No Pain No Gain

I did it! My fist day of fitness was yesterday. I followed the black girls do work out challenge but I did double everything and i added additional exercises. So here is what I did in order:

10 crunches
10 leg raises
10 sec plank
Jogged in place for two minutes
10 Side stretches
10 lunges each leg
10 squats

I ran in place because i needed a break but i also knew that i needed yo keep moving to keep my heart rate up. My legs are on fire and I know when I wake up in the morning they will be worse and my stomach too.mAs the days go on this pain won’t be as bad.

What made me push on was my husband vein right there by my side. It always helps to have a partner and when that person is already a big part of your life it makes it theta much better. My daughter bailed out on us but maybe next time. 😒

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No More Hair Loss

I have a testimony to correctly caring for your hair. If you are good to it, It WILL be good to you. Here’s the pure truth! I did not take as good of care as I should have to my hair. I was going through a family crisis (death of a close relative) and I lost it…I just stopped caring for my hair. I just had too much going on to pay attention to it. I was stressed and my hair was a mess! During this time, when I washed my hair – that was almost the only thing I did periodically and daily moisturizing – I noticed I lost so much hair. I mean it was A LOT of hair. When I started maintaining my regimen again and deep conditioning I began to notice that my hair didn’t come out as much!

There are so many things that are the cause of losing our hair. First there are two types of hair loss: breakage and shedding. Shedding is a natural process that we all go through. Normal shedding is anywhere between 30-50 strands per day…however you may not notice this daily unless you manipulate your hair daily. Otherwise you will see it on wash day. If you start to go above this there may be underlying factors to your hair loss. Things such as heredity, mental and physical health play a part in hair shedding.

The word to be afraid of is BREAKAGE. When our hair breaks it is more than likely something that we can control. If you do not see a small white bulb on the end of your hair strand once it falls from your head, then this is breakage…not shedding. What can you do to prevent this? Several things can cause breakage such as dry hair so keep it moisturized all the time. If your hair feels crunchy and hard it’s probably dry and needs TLC = moisture. Another culprit is continual manipulation of your hair, so stop styling it every day or even every other day. Many people resort to protective styles to avoid over manipulating their hair. While others use style that require little touchup, such as Twist out (which is what yours’ truly does :)). Drop the curling irons, flat irons and blow dryers sisters cause they are the most damaging to our already dry hair. Primarily because they strip the hair of its natural oils.

Others things include heredity…girls if your mom lost hair then more than likely so will you. This is increased if your dad lost his hair early as well. Physical health also plays a major role in the health of your strands. Thyroid disease is one of those ailments that can cause you to lose your hair…hypo or hyper. If you are worrying or stressed or suffer from anxiety then you are a greater risk of losing some strands, so keep your mental health in mind when caring for your hair. Exercising and taking vitamins can help with both physical and mental problems. However seek professional advise from your PCP prior to starting either

The below picture shows the amount of hair I lost during my last wash day. This is a normal amount of shedding. I captured it beside a hair clip so you can visualize the amount.

Stress To Your Tresses

We’ve all heard that too much manipulation, weather,  lack of moisturizing, not sealing and of course heat can damage our hair.  But did you know that our mental health also can play a role in a healthy mane.  Stress can play a role in your hair’s healthiness, or rather, lack there of.  The next time you are upset, angry or worried – LET IT GO!  Notice I didn’t say don’t do these things, cause we are human, life has a way of making us experience different emotions.  But what we can do is control the emotion so that it will not dwell within us and cause us to be stressed over the situation.  On the other hand if you just cannot control yourself – which i doubt 🙂 – just show your hair some extra TLC during this time.  Drink more water, make sure your hair stairs moisturized inside and out. Be sure to lock the moisture in by using your sealant. And certainly protect it from the elements, be it your bed spread, the heat or the cold.

August Initiatives

August is going to be a busy month for me as I have so much going on. But you know the saying: God doesnt give you anything you cant handle! My month at a glance consist of:
– 8/15 Finish my internship (THANK YOU GOD). While I’m going to miss my clients I am going to love the extra rest and time I get to spend with my family. Had to put this FIRST…forget the date!!!! lol
– Participating in two challenges (details below):
– 8/5 Oprah’s meditation challenge
– 8/16 Black Girl Do Work Out 24 Day Work Out Challenge (this is the day i’m starting…I think the original is already in progress)
– 8/19 Start PreK prep curriculum with my 2 year old.
– 8/26 Start Studying for my NCE test (anybody want to start a study group let me know…seriously).

Oprah’s Meditation Challenge

My husband emailed at work the other day asking me to participate in a meditation challenge with him. Its something, as an intern, I taught my clients. Meditation allows you to free yourself from mental and physical ailments if you have the ability to let go. Those who are unsuccessful at meditation have not learned to be free of the outside world and to connect with their inner beings.

This challenge is aimed at incorporating better relationships into our lives so it is one that hubby and I will take together and of course I’ll blog about some of my experiences while participating in the challenge. The challenge starts on Monday, August 5th 🙂

Will you join us along with millions of others 🙂 Click here to learn more https://chopracentermeditation.com/home/?acode=oprah

24 Day Workout Challenge

This time I texted hubby asking him would he do this workout with me 🙂 Someone told me about a DVD called Black Girls Do Workout…I did not find that but I did find a community of women with this title on Facebook. You can learn more about this challenge here https://www.facebook.com/BlackWomenDOWorkout

Vitamin Views

While in school for my masters in psychology two of my professors (the only two with doctorate degrees) adamantly taught us about the importance of taking vitamins to maintain your physical and mental health.  I noted all of these things and slowly added certain ones to my diet then I fell off and stopped taking them.  This was well before my choice to go natural.  So fast forward a couple of years, now I’m natural and what is back in the spotlight? Why yes, vitamins.  There are naturals that swear by them. I go back and forth and more recently I’ve been leaning towards YES.  Sooo, what are your thoughts….participate in the poll below about your Vitamin Views.

I’ve never been one to take medication for aches and pains, I believe two things: 1. medicine only mask a bigger problem, we should find out what that is and cure it if possible and 2. God created a miraculous body and it has the ability to heal itself.  Now don’t take these two things too drastically! Of course there are medical/mental conditions that require medication and not taking it would be ridiculous!  So, me being this way for a long time I was hesitant about taking vitamins for my hair because if you eat right and take care of your body it should be fine.  BUT the true kicker was that there were too many vitamins to take.  Look, I already don’t want to take them then to add on more than one I will probably fall off like I did the first time.  So what’s been making me say YES more often??? Well, this: Manetabolism

This vitamin contains all the ingredients that will allow it to help hair, nails, and your immune system.  Its a multivitamin! 🙂 So instead of taking millions of pills you can reduce that by taking this supplement.   The founder CourtneyNaturalHair is hosting a hair challenge starting September 1st….I I’m boarding that train 🙂 ordered mine this week.  You can read more about her products and the challenge here: https://www.facebook.com/TheManeChoice