A Healthier You

Let's face it; most Kenyans are very unfit and unhealthy, some of us have decided that anything from the west is the best. The amount of junk food being consumed in this country on a daily basis is scary, I know I know it's the cheapest and the most available and the fact that it is tasty does not help either. But if you think critically you will realize that cheap is rarely the best. Cases of  lifestyle diseases are on the rise and the statistics are getting scary by the day. Cancer, Diabetes, Hypertension, among others are claiming more lives than ever before. A decade ago some of these diseases were barely known to most of us apart maybe from movies and biology classes. This has significantly changed over the years and slowly we are slipping into a very dangerous rut that could prove very costly to both the government and to individual Kenyans. If we don't change some of our lifestyles we are going to have very short and meaningless lives.
Two steps can be taken at the individual level to ensure that you get to see your grand children and who knows maybe even their children. A few but significant choices in your life could go a long way in ensuring that this comes to pass.
The first thing you need to do is to check what you eat, I am not one of those people who believe in dieting, no way! in my opinion that is baloney that could actually make your life very miserable. Someone once said that moderation is the key to life, don't ask me who it was all I know is that this soul was right on point. Let's face it people, fries, burgers, fried chicken and the rest are just tasty, in fact I am getting a craving just writing this. Every now and then it is good to indulge and give in to your cravings but you need to control yourself, this should not be something that you do on a daily basis it will kill you! I know this can be hard especially if you are working in Nairobi where every street is lined with a good number fast food outlets which start tempting you as early as ten in the morning with mouth watering aromas. Currently fast foods are the cheapest in town and this makes them even more attractive to our ever shrinking pockets thanks to our ever rising inflation as a result of increasing prices of basic commodities. We all need to understand something, that what is cheap today could prove very costly in the future. Instead of stepping into one of these joints you could go for an even cheaper alternative in the form of packed lunch.

 As far as packed lunch is concerned only your imagination can limit your possibilities, just make sure it is a balanced meal for example rice, matooke, sweet or Irish potatoes, and yams packed with beef stew, beans or green grams with a serving of any vegetable. Any of these combinations could really go a long way in improving your health, this could then be topped up with a fruit of choice. Some of these foods that people look down upon have been proven to prevent some of these life style diseases, a good example is the sweet potato which on top of having anti-cancer properties is also very efficient in maintaining healthy skin. If we could embrace the eating habits of our fore fathers we would be a very healthy nation, Japan is a good example, where the life expectancy is in the eighties due to the adoption of slow food as opposed to fast food. Drink lots of water, apparently everyone seems to know that this is one of the key pillars of good health but few practise this. Toxins build up in your body and a very efficient way of cleaning your system is drinking that colourless and tasteless liquid and lots of it, two litres per day to be exact. I cannot over emphasize the importance of fruits and vegetables, these two eliminate free radicals from our bodies. Free radicals can cause damage to living cells in the body and may lead to cancer.
Another thing is exercise, I cannot over emphasize the importance of exercise for everyone. Exercise promotes cardiovascular health which basically means a strong and healthy heart which in turn reduces or even eliminates chances of getting high blood pressure. Thirty minutes three times a week, that's how often you should engage your cardiovascular system. If you do not get this time try to be as manual as possible in your daily life, take the stairs more, walk more, anything that gets your heart rate up and keeps it there for thirty minutes is good enough.

 If you would like to get into running/jogging just remember a key rule of the sport, start slow and build up over a period of time. When I started running four years ago I could only do about 1.2 Kilometres after which I would start gasping for air and coughing really bad, but over the years I have achieved what in my own view I consider to be quite impressive; upto fifteen Kilometres without too much exertion. Try it sometime it is a great feeling. Exercise also makes your bones and muscles strong, in case you have forgotten, you need those to perform daily tasks, so the stronger you are the easier life becomes. Regular exercise has also been proven to boost the immune system hence lowering your chances  of getting sick..
Hopefully Kenyans will adopt these two simple but vital steps to a healthier life; do not postpone do it now!

A SCREWED UP COUNTRY

Man where do I begin! do I start with the high prices of food commodities or the people dying up north or the corruption that is devouring this country. As I said I don't know where to begin, If you live in Kenya and you don't feel angry enough to do something then you are one cold individual.
I am pissed! The stupidity of this country is baffling and every time I look around me I get angrier and my blood pressure goes up, I am too young for this.
It's 2011 and people are starving $@!#, This country has been independent for 48 years, four freaking decades going on five. I know this for a fact; this country is capable of producing enough food to feed the whole East African region! without any problems. Some idiot somewhere is telling us that lack of rain caused all this, It might have but should it really? in this day and age should it? Look at Egypt, Israel, Libya, have you ever heard anyone dying of hunger? I think we all know the geographical location of these three countries How much rain do they receive huh? Stupid policy makers, dumb ministers and corrupt and power hungry politicians; that my friends is our biggest problem.
Picture this people, on December 24th 2008 a season which had some of the heaviest rainfall this country had ever seen started, man did it rain. Storms all over the place, billboards were ripped from their supporting masts, it rained like it would never do so again, for six good months billions of gallons of water were dumped on this country, the result? farmers were pouring milk because it was too much?! I am getting feats of anger just writing this. Now fast forward to today thousands of animals dead and millions of people facing starvation!
The three countries I mentioned earlier make do with the rain they receive, as a matter of fact they don't even need rain! We get more than enough; granted, the amount of rain has been receding over the past years (and I think we all know whose fault that is, that's a topic for another day!) but this planet has a lot of water. All you need are people with their heads screwed on properly and voila we are exporting food to our neighbours. But since we have idiots for leaders it is going to be a long time before we get there. So in the mean time help out where you can and plant a few trees because if you mess with mother nature she's going to rape you.