Chez FitMercy

Hey friends, I had been on a vacation for the past two weeks and thus MIA. I am happy to be back home to everything especially DH and my workouts. During the period of my vacation, I had a workout buddy [a beginner though] who pressed me for a sweaty session for every single day I was in her house. It was truly not convenient because I wanted to just rest, eat and sight-see, I became an instructor instead and sweated on a daily basis. I am eventually grateful for the "push" because my weight was much lower to my surprise and excitement. Well, back to business. I was out to church for a retreat today and on my way back, I bought a slice of watermelon [deciding to eat my water]. As I moved up I saw a cart with carrots and I was thinking I should have bought those instead, but right in my head, I thought "who said losing weight is easy" and the best gift you can give yourself as you lose weight is to tell yourself that 'it is not easy' [just worth

Yess!!!! 12 Weeks Chatter + Challenges = Weight loss. I joined the Biggest Losers Challenge [Online version of the popular Biggest Loser Challenge on TV] sometimes last year and since then I never looked back. Some of my personal benefits: 1. New friends who encourage you to lose weight in a healthy way. 2. It is a closed group, so your privacy is secured. 3. Friends that are closer than your family 4. Positive team mates with so much energy 5. Awesome group leaders who are always present to help out with just about anything 6. Sharing differences and knowing about different cultures and ways of life. 7. Listening ears and a place to rant and scream and still be calmed down 8. Challenging Workouts for 12 whole weeks 9. For my own team [Navy Ninjas] we have a different tracker for the workouts and nutrition. Yay 10. I always lose weight and I maintained till the next round. 11. Other areas of my life are improved. 12. I am addicted to the team [is that a b

The Optimist Creed for Weight Loss I promise myself to be so strong that nothing can stop me from losing weight.  To talk health, fitness and weight loss to every person who wants to listen.  To help all my overweight friends feel that they too can lose their extra weight.  To look at the fact that I really can lose weight and to make this fact come true.  To think only of success, to work only for success and to expect only successful weight loss.  To be just as enthusiastic about the weight loss of others as I am about my own.  To forget the failures of the past and press on to the great weight loss achievements of the future. To be motivated to lose weight at all times and to help every overweight person I meet to be motivated, too.  To be so focused on doing things that help me lose weight that I have no time left to do things that make me gain weight. To be too determined to give up, too fit to be unhealthy, too slim to be fat, and too focused on success

Clean Eating  is simply eating clean, lol. I feel clean eating is when your meals are devoid of processed foods. Processed foods are the natural foods that are already manipulated. Some materials are either added or taken away to distort their naturalness either for convenience or preservation. For example you can have rice processed or leave unprocessed, the same way fish can be processed or unprocessed. The bottom line is that, for every processed food, there is an unprocessed version of it. So when you want to eat clean according to ME, it's when you limit to the barest minimum the number of processed foods you take at a given meal. For me, a processed meal could be canned beans taken with bread and a glass of orange juice. hmm yummy! Portion Control is when you serve food within a calorie range that is healthy for you. It is when you keep the proportion of foods taken at a given time within what your body adequately requires. Mark the word "requires" and not &

There are various seasons all over the world and they so differ even as our location differs. Each of the seasons comes with a weather and of course they are useful for different purposes and also act as an indicator for various things to do. For example, some are very good for planting why some indicate the time for harvest. In Nigeria we have 2 major seasons i.e. the dry season and the wet/rainy season. There are still some slight differences between the southern and the northern part of the country, [I am so in-between the two parts, some parts of my state tend more to the north and some part has all the characteristics of the south]. I will do a small analysis: Southern Nigerian Seasons:  - The Long Rainy Season - This starts in March and ends in July with a peak in June and can be excessively wet in some areas deep south - The Short Dry Season - This happens within a short period of 3-4 weeks in the month of August [August Break]. - The Short Rainy Season - This period

Next month (April), it will be exactly one year since I did a relaxer touch to my hair. Right now, I can prove: - the half inch hair growth per month, - the black hair grows, - the black hair responds to treatment - the thickness and volume of the black hair is simply incomparable but... - I could not grow my edges as I desired [so scanty and damaged] - that was the reason I was transitioning in the first place. - I realized the best way to repair my edges is to simply leave and reduce manipulations to the barest minimum. - I have a 4c type hair that cannot be left or combed without a protective style. - *Transitioning had been so difficult and time consuming for me* - The gray hairs [hereditary] seemed to be multiplying by the hour, I know it had always been there but always less emphasized when it is relaxed. - I think black hair is costlier to maintain in its natural state. Yes it is, especially when it is not covered the most part of the day. * The time consumin

I woke up and felt like weighing myself yesterday and voila 162.6lbs = 73kg That is a 15-pounds-loss since 27th December, 2014 when I started to be "different". I had really gone from good to better and I am on my way to "best". I have lost weight and it is looking so evident right now. (I will post my pictures, I am still searching for a good "before") This little success did not come without some "little" challenges. Unfortunately, I was armed and ready for them; I was so surprised that the 'challenges' could spur me to become even more determined to get to my goals. One of them was "it is okay like this you can stop now". An Aunty (fitspiration) who had lost weight had once reacted on Facebook, she said and I paraphrased "Don't tell me to STOP because you never warned me to stop when I was on the unhealthy path".  I agree with those words, people don't warn you to stop growing fat and out of