Back on the Juice

I'm back on my juicing game!  I took a hiatus from juicing for a few reasons.  But I"m back to it.  Unfortunately the the veggie juices I tried to make the past couple of times had a terrible aftertaste that was so bad I couldn't stomach it and threw it out.  That kind of threw me off and killed my inspiration to juice.  But I'm back to it.  Today I started a new cycle of regular juicing with a great recipe that actually tasted pretty decent with very minimal aftertaste.  Try my recipe:

1/2 cucumber
1 small apple or 1/2 large apple
2 medium sized carrots
3 medium sized strawberries

I ditched the usual lemon and ginger addition and realized I really didn't need it.  Nice and simple.  It made one full cup and I down the entire thing in a few gulps and I feel better for it!

Oh, I also high-tailed my butt to the gym, something I hadn't done in about a week.  Shame on me!  My Elliptical machine is down and out so I had to use the dreaded treadmill but it really wasn't that bad.  I was happy to just get my heart rate up.

Natural Hair Inspiration

Hello Bellas!

I am excited to share some inspiration with you.  Actually I'm a little late in sharing this but better late than never right?  If you're into hair porn (read: inspirational photos of beautiful natural hair) as much as I am, you are going to love this tumblr page:  Natural Hair Rules

If you are a new or aspirational naturalista or even a veteran in need of some inspiration as we all are from time to gime, then BOOKMARK THIS PAGE!


I go on here everyday and I never get tired of looking at pictures of natural hair of all types.  The moments when I wonder why I ever decided to go natural in the first place or if I should go back to relaxing my hair, I draw inspiration from these photos.

Below are some examples of the wonderful ideas I get from this website.

I love the haircut!  Short in the back and longer in the front.  One day I hope to cut my hair in a style like this.

I love her hair but I LOVE her makeup... it's not over the top but oh so feminine and gorgeous. The entire look is to die for

I've never blown out my hair, I'm so afraid of heat damage (my hair is very fragile) but I love this blown-out look on her and everything else down to her t-shirt and her African print bangles and necklace

This is my favorite because her hair texture reminds me of my hair texture: thick and course but look how gorgeous!  I"m not sure how she got those beautiful waves in her hair but I will figure it out and rock this look someday

See what I mean?  This is only the tip of iceberg of inspiring things I see everyday on this website.  I hope you enjoy this website as much as I do!  And hopefully there will be many more like this one to show how beautiful natural can be.

Is There a Natural Hair Movement?

An inspirational naturalista, Solange, newly chopped

Over the past year or so, I've been hearing a lot about a natural hair movement.  At the time that I went natural, I certainly was not joining a movement.  No one I knew personally was natural and no one was really talking about it.  I felt like I was definitely going against the grain and was so nervous about how people would see me.
I got questions like: "Are you extremely religious?" or "Did you have a bad break-up or something?" as if to say being staunchly religious or going through some crisis involving a man was the only reason someone would cut their hair off and start over again natural.  I say this to point out that up until recently, there was nothing anyone would mistake for a "natural hair movement".  So whenever I read someone referring to a movement, I mostly just rolled my eyes and kept it moving.  But I'm starting to notice a pattern myself.
Going natural isn't just for the afro-centric extremist or some other exceptional group of people.  It's for everyone.  I've seen a lot of just normal everyday black women rocking their natural hair and it makes me smile.  At my job, there are 5 black women, 4 of which are natural (including myself).  Just the other day, I was admiring how we are all natural but so different in our styles.  I was rocking my go-to protective style for work, a twist updo, one of the ladies was wearing a puff, the other a twist out and the last one also a wash-and-go.  I feel like it's now normal and not an exception anymore to be natural.
Well, I was never sure how I felt about this so called movement because truthfully I like diversity.  I like that my look is a little bit different and that someone else may have straight hair, and another person may have long extensions or whatever.  I dont' feel like everyone has to conform.  But guess what?  It's just an affirmation of our beauty as black women that we can proudly go about with our real natural hair and have it be not only OK, but beautiful... and still quite diverse.  So, I'm embracing the "movement" and encouraging everyone to be themselves whatever that means for you.  Diversity is good but self-acceptance?  Even better!