Friday, 21 October 2016

Spiritual and Physical well being through a healthy lifestyle



Hey guys, I am so sorry to have kept you guys waiting for so long. The last 10 months have been hectic for me but I am back now and promise that I am not going anywhere. A lot of amazing things have been happening over the last months which I thank God for. I have finally graduated with a 2:1 in International tourism management which is so far one of my greatest achievements.

However, I am back now and try to post more regularly in order to help you guys with your health and fitness journey. This blog is going to be a considerably different than any other blog posts I have ever done. In this blog post I am going to focus on spiritual and physical well being through health and fitness. 

How God was the reason I finally changed my lifestyle 


I am aware that not everyone that will read this is a Christian and therefore might not relate but I just want to share why I started my fitness journey and what keeps me going everyday to never give up and keep me going. My faith in Jesus Christ is what keeps me going every single day as the Lord instructs me and reminds me how important it is to eat healthy and to maintain a healthy physical body. 



Before and After picture 2013-2016
 I believe that when we are spiritually and emotionally healthy it will automatically reflect on the way we treat our bodies. There are several scriptures in the bible that tells us how important physical health is to the Lord. 1 Corinthians 9:27 for example speaks about how we should discipline our bodies and at the same time keep it under control. This scripture demonstrates the significance of keeping our body fit and under control. Keeping our body under control means that we have control over our own bodies and therefore it is our responsibility to get our bodies healthy and fit.


 When I started my weight loss journey I knew that I had to be spiritually emotionally and physically ready. Therefore the question is how I got the strength to do it on my own with no help from anyone and no professional guidance. The answer is it is the Word of God is what motivated me and encouraged me that anything is possible. Philippians 4:13 indicates that we can do anything through him that strengthens us. We need to remember that nothing is impossible and that if we put our mind to something the Lord will give us strength to be successful.  The most important thing is that we remember that the Lord has only blessed us with one physical body and that we only live once so why not treat our bodies with good health and exercise. 

Why the Lord wants us to stay healthy


1 Corinthians 6:19 states that our physical bodies belong to the holy spirit and not just us. This demonstrates that our physical bodies are very significant to the Lord and we should honor the Lord with our bodies. I strongly believe that the lord wants us to be able to live a happy long life but we can only do that if our bodies maintain strong and healthy.


Before my fitness journey I would just eat anything that I like without thinking about the long term results and consequences, I did not honor and respect my body the way I should have. A significant amount of people including me in the past did not understand how physical health can relate to emotional mental and spiritual well being. Let me illustrate an example on how powerful our mind can be and what it can do to our physical bodies. If a person is not in a right state of mind because they feel depressed, unloved, or sad, it reflects on our physical bodies without us realizing it. We will either begin to binge eat or do not eat anything at all which is the worst thing we can do to our precious bodies. However I believe that when you know the word of God we can help ourselves to overcome anything that will affect our physical health. 



Getting fit was the best decision I have ever made :)



The word of God can help us to realise how much the Lord loves us and wants us to be happy. So why wouldn’t we honor our bodies with perfect health ?? People just do not see the importance of it but the Lord does as it is mentioned in the book of 1 Corinthians 6: 19.   

 The Lord loves every single one of us and he wants to use us as we all have a purpose on this earth. “ Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul “ 3 John 1:2. I love this bible verse as it shows that good health relates to an individual soul. Having a beautiful soul defines your heart and our heart should always be protected as it keeps us a life. 
 

I hope this blog post gave you guys an insight on the importance of spiritual and physical health. It is never too late to make a decision to finally live a healthy balanced and happy life. 



Until next time 




XoXo Kelly

Saturday, 26 December 2015

How to maintain a healthy diet, and the importance of healthy eating !



Hey guys :) I know it’s been a while, it has been exactly 4 months since I have last blogged, I apologise for not being consistent enough but life gets busy sometimes. However my goal is still to encourage and motivate people to live a healthier lifestyle, by exercising and by eating the right foods in order to live a healthy life.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can be hard at times and it requires discipline motivation and consistency. I will list a few tips for you guys to be able to maintain a healthy lifestyle and a healthy weight. I will also discuss what helped me to maintain my weight, and how I managed to maintain a healthy weight from March to December.

Exercise regularly

Maintaining a healthy weight is different than losing weight. Maintaining a healthy weight is more about living a healthy lifestyle without having a specific goal in mind. After I lost 15 kilos I made sure that I still exercise regularly in order to continue a healthy lifestyle and to get stronger healthier and fitter. Therefore I recommend everyone that is maintaining weight to exercise 2-3 times a week and continue to eat healthy. I developed a way of knowing my body and therefore exactly know what I would have to do in order to lose weight maintain my weight or put on weight. I have actually put on 2-3 kilos from September to December, which does not bother me at all but knowing my body I know why I put on the weight and I also know how I can lose it again. However I am currently happy with my weight and my body and I am not planning to lose weight, but maintaining my current weight and making sure I do not gain any more weight is one of my main goals for the next year.

Eat Healthy

I never considered myself to have gone on a diet to lose weight, I pretty much seen it as a lifestyle change. When you finish your weight loss journey it does not mean that you can go back to your old habits of eating as much and whatever you want to eat. Even though you now only maintaining your weight it is still essential to eat small portions and to eat regularly. It is easy to put all the weight back on , if you do not allow your body to get the nutrients that the body needs to maintain a healthy weight. Nutrition is a factor when it comes to weight gain or weight loss, it requires 80 % whereas exercise only requires 20 %. So even if you exercise a lot but your diet is not as good as it should it would be harder for you to maintain or lose weight.

Drink enough water

Drinking enough water is very significant when trying to maintain or lose weight. Water allows you to stay hydrated and is a good replacement for fizzy drinks and juices. Fizzy drinks sometimes require as much calories as a whole meal, and also at the same time requires a lot of sugar. Water on the other hand does not make you put on any weight but helps you to maintain weight and stay hydrated and healthy. So do not forget to drink your 2 liters of water every day.

I hope these information helped and encouraged you to maintain a healthy weight. Living a healthy lifestyle is a choice no one can tell you to make a difference and it is totally up to you to do so.

Until next time :)

XoXo Kelly

Sunday, 9 August 2015

My weekly health and fitness routine !


Gym and home work out routine 

My weekly fitness routine is very important to me as it keeps me fit and makes me feel good about myself. I work out 2-3 times a week depending on my schedule.  The beautiful thing about the human body is that it is designed to move in order to maintain strong and healthy.
 

Before I have started my weight loss journey I never thought about the beauty of exercising and fitness. However now I understand how important it is to move our bodies, to maintain strong healthy and happy. 
 
Now that I have lost weight my weekly health and fitness routine is only created to maintain my weight and to stay strong and fit. Even though my week can be very busy sometimes because I work 20 hours a week, I still make sure that I get a work out in, either at the gym or at home. Even a quick 5 minutes work out makes a big difference. I will explain what I do in a week exercise wise and I will also go in to depth about what machines I use at the gym, and what exercised helped me to lose weight the most.  What worked for me when I was losing weight was mostly cardio training. I still do a lot of cardio now, because it keeps me fit and it is also my favourite fat burning exercise to do. 




My gym work out

When it comes to fitness I am still learning about different sorts of exercises to do and I am still trying to figure out what works for me in terms of maintaining my weight and staying fit and toned. I love going to the gym because there are so many machines to try out. I usually stay at the gym for about 1-2 hours to make sure I get a full body work out in. 



Here are some of my favourite machines that I use at the gym .......................


Treadmill


 
The treadmill is the first machine that I use, because it gets my body warmed up and gets me ready for further exercises. It is also the most effective cardio exercise when it comes to weight loss. I enjoy running the most which explains why the treadmill is my favourite machine to use. 

I usually run 30-35 mins depending on my time. I make sure that I lower my speed every 10 minutes so that my body is not too over work and has more energy to go on. When I was losing weight I was running much more than I do now to see quicker results. Now that I am only maintaining my weight 2 times a week of treadmill running is totally enough for me. 




Rower 


The Rower is a machine that I use quite a lot when I go to the gym. 

When I was losing weight it helped me to tone my arms and my stomach and made me lose belly fat more effectively. I use this machine for 10 minutes. 
















Stepper





Stepper is also one of my favourite machines to use at the gym. It mainly helps me to work on my legs and it burns fat at the same time.

It is a very effective cardio machine that also helped me with weight loss.

 I usually spend 10 minutes on that machine, whereas I was spending 20 minutes on the machine when my focus was weight loss.











Recumbent Cycle





The Recumbent Cycle is a good cardio machine that helps me to work on my leg and thigh area. 

It is basically like riding a bike which is something I have always enjoyed. 

It also burn belly fat effectively and make your legs look more toned. I spend 5-10 minutes on it when I go to the gym.












My full body works out at home 

When I don’t have time to go to the gym I do some exercises at home which are very effective and help me to boost my metabolism first thing in the morning. 

I prefer to work out in the morning because that’s when I feel more energised and it also helps to start off my day. 

My home exercised does not consist of a lot of exercise. My home work out mostly consists of 20 quads 5-7 push ups, 1-2 minutes, 20 sit-ups 1-2 minute plank and some leg exercises. My home work out never takes longer than 10 minutes which is completely enough time for me in the morning. 



My full body work out of the gym 


I pretty much do the same exercises that I do at home at the gym, The only difference is that I include weights to my work out. The weights that I work with are 3-4 kilos heavy. 

I include the weights when I do my squads and my leg exercises. My focus is not really to develop further muscles but working with weights stimulates my existing muscles in my stomach area and arms. 


I hope these information that I have provided were helpful and will encourage you to start exercising ............... :) :)


I know that the idea of going to the gym can be frustating sometimes because you may not know how to start and you don’t know what exercises work for you. But I am here to tell you that it is okay to start off small, thats how you learn to develop and love what you are doing. 

I started off with running on the treadmill for not more then 5 minutes, my body didn’t allow me to do more. However I pushed myself every week to do more and now I can run up to 30 minutes. If I can do it you can do it too, believe in yourself and everything is possible.



Until next time ….



XoXo Kelly :)