28 Days A Pescetarian| Day 2

Hello everyone! So I am now on Day 3 as a Pescetarian. I am glad to report that it hasn't been hard at all. It's actually been quite fun trying out new recipes, and I have been feeling a lot lighter lately. I weighed myself  last night, and I noticed that within the past 3 days of this diet, that I've lost a total of 4 lbs. I'm guessing that's mostly water weight though. It's really easy for me to lose weight once I start eating healthy, but just as easily as I lost it I can easily gain weight back by straying away from my diet for even the shortest amount of time. I've done this time and time again. I'm a yo-yoer when it comes to weight. I still think back to once upon a time ago when I wore a size 4 lol, MAYBE I CAN GET BACK TO THAT (silently prays for 10 seconds) ...

Okay I'm back! Anyway, since I've been paying more attention to my diet I've noticed that I haven't been snacking as much on junk-food like Doritos; which happens to be one of my favorite snacks - along with Wise Crunchy Cheez Doodlez, Cheetos, and anything cheesy basically haha! I also love Funyuns, but that's a whole 'nother blog post! I've been snacking a lot more on rice crackers and lighter, low calorie snacks since I've started this diet. And again, they aren't bad! They actually taste good! With all of that said, let's get into my meals of Day 2!

Breakfast:

Seedless Grapes.

So for breakfast I had a small bowl of grapes and some water. My breakfast was really light this day, because again I had to rush out of the door to class. I was back home about 2 hours later, so this sustained my energy for the short time that I was away. 

Lunch

Water, Dark Rye Bread, Hazelnut Spread, Blanched Almonds and Organic Strawberries.

For lunch I had Dark Rye Bread, Hazelnut Spread, Blanched Almonds and Organic Strawberries. Basically my breakfast from the day before. I made this again because my strawberries were going bad so quickly I HAD to use them up. 

I still ended up throwing away a good amount of strawberries that had already molded. Does anyone else have this problem with organic strawberries? That's all I buy, so I don't know how other strawberries react after purchase. I'm going to have to look into this, because these strawberries were only about four days old.

Anyway, this meal was nice and filling because again I had a long day after this. I spent the rest of my day buying new camera equipment, filming set ups, I mean the whole works. It was exhausting! Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention how I'm on the hunt for a NEWER car. Key word NEWER lol, not necessarily new. I'm saving the NEW for when I'm done with school and I am successful at my future endeavors. Don't get caught in the hype of others life, save your coin, SAVE YOUR COIN! Let's move on from that though and get into Snacks and Dinner ;).

28 Days A Pescetarian | Day 1

Breakfast

For breakfast, (which I ended up having at lunch time because I got so overwhelmed with work and school) I had Dark Rye Bread, with Kroger's Hazelnut Spread, Blanched Silver Almonds, and sliced strawberries. I chose Kroger's brand of Hazelnut spread over Nutella's because it has less calories, and they use skim milk vs whole milk in the ingredients.

I didn't have much time for snacking, because I had to handle errands all day. One of which included grocery shopping. That's actually where I found my next snack, Bin-Bin Rice Crackers! They were such a nice little pick me up until dinner.

28 Days A Pescetarian | Why I'm Doing It.

Seriously thinking about going on a pescatarian diet for 30 days.

— سميرة (@SAMIRAHxGILLY) October 20, 2014

It all started with a simple tweet. That's all it took for me to finally challenge myself. I eventually changed it to 28 Days, because that's a better calculated cycle. It's in tune with ovaries, so I had to haha, jk! But yeah, I decided on 28 Days as a sleeker choice.  Anyway, I've honestly been thinking about being a Pescetarian for a long time though. I'd just never decided WHEN I was going to go through with it. I mean, I've seen enough research and documentaries on the benefits of eliminating red meat from your diet to know that being a Pescetarian is a pretty good life choice.  Now don't get me wrong, I love a good beefy burger just like everyone else. But lately I've been dining on leaner options such as turkey, chicken, and even salmon burgers (which I'm making for dinner today ;] ). So with that said, obviously I'm not changing my diet to exclude red meat because I want to save the cows. I just want to live a healthier lifestyle. Will I stick to only eating a plant based diet with fish/seafood? Who knows. But I figured challenging myself to see if I can do it and like it will ultimately decide for me. I really think everything in life boils down to moderation. If after this 28 days I see a juicy slice of beef and I want a bite, do you think I'm going to deny it? Honestly I don't know, but right now I say I'm gonna bite it lol. I say that all to say, it's really about whether I think that slice is going to take me on a downward health spiral (which I doubt).  Either way, I'm going into this challenge wholeheartedly. And after these 28 days, we'll see how I feel. Because honestly who knows how I will feel in 26 more days. I'm on Day 2 right now, and so far I haven't felt that much of a strain on myself. But like I said, I hardly ate beef anyway, and I've never eaten pork. Turkey became my beef a long time ago, and chicken was a side chick lol. As for fish, I've always eaten that more than any other meat, so again this hasn't been a strain as of yet. I do feel like I'm going to miss having turkey burgers eventually though :( . Well the next blog post is going up in about an hour, and it's going to be about Day 1. In it you will see my meal log, pics of my meals, a recipe for a quick healthy meal I had, and my thoughts on everything so far. See you there :)

Are Natural Hair Subscription Boxes Worth the Hype? September CurlKit Reveal.

So last month I signed up for CurlKit as a personal experiment. I wanted to see what the craze with natural hair subscription boxes were about. Is it over hyped, is it worth the money you shell out, are people wasting their time? Yeah, just a whole lot of questions I needed answers to.

Well, the easiest and most affordable one for me to jump into was CurlKit! Their subscription is $20/month, and you can buy it in allotments of 3 , 6 , or 12 month/YEARLY subscriptions. There was no waiting list, open sign-up dates, none of the things I occasionally see with other subscription boxes. All you have to do is go to the site, and you're able to subscribe and unsubscribe as you please. This I LOVED! No worries about being scared that you won't be able to get back in if you decide to take a break from it (another thing I see people worried about with subscription boxes). 

So with that said, I signed up for the 3 month package ($60+tax). Let me be clear, I paid for this with my own money, I was not asked to review, paid by, or even contacted in any way, shape or form by CurlKit.I chose to do this on my own. Okay, now that we have that out of the way, I received my first CurlKit not even a week and a half later. It arrived in what looked like a white shoe box (the packaging could be better honestly), and it was very tiny looking, but it was PACKED! I mean it was literally bulging open because there was so much packed in it (which I had NO ISSUES WITH lol). I liked seeing that it was so full, that meant I didn't receive a bunch of tiny samples (which I've often heard people complain about with natural hair subscription boxes). 

So without further ado, let's see what was inside. As for the products, I have yet to try them, but I will list each product as we go along and their retail price. There were also BONUS products in the kit, full size at that!

P.S: As for the products, I have yet to try them, but I will list each product as we go along and their retail price. There were also BONUS products in the kit, full size at that! ALSO, I just received my October CurlKit, so next time I will have swatches of the products, and I will do reviews with them :) 

Okay let's get started!

Pink wrapping paper with CurlKit sticker logo. I slightly ripped the paper when opening it.

DEFINED Flat Twist & Curl using Whipped Butter & Flaxseed Gel + RECIPES !!

Let me start this by saying, I am a complete lover of all things natural, ESPECIALLY beauty and skincare products. Unfortunately, due to brands having to mass produce their products and ship them out to sell, a lot of beauty and skincare products tend to have artificial preservatives and other toxic chemicals in them, that can sometimes do more damage than good.

The other problem is, when you DO run into a brand that does use all natural ingredients, they charge you an arm and a leg for simply doing what's RIGHT. Okay, okay. I understand that natural ingredients, and formulating those natural ingredients into a good product may cost you some extra coins, but why does buying a shampoo, conditioner, and styling product have to leave me down almost $40-$50? I mean seriously? This is why a lot of naturalistas will take the frugal way out and purchase the product with the formaldehyde-derived preservative.

It's less of a strain on your pocket, you think a little bad won't hurt, and honestly you just want something to keep your twist out looking cute for the time being. I have to admit, I have sometimes taken the easy way out too, but for the most part I stick to all natural brands.

As far as styling, I eventually started making my own products. And I do that by making a whipped butter concoction that leaves my hair SUPER soft, shiny and moisturized. I also use flax seed gel to give me BOMB definition and additional luster!

One of my favorite styles do this with is a Flat Twist & Curl. Flat Twists give you definition from roots to ends, and adding perm rods to the ends, just gives you even more of a pop!

The recipe for the Flax Seed Gel and Whipped Butter -not exactly mine, but a general recipe that you can moderate as you see fit-  is listed below as well as a video tutorial using both products, pics of the results, and pics of the definition holding up days after ! ---->