~Last Wednesday, I ran a mile on the university (UNLV) track at just 7 minutes 49 seconds. Then this past Tuesday I ran a mile again at the university track in a 10 person race and I got my time down to just 7 minutes 30 seconds! I was extremely excited because I was aiming for that exact time. It was such an accomplishment for me as I struggled hard even when I ran the 7:49. This time it was much easier and my fiancé and I ran with the 8 other runners from the Las Vegas Track Club. I filmed this run as well as my first run. they can both be seen on the website we created to challenge ourselves and others to get everyone running and to get our/their mile times down. Our goal is to get people working towards improving their health, weight loss and self-esteem as running has many surprising benefits. Here is the website: www.milechallenge.org
~I continue to make progress in my 30 Day Challenge as my weight is slowly, but surely going down. For the first week it was fluctuating from day to night in between 107 and 105, now on week 2 it is fluctuating from about 105.5 to 103.5 I am still steering clear of all junk food- and even when we went to the movies on Tuesday I brought an apple and a banana. Disciplining myself feels wonderful! It makes me feel strong in knowing that I don't allow things to control me. I have much more self control than I thought I did. Although self control can be situational, as I have always disciplined myself in terms of working, saving money, being honest, etc. I'd never disciplined myself in terms of eating healthy, going to the gym, etc. My fiancé is responsible for getting me on track when it comes to my health. I do find it sad that our world feels like money is more important than health. What good is money if your body is all broken down? Everyone should work harder at getting their bodies into better shape instead of wasting away overworking themselves. I want to be a better example for my nieces and nephews (as well as for myself). Therefore this year I am working harder than I ever have on my health, my mind, and my soul. Blessings of love, peace, and strength, Shenteria Marie
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~On Monday, August 15, I began my 30 DAY CHALLENGE of eating no junk food whatsoever so I can loose the final pounds to get my 6 pack! My fiance is my inspiration and motivation as he has had one for majority of his life and he is also the most disciplined person I have ever met. I have been keeping a video log of each day to document it so I can stay on track and keep myself honest. I am determined with a goal in sight and I have enough faith in myself that I can and will reach my goal. Even if it takes me after September 14, I will still be working towards my goal. I chose September 14 because it is 1 day before my 29th birthday. I will be in the best shape of my life by this birthday and I am already amazed at how much more disciplined I am becoming.
~This month marked 6 months since my "BIG CHOP." My hair has grown 5 inches in those 6 months and it makes me feel wonderful! Embracing my natural hair was a difficult decision to make, but since I have such a supportive fiance who loves me unconditionally I had no worries. I think the main problem women face when going natural is whether their partner will embrace it or whether a potential partner will embrace it. The way I feel now is beauty truly is in the eyes of the beholder, wear your natural hair with confidence and don't worry about what others think. Embrace the beauty of what God gave you, we are all beautifully unique. "Be your own kind of beautiful" says the canvas hanging in my living room. ~During my 30 day challenge I have also begun the MILE CHALLENGE, since my fiance is a healthy runner he encouraged me to start running. We also found out that Mark Zuckerberg also issued a similar challenge to everyone on Facebook at the beginning of the year. His challenge is for everyone to run 1 mile everyday, making it 365 miles they will have run by the end of the year. Since my fiance and I go to the gym on Tuesday and Friday, I decided to run a mile on the days in which I don't go to the gym. Although we have the university track a few blocks away to run on, I will instead opt to run on the treadmill at our complex here. On Monday, I ran a 8:49 mile on the treadmill and today, Wednesday, my fiance and I went to the UNLV track and I ran my first mile EVER on an actual track. We were thinking I would at least get under 10 minutes to be an example to show women that they can get under 10 as well. I actually ran a 7:49 mile on the track! It was very exhausting!!! I couldn't believe I kept going, but I persisted through the pain. My fiance ran a 5:48 mile which is unbelievable at 61! (We may have an age difference, but he is in far better shape than anyone I've ever known, including most young people in their 20's!) He actually keeps me young, I only began working out at the gym when we started dating, he is such an impressive physical specimen! I will begin posting the videos of my 30 day challenge soon, stay tuned! Much peace, many blessings, and endless love, Shenteria Marie It has been close to 2 months since I updated, you have my apologies, my fiance and I have another website: edshay.co which we keep updated regularly. I have to stop neglecting my namesake site though, I will work on fixing that! I mentioned to my fiance recently about changing my whole website to reflect everything happening in my life including health, spirituality, my natural hair journey, voice overs, etc. He seems to think it would be best to stick with the voice overs, so for now I will keep it this way. I mentioned a while ago about my book which is still in production, unfortunately I have put it on the back burner for a while. I have noticed many negative things coming out lately from the Black Lives Matter movement that have been shocking and sad. I was thinking of possibly creating a youtube video about it. My main issue with the movement is the fact that the movement pays most attention to incidents in which black men have been killed by white cops, yet neglect the many black lives that have been taken by other black people. I think addressing both issues would be wise, as there is far too much black on black crime happening in our world. I question the true motives of the movement, do all black lives truly matter to them? Or are they only working to incite racism and violence? They should work towards bringing awareness/justice for the many innocent black lives that have been taken from black on black crime and by cops. Unfortunately, I have seen videos of young black people claiming that black on black crime is a myth, which is so sad it hurts. When people neglect the truth, lies can fully cloud their judgment of what is right and wrong, sadly I have also seen young black people in the movement become racist as well. When we become friends with those of different races, we eliminate any hatred or racism within our hearts, more people need to be open and accepting of others. We are all humans, overly identifying with one's own race is changing how people look at each other. Because of these factors, I have not been writing more chapters in my book, I have now been focusing more on my spirituality. I am learning to make a lasting impression on people by touching their soul, just as Jesus did. Love is the answer. We shall see how this will effect my book, I do have spirituality as the final chapter...
~MY NATURAL HAIR JOURNEY has been coming along very well, I am quite pleased with my curls. Especially now that I am going by the Curly Girl Method which states NO SHAMPOO!! Well no shampoo with sulfates, which is most of them. My big chop was Feb 15, 2016 and it is now Aug 10! I have been natural for almost 6 months now and my hair has grown 5 inches since then (maybe I'll make a new video showing my progress)! I now use a cleansing conditioner (as shampoo), botanical conditioner, and a leave in conditioner. I wash it once every week using those items and wrap it up in twists with bobby pins under a plastic cap. I let it sit for a few hours (usually overnight) remove my plastic cap, let it dry first, then take down the twists. After a few hits and misses, I found that this method worked best for the curls I was looking for. I also realized that wearing my hair up in a pony tail was breaking the front ends of my hair. So, I keep it out now, I am loving my afro and my curls! (See before and after pics) ~VOICEOVERS: My voice overs have picked back up with regularly jobs coming in again. I recently did a book of poems (my first ebook) for a client and also two AT&T promo voice overs. It feels good to have things picking back up, I learned a lesson with changing my gig delivery to 48 hours, I will NOT be doing that again. I've been having a lot of voicemail orders ranging from law offices to debt consolidation services, I am certainly never bored in this profession that's for sure! Today, I have a couple orders due from a client in Kenya, I thoroughly enjoy working with clients from all over the world. ~I must work harder at keeping this blog updated!!!!~ Peace be with you all... |
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July 2017
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