Update. Medical School, Weight loss and Hair

I wanted to drop an update about life and other things going on.

I'm finished with my Masters Program, YAY! 

I'm re-applying to medical this cycle, Boo...

I planned on taking the MCAT this September, but due to time constraints I have to push it back to January 2013. Since I paid for a Kaplan course, I'll be starting that up again pretty soon to prepare. That's gives me a butt-load of time to prepare and room to fall behind a-little.

I got a job as a Tech in a local Operating Room and lost 15 pounds so far since starting that position, YAY! Thank goodness,  this past year was full of taking medical school courses that required being in class for 2-6 hours and studying for at least 6 hours additionally, everyday. That's ALOT of sitting. Before that I spent about 4 months prepping for the MCAT in 2011. So in total I gained 25-35 lbs in the past 18 months. :( From this experience I learned that I cannot push exercise off because of studying, I need to stay active and watch what I eat especially when I get accepted in to med school next year (crosses fingers) 2 years of non-stop studying. I want to plan my food and exercise. Hopefully I can lose this last 20 lbs of extra weight and get to my starting weight at least and lose more from there.   I have Jillian Michael's Body Revolution that I want to restart very soon. I love that with Jillian's routines I build muscle pretty fast.

Apparently there's a rumor out there that 4b/c naturals cannot grow long hair unless it's heat trained. I have a good mix of 4a/b/c (mostly b/c). I know it's NOT true because I can think of 2-3 naturals with 4bc hair that have long hair.

I figured out more things about my hair that help me ALOT in retaining length and moisture. 

1) My hair is VERY porous aka high porosity. (my hair soaks up and loses water very fast)

2) Quite a few products that I tried and tossed aside have other uses my hair likes.

To address my porosity issue, I've been using the Roux porosity control conditioner after every wash/condition it helps.  I wash/rinse and condition my hair  in twisted sections rubber-banded at the end. It helps alot with my hair staying untangled during wash sessions.

I can use hair milks. I've tried Carol's daughter hair milk and pudding, Shea Moisture's Curl smoothie, Karen's body beautiful hair milk and nectar and none of these worked so I assumed hair milk wasn't for me at all. For moisture, I found that for me it seems to be better to let my hair get damp or dry completely then apply a moisturizer. I realized one day when my hair was extra dry, I could just apply certain hair milks and it added moisture back to my hair. There are only two hair milks that really work for my hair Oyin's hair dew and Pura Body Naturals Murumuru hair milk.

I was really surprised to figure out that yes even though I have thick, tightly curled, non-silky, dry hair my hair reallly likes the lighter hair moisturizers. Oyin's Hair dew and PBN's Murumuru milk are light moisturizers that really soak into my hair and make it feel more pliable. The heavier milks don't work for me at all like PBN's Sapote Hair Milk or KBB hair nectar, what does work for me is sealing with shea/evoo/coconut the absolute best sealer is Oyin's sugar pomades! I set them aside thinking they were just finishing pomades. 

Oh was I wrong, those sugar pomades are the best for holding moisture in after a moisture and seal session. My hair felt so moisturized and soft for the first time, ever. I found my staple products hiding out in my closet. I've honestly been telling everyone I possibly can for the past week about it..lol.

With all this info I've found about my hair it really helps me with the new products I try. For example, in this months curlbox I got two full sized moisture products the Carol's Daughter Hair Milk Pudding and Cantu coconut curling cream. CD did nothing for my wet/damp hair , I still have to try it on dry hair. Cantu CCC worked better for me on wet/damp hair. If these products don't work better then my staples then I'll be swapping them.

Staples:

DIY water/glycerin mix

DIY hair butter (with shea, tacuma, coconut oil, argan, beeswax, evoo and castor) *

* I may leave the castor oil out since the oyin products have alot of castor

Oyin hair Juices ( I use sparingly 3 bottles last me over one year)

Sta-Sof-Fro Spray

PuraBody Naturals Murumuru Hair Milk/ Oyin Hair Dew

Oyin Sugar Pomades (sealant)

Review: Shea Moisture Deep Treatment Masque & Moisture Retention Shampoo

                                          

I scored this Shea Moisture Mini-Repair and Transition kit from Target for $5! I've just heard about Shea Moisture products  this past week and I thought I would give them a try sometime soon. Then I saw these marked down at Target so I bought some. There are 2 kits from Shea Moisture under the same name that has 4 products. In this kit there were only two products: Shea Moisture Deep Treatment Masque and Moisture Retention Shampoo. Im surprised to say that these are the best and WORST products I've ever tried for my natural hair, ever.

Moisture Retention Shampoo
This shampoo is amazing. Its the only shampoo I've ever tried that lathers like crazy, smells great and leave my hair clean and moisturized.  If your hair is moisturized  pre-shampoo and not excessively dry this shampoo will not strip it. Also, this shampoo has NO SULFATES! I was pretty shocked to see that because of the lather. I don't particularly avoid sulfates, but I've tried some no-sulfate shampoos before and the lather was no where near this lather.

I will mention that my hair going into the shampoo moisturized and was coated with a bit product from yesterday. I really think this makes a difference. I don't know how my hair would have behaved if it was crunchy dry mess of about a month ago.

Final Thoughts: I know I throw around the word amazing alot. But this shampoo is the best, best, BEST!
I will be repurchasing it when I run out and it will probably be my staple shampoo.
My hair type: 3c/4a  a lot of shrinkage, very small and tight coils
Price:  12oz for 9.99 at Target and Walgreens (also found online)
My score: 5/5

Shea Moisture Deep Treatment Masque
The ingredient list for this conditioner is star-studded. Almost any ingredient a natural could want in a conditioner:  deionized water, butyrospermum parkii (shea butter), argan oil, cetyl esters, sea kelp extract, panthenol (vitamin b-5), ammonium salt, essential oil blend, avocado oil, lonicera caprifolium (honeysuckle) flower and lonicera japonica (japanese honeysuckle) flower extract, tocopherol (vitamin e), hyssopus officinalis extract, salvia officinalis (sage) leaf and equisetum arvense extract, soybean oil, daucus carota sativa (carrot) seed oil.

I just KNEW after that great shampoo, this was gonna be the bees knees.... Nope. Not one bit.
I started to liberally apply the masque to my hair and I felt that this was not going to work because of the texture of the conditioner and  then way it felt on my hair after 5 minutes. I felt like I put way too much leave-in product in my hair,  I rinsed it out and my hair felt drier then when I put the conditioner in. I'm pretty disappointed right now, I had to go to my usual moisture conditioner and recover the moisture that this masque stole.

I looked around at others reviews and it seems like this product gets good marks from others with non-curly/kinky hair and a few loosely coiled people. Most people with my hair texture seem to end up using this as a leave-in or as a sealant.


Final Thoughts: I will be not be repurchasing this, the worst thing I've ever put in my hair and I've put  some strange things in this hair.
My hair type: 3c/4a  a lot of shrinkage, very small and tight coils
Price:  12oz for 9.99 at Target and Walgreens (also found online)
My score: 0/5

Weekly Weigh-in

I stepped on the scale and lost zero pounds this week. Ugh! Not even .1 lb. LOL! I'm glad I didn't gain anything though. I kept up with my weight training plan except I didn't do my lower body on Friday or over the weekend. That's really weird for me because I love doing squats and squat variations, I don't know why..I just do. :) It gives me something to look forward to after I finish unpleasant ab work days. I hate hate ab work, it just sucks for me. I've been thinking that I probably should really do Jillian Michaels 30 day shed when I feel like cardio. The only issue that I would have is that it would kind of work the same muscles I weight train. Eh, I'll see. I like JM because those 30 day shred workouts are 20 minutes! I feel like a wet noodle afterwards, but I do it over and over again because I get intense cardio in in a short amount of time.

Update!

I underestimated the simpleness of keeping both of my blogs under the same profile so I'm going to table my other URL until I have the time to move both blogs over.  I'll continue to post here and get the template here, too.

Update: Done!

Fitness Plans.

Since late December 2011 I've been trying watch what I eat. Specifically the amount of salt I'm taking in, the amount of protein and fiber. I haven't really been paying too much attention to the fats, carbs or sugars which I really need to do. I might just start tracking again, its tedious but I have a better idea of what I've eaten.

Instead of me starting out with cardio, I'm going to start off with strength training so I have stronger muscles going in when I start cardio up again in about 2 weeks. I think my whole downfall of last year was that due to inactivity,  I lost most of my muscle mass. I lost my job, which wasn't extremely physical but I was constantly moving and lifting things when I was at work. Before last year I would lift weights at least 2X a week, that doesn't sounds like alot, but I can definitely tell the difference.

So my plan is to find some great exercises and lift MWF and do any cardio that I want, if I want.

I have a great set of exercises from the February 2008 issue of Oxygen Magazine Buy this issue here! that I love to use for getting back into strength training.  The series is called build your dream body. These exercises are killer and not complex. I'm going to be using the Upper Body push/pull and Lower Body from this series. I hate crunches but that's what I'll be doing until I find more alternate ab exercises.

I wish there was a really good exercise database where I can look it up really quick, instead of having to search through each of my favorite fitness blogs. Its takes time and usually I get distracted by something else right in the middle of my search.

Perform two sets of 12-15 each set.

Monday: Upper body Push 
Dumbbell bench press
Dumbbell Flye
Seated dumbbell press
Seated dumbbell lateral raise
Dumbbell extension
Dumbbell kickback


Wednesday: Upper Body Pull and Core 
Pull:
Pulldown
dumbbell pullover
barbell row
barbell curl
incline dumbbell curl


Core (my own thing)

1. Alternating Arms Supermans
2. Crunches
3. Need an oblique exercise
(They suggested 1. bicycle crunches and bench V-up)



Friday: Lower Body
Squat
Lunge
Stiff legged deadlift
Unilateral calf raise