One of the things I said I would write about is exercise. So here is my first post about this.

I haven’t gone running for a month, and working out at home I haven’t done in 2 weeks as I fell of a horse (or rather a really big pony that could pass as a horse) the day before mother’s day. I will be starting my running again on Monday, although I have to start with a short distance in order to get my body used to running again. So no jumping into running 11.23 km right away.

For the past 2 weeks though I have done workouts 3 times a week at home in order to strengthen my body again, and this week I have started with exercises for my back as well to help strengthen and relax my back muscles. Last night I did 5 exercises before bed to help relax and loosen my muscles, and I actually managed to have a really good night’s sleep. Not to mention I actually managed to fall asleep a lot quicker, something I haven’t been able to do in a long time. I will be doing this every night from now on.

So I really recommend that you do this every night before bed. You don’t have to do a full workout, just few stretches to help relax your body. And what I have also been doing my workouts in the morning now after I have woken up.

Here are 7 benefits that I found as to why working in the morning is good for you (i.e this tips only apply to workouts that apply to muscle workouts, and not running. So this tips DO NOT apply to running):

1. Morning workouts enhance your metabolism
2. A good morning routine helps cultivate consistency
3. Morning exercise improves physical and mental energy
4. Early morning workouts help you develop strong self-discipline
5. A Morning Exercise Routine Will Help You Get Better Sleep
6. Morning Exercise Allows You to Reach Your Fitness Goals Faster
7. Exercise In the Morning and Love Your Life!

I know a lot of you will “but I hate working out in the morning”. I had the exact same thinking pattern before I actually tried it. And since I started doing it this past week, I feel better and more energized, and I have a a lot more energy during the day, I am more awake as I don’t feel tired, and in general feel a lot more better about myself. Thus, I am ready to face anything that the day throws at me.

So here are a few rules to get you to do your morning workout:

1. Put your alarm far away
2. Keep moving
3. Give yourself something to look forward to
4. Don’t skip the warmup
5. Keep it short
6. Final point – keep your morning exercise nutrition on point. I.e. eat small before your workout; drink, drink, drink; experiment; now you can feast

All these points I mentioned I got from reading an article called “7 Benefits of Morning Exercise, Plus 5 Tricks To Actually Love It (even if you hate mornings!)”, written by a guy named Dave Smith. Reading this article is what got me to workout in the morning. He explains each of those points in detail. I suggest you read the article to see what he has to say, and I hope it motivates you to the same thing. Click here to go to the article. Click here to get tips as to why to stretch before bed.

Here are 10 benefits as to why running in the evening is better:

1. You’ll run more consistently
2. Running at night can actually help you sleep better
3. You can run faster at night without increased effort
4. Nighttime running is more effective and automatic
5. You can de-stress after a long day
6. Nighttime running serves as a form of quiet meditation
7. Night running is more social
8. Running at night can relieve you of stressful mornings
9. Your body will be more prepared
10. Night running warrants late-night eats

Click here to find out more about the above 10 mentioned benefits of nighttime running. And one last thing before I end of this article, remember eating healthy helps you stay in shape as well. So trade in those unhealthy snacks for healthy snacks, such as dried fruit or even nuts. Here’s one last tip, have a snack in between breakfast and lunch and another one between lunch and supper. It will keep your energy and sugar levels up. Eating healthy snacks is better that sugar based snacks. Healthy snacks have healthy and natural sugar which are better for your body. Eating fruit as a snack is very good for your body as they give you lots of energy and have natural sugar which your body needs (and taste really good). Before going for a run, I suggest eat a banana 30 minutes before you start running. If you don’t believe me, go ahead and google it.

I’m back!!

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written my first blog. I’ve been meaning to write but life has just been sooo hectic at the moment. I mean exams and a new job. These things have really taken up a lot of time. I know I only had two exams, but since I am a postgrad student there’s not much time for a lot of other things when it comes to having to study. After all I do really want to pass, or rather it’s a must that I pass. I don’t want to have to redo a module next year, but then again who wants to redo a module?! Ummm, no one is the answer to that. I really want to succeed and make my family proud, especially my mom, stepmom, and twin sister.

That’s right, you read that correctly. I do indeed have the great privilege of having 2 moms and a twin sister. My sister and I (we are fraternal by the way, i.e. we are nonidentical twins) live together, and our moms’ live 400 meters away from us. So 2 houses between the 4 of us only 400 meters away from us. It’s really nice, so if we ever need to help each other out we just walk over. And the nice thing is, if my sister and I ever want a nice cooked meal (or rather an amazing cooked meal) and we want to spend some time with our parents, we just call them and say we want to have quality time together. Although, having a stepmom now, the number of siblings I have now has doubled. I was born into a family with 2 older brothers and a twin sister, and then when I was 16 my mother and father took in a friend of my 1 brother, so I got a foster sister. So by 16 I had 2 brothers and 2 sisters, of which I was the youngest (my twin is the older twin). Around that time we met my stepmom and her family. She only officially became my mother when I was around 18 or 19. And Thus, her 4 kids became my siblings. So I now have 3 older brothers, 3 older sisters, my twin sister, and a younger sister. I’m no longer the youngest.

Enough about my family. I mentioned that another reason why I didn’t write was because of work. I am now an online English tutor (I am not going to say where as that is private), and I am currently doing the TEFL course. I have 4 weeks to do it, although I don’t understand why we only get 4 weeks, and I have about 25 days left to do it. My aim is to finish all the content in the next 15 – 17 days. That way I have enough time to do the test at the end, as it takes the tutors between 3-4 days to complete the marking and that all needs to be done within the time limit as well. So I need to go ahead and carry on doing that now.

Until my next entry for a continuation of my adventure through life.

This is my first ever blog. Unless you count the 3 blogs I had to as part of one of my modules for University, which counted for marks, then no this is not my first blog. But then again this is for me, and it’s not for marks, so then again it is my first ever blog. It all depends from which perspective you see it from.

Personally, when I was younger I never had a problem with the way I looked and I never cared what other thought of the way I looked, then I went through a phase where I hated the way I looked. This lasted for a good few years. I thought that I didn’t look good enough. But now I have gotten through that phase, and I’m back to not having a problem the way I look. I work out a few times a week, and I eat healthy (not that I never ate healthy, I just changed my diet around a bit). My fitness consists of running 11.5 KM 3 – 4 times a week, and doing some workouts at home 3 times a week. My workout used to only consist of running 5 – 6 times a week. But I decided to change that up a bit as well, to keep it interesting.

Doing this really keeps me grounded, and I am able to do better at University. I am currently a part time Honours student in BCom IS. I was a full-time student at the beginning of the year but then I changed over to part-time. Just to clarify, the full-time Honours is 1 year and the part-time Honours is 2 years. And for those of you who don’t know, an Honours degree is what a lot of degrees have in South Africa as part of postgraduate studies. So those degrees have a 3 or 4 year undergraduate degree, and the postgraduate is Honours (1 or 2 years, depending on whether you do full-time or part-time), Masters, and PhD. Honours, even though part of postgrad, isn’t really part of postgrad as we are more like postgrad apprentices. Honours year is where we do our research project. So in other words, a Bachelors and an Honours is the equivalent of an oversees Bachelors degree, as a lot of oversees degrees have Bachelors (4 years) where in the final year is research, Masters, and PhD. We do have 2 or 3 degrees here that have already implemented that method. But in my case the research part is not necessary to get a job in South Africa. But if I were to look for a job oversees it would be close to impossible if I don’t do my Honours. So that’s a bit of information as to how we it is done in Universities in South Africa.

I really love what I do, and I hope to combine my IS degree one day with Finance. As I have a BCom General Degree majoring in IS and Finance management. I hope to be able to change the world somehow with my knowledge in both fields. I am now coming to an end of my 1st semester of Honours, and I must say it was one hell of a first semester. I met a lot of new people, and it was a lot of work but I had fun never the less.

Stay tuned for my next post.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton