Gym Hack: The Boy at the Gym
What motivates you to go to the gym? For me, I think it's Ed and mainly guilty conscience for eating all that moist, delish Thai curry with Basmati rice and not applying any portion control methods. Actually, I do portion control but with jara*. *Blush*
For my friend, her motivation to get those running shoes on and head to the gym is a guy. Hmmm. Wink. Wink. It gets better, he's a celebrity. It gets better still, he's single....we think. Come to think of it, what if he isn't?! We don't care, that's not what we need him for.
So my friend says they keep having all those flirty eye-locks in the gym mirror. Dear single celebrity guy, thanks for inspiring my friend to hit the gym and giving her the eye. We know your workout schedule and have neatly carved her workout days around yours. She's not hoping for anything more than your cooperation in helping her attain her fitness goals by staring at her. Just staring at her.
Studies suggest that the presence of the opposite sex during workouts motivate women to work out even more, even though it's also reported that women feel a lot more self conscious in a mixed gym; but we are working with the first part, thanks studies.
It's a short-term motivational plan but it's getting the work done and she's on her way to being super fit!
Honestly, it doesn't even matter what it takes to maintain an active lifestyle; guilty conscience, celebrity Adonis', your local Justin Beiber, your significant other, just do it!. You don't have to go to the gym to be fit either. You can work out at home with videos and fitness blogs!
What gets you to the gym? What keeps you on your grind in there?
*jara- Nigerian slang for 'a little extra'
Thanks, Busola for letting me use your gist here. Muah!
Letters to my Greatgrand daughter: I found the One and she's a "She"
Dear Charly,
I found the One!
No, not your Greatgrand father. I found the one, years before I met him. Surprisingly, she was a girl. She had short, curly lashes and a huge mass of brown hair that never fell. She bit her lip when she was nervous and doodled like her life depended on it. She couldn't hold a 15-second gaze without breaking it and then shifting her weight on her feet while saying something completely inappropriate.
She had an easy laugh and bounced around when we were alone. You could see her heart in her eyes and it beamed a yellowish hue of gold. She had long, gangling arms and sometimes she joked about cutting them off because she said it made her feel like a furry primate.
She took long, deep breaths after every rainfall and never avoided rain puddles. When we were together, the world stopped just because she smiled, we blushed at each other incessantly and my world never remained the same. But whenever others came around, she closed up fast and all they could see was me. She was so self-conscious and uncertain, all I wanted to do was hold her shoulders all the time- i think that was when I fell in love with her- the day I held her shoulders. In those shoulders, I felt all her strength, all her resilience and all her fragility.
I saw her this morning, right after I kissed your great grandfather as he left for work. She's still beautiful, very much so. She still bursts with mirth when we are alone, she still has gangling arms but she no longer doodles, she writes now, she says. Her gaze is a lot steadier, she even made it to 20 seconds, but nothing more.
Her smile broadened as she smiled back at me from the mirror- she was amused because she knew you'd never guess who it was.
Charly, I fell in love with myself ages before I met your Greatgrand dad.
I can't remember what prompted this decision but I decided to love myself anyway; and not just regular self love that is preceded by a hashtag but an intense astounding love that makes me blush in the mirror. I'd wink at myself (still do), i'd tell me how pretty I am, even when I wasn't feeling that way. I accepted me for who I was, I embraced my loud laugh, my large nose, my long arms, my complexion, my age, my hair, my skin, my body, my skills, my likes, my flaws, my inadequacies, my spirit, my abilities -everything I was destined to be. I realized consciously that every single part of me was designed intentionally for a purpose by God, even the random fact that I love only the red skittles and the red Pringles.
Once I accepted who I was, I decided to do the work of becoming the best version of me. I discovered this beautiful, fun, playful and sometimes quiet person, who I spent time getting to know and I discovered - hey, I could spend forever with this person!
I placed more value on myself and on my time and would not let anyone regard me with less than that value. In doing this, I was becoming more conscious of valuing others and respecting their time and the things they stood for and loved.
Dear Charly, love yourself and don't wait around for someone to love you until you realize how wonderful you are; don't look for love in sub-standard places, scraping around for it and eating leftovers.
Spend time with yourself and make yourself blush in the mirror. When you love yourself, you are able to love others, in the right measure and in the right quality.
It's in that journey of self-love that you can enjoy and place value on others; it's in that journey that you can foster growth in the lives of people around you and watch them flourish endlessly.
You are perfect when you realize the value of your uniqueness and spend your time improving those awesome qualities that make you, you.
Love,
Greatgran x
Ps Your Greatgrand dad almost passed out reading the first three paragraphs too. Hehe!
How to Make your Monday's Fly By
I only know one person who loves Monday's and she's from another planet. Moving on. Everyone dreads Monday's; in fact, I've often wondered why there hasn't been a collective agreement on moving the weekdays back just a little. Wait....there actually have been talks about that but the talks are more about lumping Friday with the work-less weekends and making Thursday the last day of the work week. You know, even if the weekend started with Friday, it still doesn't solve the MONDAY morning problem.
Clearly, we are stuck with Mondays for a while, we just have to make it work till that collective agreement we talked about comes to fruition.
Below are 10 practical ways to make your Mondays seem more bearable and maybe even lovable. Enjoy!
1. Rearrange your workspace
2. Do what you love!
3. Use up your entire lunch hour
4. Dress up for work
5. Make work as fun as possible
6. Notice people you wouldn't normally
7. Go to bed early on Sunday night
8. Spend the weekend planning new, exciting meals for the week (#foodies)
9. Set goals for Monday and ensure they don't get carried over to Tuesday
10. Make someone's Monday fly too (buy them lunch or tag them in a meme and send them this post)
How do you enjoy your Monday's? Have a great Monday and look out for post #2 later today!
20 Practical Tips to manage Love Spats
In an ideal world, you and bae would do nothing all day other than eat shiny apples from mystically named trees, swim in shimmery rivers and run around absolutely naKed. However, earth-to-us, that's not the case. Relationships in the real world are great...until a disagreement pops up. Several people believe that having too many fights might erode the quality of a relationship, but this isn't what science tells us. In a study, it was observed that the health of a relationship does not depend solely on the frequency of quarrels but on the method and technique of resolving issues. In fact, another study argues that conflicts arise as a result of a lack of conflict management skills in a relationship.
Skills. Conflict management. Misunderstandings. Science. *Chin in palm* If only someone would write a blog post on how to practically apply conflict management skills to love spats, so we can get back to the naKed part....
Say no more, here are 20 practical tips on resolving relationship conflicts- any conflict really.
1. Make the conscious effort to remain calm. [This is the 1st bottleneck of the spat. Once you do, it only becomes easier]
2. Identify the main root of the fight and the cause of irritation. If you are passive aggressive itmight take a little longer [bottleneck 2]
3. Be eager to resolve the problem
4. Speak only when your partner is calm too
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Now the fun part (who is going to break the silence...a post for another day!) There's always one person who can tolerate the silence less, if that's you congratulate yourself and give yourself a little wink...you might be the more mature one, you might also be the one who gets to the resolution finish line faster, so don't feel sad you always have to break the ice.
*************
5. Do not respond based ONLY on your point of view
6. Do not try to punish. Punishment is the other side of naKed. We don't want that.
7. Think: How do we move on from here?
8. Don't play the victim
9. Think clearly
10. Do not throw the solution of the problem at your partner. Let him/ her work through it and find a solution with minimal guidance
11. Respect your differences
12. Be humorous
13. Listen
14. Explain your point of view in a clear and respectful way
15. Keep your voice down
16. No name calling, no blaming, no nagging, no visiting the past or parochial conclusions
17. No, it's never too late now to say Sorry🎶
18. Address every issue in isolation , none of that "This is just like last time......" or "you always.....", "You never"
19. Forgive. Like it never happened.
20. x and makeup
Misunderstandings are just an expression of different needs that long to be met, usually expressed in mismatched voices and perfect scowls. I hope this post helps ease the scowls!
Have a great weekend xx
6 Hacks to Improve your Workspace
My desk sometimes looks like i share it with the 7 dwarfs but it really is just me, and on occasion, Ed. My former excuse used to be entropy, you know how they say we live in a world that is in a constant state of inclination to disorder and all, well, i like the 7 dwarfs explanation better. Anyway, it turns out our productivity is tied to the condition of our work spaces and two decades later, I now understand why we had table lockers in primary school; it was to train me for my life now. Well, I'm proud to say I didn't get trained then and i'm still trying to figure it all out. Lol. Here are 5 ways to improve your work space and subsequently enhance productivity:
Stare
Step back from your work station, fold your arms and stare at it. If it's not a mess, well, skip this post and read our second post of the day; if it is a mess, keep staring until you come to a state of complete discontentment, take a deep breath and shake things up a bit.
Reduce clutter
The more items you have visible, the more distracted you'd be, the less productive you'll become. Keep your work space to the barest minimum, leaving only your primary equipment and a pen visible at all times. Other items can be brought out as needed and of course, immediately put away after use. Discard trash promptly.
Subdue the 7 dwarfs in you
Ensure your space is always clean. If you will be having a meal within this space, remember to air it out and clean off any food residue or particles and to use a coaster beneath your cups all the time.
Use Good Lighting
Ensure that you have enough light for your tasks, invest in a good desk or standing lamp. Get in as much natural light as you can. Natural light is a great way to stimulate your brain and promote alertness.
Play with Colour
Use the right colours to enhance your productivity and creativity.
To stimulate your mind; blue is recommended, for a creative buzz, try yellow or purple; for motivation for physical tasks, red works; for a calm and serene work environment, green soothes. Also note that the combination of these colors have a combined effect of their stimulating properties.
Indoor plants
I don't know what it is but when i look at Judah (my plant), i get a little calmer and maybe happier. It might be because green soothes or because i'm easily amused. However, table plants and indoor plants are known to improve concentration, productivity and well-being. I guess that's why i get giggly- that and the presence of the dwarfs.
3 Amazing Benefits of Traveling with a Child
I once traveled with my then-3-year-old nephew and his parents and it was so much fun! Well, other than the time he wanted to see the pilot, visit the flight attendant station, run down the aisle and remove his clothing for no reason. Yes, other than those, it was a riot. I also traveled with a set of triplets once-my nephew and nieces and i couldn't believe how comfortable everyone made us feel. Do you get any preferential treatment when you travel with kids? How do you deal with traveling with your kids? Do you find it stressful? Any travel hack tips to share? Here are 3 benefits of traveling with a child from my experience:
Skip that oh-so-grey airline meal
Did you know toddlers could have their own homemade food on a flight? So not fair, while we get stuck eating those plastic chickens and weird brown rice. Anyway, we had made him some noodles to take on the trip but he didn't want it, he wanted cereal instead and all the juice the flight attendants could produce. So we ate his juicy, spicy noodles instead of the plastic chickens. Noodles on the plane is the best.
Those eager helpers
People love to help families with children. All you need to do is look distressed and borrow someone's child like I did and help starts flooding in! Even at security, there's usually at least one person mesmerized by the child , cooing and gooing!
Get seated first
People with kids get seated first right after priority. If you fly first or business, then you probably don't care but if you don't, welcome to the land of endless hand luggage storage opportunities! We know your luggage is already over weight, so take advantage!
Any experiences? Share, share!
Remember to enter the giveaway!
Channel your Inner Freak!
As a retired control freak, I can safely say that the day I retired was probably the best day of my life. Suddenly, i felt less responsible for other peoples’ errors (which were not even my business in the first place); I was at peace and my opinions were safely back in their home where they belonged, behind my shut mouth!
I loved to control events, decisions and situations. I must have mentally ripped the serenity prayer in to shreds a million times like, "What are these ones talking about?!" I remember once trying to will a crying baby silent with a stare on a 6-hour flight. I wasn't very successful. Lol.
Most ambitious of all, i tried to control God and how he spoke to me; “Please speak to me, God, but not in a loud voice or in any scary appearance. Let it be mellow. Also, i’d prefer if i’m not alone or in the dark. NO burning bushes or angels appearing out of thin air hollering “Fear not”, when they know i’d be terrified!”
Then one day, I stopped. I figured it was becoming uncontrollable, this need for control, which was one more thing out of wack. How could a control-freak have an uncontrollable vice? A vice that surfaced frequently, often suddenly and unbridled by any restraints and often resulted in frustrations because the situations were beyond my control and not my jurisdiction anyway! So I decided to step back, examine and let go. Best. Decision. Ever.
Being a control freak impacts your relationships, your faith, your business, your health, your sleep, your mood, your sleep; it's just an all round disaster. I know i said 'sleep' twice.
The most important type of control- the one we should all be scampering to acquire, really is self-control. My 'Self' just gave me the side eye because it knows it's true. Self is the most untamed entity in all existence and trying to control it is another script entirely. Imagine developing the will-power-muscle not to retort when someone is being less reasonable; not hitting snooze when the alarm goes off; walking away from that chocolate fountain; not chipping in on gossip; not overspending; running an extra mile; eating healthy; not being glued to your phone all day. Self-control is difficult but it's really what we should be imbibing instead of trying to take over the world. It's the path to mastering your soul, spirit, intellect, will, emotions, conscience, body, decisions; and who doesn't want that?!
So now, i am a self-control freak, channeling all that energy within, much to the delight of a thousand babies air-borne and to the annoyance of my 'Self'. Yeah, whatever, Self.
Have you any control freak experiences? Are you retired or still in play?
Don't forget to enter the giveaway?!
Ibo Meets Yoruba Blog!
Congratulations to KacheeTee.com , the new blog written by my friend Kachi Adesina, based on her experiences with inter-tribal marriage!
Marriage requires a certain amount of courage, an inter-tribal marriage must require a triple dose and writing a blog about it must require you to have WAY too much guts. Welcome to blogging, gutsy-K! I can't wait to read all the posts!
Here's this cute video by Banky W and Chidinma, dedicated to all the inter-tribal and inter-racial relationships out there! All the best, KacheeTee! Love you to blogger-heaven and back.
The end of this video was so adorable. Lol. [Kachi, this is our new handshake!] Are you in an inter-tribal marriage or relationship? How fun is that!