I've had men call me names like "bitch, cunt, pussy, sensitive, heart-on-my-sleeve, and many others" all because these are words we use to describe women. It goes without saying that THIS is unacceptable for MY child's future. It should be unacceptable now, but it isn't. So while women out there bash me for taking the day off to stand up for what I believe in I challenge you to find a better way to fix these problems that women endure on a daily basis. I challenge you to teach your child the difference between acceptance and persistence. Why not right? Because those are your options. Either fight for what you believe in or accept the "norm". If normal is being treated like a sensitive sandwich making sexual object then I will go against the grain everyday of my life until I have nothing left. You can either accept my choice and let me fight and maybe even fight with me or you can live under your rock and enjoy your magical privileged life that I will never truly know.

#adaywithoutawoman

Then I tried a high protein diet, but I found that I don't work out enough for my body to process the protein well. It made me feel extremely tired and even more lazy than normal. To offset the tiredness I would drink more coffee which lead me to not sleeping and well... eh hem... let's just say stopped up a lot. I also found that my body was craving sweets on this diet.

Then I found High Carb Hannah on YouTube and tried her HCLF (high carb low fat diet). Well, the diet isn't really hers, but I was intoxicated by her videos and the logic on how the diet worked. I bought all the books I could on the subject and started on my path right away. I definitely lost some weight in the first 2 weeks, but it didn't come without a cost. I had spurts of energy that were AWESOME, but the crashing was worse than the protein diet. I also found that if I ate anything that had fat in it I jumped up on the scale. No bueno. As time went on I stopped losing weight and my performance at volleyball went down. My muscles felt weaker and I was often asked if I felt okay because people were noticing that I looked sick. I was actually sick a lot on this diet.

ke·toi·gen·ic di·et
noun
noun: ketogenic diet; plural noun: ketogenic diets 
a diet that tends to promote the metabolic formation of ketone bodies by causing the body to use fat (rather than carbohydrate) as its principal energy source.

That's right. Ketogenic diet. Or Keto diet or Ketosis. All of these things brought up tons of videos on how FATS can keep you thin. I obviously didn't believe what I was seeing because most of these people looked like they were eating meals that would clog their arteries within one sitting. After further research and my already awful path of being on a vegan diet, I decided that giving this diet a chance couldn't hurt. It was going to be hard since all of the research showed that animal meat, animal fats, and animal bi-products were the main ingredient to these omnivores diets, but I have never turned down a challenge.

There were only a few videos on YouTube about Vegan Keto people and their diets and I started watching some of them. Most of them had similar experiences with the vegan diet that I did. They swore by this "new" keto diet and talked about how it changed their lives. Well, they weren't wrong!

Within 3 days I had already lost a pound. Within 3 weeks I was down 10 lbs. It was amazing to watch the scale dropping as I found my health rising. After only a few weeks I feel like I found my vegan diet that I can live by. No more bouncing around to see what works. Eating healthy fats were actually making my body burn fat. I can eat tons of food that I would normally remove from my diet (and my house) and without the guilt. Avocados, you're back in. Olives, you're back in. Vegan butter and healthy oils, YOU'RE BACK IN! It's like winning the diet lottery for me. I love this diet!

I'm planning on sticking with this for as long as my body keeps accepting it with open arms. If my doctor says that it's working and I'm staying healthy then this will forever be the lifestyle that I live.

If you plan on doing this diet or you're already on this diet I'd love to hear from you! If you have questions about this diet please leave them below or as a comment on my YouTube channel and I will tell you the best answer I can through my own experience. Healthy living should be everyone's goal. I hope this information helped.


* DISCLAIMER * As with any diet or change in your eating habits, you should consult with your doctor to see what's best for you. By no means am I a doctor or a nutritionist. These are just my experiences and results that I'm sharing with you.

government that I exist. I exist and my voice should be heard. The choices that they make for our future not only affects us, but the future of our children (I will have some someday). I wanted to make myself present to show that I still care what happens with the treatment of women's healthcare in our country. I still care about immigration laws, equal pay, equal treatment to all beings, and the future of our country. Unfortunately this election didn't have good candidates to represent these concerns. Both of them had their issues, but I was afraid that Trump would be more capable and more willing to make bad choices for our country.

All that being said... He is my president unfortunately and all I can do is hope that we can either impeach him if necessary or that he starts making better choices for our country as a whole. Right now we seem to be dividing ourselves here in the states and around the world.

Now let me tell you how amazing this trip was! At first I was scared out of my mind to march because of the riots on the day of the inauguration. People were telling us that we should bring masks and goggles in case of tear gas. They told us to write our names, allergies, blood type, and contact number on our arms in case of an emergency. We packed food and beverages in a clear backpack and brought extra clothes in case the weather got worse. It was scary to think that something could happen to us by supports, angry protesters, or even our law enforcement, but precautions had to be taken.

When we finally got to the rally we realized that we were still 9 blocks or so away from the starting point, but there were too many people to make it any further. So we picked a spot close to the speakers and in front of a TV monitor so we could watch the speakers. This is where we learned that so many other women felt exactly the same way that we did. They said things that made my heart feel so heavy because I couldn't think of a way to explain them myself. America Ferrera was one of the first and her speech brought life to the crowd. Ashley Judd had an amazing speech and she recited a poem that Nina Donovan (a young girl) wrote that was clearly designed to be brought to life like only Ashley Judd could do. Most people think that Ashley Judd was just saying disgusting things, but really this poem was from a frustrated 19yr old girl that was obviously shaken up by Trump becoming our president. There were tons of speakers and performers that got on stage that day, but the sign language ladies were by far the best. I can't imagine how hard it must have been for them to keep up and show such an amazing performance and attitude with their work. I imagine that they were exhausted by the end of the day.

There was a point in time when the crowd started to get restless and you could feel the tension building up. We started to chant "Let us march" and drums were being hit making the crowd even more agitated. It was around 3pm or so when they finally announced that there were so many people that came to the march that the entire 2 mile strip was already filled with people. It ended up being more like an evacuation strategy rather than a march. It may have only taken us 30 minutes to get to the march, but it took us almost 2 hours to walk back. Protests, chants, demonstrations were all being displayed the whole way back to the hotel.

If there was anything that I could tell non believers about this experience it would be that this was a VERY peaceful march. We didn't leave the area a mess. We didn't destroy any property. We may have blocked traffic in some areas, but that's only because no one expected there to be over 1 million people at the Washing DC location. They were only expecting 250k marchers. The signs that were left were left as a protest. Personally I didn't leave my sign, but had I known about it I would have. The sign was to show trump that we are against his wall and that we could make a wall of signs at his doorstep to show how many of us were against his wall. If you look at the pictures in the media you won't see signs piled on top of signs in a trashy way, you'll see that each sign was strategically placed leaving room for other signs to fill in the wall. It had a purpose and in my opinion it was well done.

The march may be over, but the movement is not. We are not done voicing our concerns and I personally won't stop until I know that I won't have to fight for absolute equality anymore. No one should be judged by the color of their skin, their age, gender, sexual preference, or in which country they were raised in. Nor should they be judged by their religious choices. Who are you to judge. Who am I to judge. What does judgement do except teach others that someone has a power over another person?

I want to thank all the women that was in my group, I couldn't have afforded this opportunity without you. I also want to thank all the men and women that marched beside us on January 22nd, 2017. And for all the women that couldn't go but wanted to be there. I took a step for you and in my heart you were there.

All my life I've been taught that eating meat was a part of life. You go to the store and pick out the best piece of meat, grab some veggies, maybe some rice and make a meal. I never thought about the actual process of how my food made it to my plate. Was it really a "happy" cow? Was it really normal for us to be drinking milk as an adult? These were all questions that I couldn't justify in my mind and by the time I was done with the book (three days later) I was also done with meat, dairy, and anything else that came from animals. It took a little longer to go through all my belongings and get rid of anything that may have come from an animal, but my foundation was already well on its way. I won't bring this up much in my posts, but if you ever have questions let me know.

about seeing someone it just made sense. It wasn't the cheating part that bothered me it was the lying. I realize that this isn't a fool proof plan to ridding myself of liars, but it probably won't happen as much.

I also find that love isn't a finite number or amount. You can have love for people in many different aspects of life and to share your love without worry is definitely something I'm interested in. Just because I love "man A" doesn't mean that I love "man B" less. It might just mean that I love each one differently or for different reasons. Or maybe not, maybe I love them both for the same reasons but now I just have twice the amount.

Don't get me wrong... I still want to have a family and kids someday, but it would be nice to share that family lifestyle with more than one person. Crazy right! Yeah well, I never claimed to be normal.

I think that's enough catching you up for one post. There will be more to come very soon! Oh and below you will see some books that I highly recommend if you're interested in this blog.

I've never really posted a picture of myself without any make-up on my blog before. I'm a little nervous, but I think in the end we'll all be happy about it. :)

As I just started selling Avon because I believe in their products, I want to show you which products I love the most. Starting with a clean make-up free and moisturizer free face I'm going to use the Ideal Flawless CC Color Corrector Cream. I find this product to be reasonably priced and it feels great on my skin. Most of the time I use this product in the summer because of the UVA/UVB SPF 50+ protection that it has built in. If I were gauging the thickness of coverage I would say this works best for medium coverage. Basically what I mean by medium coverage is that I can still see some freckles underneath the foundation, but it smooths out the tone in my skin which makes it look healthy and natural. Awesome for everyday use!

Time for my powder. Personally I like to use the light bronzer all over my face and then the warm bronzer for my blush. The Avon Glow Bronzing Powder is a pressed powder which feels very light on my skin and it doesn't brush off your face as easily as most powders. I must warn you that the 'Sunkissed Glow' is very light and for most people this wouldn't be considered a bronzer at all. It's one of the reasons why I use it all over my face. Then I use the 'Warm Glow' on the tops of my cheeks and brush it towards my ears. A good rule of thumb is to place bronzer on areas that you would normally get sunburned.

After my Ideal Flawless CC Color Corrector Cream foundation and my bronzer is on I start working with my eyes. Now for this demonstration I am going to follow the directions for the Avon Quad Eyeshadow, but normally I start with my darkest color first and work my way up to the light colors. To be honest, after trying it their way I noticed myself adding a little more of the light colors after.

I use the True Color Eyeshadow Quad in 'Berry Love' because it helps bring out the color in my blue eyes. I absolutely love their color palettes because they have all the colors I need for a whole look. No more diving into my make-up box to find the dark shades and light shades.

Steps:

1. Use the lightest color underneath the highest arch of your brow line. Bring the color all the way down the brow towards the outside of your eye.
   
2. Use the second lightest color and go over the rest of your lid and just under the lightest color that you just applied.
   
3. Use the medium color in the corner of your eyes closest to your nose. Bring this color to the middle of your eyelid staying close to your eyelashes.
   
4. Use the darkest color a the outside corner of your eyes and bring it to the middle of your lid staying close to your eyelashes. Then bring it up to the crease of your eye and follow it back down to the starting outside corner. Make sure that this is even before blending it into the rest of the colors.
5. To top it off and to make sure that it's blended properly I clean off my brush and use only the brush to blend the color that's already on my eyes. Starting with the medium dark to the dark color and then the crease line.

The next thing that I'm using on my eyes is a liquid liner. For those of you who don't like putting on liquid liners because they are messy, you NEED to try a liner with a felt tip. It makes it so much easier to put your liner on and keep it close to your lashes. Extra Lasting Eye Liner has a long felt tip which makes it easy to use and it glides smoothly without cracking. I would also like to point out that it dries quickly so you don't have to worry about blinking and having a line of liner on the top of your eyelid. The pricing on this item is comparable to items that you'd find at a drug store or a store brand. Very affordable and worth it in my opinion!

After my liner is set my eyes are ready for my NEW FAVORITE mascara. This mascara is revolutionary in the way that it defines your lashes and the way it's applied. I will soon be posting a short video on how this mascara application works and why it is ridiculously AMAZING. For right now let me just say that mark. Lash Act Build and Define Mascara is going to be the next hottest thing. Okay enough boasting about this product.

I applied a layer of mark. Lash Act Build and Define Mascara while the brush was in its full spread form and then I went back over my lashes with the brush pulled in so it would define my lashes more while lengthening the look. I swear that this mascara makes me look like I have fake lashes on. I would easily pay upwards of $30.00 for a mascara like this, but if you can believe it Avon sells it for less than $15.00. Actually I think the cost is $12.00 right now. lol INSANE!

Last, but not least. I personally don't like wearing lip stick very often. Maybe it's because I bite my lips or because I like kissing a lot, but for whatever reason I just don't wear it much. I do however love wearing lip gloss. I like how it feels and I like that I can wipe it off easily when needed. ;)

The Ultra Glazewear Lip Gloss is a nice color boost without making your lips feel sticky. It doesn't last a long long time, but it did stay on my lips for a few hours even after drinking my Starbucks. The cost is low and I'd definitely suggest getting it in a couple colors to fit the mood you're in or the event that you plan on wearing it to. I have the pink watermelon and the nude, but I need to get rich raspberry to add to my wardrobe. They run about $5- $6 each.

I hope you liked this product demonstration and tutorial. I enjoyed putting this look together and showing you from start to finish. Just so everyone knows... I wore this make-up all day and even at my volleyball game (where I sweat a lot) and everything stayed in place. My eye make-up still looked amazing and my foundation didn't melt off of my face. Definitely impressed considering most make-up melts off when I'm working outside in Florida. The only thing that I had to reapply was my lip gloss. NOT BAD!!

To check out my Avon store and other Avon products go here. https://jennireilly.avonrepresentative.com/