It's been a while...

Hey Everyone :) 

So it's been a while since I posted anything new on here. But I'm back in Kuwait, the hardest place to be healthy, I find! With its non-pedestrian lifestyle, it's social circle revolving around restaurants and cafes, you can definitely find a way to keep in shape.

We've all established that there's honestly not much to do around here, other than shop, sit, watch movies, lounge around and go out to restaurants. However, I want to develop a list of different things that people should try- other than new hotspots around here! And I'd especially appreciate people adding some more :) 

1. Join a gym in Kuwait- whether it's a small one, with just a couple of rooms of weights and machines or the slightly more extravagant resort/beach clubs like Palms, the Corniche, Sea Club or SAS. There's not much to do during the day, so spend an hour at the gym and go for a swim outside! Take on a couple of classes, and enjoy your 'you' time, and if you want to, try to get a personal trainer once a week for some good tips and a workout routine that you can do yourself!

2. Discover new places. Head down to the Avenues and try to window shop and have a good walk around the gigantic air-conditioned mall withOUT going to eat. Check out what they have to offer you and you'd be surprised how little is not about food! 

3. Girlies: (And boys if you want!) Invite some friends over and have a home-made spa night. Prepare heaps of homemade chemical-free spa treatments for hair, face, nails and more. You can find loads of recipes online. Experiment with different cocktails and enjoy some 'virgin' cocktails with fresh fruit and sugar rimmed glasses! Also prepare some healthy snacks like Popcorn sprinkled with parmesan cheese for salty, and an assortment of berries and skimmed/fat-free yoghurts for sweet and guilt-free. Just chill out, and vegg-out ! 

4. Have a cooking/baking party. Better yet, a COOK/BAKE-OFF! Be inspired by Iron Chef. Have friends over, and provide each with only a limited number of ingredients at random. If your friends aren't top chefs, which will be expected, have only a dessert bake-off with simple ingredients that can't go wrong. 

5. Another idea to with friends coming over: have a movie-marathon day and prepare pizza ingredients in the kitchen. Have everyone make their own pizza with all their favourite toppings and enjoy the movie!

6. Allright enough with food! Try to organize a team of players for any sport, find a location and organize an entire tournament. Losers buy rounds! (of..umm...redbull or something....)

To be continued...

Fabulous Ways to Keep In Shape!

I have found great things that one can do to keep fit. They might not seem like a lot but they certainly will pay off. Trust me!

Sometimes, you get home and you're too tired to change and get ready to go to the gym. Boo. Well luckily for you, there *are* things you can do online right in your bedroom if you wish, that can help you lose weight. I've found fantastic videos on YouTube.com that provide viewers with great workouts! It's FREE, fun and beneficial. 

JUST DANCE! 

In order to lose weight you must KEEP YOUR HEART RATE UP!

You can find fun ways to do that instead of simple jogging etc... 

Get on youtube and discover!! 

To make your expedition a little easier, I've decided to give you a few that I have found very helpful and have actually done myself!

These next 4 are links to a fantastic fat burning belly dance workout! Start with the first one and open the other ones on different tabs. Allow them to load so that when the first video is done you go on straight to the next! There will be other videos on the right column on the page; check them out! It's worth it. 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=In1bptHtm0I&feature=related

http://youtube.com/watch?v=K1lT2J0IiUE&feature=related

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Pqd3pXg9N14&feature=related

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z9Uw2ublwIg&feature=related

College Student anyone?

I want to be thin before I go back!

I need to lose my holiday weight! 

OMG freshman 15 coming through, how did she lose all that weight she looks amazing!

Now that I'm older and in college, I want to start dressing better; in order to do that I have to have the body for it. 

O.K. just a little bit of a reminder that we all know what you are going through. As a university student, your day is rushed around classes, going from place to place and thinking that you can manage it all in an organized fashion. Well... that's really hard to do, I'm sure a lot of you have noticed. I'm in my 2nd semester as a freshman, and I'm going to be proud and admit that I lost weight my first semester. Going back to kuwait, the place where if you want to meet someone, it HAS to be for breakfast, brunch, early lunch (which by the way is never that light lunch we plan), lunch, early dinner (because people think that eating early is a good way to keep healthy) we'll get back to all of these later... As I was saying, going back, I ended up gaining 2 kilos :c( 

Oh well. 

That just means I have to work harder and lose those 2 kilos I had put on, and continue on my path to a healthy life and state of well being. 

Here are some quick tips you can try that ARE necessary, easy and going to be included in your everyday life so it won't be too difficult for you. They're just certain things you can change within your daily lifestyle that affect your body positively, and you will really appreciate it later.

#1. This is first, hence it's number one. WALK AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. not only that, but make MOVEMENT  a part of your daily life. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. go for a walk. force yourself to walk a certain distance so that you're too far to turn back and take the bus, and too close to take  a cab. As you walk, alternate your pace and style of movement to one that makes you feel like you're really burning calories. For example: sometimes, when I'm walking fast because I'm late to class I flex my thigh-muscles and that makes them feel like they've really gone through a workout at the end of the day. 

#2. Stop going to bakeries and picking up "something small" on a daily basis. There is never something SMALL at one of those bakeries unless you haven't eaten in a while and you have been busy for a while. Stop and get something that is not necessarily white bread (IT WON'T FILL YOU UP) and something that is not sugary. Of course you can treat yourself once in a while! If you do however get one of these things, make sure it's before noon. Try to reduce the amount of carbs you have after lunchtime. 

#3. There are a lot of restaurants in the world and in your country, in your city. They're still going to be there tomorrow, in a week, a month a year! Stop eating everything you can from one restaurant! 

For Example: "I love Johnny Rockets. Mmm... this burger is so good and juicy. But we HAVE to order the Apple Pie since we're here, we can't come and NOT have the apple pie!" 

or:

"Mmm...Chocolate Fondue, this is sooo good! But have you tried the Molten cake? OMG we're getting it now!" 

You get the point. You also don't have to order dessert every time you go to a restaurant. It's not supposed to be included in your daily diet!! Stop constantly making exceptions!  

#4. The worst thing is when you do a really good job of picking something healthy to eat for a meal and when it's done you realize you're still hungry. What's even worse is when you actually do try to fulfill that craving and you end up over eating, because the second thing you chose wasn't filling enough because you didn't want to feel bad so you went on to munch on something else. 

Please add to this list if you feel like something needs to be said! This list is not finished, but I will definitely keep on adding to it :c) 

Before we feed our Stomachs, Feed your mind.

It is important before you start any fitness program  or diet, to know one thing. 

YOU ARE IN CONTROL OF YOUR OWN BODY.

it's really important to know this because you need to know that whatever you want to happen with your body, you can make it happen. Try this. 

Go for a run outside... (as in not on a treadmill) for at least 15 minutes. The next day, your body might feel sore if you're one of those people who haven't run in a while and want to develop a higher fitness level. That feeling you get (the horrible aching soreness) isn't as bad as you think. As terrible as this following sentence might seem, you are the one who brought this pain upon yourself, and you should actually be proud of it.

Why? Because this feeling of soreness is derived from your own body, your own muscles and not a machine. The calories you burned are also because of that extra push you gave yourself before you wanted to stop because you felt like you couldn't take it. Machines in the gym are truly fantastic, and will change your body. But knowing that those calories you burned weren't burned off FOR YOU by a machine or another "tool", in a matter of speaking, but by your own biological system that you were in complete control of. 

YOU MADE THIS CHANGE HAPPEN. 

MY AIM:

I would like people in this country to help raise awareness of risks such as diabetes, heart-attacks and plain old OBESITY. 

We are all vulnerable to diseases such as cancer, heart failure, diabetes, regardless of whether it is in our blood. The best thing one can do is to try everything they can to be able to scare these things away. It is your body, and you are in control of what goes on inside of it (well, to a certain extent.) This blog is meant to inspire people to be as healthy as they can, take advantage of their wellness and encourage others to begin their journey of well-being. 

It is also a "hub" for people to throw in their ideas of what healthier living consists of; all opinions are welcome if they're there ideas that can be applied to a healthier lifestyle. 

Here, tips and advice are going to be listed, as well as recipes and alternatives to fatty foods. I would like to be able to communicate with professional nutritionists and post their legitimate advice about what is good for you. Also, things to try at restaurants are also welcome to add to the hopefully-growing list seeing as I hope Kuwait's (and other countries of course) restaurant management begins considering the "healthier" alternative. I hope this makes a difference :c)