Hair of the Day

So the bantu knot out I did this weekend only lasted a day. I tried to pin it up when I went to bed Saturday night so I could salvage the curls for church on Sunday morning, but it did not work out well.

Last night, I did a braid out and here are the results. You can really see all my new growth in these pictures. I did it on dry hair which always gives me a looser wave pattern than if I were to do it on wet hair.

Week 2 Recap on Weight Watchers

Week 2 went a lot better than week 1. I was able to stick to eating the allotted amount of points all week. During the weekend, I was able to eat what everyone else was eating, but in moderation so that I did not undo the progress that I made Monday-Friday.

I exercised four days this week -- Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday. Work obligations caused me to miss going to the gym on Thursday. I have been doing the same exercise routine which is 45 minutes on the elliptical machine. I would like to switch it up because I know your body can because accustomed to doing the same workout and the workout can become less effective over time. I like the elliptical machine though, so I am having a hard time trying something else like the treadmill or cardio bike.

On Saturday, I felt the urge to eat one of my most favorite foods in the whole wide world, lol. Paht Thai! So, I went and got some.

The good thing about Weight Watchers is that you can eat whatever you want to eat. You are just eating it in moderation or smaller portion sizes...whatever it takes to not exceed your daily points allowance.

I am excited with my results for week 2.

Results
Week 1, Monday 7/30 -- I weighed in at 172.2 lbs.
Week 2, Monday 8/6 -- I weighed in at 170.8 lbs.
Today, Monday 8/13 -- I weighed in at 167.8 lbs

Total weight lost so far: 4.4 lbs

Today starts Week 3 and hopefully another successful week!

Bantu Knots!

So last night I took my braids out. I enlisted the help of my 7 year old daughter so we got them out pretty quickly and I was left with this....

I knew I had about four weeks of shedded hair mixed in with my real hair so I carefully and meticulously combed through my hair removing as much hair as possible because I knew if I did not, once water hit my head, it would be a wrap. In other words, if I washed my hair without properly removing the shedded hair, that shedded hair would get tangled and matted into my hair, aided by the whole washing and conditioning process, to a point where knots would be almost impossible to get out.

After I washed and conditioned my hair and started detangling, I noticed I had two fairly large sized knots towards the back of my head. I don't know what contributed to those knots because my hair was fully detangled before washing and I had done my best to remove as much shedded hair as I could. So why the knots?

Anyway, I am very VERY happy I decided to buy the Mane N' Tail detangler before removing my braids because I really used it to help me last night. I soaked those knots in detangler and very slowly and carefully worked the knots out. The first knot took about 10 minutes with minimal hair loss. The second knot took about 15 minutes and almost brought forth tears. My hair was so matted together that I felt no matter how much I worked at it, I would end up either having to cut it out or just rake through it until the knot came out itself with all my hair attached to it. A bit more patience and added conditioner helped me work that knot out and I ended up with some breakage but not enough to cause me major concern.

So after that ordeal was over, I blow-dried my hair. I could not possibly dream of air-drying my 15-weeks post hair or I'd be looking at more knots and tangles around the new growth. After I blow-dried my hair, I moisturized it, sealed it with shea butter, and put it in about six bantu knots.

When I took the bantu knots down this morning, here were the results.

I love the way it looks. My hair does look alot shorter than what it is but the curls will fall as the day goes on and the style will look even better with looser curls. I have done bantu knots in the past and each time I do them, they always come out differently. No complaints though, I love the style.

My plan in to relax next weekend. I'm feeling this stretch is done. I don't want to encounter and more tangles or knots. It's kinda scary.

Time for the Braids to Come Out

This has been an incredibly long and stressful week. Tuesday through Thursday I woke up at 6am to make it to work by 7:30am, only to not get off until 6:45-7pm. I’d make it home around 8pm and have just enough time to wind down for a few minutes with TV or internet, take a shower and get in the bed to do it all over again the next day. Now it is Friday and I am thankful that this week is nearly a thing of the past.

The good thing about having my hair braided and waking up early for work is that I don’t have to do my hair. In the morning, the only thing I have been doing in changing the flower hair clip to match what I a wearing for the day. That’s all. No brushing, slicking down edges with gel, re-bunning or anything like that. I have loved it! Tomorrow makes 4 full weeks that my hair has been braided so definitely time to take them down. I had originally only wanted to wear them for 2-3 weeks so I definitely have kept them in long enough to make the four hours of braiding worth it.

I cannot wait to wash and condition my hair. I bought some more Mane N’ Tail detangler just in case my 15 weeks of new growth causes me trouble when I am ready to detangle after I wash and deep condition. I also bought 2 more bottles of the Maxi Hair vitamins because I really like it and have definitely seen results over the past two months of using it. Like I’ve mentioned before, I will do a full and proper review after my next relaxer so I will have some growth comparison pictures to show you all.

Week 1 Recap on Weight Watchers

Week 1 on WW did not go so great. This had nothing to do with the program but everything to do with me. The program is a very effective tool to assist with managing how much food you consume everyday so that you can create the caloric deficit needed to lose weight, but you must have the willpower to only eat the amount of points you have available to eat.

Monday – Friday I did well as far as willpower. I would eat oatmeal or fruit for breakfast at home and would pack my lunch and dinner to take to work. I get off work at 6pm and my commute home normally puts me at the house anywhere between 7:00-7:15pm.  I really want to stick with the goal of not eating after 7pm so I have been packing my dinner and eating it at work at approximately 5:30pm.  The only  problem with this is if I cook for my family when I get home, or if my fiancé cooks, I am expected to eat when everyone else is eating.

For example, on Thursday night, I cooked some okra stew for my fiancé to eat for dinner. He made some banku to go with it and when the banku was done he said, “Let’s eat.” I explained to him I had eaten dinner at work and that I was trying not to eat anything after 7pm anymore (this was around 9:30pm so even worse). Then he said something to the effect of how was I going to cook a delicious stew and not eat any myself. The stew was really good by the way. Anyway, I ended up eating the okra stew and banku that evening then had to search the internet to see if I could find the nutritional value for the food. Because it is Ghanaian (African) food, I cannot just plug the food into WW online and have the system pull up the points value for me. WW won’t even recognize something like banku. Luckily, I was able to find the nutritional information for both the okra stew and banku, although the okra stew’s recipe was little different from how I cooked it. I am sure the nutritional values will be slightly different but it gave me a pretty good idea of what I was eating and how many points to track.

By Saturday morning, I was still within my points allowance for the week so I just had to make it through the weekend which proved to be difficult because I was at home all weekend, bored majority of the time, and that is when I eat out of boredom. To make a long story short, I ate all kinds of stuff this weekend and I am sure I ate more points that I was allowed. I ate Nutrigrain bars, Fiber One Brownies w/ milk, bananas and cashews (one of my favorite snacks), and more African food such as spinach stew and jollof rice. I was not motivated to go online to try to track down the nutritional information for the African food again so I just didn’t track points this weekend.

So, what was the end result you ask?

Last Monday, 7/30 -- I weighed in at 172.2 lbs.

Today, 8/6 -- I weighed in at 170.8 lbs.

I lost 1.4 lbs.

I could have easily lost more if I would’ve stuck to the plan like I was supposed to but I am still happy because I lost weight. I will always be happy when I lose weight, even if it is just a small amount just because it is a loss and not a gain.

So on to Week 2 on WW. Wish me luck!!!

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.