Yeah, I know this is overdue *hangs head*. Okay, it’s after 1 am right now. I fell asleep on the couch. AGAIN. And woke up at almost midnight. Usually I would just get in bed … but I felt bad for being so delinquent about blogging that I’m staying up to write this recap quickly!!
PRE pre-poo. *lol*
The Saturday before last, wash day went down as follows:
Pre-poo with Vatika Oil (1 hour).
Shampooed with an oldie but goodie, DevaCare No Poo (diluted in water).
Detangled/conditioned with Herbal Essences Hello Hydration.
Deep conditioned with Darcy’s Botanical Pumpkin Seed Conditioner (1 hour w/heat).
Blotted hair damp with Curl Cloth.
Styled hair into 8 twists with Wonder Curl Butter Than Love Whipped on length and Get Set Jelly to control frizz and fly aways at roots.
Released twists while hair was still slightly damp (because I had the Wonder Curl Launch Party to attend) to fully air dry.
Okay, so I didn’t take any solo photos of my hair on that first day. But, Rece (A Hair Story) got a good one of the results, I think! LOL!!
Running my mouth as usual ;). And yeah, I know. I still owe you guys that recap ;)!
The first pic above was Day 2 hair after re-twisting the night before. And here is day 4 hair (I was re-twisting nightly initially):
And Day 8 hair (on Day 4, I started bunning at night as daily re-twisting puts too much stress on my fine strands and resulted in more breakage than I like to see):
Oh, and here was the bun (and OOTD ;)) I wore the Friday before Day 8:
Spring was finally in the air!!
My hair held up so well on over the course of the week (not overly tangled or stinky ;)), that I didn’t wash it this past weekend! Instead, I experimented with a dry twist out and a new product that I picked up at Tarjay over the weekend!!
For those of you who follow me on Facebook and Instagram, you already know what it was ;). The rest of you will have to check me out on one of those outlets or stay tuned for the next post, which will reveal the “mystery” product that gave me the results above!
So, here’s a question. I found that re-twisting nightly put too much strain on my hair, but left it looking great. So, I’m wondering:
Do you re-twist or re-braid nightly to preserve a style? If so, how would you describe your hair in terms of strand thickness (fine, medium, thick)? And, how does your hair fare with this technique?
Still going strong!! Can’t believe I’ve worked out for 50 consecutive days now!! One more week and it’ll be 2 months!! When I started this 7 weeks ago, I wasn’t sure if I’d make it through the first 28 days. Now, on day 51, I feel like I can keep on going. Some days, all I get in is 10 minutes of Abs of Steel, but I feel like every minute counts. And, I could have easily been sleeping or sitting on the couch those 10 minutes, so it’s better than that.
In regard to weight loss, the scale actually went back up to 138 this week. I’m not overly concerned as it’s that time of the month … y’all know how it is. Also, although I ate very well during the day, I had a really irregular week as it related to dinner. Nothing I ate was bad in and of itself. But, I was eating randomly and too much … green smoothie, kale chips, pistachios and smoked oysters one night … green smoothie, kale chips, a sweet potato and pistachios the next … green smoothie, taylor ham and pistachios the following night … I told you … random. And, over the weekend wasn’t the best either … I didn’t eat too much in regard to quantity, but didn’t have the best options when I went out to lunch on Saturday (ended up w/a breaded chicken cutlet on a white roll … was hoping it was grilled … only ate half the bread, but still all that friend breading) and a birthday party on Sunday (2 slices of plain cheese pizza … it was after hot yoga and I was starving!). But, again, it wasn’t a lot in terms of quantity … just more calories than I would like and not much in the way of nutritional content.
Kale, banana, dates and vanilla extract green smoothie; first ever homemade kale chips (too salty, but did a second batch w/o salt and they were good)!
Oh, and Sunday night, Wei and I went to our new favorite spot, The Loving Hut in Ledgewood, NJ. It’s an international chain (never would have guessed) specializing in vegan cuisine. Let me tell you, the food. is. DELICIOUS.
Clockwise: California Roll, Queen “Burger”; sweet potato fries and Pho. This pic was actually from our first visit, but we ordered the same things this past Sunday!
So yeah, I’ll probably wait until next Sunday or Monday to weigh in again and keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll be down a real pound or two to 135-136. Of course, I need to get my dinners back on track this week … ‘cuz Monday night was a repeat of the randomness.
Alright, here’s Days 43-49 in pictures!!
Day 43: C25k Week 6/Day 1. Did 3 run intervals at 5.5 mph w/last min. of last 2 intervals at 6.0 mph. Seeing progress.
Day 44: Abs of Steel (10 min) and LB Kettlebell Full Body Blast (13 min).
Day 45: C25K Week 6/Day 2 – Two 10 min. run intervals at 5.5 mph, but did last min. of each at 6.0 mph. Top is Day 1 results/Bottom is Day 2.
Day 46: Abs of Steel (10 min); Day 47: C25K c25k Week 6/Day 3 – 25 min. run at 5.2 mph!
In regard to Day 46, you may have noticed that I posted my Day 1 and Day 2 results. Now, the thing is, treadmills that don’t allow you to enter you weight, height, sex and body fat percentage don’t accurately calculate calories burned for everyone. This is because treadmills that don’t allow personalization generally use the universal calibration for a 150 pound male (check out this article on LiveStrong.com: Do Treadmills Accurately Burn Calories? for more info). However, though I know the results for calories and carbs burned on my calculator are not accurate for me, the information is helpful as it provides a point of comparison from work-out to work-out.
C25K Week 7/Day 1 was yesterday morning!! This week is 25 minute runs for each workout! I’m so excited to be here as, when I started, didn’t know how’d I do it! But, every day, slow progression is the key to seeing results!!
Oh, and before I go!! I wanted to share a video on pre- and post work-out stretches to do to improve running speed and endurance!! It’s from Marshall’s!! You see, when I bought work-out clothes from them a couple of weeks ago, there were these “Get Fit” tags with QR codes to “unlock” YouTube videos! Well, I got the perfect video for me!!
I have found that doing the demonstrated stretches pre- and post work-out does make me feel more limber and the pre-run stretches definitely help warm me up. I can’t say that the stretches have improved my endurance or speed just yet. But, I’ve only been doing them for about a week now. So, I’ll give them more time for that. And, now that I think about it, I did do long run intervals at 5.5 when I was struggling at 5.2 a couple of weeks ago. So, maybe they are helping! If it can improve my speed to 5.3 for my 25 minute run at the end of this week, I’ll give these stretches some kudos ;)!
Any runners out there? Do you have tips on stretches or techniques for a novice runner to use in order to improve running efficiency, form, gait, speed? Thanks in advance!!
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