Black Hair Care & Obesity? Naturalista voices her opinion

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services,  4 out of 5 women in the United States are overweight or obese [1]. 4 out of 5! We can do our history, and look at how this came to be. Many factors come into play. Geographic location, economic status, society, and so on. But what about black hair care? Is there a strong correlation between the two? I spoke with a Naturalista (a woman who practices natural hair care). Click below to read her views on this topic as well as her personal tips for black hair care!

Haircare tips while exercising

Elle Varner!

Below is an email Keshia sent to me detailing the steps she took to become a naturalista! She provides websites as well as essential oils, and protective styles! I want to share with all of my readers! Here ya go :-)

I'm becoming a Yogi!

I've always incorporated some type of yoga stretching into my workouts. Although, I never noticed how my flexibility, balance, endurance, and overall stress levels were improving! A few months ago, I regularly began doing yoga either in the morning or night daily. I started with positions like child pose, downward dog, mountain pose, tree pose, plank etc..

The thing with yoga is that it is not only a physical practice, it's a mental and emotional practice...



Read more after you click!

Gold's Gym $7 Weighted Jump Rope Review

Beautiful October day

I went to Walmart to buy a jump rope. They have a bunch of different varieties, but the one that stuck out to me was the Gold's Gym Weighted Jump Rope. It was all black, slick, and looked very sexy. I decided this was the jump rope for me because I needed something that not only will help with good cardio, but tone my arms at the same time...

Fat burning jump rope workout click the link!

Sweatember

Its been 3 days of me hitting the gym and doing my morning workouts back to back. My body is so sore but I can results already. Gotta keep pushing!

Fall Challenge 2013

The summer has been an eventful one for me. I've traveled and partied like no other! As the temperature slowly gets cooler and people are heading back to school , reality is starting to set in. Fall is right around the corner!

Change in Game Plan Part 2

So in Part 1 I went over why eating a VLCD is not the way to go when you are trying to lose weight and keep it off. Some quick notes are:

1) Your metabolism will be affected as the TRUE CALORIC MAINTENANCE you need to keep your weight level is lowered.

2) Your muscles will eat itself.. you will increase body fat.. while looking "skinny fat" aka flabby

3) Your hormones will go out of wack. Acne..hair loss..lower sex drive...mood problems and more

Change in Game Plan Part 1

First off, I would like to thank all of you who take your time out to read my blog! My blog has finally reached over 1,000 views in just a few short months! While most of my viewers are from the US (Aslaska..yeah you too! I see you ha).., I would like to give a shout out to whomever is reading out in South Korea, Germany, and the Netherlands! Thank you so much and I hope you guys continue this journey with me...

Before I begin, I will have to list out some of the acronyms I will be using.
BMI- Body Mass Index, BMR- Basal Metabolic Rate, TDEE- Total Daily Energy Expenditure, Cals- Calories, VLCD- Very Low Calorie Diet

So long story short.. I was 196 3 years ago.. dropped down to a whopping 151 by decreasing my calories to about 1200 and did several workout DVDs and gym workouts. The weight loss was nice. I was slim. But few years later, I have gained 15-20 lbs back, still eating at a VLCD. I've been at a plateau (not losing or gaining weight) for a few months now. Even through my excessive workouts and dieting.. my scale is not budging. Now this is when I knew something was wrong.

It is not healthy to go under 1200 at all. 1200 cals is the minimum. Minimum for someone who is mini like a 5 foot petite woman. I took that number, ran with it, and my body has adapted to 1200, thinking that it is my maintenance calories. Do you know what that means? My metabolism is shut, done for, depressed, exhausted, weak.

The last couple years, a few weird things began happening to my body. One of them was, I was beginning to develop hair loss in certain areas of my head. Secondly, I was developed really bad acne. Not regular acne, but acne that I've never seen before. Third, I was going through major MAJOR mood swings.. sorry.. to all my exes out there.. and my current boo.. he's dealt with it the worst! Fourth, I was diagnosed with insomnia. Lastly, I experience moments of vertigo where I feel like im going to fall over. One time it got so bad, I had to leave work and go straight to my doctors office.

Eating at a VLCD is awesome for quick weight loss. I'm not going to deny that. But when you get very close to your goal, or reach your goal, and you want to up your calories to maintain.. you can't. Why? Because your metabolism has adjusted to the 1200 calories you've been eating as normal. So when you up to 1500 calories, your body will think it's eating more than your maintaining calories even though your actually under it (for me to maintain my  weight its 2458 cals..just so you understand how low I've been eating.) So from doing that, you have not only eaten under your BMR (the amount of calories you need for your organs like your brain to function), you've probably develop hidden thyroid problems, and other issues that will sneak up in the future. Like it did to me...

This is just part 1... this topic is so deep that I CANNOT fit it into one post.

Leave your comments below!
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and to contact me directly.. officialbgf@gmail.com

Xoxo,

Jess

Samsung Galaxy S4 S Health Review

First off, I would just like to say how awesome this phone is! The minute I held it in my hands, it was love at first sight.

 Samsung's Galaxy S4 is the hottest phone on the market. I'm actually using the phone right now to publish this post. It has many apps, but the S Health app is in a league of its own. The S Health app is already integrated in the phone. It is a food tracker, calorie counter, pedometer, exercise tracker, weight loss tracker, weather/humidity tracker, all in one. Now I know you're reading this and thinking there are many apps already that do that stuff. This is true but, no apps do this all together.

 The walking mate helps tracks b steps per day. It sets a goal of 10,000 steps per day automatically for you. The first day I had the phone I only reached 4k. The second day I reached over 10k. The pedometer motivated me to go outside and start walking. Even though I am active in the gym, I was barely reaching this goal before I got the S4. The Japanese say walking 10,000 miles a day (usually walking to work) is what keeps them slim.

My first ribbon! 

Another cool feature is the food tracking and calorie counter. It tracks how many calories each meal is, the total calories for the day, and how many calories I have left. I find that the pictures really help with the tracking. Instead of just listing all the foods, you also get an image to remind yourself what it looked like.

S Health allows you track your progress with your meals, walking, and exercise. You can view daily changes, weekly, and monthly. This is a great way to see what's working for you and which areas you can improve on. If I can change anything about this app, I wish I could follow/add fellow S4 users to motivate eachother. This app is everything but nothing beats hearing "way to go" or "you can do it!" 

Overall this app gets my stamp of approval. I use it daily. I love taking pictures of all my meals. I also love the pedometer. If you have the phone get in the habit of tracking your meals! If you don't have this phone no worries there are many food tracker apps. You can also do it the old school way and write each meal down in a food diary! 

Thanks for reading! Leave a comment below!

Xoxo , Jess