Hello there beauties!!! (^_^)
It has
been a while since I have given any updates in my quest to improve the health
and length of my tresses!!! Ten days to be exact. In addition to improving my mane, I am also trying
to become a healthier human being as well. So time had passed quickly as my
days have become fuller. But that is a good thing I believe!!! Well, let me see
what has happened since the last time I have written here. I have been taking
multivitamins by Nature made every day since first purchasing the bottle
possibly 2 weeks ago or less. In addition, I have learned of a greater variety
of fruits and foods that I can enjoy in my healthy lifestyle transformation.
As you already know, I have been
relegating what I consider a superior choice in attempting to only ingesting
organic fruits and vegetables. Sometimes I am not able to find an organic item
and have to settle for the regular items (like pineapples and watermelons) but
for the most part, I can consume majority of the items in organic form. In that
list, not only do I still eat organic carrots, spinach, oranges ,bananas and green apples (I do not like the taste of
red apples because they tend to be less sour and less crunchy), but I have also
expanded to include organic mangos and kiwi’s. I wonder if you are supposed to
eat the skin of the kiwi. It seems easy enough to eat. But, who knows. Anywho,
this is what I have been eating in the fruit and veggie department. Soon I am
going to start creating recipe’s to make organic Borscht (Russian beetroot
soup), organic asparagus and other green veggies.
In terms of the healthy snacks that
are not in fruit or veggie form, I have been totally devouring rice cakes, smoked
almonds, sunflower seeds and Kind Plus bars. You know those little fruit and
nut filled bars that are strategically placed at the registers of every
Starbucks across America. Until December, I had no idea they came in other
flavors that did not include cranberries, cashews and apricots. Those are two
types of fruits that I want no part in mingling and meshing with nuts inside of
my mouth!!! And the smell of cashews
turns my stomach. So anyway, I looked at the section in Trader Joes that has
nutrition bars, and found one that I liked located not too far from Tiger milk
bars (those had been my favorite since high school. I was allergic to power
bars and didn’t find that out until I ate one while waiting to participate in a
track and field invitational @ Mt. Sac. My eyes straight swelled up and
expanded out of my sockets so far that they had stuck to my sunglasses. I never
tried that again after that experience!!!). The Kind bar had coconuts, almonds
and honey as the main ingredients. Straight deliciocity!!! And the price is so
much better at Trader Joes than it is at say Kroger, Dominicks, Pavillions or
Gelsons (now that’s just a place to shop if you just want to spend twice the
money for the same item you can get at Ralphs. Something like $5.00 for a cupcake
and like $45.00 for a bag of potato chips… you better get the shyt outta here
with that madness you snooty bastards) Moving right along …after almost
satiating of the Coconut combination that I had been eating solely for close to
4 months , I searched once more to see if there was anything else “Kind” could
kindly offer me. And sure enough… I found their Almond, walnut, peanut and
macadamia nut protein bar. Superb!!! So that is a regular staple now. Just a
couple of days ago while perusing the health bar section I encountered oatmeal
squares by corazonas. The bars were on sale, and it has been a while since I
have had granola or oatmeal, so I picked up 2 of the Banana Walnut bars. I
couldn’t have made a bigger mistake. I must have eaten those damn bars so fast
I felt depressed that I hadn’t thought far enough in advance to snatch at least
10 while they were on sale to feast on whenever I saw fit. I am a creature with
finicky taste buds and like to keep them pleased with foods that keep them that
way, so I guess I was being cautious. But, I might have to try some of the
other flavors for good measure.
Now… I know some of you are
thinking… “How can she just live off of those things without missing sweets and
everyday treats and drinks???” Who said I stopped indulging in those??? I am on
my quest to becoming a healthier human being, but I certainly haven’t made it
yet. Some of my greatest vices now seem to be cookies, cakes and donuts and
even a few drinks that I should never imbibe in. I remember a time for years
where I wouldn’t even buy a candy bar except for rare occasions. Something like
once every 6 to 8 months or something. I guess that really hasn’t changed all
that much, but I have been enjoying chocolate chip and walnut cookies more
frequently. I used to only eat them on the rare visits I made to Diddy Reese,
and even then it was only one double chocolate chip with nuts because my main
interest was in the Hawaiian shave ice with vanilla ice cream flavored with
cherry and passion fruit syrup. Mmmmm, I would totally smash that right now…
Hmmmm, that was inappropriate!!! Next…
it appears that I have also rediscovered my liking towards Hostess Fruit Filled
pies. In particular, their lemon pies. I
really have to watch myself here. I could easily run through 4 pies a week if I
am not in control of myself. I saw that I was trying to head for trouble when a
few weeks back, I had been craving said pie, and I could not find one at the
grocery store that usually carried them. I mean, they had every flavor except
lemon. WTFruitsauce??? And when a shipment finally came in, I must have
purchased 5 at one time. I looked at that and said to myself… “Hello, my name
is Kare … and although I had not realized it… I am addicted to lemon pies!!!” I
have curtailed that pretty well lately.
Here is the other thing. There is a donut shop right around the corner
from my house. And being a late owl or what my friends know me by as more of
the nocturnal type, come 1 am, I can pick up a piping hot cinnamon bun,
chocolate on chocolate cake donut or a simple glaze twist, and straight KILL
IT!!! BUT, naturally I do not want to eat just one. I think my body however has
a better understanding about what it is I can actually eat opposed to what my
mind wants to think I can. I caught myself purchasing 2 glazed twists at 3am,
demolished one of them in under a minute, but the other just sort of cooled off
and lingered around in my carry bag until I had finally decided to throw it
away the following day.
As if that is not bad enough, I have
re-discovered the joys of Starbucks Vanilla Frappuccino. *Sigh* . Now I am not
a coffee drinker in the normal sense of the word, BUT… some years ago I started
drinking the little glass jars of the stuff in college until I found out about
their chai cream vanilla frapp that didn’t have any coffee in it at all. That
in addition to their wheat a nut bagels with butter extra well toasted had been
my snack of choice. In the past 2 weeks I have had three 13.7 oz vanilla
frapps. Since my re-discovery. I’m hopeful I’ll get tired of this drink as
well. One drink that I have not tired of since I discovered it a couple of
years ago is Sobe’s vita boom cranberry grapefruit flavored beverage. Why does
this seem bad??? Mainly because this fruit flavored elixir has L – carnitine
and Vitamin c but… it has no juice!!! How do you have a fruit beverage without
having legitimate fruit juice in it??? But even still, I can’t stop drinking
it!!! It’s like the Krispy Kream crack rock of beverages to me. Mmmmm Krispy
Kream. You know they have a big one out there in Sydney Australia. Kinda
tripped me out when I saw it. LOL. ADHD is kicking in full time for me right
now, so I had better move on. LOL
Let’s see. I’ve pretty much covered all of the
healthy and unhealthy things I have been subjecting my body to in the last few
days (and some of the things that I had not been telling you I have been doing
for some months prior). It’s time to move onto the hair portion. First, I am
glad to be able to state that I have not used any heat related tools in my hair
or subjected it to cruel or unusual punishment by dousing it in chemicals and
other damaging substances. The first time I plaited my hair in the mini twist
style, it took me forever to take them down…BUT, they looked really cool!!! Sort
of like miniature locks. I think it took me something like 7 hours to put them
in in the first place and maybe an hour to remove them. I did them again in
larger sections Tuesday night, but it still took me 5 hours to put them in. It
is a bit of improvement in time, but I guess that will happen the better I get
at styling my hair in that manner. I discovered however that my scalp is ultra
dry and may have some additional issues. It seems like I have to do an ACV
treatment every week (right before I wash my hair). I mean my scalp is really
doing other things. As a matter of fact, my scalp was actually hurting to the
point where if I touched it, I suffered from sharp pains in that area. I had
re-wet my hair (including my scalp) set some hair conditioner on it (with sage and wild mint),
and oiled it with coconut oil to see if that would diminish the pain I was
feeling in my scalp, but that barely did anything. The only time I felt any
real relief was when I did an ACV treatment, felt my scalp tingling with the
relief of quelling the cracked desert surface and soothing the parched nerves.
Scabs had formed and everything as if there were small lacerations on my scalp.
I wonder what that means. I have read different information that talks about
scalp infections from putting wet products in one’s hair and putting the hair
up in a style where the hair on the scalp doesn’t dry and mildew/ fungus/
infection develops or damage caused from wearing one’s hair too tight and
pulling the scalp in harmful ways , but
I have not done either. So I am going to have to do some additional research
about that. As soon as I discover anything of use, I will let you all know what
I have found.
I had mentioned earlier “ACV
treatment” so I would like to take the time to tell you what that is as well as
a few other terms. I am also including a few websites from some of the healthy
products that I enjoy.
· Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) –
Apple Cider Vinegar or ACV as used in abbreviated form is a liquid substance made from cider or apple must, and has a brownish-yellow color. It often is sold unfiltered and unpasteurized with the mother of vinegar
present, as a natural product. Because of its acidity, apple cider
vinegar may be very harsh, even burning, to the throat. If taken
straight, (as opposed to used in cooking), it can be diluted (e.g., with
fruit juice or water) before drinking or used in other manners.
Mother of Vinegar -
Also called Mycoderma aceti is a substance composed of a form of cellulose and acetic acid bacteria that develops on fermenting alcoholic liquids, which turns alcohol into acetic acid with the help of oxygen from the air. It is added to wine, cider, or other alcoholic liquids to produce vinegar. Mother of vinegar can also form in store-bought vinegar if there is some non-fermented sugar and/or alcohol
contained in the vinegar. This is more common in unpasteurized vinegar.
While not appetizing in appearance, mother of vinegar is completely
harmless and the surrounding vinegar does not have to be discarded
because of it. It can be filtered out using a coffee filter, used to start a bottle of vinegar, or simply left in and ignored.
·
ACV TREATMENT and Uses – An ACV
treatment consists of mixing a tonic comprised of ACV and water (and sometimes
additional ingredients like baking powder, sage, witch hazel or oils) that will be applied to the scalp in order to cleanse it and remove
dandruff, dirt and other impurities. It also acts as an antibiotic to disinfect
and remove bacteria that can be caused by not keeping a clean scalp. This
treatment can be applied to just the scalp or to the scalp and hair just before
washing the hair. It can also be used as a deep cleansing treatment by applying
to the scalp or scalp and hair and letting the formula set for 30 minutes under
a plastic cap. Some of the types of uses for AVC are listed below:
- Rinsing with apple cider vinegar will help balance the pH of your hair and remove the buildup that can result from the use of these styling products and inexpensive shampoos. To make a batch, just add 5 drops of the essential oil to 1 cup (250 ml)
of apple cider vinegar. When you are ready to rinse your hair, take 1
tablespoon of this mixture and add it to 1 cup (250 ml) of warm water. You can use any of the following oils that work well with ACV: Lavender, Lemon, Rose, Rosemary, Sage
- For an extra strength natural hair care product, apple cider
vinegar can be infused with herbs such as stinging nettle, southernwood,
goosegrass, plantain and burdock root all of which help prevent
dandruff on their own. Tea tree oil is another excellent natural
anti-dandruff ingredient, which can be added.
- For bald and thinning areas apply to scalp an hour before shampooing- 2 Tbsp ACV mixed with a tiny pinch cayenne powder. Then before going to bed, mix a royal jelly capsule with one tsp ACV, pat on bald areas and leave overnight. The following herbs have also been used to prevent hair loss and stimulate hair growth: Burdock, Catnip, Chamomile, Lavender, Rosemary, Saw Palmetto, Thyme, Yucca
- By infusing various herbs into the vinegar rinse, you can enhance different hair colors and condition hair at the same time. Here are some recommended herbs to use with apple cider vinegar:
- For dark hair:......Parsley, Rosemary, Sage
- For light hair:.....Chamomile, Flannel Mullein, Marigold
- For red hair:.......Henna
- For oily hair:......Lavender, Thyme, Witch Hazel, Yarrow
- For dry hair:.......Marigold
- For brittle hair:...Horsetail
- To make your own herbal hair rinse natural hair care product:
- Place 2 tablespoons of the dried herb (or herb mixture) into a muslin bag or tea ball and put in a warmed tea pot.
- Pour 1 pint (500 ml) of boiling water over the herbs and infuse for 2 hours.
- Allow the liquid to cool then pour it into a quart (1 liter) jar.
- Add 1 pint (500 ml) of apple cider vinegar and mix well.
- To add extra fragrance to the herbal rinse, try adding a few drops of lavender or lemon or rose essential oils.
·
Lacerations- These are deep
cuts on the skin.
·
Mildew – A coating of minute
fungal hyphae (fungus) growing on plants or damp organic material such as
paper.
Websites:
Before I forget, here are a few pictures of my first mini twist set and my twist out!
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This is what the back of my head looked like... 7 hours after I put the first twist in!
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This is the front view with parts of it twisted down!
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| This is the side view of my hair twisted out. They look like little locks. I love em! |
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| This is a front view. My eye looks super freaky here!!! |
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| This is the front view of my twist out some 5 days later! I really liked it! |
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| This is sort of a side view. I thought I looked cute in this picture. LOL! |
Well, that is pretty much all I have to share for the time
being. As always , thank you for reading, and I hope to entertain you again
soon!!! Until then…
Adeus (^_^)
