Curly Qs! A NEW SERIES

HEY GUYS!
Did you see the video I just uploaded?
If not...watch it here :P
http://youtu.be/ZQF_fQea204

This is what my hair looked like after

Anyways! I have been getting a ton of questions about my hair, whether it be in real-life or on the internet and I thought I would start making videos about it, that way I can show instead of tell, I find that always works better. Anywho, I love my hair and taking care of it and why not show how, having curly hair isn't portrayed in the best way, so why not glorify it to the best of my abilities. I find that a lot of my fellow curlies just don't know what to do with their hair, so it sometimes looks frizzy or their curls don't live up to their best and that stems from a lot of things that would not just need a separate blog post, but a separate blog. I want to do my best in showing that all types of hair are manageable and beautiful to have and having curly hair isn't the worst thing that could happen to you.
Anyways! Feel free to join me on this journey by checking out that youtube channel and if you want to contact me I'm available on a bunch of social media thingies.

Youtube
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Tumblr


About Curly Qs: Wash and Go (3b/3c Natural Hair)

Products I Used:
Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie
Proclaim Strengthening Leave-In Conditioner
Creme of Nature with Strength & Shine Leave-In Conditioner
Soft & Beautiful Oil Sheen Conditioning Spray
Heat Protectant

College 101: Episode 2 Before COllege To-Do List

Hey Guys!
Welcome to the blog post for episode 2 of College 101. I have a lot to share with you guys, so I guess I'll just jump in. Okay let's go.
First Off this is the video, if you haven't seen it

First thing: Things you should know about your financial aid package

                  http://collegelife.about.com/od/moneyfinances/a/extra5things.htm

The link to the college lingo that I advise you should learn 

   http://collegelife.about.com/od/academiclife/qt/AcademicLingo.htm

Time Management Tips for College Students

Stress Management Tips for College Students

I know it doesn't seem like I wrote a lot but trust me, give these links a good read and if you have any questions let me know!

College 101: Freshmen Advice

Hey Darlings,
 I've been working a lot with my school in Georgia with the incoming freshman class and their orientation and stuff like that so, I've been posting stuff on my Tumblr about freshmen and moving and my experience and I began getting a few questions so, I thought a great idea would be to start a video series addressing those questions and more. You can find the series on my Youtube Channel along with other videos about life and random bits and bobs.

Anyways, the first video of this series addresses the question "What Should I Pack/Bring to My Dorm"
and I gave you guys a lot of great information but I want to post some links to websites that can go into further detail. Also, I have an app that I want to share with you guys, that I'm using to keep track of what I need to move in.

One thing that I didn't get to mention in the video was storage!!
It's so important and I want to give you guys some quick storage solutions that work for me, I'm not the most organized person, I'm pretty average, like I'm not going to sit down and color coat, label and meticulously put things in place, so here are some dorm solutions that I think work!

1. BINS/BASKETS
Get some that are flat and can slide under your bed and some that are more cub shaped and can be stacked next to your desk. That way you can store things you don't need everyday under your bed (out of season clothes, laundry stuff, traveling stuff etc.) and everyday things next to your desk which is going to your permanent area for the next year. Or even get some for your closet
EX.

You can get stuff like these and display your stuff

Walmart Has A Collection of Them On The Low

Click Here

2. Hangable Storage

Hope you enjoyed that video and left a comment if you have any questions.
Check out My Channel and Enjoy youtube.com/shamoyakelly

Here are the links and the app!

App:
The College Packing List (Web Version)
  App Version

Links:
Freaking Awesome Extensive Dorm Room Checklist
107 Things to Pack For College
Dorm Room Space Savers
Keep Your Room Organized

Quick Update

So, If you're one of the lucky few who have been keeping up with this detox that I'm doing I want to give you a quick update as to what is going on. So, I felt a little weird today and I kind of brushed it off, then it got more apparent and I felt nauseous, so I went to google (as I do with everything in my life) and searched negative effects of the smoothie diet and a lot of people felt sick and weird and were having the same symptoms I'm feeling right now and this lady actually said her iron levels dropped a lot and my first thought was incorporate more spinach duh but then I also thought about my body and how that could be the problem because right now I am losing blood and it could be my iron levels dropping below their norms.

I also have been feeling dizzy, nauseous, and I have a blaring migrane and generally hungry and I thought to myself "for something that's supposed to make my body good from the inside out, this sure doesn't feel that way" and I know 'beauty is pain' but I feel sick and I don't like that.

With that said, something has to change, you know, something has to give.
No, I'm not quitting this but I'm also not going to starve myself so I said I'll eat if I'm hungry but I'll have a smoothie first and if I feel like I need something else, then I'll give it to myself.

I don't want to hear any crap about people who live raw lives and have been vegan and blah blah blah because trust me I already know that but my body isn't used to that and I stopped eating food cold turkey.
That's the plan right now, I love the smoothies, I want to keep them as a regular part in my normal diet because they do make me feel energized and glowy and my skin feels better and I feel like it helps me get a bunch of extra nutrients.

So that's that for now, I'll post more smoothie recipes in the next post. So look out for those and remember I haven't stopped the smoothies, so keep all the flack to your keyboard and not on my screen

Woah! BEST SMOOTHIE EVER

well, that I've made so far!
It's 9:46 and I literally had to come right from the kitchen and share this with you guys!
I mean this is heaven. I woke up this morning and I didn't feel as hungry as I normally do/did. So I stayed in bed for about the next 20-25 minutes checking emails and responding to social media
(I have those, you should check em out ;)
But then I was like okay, food...hmmm what do I want. Something yummy, lets go.

I started with a
Base of
 about a half to 3 quarters of a cup of coconut water.
Then I added a splash of kombucha

Flavors:
The other half of the mango (from yesterday)
I put all my pineapples, blackberries and raspberries in a bag together in the freezer and I grabbed a huge chunk of that
about 6 or 7 pieces of strawberry.
Then I blended that up and it was really thick, so I added bits of kombucha to loosen it up a bit

I then added my greens, I added kombucha on top because the smoothie was so thick, then I topped the blender off with swiss chard

I liquified that thing and

HEAVEN

I'm drinking it now and it's almost done, like I am full but I'm trying to figure out ways to fit more of it in my tummy.

Until later! Shamoya

youtube.com/shamoyabailey

Detox Day 1: Part 2 UH OH

Hey!
So I almost made it through day one but.....I ate some chicken....and rice. I am human uh oh
I have reasons though, remember, how in my last post I told you I wasn't feeling well because of "mother nature" well I threw up as a result of that and trust me, it didn't have anything to do with the smoothies this just always happens on the first day of my cycle. So I was kind of expecting it but not hoping for it. Then I got really hungry so I ate just a small plate of food, turned out I got full really fast but anyways, I can already see changes in my skin and lips. Normally, when I and most other females start their cycles our bodies react in lots of ways. For example, breaking out, this normally happens to me but for some reason my face is really clear and it has to be due to this because these smoothies are the only thing that changed in my diet. Also, I'm not really bloated and I feel really energized!
So I almost made it through day 1 but I want to get through day 2 NO EXCUSES!

In making smoothies, I've realized that it's an art. You have to start with a base (something with high water content or a liquid) to liquify it, then a couple of main flavors, and some type of leafy green to give you some vitamins and make it much more healthier and filling.

After my first smoothie I had two more. One for dinner and one just for a snack, I'm sipping on it now and both of these were DELICIOUS!

Have any of you ever had strawberry fennel ice cream? Well, it's f*king delicious and I tried and succeeded in recreating it as a smoothie.
Here's the recipe (I did everything by taste -which you should too- so bear with me)

My Base:
Kefir

Flavors:
handful of chopped frozen strawberries (around half a cup)
about 2 times that amount of fennel

Texture:
about 9 or 10 frozen banana slices or chunks (I wanted it to be creamy like the ice cream)

Leafy Green:
couple handfuls of spinach

Then hit the liquify button till smooth or your desired texture, this was so good! You have to try it, it sounds funky but it's good. If you don't believe me make it or go try strawberry fennel ice cream

This is it before I started blending

It blending! Look how good that looks, so creamy!

And in the glass ready to slurp!

My snack smoothie (sipping on it now)

My Base:
Frozen Cucumbers
Frozen Apples

Flavors:
Mint Leaves

That's it, it's so good! and it's just a snack smoothie. So cooling and refreshing.

No makeup or edit! Look at how pink my lips are and how clear my skin is!

I feel so good and now it's time for a warm shower and a goodnight!

Dormez bien mes amours!

Youtube.com/shamoyakelly

Smoothie Detox: Day 1

Hey all!
Okay, so I decided I need to make a change and I was speaking with my sister's friend whom I get along with really well and we were thinking about starting the juice diet or smoothie diet because we both don't have juicers haha and we talked about it on Monday, then just kind of went back to our worlds. But yesterday (tuesday) I was thinking to myself that I really should do it because I want to get all the gook out of my system and obviously lose some weight.
So, I spent a couple hours last night researching it and figuring out how to start it and how to be successful, I got tired of reading and went to bed  but I woke up this morning with some clarity and I just thought to myself ''if I'm going to do it, I just got to start and start now''.

So I got out of bed around 8:45 and walked to my sister's room and asked her if she wanted to join me and she was caught so off guard because it was so random but you know, whatever haha and she said I don't know, I'm tired leave me alone haha.

So I did my morning things (still hungry as a mofo because by this point I'm determined to start today) then I left for the grocery store and got these things:

I don't think you can read that so I'll just list everything here (I tried to by everything whole and fresh because it'll save money and I can prep. everything myself)

Frozen Foods:

Frozen Tropical Fruit:A bag of frozen papaya, kewi, mango, and pineapple mix (it sounded yummy)

General:

Milkshake Straws (I love straws so I bought the big thick ones because I knew the smoothies would be thick and ps. who likes to drink smoothies without straws? Satan, yeah that's what I thought)

Okay now for everything else:

Plain Kefir

A bottle of original Kombucha

3 Lemons

4 Navel Oranges

A bag of baby peeled carrots (they're on sale and were cheaper than the regular carrots)

1 lb strawberries

1 Fennel Bulb

3 Gala Apples

A Bunch of Bananas

Bunch of Beets (4)

Blackberries

2 Coconut Waters

6 Kirby Cucumbers

Ginger

2 Grapefruits

2 Small Honeydews

2 Bunches of Kale

3 Large Mangoes

4 Limes

Baby Watermelon

Bag of Micro Spinach

Mint Package

3 Peaches

Rasberries

Red Swiss Chard

A Pineapple

3 Romaine Hearts

1 Tomato (not for juicing)

Package of Almonds

This is most of it (I got what I could in the photo)

So after this taking these photos my stomach is now growling (it's around 12:30) and I took down all my plastic containers that I saved from takeout and my zip top bags and started prepping. Now everything is put away and looks like this. (I put stuff in the freezer so when I blend them, the smoothie will be cool and nice...I hate warm smoothies, they make me cringe a lot

In terms of prepping everything,

I first blended the carrots with a cup of water then set them aside to drain, then I blended the beets to a pulp and put them away in a container in the freezer. Everything else I washed, peeled, and chopped. Well everything except the mangoes, apples, oranges, limes, and grapefruits. Those I have divided into 2 of the paper shopping bags in the bottom of the fridge. But ya, I'm done prepping now and I feel good

One thing I forgot to mention is that I was super hungry so while I was chopping things I was throwing things into the blender. So, I had some left over beet from when I pulverized it earlier, some kale, spinach, apples, a lime, watermelon, honeydew, and mango. I'll post the exact measurements at the bottom of the post and it's kind of a hodge podge smoothie because I was so hungry and I just threw things in, it's definitely not the best smoothie so far but it's manageable and I know now that I can't just throw things in and press liquify. I have to think about the flavors and stuff.

So stick around for more posts and updates about this detox and "diet" this week. I am challenging myself to do it for a minimum of 5 days because your body takes 72 hours to clean itself out and I'm giving it 2 more days to adjust but if I feel good and want to keep going, I won't hold myself back.

The smoothie I made looks like this, I'm almost done with it haha and this recipe is underneath the photo.

Looks bad right, whatever haha

Recipe: 

7 inch chunk of watermelon, another of honeydew

a bit of beet puree that didn't pour out of the blender

half an apple

half of a mango

juice of 1 lime

1 little chunk of ginger

small handful of spinach and

a larger handful of kale

then liquify until it's as smooth as it's going to get

*definitely not the best but I will post better recipes to come, this is just what I'm drinking now.

Feelings: Right now, I feel good, I feel energized but I'm also on my period (oops tmi) so I have cramps but I'm also worried about staying true to this and not giving into pms and ordering Chinese and binging on chocolate but keep checking for more posts and you'll see if I make it or not

Until my next post cheries, and check out my youtube channel youtube.com/shamoyakelly