Waiting till 1st of January !!!

Are you waiting to start losing weight tomorrow? Monday? Saturday or January? Oh I get it; maybe you want to attend that wedding or Christmas party before you start losing weight. You want to make sure that you don’t lose out on any meal. Well that is very sad because with such attitude, you will never achieve anything on losing weight.

Just imagine the weights you will put on before then, losing 1 pound is very difficult let alone 1kg. No one can force you to lose weight, you have to first realize that it is necessary and understand that you must lose those weight.  If you don't realize that you are overweight, how will you lose weight.
As for me, the time is now or never. what about you?

What I have for breakfast

      
water melon smoothie      Spinach omelet (egg white and spinach)

wheat bread & peanut butter       Tuna & sweet corn

Excuses that makes you fatter

People make excuses whenever it comes to losing weight and this is why they still remain fat. I made such excuses myself; in fact mine was outrageous, funny and dumb…..lol

The truth is that the more I create excuses the more I got bigger. Some of these excuses are:

• It runs in the gene: everybody in my family is fat, well my brothers and some sisters are not big so please who is everybody? The truth that we get fat as a result of eating too much and burning little calorie, if you are from a family that eat nonstop, it is obvious that you will eat nonstop too and no one will realise or understand how much they eat. Researchers have found time and time again that overweight has to do with what goes into the mouth. So let’s leave gene out of this and tell ourselves the truth. In my case, I didn’t eat junk, just buried myself in rice. 
• I weigh so much because I have big bones:   big bones or not, if you are overweight you are and there is no two ways about it. I made this excuse; the stupid part of it being that I have some tiny bones (am wondering how my legs were able to carry me all these while).
• I am too busy to lose weight: maybe you have kids, busy job. If losing weight is as vital as your job then you will understand that being busy just isn’t an excuse. Overweight kills, do you want to take care of your children and forget yourself? If you die early because of obesity related illness, what will happen to them?
• Food makes me happy: seriously? Food? people eat too much because of greed and selfishness. I suggest you find a hobby
• I have always been big: so freaking what, change is good and for you to live a healthy life, get up and do something. I was very tiny growing up, from tiny to fat then overweight. Well am taking charge of my life in that area. The body expands, if you keep eating and eating, it will continue to expand. One can always lose weight.
• Healthy foods are expensive: if it’s expensive try staying diabetes or hypertension. They are very cheap, vegetables like Ugu, Okro, beans, fish, chicken just check out local farm markets.

The earlier you start the better for you. 

WEEK 1: Drink Up

Welcome to the first week of the habit challenge!!! Consider this as a fresh start and that things are about to change. If you follow this to the letter, your life will change for the best. You might have been losing weight and adding back all the pounds but this time we will keep it off. By the end of this challenge, you will see that you can do it; you will see the weight falling off like magic but remember you have to be truthful to yourself and do not sabotage your success.

This might not be one of  the new year resolutions that we all start every 1st January, by next year or even xmas, you will be looking glam. The fun part of this challenge is that, you don’t have to set any goal on weight loss but on changing those habits. You don’t have to drastically change your entire lifestyle but gradually they will all be gone. For those asking what am talking about, this is week 1 of the 15/16 weeks habit challenge, it is very simple, new and fresh challenge every week throughout the entire challenge. You can participate by leaving a comment on how you are getting on daily; I will also do the same as I am fully participating in the challenge.

So what is this week’s challenge? Drinking up, oh yeah WATER
This week will be all about fixing our intake of water. My mum introduced me to drinking water and since then I have perfected the act lol. I love water and it has helped me in losing weight and reducing lose skin however I do not drink too much in a short period of time. The general recommendation for an adult is a minimum of 8 to 12 glasses of water a day.  Here are some benefits of drinking water:

• It detoxifies the body
• It increases your metabolism
• Protects your organs etc

How to carry out this challenge: 

• What is your water source: me personally, I love tap water and that’s what I drink. You don’t necessarily have to buy bottle water but if you want to that's great.
• Get a good cup size, I love drinking straight from my bottle lol
• Decide how you prefer your water, am not a fan of cold water so I stick to fresh tap water. If you love cold water then drink it, don’t make excuse and not drink water. You can also add lime or lemon for some taste.
• Let it be a daily habit. I drink water first thing before brushing, at first it was weird but now it feels great. Before you eat, try drinking water first.  Don’t worry about going to the toilet often, its normal and your body adapt to it.
• Try and stay away from fizzy drinks, try ice tea its lovely. 

If you are having issues on this challenge do leave a comment below

Where is your water, drink up…

Calories in Garri (Eba)

Garri also known as Eba is very popular among Africans and Nigerians especially. Garri is made from cassava, after a going through some process the end product is called Eba/garri. Normally it can be smoked (lol) i.e. drinking it with water, sugar, peanut, coconut, or even milk. Also it can be eaten with soup. For someone trying to lose weight, you have to reduce how you eat garri/eba. When I say reduce, you can have it once a week and also in moderation. This is why:


Considering that the main source of eba/garri is cassava, 99% of it, is carbohydrate and 1 cup contains roughly 363 calories. So how many cups are in the wrap you eat daily, also calculate the calories in the soup or if you are drinking it, the calories in sugar, coconut, milk or peanut.  What your body does it that it stores excess carbs and remember we are trying to stay away from heavy carbs.

Calories in Indomie Noodles

This is very common and popular everywhere Nigerians live in the world. The best part is that it is very easy to cook and very tasty too. I don't really know but i have heard people say that indomie is not filing. But can you believe that the small pack of indomie noodles contain 342 calories, 46g of carbs, 13g of fat. so imagine the contents of the big pack, if you are trying to lose weight please stop eating noodles. 

Belly Fat

Belly fat, a lot of us worry about it because it is very obvious in our body. Thanks to body magic or shape wear, some women can hide it but what about men? What about those that no amount of body magic can hide theirs. I use to have a lot of belly fat but not anymore not that I now have six packs hahaahahaah. Like I pointed out that my only problem and why I became so fat was due to my huge appetite and love for rice. You might ask what is wrong with rice. Well let me tell you, everything is wrong with it because rice alongside fizzy drink, biscuits, bread, cake, pasta and refined sugars are the major causes of belly fat. When I cut down my rice intake, my tummy drastically went down. You can try cutting down any white food for 2 weeks and see it for

yourself. 

Over eating causes belly fat, whether you accept it or not. If you are stuffing food into your body, it will surely manifest. I though over eating was out of my control so I always found an excuse not to change the way I eat but guess what, you can control what goes into your body. It is very common and easy to over eat as well as getting belly fat. Stress can also cause one to over eat, sometimes when one is stressed; they turn to food for comfort.

You can't sit down and gain flat tummy, you have to be active. 30 minutes exercise daily, like 3 times a week is not too difficult if truly you desire a good body.

The only remedy to reducing belly fat is through changing your diet, lifestyle as well as exercising. Done spend time working out and then grabbing a box of cookie the next seconds, you are not fooling anyone but you.

Help with losing Arm Fat (AKA Christian Mother's Arm)

Losing arm fat is more difficult than losing thigh fat, popularly known as christian mothers arm (I wonder why). It is very impossible for diet alone to beat arm fat but you must incorporate a lot of things in order to beat it. My arm fat use to be bigger than the picture above (internet picture), in fact it was another thigh (lol). If you go to my Facebook page and look at my picture, you will realize that it has done down. i will upload more pictures with time so you guys can see for yourself.

Below are some of the things i did to combat my arm fat:

1. Diet: your diet must be on point, meaning having a clean diet. Your meal should contain low saturated fat, slowest digesting carb like legumes, protein and vegetable. 
2. Cardio: regularly do cardio exercise for 30mins, lets say 3 times a week
3. Use dumb bells for exercise, a lot of ladies are scared of dumbbells but they are my best tool for working my arms and no you wont be like a man using it. 
4. Push ups are great as well. it has really help me in burning arm fat. i challenged myself to 50 push ups for 30 days and you wont believe the result i got.
5. Water, water and water: drink up, by increasing your metabolism, you burn more burn and also flush out toxins from your body. Water is very vital in order to keep yourself hydrated. 

There is really no short cut to getting a perfect arm. If you want to wear tank top, be prepared to work hard.

Pounded Yam and weight loss

I get people asking me if they can loss weight while eating pounded yam. The answer to that question is a very might and biggest NO. If you cannot do without it just eat it once a week but in moderation. You can't eat your cake and still have it people.

pounded yam is very high in calories and it contributes to big tummy. You cant be eating pounded
yam and also want a flat tummy, like in your widest dreams.

Lets assume you have the above picture of pounded yam and soup to eat. An average size of slice yam is 130kcal. Ask yourself: 

• how many slices of yam make up a wrap of pounded yam?
• Add the calories in meat, palm oil, seasonings and every thing in the soup.

If you really want to lose weight, consider ditching your pounded yam

Nigerian Mentality on food

A lot of people will really be pissed about this post but its the truth. i know what an saying because i am a Nigerian. We love eeeeeee food. We are constantly eating in Nigeria. So much festival and ceremonies.You can deny it or sit down and criticize me all you want but i think it is best to realize this and try to change it.
We always relate 'food to enjoyment' (If we are eating, then we are enjoying) which is very very
wrong, terrible and sad. its so serious that even kids are thinking the same way too. some parents believes that taking their kids to fast food daily to have meat pies, ice creams and the rest are a good way of having fun. they have forgotten that kids can enjoy going to the park or playing games they love without thinking of food. the issue is that these kids has also come to believe that going out and eating is the only way of having fun called ENJOYMENT. This mentality has left most kids obese or unfit. Our parent does not understand that losing weight is hard or what fat kids go through in school, from name callings, bullying and having no friends at all. These kids resolve to having food as their comfort. They eat when they are angry and  lonely. Emotional eating is common, i use to resolve to food when I am down but now i have realized that i have control over food not the other way round. We should eat to fuel my body, and not because we see food or have the money to buy the food.

Some so called high and might in the society also relate food to enjoyment. They have totally forgotten what eating balance diet is all about. Eating balance diet is not about consuming a plate full of meat or pastries. Having money is not an avenue to abuse food or your body. You see many of our men with extreme pot bellies and are proud of it. like seriously!!!

Adults have the mentality that going out to eat and having some drink means real enjoyment. My people, you don't have to eat every food in a party or finish a plate of food given to you just to have a feeling of enjoyment. People die young daily, most which are associated with what we eat not witches from the village, am sorry. Too much food is not good.

With our weather in Nigeria, a lot of people should be losing weight but we are not. why? because we eat a lot and move less. My weight loss journey started in Nigeria and i did very well because we have wonderful weather. The bottom line is, what your body need not want.
Please lets help ourselves and our future generations, if its hard for you to lose weight imagine how hard it will be for a fat kid to lose weight.