RUNNING THE EXTRA MILE WHILE WORKING A DAY JOB: THE HANAFI KAKA STORY

Hey guys, it’s been a while but I trust that you’ve kept on the EAT CLEAN LIFESTYLE; the road is never that easy and I am well aware of that. So I went out to look for some more MOTIVATION, one who’s taken to the life of healthy eating and exercise. Meet Hanafi Kaka, a graphics designer at Belva Digital – yeap, you need not be some gym instructor or a nutritionist; you too can do it.

Melissa:  Hey Kaka, first things first let me thank you for honouring my invitation. Tell me about your fitness journey, when did you start?

Kaka: Hello to you too; I started this fitness journey in February this year. 

Melissa: What fitness program are you taking part in?

Kaka: I use the NIKE+ RUN CLUB APP.

Melissa: How does that work?

Kaka: It’s basically an app that surrounds you with everyone and everything you need to run better. 

So what one does is to set a goal then with motivation from millions of other runners and guidance around every turn, it helps you out in reaching your goal.

Melissa: WOW! That is pretty interesting. Is it something you do every day? 

Kaka: No, I do it once a week for now though I hope to get there. I run on Saturdays, every Saturday from 4:30/4:45 depending on how warm the bed is.

Melissa: Any progress thus far?

Kaka: OH YES, I am a lot more FIT right now, my STAMINA has improved a great deal, my PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH is also a lot better. I am HARDIER and MORE PRODUCTIVE at work. I get my bread from being creative and for those juices to flow, one needs to be fit. Besides the ‘6-pack’ is always a welcome image, yeah?

Melissa: Ha-ha, I guess so.  Tell me about your DIET, has it changed? If yes, how?

Kaka: I basically eat normal food, but I had to eat more WHOLE FOODS as well as cut down on the meats and the caffeine’s and alcohol. I eat a lot of VEGGIES and LEAN PROTEIN. I try to have my diet as BALANCED as possible. 

Melissa: why did you get into fitness if I may ask?

Kaka: Well, it was part of my NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS, though it took me a whole month before I could actually start.

Melissa: Ha-ha, but here we are now mmh.

Kaka: Yes, here we are and we’ve just began.

Melissa: That is so AMAZING; I wish you all the best and I hope that you get to your goal, speaking of, what is your goal?

Kaka: On the run app, there are stages that one gets to depending on the kilometres one covers. I am at yellow right now, which is the lowest bar, so I purpose to get to orange at the moment.

Melissa: Do you have any challenges you are facing in this journey?

Kaka: Heh, more than one I’d say; getting out of bed is a task to be begin with, the constant cravings to binge – though I have diet cheat days, running for a constant 8 kilometres is no easy feat.  It is not an easy one but it is worth it.

Melissa: GREAT!  It gets easier with time… Thank you so much for this interview; all the best and pop in to tell us more on your journey.

Kaka: Yes it does. Thank you for having me.

There you have it guys, the interview was a lot longer than I could write. Kaka invited me to one of his runs and I will let you know how that goes. 

See IT is very possible. Comment and tell me about your fitness journey. 

Let’s do this- break a sweat!

OUT OF POCKET OUT OF MIND?

Let us begin this first blog on the SAFE side, well health-wise. We are still relatively early into the year and our bodies HAVE NOT, I repeat HAVE NOT recovered from the foodie syndrome that came with the holiday season. EATING CLEAN made it to most of our New Year's resolutions and Njaanuary deemed it great to eat out our brains ey... GOOD NEWS is that we can use our empty pockets to our advantage during these post-holiday foodie blues. Guzzling French wine and devouring an aged T-bone steak from prime cuts is definitely out of question and MAMA MBOGA will subsequently get "TRUMPED'",.no?

What is EATING CLEAN? Simplified, eating clean means stripping your diet of nutritionally meaningless foods. This means no fatty, fried,processed or sugary stuff. In comes the WHOLE FOODS.

Why? If you eat processed foods, they are pretty much already "broken down" for you, so the time it takes to digest a french fry will be waaaaaayyy quicker than the time it takes to digest a baked or boiled sweet potato with skin. Makes sense? These "bad foods" also usually have a TON of sugar, sodium and presevatives that make them quite addictive. if you try to ween yourself out of these though your taste buds will rewire themselves so as you will not want them anymore. It will take at least 2 weeks for that but YES WE CAN! Tasting WHOLE, real food is so much more satisfying in comparison to eating food hiding behind a blanket of nutritionally unavailable junk. Did you know that eating clean actually means you can EAT MORE??? That's right, eat MORE on LESS calories. How amazing is that. Who doesn't love eating? Ummh I do, and if i can eat more, gosh darnit, I will!

So how do you EAT CLEAN? EASY... See below:

HOW TO START EATING CLEAN:

1. Stop eating anything fried, sugary, and processed
2. Start eating a ton more veggies and lean protein
3. Eat things in their whole form! Fresh fruits, veggies, real meat (not patties and chicken nuggets)
4. Replace refined carbs (like white rice) with whole grains (brown rice)
5. Drink tons and tons of water to stay hydrated
6. Eat 5 times a day. If this is not possible, it is OK to do 3 a day, but just make sure each meal is balanced
7. Make and take with you as many meals as you can,so as not be swayed by temptation

See, EASY as pie, right? Well i hope you learnt something, or if you already knew that, i hope it motivates you to start the EAT CLEAN lifestyle.