Should I get braids?
I leave to return to duty on Monday. I have been debating on if I should get braids in my hair or not. I had a terrible experience a few months ago right before I left for basic. I got my hair braided in individuals. Not only were they to long, they were to heavy, the braids started slipping!! ALL WITHIN THE FIRST DAY! Those braids lasted me about 5 days before I finally through in the towel. I had lost all hope.
During my time at BCT, I got lucky and my battle buddy would braid my hair up. Nothing fancy, just some ’set it off’ braids about 1x a week or 1.5 weeks. Problem is..she is no longer here. She is off at AIT now. I won’t know these new females here when I return next week.
I’d like to get some braids, I’d just hate to have another nightmare experience! These are a few styles I’ve had my eye on lately:
Senegalese Twists
Pixie: 
Cornrolls: 
pics from www.stellabraiding.com
I really haven’t thought up a braid regimen to go on when I get the braids. I know moisture is key, but honestly I’m trying to keep up on my co-washing and leave in while I’m there! I’d hate to get all the fuzziness that will come with co-washing, but hey I’ll be in basic, who will I be trying to impress lol. So, tomorrow I’m going to call up the braid shop and hopefully they can squeeze me in tomorrow!
So, I had a can of Coconut Milk…
in one hand, and honey in the other. I wanted to finally try a recipe with these ingredients. I was at the grocery store, and passed the coconut milk. I said, “what the hell” and picked it on up. I’d been reading so much about coconut milk and the benefits behind it.
So, I decided to take 1/2 can of Goya coconut milk and approx. 2-3tbs of honey. I applied it into 4 sections and massaged it in. I left it in for about 3hrs before cowashing it out with Hello Hydration. My hair felt awesome. I was expecting a “stronger” feeling as many women had reported a feeling of a protein treatment, but I felt no such thing. I felt moisture!
I then t-shirt dried my hair for about 1-2hrs then applied a dollop of HH and coconut oil, and then shea butter. I decided to flat twist my hair in 6 flat twists ala CurlyChronicles from youtube. My results were pretty nice. I still have alot of work to do when it comes to perfecting my flat twists.
Back on my Spirulina
So, since being home for the past month on my con-leave, I decided to restart my usage of Spirulina. I saw a great sale going on at Swanson, so I got 2 bottles of 180 pills. It came up (with shipping) to around $9.
So far, I’ve been taking it for 4 days now. The first 2 days I was taking 2 pills (1gram) 3x a day. So, I was getting in my 3 grams. From my research, that isn’t much..but basically a dietary supplement. Yesterday, I started taking 3 pills, 2x a day. Same result. I even talked my boyfriend into taking 3pills lol…
Today was a different story. I was doing additional research on spirulina and dosage. I wanted to know how much exactly I should be taking per day. I found alot of information, but basically it all said the same..my little 3g a day wasn’t going to do much for me.
I copy/pasted the following information from this blog about spirulina: http://blog.watershed.net/2009/05/15/spirulina-chlorella-first-foods-of-the-earth-and-the-foundation-of-nutrition-of-great-health/
Best before a meal to aid with digestion.
Spirulina: A maintenance dosage of Spirulina is 3 — 5 grams per day. Although their nutritional profile may appear to be quite similar, Spirulina and Chlorella are completely different foods. Spirulina is great before a physical workout. I take 5 – 6 grams religiously before any kind of physical training. Stamina, endurance and recovery are significantly improved with Spirulina. After a strenuous workout where the body is pushed to its limits, an additional 10 – 20 grams should be taken during the following 24 hours to rebuild the body and muscle tissue that has been torn down.
Spirulina should also be taken 15 – 30 minutes before a meal to help prepare the stomach for proper digestion since it also helps accelerate the reproductive rate of probiotics.
Maintenance Dosage: 3 – 5 grams/day
Significant Part of the Diet: 6 – 10 grams/day
Immune System Builder: 11 – 14 grams/day
Primary Source of Protein : 12 – 19 grams/day
Healing Purposes: 20 – 25+ grams/day
Also great before a workout.
Wow, what great info! There was alot more beneficial stuff that could help someone else (info on spirulina and weight loss).
So, by the time I had read this blog, I had already taken my 3pills 2x for the day. So, before the night is over (it’s 7:30pm now) I plan to take 8 more pills! That way, I’ll have my 7g in! Once I get back to BCT I hope they’ll let me keep my Spirulina. I mean, technically it is an algae/food and not a vitamin supplement (which we cannot have)
I have 1 week left before I return to training. I’ll be tracking my progress for the next week to see how I do!
I did 18 pushups!!
Yup, the real ones, not the girly ones. I had no idea I could do this many. I just got back from drill weekend. On Saturday, we had PT which is physical training test. We had 2 min to do as many pushups as we can. While doin my 30 day shred, I usually can only do a few, before retreating to the ‘girly’ form. I’m super psyched. I was only able to do the push ups for 1min until my arms failed me. So, 18 push ups in 1min gives me hope that maybe one day soon I can get up to 40 in 2min with no problem.
I can’t really talk much today. I have some more topics to discuss tomorrow.
30 Day Shred – Day 2
So, I woke up pretty early this morning. It was around 5am. I jumped online to look at the hair forums, post a bit and enjoy my morning in peace. I took my 1,000mg green tea extract and made breakfast. Grits and 3 turkey links..yummy! lol.
Anywho, I started getting tired around 10am so I tried to lay down. Didn’t work out that way, so around 11am, I decided to put the Shred back on. All day yesterday – today, My legs, only my hamstrings are pretty sore. I like that feeling though. Oh yeah, and my abs are nice and tight too.
I jumped into the workout, and my energy level is back up. The 20min went by even faster today, than they did yesterday. I do feel guilty though. I did 3 reg. push ups (each set) and the rest would be the girly kind…*sigh* I’ll get there.
I’m glad I decided to start my shred early in the day. Regardless of how lazy, or not in the mood I am, I’m just going to push. The 30 day shred is nothing compared to the 9 weeks of hell I’m getting ready to go through!
30 Day Shred – Day 1
Ahhh boy do I feel awesome! I’ve had this DVD laying around for a good 4 months now. I’ve done it maybe 5x. I admit, it’s pretty intense. My reasons for never doing it is quite honestly, because I was lazy. The idea of doing those jumping jacks, squats, push-ups etc. really cramped my style. Did I mention how lazy I was.
30 Day Shred
So, I decided to pull good ol’ Jillian out so that she could work me out. I tried getting on the treadmill again today..but my leg is still acting up. I did some research on what this pain is..and the area is called the Soleus muscle.
Basically, it feels like someone is sticking a hot poker right into the muscle. I’ve had this pain in my left leg for as long as I can remember. This was mainly the reason I always avoided cardio activities that involved jogging or running. Walking, I could do that for miles an miles..but the pressure to jog/run on my left leg kills me after 10min.
So anyway, I decided to come home and pop Jillians DVD in instead. I figure, what the hell I have exactly 14 days before I go to basic..I can do the Shred and keep stretching out my soleus muscle before I go! So, I plan on doing each level of the shred 4-5 days, before moving up the level. This will be a serious challenge!
It wasn’t to bad. I guess cause I’d been doing my cardio for the past couple weeks, the cardio on Jillians wasn’t to bad for me. The 20min went by fast. I’m looking forward to doing more tomorrow!
ETA: I took 1,000mg of green tea extract today. Again, it’s a natural fat burner.
Workout Day 2
I’m feeling good. Doing the Master Cleanse gave me some much needed energy and pep in my step. I’m just starting to wish I had maybe started working out when I first started my cleanse. Anywho, no time like the present aye.
So yesterday, I told myself I was going to do the C25K (couch to 5k) workout program. I didn’t. In my opinion i did slightly better than what I sought out. I jogged at 6.0 for almost 7min before walking for another 5min at 5.0.
I had to take a short break for an important phone call, but jumped back onto 6.0 but this time for only like 3min. I got uncomfy since there were now like 6 men in there. I prefer to workout alone.
After getting home, I had a nice bowl of my veggie soup. It’s almost gone, and I am so sad lol. I love that stuff!
I was on youtube yesterday, and came across a brother named Ahmad who is a personal trainer. I watched some of his videos and made a mental note of the great reception and following he is receiving from some of the youtubers. That reminds me…he has a blog on here. So I need to add him to the blog roll. Anyway, I added a couple of his videos as my favorite. Since my heart is still pumping strong, I think I may do a couple of his vids today.
Day 2: I woke up and hit the gym at 10:45am. I popped 600mg of green tea, and 450mg of Cayenne Pepper. Both are natural fat burners. I got hip to that some months ago in one of my Muscle & Fitness Hers magazines. I love that magazine!
Anywho, I got on the treadmill for 20min for “fat burning” Actually it wasnt’ to bad. I could’ve kept going, but my tummy wasn’t feeling it. That’s my fault though. My tummy was jumping around the pills I had just popped so she wasn’t to happy. So come tomorrow, I plan to take my fat burners at least 1hr earlier than my workout.
I have 3 weeks to get my body at least somewhat prepped for basic. For my age group, I must be able to do the following
- 2 mile: 19:36/15:36 minutes
- Push-ups: 17/46
- Sit-Ups: 50/80
For the pushups and situps, that has to be done in 2min. Those are the minimum/maximum standards for the U.S. Army
I made a half-assed attempt at situps yesterday. I did like 23 in a minute. Not bad imo considering I haven’t done an actual sit up since elementary school lol (I’m more of a crunches kinda girl) The push-ups are gonna need alot of work though. I gave up after 4. So situps/pushup training shall be a daily thing.
I plan to workout every day for the next 3 weeks. I’m relentless
Vegan Soul Kitchen
Ok so yesterday was a great day! I got my first vegan cookbook. It’s called Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry.
The book is awesome. I am a little bummed that I got paperback though. I wanted/needed pictures. But, I can tell by just looking at the ingredient and spices that the food is going to taste awesome!
Probably sometime next week I’m going to surprise Max an cook him a nice dinner from out of this book.
Of course I’ll post pictures and which recipes I used.
My Vegetable Soup Recipe
My veggie recipe from the master cleanse
I’m surprised it came out as well as it did.
I cooked it over night and come this afternoon it was ready. I’m now on my second bowl and I can’t get enough!
My recipe
Organic Vegetable Broth
2 Turnips
5 Long Carrots
1 Orange, Yellow, Red bell pepper (each)
String beans (about 2 handfuls)
1/2 bushle of celery
1 Clove garlic
1/2 Tbs sea salt
1tbs black pepper
I also bought onion and mushrooms, but my pot wasn’t big enough to fit it all in there. I will say that I am not a hot and spicy kind of food lover. This soup does have some kick to it. If I could go back, I probably would’ve use 1/2 TBS of the black pepper.
All in all, I love this soup!
Day 10!!!
I did it, I did it! I made it to day 10. Today and yesterday were pretty good days for me. M came over and we went grocery shopping. He was hungry, so we headed to Kroger’s.
I was relentless! He ordered like an 8 pc baked chicken, half gal. of OJ, strawberries, and a bag of salt and vinegar chips! OMG yummy. ALL of them are my faves.
But I digress, I didnt falter. Didn’t stumble. I got 2 Papaya, a gal. of unprocessed OJ. Starting tomorrow, I have to start drinking the OJ instead of the lemonade, then work my way up to solids.
Over the next few days, I have to make myself a veggie soup. So, I bought the following:
- Turnips
- Orange, Red, and Yellow bell pepper
- garlic
- Onion
- Carrots
- Mushrooms
- Celery
I’m pretty excited about making my soup. What sucks is that I’m scared it will be bland. I HATE bland food. I love flavor. I love salty foods. I’m optimistic that I can make it work though.
So, I guess tonight is the end..farewell for now MC! Farewell 
)
