Kickin it off-Whole30 Style!

I officially started my 30 day countdown today. If you aren't one of the fortunate people that have heard me ramble on and on about how cool the Whole30 program is then I behoove you to click this link before you go any further:

Super Awesome Whole30 Program!

For those of you who have heard the rambles, I will proceed to share my findings with you. My meals today consisted of:

Breakfast: Two strait espresso shots. (blkasasdhf) Banana with Sunbutter. You can buy that stuff at King Soop's (Kroger for you Texas friends). A little note-get the organic kind, not natural. Make sure to read the ingredients.

Lunch: Almonds (make sure to check for not salted). And again, banana with Sunbutter. (I swear to God I'm going to end up eating bananas every day. They are too convenient: cheap and easy to transport...)

Dinner: Lettuce wrapped burgers with tomato and onion. 

Dessert: "Mango Cream" I went with the almonds and raspberry addition. 

So, I have read that your taste buds adjust to natural sugars and you appreciate real food more. I really hope so because a lettuce burger with no condiments was pretty blah. Shmaw. Other than that, it's not too bad. I feel glad that I am taking care of my body. Also, I have already noticed a paradigm shift. As I finished the rest of my groceries before starting the Whole30, I noticed ingredients exponentially more and to be quite honest-I don't want to keep eating crappy, empty food. I've really been inspired to change; my entire perspective of food is different and I truly do want to eat good quality meals. I also want to try Crossfit but that is for a future Faith and Cliff that have money. 

So here are the goods: 

I want to highlight the most useful links on my page in my opinion. And I want to point out what they are called for easy reference. I feel like half the battle with healthy meals is: 

1. Not eating boring, gross meals. 

2. Coming up with ideas for said meals. 

Without further ado:

Useful Blog #1

This lady is not only hilarious but has a plethora of tested recipe links. Her blog is to the left under "Blogs of Interest" and titled "The Clothes Make the Girl" You can get to her recipes right from her home page by clicking the "Dino-Chow" button. But here is the direct link for now:

Giant list of delicious, delicious recipes.

#2

Also under "Blogs of Interest", "The Nap Clan." This is a mom who did the Whole30 and posted great recipe ideas by week. This is also fantastic because she posts recipes to other pages, which can lead you on a great stumble of a recipe treasure hunt. 

Meal ideas from a nice mom.

#3

"Everyday Paleo" under "Links" to the left. From what I gather, this lady wrote a book about it and now has this website as well. It's not a strait up recipe list but she also does have good, practical advice as well.

Everyday Paleo

#4

"Paleo Recipes", also under Links. (Another recipe heavy page). This page also outlines specifics of the Paleo diet, which is nice. But keep in mind-the Whole30 is not the EXACT same as Paleo. Some recipes may be Paleo certified but a no-no-no in the Whole30 club. (Watch out for salt). 

This will lead you straight to a delicious pot roast!

It's important to note that just because I highlighted these 4 blogs doesn't mean you can skip the others posted. That would be sad choice for you because they are great. They were cool enough to get posted on the home screen so I promise it's worth AT LEAST some skim action. Also, if you have some other great sites please share them. I would love nothing more than to read more information and post it so others can too. 

If you are interested in the quest for no shampoo, read on. If you don't give a crap, that's all the rest of the blog consists of so don't waste your time. 

Week 2 with no shampoo. 

I can officially give shampoo the big middle finger. (Suck it shampoo!)

Here is how I arrived at such a conclusion; I used the baking soda/cider wash technique Saturday morning. It's currently Monday night and my hair has looked fine all day. Tomorrow might be a hat day but I'm trying to test the waters to see how the oil production adjustments are faring. I blow dried and flat ironed my hair Saturday and it wasn't frizzy, didn't smell, and looked just as clean as if I'd used shampoo. That was enough convincing for me. 

It should be mentioned that I still have that weird I forgot to wash out all the conditioner feeling and I think that contributes a lot to my hair being ...pliable and staying where I move it more than usual. It also does tangle a bit easier so I make sure to brush it out with a normal brush then a boar bristle to help distribute oil. 

Still brainstorming ideas for the next adventure so seriously, if you have something that's worth doing then share it. And I really do emphasize the seriously. 

The Ongoing No-Shampoo Challenge

day 6 without shampoo

Quick update | Since last post, I washed my hair with conditioner and lemon juice (got the idea from the book Curly Girl). Check it out on Amazon if you're curious.  My hair has been following my normal greasy cycle since I began on Sunday, until yesterday. Here is how it went downhill.

When I reached the typical too dirty/time to wash point last night, I decided to just use water since I read that it's good to let the natural oils reach the end of your hair. (Using only water is also theoretically supposed to help your body realize how much to adjust its oil productions.) I made sure to rub my scalp pretty well in an attempt to remove as much dirty crap as possible. But it was just so oily still on the whole top half of my head. At this point in the shower I thought to myself, "crap, I've reached the unsatisfactory point." Shmaw.

Post shower, after soaking up the excess water, the ends of my hair felt both dry and frizzy but at the same time oily. (WTF.) The best way I can try to convey the texture would be to say, "picture the way your hair feels when you don't quite rinse all the conditioner out." I wouldn't call it dirty and greasy but it definitely feels heavier and looks dull (it doesn't smell). I tried to put a bit of olive oil to help frizz problem and it just made the ends worse. My goal was the wait to do the baking soda wash until the oil production had balanced itself out pretty well but I'm caving and using it tonight.

Next order of business | 3 more days until staring the Whole30. I have been doing loads of research to find out specifically what they deem worthy of ingesting. Also, I wanted to make sure I had plenty of recipe and meal ideas so I don't end up eating a banana for every meal. This is beneficial to all of you because I have posted the best resource findings to date on the blogski. Please comment if you have other great sources of information; I'd love to read it then post it for anyone else on the home page.

Finally | As if all of these ridiculous things aren't enough to keep me occupied for awhile, I'm beginning to brainstorm for the next topics to tackle. Things I have found so far: people who try to reduce their global impact by 90% in one year (crazy and interesting), an awesome budgeting site (no one likes wasting money), and I'm considering doing a product review for something such as P90X or Rosetta Stone (600$ is alot to waste if it's a POS).

So I am issuing an official call for entries meeting the following criteria:
1. Something you would like to do or at the very least would be interested in reading.
2. Can have measurable progress or a defined outcome (for the most part).
3. Isn't stupid/lame.

The quick and dirty of "No Shampoo"

First, I want to quickly explain my reason for starting a whole blog (it's a big step.) There are things I wanted to try but really felt too nervous to do without further detail. For example, with the no shampoo undertaking, I wanted to know: was your hair REALLY dirty on day 3, or 4, or 5?? Did people still want to be your friend on week 2...? If this is you, I offer you the opportunity to live vicariously through me.

For those of you wondering, why bother? Here are a few links:

Trial run:
A mom with her explanation and results

No-Shampoo "Revolution"

A little biology background.

Here is the link to the research mentioned in the above article:
WARNING! Very science-y.

And last but certainly not least:
The stumble which started it all.

If you can't get on board with the "shampoo=chemicals -> bad" philosophy, that's fine. I'm pickin' up what you're puttin' down; it sounds like hippie mumbo jumbo. But maybe you can get on board with not fading your hair color nearly as quickly or never paying for shampoo again. Sure it's not free rent or any spectacular large amount but if your body doesn't need it, why not use that money elsewhere? And just to throw it in-it's less plastic to recycle (or throw away for a lot of people) and less chemicals for our water treatment plants to process. (There will absolutely be posts later about our water usage in America by the way.) Small impacts, but worth mentioning if we are pointing out positive aspects. You can come up with your own cons, like that it's weird for one.

But for those of you wondering how the process is actually going thus far, here is the update.

Day 2 of no shampoo.


It's fine. In all honesty, it seems just the same as if I had washed my hair with shampoo yesterday instead of baking soda. I'm still not sure if the goal is to ween off the baking soda too, so I guess that is an area to research further. I did use hair spray and coconut oil to style a bit today as well. I'm sure styling product build up is bad with a no shampoo lifestyle so I should probably cut that later as well, too bad I just stocked up last month. Boo.

And a little sneak peek for the next segment:

Whole 30 information-read!!!

I am starting February 28 along with Shannon. Josh will be joining us at some point, exciting! And thank you to Leyna for the introduction :) Props, props, props-props all around. If you feel inspired after reading up on it, join with us! 30 days of being awesome and a non tub of lard! I'm excited. Get excited!

A very brief introduction

Lately, I have had a more than usual interest in learning new things and pursuing my interests. Reading stories from people online who have tried some of these things was probably the most inspiring, so I have decided to join your ranks and inform others. From now on, I will be experimenting in areas outside of my knowledge and posting the progress along the way. Since all of these things are new to me, please share any experience or wisdom you deem helpful.

Without further ado, Adventure #1.
Should you quit using shampoo?

Oh no, whoa! That's too disgusting, what a dirty hippie! While I already do hold off on washing my hair as much as possible to keep it healthy and make my color last; let it be said that if you call me a hippie I will hate you for life. (...It was hard to think of something internet-appropriate here. Are you allowed to threaten people from your blog...?)

Before you judge me as disgusting, google "no shampoo" for yourself and read a few articles. From doing this myself, I found the new things to try for my first adventure of becoming more awesome. They include shampoo substitutions as: just water, baking soda + water, conditioner with lemon juice and cornstarch in between washing. (If you know me, you know my love for baby powder to postpone showers on greasy hair.) Apparently corn starch is more natural, so whatever, I'll give it a try.

Results from day 1, post gym shower. I tried out the baking soda first. Apparently an apple cider vinegar rinse afterwards helps balance pH and I had it at home anyway so I splashed that on too. I think I missed a few spots with the baking soda-water mixture because I still have some heavy feeling areas but oh well. Also, I don't know if the no shampoo people support using leave in conditioners or hair products but I am still using mine for now. My hair doesn't smell like vinegar and most of it's dried in non-greasy form.

I'll be doing this for as long as it's not a complete trainwreck and doing more adventures on the side. Coming up- the Whole30 or Paleo diet, should you do it or does it suck? I'm starting February 28 and we shall see.