Health Tips – My Healthy Life

Tips To STAY PRODUCTIVE During Your Winter Holidays!

December 22, 2020December 22, 2020 by Noureen, posted in Current Read, Exercise Routine, Food For My Soul, Health Tips, Mind, Body & Soul

Reading “The Productive Muslim” for the second time

Assalmualikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuhu!

I Hope you all are well and in the best of your health and fitness. I am a student of Alhuda Online, Taleem al Quran Diploma Course, Allhamdullilah I am blessed with such knowlegable teachers who guide you in every aspect of your life. Currently we are on a winter break, I live in Perth, Western Australia and here its Summer Season though, But in many countries winter is on its peak, many people are having their winter break so our Ustazah gave us some valuable and practical tips on how to be more productive during our winter holidays and how to beat laziness.

I am already following few of these tips, found them really beneficial and will follow the rest as well inshallah and I am currently reading this interesting book “The Productive Muslim” by Muhammad Faris, this is highly recommended. I really loved the content that I am actually reading it for the second time. So this is about my plan for summer holidays in Perth. I just thought of sharing few of these important tips with you. Intention behind sharing these tips with you guys is to share something which I’ve benefited from and if anyone of you follow this, it can be a source of sadaqa e jariya and can increase my reward inshallah.

TIPS FROM MY USTAZAH:

During Your Winter Break It is a good time to make up for your missed fasts as days are short.

Alhamdulillah, Companions of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم would welcome winter with a lot of enthusiasm due to all the rewards that they could gain from it. Winter can only be a blessing to the believers, as the time we spend during it can become very valuable. It has a lot of benefits and the most obvious one is fasting. Fasting becomes easier in winters as the days are shorter and nights longer. With nights being longer comes another benefit, and that is of being able to pray at night, while still getting some rest. It is reported from Abû Hurayrah – Allâh be pleased with him – he said:

Shall I not point you to comfortable proceeds? People responded, “And what is that o Abû Hurayrah?” He replied, “Fasting in winter.”

This beautiful season gives us a chance to get closer to Allah سبحانه و تعالى , and a chance to reflect on the seasonal changes and the power Allah سبحانه و تعالى has over the entire world. If none of these do it for us, then the reminder of the extreme cold of the hell fire is sure to make a believer want to seek refuge from it. Seeking refuge by making dua is another form of Ibaadah which will increase the good deeds of a believer.

Masnoon Dua of our Beloved Prophet (PBUH)

In order for us to succeed in our ibadah, we need to efface that feeling of lethargy. A few tips which will help do that are the following:

1. Stop believing that you are lazy

Stop calling yourself lazy! Mo’min cannot be lazy, tell yourself that you are not lazy and also BELIEVE in it. By doing so, we set a bar for ourselves which we need to live up to. Make lots of du’a to protect you from this disease. Our Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم has taught us the beautiful du’a:

اَللّٰھُمَّ اِنِّیْ اَعُوْذُبِکَ مِنَ الْعَجْزِ وَ الْکَسَلِ

“O Allah, I seek refuge in you from incapability and laziness.”

Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم taught us to make this du’a to protect us from the disease which is laziness. Laziness is actually a disease of the heart which we cannot see by our naked eye, but this disease has a very bad prognosis which can lead to other problems.

2. Plan and organize
There is nothing more appealing than planning and organizing things. Plan what to do and within what time frame to do it. Make check lists. Use sticky notes. Set reminders on your phone. Make posters to hang around the house. All of these things should be used to remind you that you are fit and fine, and it should motivate you to keep thanking Allah سبحانه و تعالى and seeking forgiveness.

3. Exercise/Walk
One of the best ways to beat lethargy and laziness is to activate your body. This can easily be done through exercise/walk. Most people stop exercising in winter due to the cold mornings. This is not a good excuse and is not a reason to stop exercising! As believers, we need to take care of our body. This does not mean that we overdo it and stress ourselves out either. It just means we need to be moderate in how much and how often we exercise.

Salah, by itself is the best exercise and prescription from Allah for better health and fitness who offers it regularly. Salah provides the ultimate satisfaction and peace to the mind thus save you from many diseases and disorders. It enhances your concentration and reduces the level of depression. SubhanAllah!

4. Pay attention to the times you feel energy within you
Another way to perform ibaadah perfectly is to check the times when you are most energized, and use that time to perform acts of ibaadah. We need to put this sugar rush into good use.

5. Brain storm and De-Clutter
Get rid of all the clutter around you, both literally and mentally. A cluttered space is sure to set you back and make you feel lazy. Clean up and stir up the thoughts in your head which will tell you what you are best at. This is Shaitaan’s another dirty tech tick to keep you away from Tayyab, clean and healthy surroundings. Remember Cleanliness is half the faith!

6. Get some sunlight
Vitamin D is essential for us. Alhamdulillah, the blessing of Sunlight is very beneficial due to the fact that it helps us stay energized and keeps us in the mood to do things. Spend some time in the sunlight without having negative thoughts and see the difference it can make. It will at least give a signal to your brain, that “it is morning now, time to bring khair and blessings into our lives, and we need to start working!” 🙂

7. Stop the enmity with your alarm
Do we not all hate hearing our alarms go off, and love that snooze button?! If this alarm is the only thing that helps you wake up for fajr, then keep it very far away from your sleeping area, and loud enough so that it can be heard. Continuously hearing that annoying alarm will make you want to get up and shut it off. By the time you get to the alarm, you are half way up!

Best thing to do is to sleep early. This is the best way to wake up. Otherwise the matter will remain difficult in most cases. Also cooperate with your family on this matter. Above all, ask Allah سبحانه و تعالى to help you and guide you, and always do wudoo’ and recite dhikr before you go to sleep, and cleanse the house of images and other things that prevent the angels from entering. Remember Allah and recite the dua as soon as you wake up. Some people may initially wake up, then they go back to sleep again. But if a person remembers Allah straight after waking up, this will loosen one of the knots of Shaytaan, and will motivate him to get up. When he performs wudoo, his determination becomes stronger, and Shaytaan is driven further away, and when he prays, his shaytaan is defeated, his balance (of good deeds) becomes heavier, and he will feel happy and energetic. Remember don’t let Shaytan win!

Ibn al Qayyim Said: “The Morning Evening Azkaar play the role of a shield; the thicker it is the more its owner will not be affected. Rather its strength can reach to such an extent that the arrow shot at it will bounce back to affect the one who shot it”

8. Be Thankful

All Praise is for Allah SWT who continuously provides opportunities for His servants to increase their hasanat and wipe away their sayyi’at. Be thankful for this beautiful time of the year in which we get another chance to gain His Raza and to get closer to Him, Be Idhnillah. Gratitude helps increase one’s blessings and makes you more productive, Alhumdullilah.

Allah says: “And (remember) when your Lord proclaimed: ‘If you give thanks (by accepting faith and worshiping none but Allah), I will give you more (of My Blessings); but if you are thankless, verily, My punishment is indeed severe’” Let’s, therefore, make thanking Allah part of morning and evening adhkars to get more of Allah’s blessings in our lives, In Sha Allah. May Allah SWT bless us this Taufeeq and accept all our efforts to please him, Ameen

These are just a few tips to help us overcome the laziness that we may feel during the winter season. These tips are to give us an idea of how we can use the winter time to increase and improve our ibadah. And to benefit from this winter season to attain the ultimate raza of our Rabb, In Sha Allah

Enjoy your Winter break with your family and spend quality time with them. May Allah swt shower His endless Blessings and Rahmah on us always. Ameen

Much Love

Noureen Razzaq

You are a Magnet – Be A Positive One!

January 16, 2019January 16, 2019 by Noureen, posted in Health Tips, Mind, Body & Soul

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Assalamualikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuhu!

Yes, its been a long time I was away, lots of other things were happening which were important too. Today as I was free, So I thought of writing something on the topic which was in my mind for so long. As I was not blogging regularly so excuse me for my first few blogs, I know they will be amateur but they will be getting loads better I hope because all good things take time right? 😉

Before I proceed, I have a question for you?

Tell me … Are you a Positive Magnet or a Negative Magnet?

Wait, I tell you what am I talking about …

In this day and age when stress is inevitable, we all know its part and parcel of the modern-day lifestyle. But you know what, even in this busy and stressful lives of ours, everyone deserves to have everything he loves and desires. Everyone is meant to have a stress free life and feel good about himself and others. And it is possible only if you have a relaxed and positive state of mind. Yes, your mind is everything.

From my experience, I have realised that whatever you wanna do or achieve in your life (either it be your big goals in life or doing nothing … even if its a daily plan, a small household chore or a big project, even if its an act of Ibadah/doing good deeds or even ploting an evil plan for someone) it is all dependant on your mind; your every action and every word is an end product of your mind. With the power of your mind you can make it happen. A positive state of mind can bring you all the goodness in your life and vice versa. Yes, you guessed me right … I am talking about Law of Attraction. Whatever you give out in life, must return to you. It’s the Law of Universe. And If you wanna read more about this subject, I will recommend you read this book named as “The Power” by Rhonda Byrne and her worldwide best seller “The Secret”.

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From my experience I have learnt that we can’t change other peoples way of thinking and way of doing things, it’s impossible but what we can do is to change ourselves and the most importing thing to change in ourselves is our way of thinking. We can change our circumstances with our thinking. This is the first and most important thing because our mind is so powerful, and we can create our life with our positive and negative thoughts. Give positive thoughts and feelings and you will change your entire life. Its a simple formula for a happy and peaceful life. For instance; If you just think and feel that “life is really good to me”, “I am really blessed”, “I have so many blessings around”, “Allah has given me so much to be thankful for” … trust me by doing so you will attract back all the people, circumstances, and events that will make life really good for you. Just by changing our way of thinking we can attract the things which are positive. You are a Magnet, if you become a positive magnet then you will start attracting all those positive things in your life and if you give out negative thoughts and feelings and you will magnetise negative circumstances, people and events. Let me give you another example; give help and support a friend who is in need of your time, talk, a hug maybe, whatever, and most surely that help and support will return to you whenever you need it. On the contrary, if you give anger to someone who let you down and that anger will also return to you or if you hurt someone that pain will also return to you, clothed in the circumstances of your life. You see most people always talk about negative situations, about the things what they don’t have and things they don’t love, in this way they attract more negativity than love. Many people who have great happy lives think and talk about what they love more than what they don’t love. By doing so, they gain unlimited access to all the good in life.

If you think negative about others, about your life and circumstances then Ask Allah to give you a positive mind, a mind that thinks positive about people, about His creation, about life and everything in the universe. Declutter your mind from all the negative thoughts and ask for a thankful heart and mind if you really wanna do something good, something productive in your life. Let’s say if you wanna achieve a particular goal, just give positive thoughts and feelings “Yes I can do it” or say “Yes, I will do it” plan and execute, work hard for it and you will get all the circumstances and people leading you towards that goal, believe you me all the powers which Allah has provided to the universe will help you all the way. Same is the case with your relationships, If you are not comfortable in somebody’s presence or you have some ill feelings towards someone then try to change your thoughts, start thinking good about that person and you will attract the positive energy or behaviour from that person. Trust me this is not a bookish knowledge that I am sharing, its an experience of my life.

Point Of Action For this MONTH:

Please start FOCUSING on all the positive things, people, circumstances you have around you and ignore all the negative feelings and thoughts. So let’s try to be a positive Magnet to have a happy, stress free and healthy life.

Try this for at least one week, you yourself will see the difference. Don’t forget to leave a comment below if you tried and share your experience. 🙂

Spread Positive Vibes!

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Portion Control & Weight Loss!

January 14, 2017January 14, 2017 by Noureen, posted in Eat Well, Health Tips, My love for food, Prophetic Food

Hey friends! How are you? I am sure you all will be in the best of your health and fitness. Okay! So in the beginning let me discuss little bit about ”the stress around food” that many people have these days. Well, this is not my topic today so please bear with me while I share my thoughts on this. I see these days women have developed a very complicated relationship with food – they have this fear of eating even the healthiest foods because they will put on weight or they wanna look good, they wanna attend this wedding, or wanna fit into their old skinny jeans or wanna achieve that ‘Zero figure’ which only exists in the photos and movies (all the photoshop stuff you know) – all this agony and misery what for? To show the world how beautiful your body is? For a selfie or to take group photos and post them on social media so you can get good compliments and many likes. (I know it’s not the case with everybody but I am sure many will fall under this category) Wow! Seriously! Is it worth it? Do we really need to do this? I mean really? Losing weight and looking good should be a permanent lifestyle change to eat healthier. It should be with a purpose of achieving good health or remaining healthy or in order to improve our productivity not for some specific event or to impress somebody.

This food and stress relationship is very prevalent in our society – I don’t understand why there is so much guilt and anxiety around food when food is there to nourish our body so that we can feel satisfied, energised and be productive. All this makes me really sad and compels me to write about how we can eat mindfully and still loose weight. If you ask me then I would say being a Nutritionist my theory around food is very clear. I am a foodie, I love food, I don’t believe in diets and I don’t believe in depriving myself from food which is there for us to eat and enjoy. I believe we are meant to have a good relationship with food not the other way around. I really believe in eating small amounts of any food really. It has to be healthy food on most of the days but I have my cheat days as well and they are guilt free. Yes!!! Here comes the art of mindful eating and how we can enjoy all kinds of food by controlling our portion sizes. If we control the portion sizes of our meals and be consistent in our exercise regimen (even if its 15-20 minutes a day) then believe you me we can eat everything and still loose weight.

You can eat whatever you want to eat but don’t overdo it. Moderation is the key! As we all know eating excessively causes harm to our systems and it also makes the heart heedless. (Muslim readers you know what I am talking about here). It has been said that: “Stomach is the home of ill health” and many ailments are related to uncontrolled eating habits such as diabetes, vascular diseases and heart disease. Our religion (Islam) teaches us to eat moderately. I am sure you all have heard of this Hadith (Hadith – means the actions and sayings of Prophet Muhammad PBUH, reported by his companions and collected by scholars who came after them in books) a ton of times which is:

“No human being has ever filled a container worse than his own stomach. The son of Adam needs ‘no more than a few morsels of food to keep his back straight’. If you must fill it, then one third for food, one third for drink and one third for air”.

Ibn Maajah

This is the teaching of our beloved Prophet PBUH. He only ate enough food so that he didn’t feel weak. So he ate enough food to keep his back straight. We should try to follow his footsteps and never eat more than our need. We should try to listen to our body, our body will tell us how much is our need. Every body has different requirements when it comes to portion control and a best way to judge how much you need is right infront of your hand. Yes a ”serving size is in your hand” ! Isn’t it cool? Take a look at your hand and use this as a measurement for portion control. This is an awesome graphic for people who say that they struggle with portion sizes. I think this can be a helpful tool. It is not, of course, a hard-and-fast rule to live by. Having said that, I think it can be of some use, therefore it’s worth explaining …

Your palm: is gonna be equal to 3 ounces. This is the ideal portion you’ll need when it comes to fish, chicken and meat.

Thumb tip: This is equal to about 1 teaspoon. You wanna use this portion size for things like peanut butter, mayonnaise and oils etc

Your Thumb: This is about a tablespoon. You wanna use this for things like cheese, sour cream etc.

A handful: is equal to 1 to 2 ounce of snack food. This portion is good for snacks like nuts, dried fruits.

A fist or a cupped hand: This is equal to 1 cup. It should be used for measuring out things like cereal, rice, pasta.

1 tennis ball is equal to 1/2 cup of fruits and vegetables, although you could definitely do more on the veggies and fruit side.

The Plate Method: You can also use ‘The Plate Method’ for your main meals. In this method, you fill 1/2 of the plate with 2 servings of non-starchy vegetables, fill 1/4 of the plate with lean meat (3 ounces cooked) or other high-protein food, fill 1/4 of the plate with a starchy vegetable or whole grain serving (amount varies depending on food selected). This figure below is the best example of a healthy Plate Method.

Note: Pork is forbidden for Muslims of course!

Lastly, I’m going to share some very useful tips for staying on track with portion control that will lead to weight loss. Here are the tips you need to know:

Be mindful when you eat, chew slowly and take smaller bites so you feel fuller more quickly.
Use a smaller plate when dishing your food. This way you won’t be able to put too much on the plate therefore reducing your portion size and of course your waistline. 😉
Eating smaller more frequent meals will increase your metabolism throughout the day, help your body more energised and in turn, burn more calories.
Include leafy greens, colourful vegetables, low GI (Glycemic Index)/complex carbohydrates and lean protein at every main meal.
Fill up on meals that are nutrient dense such as steamed vegetables, home made salads and soups.
Follow the plate method as explained above. What you do is you start eating veggie side of your plate first, this fills your stomach because of the high fibre content in veggies, you already feel full therefore you eat less of the other stuff in your plate.
Drink plenty of water and natural herbal teas to keep you satisfied and to help curb hunger throughout the day.
Drink a glass of water 15 minutes before your meals.
Get plenty of sleep. Make sure you get at least 6 to 7 hours good quality sleep to curb hunger and to reduce cravings for simple sugars.
Keep a food diary. This will help keep your eating on track and allow you to monitor exactly what is going into your mouth therefore keep you accountable of your daily food intake.

Just remember this, staying consistent is the key to portion control and weight loss. One bad meal or over indulgence won’t set you off track. You are allowed to have a cheat day once a week. Yaaayyyy! 😉 But be consistent with your portion control, it takes approximately 30 days to make or break a habit. Don’t give up, be persistent and you will see results that will last a lifetime, In’sha’Allah (If God wills)!

”BPA Free” Products – Are they really safe?

December 21, 2016 by Noureen, posted in Did You Know?, Health Tips

In this day and age when plastic seems to be impossible to remove from our lives. Pantry items come in plastic, milk comes in plastic, even storage container and water bottles are mostly plastic. But did you know that plastic containers have been shown to have destructive effects on the human body. The chemical, bisphenol A (BPA), in particular, has been called out for a host of negative health consequences. Some research has shown that BPA can seep into food or beverages from plastic containers that are made with BPA. Exposure to BPA is a concern because of possible health effects of BPA on the brain, reproductive development in foetuses, infants and children, an early puberty and a rise in breast and prostate cancer.

In 2012 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned the sales of baby bottles containing BPA. Since that ban, companies began advertising ”BPA-free” plastics for children & adults. And as a result it’s not hard to find products labeled ”BPA free”. I recently looked around my local grocery stores and found out that there is good range of BPA free products in the market. But the news is unfortunately, it turns out the chemicals used to replace BPA, a chemical called ‘bisphenol BPS’ may have nearly the exact impact on the human body – hormone disruption – as BPA, according to a new study (link here) in the Journal Environmental Health Perspectives. According to a 2013 study, even in concentrations of less than one part per trillion BPS has the potential to lead to cancer, birth defects, asthma, obesity and diabetes.

So to sum it up, manufacturers are telling the truth by labelling their products as ”BPA Free”, but they are not telling you that the BPS they use instead of BPA could be just as bad for you.

What’s the Solution?

The solution of course is to avoid using plastics at all. Unfortunately, it’s harder but not impossible to avoid buying products in plastic from the grocery store. It does take some commitment and creativity. Make small gradual changes. I will share some ideas that will help in reducing or eliminating the need for plastic in your kitchen.

Choose condiments that come in glass jars when possible
Milk can be purchased in cartons
Yogurt can be made at home with a very simple yogurt maker
Instead of buying water in plastic bottles or gallon jugs, install a water filter at your kitchen sink. Keep a glass water dispenser for home use.
Use glass drink bottles for drinking water on the go. If you are concerned about the glass breaking, just keep the bottle inside of a neoprene water bottle cover. You can buy this from eBay here. Metal, stainless steel water bottles and mugs are available too.
Invest in glass storage containers.
Buy paper cups to replace plastic cups, especially if you have a small child at home who is still using a sippy cup. A stainless steel cup with a screw-on lid and a straw works just as well for young children.
Switch to stainless steel drinking straws over plastic straws. Keep them clean with pipe cleaners.

Always remember, good health requires a little sacrifice, discipline, leaving certain things, but it will be worth it. I hope these tips will work for you!