Welcome to the Bat’s Orchard, hope you will enjoy your stay here and make this your home. But what is the bat’s orchard you may ask? Well, it’s a small little corner that wishes to become a community! So you commenting around, saying hi, just enjoying your stay, and getting anything off your chest, is what we really are looking forward to. The main topic is health, however, health is a very wide spectrum. It can mean taking care of your daily health (which is the main topic of this website), medical health (which we touch lightly and have an affiliate link that goes deeper into that), and also mental health (which unfortunately we haven’t anything aimed directly at that yet, however, we hope we can help with support in the comments if that is what you need, or maybe some breathing techniques, that do not do miracles but help a little to boost your morale at least. They help me relax and look at life through a much more positive lens). And last but not least, here we will also explain the rest of the categories on the menu, so if you are lost, keep scrolling down and there is an explanation of all the other sections as well! We will give you a quick tour of our site here, like a little house tour!
What does it mean to Wannabe Healthy?
Well, to make one thing clear from the start, this page is not aimed directly at weight loss. True, we have plenty of low carbs and low-calorie foods, but that is simply cos it is a healthier choice. Will it help you lose weight if that is what you are looking for? Sure!! Will it happen overnight? Hell no!! Should you do it to look better? Please don’t! I want to start this section by telling you all that you look perfect just the way you are. Believe it or not, for someone out there you have the most perfect figure anyone can have, no matter what is your weight, or height, or whatever you usually complain about, for someone, that is what they really wish for! So as a courtesy to that person out there, embrace yourself, love who you are, and appreciate what you have! You are beautiful no matter what!
That being said, health is another issue, unfortunately. So if you are obese, you do need to do something about it, just start working towards a different goal, from a positive place. Love who you are and move forward from there. Getting in shape doesn’t need to be too hard and painful, it’s hard work true, however, neither impossible nor does it mean you have to kill yourself over it. Most fail to achieve their goal cos they go at it for all the wrong reasons and with all the wrong aims. So is this website for obese people that want to get thinner? No! This website is for all those who realize health is extremely important, and that, hopefully, means you!
Now I want to give you some tricks that worked for me. I was obese and not even in stage one anymore, so what I can talk about from experience is getting thinner. However, I hope this can be applied if you have other goals in mind as well. Some things to remember are that change is hard, transformation takes time, and true results don’t happen overnight! Now let’s start with the tips.
- Place goals. Usually, we need goals to keep us focused, let us track results, and help us to keep moving forward and not give up. So place as many realistic goals as you can. Placing realistic goals will make them easier to achieve and thus helps the feel-good attitude that will help you keep moving forward. Placing multiple goals will help you reach at least one of them (so please focus on the ones achieved, not the ones missed. Having a can-do attitude is half the success most of the time). In my case I used three goals: lose a kilo in a month, lose some inches, and increase the weight or repetition in an exercise I was doing. So as long as one of those aims was reached in a month, that meant transformation was happening.
- Make it a LIFESTYLE. Now I cannot stress this enough, if you want to change something in your life, you need to change your lifestyle! It’s no use doing a great diet, or buying the best weight loss program out there if you do not make a lifestyle change. I am not saying the quick fix will not work, however, as soon as you stop it, you will fall back to your old self again. So if you want to achieve a change and keep it, you need to change your lifestyle! That is why I recommend a slow and steady pace, rather than a fast leap to change. It took me around four years to get where I am today, however, I am keeping the changes I made and it’s rather easy now cos it’s the way I live. It’s not a diet or a harsh exercise regime. I simply eat healthy, smaller portions (like the ones I post in The Simmering Cauldron, those are actually my meals and I usually use side plates so that they can look full!), and do an average of thirty-minute yoga daily. Exercise and nutrition go hand in hand for a healthier you!
- Love yourself. This may sound cheesy and could be the hardest part of it all for some, however, loving yourself and encouraging yourself forward might be the most important part of it all. Believe you can do it, be perseverant, and you will!! The little bat believes in you and is cheering for you! If you ever need encouragement, reach out, if no one else helps, we will do our best to cheer you on. Getting support and someone to do the transformation with may help, just make sure that whoever you choose to move forward with is committed to the change, also promise yourself you will not give up if they do. However, you are your own best coach so believe in yourself and encourage yourself, a little kindness goes a long way even to yourself.
Just two more simple tips before I move on to explain the website.
- This might be more intended for weight loss, however, overeating, especially non-healthy food isn’t good for anyone, even if your metabolism burns the fats fast, at times, you might even be more prone to worst side effects than simply getting fat. Make sure your portions aren’t too large (or too small). Scratch the myth of you can eat as much as you want from this vegetable especially if you want to lose weight. You need to get your stomach to be the right size, you will be fed up with that plant and revert to eating fattening foods, so make sure your portions are the right size for your lifestyle. This doesn’t mean starve yourself, just eat one less pizza slice or fewer chips, to begin with, eat a few nuts instead and some water to let your brain think you are full, water will pass quickly and so your stomach will start to shrink, just make sure you do not reduce your portion too much, anorexia is not something to fool around with, we’re looking for healthy here and that definitely is not!
- Find some exercise you enjoy. Can be dancing to your favorite song, walking down the street, or if nothing else work just do some exercise in bed. Doesn’t need to be too hard, or too long. Just be where you are today and start slowly. Just make a little push, the starting point is the hardest part, it will get easier. If a lazy ass like me made it, so can you!! Just five or ten minutes a day can make an amazing difference, I started by simply raising my legs in my bed. It’s a starting point, no shame in that, standing and sitting a few times might be an exercise for you, or even walking a couple of times up and down the corridor. We all start in different places, if it’s tiring for you then most probably it’s a good starting point! There are also plenty of exercises on youtube to choose from, so following some of those may also be a good way to get a healthier lifestyle, youtube is where I do my yoga today.
But what is this site?
Finally, let’s introduce and explain the main features of this website
The Simmering Cauldron is where all our food recipes go. Here you can find a vast selection of foods that more often than not, do not use pasta, butter, or oil. Definitely, no sugar, we always use honey instead of that (honey still contains sugar so if you are diabetic be careful from both honey and fruit, however, I am sure you knew that already). We upload some nutritional information from time to time as well.
The Brewing Pot is where our drinks go. Mainly infusions and smoothies or milkshakes. We also gather information about what we infuse, so you can find information about herbs and spices especially in our Simple infusions section. You can also find information about teas in this section, after all, they are infusions too.
Staying Limber is a place where we will discuss exercise, simple techniques, and what are exercises aimed for. The aim of this section is to stay in shape, or get fit enough to do daily chores without getting too fatigued. (This is the last part that we started to develop so it is still a bit lacking compared to the other sections).
My Journal is our homepage, and so you can see all our articles in chronological order. Subsections contain little blogs that do not fall into any of our main categories and are more like experiments or personal achievements.
Shopping Mall is where we gather all our affiliate links, so basically it’s where you can fly off to other sites, shop, and support us. The links are described in the tabs and each brand has a tab of its own to make things simpler.
We really hope you enjoy your stay here and interact with us so we can get to know each other. Hopefully, you will find our articles informative and fun to read, we try our best!