Weekly Inspiration

For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
1 Corinthians 11:29

Chicago Hair

Day 4 Hair

Last week I had a much needed vacation and went home to visit family with my honey in tow. It was his first time to Chicago so he was excited to go. The mini vacay was prompted by my cousin’s college graduation. It’s amazing how time flies because it seem like yesterday when she was about 11 years old attending my college graduation **huge sigh here**.

For my hair, I decided to keep things simple with a twist out. On deck were my ecostyler gel, oil, and conditioning mix just in case I needed to redo my twists. The night before our flight I co-washed and twisted my hair. The next day I wore my twists all day and on the plane that night. This is the first time my extended family has seen my natural hair in person. Of course they have seen random pics since my big chop but they were going to see it in person. Honestly, I had some reservations on their reactions because everyone is still relaxed.

This is day 9 Hair

Well to my surprise I had a very great response. Another cousin and her sister are currently transitioning. Everyone absolutely loved my twist out, my hair in general. This made my heart melt and I felt naturally free 2b me!! As far as maintenance, I kept the process very simple and my twist out lasted a long time. Every night I retwisted my hair with oil only, untwisted the next day and fluffed. That’s it!

By day nine my hair was very dry and in much need of a co-wash. In order to get through this day I pulled the front back using my ouchless clip and added a flower on the side.

Chicago in the RAW

Recently, a friend and I started a personal RAW challenge for eight weeks. Well my Chicago trip fell within those eight weeks and I was a little concern. Sticking to the challenge was important to me and I needed to experience eating healthy while traveling. As you know, I swore off chicken, beef, turkey, and pork about eight months ago. To help stick to my challenge I told my aunt I was a vegan and she was very supportive, shocked, but supportive none the less. She stocked the refrigerator with spinach and fruit for my green smoothies. She also made me the biggest salads with loads of veggies which helped out a lot. Now I purposely left out the RAW food challenge and eating 80% raw a day to avoid additional questions.

The efforts I made to stick to my challenge started off not too bad. Before my flight I didn’t eat so we ate at the airport. There were plenty of fast food restaurants that were not RAW Vegan friendly. Yes, I could have bought salads but a plate of iceberg lettuce with little to no veggies did not sound appetizing. Instead I got the tortilla soup with all the fixings on the side enjoying only the brothy soup loaded with veggies. The soup was surprisingly very good.

The first morning in Chicago I started with a green smoothie. To my surprise my aunt has the Vitamix blender which is awesome. This blender is used by a lot of RAW Foodist for blending and it costs about $500. It made the smoothest smoothies I’ve had and it was so easy and simple to use. It should be with a hefty price tag. Later on that day while visiting the mall I stopped and bought another smoothie while my honey ate at taco bell. Later that night my aunt made me my own personal pan of salad loaded with veggies. 

For the rest of the trip as we bounced from family to family and I did consume some cooked food. Since it was my honey’s first time in Chicago I could not let him leave without trying some deep dish pizza. Needless to say, I gave in and one half of the pizza was veggie.

As a result I did gain four pounds during my trip but the bright side is I can always start over. Also, the only meat I ate was fish and only twice within the week we were there and loads of vegetables. The extra four pounds was not a big deal for me because I expected to gain more. Now that I know more about what works for me I’m sure those four pounds will fall off in no time.

Me, Cousin the Graduate, My honey

Ohhh wee he so tall. I love him!!

I hope all of you have a safe and wonderful holiday weekend!!