Artist Madrid, Naturally

This is my dear friend Janice B. She is a sassy stylish expat who is rocking her natural hair journey in Ontario, Canada. Before going natural, she'd had relaxers since childhood along with lots of heat and weave styles. After relaxers, her mom would hot comb her hair and as Janice grew up she started flat ironing it herself. Janice started to consider going natural when she realized she was not immune to her family's hereditary female hair loss. In her twenties, she could see that her hair was starting to thin as well. By this time all of her friends were natural but she felt she couldn't pull of the afro-look. However, she knew she needed to make a change for the health of her hair.  "I needed to start taking care of my hair" . So she began doing tons of research which opened up a whole world of natural hair possibilities.  "Now Love is in the Hair because It Is Beautiful" -Mr. B (Janice's Hubby) Janice is absolutely in love with her na

Melanie Raabe is an international best-selling, award-winning crime fiction writer.  The Trap  her debut novel is a fast-paced thriller about a recluse author who decides to solve the cold case of her sister’s murder on her own. It won the Stuttgart Crime Prize in 2015 and has been translated in more than eight languages. Her second novel,  The Stranger Upstairs , stayed on  Der Spiegel  Bestseller List (the most widely circulated weekly magazine in Europe) for nearly 6 months. Melanie Raabe grew up in Thuringia, Germany and now lives in Cologne with her family.  I had the privilege of meeting Melanie during a Book Talk at the Toronto International Author Festival last month. I was beyond thrilled when she took time out of her busy tour schedule to shed some light on the mysteries of naturally curly hair care. What products are you currently using in your hair care routine?  I really like organic hair products like Shea butter and coconut oil. I like Aubrey Organics and

This is definitely a late post but for our 1 year anniversary Mr. Madrid and I took a stroll through time and landed in the 1940's . This was possibly my favorite photo shoot ever! And Our Photographer Lacie was absolutely amazing.  I just had to share! Dress   Make-up   Men's Hat   Photography  

Ingrid Agbato is owner of Coo-Mon: A ccessoires  et Cultures (A ccessories and Cultures) based in Montreal.  I had the privilege of wearing one of her Coo-Mon creations for a blog photo shoot recently.  Ms. Agbato's designs are sold in boutiques throughout Quebec and on  Etsy.com . She was a finalist for the  2016  RJCCQ's  Next Generation of Business in Quebec:  Immigrant Entrepreneur of the Year award   and has been featured in several magazines and journals including Quebec's  Journal les Affaires .  Along with being an entrepreneur and clothes designer, she successfully juggles the responsibilities of motherhood and caring for her daughter's naturally curly hair. I was so honored that Ingrid took some time out of her busy schedule to chat with me about the inspiration for her masterpieces and biggest motivation. What got you started selling your designs?  I left Benin for Canada, thanks to another scholarship [...] a master's degree in Environmental H

I am jetting off to Toronto, Canada for a long weekend! So look forward to international posts about hair, fashion, health and literature coming soon!

I CAN NOT BELIEVE IT HAS BEEN 7 YEARS... Since I had the the courage to embark on my adulthood natural hair journey. So much has happened, so many things have changed but my resolve has stayed constant. In celebration of my seventh Hairaversary, exciting things will be happening Here, including some international content. However, I don't want to let the cat of the bag just yet. Instead I leave you with a picture of me posing with our newly adopted furbaby, Maggie. Adoption Day October 2018

Just wanted to share the tunes that kept me going during last Saturday's 5k: Solange- Losing You Chairlift- Bruises Bastille- Pompeii Passion Pit- Take A Walk Twenty One Pilots- Stressed Out fun. - Sight Of The Sun Coldplay- Hymn For The Weekend Ingrid Michaelson- Afterlife Bleachers- Rollercoaster HAIM- The Wire Feist- Mushaboom Alessia Cara- Scars To Your Beautiful Grouplove- Ways To Go Beyonce- Halo

Blogging Before the 5k Began Hey Everyone! I wanted to take a moment to recap the 5k I participated in last week. I was only under 3 minutes 50 seconds faster than 5 years ago (And I was 70 lbs lighter at the time!). I'm really proud of myself for accomplishing that time. However, I am even more grateful that I was able to enjoy the whole experience. It definitely helped that I re-read my post of lessons learned after my 1st 5k.  It was a perfect morning and a beautiful course, all I had to do is put in my tunes and just took off. I did remember the advice to pace myself, which was much appreciated when approaching the final and largest hill on the course. I just kept thinking of all the amazing things I have accomplished on my fitness journey and told myself I could push through the discomfort of the last mile or so.  Can't wait for my next 5k! Maybe I can convince some of my family or friends to join me :) Check out Mr. Madrid's After-Race Roundup:

I made it! More pictures and insights to come soon.

Woke up with back, shins and calf hurting. I think my body hates me :.( Oh well! Here I Go!

One Morning You Will Decide One morning you will decide that this is the day to escape: time to load the car, leave the madness and mayhem. Soon we will drive along mesas, snow-capped mountains, along the Natchez Trace  and the Appalachian chain. Maybe we will leave the car at the airport and fly to that city on a cliff in Spain you saw online or Vienna where I will lure you to Sopron and show you the family homestead. Tell me when, my love, and I will Get the bags from upstairs. ~ Arthur Turfa Some times you want to run away. You feel the walls caving. Every tick of the clock, taking  you closer to the edge. You just have to get away...  But most times in life you can't escape because: your inner demons will follow you wherever you go -or- you feel you can't physically zip off in a car or plane at the moment (like the subject of Arthur Turfa's poem quoted above). When I reach that rock and a hard place, I want to Exude Energy... whether Creat

So you guys... I am still stuck inside the house because of Tropical Storm Florence*. I took this extra time to catch up on some things and ended up deciding to dye my hair. I have dyed my hair years ago and it definitely has been a lot of trial and error. I needed a change from my Soft Black 4c tresses and ultimately a new challenge! The process of permanently dyeing your hair, especially when your hair is natural, actually changes the chemistry of your hair. Along with the change in color, I already knew it would change the texture/curl pattern of my hair. A good reason for me to go with all over color instead of highlights. I decided to go with Garnier Olia Deep Garnet Red. I knew I wanted something in the red family but didn't want to go too light. Every shade lighter you dye your hair from your natural hair color exposes your hair to more chemicals and possibly more damage. It actually came out looking more like a semi-permanent color rinse. Which was exactly the loo

Today's WOD at Home: My Time: Tuesday's WOD: * Now Tropical Storm Florence but the alliteration works better for the blog post title.

“No matter how well-meaning a person may be, Should they have the right to vocally judge your hair choices? And where does it cross the line from sharing an opinion to a form of bullying?” I’ve have been pondering the above questions written above for a while now. However, this post I will not be answering either question. Confused… it’s okay, just keep reading. I try to practice kindness and patience in my daily life... But some days I wish I was wearing a white t-shirt that said: “I really don’t need your opinion” in ALL CAPS, Red , and Underlined . On two separate occasions in the past few months, I have had someone come up to me and make unsolicited remarks about my hair. I try plaster a smile on all the while thinking this: If I am in fact having a bad hair day, then I already know it. If you were trying to be encouraging, you did not add any value or substance to my day so your mission has failed. If you were trying to make me feel ashamed of my hair or try to change me,

5k Boot Camp Cram AKA Boot C(r)am(p) has begun!

Hey Everyone! I wanted to to let you know about how my End of Challenge went and my results! At the end of the 6 week challenge (last week) I had to complete: 200m jog 21 squats 21 sit-ups 21 kettlebell swings (15lbs) 15 squats 15 sit-ups 15 kettlebell swings 9 squats 9 sit-ups 9 kettlebell swings 200m jog This is the same workout I did the first day of the challenge. It took me 25 mins and 37 secs. Honestly it was not pretty. There was hyperventilating, crying and one time I even left the workout space. Coach David was amazing though! He talked me through the whole thing,  motivating me to not give up on myself. The whole class actually jogged my last 200m with me (again!) even though they had already finished up way before me. Fast forward to last week,  I was a little surprised because they actually had me do the End of Challenge workout that Thursday instead of Friday. I had not been in the gym physically all that week due to having a serious case of pink eye. Bu

THANK GENE* IT'S FRIDAY!  *One of my Crossfit trainers 

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

I have struggled against depression for a large portion of my life. I actually don't remember how or when it started. It was a lot like a dream, where you don't know how you got there but now you on stage being sawed in half by a magician. I have come a long way in my depression story but sometimes I just feel sad. My heart aches and I scramble to assign an explanation. I do a well-being inspection: am I getting enough sleep, am I taking my meds regularly, am I eating enough and healthy,  am I keeping up with my spiritual routine,  am I giving back to my community, am I practicing self-love,  am I dehydrated, am I sick,  am I spending enough time with positive friends and family, am I excerising enough, am I spending enough time in the sunlight...? But sometimes I am doing all those things AND I am still down. It's apart of the 10%, you know the percentage of your life you have no control over. But why miss out on the other 90% worrying about the 10% chance of bad weath

Hello All! Welcome to Week 3 of My 6 week New You Challenge! Click on this link below to see a picture of a modified/beginner training for handstand push-ups.  Progression movement #1

As week 2 comes to a close, I am very hopeful of the changes yet to come. Yesterday's workout was a challenge as always but I got through it in just  30 minutes!! I am proud of myself because we had what was called a "Chipper" workout of the day (or WOD) including: 25 pull-ups 25 knees 2 elbows (K2E) 25 goblet squats 25 sit-ups 25 resting kettlebell swings (RKBS) 25 power presses 25 deadlifts 25 supermans 200m farmer carry I explain in my video below what all that gibberish means :)

Hey ya'll I am sorry this video is so dark. I decided to record before my morning grocery run so it was still pretty early. Comment below with your fitness and health goals for August!!!

OK y'all, I am so sorry I went MIA again but these past few weeks have been very eventful! Started my own business, Mr. Madrid and I moved into a house and I signed up for this New You 6 Week Challenge at a crossfit gym. See the video below for how the Challenge is going and I promise I will do more update posts soon.  Miss you guys!

Our first match-up was about two weeks ago. (Click Here to see how those competitors fared)  I had such a great time with the challenge and the readers seemed to enjoy it as well. SO without further ado... Today's challengers Both  cost less than $4.50, include beef/pork raised without antibiotics, are between 290 and 300 calories, have 16g of protein and of course are Gluten-free*! However only One meal can prevail on the frozen meal battlefield...  ...Will it be the KOREAN INSPIRED BEEF EatingWell's  "take on traditional Korean bibimbap")  -OR- the "gourmet Mexican cuisine" AL PASTOR TACO BOWL from Frontera? First we have the KOREAN INSPIRED BEEF , an "explosion of vibrant colors & flavors, this dish mixes fire-grilled beef, rice and vegetables with a savory sesame garlic sauce”. I Loved: -Certified Gluten-free -1 cup of vegetables  -Good source of Iron -Best Brown Rice EVER! (And I am not a fan of brown rice) I Didn’t Like:

For more information on how to have and keep healthy vision Click Here .

Purple is Strength I started saying [this phrase] I believe about a year ago, I could be so wrong since in my mind processes time at different speeds... But I think it was about a year ago. It just popped into my head in a non-epiphany fashion. Just something to say when I saw my friends wearing my favorite color. I never really analyzed  or tried to justify it. And my friends just took it as fact or ignored my crazy ramblings all together. But it wasn’t rambling in the least or just a simple statement with no meaning. Purple Represents Strength To ME *Written  Wed, Jan 19, 2011   What is your "Power Color"? Post your comment below↓

TODAY we have the Protein & Fiber-packed FIRE GRILLED STEAK from Evol Foods going up against the Authentic Savory LEMONGRASS BASIL CHICKEN from Saffron Road. Both competitors were less than $5.00, boast beef/chicken raised without antibiotics and are between 300 and 400 calories… And of course are Gluten-free! First up was the FIRE GRILLED STEAK , a meal of “fire grilled steak with black beans, white rice, red & green peppers, roasted corn and cheddar cheese- All combined with an insanely tasty cilantro lime pesto”. I Loved: -20g of Protein -8g of Fiber -Good source of Vitamin A, C and Iron -Good Amount of tasty Beef -Only had to microwave once/ no stirring in-between I Didn’t Like: -The bowl was smaller than expected -Included very little rice -Overall the entrée lacked flavor Up next was the LEMONGRASS BASIL CHICKEN with Basmati Rice. This “authentic Thai recipe” included “roasted white meat chicken, green peepers and onions simmered in

I have learned so much about Fibromyalgia since I was diagnosed 11 years ago. However, the most important lessons resound the loudest: Never compare my ability to someone else's productivity. I am stronger than my fear. My disorder does not define me. I can still reach every one of my dreams! Today is Fibromyalgia Awareness Day but I believe we should get a whole month. So I officially declare the rest of May as "Tell someone with Fibromyalgia how you appreciate them and how they may have to work 10x harder to get ____________ done but they don't give up" month. Gentle Hugs, AM *For More Information on Fibromyalgia, please visit  http://www.fmaware.org/ .

You know that moment right after you’ve made a major decision confidently, where you look around and say: “Oh Lord, what have I just done?” You begin to doubt your skills, your decision-making, yourself. That can be a very scary moment but I find it’s important not to panic too much. If you are anything like me, you took your time and did research before making your decision. So take a minute to control your breathing and quiet those worrisome thoughts. You Got This! And remember you are in control. The only thing keeping you from turning your anxiety into excitement is you. So get excited! You’ve gotten through the most difficult step: deciding to change <3 Happy Friday!!! Have you made a scary major decision recently? Tell me about your experience below↓

When I started this blog, in my early twenties, I could literally do anything to my skin: Like keeping the same makeup on for days because "I'm going out tomorrow too". And when my skin did show signs of wear all I would have to do was beg it's forgiveness for the neglect and do a harsh facial scrub 2 days before my next social outing and I was back in business. Fast forward to today: Even though my face only shows minimal signs of aging, it wants to tell everyone how exhausted I am. This compels me to wear a lot of makeup for special events... Mostly because I get tired of people asking if I'm okay. My old cleaning technique (using soap and scrubbing the makeup away with a washcloth), which used to produce a natural facial glow in the morning, now made my skin just look dried out. On top of this, I'm getting these little clusters of breakouts popping up all over the place.  Did you know that your skin is your largest body organ? So what's the sens