Since I was small I would be excited when we would have MLK Day and I knew his speech and what he looked like, but I was young.  I didn’t know about the rest of the world out there and what differences there were in the world.  I hope that you take some time out to do something on this years MLK day to spread his vision, his words and his message.  Here are some of the quotes that I’d like to share from Dr. King.

Lastly here are some of Dr. King’s most famous speeches including the final speech he made the night before he was assassinated!

Have a great day everyone no matter where in the world you are or when you are reading this, remember it is up to each one of us to create a change and make a shift in the world, in our community and our lives!

To see the full list from Be Bold 101, by Nicholas Bate. Some stellar advice.

Either you get results or you give excuses. You can’t have great results in your life when you are always giving excuses. Results in your life are a direct gauge of how much excuses you are giving in your life. The less excuses you give, the more positive results you will have in life.

I came across this article early this morning and I wanted to share it with everyone in order to make 2012 your best year ever!  As I started off my day heading off to the gym like I normally do, I thought, ” OH NOOOO” it’s new years, which usually means that the gym is going to be bombarded with people and their resolutions to lose weight! I’ve been constantly talking about losing weight on and off but in 2011 I made a decision to just stop making excuses and get off my fat ass and work out, watch what I eat and just do it.  Now the other thing that I realized is that it took me 34 years to get the weight that I was so why would I think that somehow that weight was going to magically melt off in a couple of weeks, or 2, 3 months or without drinking beer for a month.  I had to be realistic and know that I had been mistreating my body for the past several years so I couldn’t be serious in thinking that I was just going to shed off a hundred pounds in the couple of times I hit the gym. LMAO!!!

Well I stepped into the gym and to my surprise it was nearly empty…there were perhaps about 20 people in there where typically it’s a bit more packed, now I know what you’re thinking well you probably went when everyone is at work, but NO I actually got up earlier than usual and went in to work out with the 7am people. So as I was working out I was thinking, I am sure some people made excuses to not wake up that extra hour in the morning or wait till they got out of their 8 hours at the job and then go work out! Or just some other excuse that’s going to get us in the same rut that we’re trying to get out of! Trust me if there’s excuses out there I’ve come up with them, whether it was to not workout or not eat healthy or maybe even other excuses in other areas of life. But I made a decision to stop making excuses and go out and get results.  Results in losing weight, results in my relationship, results in being happy and living life without excuses.

Here’s some changes that I made in order to successfully go down a pant size and lose about 25lbs over the past 3 months.

1. Added 1 protein shake a day – now I didn’t neccesarily eliminate a meal, I just knew to add more protein to my diet. How did I know that?
2. I joined Livestrong.com and got a free account and documented what I was eating everyday and saw how much carbs vs. protein my daily diet had.
3. Worked out early in the morning within 20 min. of waking up and did 30 min. of cardio and 30 min. of basic weight training
4. Added a tablespoon of Spirulina to my diet.  I didn’t know what spirulina was before my brother told me about it being the highest and one of the bests forms of protein for your body.  Also helps with lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. More info on Spirulina
   
5. Watched what I ate!  Because of logging all my food intake on Livestrong.com I was able to see what I didn’t need to eat and what I could eat more of! No Diets, No getting rid of anything! I still enjoy pizza, beer, buffalo wings, tons of stuff but I also have PORTION CONTROL!

Now these are just a couple of things and I am no guru, I am no specialist, I just letting you know what I did and that’s it!

Here’s a New Year‘s message that we filmed over the holidays, I’ll just share it with everyone and wish everyone a great New 2012, may it bring lots of results that will put a smile across your face over and over again and allow you to experience 2012 without excuses.

TOP SWAPS FOR THANKSGIVING!

320 mg sodium

Dark meat is about twice as fatty as white meat. Homemade cranberry sauce cuts the sugar by a considerable amount.

Stuffing (1/2 cup)

Stuffing is nothing more than a pile of croutons moistened with fat and loaded with sodium. Double this number if it was cooked inside the bird. A fresh grean bean casserole with sautéed onions is a much healthier alternative—just make sure you ditch the cream of mushroom soup.

Pecan pie (1 medium slice, 1/6 pie)

The healthy fat from the pecans is not enough to justify the extra load of corn syrup calories. In the pantheon of pies, pumpkin ranks among one of the lower-calorie slices.

WALKING ON SUNSHINE

Now these songs above are great songs to play during events as well, Marc has gone through and chosen songs where you don’t have to worry about negative words, negative thoughts or anything that will offend or distract you, your team during events.  Just a great list of songs that put you in a great positive mind frame.  Below are some of the songs that we used specifically with the characters that some of the people have been asking for.  Again thank you for all of the great feedback and comments.  Any questions feel free to email me mperez@worldventures.com

For more playlists visit www.playlist.com/monicoperez

It’s always great to see what everyone writes for some people it’s traveling outside or inside the US.  For others it’s a special weekend with family where everyone got together last minute and had a great time.  Maybe you just stayed at home and enjoyed relaxing at the pool on weekends!  Who knows?  I remember when I was young, I would be counting the days until school ended and summer break started.  I had family in Odessa, TX & Stephenville, TX which if you’ve been anywhere in West Texas in the summer it’s pretty much the one place in the world you DO NOT want to visit.  But it wasn’t Del Rio, so in my mind I was getting away from home.  But now looking back on it, it wasn’t necessarily the fact that I was traveling to Odessa or Stephenville which got me excited but who I was going to be hanging out with during that time, my cousins!  It was just so much fun to hang out and do fun stuff with my cousins, whether it was hanging out and laughing or just goofing off those memories will stay with me forever!  So with that being said, I don’t think that it really matters where you go to during summers or down time, however what does matter is who you’re with.

I’ve been blessed this summer to hang out with great friends in the US, outside of the US and also just here at home!  For me one of the tope highlights of my summer was taking my girlfriend Melinda on her first DreamTrip with WorldVentures!  And you might be saying her first Dreamtrip, I always see you traveling here and there together, and yes we do travel a lot but several of those times its for work.  It could be a training seminar that we’re doing in Vegas or New York, Palm Springs, Orlando which are also beautiful destination spots.  And we do manage to take time out and have fun during those trips, it’s still work.  But this summer I was able to take her to Jamaica, which was amazing!  We checked in and got to our suite and we were directly in front of the ocean on the 2nd floor, literally every morning we’d wake up and see the sun rise and the sun set right off of our balcony and for me, just seeing her HUGE smile everyday and tell me she never wanted to leave there, well that was at the top of my magical moment during the summer!

Then another highlight that was pretty cool was visiting Athens for the first time, being able to see all of the historical places like the Colosseum and Parthenon was really cool!  Here’s a video that my buddy Dave Ulloa made of the trip to Greece at a club there called Villa Mercedes, which is the hottest club and most poplular club in all of Greece!  The night before we were able to check out David Guetta which was DJ’ing there and it was again a first and something that I’ll never forget!

In mid-May we went out to LA for a week for a convention where several public speakers, authors and networkers meet called SANG.  It was cool because we stayed right down in the middle of Hollywood, we were literally about 2 minutes from the Roosevelt Hotel, so each night we would head out to all of the LA hotspots that were there, but we closed off that trip with a weekend cruise down to Ensenada Mexico, which was also a cool little treat.  We were taken around Venice Beach by my good friend Mike Putman and hit several hotspots and just amazing places right in front of the beach.  It was so much fun!   Another highlight for me this summer was going down to Del Rio and hanging out with some of my family that I had not seen since I was about 10 years old!

So in closing, I’d like to know what some of your favorite memories were of the summer!  Maybe you did something I didn’t do but I want to do!  Share your favorite memory but like a good friend once had told me is that life is all about creating memories.  Memories with those people that are close to you, those people that share your same wants and that help you want more out of life!

People go to music concerts for many reasons. Some people watch concerts to support their favorite music idols, others go to concerts to have fun with friends, while others watch concerts to enjoy music.
Here’s Melinda and I at our first KISS concert it was a blast, but we’ve been lucky enough to watch U2 in OKC, Bruce Springsteen out in Philly, Bon Jovi, Keith Urban, Jason Aldean, Tim McGraw, Pat Green and several others.
But for whatever reason it is, many studies show that going to concerts is actually good for your health.

Here are some reasons why:

Does this information surprise you?  How often do you go to live concerts?

I usually try to go to a live music concert at least 2 or 3 times a year, not only do I love the live music side of things being a musician and all, but also the excitement during the show is awesome.  I am pretty lucky to have my cousin which is Co-Partner of Tickets4AnyEvent.com, I know what you’re thinking…”Is he really plugging his cousins company right now?” LOL..yep I sure am…and don’t worry I am not getting any sort of benefits from it, no free tickets, no preference on upcoming shows or anything.  She’s just been very helpful whenever I want to go to concerts and I like using her company for concerts.  I think what I like most is that for someone with my personality where I sometimes don’t plan on going to a concert until the last minute, they’re able to accomodate me.  I’ve literally heard that Tim McGraw is going to be in town at 5pm and I know my girlfriend loves him so as a surprise to her, I texted one of the reps that work at T4AE.com while we were finishing dinner, we then went home I told her to get ready because I was surprising her with tickets to the concert and I printed out the tickets which were awesome seats and the concert started at 7:30pm.  That’s pretty DAMN good last minute service if you ask me…No Scalpers, No Waiting in Line, No bidding wars online!

So if you are looking for tickets check out her site www.Tickets4AnyEvent.com let them know I sent ya and YOU’LL actually get a discount.  But even if you don’t visit her site get out and go to a concert! Have Fun! Enjoy LIFE!

This is a quote that I had not heard about until I met my very good friend Wayne Nugent, Co-Owner of WorldVentures.  I have been very blessed to come across WorldVentures through Marc Accetta being their Director of Training.  I’ve seen amazing places throughout the world.

As I am sitting here writing this, my girlfriend and I just got back from an amazing trip out to Ocho Rios, Jamaica.  She had never visited any of the islands in the Carribbean Sea nor Jamaica so it was such a thrill for me to be able to give her that first gift of experiencing walking along the sea and putting her feet in the sand and just creating those great memories for her and for both of us.

I still remember when I was small my dad getting me this book that had all these pictures of islands and various places throughout the world and just explaining a bit about them and why go there.  Growing up we really didn’t take that many vaccations, most vacations were that of visiting family throughout Texas.  And it wasn’t until after I graduated high school that I got to do a bit more traveling while playing with the bands I was with.  I still remember my first trip to Vegas and just being amazed that everyone was always awake 24/7 or so it seemed to me, I honestly thought that the Lion at MGM Grand was made of 24 karat gold.  LOL, but I feel truly blessed that my parents always would let me dream big and never put limitations on how crazy I would think.  I was never told that I couldn’t do anything.  Not that I was spoiled and given everything I ever asked for, but they taught me that I could acquire whatever I wanted through hard work and persistence.  I feel blessed to have such great parents in my life and through their actions also show me that anything was possible.   I want to go back and look for that book…because I feel that everything happens for a reason.  God placed me right where I needed to be at the exact time in order to experience life at its fullest.   I just wanted to write a quick blog to let everyone know that EVERYONE should travel and create great memories with your friends, families and those that are special in your life…Here’s some videos of the places I’ve been lucky enough to visit….make sure and check out my YouTube page at http://www.youtube.com/monicoperez.  Let me know some other places that you’ve visited to that perhaps I haven’t gotten a chance to visit.  I’d love to know!

Let me know what are some of your favorite places that you’ve been to…

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Almonds

Oatmeal

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”