Heroes.

Hello dear readers,

I have been extremely busy and I apologize for not posting. My grandparents have come down for a visit and I have been spending all my time with them. I will try my very best to post more often! :)

"We can be heroes just for one day."

When one talks about a hero they are referring to  a person who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements or notable qualities and rightly so because this is exactly what they are taught to believe. But despite this notion I strongly disagree.

Like any good writer I had to look up the definition to ensure that I wasn't giving out false information and also for my personal knowledge. As children we're given the impression that heroes are the Princes and people we read about in stories. As we slowly transition into adolescence heroes are those that carry out noble acts like helping an old woman cross the street or standing up to a thief for a stranger and then finally when you reach adulthood heroes are DEAD.

When I looked further into the definition I found that a Hero is someone who is the chief character in a story and this struck me as perfect. A lot of times we are so caught up in other peoples lives and trying to shape and mould ours to be like theirs that we forget about the thing that really matters. OUR life. We're still living after all aren't we?

The real heroes in my opinion are really the people that go through a lot and still keep going. Those that have to willingly forfeit a lot of things in life. Those that don't manipulate their way out of a situation but rather handle it gracefully. Those that eventually accept that it is what it is and carry on with their life smiling. Those are the real heroes. The real hero is YOU. 

Heroism is not about doing heroic things but rather about being yourself. You are the chief character of your story and you can take control of it. I've always been able to convince myself that I am NOT a hero up until now but I realized that ultimately demoralizing myself was the only thing standing in my way.
Heroism is endurance for just one more moment.
And not only I, but everybody out there is enduring something or the other.

More simply put, someone once said that everybody is insane but some people are just better at hiding it.
I don't believe this is true. Everybody is surely insane but it is this insanity that drives them to want to do better. Like Albert Campus once said; "Heroism is accessible. Happiness is more difficult."

I read once in a book called Paper Towns that the human anatomy is made up of strings. The author says the following:

"Here's what's not beautiful about it: from here, you can't see the rust or the cracked paint or whatever, but you can tell what the place really is. You can see how fake it all is. It's not even hard enough to be made out of plastic. It's a paper town. I mean, look at it, Q: look at all those culs-de-sac, those streets that turn in on themselves, all the houses that were built to fall apart. All those paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm. All the paper kids drinking beer some bum bought for them at the paper convenience store. Everyone demented with the mania of owning things. All the things paper-thin and paper-frail. And all the people, too. I've lived here for eighteen years and I have never once in my life come across anyone who cares about anything that matters."

It is the exact same thing with heroism. Everything and everyone appears hunky dory but you can feel the urgency in the air. The urgency for the paper to be torn and exposed. In other words, the urgency to be yourself. Not everybody will like it, not everybody will care but it is what most definitely makes you a hero.



As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said; "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." 
You, my dear readers are the true heroes.
Not Robin Hood.
Not Superman.
You. 
Good old you. :) 

On a lighter note, I have been complaining ALL Summer about how I haven't been swimming and yesterday I finally went! Summer sure feels good.

Until next time,
XXO
Sara Malik.©

Fitness First? Mind Over Matter.

Hello my dear subjects of interest!
Okay that sounds creepy buuuuut I AM interested in knowing how you guys have been feeling about my posts! So please do let me know.

I know it seems like my theme is book/poetry related but to be honest I have no theme. I've decided to go with a free flow and maybe you liked me as a book/poetry analyst but I've decided to play the field and see where it takes me. (Which is why I appreciate your feedback!)

So for today I've decided to work on a Fitness post. I know it's probably Summer where most of you are and if not, this still applies because I do believe Summer does appear worldwide at least once a year, right?
If you're like me and sitting at home munching away your Summertime Saddness you are in BIIIIIG trouble.
But don't worry there's still hope.

And like you will draw your hope from me and I too have drawn my hope from a very good friend of mine. :)

I had interviewed my friend as I intended to make this an interview kind of post so I will be listing a few of the important questions I asked alongside the equally important answer.

Interview

Source(s): JR

In your opinion what is the best thing about being fit?

• The best thing about being fit is that you are able to do other things that the everyday person is unable to do. Not just that though I always think people tend to look better when they're fitter and they feel better about themselves both physically and mentally. Their body just generally functions much better!

What do you think people do wrong when they work out?

• They don't understand how the human body works. For example; many women tend to think if they lift weights they gain muscles but that's not the case at all, what it does actually is help them burn fat alot quicker and their metabolism increases and from there the gain a sort of nice, toned physique. When alot of people look into fitness they sadly look into the wrong sort of cardio training as well and that can make it very hard for them to see any results in the short or long term. It's about being SMART not training harder so I guess less is more the best way to put it.

If strategically, a person is just trying to remain healthy, should they do cardio or circuit and why?

• Well I guess that depends on what a person defines as healthy. I'd probably recommend a little bit of both. If you're doing circuit training what would happen is that it would allow you to remain interested in fitness. If you're not interested what will happen is it will become hard for you to sustain it in the long term so I would always recommend you to do exercise whether you're male or female and combining that with a nice cardio program as well so let's say 50/50. So lets say you'd spend an hour at the gym you'd spend half an hour doing circuit training and half an hour with your cardio. You should always do cardio after weights it's because you need all the energy that you can store in order to do weights properly It's always a good thing to have all the energy stores available for when you need them and towards the end you can burn off all your excess calories during cardio!

According to you what is a healthy diet and do slimming foods such as detox juices or detox water help?

• What everyone should understand is that it depends on individual circumstances. Most of the time I would say a healthy diet is one with the minimal sugar intake. Sugar stores easily in the body and I think that if there's an overdose that creates a bit of an issue. The other thing is items like fat-free foods are no good either because what they're trying to do is add more flavours with more sugar to try and cover for the fact that there's no fat in the item. The media is very misleading and people need to remember that companies may advertise for more healthier options but they might not be healthier.
• The other thing is you should try and have 4-5 small meals during the day instead of 3 major ones this causes your body to burn fat more often. And also the water intake is very important obviously so the bigger you are the more water you need.

I hope all that was new information for you guys because it certainly was for me! I'm going to list a few other things I learnt from my talk hopefully the word 'healthy' comes to mind the next time you want to pick up a packet of chips.

• Fruits and vegetables are good! But you need to be careful about certain types because they already contain a natural sugar store. For example it's always better to eat half a banana and something else because a full banana is usually too big a sugar hit. 
• Detox is a short term solution. The weight you'll be losing is ONLY water weight! How sad is that? I really liked the colours in the fruit mixture! :(
• Although there should be a balance of proteins, carbohydrates and fats in your body eating proteins makes your body feel like you've had a full meal which helps when you're trying to cut down!

I am so excited to share this with you guys and help you start getting into shape! It's important to be healthy but you're all beautiful the way you are and there is NO NEED to starve yourselves. Hard work pays off guys so don't give up!

Until next time!

XXO 

Sara Malik.©