No Such Thing As a Bad Hair Day

Temperatures have been above 100 degrees and humidity levels are high; perfect conditions for a bad hair day!! Go Getter Girls beat the heat and continue to look flawless doing it by using simple fuss free buns and up 'dos to tame their tresses.  While summer is almost over, its still scorching outside in many places.  Opt for simple, minimal effort styles that allow you to stay cool and still look put together.  To a Go-Getter Girl, there is no such thing as a bad hair day.  TLJ has scoured YouTube to find a few videos that will show you how to pull up and tuck away those tresses!!  And don't worry, long hair, short hair, straight or curly/natural, we have you covered.  Click on the videos below for full tutorials.

SMAT-J: Staying Motivated Around This Joka'

Six years ago, I went through a series of life changing events.  Though tough at the time, all of these events made me a better person.  In September 2008, my eleven year relationship with my daughter’s father came to an end and that event led to my decision to take a position overseas.  I was separated from my children for the first time in their lives.  Needless to say, I was on the fast track to having a breakdown but the only thing that kept me from crumbling was the gym.  I went hard every day running, elliptical machine, free weights, yoga, you name it.  I didn’t have time for tears! I sweated my anger out and pain was my motivator.  I left 37 pounds of the old me in that gym in Iraq.  Fast forward three years later and I was ready to start my life anew back in the states, Richmond, Virginia.

The first year back was great.  I was able to maintain my weight loss but was very aware that I was only maintaining.  It had been a year and I was staying at the same weight.  I guess that’s good but there was so much more that I wanted to accomplish.  I realized that I was starting to eat poorly and was still working out but was just going through the motions of working out unenthusiastically.  I was totally unmotivated

Low Carb Peanut Butter Cookies

In anticipation for my upcoming trip to Europe this summer, I have cleaned up my diet and increased my exercise to drop a few pounds before the trip.  Over the last month, I seriously removed all processed foods, sugar, alcohol, coffee, bread, gluten and artificial sweeteners from my diet.  I have successfully lost 14lbs in a relatively short amount of time.  For the most part I have been fine! No cravings at all because I have been pretty satisfied eating various vegetable dishes, salads and choice meats.  Today, however, I had the biggest craving for Peanut Butter Cookies.  Why?... I don’t even care that much for peanut butter cookies. 

The craving was one of those that no amount of deep breathing nor hope would make go away.  Refusing to give up on my healthy eating efforts, I decided to take a stab at altering a peanut butter recipe that I had into a low carb, low glycemic recipe.  The result was PHENOMINAL!! With a little ingenuity and taste testing along the way, I made a cookie with less than 10g of Carbs and over 7g of Protein, without skimping on taste or texture! Check it out below or go to my SparkRecipe page to view my Low Glycemic, Low Carb Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe and a full list of the nutritional information.

What's Your Fitness Style?

Nope!, I am not getting up at 5 am to go for a run.  I’d much rather hit the snooze button on the alarm and get my last winks of sleep before starting the day off.  I ‘aab-soo-lutely hate working out with others because they tend to slow me down or break my concentration.  And Oh how it pisses me off when someone tries to give me fitness tips when they have never worked out with me… How do you know that I don’t already do that?  What I do love is going high intensity on the elliptical machine, zoned out, music blasting in my ear with an up-tempo beat!  My favorite time to go to the gym is after everyone else has gone home so that I can concentrate on me.  What does this all mean?  I know my personal fitness style!  I am highly competitive with myself and am self motivated to beat my personal best.   I am The Competitor.

 

Compromise in the Kitchen

It’s Sunday afternoon and frankly I am tired of eating out and I am tired of eating grilled chicken and fish in support of this yucky diet!!  With my oldest daughter off in the Navy and my youngest away visiting her dad for the summer, it’s just me and Chris at home.  Been pretty wonderful but I’ll have to let you in on a little secret… THIS MAN’S EATING HABITS ARE PLUCKING EVERY LAST ONE OF MY NERVES!!! He is not Muslim, nor is he of Islamic faith… so why the heck does he not eat beef or pork?