The WHY, the HOW!

In everything we do in life, there must be a reason called the WHY. The WHY can also mean the vision or the reason. When the WHY is strong enough, it gives birth to the HOW. The HOW is the vehicle, the process that will take us from where we are to achieve the WHY, i.e the vision or the desired goals.

After I failed in my first attempt to start a sustainable program to reduce my weight and embraced healthy lifestyle. I had to go back to the drawing board to plan and put in place a sustainable program. My desire was fuelled by the why. What were the why that got me going?

1.    Intense desire to get into good shape in order to have a desired figure

2.    I have pains in my knee area which makes me uncomfortable especially when I am taking stairs

3.    My blood pressure had rising to a level I am not comfortable with

4.    The desire to live an healthier life

With the above four WHYs, I went on to design a program that will be less stressful and that will be something i can sustain overtime, this led me to researching about walking for healthy living, use of herbs and change in diet (these are my the HOW).

I studied my schedule and came to a conclusion that the best time to take my walk is in the morning time. I started with short distance of about 2.5 kilometres daily (Monday to Saturday). I was doing this in about 40 minutes and I did this for 3 months. After that I increased the distance to 5 kilometres daily and I was doing this in about 60 minutes. So between 6 and 7 am daily, I cover 5 kilometres, I always get home in time to have my breakfast and still be at my desk in the office by 8.30am.

I introduced a lot of fruits in season and vegetable to my diet, I try to reduce my intake of carbohydrates and starchy food and embrace more of proteins, grains and nuts. Also i began to use a lot of herbs almost on a daily basis – Ginger, Turmeric, Garlic, Cinnamon etc became part of what I use every day.

The result of the above led to my shedding of 20 kg of weight in about 18 months of strict adherence to my plans. My the WHY was strong enough to help me stick to my the HOW and gradually i was able to retain my goal. Right now, i look real trim (the physique I had desired), my blood pressure has returned to normal, I am energetic and i don tire out easily and above all my early morning walk has become like a tonic I take every day and it has always kept me energized and ready for the day’s tasks.

You too can achieve what i have achieved only if you can think out your the WHY. Next Monday as I will be taking you through on how to start your own walking program that will be result oriented and sustainable.

Have a wonderful week and see you next year!

NB: For health and wealth visit - https://bit.ly/2OUXfR

A False Start

A world renowned management consultant said, if he was given an axe to cut down a tree, he will use 90% of his time to sharpen the axe and use 10% in cutting down the tree!

Everything in life requires adequate and proper planning. What the consultant above tried to pass across is that we should make out good time to plan before we delve into any venture and this also applies to putting in place a good exercise or walking program.

When I returned to Ilorin, the burning desire to get into shape that was kindled in me while I was in Lagos was so hot that I immediately started some form of exercising. I live in a building that was built decades ago and you know those building were built without being economical in the use of space. I live in a four bedroom apartment and the sitting room alone measures six by four meters. The rooms are quite spacious too (the area covered by my flat can easily be used for a twin standard three bedroom flat). I started doing light jogging covering the sitting room and other rooms in the house, I combined this with other exercises I knew while I was growing up (I used to be a sports person in my teens, I was involved in athletics and martial art).

Because I didn’t draw the exercising program well, I missed most days, sometime due to tight schedules and sometimes I wasn’t just motivated. Within three months of this, I lost interest and I stopped completely. This was around June 2018. Early July I went on a visit to a friend who is a pharmacist and i saw the digital BP measuring device in his pharmacy, i prompted him to take my BP and lo and behold it was high, 143/90 (I always take measurement of my BP once iin about three months and it has always been normal 125 – 135/ 80/85). I was alarmed by this reading and then I knew I really had to do something about my weight since going by the Body Mass Index (BMI) I am overweight. At that time I was weighing 85 kg.

I sat down and made out a plan on how to drop 20 kg from my weight and i started off in the month of July 2018 and till date i have followed my plan strictly and i have been able to achieve the 20 kg weight reduction through early morning walk, use of herbs and trying to eat as healthy as possible. How was I able to draw the plan and follow it, keep a date with me next Monday as I go into the details of my plans and the herbs that I introduce to my everyday usage which has benefited me immensely.

Have a great week ahead and i wish you a Merry Christmas in advance.

NB: For Health and Wealth visit: https://bit.ly/2OUXfRc

How it Began!

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that by 2020, 3 out of every 4 deaths (75%) will be caused by improper diet and lifestyle induced diseases like Cancer, Diabetes and Heart diseases. Scary!

As the training Manager of my organisation, part of my duties is to ensure that during training, participants (those attending our training) and facilitators (our faculty team) are well taken care of, during the training sessions and even after the end of the sessions. It is my duty to ensure that they are all well catered for. Usually after the end of the daily session, I go round the hotel rooms of our facilitators to ascertain that they are comfortable and I will take their orders for dinner.

In March 2018, we held a capacity building workshop for the staff of NNPC at Dover Hotel, Adeniyi Jones, Ikeja, Lagos. The team of our faculty for the training was led by a renowned Professor (whom I will refer to as Professor A), we also had one of the facilitators in the team, a PhD holder (whom I will refer to as Dr D). As my usual routine, after the training on a particular day, I went to the hotel room of Professor A, in order to take his order for dinner, when I got to the room he had already undressed and was in his briefs. As I entered the room, my attention was drawn to his stature; he had a very huge upper body which was supported by tiny legs. I was taken aback that day as if I was seeing the professor in that form for the first time. The professor was in his late sixties. I took his order for dinner and I left, but the image I saw was really troubling my mind. When I got to the room of Dr D, it was almost the same image that confronted me, huge upper body supported by tiny legs. Dr D in his mid sixties.

After ensuring that their meals had been delivered, I rushed back to my hotel room, pull off my clothes and looked at the mirror, the sight that I saw was of a guy who is gradually going to look like those two men when eventually I get to their age range. I was visibly shaken as if I had never seen myself in the mirror before, but this day the image was not palatable and there and then I decided that something must be done to arrest the situation so that I don’t grow to end up with a huge upper body and my legs will be like toothpicks. A decision had to be made and there and then I made up my mind that I have to work something out. Prior this time, I have been having issues with my joints, especially when I am climbing stairs, I usually experience pains around my knee cap which I know is a sign of rheumatism and arthritis, even I experience pains in the joints of my fingers too. Throughout the remaining days of the training, I was thinking of what to do and how to go about it immediately I return back to Ilorin.

Immediately I got to Ilorin, I put things into motion, how did I fare in my attempt to get in shape and enjoy a better and healthier life, join me next Monday as I continue my gist. Do have a wonderful fun filled and productive week. Cheers

NB: For Health and Wealth issues visit: https://bit.ly/2OUXfRc

You are Welcome!

Hello friends, Welcome to my Blog and incidentally the first post I will be making on this Blog.

I am Bolakale Amurawaiye, I clocked 49 on October 4, 2019. I am based in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. I must say I give God all the glory and adoration for He has been so kind and benevolent to me. From birth I have enjoyed good health and up till this moment I still enjoy great health which incidentally money cannot buy. Not that I have never been sick before, but my sickness are largely Malarial which I am told is common to all that has AA Genotype. Like the intro on this Blog, the essence of this project is to try to awaken the desire in my readers and spur them into giving good attention to their health. The age we are in obviously is the rat race age, where we move at jet speed trying to achieve as much as we can and at the same time do all humanly possible to meet up with our obligations and responsibilities to our primary, secondary and tertiary constituencies (our Immediate family, extended family/ friends and the society at large).

As we strive to live up to our responsibilities, we should never forget the fact that we are only able to do all our running around simply because we are in good health. I keep on telling myself “Hey guy, you can’t afford to be down with sickness”, if I am down, who will do the running around for me - particularly when they have not been able to do their own running around to a satisfactory level.

No matter how busy we are, let us always at all times keep our health in focus.

I will leave you with this saying “If we neglect our health in pursuit of wealth, at the end of the day, the health we neglected will not allow us to enjoy the wealth”.

See you next Monday as we start the journey of “Walking for a healthy living”