I’ve been trying to get my hair coloured for a while, and I finally gave up  after four tries and three thousand shillings. I didn’t want to pour more money down the sink. Plus, I was afraid my hair would fall off. Hair colour can do that sometimes.

The saga began with a mix of two colours – ultraviolet black and aubergine. This was followed by some food colour, more aubergine, and some wailing with mirrors.

The first time I dyed it, the hairdresser said it was coloured, but my baby girl said otherwise. I couldn’t see purple either.

The second time, it started out purple, but darkened with the food colouring. And the third time, they let it stay on too long, so the effect was fade to black.

After each session, the hair-people swore that my hair had turned, but I was dissatisfied. They told me to be patient, and that the colour would ’shout’ after a few weeks.

Some days later, my baby finally admitted my hair was a little tinted. I didn’t believe her.

Even when some random dude using roller blades on the road to Kibera made a comment, I wasn’t having it. He said my hair was really pretty, and asked if I’d bathed it in Kiwi.

Well, not in those words exactly, but that was the idea.

Later, I discovered the hair looks purple in certain lights [and on certain mirrors. Specifically, flourescent light and teeny weeny bathroom glass. Also, bank-queue reflections]. There are moments when it screams violet, other times it looks a little off-black, which is a pretty good colour for me.

Yesterday, I was in Eastleigh shopping for a buibui. I walked into several stalls and had all sorts of people staring at my head – including one guy who was selling by translation. He didn’t speak a word of English or Swahili … which made bargaining rather difficult.

Maybe that was the point.

I figured the reason they were staring is that my head was exposed. Women in that neighbourhood are generally covered. I didn’t discover the problem until someone said, ‘Your hair is really purple!’  The comment was promptly followed by, ‘It really works for you.’

I’ve been thinking of growing my hair longer and turning it black, or maybe burgundy. I want to grow it so that I can style it and do things with it, now  that I actually want to. I’ll mostly want to coil it up in those spirally curls  and then pile it up in dread-ful version of that tousled up crumpled-sheet hairdo.

But I got so many comments on my tiny purple hair that I’m reconsidering. Plus, you can’t have long hair that’s purple … that would just be weird. And I’m not even sure I can still get aubergine at Tuskys. Oh well.

In other news, I’ve been slacking off at the gym. I decided to sleep in for one morning and somehow it stretched to a week! I didn’t think it made much difference, especially since I was sweating much more during workouts, so I figured I was doing something right. But during the post-skiving stretch session, I was screaming like a pregnant cow. Apparently a few days skipped equal a whole lot of pain. *sulk*

I was watching Dr Phil. [Yes, I occasionally watch Dr Phil. I didn't say I was proud of it.]  He was talking about weight loss and weight gain, and he said to lose weight, you have to figure out why you eat. Some people use food as a crutch, so no matter how many diets or fads they use, they stay plus-sized.

I eat to make me happy. I’m naturally depressive, so I use food as a pick-me-up. It’s the one thing that consistently makes me smile. So after a long day, or a fight, or a sad movie, or some good news, or even a bout of PMS, I grab a plate. I’ll usually pick cookies or chocolate or ugali, blue-banded rice, sweet potatoes, and thick savoury stew. Yum. And because I’m eating to be happy, the portions increase. It isn’t enough to just taste.

To help my ‘diet’ along, I need to be conscious of when I eat. I should feed when I’m hungry – and only when I’m hungry. Otherwise I’m piling on more  calories than I work off, and all the gymming on the planet will do nothing for my kilo-count … or my aspiring hair.

I should drink lots of water, and when I get sad, instead of hunting for Dairy Milk or Maryland cookies, I should write a poem, dance to  rock song, or find me some salsa.

Yeah. That’s gonna happen.

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Do you enjoy word games? There are many to pick from : crossword puzzles, letter jumbles, word searches, etc. Word games are a fun way to pass the time, and many of us play word games regularly as a way to keep the brain sharp.

Does doing the daily crossword puzzle really improve your memory? The answer is: not was much as you might think.

Word games tend to be stimulating for the brain when you first start doing them. Crossword puzzles, for example, help to improve your vocabulary and challenge your brain to think about language in terms of letter count, abstractions and comparisons.

The novelty you experience when first doing crossword puzzles is a good recipe for brain exercising. But something happens after doing crossword puzzles for a little while as you start to become good at them! You start remembering all of the three letter words; you develop strategies and recognize repeating patterns. Your brain naturally adapts to the task and because of this, the task becomes easier.

Unless you diligently challenge yourself with harder and harder crossword puzzles, you are unlikely to experience the same kind of vigorous brain work out you received when first starting.

Posit Science has created a free word game called Word Wanderer that is specifically designed to overcome this issue for brain fitness. Word Wanderer’s key difference versus other word games is that it uses intelligent adaptive measures to ensure that you train at your own personal threshold, the uppermost edge of your skill level.

Word Wanderer is designed to adapt quickly to your skill level, so that you do not waste too much time working at skills that are either impossibly challenging or trivially easy. The game increases the difficulty so that you are typically training at threshold which means that you are constantly working your brain. As soon as you master a task, the program makes the task more difficult to encourage your brain to build stronger and more refined neural pathways. [To play Word Wanderer, click here]

You might compare the process to lifting weights. Imagine that you begin to lift five-pound weights. At first, it seems difficult, or even impossible. But after a week or two, your arms grow stronger and lifting the weights becomes easier.

Soon, it is no trouble at all. At that point, you have to switch to heavier weights to build even stronger muscles. Similarly, in Word Wanderer you start with four letter tiles. As your brain gets better at the task, you are challenged with additional letter tiles; at the highest level you must use seven letters before time runs out.

The key to engaging the brain machinery is learning. The brain must constantly be challenged with new tasks in order to forge or strengthen these neural pathways.

Word Wanderer is not only fun, but designed to engage the brain in a way that encourages positive change by keeping you at your own personal threshold during every turn. This adaptive component is critical in promoting brain fitness and not routinely found in online word games.

To play Word Wanderer, click here.

This article was written by our friends at Posit Science – a leading brain fitness company providing effective, non-invasive tools that engage the brain’s natural plasticity to improve brain health.

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So … I haven’t been to the gym in two weeks. 

I have a  perfectly legitimate excuse. The first week, I had workshops, so I had to leave the house earlier. The second week, my cheques hadn’t cleared and the gym subscription had run out.

I bumped into the gym instructor three days into the ‘wallet-fast’ and he told me I could come in anyway. I didn’t take him up on it. It was partly guilty conscience, but mostly oversleeping.

Somewhere amid my hiatus, I had to go to a clinic for a routine tune-up. As usual, they checked my temperature and BP, then asked me to be weighed.

I’d gained 1.5 kilos!

Either those two weeks really did something bad, or the hospital scales were wrong. Because on my home scale, I still weigh exactly the same as I did six months ago. Weird.

Maybe it’s my home scales that are broken.

Anyway, I hit the gym today. It wasn’t as hard as I expected.  I actually worked up a sweat on the bike, which I never do. I’m not sure if that’s a sign or progress.

And I felt my body warm up on the treadmaster, literally, which is another new thing.

When doing my arm work, the sweat was dripping down, which was freaky. I mean, who sweats while lifting weights? They’re only like 1.5 kilos a piece. And they’re pink!

I did manage to do 100 reps on the skipping rope, so that made me smile. On day 1, I could only do 30 reps per set, which slowly moved up to 50 per set. So when today In easily made 100, I was pretty pleased with myself.

Now I just have to move up to several sets instead of just one. I barely make it to 500 now.

I think the best way to stay motivated in workouts is to set small targets. Like, instead of looking for drastic weight loss, focus on little things.

I don’t feel any lighter, but my clothes fit better, and my blouse buttons don’t pop as much. I can skip longer without breaking, crunch mostly without whining, and the stretches and don’t hurt as much.

Even the scissor leg workouts are easier. Except my instructor has noticed it, so he made them more complex by adding depth and variation. Bloody masochist.

My next mini target is for the tummy-thigh stretches to work. I’m usually worked on while lying on my back – no gutter intended. They pull and twist the legs for a while, then they have you sit up and stretch your thigh muscles, before they eventually lay you on your tummy and pull moves uncomfortably similar an inverted submission suplex.

I’m used to all the other sessions, and my gym people are starting to wonder if they’re doing anything at all, because I don’t scream as much as I used to. But when I lie on my tummy and pull my front thigh, I cry like a little girl.

When I can handle a lying quad stretch without whining, then I’ll know I’m well on my way to true fitness. Until then, I’ll try to stay away from the scales until my dress size drops.

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I’ve always had weight issues. In high school, I went as high as 80 kg … and yes … I have heavy bones. But my optimum weight is 60. It looks good, it feels great, and at 5 foot almost-six-inches, its BMI is 22. I think.

Right now, I weigh 70. It’s very distressing, since even while pregnant, I didn’t go over 65. Somewhere between sun, sand, and Morocco burgers, I gained ten kilos. Luckily, the excess weight doesn’t show unless you look very closely. It’s mostly centred around the middle, and corsets do wonders to hide that. But corsets can’t stop heart disease, fit under bathing suits, or solve bedroom shyness. So now, my target is to lose 10 kg.

I’ve been hoping to do it through sheer will-power like The Secret says. After all, wisdom claims that all weight is gained by thinking fat thoughts. I don’t know about that, but considering I’ve had four years of coastal cuisine and no exercise [I lived five minutes from my office], I should be a lot heavier than I am.

Despite thinking thin thoughts, gorging on chocolate, and watching UK’s Biggest Loser for three months, I haven’t lost [or gained] an inch.

Enter my good pal, who talked me into joining the neighbourhood gym. It’s right next door to my flat, they open at 5.30 a.m., and they throw in free stretches after each workout. I’m not talking hands-in-the-air-and-reach-for-the-sky here. I’m talking actual stretches. They grab your limbs and yank them till you squeal. Then they pound on your back and massage it. It’s heavenly! When they’re done, your skin feels like jelly. I work out from 6.00 to 7.00 each morning, sometimes 7.30. Then I get stretched and rubbed, no gutter intended. After that, a protein drink, a nice hot shower, and off to work.

To help me along, I enlisted some GR2, which is a weight-loss health kit. It contains a protein shake [which mostly tastes like chalk], a fibrous appetite reducer, and a metabolic catalyser. There’s also a toning shaper that works while I sleep. In total, I take two drinks and 12 pills a day – all herbal.

The kit is organic, and it’s meant to make me burn more and eat less. I don’t know how it works on other people, but all it does is make me hungry. Plus, I hate pills. Still, I got a two week dose, so let’s see how things look after that.

I start my workout on the treadmill; 20 minutes: walking, not running. Then I either use the bike or skip to 600. This number increases by week. Next comes abdominals and arm work under my instructors, then stretch and massage.

Whoever said crunches are the worst tummy exercise lied. Crunches are easy. But those other things, where you put your legs in the air then swing, bend, cycle, scissor and sway them, those are pure torture. They work the abs like a roller – I’m not kidding! I didn’t feel it the first day, but by day three I could barely walk! It gets easier with time though, especially if you whine a lot and get the gym guy to give you less leg and more crunch.

My gym has five guys who work in three-day shifts, which means I get to work with each one of them. The upside of this is that I get lots of different training styles. There’s the soft-spoken guy whose hands are oh so gentle come massage time. There’s the torturous one who’s all fun and friendly but yells like a drill sergeant. There’s the masochist who stretches me till I scream and looks at me funny. There’s the quiet one who mostly talks in grunts if he has to talk at all. Some guys go easy on me, some push me past toleration and make me want to smack them. But they’re all great with the stretches and the back rub.

In training yesterday, I saw my reflection and got depressed. Surely after two weeks, I should look less chubby! The guys on Biggest Loser shed 10 kilos a week! But this morning I looked considerably better. Lesson learnt: never train in a white t-shirt; black is more slimming.

I don’t know how much weight I’ve lost so far. The scale in the gym claims I’ve gained five, and I almost had a stroke before the gym guy told me it was broken. It’s some kind of motivation tactic to make you work harder. Fail !! Good thing I have my own scales at home.

In one month’s time, I hope to have purple hair and a slightly flatter tummy. It’d be great to have bikini-worthy washboards, but I’m taking it in baby steps, and I’ll be glad just to have  smaller love handles.

In the meantime, I’m bonding with my girl, becoming much more lithe, and having a lot of fun for just over two thousand bob. All is well with the world.

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There are now 9 confirmed cases of the H1N1 influenza (swine flu) in Kenya according to this Standard newspaper story. Uganda has also confirmed a case. Here is a basic run down of this disease.

What Is The H1N1 Virus?
Novel influenza A (H1N1) is a new flu virus of swine origin that first caused illness in Mexico and the United States in March and April, 2009. It spreads mainly through the coughs and sneezes of people who are sick with the virus, but it may also be spread by touching infected objects and then touching your nose or mouth. It causes a wide range of flu-like symptoms, including fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. In addition, many people also have reported nausea, vomiting and/or diarrhea.

Why Was A Pandemic Declared?
The World Health Organization (WHO) raised the worldwide pandemic alert level to Phase 6 in response to the ongoing global spread of the H1N1 virus. WHO’s decision to raise the pandemic alert level to Phase 6 is a reflection of the spread of the virus, not the severity of illness caused by the virus.

It’s uncertain at this time how serious or severe this novel H1N1 pandemic will be in terms of how many people infected will develop serious complications or die from novel H1N1 infection. Experience with this virus so far is limited and influenza is unpredictable. However, because novel H1N1 is a new virus, many people may have little or no immunity against it, and illness may be more severe and widespread as a result.

What You Can Do to Stay Healthy

• Stay informed.
• Influenza is thought to spread mainly person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people.
• Take everyday actions to stay healthy.
• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.
• Stay home if you get sick so as to limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.
• Follow public health advice regarding school closures, avoiding crowds and other social distancing measures.
• Find healthy ways to deal with stress and anxiety.

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The Exercise Habit is not the easiest habit for most people, and most people’s experiences (me included) consist of starting and stopping and starting again. Which is fine — don’t beat yourself up about it. The important thing is starting again.

The Main Problems
So why do most people have trouble making exercise a regular habit? Well, there are probably a number of factors, but here are the main ones:

Too difficult. People set out with a lot of ambition and enthusiasm, and start out with a big goal. “I’m going to go to the gym for an hour a day!” or “I’m going to hit the tread mill for 30 minutes every day!” The problem is that the goal is too difficult to sustain for very long. You can do it for a few days, but you soon run out of energy, and it becomes a drag to do it.

Too many goals. Often we set out to do too much. We want to run, and lift weights, and eat healthy, and quit chocolate, and stop drinking soda. Well, those are multiple goals, and you cannot focus on the exercise habit if you’re trying to do all the others at the same time. Or we might start with one goal, but then get caught up in another goal and lose our focus on the first one.

Not enough motivation. It’s not a lack of discipline, it’s a lack of motivation. The most powerful motivators are logging your habit and public pressure.

The 4 Simple Steps
So how do we solve those problems? Keep it simple. Here are the 4 simple steps to start the exercise habit (and keep it going).

1. Set one easy, specific, measurable goal.
There are several keys to setting this crucial goal:

Written: Write this down. Post it up. If you don’t write it down, it’s not important.

Easy: Do not set a difficult goal. Set one that is super easy. Five minutes of exercise a day. You can do that. Work your way to 10 minutes after a month. Then go to 15 after 2 months. You can see what I mean: make it easy to start with, so you can build your habit, then gradually increase.

Specific: By specific, I mean what activity are you going to do, at what time of day, and where? Don’t just say “exercise” or “I’m going to walk”. You have to set a time and place. Make it an appointment you can’t miss.

Trigger: I recommend that you have a “trigger” right before you do your habit. For example, you might always brush your teeth right after you shower. The shower is the trigger for brushing your teeth, and because of that, you never forget to brush your teeth. Well, what will you do right before you exercise? Is it right after you wake up? Right after your coffee? Right when you get home? As soon as get off from work? A trigger that you do every single day is important.

Measurable: By measurable, I mean that you should be able to say, definitely, whether you hit or miss your goal today. Examples: run for 10 minutes. Walk 1/2 a mile. Do 3 sets of 5 pushups. Each of those has a number that you can shoot for.

One goal: Stick to this one goal for at least a month. Two months if you can bear it. Don’t start up a second goal during that 30-day period. If you do, you are scrapping this goal.

2. Log it daily.
This is the key habit. If you can log your workout, you will start to see your progress, and it will motivate you to keep going. And you have to make it a habit to log it right away. Don’t put it off, and say you’ll do it before you go to bed. As soon as you’re done working out, log it. No exceptions. And don’t make the log complicated — that will only make you resist doing the log. Just the date, time, and what you did.

3. Report to others.
I think this is key. You can do it on your blog, on an online forum, with your spouse, or friends or family, or a workout partner, or a coach, or a group, or a class. However you set it up, make it part of the process that you have to report your daily workout to other people. It could be using an online log, or on a forum, or through email, or the phone, or just by telling your co-workers what you did this morning. But be sure that they know your goal, and that you are going to report to them, and be sure that they are expecting it every day.

4. Add motivation as needed.
The first three steps might be enough for you to get the habit going. But if not, don’t just give up. If you miss two consecutive workouts, you need to look at why, and add a new motivation. Rewards, more public pressure, inspiration, whatever it takes. You can add one additional motivator, and then see if it works. If you miss two more consecutive workouts at any time, add another motivator. And so on, until the exercise habit sticks.

Tell us in the comments what your experiences are with the exercise habit and what motivates you to hit the gym.

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