Is Healthy Living Expensive? (Blogtober Day 4)

Hello world!

I was listening to the radio last week and it was about the report of the rate of cardiovascular diseases in the country. The rate at which cardiovascular diseases is increasing saddens me. I had so many questions in my mind and I wanted to ask

-What do people eat nowadays?

-Are people not exercising well? Because I see people “jogging” every dawn.

-Is healthy living expensive?

Have we ever ask ourselves, why the rate of diseases is increasing?

Maybe healthy living is expensive??? Have you ever thought of that?

Take for instance, you want to live healthily. What do you do?👇

-You want to stay fit, so you decided to be hitting the gym. You need to pay for gym membership.

-You need to buy fruits and vegetables regularly, so you spend money to buy more of them.

-Some buy supplements (which is usually not compulsory to live healthily.

These and many other reasons are why you think living healthily is expensive.

What if you don’t have enough money but you are hungry. What do you do?

You go to a food vendor to buy a bowl of rice without meat or any other form of protein. What are you lacking here?

Anyway, before we weigh the two, tell me which one is more expensive.

Investing in healthy living or living unhealthily which results in all sorts of expensive medical problems and treatment?

Let me show you three simple ways to live with the goal of being healthy without breaking the bank.

Use the internet to workout

On the internet, we have so many workout resources that you can follow. Working out in a gym is not a bad idea, but if you don’t have the money, don’t stress yourself.

Buy wholesale/bulk

I will write a post about grocery shopping soon but in the meantime, buy in bulk. This is a cheaper way of buying healthy foods. Buy at wholesale price and you might be saving a lot of money.

Plan your meal

If you plan your meals weekly, you know your impulse buying of junk food will decrease.

Let’s Chat: Do you think healthy living is expensive? Why/Why not?

5 Healthy Tips I Am Adapting During the Long Vacation

Adore Me inspired this idea but all thoughts are entirely mine.

Hello world.

Can you believe we are almost ending the first half of the year? Does that sound shocking to you?

School was out a few weeks ago. I am very excited to finally have this break. School was a little bit overwhelming, but I am glad it’s finally over.

A few weeks before school was out, I wrote down some goals for the long vacation. One of the goals was to live a healthy life and to be fit.

Here are five healthy tips I would be adapting during the long vacation

1.       Have enough sleep

I was sleep deprived before the semester ended. I decided to use this break to catch up with some sleep and adapt the habit of having enough sleep. On the JUMP website, I wrote about steps in getting a good night sleep. Read the article here

2.       Drink a glass of water when awake before eating

I remember in 2015, I was learning the habit of drink water as soon as I wake up. Unfortunately, I could not continue with that habit. One of the health I have made for the long vacation was to continue such practice. Also, to make it more fun I have watched videos, read posts about infused water. Infused water is adding cut fruits and natural herbs to water in a bottle or container. I am eager to try these methods of drinking more water.

3.       Morning pages

I have read in some posts and watched some videos on morning pages. Morning pages is time set aside to write whatever comes into your mind in a book for 3 minutes. This should be the first thing to do when you wake up. Study shows that this practice increases our creativity and sometimes helps us to remember dreams we had the previous night. My goal is to do practice things to increase my creativity since I am write poems, stories and blog posts.

4.       Visit the gym

Source

I have never visited the gym before. Never in my life. I made a goal to visit a gym in town to make my workout more productive and help me reach my fitness goal like toning some parts of my body.

Do not know what to wear to the gym? Do not worry, Adore Me has got you covered. They have a wide range of beautiful and comfortable workout clothes. Check their workout clothes here. 

Source

5.       Spend more time outdoors

I am a dedicated indoor person, but I promised myself to spend more time outdoors. I have decided to attend more events and sit outside more.

Is there any health tip you would want me to try? What help tips have you adapted during the school break?

Health and Fitness Plans

Hi lovely darlings! How is your day going? I am doing some adjustments. Classes have started, you know.
All right, sooooo, ermm.....Yes! Today is about health and fitness plans and when I say health and fitness plans, I mean, how to put your health in order, how to stay fit during the school year, how to stay alive with the beach. Oops! Forget the last sentence. I think I have to cross out that.

.........how to stay alive with the beach.

Crossed out! Yeah.

Speaking of beaches, have you visited one recently?

As a tertiary institution student, we get very very very busy, we forget about keeping fit. And funnily enough, we do not forget about our social life (hmph. Yeah, right!). PLEASE change! Your health is very important!
Ok, so now moving on to health and fitness plans, let's talk about how to stay fit and healthy and active and fabulous and....and.....

1. Workout in the morning.

Waking up early adds credit to your life. Trust me. We always cry for 30 hours a day (which I think is a bad idea, though I support a day between Saturday and Sunday). Waking up an hour earlier would give you extra time. Wake up early, workout, at least 10 minutes and you will feel alive to kick the day's challenges.

2. Water should be your friend

Darlings, a tip for you. As soon as you wake up, drink water. I did not say sip water, I meant, DRINK!  GULP! water. I know it's hard, I'm still struggling with that one, but studies says it cleanses your system. Apart from the early morning therapy, frequently drink water to prevent dehydration. Have water in your bag when you go to class.

3. Walk. Walk. Walk
Some people dread walking (I exempt people who have health problems with walking). Walking to class, to the market, is good for your health. Walking is great. Ditch the bus, taxi, car and walk.

4. Eat healthy meals.

Plan to buy healthy ingredients to cook healthy meals that are high in iron and vitamins.

5. Smile.
It's that simple.
And think positively! Do not worry, reduce stress, have fun and also do good!

By the way, what's your favourite workout?

My Fitness Routine: What's In My Gym Bag

Good morning everyone, hope you are having a great day. It has been raining here most of the time in the city, since we are in the raining season (The Wet Season). That makes it difficult for us to work out outdoors, so it's either you do it indoors or go to a nearby gym.

Whether I work out at the gym, indoors or at the beach (outdoors), I carry my gym bag with me. I'm sharing what I normally put in my gym bag.

My gym bag is a gift from a friend. She had it from a dance class. It is a drawstring bag and it's purple (My favourite colour)

Water bottle. This is very essential. My water bottle or mineral water is in my gym bag to always stay hydrated.

Notebook (Journal) + pen. I get inspiration wherever I am. I jot down inspired ideas about anything whether it is about fitness or even anything

Face towels. To clean up sweat

Phone + headphones. My phone has my workout playlist, a timer fitness apps.

Comb/hair brush: To be able to dress my hair after working out

Beauty bag which contains my fragrance, wipes, pain killers, blade, hair elastics, lip balm

Snacks. To feed on when I am done

What do you keep in your gym bag?

PS. To read more about my fitness, you can read about my workout routine and how to make abeduro juice.
More about my fitness would be coming right up. Watch out for my workout routine (The #BonusAir Edition)

My Fitness Routine: How to make Abeduro Juice

Abeduro juice/smoothie

Good afternoon! Hope you are all feeling great! Yes! I know it's afternoon, and that's when most of us feel"some way". Don't worry, night would soon come around to go and lie on your comforter-your bed.

Well, some time ago, I wrote my fitness routine and promised to write a post on how to make the abeduro juice /smoothie. I'm about to give you the recipe this afternoon. I did not forget. In my planner, I wrote that I would write this post for you.

Mostly, our elderly people advise us to drink it. They believe it serves as a natural blood donor.
Abeduro or Solanum incanum, scientifically called,  is some little green peas that are sold in every local market. Their nutritional value is very high. It contains iron, calcium, magnesium, vitamins A, C, D, E6 and other minor minerals. You can add it to your meals while cooking.

Ingredients
Fresh Abeduro
Water
Milk

Method

• First, remove the branch from the fruit and wash them thoroughly

• Pour it into a saucepan with water and put it on fire

• Boil for about 5-7 minutes for it to cook

• Sieve it out but don't throw the water away
• Pour the boiled fruits into the earthenware pot(ansaka) and grind or you could use a blender

• Pour the ground /blended substance into a plastic sieve and drain the liquid juice out of it. You can now pour the previous filtered water into the sieve to help drain more water, until it remains chaff .

• Sieve the juice again into a cup /jar/bowl to remove any hidden chaff
• Your juice is served.

Some of us do not like the bitter taste behind it, like me, so you can add a little milk to the juice. Do not add too much milk since it could give you gas in your stomach and the most important thing is the abeduro juice, but not the milk.

Your juice is served

A cup is enough for a serving. It can also be taken one in the morning and one in the evening before bed.

I take this juice twice a day, most especially before my workout. It provides more blood cells and it's very healthy.

Do you have any other juice you would like to share with me. How has abeduro juice blessed your life?

Stay sweet

My Fitness Routine (Workout)

I have been interested in fitness but not as much as I am now. I don't know where the inspiration and motivation came from and I did not have a resolution to work out because I would brush that aside and blame time for not being enough  (my best lousy excuse). But it is fun to be interested in fitness.
My fitness and workout routine is simple, does not cost, fun and motivating. Without motivation, determination and reason, trust me, you would quit!

Today, we would take a look at my workout routine, since today is World Health Day.

Before Workout

• An hour before I work out, I get some food into my stomach, like bananas, or bread with groundnut paste. Then I drink abeduro juice  (The recipe would come later on the blog)

• I make sure my gym bag has all my workout essentials. I normally do that the night before.
• I get hydrated, by drinking 1-2 cups of water.
• I wear a sports bra, then put on a simple old t-shirt. My favourite is my  London 2012 Olympics t-shirt. Then I dig my legs into my sports shorts or some cool tracksuit bottoms or just some three quarters length trousers. Next, I put on some good sports shoes.

• I'd like to fix my hair in a ponytail to prevent it from falling into my face when I run or do some squats.
• I also wear a digital wrist watch, you know, to check time.

During Exercise

• Before I do any form of exercise, I do some couple of warm up exercises like walking, jumping, jacks, hip rotation, jogging slowly in place, ankle rotations etc.
• The exercises I love to do is cardio (jogging, running), dancing, and a body toning workout.

• I sometimes use apps like the 7 Minute Workout App, Track Runner, Run Walk Pro etc to exercise.[

• I've created an upbeat workout playlist on my phone so I'd put on my headphones to get motivated and entertained while I exercise.

• While exercising, I sometimes time myself to see how far I've gotten in a given time.

After exercise

• I need to cool down after exercise, so I gradually slow down
• The next thing I do is hydrate. Water! I need you!
• I do some stretches. Study shows that a stretch during your cool down helps to relax your muscles and restore them to their resting length and improve flexibility.

Now, it's time for makeup and my hair

• This part is normally done when I know I can't get back home but need to get to work.
• I wash my face or use wipes
• I redo my hair, that is, if it's in a mess
• I curl my brows and put on some lip-gloss or balm
• I take some snacks and chum! I chew.

Are you involved in a fitness /workout routine? Tweet me your fitness /workout plan or wear with the hashtag #WorkoutWithNoel