Journey To Dressed Up Dana

It fascinates me when you can look back at your life, way back into your childhood, and see the moments that got you here today. How God made each of us unique with different gifts, personalities, features, and desires. 

The first thing I can remember about being a little girl is that I loved clothes, hair, make-up, high heeled shoes, and painting. I was the kid that actually wanted my birthday and Christmas presents to be clothes. My favorite toy from the 70’s was the Color ‘n Curl Candi Styling doll where you could change the color of her hair and apply her makeup over and over. I spent hours playing with that toy! 

In 1978, when I was 5 years old, my older brother “interviewed” me on a tape recorder. Remember those?! You can listen to that 30 second clip here: 

Jerry: Today we speak to Dana about…her hobbies. Now what’s uh you’re favorite hobby? 

Dana: What’s hobby mean? 

Jerry: It means, like, you wanna play something. Like, what you like to do best. 

Dana: “I like to paint the best I like to go on rides the best I like to get dressy dresses the best and everything….high heel shoes… oh yeah…and make up…. Oh yeah it’s just gonna be GREAT when I go out and get bigger…”

That love for hair, makeup, shoes, and clothes turned into a modeling career when I graduated highschool. I thoroughly enjoyed modeling locally in fashion shows, informal modeling, commercials and photo shoots. When my first child was six months old I went to a modeling and acting convention in Los Angeles to pursue a bigger career in the industry. I was there with several people that became Hollywood stars that you would know today. Even though I won a few awards and saw that I could have a future in the industry I decided that the only career I wanted to pursue was being a full time mom.

I treasured those days with my girls. Playdates, parks, library, museums, dance, and gymnastics. Then the school days and being a room parent, PTO President, sports, and dances. During this time I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. It led me on a journey of discovery. After experiencing adverse reactions to a medication I dove into learning how to heal my body through the only thing that I could control….my lifestyle and choices. I started with exercise and nutrition and completely healed my body from Fibromyalgia. I became passionate about exercise and started focusing on becoming fit and strong. I found a program on an infomercial in 2009, called Insanity, and got into the best shape of my life at 36. As other people were noticing my transformation, I was sharing with them what I was doing. I eventually realized that I could work for the company and I became a Beachbody Coach. I was loving everything about this new adventure. I was helping people all over the country change their health while building an incredible business and it was all so exciting! Throughout those years I was learning and growing in all aspects of my life. I became less focused on my business and more focused on my spiritual life and becoming the woman that God created me to be. During that time God kept nudging me to write. But clearly I had to be mistaken because I am not a writer. Do you want to know how “not a writer” I perceived myself to be? 

When I was in college I had to write many papers in my English class. Well, let’s just say classes were not my favorite thing about college. I was having way too much fun to get any homework done. So I quickly scribbled papers together and got D’s and F’s on all of them. It took academic probation to get me to be serious. I had one last chance not to fail this class. One more paper and I needed to get an “A”. Challenge accepted. I spent hours and hours reading at the library and writing note cards, and meticulously putting this paper together. I was so proud of the finished product and positive that I was going to get the “A” that I needed. I wasn’t even sweating when I walked into class to receive my graded paper….until I received my graded paper. It had an “A” crossed out, an “F” right next to it, and a note from the professor at the bottom…”Dana, plagiarism is a crime. See me after class.” Plagiarism?? When I met with my professor she proceeded to tell me that there was no way that I wrote that paper myself. It wasn’t even close to anything that I submitted in the past, she couldn’t find a single grammatical error, and the body of the paper flowed perfectly. My response was, “WOW! Thank you!”. Because I knew that I wrote every single world on that paper and I knew that I put the work in. I also knew that college was not where I wanted to be (insert modeling career story). But do you think that my takeaway from that experience was that I was a good writer? It should have been. Instead I allowed a lie to take root and believed that lie. Even though I was hearing differently from others. 

When I was younger I would write letters to my Uncles and my Uncle Ron always told me I had a gift for writing and that he looked forward to my letters. That was my first affirmation. I consider my college professor to be another affirmation!  Anytime that I shared my thoughts on social media and got positive comments about my writing I would take a screenshot. After gathering these screenshots over the years, reading them periodically, and praying about where God wants me, it became clear that I needed to write. 

I finally took that leap of faith and step of obedience and decided to write a blog. Dressed Up Dana has evolved over the course of a year. It is a space to talk about the journey of being a woman. From playing dress up, to getting dressed up, to feeling blessed to be able to get up and get dressed! Sharing what I’ve learned, what I’ve taught my daughters, what I am still learning, and what they are teaching me. 

“Dressed Up” has several different meanings and is multi-generational. Today I am “dressed up” as a grandma and sharing playroom ideas for my 2 year old granddaughter.  Tomorrow as a 1980’s teenager sharing about what I wish my 15 year old self knew. Another day I am “dressed up” as a 50 year old woman sharing about my current struggles or victories. As an Italian chef sharing my family recipes. An evangelist sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. “Dressed up” for a black tie wedding sharing about my favorite designer gowns and deals. As a fitness coach sharing inspiration and ideas to help you reach your goals. But most importantly, every single morning that I am blessed to wake-up, I make sure that I get dressed in the full armor of God. 

I hope to walk alongside women on this life journey and be a trustworthy, reliable, and relatable resource to become everything we were made to be. Join this community of women who want to take care of ourselves physically, mentally, and spiritually. Women who are not only getting through the trials and setbacks along this journey but embracing them in full confidence that they are going to make us better and stronger. Women who care about how we dress, what we put into our bodies, what we put on our skin, and what we feed our minds. We love and value our families and the people in our lives and we invest in our relationships. Women who challenge and want to be challenged. We want to be better and do better. We are thirsty for knowledge and open to change. Women who care about the home that we live in and the earth that we live on. Thank you for being a part of this community!