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‘Healthy Eating: The Beginner’s Guide on How to Eat Healthy and Stick to It’ - article recommendation

This article helps you find the best ways how to eat healthily. I think we all struggle to try to find the appropriate food that needs our body, so this commentary might guide you. I consider it also a very important topic as kids nowadays have to be more aware of their eating habits. There are many harmful effects of junk food so, the positive impact of healthy food must be stressed upon. The writer approaches these steps towards a healthy diet in a psychological way, too.

In the first section, the article details why it is important to put good nutrition in your body and why it’s so hard not to eat junk food. As you avoid being fat the chance of suffering from different diseases decreases. You won’t have to deal with heart problems, diabetes 2, and any other long-term illnesses that can occur when you don’t pay attention to your health. Food companies like to trick our sensations by giving satisfying smell and taste to the junk food. They create cravings by using dynamic contrast, producing foods that promote salivation and they make quickly melting food that tricks your mind to eat more of it.

In the second part of the writing, the writer tells us a lot of different ways how to reach a healthy eating lifestyle. It gives you some technics like using small plates instead of bigger ones and tall, slender glasses instead of short, fat ones can trick your brain. Furthermore, putting the unhealthy food out of your view may help you forget about them. I definitely agree with the writer that eating more vegetables is the best diet. However, it is highlighted that you shouldn’t stint yourself from cheating time-to-time, just try to focus on keeping the balance.

In the last detail, it teaches you how to say no to food that is detrimental to your health. It also describes a research based on the comparison between saying “I can’t” and “I don’t”. The hardest part of keeping the diet is always having the control, and with this quote, you could change your mindset. So it means that healthy food does not only impact our physical health but mental health, too. I have been also using this strategy, so I know for sure that this could work for everyone.

the link to the article: https://jamesclear.com/eat-healthy#The%20Importance%20of%20Environment%20for%20Healthy%20Eating

[sarakatika]

Flowers of Spring

Since we are limited to go anywhere due to the quarantine, I had to change some things in my life. In the last month, I spent every weekend hiking near my home to be some time in the fresh air. Thanks to the spring season the forest is spectacular because many flowers are blooming. Thus, I decided to pick some flowers and press them, so that I could keep them forever. In this entry, I am going to introduce some of them to you with some interesting facts.

The tettewort is a yellow flower which blooms in April. It got this name because it’s a good remedy for tetter. However, I still prefer its Hungarian name “vérehulló fecskefű”, which means literally the “the grass of the swallow who sheds its blood” (sorry for the ugly wording). It has such a vibrant, orange sap in its stem which really looks like it would be its blood. The swallow word in its name refers to its blooming time when the swallows are here in Hungary.

My favourite flower ever is the liverwort, because although it’s so tiny, it has a beautiful light purple colour. It has an old reputation being a good remedy for liver and kidney problems and also for epilepsy. It got its name from the leaves’ shapes that look like the liver. In Hungary, it’s a protected plant and we have to beware because it’s also slightly toxic. The other purple flower I found is called sweet violet, whose essential oil is one of the most expensive oils in the world. It can alleviate asthma and cough.

I think if I say daisy, everyone has this flower’s picture in their mind. It is said to bring happiness as you see a whole field of daisies. The Anglo-Saxon name (daes eage) for this plant means the “day’s eye” because of the fact that the flower head closes up at night and opens at dawn. It is also considered to be the secrets’’ flower and as you receive it from someone it means that they share their secret with you. The daisy, free from all sin, is the perfect symbol of innocence.

I had to search a lot for the name of the last flower I picked the other day. The star of Bethlehem is a very marked plant in the forest with its bright white coloured flower. Its name comes from the shape of its flower which looks like the Star of Bethlehem.  When the green and white striped buds, are still closed, they resemble a snake. Its essential oil is used for the treatment of panic and shock.

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A Month in France

As I promised you in the last entry, I’m going to talk about my experiences in France. Like I said before, I had an amazing chance to spend a whole month near Paris in 2017. It was a great opportunity to improve my French and to get to know more about the culture. I believe I made lifelong experiences during my stay in there. It was also my first journey when I was far away for a longer period, so it was a huge challenge for me in this way, too. I stayed for three weeks in one of my French friends' apartment, and I was really happy about that. I lived with her, her mother and her little sisters, who were very nice to me and helped me with all the difficulties and new things I had to face. We were mostly hanging out in the town, where I was also introduced to her best friends. I experienced their everyday routine and in the end, I actually got used to it. Then, I spent the last week with a lovely old couple who also took me to several amazing places.     I was lucky because the town they live in is quite close to Paris, so I visited many popular places. I could admire the famous paintings of the Louvre Museum and the Muséé d’Orsay. I walked on Montmarte and bought some very delicious ice cream in a fancy café. On 14 July, we celebrated the national day of France with the citizens, and I even saw the truly wonderful firework show. On the last week, we went to visit the castles in Versailles, which were just as beautiful as in the pictures. It was hard getting used to a whole new environment, but it was worth it because I changed in a good way. I learned to be more open to people and to step out of my comfort zone. My communication skills also improved and I learned some slang expressions as well. If I had the chance to spend some time there again, I would definitely take advantage of it. Overall, I can only recommend people to create these international friendships because you can only benefit from these experiences.

[sarakatika]

French Friends

I had always liked getting to know new people. In high school, I made a lot of true, long-lasting friendships. I'm so happy that I could even find great people from another nation, too. Although we speak different languages, it doesn’t stop us to communicate, to understand each other. These friendships prove that it doesn’t matter where you come from, you’ll always find the ones you love hanging out with.

It all began when I heard from my high school French teacher that there’s a town-twinning arrangement between Komló - my hometown - and Éragny sur Oise - a small French town. At that time I only had been learning French for a couple of months but I was really curious about this 'exchange family' thing. So, my family and I decided to accommodate two girls from the French town. It was really funny how we communicated because none of them could speak English and my French left a lot to be desired. It was hard work understanding each other but it was worth it because all of us learned so many things: not only new phrases but also our differences.

Unfortunately, we didn’t deepen this friendship but I was cheerful when 2 years later we could host again other two girls from Éragny sur Oise. They had the same age as me so we could relate to each other. During this time my French had improved a lot and I could almost speak fluently with them. They were like real French girls: we did chit-chat a lot, laughed out loud, shared funny stories. This exchange program organized many activities in Hungary we took part in. We discovered Komló, Pécs and even Budapest together, we went to a spa, the students could visit our high school and get to know the Hungarian education system while the adults were tasting pálinka. I even made a house party where my friends also met the two girls and had so much fun together.

We all had an amazing week so it wasn’t a question whether we were gonna keep in touch or not. The same year in the summer I had the opportunity to spend a whole month at their place. It was a lifetime experience I won’t ever forget, but I will detail that in another post. I feel joyous when I think about how far I come by creating new friendships, getting to know and to love people from another culture. I know that we might be far away from each other but we don’t let the distance ruin this special relationship between us.

[sarakatika]

‘The Science of Sleep: A Brief Guide on How to Sleep Better Every Night‘– article recommendation

 This article tells you every (fun) fact you want to know about sleeping. Although it is a major part of our lives, we can easily forget about its importance. If we lose ourselves in this subject, we can say that we spend a third of our life on this planet sleeping, which is a pretty long time. That’s why it is recommended to read this piece of science to broaden our knowledge about this subject. It is written in a very understandable way, and there might be some facts which aren’t surprising for you so it’s easy to understand what message the author wants to give us.

 First of all, he speaks about why we have to sleep, what is the purpose of it: restoration, memory consolidation and for our metabolic health. He also describes a very interesting experiment made by researchers on how many hours the human body needs to live a healthy life. Telling you the truth, it is the most amusing part for me, because according to the experts, if you sleep 6 hours every day for two weeks, it has a feeling that you are awake for 48 hours straight. Since I went to high school, I have been sleeping that amount of time, so basically, it might affect my productivity negatively.

 You must have heard of sleep deprivation before and might have an acquaintance who suffers from it. The author listed many factors that can cause this very problem and you may find some bad habits in your life that you haven’t noticed and could affect your sleeping method. The writer of the article created a very relevant simile to the human body: a glass of water that always has to be full to live an energetic, balanced life. He explained that we have two sleeping cycles: a ’slow-wave sleep’ and ’a REM sleep’ which are equally important in our sleeping method.

Overall, I felt way smarter than I expected as I read over the whole article. It had a deep impression on me and made me think about what I do incorrectly in my life. I highly recommend it to university students, too because as we know they tend to focus more on their studies and forget the most important thing in our life: our health. I pretty liked the conclusion of the article: the easiest solution to sleep better is to sleep more. I hope I made you read the article and maybe found a way to help you if it needed.

The link: https://jamesclear.com/sleep?fbclid=IwAR3ky2-494kLBHF_0wLwTRDa7oFr8I3XMtgZePdCMnsTFgxMRCxk8Ct8bPE

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Second home

If I had to name a place where I like to spend my time when I want to be far from my problems that would probably be our vacation house. My family bought a farmhouse in a village near my hometown 16 years ago and I just can’t get enough of it. It’s a huge area where I usually go on the weekends to let off some steam.

I can definitely say out loud that this place was lived by several nations. The house was built in 1908 by the hand of a poor, kraut man. They lived there until Hungary joined the World War II. Unfortunately they were forced to move out of the country and a Slovakian family bought the abandoned house. As all the family members passed away, they left the house in really terrible condition. In the '90s a gypsies rented the place from a Transylvanian man. Finally, in 2003 my parents found this ravaged farmhouse that could be barely fit for habitation. They decided to renovate it and within a few years it became a pretty home with a magnificent garden.

It’s usually my grandparents and my father who take care of the area. We cultivate different vegetables there like tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, onions and also delicious fruits: strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and currants. That’s why we have a lot of duties in the summer because we make dozens of marmalade out of the fruits. It’s a huge work but it can really get the family together and we always have fun during the process.

What I adore the most about our second home is that we always organise numerous events there. We celebrate the graduations with the relatives, we hold birthday parties there. In winter when it snows we sledge down the hill, make snow angels. My grandpa made a deer-stand where we can admire the scenery of the village. We have a football pitch where my brother always hold matches with his friends. I usually organise house parties in the farmhouse where we play ping-pong, table soccer.

Overall, I really appreciate my parents and grandparents that they created a special place where everyone can enjoy life. I could definitely imagine spending my pensionar years in this house. If you liked this little description of it, write me and maybe we can have a cup of tea.

[sarakatika]

Canoeing

In this post I’d like to talk about one of my favourite summer hobbies. In every July I spend a week canoeing by an oxbow of the River Danube in Szigetköz. It’s a lot of fun being there because of its atmosphere: enjoying the pure nature and forgetting all the problems of everyday life.  We got to know about this vacation ten years ago by a friend of my mum. He is the camp leader and he’s been canoeing for decades. Although the distance from my hometown to Szigetköz is quite long, the road is never boring with my family.

When we arrive after greeting others we start to put up our huge tent which is not as easy as it sounds. On the first day we just hang out with our friends and get to know the new people. It’s also a good community because people are from every generation: young 3-5 year olds, adolescents, kids' parents and even some grandparents appear. It’s also a perfect vacation because it’s not like a real training camp where you have to row until you pass out.

Usually we start our trip at 11 AM. The conductor always explains us how to row, behave in the canoe and draws attention to the occurrent dangers that can be easily avoided. On the real first days we usually just warm up and don’t go to stream where it’s hard to pass: it’s often the fish ladder where we can see how fish are redirected to a preconceived little river where they avoid the waterfall.

We canoe 5 hours per day with little breaks when we eat and just be amused by the nature around us. But my favourite trip is the most difficult one. We row to Dunakiliti which is not far if you go by car or bike but on the river it takes 3-4 hours just to get there and also we face with undercurrent. However, it’s really worth the huge effort because there’s an old looking buffet with very tasty food, we can play volleyball in the sand and the best thing is that there’s a trunk where you can jump off if you are brave enough.

The camp leader's wife always stay at the camping area where she cooks dinner for us which always so delicious. For the rest of the day everyone is free: kids go to the football field near the tents or they play with the Tarzan rope next to the river. Adults usually go to the pub of the village which is already really famous among young people like me. We play ping pong (or beer pong), dance, sing or just sit because we can get so exhausted by canoeing.

Overall, I just really recommend it to everyone to try out this field of sport. It’s also not expensive at all and worth to be in the nature, relax and be away from the digital world. Next year I’m going with my friends and with the son of the conductor who is also following his father’s track. I hope I gave you a good account about my kind of vacation and made you curious about canoeing.

[sarakatika]

Our tiny pet

Hi everyone,

So this is gonna be a total different post than the usual ones. Although it doesn’t relate to the sport theme I’ve been writing about but I hope you’ll find this entry interesting,too. It may sound ridiculous but we have a new temporary pet around the house: a fox.

It’s not that unbelievable for my family that strange animals visit us due to our huge garden. Although we live almost in the heart of the town we have already seen some alley cats, squirrels, martens and even a jackal spending their time around the house. But this time it’s a bit different because it seems the fox feels really comfortable by us.

We didn’t actually see it at first. We just noticed some tracks it left behind (yes,poops) and then we saw the reddish animal lying on our terrace and after on the garden furniture.  It was so small and thin he must had been really hungry for a while. Of course we didn’t feed it at all. But the fox did smell the food of a stray dog whom we’re trying to keep around the house. So basically it founds food, has a nice place to sleep. If I were the fox, I would never leave this home, that’s for sure.

So I’ve been wondering for a while if it’s legal to have a wild animal at the house. But if we think about that these animals can barely live at forest because of the lack of nutrition it’s not a bad thing to save such a wonderful creature.

[sarakatika]

My family

Hey guys,

So I was wondering a lot what should I write here next. Finally I decided to write about how sport dominates in my family. So if you were fond of my last writing, then don’t hesitate reading this one.

Basically we are a large family. I have three siblings: an elder sister, a younger sister and my little brother. We have so different personalities that you can hardly find peace in the house.  Of course we do live with our lovely parents and also with our grand-parents who are really funny sometimes by how they bicker with each other over tiny things.

But let’s go back to the point. When I talk about my family to somone, they always tell ’Wow, you really are a sporty family’. Well, my grandpa was an athlete, he succeeded in the dash many times. My granny has never done any sport but she’s so hyperactive still though she’s 76 years old. My mom was a basketball player ever since she started school until she had a torn ligament. Then she quitted this sport and found swimming, later running more joyous in her fourties. My dad has never done competitive sports but I can say he tried out so many, like football, swimming, running and even aikido. Now he trips brutal amount of kilometers in his freetime. I can say out loud that my elder-sister is a role model. When she was young she never succeeded neither in aerobics, nor in running. But she stood up from failure and tried again and again. Now she graduated in sport psychology in the University of Stirling. My younger sister did triathlon but she ended up being a swimmer. From this year now she also assists in the swimming club at Komló. My brother’s life is sport. He would never live without that. He does triathlon in a competitive way, but he also likes to play football, basketball, he climbs up trees. So he never calms down. Well I’ve also done all the sports that my sibling did but I found my interest, my peace in swimming and running.

On the whole when we are said to be really sporty we just comment that we think that that’s the normal, healthy way of life. At the same time we don’t neglect other important things in life. And it’s fine like that.

[sarakatika]

Swimming as my hobby, my job and my life

You probably don’t know me at all because this is the first time I post here anything. So my name is Sári. I’m from Hungary. I’m not a big fan of writing but let me tell you something about me.

In started swimming in Pécs at the age of three. I don’t really remember that period of my life but I do know that I didn’t fancy going there because of its atmosphere.You know there was this coach lady who was always shouting at me.  But years went by and a swimming school opened its gates in my hometown. I countinued this sport there and finally I got to love it.

As I acquired all the swimming strokes I started racing. I achieved success and I was proud of myself. I also made my strongest friendship at that time. I was 12 when I was diagnosed with a disease. My performance got worse but I found out I could still continue swimming as my hobby.

I was a junior at highschool when my coach asked me to help her teaching little kids swimming. It was obvious that I would accept this offer. Well, back then I didn’t know how hard it was going to be. It’s not only the safe feeling in the water and the strokes themselves we have to teach them but also the proper behaviour outside of the water. I’ve got to learn that so many kids have way worse backround that I could think of. And maybe that’s their only loophole where they can be cheerful and joyous.

The funny part is that me, myself also learnt new things and technics that I have probably forgotten throughout the years. And in the future if I have the opportunity, I will definitely continue this job. Maybe I will discover a new Milák Kristóf. Who knows.