Zumba For Wii

Now on to Zumba.....

I made 2 separate posts today because the posts are on 2 different things. I have been doing Zumba Wii for about 5 days now and I LOVE it! Its really hard to move my fat, short legs sometimes, but the amount of sweat and energy I obtain is amazing. Currently my waist is too large to wear the zumba belt, but Im working on that! I dont know how much weight I have lost yet, but I will weigh in tomorrow {March 1} to see whats going on. Honestly, I dont feel much of a difference :o(  {Im not blaming the zumba because I havent been doing it long enough}

I love the Zumba Wii because it's basically dancing around in your living room and I dont feel like I am in the gym of course. The dance routine switches up and you can open up the more difficult levels once you have reached your energy goal from the previous one. {I hold the wii remote in my hand so I can still be measured for energy since I cant wear the belt yet}. Even though I hate how sweat can affect my locs, I love how much sweat I get out of it at the same time because I know I got a great workout in. I wont always do the Zumba for Wii because I want to be in a group class sometime soon. The carpet makes it a little difficult to slide and and twist your body {yes, you will be moving/working body parts you didnt even know could move}. I currently do 2 sessions of 20 minute routines, so that's 40 minutes of Zumba. My goal is to do Zumba AT LEAST 3-4 times a week and change my workout to walking or wii fit plus for the 5-6 day. I get bored easily, so switching up is a must for me.

My coworker even suggested that I walk at least 1 mile in the morning since that would only takes 10-20min {depends on your pace} and then do the rest of your workouts in the afternoon, so I can sort of have a "2 a Day" workout without making it strenuous. We're both not morning people and morning workouts are the worst for me lol. Now, Im taking her advice because I will admit her body is SICK {in a good way!} so Im going to try that out starting tomorrow and see how that works out. Moment of truth will be tomorrow & Im praying that there is a significant change.

11 Month Anniversary

Today is my 11 month anniversary :o)


I am in love with my locs again, but I just realized this morning that it is taking longer and longer for my hair to dry after a wash. I washed my locs yesterday around 2:00pm and when I woke up this morning, my hair was STILL damp! I even made small braid/binds to make sure they would dry {bigger braids tend to take longer to dry}. Just a couple of months ago, I used to be able to wash my babies mid-late afternoon and be completely dry by the next morning. Now it looks like it's going to take a day and a half for them to be completely dry {this means more planning ahead}. I know the growth is what's making it the way that it is, but I guess you can say that I am amazed at how fast my locs are growing and the rate of change of in such a short period. My braidout curls are lovely, but I know my locked sisters have seen a trillion braidouts in their lifetime ;o). I'll post a pic next month {1 year anniversary } showing the difference from when I first had my install to my 1 year. My birthday is next week and I will post a pic of the style I chose to rock for my celebrate.... {yes, I said celebrate lol. Got that from Brown haha}

Frustrations Of Relaxed Ends

So yeah, Im having one of those days where Im absolutely HATING my relaxed ends and getting on myself for not getting my SL's all natural. Im just tired of having to braid up my hair everyday just to go exercise and keep them braided all day & night afterwards just to make sure my hair is going to be okay for work the next day. Now im in LOVE with my hair when I first wash them because the shampoo springs those curls back to life, but everything that happens in between is a different story smh. I guess you can say that Im getting bored with my hair and Im just having one of those days where I dont feel like being patient {more than likely I'll be okay tomorrow}. I guess Im getting tired of not being able to try new things without wondering if its going to mess up my locs! Let me share a few of my pet peeves about having relaxed ends:

1. The WEATHER! Geesh my relaxed ends still get affected by the weather {rain, humidity, sweat} as if I still have a darn relaxer in my head

2. I get the same doggone question everytime I stand next to my mother: "How come your locs doesnt look like your mom's O_o?" . C'mon people! For the umph-teenth time my mom is ALL natural and Im not.....yet

3. Braid-out...Braid-out...Braid-out {enough said}....once my locs mature, you will NOT see a braid out for a LONG time.

4. The fact that I cant color my hair right now.....should have done it before I got SL'd

5. Having to plan ahead to wash my hair {it can be an inconvenience sometimes}- my relaxed ends hold water like no other smh

6. You see more relaxed ends than locs! {I have to have a fresh re-ti , a funky style or bend my head down before you realize there's something "different" going on with my hair}

7. Lack of style options

8. Slows down the lock process

9. If I dont braid my hair at night, the relaxed ends look matted and just flat out atrocious if I dont do anything about them the night before.

I know when it comes to natural hair the key is PATIENCE. Some days Im so cool about it and then there are some of the days when I wish I could push the fast forward button and get to the part where my locs are mature. "Journey" for locs is an understatement lol. Dont get me wrong, I am proud to have locs and I am thankful for the change, but I wish I had known about these locs before I started college or at least played around with being natural before starting to loc. I do understand and live by the phrase "Less Is More", so product use is no big deal to me right now. The rate of growth for my hair is amazing, but I just wish my locs would catch up with it as well. This is my loc rant for today, but I promise I will be in love again this time tomorrow :o)

Wii Fit Plus

Good News! 

I lost 5 lbs :o) The funny thing about it, is that I haven't been stressing about my weight lately and I have been using the Wii Fit Plus to get my exercise in. It really does help because I don't look at it as working out, but more so just having fun with video games. Getting fit is not only physical, but psychological as well. I'm not a big fan of the gym and when I go in there, its more like "dang I gotta workout and let me hurry up & do this and so I can feel like I got my workout in". When it feels like it takes hours to get it over with in the gym, i knock out over 500 calories in 1 hour with the Wii Fit. This by far is the best investment I have made in a while :o). 

I know my results would be alot better if I had kept at it consistently when I first started on it, but this will definitely be a regular routine for me from now on. I like how it gives me no excuse to not workout because Im able to do it in the comfort of my home. I cant complain about the weather or that the gym at my apartment is packed. The Wii Fit is ALOT more fun and you don't think about how much farther you need to go or how many calories you got left because you're doing so much without doing your typical exercises. My goal is to get moving some kind of way for the day for at least an hour. I used to just go straight to my bed when getting off work and that's boring/unhealthy for a 22 year old! If there's anybody out there like me who loathes the gym, just invest in the Wii Fit and any other exercise game for the Wii to get moving. The next game I want to invest in is the Zumba. I hear so much about it and my parents told me that its fun and you work up a serious sweat {right up my alley}. I never played the Xbox Kinect, but I heard that works you even harder than the Wii! Moral for today or any day is to: Have fun when you're exercising and get into something that you will enjoy so you wont give up so easily. Doing the same thing can get mundane after a while.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!

Happy Valentines Day Everybody :o)

Hope everyone enjoys their day! This post isnt about sisterlocks because for one, I havent done anything special to my hair since the roller set. Unfortunately it will be a while before I do that style again because apparently my locs are NOT ready for products *deep sigh*. I guess I'll keep doing the flat twists, loc-hawks and up-dos until I figure out something. But anywho, I just wanted to say that I have been seeing alot of depressing Facebook statuses and tweets about people who are upset they dont have a "boo" for V-Day. Well, I'll say this: Valentines Day is not about having a "boo" for the day. Just spend it with somebody you love whether its your sibling, BFF, parent, your children, or someone you hold close to you dearly.....show love ALL YEAR long people :o). If your man/woman is only showing their sweet side one day a year, then you need to reevaluate your relationship.....seriously. Enjoy the rest of your day people *smooches*

Nightmare....Yikes!

Omg I had the weirdest dream that I cut off my sisterlocks and put a {dum dum duuuuuuum} ...... a relaxer back in my hair! It was insane! My mom {who is sl'd too} fussed me out sooooo bad and told me that I lost my everlasting mind. You can believe the tears and snot bubbles flying everywhere because I lost my locs smh. It scared me so bad that I jerked awake and felt around my head for like 5min to make sure I wasnt tripping haha......I guess it's the fear of relapsing on that creamy-crack lol

Locs Are "Eww, Yuck, GROSS" ?!?

Ok today someone kinda rubbed me the wrong way when they said locs are "eww, yuck & GROSS".....now this was not directed towards me {definitely would have shut her down} and this is not the first time this chick has expressed her loathe for locs. 

We're not good friends or anything, but associates from high school. But I honestly did not know she really had a disdain for locs. I'm a little speechless/thrown because I've never been the one to look at locs as a disgusting or an inappropriate style to have, and never did I think they were "gross". Even in my relaxer days I would always say "child, i would never lock my hair", but that was because I thought my hair was too soft {I honestly have that hawaiian silky soft, curly hair}, hence the raised eyebrows and "what the hell did you do to yourself" convos after I got SL'd.

Yes, the relaxer gives you that "European" look that most black women are dying to have, but I can honestly say I would give that up easily for the versatility and management for locs any day. Now when someone says that locs are gross or yucky, I'm assuming they are thinking that locs has all this build up and smells that they think comes from the build up. What I've realized about having locs, its no different as far as hair having build up or smells, hence you having to clean/wash it thoroughly as if you have relaxed hair. When my hair was relaxed, it had all these scents and build up from the products I used or when I sweat from working out, which gave you signs that you needed to wash your hair. Now, would that not be the same thing as if you have locs? O_o {Hmmmmmm}

Im almost 23 years old and I get upset at the women my age who acts so ignorant about the numerous possibilities that we can do with our hair. Now, I dont wanna pass judgement but the chick who rubbed me the wrong way has always been the one who hung out with the "prissy" chicks who tries to have a beyonce-ish appearance {enough said}. Its seriously ironic how she and her crew tries to look all diva-like, but when I stepped out of my "relaxed & hawaiian silky" stage, I have received way more compliments with the locs than I have ever received with the straight hair. 

To be honest, I feel like I am more myself than ever after going natural versus being the victim of the creamy-crack. I could go on and on about being natural, but I guess after going natural you tend to see and hear the ignorance/negativity more often than what you ever paid attention to. Just to be clear, I have nothing against what women choose to do with their hair {relaxed or natural} but you cant be negative/rude about what somebody else is doing because it's not your preference. Show love ladies! Geesh

Date Night/Roller Set

Date night was great! The best part was my boyfriend giving me lots of compliments on the new hair do :o) 

To make the look more "date-like"  I fluffed the curls out and separated them more to make them looser {tight curls tend to give you more the cutesy/younger look}

Unfortunately my curls only lasted 2 days :o(. I dont know if it was the constant rain or if the products just wasn't strong enough to hold {frustrations of having relaxed ends smh}. But thanks to a fellow blogger/natural beauty {Naturally Unique Sisterlocks}, she suggested Taliah Waajid Crinkles & Curls Styling Lotion....It sounds like a great product and I will definitely try it when my locktician says its okay. My locs are still babies and still have more maturing to do :'o(

I will definitely be doing this style again soon {my b-day is next month lol}

Perm Rod/Roller Set End Result

If I say so myself, my roller set came out FABULOUS {for it to be the 1st attempt}. Many, many compliments today from strangers, nurses & doctors from my appt this morning and co-workers :o) 

I honestly felt cute today {LOL} and it felt great to have another hairstyle other than the wash-n-braid out. But let me stop talking and post the finished product lol 

Just took out the rods { Please excuse the roughness...it was early this morning }



Finger-combed my hair ......

Very happy with the result :o)

 The back was not as curly as the front, but I know now to use the smaller rods (gray) in the back as well

                                    Thin headband and cute earrings *voilà*

THE NIGHT BEFORE:

~ It took about an hour to roll my hair {probably could have been faster if I wasnt pausing to watch tv}

~My hair was not wet as if I just washed it, I just wet my fingers and dabbed with small amount of gel & mousse {was just informed that I could not use both at the same time}

~After I finished rolling my hair, it was already semi-dry and I wrapped my hair with a silk scarf to keep the rollers in place {I'm a wild sleeper} 

My Very 1st Perm Rod/Roller Set

After holding off a few months from getting the "green light" from my locktician to do roller sets, I finally attempted to do so. I'm really praying that it comes out nicely, but this is my first time doing a set to my locs versus having a relaxer. Date night this weekend has inspired me to do something different other than the occasional up-dos and loc-hawks. *Crossing fingers*

Products Used: ic Hair Polishing gel {can be used for blowing drying & roller set}

                       Smooth 'n Shine Curling Mousse {level 8 hold; strong}

                       Gray & White Perm Rods


PLEASE NOTE****: The mouse & gel was NOT used on my locs. I damped my hair with mostly water and applied the mousse & gel to my RELAXED ENDS {Had to clear that up because my locktician was about to slay me lmbo}

Not sure if I even rolled my locs right, but I guess we'll see in the morning...... results will be posted tomorrow ;o)

Moment Of Truth

Welp! 

I did my end of the month weigh-in for January and I'll be honest that I am VERY disappointed :o/

My goal was to lose 10lbs this month and I lost 5, only to gain back 3 of those pounds ...... that only left me with losing a total of 2lbs this month! *slaps forehead*. 

Today was not a busy day, so I took some time to evaluate what I may have been doing wrong this month. I'm 8lbs behind on schedule and the only thing I can think of was that I went out to eat a few times this month and I called myself trying to make the "right choices" when ordering.....guess that means no restaurants for a while until I can figure out what's going on smh 

No point of beating myself up about it, just gotta make sure I go harder for February :o)