Life Update: Getting a new job + celebrating my 22nd birthday!

June 16, 2021June 21, 2021 trulyraisaLeave a comment

Hello! It’s been a really long time since I’ve posted on here so I thought it would be best to give you all a life update! Shall we begin?

So I don’t know whether I’ve probably mentioned this to you before or maybe I just put it on my Instagram page but I got a job in the beginning of the year! I currently work as a Laboratory Assistant for a hospital. Because of this, I haven’t properly had the to sit down and write a blog post like this. It’s an amazing place to work and I’m really enjoying myself! But it’s been difficult to manage my time and that’s why I haven’t been able to write to you all 😦

I love my new job but it made me realise how much I sleep because even after sleeping 6 hours a day I always struggle to stay awake in the train. I work in a Clinical Research department and what our department does, is that it runs studies and Clinical Trials for new medicine or to compare medicines for people with various illnesses. The medicine could be for a patient with sickle cell disease or it could be testing treatment for people with cancer. So we use the patients in our hospital as participants in the trial and my job is to centrifuge and ship their blood samples off to a bigger laboratory that will analyse the samples. There are some nutrition-related studies but it is very rare but even just working in a laboratory and in a hospital is a great experience!

Also, last week I recently celebrated my 22nd birthday! It was probably the first time that I celebrated with my friends and had a day out! We went to an art gallery and then ate Korean food for my first time and then we just wondered around the city and took photos! I’ll insert some photos here:

It was so delicious to eat Korean food I ate bibimbap with glass noodles and tried Tteokbokki for the first time! I’ve always heard how delicious it is and now I finally got to taste it for myself! I want to eat it again 😂

It was such a fun day out and I wish I could do something like that again!

That’s all for my updates! I hope you enjoyed this blog post, please like and comment below.

Useful tips for university students and graduates!

March 18, 2021March 17, 2021 trulyraisa2 Comments

Hello and welcome back to another blog post! This week’s blog post was a suggestion from a fellow blogger https://maisjohnson.com/ and today I’ll be giving some (hopefully) useful tips for university students and graduates! Shall we begin?

It’s never too early to start looking at career opportunities

If you’re someone who likes to plan ahead for the future then it’s never too early to start looking at career opportunities and what job role you might want to pursue. In fact even when you decide what you want to study, then start looking at what job roles are available from it. The last thing you want is to study a subject with a very small career field making it harder to find a job. If you’re someone who would like to make something yourselves and you see yourself as being your own boss then it’s also never to early to start researching about how to start up a business and then maybe start by creating a blog, or a website and social media accounts for your business? Gain an audience while you’re still studying and then focus on expanding your business more after you graduate!

Extra reading will help a lot!

If you are studying something at university that is new for you then extra reading is essential! I had never studied nutrition previously before and I often found myself feeling lost in the lectures. So I decided to do some extra reading in my first year and it helped me a lot! So I definitely recommend this! Even if you are very familiar with your major it’s still good to read and be well informed of maybe new studies or books out there that can help you!

Try to space out your assignments and prioritise them by deadline

Having more than one assignment due in the same month can be so frustrating and it’s so very common! So one thing that helped me a lot was spacing my assignments. For example if I had two assignments due in May, one in the beginning and during the end of May, I would probably start planning for the first assignment at the end of March and have the whole of April with a proper plan and writing out my assignment. While I am currently writing out my first assignment I would spend an hour on various days planning the next assignment so that once May comes around the first assignment it ready to be submitted and the second assignment is all planned out and all you need to do is write!

Why 'Study Girl,' Anime Star of an Infinitely Looping Video, Went Missing This Week | Muse by Clio

Sometimes your careers department help, sometimes they don’t

Every university has a careers department and every student has mixed feelings about them. Sometimes they are really useful for some people and for others they are no help. Regardless, you should definitely get to know your careers department better and they might not be able to help you secure a job but they can certainly help you fix your CV and job applications so that they’ll likely get picked for interviews! Remember, while you may think the careers department may be of no help, they are professionals in their job and probably know better than anyone else what an employer looks for so definitely send in your CV and job applications and let them help you with that!

For all new graduates don’t be disappointed in yourself if you’re not doing well with job hunting at the moment

2020 has been a very crappy year for all of us and this pandemic has been nothing short of frustration and disappointment. The job market now is in a very tough situation, there are many unemployed people and it’s become the hardest for graduates to find a job. If you’re someone who’s recently graduated and looking for a job don’t blame yourselves for the situation you’re in, it is not your fault there is no way you could have predicted or even prepared yourself for this. It took me about more than 10 months of proper full time job searching to get myself a full-time job and to be honest I was just lucky to have met my manager because I can tell you now I was absolutely crap at that interview! But your time will come and it will shock and you will feel so happy that you finally made it after such a long and hard journey , but it pays off in the end and it just ends up as just another bad memory. So don’t give up and don’t lose hope in yourself, someone will come to realise your potential and offer you an amazing career opportunity!

Use Linked In to connect with employers

For those of you who may not know LinkedIn is a social media platform for employers, businesses and employees to connect and is a useful tool to have! With LinkedIn you can connect with employers and they can learn a little more about you. Now this doesn’t alwasy guarantee a job, but if you keep your profile up to date and if you connect well you may see some career opportunities heading your way!

Take some time out to have a break!

This last piece of advice is for both university students and graduates. It’s essential to take some time out to have a break! It wil be good for your mental health and it will remind yourself that you’re doing so well already and that you deserve that break! So close your laptop every once in a while and go out for a walk or eat something delicious!

I hope those tips helped in some way and if you have any other tips for people than leave them in comment box below!

Food in quarantine that are good for your health.

January 7, 2021January 6, 2021 trulyraisa2 Comments

Hello everyone! I’m back with another blog post. Recently I watched a webinar on nutritional advice to give to people in quarantine and so I wanted to share that with you all. Shall we begin?

A while ago I watched a webinar about nutritional advice that we can give to the public while there is a lockdown and people are staying at home. There were some important pieces of advice that I would like to talk about in this blog post.

First of all, eating a balanced diet and getting all of your vitamins and minerals in your diet is more important now than ever. As we are spending more time indoors, our lifestyles may not be as physically active as they were before and our diets also may have changed. It is important to consume all of your vitamins whether it is through supplementation or if it is through the food sources that we eat.

Although there is no food or nutrient that helps prevent COVID-19 there is new research to suggest that Vitamin D improves the immune system in our bodies making us more healtier. In the UK, there is a nationwide deficiency of vitamin D because of having lack of sunlight source and therefore, it is recommended for people to eat 10mg supplement of vitamin D if they do not have a good source of it in their diet. Therefore, it is at least recommended to meet that recommendation.

People may think that frozen fruits and vegetables or canned fruit or vegetables may not be as nutritious or healthy but it’s actually false. Frozen fruits and vegetables are high in nutrients as much as organic fruits and vegetables are. This is because as the food is frozen or stored in cans the nutrients are more preserved and last longer than organic foods that have been out and could lose nutrients quickly. So this advice is for people who may live alone or they work a lot but frozen fruit and veg are definitely a part of your five a day too!

I know that there are many FAD diets and specific diets that people like to follow but now staying at home may not be the best time to follow such diets. It’s more important to have a balanced diet and meals because we at home we are living a less physically active lifestyle and will have an affect in diet and health. Therefore, it is recommended that you should try to refrain from following specific diets and have a balanced diet overall.

For people who struggle financially or would like to save money during lockdown there are some money-saving tips you could use! One of them would be to grow your own fruit or vegetables in your back garden or indoors as well. This can save some money on having to buy fruit or vegetables from the supermarkets. Another money saving tips could be substituting meat with beans and veggies as meat can sometimes be costly.

This next piece of advice can shock you a little and I’m not saying that you should do this every day but on a particular day where you feel like you are not doing well mentally or you have had a rough day, eating small amounts of chocolate a few times that day can help boost your mood may leave you feeling the slightest bit better.

A last piece of advice I would add from my own knowledge would be to try and do some exercises in your home. It can be some stretches or some exercise positions that you like, or if you have an hour free search for a workout video on Youtube and take a break and exercise for a little while. It can help relax your mind and body as well as keeping fit.

I hope those pieces of advice helped make your time staying at home a little better and be sure to leave a comment if your have any nutritional advice too!

Becoming a Registered Associate Nutritionist!

November 18, 2020November 19, 2020 trulyraisa3 Comments

Hello and welcome back to the Nutrition side of this blog! I have some good news to share and I’m going to be talking about some changes that are going to be made to “TrulyRaisa”! Shall we begin?

As you can probably tell from the title of this post that I’ve officially become a Registered Associate Nutritionist (ANutr)! In the UK the title “Nutritionist” is not as protected as the title “Doctor” or “Nurse” what this means is that anyone out there can give one piece of nutritional advice and call themselves a Nutritionist. So, the Association for Nutrition is an organisation of officially Registered Nutritionists who are professional Nutritionists that have completed an accredited course and has experience within the field.

My university course is accredited and after graduating I was able to officially register as a Registered Associate Nutritionist (ANutr). This title is different from a Registered Nutritionist (RNutr) as I have the sufficient knowledge but I have yet to gain professional experience in the field. After one year of working in a Nutritionist position whether you are working for another company or you are taking clients and working for yourself, you can apply to become a Registered Nutritonist (RNutr) and that is a professional nutritionist title.

I hope that wasn’t too confusing! This week I was finally able to submit and have my application approved for a Registered Associate Nutritionist! I can now open up my own practice and gather some clients! However, before doing that I would need to find a niche that I am going to specialise in. After talking to my old lecturer she gave me the idea of maybe specialising in Nutrition in South Asian women. Nutrition in South Asian countries are quite rare and almost non-existent and the obesity rates there are high, therefore working with South Asian women and creating a presence for nutrition in those countries would be a huge achievement!

Another niche I am considering specialising in is Nutrition and psychology. Eating behaviours, eating disorders and things such as food choice and body image is a topic that needs to be worked on especially in women. It’s also a really interesting topic to go through and study what influences food choice in certain individuals!

Once I decide on what niche I am going to be working with I am going to be working on this blog a lot and creating more nutrition-related content that could be useful to potential clients and sharing lots of information in the process! So please stick around if you’re interested to learn more! For now I hope you enjoyed this blog posts and I hope you can help me achieve my dreams together!

What self-growth means to me.

August 10, 2020August 13, 2020 trulyraisa4 Comments

Hello everyone! Welcome back to my site! Today’s post is about what self-growth means to me. Shall we begin?

Talking about self-growth is a sensitive topic for me. Maybe it’s because I have a lot I could improve on. As I mentioned before in “My Self-growth journey” post that I’m a huge introvert and just an awkward social being. But that is something I would like to grow on and something I felt like I was growing on during my time in university.

Self-growth has a different definition for everybody. It’s not the same thing for me as it is for you. This is why I am writing this blog post to explain my own definition and my own points of self-growth I feel like I need to work on.

One thing is for sure, the first step to self-growth is having confidence in yourself and let me tell you that is the hardest thing to have. Will I be able to do this? Am I capable? Am I too weak? Questions like this and more are what comes in the way of having self confidence. This is what comes in the way for me. Don’t get me wrong I do have my moments when I think why can’t I do this? If everyone else is succeeding then why not me? And that gives me the boost of confidence I need in that moment.

For me self-confidence is not really a point of self-growth for me it’s more about going out and doing it. Not being lazy, not being afraid to put myself out there, being social and figuring people out, telling them what they want to hear. Those points are part of my self growth.

So I guess in reality, self-growth for me is putting myself out there. And this blog post is doing exactly that. Everything I write about my own self-growth are my points of weakness and right now that’s me showing my vulnerability so someone reading this can turn around and ask me about it.

I still have a long way to go and a lot to work on but hopefully I reach my goals in the future!

With all that being said I’ve planned a new blog post to come out next week! It’s going to be so fun to write and it’s completely different to what I’m used to writing here!

Sunshine blogger award!

July 24, 2020 trulyraisa11 Comments

Hello! Today is a special blog post because I have been nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award! I want to thank Sara@Sunflower Seeds for nominating me! Shall we begin?

Rules

Thank the blogger who nominated you for this award.
Make sure to list the rules and to post a photo of the award logo.
Answer the 11 questions that your nominator asked you.
Nominate 11 other bloggers and ask them your own 11 questions.
Notify your nominees by commenting on one of their recent posts.

Let’s move on to the Q&A!

What’s your favourite season?

I used to like winter a lot but recently I love spring! The way I think of it is as a season of fresh starts. The sun starts to come out a lot and the flowers and wildlife start to bloom and for me that is a sign that if things are not going well I can always start the year again with a fresh start! Sunny days and flowers always give a happy feeling but I can’t stand when it’s extremely hot in the summer.

2. What is a meal that you are pro at cooking?

Pasta is always a dish that I am a pro at! I like a lot of different cuisines like Japanese (Sushi is my favourite food of all!) , Korean and of course Pakistani food but Italian food and pasta will always have a special place in my heart.

3. Who/what inspired you to blog?

Back in the end of high school I always had my nose in a book and I was reading one book where the main character was a blogger. And so I wanted to try it and I created my own book blog! A fun fact is that I had about three other blogs before this one!

4. Sweet or savoury?

This is a hard one because I love anything sour and spicy but at the same time I have a sweet tooth and can’t resist anything sweet!

5. What book would you read over and over again and never get bored of it?

I don’t really read books as much anymore but my all time favourite book series that I can never get bored of would be The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare

6. Out of three, which would you want to be: actor/actress, director or scriptwriter?

Scriptwriter for sure! I would also like to be an actress but I’m a writer through and through, and the chance to write stories for a lifetime is something I wouldn’t miss for the world!

7. What quote do you stand by / inspires you?

I don’t have a famous quote that I live by but something that I live by is “Nothing is impossible” and because I’ve bee through situations before where I thought things weren’t possible, but they actually did come true and so that’s a saying I live by.

8. Do you play any sports? if yes, why that specific sport?

I don’t play any sports but I run a lot, although I don’t like it very much. A sport I used to enjoy a lot back in high school was badminton and I would love to play it on a regular basis these days!

9. Where would your dream house be?

I haven’t thought of this much but the prospect of living in France appeals to me a lot! I would love to go to France one day and see all of it! So I guess I would like a dream house in France.

10. One unusual piece of advice?

Don’t listen to music through headphones while reading a book on the bus, trust me you will miss your stop!

11. What is one good thing that happened to you this week?

One good thing would be being nominated and writing this post!

Nominees

I’m going to break the rules a little and nominate you. Yes, you! If you’re reading this and have a blog of your own I nominate you to take part in this award and if you do, put a link to your post in the comment below so I can read it! I can’t wait to see your answers!

11 questions for my nominees

What is your favourite cuisine of food?
The best thing you’ve ever baked.
Recommend a good book to movie adaptation!
What is one thing that you’re really proud of?
Dream holiday destination?
What’s one thing on your bucket list that you’ve completed?
What is your favourite music artist, or what is your favourite genre of music?
When did you start blogging?
Would you like your blog to be an overnight sensation or are you satisfied with your blog as it is now?
Recommend a TV series.
K-drama or anime? (This is always a hard one for me to choose!)

I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing it!

My self-growth journey

July 8, 2020July 15, 2020 trulyraisa12 Comments

Hello! Welcome back to my site! For those of you who read my previous post would know that I decided to put out more lifestyle posts and this is one of them! Shall we begin?

This week’s post is about my personal self-growth journey so let’s start from the beginning. I am a very big introvert, I’m quite shy and quiet unless I’m comfortable being around a certain person/people (friends, family etc.) It’s easy for me to write my thoughts on a blog and post it and I’m sure readers who may not know me personally wouldn’t have a first impression of me as an introvert.

I’m telling you, stop me in the street and try to make small talk and the conversation will die in minutes.

For me this is a major shortcoming and something I would like to change around. Something that I am trying to work on and will continue to work on! So for me this is my main goal through this self-growth journey.

Now I’d be lying if I say that I haven’t changed over the past couple of years and the truth is that I have. I’ve gained that little boost of confidence when socialising with others and this is something that happened while I was at university trying to make new friends and meet new people. Gone were the days where I was a nameless invisible individual who loved to spend her time in the library reading all the books on all the shelves.

I would say I’m proud of the tiniest bit I’ve grown, no matter how small it was it definitely was some progress and now for the rest of my self-growth journey I’m going to be growing more as an individual both physically and mentally. Becoming more confident about myself, putting myself out there and meeting new friends and making new connections and growing a lot more than I am now.

Believe me, I have A LOT of growing to do and this is only the beginning, I am only aiming to work harder in the future.

See you in the next post!

Brew some tea…..let’s talk.

July 1, 2020July 6, 2020 trulyraisa11 Comments

Hello! Welcome back to my site! Today’s post is quite different from the others. I wanted to just sit down and address a few things as I’ve been quite inactive lately. Shall we begin?

I’ve always loved blogging. I had two other blogs before creating this one and it’s been about 4 years since I’ve started blogging. I created this space just as a place to express myself but I never thought I would enjoy it this much! But recently the creative spark that I had in the beginning is slowly starting to die out.

This means that before I would be full of so many ideas and things to blog about but recently I’ve been struggling with ideas on what posts to write. It could be a blogger slump but although I’ve been struggling to create content I want to blog more and more. It’s depressing for me because I end up sitting in front of a blank draft not knowing what to write. I wanted to aim to write at least one blog post a week but I’ve been struggling with that also. I have a few drafts that I may never publish because I feel like they might not be good enough to post.

Even though my creativity is slowly burning out, it doesn’t mean I will ever stop blogging. It just means that I will be slow with my posts for a while but I will try my best to think of new ideas and content to talk about. I’ve also decided that I may start writing more Lifestyle based posts rather than Nutrition ones. Posts relating to self-growth and lifestyle. What do you think? When I first started this blog I had quite a few viewers who would like and some would even share a comment. I think that’s what made blogging more fun, I used to love getting comments and being able to interact and have my website recognised. But recently there’s been fewer viewers and I think that also demotivated me a little bit.

So if you are reading this please leave a comment, what things would you like me to discuss what kind of content do you enjoy seeing? From now on I will also work really harder to create new posts and content and interact with you all!

I’ll work harder from now on so keep an eye out on this site!

Bake with me!

June 24, 2020 trulyraisa3 Comments

Hello everyone! I’m a little excited for today’s post because it’s been a while since I wrote a post like this! Today’s post

I’m going to be sharing some things I’ve been baking during the lockdown!

Brownies

The first thing I baked was brownies! I liked brownies before, but because we baked them two or three times I started to dislike them. 😦 The recipe is actually very easy, but with this recipe I would recommend that you add something else to give it more flavour, some things I would recommend would be adding some walnuts or orange zest to it. It’s quite plain by itself. This is the recipe that I use to make these brownies Chocolate Brownies recipe.

Cinnamon Rolls

I also attempted to make Cinnamon Rolls! I have to be honest and tell you that they looked delicious but I must have done something wrong because they did not taste good at all. I also didn’t make the icing but it is also included in this recipe. But the first try doesn’t always have to be successful! This is the recipe I used Cinnamon Rolls recipe.

Oat Bars

This was probably the most easiest thing I’ve baked! It was a really simple recipe to follow through and when I had made them I didn’t add any of the seeds and instead of berries I used raisins but they still turned out delicious! This is the recipe I used Granola bars.

Chocolate chip cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are probably a very straightforward thing to bake but when I baked them for the first time they didn’t turn out as I had hoped. But when I tried them for a second they were just perfect! The recipe is quite easy to make so you can try this at home too!

Shortbread

Shortbread is something I bake often because it’s the easiest thing in the world to make. It doesn’t require too many ingredients or even much effort and they taste delicious anyway! The recipe I use is Shortbread recipe

That’s all I have for today! I hope you will try and enjoy some of these recipes and be sure to leave a comment or tag me in your photos on Instagram!

Life of an ex-university student.

June 16, 2020June 16, 2020 trulyraisaLeave a comment

So I unofficially finished university back in May and since then, things haven’t been the same! So I thought I would write a blog post about it! Shall we begin?

The Coronavirus was probably a shock to the whole world. It changed life as it was and because of it I wasn’t able to cherish my last semester at university. All my classes had moved online (I’m guilty for not attending them!) and I was knee deep in a pile of assignments!:( However, I managed to complete all of them and unofficially complete my semester!

But because of the Coronavirus it meant that I wasn’t able to graduate or even meet any of my friends to celebrate the end of the last ever semester. 😦

Since March the country has been on lockdown and things are finally starting to reopen again but nothing has changed for me because I don’t have a full-time job yet or a school to go to. It’s been weird not to have a daily routine or anything to look forward and honestly speaking it’s starting to become depressing. But I’ve been actively trying to look for a job and hopefully soon I’m sure something will come along. I’ve also been trying to keep busy by cooking and baking things and posting them on Instagram and trying to write more blog posts! I’m aiming to at least try to write one blog post a week, but there are no promises!

I’m curious to know how other graduates around the world are dealing with this situation, because I know we’re all facing the same problem so it would be interesting to know!

But for now, I will have to work harder at producing more content and trying to find a job. I have a fun blog post coming up where I share everything I’ve been baking so far and linking the recipes too!

Tag: advice