Healthy Foods- Our dinner

Yum! What are you thankful for?

For me, I am thankful for this wonderful family that I am in. Although everyday may not seem wonderful to me or to my partner, but we make things work. The best thing about this relationship is having someone that can throw down in the kitchen! I never knew that I would end up with someone that can cook, but I'm thankful that he is in my life and he can really cook. I can cook, however, I do not think that I am as good as he is. He made this delicious dish (pictured above) and it was DIVINE!

A extra plus is that we both made the decision to stop eating meat so that means meatless dinners. It was a very easy transition and it's great to have someone to share this with so that I'm not alone with this transition. Although our families do not understand what we are doing with being vegetarians, we will not let what they do not like stop us for doing something that we love to do. One question that I was asked by my grandmother was "So, what are you going to eat for Thanksgiving since it's coming up?" Well, one we don't celebrate Thanksgiving. Please read up on the real story behind Thanksgiving and you will understand if you do not already know the truth behind this "holiday". But on this day since we will be with family, we will eat similar things as we used to eat, but we are more focused 1 with staying healthy and 2 not including meat in our dish. I understand that there are people out there that are vegans and vegetarians that still have Thanksgiving dinner, but they make it work to suit them. I just believe that it is a personal preference, but hey, that's me.

What are your thoughts on going meatless for this upcoming holiday? If you've used to eat meat (or any animal), but you do not eat meat (animal) anymore, how did your family take it when you let them know that you stopped eating meat (animal)?

Work at Home Opportunities for 11/26

1. Referral Reps for Umbrella Partnerships
2. Customer Care Reps for Word Travel Holdings
3. Freelance Writers for Examiner.com
4. Lead Generators for IAG
5. Travel Blogger for Agoda.com
6. Language Teachers for Language Trainers
7. Social Studies Writers and Editors for Quarasan
8. Additional work at home jobs can be found at Indeed

Here are some extra cash ideas as well

1. Jingit is a fun and legit extra cash service
2. Earn through CashCrate
3. Rate Music at SliceThePie
4. Transcribe at Quicktate
5. Tasks for Field Agent (iPhone App)
6. Scan Your Household Purchases and earn rewards at Nielsen

Healthy Hair: A mini collage of my hair since last year

I'm loving every moment of this journey!

Healthy Hair: Operation waist length hair

Back in October, I wrote a post on growing out my hair to waist length in one year. I just wanted to update you all with the inches that I'm currently at. As of today, I am at 10 inches. I was at 8 inches back in October. That means that I have 6 more inches to go to reach waist length (and please remember that I'm measuring from the nape of my head...not my hairline). I am happy with my growth and I know that I can achieve another 6 inches by summer/fall time of next year.

So far my hair has been growing 1 inch per month which is excellent. I believe the IM and my other practices have been helping it grow that much in one month. I am standing in faith that my arm pit length hair will reach waist length by the end of next year. :-)

Healthy Hair: BSL hair challenge 2013

So to make sure that I am staying on track with taking proper care of my hair, I have decided that these three dates will be my length check dates (August 31 is the last day of this challenge):

February 28

May 31

August 31

During this time, I will take photos of my length in whatever style that I am wearing at the time that actually shows my length. I just took some pictures of how my hair looks now. My hair has shrunken even in these braids, but I'm not worried about it because I already have a picture showing my length that I just took last week. *shrugs* With natural curly and kinky hair, shrinkage is something that we cannot run from which can be both a good and bad thing depending on the person. I used to want my hair to show it's length at all times, but I thought about it one day and I was like who really cares? I would love to shock people instead of having to stress myself out everyday to straighten it to show that I have hair on top of my head.

This picture gets me every time because it's so true!

So for me, I say no to absolute shrinkage just to prove that I have hair. I rather stretch my hair so that I am not having so many tangles and SSKs. That's what I'm aiming for because Lord knows that if I wear my hair in it's shrunken state that I would be off better by cutting it because detangling it will be a complete nightmare (trust me, I've done it plenty of times thinking that I could still wear it like that as it has gotten longer). I now know that as my hair grow, certain things will have to change to accommodate that new length because I don't want anymore setbacks. As for right now, I am looking to grow out my hair in a proper state which is healthy. I have posted a picture of what my hair looks like now. I just did these braids a couple of days ago and I plan on keeping them in until New Years because I am going to wear my hair out at that time.

What it looks like now in braids

What it looks like when it is stretched

Do you have a hair goal that you will like to reach or a mini goal that you can reach by August 31, 2014? If so, feel free to join this challenge with me! 

2013 Healthy Hair Challenge

So I've been thinking especially after the success of growing my hair out to APL in the matter of months during the hair challenge that I was previously in. At the beginning of the challenge in August, I was just at shoulder length and now it's November and I am at APL. I did some research online and saw that usually in 9 months from APL, that is when you can hit BSL. Then I thought to myself, "How about I do a hair challenge from December 2013 to August 2014?" If anyone wants to join, then I would be happy that you are joining this challenge! :)

Below is a picture of what my hair looked like in Dec 2011 (you can also see how short it was as my first post on this blog was right after I cut my hair)

2013 vs. 2011

I am just proud of myself and I am happy to share this experience with anyone. My next goal is BSL by August 2014 and I believe that I can do it. If you have a goal that you would like to reach by August 2014, then I am here to tell you that you can definitely do it too!

So here is the breakdown of the challenge:

- Wear hear in a protective (or low manipulation) style for 3 weeks and then wear if free for 1 week.
- DC (deep condition) hair every week or every two weeks.
- Do the IM (inversion method) for 1 week each month. You simply have to put some oil on your scalp everyday, massage it in, and tilt your head over for 4 minutes. Please read my post on this method prior to doing this since some people cannot do this technique. Also, do the GHE (green house effect) at least 3 times during this week.
- L.O.C. (liquid, oil, cream) Method hair when needed to keep hair moisturized and sealed.
- Wash and condition hair on your regular wash days.
- Handle your hair gently.

That is all. It really is easy and it will get easier as the days go on. Since it is winter time now, I strongly suggest keeping a silk or satin scarf on when outdoors because this will help to keep the moisture in. Other than that, I will post pictures of my progress and document this journey.

I thank you all for taking the time out to read this and hopefully you will enjoy the results of this challenge! :)

Healthy Body: Preventing & Relieving DOMS

Work At Home Opportunities for 11/9

1. Customer Service for Convergys
2. Customer Service for Asurion
3. Online Customer Support/Administrative Assistant
4. Quality Control Phone Reps for Channel Watch
5. Bloggers (21 different topics) at Thalo.com
6. Customer Care for NEW
7. Virtual Assistant for Blue Muse & Company
8. PineCone Research
9. QuickRewards pays you for things like completing offers, watching videos, searching the web and more
10. Additional work at home jobs can be found at Indeed

Healthy Body: Staying in shape

It's already November and I still can't believe it! My baby girl is growing older and stronger day by day and I am approaching another birthday and losing this baby weight so all is good. I'm not going to lie, I haven't been really exercising per-say, but I have been cleaning up around the place and doing silly dances with my baby so would you consider that as exercising? I do. I say that because I've been feeling my belly tightening up again. I would say that after giving birth, I was so excited to lose my stomach, but now I am more concerned about toning up and staying healthy. Since I breastfeed, I can't do too much, but I do stay active throughout the day. Sometimes, I need a little motivation (as do many others) so as the days go by, I will continue to stay active and motivate others. Once I finish breastfeeding, however, I will start doing more target exercises. I just wanted to give a little update on how everything is going.

Have a great day everyone!

Healthy Food: Sweet Potato & Rosemary Gratin Recipe

Sweet Potato and Rosemary Gratin
Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients:
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/8” rounds
1 cup buttermilk
3 garlic cloves, minced and divided
1 tablespoon minced rosemary
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan, plus more for topping
salt and pepper to taste
garnish:
1/2 teaspoon minced rosemary

1. Preheat oven to 375˚F. Line a round 8” cake pan with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Place sweet potatoes, buttermilk and 1 clove of minced garlic into a large mixing bowl and toss together. Allow mixture to sit for 30 minutes.
3. Line the bottom of the cake pan with a single layer of potato rounds. Some overlapping is okay.
4. Sprinkle the top with some garlic, rosemary and parmesan. Season with salt and pepper and continue layering gratin until all ingredients have been used.
5. Tightly cover with foil and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until fork tender. Remove foil and invert onto an oven safe dish. Sprinkle top with parmesan.
6. Turn oven onto broil and return gratin back to oven. Broil for 2 to 3 minutes or until cheese is bubbling and top has crisped up.
7. Allow gratin to cool slightly before slicing and serving.

Healthy Body: A Little Motivation

Healthy Body: Early Morning Exercise

Sometimes, I need a little motivation to get up and work out. I know that I'm not the only one either so today I am going to be to giving a little motivation to others (and myself). It's not much, but if you can do a little workout in the morning, that will be great! 

Here is a cardio/strength workout that you can do early in the morning. Doing 2 reps of each won't take too much of your time either. :)

• 20 jumping jacks
• 10 crunches
• 5 pushups
• 10 calf raises
• 5 pushups
• 25 rep Russian Twists
• 10 squats
• 20 high knees
• 10 reverse crunches
• 5 pushups
• 10 calf raises
• 15 sec. plank
• 20 jumping jacks
• 10 sec side planks (each)

Work at Home Opportunities for 11/2

Here are some more work at home jobs that are available right now.

1. Customer Service Rep with GE Capital (Arizona)
2. Seasonal Work at Home Phone Agent with Teleflora
3. Appointment Setters for NOW CFO
4. Image Reviewers for Shutterstock
5. Content Writers for Article Marketing Co.
6. Data Journalism Geeks for Visua.ly
7. Investigative Reporters for On Point Investigations
8. Quality Assurance Specialist for Direct Interactions
9. High Quality Writers for Elance Talent Group
10. Writer of  Investing Newsletter for Wyatt Investment
11. Writers/Book Lovers for Behind the Story
12. Inbound Customer Service for Sitel
13. Get cashback for Online Shopping
14. PineCone Research
15. QuickRewards pays you for things like completing offers, watching videos, searching the web and more
16. Additional work at home jobs can be found at Indeed