I am pleased to bring to you the newest segment called “Posh Mom Of The Week”. Each week we will bring to you a mom that signifies overall POSHness, a mom that reveals real stories and experiences that celebrate, entertain and inspire the woman, who is a mom.

My first guest, I am proud to say is my Friend, as well as, a Mother, a Wife, a Caterer and a Promoter of Health and Wellness, Ivette Maymi. This POSH mom chatted with me about how she inspires others to become fit and healthy with the success of the Body by Vi 90 Day Challenge, the launch of her food blog, her family, kitchen must haves and easy breezy recipes (that even I can follow).

MommyPosh: Tell us a little about yourself. Your family.
Ivette: I’m 39, happily married for 6 years and I have two beautiful children, Cailyn 13 and Caleb 2. I manage my husband’s financial services business, run my catering biz, and work with an amazing health and wellness company. I LOVE to cook, read, dance, sing, relax with my family, and travel.

MommyPosh: Tell us about the launch of your new blog – Healthy Is the New Delicious?
Ivette:  I designed the blog to show people how to stop thinking negatively about healthy food. Healthy food IS delicious. There’s a way to prepare your meals using substitutions or even different preparation techniques that bring about the same satisfaction as if you ate the fattier counterpart.You CAN eat delicious food, GUILT FREE!

MommyPosh: When did you discover your love for healthy cooking?
Ivette: Honestly, I was never a “healthy” eater. I pretty much ate whatever I felt like eating. Once that caught up to me, I realized I had to make a change. When I lost 30 lbs. earlier this year, I realized that I didn’t want to just lose the weight, I wanted to change my lifestyle. I started preparing dishes that tasted just as good, if not better, than their fattier counterparts, and thus began my love affair

MommyPosh: Tell us about your healthy lifestyle philosophy?
Ivette: I don’t believe in dieting. I found out the hard way that you can diet and restrict yourself until you’re completely miserable and if you don’t make a change in your eating lifestyle, you’ll gain the weight back. I yoyo-dieted on and off for 2 years before I found the health challenge that changed it all for me. I never struggled with my weight before. I modeled when I was younger. So the low point for me was developing gallbladder disease. According to the doctors, I didn’t fit the profile for someone who would get gallstones, but I knew that my careless eating contributed to it. I had emergency surgery six months after my c-section and it led to a lot of depression. I just couldn’t get fit and the doctors warned me about exercising. View Post

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Fashionable Friday is brought to you by Kara Taylor, a freelance writer for Vision Bedding, an online store specializing in photo blankets and much more! Kara is sharing with us creative gift giving ideas that will be sure to put a smile on anyones faces.

Are You Ready for the Holidays? Gift Giving Ideas to Get You Ready.

The holiday season is coming up fast and you swore to yourself last year you would not let yourself get swamped in the mad holiday-season rush. As you stood in lines a mile long, sat in traffic jams that took days to get out of, or circled the mall parking lot for hours looking for a spot, you said “Next year I’m taking care of gifts EARLY!”

Well, that time is here!

There are many gifts that you can get started on now before the mad rush of November and December. While everyone else is dashing around, stressed, frazzled, and getting grumpy, you can be relaxing with a cup of hot cocoa and enjoying your time with your family.

Here are some ideas that you can get started on right now so you can be done well ahead of the busy, stressful holiday season.

Items You’ve Knitted Yourself
Friends and family members will always be grateful to receive a gift as highly personal as a hat or scarf knitted just for them. A throw blanket is another great idea that would undoubtedly be – no pun intended – warmly received. If you are ambitious and know the recipient’s style well enough, you could even go for a sweater. Make sure you know what colors they like to wear and what kind of patterns and designs they like, and get knitting! They’ll love it.

Drawings or Paintings by you
Even if you don’t think you’re an amazing artist, your friends and family members would probably still really enjoy something that you have done with your own hand. If you are a good artist, then they definitely will. To make it extra special, you could even frame it for them so it’s ready for display. If you like the idea of painting something but aren’t confident in your abilities, grab some watercolors and look up some tips online before you get started. Watercolor paintings really lend themselves to simplicity and they have a forgiving look to them even if you’re not the next Van Gogh. With some self-instruction from the internet you could really make something unique. Animals and landscape paintings are always pretty doable, even for a novice, and will probably turn out half decent. View Post

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Happy first day of Fall! This morning ‘Lil B and I visited our local nature center for storytime, arts and crafts and pet petting.  Sorry for the blurry photo, but ‘lil B didn’t want to stand still for this photo opp, he couldn’t wait to get to the next activity.

So, today got my thinking about what else I’m excited about this season: visiting more petting zoos, pumpkin picking, boots (yay!), change of leaves color and of course the return of my favorite shows and new ones (my new fav is Ringer)!

What are you excited about this season?

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I was recently asked what event/person/thing has been a “change agent” or “game changer” in my life… and with that I immediately answered being a mom..a titled I thought I was not called for.

You all know that I am a proud mom to my toddler son, but what you didn’t know is that not so long I never imagined being called someone’s mother.  I was never the type to admire ones kids, I might’ve been that same person giving you dirty looks if you brought your kids to one of my favorite restaurants. Its not that I detested them, I just didn’t have that motherly yearning…until I got pregnant.

My husband and I have been together for about 11 years and of course, the conversation of kids did come up early in our relationship, but it quickly diverted when a crying baby would interrupt our alone time at dinner or just the mere thought of raising a little person simply scared the bejesus out of me. Having someone look up to you for advice and guidance was my worst fear. What the hell did I know? my dinner usually consisted of a beer and a cookie…My friends thought I was cold-hearted or just didn’t care when I never reacted to wanting kids, but in reality I cared way too much to have to put someone through my unhealthy eating habits and lack of parenting skills.

So, what had changed?  View Post

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Today’s guest post is from Laura Cecil, a writer for Livesnet.com, a site where baby products are reviewed. Laura has great recommendations on ways you can protect your mobile child inside your own home.

Protect Your Mobile Children

The good news for parents is that the infant will become mobile and more independent after an age of about six months. Unfortunately, that’s also the bad news. Once the child become mobile, everything in the home will be interesting to him or her; everything will present some sort of danger. This is definitely the time to protect the child against these lurking household dangers by buying a few safety devices.

Stairways are always a problem. If your home has direct access to either the top or bottom of a stairway, you can be sure that the baby is going to want to climb. You’ll need one or more good baby gates to keep the baby off from the stairway. One gate that is highly recommended is the Evenflow Top of Stairs Plus. This gate is securely mounted using screws; it can be painted or if you prefer stained to match the decor of your room; and it is less expensive than other gates of similar quality. The baby will find it nearly impossible to open the gate. Even adults must practice in order to open it readily. View Post

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