Hair Regret

Okay, so- maybe 2 months ago I gave myself a bob haircut, you know- under chin, no quite shoulder length. My husband wanted to see me with a new hair style and I was pretty curious, so I dyed my virgin hair that was maybe 4 inches from my tailbone AND took off like ten million inches of beautiful wavy long hair. BIG MISTAKE. I loved my bob for a month, however, now I'm having some serious hair regrets!

First regret was dying. I dyed it honey blond in the summer, maybe 2 months after my daughter was born. It was long and golden. I liked it, but hubby wanted red and red was my favourite on me in the past.

Secondly, the big chop. I think I gave it 48 hours of thought. HOW stupid was I to think I wouldn't regret losing like 22 inches of hair? I had long hair for 5 years *sigh*

Lastly, red. RED. Does it look amazing with my green eyes? Yes. Does my husband love it? Yes! Does it leave a coppery hue under every hair colour henceforth, until chopped? YES. I knew it would happen, I was smart to buy a red auburn- less copper, more brown. Still will have a copper hue. I still have to live with it though.

Ooooh la laa

As of January, my fix will begin. I'm going to grow it out as much as I can this month (it's currently sitting past my collar bone, ugh- this length takes me FOREVER to pass!). Then I'm dying it my original brown colour, trying to take out copper without drying my hair to death. Then I will give myself my LAST trim for the next 6 months. No trims, no bangs, no layers. NOTHING. I will suffer with mid-stage hair un-tampered with until it reaches it's desired length, and I predict that will take 13 - 15 months. Then I'm having another 5 cm trim to get rid of residual dye and damage. During this time I will take vitamins and do olive oil treatments every 2 weeks to help my hair out insha'allah.

It's going to be difficult, but I think by 2015 I will achieve butt-length hair like I always wanted. Maybe the cut gave me a new start, a new chance at nice hair. I hope so...

Diet week 1

Not a good start in terms of a blog update, I said Sunday and here I am updating on Wednesday. The diet itself is going very well, week one was about food discovery. I didn't count calories as much as I looked at how many were in each food, at the end of the day I didn't tally, but by doing that I was able to cut down and still eat what I want in good proportion. I think that's why this week was so successful  aside from having a lovely and encouraging husband by my side!

The favourite recipe this week is a toss up, essentially the meals are the same but different flavors  I truly don't know what one I enjoyed, my two favourite meals were adapted so it was hard to decide. I love duck, especially duck in mandarin pancakes, so one lettuce wrap was asian flavoured. The next was lettuce tacos, crispy iceburg lettuce was used as a shell and provided the same crunch with less of the fullness you get from taco shells. I really enjoyed eating what I love and making it healthy, it was a delicious guilt free week.

I knew I was going to love the Lettuce Tacos but the Asian Wraps were a huge surprise and went way above my expectations. I ate a ton and only ate roughly 300 cal. These things are a huge deal right now, most asian joints will have them- though homemade is always better!

Asian Lettuce Wraps

1 head iceburg lettuce, pulled apart with leaves intact
2 cups shredded cabbage
1/2 cup carrot shredded
5 green onions 2 chopped and 3 sliced long
2 lbs ground chicken or turkey
1/2 cup peanuts chopped
1/2 cup chow mein noodles, uncooked
1/2 hoisin sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sesame oil

Brown off your meat until its cooked through and add cabbage, add 1/4 cup of your carrot, green onions chopped. Let cook for 3-5 minutes. In a bowl add 3 tbs hoisin, half the soy sauce, 1/4 cup water, and half the sesame oil- add this mixture to your meat and let simmer on low until dinner. Arrange peanuts, carrot, onions, chow mein, and leaves on a plate. In a bowl add hoisin, soy, and sesame oil and use as a dressing for the wraps. Assemble and eat. Enjoy.

Diet. Die it.

I'm never fad dieting again. I had tried it a couple of years back and it left me moody and deprived. I felt like I had no control over what I got to do, mostly because what I do is usually food related!
I find it pretty funny that I posted a recipe and then a post on dieting. I don't know what it is about food guilt, but it's a sonofa.
I had a baby 5 months ago, I lost the baby weight and magically I've gained 10 lbs since a month postpartum. Thats 2.5 lbs a month, and that's a mean realization. 10 lbs? I don't see a reason for this, unless I'm pregnant again and I just don't know it- as unlikely as that is. I only gained 26 lbs with Eliana, so 10 lbs is kind of frightening!

I'm going to set some goals and every Sunday mark my progress.

1. One cup of juice, one cup of milk, the rest is water. I drink far too much juice, it's empty calories, tons of sugar, and my affinity for chocolate milk has gotten out of hand. 
2. One treat a day. I'm seriously snacking on something every couple of hours- and none of it is really healthy. If I have dessert, I had it. No midnight snacks, movie snacks, afternoon snacks.
3. Honey, not sugar. Tea with honey.
4. Less bread, preferably 2 pieces a day and no more. I eat a lot of bread for breakfast/lunch.
5. No CANDY. Baked goods, fine, candy is too much.
6. Walk/clean/work out daily. One out of three. And by cleaning I mean cleaning. 
7. One serving at meal time, make a plate and eat it. No more eating out of serving dishes on the table unless someone is over and I'm making a presentation.
8. We've been awesome with our greens lately, eating them almost every meal sans breakfast. I need to eat more fruit.
9. Two water bottles of water a day- I have a tall pink bottle that is 24 ounces. For the last week I've had 2 bottles of water and I've seen an improvement on my skin.
10. Decent lunch, small dinner twice a week. We like big dinners here, but for digestions sake we'll mix it up.
11. Biggest meal is breakfast. When I ate a hardy breakfast my milk was better, I felt better, I didn't have the urge to nap all day either.
12. 1-2 meals a week without beef or chicken. We very rarely eat beef, so to save money and help me introduce new protein I've decided to take meat out of my diet twice a week. 
13. Drink at least 4 ounces before a meal- drink when hungry. 

So, that's that. Here is my new and improved lifestyle, inshallah. I'm seriously hoping to stick to it and lose weight within the next six months. Let's say, by my daughter's first birthday I'd like to have lost 25 lbs. That's like 7 months, so it seems fair. If I lose more I'll be so happy. If I just make myself healthier, I'll still be happy. 

I'd like to lose weight before Eliana is 1 because my husband and I decided to try for another at that time, and I'd hate to be overweight and pregnant. I had lost 15 lbs when I got pregnant with Eliana so I'd like to do the same for the next one if I can.