New Things!

Genetics.  Sometimes they come around to bite you on the butt.  My plague (i'm keeping it to just one at this moment) is having a lot *yay* of very fine hair *nay.*  Why nay you say?  Although it may give the appearance of being thick, it really isn't.  add the mounting fear that women in my family lose their hair at a faster than normal rate, and you have me at the salon complaining to my stylist how thickening shampoos are only an illusion and how my hair always breaks because it is so frail.

My lady hair wizard then mentioned that she had a similar problem of breakage, to the point of getting a weave!  amazing!  goes to show friends that despite whatever maladies we think are going on in our lives, there is always someone who can one up us, even in the slightest.  She then said something about trying Ovation, that shampoo system they always talk about on the radio.  you know you've heard the commercials.  you know.

her utterance of said product did bring me back to another friend of mine who said she used the product for three months and was really impressed by the results.  even without use she still was experiencing the benefits of her hair constantly growing and all those other claims they talk about on the commercials.

well that was reason enough for me.  I told my hair lady (back at the salon) that if she was in i would be in and went home that night to order myself the starter pack.

first thing to say: this stuff is friggin expensive.  here i am at target complaining that it's too much for a ten dollar bottle of shampoo. the starter pack which is only 6 oz. bottles is about fifty bucks. boom.

so i got it in the mail yesterday.

They say that this "advanced" formula is their most natural product, void of all the icky chemicals and stuff.  Whatever, it's still expensive and i think the only starter pack they had available on their website.

so the system is three part (hence the numbers on the bottles).  okay, i'm game.  what i DIDN'T know was that this process spans an evening.  i just want to reiterate how fortunate it is that i take night time showers.  image those who don't?!  

you shampoo your hair with number one then you put in number two and leave it in overnight and wash it out the next day and use number three.  number two you only use two to three times a week, so i guess that's a good thing.

so i went through the process last night.  i was too lazy to jump back in the shower this morning so i washed my hair the way you wash a dog in the bathtub.  yes it was odd.  no i didn't care.

the end result? I dunno.  obviously it'll take time to work, so time i will give it.  i will say it did make my hair fuller.  although i don't know how to handle volume so i just look like a psych ward patient gone rogue.  

we'll see how this journey goes! hopefully i got myself some superhero hair by the end!  

AMAZON: a day of fasting, not feasting!

Confusing, no?

Not to my tumblies.

As i put in the earlier post i am attempting today a 24 hour fast, which officially commenced yesterday at 7:15pm.

I can honestly say that my energy and satiety levels have been high, up until, oooh... ten minutes ago.
the time is now 3:13, so about four hours to go.  Okay, maybe three hours to go, after all i did want to finish eating yesterday around 6:30 but was tied up with rehearsal... Ah who am i kidding, I'll go with 7pm.

Now that i'm at it maybe what will distract me is typing out my list o' five.  I figure with every plan of positive change there are at least five things that can be accomplished to reach your goal.  They aren't grandiose but rather small to do's that you just keep repeating and that way they turn into positive habits.

Chris also mentioned that even if you skimp on one, the ability to look at the list and see you've accomplished more than you haven't accomplished is still rewarding.  And i am one of the first to always turn to the negative and fail to see the positives in my current state. :)

so my five are as follows:

1. drink more water.
2. eliminate animal byproducts.
3. significantly cut down as much processed products as possible.
4. stop eating at 7pm.
5. exercise/ physically exert myself daily with the exception of two active rest days.

so as of now i have done 2,3 and 5.  which is awesome.  and truthfully i can do 1 in a spiffy and don't know why i haven't.

So ended up breaking the fast around 7. I have to say I was hungry but not starving. Pretty happy about the whole day, especially the maintenance of energy. I thought for sure i'd crash, but I just kept on chugging. We'll see if I'm up for it next week. But as of now it looks like a good possibility!

AMAZON: a prelude to a fast

So in my conversations with Chris last week (which is one of my best friends on the entire planet, fyi) we talked about his past with dropping weight.  His story which he'll probably set up a blog for in the near future, is the "American Dream" of weight loss: he was heavy, he got into eating right and working out, now he's got a rock star body.  so naturally i like talking to him about stuff like this.  plus he is knowledgeable because unlike me who likes reading gossip sites and stalk facebook for hours, he actually researches and tries to read as much on exercise and nutrition as he can.

One thing Chris brought up was fasting.  He suggested a 24 hour fast.  Crazy, you may think, however the same suggestion was brought up by my personal trainer (which i used to go to, check earlier blogs).  The logic behind it was that it was a way to kick start your metabolism.  That your body actually goes through an intense amount of calorie burning when your asleep, essentially self fasting with some extra REM cycles thrown in.  So simulating that fast minus the sleep in theory would ignite your metabolism as sleeping does.  I'm sure there are other points that Chris covered, including how he would fast once a week when he was trying to get cut and he really did feel it worked like a charm.

Now I'm no expert and I certainly do not think anyone (you one person outside of myself) out there that reads this should jump on the wagon, but I always figure you gotta try things at least once. So as of 7:15 this evening I began my 24hr fast.  As I am getting ready for bed the urge to eat or think about food has yet to come over me.  Tomorrow on the other hand will be the true test.

One thing I am grateful for is having a buddy on this.  I really wanted to start with this raw food/ vegan route a while back but always felt intimidated by friends and family around me to conform to their eating habits.  With Chris on board not only do i feel justified to be vocal about my exceptions to others eating habits, but also when i am in a bind it is nice to talk to someone about it.

so we'll see how it goes all tomorrow.  I don't want to jinx myself but i do know for a fact that aside from working out tomorrow my schedule looks pretty clear, so no crazy exertions of energy and no social situations to make me feel obligated to eat.

i'll leave with this.  I had my doubts about this whole cold turkey thing, but i can honestly say that my body's response to eating so healthily has been tremendous.  Just today I decided to have a vegan muffin, my last hurrah before the fast.  I don't know what it was but i immediately felt like i had made a bad choice in consuming that muffin!  No bubbly guts or anything like that, but I immediately felt this wave of sad and heavy come over me.  Like a sloth had taken over my digestive functions and was making my whole system of being seem very sluggish.  It's definitely something to think about and to be grateful for, the fact that i am now listening to my body for food cues, like what sits well and what doesn't.  What is the wonderful truth is discovering that what makes my body truly feel light and functional isn't processed, that i see the benefit and lean toward the consumption of raw fruits and veggies.  Truly a Wonder Win!

to be continued...

Reset the Clock! It's 2012!

Since the day I started this blog I knew two things:

1. I wanted to start a blog about living like Wonder Woman.

2. I had no idea what that meant.

This naturally was and is followed by random posts here and there, attempting to focus the blog in a way that would be befitting of goal numero uno.

Safe to say at the close of 2011 I wasn't that much more focused than I was when i began the blog.

Fast forward to and email exchange I had with one of my best mates, Chris.  I brought up the subject of this blog and asked his opinion on what it should be about.  His answer was the following:

"I think it should be about wonder woman cosplaying, eating like an amazon (fitness and food!) And general entertainment stuff!"


Boom.  Granted it's not too far off from the pillars that I started this blog with (see post two, probs) but I like that it's more finite and fingers crossed, more doable. 


So starting this day, the 13 of February I will have a weekly account of goings on in my life involving one or more of the following:


armor: cosplay
amazon: health
adventure: lifestyle!

the three a's that I just came up with on the fly.  I already feel so accomplished.

So to start things off right lemme jump in and give this long winded explanation some actual content:

This past weekend I went to San Diego.  Although I do love spending time with my family the real reason I went home was to see my bestie (aforementioned Chris) partake in a burlesque.  Turns out he was the plant victim in an audience participation burlesque, whereupon the performer proceeded to undress said friend... he TOTALLY was game for it. lol!

Prior to his undressing, Chris and I met up with this AMAZING artist name Alex Julian and his beautiful fiance... we'll call her K and then I'll ask if she doesn't mind being named in my blog lol.  He was doing portraits on a Wacoal Tablet, which if you haven't seen is the cat's meow.  One look at it and I wish I could channel the art prowess of Jim Lee.

Alex was kind enough to do a portrait of me, and just as he was about to start chris suggested a wonder woman motif.  The end result, genius:

Yes I realize her wonder briefs aren't shaded in.  No I do not care because the overall is AMAZING.

And so begins my journey again.  I feel like a phoenix, but with more focus.  Time to get wonderful and downright fabulous ;)

Stay tuned...

Pause for a Cause

A good friend of mine came across these and though his thoughts may be elsewhere in regards to their significance, it goes without saying that as a woman it is easy to overlook the necessary.  Yes being a wonder woman is looking out for others, but we can't keep tabs on others if we don't keep tabs on ourselves.  So check yourself, so you won't  wreck yourself ;)

Greek Myth Remix

Diana's past is swirled in with greek mythology (yes i still have the mixer from my last post on my mind.  it was amazing people!).  She was brought to life by the gods, she's been blinded by medusa, had to rescue Ares' love child from the mother, had her sight restored to her by her by Athena, and been told "you're on your own," by Zeus. Mind you not in that order, but you get the idea.

Plus she's an AMAZON. i mean their origins are in greek mythology.  myth i say. because it is myth that a chick would cut off her boob.  seriously.  elective?  is shooting an arrow really that important?

but i digress.  recently i went to an event called comicaze in los angeles. it was the first of its kind and i have to say it was quite a wonderful experience. it was a mix of everything.  it was what comic con used to be before the networks took it over.

what i love about conventions, the small ones, is you really get to talk shop with other creators.  as i am putting together a comic book, i was really happy to be able to spend a few with other writers and get to know their process as well as what they are up to.  therefore i found it fitting that i came across a fellow writer with a fun take on greek mythology. one that i thought to share.

i met Tom at comickaze and apart from being a totally chill guy to talk with about working with artists, he also told me about his book, which is totally fitting for this blog.

"Hybrid Bastards"is a fun book about Hera getting all ticked at Zeus sleeping around with mortal honeys so she slips him a lil' something that makes him sleep around with ANYTHING for a full 24 hours.  eighteen years later, he starts paying the price for his hybrid bastards. see i used the title there.  clever, yes i am  :)

anyways with me a soon to be indie comic writer i think it's essential to support our own, and with this tying into mythology and with Wonder Woman's greek past, I thought this would be a great book to check out!  It's a lot of fun and no you don't need to be well versed in the classics.  Just watch an episode of "cheaters" on late night and you'll be fine.

so check it out and if you have any recommendations of comics under my radar, mythology ties optional, feel free to leave a comment here or hit me up on twitter!

It started with tea...

i have a huge day tomorrow, personally and professionally.  so i've been downing tea like nobody's business.  i start realizing as i'm downing said tea, that each bag comes with a little saying at the end of the string.  most of them encouraging, positive, but this last one struck a chord. it read:

"You will feel fulfilled when you do the impossible for someone else."

it made me realize that all the plans in the world could potentially fall through, plans that i imagined would create happiness, create fulfillment, and yet one simple act that isn't premeditated, one that is in its essence selfless would probably be the most fulfilling of all.  so i started scouring the internet, looking for something, someone that needed to be heard.

CAST LA is an organization that fights against human slavery and trafficking all over the world, but also makes the clear distinction of fighting such atrocities on our own soil as well.

Those are the voices i have failed to hear, those in my own country, in my own city.

May their mission motivate you to search out for others whose freedoms, rights and wants seem an impossibility.  we can all make the impossible happen for others, no matter how small.

in that way, we are all wonder women ;)