-
Welcome to Paris! Beinvenue à Paris!
Welcome to Paris, or Bienvenue à Paris was the beautiful, pinch-me-because-am-I-really-here sign that greeted me at Orly Airport. I had an amazing opportunity to visit Paris for a week, and better yet, got to spend it with two of my very best friends Kristine and Nicole, and a new friend Ashley. There was so much to see, touch and of course eat that I’ll have to break it down into a few posts so you can experience it a properly through my eyes. Until then au revoir! XOXO Helen
-
New York Pap Rally and Run for Cervical Cancer!
Did you know that every year over 12,000 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer and that over 4,000 women will die from this preventable disease? Or that in the United States, Hispanic women are the most likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer?
-
Should you be taking vitamins?
I grew up having my older sister Carmen squeeze my cheeks together every morning in order to get my mouth to open as she shoved a spoonful of cod liver oil down my throat. A slight cough or a runny nose meant I would get smeared in a healthy layer of Vicks VapoRub. Fever? That meant rubdowns with alcoholado.
-
All about the greens!
Who doesn’t love a great green juice or smoothie? They’re so easy to make, taste amazing, and help to balance out all of the damage we do to ourselves throughout the week.
-
Congrats to the new Belleza Latina Queens!
Congratulations to the new Belleza Latina Queens!! I will forever be grateful to this organization, and will always hold the memories of being Ms. New York Belleza Latina very close to my heart.
-
Like A Boss!
I saw this on Nicey Nash’s instagram, and just had to bring it over here on my site. How true is this friends? All those things that we thought we couldn’t survive — we did! Like a boss! Happy hump day. XOXO Helen
-
Named a “Mujer Exitosa” by FORD!
Hello friends! I hope you had a wonderful weekend! I just wanted to share a bit of great news I just received. I was selected by Ford, as 1 of 10 influential Latinas in the Tri-State area! How amazing is that 🙂 Thank you so much to Lorraine Ladish of Viva Fifty for the interview, and to FORD for the recognition. When you’re in this space, there are plenty of moments when you just want to stop and crawl back into your bed and just stop. It can be the most amazing, but overwhelming and frustrating journey one can take. That’s why I truly believe things like this are little…
-
To Save The World, Start With Yourself
To save the world, start with yourself. Cheers to a new week and new beginnings to you all. Remember, changing how you feel about yourself and how you see the world you live in, starts with what’s going on inside your head. We are after all, a sum of our dreams, actions and our thoughts. XOXO Helen
-
#TBT That time before I discovered a flat iron.
Happy almost TGIF! I was always daddy’s little girl and I used to beg him to take me to work, a conference…. anywhere just so I could hang with him because I thought he was so cool, and I wanted to be a doctor too.
-
Bye, bye bloat green juice!
I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! I spent it with some loved ones, checking out wineries in the South Fork of Long Island. If you’ve never been it makes for a wonderful day trip. We checked out Wölffer Estate and Channing Daughters. My tip is to hit Channing Daughters first, and then relax with some great wine and cheese while overlooking the vineyard at Wölffer. There’s just no way you won’t feel the stress of the city melt away, and you might even jump for joy kinda like this.
-
Up late last night? Try this energy boosting green juice!
It happens. You stayed up late the night before finishing a huge project, or maybe you went out with the girls and had one too many skinny girl margaritas. Well guess what, you’re a grown woman now and gone are the days where you can just lounge in bed the next day and miss all your classes. It’s time to get up and get moving, and here’s the energy boosting green juice for you!
-
Google hangout with Secretary Sebelius
Last week I had the honor of being invited to a Google+ hangout with Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of the Department of Health and Human Services. Along with two other Latina women, I had the unique opportunity to ask her a question about the Affordable Care Act.
-
Your health matters – are you insured?
Disclosure: I am participating in a paid outreach program for Consumer Reports, however all opinions presented here are mine. A few years ago I had just started a new job, when BAM – it happened. It wasn’t a particularly dreadful winter day. It had just started to lightly snow and I was walking the same pathway to work that I had done many times. I blinked and before I knew it I had slipped on some black ice and fallen right on my behind. My first thought of course was embarrassment. There I was, lying on the ground (patas arriba like my dad would say) with my things thrown everywhere.…
-
Lucky me, I finally got the flu!
Spring is finally so close, I can see it in the horizon, so naturally that means I finally got the flu. I thought I had it made. I survived crazy weather changes, hung around people who were sick, and even went out with wet hair (don’t tell my Mama Juana). I somehow managed to escape getting the flu. Until now.
-
What you drink matters! #2BSparkling
This is a sponsored post with 2B Drinks, but I only give my full and honest opinion for all reviews. Did you used to chug diet soda like I used to, thinking that you were doing something good for your body? Only to find out months, or years later that you were actually harming it, and probably making yourself fat?! I know I was super upset when I found out that any just about any drink with the word “diet” in front of it, was actually making me hold onto the weight I was working so hard to lose.
-
The ABCs of RSV.
This is a compensated campaign in collaboration with MedImmune and Latina Bloggers Connect Did I ever tell you that I have about fifteen nieces and nephews!! Yes, fifteen!! I remember the excitement we all had as a family every time a new member of the family was born, and how beautiful but fragile they seemed. I’m not a mom, but I’m very well versed on common things that affect infants like SIDS, eczema and ear infections. But, it wasn’t until a few years ago that I learned about Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).
-
Don’t forget to love yourself first!
Anybody else have a mild heart attack that we’re almost halfway through February already?? I know I just did. One minute I’m celebrating my birthday on January 6th (still accepting presents), and next thing I know there’s Valentine’s Day stuff everywhere I go!
-
Sexy Kale Winter Salad
My love for kale is a real thing. Like any good relationship, we started off as friends.
-
Don’t let your limited situation, limit you.
Happy Monday friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. This Sunday I had my first group coaching of the year to a group of incredibly brave women. We all have goals and dreams, but many of us are content with leaving them there instead of doing the work it takes to make them a reality. As much as we may cry and pray for change, when push comes to shove it’s actually safer to stay the same. You already know what to expect. The unknown is crazy scary, but that’s where miracles happen. We’ve all been in a situation that limits us. Finances, lack of family support and…
-
Birthday blessings and lessons.
” I live for the nights that I can’t remember, with the friends that I’ll never forget.”
-
Don’t just make resolutions, reinvent them!
Happy New Year’s friends! Hopefully you rung it in surrounded by loved ones, with a sweet kiss, and just enough bubbly to get you feeling nice, but not hungover.
-
2013 In Review
Happy New Year!! 2013 was an amazing year for me, but I’m so ready for 2014. Here’s to making all of our dreams come true XO
-
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas y Feliz Navidad from me and my Princess Nena, to you and yours! Wishing you lots of love, health and happiness. Christmas reminds us that God (Universe) is amazing, wiser and more loving than we could have ever imagined. XO
-
Greek Yogurt Stuffed Strawberries
Who doesn’t love strawberries? I love to eat them with some cool whip, in a sinful frozen margarita, or filled with some plain Greek yogurt.
-
Five things you need to do today before the New Year.
December where did you come from?! In less than a month, it’s going to be 2014 guys. Before you pop some that bottle of Veuve to ring in a new year, here are 5 things you should do to help make 2014 a year to remember.
-
My moment on The Chew
A few weeks ago I got a call to see if I wanted to go on The Chew and compete in their version of the TV show “Shark Tank” called, “The Chew Tank” or “The Turkey Tank” as my segment was called because we were going to do a turkey cook off!! I’m not a professional cook at all. I’ll probably tell you after a few glasses of Prosecco that I once burned water on the stove (don’t judge me). Besides that one (or two) times that I did that, I learned how to cook as good as any (future) housewife-in-training. My Mama Juana is proof that you don’t need…
-
Progress not perfection
I’m entering a different phase in my life with some new projects, so I wanted to slim down a bit. You should know that in the past I would have starved myself, maybe even slammed some crazy cayenne and lemon drink concoction for days (I’m talking to you Beyonce), or popped the latest diet pill to help peel off the pounds. I will never, ever do that s*** again. You know what happened next, I would lose some weight, but as soon as I started to eat anything I gained it all back. It’s taken a long time, but I can finally say I can lose weight without destroying my…
-
How Rita Marley inspired one man to run for clean water.
Do you know where your water comes from? If you live in New York City, chances are it comes from a network of 19 reservoirs and three controlled lakes. Or better yet, with a label like Poland Spring, Smart Water or Fiji. We’re spoiled. We don’t think twice about the water we use to brush our teeth or to take a shower everyday. We don’t worry (for the most part) if that water coming out of our faucets is clean, we just know it is. I knew that having access to clean water wasn’t always the case from some of my previous trips abroad, but until I received an email…
-
Wait Without Anxiety
This past Friday I met up with my best friend Nicole, and we went to Gabrielle Bernstein’s “Live in the Know” lecture in the East Village. I’ve been a huge fan of Gabby’s work for some time, even re-posting her Spirit Junkie affirmations on my own instagram and Facebook pages. There’s just something about what she says that speaks to me. Maybe it’s how non-judgmental she seems, or how I can relate when she calls out her own struggles and imperfections. Gabby is like Wendy Williams says, “my best friend in my head.” I even went on the Today Show to ask her a question on the “Coach Me If…
-
The importance of colors around us. #ColorLatino
I’ll never forget when I was doing one of my first clinical rotations at HealthPark Medical Center in Fort Myers, Florida. My jaw dropped the first time I walked in and took in the beautiful glass elevators, piano player in the middle of the lobby and soothing color scheme straight out of the Sherwin Williams neutral nuances color palettes. I remarked to one of my mentors that this hospital looked like a hotel. She agreed, and said that finally, here was a place where people could come to when they’re not feeling well, that’s not depressing. She said now the hospital had a certain vibrance. Almost six years later, I…