No 'Poo Experiment update

So I have continued to wash my hair with the baking soda/water mixture and conditioning with the ACV/water mixture.  My hair has been feeling terrible!  haha  Almost greasy like.  It wasn't feeling clean.  For our date night Friday night, I needed to watch my hair because it felt and looked horrible!  I broke down and used regular shampoo because I didn't want to go out to dinner smelling like vinegar.  That would've been terrible!  I didn't have time to blow dry/style my hair.

I decided to purchase a natural, gluten free bar soap called Prairie soap.  You can use it for your hair and body.  It's all natural as well.  I'm going to try this in lieu of the baking soda and apple cider vinegar.
The website for these natural products is http://dakotafree.com/.  I heard they also have great natural baby care items for any little babies you have in your life!

I will keep you posted on my shampoo or lack there of experiment!

As for my diet and exercise, the diet still needs more work but the exercise is doing much better!  I'm on a streak of 30 minutes a day.  Today is Day 4!  I've been doing at least a 30 minute walk during my lunch break but I'm attempting to do at least another 30 minutes at home in the evenings.  School started yesterday so that makes my evenings filled with homework and lots of reading.  I plan to work on improving my diet ASAP.  I just need better meal preparation at this time.

I lost 1.3% body fat in the last few weeks and was up a few pounds from two weeks ago but dropped two of those pounds from yesterday to today.  Stinky water retention!  Good thing I stepped up my hydration and drank over 100 oz of water yesterday.

I hope you are all having a great day!

Putting it all out there... reality check time

I weighed this morning.

I was up about 2 pounds from last Tuesday.  Granted I know this is not all a real fat gain, I didn't eat that much.  But I did do a lot of things that I should not have.

1. I did not track all of my food to the best of my ability every day.
2. I did not drink as much water for the last 3 days as I normally do.
3. I did not really exercise like I "planned" on.  Other things seemed to take priority.

Basically I did not make myself a priority.  I let myself down.  I have a bodybugg.  I know all out calories in vs. calories out.
When is the time to make myself and my health the most important focus in my life?  Yes I have a full plate with full time work, 3/4 time school, John, cats and family.  But my health matters too.  I keep complaining that I'm overweight and my clothes aren't fitting.  Whose fault is that?  MINE.

I need to take ownership of my laziness.  I need to accept my procrastination.  I need to CHANGE these things for myself.  I cannot depend on anyone else kicking me in the a$$ to get moving.

I need to better plan my meals so that I consume fewer calories.  I do supplement at one of my snacks with a sugar free protein shake that I mix with water or almond milk.  I just purchased some greens as well so I can start drinking my greens too.  I bought Vibrant Health Green Vibrance.  It was highly recommended at the store and I just read many great things about the drink.  I look forward to the health perks I may receive from this powder.

I want to lose this weight but it appears I'm too lazy to want to do the work.  I didn't gain this weight overnight and I don't expect to lose it that quickly either.  Since my PCOS diagnosis, I've done fairly good.  The first week my brain kept acting like I was on a diet and starving.  I couldn't get satisfied with the foods I was eating and felt hungry nonstop.  Now I know this was a whole mind trick thing and that I was perfectly fine but good lord.  That was a tough week.

I guess I just need to ask myself if I really want to lose this weight.  Am I scared of being thinner like I used to be?  Am I worried John may not find me as attractive?  Am I just downright lazy?  Probably all of these have some ring of truth.  Losing weight is not just about physical changes.  There is so much emotional work that goes on behind the scenes as well.

I hate seeing myself in pictures.  I hate squeezing into my clothes because I refuse to buy a different size.  I'm tired of struggling to bend over to tie my tennis shoes.  I always say that you are in charge of your own happiness.  Don't misunderstand, I am so happy and blessed in my life.  But I am not happy about my weight.

The first step is admission I guess right?  Question is, what will my second step be?

I guess first and foremost, I need to better plan my meals for the week and cook ahead if possible.  I also need to start exercising regularly at lunch.  I burn so many more calories a day when I was somewhere at lunch.  Standing in line is not walking.  :)  So here's my plan of attack for this week:

1. Meal plan!  - I actually did meal plan this week so I'm covered.  I just need to be consistent about this.
2. Drink my water - I'm usually very good about this but the weekends mess me up sometimes and I end up chugging a ton of water before bed and having to tinkle all night.
3. Exercise - go use the complex gym, walk around the block with John, use a workout DVD, use the exercise bike.  Just do it!  I do not want to say that I will do it 5x a week for 45 minutes because I am obviously not consistent and do not want to feel like I failed because that just leads to more not working out days.  I am aiming for consistency at this point.

I will keep a record of how I am doing.

Last update for today is for the No 'Poo Experiment!

I washed my hair last night and I notice that the next day, my scalp itches like crazy.  The dermatitis is acting up.  But the day after, (which is hair washing day again, lol) it's fine.  Last night after "washing" and "conditioning" my hair, it felt odd.  Almost like I had too much stuff in it.  I'm not sure if I'm still in an adjustment period or if I'm still trying to get that hair product out of my hair from last week.

It looked okay this morning but it feels "dirty" or like I have too much hair product in or something.  haha I hope I adjust soon!

No 'Poo update!

My hair is finally acting up.  I don't think it's acting up in terms of the No 'Poo but I think that when I used my baking soda mixture to wash my hair this morning, I did not rub it in enough in other parts of my hair.  Plus I had to use some hair product the other day so I think I didn't get all that out too.  It just doesn't feel as clean as normal, it almost feels like I have something in it that I forgot to wash out.

Ahhh you live and learn!

Bought some more baking soda today to have on hand.  John is becoming more curious about the routine and really wants to try it for himself.  I told him how to do it but am sure I'll get the question a few hundred more times!!

We picked up John a Pillo1 pillow today at the mattress store.  It's supposed to help snoring, reaching REM, etc.  He took a nap on it this afternoon.  The snoring was much better but he still snored at times.  I laughed when I woke him and said that only he would snore on a no snoring pillow.  :)  I want to get one too when I get my tax return back.  They are not cheap by any means.  They are $199.00 plus tax which makes them about $214.00.  I've done a lot of research on them and they are supposed to be the best.  I did enjoy laying on one in the store.

We didn't hike today but did run some errands and walked.  I had a low calorie burn.  Yesterday was a good burn day since we ran around playing arcade games and walking around the outdoor mall here last night for our date.  We had a great time!

I will keep you posted on the No 'Poo Experiment!  So far so good, I'm quite pleased with the progress.

No 'Poo third wash and a splurge dinner!

My hair is doing surprisingly well so far.  Even with the minor frizz.  My curls are very defined, my hair seems to be very shiny and healthy.

I did 2 tbsp's of both baking soda and the apple cider vinegar this last wash.  I prefer it more than the 1 tbsp that I tried the previous time.

I am due to wash my hair again this evening, will most likely do it tomorrow.

Wednesday night, John and I planned a splurge date night.  I had a $100.00 gift card to Morton's Steakhouse.  It's a high end, extremely expensive steakhouse.  We each ordered a glass of wine.  Then we had some type of fresh garlic bread, huge side salads then for our meals we had filet mignon (I had 8 oz's and John had 12 oz's), I had two pieces of breaded chicken breast in a white wine sauce and John had bacon wrapped scallops.  Then we shared a huge (seriously like a foot long) twice baked potato and brussel sprouts cooked in butter and sprinkled with bacon.  For dessert, we each had our own chocolate lava cake topped with fresh raspberries and mint served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  OMG it was to die for!  I did really well with my food though.  I ate only a small amount of bread, ate only a part of my salad (wasn't a fan of their caesar dressing) and ate my steak and potato.  I ate a few brussel sprouts and half of my dessert.  It was so good!  Our bill was over $160.00 before tip was added.  We have never eaten at a restaurant that cost this much.  I did feel out of place a bit although I was dressed up and fit in just fine.  The gentleman who sat us pulled out my hair and placed my napkin in my lap.  I've been to places who have done that before.  After dinner, our waiter pulled out this little scraper to scrap the crumbs off the table.  I started to giggle.  John asked me why and I said it was so cute because I have never seen that or had someone do that before.  I loved it!  John kept telling me how beautiful I looked which meant a lot to me.  It's nice to have those compliments after being together over 2 1/2 years.  Our waiter was fantastic and made sure we were taken care of.  I told John I should get another $100 gift card next year so we can go again!  haha  It's not somewhere we would eat frequently but was worth every penny while we were there.

No 'Poo Experiment continued!

I tend to wash my hair every other day.  Every day makes it too oily.  So with this no 'poo experiment, I planned to continue every couple of days.  By the end of that second day, I needed a shampoo.  Unfortunately, we got home from bible studies so late that I did not have time to let my hair dry before bed.  With the ACV, you really need to let your hair dry so the smell will dissipate.  So for an adjustment period, I did use regular shampoo.  I thought maybe alternating it a couple of times would help the adjustment time.  So tonight, I prepped my no 'poo for my shower!  I only did 1 tbsp of both ACV and baking soda.  I noticed immediately that I changed the amount.  Although my hair is clean, it didn't feel as squeaky clean as it did for day 1.  I plan to go back to my 2 tbsp for each in a couple of days.

I've noticed that my hair is drying quite curly (I do have natural curls) although there is a little frizz.  This is typical and the frizz actually seems less then usual.  The curls also seem more defined then they have in a long time.  I took a couple of snap shots for you!

Since I actually measured out the ACV and used only 1 tbsp, the smell was less then before.  It was almost overwhelming before.  haha opps!

We had a great and active weekend.  We went hiking at Malibu Creek State Park, went exploring at Paramount Ranch where they used to film a bunch of movies and got a lot of chores done at home.  I will have to post some pictures from our hikes at Malibu Creek.  We have such a great time there.  We met a few docents this weekend that let us raise the flag at the visitors center and shared so much information with us.  Bill became my new friend, he loved the fact that I'm a history major.  We will be going back to visit Bill and the other docents soon.

No 'Poo Experiment!

I decided to try a No 'Poo experiment!  That is no shampoo for at least 30 days.  As I've gotten older, I've developed dermatitis and the doctor said to constantly change shampoos to keep my scalp guessing and keep the itching at bay.  Well this doesn't work well for me.  I watch the foods I cook and eat, why am I not looking at ingredients I put onto my body as well?

I've learned that shampoo actually contains wheat (aka gluten!).  I read there is an adjustment phase you go through.  Your hair has to learn how to rebalance all the natural oils it produces.

I mixed two tablespoons of baking soda with 1 cup of water water.  I gently poured this all over my hair while gently rubbing it in.  Baking soda is abrasive so I was very gentle and did not rub too much.  I let it sit for a minute before rinsing it out.  The baking soda mixture is considered your "shampoo".  I then mixed two tablespoons of Braggs RAW apple cider vinegar with 1 cup of warm water.  I poured this over my head to coat my hair.  I let it soak in for a few minutes while I completed my other regular shower tasks.  I rinsed the vinegar out with cool/warm water.  The vinegar acts like a conditioner of sorts.  Your hair does feel very dry almost like straw after the baking soda.  The vinegar soothes it like a conditioner.  Your hair will still smell like vinegar until it fully dries.  You can blow dry it to speed it up or let it air dry.

I read that you could add some essential oils to make it smell better but I opted to not do that.  Why add another type of oil from the regular oil my scalp produces?  Once my hair dried, there was no smell.  I also read that your hair will go through an adjustment phase.  You may need to wear your hair up or use lots of bobby pins!

Yesterday was Day 1.  I won't be washing my hair tonight as this way of cleaning it too abrasive to do daily.  I will be blogging about my No 'Poo experiment along with the other things going on in my little world.  Let's see how I do for the next 30 days with no shampoo!  I'm hoping that by removing those chemicals from my regular program that the dermatitis won't be so bad or maybe even go away?  A girl can hope!