HAPPY NEW MONTH/CANADA DAY - A FRUITY PEER-PRESSURE

Hello hi,

Happy new month to every one! Happy Canada day to Canadians and happy moving day to Quebecers. I hope everyone is doing well and keeping safe. I see a lot of people are out these days but unfortunately, the COVID19 pandemic is not yet over, although thankfully we are still here. So let us continue to keep safe measures such as socially distancing ourselves, staying 6 feet apart from each other, and avoiding crowds.

Today I am writing about something different and special to me which I have titled:

A FRUITY PEER-PRESSURE

Me wearing red and white in honour of Canada day (Fun facts - I took these photos by myself)  

My classic smoothie

Often times when we hear the term ‘peer-pressure’, we think of it as something negative, for example joining a cult/bad gang, picking up bad habits such as smoking or doing drugs, etc. However, that does not always have to be the case; peer-pressure could just be for something fun or even something positive. For me, if the pressure is not going to cause me any harm, physically/ health-wise, I might give it a try. Personally, I am not one easily influenced by others because I have a strong will of my own. Nonetheless, the few times that I have been ‘pressured’, either by peers or by myself because I saw peers doing something, have led to very good experiences for me. For example, I do not like hiking - I call it unnecessary ‘suffer-head’ (going through stress for nothing) but I have hiked several times including up the Lion’s Head Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. Now this mountain is almost 700 metres above sea-level and I am also scared of heights but I did it because my colleagues were doing it during one of our conference trips and I did not want to feel left out.  You may ask – what was the benefit? Well, for one I did a heck of an exercise (it took over an hour for me to get close to the top) and two, the view was gorgeous even though I kept imagining myself falling into the river. LOL.

I have had other good experiences from peer-pressure including trying out winter sports e.g. skating and skiing, and ballroom dancing (which I now love), but there is one ‘pressure’ in particular that has stuck with me for a long time. If you ever watch my Instagram live videos or any of my social media stories, you will almost always see me drinking something and more often than not, I would be drinking a smoothie. Yes, I started this from peer-pressure and now I make and drink smoothies every week. So how did this happen? This started some years ago during one of my studies; I had a colleague who always drank smoothies on Tuesdays. We (all our colleagues) would sit together during lunch in the office kitchen and I would watch him with admiration as he sipped his drink and ate his yoghurt, while I sipped on soda or some Frappuccino.

“You always eat some healthily, I wish I could be like you” I would say to him.

He usually smiled and responded with thanks but week after week, I would say the same thing to him until one day he replied:

“But what is stopping you from making smoothies?”  

That was actually the first time I ever thought of the fact that I could easily make smoothies by myself and that I did not have a real barrier. However, I did not want to come across as being lazy, so I responded by saying that I did not have a blender. I was not lying although this was not a very good reason and I suspected that his follow-up question would be “Why don’t you have one?”

But instead of criticizing me, this colleague started telling me about how a shop was having great sales at that moment, including blenders being sold at less than half-price. Voila! I did not have an excuse anymore and so I purchased a blender that same week online. FYI – I had been wanting to buy a blender anyway so it was not just about the smoothie but rather this presented an extra incentive for me to buy it.

So within a week or so, my blender arrived but did I start making smoothies immediately? No. It took me a while to ‘open’ the blender, then test it out with other food ingredients and somehow making a smoothie got to the bottom of the list. It was only when that same colleague asked me whether I had not yet received my blender and if so, why had he not seen me with smoothies? That was when I decided to make my first smoothie for the next day. So after work, I went to the grocery store, got myself some fruits, and made some smoothie. The next morning, I strutted into the office kitchen showing that colleague, and every other colleague that cared to look, my new smoothie. I was so proud of myself that I talked a lot and before I could stop myself, I made a proclamation that I would make and drink smoothies EVERY SINGLE WEEK. Those words quickly turned into a bet between me and my colleague – any week I missed having a smoothie, I would buy him a hot chocolate drink but for every time I drank smoothies 4 weeks in a row, he would buy me a drink. And that was how my smoothie craze began. Of course, I lost the bet a few times because it takes a while to pick up a good habit but after a few months, I got there and ever since than I have kept my side of the bargain even though I no longer live or work/study there.

So my dear friends, this is an example of good peer-pressure. My smoothies usually consist of fat-free yoghurt and fruits- watermelon, pineapple, banana, vine grapes, and any other fruits in season e.g. berries and cherries; I also add beetroots and then ginger to give it a spunky taste. Once in a while, I also add kale. So if you were wondering how this was a good pressure, I’m sure we all know the benefits of fruits and vegetables – vitamins and minerals, to boost our immune system.

Thus, smoothies became my thing from peer-pressure and determination to keep my word. As you could tell from the story, buying a blender was not enough to develop this habit; it was only a process. Just like many things in life, if you want to achieve something, first you have to desire it (just like I did every week that I had admired my colleague), say it (just like I told my colleague), go through challenges or hard work (e.g. me buying a blender and fruits) and act upon it (me actually making the smoothie). But apart from all of these, one thing that I think is very important is, surrounding yourself with people you admire and can potentially learn from. That way, you will be more likely to pick up good habits than bad habits, and then hopefully you can also get a ‘fruity peer-pressure’. J     

Thank you for reading my post; please share some of your experiences with peer-pressure, both positive and negative - I’d like to know J Also, please share this post if you liked it. Don’t forget to keep visiting my blog and follow my Instagram page @lavivsblog and twitter @vivio_gogo for more updates (my main Instagram page is @ugochiukah). Until next time, please try to stay coronavirus free. Have a great week and may this day that marks the beginning of the second part of the year bring us more joy and testimonies. Amen.

God bless. Xoxo.