Daily Archives: October 6, 2011

Oct6

Workout … Yeah … Right.

Posted on by
Standard

by W e u s i

My theory was this …

If I didn’t get a healthy portion of exercise from my everyday movements, then I just wasn’t gonna do it.

The idea of taking time away from the work of everyday life, and from working to implement my own dreams, to exercise/work out seemed crazy to me. I always told myself that working out is for people that were vain and were only worried about being attractive to others. But, I soon noticed that many of the people around me were hella cool people … and they worked out. And then IT happened …

I met a sister who enjoyed working out. (Ok … for real, I fell in love with this sister!). It allowed me to see how she loved the process and the outcomes from it. I learned to respect and appreciate it. BUT … I was still like … WORKOUT … YEAH, RIGHT! Nah … not ya boy!

Then she told me that she wanted me to work out because she wanted me to be healthy. In my mind = “Oh, wow … the woman I love wants me to be here.” That’s when IT clicked … I wanted to be here for the woman I love.

So … this is just a quick note to say … continue with those health and fitness goals that you have set! You will feel spiritually and emotionally better for being able to bring joy to those that you love … and those that love you will appreciate the work that you’re doing to show your love for them!


SHiNE

Advertisement
Oct6

“At Home” GOCer: Janay

Posted on by
Standard

As many of you know, I cut-off the “GOC” waves at 10 with 50 “official” participants (not including me;). I would have loved to include everyone, but from a management perspective, I had to cap it. However, if you remember, I suggested that anyone who wanted to participate, but didn’t submit in time, could play along by following all of the “rules.” Well, Janay did just that. Everyone, say, “Hi” to Janay:)!!

*************************************************************************************************************************

J a n a y

Current State: Hair – Slightly below Bra-strap length (BSL); Weight – ranges from 130-134 (size 4), depending on my level of activity.

Goals: Hair – Maybe graze waist length (WL), but right now I’m comfortable with maintaining what I have in the healthiest way possible (low manipulation styles); Fitness: I’m actually comfortable with my size, but would like to start toning up, since I’m beginning to pooch out if you will.  A petite me with a gut is clearly not the business. Incorporate at least 50 oz of water/day in my diet.

Hair Regimen:

Weekly:

  • Shampoo (biweekly when the weather gets cooler)
  • Deep condition
  • Apply leave-in and moisturizer
  • Put hair in large braids to air dry
  • After drying, style stretched hair in one of two ways:
  • Two strand twists
  • Buns or other pin-up updos

Daily:

  • Re-apply moisturizer to ends
  • Seal with oil (usually a castor oil blend or EVCO)

Monthly:

  • Henna/Amla treatments

I’m also contemplating dabbling in clay treatments as well.

Health & Fitness Regimen:

  • Zumba (or another cardio workout) twice a week for one hour.
  • Weight training twice a week for one hour.
  • Focus more on the nutritional value and portions of what I’m eating, less on counting calories.
  • Limit to one non-water beverage per day (100% fruit juice, green or herbal tea).
  • Limit to two “bad” drinks per week (soda, alcohol, Starbucks *sigh*, etc.).
  •  Cook at home at least 3 days a week.  Hubs and I dine out more than I care to admit.
  • Incorporate more vegetarian meals (suggestions welcome!).

Reward: Going to my annual checkup and being the SAME weight as last year! Also, a wardrobe overhaul. After my first year married, I put on 20 pounds. Loved it, but putting on weight that quickly left very few classic staples in my closet (i.e. my black wrap dress, suits, jackets, etc.) that fit.  If I can maintain until spring, I’m replacing my favorites with new stuff!

Oct6

Fitness Challenge Within A Challenge

Posted on by
Standard


My before (Dec. 2010) and after (June 2011). I don’t want these to become reversed!!

If you follow my Hairscapades Facebook page, you may have seen a few posts over the last two days declaring my intentions to exercise and confirmation when I did so. You see, the thing that helped me when I was doing the Kim Coles’/Curly Nikki GOC was no longer effective. Now that I have a “real” blog, I’m even more blog obsessed than I was back then with writing for it. I also feel an obligation, though one that I love, to provide you all with (what I hope is) quality content on a regular basis. That being said, I was not following my self-inflicted rule that I wasn’t allowed to blog until I exercised.

Well, after a horrible month of not exercising at all, allowing a lot of things to fall by the wayside (like laundry and housecleaning *smh*) and eating biscuits like they were going out of style over my long vacation weekend (Biscuitville is for real?!? Oooh, and I had this DEE-licious sweet potato waffle w/a maple and almond butter smear!! It was slap you momma in the face good!!), the scale glared 124.5 pounds this past Tuesday morning. I was as low as 118.5 in August and my GOC goal is to maintain my weight at no more than 120 lbs!! Frickin’ weighed in at almost 125?!? Yeah. So, I made a conscious decision to regain focus and structure to my life, including my diet and my exercise regimen. This is the plan.

I am on the computer every morning with my coffee. I wasn’t doing my sit-ups because I didn’t have enough time to do them before getting ready for work.

Rule #1: I must be off of the computer by 6:45 am so that I can do my 10 minute Abs of Steel video 5-6 days a week.

When I am going through stints of inertia, I’ll usually think every morning, “This is the day! I’m working out when I get home today!” And then, by the time I get home from work, I’m mentally exhausted and that energy and fire that was there in the a.m. hours is completely gone and I end up sitting on the computer (it used to be the TV … my how times have changed! *lol*).

Rule #2: While I’m on the computer each morning feeling motivated, I will proclaim my fitness intentions for the day on Facebook and Twitter (ex. “Day 3: Abs of Steel in the a.m., 30 min. on treadmill after work.”) . Then, I will post when I’m done. In the words of my sister, “The shame of not doing what I said I was going to do will motivate me to actually do it.”

I work out at home most days of the week now. However, after a long day at work, home can be a quagmire of distractions and a sloth peddler. You get in, start looking at mail, turn on the TV or get on the computer, maybe put on some comfortable clothes (i.e. pajamas) and, before you know it, it’s 8 pm. Who wants to exercise then?

Rule #3: Change into exercise clothes, including sneakers, immediately upon arriving home after work. Even if I don’t work out IMMEDIATELY after changing, this helps me get into the mindset that I will be working out. (This really worked for me earlier this year, which is when I began working out at home for only the second time in my life.)

Being exhausted is not good for the metabolism nor to staying motivated to exercise.

Rule #4: Bedtime is no later than 11 pm when I need to wake up by 6 am. (Need to heed my own advice as given in this post.)

Now to the idea that prompted the title of this post. Many of our GOCers have fitness goals and several of us have been struggling with meeting them consistently. So, I’d like to propose that those of you with fitness goals join me in Rule #2! That is, post on YOUR Facebook page and/or Twitter, for all your friends and followers to see, your exercise intentions for the day and then post when you’re done. To help motivate the “Hairscapaders;),” it would be great if you commented on my “Intentions” post too, so we can see how many of us are in this together and can help keep each other motivated! And, you don’t have to be in the GOC to join in the fun!! Please join us if you need help staying motivated to exercise! You know, the holiday season and cold weather are upon us! Let’s tell that Winter Weight, “No! Not this year! I’m not hiding under layers, I’m just keeping warm with them!”

(p.s. Tuesday morning, after one day of exercise, I was down to 123 lbs. Excess water weight loss, but weight nonetheless!)

*************************************************************************************************************************

So, there you have it! Who’s with me?!?

*looking around*

Anybody, anybody?