Breaking a sweat

Sweating is one of the best ways to flush out toxins from the excretory system. It helps maintain your temperature and, therefore, a healthy lifestyle. When salty drops run down the face, it means that you have engaged in an activity that is blowing a kiss of life into the body. I am not implying sweating because it is hot outside. I mean the glow as a result of physical exertion, most probably training. Being in an area with sweltering heat normally triggers sweating. However, it's a better way to discover the type of environment your body is conditioned to acclimate to.

Exercising remains the best way to invigorate the body and induce a healthy sweat. Yet, the mere thought of working out causes the body to instinctively cringe and involuntarily shudder. It is rarely an activity you approach with fervent zeal and enthusiasm. Very few can transform working out from being a daunting task into a rewarding ritual that makes the body look forward to such a positive experience.

Ideally, you force your body to go through the torture and discomfort associated with physical exercises. Even simple exercises like raising your arms can be challenging if you are not used to them. It may appear simple to hold your hands aloft for 2 minutes until you have to start progressing from easy to extra strenuous versions that add complexity. 

If you increase the number of repetitions and sets, then your body automatically ignites that burning sensation, which signals the onset of fatigue. It is normally a fiery sensation that builds muscle strength and endurance. Over time, you adapt and become more resilient. It is wise to make small changes over time. Do not expect to achieve it all at once. Evolve your habits to suit what you have immersed yourself in. However, if you make the mistake of forgoing consistency, you will easily regress.

Once in a while, I exercise because I sit a lot. In a day, I spend close to 12 hours seated. I could be working to make money or engage in other hobbies that involve sitting, like writing or reading. The two hobbies are closely linked and have a strong correlation. Therefore, I allocate a lot of time to them. Luckily, I can sharpen my mind and strengthen my mental muscular memory in bed. 

I normally flip through my phone or a read book. I prefer reading eBooks hence my phone is the one-stop shop for perusal. Currently, I have a few physical books. But I plan to increase my collection in the coming months. That said, it has never crossed my mind that I should go to a bookshop or even order some online.

While reading can be done in bed, writing requires a chair and desk to candidly engage in. Asked, I spend more time reading. Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night because my sleep is disrupted because of a salivary chock, a cough or an impending pee. If I have not fallen back to sleep after thirty minutes, I usually turn to reading blogs. 

What works best is skimming through a book. Some sites offer free eBooks, provided you subscribe and become a platform member. As usual, the websites take advantage of your data and use it to their advantage to tailor advertisements that algorithms think suit your age, gender, and all other traits that they deduce from your profile given the kind of books you read. Of course, I clear cookies, cache, and web history after a while to avoid being marketed products that lead to frivolous purchases.

I often end up lousy and lethargic while indulging in the two hobbies. Fortunately, my body tends to signal that I should get moving to relieve the buildup of tension. Naturally, the body becomes clenched and tensed because of the sedentary and indoorsy lifestyle. My daily routine is simple: I wake up, brush my teeth, and shower. Then dive into the day. Subtly, if you work from home, like yours truly, there is a high likelihood you may get caught up in tasks that stretch for long without pausing for a breather.

That is where a smart band comes in handy. Depending on your lifestyle, after every 1 or two hours, you get a gentle reminder to be up and about. When you have been in the same state for a long time, you might become stiff due to prolonged inertia. That is why a band comes with ingenuous nudges to encourage you to stretch and stay limber.

One of the regions in the body that usually ends up in pain is the lower back. If you are not in a job that involves a lot of sitting, then stand is your posture. Standing is beneficial. You rarely end up in pain because at some point, you will walk.

That cannot be said of sitting. It is easy to forget to get up and move when I am busy involved in a task that occupies so much of my time. I normally suffer from lower back pains, and sometimes, I just overlook the issue because I see no need to work on the body. When I sit down to read, I have come up a strategy in where I do around 50 pages in one hour. Sometimes, depending on my mood, it can stretch to an hour and a half. Ideally, if I spend three hours reading, I do not notice that I was absorbed in the activity. 

Unfortunately, writing and reading occupy so much of my time to the  extent thatI forget that I need to stretch my body. I love lower back stretches because they are less intensive and help promote cardiovascular healing while strengthening the core. Exercises like body tilts, cobra pose, child pose, planks, bird dog pose and other exercises have come in handy lately. They help melt away stress, and you feel revitalized. The bridge helps with lowering back pain. It stabilizes the spine and delivers relief from discomfort in the strained area.

If you do not incorporate a workout regimen, you may end up having a slight stoop. You never notice that the body is in distress because you sit down longer than usual. No wonder there are mirrors in gyms to remind you to shape up. What I love about the exercises is that they are freely posted on various platforms. If you are a fitness buff, you can easily follow your preferred fitness influencer to keep fit. Alternatively, you can join like-minded individuals in the various gyms.

I rely heavily on YouTube for my workouts because it offers an array of exercises. Most exercises are tailored to suit your fitness level or the stage you are in life. You may opt for beginner-friendly exercises and then gradually advance to pro exercises. However, it is easier said than done. Workouts demand dedication and consistency. If you spend most of your time in the house, there is a high chance that you will be discouraged from working out. You might even give up. Few have the discipline to stay on course because you are causing pain. It's wise to join others. Being part of a group helps with motivation since you are not alone.

The results are what sometimes keep me going strong. After the pandemic, most jobs that did not involve meeting clients directly could be done from home. I have been working from home since. I have never looked back because it has offered me a chance to engage in what I love doing beyond the job I am paid for monthly. 

A self-employed chap once told me he cannot imagine being paid only 12 times in a year. Which is what I go through yearly. As a salaried employee, when you are financially stretched, you have to wait till the end of the month for your next paycheck. Meanwhile, depending on how his business operates, someone like him likely earns money more frequently—sometimes even hourly. Not forgetting that he charges depending on the customer. Sometimes I envy him. Take an Uber driver, for instance, turning up at the right location guarantees income, a privilege I don't have.

During the pandemic, I can recall I gained weight in all the wrong areas. I had massive adipose deposits around the belly, which made it hard to walk the way I once did. Even 5000 steps would leave me sweating as if I had been trapped up in a sudden downpour. That was the turning point that spurred my erratic fitness journey.

Along the way, my body regained its former shape. Like every journey, life is full of ups and downs. I have to work very hard because I have a pot belly. I used to do exercises that involved cutting down weight. Presently, I am fit judging by my body shape. However, when it comes to yoga-like exercises, that is where I draw the line.

Hasta La Vista, Baby.

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KENYAN BOOKS

Are Kenyan books good reads? This is my 150^th post on blogger (just saying and am a tad proud of it). I now have two Kenyan books under my cap since the begging of the year (sic). All published by Kwani?. Apparently Binyavanga Wainaina features prominently in mentorship by the two authors of the books withal. Kenya literature is past its nascent nappy stages of growth. The testosterone levels in writing are improving albeit much cannot be written home apart from the fact that we still adore the colonial literary behemoths in matters penmanship like the legendary Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Micere Mugo. If our mainstream media especially the dailies are anything to go by in terms of media coverage and mention. Plus they lecture in universities USA, a plus because Kenyans revere so much those who have made it in the west. Say an African weakness.

I will actually buy a book by the latter because she actually has this flawless goddess image when it comes to the literary scene in Kenya and because I have always taken for granted the notion of reading her previous works because of some unfathomable primal. Again which I have no clue about.

Actually, the books were good reads (those that I bought). I am planning to buy more books and ad to my library that I hope will inaugurate a series of works in immaculate condition and crisp so that there are no defects on the book or pages in the near future. How will I achieve this filial overture? I have a salary for heaven's sake. I will prorate a small portion of it to quench my reading thirst. Again it is not easy to get that someone I currently know of who has Kenyan books (lots of them) I can exchange the few books (read two) that I have.


This is the point I remind myself that I need to get out of the cocoon and reduce the introversive nature in me which is full of contentment but still inebriated to maintain my selfish status quo.

Going to buy the books was one of the decisions I had made last year. Whereas I have been postponing the purchase, I finally had the nerves to purchase them two weeks ago on a lousy Sunday mid-morning when I was feeling bored and the couch pastors on local telly were somehow not assuaging the nervous me to sit down and watch the sermon that would have had a spiritual impact on my already fragile amend with the Greater Spiritual Being.

I decided to leisurely foot to make it to the supermarket that sells books because taking a matatu would have instinctively meant I was not going to ponder on the state of affairs in the hood. I realized so much has changed within the little time that I have been tacitly absorbed by work, school and returning back to the house as my wonted. My current salary though cannot afford me a getaway from the city or dining in one of the ritzy restaurants serving gourmet cuisine which I will be eager to sample if matters go well with this beautiful girl who makes my heart skip a bit when I think about her (is this just infatuation or lust). I am complaining inwardly but things are looking up and they will ultimately turn rosy eventually.

On arrival at the supermarket, I was tempted. My initial intent was to procure a single Kenyan book since I was under the impression that one was retailing at Ksh.1000 but luckily, I found two which I settled on. Eve Kasaya's "Tale of Kasaya" and Stanley Gazemba's "The Stone Hills of Maragoli." Settling on the two books was not easy. I had heard of Stanley Gazemba. I initially had no idea on which book I was to buy actually. Still I just wanted to buy a Kenyan book though I had this notion that most authors are novices with their lingo and attribution of their works would be a little easy if not disappointing or full or inadequacy. When the two books turned out to be just slightly above the initial budget I had projected, I was salivating. My fingers were having this powerful feeling of fondling the books that had gathered dust on the shelves, a clear indication that they were less prestigious or in other words they were louche. I love the font used for publishing the books. It was just wow.

But there was an even better offer. It turned out that three books were retailing for just Ksh.1000. They were Western literature by big names all the publications being best sellers. And the way I LOVE how those authors are able to ingenuously tell stories by keep someone in suspense and creating flow that keeps makes you want to clutch on the edges even if you are feeling very gauche.

I pondered over the next available move but stuck on the initial decision. Buying Kenyan books which I did not find in the usual location where they had been placed the last time I went to the supermarket. They were hidden in my opine, because for the untrained eye with no fetish for books, one would even wonder that the same were in existence if you asked latter if they took notice of the Kenyan books. But how many people take their time to read Kenyan Books? The figure is mind boggling because I have no real statistic of the same.

Reading Kasaya’s book, I was eagerly awaiting for that time where she was to get to or complete high school. Apparently, there are very many high school graduates who I know of who cannot intuitively flow as her because she has very good spoken English. The fact that she was a maid past a dozen years and her near death experience working for an employee who also never paid her other than take her once to a salon where she was done her hair at a figure I am even feeling something inside me pierce the heart painfully because it is not what I can spend on beauty in my current state more than ten years down the line. Luckily her neighbors came in rescue and a pastor later told her to forgive as human is to err and instead of reporting the matter to the police, she followed the word of the minister.  

Watching her later on YouTube in Jeff Koinange’s “The Bench” on K24, I could see she was quite polished. Somehow she is achieving her dream because she has been able to move a notch higher in her societal status. Interacting with likes of Ngugi and Micere on the same dias is no mean fete for a class eight drop out. Bet by now, she has  completed her high school as she stated she was going to complete the same and even go to university. This is a true manifestation that the inhibitions in our brains are folly creations that only circumvent our aspiration into cruising a notch higher because time and tide waits for no man who clings on inertia.

The horrific experiences working as a maid was quite an eye opener on the general conditions some maids have to go through. From eating alone while standing in the kitchen, washing bloody underwear, walking at night to go fetch water, working with no pay for months and other unearthly instances such as the probability of being raped by the man of the house and since most do not know their rights, they end up suffering in silence.

A way from the Kasaya’s tale, Stanley Gazemba has a way of using language is sententious and rich, not too much purple prose such that you are lost in flourish of fancy wording. His magical and flowery use of words in a pictographic way leaves one with the impression that they are in the scene and the storyline resonates well with the rural folk with vivid descriptions that create a strong momentum that energizes you as a reader to continue flipping the pages without ceasing. His judicious use of vocabulary is on point keeping one captive and that is what I loved about his artistry in general.

Gazemba’s book was everything that I have always wanted to read in a nutshell. It usually sounds gloriously elegant and beautifully crafted to the eye with near perfect diction. The story setting takes you to a world full of fiction and though it does not capture the real life situation, it is the real deal. The creative fiction in it was however limiting because it oscillates within the rural set-up. Yet most rural folks have relatives in urban areas who they visit once on a while.

It was easy to dissect how the next chapter unravels because there are hints before the next chapter comes in quick succession. Say it’s like watching an Oga movie with a predictable flow. Ombima being the main character has his fair share of life hurdles (losing his daughter, then sight and finally his mistress). His goose is however cooked for deeping his loin in his seductive master’s better half honey pot that results in the latter’s house maid taking over the house when she is still cold six feet under.

HASTA LA VISTA BABY


[Picture Source: Photoshop Inverted Google Images]

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SEX ON FIRE

She was idling in one of the streets of Nairobi. I could read her body language. She sent strong signals that she wanted me. What with that gaze. I looked at her for some few minutes persistently. Feigned ignorance of her existence and walked past her. She was hot. That kind of lady that you can never resist because everything in her makes you want to take her to bed just by the look of her face, physique and what else?

I presumed she was waiting for her man. I walked past her and went to the bank. I wanted to withdraw enough cash because I was taking her home. We were going to have Sex On Fire. Lurid words, but I am just that. Me and I Love having sex on fire with any woman I can pick up or my friend has just finished with.

Am that shady and loose moral. I sleep with my friend's exes and they are used to it. They know it but can do absolutely nothing about it.

I can never be faithful. While most men hate picking ladies openly. I do it and even haggle over the price as others are listening. They usually sneer at my brazen tendencies and braggadocio. Who cares anyway. I have even slept with ladies I just bumped on the net. Some I am recommended to by even those I am sleeping with. Am very lucky a man. So lucky with women because many men stick to one woman for the rest of their lives.

I came to realize that in Nairobi, money talks. You bed these ladies depending on the amount of money you can spend. I also never use protection. I never will with any of these ladies. They know it. Yet I have never been sick. I have the right to brag apart from mild headaches that last a few minutes. Not even a cough nor a flu.

She was with her friends who were equally hot. You feel like you want all of them because you carnal desires are so piercing and you hormones are raging high. Let me confess that I have had menage a trois on a couple of occasions.

All men who have had a threesome will confess that it is usually very pathetic. You never can satisfy all women. I have had them before. I tried using cialis and mira to keep my stamina. Seems like they don’t help a lot.

Let me tersely explain how I have been able to take even five women in bed when other people still dream about it.

You need to be confident. Very confident and take the bull by its horns.

The skill of bedding a lady differs from the skill of just picking her up. All the ladies I have picked up usually end up in my bed. It is just by design. I must sleep with them.

Sleeping with a woman also requires one to be very good in bed. Some ladies are very boring and you barely make out with her. You soon fall asleep because she can never rise to the occasion.

I have a very agile libido. Some ladies are like a carousel. You sweat out till you give up and sleep because they never lose their sweetness. They are very exciting. And when you wake up, you continue from where you left. You sure know where to pick up from.

The make you writhe and groan as you hold on to her like a baby never letting your hands betray you because they need to caress and hold the right edges.

I am a smooth operator who knows how to make ladies feel like they are special and Queens . I know how to make ladies feel satiated in bed. I know where to touch. The words to drive her crazy and the rest as it goes is history.

Have you ever realized that talking about sex in your mother tongue is a caveat emptor, derogatory and can result in a barrage of tirade from the senile folks and middle-age proxies especially the ladies.Not in English though, and precisely on this blog.

I talk about what I want and how I want.

SITUONANE

[Photo source: SplitShire]

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LOVE IS IN THE AIR

It is February, the month of love. Love is in the air (February 2- February 16). Valentine's Day usually culminates the month as it is synonymous to being the Lovers day.  Most men find this as any other day.

Kenyan men, it has been said are lousy and icky lovers. They are less romantic and never know how to handle women. They use archaic loose vibes and never really give Kenyan women what they want (I also don't know what Kenyan women want). They like using a wing-man who apparently can devour before or after if they are have unchecked carnal desires.

And do Kenyan men use pick up lines? Pick up lines require some expertise while saying them. It is called the art of delivery. You may have the words but your tonal and variation may make you a coward of a person to look bad to your intended bait. As such you may make an idiot of yourself. You need confidence (not overconfidence) and you can forget about this hackneyed thing of pick up lines.

I once read somewhere that most men attack women from the rear when they want to approach them. Women however approach men from the front. The art of seduction by Robert Greene does not help much if you are a coward of a man like I used to be. Confidence (not overconfidence) is a weapon most ladies find worthy in men. And it works well if you can keep the conversation rolling. Women are wired differently and they may be complex and hard to deal with. I also don't know why ladies think all men are players and dogs.

On my side, I hate when I have to churn out stories while with a lady. Ladies have to take charge. Talk about their men and make me feel jealous, their struggles and future (I revere those who are optimists and gogetters). Reason why ladies talk too much is because of the Foxp2 protein and they have four and not two lips. They make women talk 13000 words more than men in a day. Men do an average of 7000 words and like walking a lot though.

Foxp2 is a protein also known as the  "Language protein" and its abundance in the human brain is the reason why people talk a lot that is women to be precise. 

I am aiming at getting to read "Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps" and "Why Men Lie and Women Cry" both co-authored by Allan and Barbara Pease.

Romance it is said goes hand in hand with height. Polish anthropologist, Dr Boguslaw Pawlowski, found that - in an ideal relationship - trust, money and respect are less important than the height difference ratio 1 to 1.09. His study in 2004 found that, to ensure marital bliss, a man needs to be 1.09 times taller than his partner. If you are a dude who has been having unsuccessful relationships, think twice. It could be you have a flair for taller women or those that are within your height.

When a woman loves, even if a man is cheating, she stays. She knows what that man is capable of. That in my opinion is not real love. It is desperation. If you are a lady with such a man. He is treating you like trash. He thinks you can go nowhere without him. Run like yesterday, for you will have noone to blame in the event you get an STI.

Women are more intuitive and perceptive in as much as they love to talk a lot. As such they can easily spot the difference between the words you are saying and the way your body is reacting while you are talking.If you are lying, they easily note it. Again during a face to face conversation while standing, women look at men using a wide peripheral vision. This means that while they may pretenting to be shy and submissive and looking into a man eyes sparingly, they are also usually looking at a man groin and checking him out but very subtly and covert.

If you're a man, remember that women are reading and decoding your body language whether you realise it or not, so learning how it's done can give you an equal footing. 

I know women are better when it comes to reading emotions, manipulating the situation and using an appropriate lie since men are not good at detecting whether a person is lying or not. And not just lying. Women can tell complicated lies as opposed to simple lies men tell that are easily detectable. So, if your woman cheats and you are not sure, she can do it again knowing too well she has to just coin a brilliant lie.

In those merry-go rounds and chama meeting women attend, don't they discuss about how their men perform in bed? Some women are crafty and hire money hungry handsome college graduates to service them while they lie to their men they are out for bonding in some unknown location. 

Since it is the month of love. I want to enter the intimate zone of many ladies as possible. If I find a lady whose pupils will be dilating while am giving her loose vibes. Then I will be sure that whatever I am reading is not a lie. It says that, "Women's pupils dilate faster than men's to create rapport with what their brain sees as another person's eyes."

And when it comes to getting effective results while on a date, women should wear red lipstick that has some licentious FX on the average bloke. It is usually an aphrodisiac that make men go wild even if you are not hell pretty. 

[Photo Source: Openphoto.net]

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KAIZEN: CONTANT AND NEVER ENDING IMPROVEMENT

Everyone usually goes through low moments in life. That is irrespective of your situation in life unless you have perfected the ancient art of Kaizen when it comes to dealing with life issues. Again the art of constantly being happy does not come easy. It takes years of complete sacrifice and practice to withstand even the most stressful of challenges that life bequeaths. 

Allow me to allude to the story of Julian Mantle in Robin Sharma’s ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari.’ Julian mantle was a very successful lawyer. He dined in the most expensive restaurant and drunk cognac after cognac while smoking the Thickest of Cuban Cigars. Though very rich and the most highly ranked barrister, He constantly complained that he was sick and tired of being sick and tired. He was tough, hard-driving and willing to work eighteen-hour days for the success he believed was his destiny.

His family pedigree reflected blue blood. His father was a famous Federal Court Judge and his grandfather was a former prominent Senator. His alma mater was Harvard University and he was one of the brightest students during his time. His extra-curricular activities included but not limited to late-night visits to the city's finest restaurants with sexy young fashion models, or reckless drinking escapades with the rowdy band of brokers he called his "demolition team" became the stuff of legend at the firm.

He achieved everything most people could ever want: a stellar professional reputation with an income in seven figures, a spectacular mansion in a neighborhood favored by celebrities, a private jet, a summer home on a tropical island and his prized possession — a shiny red Ferrari parked in the center of his driveway.

At fifty-three years of age, Julian looked as if he was in his late seventies and his face was a mass of wrinkles. Then one day while involved in a high profile case he suddenly collapsed and squirmed on the ground like a helpless infant, shaking and shivering and sweating like a maniac. 

After the severe heart attack Julian resurfaced after the episode a changed man. At first his acquaintance did not recognize him as he was slim and looked much younger than expected. He had undergone complete renaissance in Indian after selling everything.

He had changed a lot. He was more radiant, his skin was glowing and he was full of energy and vitality. He came back a monk. Life is vanity after all. He decided to reinvent himself. After years living with monks, he discovered the art of ancient Kaizen.

Like Julian, we may be having boring and stressful lives. We eat fast foods, drive carelessly and never exercise our bodies. Upon being provoked, we become easily irritated and retort expletives at such occasions. That is also applies to me. I am sometimes easily get piqued by some people and the only remedy I usually take is silence. It works. 

Life is about getting disappointed today and having the courage to face the next day. Happiness is the wholesomeness of a perfect life. But living healthily is more desirable.

This means even going an extra mile in doing that which one never does.

If someone annoys you, have the courage to vent out your anger though various ways that you may redeem reduces the burden in your heart. Perhaps drinking lots of water does help a lot when dealing with such situations. Water is a cooling remedy that neutralizes fire or when you feel temperature rising high.

Julian mantle thought he had a perfect life until the Sage of Nirvana in Sivana helped him to become ‘the monk who sold his Ferrari’ after learning the art of Kaizen.

So low moments can be a good ground to inject in something that you never knew existed in you. Actually, the best moments in life usually come after having the worst in life. Knowing the inner self is in essence more better than having a flourishing perception that is usually full of pretense.The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the means that bought you where you are. For many easy forget and realize that its all but vanity.

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