Long time, no post! I haven’t had a load of time for my hobby projects, so I’ve been slacking on the ‘Tube, and here. A bit better about getting back on track on YT, because that has a lot more eyeballs on it. Just sayin’.
But, today marks the close of week 1 of my latest health and fitness challenge, the #SeptemberSHRED. Here are the details on that, by the way:
You got your good news, you got your bad news. And, by “you,” I’m really talking about me, because none of this affects you at all!
The good news is, this morning marked workout 10 of the 18 workouts in the 4 week Fitness Is Function Bodyweight program that I’m doing. The bad news is, the workouts are still boring as fuck, because it’s the same goddamned moves every day, and worse still, now they’re longer. The average time went up from 35 minutes to 45, and there’s one on the horizon that’s over 50 minutes. Plus, weeks 3 and 4 have 5 workouts per week, instead of the 4 workouts in weeks 1 and 2. Ugh.
Worser. I’m going out of town on Saturday, for work, and I won’t be back until late next Wednesday. So, I have to shuffle around the workouts I’m going to miss, while I’m away, which cuts out my scheduled rest day this Friday. I’m making up one of the workouts I’ll miss before I leave, and the other one I’m making up after I get back. Double ugh. Continue reading
This is where I’m hoping my hair will be, by the end of this.
Today, January 15th, kicks off the next round of my #ProtectYaEnds (or PYE, for short), protective style challenge. This round will run a whopping 6 months– TWICE as long as the Autumn 2016 challenge. It begins today, and ends on Saturday, July 15th 2017.
RULES! Continue reading
I’ve been sitting on this post since sometime last spring. But, here we finally are. In a video that is currently uploading, as well as in the post below, I outline the top things that I did/do, and the things that I DIDN’T/DON’T do, to grow my kinky hair past 25 inches long. I’m not expert on hair, but I am an expert on my hair. I figure, since people buy weave in lengths that are equivalent to my real hair’s length, I’ve made significant progress in my growth quest.
A lot of the things I’m about to go through are going to be things you’ve heard before. Maybe even all of them will be things you’ve heard before. Or, some of them may be the exact opposite of what you’ve heard before. That’s kind of the problem with advice for growing out our ‘fros, or with the videos on YouTube about caring for afro-textured hair, in general. There will be people making points in complete opposition to one another, and it can be hard to figure out whose advice you should take. But, that actually brings me to my first point. Continue reading
And, we’re off! I wound up deciding to use day 1 as a day to do a quick juice detox. You know– a “hard restart,” but for my guts. I’m debating over doing a second day, since I do usually do 2-3 days. But, I’m heading back in to work tomorrow, and I’m far too busy feeling depressed that the holiday break is officially over to stack having to juice all day long on top of it.
I didn’t work out today, on account of the juicing, but I just finished planning/scheduling my workouts for the next 4 weeks. It may require some tweaking in the 3rd and 4th week, since it’s looking like I’ll be heading out of town, for work. I’ll worry about that later.
To keep things simple (I prefer workouts and programming where someone else just tells me what the fuck to do), I’m going to be trying out Mark de Grasse’s Fitness Is Function 4 week bodyweight program, which I downloaded about two years ago, and then NEVER DID IT. I also downloaded the kettlebell one, and NEVER DID THAT ONE EITHER.
I was probably just too busy doing other workouts, because I had been working out consistently at the time, and kept it up until the dog came around. So, I guess I shouldn’t feel too bad about letting these ones sit on the shelf my hard drive, collecting proverbial dust. Better late than never!
I’m also in the midst of making some turkey vegetable chili, at this very moment. It’s simmering on the stove, the aroma taunting me, whilst I sip on green juice. With this batch of chili, dinner is sorted for the whole week in one fell swoop, which is super dope.
Breakfasts will be eggs, as usual, since that’s all I ever seem to have time for (and, I often don’t even have time for that).
Lunches will be salads and other healthful choices from places near work. I’ve got plenty of options. It’s L.A. Ideally, I’ll be brown bagging my lunch, once I get more on top of meal prep.
The primary objective is just to get back on a schedule, with my meals. I think the only reason my poor diet hasn’t completely destroyed me is, I typically have only been able to have one or two meals, per day. I haven’t had breakfast in weeks. Yesterday, I worked all day on my 2016 hair favorites video, and didn’t eat until around 8pm at night.
I had a steak sandwich, in case you were wondering. Last hurrah, and all.
Oh, and since that mention of my last video segues so perfectly into a shameless plug, here it is:
Well, here it go. It’s January 1st. I’m sure a lot of us are taking this day to recover. I actually didn’t get turnt last night. Like, at all. I had every intention to go hard in the paint and have a classic, sloppy NYE.
But, it was really rainy and cold in LA (I’m not being a little SoCal bitch, either, it was actually decently cold– 44 degrees fahrenheit, when I checked at one point last night). My enthusiasm for partying waned as the day went on.
By night time, I decided it wasn’t worth slick roads and drunk drivers, and I realized I would be happiest at home in sweatpants, with my dog. I popped over to my friend Gavin’s place for a small get-together, while everyone else there was pre-gaming. And, I was back home by 11pm.
Anyway. Up Your Game 2017! I teased it in the video below on why people need to stop with the whole #FUCK2016 thing, and now it’s time to get started with our fitness and health challenge, to start the year off right.
Challenge begins Monday, January 2nd and ends on Sunday, March 26th. Yes, you read that right. We’re going for 12 weeks, y’all!
This has two benefits.
1.) 3 months is a long time. (Wait, is that a benefit???) It’s certainly long enough to make significant changes both in our habits, and in our bodies.
2.) It gives people who find out about the challenge later on to still join in, and feel like they have a good amount of time to get something out of it.
Last year’s challenge rules were very loose, in that I left it up to each of us to come up with our own rule(s) for the duration of the challenge. Mine was simply “28 in 28,” meaning 28 workouts in 28 days, which nearly killed me.
This time around, I’m setting up something a bit more specific that I think is doable for anyone, while still being scalable for your own activity level and diet.
But, as last year, the goal is to step things up from whatever you’re doing now, and UP YOUR GAME in your workouts and commitment to eating healthfully (whatever that means to you). Rules time!
And, thanks it! So, now the question is, who’s coming with me?
It was well over an hour before I was able to get back inside, and I was underdressed for a chilly night– chilly, even for L.A.– during the wait. Boring story made short, I was in no mood to do a second workout, by the time we were finally able to get back into my cozy apartment.
The following days were a series of false starts on making up that workout, but I finally did it! Like, literally just now! I started off the morning with a bodyweight circuit from MBody Pro, and then for the evening I did the quick Fat Burner workout from Lauren Brooks’ first Ultimate Body Sculpt DVD.
I leave for San Diego tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to not having any extra workouts to have to do, on the last two days of this challenge. It truly has been a bit of an albatross, throughout this year’s Fitmas. The hotel at which I will be staying does have a gym, so I’ve already worked out what one of my workouts will be, but I’ll still have to sort out the other.
I’m really pleased to be getting sweaty on a regular basis again, even though it’s fucking miserable, during the process. And, once I start eating right again after Christmas??? GIRRRRRRRRLLLLLLLL.
In the video above, I allude to a YouTube channel that I’ve discovered that has been a massive help in me wrapping my mind around the tedious, complicated process of counting macros. And, I finally feel like I’m equipped to take a crack at it, in the new year. I’m genuinely excited, which is weird, because it’s still going to suck dick. I think I’m just excited to finally be empowered to tackle this, and to see if this will yield the results that have proven to be so elusive for me, for the past 2 or 3 years decades.
Anyway, there’s a good chance I won’t have a chance to post again until after #12DaysOfFitmas is over, so just in case I’m right on that, happy Christmas! xx
And, we’re off! I’m pumped to have another fitness challenge kick off on my YT channel and here on the blog, with you guys. It’s going to be a bit trickier than I expected to work out my exercise schedule. Here’s why.
That’s my new roommate/best friend. It happened pretty fast, but to make a short story even shorter, she’s a rescue. Found in a bucket on the side of the road with the rest of her litter. She was the only black puppy in the bunch, and I fell in love with her immediately.
She was turned over to me from her Watts Project foster on Friday, which was sooner than I was expecting. I also didn’t truly expect to have a dog, quite at this point in my life. But, after our first two days together, I can easily say it’s the best decision I ever made.
Not entirely sure on the breed, on account of the whole bucket on the side of the road thing. My guess is that she’s got some Rottweiler, as well as some terrier in there, because she was not just the only black pup, but the only one with these long, wiry hairs randomly around her face and body. But she’s TINY. She’s 11 weeks, and only about 5 pounds. We suspect there may have been different dads for the litter.
The rescue had named her Raspberry, which is a pretty cute name. But, since she’s from the hood and all, I’ve been calling her RayRay. Funny enough, she actually responds to “Ray” or “RayRay” far better than “Raspberry,” so I guess I was onto something.
I’m lucky enough to work in a dog-friendly office (and my job even offers pet health insurance!), so we’ll be doing the 9 to 5 grind together. As far as working out goes, I’m going to experiment with crate training her, just for while I’m at the gym. I’ll also have the help of the boyfriend, to look after her.
I always felt badly about using crates/cages, like it was mean to the dog. But, I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos to help me learn how to train her (she’s doing so well already!), and crates really aren’t puppy prison. As long as you do it right.
So, hooray for hair and fitness challenges! But, I’ll be super distracted raising this little girl over the next few weeks, which will mean less frequent check-ins for the challenges, at least in the short term. Just keeping it real.
nappyheadedjojoba 