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 c...

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 ...

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!

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!

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

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 pin...

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

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!!!