Ciri's Life Coach

In home based remedies, the idea is to use substances naturally present in spices, herbs and other foods to deal with minor ailments and infection instead of cleansing the body with strong prescribed drugs. Though essential for chronic conditions, drugs are not always necessary and are best avoided. Home remedies are gaining a lot of attention due to its nature of cure: inexpensive, no side effects, simple plus the satisfaction of being able to cure yourself!  Sounds to good to be true? well, read on to equip yourself on how people are using these home made remedies in their daily lives to stay fit and healthy. To hold in your appetite all day long, eat sweet potatoes for breakfast. Bruises: If you shut your finger or foot in a door or bruise it in any way, put it in water as hot as you can bear, then in cold water and hot alternately. Sleepless nights? Drink a glass of warm milk with one teaspoon of honey dissolved in it half an hour before bedtime. Fish bo...

If you have your mind set on a vacation this coming holiday, the question of foreign exchange arises. Apart from paying your way through your vacation by cash, there are other forms of money available which are safer and ultimately cost less in terms of converting to stronger foreign currency. Cash Apart from being risky to carry around is that you will spend more because you will be charged to exchange local currency into the currency you need. A small amount of cash is however recommended for small payments such as buying items like drinking water and taxi fares. Local debit cards For a stay of several days or longer especially in self-catering accommodation, a debit card in the currency of the country you are staying in the least costly option. Your bank at home should be able to set up a debit card in the country you are visiting and ATM withdrawals, as well as other transactions will be at local rates that are fair Traveller's cheques These are cheques of fi...

Just as people like milk for nutritive value, bacteria that cause milk spoilage also do. Milk has nutrients that make it suitable for the rapid multiplication  of bacteria that cause spoilage. Milk from the udder of a healthy cow contains very few bacteria. To ensure that milk remains fresh for a longer time it is necessary to practice good hygiene. Below is some advice that farmers and milk traders should follow to ensure good quality: Maintain clean and healthy cows Keep a clean milking environment Wash hands with soap and clean water before milking Wash the udder with a clean cloth and warm water Dry the udder with a clean dry cloth Make the first draw into a strip cup to check for mastitis and throw away from the milking area even it appears clean Use clean containers for milking Cows with mastitis should be milked last and their milk discarded Milk from cows under antibiotic treatment should not be sold until 3 days after last treatment or advised by the veterin...

What you eat has a direct effect on how you feel. Eating the right foods can improve mental health, lessen mood swings, anxiety and even depression. Cutting down on food 'stressors' such as sugar, caffeine, alcohol, chocolate, additives, dairy products and saturated fats and increasing the amount of 'supporters' such as vegetables, water, fruits, oil-rich fish, nuts, lean protein and whole grain food have a beneficial effect on ones mood. For this much, you should be putting healthy wholesome meals on your table. Many however, consume foods like fast foods, more sugar than necessary to cereals and beverages like tea and juices. No wonder during cold and wet weather, more people than usual can not fend off viruses and bugs in the air because their bodies are low in immunity. Tips to improve your mood and sense of emotional well-being Cut down on white bread, cookies, crisps, margarine and butter, and other snacks. Foods that release energy at a sl...

We recognise that perfumes should be the final touch in getting ourselves to feel and look to face a new day, but our shopping experience for fragrance entails walking into a shop, sniffing two or three tester bottles, settling for one and buying it. We also don't know how to find the scent that best expresses our personality and lifestyle and we do not consider factors like climate and skin type to make good choices. How to wear your perfume right     Perfume rises when applied, so it is vital that it is  applied on pulse points such as the elbow bend, ear lobes wrist, in between the breasts and behind the knees. Sweat and heat can cause a fragrance to be more pronounced so use a light scent on a hot day and on a day when you will be doing heavy physical work. When it is cold, the skin is drier, giving the perfume no base to cling to which means that it evaporates faster. The best option on such a day would therefore be a heavier scent. Tips on h...

Have you ever noticed when you go to a supermarket to pick just one item, and by the time you get to the check-out point you have more than five things in the basket and a bill bigger than you had expected? The reason this keeps happening is because supermarkets or retailer stores use a range of methods to get you to pick those items up. How you are tricked to get spending In most supermarkets, shopping carts are placed right at the entrance and although you may have wanted to buy only one or two items, you find it handy to have the trolley so you can lean on it while moving around and putting stuff in it. Psychologically, it becomes easy to toss in an item you do not need. After all there is room for plenty more. You may also have noticed that the items you are likely to buy on impulse are placed at the check-out points.This is where you will find the latest DVD releases, lifestyle magazines, along with over-priced beverages and candy. Most retail chains locate the most e...

It takes approximately 500 shrubs of calliandra calothyrsus ( Kalibwambuzi in Swahili) to feed a cow for a year. For 3 kg of calliandra and 1 kg of dairy meal, a farmers can get an extra two litres of milk for his/her cow. With the plant maturing in approximately 12 months, calliadra can be pruned and fed to livestock for up to 20 years. The shrubs can be grown in hedges around the farm perimeter or along the contour ridges to reduce erosion. The major advantage of this fodder shrub is that farmers do not have to stop growing other crops to make room for them.It is best to prune the shrubs to a height of about one metre to avoid shading nearby food crops. With lack of inexpensive high protein animal feed, grazing land in short supply, and because of periodic drought, raising animals in Kenya is a risky business that can easily defeat the most skillful farmer. Fodder shrubs such as calliandra (milk shrub) could be the solution to these plagues. Produce more milk Fodde...

A woman would browse through shops for hours for nothing in particular, or that item in a particular shade or size or design. Men, on the other hand, walk into a shop and go for the kill, and will be done with 'shopping' in a matter of minutes. Money is a loaded topic; perceived differently by men and women, how it is earned, spent and what it symbolises. More often than not, conversations about money among couples amount to arguments about it. Usually, there is one who hoards and the other one spends too much. Of all factors that drive couples apart money is a huge factor. One basic difference in the outlook about money is that men see the world as a battle field where there is a winner and a loser. We are aggressive about how money is sought and having all or most say in how it is spend. Women, on the other hand, concentrates on and would spend big on sprucing up herself and of course her home.thus the uncountable pairs of shoes, constant browsing for home and o...

What are your chances of buying an original phone, taking into consideration that we are swamped with fake mobile phones? Fake phones are often practically the same from genuine ones, since they are made with the intention of misleading buyers that they have the real product while fake product are made to look as close as possible like the real ones but have a twist, only noticeable at closer look. In Kenya for instance, it could be a tainted  brand name for example, Nokia for Nokla, hi phone instead of iPhone, samsvng instead of Samsung. While there are a handful of people who knowingly buy fake phones, mostly because they are cheap, most people are unsuspecting victims of counterfeits because they cannot distinguish the real from the fake. Some of the ways to differentiate between which of the phones are genuine and which are fake include: Made in China does not always mean fake. Many international corporations manufacturing handsets have factories in different parts...

Are traditional vegan food less nutritious than exotic ones? This misconceptions has led to a sharp increase of nutrition related diseases and conditions such as diabetes, obesity, cancer and heart diseases due to poor eating habits. Traditional vegan food have the potential to eliminate nutritional deficiencies among vulnerable groups such as children and expectant mothers such as anaemia, ulcerated conditions of throats and ring worms. They have also been effective in management of HIV-AIDS. Why African Leafy Vegetables? For 100 g of mchicha (Amaranth), you  are likely to get 13 times more iron than a similar helping of cabbage; nine times more calcium, two and a half times as much phosphorus and 57 times as much vitamin A precursor. Cabbage on the other hand, is 90 % water! Red terere (Amaranthus sp.) common in Uganda, and popularly known as edoodo , is good for your eye sight. Among the Luo people, managu (black nightshade) forms an important part of th...

Some special insects such as white ants, grasshopper and locusts were are a delicacy among some communities in Africa. The insects were boiled in salty water, dried in the sun for preservation and then sold in the market places, or keep for future meals. It is believed to add memory and enrich the brain to function optimally. Fried Locusts Ingredients 4 cupfuls of 1-2 day old locusts or grasshoppers 2 cupfuls of water Traditional salt to taste 1 cup of ghee or butter Method Remove wings and limbs fro each insect. Pit insects in a strong pan and add salt and water Cook slowly for about 30 minutes or until soft Boil quickly till the water evaporates Reduce the heat and add half of the butter Fry on a slow fire until insects become crisp. Add the remaining butter and cook for 6 minutes. Remove from the fire and serve hot with ugali or matoke  (plantain) Serve for 3 people Fried White Ants Ingredients 1 cupful 1-2 old white ants Tradition salt to ...

Diversity in recipes among communities is good because recommendations can be made in terms of nutrition. African healthy drinks are characterised by high diversity and play an important role in traditional diets in rural and urban areas. Wari Wombeke (finger millet brew) Ingredients 2 kg finger millet flour (germinated flour) 2 kg ripe banana  2 litres of water Procedure Peel, mash, boil the ripe banana with 2 litres of water until well cooked (colour change to pinkish red) Pour in a wooden drum and leave for 3-4 days on fermentation process Add 3 litres of water into the fermented ripe banana and leave for 12 hours Prepare finger millet porridge and cool for more than 6 hours Strain the fermented ripe banana and put into a clean wooden drum (at least 7-8 hours) Add finger millet porridge and stir well than leave for overnight to ferment Taste and serve early in the morning Variation Add the dried bark of quinine to stimulate and add taste Serve as...

While many diabetic people will opt for a water melon as a way to supplement their diet with healthy foods, I would suggest a plate of ugali because of its relatively low glycemic index (GI). Much of our problem with food arises from the fact that many of us are arrogant about how different foods affect our body. One thing that will go a long way towards helping you to eat better and healthier is a simple understanding of what nutritionists call the Glycemic Index. Our carbohydrate intake is largely based on grains. Typically, every meal is likely to contain one grain or another, starting the day with a bowl of cereal or amaranth porridge or a slice of toast for breakfast, to our staple maize and beans. A more European serving of pasta for a quick meal on the go is also based on grains. Everything, from fruits to rice, contains some level of glucose. Glucose is some kind of sugar found in carbohydrate family, and it is the absorption of this that causes our blood sugar to ris...

Is your sweat smelly? Sweat naturally should not be smelly. Do you have bad breath and yet you do not even have a dental problem? Do you eliminate yellow, smelly urine and at a frequency of less than four times a day? Does your stool smell yet you practice proper food combination? Are you constipated? Not passing your bowel at least twice a day? Are you overweight ?  Ever visited some offices located next to smelly toilets and you wonder how they survive? We also do this to our bodies! we do not flush out our body systems and get accustomed to the smell and toxicity in our bodies. At times we brush our teeth in the evening and then when we wake up in the morning, we have this foul smell. So we quickly brush our teeth and even rinse it with mouthwash.  Where does this foul smell come from? We also perspire very smelly sweat which we get used to and are only concerned that somebody somewhere might feel uncomfortable around us, so we buy some deod...