Today’s blog post was written by a dear friend of mine who is so passionate about Health & Fitness. The reason it was not written by me is that exercising, for the most part, is not something I am passionate about, although I understand the benefits sometimes I just can’t turn the knowledge to action.
Especially now during these times when we are trying our best to stay safe at home, working out is one of the best ways to keep our minds and bodies healthy.
This is where Mirafiit comes in. She has kindly shared 5 key tips to help with working out when you don’t feel like it.
Mirafiit
When some people think of exercising, they think of the obvious things – HIIT, Weight Training, Cardio. But exercise is so much more. For me, understanding the purpose behind a thing helps me stay motivated. On that note, I’ll start off by explaining the purpose of exercising.
We were built to move
Simply put, our bodies were designed for activity. If we don’t stay active, things start to go wrong.
We can sometimes have quite a sedentary lifestyle. This, in addition to overly processed foods and increased portion sizes, means that we have to make an active choice to exercise. Ideally, you should exercise for about 30 mins every day. Right, so now that that’s done, here are five tips on how to exercise when you’re not feeling it!
Make a choice
Change is active. You have to decide to commit to exercise because even though you may not like it, you need it. The benefits of exercise are vast, from preventing heart-related diseases to improving your mood and alleviating depression. Think about this the next time you’re not feeling it, your body depends on your decision.
Change your mindset
Burn the idea that exercise requires a certain type of activity. There are so many different ways to exercise. If you don’t like weight training, skip it. If you’d prefer to do a dance class, find something on YouTube and do it! Take a walk, go for a run, swim, do yoga. Do anything that gets your body moving for at least 30 minutes!
A little becomes a lot
Start off small. The last thing you want to do is set unrealistic targets. You can’t go from sitting on a couch all day to running a marathon. Set daily or weekly attainable and sustainable goals. Go up and down the stairs 10 times, do a 15-minute workout, take a walk. Review those goals as you achieve them and set new goals.
Increase your NEAT: Non-exercise activity thermogenesis
These are things you can do that don’t necessarily feel like exercise but actually help to combat the ills of our sedentary lifestyle. It is really simple, just do more in your day. Do your chores, clean your room, spend more time on your feet, walk round your house every hour, get a standing desk, cook, walk your dog, stand while watching TV. While I would still recommend doing another form of exercise no matter how little, increasing your NEAT is a great place to start!
Play a sport
Although this might not be possible at this time, when this is over you might want to consider joining a sports team (or starting one). Sport is a really fun way of exercising without feeling like you are and it’s also a great way to socialise. The key is choosing a sport you enjoy!
Thank you, Mira, for sharing! You can find Mira on Instagram: @Mirafiit where she shares more knowledge on all things fitness, she also offers personalised fitness plans.
Mirafiit @ The Active Brunch
Please share your comments on how you find motivation to workout!
These days we all have a hustle and sometimes one just isn’t enough! Working a 9-5 can be so demanding and let’s be honest does it really end at 5?
This week on the blog I asked three amazing young women how they balance their 9-5’s and their side hustles.
What is your day job & What is your side hustle?
Tireni
I was going to say my 9-5 and then I realised it’s more like 8-6 on a very good day lol…anyway, I work as a Junior Associate at a law firm in Lagos. Aside from this, I run a home bakery and I am a Visual Artist which includes photography, creative videography and social mdia content creating and managing.
Eme
Hi! My name is Eme and during the week I’m a trainee lawyer based in Nigeria. After hours and over the weekend, I’m a social media manager for about 3 clients.
Bukiie
My day job is as an accountant working in professional services, my side hustle is a personal finance platform- Save Spend Invest that teaches millennial how to achieve financial freedom, saving better, spending well and investing wisely.
How long have you been working for?
Bukiie
Three and a half years
Tireni
I literally started work at the beginning of this year (2020)
Eme
I’ve been working in my day job for about three months now ( I am very fresh to the corporate world). I’ve been working on my side hustle for about 6 months.
Did you start your Side Hustle before your job?
Eme
Yes. I started social media managing about 3 months before getting into my legal role.
Bukiie
Nope, started 6 months after!
Tireni
Yeah, my side hustles had been developing before I started work.
Why did you start your side hustle?
Tireni
For quite a few reasons actually:
To fuel my passion, stay sane and be happy. My day job is very different from my side hustles which are much more creative. Fuelling my creative side often helps me stay sane, not get overwhelmed by the corporate world and to feel energised in life generally
To make money, of course.
To push myself our of my comfort zone and force myself to evolve, learn new skills and put them to use to help others and make them happy.
Because I have a list of what I call “impossible dreams” that God has given me and I believe these side hustles are an act of obedience and faith in God and his promises for me.
Eme
Honestly, it kind of fell into my lap. I’ve always been into social media and being creative, and a couple of my friends noticed that. So, they would recommend me to manage business social media pages for their aunties, mums, cousins you name it. It happened a few times but I never really acted on it until quite recently.
There was a three month gap between being called to the Nigerian Bar and starting my new job as a lawyer and I really needed something to do. I love immersing myself in projects and this didn’t hurt because it was a project that filled my pockets. So, I decided to take it seriously and 3 months later I’m gaining a steady income from something that really just happened by chance.
Bukiie
I started it for me really. To teach myself about personal finance and then once I got confident in my knowledge and realised there was a demand for it, I started sharing that too.
What is your biggest challenge with having a side hustle?
Bukiie
Doing everything myself ,because I don’t have a team so it’s hard to juggle all the ideas and execution with a full time job.
Tireni
TIME & MOTIVATION
As I hinted above, I work long hours. When I come home I often don’t have time or I’m too tired to start doing anything. But I’ve mostly gotten round that by planning and prepping in advance rather than waiting fot hte rush.
In relation to motivation, I mean it in the sent that most businesses aren’t booming when they start. When you see what you’re left with at the end of the month or when you decide not to ‘pay’ yourself but rather reinvest the money in your business, it’s like… is this really worth the stress? when will I be rolling in it?
My two tips
Trust the journey, even if it never hits you will still have learnt so much about yourself and business.
Don’t shortchange yourself, just because it’s a side hustle doesn’t mean you should be making ‘side’ money. If you’re doing it and people are coming to you, that means you’re good.
I always used to shortchange myself thinking this isn’t a real job but if you think like that you’ll give up. What you’ll even likely come to realise is that you’re just as good if not better than the people who do it full time and you don’t have to cheapen yourself to find clients.
They’ll come eventually. Now I have people who have seen work I’ve done and are scared of my prices – if only they knew I was practically doing it for free then. Treat it like is your only source of income because if it’s a side hustle your time is even more precious.
Eme
My biggest challenge right now is time management. So far I haven’t let any of my clients down- but juggling social media management with law is definitely not easy because both are extremely time consuming. I’ve had to give up many weekends and many hours of sleep. I’m currently working on being more organised so I’m not sacrificing self-care for work output.
What do you love the most about having a side hustle?
Eme
I honestly don’t think I can pick one thing because there’s so much I love about it. Like I said, I love immersing myself in projects. Having a side hustle makes me feel motivated- Like i’m doing something for me. I definitely respect 9-5’s but having this side hustle makes me feel like i’m building something for myself, which is really exciting.
Also, I love the fact that I’m learning new skills and improving myself. Social media managing lets me use a lot of the creative juices I don’t get to use while working in law. I’m learning about algorithms, photography, graphic design and just the mechanics of marketing in general. It’s really given me the opportunity to grow my skill set.
Bukiie
I love that it allows me to fulfil a passion and part of purpose. I like the reward of helping people do better with their money whether it’s helping them achieve saving targets or clear their debt.
Tireni
I’m constantly pushing the limits I’ve set for myself for what I am capable of achieving and I’m learning very practical life lessons from my experiences. I also like that I am in complete control.
I’m not always super confident in areas where I don’t know everything but not having anyone in charge of me means I have to take the lead and step up instead of aside. I’m learning to use my voice more, say how I feel and what I really think and that is seeping into my day job & how I approach that too.
Where do you see your side hustle in 2 years?
Tireni
Honestly, I don’t know and that doesn’t really bother me. I have visions and plans but every time I make those, God laughs. My expectations are always exceeded and so I try not to put timeline on things and just trust that God’s timing is the best.
Eme
This is really exciting to think about. I see myself having exponentially grown the business in terms of clients as well as man power. I see myself probably making way more from my side hustle than my main job.
Bukiie
Hopefully grown to about a team of 5-10 people, helping over 1000 young people work towards financial freedom.
How can we reach you/ learn more about your business(es) ?
Bukiie
Bukiie
All things me- @bukiiesmart
All things SaveSpendInvest – @savespendinvest on Instagram, we also have a podcast called The SaveSpendInvest Podcast.
Tireni
Tireni
I thought you’d never ask! Lol. My Instagram’s are:
@drizzlebakehouse
@tozacreative ,
personal is @tirenns
Eme
I don’t have a business website or Instagram page just yet ( mostly because I’m not taking on any new clients at the moment) But I’m working on growing the team and taking on new clients in the (very) near future. In the mean time you can reach me on my personal Instagram @emeukpong any updates will be announced there!
Eme
Thank you for sharing ladies!
Do you have a side-hustle? Let me know how you find balance, in the comments.
How is your week going? Did we practice being more confident in the spaces we are currently occupying? Let me know below!
Today I want to talk about gratitude… this was inspired by a lovely impromptu brunch I attended last weekend. I was surrounded by 22 intelligent, creative, strong & passionate women.
We were all asked to share something(s) we were grateful for last year and as I listened to all the women speak about their different experiences and how it led them back to gratitude I was amazed.
Life is full of surprises and the sun doesn’t always come out the next morning, our cloudy days get even cloudier and the rain just won’t go away. Lol! Despite it all our strength should always lie in the fact that there is always light at the end, there is a lesson in every situation and gratitude to be felt & expressed.
When you think about it, no matter how bad things can get there will always be something to be grateful for. Living life with a constant lense of gratitude just makes everything better. You find that you complain less and your mind overflows with positive feelings and thoughts.
So next time everything seems to be crashing down, don’t forget that gratitude is a surefire way to get out of the situation fast.
Some things I’m grateful for:
1. Amazing friends & family
2. My job
3. Good health
What are you grateful for this year? Please share in the comments below!
Thursdays are typically a day of reflection for me and I’d like to bring that to this space. Last week on Instagram I asked my fellow newbies to the workforce how they were finding it & if they were enjoying the work they were doing.
Everyone was really open and honest and it was nice to see that I wasn’t the only experiencing certain things.
Some of the key things people struggled with:
1. Imposter Syndrome
2. Not being challenged enough
3. Feeling overwhelmed/ burnt out
These are things that greatly impact how you feel and in turn how you experience this new stage in life.
Personally, to make it all a little bit easier I remind myself of certain things.
1. Change is uncomfortable and is also constant, I have to get used to this feeling.
2. I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be right now
3. They wouldn’t hire me if they didn’t think I could do it!
4. I can’t control what happens but I can control my response
I’d like to find out what people think and what advice anyone has for those of us who might be struggling a little bit & who don’t actually think we are where we’re meant to be.
Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section!
When I hosted my first vision board party one thing everyone had on their board was dollars & pounds lol!
We all agreed that going forward we wanted to make more money and get better at saving and investing, the goal is to earn more & grow that money.
I think a lot of us know we should be saving and investing but if you’re anything like me then it’s just a chore, a pain and it gets buried in procrastination.
Shout out to the ones actually doing the work though!
To be fair I did start saving & investing this year, just a tiny bit but it was something. To try and improve I’ve been doing lots of research on how to be better with money and just generally improve my spending & saving habits so when I start earning all the cash moniessss I know what to do and how to handle it.
This is my favourite app right now, it allows me set daily, weekly or monthly direct debits from my main account to my piggyvest account . It gives investment opportunities and you earn interest on the money you save. It sets specific withdrawal days to encourage you to keep your savings, if you want to withdraw outside of the set days you are charged a small percentage! It’s all round amazing.
This is another great way to grow your money, First Banks Money Market fund invests your money in a diversified portfolio and you can start with as little as N5,000
Books:
1. The Smart Money Woman- Arese Ugwu
I loved reading this, there’s so many useful tips and she explains boring principals in a really interesting and useful way.
2. Money Brain- JR Kanu
This is a really good one, its more well rounded and literally talks about all the things that will help you develop a money brain, not just how to grow your money.
Please add more useful websites, Twitter handles, books, or any other resources in the comments!
Hello everyone! Its been ages since I posted on here, I am the very definition of ‘life got in the way’
Anyways, I’ve decided to find my way back as my Queen Mother- Beyonce once said.
Today I want to talk about how I am feeling. It’s a weird time, I have completed a degree, as well as a post-graduate degree. Now I am faced with the task of figuring out my next move. What doesn’t help is that everywhere I turn older adults are saying ‘ so what’s next?’
It has made me start to wonder about, what people have against living in the moment. If they mean well why not just ask what are you doing with your time now ? ‘what next?’ is a nosey question that can leave the person answering feeling a bit anxious at the end.
I am certain a huge group of us are tired of this question and even just this space but alas, it is part of the journey.
This is just to say if you’re in this place where you’re not quite sure what to do or if you even want to be doing the thing you’ve decided to do, then we are all truly in this together.
Here’s to hoping we figure it out and not being too hard on ourselves even if it takes a little longer than we anticipate!
My definition: The ones they tell you and him to stay away from, the ones who know what they want and are not afraid to go after it.
Dictionary definition: a seductive woman who lures men into dangerous or compromising situations.
I have been feeling very inspired lately and recently there is a lot of girl power in the air.
My dear friend recently launched a website, dedicated to educating the masses and having the very important conversation of Feminism and why it is important. Here is the link to a truly enlightening experience brag-aboutit .
This post is about me redefining the definition of ‘Femme Fatale’ the popular definition is basically another way of saying women are responsible for the actions grown men take and I do not agree. It could also mean women are powerful and can make their dreams come true and I like this more.
The fact that women are seemingly more liberated in several ways is a good thing. I think it is important that women have the choice to be and ‘Femme Fatale’ should be another way of saying free.
This post is hereby dedicated to my dear friend for starting something bigger than herself and for being true to her beliefs.
This post is all about the woman I have come to admire and maybe should examine more closely. Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel.
I remember stumbling upon her biopic when I was about ten. That was something I’ll never forget because even at that age I was amazed by how she overcame the struggle and how used her femininity to progress, but despite this, she never compromised her standards and worked hard for everything she got.
I loved that she believed in practicality and comfort, but not at the expense of looking good. She redefined what it meant to be feminine and showed that black wasn’t a colour anyone should be afraid of. Although I am taking a path far away from hers, she is the very definition of Femme Fatale for me. She did it and was unapologetic in her ambitions.
Coco Chanel inspires me daily to be bold, seek more and put myself out there. I am failing miserably at all this but I am trying and I’m realising that’s all that matters.
So this week when you remember Femme Fatale, remember to be unapologetic and remember that your dreams are meant to be big!
Learning is an interesting concept and most times we feel like we have to be specifically taught something before we have learnt it.
This year I have found out that I am constantly learning and that’s the best way to live.
I worked as a charity fundraiser this summer and it was my job to walk up to people’s houses, knock on their doors , pitch my charity to them and eventually convince them to sign up and make a monthly contribution.
This job was totally out of my comfort zone and upon reflection I could have probably handled that better, but like I said its all a learning process.
So here is a list of things my job taught me:
The importance of a smile. People feed off your energy, when someone opened the door and I was monotone and not smiling they replied in a monotone and often dismissive manner, but if I was smiling and laughing, even if they didn’t sign up we often had a good conversation.
I learnt that to succeed I need to do something I enjoy.
I learnt that compromising for a short time can lead to long-term benefits
I learnt that I do not work well under pressure and even if its being put on me I need to ignore it. Sometimes pressure is inevitable, in this job we had weekly targets. However it was the weeks that I didn’t pay any attention to the targets that I was most successful.
I learnt that being open-minded will take you far. There is a whole world out there, a whole world outside of you and it doesn’t take much to explore it.
I learnt that I can do anything I set my mind to.
I learnt to look for the silver lining in every situation.
People only hear what they want to hear. It is important you make them hear you.
I would love to hear about your most recent learning experience?
Arismusings 