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)

Update Post!

No exercise since the Tuesday the week before last, when I injured something in my right groin area. Then I was getting headaches (which i think were from dehydration--drinking coffee and hardly any water)
There were a few days in between where I should have done something, but I just was not motivated. Towards the end of this week I came down when some sort of stomach bug..
I really need to take better care of myself and make sure I drink enough water. When I backtracked and thought about what I've been eating drinking for the past two weeks I know there are days where I only had one cup of water all day..from 8am to midnight or later.

Tomorrow I will be getting back into the swing of things.

Two weeks ago when I did 3-4 days straight of hour-long cardio, I noticed that at the 45 minute mark I would get a bit weak and lightheaded.

Normally I don't eat before I work out first thing in the morning so that I can use the stored energy in my body. I might have to now..In the past week I've read three opposing reports one article suggested eating a small snack (150-200 calories) before AM workouts is better then not eating.
Another article suggested eating any non-carb snack, so that you will still use up stored energy (glycogen --i believe) while doing cardio.
Then another one supported the no eating at all theory again..

But I need some more hour long workout DVDs because the WATP 2 mile walk is about 30 minutes and doing it back to back is making me sick of it FAST!

I've heard that her 3 mile walks are really good.


I definitely think that I need to eat preworkout, maybe some egg whites, I can't think of any other snack that has NO carbs in it..

On the eating side of things,
Early last week I had alot of sweets I was thinking it was getting near that time of the month I really hope so because I was craving really bad..I can't do another week of sweets eating like that.

In the medical school side of things..
I've been thinking that after my current Master's program I will enroll in ANOTHER one but this one will be a Master's in Medical Sciences..basically a program where half of my classes are with first year medical students (MS1) the other half of the classes vary.
Also I've really been considering applying to Caribbean Schools the next time I apply. In the past two weeks I found out that alot of people from my graduating class who ended up not getting into med school ended up applying to Caribbean school and are about to graduate and that alot of graduates from one school in particular feel that they were very happy with their school. So I will be adding this school to my arsenal.

MCAT study time: zero
Workout hours: zero
Eating score: 2-3

Quickie Update--down 15!

I've been extremely busy with the end of the semester things and in the crazyiness of everything this semester I've realized that I have way too much on my plate. I've been putting off taking the MCAT for almost two years and its time to stop. I need to buckle down drop down to part time work and do some other things to strenghen my medical school application and put my process on hold until next year. Me taking the MCAT June 17 is to early I've only have ~5 weeks to prepare and I'm starting from scratch any MCAT date later then that is to late for me to be applying.

In other news, I haven't worked out swam in about a week, but I haven't been eating horribly. I found out that I have gallstones and that greasy/fatty meals make you feel horrible, so I've been avoiding those like the plague. Since I'm finally done with this semester I'l have alot of free time. I lost one more pound, but I really think its due to the stress of the past two weeks. I just thought about it, being down one more pound takes me down to -15!! I can really feel a difference in the way my clothes fit..

I'll be back with a major weekend reads this upcoming weekend. I have barely checked on any of the blogs I normally do. I can't wait to catch up!!

Dr.Pedro Greer--an inspiration for physicans

I went to a conference in which Dr. Greer spoke at my university. He is an amazing person with amazing stories to tell. As an intern Dr. Greer was exposed to the homeless in Miami and since then he has setup free hospitals and free clinics for the homeless, migrant workers and undeserved in Miami and surrounding areas. He setup his first one as an intern 27 years ago. The conference was mainly for current and future physicians.  He implored the next generation of physicians to aspire to make the lives of everyone in society better in regards to accessibility and treatment for healthcare. Words cannot describe how inspirational he was, I was in tears at the end of his speech merely from the love, compassion, heart and soul his puts into his life and his practice of medicine for everyone!

He has a book published, I need to google him and find it because he didn't plug it, but he read alittle bit from it.

ETA: Found it!
His book is called Waking Up In America: How One Doctor Brings Hope To Those Who Need It Most and its available on amazon.com. I'm going to check and see if my local library has a copy.

Afterwards, I saw a friend that's a first year (MS1) at the local medical school that I haven't see in awhile, we had a great catch up talk and she is another person that just made me feel more confident about applying this time around.  Its great when people express support, advice and compliments when unprompted, it just makes it that much more special.


Look at that three posts in a day, who knows when THAT is gonna happen again.