Tag: Healthy living

Everyday People · Family · Health · Life · Parenting

All in a brisk walk…

jacquelineobyikocha7 Comments

This morning I woke up with a foggy feeling in my head and it was as if I hadn’t slept at all. I felt lazy, and just wanted to continue lying on my bed, but I knew that doing so would simply set the wrong tone for my day and literally muttering ‘mind over matter, mind over matter’ I basically cajoled myself to crawl out of bed and take my antidote – which is to go out for a brisk walk, to get some fresh air and hopefully feel more alive in the process.

Photo by Juan Pablo Serrano Arenas on Pexels.com

My brisk walk can involve various things depending on my mood, either listening and humming to music that I enjoy with an occasional shake and a jig to accentuate the notes that hit home, listening to a podcast or any talk that piques my interest, venting in my head and going over an argument that I had with hubby and realizing that maybe I should have used a better punchline than I had; mentally deciding to save a punchline and use it to drive home my point, going over my to-do list in my head, making a shopping list, thinking of random stuff and just watching people go about their business…

I had almost come to end of my walk when an idea popped into my head out of the blues and I was so excited at the thought that I made a mental note not to forget to include it in my soon to be executed plans. Right as I turned into the bend leading to our apartment block, I ran into a young dad and a toddler – who by my assessment is barely more that 24 months – attempting to play football, and I slowed my pace to absorb the scene.

The man kept a few paces apart and kicked the ball towards his son. It’s either because the baby was wholly new to the game or wasn’t sure what to do; he missed it not once but four times. After each miss, his dad patiently walked towards him, picked the ball and kicked it again. I was silently rooting in my head for the little one and just as soon as I thought that he would miss it yet again, his little foot finally connected with the ball and he kicked it back with gusto. The ring of his delight and joy from his accomplishment had me applauding both of them and a huge smile made its way to my face.

A brisk walk of 40 minutes not only brought me such unexpected fullness, it drew home several pointers and set a positive tone for my day. During my grudgingly taken walk, I got inspired, I saw love and patience, I saw resilience and joy, I became energized, I gained more clarity and buzz that I wouldn’t have found in my cup of coffee. These little things we often overlook, they are the things that matter.

How is your week going so far?

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Health · Lifestyle · Wellness

4 Things That Are Messing Up Your Immune System

jacquelineobyikocha5 Comments

Energy is one of those things that we are constantly chasing after in life. We need energy to concentrate at work. We need energy to keep up with the kids. We need energy to keep our relationships and love life healthy. Energy is what keeps us moving and if you’re feeling constantly tired and sluggish, then it’s important to know how you can replenish your energy and get those levels soaring back to their best. Before you can understand how you can boost your energy and repair any cracks in your immune system, you need to understand that our energy levels are not something that is passive. The choices that you make from food choices to hours you choose to sleep have a direct effect on your energy levels. Those social media buffs that are constantly perky and peachy? They’re likely living a life that ensures that they have bags of energy to work with. And you? When you’re feeling tired, sluggish and can barely function, that depletion is a direct result of your own choices.

Tired, Stressed, Fatigue

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Of course, there are times in life that the reason for our depleted energy levels isn’t a choice. Chronic illness, stress and depression all contribute to low energy levels, and it can be very hard to boost your energy levels when your immune system is being attacked. Medications can drain your energy and when your body is fighting as hard as possible against an illness or infection, it’s companies like https://www.herabiolabs.com that are going to be the rescuers rather than a concoction of ginger and cayenne pepper. Science is currently developing in leaps and bounds when it comes to medication and understanding the diseases that hit us, compromising our immune systems and making us feel weak. In the meantime, though, we need to do everything possible to work on our bodies and our health, so that even when illness does inevitable hit we can be ready to fight it. We have the choice to create the energy that we live with; whether that is low or high. If you can feel yourself flagging, ask yourself whether you are ready to fight for your body to work in the right way. It doesn’t take much; a few changes a day could change your life in a good way. Below, you can find some ways you are draining your own energy levels and how you can get your energy levels at their best again.

Stress. Earlier on, I mentioned stress as a reason that we can feel low in energy. When our mental activity is at a height – ie, when stressed and overthinking things – it can be very difficult to pull it back. It can take an awful lot of energy for your brain to comprehend what’s going on. Long periods where we feel stressed can leave us very fatigued and bogged down, and this is all created with brain power. It’s called burn out, and those who have suffered it before will know exactly how draining it is to deal with. The first thing to do when you’re feeling sick, tired and run down, is to work out whether your thoughts are running away with you – literally.

Communication. For the most part, communication is a good thing. Talking to people that we love about how we feel can never really be a bad thing, can it? However, in this world of hyped technology and constant need to talk to people and check social media, you are draining your batteries faster than an iPhone. Sometimes, taking a step back and quite literally switching off our modes of communication can make a massive difference to the way that we feel. Blue light technology has an awful lot to answer for, and it’s important for you to put down the phone and the tablet and look at the world around you for a moment. Recharge your batteries to be able to work at the maximum efficiency available.

Light bulb, current

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Saying ‘Yes’. Are you a ‘yes man’? A yes man is someone who will say yes to everything. Overtime? Yes. Extra work? Yes. Extra time at the gym to get fit? Yes. Sometimes, saying yes is not a good thing. Being a people pleaser can drain your energy as fast as that ‘yes’ escaping your lips. It’s lovely to want to help everyone, but it’s also exhausting, and it can do you no favours to say yes to everyone around you. You need to remember that you have needs and you need to come first, sometimes. The last thing you need to know here is that it’s absolutely fine to say NO once in a while. If people get offended by that, you need to breeze on by and ignore it; you are important, and you should be remembering that you come first.

Sleep. Those who lack energy often find themselves unable to sleep, as well. Sleep replenishes those stores, much like a SIMS character; when the bar is empty, you cannot function. A lot of people nowadays struggle to get more than a few hours of sleep every night, but it’s so important for your basic functions. Sleep helps your brain to work through the day to day stresses and issues that you are battling against. Without it, you cannot work your issues through and they weight in your mind the next day. It’s a nasty cycle of stressful thoughts and lack of sleep and low energy. The way out of it? Any of these natural sleep remedies can help you to switch off and refresh.

There are literally hundreds of things that you can do to boost your immune system, but ultimately it’s going to come down to the choices that you want to make to make yourself feel good again. You matter and if you want to move forward in life feeling whole and healthy, your energy levels have got to matter to you, too. Take the time to fix them, before all you’re doing is not fixing them.

Health · Wellness

The Biggest Danger To Your Health

jacquelineobyikocha7 Comments

Most of us will have had an infection at some point in our lives. Things like ear infections and chest infections are fairly common and shouldn’t cause you too much of a problem most of the time. You’ll probably just have to take some antibiotics for a while and you’ll be fine. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg and infections can be a lot more dangerous than you realize.

What Is An Infection?

Teamwork, Chain Action, Flow chart

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Understanding what exactly an infection is can help you to avoid getting them. The basic definition of an infection is the reaction that your body has when a foreign object of some kind invades it. Once that pathogen gets into your body and starts to multiply, you’ll get an infection. There are all sorts of pathogens that can cause infections including bacteria, fungus or viruses. You’re constantly coming into contact with pathogens in everyday life so avoiding them completely isn’t always possible. They can get into your body through skin contact, bodily fluids, inhaling airborne particles or touching objects that other people with infections have touched.

There are a few differences in pathogens that you should be aware of. Viruses are the fastest spreading form of infection and they are the cause of a lot of the more common illnesses that you find in day to day life. The common cold and warts, for example, are caused by viruses. However, there are a lot more serious conditions that are caused by viruses like meningitis or Hepatitis C. The major difference between a virus and a bacteria is that a bacteria can survive longer without a host. That means you’re more likely to pick up a virus from another person. Whereas a bacteria can easily be transferred from objects that have been touched by others, or through airborne particles.

Bacteria can also survive in almost any environment including extreme temperatures and some can even withstand a huge amount of radiation. That means that you are in danger of picking up bacteria from almost anywhere. The biggest misconception that people have about bacteria, however, is that they’re all bad. Bacteria actually play a very important role in the body and having the right amount of good bacteria is key to being healthy. This misunderstanding of bacteria has led to a huge rise in antibacterial cleaning products that kill all bacteria, good and bad, and that can cause health problems in itself. Researchers have linked this increased focus on killing all bacteria to a rise in allergies because small amounts of bacteria help to train the immune system.

The Worst Infections

While some infections can be solved with a few weeks of antibiotics, there are some far more serious ones. Encephalomalacia is often described as a pathological softening of the brain but that’s not always the best description. It’s often caused by a head injury or a stroke but it can be caused by a serious infection. It causes serious damage to the brain which can lead to a whole host of symptoms including loss of coordination, sleepwalking, memory loss or mood swings. The worst thing about this condition is that there aren’t really any treatments for it at the moment so if you get an infection that leads to Encephalomalacia, the changes can be for life.

Another serious infection that you’ve probably heard of is influenza or the Spanish flu. A lot of people misunderstand what the flu is and think that it’s just a really bad cold but it’s far more serious than that. A normal case of flu won’t put you in any danger and most people are going to get it a couple of times in their life, but there are far more dangerous forms of flu that can be life-threatening.

How To Avoid Infections

health, washing hand, avoiding infection

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While it’s not that likely that you’ll catch some of the worst infections out there, it could still happen. That’s why it’s important that you take the necessary steps to prevent infections. Good hygiene is the number one way to avoid infections and it’s easy to keep up with. Washing your hands after you’ve come into contact with anything that could be carrying infections is the most obvious way to keep yourself safe. Cuts and scratches are another big cause of infection if you don’t handle them properly. Even if it’s just a small cut, it’s important that you clean it out with antibacterial solution and cover it so no pathogens can get inside.

If you want to stay on top of your health, it’s important that you are aware of the causes of infections and know how to prevent them.

This is a collaborative post.
food · Health · Lifestyle

Feel Good Food For Everyday

jacquelineobyikocha4 Comments

Healthy Food, Fresh Foods, Fruits and Vegetables, Grocery, Cooking, Lifestyle, Organic, Raw Foods, Good Food

Food is absolutely fundamental to our lives. We eat every day, cooking different meals, sourcing new foods at grocery stores, trying recipes from around the world. Food brings us together around the table but it can also provide a moment of solitary bliss in the form of a quick one-pot meal alone at lunchtime.

The flavours we go for and the choices we make aren’t just about enjoyment though. What we eat affects every aspect of our lives from our health to our weight and from the money we spend to the times we can save. Food can give us momentary joy, later replaced by frustration standing on the bathroom scales, but it can also help us to get the healthiest body we can.

Understanding foods and the benefits they bring is key to having a healthy, balanced diet that takes in everything from a bit of chocolate here and there to a huge bowl of steamed veg whenever you like. These are the foods that make us feel good every day.

Steamed Vegetables

A completely unsurprising first entry: steamed vegetables are fantastic for your body and will always make you feel good. You can choose from a wide range of flavours so that you can easily eat something completely different every day.

A good rule to go by is to choose from a wide range of colours when you decide which vegetables to eat. Dark leafy greens tend to contain lots of iron, carrots with their vibrant orange contain vitamin A and pulses like peas and bean contain plenty of fibre and protein to keep you fuller for longer.

Steaming vegetables is a good way to cook them as you don’t lose any of the vitamins or minerals to the cooking water. It is also significantly better than frying or roasting because this method doesn’t need any fat.

Sauerkraut

Another way to enjoy vegetables is to pickle and ferment them, as in the case with sauerkraut. The fermenting agent is a bacteria that is particularly good for your gut, allowing you to take in more vitamins and minerals and making you feel generally more healthy.

As a probiotic, sauerkraut does seem to help people who need IBS relief as it improves the functionality of the gut. Though it’s often unclear what causes IBS in each individual, it does seem that an imbalance in your gut flora is a possible cause of the discomfort you experience. Sauerkraut and other foods like kimchi and miso help to restore the balance by introducing new ‘good bacteria’ which allows your gut to function properly again.

One final reason to eat sauerkraut is simple: it’s delicious.

Dark Chocolate

Though milk and white chocolate are often full of sugar and fat, dark chocolate is a bit more forgiving and a little bit each day can be good for you. Lots of people find that dark chocolate is an acquired taste and if you are used to eating the high fat and sugar stuff, anything about 70% cocoa is going to be a surprise with its depth and bitterness. However, if you do like it, there are lots of reasons to love it.

Dark chocolate can help to lower your blood pressure, improve your eyesight and even help to increase your metabolism. Plus as it is sweet once you get past the bitterness, it can be the perfect alternative to a calorific dessert your main meal. Dark chocolate has also been found to help with symptoms of depression, lower cholesterol and seems to help with cognition too.

So if you are feeling stressed, trying to study for an exam and wanting to lose weight, dark chocolate might just help you on your way.

Fruit

Though people with diabetes will need to watch out for eating too much high sugar fruit, for most people, eating fruit is a great way to pile in on lots of vitamins and minerals. Citrus fruits like oranges, lemons and limes are ideal for gaining vitamin C. This is important because vitamin C is shown to increase the absorption of iron, making citrus fruits the ideal companion for green leafy veggies. If you are feeling fatigued or you are trying to work out harder at the gym, up your citrus fruits to really make a difference.

Fruit, like veg, is also a good way to increase the amount of fibre you eat. This will help your digestive system stay regular as well as keep you fuller for longer. Lots of fruits are also good for helping to increase your liquid intake. Though drinking a glass of water is always a good idea, fruit is a simple way to introduce more liquid into your diet, keeping you well hydrated throughout the day.

Flax Seeds

There is a lot of research into the benefits of flax seeds including whether they might help to prevent cancers, lung disease and cardiovascular disease. While this research has not provided any conclusive evidence just yet, there is a wealth of optimism that the flax seed could be ideal for improving your health.

What it certainly does contain is plenty of fibre (a theme is developing with fibrous foods!) as well as omega 3, an essential fatty acid and lignans, which are what researchers are looking into as they may help to protect against cancer.

The foods we choose to eat are vital for our health and well being and finding the best foods can be difficult. As the science around what we should eat changes all the time, it can be confusing to follow the best advice as it changes so frequently.

One thing you can do is listen to your body. Think about how you feel after eating certain foods. Do you feel good and energised? Do you feel happy? Do you regret what you ate? All of these questions will help to indicate the types of foods that you should be going for. And if you are really committed to your quest, keeping a diary will help to isolate the foods that really bring you joy.

Lifestyle

Just A Teeny Update

jacquelineobyikocha17 Comments

It’s been slow, but it’s been steady. I have whittled my excess kilos down by 5kg – 11pounds through mindfulness.

Trying to practice what I’m preaching about health and wellness is paying off bit by bit.

Healthy living, measuring tape, weightloss

Remember that a lifestyle change need not be drastic. It can be baby steps heading in the right direction. Keep moving…

Poetry/Poems

Hold It!

jacquelineobyikocha4 Comments

I seek my contentment and peace without apologies because it can’t be purchased and it’s so easy to lose in today’s world.

Contentment, Meditation, Healing, Life, Joy, Pain, Letting Go, Release, Human, Emotions, Feelings, Poetry, Healthy Living

when you’ve been pierced
by the blunt edge of pain
you will know that
the sharp sweetness of joy
is far better to hold
close to your chest.

©

Jacqueline

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Parenting

Keeping Your Mojo Throughout All Parenting Difficulties You Might Face

jacquelineobyikocha15 Comments

No one said raising children was easy. However, when your child looks at you and tells you they love you throughout your life, you know instinctually that raising children is worth it. However, that’s not to say the positive benefits of being a parent aren’t earned. They’re earned more than any life achievement could be. Climbing Mount Everest can look like a lounging nature trail walk compared to raising a human being to the best of your ability, and hoping they turn out sensibly, wise and happy.

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Flickr

Part of being a great parent is keeping your ‘mojo’ levels up to the point where you can happily steer them through all the difficulties that occur through life. Mojo can be defined as your energy levels, your ability to be open, engaged and magnetic, the ability to go to sleep well and not have to worry too much about your day to day responsibilities because you’re confident you can complete them.

To someone lacking mojo, this can sound too good to be true, and impossible to keep up all the time. That’s true, there’s no way anyone can be happy all of the time, but they can certainly keep a good attitude most of the time.

Here’s how:

Make Time For Recreation

Recreation and taking a break, with or without your children is a big step on the road to sustaining your mojo. You have to keep updated with your social links, make time for silly entertainment, and allow yourself to be an utter goofball around your kids. It’s these moments that make all the ‘admin’ of life worth living, so be sure to keep them numerous.

Release The Burdens On Your Mind

Over time, unfulfilled obligations or life stresses take their toll on your mind, and a low-level feeling of despair can gestate within you because of this. Be sure to try alternative methods around these issues.

For example, if you’re getting divorced, you might like to try divorce by meditation to cool the entire emotionally-charged process. If you have difficulties with your children’s behavior at school, you might like to try and get to the source and root of the issue by visiting child behavioral therapists, as opposed to scolding them and hoping that works. Parenthood is never easy, but it’s twice as difficult with a heavy mind.

Eat Healthily

Eating a healthy diet is an absolute must when fulfilling a job so demanding as being a parent. Your children can take all energetic reserves out of you by the end of the day, and if you’re not giving your body all of the nutrients it deserves, you’re likely to crash sooner rather than later. Be sure to stay on top of healthy eating habits, and you’ll find an extra reserve of energy you never knew you could access.

Parenthood is the hardest job among jobs. Even trained and battle-hardened soldiers will shudder at the thought of raising another human being successful. If you’re doing a relatively good job, well done you! You deserve to be remembered as an incredible parent. Just be sure to stay on top of your health, mentally, physically and spiritually. In doing so, you’ll become an even better figurehead of the family. Good luck!

A Click A Day

Homemade Juices and Smoothies – A Click A Day.

jacquelineobyikocha17 Comments

 

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One of the decisions I made earlier this year is to reduce as much as possible, my families consumption of fizzy pops, KoolAids, Caprisun, Tang and all such drinks and to replace them with fresh, healthier options.

Initially, it was not an easy sell to the children and Dear Himself.  I heard a lot of moans and groans to start with, but it caught on right  after the first trial run. Now, we bulk purchase a variety of fruits, juice them, mix them, make smoothies out of different blends and bottle to freeze.

The children participate in doing this, from washing the fruits, to peeling, to juicing with the electric juicer….

The process is fun since they get to eat the sweet pulp from the fruits and to label their hard work. Each school morning, a bottle of frozen homemade juice is tossed into their lunch box (it retains its freshness from freezing and would have melted by break time) and they bring back the bottles, rinse it out with warm water and reuse.

The interesting thing is that when we eat out these days, the kids compare the drinks they get outside to the one that we make at home and their verdict is that our’s is better 😉

How do you get your children to assist in the house? I love to learn from others.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

out-of-the-silent-breath 2

Family · Mundane Monday · Photographs

Freshness…Mundane Monday

jacquelineobyikocha29 Comments

Trablogger says, this is is a challenge created to find beauty in almost everything. The challenge is simple : find beauty in everyday mundane things, capture the beauty and upload the photographs.

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I love the crunchy taste of fresh vegetables and fruits as well as its beautiful, attractive colours.

It’s taken years to arrive at a point where my last two kids can nibble at them. While I sit with them, they always eat it like people who are swallowing bitter pills and once my back is turned, it turns to selective picking and tossing.

What’s with kids and veggies?

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha