The Chronicles of a VBG (Voluptuous Brown Gurl)

This week, I finally got my itinerant wings back  and I'm in Vegas, baby!  This is my first time being out west.  In fact I never even considered traveling to  Las Vegas until I saw  The Hangover, truly one of funniest movies ever! My very first blog post as Voluptuous Brown Gurl focused on my new lifestyle choice to become vegan.  I know right? Shortly after I started blogging "the struggle" to eat meat or even define meat (fish is flesh therefore it is meat) set in and I all but abandoned it. Soon after, my blog evolved into what it is today - an offshoot of my journal, the written expression of  my joys, trials and frustrations. It has proven to be especially therapeutic with the losses that ensued over the 6 months following my first post. When I lost the job that I’d despised for most of 9 years I spent there, I knew right away it was a blessing, even if it came disguised as the challenge of securing steady income. I knew FINALLY that I was being dragged, k

I don't remember a time when I wasn't a voluptuous gurl. I was a chubby kid who grew into a rubensque woman. But  I also  happen to be one book who should rarely be judged by the cover  within the last year I completed both a 10k and half marathon. With those accomplishments behind me, I was getting bored with walking and well running just isn't in my immediate future, if ever. So at the end of June I began taking Body Pump, a weight lifting/training class. Now this class and I have a history, I first took it years ago when the Wunderkind was barely out of diapers. I credit this class for getting me through my separation and divorce with my sanity intact not to mention helping me tone and trim almost 40 pounds to boot. After I left the fitness club that initially offered it, I looked for the class again throughout most of the last decade to no avail until recently. I was intent on taking some aqua aerobics classes ( another favorite if the class is not senior soci

Which part of the body works hardest and gets the least love??   FEET , of course They carry us everywhere yet we mistreat and hide them in smelly, sometimes ill formed shoes.  Too often the only rest these weary ones get is during sleep. As summer comes to a close, here are VBG's ideas for pampering, gear and maintenance for your piggies. Of all the body treatments, I love none more than pedicures .  I didn't come to this realization soon enough. It just happens that a decade ago, I started a new job and I sat next to this really sweet and sorta wild gurl, Be. For reasons unknown, she found it incredulous that I'd never had a pedicure and was relentless in her mission to make sure my untouched feet in the "spa sense" did not remain so for long.  Just to get her off my back, I acquiesced and have never looked back. For a bit we were getting monthly pedis but the arrival of little people (her), crunched schedules (us), and a move across sta

Other Voluptuous Brown Gurls!! photo courtesy of The Washington Post Definitely not in the way that men (or some women) love brown gurls but in the way that just being around a group of engaging, unpretentious, sweet women warms your soul - like when you decide to go to church on Sunday (and don't normally go) but that preacher nails the message you need to weather this week's storm. This weekend I had the pleasure of being invited to a barbeque of a good friend. I've been there before, the hostess is an awesome cook and a true treasure, and met most of  those ladies before but this year there was a genuine sense of camaradie that I just don't recall feeling  before. Perhaps the pouring rain that forced us all into close quarters also aided in the shedding any extra layers of aloofness or perhaps...it was just me.  Whatever the cause I am ecstatic to reap the effect.  They were we - some thin, some thick, natural haired and permed, omnivorous and vegan, some so f