Come To My New Blog

For my latest updates come to my new blog: http://vnatural.wordpress.com/

Its a fresh start for me 🙂

-Jazzie

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A New Blog? For More Than Just Hair

I really do like this blog and I have posted a lot of things that I can go back and check myself but I have been thinking in the back of my mind about having a new blog.  I mean the main reason behind me creating this blog was to track my hair journey and right now, theres so much more going on with my life than “just hair”. Thats the main reason I barely post here but I post on my tumblr because Im at a point where its no longer about hair and Im currently at the phase where Im done with research and I’m learning about my hair on my own instead og “googling” all the answers or asking someone instead of finding out myself. So I think I will begin working on a new blog and once I get it flowing correctly with posts.

-Jazzie

Natural Hair Inspiration!

Yes Ma’am ~ Simple Healthy Recipe: Green/Red Peppers with Pork and Rice, Mangos & Baby Spinach

So the other day I whipped up a tasty recipe. Usually I try to find some recipes online and cook them but lately I have just been makingthings from scratch recipes seeing if they taste good. Now this simple dish came up with came together perfectly and the most work I had to do was standing in the kitchen and cutting things up. I like to keep everything nice and simple while yet delicious and lately I have been trying to eat healthy…so far Im doing great :D.

Ingredients:

– Jasmine Rice (Organic)

-1/2 Red bell pepper chopped (Not the hot kind)

-1/2 Green bell pepper chopped (Not the hot kind)

-1 Whole Onion chopped

-1 slab of pork chop chopped up

– Extra Virgin Olive Oil

– 1 Whole Mango

– A hand full of Organic Baby Spinach

– A pinch of Salt (optional)

-Pepper

Directions:

• Chop the onion, red & green bell pepper and the pork chop. Season with salt & pepper. I only used a pinch of salt, (Im not a salt fan) and sprinkle a little pepper.
• Next heat up your skillet on medium. Pour as much olive oil as you think you may need. Wait until the oil is hot then pour all of your ingredients into the skillet. After about 5 minutes or so stir the ingredients the put the cover over the food. (This was you make sure the pork chop is completely cooked and the vegetables don’t burn.)
• Occasionally stir the food. After about 15 or 10 minutes it should all be ready.
• While you’re waiting for the food to finish lets put on the rice. If you don’t know how to cook rice, don’t worry I’ll teach you :). (I don’t have a rice cooker..well I do but I don’t use it.)
• Pour as much rice as you want but not a lot to the point where its too much or reaches the pots rim. If you want a lot then pour it to the middle of the pot. Then pour some cold water with the rice. At this time it doesn’t matter how much water you are pouring because the rice needs to be cleaned. Stir the rice up with your hand or a spoon then pour out as much water as you can without the rice falling out. Repeat this until the water is clear or you feel sure it is clean enough. Then pour enough water to where it is about a inch over the rice. Heat the stove on high and put the rice on.  MAKE SURE TO KEEP AN EYE ON THE RICE. When the rice water comes to a boil turn the heat down to its lowest and put the cover over the rice. In about 10 or 15 minutes the rice should be done.
• If the food still isn’t ready then clean all those dirty dishes you made while you’re waiting. Wash your hands, get your plating ready and check the food.
• If the food still isn’t ready then get out your mango. Make sure to rinse it off. Then begin to peel or cut your mango up. (I cut mine). Put as much mango as you want on your plate.
• Afterward grab a handful of baby spinach, make sure that you rinse it off. Put on the plate.
• After the food is done put as much rise as you want on your plate. Then add the pepper, onion and pork chop mix at the top and wah la! You have a simple meal for lunch breakfast or dinner…or all day! Theres about 4 or 5 servings worth for this dish.

-Jazzie

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Midnight Natural Hair Male EyeCandy: Lloyd Polite

Even though Lloyd cut off his hair, he is mainly known for his long natural that he had when his singing career took off. He wore them in braids to ponytails or a full blow out even had a straightened for one of his music videos. Either way as a start off to my new midnight Eyecandy Lloyd will be my first introduction. Not only do I love his music but it doesn’t hurt that he’s sexy & has natural hair.

-Jazzie

Hair Journey Update: Damage From Dye & The Past..Recap

Well its been a long time since I have updated about my hair journey and hair growth goodness I dont know where to start or where I left off so I will just start by telling what I remember and whats going on right now.

Over the months of this year I dyed my hair 3 times. The final time in May, I finally got the results I was looking for which were red. For the month on June I basically went without my Texturemenatural products so I really was not on top of moisturizing my hair like that.

Fast forward to July I finally received my texturemenatural products and began to moisturize my hair. I then noticed that the roots of my hair were healthy but the tips would not take in any moisturizer and my hair was shedding like crazy. I mean I lost A LOT of hair! I was getting ready to take photos of my hair at the time to update my blog so I began detangling it with my wide tooth comb. Let me tell you, I have NEVER had such a hard time detangling my hair in my entire LIFE and it wasn’t even as long as it originally was. Hair was falling EVERYWHERE after detangling all of my hair it was STILL TANLGLED!! So I braided it down and washed my hair with acv (Apple Cider Vinegar). (I got some of the apple cider vinegar on my face and I broke out like a motherf*cker the very next day.) After I finished with the acv I put some  leave in conditioner in my hair and the conditioner wouldn’t take to my hair either. It took to the roots but not the ends. Here is a photo of how my hair was looking.

So I went to the internet I did a little research and asked some questions. I did a little something with some tea to revive it but it did not work. At first I thought all I needed was some dusting of my ends because I hadn’t cut my hair in a looong time. But then as I began to cut my hair in sections I realized that I had dyed my hair so much that the ends had been damaged badly. The only reason I knew this because my ends were like that throughout my hair. If it were something else all of my ends would have been split or shedding so much. So after cutting my hair I began to de-tangle it again, it was simple as pie!

Unfortunately I do not have any photos of how my hair looks after the trimming but I definitely took a huge step back growth wise. I had to cut of about HALF of my hair. I went from shoulder length to mid neck length hair. Now I know that I am completely done with dying my hair. Plus the only reason I wanted to dye my hair was so that I could see how much my hair is growing and I got that. So there is no need for dying the rest of my hair. Besides by the time my hair reaches a certain length I’m pretty sure the hair that I had dyed will be gone due to me trimming my ends. So I’m not worried at all.

Right now I braiding my hair in big box braids, about 35 braids using kanekalon hair. Oh and ALSO as I was braiding my hair and sectioning it I found something out! I have more than one texture in my hair. That’s answers my question I kept to myself “Why does my hair in the middle of my head take to moisture more?” And the reason why is because its a different texture. I’m not sure what texture it is but the curls are a lot bigger than 4c. The photo I have of them really doesn’t show how curly it is…maybe when my hair grows a little longer I can show it more.

But overall I am very happy with my hair journey. Since this is just a hair journey update I wont tell about anything else I would include how I’m feeling and where my mind set is right now in another post probably for tomorrow morning.

Below are photos of ALL of my progress since November 2012. From my day after my big chop of struggling with high porosity hair to seeing growth to finding the perfect regimen for my hair and lessons learned. I can’t wait until Novermber 2013 so I can compare photos and see my growth. Even though I had to cut my hair I know its A LOT longer than what it was when I started.

-Jazzie

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http://tinyurl.com/journeytolong

Body Inspiration!

New Beginnings: Hair, Life, Body & Mind

This year including from August 2012 has truly felt like a FIGHT for me. I’ve had to deal with people completely flipping the script on me just because they’re in a higher position than myself. At work, school, family members and home. On top of that I had to deal with my inner conflicts, people from the past that are toxic  popping up, trying to make friends happy while making myself happy, money issues, my online business, losing sleep, my health (weight and consuming foods) and my hair journey.

For the rest of the year I really want to spend my time on myself and discovering more about me and nurturing myself. I want to educate myself: spiritually, things about my hair, body & mindset….I just want to learn about things that are healthy for my lifestyle. I want to be healthy inside and out.

This is something that has been in the making for a looong time. Being tied up in school, stress and inner conflicts has not allowed me to truly dedicate myself to this. I’ve been planning for this very moment and even though my finances are not up to part I still WILL be going through with it. I’ve never been one to worry about money so I wont start now, God will make a way.

I really feel as though this is something I need for myself. A new start. I have to do better for myself…everything starts with me first before I can start trying to truly apply myself somewhere else.

My school work, the way my room looks and the dreams I have at night ALWAYS have reflected how I feel within. If my room is messy then that means I’m probably stressed. If I have a dream about tornadoes or the world ending or me dying, that means I’m going through changes/transitions within and I probably associate those changes with negativity at the time. If I do horrible in my school work that means I am neglecting it because I would rather apply myself somewhere else beneficial to me.

So the question is…where do I begin?

My answer to myself,”Look around, what needs to change?” Well my room of course. So I’ll start with that.

-Jazzie

Healthy Recipe: Cucumber, Watermelon & More

So heres a little recipe. I’ll be posting more recipes according to what I buy weekly. I am trying to eat healthy more so when I go shopping I buy what I like then when I get home I just look up recipes I can try to match the food I bought and if that fails I can just eat the food by its self :D. Its better than following a list of items and then going shopping to find something that matches and it saves me money because I know what I like.

Avocado, Watermelon, & Cucumber Salad

2 avocados, pitted and sliced or cubed

1 seedless watermelon, cut into 1 inch cubes

2 cucumbers, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/3 cup freshly chopped cilantro

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

In a large bowl add avocado and drizzle with lime juice and olive oil and gently stir to coat. In a separate large bowl, toss watermelon and cucumber together. Add the avocado mixture on top of the watermelon and cucumbers. Sprinkle with cilantro and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Credit to: http://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/2012/04/avocado-watermelon-cucumber-salad/

-Jazzie

I Lost 10 LBS, Yay!

But it took 5 months. LOL. So I got on my sisters new scale; mind you I was going by the weight I weighed whenever I visited the doctors office but I don’t have any appointments scheduled currently. I decided to hop on my sister’s scale, something I never do and when I weighed myself it said 220.2 LBS. I said to myself,”It has got to be wrong I haven’t weighed that much naturally since High School”. I hadn’t been dieting at all or exercising so I thought it was very odd. So I weighed myself about 8 more times to see if it would change and it didn’t. So I waited for my sis to weigh herself, since she always announces how her weight. She had just came from the doctors so I knew if her weight from the scale matched what the doctors told her, her weight was then mine was accurate. So she weighed herself, announced how much she weighed and it matched! So I’m proud to announce that I am 220LBS, woot!

That was some great motivation not to mention that same day I just happened to catch on tv abc the show called,”Extreme Weight Loss” with this woman named Meredith Prince and she just so happens to live in my area! My area is hardly EVER on national tv so I said to myself,”If that isn’t God speaking to me then I don’t know what is.” After watching her motivational weight loss and seeing her lose weight in a year. She went from 314 to 155lbs in one year. What an accomplishment! Anyway Im going to take that motivation and USE IT.

I read a long time ago that the hardest part of working out is the first 3 days. Well Im past the 3 days and on my 4th day! Now the challenge is the next quote I read sometimes ago,”It takes 8 weeks for you to notice the difference in your body. 12 weeks for the world to notice.” So I have to give myself 2 months before I really start to notice a difference. I wont say what my plans are or anything but I definitely will be working out more and Im going to keep trying. I want to get down to my desired size 120LBS.

BUT the important thing to remember for me is that I am beautiful no matter what size I am. I am just making an adjustment to my life for the sake of my health and financially (when it comes to clothes, doctors visits). So in the long run if I keep it up I will be in good shape.

-Jazzie