13 Weeks Post Relaxer

I am glad I braided my hair. I have not had to do anything to it except put some oil in the parts to keep my hair conditioned while braided. I have been using a mixture of extra virgin olive oil and Jamaican black castor oil. I wish I had the time and patience to braid it during every stretch when I am 11-12 weeks along to allow me to be able to stretch just a little bit longer.

I am on my third week of wearing these braids and I think I will go ahead and keep them in for an entire month. Then, I'll take my hair down and deep condition it and let it rest for 1-2 weeks before relaxing. I am 13 weeks post relaxer right now so I have a good feeling I can stretch for 16 weeks, which I do believe will be a first for me.

Here are some pictures I took today. As you can see, the braids are kind of fuzzy but I kind of like it better this way. You can't really see the scalp in between the parts like before because my hair has grown a little bit since braiding.

Weight Watchers

So this week, today, started my first day on Weight Watchers. I used Weight Watchers in the past to lose about 40lbs after my son was born. I was able to maintain my size relatively well until I became pregnant with my youngest daughter. Ofcourse, I naturally gained weight during the pregnancy and some of the weight came off immediately after I gave birth, but a few months later I ballooned back to the weight I was when I gave birth. Crazy, I know. Gaining weight is a funny thing because you don't really feel it as you are gaining it, but all of a sudden one day your clothes don't fit, or you take a picture and see it just to realize you are a lot bigger than you thought you were.

Well, Day 1 went well. I am motivated and ready to lose the weight so I was not tempted to stray outside of the set amount of points that I was allotted for the day. I did do my normal workout at work for 45 minutes and will continue to do that everyday I am at work (5 days most weeks). I hope to see a minimum of a 3lb lost for week 1. Three pounds would break the plateau that I have been on for the past month and put me in the 160s.

I really hope this goes well. Wish me luck.

Blog Changes

So I decided to change my blog name from "My Journery to Longer, Stronger, More Beautiful Hair" to "Everything Ebonee." I did this because I felt as if my blog title was so restrictive, that it was not allowing me to post about things outside of hair. The name change opens my blog up to discuss more topics. I am excited because there are alot of topics I would like to discuss here. Majority of my posts will stick to my original blog theme (hair and beauty) but on occassion I will discuss other things like weightloss, life events, and anything I think may be interesting or beneficial to you all.

Thank you for reading my blog. I appreciate you even though I may not know who you are.

Stay Tuned,
Ebonee

Weight Loss Update #2

Progress

May 7 (Start) – 185lbs

June 20 – 172lbs

July 23 (Today) – 172lbs

Okay, so the very obvious good news is I have not gained any weight. Now on to the very obvious bad news, I have not lost any weight either in a whole month of working out consistently anywhere from 45 mins to an hour and 45mins, 5 days a week. So with that much working out, I am puzzled why I am not losing at least a small amount of weight like 1-2lbs per week. The weight seems like it is stuck on my body and I do not care for it at all. In fact, some days it even makes me a little sad because I am putting in the effort and getting little to no results anymore.

I know my diet could be better but the thing is, it is not bad. I don’t overeat and eat healthy more meals than not. I know I do have a problem with eating late. Unfortunately, I don’t get off work until 6pm. My commute home puts me at my house after 7pm. So I normally eat dinner anywhere between 7:30-8:30pm which I know is too late but difficult to try and avoid.  

So I am thinking about jump starting my weight loss again with a weeklong juice fast drinking nothing but fruits and vegetables. I need to do more research on it though. Will let you all know if I decide to do it and how it goes.  

I am not a quitter so I won’t give up because being thinner is something that I really want. I will keep working at it. See this difference below. The first picture is me in 2010, approximately 140lbs. The second is a recent picture, approximately 173lbs.

Cornrows!

As I have mentioned before, I don't like to have to handle and style my hair while I am pretty far along in my stretch because of tangles and breakage. So today I decided to cornrow my hair into a style that I will try to wear for 2-3 weeks. If I can get 3 weeks out of it I will be happy but definitely 2 weeks at a minimum. 

I washed and deep conditioned my hair then proceeded to braid it. It took approximately 4 hours and I am happy with the results. I added a flower for a little interest.

Styling 10-Weeks Post Hair

So I had a birthday party for my fiancé and friends to go to this weekend. I wanted my hair to be cute, neat and presentable ofcourse, but that is not always an easy task at 10 weeks post without using a fair amount of heat. So I reached for my old trusty phony pony, lol. I am actually pretty tired of wearing this ponytail but I don’t have many no heat, low manipulation, low maintenance options when I am far along in my stretch that can keep me from actually having to handle my new growth. I would love to get into wigs, the ones I can easily slip on and off and just cornrow my hair underneath but I have a problem with hair that looks “really fake.” Some women can pull it off beautifully but I cannot.  Maybe I am just not used to seeing myself with fake hair. I’ve had some short curly wigs that I liked but I only wore it once for a week and put some cornrows in the front of my head to kind of pull the style together so it would not look so “wiggy.”

Anyway, getting back on topic, so here are a few pictures of my current style with the phony pony. I rolled the hair on the top of my head to make a little hump to give the style some dimension. I slicked the sides back so they were very smooth using just my regular moisturizer and a boar bristle brush. I secured the ponytail with additional bobby pins even though it is a drawstring ponytail, just for that extra security. The result will last one week and still look pretty good, but I can definitely stretch it for two weeks if I tie it up every night to prevent the ponytail from become tangled and ratty looking.

I may relax in two weeks at 12 weeks post or I may stretch longer. I am not sure. I’ll be back again soon.