LVs Donate Hair in Support of Cancer Patients

This past weekend was a very important retreat for the volunteer program I participate in…it was our last retreat of the service year, known as debriefing. We meet at one of the top (if not the top) retreat locations in the country, and spend a few days reflecting on our year and spending some time together hanging out.

Every year some LVs choose to grow their hair out over the course of the service year and then cut a minimum of eight inches off and donate it to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. This year, two guys joined the mix and grew their hair out too. Though they didn’t quite have eight inches, they were able to donate their hair to Locks of Love to help off-set the cost of making wigs for cancer patients.

This whole year, I said I wasn’t going to donate my hair. I swore up and down that I couldn’t do it. I talked about how I’ve donated my hair many times before and I don’t like my hair shorter. I was set against it.

Then I got to retreat, and I was so impressed and proud of all the beautiful young women and the two lovable young men who had committed to this mission. I felt called to join them. I decided to cut eight inches of my very long hair off to donate. I could do it.

I ended being the last person to get called by the stylists. I was nervous. I was scared. When she asked me how much I wanted to donate, my brain said “Only eight inches” but my heart got to my mouth first, and I heard myself say “I’m thinking 12 inches is reasonable.” What!?!?!

I couldn’t believe it, but I knew it was the right thing to do. My hair grows ridiculously fast, especially if I get it trimmed every couple of months. I’ll have all my hair back in no time, and someone who really needs it will get to wear my hair, and the hair of the other brave souls who inspired me.

I was still a little nervous though, and I gripped Angela’s hand as my hair stylist cut off my two ponytails, but my hairstyle looks amazing thanks to her fabulous skill (hopefully, she’ll cut my hair again next year, if I can grow at least another four inches this year). I thought I’d include the pictures here for you guys:

Estimating where 12″ will be…

Showing me where my hair will fall now.

Showing off where the 12 inches will be

I’m gripping Angela’s hand for strength and courage…Thank you!

Off with the first half of my 12 inch donation…

…and off with the second half.

There is is, all gone, and I’ve got tears in my eyes.

Fortunately, it doesn’t look bad!

Here’s my hair for the donation!

And here’s all the other fabulous volunteers (and our director) with their fancy new haircuts! So proud of all the wonderful and inspiring people who donated their hair! You are all fabulous!

 

Related articles

• Join Pantene And Seventeen On National Donate Your Hair Day (blogs.smarter.com)
• Curls, cut and a catharsis (cnn.com)
• Girl donates hair after schoolmate gets cancer (khou.com)
• For Someone Who Needs it More Than Me. (ravienomnoms.wordpress.com)
• Locks of Love gets special donation (ktbs.com)

Five Fabulous Friday Favorites! (May 18, 2012)

Here’s a list of some favorite things from the past week!

Favorite Breakfast:

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Oatmeal

Favorite Exercise:

Chest Flyes (Strength Circuit 3 Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred)

Favorite Movie:

Favorite News:

Newsies is open-ended!!!

Favorite Song:

Hope you enjoyed! Share your Friday Favorites in the comments below!!! Thanks all!

Related articles

• Friday Favorites: Ode to Stella (kandjcolorado.wordpress.com)
• Five Fabulous Friday Favorites May 11, 2012 (stephanieisms.wordpress.com)
• Five Fabulous Friday Favorites May 5, 2012 (stephanieisms.wordpress.com)

Jillian Michaels is kicking my butt…

So it’s been about eleven days since I started Jillian Michaels‘ 30 Day Shred workout. It’s brutal, and I’m still on level 1. Tragic, right? I also haven’t noticed a change in my body yet, but I wasn’t expecting to see those changes yet, especially since I’m still on the first level.

Fortunately, it is getting easier. I’m able to keep up with the workout without feeling quite as strained. I literally float through the final cardio bit, and die again during the abs circuit at the end. At this point, I’ve decided to move on to level 2 starting this Sunday. Depending on how the first day goes, I might come back to level 1 until I truly master it, but we will see.

I’ve been eating a lot better since I started the workout. I eat smaller portions at dinner, and I only have a sandwich and a piece of fruit for lunch. I also have fruit and cereal (cold or hot) for breakfast with a glass of water.

I thought now would be a good time to evaluate how my goals that I shared earlier were going.

GOALS:

1. To feel healthier. I’m not sure what this will entail yet, but some days I feel bad, and hopefully moving around a little bit more every day will help me feel better more days out of the week. I do feel better most days, and I’ve found that I have a much easier time falling asleep at night.
2. To look healthier/happier. Hopefully I’ll be able to trim away a couple of lbs, but really, I just want to have that happy glow that endorphins give you. Not sure how this is going because there are other stressors in my life that are affecting my appearance (slight change in responsibilities at work for the last week)
3. To keep working out daily after the 30 day Shred is over. Definitely hasn’t changed yet.
4. Drink more water everyday. I currently drink a little over one 32oz Nalgene BPA free bottle of water everyday. I’d like to be up to two a day at the end of these 30 days. Well, this has changed. I drink a glass of water in the morning, 32oz at work, another 8-16 oz while working out, 3-4 glasses at dinner, and then some more afterwards. Each glass is about 16oz, so this comes to at least 72oz a day, which is perfect! I’m very happy with this!

So in addition to this, Chris and I have decided to try GM’s diet during our first week of summer break. The first link that he found (I think via Pinterest) is here. But a better and more detailed explanation can be found on the official website here. I don’t know how well this will actually go, but it might be interesting. I can’t wait to give it a try! Hopefully by then, Jillian Michaels and I will be friends and I’ll be working out on level 3. (Dreams do come true…IN SANTA FE… Sorry, I can’t resist Newsies references!)

Related articles

• Feeling Healthier… (stephanieisms.wordpress.com)
• Looking Inside Yourself. (stephanieisms.wordpress.com)
• Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30 (myadvegture.wordpress.com)
• Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred Review (healthcue.wordpress.com)
• Ripped in 30, Week 3 (funfitchic.net)

Feeling Healthier…

It’s a real struggle sometimes to get yourself to feel healthy, especially when, like me, you have a desk job that keeps you cooped up in a tiny little room for nine hours a day (ah, the life of a volunteer). I love what I do, and so I don’t even feel the need to run screaming from the room ever. Which is part of my problem. ‘

Basically, I don’t have enough day light to work out outside, and I can’t afford a gym membership. So I’m taking to analyzing my situation.

I get up around 5:15am every morning. It takes me anywhere from 30-45 minutes to get ready, and I need to be downstairs by 6am for our community’s morning prayer. Prayer usually takes about 15 minutes, and then I have until 6:30 for breakfast and packing a lunch if I haven’t started that before prayer. At 6:30, I leave for work, and that takes about an hour where I walk from community to the subway, take the subway, and then walk to work. I spend 9 hours working, so that puts the end of the day at 4:30pm, which isn’t entirely accurate because we almost always have students lingering. I then have to head home, which takes an hour, and I usually get home between 5:45pm and 6:00pm. Then, if I’m not cooking, I have between 40 minutes to an hour for myself before prayer, which can happen as early as 6:40, and then dinner usually runs from 7pm until 8pm. If I’m on clean-up, I don’t get done until 8:30, and by that time I only have half an hour before I need to be in bed to get 8 hours of sleep (operating on the assumption that it takes people, on average, 14 minutes to fall asleep).

Basically, what I have discovered is that between all of my other responsibilities, I have approximately a one hour slot and a 30 minute slot everyday where I can do something like working out. 45 minute work outs won’t work, and running for 30 minutes doesn’t make me feel better, so I’m going to try something new.

Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred.

Yep. 20 minute workouts that will kill me over again every day for the next 30 days.

We’ll see how this goes. Hopefully, it will get easier as time goes on…if not, well, anyone with the courage to actually read this blog will probably hear me rant about it.

GOALS:

1. To feel healthier. I’m not sure what this will entail yet, but some days I feel bad, and hopefully moving around a little bit more every day will help me feel better more days out of the week.
2. To look healthier/happier. Hopefully I’ll be able to trim away a couple of lbs, but really, I just want to have that happy glow that endorphins give you.
3. To keep working out daily after the 30 day Shred is over.
4. Drink more water everyday. I currently drink a little over one 32oz Nalgene BPA free bottle of water everyday. I’d like to be up to two a day at the end of these 30 days.

I’m sort of viewing this thing as a form of the Insanity or P90X workout. I know it’s probably not really, but I think this is way more manageable for me, and I can always find the time everyday to get this done. So I’ll try to keep track of how all of this goes, and keep anyone who is interested in the loop.

GO ME!!!