Nice Tumeric You

 

The title today is the name I’ve given to my juice I made today. Today I had a little more time seeing that I didn’t have to rush to get to work or anything, yay!! So I got the time to think about what I wanted to put in my juice. One of the things that I found at home that I did not think of using was tumeric.

 

Tumeric is generally used as a spice in most indian cooking but I sat down and did a little research and found out that this little root has some wonderful properties.

 

Tumeric is a root that stems from the same family as ginger. So when you buy it in it’s raw form it has a look almost like a ginger as you can see above, but it has this lovely orange colour similar to a sweet potato.

The real benefit to tumeric is its active ingredient known as curcumin. The benefits of Tumeric are quite abundant as well!

 

Tumeric is knows as a strong cancer agent because it is rich in antioxidants, it is also a great anti inflammatory agent and also helps improve your mood and your sleep! Its no wonder its been used in places like India for thousands of years.

 

“Nice Tumeric You” Recipe

4 leafs of Kale

Half a cucumber

2 Apples

1 Green Onion

a handful of Cilantro

4 pieces of watercress

1/4 root of Tumeric

 

You can add as much or as little tumeric as you like. I find that tumeric gives the drink a real earthy flavour with a little bit of spice, so maybe a suggestion would be to add more apples or strawberries to balance it out. Give it a shot and let me know what you think.

 

 

Juice on!!

And the juice of the day is….

Okay this morning I was in a bit of a rush to get to work on time mostly cause I slept in just a little bit. I swear it was only meant to be five minutes not 50! Oops so today’s juice was kept pretty simple but still pretty good.

I call this one

“I Kale you not”

Ingredients:

4 Leafs of kale
2 apples
2 celery stalk
1 cucumber
A handful of cilantro (about 6 leaves)
4 strawberries
Lots of mumbling about being late for work

It was simple quick and delicious. Now that summer is coming and berry season will be here soon ill try to experiment with some new flavours.

Happy juicing!

The Real meaning of Happiness

 

I came across this video today and I loved it so much that I just had to share it with everyone. What Shawn Achor does through this talk and in quite a humorous fashion is show us that we currently view happiness the wrong way. We all validate as coming from being successful, when in reality, as Shawn says, is that success should come from being happy.

I think that what he says in here will be meaningful in many facets of our lives, from work, to school and especially to our health.

 

I hope you enjoy it

Healthy Homemade Trail Mix

So this morning I was trying to determine what to take as a snack for school, and well there really wasn’t much in my pantry any more. I got rid of all my chips and junk food, but what my mom did buy was a bunch of dried fruits, like cranberries and raisins . So I saw those and pondered for a moment and then I had a eureka moment, I was going to make my own trail mix and carry it today.

This was honestly really simple to do. I just took a handful of raisins, cranberries and almonds and put them in a zip lock bag. Now to make it really flavourful and extra healthy, I also added some shredded coconut (i love coconut btw) and some flax seeds and its serving as a great snack for today. It has me feeling full and is not high in calories or sugar or anything for that sort. Also, considering how much it cost about $6.00 to buy a bag of trail mix from the grocery store, this cost a fraction of that.

I plan to jazz it up later on by making my own coconut chips and adding different nuts like walnuts and pecans.

Just want to show everyone that its easy to make a snack that will help you achieve your diet goals.

Eat on!

Mean Green Juicing Machine…Im juicing my way back into good health

O my gosh allyuh, I feel like its been too long since im written in here, which in all honestly is my fault. Its been really busy with school work and I did not make the time to sit down and write. Tsk tsk I know! The good news is that I am finally almost out of the thick of things and as such I am making some time to re post on here. Committing to things has never been my forte.

 

That brings me to today’s post. I would say that about 8 years ago, just before I started university I was 18 and in the best shape of my life. I’m 5′ 10″ and I was weighing in at about 150 pounds, which was really slim and as such I had great muscle definition and I felt great. In order to stay in such physical perfection, I committed to a strict regiment of eating clean, meaning I ate no candies, no chips, nothing with trans fats, and especially no junk food! I drank only water and avoided eating out as much as I could. However, in my second year of university I started to stay late at school to study, and of course what that meant was that after around 9 or so I would get hungry. My university was situated honestly in the middle of no where so going out to get a quick healthy bite was not possible, so I was stuck with the university cafeteria food, which was usually pizza, tim hortons or subway, and so this is what I ate for almost 8 months. At first I didnt realize the weight gain, but then one day I tried putting on my jeans and I was like umm why cant the zipper go up..oooo. Yeah I got fat.

I’d say that over that 8 months I put on almost 20 pounds (so much for the freshmen 15!) and ever since then I have been struggling to take off the weight. Ive done programs like p90x, insanity all making me work really hard and yet I couldnt lose the weight. I finally understood that I was sabotaging myself.  I would commit to exercising and yet I never changed how I ate. I would still sneak in that quick chip or piece of cake knowing that it was bad for me but “its just one bite.” I would also go the gym but I would try exercising in a way that I did when I was fit and I would get frustrated because I couldnt keep up and I would subsequently stop exercising.

I was not giving myself the change to succeed. I made exercising and losing weight so difficult for myself that I would never lose the weight. 

 

so what’s changed.  Well for one today I learned that a friends husband had a heart attack. He was 48, healthy, doesn’t smoke, watches his diet and exercises alot, and yet he had a heart attack that has him recovering in a hospital. This was an eye opener for me and I started telling myself that I’m not getting any younger. I am 26 now and if I don’t do something, then I don’t know what will happen or where I’ll be in lets say 10 years. The reality that I don’t have all the time in the world is finally dawning on me.

 

So I am committing to change. Now you may ask,” Chris,  you’ve tried so hard before to lose weight and you have failed, what will be different this time?.”

 

Great question, phantom audience (although I hope I have a reader or two)

 

This time will be different, because I have a secret weapon….I have…YOU…thats right I have you guys out there. The readers of this blog and those of the internet to hold me accountable.

 

I will be posting every week about my workouts and about my new found love of juicing. I will talk about exercises I am doing and what drink recipes I have discovered! I feel that by making my trip public, that I will make myself more motivated not to fail. I don’t want to disappoint any of you!

 

Ive already started on this transformation btw! I have started juicing for the last two days now mostly in the mornings. I have started  juicing things like kale, cucumber, cilantro, celery, apples, carrots and strawberries. At first I thought it was going to taste gross, but to my surprise…it was delicious! I have made this my regular morning drink now, and I can tell you that it has me feeling full for a good couple hours and I feel full of energy. Who knew Kale could be so good for you!

 

So Ill ask you to follow me and support me and I will support you too if you are starting this out. 

 

Juice on my friends!

Photo credit to: http://www.healthygreenkitchen.ca

Motivational Tree: A New way to view your Goals

After my last post last week, I decided to write down my list as well on my phone so that I can reference it whenever I need to remind myself of what I’m doing. However, as I was writing one list for long term goals and another list for short term goals, I felt like although these two list ultimately go together, by writing them separately I’m not really seeing the connection between the short term goals and the long term.

I’ve always known myself to be a very visual person and I learn best by seeing things, or writing them out and seeing the connections, and looking at my two independent list, they felt totally autonomous and to me that didn’t feel right. So i started thinking, what if there is another way to list my goals. One that will combine by my short term and long term goals, but also can help me see how the two relate. I find that if I can accomplish this, it will help me continue to be motivated. For example, if I can see how waking up at 5 every morning to make a healthy breakfast will help me with my goal to run a 10k, then  I guess I can force myself out of bed once in a while (sighh). 

What I have come up with here is what I think is my solution to writing list. I call it the Motivation Tree. What you do is start with a long term goal that you want, for this cause, Ill use my goal of running a 10k. This goal forms the roots of your tree, from here now you begin to develop branches, that will form your short term goals. You can start off with a few branches and add more as you continue. Sometimes you will find that your branches will interconnect with other trees you are making for other goals, and soon you’ll have a whole forest of motivation trees! Ive posted an example of my tree below for you to see:

 

Motivation Tree (example)

 

 

 

 This now provides a new way to see ones goals and as one completes ones goal, you can either check it off or scratch it off and feel that sense of joy as you move one step closer to your dream. I do encourage everyone to sit down a moment and make a tree! Pick any goal that you want to achieve. It can be anything from wanting to travel the world, to wanting to wash the dishes, doesn’t matter, and then pick the short term goals that you feel will help you reach your goal and get started! 

 

I would encourage you to comment below on how this is going for you and if you think its a neat idea? I would love to hear from you!

The 4 Ways that I am Going to Turn My Life Around and How You Can Too

My life is full of fear…

I’m afraid to say how I feel. I’m afraid to ask for things that I want. I’m afraid to make people upset. I’m afraid to ask for help. I’m afraid to say no. I’m afraid of venturing out of my comfort zone. I’m afraid that people won’t like me for who I am.

This is how I have been living my life for the last 15 years, and I can tell you that it does not make life enjoyable. I chose to spend most of my days in my room lying in bed watching TV, doing what I thought was relaxing and being a homebody; however, now I realize that all that time spent indoors, wasn’t because I was tired, but because I was afraid. Afraid of the big bad scary world, and of taking chances and most of all that fear of failing.

The reason for this is due to my anxiety, which to be honest I never knew I had until this year. All of this time, I thought that my desire to not upset people, by saying things that didn’t agree with them or going along with their plans, was my way of being a nice guy. That’s all that I really wanted to ever be. However, it was through talking with a friend one day who does suffer from anxiety that she described to me that I suffer from it too.

Initially I was sceptical and didn’t believe her. “That’s crazy,” I thought, there is not way that I could have anxiety. Nope, no way, nuh uh, sorry…

So I ignored it, thinking that she didn’t understand that I was just a nice person and that’s all it is. This was until reality reared its ugly head and I started to experience a multitude of experiences that have pained me over and over again.

First, was I got in a fight with my girlfriend, and the first thing I wanted to do was run away. I did not even think about standing my ground and saying how I felt about the situation. No, my inclination was to run. It was just so much easier than having to deal with this situation, and that’s when I started to think that for a long time I have been running away. I’ve run away from everything when it got tough. If a course was proving challenging I would say it’s a stupid course and give up. If a friend was mad with me, I would admit defeat and apologize, even if it was not my fault. If a girl I was dating at the time, had a fight with me, I would say “I’m not ready for this” and break up.

It was in this moment with my girlfriend that I realized that, Ok I have a problem. I realize now that my life has been limited not because of the circumstances around me, but because of my own mind. I have set a ceiling on my own potential, and I am the only one that can lift that ceiling so that I may soar once again.

Thus, in order to do this. I have identified four ways to help me get started. I hope that these steps will assist you as well.

Step 1: Make a List

I am a big dreamer, I think its the Pisces in me. I get excited by the idea of so many different things. Some times on my commute I fantasize about how amazing it would be to teach in another country, or no no wait! Won’t it be awesome to volunteer in a clinic in Africa, NO HOLD ON, even better, what if I start my own business and then travel the world using the money that I make? My mind runs at a mile a minute dreaming up different ideas, and fantasies that I would like to live out. However, the only problem with that is that I tend to lose focus of what I really want. This is where a list comes in handy. For myself, I have identified a few long term goals that I would like to accomplish over the course of the next few years. I decided that since I’m 25 now, Ill make a list to covers till I’m 30 and Ill re-evaluate there after. Once I have outlined my long term goals, I have then made a list of short term goals (ranging from a few weeks to a few months in length) that will assist me in reaching my long term goals. I feel that being doing this I am helping to narrow my focus to help me achieve what’s important. That way as I continue to grow and want different things, I can always modify my list, if I deem it important.

Step 2: Talk to Someone

One of the issues that I always had was that I was afraid to talk to people about what was bothering me. I felt that I would be bothering them with my issues, and I would keep it too myself, allowing it to fester and grow inside me until I would either lash out or just break down. It’s important to be able to share your thoughts and feelings. Talk therapy really works and it helps to say your fears out loud as it sometimes allows you to realize how silly they just might be. So if you have a good friend, family member, boyfriend or girlfriend that you rely on. Let them know that you have something you want to share and sit down and talk to them.

Step 3: Start Slow

You know there is that saying, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Well, the same goes for transforming your life. It would be nice to wake up the next day and suddenly be a whole new you, but life doesn’t work like that. One of the sure fire ways to ensure failure of your life changing experience would be to try and do too much to fast. For example, you may have added to your list to “work out more” and suddenly you are going to the gym and lifting all sorts of weights and joining all the classes and taking all the supplements. Although, you are taking a huge step forward, it may not be the best solution. This is because sometimes by trying to do too much can result in you feeling overwhelmed and this can lead to giving up. Instead start small, and gradually continue to improve on the skill you want to change and suddenly you will see that as you get better at it, you can do more, and more and more, and the next thing you know, you’ll be looking like the next Arnold “Ill be back!”

Step 4: Have Fun

You are now on the way to changing your life, congratulations! The most important part of this is to realize that it’s not going to be easy and there will be days where you aren’t going to feel so hot, or things may not go the way you want, and you know something, THAT’S OK. Don’t beat your self up because of it. You are only human after all. What’s important is that you collect yourself, identify the relapse, and work to ensure it doesn’t happen again. This is a journey and one that will lead you to learn things you didn’t know about your self, or to places you never imagined. I assure you that no matter what everything is going to be all right. You will do just fine. So have fun, and embrace a new you.

Bye Bye Fear!

P.S: In case you were curious, I decided to list some of goals on here so you can get an idea of what to write.

Long Term Goals:

1) Travel to a new country at least once a year
2) Get a job with an NGO serving under developed communities
3) Move back to Trinidad and Tobago
4) Earn my Phd in Health Management
5) Build a home for myself and my family

Short term Goals:

1) Finish my undergraduate program with good marks
2) Commit to going to the gym 6 days a week
3) Improve my diet by eliminating junk food and snacks
4) Start to learn to cook for myself
5) Learn French
6) Talk to people about my issues
7) Start to speak up more in lecture

Lazy Bones

O man Im feeling lazzzzzzzzzy right now. It even got to the point where I was feeling way to lazy to even write this blog post! :O I know how terrible is that!

I’m sitting here in the school library where I was trying to finish up my school work, and even that took me a while to do. I felt like I was lacking certain motivation to do what I need to do. I knew I had to get it done, but my mind was like “yeahhhh don’t worry it will get done…eventually” but deep down inside as much as I wanted to believe that, I knew it was a bunch of lies. The only way the work will be done is if I DO IT. It’s that simple. So as much as it annoyed me I did my work.

Furthermore, as much as it annoyed me, I’m here writing my blog post. It’s taking me a lot longer than I would like to write this, but that is ok. What’s important is I’m doing it. I can’t stop just because my brain doesn’t want too.

You see the one thing I’ve learned recently is that our brains is an inherently lazy organism. It has been created for the sole purpose of trying to prevent any stress or strain and do things in an easy a way as possible. That’s why our brain likes to develop habits. Habits make it easy for our brain to process an action, because it becomes so used to it, that we can react almost with out thinking. So my brain has developed a habit of not wanting to do the hard stuff. It wants to sit here and stare at a screen and hope that some how that words will suddenly appear. Maybe this will be possible when google comes up with some Google Mind device but for now, I’m left using these archaic devices called hands to type these words onto the screen.

I think that it’s always important to sometimes listen to our brains, after all it is trying to look out for us, but at the same time we need to remember that our brain tries to do things to save energy and may not always want use to do something that is different. It’ll have to work too hard. Sometimes the best thing we can do is acknowledge the thoughts in our head, listen to them, and then do the exact opposite because then and only then can we truly break out of our shells and rise to our potential.

 

I think the act of me writing this blog is testament enough to that.

 

So if you want to do something do it! Think about that, the only thing that will stop you is you. So say to your self “Hey, thanks for looking out for me and all but I’m going ahead with my plan” and from there don’t look back.

A Fresh Start

It’s Sunday night and this wraps up quite a week for me.

Today marks the last day of my old habits and the first day of a new me.

I’ve lived my life full of anxiety and fear for 25 nearly 26 years now, and all that it has brought me is pain, suffering, sadness, and sorrow. It’s sad to say but that is the truth. It’s what I’ve lived with for so long, so much so, that I was getting to the point where I accepted things as being how they are. I accepted that it was ok to get mediocre grades in school, I accepted that I was fat and only going to get fatter, and so I kept on eating whatever I want. I accepted that how I looked didn’t matter, and went to work and school looking like a complete slob.

My anxiety has caused me to push away from people too. I have found it hard be intimate with people. It was scary. I didn’t know if people would like what they would find in me if I showed them, and I didn’t know how to deal with days when they were upset. O man that was tough. So I ran away as soon as I got the chance. If I dated someone, as soon as that first fight happened, I just got up and ran and ran as far as I can. Not letting anything stop me, even if people told me “I want to help.”

“No, you can’t help me, I can help me” is what I thought. Thinking so foolishly that I can change myself suddenly even after years of trying and no success.

I have watched my life become what it is, because I am afraid of change, and have settled into this comfort zone. However, I am tired of this.

I want to grow. I am tired of watching on social media sights such as instagram and seeing all the beautiful places people have traveled too, or reading about the incredible adventures people have had in their blogs. I want this too. I want to live a life defined by my desire to live, and not by my fear of leaving my couch.

I want to love better, and to love hard. Not just love my girlfriend, but my family, my friends, my job, but most importantly myself. I want to take care of me again. I want to support me, develop me, improve me, embrace me for everything that I am capable off.

I want my groove back.

Change isn’t easy, and this will not be a walk in the park. The road is long and tough, but I’m ready for that challenge. I’m ready for the fight.

I’m ready.

Whats On Your Mind?

Have you ever taken a moment to just stop and listen to your thoughts? You know that incessant voice in your head that doesn’t know when to stop?

Its quite interesting the things you find yourself thinking about when you stop to listen. My mind has always been quite the chatter box. I figured that it was because I am a Pisces that I’m always in my head, so I guess I always had a lot to say to myself. Often times than not, the thoughts in my head are harmless. It usually just involves me day dreaming about some fantastical adventure. When I’m on my commute into work and I’m sitting on the train, I like to dream that I’m instead on the VIA rail rolling through the Rockies seeing the beauty of nature, or when I see an image of a beach I’m always imagine travelling back to my native Trinidad and Tobago and sitting by Maracas Bay eating shark and bake while watching the waves hit the sand ahhh…I can see it now. Its quite interesting that a lot of my thoughts are about travel and escape, to which I never really thought much about why that is. I always assumed it’s because there is some innate traveler in me wishing to jump out and be whisked away to some distant shore. And yet, as I set and listen to my thoughts I begin to realize that maybe all these dreams of escape are a metaphor for escaping my own mind.

 

You see as much as my mind fills me with joy and wonder about all the great things I can accomplish, and goals I can achieve, my mind also can cause me a lot of grief. My mind is always quick to assume a negative outcome for every situation. For example, sometimes when I make a joke with my friends through Whats App or BBM or what have you, as I await their reply, I often sit there wondering “will they find my joke funny?” “what if it’s offensive?” “I hope they don’t get mad” and so I find myself sitting there holding my breathe, wondering, waiting, hoping to see a anxiety reducing “LOL” after they are done writing their message. Its amazing that for something so trivial that our mind that grip us in such terror.

I don’t believe that my mind was always like this. Growing up I was always able to express myself, and had the confidence to say how I felt. I guess maybe that had to be due to the innocence of being a child. It was only as I got older and went to high school that my thought process began to change from one that was about standing up for what I believe, to one that agreed with others so that I didn’t stand out. You see when I started high school, it was a school where none of my friends went and I did not feel comfortable. So I tried my best to be inconspicuous. It seems to me that the habits of thinking that I developed while in high school have stuck with me till today. To this very day, conflict causes me to be incredibly anxious. I find it hard to sit down and say how I feel to someone because I feel that what I’m gonna say is going to make them upset. I often times imagine people getting so upset with me that they walk out my life. Although, perhaps this is an extreme outcome, the thought of it alone paralyzes me. My mind has learned to put what I want in the background, and to rationalize what the other person is saying as being correct and to go along with it. 

I assure you that I know that this is not the right way to live my life, because at the rate I’m going, if I keep this up, I don’t know who’s life i’ll be living. 

Breaking out of this process is something that I have decided I need to do. I need to engage myself again. Identify who I really am, and what am I really about. What do I really like, what goals do I want to achieve, more importantly what do i stand for? These are the things that should matter, and not what I believe someone will think of me for what I believe.

Someone I truly loved told me, that in order to break out of this I have to talk about it. To not be ashamed of what I am but to accept it and deal with it. I agree with her, and if she is reading this I to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support. 

This blog is my way of saying to myself and the world that I will no longer allow anxiety to trap my mind body and spirit. I will no longer allow myself to be held back because of fear. I will embrace myself for who I am, and what I can achieve. I will be my own man.