Tracking My Progress: Hair and Wellness

Holy cow. Something about low carb has shocked my body and that number on the scale is dropping quickly, which, as I predicted, is motivating to me. Additionally, I really don't feel deprived at all. Here's what I've had on Monday and Tuesday of this week, along with what I'll be having on Wednesday. All of these days are under 150g of carbs. I'm on a feta cheese kick, as you'll notice.  Monday:  Breakfast - 3 eggs with olive oil and feta, raspberries, and coffee with whole milk.  Lunch- steak with feta-topped steamed spinach and steamed carrots.  Snack -Apple with caramel sauce.  Dinner- 1/2 cup rice with 3 chicken drumsticks and steamed spinach. Tuesday: I had some observation work for grad school to do today and wouldn't have access to a microwave. So I left my lunch at home and skipped breakfast. Lunch- Bought  a Mediterranean salad with chicken, falafel, and feta (of course)  Snack- Coffee with whole milk while grinding away at my homework Dinne...

  #2/50-Simple Bun with a Middle Part : This bun in the picture was super simple and done after my Sunday night shampoo.  Shampooed and deep conditioned in the shower with the Silk Elements Olive Oil shampoo and the Hollywood Beauty Cholesterol. I remember really liking this back in the day, but it wasn't that great to me.  I applied Keracare foam wrap and did two banded ponytails to stretch it out. I sat under the dryer for 20 minutes before going to bed.  It didn't dry fully, but in the morning it was smooth and ready to make the easiest type of bun: put it in a ponytail and don't pull the ends all the way through. Sunshyne from Hairlista demonstrates this in a great video on her YouTube channel with her beautiful relaxed hair: Link to video . I love her hair and it'd be a long term goal of mine for my bun to be that big. I'm going to probably keep linking some of her lovely buns because her airdried relaxed hair kind of looks like my stretched natural hair, so th...

I've been feeling more than a little frustrated about my weight loss goals lately. It just feels that I'm stuck in an endless loop of the 160s, getting all the way down to 160 lbs and then right back up to 165 after just a few days of eating outside of my plan. I am tired of it, and I need the momentum of making some quick progress in order to remain motivated.  I think I'm feeling extra discouraged because we're almost at the six-month point in the year (June is around the corner!) and I have no measurable progress to show for it. I know that my clothes fit better because I have indeed built some muscle and lost some fat, but I want the scale to move.  So I'm going to commit to going extra hard for the month of May. I have three primary concerns: wellness, financial stability, and hair. I'm only going to share my wellness concerns here because I feel less comfortable talking about my finances on a public blog (even one with no readers lol) and I think that I...

  Okay, so I've decided to do something kind of fun during spring and summer. I want to challenge myself to wear my hair in a bun at least 50% of the time over the next 100 days, from April 24th (today) to August 2nd. Here are my reasons:  I'm busy right now with grad school and work. It'd be good for me to spend less time on styling my hair in the low manipulation styles that I love and instead getting my work done. I need to develop a more disciplined, patient personality. I've never been able to stick to a challenge like this, and I want to try and make it happen. I'm learning how to be more disciplined for weight loss and the more I practice the habit of sticking to a plan, the better.  I want to have a nice length surprise by the end of the summer. My next silk press and trim appointment is sometime in June, so it'd be fun to see if my retention accelerates by wearing buns instead of my typical low manipulation styles.  I know what you're thinking. Girl...

  I decided I'm going to document some of my specific rollersetting outcomes, in order to keep a sort of hair diary and remind myself of techniques or products that yield good results. I'm also in an unofficial race with myself to do all of my sets as quickly as possible. This one was one of my unsanctioned sets (lol), meaning my Sunday braidout set didn't hold up the way I wanted, so I styled my hair again. I'm really trying NOT to do that because the core success factor in my regimen predicates on low manipulation. As in, if I'm not going to protective style, I need to at least leave my hair alone and limit my styling sessions to twice a week. Alas, sometimes my willpower just doesn't hold up.  Shampoo/DC: 2 lathers with the MoKnowsHair Ultimate Hydrator Shampoo, in-shower 5 minute deep condition with the MoKnowsHair Elasticity Restoring Treatment  Setting product: Keracare Foam Wrap lotion. I typically only use one product while setting and that's it.  R...

  I'm still on an oatmeal kick, but mine doesn't usually look as cute as that beautiful stock photo, lol. Here's what I'll have for breakfast and lunch this week.  Breakfast: 1 packet of Aldi instant oatmeal, 1 cup of berries or an apple, Dunkin medium coffee with whole milk and equal packets. If I feel like it, I can add some boiled eggs or a slice of raisin toast from the cafeteria at work.  Lunch: About 4 oz of beautiful baked Cornish hens from Easter Sunday (thank you to my wonderful mother-in-law!), 1/4 cup of baked mac and cheese also from Easter Sunday, and some steamed asparagus. I love that I saved time meal prepping on Sunday and I'm making sure that the leftovers get used.  Also, please note that you can indeed eat soul food within a calorie deficit. It took a whole lot of self-control to only give myself a 1/4 cup because I LOVE mac and cheese, but it's still nice to be able to enjoy something I love within a reasonable portion.  That's it for ...

  Recently, I've been so pressed for time that on some days, I literally only have about 20 minutes to get my workout done. Take this morning, for example. I woke up late because I stayed up past midnight tearing my hair out over my grad school homework, and my body just didn't want to get out of bed at my usual 5 am time. By the time I got myself together, I realized I could go ahead and drive to the gym, but I'd only have about 20 minutes to get my workout done before it was time to get ready for work. I got out of bed and went to get my 20 minute workout done. Why? Because something is better than nothing. Life is never going to be perfect. I'm always going to have less time, less sleep, less preparation than I would like. But I can't let that stop me from at least making an effort, and sometimes repeating this mantra in my head is enough to get me going. 

  I just got a fresh silk press and trim today. The conclusions on my retention from photos? Hard to say! The ones in my length check T-shirt in particular have me confused. It’s like the February pic looks longer, but maybe I was tilting my head back.  From my own eyes and my stylist, though, I think I’m doing well. She said that my hair has grown and I’ll take her word for it. I’m gonna stick with my current approach of shampoo/DC 2x/week and use low manipulation styles. Hopefully, I’ll soon be able to make much more dramatic comparisons, progress you don’t have to squint to notice lol.  **Update: Taking another look at my February pictures, I can see the top of my scalp which means that I must have been leaning my head back. This explains the discrepancy, so I need to make sure I keep my head straight in my next round of photos. 

  It's crazy how much better 2nd day hair looks to me. Yesterday, this braidout had me feeling the low density blues--those moments when I desperately wish my genetics gave me more strands per square inch. Today, I actually think it's quite cute!  How did I get this look? 1. Shampoo with Silk Elements Olive Moisturizing Shampoo.  2. Deep condition for 15 minutes under my hooded dryer with Africa's Best Organics Hair Mayo.  3. Rinse it out and apply Nairobi foam wrap. Do 12 braids with yellow perm rods on the ends to give them that cute little coil.  I'm supposed to shampoo and deep condition today, since my days to do that are on Sundays and Wednesdays. Since I actually did this on Monday after sweating out Sunday's rod set, I'm thinking that I might just leave it alone, but I also want to remain consistent. We'll see how I feel later after a long day of work. Also, I'm musing about doing a 21 day bun challenge. I've recently completed 21 days strai...

  I'm learning to normalize a little bit of hunger during this process. I'm not talking about being ravenous all the time. I'm talking about feeling a little bit hungry between my meals, which signifies to me that I am indeed in a calorie deficit. When I started tracking my food meticulously again (probably around March), I realized that I have operated in a state of being full almost all the time for years. No wonder the weight has slowly creeped on and stayed put.  So now, I just feel that little bit of gnawing in my stomach between meals, sip some water, keep it moving, and perhaps most importantly....remain grateful that I am privileged enough to only experience this as a temporary feeling, while millions of people around the world are food insecure due to unjust  conditions that we as humans have created. 

In order for me to reach my weight loss goal, I have to prepare my meals for the work week ahead. I like to have the flexibility of cooking something fresh for dinner, but I do need to have my breakfast and lunch ready to go. My priorities are remaining within my calorie goal, hitting my 25g fiber goal, and hitting my 90g protein goal. Here's what I'm eating this week. Breakfast: I wanted something extremely simple because I was not in the mood to do much prep. Each day, I'll have 1 packet of Aldi brand flavored instant oats, a cup of raspberries, two hard boiled eggs, and a medium coffee with whole milk and equal packets from Dunkin Donuts. Macros: 381 calories, 48g carbs, 12.8g fiber, 19g protein. Lunch: Each day, I'll have 4 oz of spaghetti, 1/4 cup of Aldi brand alfredo sauce, 4 oz of baked chicken thigh, and 1 cup of steamed broccoli. Macros: 422 calories, 44g carbs, 4.6 fiber, 29g protein.  So with these two meals, I've already hit 70% of my fiber goal (17 g...

I decided to start this blog (in the era of microblogs or YouTube videos) because I'd like to be very serious about achieving two goals this year: weight loss and retaining length. To be specific, I'd like to be 150 pounds and have BSL (bra-strap length) hair by the end of 2025. Currently, I'm 163 pounds and my hair is probably just past shoulder length , although I will have an updated picture when I get my hair flatironed and trimmed on Friday.  I used to really enjoy reading blogs from the hair forum OGs, and in a subsequent post, I'll probably do a quick lineup sharing some of the archives I still pore over. So I don't care if the only traffic this blog gets is my own, I'd like to have a place to record the process. It feels a little bit vulnerable to actually write down the specific goals I want to achieve because I have the sneaking thought: what if you don't make those goals? Won't it be embarrassing to have put those goals out there and then not ...