Finally Growing...Life As I Know It...

Friday, February 14, 2014

Fitness Fridays | How I Learned Not To Give Up On Myself

About 2.5 years ago I embarked on a weight loss journey unsure of where it would take me or if I would even be sucessful. All I knew for sure was that I wanted a change and was finally ready to do my part to make it happen. My desire to lose weight had been lingering in the back of my mind for most of the time that I was in college, but as an engineering major between long hours of studying and few hours of sleep, managing my eating habits and a regular work out schedule just seemed impossible to me. Besides in the past when I seemingly did everything right I would always lose 7-10 lbs and then plateau. I had even convinced myself that maybe I just wasn't supposed to lose anymore weight, but who was I kidding. Deep down I knew that at on 5'1" weighing 173 lbs was not healthy nor was I was my best physically. Finally after graduating from college and moving to the east coast to start a new job I saw something flash across my TV screen that would change my life forever and jump start a 30 lb weight loss journey that I never thought was possible.
As I was unpacking I saw one of my favorite actresses and singers Jennifer Hudson singing and rocking a fierce dress showing off her 70 + lb weight loss on my television screen. She looked phenomenal! I would be lying if I said that I didn't just join weight watchers because of Jennifer Hudson. In fact I joined with 0 expectations and 0 faith in the program. I had no idea what a point was or how it would truly impact the way I thought about food and exercise.The first week that I followed the program I truly didn't do anything special except stay within my points. At the end of the first week I stepped on the scale and was blown away when I saw that I'd lost 4 lbs! That gave me the motivation that I needed to start taking my weight loss journey and the program more seriously. Weight watchers helped me to truly understand portion control and how to make better food choices. I now realize that 1/3 cup of rice is more than satisfying with my meal vs the huge blob I used to plop on my plate. Weight watchers taught me to stop believing that if I indulged in a few chicken tenders and french fries that I would just 'work it off' in the gym. Weight watchers also taught me that it's okay to indulge sometimes (yes they have points for your cheat meals too!).

For those who may not understand how Weight Watchers works, each individual is given an alotted amount of points for each day based on your weight, height, and goal weight. You are also given 49 points plus each week. These points can be used towards a cheat meal or added to each day. Fruits and veggies are 0 points and you can earn extra points for exercise. You could say that Weight watchers is similar to counting calories, except that weight watchers points are based on fat, fiber, carbs, and protein. Overall the program teaches you about portion control and how to make better food choices.
Weight watchers along with the help and motivation of my family and boyfriend truly changed my life by changing my way of thinking. Am I saying that I haven't slipped up? Of course not. I'm currently working on losing the usual holiday weight that I put on from over indulging, but at least I now know what to do to get the consistent results that I need. It took me about 6 months total to lose the 30 lbs, plateaus, bad weeks, frustration, and almost calling it quits included, but boy am I happy that I didn't give up on myself.

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Monday, February 10, 2014

Bun Life | How to Create A Full High Bun Using Kanekalon Hair

Hi guys!

Some of you may remember in my 'Back To The Basics' wash day post me promising to post a video tutorial showing how I created my high bun using kanekalon hair. Well the video finally went live on my YouTube channel. Please bare with me as this is my first ever video tutorial. I hope you all find it helpful! Until next time :)

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Saturday, February 8, 2014

February Goals & January Goals Recap!

So I'm a bit late with this post, but let's see how I did for the month of Janaury!

What are your goals for this month?

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Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Wash Day...Indecisive Saturday

Here on the East coast we got about 10 inches of snow, which meant a few days off from work and a serious case of cabin fever! Lazing around the house for so many days left me feeling incredibly lazy by Saturday so I was not feeling this wash day at all! Luckily I still was able to pull of awesome results despite my laziness. Here's what I did:

Detangled using my Up and Up Detangler
Massaged Tropical Isle Red Pimento Oil into my scalp and applied my Kenra Moisturizing conditioner to the length of my hair and my One N Only Argan Oil .
Deep conditioned using my heating cap for about 20 minutes.
Rinsed thoroughly and applied my As I Am Coconut Cowash to my scalp. Left in for about 2-3 minutes.
Rinsed and applied PMSDT for about 5 minutes.
Did a final rinse and removed excess water using the t-shirt method.
Applied leave ins using the LCO method (Chi Keratin Mist, Kimmaytube Leave in, GVP Smoothing Serum).
Sat under hooded dryer on cool setting for about 30 minutes.
Moisturized and sealed using my Giovanni Direct Leave In

Style: Here's where the indecisiveness came into play. Originally I wanted to rock milk maid twists, but didn't like the way they turned out so I tried to create some sort of low twisted bun. That didn't work out either so finally I took down my hair and decided to do a dry flexi rod set. Hey a girl's allowed to change her mind! To give my curls a bit of a hold I used the Dark N Lovely Au Natural Curl Moisturizing Souflee *newbie alert!* My flexi rod set came out beautifully and was able to withstand the windy overcast weather we've been having lately. Monday my flexi rod set morphed into a roll & pin bun of sorts!

How was your wash day?

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Saturday, February 1, 2014

Guess Who's Almost At APL?!

My progress in less than 1.5 years!

For those of you who don't know my hair story back in August of 2012 I suffered a MAJOR setback due to a failed attempt at self relaxing mixed with severe matting from not removing shedded hair after a braid install. For a while I tried to just grow my hair out and trim away at the damage slowly, but eventually became so disgusted with the appearance of my hair that I sought the help of a professional hair stylist to help get me back on track. Well I'm happy to say that less than 1.5 years later with the help of that same amazing hair stylist and my own healthy hair practices I am almost at Arm Pit Length! I would be lying if I said that I've had days where I NEVER thought I would be this close! Anyway enough of my rambling and on to the actual purpose of this post...PICTURES!