The Joy of being Amanda

So I said I would get back to this,… here I am.  LDW!  For you non-Herbalife folks (I kinda feel bad for you) LDW stands for Leadership Development Weekend.  It is a weekend long power training session.  It’s Herbalife’s version of a company meeting.  Let me tell you, Herbalife has the best company meetings.  Lights, music, dancing, cheering, awesomeness.  Several of us traveled to the Twin Cities last weekend for the training.  We heard lots of inspiring stories involving both product success and how other are creating wealth.  It’s insane the opportunities this company provides.  I mean there were soooo many people in the room making more that $10K a MONTH!  AND AND!!! They are doing what they love!  Do what you love, help people, and make over $10K A MONTH!  Heck yes!  Sounds like a plan to me!  

So we had lots of success stories on Saturday.  Then Saturday night we attended a Pirate Party!!  So awesome to see hundreds of Pirates just dancing away!  Then Sunday was the Meat and Potatoes (Formula one and Protein Drink Mix, if you will) of the training.  Lots of great guidance from wonderful people who have been very successful with this company.  I haven’t taken that many notes since college!  They talked about growing your business… In Herbalife you are responsible for how much you make… if you want to make $500 a month, great…if you want to make $5000, then do it!  It’s all up to you!  Such good info!  AND THERE WAS A PIRATE PARTY!

I know that isn’t a huge recap, but I can’t even describe what you take away.  One of the girls at Fuze said it best when she told me… you won’t even know what you have missed until you go and see it.  Now that I have been to one LDW, I see why everyone says its soooo important.  When you are in business for yourself, you have to take full advantage of every opportunity to learn and grow and that is exactly what LDW provides!

So anyways… Last night we went out with some friends here in Appleton.  Very bitter sweet!  Its crazy how close you can get to people in a very short time!  It has become much harder to pack up and go than I thought it would be.  I fully expected this move to be easy.  Ya know, just put my stuff in a truck and “go home”.  As I am very much excited to be back closer to family and friends (AND OUT OF SALES)… I am struggling far more than I thought I would to leave Appleton.  I have meet some really awesome people here!  I know I will continue to see my Herbalfamily at LDW’s, but I am still going to miss the people here.  I am thankful for the relationships I have made and the time I have spent with these folks getting to know them.  I guess I’m just not great at good bye…they don’t seem to get easier.  The positive side… I know I always have some place to visit should I feel the need to travel north for a while!  :)  So as we wrap up our last week here I plan to PACK (UGH), tell the rest of my current customers I’m leaving, hit up a few more fit camps, and of course spend a little time at Fuze!  Then next Saturday… wheels up and southbound!  Hope Iowa is ready!  See you soon!

So I have been teasing you all just a little here recently.  Mentioning I have exciting news, but not really giving any detail.  It’s kinda been one of those… I have a secret, but I’m not telling situations.  Well I think the time has come.  The time has come to let you in on the news.  I honestly had to wait for a few things to happen.  The final piece of the puzzle happened today.  The final piece being Lance put his two week notice in at his job in Appleton.  I put my two week notice in last Thursday here in Appleton.  I thought this post was going to be black and white, cut and dry to post, but… something has come up that makes it not so black and white.  However, I can tell you the first piece… we are moving back to IOWA!  YeeHaw!!  We move a week from Saturday!  Yay!  We are going to take up residence in Indianola in the meantime.  There are a few more details that need to be figured out before we decide where we are going to live for sure.  I am not ready just yet to share the job details we are working on.  But rest assured, we will be working in the Des Moines area! We are very much looking forward to be back closer to more friends and especially family.  So that is the biggest part of the secret.  I’ll share the rest a little later.  If you have been reading The Joy of being Amanda since the start, you might remember I don’t like to give it all up on the first date.  I know this isn’t the first date, but hey the trick is…keep them wanting more.  :) 

I have just a little more to share.  I had an AWESOME weekend!  I went to Minnesota with my Herbalife Family.  We attended the Leadership Development Weekend, and it was AMAZING!  AHHH!  My love for this business grows more and more!  The training, the excitement, the PIRATE PARTY…all awesome!  For real, if you want the chance to make a difference and change lives, let’s talk.  I swear it will change your life while you are helping change others.  I will have to fill you in on this more later.  For now… I have to start packing!  Craziness!  We haven’t packed a box yet, so my goal is to do a little each night.  (or wait until the last min and throw it all in boxes).  Either way… I’m out for the night.  More to come! :)

I HAVE SO MUCH TO TELL YOU!  But… most, ok like all, of it is going to have to wait!  HAHAHAH!  I’m mean and evil I know!  I would tell you now, but it’s almost midnight and I’m scheduled to leave for MN at 6:30 in the morning, so yeah…sleep might be good.  I’ll give you a hint… lots of changes starting in two weeks.  Thats all ya get!  We will talk when I get back from MN.  I’m attending a Leadership Development Weekend.  Lots of HERBALIFE over the next three days!  I’m excited.  There is a pirate party!

Think about the hint.  You get no lifelines.  

I forgot to mention!!  Maddy and I got my sis pretty good on April Fools Day!!  I text Kerry and said its a good thing Maddy got a part time job cause it looks like speeking tickets are expensive in Iowa.  She believed it.  Called Maddy.  Maddy played it off…for a while.  Then pulled a classic Amanda move and started to laugh!  We got her tho!  So it was a success! :) (ps… Maddy isn’t 16 yet!)

So time has gotten away from me!  Crazy busy with lots of visitors…but I’m not really complaining!  In the past five weeks both sets of parents have came to Appleton, along with our good friends Chris and Brandi.  Between hitting up some good local spots for food and brews and my new adventures in Herbalife, time has been flying!

I have still been going to the gym before work, however I have changed my evening workout routine to Fit Camp at Fuze Nutrition.  I help with the Fit Camps two nights a week, attend the weight loss challenge another night, stay for the open house, and work with my trainer one or two nights…so yeah, my days come and go real quickly!  Fit Camp is so much fun!  Three nights a week are strength training and the other two are cardio based!  I’m talking sometimes 50+ people attend and it is rockin!  If you are in the Appleton area at 6pm Monday-Friday, You have got to come!  The workouts are awesome and the environment is even better!  Right now we have a fit challenge going on.  I’m pretty sure I’ve never done more smack talking in the matter of a week than I have lately!  It’s awesome!  You can compete on your own or as a team.  I am with a partner.  We are Team ABSome!  And we are gonna take FIRST PLACE!  The challenge has two parts a body fat loss and muscle gain.  We just plan to win both!  :)  

I know I said I wasn’t going to push Herbalife down your throats, but seriously I love the products, I love the business opportunity, I love the people I am meeting!  Lance and I were just talking tonight how awesome the products are.  I really expected to be tired of the shakes by now, but I seriously look forward to them everyday!!  And you wanna talk about the 24Fit Line?! I have one word… RESTORE!  The best product for athletes ever!  I am not kidding… I can do a killer workout.  I mean I tell my trainer I want to murder legs, like barely be able to walk out of the gym murder legs…I take a Restore before bed, and I don’t wake up sore.  It is so awesome!  That is just one of the products I have fallen in love with.  I can honestly say I was probably about the biggest skeptic about both the products and the business opportunity.  I have jumped in and have been proven wrong.  (This is probably the only time I have ever been wrong in my life).  The one thing I love the most about the people involved in this business, is their passion.  At first everyone seems crazy.  I mean how can you possibly be so excited about your “job”.  IT IS POSSIBLE!  I find myself getting just as excited about it.  It comes out like word vomit!  I want to help ALL THE PEOPLE!  EVERYONE GET HEALTHY!!!  I CAN HELP!  All joking aside, its great.  I love the Herbalife organization.  

So that’s whats been moving and shaking around here.  Gym, work, Herbalife/Fit Camp, sleep.  DO IT ALL AGAIN!  It was super great having lots of visitors.  We hadn’t had any since October.  Now, we don’t have any more planned or any trips home planned…but its ok, we will fit something in!  I have a not so exciting bday coming up on Friday…  Will be the big 28.  Ugh, that makes me so old!  Not as old as others in the same house tho ;) I’m not sure what I will do to celebrate.  Lance says he has it all under control.  I will probably just let him do the planning.  He usually does a pretty good job!  

So ya have a good week.  I have to go to Chi Town for a couple days this week for work.  We have an awards banquet for last year, and some training to go along with it.  It will be a quick trip, but they always feed us good food and drinks!  Keep your fingers crossed it will actually be spring by the time I arrive back!  Peace out girl scout.

Up and down. Up and down.
I want to type. I want to blog. There is so much clogging up my brain that I just want to word vomit it all out. However, I’m not sure it would make sense by the time it traveled from my brain, to my fingers and on to this screen. Not that that is much different than most of my other rantings.
I have so much I want to do. And such a short time frame I want to do it in. So if anyone has advice on upping my patience amount, I’d be willing to listen ( as long as it doesn’t take too long) (joking…kinda)
I really have too much to say to even start at this time of night. So I’ll leave you with one thing… Small actions can make big changes. Think twice about your choices. So often it’s not just you being effected.

When you like the part time gig more than the full time gig. That’s the struggle. Guess I should be thankful to have any gigs, let alone two. Even more so only having two because I made the choice to and not because I had to.
My mind is in constant race mode. Gotta go gotta go gotta go right now! Structure each day to make the most of it, still be thinking about what else I want to accomplish. There is a timeline. However, the line is longer than the desired time. Anything is possible, just gotta press through and know you are the only one in control of the out comes.
I have been crazy busy lately, but that’s my choice. I choose to be busy now, so one day I can sit back and be proud of all I did.
I used to be really really hard on myself. I still am sometimes. But it dawned on me yesterday, as I was giving advice to someone I had only met 30 min prior for the very first time… I told her…”be your biggest fan” then it hit me, for once, I have actually taken my own advice. I’m not sure when it happened. I suppose somewhere between making a few major life changing decisions and getting the butt I always wanted… I really did become my own biggest fan. I rarely think negative thoughts about myself, I pack my schedule full because I know I can handle it, and I lead by example. And ya wanna know something? Life is better. It’s happier. It’s less stressful. So just do it, talk yourself up. There is a fine line between confident and cocky. Learn it. Push it. Don’t take crap from anyone trying to break you down. Make your momma proud.