Category: Lifestyle

Inspired By You No6

If your first thought as you wake in the morning is a happy thought, you are more likely to have a pleasant day. This morning my first thought was about lemons because my morning wake up drink is usually herbal tea with lemon. This morning I chose rooibos tea with lemon. I love lemons.

At the local supermarket, the lady at the checkout asked what do I make with lemons. She said she noticed how I always buy fresh lemons. I reeled off just a few things I do with the lemons and she smiled when I mentioned cleaning my teeth.

While the kettle was boiling, I had a moment to be thankful for having plenty of fresh lemons. I decided to start off the day with a tribute to fresh lemons.

Lemons are full of goodness and have more than 12 micro-nutrients, therefore having excellent feel-good qualities and antioxidant properties. Although lemons are a well-known source of Vitamin C, there is more than double the amount of Potassium in a lemon than there is Vitamin C.

Potassium is a mineral found in the body mainly in your cells, predominantly in your muscle cells and small traces in your liver, bones and red blood cells.

Potassium is the third most abundant mineral in the body and is the highest nutrient value in lemons. It helps the body regulate fluid, send nerve signals and regulate muscle contractions.

It’s no wonder that my early morning tea with fresh lemon starts me off with positive energy. I notice that when I chose Green tea with lemon I get an extra boost of energy and I can do a more rigorous morning workout.

This morning the positive energy was directed towards the cleaning properties of lemons. For the morning workout, I wiped down the inside and outside of the kitchen cupboards with a mixture of equal parts water lemon juice and vinegar. This mix is a natural disinfectant that cleans well and smells fresh.

Lemons juice is a degreasing agent and can be used to clean all sort of things

• Kettles and coffee-makers can be de-scaled using boiling water and lemon juice
• Lemon juice can remove stains from clothing, including those nasty little rust stains that pop up in pure cotton garments and bed linen
• Boil water and lemon juice in the microwave to create steam, leave it for 5 minutes to act as a degreaser then wipe it down with a warm cloth
• Lemon juice removes grime and stains from plastic containers
• You can refresh the entire house if you simmer lemon juice and water on the stove for an hour or two. The smell and the vapour creep through the house.

Lemon essential oil is one of my favourites. In my office, I mix lemon oil and sweet orange oil in a diffuser, the aroma helps me to concentrate.

For a quick pick me up, you can mix one drop of lemon oil and one drop of peppermint oil in the palm of the hand, rub them together until the warmth sets off the invigorating aroma. Without touching the face take a few deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth.

Finally, I need to mention food;

The acid taste in lemon is one of the four essential flavours used in cooking to balance the dish and create a dish of well defined flavours. The other three tastes being salt, fat and sweet.

Lemon can be used to balance out a dish that tastes, bland or flat, too salty or too sweet and can also help to balance out a bitter taste.

If the taste is too acid because you may have used too much lemon, try maple syrup and salt to rebalance. This is the joy of cooking and hereby completes this tribute to fresh lemons.

Inspired by You No5

The 21 day Corona Virus lockdown in South Africa started on March 27, 2020. We are now waiting to see what will happen after the extended deadline on April 30.

The shock-waves that followed after the announcement about the lockdown included the unexpected ban on the sale of tobacco products and alcohol. These items are classified as non-essentials.

There are many arguments for and against the ban.

Mental health professionals generally advise us to focus on the positives in the face of adversity.

On the positive side of banning the sale of tobacco products and cigarettes, we find a mountain of benefits, including physical and mental health benefits and financial and social benefits.

If you are a smoker, I am interested to know how you are dealing with the situation. Are you angry, accepting, craving a smoke, or thankful for the unexpected opportunity to quit?

One of the best strategies for giving up smoking cigarettes is to selectively choose the time when to quit. A significant event is always the right choice. A wedding, a vacation, hospitalisation, the birth of a child, and sadly the death of a loved one are all examples of significant events.

There is no doubt or reasonable argument or valid excuse, you cannot deny, this significant event that is upon us right now is a perfect opportunity to quit smoking.

There are a few ways you can look at this.

• Be grateful for this historic opportunity that has come your way to solve your pending health problems and help rid yourself of the compulsive habit of smoking cigarettes
• Be outraged and focus on the fact that your right to choose is gone, and pile up all the other reasons why the ban is not fair
• Be somewhat outraged but realise this is an excellent chance to quit and think carefully, are you going to take the opportunity or not
• Be indifferent because you stocked up on cigarettes before the lockdown and spent more money on cigarettes than some people have to live on for a month

What will you do if the ban continues and all your cigarettes are gone?

For the past week, my husband Franco and I have opened the front gate early in the morning and stepped out into the street. We cast our eyes far into the distance to feel a sense of freedom.

One day the neighbour stopped for a chat as he drove out of his gate. That was the first conversation we had with another live person in 15 days.

The conversation got around to the banning of the sale of cigarettes and alcohol. Franco didn’t stock up; instead, he accepted this as his big chance to quit smoking. The neighbour, on the other hand, was furious about the ban, he did stock up and claimed to have enough in stock to last a few more weeks. The neighbour also mentioned he had stocked up on wine.

We all enjoyed our relaxed early morning conversation and in parting offered our assistance to help each other if we needed anything.

A couple of days after our encounter, the neighbour phoned to ask if we had a printer with enough ink and paper to print a 100-page document. It was for his son’s home-schooling manuals.

We were happy to be able to say yes and help. The neighbour offered a trade and asked if he could buy paper or ink or is there anything we needed in return. I remembered the conversation about cigarettes and wine.

We had already used the two bottles of red wine that we had in stock for cooking. The previous week I made a beef casserole with red wine sauce, and for Easter, Franco made Ragu with red wine and home-made Gnocchi. That was the end of the red wine. We traded a printout for a bottle of wine.

A friend who has been trying to quit smoking for a few years decided to stock up on cigarettes and ride the wave. He ran out on Saturday, he finally accepted this as the perfect opportunity to quit smoking.

A good thing about acceptance is once you have accepted something for what it is, it’s easier to move on.

I used to be a smoker, and I quit four times. I care so much about you that I am giving you a free course about dealing with the cravings when you quit.

Here is the full course about how to quit smoking for the rest of your life.

Because I care about your health, and I know you will never regret your decision to quit smoking, I am giving away 3 Quit Smoking Packages. The package includes 3 online coaching sessions and The Quit Smoking Project for free.

This will be awarded to the first three people who contact me with the correct answer to the following question.

What is the Title of the free course?

Everyone check out the courses, leave a comment and be my inspiration for the next post.

If you are a non-smoker but know someone who might be grateful for a little help to stop smoking, please share the post.