Hair Journey: February Goals

When I wrote this it was actually called "January Goals" but seeing as it's the end of the month I might as well make it February Goals! Lol. My biggest hair goal right now is to safely and effectively stretch my texturisers. First I must say, please forgive me if I mix up the terms relaxing and texturising. I always mean texturising if the post is about my hair right now. If it’s a story from the past I mean relaxing, lol. I’d try and be more careful about my choice of words. After reading countless hair blogs and forums I think I’ve theoretically learned a thing or two about my hair. One of these has been the benefits of stretching the time in between relaxers/texturisers. Although I didn’t know it was called stretching then, I usually stretch my texturisers for 3 months; this is because my hair is actually quite soft.

Side note: I remember when I was younger, hairdressers used to love to wash my hair and comment on how soft and babylike it was but at the same time resented having to cornrow it because they could never hold on tight enough without me screaming. I used to hate having my hair cornrowed! ‘Iya Segun’ would put me on a small stool and place my head between her knees and pin me there to keep me still. **sniff sniff**

But now that I’m all grown up there’s no more ‘Iya Segun’ to pin me down, thank goodness. Anyways, so I usually stretch my texturiser for 3 months, this time for the first time I’ve decided that I want to extend the length of my stretch. My hair is currently 14 weeks post with my last texturiser being on the 21^st of October 2012. I wish I could show you pictures of my new growth and maybe even the three textures but my hair is currently in braids (How else did you think I’d stretch?!! Haha!), I decided to use braids as my protective style (since 12 weeks post) and I plan on stretching for 5 months (20 weeks) so that would be till the 10^th of March 2013. I’m not sure how this is going to go, as I’d have never had so much new growth to deal with all my life! Disclaimer: If after I take out my braids (in approximately 4 weeks) my stretch is doing more harm than good to my hair, I would definitely texturise! But for now I’m excited! The biggest challenge for me right now is to still keep my hair moisturised while in the braids and not neglecting it like I usually would. Because I’ve been working out a lot (Check out my post on Insanity here) I’ve felt like I need to wash my braids more often than the 2 weeks or so. (I’d be honest, before this install I has NEVER washed my braids before!) But the build up of sweat can’t be doing any wonders for growth and health! I’d do a post soon on how I moisturise my braids and also how I washed them.

For now, you can enjoy some pictures of the different styles I’ve tried! I can't wait to get my hair out of these braids so I can see my new growth.

Ta ta for now.

Reni x

Insanityyyyyyy!: Dig Deeper!

I decided to work out more! Haha, I'm sure most of us did at the beginning of the year! You see the thing is, for the longest time I used to think I wanted to lose weight but I was never committed enough to any form of diet to really see any results! In fact, I had negative results! The worst! I blame that on the stresses and pressure that a final year student endures. Anyways, so I realised I don’t want to lose weight! Well, only a little bit! But not in the typical sense of the saying, I no longer have the desire to be super skinny, what I DO want is to have one of those super curvaceous but ridiculously toned bodies. So bye bye Kelly Row and hello Kaylin Garcia!

I still love her body!

Kaylin Garcia aka Young Ratchet!

I mean seriously, does this girl have an ounce of fat on her body?? My goodness!  Her body is the truth! Lmao.

I always complain to my bf about how I go to the gym tirelessly and never see results so over Christmas when he told me he has a new 2 month workout plan for me that would change my life (He knows how to get me gingered! lol) I was excited! On the 10^th of January I found out the workout plan was INSANITY! Eeeeek, lol! I should have said no then and there but no, I saw it as a challenge and decided to go for it! Starting that very day!

For those of you who don’t know “Insanity” is a series of workout DVD’s by fitness trainer and expert, Shaun T. And might I say that it is titled quite aptly! I’m halfway through my third week now and it’s ridiculous! But I love it! I can feel myself getting fitter no joke! A little bit about Insanity, it’s a 6 day a week program, 45 minutes or so everyday. Each workout has a warm up and two stretches (1 in the beginning and 1 to cool down) and the rest of the time is spent doing max interval training, basically 3 minutes or so of high intensity work out then 30 seconds to rest and grab water. I’m to shy to put up my height and weight here! Maybe when I do my official weigh in at the end of month 1 I’d do a before and after type thing!

My only qualm, which probably only relates to me is that I’m a bit bored. There are 14 videos in total, but after almost 3 weeks I’ve only covered 6 or so, that’s a lot of repetition! Not like they are getting so much easier or anything but hey… I feel like a change! My favourite thing about it is the Fit Test, which you have to do at the beginning of the plan and then at approximately 2-week intervals. You do a set of exercises for a minute each and try and do as many as you can in that minute. It’s such good motivation because you always want to push and beat your last Fit Test score, that’s what keeps me going every day! I’ve decided to keep pushing through and as Shaun T would say “Dig deeper!”

These are the results from my first two Fit Tests:

Move	Fit Test 1	Fit Test 2
1. Switch Kicks	52	94
2. Power Jacks	31	38
3. Power Knees	45	78
4. Power Jumps	7	17
5. Globe Jumps	5	6
6. Suicide Jumps	9	9
7. Push-Up Jacks	8	14
8. Low Plank Oblique	29	24

Improvement right?!?! I was so chuffed! Also I might add, I can’t do push up jacks! LOL. I just do lady push-ups instead; I’m working my way up. Well that’s it for now! Let me know if I missed out anything or if you want any more details! Also I’m looking for a workout buddy! Comment if you’re interested!

Journey to Healthy Hair!

Hey guys!

This is a repost from my other blog, I feel like it's a bit too personal to be there! No idea why though, anyways... Enjoy!

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to take better care of my hair. Yes, I jumped on the healthy hair journey (HHJ) bandwagon, to be honest I started my journey this time last year but I can’t say I really stuck with it for long enough. I DID start to incorporate little things like moisturising and sealing as well as using less heat but that’s about all that stuck. Sometimes it’s just so much easier to throw all you know out the window and put your hair in a weave, not even so much as moisturising it for 6 weeks! But enough is enough! I think this decision came from the fact that my hair actually did grow! It also became much thicker and everyone who has known me all my life with my short, wispy hair was pretty impressed! My mum especially! I think she might be joining me on this journey, whoop whoop.

So here are a few facts about my hair:

I believe I’m a type 4b, but really and truly, I’m not sure. I just know I have ‘regular’ afro kinky hair.

I don’t relax my hair anymore, only texturise. BUT as a result my hair currently has three textures; relaxed ends (which I’m chopping off inch by inch), texturised in the middle, and then fully natural new growth. It’s a mess really!

I’ve done a big chop (B.C) before; it was after an AWFUL relaxer experience at the salon. More details on that later, trust me; the experience is worthy of a whole post to itself.

Hmmm, what else can I add... Oh yeah! Pictures of my hair since I started my journey:

 December 2011:

December 2011

December 2012:

December 2012

Although there was growth, I went from neck to almost shoulder length, the ends of my hair are in pretty bad shape. Truthfully I know exactly what happened, this picture is the reason why I will never again take out a weave, texturise my hair then install a new weave in the space of three days again! I’ve had some bad experiences with chemicals in my hair, one would think I’d just go natural, but I can’t. Not yet. I’m not giving up on my texturised hair yet! So anyways I had to go to the salon and get a cut/trim to tidy up my ends a little bit. Looking at the picture below I wonder if i should have let the hairdresser take off a bit more maybe? I'd decide on my next texturiser.

So January 2013, we are resuming the hair journey, this time actively taking care of my hair! And my main goal is thickness!

January 2013

Who else is on a journey for healthier, longer, thicker hair? Join me! Join me! Join me! Hehe.

P.S: I apologise for the poor quality of some of the pictures, they were not taken with the intention of being part of a hair journey portfolio!

Reni x

Welcome, Welcome!

Oh my goodness! Have you ever tried to think of a blog name? It’s the most difficult thing to do in the whole world! You want to find a name that is personal, yet witty, maybe slightly funny and most of all memorable. Your regular name just wouldn’t do obviously… It has to be quirky, and fun and different! I went through sooo many possible names in varying degrees of awfulness! First the typical ones like “Diary of….” “Musings of…” “Ramblings of…” I even tried to put a French spin on things even though I have no love for the language (blame it on years of cramming tenses into my brain just to get through school) “Vie de Moi” “Le Vie est Belle” etc etc. I could tell my friends were getting tired of me throwing random suggestions in the air so I decided to think inwardly and try and come up with something myself.

Before I fell asleep last night “Awkward Orchid” came to my mind. I liked the way it rhymed, and the orchid is my favourite flower, the white ones to be precise. There’s just something so graceful and elegant about them and they are also pretty unique as far as flowers go. I want to be like the orchid; beautiful, elegant and hard to kill (in spirit) lol. Sadly, as I woke up today and tried to register the name, I found it was taken already… the most painful part of this is that the owner has had it since 2006 but has never put up a single post. **sigh** I even had my first picture ready and everything!

My very first white orchid! ^_^

So here we are, “Lilac Tinted Views” mainly because I used to have purple tinted glasses. But I’d say it’s really because I like to stay optimistic and see the world in pink and purple! Hehe. Welcome to my blog :)

Reni x

P.S: I still also write at Through Hell and High Waters. Just trying to keep things separate! Find me here 

I Told You She’s A Heeeeeeeaux

My first exam is in a few days time but I’m bored! Like soooooo bored! I know that there’s always more that I can be doing to make sure I get that distinction but I mean… I’m BORED!! So as is usual, when I get bored; I pick up my phone and talk to random people for a bit while trying to re-motivate myself to study!

As the inspiration from these posts usually comes, I was having an interesting discussion with my friend about hoes. Well it probably had something to do with someone we had seen doing something that was less than savoury but I shan’t dish that juicy secret! Hehe, I kid. The basis of the story is this, there was once a girl who liked a guy, the guy didn’t like her enough to make it serious, they eventually break off their “thing” that they were having and the girl is sort f heartbroken. You know the usual “F**k guys, I hate them, they are always after one thing, I don’t want anything serious anymore, if he could do it why can’t I?” Heard that before? Yeah, so have we all. Just that this one particular girl actually did it! Well she tried to anyways. She started off with just making out with random guys on a drunken night out and escalated all the way to banging her ex’s friends. Obviously, when you sleep with all the guys in a circle of friends I mean.. Youse a hoe! And even if you aren’t, you’re going to be called one! Nobody cares if the nigga broke your heart!

The problem with this definition of a whore is that there are people (females) who like to sleep around just as much as the average guy, she has perfect no-strings-attached sex and she loves it. If she sleeps with all the guys in the circle it’s not about revenge, it’s because she wants to. I mean does this make her a hoe? I’m not feminist or anything, but if men can sleep with however many people they want then why can’t women? Also is a hoe defined by the number of men she’s been with? Because I can think of a couple of virgin hoes! Those ones are wasting their time saving themselves for marriage. The Bible/Quran or whatever other Holy Book you read might say no to premarital sex but best believe it also says a resounding NO to fornication! So just because you do “everything but” doesn’t make you some sort of saint, better knack if you want to knack. Hiss. Anyways back to the conversation, we somehow came to the conclusion that most heauxs have one or more of these issues.

1.     Daddy Issues

This girl had her daddy leave her, probably at a tender age and has been trying to “prove her worth” to men by sleeping with them. She could also have been molested as a child by someone she trusted, for some reason while I was writing this all I could think of was Meek Mill in his song “Love Don’t Live Here saying  “Shorty sixteen f**king everything moving, got raped by her step daddy [he] told her “Just do it”” Deep. My mood just plummeted, I’d type the rest in a minute. Okay I’m back, everyone take a deep breath, inhaaaaale, exhaaaaale. Say a silent prayer for all the young people struggling to stay alive.

2.     Insecurity Issues

She thinks she’s fat/ugly/weird etc. this girls’ self esteem is pretty low and the more people she sleeps with the lower it gets. During the act of physical pleasure there is a moment or two where she feels whole and beautiful but this is usually as short lived as her partners pleasure.

3.     Heartbreak

This last one has sort of been mentioned before, basically the girl that had her heart broken and is a hoe for revenge purposes. She could also be the girl that’s trying to get over the guy by “getting under someone else”

But still, apart from all these different motivations for being a hoe/whore/harlot/Jezebel whatever you like to call them, I still need to figure out what sets them apart from the other girls? I think it has to do with the mindset of the girl, but I can’t figure out exactly what goes on in the minds of these people. I need help!! What do you think is in the mindset of a heaux?

Exam Season: Distraction and Procrastination!

Wow, I cant believe it's pretty much two weeks into the new year and I haven't posted a thing! This is what happens after you have a rocking Christmas break and put exams on the back burner! I've been trying to go hard at the books because my goal is still to finish this masters degree with a distinction! (70% average) but today and yesterday haven't been the best days! I mean I hate exam season. I know we all do, but I really really hate it! Hours and hours spent reading material and learning things only for them to not come up in the exam! I know people say “No knowledge lost” but what about the time spent?  O ti so nu ni now! (It’s lost now!) It’s so unfortunate that I actually want to be an engineer, I would have dropped out of school and become a stripper, sadly I don’t have the upper body strength for their profession. So here I am, typing away while I really should be studying, who does that? Oh all of you you say? LIARS! You guys are busy hitting the books hard and I’m here, allowing the spirit of procrastination to take over my life, Lord be with me! I need to become more serious about my schoolwork, how else am I meant to get that distinction? **sigh** but seriously though, can school somehow be made more interesting? I mean there are so many other things I’d rather be doing, e.g. reading blogs, updating my blog, listening to gossip, Facebook stalking people, Instagram stalking people, twitter stalking even more people (yes, I know a lot of stalkable people), sleep, stare. I don’t know, anything but studying! Luckily for me after an average of 5-7 hours all these things lose their charm and I think, heck, might as well study… After I have dinner.

When I eventually get down to studying after eliminating the demon of procrastination, a second gargoyle rears it ugly head; distraction! I’ve finally opened up the books, I’ve even read the first few pages then all of a sudden, I read something and my mind wonders down a completely different train of thought, so I pick up the phone and text my best friend the funny thing that just popped into my mind, this leads to an hour long conversation about nothing in particular with me saying “I really should be working” every 10 minutes or so. Ha! It’s ridiculous really! But I feel better because the books are at least open, that’s step one complete. After chatting to my friend and updating her on everything she’s missed over the last hour I finally resume studying. Just that I’ve forgotten what I just read, so back to the beginning I go. Surely you guys can see how this is a vicious cycle? I mean, I get to the line that made my mind wonder the first time and my mind wonders again! Sometimes even down a completely different path, which means I have to relate this NEW information to the bestie! **sigh**

Luckily I’ve found a means of combating this cycle, I have to say it actually works! Well except today where I’m just really allowing the laziness to take over! But it works on a regular day :) Here’s what I try todo:

1.     Eat

The number of times I get up to “find a snack” while I’m trying to study is insane! So I just cut the crap and eat something! Hey! Listen! This is not the time to chow down some pounded yam or other carb heavy food that just makes you sleepy oh! Something small and relatively filling should do the trick. It also helps if you plan your snacks and put them on the table so you don’t have to get up eventually, as long as you don’t gobble them all at once like I would, hehe.

2.     Plan your study time.

I recently started this thing after a suggestion from a friend and I’ve found that it really combats the distraction. I get my watch out and place it somewhere visible, then I study in on-off fashion. So basically, I study for 60 minutes straight, then take a break for 15-20 minutes. Study again for another hour, break for another 15 minutes. Obviously this method needs some tweaking depending on what you’re studying, sometimes it’s possible to do 90 minutes straight then 15 minute break, the key for me is to not take too long a break, the whole distraction thing just comes back if I decide to spend 30 minutes on Facebook/Instagram and I lose the flow! 15 minutes is just enough time to pee, reply messages, quickly check Facebook and breathe. Sometimes in the break if the flow is going to good to be broken, I review the work I’ve just done to actually help me remember stuff. I’m working on maybe taking shorter breaks? Maybe.

3.     Don’t Get Overwhelmed.

Staring at the mountain of books waiting to be read is not helpful, if you’re anything like me all that does is put you in panic mode and then that makes you unproductive, then you get depressed about how unproductive you’re being and then depression sinks in and you feel like doing no work. If you’re lucky this only lasts hours but sometimes it can last days! I’ve found that making a timetable is really helpful but if I don’t meet the goals I’ve set for myself then I start panicking about falling behind and we all know what panic does… What I’ve been trying to do instead is set mini goals for myself from when I wake up or possibly the night before. This helps me break the work up into bite size pieces and the mini goals for the day are usually more realistic and achievable than the timetable I made two weeks ago! Being overwhelmed causes you to lose focus. Just think baby steps, little drops of water make the mighty sea.

Well, after churning out all this advice I believe it’s now time for me to take some of my own advice and get a moving! It’s time to resume studying and stop faffing. Right after lunch. **wink**

Good Luck Everybody!