5 Nigerian Foods To Avoid Late At Night.

If you have had an extremely busy and long day, and you are finally free to eat at about 11pm, maybe, of course, it makes sense that you would want to gulp down a heavy meal to assuage the persisting hunger no matter how late in the day it is. 

Eating late at night is not a complete no-no as it is important to eat when you are hungry; you just have to be smart about it.

Contrary to popular belief, eating late at night does not necessarily make you add weight nor does it have any negative health implications. 

Eating the wrong foods with the wrong number of calories is what brings on all the extra weight and

most times disrupts your sleep!!

Are you visiting or currently living in Nigeria and you have the habit of eating late at night? Rather than just opting for the nearest, tastiest-looking Nigerian food, 

Take a look at a list of 5 Nigerian foods to avoid late at night.

Amala and Ewedu

A food famous in the western region of the country, 

Amala and

 Ewedu is almost a staple on the menu of most Nigerian 

Restaurants. While the soup is made with vegetable and spices, 

Amala is made with yam powder. 

They both form an appetizing combo, however, can be unfavorable to your stomach when consumed late in the night. 

Although the meal digests very easily, compared to other yam-based meals, it is urine inducing and can bring a lot of interruptions and discomfort to your sleep.

Amala Pepper soup 

A favorite Nigerian meal usually served with rice or yam as a side, pepper soup seems to be the perfect meal for times you are hungry at night as it is perceived as a light meal, but you may actually want to step away from it when you are craving something to eat late at night. 

The pepper soup contains certain spices and peppers that may upset your stomach and chemicals that can also stimulate your senses, making it hard to fall asleep.

A plate of pepper soup

Agege or Oyo Bread

This would be easy to buy off of the streets if you getting back late and you know you would not have the energy to cook or microwave any major meal when you get home because it would be too late already. While Agege bread would be satisfying when eaten with tea, mayonnaise or butter late in the night, it contains a lot of carbohydrate and sugar that spikes up your blood sugar levels, causing your energy levels to spike and plummet, disrupting your sleep in the process. There is also a chance that

you will likely wake up starving a few hours later or in the morning due to the overproduction of insulin the sugar triggers.

Fries (yam, potatoes, akara) If you have had dinner by 7 pm and you are still awake by 12pm

and you are hungry, you may want to indulge in light finger food. 

The go to would be fried yam, plantain , potatoes or even akara. While this food may seem like a light meal, they actually are not. 

They are greasy heavy foods! They weigh on your stomach and take a while to digest, leaving you feeling tired and sluggish in the morning. 

Also, they do more harm to your sleep than good. You may have to deal with stomach pains, cramps, abdominal bloating, heartburn, and acid reflux, resulting in poor sleep quality.

Ewa Agoyin Main Main 

A meal made of beans paired with a spicy sauce made with Palm oil and dried crushed chilies, Ewa agoyin is very tasty but a horrible option for late-night snacking or eating.Not only can it trigger heartburn, as well as upset your stomach, it can totally sabotage a day of good eating and actually keep you from going to sleep.

Read More

LEARN HOW TO GIVE IN "BUT NOT GIVE UP"

No Man is Rich enough to buy back his past, Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like. (Shown Oscar) Have you ever played with a Chinese finger puzzle? 

You stick your index fingers into the ends of the little, paper-made accordion-like contraption and then the real puzzle begins how do you get your fingers back out? 

If you’re like most people, you begin to pull your fingers out of the openings only to find that the puzzle grips you even tighter. “More force,” you naturally think to yourself and you pull harder. Now it has a strangle-hold on your fingers. 

At this point, you’re thinking how ridiculous this is. It’s just a little tube made out of paper; how can it hold you so tight? Yet all of your struggling and resisting is in vain. The Chinese finger puzzle has you as its prisoner. 

Finally, the person who handed you the puzzle smiles, approaches you and gently pushes your fingers in toward each other. The ends of the tube widen and you are free. 

Life in a Chinese Finger Puzzle 

Isn’t this how life feels sometimes? 

You find yourself in a tough situation and what do you do? 

You work against it, trying to get out. But the more you struggle to get yourself out of your predicament, the more entangled you get and the tighter it grabs you. The problem? 

Resistance. You are stuck in an old pattern of fighting against your problem, resisting it and all it stands for. But what else is there to do when facing the puzzle of adversity? 

The Chinese finger Puzzle gives us the answer: Give in. Let’s be clear about one thing: giving in is not the same as giving up. To give up is to become a victim and feel powerless. Giving in is about going with the flow of events in your life, rather than struggling against them. Let me give you an example: When my late partner, Ruth, was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, we initially spent a lot of time and energy fighting against it. We resisted the idea that she had it, how serious it was, and the treatments that were meant to help her. 

Finally, with the help of her wise, spiritual oncologist, we saw how resistance wasn’t getting either of us anywhere – we were still stuck in the puzzle. In fact, resistance was depleting the energy we needed to travel on this journey with cancer. 

We made a conscious decision to not resist. We did not give up and stop her treatment and wait for her to die. Instead, we gave in to the process.

We envisioned the chemotherapy as healing drops entering her body. We began to look for the lessons along our path with cancer and soon saw them: the tremendous love surrounding us from friends, the new understanding of how old stressors really were small stuff, and the immense richness of living in the present moment. Ruth was supposed to live for nine months after her diagnosis, statistics said. 

By learning to give in and not resist, she lived an astounding four years after the cancer was discovered. But it wasn’t just the extra years that we valued. It was the joy, laughter, and peace which filled those years that made them full of meaning and love. And we only experienced those years through not resisting where cancer was taking us. 

3 Steps to Non-Resistance We live in a society that promotes fighting your problems and resisting adversity. How can you learn the art of non-resistance? It may begin with becoming aware of the three steps to non-resistance: 

1. Notice your own resistance Oftentimes, you can feel resistance in your body. Are your shoulders tight? Your jaw clenched? Is your stomach upset? Become aware of how your body feels when it is relaxed and how it feels when you tighten up due to resistance and stress. You might also notice emotions such as frustration, irritability, anxiety, and anger when you are resisting something. 

Learn to notice both how your body feels, and what your emotions are doing when you resist. Let those be markers for you to realize that you are struggling against of one life’s puzzles. 

2. Give in Just like moving your fingers toward each other in the Chinese finger puzzle, give in to the situation you are struggling with. Remember, this doesn’t mean to give up. Open yourself to new opportunities that may be presenting themselves because of the problem you face. 

What lessons do you see that this problem is teaching you? While still addressing the problem, release your emotional resistance to it and see where it takes you. One person I spoke with who had lost her job told me that she chose to take the opportunity to expand rather than contract and ended up learning a set of new life skills that were immensely rewarding for her. What will your choice be? 

3. Give thanks Although your problem may still be in your life, notice the difference between resistance and non-resistance. See how easy it was to get out of the puzzle merely by giving in, rather than pulling and struggling so hard to get out. Notice the energy you were losing through resistance and how much more life and vitality you have now. Express gratitude to yourself and your higher being. 

Congratulations 

You are free from your puzzle-prison! (YES)

Read More

The Ways You Can Change Your World

Most people believe that the little things they do, ultimately don’t make a huge impact, on the planet or in tackling the many challenges we face as a collective team. I disagree with that wholeheartedly and I believe that often it’s the smallest things that can ultimately make the biggest difference. 

You don’t have to worry or even give a second thought to the ripple effect of your actions. Take expectations out of the equation. Just do them and know that they’re making a difference to the world and forget about how and when. 

I do believe that most of us, what we do now, we won’t necessarily see the effect of our actions even in this lifetime although they will manifest eventually. You’ve gotta ask yourself seriously about the kind of legacy you wish to leave behind; especially for your children. The difference you make is entirely down to what you do now.

Without further ado, here are 10 ways you can change the world: 

1. Personal Growth Something that means a great deal to me is the field of personal growth. Conscious personal growth is a core part of my life. I will spend time evolving, learning and growing. I will not allow a weakness to hold me back from doing the things I desire to accomplish in my life. Can you think of anything more productive in life than evolving? Love to learn and then put that into practice. When you expand your consciousness you automatically pass that on and passing that on means that the people around you also benefit from the things you’ve imbibed.

2. Shift Your Attitude If you see the world and it’s problems as a hopeless case then you’re less likely to try and very unlikely to succeed in making changes. Hope is a long way from despair and it’s a step in the right direction but it’s only the first step. The most essential step of changing the world is action. If you see something that needs changing you have to act on it! Why wait for someone else to do it? What’s really stopping you except your own laziness?

3. Differences Cause Conflict It’s amazing how much subtle racism still exists even in this day and age. It’s time we starting looking past skin colour and other minor differences. It’s in my humble opinion that most of the major conflicts across the globe are caused by us noticing physical and cultural differences. When it’s said like that how petty does that seem?! That’s because it is very petty and these things can easily be resolved by supporting global leaders that do not advocate mindless animosity. We can make a difference by forgetting about differences and looking towards what we have in common.

4. Make the first move Don’t wait to be approached to make a change. If you wait you could be waiting for a very long time. The time to act is always now so don’t wait to be asked. Just go and do it!

5. Spread The Love No one could convince me otherwise that we emanate vibrations. If you’re feeling particularly negative that’s the vibe you put out. If you’re feeling particularly positive that’s the vibe you put out. I was driving the other day and I was just focused on emitting those positive vibes as far as they could possibly reach. Am I crazy for thinking that it makes any difference whatsoever? Probably! But I know which of the two I would rather feel and if we do emit those frequencies then I know which I would rather put out to the rest of the world.

6. Living Consciously You can’t drive a car with your eyes closed and just hope for the best! (Although the drunk driver who crashed into me on Sunday might disagree with me) Sooner or later you’re gonna hit something. Open your eyes. The same applies to life. The eyes of life is awareness not autopilot. Autopilot is okay for things you mastered but autopilot needs to be switched off by who? Yes you! The pilot or driver of your life! You can decide when to switch it on or off. If you’ve been living on autopilot up till now it’s time to switch it off take the controls into your hands and get a feel for the plane. Just to clarify, that was a metaphor.

 7. Find Your Cause I’m very passionate about working with children and empowering them to live more full and rich lives. That may not be something that appeals to you. You might like spending time with Elderly people who need care or even animals that have been mistreated. Whatever it is that stirs you inside is the thing that you should go and support! If the thing have you have a passion for has no supporting body then create one! Maybe that’s exactly what your purpose in life is!

8. Find Out For Yourself I was watching a program last night about sleep and I realised that although these scientists appeared to know what they were talking about there was also so much information missing from the program. My intention is not to knock them in any shape or form it’s just that as much as they research and investigate there is always more to be discovered. Don’t take that which you hear or see at face value. If you really want to find out about something research it for yourself and maybe do your own experiments and see what the outcome is. Just as I’m experimenting with waking up naturally. Also don’t always believe what you hear in the tabloids about health. If you read them regularly then you’ll know that they’re rife with conflicting reports on a regular basis.

9. Uplift Others The most simple things can uplift other people. I have so much respect for people who can approach me and just say hello! That does happen quite often and I end up having very deep fulfilling conversations with these people and we both walk away feeling uplifted and inspired. You don’t have to approach strangers but I would highly recommend it. You can start with those closest to you. When you uplift them they will naturally spread that to others. It’s a very powerful ripple! In fact it’s more like tsunami! Just as hate can spread like wildfire so can joy! I’ve seen it in motion and way more fun!

10. Use Your Power Of Choice When more and more people start using the power of choice the more and more this world will become a more wonderful place to live. I’m not saying we’ll manage to fix all the worlds problems in one go but I do know we can make a dent and do something wonderful.

As far as I’m concerned it’s not even for us. It’s for our children. I don’t want to eliminate problems because the skills we get from solving problems equip us with invaluable tools. It’s about dealing with the challenges we face in a more constructive manner. 

One last thing I want to bring into the mix is doing things at random. Next time you’re out getting a coffee. Ask the person in the queue behind your or even in front of you what they’re having and buy them their drink. Just see the reaction on the face and I promise you that act won’t go unrewarded. It will ripple.

Read More

Selfishness Making Me A Better Person

Being selfish is great! I used to spend all my time helping others and trying to live up to unrealistic altruistic values I’d set myself but then I’d always find myself drained, feeling low and in the shallow end of the success scale. Before I continue I just want to say this is not going to be a debate about defining success. I consider myself very successful in some area’s of my life and not so much in others. I continually evolve the benchmarks I set myself in alignment with my personal growth goals. The connection between success that I want to establish here is in regards to perceived “selflessness” and success. The way in which I’ve seen many define selflessness has often been the thing to lead to their demise. 

There’s A Reason Nice Guys Finish Last

When I first started my journey of personal development nearly 8 years ago I equated “being nice” and trying to please everyone as altruistic. I now understand what a crock that was. This isn’t the cynical Patrick here rearing his ugly head. It’s just a deeper understanding of the universe and human nature. 

Being nice has nothing to do with altruistic values or selflessness. In fact, I think there is a very deep rooted selfishness, and not the good kind, in being nice. 

People who are nice can sometimes hoard secret feelings of resentment when that kindness isn’t returned. It can manifest in subtle ways such as depression, or more gross ways in the form or bitching to friends.

Instead

Now, when I want something, I try not to be nice about it. It sounds counter productive but it seems to work much better. I will be polite and follow a code of etiquette but I won’t “suck up” so to speak. I find the more I try and coerce people the less effective I am. I let go of trying to control how others respond and just allow whatever outcome to emerge naturally. I would so much rather people help me through their own volition without a hint of perception that I had a hand in the decision; preferably to the point where they’re not even sure why they’re helping me. 

In the past, When I met someone who was doing better than me, in a field in which I wanted to excel, I couldn’t help but feel a hint of jealousy. I don’t believe, despite what many may think, it was a bad kind of jealousy. I saw someone successful and I kind of felt a sense of disappointment that I wasn’t there yet when I knew I’m was more than capable. It’s not even a sense of jealousy, but almost a feeling of helplessness that I can’t offer that person something of value at that moment in time. 

Then I think about all those times I used my time and energy to helping others with the bitter after taste of resentment for not being given anything in return. I still, even now, feel occasionally jealous when people are doing better than me and I know people will come along and say “don’t be jealous, be thankful for what you have” but they seem to miss the point. 

Being thankful for what I have, or trying to force those thoughts is, in my opinion, the wrong way to go. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that kind of jealousy. As I mentioned, it’s just that I see where I am, and I see where someone else is, and it’s actually more a feeling of disappointment that I am not there yet; that I want to move to that level. It motivates me to keep pushing forward 

Examples How do you determine who you say no to? Well it’s entirely up to you to set your own criteria. It truly does depend on what area of life you’re talking about but I can give you a couple of specific examples of mine. 

In the past many Life Coaches approached me asking me to come onto my Radio show. I used to say yes to all of them but I realised that it was not the best approach to take. 

Now I discriminate…a lot! 

Firstly I say to them, “I’m a Life Coach, so you are in essence my competition, so how is having you on my show going to bring value to both me and the listeners?” Your first reaction to that statement might be one of contempt for me, but think about it carefully.

How would you handle the same situation? 

Secondly, nowadays, if I do invite any coaches onto my show, I would need to know that they would be able to handle themselves under serious pressure. 

A chat show needs a controversy in order for it to be a chat show, it is the very premise under which a chat show operates. It’s needs strong opinion and no middle fencing. I’ve met many Life Coaches who are often, too placid, and too boring to be on a radio show. 

Another example Is when, a few years back, a friend asked me to coach them to write their book which I did. I gave them free coaching which they went on to have published and for which I was never even thanked. I offered my valuable time and energy and got absolutely nothing in return. That wasn’t altruistic of me. In fact it was cowardly not to ask for a fair return. I have not heard from that person since. 

At the time I thought I was being selfless but I was weak and horrendously under valued my services. 

What Selflessness Does Not Mean 

Being selfless does not mean you go and help people to the detriment of your own well-being. Remember, sometimes helping people over and above you may actually be taking something away from them. Sure, guide them; throw some clues their way, but for heavens sake, don’t do all of the work thinking you’re doing a good thing. I have a slightly different definition for selflessness and the equation goes a little something like selflessness --oneness. 

Do I want all the answers and rewards given to me on a plate? Hell no! I want to work for them otherwise life would be more boring than watching paint dry. I offer the same level of support as I would want. I am now much more selective about what I give my time and energy to. 

Time And Selfishness

I don’t know about you but I used to have about 1000 connections on Facebook. I recently did a clear up and went down to about 700 and now again it’s creeping up to around the 800 mark. Now, you don’t need to be good at maths to calculate that it means that,, on average 3 of my connections on Facebook will have a birthday every day. 

Even if only 1 out of every 3 of those connections decides to have a birthday bash, and I get invited to it, I would have one a day throughout the year. That doesn’t even include other kinds of gala’s, charity events, launches, etc. I can’t possibly attend all of them, otherwise I would have no time for anything else! I could try the selfless route and please everyone and attend as many events as I can but eventually I would burn out. I had to learn how to discriminate and how to say no. 

The Upshot The whole point about living consciously is that you can pick and choose who you decide to help. Being selfish and altruistic are not mutually exclusive. You don’t have to say yes to everyone and everything and saying no can be saying yes to yourself (a cool line from the book The Yes Man by Danny Wallace). You will find by being selfish you will have more time, more energy and more focus doing the things you love doing rather than the things you think you should be doing.

Read More

Do You Want To Write A Guest Article? Read This

I’ve been getting more and more queries from people wanting to write guest articles for me; about 10 a week or so. I usually reply individually to each person but I’ve decided to now publish those guidelines which will save me a great deal of time. 

I thought a blanket policy would work much better and so if you are interested in writing for me, and would like one of your articles published, please continue reading. 

My standards are quite high. I’ve worked hard on this blog and poured many thousands of hours into what you see today. I will insert an important caveat here: If your ultimate goal is just to get a link back to your website to increase your search engine rankings, then I kindly ask that you take this no further. I believe in equal exchange I would like for us to work together for our mutual benefit. 

I don’t just want it to be a one off guest article. I would like us to create a full working synergy. I will help promote you and your work and I would like for you to promote me. 

Read More