I started an Instagram account when I was just 16, back in 2012. Instagram and I were both quite young back then.

I was irregular because back then it was just another app on my iPod Touch. I would rather spend my time on Facebook chat than to figure out this new app with a weird, brown camera icon.

Fast forward to the 18-year-old me who went to university — I turned my life around with a new journey. The journey of health and wellness. The start of my weight loss journey to lose 50lbs and overcome my obesity.

I started blogging about it on WordPress, and Instagram began to get some fame too. …

Imagine this. You come from a country where girls don’t step outside the house after it's dark. Going to a different country all alone is absolutely out of the question.

But you have this urge to travel the world. To explore. To feel how people around the world live. And spend a fraction of your time trying to live a different life in this new place.

A life different from that of your own, which is tied to the demands of your culture and society.

And you do it. You pack your bags, create an interior, and travel. The money is less, but you’re positive that the experience will be worth it. …

How have the last 10 days been for you?

Hot chocolate, marshmallow, chocolates, pies?

And since we cannot venture out because of the pandemic, a hint of cinnamon in hot chocolate makes the chill feel warmer, isn’t it?

And then comes the alcohol on New Year!

There’s just something about November and December. We welcome the winter chill in November with a festival and carry on the love, lights, and celebrations through Christmas until New Year.

While better times would’ve called for us to be with our loved ones around, whether in lockdown alone or with family — there’s a sense of warmth when your takeaway comes during holidays and tastes a tad bit better than the food you cook, or your loved one prepares your favourite meal. …

Last year was the first time that I ever set any fitness goals. Every year I had a simple goal to lose weight, but that’s it. Nothing too detailed or planned out. Just eat healthy food and workout out was my strategy.

Isn’t that good enough to reach my goal? Because that’s what all books, podcasts, blog posts, and memes say — 80% diet and 20% exercise is the key to good health.

I’ve had a healthy lifestyle for 6 years now, so working out and eating healthy came easy to me.

Yet, I didn’t have my desired body. My ‘problematic area’ was my tummy, and it never seemed to go no matter what I did. …

Whenever you last wanted to achieve a fitness goal, was it radical like:

• losing 50 lbs
• getting abs
• getting a bigger behind

I’ve been in this place multiple times. I’ve been on the heavier side all my life and wanted to lose weight so desperately. Not so shockingly, my fitness goal was losing 50 lbs.

Fast forward 6 years,

I have accomplished my aesthetic goals and they no longer matter.

The past year has been the most integral because it’s during this time that I learnt and implemented these mindsets. …

I’ve been working in my corporate job for 25 months, and let me tell you — I’ve experienced more heartbreaks than in my personal relationships.

It took me several nasty emails, back-stabbing, and heart-to-heart conversations to realize that the corporate sector has some unspoken rules.

These are rules nobody tells you about but that you are expected to follow from day one. While the older generations didn’t find it as hard to adjust to this corporate culture, we millennials are finding it far more of a challenge.

This is not a piece that is going to tell you how much the corporate sector sucks. While I may have believed that at one time, the pandemic has made me more grateful for my job than I have ever been. Instead, I’m going to share some things I learned the hard way to help you understand the workplace’s silent rules and successfully adapt to them. …

My doctor was examining my injured knees and was shocked at what he saw. He tried to dislocate my knee, a common technique to check for ligament injuries. I didn’t shriek in pain as he expected me to. Since my ligaments have degenerated in both my knees because of an accident, I should face difficulties in an activity as simple as walking, which I don’t. All because I have never given this injury enough attention or worry and write every day in my gratitude journal how grateful I am to my good health.

This intrigued my interest in the mind and body relationship, specifically the role our mind plays to heal our body. A lot of our physical pain results from emotions that manifest in various parts of our body. …

You realise that you’ve been living a lie

Travelling solo is a social media fad, I feel so bloody anxious.

This is what I told myself, sitting alone and scared on the first night of my first solo trip. I was sitting in a bar in my hostel in Amsterdam, waiting to make friends. Instead, I just sat in a corner.

All those pictures I saw on Instagram of people having fun with a group of people from across the world felt like a lie.

Maybe there’s a problem with me. Self-doubt, the ultimate destructor, crept in.

I have travelled solo to nine countries, and it was nothing that I expected it to be. …