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.

Life update: Getting back to blogging!

February 25, 2021February 23, 2021 trulyraisa2 Comments

Hello! Welcome back it’s been a while. A lot happened since I was last writing here and I want to explain everything and also share with you some plans for this future with this blog! Shall we begin?

First of all I have some good news to share! After a good 10 months I think it is? Or maybe more, but anyway ever since summer 2020 I’ve been looking for a full time job and I finally got one!

I’m actually very lucky to have this job because the job market in London during this pandemic has been nothing short of chaos. People have been losing jobs, graduates are struggling to find jobs because of lack of experience. There are more experienced people now who are applying for entry level jobs aimed at graduates and leaving university graduates without any experience or a chance at a job. It’s been a month since I got a new job and to this day I still find it unbelievable that my manager picked me out of other candidates to give me a job offer. From my point of view, I felt like that wasn’t my best interview but I feel like the fact that I asked questions to the empoyer really impressed them!

So to introduce my new job, I actually work as a laboratory assistant for a clinical research team in a hospital! I’m loving it so far and although it’s not directly related to nutrition I still can work in a healthcare setting. It’s a really successful hospital that also has it’s own nutrition and dietetics department so if I wanted to shadow a nutritionist and gain some experience there is a lot of opportunities for me to develop my career! I’ve loved working there for the past month, I’ve learnt so much about working in a clinical environment as well as meeting some really nice colleagues and enjoying everyday there!

Although, I am loving my new job and learning a lot, I have been very very busy and I just can never seem to find the time to sit down and produce any content. So now, that I’ve actually settled into a routine, I decided to make some time (and sacrifice some sleep) to writing more blog posts and creating more content! I feel like I always write posts like this, explaining how I’m going to blog regularly and then I just stop but this time I am going to actually try and commit to it! I’m going to designate a day in the week where I plan what blog post I’m going to write, and one day will be kind of like a “marketing” day where I’ll create some instagram stories and work on promoting my blog. And one or two days actually writing out a blog post and then scheduling it to publish! So that’s how I’m going to plan out my week and hopefully inshallah it will work and I can finally reveal something that I’ve been contemplating about this blog on for some time! Until then, I’ll leave you with some photos that I’ve taken while exploring London!

Let’s take a break together

January 13, 2021 trulyraisa2 Comments

Hello! I’m back again with another blog post. This week I just wanted to take a step back and instead of writing out my usual posts I just wanted to share some of my favourite quotes with you all so you can feel inspired or motivated. Let’s take a break together.

To be very honest with you I just spent the past 15 minutes thinking about what kind of blog post to write for this week. Then I thought to myself why not take a break? I really didn’t want to end the week without a blog post but I thought of the idea of taking a break together.

So, I decided to just share some of quotes with you all that can help you relax or motivate you this week.

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!

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!

That’s all I have for today, if you’re also a graduate comment how you’ve been getting on as an ex-student!

For the love of food…

June 1, 2020 trulyraisaLeave a comment

Hello everyone! Welcome back to my space 🙂 Today I’m going to be talking about the most common problems or situations I have surrounding food and nutrition and “keeping healthy” So, shall we begin?

I wasn’t always interested in nutrition. In fact I didn’t know that there were courses on nutrition and until I came across it while doing some research on what university to go to. But I was a big foodie (I still am now!) and I think that’s what got me to think “I really want to learn more about food”. I was originally a media student but it wasn’t a practical career field I saw myself in.

Adapting from being a media student in the Arts to doing Nutrition in Applied Sciences was a huge change. I swear the first few lectures were gibberish and the first year I would wait until I was home to properly take notes and understand the lectures!

Apart from learning about nutrition I tried to pay more attention to what I ate and I had a lot of struggles. Some of them maybe some of you will be able to relate to. Something that I had struggled with in the past is snacking. In my opinion I think snacking is a bad habit and for us who should be eating three meals a day, that should be more than enough to satisfy our energy and caloric intake during the day. In the past, I used to snack a lot and it often lead to binge-eating. So recently, I have tried not to eat anything in between my three meals and occasionally I still snack on something (unhealthy, usually!) but I am working on it more.

Another struggle I had ever since I was a student was stress-eating. A-levels were a particularly hard time for me, even harder than university and because of my bad habit of snacking I used to stress eat a lot. I’m glad that with time I can now say that I’ve completely eliminated that struggle!

Finding time to exercise is a struggle I can say that there are some of you who can relate to this. The NHS guidelines for physical activity is 150 minutes of moderate activity. I really wanted to achieve that, but working a part time job while being a university student meant I had barely any time on my hands. I’m not really comfortable with completing exercise with others and it’s something I like to do on my own so I don’t go to a gym. We have a treadmill in our house so I usually go running 2 or 3 times a week. Occasionally I also find a YouTube video and follow a Yoga or Pilates routine! But any type of physical activity is great! Just getting your body moving and being active is all that’s required!

After three years of learning about food I can tell you it’s not just black and white. The constant pressure to eat healthy and stay active isn’t as simple as gaining weight or losing weight. That is not the only goal, yes it’s amazing if everyone can be a healthy weight but that’s not the only goal. Foods are so much more complex and believe it or not, what you eat can prevent you from having diseases and being ill in the future. Having a good diet and exercising often can improve your health so much, do you ever see some people that look in their early 40s and they’re actually so much older? The chance of that is because that person has a good diet and they are active. Food is amazing and there is so much more to it than what meets the eye.

That’s all I have for today, but if you have any questions then let me know in the comments below!

University is complete

May 22, 2020 trulyraisa2 Comments

Hello! Welcome back to my space! Now that my final assignments are complete, I have officially finished university! I decided to write a post about it! Shall we begin?

First year was the best! I went to university with the mindset that I would just put my head down and work and I didn’t really care for making any friends, I just wanted to do well. But nothing goes as planned, but in the first year I made some really cool friends and it was a really chill year for me! I did well in my assignments and I was just enjoying my time. The only thing I would say that I struggled with was with the lectures, because this was my first time studying nutrition and I didn’t have a science background so I had to really learn a lot.

The second year in the first semester began to get harder, only because I wasn’t doing too well with my assignments as I would have liked, I passed all of them but not with the grade I wanted so that only made me want to work harder. In the second semester I did pretty well then, I started going into university to complete my assignments rather than at home because I get distracted easily. In the second semester we had to pick our dissertation topics and I begun to get more excited just thinking about it! I actually wrote a blog post on what my dissertation was about here : Dissertation topic

I think the highlight of second year was picking my dissertation topic and also reconnecting with an old friend and becoming close again!

Third year I had never felt more stressed. The first semester wasn’t actually too bad, the modules we studies were interesting and we started planning testing for our dissertation project! The second semester the stress just started kicking in because we had a lot of testing to do for our dissertation project and in such a short time but we managed to get through it all. The worst thing was back in the end of March when our country went into lockdown because of the Coronavirus and working from home wasn’t the prettiest.

After just over a month, I managed to finally have my written dissertation ready and submitted, along with some other assignments and I felt a heavy burden being lifted off me. But I still had a few more assignments to go and finally (yesterday actually) I submitted my last ever assignment and now I’m a free woman!

But actually the real stress is beginning now, because finding a job amidst this pandemic is going to be really really hard. So wish me luck because I have no idea what I’m going to do! 😦