DanelleIce.com

23 Pounds in 23 Days - Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Danelle Ice) — Sun, 10 May 2009 17:48:00 +0000

I challenged myself to lose 23 pounds in 23 days. If you missed it, read about my weight loss plan here and my recap for day 1. Remember, I’m doing this naturally with NO weight loss supplements or diet pills. Day 2 is 5/9/09.

{Important Note: The challenge is unexpectedly over! I’m disappointed to have to postpone the weight loss blogging, but you’ll understand why when you read about it. You can find out why today on Home Ever After: Best Mother’s Day Present in the World – I’m Pregnant! }

Summary:

Weigh-in

Weight: 118.4

Weight lost since yesterday: 2 pounds

Total weight lost: 2 pounds

Drinks

Water 4- 8oz glasses

Coffee – 2 cups

Food

Breakfast – Quiche (broccoli, zucchini, parsley, eggs, cheddar cheese)

Splurge on dinner out – cheeseburger and spicy pepperjack cheese sticks

Dessert – chocolate mousse pie cake

Cardio 1st session – treadmill 20 minutes, 1.15 miles, 164 calories. I put on my husband’s fleece-lined hooded sweatshirt on before my workout. I wore it zipped up with the hood on for the first 17 minutes, to really get a good sweat going and help raise my core temperature. I removed it for the rest of the workout.

Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist and am not advocating this weight loss plan for any readers to try. This is simply a record of my own experiences.

23 Pounds in 23 Days: Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Danelle Ice) — Sat, 09 May 2009 23:26:00 +0000

In my challenge to myself to lose 23 pounds in 23 days, I started a log of all the things I did that will ultimately prove to be the roadmap for my rapid weight loss. Read about my weight loss plan here. Remember, I’m doing this naturally with nothing but my regular vitamins and supplements (NO weight loss supplements or diet pills). Day 1 is 5/8/09.

Summary: I did alright for my first day in, and only starting the challenge half-way through the day. Tomorrow my goal is to increase my water consumption from 4 glasses to 10 glasses, to help hydrate and start flushing out toxins and fat. I also skipped breakfast today, and I’m going to try not to do that anymore.

Weigh-In

Starting Weight: 120.4

Drinks

Water - 4 8oz. glasses

Coffee - 3 cups

Tea - 1 cup of Traditional Medicinals Every Day Detox tea (tastes gross, but good for you)

Food

Snack – Quiche (broccoli, zucchini, parsley, eggs, cheddar cheese)

Snack – Bowl of Eating Right cereal with flakes and dried strawberries

Lunch – Salad with dressing

Dinner – Salad with scallops and Hubby’s Best Mac & Cheese, substituting scallops for ham and using whole wheat organic macaroni noodles

Snack- Oscar Mayer Deli Creations flatbread sandwich (Chicken Ranch)

Nighttime snack – banana

Exercise

Cardio afternoon (session 1)- treadmill 30 minutes

Workout- Carmen Electra DVD, Fit to Strip disc 2

Please wish me luck for tomorrow!

Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist and am not advocating this weight loss plan for any readers to try. This is simply a record of my own experiences.

I’m Going to Lose 23 Pounds in 23 Days!

noreply@blogger.com (Danelle Ice) — Sat, 09 May 2009 21:26:00 +0000

I started this project on 5/8/09. I want to lose 23 pounds in 23 days, just in time for a big promotional event (which I’ll be announcing on Monday). This challenge will take me back to my pre-pregnancy weight, and a little further back to my contest weight. I want to be slim and trim, not just so I’ll look good on TV, but so that I look the way I feel, the way I look to myself in my mind.

I used to be an amateur figure and bodybuilding competitor, before I was injured in a car accident and had to stop training and competing. Here’s a picture of me in the Northern Lights Classic, waving to the crowd after my evening posing routine:

I love those pictures! I look at them and feel proud of all the hard work I put in at the gym, even as a mom (with only 1 child at that time) and working full-time in a health care facility during the days. I’ll be using photos from that competition as my motivation to lose the fat during the next 3 weeks.

My normal weight during those days was 97 pounds, and for my competition weight I had to be able to weigh in at 100 pounds. I am ready to get back there again! (Before you scoff at the number, please keep in mind that I am a very small person- I’m only 5’1” tall, and wear children’s size clothing!

Weight loss is something I’m an old pro at, since being very heavy as a teenager. My highest weight as a teen was 155 (Only 10 pounds lighter than what I weighed when giving birth to my son!) I lost the extra weight it and kept it off for years until my last pregnancy. Now I’m ready to lose the pounds again.

Starting Weight: 120.4 pounds

Goal Weight: 97.0 pounds on May 31, 2009

I will blog my eating habits (food and drinks), as well as my exercise activities for each day. Don’t forget about the weigh-ins! I’ll be doing those here as well. It helps to have some public accountability.

Please bear in mind that I am NOT encouraging anyone to attempt this crash-course in weight loss with me. This is NOT a healthy, gradual approach as should be taken under normal circumstances. It is my hope that you’ll be able to look at the clean eating choices and workout regimen I implement and put them into your own routine in moderation, a little at a time.

Feel free to cheer me on or ask questions in the comments. I’m going to need all the encouragement I can get to stay on track and stop carbo-loading! Wish me luck! The first progress report will be posted soon.

Tide Spammed Bloggers: Lessons From Unintentional Web 2.0 Faux Pas

noreply@blogger.com (Danelle Ice) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:37:00 +0000

Web 2.0 is a Different World

It's no secret that large corporations are anxious to jump on the bandwagon and get their brands known in web 2.0 and social media. Blogs have become a must-have tool for any company that wants to stay viable with today’s savvy consumers. GM, Kodak, Ford, Jet Blue Airlines, and many more now have official Twitter accounts to manage their communications with consumers in the public medium.

It’s admirable that companies are going to such lengths to get in touch with their customer bases. However, learning the ins and outs of proper etiquette in the web 2.0 world can be a rough road, especially if the social media consultants and/or PR firms you are entrusting your brand to are unscrupulous.

Social media caveat: Let the corporation beware.

Let’s look at the following example of spam I received from Tide as an illustration.

Everyone Makes Mistakes, Even Huge Corporations.

If you follow me on Twitter, you might remember a few Tweets of mine prior to the superbowl saying that I had just received spam comments from Tide on HomeEverAfter.com!

I was shocked, and the messages from other twitterers all suggested that it must be from a real spammer using Tide’s name; it couldn’t possibly be from the official Tide brand, owned by corporate giant Proctor & Gamble.

Since Proctor & Gamble is a company I respect and trust, I had to get all the facts before I went on record criticizing their lack of web 2.0 etiquette. Ever the investigative journalist, I got to work on the case and turned up some interesting information:

The links left in the spam comments ARE pointing to official P&G websites.
The spam came from a popular US-based public relations firm.
The PR firm in question claimed to be working directly for Tide.

Socially Responsible Spammers?

Since no self-respecting spammer would sell their soul to the Spam devil to promote someone else’s site when they received no financial gain from it, I had to assume that these people had really been hired by Proctor & Gamble to spam me and other unsuspecting bloggers. How could this be?

Proctor & Gamble is not a small potatoes operation. Named one of the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations, creating public service announcements to help missing and exploited children, and participating in countless community programs which they created, we’re talking about what appears to be a vigilantly socially responsible company.

I couldn’t spread this message to fellow bloggers without knowing it’s validity, so I reached out to Proctor & Gamble for answers. At first, I received a vague email response which neither confirmed nor denied the relationship with the offending spam PR company. This just wasn’t good enough for me! With my second attempt, I was able to get in touch with External Relations at Tide and finally got some answers. Here is the email from Tide / P&G:

“Danelle,
I lead External Relations and Partnerships for the Tide brand. I received a note from our Consumer Relations team late Friday sharing your concerns about ‘spam-like’ posts on your blog/website recently, and wanted to follow-up with you about it.
First, I apologize for the inconvenience and/or annoyance the posting caused. As a blogger myself, I can certainly empathize. P&G and Tide have very clear principles and guidelines when it comes to authentically and genuinely interacting with consumer in the Digital/Social Media space, and we take these responsibilities very seriously. We are still learning, however, and everyday we hope to continue to better understand and navigate the Social Media space. A mistake was made by one of the extended vendors we partner with from time to time, and while it’s a rare occurrence, it’s an unacceptable one. Thank you for contacting us about this issue, as it most definitely will (and has already) help us modify, improve, and enforce our approach and structure within the blogosphere moving forward. We’ve already addressed this mistake with the vendor.
We look forward to continue staying in touch with these dynamic, digital conversations in the future while more tenaciously upholding our company’s principles and values. Sorry again for our mistake.”

I was relieved after the conversation I had with the gentleman from Tide. After all, their company is one I have a lot of respect for, and I felt the pain as if it was my own, since this could happen to almost anyone with good intentions that just didn't know the best practices yet.

The spam blog comments left with their company's name are now permanent fixtures on many blogs, and there's nothing they can do to fix that now. However, they can (and I'm certain they already did) revise their practices for the future, including giving very detailed instructions to consultants and PR companies handling their business.

I applaud Tide / P&G for being big enough to step up and admit when they had made a mistake. Honesty and transparency really sets companies apart from their unscrupulous counterparts, and shows them as truly responsible corporations with genuine intentions. Although I always respected Tide previously, I now look at them in an entirely new light for the apology they sent and their sincere desire to do things right.

What Can We Learn From This?

There's no shortage of lessons we can learn from the previous example. For companies wishing to cross over into the online world and transition successfully, there has to be a bit of homework done at the outset. These points don't only apply to large corporations, but also to small businesses and individuals as well.

Lessons to Learn:

1. Be careful who you trust with your name and your brand. Just because a consultant says that they can help you market your company and get your name out there in a positive way, that doesn't necessarily mean that they have your best interest in mind. They may be shooting for the fastest and easiest method, so that they can get paid with minimal effort. This works out great for the PR Company, but leaves you alone when the dust settles to deal with the unhappy connections you've just made with consumers and/or potential partners.

2. Do your homework before jumping into a new medium. Information is free and available in abundance on the internet. A few well-placed Google searches can net a valuable lot of viewpoints on best practices in any given field. Will the time and money you spend on a little bit of research upfront really be such an inconvenience? You'll spend a lot more time and money trying to put out fires after the fact if something goes wrong. (Example: the Motrin moms fiasco of 2008.)

3. Put forward a consistent face by having one person or one team represent you online. The old adage to not let the left hand know what the right is doing is not a good idea in today’s world of business. Always coordinate your company’s outward approach, or be resigned to expect “the unexpected disasters”.

So in conclusion, here is the twitter version of this article, in 2 tweets:

HomeEverAfter Found out the superbowl spam comment I got from Tide was official. They hired a bad PR company & didn’t know what they were getting.

less than 10 seconds ago from TweetDeck

HomeEverAfter Tide-issued apology for spam on DanelleIce.com. Lesson: Choose PR firms carefully- they represent YOU to your customers!

less than 5 seconds ago from TweetDeck

Danelle Ice is a problogger and socially responsible social media consultant! Connect with her on Twitter.

Using The Secret in 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Danelle Ice) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:11:00 +0000

My husband and I have been aggressively implementing The Secret since we first watched the movie last year, that only in our personal lives, but in our business lives as well. Our goals and intended outcomes for our companies in 2009 are very ambitious, but according to the Law of Attraction, that’s not a problem.

Manifestation doesn’t know the difference between a big outcome and a small one, according to The Secret’s creator, Rhonda Byrne. You may have noticed that you see a lot of donation requests on blogs that ask for something small like, “Buy me a cup of coffee!”, or my personal favorite, “Buy me an avocado”! The intention is good, they're asking for something small, realistic, and believable. But I want BIG things, big changes, and those require massive action.

We are literally receiving so many new ideas every week that there's no way we could possibly implement them all! What a quality problem to have, as Tony Robbins would say!

We Need People!

Our aggressive strategies are calling for us to add a lot more team members to all of our companies. If you're interested in learning more about joining IS World Media or Conquer Technology, please read about how to join our team. We love hard workers that are passionate about what they do, and are anxious to take some quality team members to the top with us!

Disclaimer, Disclosure Notice and Privacy Info for DanelleIce.com

noreply@blogger.com (Danelle Ice) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:49:00 +0000

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