Within/Without

Peace! OK. I am a LOOOOOOOONG time Ambi/Artra user. I should be their spokesperson. For those of you who don’t know what they are… they are fade creams. Fade creams get really bad raps. There is an ad on Facebook with a woman going from clearly Negroid to albinism through use of a fade cream. Sammy Sosa has REALLY lightened his skin with a fade cream. Why would anyone use a fade cream? It’s to keep your skin/complexion even. That’s why I use it. That’s why I’ve always used it. As a Black woman, my face can become blotchy and unevenly toned. A lot of women correct that with foundation. I prefer to correct it with fade cream. And I am allergic to most things, but not this. My mother is the one who got me hooked on fade cream when I was really young. My mother is color struck, but won’t admit it. She was of the 60’s activists. She used to wear an afro wig on top of her pressed hair. But she wasn’t too color struck to marry a man who was coal Black. Consequently, I’m one of the darkest...

Peace. Part of the problem with getting to the bottom of what clean eating is, is that everyone seems to have a different definition of what actually constitutes ‘clean’. You’ve got your bodybuilder definition, your paleo definition, your vegan definition, your celebrity doctor definition and on and on and on. Not only that, but those definitions can vary wildly from individual to individual. Clean Eating, as Serenity is defining it, is defined as a lifestyle based on the goal of removing all processed foods from the diet. I say it’s a lifestyle because I’m not going to be writing stuff down or depriving myself of anything. I’m just going to be making better food choices from now on. I’m not one of those conspiracy theorists… BUT…. Nothing is real these days. NOTHING. Everything is tainted with technology. Food, water, air... all tainted. I remember about 20 or so years ago I began getting sick from corn oil. I can’t eat it and I can’t be in a house where folks are using it to cook...

Peace. Well I began the next step of my transformation. I started my exercise program… AGAIN! Let me tell you something…. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly my body will go back to slug from a-tha-lete. Last year I was running 16 mile/week. Now…. A mike walk took 30 minutes and sucked the life out of me. I mean… damn! I know this is the off season, but I hate to start from scratch every single time. But I did check a few things off 2013 resolution list. I went to another location than just around my house. Also, there is a walking/biking/hiking trail about 4 miles from the house. I’m going to take advantage of all 3 of those activities. I actually found these locals off a run tracker app. I have many installed on my phone. Any of those apps will do. They are kind of like social network sites so you can see where people are moving close to your area and you can use the same routes. This is the park. Notice the spongy track. It wasn't asphalt it was some squishy business ...

Peace. Ok you knew this had to happen right? A NY resolution build. First let’s revisit last year’s resolutions. It shouldn’t be hard…. It was just a few posts ago. As far as my running went…. I met NONE of those resolutions. I did get my run on in a strong way (20 miles/wk), but I didn’t run a race or change up my routes. By the time I’m able to get running, I don’t have time to change and get in my car to find a pretty locale. Plus the cops make it hard for me.. I’m either solicitating or planning to rob folks. I have my music and my headphones and I’m out. I suppose the best way to make resolutions is to see what didn’t work in the past… I tried to garden… half fail. A lot of the things I planted never came up. I’m going to switch gears and do most of my planting in containers. This GA red clay is no joke and takes too much to overcome. I got a few cucumbers, 2 jalapeños, and 4 black eyed peas. I got some leggy tomato plants with 1 little tomato. I bought these uber expensive o...