Some sweets for a celebration?
Many of our team members are fans of sweet treats and we’ve learned that some of them are quite accomplished with their baking skills as well. This week we wanted to simply post something up to make you all smile!
In our collective experience, despite diverse backgrounds of culture and faith, we found that in all societies everyone loves cake! Living in North America we certainly get our fair share of this very simple or very intricately designed creation over the year as we celebrate, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and those special days and events in our lives and communities.
We asked the dev team what their favorite cakes are and this is what was shared.
“Strawberry Shortcake, anything chocolate, Vanilla Cream, Cherry Cheesecake, Lemon Cream, Black Forrest, Funnel Cake with Strawberry Sauce, Ice cream cake!”
Around the world cakes of all kinds are made every day and we hope that this summer you have a chance to enjoy a piece of cake during your summer experience! We encourage you to go for a nice walk afterwards and take in those sights, and sounds, and work off a few extra calories as while it’s great to indulge once in a while, we do like to keep healthy.
We asked Madani Chronicles creator and awesome coach Kelvin Ali about maintaining good health.
“Maintaining energy is tough and it requires discipline. During the long winter we like to stay inside and we pack on some extra pounds typically after year-end and during the darker months. I look forward to annual Ramadan fasting which really helps me to quell and eliminate bad habits that I’ve built up over the course of the year.
Being diagnosed as pre-diabetic early really made me take a hard look at my health and I decided to get everything checked out with both conventional western medical advice and naturopathic professionals as well as eastern practices. I didn’t react well to the medication I was prescribed and that’s when it hit me that I can do this and there must be another way.
I had allergy and blood tests performed to find out what my physiology and how my biology reacted to various foods and I lost over 45 pounds in the process to a point where nothing fit and I had to keep diligent. I told myself when I would crave sugar, ‘You’re going to die if you eat too much man’ and that often made me make a healthier choice. I began substituting with green fruits and vegetables. When I craved sugar, I would consciously coax myself into choosing a green apple instead of a chocolate bar or sugary snack food. It took a few years to overcome the personal battles and to re-wire my mind mentally, but it took decades of unawareness to even get to that point so it was personally inspirational to see that effort and discipline could create real beneficial personal results. If you tell yourself a powerful enough story, your subconscious mind will begin working to find a solution.
What I learned is that we make real bad habits for ourselves. Then we don’t look at what our real health goals are and the why is not truly addressed. ‘Why do you want to lose 20 pounds?’ The answers that we make up for ourselves usually are cruel and we hurt ourselves mentally. Most people look for shortcuts to increase energy. We all do this. A cup of coffee in the morning, an energy drink, a sugary snack mid-afternoon. This becomes a habit and your habits can help you or slowly hurt you over time.
Food is fuel. Water is fuel. We need these to survive so it’s about self-control and personal discipline. I made a powerful statement to myself to re-program mentally which helped the process of being physical. I love to cook for others. Baking is something I also managed to hone a lot of skills on over the years taking several courses and learning about all of the cool tools because I love sugar and sweets just as much as anyone. You don’t get to being ‘pre-diabetic’ by not indulging for a long time so for me the precise measurements and knowing what ingredients are going into my fuel choices are critical.
For me, food is science as well. Baking is an experiment and if you do it right the end results can be fantastic. But like everything it takes time.
Energy begins with having good daily routines to are consistent. Getting enough sleep, moderate exercise, knowing your body and what food is beneficial for your DNA and well-being, and with medical advice in hand and your test results of what foods allergies you have, you can add in your vitamins, minerals, and supplements as recommended by your health care providers.
I am personally not a fan of any kinds of prescription medications but that doesn’t mean they cannot be helpful, but that’s me. I prefer natural remedies for ailments and certainly, my faith dictates alternatives at times. But just be happy with who you are. Know your why. Don’t be too harsh on yourself and enjoy your life man. Having more energy means you probably will be more active at times, so schedule things in your week to do something good. Discipline is a daily affair and we all want to live the best lives we can. I don’t anyone who consciously says, ‘I want to live an unclean and unhealthy life’, so just do your best man. But have some goals and you can eat as much cake as you want.
I know my limits and there is nothing that stops me from indulging once in a while. So please don’t let me stop you from enjoying your summer. Make some great memories, food and good company usually help with this in my experience, so have fun, learn some new skills, and learn something about yourself and your energy this summer. Monitor your habits and see where you can make slight adjustments to begin to replace those bad habits with better and healthier ones. We all just survived a global pandemic situation so we are all tired man.
Energy is important now. Personal care is critical. But that doesn’t mean we won’t stop to have a few minutes of gratitude and certainly, we should be able to reward ourselves, our friends, and our families with small but great treats regularly. Cooking up a meal or making a dessert for them is definitely an awesome way to enjoy life. Ask your Mom, Dad, or the cook in your home how much effort it takes to whip up a great meal, I can assure you, they probably didn’t gain any weight in the process of creating that Sunday spread for you!”
We were encouraged by the wisdom we received this week and we certainly think that Ice Cream cake is going to be our Friday choice for ‘favorite cake’ this week! It’s almost summertime and we are ready to keep our energy levels soaring this year!
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Your friends,
Beyond Badr Dev Team!