Save the date

First came the TOLAH blog,
Then came the TOLAH Twitter Account...

And now comes the TOLAH Picnic

We are delighted to announce
that on Saturday, 13th December 2014 we will be having our very first event "The TOLAH Picnic"

Please make sure to save this date
We hope that you will be able to share in our special day of joy and celebration.

If you would like to be part of this event please send and email to tolahevents@gmail.com and a formal invitation and more details will be sent to you.

By TOLAH events team

Childhood memories that had me and my girls ROTFLAO

So the other day for some reasons my girls and I had a chuckle about things that we did when growing up. From grown-up treatments towards us, punishments and life nje as a kid in the... well before year 2000. Let me share some of my kiddie memories and I hope you guys will share yours, just for a chuckle

Pet Childhood hates:

• Making my grandmother tea. We had electricity but granny was not about that life. There was a kettle on the fire coal all day, everyday. Your crime would be walking past her and BOY were you it. As soon as she went "Nana", I knew it was tea time.
• The visitors. Unfortunately I have grown up with this one. At home, as soon as a visitor landed we would have to chase a chicken to be slaughtered for them. Have you ever tried to catch a free range chicken? The commmotion, the stupid thing being on Viagra never helped anything either and no grown up understood why you can't catch a chicken live healthy cork.
• Being called to come eat. Hello!!!!! who's tummy is it? Did I SAY I was hungry?
• Sharing a bowl of milk and pap with the cousins. Ay ya yayaya..... Why did these grownups hate hygiene mara?
• The steel cup.... WTH was that thing all about anyway?

Punishments:

• We had the sack at my and my friends house. if you messed up, you were put in a sack, tied up and she would choose a scare tactic to bring you to order. My gran would sometimes put the sack; feet first; in water. Or threaten to cook you. Anga and I have decided we are adopting this form of punishment, this idea just can't go to waste.
• Chores. If you were naughty you would be the dishwasher for the week. Instead of being grounded or sent to A room (we did not have our own separate ones) you would have to work hard.
• The Pinch. I wanna shout out and thank whoever outlawed physical punishment. My granny was master pincher. My thighs have never been so grateful as when my gran would put me in a sack than pinch me.

Fun Times:

Of Course there were fun times too.

• Stealing Granny's stash of peanuts.
• Story time. We would sit my the fire at night and the grownups would take turns telling us (not fairy) tales. and then try to send you to go get water in the "dark"
• Christmas time. We got to wear fancy clothes and eat all the sweets we wanted.
• When grandma would take me on holiday ( a relative's house) for school holidays
• Coming home after dark dirty dusty AF

Ohhhhh how I do wish I could go back, if only for the games we played, the carefreeness (I declare this a word, going forward). and most of all no bills, boys and decisions.

by Queen Troll

How to Stay Fit, Workout, Eat and Cheat!

Loulou and Ntombi have asked me to share what I do and what I know about clean food but I decided to combine it with fitness and other things. I will share what works for me and how to get and stay motivated.


DIETS DO'S AND DONT'S

FOOD is the most difficult thing for most of us!! we love it we want to eat and when we don't we feel we are depriving ourselves and so we talk ourselves into eating it because "we only live once", "this one time wont hurt me", "If I just get it out of the way I wont want it anymore" sound familiar? so here are a few tips on dieting and staying on track.

PLEASE DON'T DIET!. Dieting is insane and always ends up being harder than anticipated to stay on track for any length of time so stop it. Instead of dieting just change your eating habits because dieting is temporary but life changes are what will keep you in the state you want to be in always.

What you can Do: Stop eating fast food and drinking cool drink! Only drink WATER or fresh juice, replace  white rice with brown rice, add veggies to your lunch and supper, if you can't pronounce it don't buy it and don't eat it and try to buy organic, free range protein when possible. If you want to enjoy something when out with friends or when you feel the urge you can eat it in MODERATION and only once maybe twice a week. Try and avoid eating anything that is processed and honestly fresh and clean food always taste better.

When trying to lose weight remove the carbs except for good ones (usually found in veggies) and still allow yourself maybe corn for dinner or lunch or potatoes once or twice a week (usually during lunch) try to stay away from pasta and bread during these times but if NOT trying to lose weight and just maintaining you can eat what you want with a 80%-20% ratio; 80% clean and fresh 20% not so clean and fresh.

Here is a sample food day for me:

Breakfast: Juice (handful of spinach or kale, 1/2 lemon a small chunk of ginger and 1 apple) or Cantaloupe juice with a lemon wedge (it helps clear your skin) and if you eat eggs you can have 2 hard boiled eggs and 1 slice of whole wheat toast.

Lunch: I love salads and always add protein so a chicken or tuna salad.

Dinner: Lean steak and veggies or grilled chicken and veggies and if I feel I need something starchy I'll have brown rice or potatoes, brown rice and beans (3/4 cup rice only).

For my snacks I usually have a few almonds, yoghurt, crackers or dried fruit.

The thing to remember is to PUT MORE GOOD IN YOUR BODY THAN BAD! 

SUPPLEMENTS

Some bodies do not respond to cardio alone so if you know this you need to combine cardio with strength training. I run and I do a bit of strength training and because I do this I take just a few supplements, here is what I include for nutrition purposes during my training:

Betavit (Multivitamin)
Devils Claw(For joints)
Omega 3 (helps to retain water on your knees)
Calcium Complete the Clicks brand (for pain on your knees and ankles)

EXERCISE AND ROUTINES

You can do a million sit ups and crunches BUT if you don't EAT RIGHT you might as well give up. Abs come from what you eat and the muscles in your abs become visible from the loss of fat, the more fat you have in your belly the less you will see your abs. LOSE THE FAT, EAT FRESH AND CLEAN FOODS along with your full body workouts you will start to see your abs. I cant stress this enough, CLEAN AND FRESH FOOD = ABS. Yes, crunches and sit ups and hard ab work will shape increase and define your abs but if you don't eat the right foods you wont see the change, plain and simple.

We can discuss what to include kwi grocery list and different exercise routines kwi comments section otherwise the article will be too long....

By Anga

Forgiving others and letting go of grudges

Article courtesy of ThickNqo’s request. Growing up is a trap hey we all know that, if its not dealing with the harshness of the economy its having to deal with relationships of all manners, friendships, relatives, lovers, bloggers etc. And we rub each other the wrong way or we do get rubbed the wrong way, that’s all part of life and we just got to find a way to forgive, let go and keep it moving. Otherwise we will  be having lots of suicide and murder cases  nje.

 Forgiving yourself

This is the first thing that we have to deal with. Forgive yourself before attempting to forgive anybody else. We are not to blame for the bad things that happen to us, and you can’t beat yourself forever for the wrong decisions we take in life. I’ll give an example here that I once shared sometime ago. My baby daddy is the calmest person I know, he loved me, and gave me everything I ever needed or wanted. But what did I do, I let my furbing get ahead of me and I chose to chase a relationship with a person I thought was my soulmate (he wasn’t even 35 then, kiiiii). Needless to say that relationship did not last more than a year and I spent the first year of my baby’s life crying myself to sleep. I could beat myself up for that one mistake everyday, but no, I got to a point where I said, Ima, you have to let this go. We grow, we learn, we move on. It helps build your character, and it helps you open yourself up for better things.

Now , there are other sensitive matters, like for instance abuse at a younger age. Or rape. Or physical abuse from a partner. Some tend to blame themselves for letting such things happen to them, all I can say in this is, we are not responsible for the bad that other people do to us. Its not your fault, let the person who has wronged you deal with the guilt of their actions not you.

 Forgiving others and letting go of grudges

We’ve all been hurt in many deifferent serious ways. Some have mastered the art of moving on, but others hold on to the hurt and let it consume them. There’s a popular phrase that goes something like, hanging on to anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Forgiving someone doesn’t mean that they did not hurt you, no, you actually need to acknowledge the hurt, but DECIDE to let it go. Forgiving is not an emotion, it is a choice, a decision that you make. What’s the point of hanging on to the anger and keeping yourself sad all the time that person appears, or something?  Choosing to carry a grudge forever keeps you from ever repairing the relationship and it keeps you a prisoner of that person. Long after you’ve forgotten what the other person actually did, you’re still focused on being mad at them because you’re stuck in that habit.

To be able to forgive others, it’s helpful to understand where they’re coming from. Like, try to put yourselves in that person’s shoes and see why they did what they did. In many cases, the person who wronged you might have acted completely out of character for some reason, and they might truly be sorry. It’s also possible that they don’t even know they did anything wrong! Now that does not excuse their actions, but, staying angry at them doesn’t help you in any way either. You have so much to lose because you shift focus from moving on with your life and try to find ways of making sure karma reaches their address. So in simple terms, (this has a potential of being a VERY long article so I’ll end it here), just forgive, and let go of anger, grudges etc, because it is the simplest thing to do. Ok, lets share more on the comments, I know you trolls won’t read something very long…

by Imanathi

My weekend in one paragraph

Welcome back bathong, happy Monday. I hope y'all enjoyed yourselves and everyone is well rested.

My weekend started on a high note. On Friday I finally got an order I made moons ago which contains stuff i am planning to give away as Xmas presents. I was starting to worry it might only arrive next a year. Got home and was slapped with news that mamazala is finally going back home so I helped her gather her belongings and we ferried her home. HELLO loud sex... I had forgotten what thrill this was. Stayed at home Saturday and read, like picked up a book and started reading just because the house is so much quieter because she took baby with her. I miss them now. I spent Sunday at mamazala's house and closed off the weekend by having dinner there.

I am ready to celebrate the end of this year though, can it just end? What did you guys do this weekend?

by Queen Troll