Colors for Fall & Image Stylists

I am observing the new colors for fall and it seems many of the designers are getting stuck in a rut. Many of the colors have that gray undertone again. For many gray is not one of the best colors to bring out skin tones. Like black, gray seems to be a ‘safe’ color and many designers think that like black everyone can wear it. That simple is not true. Gray is one of those colors that needs just the right person and attitude to wear.

For many years it seems that workout clothes only came in black and heather gray. Because of that many women think that gray is a great color. Just remember that heather gray has lots of white mixed in.

Try this when you are shopping and pick up one of the new colors for fall. Wear or throw something into your purse that makes you skin look wonderful. Then, you have a reference point for the new colors. Then while you are looking stop in front of that all important mirror and take those new colors and hold them up to your face covering all of what you are wearing. Wait about 5 seconds and see what happens. Pick several places on your face that are problem areas. Circles under eyes, veins, we all those areas now see what happens. If they suddenly “pop” into view…be careful. Now take the new color down and see what happens…if you see a change…put it back…yes I know that it is hard to do but…you may not wear it more than once and that would be a waste of money. However, if there isn’t any change you may have a great new piece to add to your wardrobe.

Not to many months ago I was talking with a stylist to be on my show. We had set the date and were having a conversation on the color and industry and what was popular. I told her about my book Marketing’s Silent Language. How I looked at color from a scientific standpoint. That color likes and dislikes were buried in our DNA and visually actually depended upon a person’s skin undertones and the colors in a person’s eyes. I ended the conversation with: the show was going to be great as we have different views on color… two days later she cancelled being on the show.

That made me wonder…are some stylists there to make you look great or to push what is the latest fashion trend? When I see many of the celebrities in clothing that makes them look awful, and most of the celebs use stylists I wonder what is going on. Are the stylists and the celebs getting compensation for looking awful? Don’t you wonder? Who is doing who a favor?

My philosophy on clothing…regardless of what is in fashion…if it doesn’t look right on my body…it doesn’t get purchased. The times that I have not stuck to that philosophy…that piece didn’t get used and/or is given away. I have turtle neck cashmere sweaters that are very old and are still warn year after year. Know your style, and know your best colors and stick with them.

I was watching a show on haute couture clothing. Incredible clothing with truly incredible prices! I remember one women’s statement. She had been buying couture clothing for many years. Because of her style, taste and color choices, items that were 20 years old could still be worn today. Think about that. How many of us can wear anything from 20 years ago. (Yes I know we have to fit into it first!) But short of jeans, do any of us have clothing that could still be worn in 20 years?

Maybe there is something to be said about timeless style and correct color choices after all.

Amazingly Yours
Dr Marlene

If you want to get your shape into better shape get my book:
The Thinking Side to Thin www.thinkingsidetothin.com
How to change your thinking to keep, or get that shape you have always wanted and deserve. To learn more about color and how it affects you everyday life get one of the last copies of my book:
Marketing’s Silent Language at www.silentlanguage.com .

Having Passion

Wow what a show I had Wednesday. Esther Gokhale was so informative. She was also so helpful off the air as well as on the air. We talked during the breaks and she wanted to know what she could do for me. What a wonderful lady. With small changes come big results. On the show she talked about stretch sitting and having the ‘behind’ end of the chair slightly higher than the front. I was fascinated with that way of sitting. It was just the opposite of what I had been doing. As soon as the show was over I changed my chair setting, it felt different at first….BUT before I went to bed I noticed the pain in my lower hip was gone. Yip gone! Up till then that was part of the back area that I could not fix. I also love the fact that she has fun stuff on her website. http://www.wellstackedback.com/ She has a passion to help people with back problems. Because she finally got it and she wants the world to know.

The same holds true for my guest, the week before, Annette Sym. She is a super lady who after a lifetime of being fat discovered that she could lose the weight with small changes that got big results. She did change the way she ate, because she liked food. What I can tell you is, off the air, Annette is, just the same bubbly personality with that passion to tell the world what she found out about losing weight. What Annette and I learned off the air is our backgrounds are very similar. The weight gain and loss and although I finally out weighted Annette (Isn’t that a thing to say) we both learned how to get it off and keep it off. She is such a beautiful woman. Her love for cooking shows in all her books, check it out at http://www.simplytoogood.com.au/ . Her recipes transformations are just like her personal transformation. She is bringing her cooking ideas to America and I can’t wait to see what she does here in the land of huge food and huge fat grams. She has found her passion and can’t wait to tell the world. And we all might just be a little slimmer because of her.

When you have a passion you usually do well in that passion. If you find your passion early in life you are so lucky to enjoy that passion longer and tell the world. Work toward your own passion not others. Listen to your inner self. It is proven that people don’t do well with others passion. But don’t worry if you haven’t found that passion yet. It took me many years to find mine. Then one day I finally listened to my inner self and my passion was born. Interesting now I have two.

Amazingly Yours,
Dr Marlene

Don't forget to listen to my Aug 20th radio show. The 90 year old Darling will be on. You can also listen later at http://www.amazingwomenbbs.com/ or http://www.marlenesiersema.com/ click on the radio button on top of the front page of my site. Learn how I changed my life and also became passionate about weight loss at http://www.thinkingsidetothin.com/.

Economy…Fashions…Fault?

Many pundits have tried to put the blame for our slowing economy on many things. Well I think that I know why this is happening and I am here to say that I think it is the fashion designers fault. YES… fashion designers and the MOD fashion fabrics.

Many of you that are out there don’t remember what happen the last time the MOD fashion fabrics were ‘in fashion’…well I do. Only back in those days it was called the Psychedelic era or psychedelic fashion. Meaning: weirdly distorted, wildly colorful, or otherwise resembling images or sounds experienced by somebody under the influence of a psychedelic drug… the drug of choice back then.

This psychedelic period lasted several years including a down turn in the economy, astronomically high home interest rates of 12-15% and higher. We had huge riots on campuses, riots in prisons; we had the flower children in San Francisco trying to stop traffic, “tuning in turning on and dying on the sidewalks; higher and higher food prices and the topping of this societal stew were the gas lines of the 70’s. That was when gas stations were only allowed to pump so much gas each day and you could only buy gas according to the last number on your license plate odd/even on odd/even days. Oh yes it was a mess. I do believe that it all started because some stoner thought it was be great to ‘draw’ while they were on their latest trip through their psychedelic land.

Who knows, maybe that person who drew was in the fashion industry but the next thing was the craziest designed fabric was everywhere. So I am telling you younger people right now…this is nothing new. But I digress.

Now I know you think that I am stretching on this crazy thought. But let me explain. During the research of my first book Marketing’s Silent Language www.silentlanguage.com I discovered interesting studies on many different types of fabric and the effects the fabrics have on the brain. One of those studies was the MOD fabric pattern. I only used a small portion for the book, but the research said that most of the patterns from the MOD fabric were disconcerting and disturbing to the brain. The brain is trying to work the pattern out but can’t. That would be like a Rubik’s cube without any way to win. The outcome of this usually showed up as putting people in a bad mood or mild depression and sometime just mean. It was interesting.

What was more interesting, as the MOD look ran its course and the newer look came out things started changing. The country started coming out of its slump, the economy picked up and people’s moods changed. Then something else happened. Many of the styles with the MOD fabric started showing up on “Sale Tables” and at the local Goodwill. What was more interesting was the MOD fabric clothes didn’t sell in either of those places.

After that the country started riding the longest growth period in our history. Till the end of last year when the MOD fabric pattern came back into style and the country started down the path of problems again. Now I don’t know what you think…but is this just a coincidence??
So I blame the fashion designers who have pushed this MOD fabric look for this bad economy and the bad mood of many people.

Speaking of clothes…my guest on the show next week Alexis Neely’s new book called… Wear Clean Underwear: A Fast, Fun, Friendly - and Essential - Guide to Legal Planning for Busy Parents www.wearcleanunderwearbook.com is a must for parents. Turn in to hear Alexis, who is a mother and lawyer, keep us informed. (Or download it later) If you are a parent you need this book!

Amazingly Yours
Dr Marlene

Join me Wednesday’s for Amazing Women: brains, beauty & style on Voice America Women’s Radio network. www.amazingwomenbbs.com . If you want to get your shape into better shape get The Thinking Side to Thin www.thinkingsidetothin.com How to change your thinking to keep, (or get) that shape to become a fashionista or fashion icon.

Is This Guy Kidding?????

The headline on the online news caught my eye. It was about weight loss so I took a look at the story. After reading the story once I couldn’t believe what I just read and I had to read it again…Is this guy kidding????

An inmate in jail is suing Benton County, Arkansas because he weighs 300 pounds. NOT and I mean NOT because he gained weight, but…because he lost 100 lbs in 8 months in jail. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080427/ap_on_fe_st/odd_jail_diet . I still can't believe what I had read.

Does he have any idea how lucky he is? At 400 lbs he was on the threshold of heart problems, joint problems, mobility problems and breathing problems just to name a few. All I kept saying was Stop Complaining!

The jail said that the American diet consisted of between 2000 and 3000 calories a day. (That alone has to tell us something) And the jail menu was at 3000 calories a day. AND THIS GUY LOST WEIGHT?!?!! How much was he eating before jail???

Does this guy know how many people work hard at losing weight all the time? They go to the gym and work out till sweat drips off them. They eat lettuce for lunch each day to get the weight off and keep it off. They take pills, tea, mix special concoctions to get rid of the body fat. They eat special cookies, bars that taste like cardboard and buy the latest gadget off the infomercial to get the body they want. That some diets people are on consists of 600 calories a day?? And this guy is complaining that he doesn’t get over 3000 calories a day??

He should be saying Thank You…giving the Sherriff’s department a big kiss. Without paying a single cent that the public pays to lose the weight; he managed to lose 100 pounds effortlessly in 8 months. That’s over 3 pounds a week that is almost as good as gastric bypass or lap band surgery.

Yes there are some drawbacks. One is he will probably look very different when he goes to court. Plus if he gets convicted he will be facing a long time incarcerated as a healthier person. Who knows where he mind is on this one.

All I can say is Stop Complaining about losing weight. Get out your pencil and paper and start writing your Weight Loss for Inmates book; who knows it could be a hit. But I can tell this guy this…There isn’t a woman alive that has ever had to lose weight that will shed one tear for him.

I also wouldn’t be surprised if there isn’t some very enterprising entrepreneur somewhere in the world that would read that story and come up with a new way to help people lose weight…

Amazingly yours
Dr Marlene

Join me Wednesday’s for Amazing Women: brains, beauty & style on Voice America Women’s Radio network. www.amazingwomenbbs.com . If you want to get your shape into better shape get The Thinking Side to Thin www.thinkingsidetothin.com How to change your thinking to keep, (or get) that shape to become a fashion icon.

Add Color to Change Status

One of the easiest ways to get notice is to wear color or to add color to your environment. If you what that new position at work, and know that you are qualified, wear color to get noticed. But not just any color such as a soft blue or green. What I am talking about is powerful color. Let me give you some examples where color is a status symbol.

The Oscars are a great place to see where color makes a difference. As I have said before black is so overrated for evening. The Oscars is a place where if you don’t wear the right color… you don’t exist. First let me give you a little background on the Oscars. Working in the background of the Oscars are the handlers of the stars and the people who keep the lines moving to the media and into the theatre. (Did you see any of them?) All people on the red carpet are dressed in evening wear. The handlers are usually wearing black, dark gray with very little color allowed in their outfits. They are the backdrop to the splashes of color that appears all over the newspapers the next day.

What did you see this year? That red Grecian style with roses across the shoulder made most of the newspapers. The color wasn’t just red….IT WAS R-E-D! It simply popped off the star. And I don’t have to tell you who wore that dress you remember. Last year, it was that GOLD dress worn by a star’s wife who is also an actress. A couple of years before was the best actress winner wore a purple and green dress. I saw knock off’s of that dress within 1 month of the show. I even tried one on. (A lot of dress to handle) Hence we have the handlers. But how often do you remember seeing any handler?

If you go to seminars see which speaker captures your attention. I remember one gentleman who wears a bright blue coat on stage. He captures your attention and you always know where he is standing. Even in the arena of politics, the ladies always have the advantage of capturing your attention and holding on with that remembrance factor. Now let us go back to wanting a new position at work or going for a new job.

Color is the way to be remembered. Not those weak washed out colors; as a friend and colorist use to call them “Lower Social-economic colors” K-Mart colors. She said upper social-economic colors are like Prada color. Now that doesn’t mean you have to buy Prada to get noticed. But walk into a store and just stop and scan the racks and see what stands out. Where your eye stops is where you should be looking at color to add to any black, gray or brown corporate uniform. If you want to get noticed and you can do the job, show the management that you know how to dress.

This same idea works in your home. Go to a bookstore and look at the magazines for “starter” homes. Then pick up a magazine for your higher end homes. Color is what will catch your eye. Now I know that, that doesn’t always hold true, some people like the cottage all white look; or the soft blue ocean cottage look. But even in the blue ocean cottage look, I have seen bright blue walls. Change things; add color in your life.

Amazingly Yours,
Dr Marlene

Join me Wednesday’s for Amazing Women: brains, beauty & style on Voice America Women’s Radio network. www.amazingwomenbbs.com . If you want to get your shape into better shape get The Thinking Side to Thin www.thinkingsidetothin.com How to change your thinking to keep, or get that shape you have always wanted. To learn more about color get Marketing’s Silent Language at www.silentlanguage.com .

Spa Treatment – Skin Deep

Different procedures in plastic surgery are becoming big business. The surgery techniques of today are nothing like the procedures used 10 years ago. One of the newest techniques you are even seeing in advertising is a fill product that can take away the deep lines around the mouth and into the laugh lines.

This is a great product and procedure that many people are thinking of using. Why…because it is not permanent. With these temporary procedures if you don’t like the look you get, you only have to wait a few weeks or months and it is gone. And if you like what you see, then you just make another appointment to get the touch-up.

This, to me, sounds like a wonderful idea. We all have different problems that we would not like to see when we look in the mirror. As any of you that have read my books know, I had the plastic surgery to remove the extra skin after losing all the weight. But I had the procedures done by a plastic surgeon. The latest trend that I am seeing is spas offering the fill procedures.

Having a skin specialist at a spa that has taken a seminar on how to inject the fill product is a little scary. Yes the product is very safe, but getting that product into a vain or worst yet getting air into a vain what is called a vain embolism is really scary.

I think the idea of the product is great. Boomers can keep that youthful appearance longer. Might as well look good, as boomers, because of better medicine, food and our own desire to stay healthy, are going to live a lot longer than our parents did. Many of us will probably see 100. Procedures to keep gravity out of our looks are fine with me. But, it scares me that women might go to a spa and have someone without a doctor’s degree doing the producer. Ouch!

Plastic surgery today is great with better procedures and products, but only when done by a professional that has been trained in the “art” of plastic surgery. And it is an art.

Amazingly Yours
Dr Marlene

Join me Wednesday’s for Amazing Women: brains, beauty & style on Voice America Women’s Radio network. www.amazingwomenbbs.com . If you want to get your shape into better shape get The Thinking Side to Thin www.thinkingsidetothin.com How to change your thinking to keep, (or get) that shape to become a fashion icon.

Learning Tricks from Even the Semi Pros

During lunch the other day I realized just how much I learned being a manufacturer for the hair and beauty industry many years ago. One thing was little tips on how the pros make the celebs (and you) look when make-up is done by a pro. Believe me without the pros, celebs would not look as good as they do when they are out in public. There are so very few celebs that actually do their own make-up. However; learning what pros or even semi-pros do is one step closer to the right make-up look each and every time.

What better place to learn then at your local department store that has a “We will do your make-up for you” department. Now I don’t mean you sit there and get your make-up done. I mean you stand off to the side and watch what they do. For Semi-pros these people are very good. They have been taught how the make-up from their line works and what they can do with all age groups. They don’t do what a pro does, like mixing up to 8 colors for the eye shade, because a client simple won’t buy that many colors at a time. But their techniques are very close to the pros.

One simple trick that I learned from a pro that I saw a semi pro use was the use of face powder to soften and make corrections on eye shadow. I don’t know about you but there have been times when the eye shadow just goes on too dark or to high on the eye. Nothing is worst then trying to get it off. I can remember washing my face and starting over because of a blunder on the shadow.

After watching a pro fix a blunder they made, I almost had to hit my head like the V8 commercial. Duh! Now why didn’t I think of that? Now I simply keep a pressed powder the same color as my base to go over to dark shadow or to soften the shadow line or to use as a blender when I use more than one color. NO, it does not take a long time. Just get a good chisel brush and blend, blend, blend and ‘voila’ correction made.

What is nice is you can use at the side and under the eye also, as it is the same as your base color. It is like an eraser only it doesn’t eraser it simple hides! What magic it can do.

Amazingly Yours,
Dr Marlene

Join me Wednesday’s for Amazing Women: brains, beauty & style on Voice America Women’s Radio network. www.amazingwomenbbs.com . If you want to get your shape into better shape get The Thinking Side to Thin www.thinkingsidetothin.com How to change your thinking to keep, (or get) that shape to become a fashion icon.

OKAY Now What Do I Do to Clean Up This Stuff!!

When I have Regina Leeds http://www.reginaleeds.com/ on my Amazing Women, brains, beauty & style show http://www.amazingwomenbbs.com/ it is always a pleasure for me; because I am somewhat of a neat nick. That doesn’t mean that I go around after people and clean up at a party. What it does mean is that I like to have things in place so when I need to find something, I can find it quickly. As a business owner when I had many, many employees, having that kind of order in my office to me was necessary. It just seemed to overflow into my home life.

However, when you are the only person in the home who wants neat order it can be a challenge. Instead of getting order, you store everything because no one wants to part with ANYTHING. So for years, I have been a hide it and forget it person. No one wanted to make a decision of what is needed and not needed, so I stored it. Now that we are organizing just for us I have another problem. What am I going to do with all this stuff?

We are a society that is drowning in stuff…stuff that in most cases is not important. I see more and more storage locker companies being built in this area, where stuff can be stored. What good is it to just pay money to just keep it hidden? The more I think of that crazy logic, the less it seems logical. Some people say they don’t want to get rid of things because they don’t want to fill the landfills. Okay, so at least they have a reason. But is it logical? We all keep buying but many of us don’t throw away.

Today I read a story about a large company that was getting rid of all the‘ad gifts’ stuff http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080119/D8U8U5C80.html that was being delivered to all the employees by potential products manufacturers. These manufacturers wanted the company to buy these products so they give little gifts of every shape, size and color with company and product names on them. This stuff was being taken out of the office and instead of just trashing it, they were shipping to Africa where the products were not sold, but the gifts could be used effectively. What a great concept!

Now if the rest of us just could have that same concept when it comes to our personal stuff! Part with it happily and know that whoever gets it after you will be very happy with what we have parted. I am starting spring cleaning early in fact if we all started now, we would be free to have a spring to remember. Spring is an amazing time of the year to be out in nature’s wonderful tapestry of foliage and flowers.

Amazingly Yours
Dr Marlene

P.S.
You can learn the secrets about my weight loss of 170 lbs. with the mental methods that I used in my book: The Thinking Side to Thin: available on Amazon or http://www.thinkingsidetothin.com/ . Or if you want to learn more about color, my book Marketing’s Silent Language includes how to use it to your business and sales advantage see more at www.silentlanguage.com

Entering the Season of Beige Food

We are now entering the season of Beige food. The Holidays of turkey (beige), gravy (beige), dressing (beige), sweet potatoes (almost beige), pumpkin pie (dark beige) get the picture?

Most people put on about 3-6lbs during the Thanksgiving four day holiday. WOW!! Just imagine how much food must be eaten to gain that much weight. Why do you continue to put on that weight and sometimes keep that weight on every year?

Tradition! Tradition started during the time of the pilgrims when adding a little weight during the fall to early winter, help the people make it through the winter months when food from the fields was scarce. We don’t have that problem today; in fact, we have the opposite problem. We have abundance!

Abundance in the form of a markets teeming with all the goodies of the season and more; because of world trade and markets open to everyone, we can get all the great foods of the world all year long. When it is winter in the northern hemisphere it is summer in the southern hemisphere and vice versa.

The other problem that we have is we no longer have to tend the field and go out and hunt for meat to put on the table. In fact we are more of a sedimentary society than ever. This computer that I am typing on is one of the big reasons.

So we stick with traditions and we gain, and we gain, and we gain weight each and every season. No wonder 67% of the population of the US is overweight, with the world catching up quickly. 38% of our kids are overweight, that number is frightening.

Now is the time to break with tradition and think before we buy this season. The turkey is wonderful; but hold back on the butter. (That bird will taste just as good and be better for you) Skip the dressing if you can, if not make as little as possible and go for no left-over’s. Skip all the potatoes and go for more than one vegetable. You will even be able to have more than one helping of those green beans. Make your own cranberry sauce (it is so easy) don’t use sugar…use something else and it still tastes great. Now that dessert! Try other pumpkin delights that are not a pie. You can get the same taste but cut the calories. You might even cut the nap time problem.

Stay in amazing shape for the New Year!

Amazingly Yours,
Dr. Marlene

I have a personal jeweler coming up on the show on 11/14/07 don’t miss this one she will give you hints for your holiday giving.

You can learn the secrets about my weight loss of 170 lbs. with the mental methods that I used in my book: The Thinking Side to Thin: available on Amazon or under links to my other sites. Or if you want to learn more about color, my book Marketing’s Silent Language includes how to use it to your advantage.

Small World Getting Bigger

Talk about sending mixed signals. Big news this week…Disneyland is shutting down the Small World ride to make all the boats bigger to accommodate today’s larger people. At the same time there is news that schools are trying to get younger students to eat better. Studies have shown if the fat is put on at a younger age it is harder to get off later in life. (That is so right)

So here we are as a nation; making it easier to be fat and telling our younger people you should not be fat. HUH??

Talk about sending mixed signals. I still can remember when I was very fat the availability of larger size clothes was next to nothing. Today…not only do we have lots of choices, but every store, including the very high end, has teens and younger big size clothes.

Are we becoming a nation of fat people? What happen to the trying to get the weight off and get healthy trends of the last few years? I have noticed on some websites of large size clothes they are not offering size 40 or 6X for women. What size is that?? We have never heard of that size before.

I have been doing some research, and let me tell you this. If you want to shorten your life get fat! The body and the skeletal system can’t support all that weight. Why do you think fat people have a hard time walking? And those who are really fat sit most of the time. Remember the story of the 1200 pound man who had grown into his couch? He couldn’t walk!

I will get into this more on Friday. For my Amazing Women I will tell you this now. To slow it down or even bring that aging clock to a slow crawl…losing the weight and getting the body healthy and balanced is the number one thing to do. Until Friday…

Amazingly Yours

Dr. Marlene

You can learn the secrets about my weight loss of 170 lbs. with the mental methods that I used in my book: The Thinking Side to Thin: available on Amazon or under links to my other sites. Or if you want to learn more about color, my book Marketing’s Silent Language includes how to use it to your advantage.

Small Color Change – Big Appeal Value

DON'T FORGET TO TAKE MY POLL ON COLOR

WE WILL BE TALKING ABOUT IT WEDNESDAY ON THE SHOW

We will be talking about color this week on my radio show, but it will be in regards to clothes. Today let’s take a look at a small change I did for a huge change in visual value.

I have a glass top table in my family room that had granite stone (gray) pedestals since I bought it at auction. It was originally purchased for an office that was decorated by a blue base person that I moved out of a long time ago. The room that it is in has a warm wood floor, warm honey colored chairs, and one small wall above the bar that is a warm yellow base red. We are both yellow base people and we love this room.

The table had always been jarring to my eye in the wonderfully comfortable room. Fixing the problem was like a wonderful bolt of lightning that cost us nothing. Sunday morning, while drinking my coffee, I remembered that we still had the pedestals from the old dining room table. Those pedestals were made of stone (keeping the overall look the table) but the stone was a wonderful yellow base color, pretty close to the entrance hall stone color.

So we did a switch. We went from 4 corners of gray pedestals, to two center cream pedestals. WOW what a difference. Not only did it change the look of the table, but the whole room suddenly came together. An added bonus was the look of more floor space.

Why…because the eye did not stop at the gray corner pedestals any longer. Because the new pedestals were a warm base stone, the flow of the colors in the room was complete. The eye and the brain no longer had to “get past” the wrong color; they were no longer jarred. When the eye stopped at the old color the room suddenly shrinks to the brain and the room took on a cramped feeling. By keeping the warm base color in the room, the eye and brain no longer have a problem with the flow through the room.

The same holds true with color on the body. If you put on an outfit that you think suddenly makes you look old or fat…check the base color against your skin…if it is the wrong base color get rid of it! After all no one (male or female) wants to look old or fat. Do we??

Amazing Yours,
Dr. Marlene

You can read all about the systems and how they work in my book Marketing’s Silent Language, http://www.silentlanguage.com/ or…you can learn more about my weight loss of 170 lbs. and the mental methods that I used in my book: The Thinking Side to Thin: available at Amazon or under links to my sites.

A Little of This and A Little of That

Don’t forget to take the poll on my posting from 10/31/07.
We will talk about it on the show 11/07.

My mood today is about some of the following.

Speaking of Halloween…isn’t nature wonderful. Here is Southern California, after all the fires and all that heat with the raging winds…what happens…a couple of days before Halloween right on cue nature changes and fall weather slides in with coolness and great Halloween weather.

Speaking of nature…I wish that congress would just leave day light savings time alone. In fact we are not saving anything at all. Nature does what nature does on the earth with seasons and a few hundred people in a room really have no control of what the earth does at all!!
Yesterday I drove about 70 miles to an appointment. What I noticed was before 6:30pm it was starting to get dark and within a few minutes most people had their headlights on. (Some these days are automatic, yeah!) So where is the savings? I was taught in, way back when, in electrical engineering classes that you can’t save energy. It must be used or you will lose it. Hummmmmm isn’t the sun a HUGE energy ball?

Working on a program for the New Year for the radio show, it is going to be about getting into shape, losing weight, eating right and getting the right mental attitude to make it all happen and stay with you for life! OK so this is a teaser. The show is evolving and I will be adding more features.

Speaking of the fires…EVERYONE should stop by their local fire department and thank them for all they do. They are our first responders. Here in Southern California we love all our fire people. I know that during the summer our local department is out sometimes 4 or 5 times a day. These guys do it all. Just think what it would be like without them.
Have a great weekend!!

Amazingly Yours,
Dr. Marlene

You can learn more about color in my book Marketing’s Silent Language including how to use it to your advantage. Or you can learn the secrets about my weight loss of 170 lbs. with the mental methods that I used in my book: The Thinking Side to Thin: available on Amazon or under links to my other sites.

Happy Halloween and Spooky Colors

Hi Everyone! If you are here from listening to my radio show today welcome. Sorry this is going up so late. I had to help out all the little trick or treat ghosts and this year really cute costumes.

This is what the poll is all about:

I just spent the most frustrating time last weekend looking for some new clothes. (Yes I have become a major clothes-horse since the weight loss) Here is my problem as I see it.

The styles themselves were great when I wore them back in the 70’s but with persistence and a few good places I can get around the style problem. My problem is the colors in the clothes. One thing that I learned while writing Marketing’s Silent Language is that clear or clean colors look best. I do not include that statement for the “heathered” look of two colors of thread like what the designers call oatmeal: that, is a specific woven effect.

What I am talking about is the gray undertone to most of the colors in the stores. I went to all the big stores…I live close to South Coast in Southern California and everything and I mean everything is either in those malls that are very close to South Coast. It made no difference if it was very high end or very low end price range. The colors to me all had a gray cast to them. This made the garments look dirty or old or an out of fashion color. Except for black or white

My problem is, all the colors seemed to be affected. I remember this happening a couple of times before, as I mentioned in the book, just before the tech bubble burst a few years ago, Gray was in the “in” designer color. It is a depressing color to be an “in” color. I am beginning to think they had a lot of gray dye left over and are using it up now. I don’t know…the colors seem old looking.

Am I the only one seeing this? Are you seeing this also? Are you having a frustrating time shopping with the colors that are in the stores?

Next week on the show we will have a personal shopper, designer and movie costume designer. I would like to discuss this problem with her and I would like your opinion also.

Go out and take a look where you usually buy clothes. Are the colors good on you? When you put on the clothes do you feel good?

After you have formed your opinion take my poll. If this is not enough of an answer email me at drmarlene@excite.com. This should be fun. Can't wait to see your results.

Amazingly Yours
Dr. Marlene

P.S. Don’t forget to listen in next week, Nov. 7th to our personal designer and see how the poll came out. Or you can always listen later on iTunes or download from the archives.

You can learn more about color in my book: Marketing’s Silent Language including how to use it to your advantage. Or you can learn the secrets about my weight loss of 170 lbs. with the mental methods that I used in my book: The Thinking Side to Thin: available on Amazon or under links to my other sites.

Teen Agers and Eating Right

At least once a week I read in the newspaper or even a magazine how nutritionist or psychologist are training pre-teens and teens in school how to eat better so as to not be one of the 38% of children that are overweight. Then, because I live very close to a high school I see kids do as they want. The places that are the busiest during lunch is the pizza parlor, the convenience store, the Mexican fast food place and now the ice cream truck with a line of 20 deep. At this age nothing is worst than not fitting in. Peer acceptance is what drives most teens.
It is almost as if the nutritionist and the psychologists forgot what it was like when they were a teenager. That their “new way” of teaching ‘children’ is going to work. Good grief ! Telling teens that they should not be eating in fast food restaurants, is like telling them not to breathe! Then you have the peer problem.

Rather than teaching them the ‘new way’, which is no different from the old way, wouldn’t it be better to observe them, then teach to their needs and life style; giving them a few secrets on how to eat, not get fat, still fit into their peer group and not get teased by others?

The biggest problem these ‘teachers’ have is they never had the problem of gaining weight or losing weight. Or they have the problem of being overweight while teaching and the teens blow them off immediately. Teens are not stupid maybe just a little ill-advised, and when presented with options they can use in everyday life, they usually respond.

Presenting a science to teens and pre-teens in a non-scientific way is a hurdle the nutritionist and psychologists need to understand and presenting it at the right time of the lifecycle when it is best absorbed.

More Wednesday on what to present and how.

Amazing Yours,
Dr. Marlene

You can learn some of the secrets for teens and about my weight loss of 170 lbs. and the mental methods that I used in my book: The Thinking Side to Thin: available at Amazon or under links to my sites.

Color Comes before Style

One Monday of this week I said that color has a profound effect on each of us every day. It assaults our senses, envelopes our every waking moment. It pulls pokes and prods us, and has a profound effect on our emotions. It stops us in your tracks, can make us hungry and makes us want to buy. It moves at the speed of light and helps program the brain to accept or reject the spoken or written word. For each of us it is buried somewhere in our DNA. That means that each of us knows instinctively colors that make us look good. The problem that most of us have is…we are swayed by style.

Developing a way to get to the colors that will always make us look good can be a problem as you walk into any store today. The array of clothes, styles and colors is mind boggling! Being able to cut through that array just to the color and cut of clothes for our own personality can be time consuming. Knowing a time saying method can help. This method works for men or women even teens that want to develop a true look that is there’s.

As you walk into any store, stop! You want to be far enough away from the clothes that styles will not influence your decision. Now from this vantage point, scan the entire area of clothes slowly several times side to side. As you do notice where to eye stops. If it keeps stopping on black keep trying. Black is a safe color. You are looking for the color that your eye and brain knows is right for you. (This action may surprise you at first.)

If there are only one or two areas, great note them then and only than wade deep into the clothes and see what style is right for your body in those colors. If you don’t find anything, it just might be that the buyer for that area is only buying colors they like. Thus not understanding there is another whole world of color lovers out there. If it is a small shop, you may be up against the same problem and that shop may not be right for you no matter how great of styles they have. Remember color is always the first thing people notice.

By using this method, you will discover that matching items in your own closet will become easier. Colors will work together better. And more clothes in your closet will be used. Letting go of the items that are the wrong color for you no matter how great the style will become easier. Compliments will follow. Go have some fun shopping and experiment.

Amazing Yours
Dr. Marlene

You can read all about the color systems and how they work in my book Marketing’s Silent Language, http://www.silentlanguage.com/

Taking Control of One’s Life

On the show on Wednesday (10/3/07) I talked with an organizer (Regina Leeds) about what it meant to a person when they organized parts of their living space. She said that when you organize you are taking control. That got me to thinking about taking control of other parts of our own lives.

When I wrote “The Thinking Side to Thin” one of the themes throughout the book is taking control back from being overweight. Understanding what we put in our mouths and what is the affect on our bodies. Supplements are a great place to start.

Supplements today in the US are I think a trillion dollar business. (Give or take a billion) But how many of us really understand what those supplements do to each of us and how they react to other medication that we take.

At one point on my road to losing the 170 pounds I though since I was not eating the huge amounts that I use to eat, I would need supplements to help keep me active and energized. Was I wrong! When I increased my supplements my weight loss came to a screeching halt! My body said “Oh good you are giving me what I need, why should I go get it from the stored fat!” So I had to become a detective and started investigating about every supplement I took.

We have a lifetime of information available to us (both good and bad) on the internet today. But with diligence we can weed out the bad. What did I discover? Many of the supplements I had been taking were completely unnecessary. And with others, I found out that taking them together made them useless. At another time I had a bad reaction to two supplements that I was taking. In my body, taken together, I GAINED WEIGHT…not the outcome that I wanted at the time.

As I say in “The Thinking Side to Thin”, I became a walking experiment. I worked at finding out what was the best possible combination for my body. I TOOK CONTROL! Then my outcome was what I wanted. My weight loss was much easier and I had the energy and I was more active than ever.

Taking control is very empowering. The control radiates out to other parts of your life. This type is not control of arrogance, but the real control and the feeling that you understand what is going on. An internal confidence, that radiates to others. You can get the book on one of my favorite links on this page.

Again today I want to thank all my radio listeners that have made my show Amazing Women, brains, beauty & style the #1 show, after only 8 weeks, on Voice America Women.

Amazingly Yours,
Dr. Marlene