Beginner's Guide to Start Cold Showers | How to Take Cold Showers

How to Trick Your Brain to Take Cold Showers Every Day | How to Take Cold Showers

I never though this is something I would be doing. Taking cold showers is no fun. Your body is leaving its comfort zone and your brain is sending signals to reject it, so it takes courage and a willingness to embrace cold showers.

I felt terrible during my first week when I started taking cold showers. Each day my mind told me this should be my last day, but I kept going and going. Now, after a month I discovered the benefits of cold showers from my own experience, which surpassed all my tears and pain. Now I can't or won't go back to a regular, comfortable warm shower.

My simple trick can make anyone get used to cold showers and that’s what I will talk about today. A note of precaution is that before you start taking cold showers, please consult your doctor or a medical professional, as cold showers are not for everyone.

The way I do cold showers is that I start with the comfort level, which is a mixture of 50/50 hot and cold water. This is how people most take regular showers. Then I gradually turn towards to colder levels. I finish shampooing or soaping up in cold water, but too cold.

Then my last 2 minutes would be in extremely cold water. To tell you the truth, this will not feel like fun. Don’t be afraid to scream. I scream when my water is at the maximum cold level, as it helps. But after finishing my shower, the refreshing feeling is hard to describe. I won’t go back to hot showers anymore. I am already seeing the benefits from cold showers after only one month.

I have a video about my cold shower experience, which you can find in the link below:

How I Trick My Mind to Take Cold Showers Every Day

COVID-19 Vaccine – What Common Side Effects You Can Feel | Pfizer Covid Vaccine Side Effects

What are some common side effects of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Covid vaccine?

I just received my first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine yesterday on May 08, 2021. I was not sure what to expect, as different people react to any kind of vaccine differently.  

Disclosure: This article represents my personal experiences and yours may be very different. I am not a medical professional. This is not a suggestion or recommendation for any products or anything else. I am only sharing my own experiences. If you have any questions or concerns, please consult your own physician.

The whole process was seamless and pleasant. I would like to thank the City of Toronto and the Ministry of Health for the good job they did.  My appointment was at 7:00 PM and I was done in 10 minutes. After that, I had to stay for 15 minutes in case some reactions appeared.

The nurse was really good, as I didn’t feel the needle and it was fast. I thanked her for her good work. I came home walking and even picked up a Tim Horton’s coffee on my way.

Later at night, I started feeling tired. I was on the Toronto Island for my Project Soundscapes video recording, so I was not even sure if I felt tired because I was outdoors all day or from the vaccine.

I slept well at night. In the morning, I felt slight pain at the injection spot on my left arm. There was a pain if I tried to lift my arm, but it was very negligible. I also had a coarse voice with fever and runny nose. However, the slight fever was on and off throughout the day. I also felt tired on and off.

Overall, the effects were not bad at all. They didn’t stop me doing my regular activities and there was nothing on the heavy side. My 2nd dose is scheduled for August and I’m looking forward to completing it.

Dancing: An Alternative To The Gym

Take The Floor and Take Control

Everyone knows that exercise is good for you; it’s basically impossible not to be aware of the fact. We’re all constantly told how exercise helps keep us not just healthy in body, but also in mind. There is seemingly nothing that exercise cannot do for us. Yet there is one drawback; for the vast majority of the population, exercise is boring. Endorphins created by exercise may make us happy, but few are happy at the prospect of exercise and are positively bored throughout almost any exercise routine or gym class.

 Yet the benefits of staying fit and active are clear for all to see, so the problem presents itself in that we should all be exercising – but we don’t really want to. Gyms and the like have tried incredibly hard to keep their exercise areas entertaining and stimulating, but unfortunately it still always feels like uncomfortable work.

 Thankfully, there are ways that one can get that ever essential exercise without being bored or frustrated. The answer is surprisingly simple: dancing. With television programs such as Dancing With The Stars, and the UK version Strictly Come Dancing, populating television screens – dancing has been receiving something of a boost to its public image. Rather than being seen as passe and full of overly made up women, it is now genuinely being treated as a real sport which requires time and dedication to perfect.

 What’s more, dancing is absolutely fabulous for burning calories. Obviously, to get the maximum effect from dancing, learning to dance fast and energetic dances is the best way to go about it. Dances such as the salsa, with fancy footwork and complicate arm movements, are ideal, as are old classic favourites such as the jitterbug and lindyhop. Salsa lessons in particular are a real favourite, and ironically classes are frequently held at gyms – the very industry they are taking customers from.

 Slow dances, such as romantic waltzes and sultry foxtrots, are also wonderful exercise – particularly for the older generation. Performing and rehearsing these more sedate dances is wonderful exercise, though without the intensity – and immediate calorie burn – of dances like the salsa. However, they have plenty of benefits themselves and if done for longer than one would traditionally have a salsa class, are just as beneficial.

 The wonderful thing about learning either slow or fast dances is that boredom is unlikely. Firstly, you are engaging your mind and instructing it to learn – usually following the steps of an instructor, and then constructing routines of your own. Also, unlike the gym, when dancing you are unlikely to be focusing on the idea of keeping fit and in shape; your mind is distracted by the steps and the fun of the dance itself.

 Dancing is the perfect alternative for those who find the gym dull. You can learn to dance at numerous registered classes, or even if your own living room – try copying the routines from Dancing With The Stars, or from your favourite pop videos. The important bit is the activity and raising your heartbeat for maximum physical benefit; how you do that is up to you, so dance away.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Simplepersonaldevelopment.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com site. This article originally published on the above website on April 19, 2009.

My Black Coffee Journey

My Dramatic Cut on Sugar

First Published: EntrepreneurJourney.com Dec 20, 2013

Nothing is impossible as long as you decide on something, make plans, and persevere to make it happen. This is how I made it possible to switch to black coffee.

In the past, I used to take 3-4 sugars for Tim Horton or McDonald’s coffee 7-8 sugars for Starbucks’s coffee. After reading on the harmful effects of sugar and salt, I decided to cut back on both of these. It was not instantly that I gave up on sugar. Rather, I gradually decreased my sugar intake. Just about a month ago, my final sugar (before turning to black coffee or tea) intake was 1 to 2 spoons with coffee or tea.

As I felt I was ready to try going without sugar, I tested coffee and tea without sugar and cream for 2 weeks. The first week was difficult, but the second week was not that bad, as my taste buds got used to it. Then what happened next? After two weeks of going without sugar, just to see how it felt with sugar again, I started coffee with sugar and cream again.

Surprisingly enough, I found out that I did not like coffee or tea with sugar and cream anymore and it just did not feel right.

As it stands right now, I am very happy with my black coffee or tea and will continue it that way. If you would like to cut back on sugar, start gradually right now and it’s not that as hard as it may sound.

Why Choose Garmin Vivoactive HR (Over Fitbit Blaze)?

Garmin Vivoactive HR or Fitbit Blaze Smartwatch?

First Published Date : January 9, 2017 ADawnJournal.com

I have been contemplating buying an activity tracker or a smart watch for a while. However, I put it off because I did not want to pay full price and I kept an eye on them whenever they were on sale. However, this 2016 Black Friday sale presented me with an opportunity to buy a smart watch at 40 percent discount. The two major options I had were the Garmin or Fitbit smart watch. Today, I will talk about why I picked Garmin Vivoactive HR over its competitor, the Fitbit Blaze.

Author/Copyright: Ahmed Dawn www.adawnjournal.com

Here are my 2 most important reasons:

Bluetooth Concern – Smart watches or activity trackers send or sync information to a computer or smart phone via Bluetooth. Bluetooth does the job via low-level radio frequency waves. These waves are non-ionizing waves similar to those used by cell phones, which have been classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Although Bluetooth EMF radiation is much lower than a cell phone’s, there is not enough information or research on the long-term health effects of activity trackers.

Lack of information does not translate to evidence of safety and I wouldn’t be comfortable wearing something with Bluetooth always on. Here is where Garmin comes in handy, as it gives the option to turn off Bluetooth as I wish, which Fitbit is lacking. With Fitbit, Bluetooth has to be always on and there is no option to turn it off. For that reason, Garmin is my choice.

Waterproof – Garmin is waterproof to 50 meters. I can swim or shower wearing my Vivoactive HR and it’s no problem. On the other hand, Fitbit is only water resistant, not waterproof. You cannot swim or shower with Fitbit but it’s OK to splash slight water on it like in the rain or washing hands, etc.

There are other aspects where Garmin does better than Fitbit, such as having a GPS, better notifications, and so on. But the above two factors I described are more important and they are the deciding factors for me buying the Garmin.