Within/Without

Peace. Yes I’m in crux of a hormone imbalance. Yes I can be salty and sweet. No, you don’t get to say anything about it! This chick came into my office yesterday and decide to judge what I was eating. I had a bag of Limon chips, a Twix and a Coke on my desk. A perfect PMS trinity. She got a bit and then realized where she erred and apologized. This post is dedicated to her and all the other people who caught an elbow for misspeaking.... I’m a woman still of childbearing age. Monthly… and still pretty damn regularly… I experience a 5 day shedding of my uterine lining. SO THE FUCK WHAT! I’m not ashamed. Why should I be? Most women experience the same shedding that I do. That’s a rite of passage in a human female’s life that marks her entry into the Woman’s Cipher. It is nothing to be ashamed of or feared. When I first got my period, like many young girls, I was unaware and unprepared. Your first cycle is very different from the rest. I thought I was pooping on myself. And I was you...

Peace! I tend to blog about healthy concerns. Making this blog at times entirely too serious. But I’m a girl. A girly girl at that and not the least bit ashamed. So today… We are talking about my hair! I have had locs since 2008. I said I would either loc my hair for my 40th bornday or sooner if something traumatic happened that I felt I needed to mark the day. My father died in 2008. I had my loose hair braided so that I didn’t have to think about hair while traveling and mourning. But when the hair came down I 2-strand twisted it and never looked back. I would have allowed the braids to become locs if I had had the foresight to get box braids instead of cornrows. When locs are short you can’t wait for them to get long. But now that mine are long I find them hard to control. Especially since I cover my hair almost all the time when I leave the house. When I run, I might run bareheaded but usually I wear a visor. That counts. Currently, my hair is passed my back bra strap. My goa...

Peace. I did it! I successfully completed a race! It was a race to support HBCU’s. Although I don’t think any money went toward any HBCU’s. I think it was just an opportunity for alumni to rep their school and do something healthy in the process. I paid $25. I got a shirt but no medal. Oh well. As with anything that our people do… It started a bit late. People were far too overdressed. And of course there was a party afterward. It was such a friends-and-family event. It looked like “old home week” in the line up. It was well attended (well over a 1000 people there) and I thoroughly enjoyed myself and plan to possibly run it again next year. Now on to the logistics…. That's my alma mater all front and center! I’m not sure if this is how it’s done, but I didn’t get the race route until the day before the race. I wish I would have known that there were true hills in the race. I don’t run hills. I don’t like hills, therefore I avoid them. Had I known there were going to be hi...

Peace. I know my last few posts have really been rants. But, I think I needed to feel that level of frustration to put things in perspective for me. Whether on the internet, with doctors/professional or in journals; you can find advice to support whatever you feel like doing and the contrary. So at the end of the day… you need to be doing what seems and feels right to you and keep it moving. That’s what I’m doing. Oh, I’ll still try new things every now and again, but I need to feel positive about what I do. So this weekend I crossed and half crossed off items from my fitness bucket list. Remember, last year I planned to run a 5K and didn’t. Well this year I signed up, paid for and picked up my shirt and bib. All I have to do is complete the race and I can check that off! In preparation for my race I have been running a 5k almost daily. And I’m staying truly hydrated. I installed a “drink water” app on my phone that harasses me every few hours. And I have been keeping water all a...

Peace. So…. I had another vertigo flare this past Sunday. Luckily it didn’t last long, just a few hours. Because I recognized what was happening allowed me to jump right in and get the meds on board. Here is what I think triggered it…. A combination of not eating and it being hot. Sunday was the 1st 90* day of the season. I HATE eating breakfast. I hate eating early, I hate breakfast foods (except for pancakes… love them joints). I hate the way I feel after eating it. Even if I don’t eat a lot, I still come down with the “itis.” So most days I just skip it. Even Ayurvedically, my dosha (Kapha) says don’t eat it. So I cooked for the 7, but didn’t eat myself. I also didn’t run. My phone wasn’t charged and by the time it did charge it was just too hot. So I was all mellow and chilling in the house. I was watching a show on TV that had just a mild amount of action (I’m thinking that watching a lot of movement is another though mild trigger)… all of a sudden my head is hurting, swirli...

Peace. I have been feeling some kind of way of late. I had a vertigo episode and it completely dropped me on my ass. I had aftershocks for about 2 weeks afterward. It totally stopped my May eating challenge. And that and some other things got me thinking… Why do I even bother??? I was reading an article that said smoothie/juice consumption is dangerous. I have also been inundated with articles and testimonies of the dangers of raw food veganism. Even vegetarianism has been deemed and “unhealthy trend.” The juice articles go on to say…. juicing methods remove the produce's fiber, drinking juice omits one of the key benefits of eating fruit, while delivering huge amounts of sugar and calories. It was also mentioned that it could actually cause crystal/stone formation! My vertigo could be a result of crystals in my ear apparatus. I’m not saying that I buy into this but damn….. I am striving to develop healthy habits so that I can maintain vitality into my later years without devel...

Peace. This is more of a vent than a Build….. Yesterday’s run SUCKED… and sucked hard. I am really disappointed with my body and it’s resistance to getting better at running. Last year I was running like 16-20 miles a week and now… I can barely get in 2 miles per session. Yesterday my legs felt like lead. I tripped twice, but didn't fall. I checked the calendar and I am not close to shark week so I cannot think of a reason why that run was just torture. I have been eating well. It wasn’t my feet, or the shoes, no was I ill in any way. I wasn’t even over hot. I know these runs happen but I prefer to know the reasons why. Anywho… I signed up and PAID FOR a 5k on June 28th. I need to get back to 4 miles as my regular run by the end of the month. All next month I want to improve my speed. Phooey….. Peace