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How Realistic Is Our Food Budget For The Big Trip?

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How Realistic Is Our Food Budget For The Big Trip?

Photo Attributed to Thenix

A friend of ours was looking through our budget and he was fine with most of the numbers in it, except for the food budget. He shook his head a few times, and said, ‘There is no way you are going to keep to a $40 a day food budget!’ (Our food budget is $40 a day for two people). Thenix and I looked at each other surprised. We had assumed we had built a buffer into our budget items to account for miscalculations and wrong estimates. But we couldn’t be off by that much.

We asked him for a little more clarification. He said, that the only way we could keep to a food budget of $40 a day in USA is if we are planning not to eat out at any restaurants, we eat oatmeal (from a box) for breakfast everyday and cook pasta with tomato sauce for dinner most nights. He said, coffee or tea is out of the question, and any kind of produce, like apples, oranges, and such would be too expensive for us.

To say we were surprised was to say the least. We had assumed we would eat at iHop or some other restaurant in the morning – those portion sizes in the US are so huge, that we planned to eat one plate between the two of us, for around $10. That leaves $30 to play with. I assumed we would grab some bread, meat and cheese for lunch and have it somewhere in a green space, for about $10. Then, for dinner, we would choose some random restaurant and again eat one plate between the two of us for $20.

We also assumed that the prices for food would go down as go further south, and thus, we would be able to afford to eat more meals or more expensive items. I was hoping I would be able to eat fresh seafood in areas with water nearby and Thenix is definitely looking forward to Argentinian beef. After some discussion, we decided we would keep track of our food budget, and see how it goes. If we need to adjust down, we can eat noodles or tuna for a meal or two. We are willing to do so, to ensure that we are able to travel for the year or more.

In order to confirm our budget, we started doing some research. We found this post from the Never Ending Voyage, on how much they spend on a year trip around South America. This confirms that our food budget of $40 a day for 2 people is fairly accurate. Booyah!

What do you think about our food budget?

If you haven’t heard of the Big Trip yet, you are in for a treat. Boom and Thenix are travelling to the southern most tip of South America, through the West Cost of US, Mexico and parts of South America and back up the East Coast. We are planning on leaving on or around June 21st. We have made a detailed budget for the trip and we have included it here  for those of you who are curious about how much a trip like this would cost. We will travel for a total of 50,000 kms to around 22 countries. If you have any other questions about the trip please see our post on The Big Trip or check out our Archives Page.

My Love-Hate Relationship With Food

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My Love-Hate Relationship With Food

Photo Attributed to Thenix

When I was a teenager, I was never anorexic. My hips were too wide for me to ever be anorexic, and also, there was the matter of me loving food too much. My mum is an excellent cook, who instilled in us three loves that stuck with all three of us forever, the love for reading, the love for Indian cricket, and the love for food. She cooked every kind of cuisine with a flair, that always astounded me as a child.

But the teenage years were cruel to me – I had to become thin like the models I saw on Television. I had to become anorexic looking. I starved myself for as long as I could manage it. I skipped meals, and avoided the kitchen like the plague, always ensuring that my mother never caught on. She wanted us to be skinny, but in a natural, healthy way as much as possible. I botched my relationship with food even before it began properly. I used to view food as evil – something that is there to make me fat and regret having the body that I have.

It took a long regimen of running and yoga throughout my twenties to make me realize the beauty of everyone’s body, including mine, and the glory that is food. I love to cook, I love to eat, and I love to feed other people. I love watching other people enjoy the morsel of food that I have cooked using my own expertise. I like the feeling of having created something so frivolous, so fragile, so ephemeral – that is eaten and it disappears. The only mark left being the temporary feeling of satiation and joy at a well prepared meal.

I’m not an expert on food, or on cooking in general. But I have decided to be a life-long learner. On my journeys to Asia and on my future journeys to the rest of the world, I spent more of my time eating local cuisine than sampling the various temples that were at my disposal. I love trying out new foods, seeing if I can make new recipes myself or try out the hundreds of recipes that are on the internet for us all to try.

It is hard to admit that you love food in a world that is intent on reducing food to something you use to survive – something that your body needs to stay alive, but doesn’t have any other real meaning to it. Food is not only necessary to keep you going, but can also be used to heal you. There are hundreds of different foods out there, that have healing properties in different manners and forms. We are missing out on the joy of delicious foods and the power of healing foods, if think of food only as fuel. It is so much more than that.

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Minimalism In Food

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Photo attributed to Thenix

Photo attributed to Thenix

For the past few days, I have noticed a lot of talk about minimalistic food. A lot of minimalism bloggers practice minimalism not only in the stuff they own, in the jobs they do, in the blogs they write, but also the food that they eat. They eat only as much as their bodies need to survive, they eat mindfully and they are fitter for it.

For me, food is one of pleasures of life. One of the most important pleasures in life. I have thought about the fact that even though I love food, at work, busy with the hundred tasks that are assigned to me in the day, I am unable to sit down and enjoy  my lunch with any thought of mindfulness.

I gulp it down to quell the hunger that I feel and I hope that my body will not need sustenance for a while, so I can finish all the work on my plate. I usually have one hand on the fork and one hand on my keyboard. It is actually quite sad the more I think about it. It would be better if I just fasted all day at work, then putting food down my throat in this unmindful manner.

I have been trying really hard in the past few weeks to take my lunch into a different room, sit down and have it at least for ten minutes without any email interruptions or phone calls. Even if I have to schedule it into my schedule at work, I do, and I try most days to take the time to eat. The funny thing is that the culture at most workplaces has now changed. It is actually frowned upon to sit down away from your desk for half an hour and eat your food.

Most people at my work look at me oddly. Why is she sitting there and eating her lunch? She must not have a lot to do. Or maybe it is just the guilt in my head talking. But no matter what it is, I am resolved to take the time to eat my lunch away from the keyboard. I find just that ten minute break resets me back to the calm that I felt after my meditation session in the morning. It helps me get through the rest of the day without tearing my hair off.

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My Ideal Life

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Photo attributed to flickr user Zanthia

I have thought about this topic for a while now, ever since, I left Thailand after the Full Moon party over last New Years. I looked around at all the people, who had retired on the beautiful island of Koh-Phangan, or in Thailand in general. Or all of those people who had quit their jobs, or semi-retired from a profitable venture, strapped on a really expensive backpack and are now strutting around the Earth, collecting stamps on their passports. Or whatever the story might be of the loads of people I met on that island and during the quiet hours of the Full Moon madness.

I have been trying to imagine what my ideal life would look like. Would I work from home? Would I be a Professional Travel Blogger, travelling and writing, and making money at the same time to support a life-time of travel with T? Would I be a Professional Yogi, doing yoga at retreats all around the world, getting paid for helping people, and travelling at the same time, my two loves? Would I travel for six months of the year, and work at home for the other 6 months as a yoga teacher and server, saving up as much as I can from my work, fulfilling my nomadic nature?

The main themes in my dream life are travel, yoga, lots of amazing authentic international foods, and writing. These are the four things I need to have in my ideal life – in varying quantities. The big question now is – how to create a life from these four ingredients? What should the quantities be and how should they mixed together?

Some things I definitely do not want in my ideal life are a 9-5 job, restrictions to my time and freedom in anyway, restrictions to the place I live in, restrictions in finances due to debt or inability to earn, restrictions in my physical body in any shape or form.

I want to continue learning, and growing on this spiritual journey that I have chosen to be my path, with lots of travel, yoga, food and writing. How do I create from this? I am going to let this percolate a bit more in my head and then go from them. Let me know if you see anything striking that I have missed.

Smiling at strangers

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Photo attributed to flickr user Auensen

I was buying a orange/carrot/ginger organic juice today at a cute little eatery on Hayden Street, right next to the Spanish Centre, when I realized something. I do not smile enough at strangers. That isn’t something, of course, that we are taught to do when we are very young. We automatically smile at strangers and friends, when we are children, because that is something we do naturally. Smiling comes more naturally to us as children, than scowling or being sad. Being happy and enthusiastic comes naturally without effort when you are young.

But when you get older, even only as old as me, you lose that natural happiness. It becomes harder and harder to be happy naturally. You have to create it unnaturally, through artificial means, like yoga, food, music, drugs, friends, alcohol, sex, dance, love, lights, and others. You create the high for a bit from the things you love, but it lasts only a little while. It disappears after a while, and you are left with a bitter aftertaste. You work harder and harder to recreate that high, that never seems exactly the same.

I notice in myself that it is harder and harder for me to laugh about things, let alone smile. I love life in general, I am happy to be alive, I am happy to be young, and in love, healthy and lucky to live in a country like Canada. I realize all of those things, but sometimes, the routine of life, and the general jadedness of our times, brings us down. We realize that life is unfair, and mean, and we wish to escape.

We lose that exuberance, and that is something I wish to bring back into my life. Life isn’t meant to be sour or bitter, but sweet, and tangy. I think smiling at strangers, and watching them smile back at me, will be one little step with which I shall begin.

I admit it – I waste food

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Photo attributed to flickr user rubyblossom

I shouldn’t be allowed to go food shopping on my own. Being a foodie in general, I go a bit crazy when I am let loose in a grocery store by myself. I love just jaunting through the aisles merrily along my way, picking 3000 things to put into my cart, and then being horrified when I actually bring it all home, as I always, always buy too much.

Being a person that doesn’t like too much waste, I try to get frozen vegetables and frozen meats, which stay a while and canned tomatoes and kidney beans, as they don’t go bad really quickly. I try to make sure that I eat everything in the cupboards before buying anything new. I will use random ingredients up in a recipe that doesn’t require it, just to ensure that I am using up the stuff in my cupboard. My coconut milk curry might include kidney beans in it or tuna, because I have cans of it available, etc.

But I do need to purchase fruits occasionally, eggs and milk, sometimes, and fresh veggies, from time to time. And that is when the real dilemma comes up. This stuff goes bad. Very quickly. A lot of times, I have had to throw out ripe bananas, and milk that had gone bad, because we hadn’t eaten it in time.

It makes me really, really sad to throw food out, and every single time I have to do it, it pains me.

It is my new month’s resolution to throw less food out. Less food will go in the garbage. I will take less food to work, so I don’t throw it out. I will buy less food so I don’t throw it out. I will use everything up before I buy anything new.

Let’s see how that works out.

What do you do to prevent wasted food?

Carbs make me sleepy

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Photo attributed to flickr user Konstantin Leonov

I have been noticing as I get older that it is crucial that I pay attention to what I eat, how I eat, how much I exercise, how much I sleep and how I spend my days, in order to ensure that my energy levels stay high. It is my responsibility as a fitness freak, that I ensure I am not using stimulants, like caffeine or drugs in order to keep myself going.

I would rather use the amazing power of healthy eating, regular exercise, and a proper night’s sleep in order to keep going at the pace that I wish to go at.

One thing I noticed that really changed the game, was that eating a lot of carbs for lunch at work, caused the slump at 3pm, which caused me to eat something sugary and crash. Before, I would eat a bowl of pasta or a pita bread with curry or a sandwich for lunch, which is a major infusion of starch into the bloodstream. I would always crash, feeling sleepy around 3pm, and wanting to not do any work anymore, really reducing my productivity in the workplace.

Nowadays, my diet has changed completely. I drink a green smoothie as soon as I get up, around 7am. It gives me a burst of good powerful energy, in the form of spinach, and berries, whey protein and chia seeds. I eat a small meal every two hours. I only eat couscous or quinoa for carbs during the day. Whatever I might eat it with, veggies or meat, I always only eat carbs with a low glycemic index. I have only found quinoa and couscous to be tasty enough to ensure that I keep on going with them. They are both easy to cook and easy to digest. They don’t cause me to be sleepy after the meal, they give me the energy to keep on going.

Dinner is usually at 7pm, unless I have yoga, or a dinner with a friend.

I keep this schedule for food during the week, resulting in amazing results for energy, and even body shape. My belly and thighs have reduced slightly and more to come, I am sure.

How do you ensure your energy levels stay high?

Who do you hang out with?

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Photo attributed to flickr user rubyblossom

I was speaking to a friend of mine, and she said the following:

If I get this job, it will be a huge lifestyle change. Even my interests will change, because I won’t have all day to be on Facebook and research all my conspiracy crap. I’ll have to wake up at 6, which I never do, and take the train for an hour one way, and work with very cosmopolitan people, and be in one of the most prestigious parts of the city. My wardrobe and attitude will change. Hopefully not in a bad way!

I started thinking about it and I realized that it was true for me as well. When I was working as a server, I spent all day watching TV, doing nothing useful with my time, I worked at night, so I never got a good night’s sleep, I always slept in till late, and I started drinking more than I normally did, I lost a lot of weight because I wasn’t eating properly, missing meals, and eating crap from the restaurant, gulping down food when I ran to the back to grab some other customer’s plates, I spent too much time partying, and not enough time planning, and my conversations were based on what other people did, not anything at a higher level.

When I joined this company, the people here spoke differently, more refined. I had to get up early, go to bed early, I had to dress conservatively, but properly, I had to make sure I was well groomed, I had to speak differently, I had more income and weekends off, so I had more time to spend with friends, and going out to events with family.

It really did matter in my life, who I was hanging out with, and how my attitude changed.

Same thing was with the friends I had in my life. Right now I am hanging out with some people who make much more money than I do, who are a bit more sophisticated in the way they view the world, they care about their appearance, they own homes, they have cottages, they go on vacations, they have dinners at fancy restaurants, and so on. Until I hung out with them, I didn’t realize how my life was different back then. Before them, the only outings I would have are going clubbing, I never went to restaurants much, I hung out with people who lived with their parents, so I didn’t have a space to go to and hang out with friends. We always spent time outdoors. Somewhere outdoors. Mostly they spent time drinking and getting drunk at bars.

My outlook on life and the way I spend my time has completely changed due to the friends that I spend my time with.

What do you think of the observation above?

Half of US children will need food stamps at some point in their lives

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Photo attributed to flickr user Zanthia

Yet another way, I realize that I am a spoilt little Princess. I have never had to use food stamps in my life. I have been lucky enough throughout my life to have parents who worked so hard that they ensured that I never had to go hungry or without clothes or shoes. I never had to go on welfare, and there is a high probability that it will not happen at any point in the near future.

I know that we here in Canada are spoilt beyond belief. I know that in my head, but in my spoilt kingdom, I still complain about life occasionally. I complain that I wasn’t able to get a manicure or pedicure this month as I am saving up for a yearlong ‘vacation’, that most people on this planet can never even imagine as a possibility. I complain that I wasn’t able to buy a new dress last month because I had spent too much money on buying tickets for music festivals, another luxury that most people on this planet will never be able to afford.

I complain about my job because I am being lazy or sleepy. I complain about the commute to and from my job, because I do not like sitting on my arse in a temperature-controlled car while other ‘poor’ people trudge their stuff around in the heat or the cold. I complain about the heat or the cold, depending on the season, because I am just plain spoilt. I complain that I don’t have enough clothes when I have more than enough to clothe several families in certain countries of the world.

These are just a few of the complaints that I can think of. I am sure there are hundreds others that roam around in the recesses of my brain, that I unconsciously think about, every second of every day.

I think it is these moments where I read something about a different sect of society, ‘the poor people’ as we might call them, when I realize the luxurious era that I am living in and several of my compatriots are in. We do not have to deal with lower rungs of Abraham Maslow’s levels of hierarchy. We are comfortable, we do not have to think about survival.

Why does this matter? Because it is important to remember that we are lucky. To count our blessings. To be happy with the lot of stuff and blessings that we have. To stop complaining about the little things.

What do you think of the shocking stat above? Click here to read more on it.

Using Smoking as an Avoidance Mechanism

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Photo attributed to flickr user Fanch The System!!!

One of my very good friends said something in a facebook message that really surprised me, because I had never thought about it like that before:

Because people often smoke when they are stressed or whatever. So in order to not face any uncomfortable feelings or what not, people smoke. By the time the smoke is done, the person has calmed down, but the issue was never resolved, it just got pushed back.

The reason obviously this came up is because she quit smoking and after trying to quit several times in the past, and not succeeding, she decided finally to go deeper. Into the reason why she smokes. Why does she smoke?  After thinking about it, she came up with the reason above. She used it previously to get away from thinking about issue that were haunting her.

But then, I started thinking about it. Why do people smoke? That can’t be the only reason. True, it is an addiction, but there are other more pleasant things to be addicted to out there, like shopping or food. (mmm, food)

Especially with all the advertisements and knowledge out there about what smoking does to you, it has never made any sense to me why people smoke.

Then, I took a step back, and I analyzed my own behaviour. In spite of knowing that fried foods are bad for me, that chips are unhealthy, that eating 3 big meals a day is bad, I still do those three things. I eat junk food and crappy, fried foods, like no tomorrow. I love it. I thrive on it. I need it, almost. It is an addiction for me. I cannot go a month without those items. Maybe not even a week.

I am addicted as well. To food.

I had no right to judge or question. I am at peace now with the idea of being surrounded by smokers. I shall eat copious amounts of food, while you smoke and we shall be even.

The man with the pigeons

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Photo attributed to flickr user ZeroOne

 

 

There is a park downtown, next to the Spanish Centre, on Charles Street. I have been taking Spanish lessons for the past few weeks, and my class is at 730pm, and I always take a couple of hours rest from the busyness of a Monday, by sitting down in this park on a bench and munching on some good shawarma from the place nearby, Falafel House on Yonge Street.

I noticed every single time when I am there that there is this man who comes with a huge shopping cart of bird food, and as soon as he is nearby, all the pigeons in the area descend on the grass, like in a huge white cloud. They wait there patiently while he wheels over the cart and starts throwing bird food all over the grass. The ritual is obviously repeated every day or week, because everyone in the drama seems to know their moves.

If you ever happen to be in the area, around 6pm, please sit down and have a gander at the man and his pigeons.

Cooking food improves my instinct

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Photo attributed to Thenix

Did I tell you I love to cook? I bet you didn’t know that. I do. I really love to cook. As a foodie, I like visiting new restaurants and trying out new foods, but the best part of food besides eating it, is the careful preparing of it. I love mixing in new ingredients and new ideas, to create a completely new dish out of nothing. It is even more ingratiating because you get to eat the food after, it is an instant-reward program. You cook, you eat, you are happy and satisfied. What could be better than that?

I was thinking about it today and I realized that I have a problem trusting my instinct sometimes. A lot of times. Almost everyday of my life. I am fighting with myself, fighting with my instinct, eventually relenting to it, because I realize time and time again, that my instinct never leads me wrong. It always leads me to the right path, in big ways and small ways.

I berate myself every time I fail to follow my instinct’s lead and go onto the wrong path. Thankfully, I correct my path quick enough that it doesn’t result in much harm.

I have realized that I do that while I cook as well. I will be putting in random, well-thought-out ingredients into a pot or pan, and I will suddenly curb my food instincts, and think with my head, and suddenly, all I feel is doubt. Should I add in jalapeno peppers into this Thai curry? Should I leave the quinoa wet or dry? Should I add prunes to the fruit cream that I am preparing?

As soon as the thinking head comes into it, the whole foundation of my instinct is shaky again. I have a hard time believing in it. My head tells me to be rational and not to trust my instinct, my gut. I stupidly listen to my head and my food turns out mediocre.

I listen to my instincts and my food turns out to be a unique melding of flavours and tastes that explode in my mouth with an intensity that just travels through every inch of my body and exhilarates me. This can translate to every part of my life. If I listen to my head and remain sensible, my life is mediocre, banal, fine. If I listen to my instincts, my life is a blast through space, an awesome ride that enthrals the senses and the spirit.

Follow the heart, not the mind for THE life-journey.

Slow-food movement

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Photo attributed to flickr user ticktockdoc

Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows that I love food, and when I say, I love food, I mean, I love food. I live to eat, Not eat to live. I spend most of my time either dreaming about food, eating food, or planning what I am going to eat next. It is a great life indeed. I really enjoy the slow-food movement that has been moving to North America, originating in Italy. It is all about food and eating slowly. Savoring each bite as if it were your last. It is the epitomy of a foodie’s desire. To spend hours sitting down with friends and eating a well-cooked meal.

A few of us went to a restaurant on St. Clair and Eglinton called Cava, which really amplified the slow-food movement for me. It is the tapas-style of eating, originally from Spain, which is for me the best way to eat a meal. It doesn’t exemplify large portions, and stuffing yourself with empty calories, like so many seem to do. But, sitting down with friends and sharing small portions of amazing dishes. You sit down at a table, and the waiter brings little portions of shareables for the table, cold cuts on a plate; warm, marinated olives; warm beet salad with kale, and several others gorgeous options.

I was like a kid in a candy store. I was able to try out almost the whole menu, without feeling stuffed beyond measure. I felt comfortably, happily, filled at the end of it, and we had been eating for 2 straight hours! It was glorious.

I totally recommend the tapas-style of eating to anyone who loves food, and I especially recommend the Cava restaurant to anyone who likes good food.

Three Little Ways I am saving up for the Big Trip

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Photo attributed to flickr user Ravenelle

I am sure by now, you know about the Big Trip. If not, then you are not privy to that information and you shouldn’t know anyhow.

I am always looking for ways to save up for the trip, and I would like to share five of those ways with you below. They aren’t anything magical or different. I am sure these techniques have been expounded on, by several other Personal Finance Bloggers before, but these have worked for me, and so I am sharing them here.

Firstly, I write down everything I buy. I know, it is a pain in the ass to write stuff down. I mean, who uses a pen and paper anymore, right? Use whatever you need to use, an iPad, or a BlackBerry, or whatever else, but write it down. I have been writing down everything I buy for about 3 years now. In the beginning, I used to write it down on a piece of paper, nowadays, I write it in my phone. As soon as I make a purchase, I jot it down into my phone. What does this do? I find that just the act of writing it out, and then looking at it occasionally, reminds me of how much money I have spent already, that week, and how much money I have left to spend. I have a rough budget of about $200 a week, that I am allowed to play with. This is after all the nominal expenses and savings. This goes up and down depending on a good or bad month, usually going down. Also, if I know I have to write down an expense, it makes me think for a second. Okay, hmm, do I really need that black sweater? I have three at home, maybe they will have to do for another season. I have stopped myself from making several foolish purchases, just by taking that second to think.

Secondly, I always bring my food from home for lunch at work. ALWAYS! I will have little containers of Cup Noodles (I like Nong Shim Kimchi Noodle Soup) that I leave in the car, or I have containers of tuna and sardines that I have at my desk, in case of emergencies. I buy my lunch maybe once a month, and that is in a rare situation. I always, always bring lunch from home. There are different stats on this, but I believe it leads to a saving of $2600 ( based on calculations by T), 50 weeks X 5 days X $10 = $2500 ( if you estimate you spend $10 on a lunch every day). This is a huge time and money saver, believe you me. J

Thirdly, I have a cheap phone and plan. When I say I have a cheap phone, I mean, I have a cheap phone. It sends text messages and calls people, and that is all it can do. People laugh and point at me when they see my phone. I spend about $30 a month on my plan. If a good phone and plan are important to you, then that is something that you should spend your money on. But for me, all I need my phone to do is call and text. I am happy with that. I would go without a phone if I could, but in this world, I feel like a phone is kind of a staple. I have spoken to girlfriends who spend $200 a month on their plan, because either they are unable to keep themselves in check, or their plan basically sucks. That is such a waste of money, wouldn’t you rather spend that money on a nice trip or a pair of pretty heels?

These are three little ways, I am saving a little bit extra every month, to put into my travel fund. Let me know of tricks that you have to save money.

 

My Happy List

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Photo attributed to flickr user Ernst Vikne

My mum always laments about the fact that I am not driven enough. If I were driven enough, she says, I would want more, a bigger house, a bigger paycheque, a more expensive car, more expensive clothes, and if I wanted all of these things, I would be willing to work harder at work, work longer hours at work, in order to get them.

Unfortunately, I am lazy. Or I don’t care. Or I am happy with very little. I am not driven enough. I would rather work little, and travel a lot. I would rather spend my money on amazing meals, than amazing purses. I would rather save up for a new trip, than for a new car.

In the beginning I wondered why I am like this. What made me turn out to be such a weirdo? Eventually I gave up on answering that question, and focused on the main question in life. What makes me happy? What are the few things on this planet, this swirling, blue ball, that make me happy? I found that the things that make me happy are easy to do, and usually free. I made a list below.

  1. People watching
  2. Good food
  3. Cooking a good meal for someone else
  4. Dancing
  5. Good electronic music
  6. Music festivals
  7. Pretty shoes
  8. Long beautiful hair on a stranger
  9. Beauty in general in strangers or friends
  10. Exercise, specifically Hot Yoga
  11. Being fit
  12. Travelling!
  13. Backpacking/Hosteling
  14. Summer
  15. Sun
  16. Beach
  17. Water in any shape or form
  18. Newly waxed arms and legs
  19. A pretty summer dress
  20. Wedges
  21. Meditation
  22. My beautiful siblings
  23. Love
  24. Food (did I mention this one already?)
  25. Good sex
  26. Vanilla Rooibos Tea
  27. A good chug of water
  28. Clothing swaps
  29. Getting a bargain on something
  30. Books
  31. Reading in general
  32. My Amazon Kindle
  33. Time with friends

What is on your Happy List? Let me know below.

Balance – a lifelong journey

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Why is there such guilt associated in my head with liking someone? Of putting myself over my family. Am I just not important enough? What is this thing in the Asian culture of always putting the family over yourself, your needs and desires. Every time I like someone, I am in the honeymoon phase with them, I want to spend as much time as possible with them, I do. And then a massive dollop of guilt is just ladled over everything I do. I am unable to really, truly enjoy myself in his company because I am boggled by all of this guilt. Why am I feeling guilty, I wonder. Why am I not allowed to feel pleasure, to feel good? Does everyone on this planet have to be miserable together? Aren’t we allowed to be happy? Of course, it doesn’t make any sense.

I want balance in my life as does anyone else on this big, beautiful planet. We are all striving for balance. I find that it is truly hard to find a balance. I am either really skewed towards myself and my goals, or towards spending time with family or towards spending time with friends, or towards spending time with someone I’m dating. Those are the four areas of my life I struggle to balance out. With a limited amount of time on my hands, after a long day at work, I have a few choices I have to make. I can either de-stress from the day by going to a nice yoga class, after which I am too exhausted to make conversation or do anything, besides eat a hurried meal and go sleep. Or I can go home and have some conversation and maybe even have a meal before everyone hurries off into their own complicated, filled lives. Or I can spend some time with my friends or with the boy.

The options are limited, as time is limited. Balance is key. I do everything I can to ensure my health is up-to-date. But then I have to prioritize after that.

How do you prioritize the various important things in your life?

Professional food taster, perhaps?

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They say that you should look at the people’s lives you envy to figure out what would your ideal life be. I have always envied the lives of Professional Travel Bloggers and Professional Yogis (a contradiction in itself).

I envy people who can travel around the world and get paid for it. I also envy those people who go around the world eating different foods and getting paid for it as well. I envy people who get to go around the world and teach yoga and get paid for it.

I am just building a draft of my ideal life – I’m sure the draft will evolve as time goes on.

Some things that have been coagulating in my head are as follows –

I want to have lots of travel, yoga, and food in my ideal life.

I want to meditate every day for an hour or two.

I want to do yoga for two to three hours.

I want to dance in different places around the world.

I want to have no set hours when I have to get up and go to work.

I want to get paid for writing out my thoughts in a blog. I earn enough money from my blog to sustain my lifestyle of travel.

I want to have lots of reading in my life, reading amazing books from all around the world.

I want to spend time on self-improvement, learning new languages and skills, and exploring the inner crevices of my mind.

That’s just what is in my head right now. Let me know what you think below.

Living the slow life in the city

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I agree with you when you say that I have a Type-A personality. I am in constant motion, in constant movement. I hide it well, under the facade of yoga and meditation, but I am on the go for 18 hours a day, straight through, every day, even on weekends. Eventually the system breaks down and cries out for rest, which is what happened when I got an infection last week. Any illness or sickness in general means the system’s run down, as the immune system is not up to par.

I was thinking on my way to the office today – what about the slow movement? Why hasn’t it pervaded any of my friends’ circles? Is it because we are the generation of Internet and fast food, and iPhones and High definition? We are moving fast, and faster everyday.

Is it possible to live the slow life in a big city? Or do we have to move to a farm outside cities, and give up everything in order to live a slow life? That’s a question that I really want to answer.

I know it doesn’t seem like an important question to some, but to me, it is THE question to answer right now. I am living a fast life, but I believe, I really, truly believe, it is possible to live a slow life in a big city. How do we do that? Some suggestions are below, but if you have any more, please add them into the comments section.

1. Give up your car. Just having a car means you want to get to places faster. Taking the bus, biking or walking slows things down significantly.

2. To follow giving up your car, you have to live close to your work. Walking or biking just doesn’t work, when your commute by car itself is an hour long.

3. Reduce your wants – that means you are not spending a lot of time working in order to pay off your bills. You are using your time to live, instead of living to pay off bills, for things you do not have time to use.

4. Slow food – cooking a meal and sitting down to slowly savor it is in my opinion one of the best ways to live in the moment.

What else?

 

Feeling the blues

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I am feeling blue. Extremely sad. The weather outside is thunder and lightning. And it is the same inside of me. I am feeling hopeless today, hopeless about the future, and I am never like that. I am the most optimistic person on the planet. But I feel sad today. Sad with the way things are going. I am not happy at the moment. I am not controlling the sadness, I am letting the tears flow. I do not want to pretend to be happy. I want to feel what I am feeling.

I have noticed that I am so much more sensitive to my body and its moods, the more yoga I do. I don’t know what it is about yoga. But I feel every emotion so much more sharply than I did before. I am more in tune with myself, my hormones, my moods. And of course, feeling all the emotions works well when I am up, but when I am down, it just means I am really down. I am blue in the bluest sense of the word. I can’t help it. I cannot get myself going when I am in one of those sad moods. I don’t feel like going to yoga, or eating or reading, three of my favorite things in the world. IF I saw stop doing any of these three, you know I am dead. Dead inside or going to that state very soon. It is something at the core of me. I need to do the three, eat, read, and yoga.

Of course, being rejected by every man alive after they get to know me after three dates doesn’t help the situation. I feel blue because I don’t understand why they wouldn’t want to be with me. I am a cool person. I am intelligent, beautiful and in great yoga shape. I can hold a conversation, I am independent, I do not need to be taken care of and I am classy. Why doesn’t anyone want to be with me? I drive men away. I do not know what I do but I drive them away somehow. And that makes me sad.

And of course being at home is great, but the travel bug is inside of me, it doesn’t refuse to let go. I want to go traveling as soon as possible. I am working hard at saving, but still the time when I can go is still so far.

Writing it down in this journal style format helps a lot. I feel a thousand times better after I tell the universe, I am blue. Its therapeutic, and I feel like I am being heard. Thank you for listening to me be blue. Hope you are feeling better on this rainy night.

 

Meat to Vegetables

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I was reading the Toronto Vegetarian Association website and there is some great information there. I really am thinking of slowly transitioning into a semi-vegetarian diet. I might still occasionally have tuna or salmon and free-range eggs, but besides that I am thinking of completely cutting out meat. It is going to be extremely hard for me to become a vegetarian. Living with my family who are avid meat-eaters and hanging out with friends who all eat a lot of meat, I would have a hard time resisting. The funny thing is that, I have been resisting the meat for the past week without any ill consequences. There are meat/chicken dishes in the fridge and I have completely avoided them by eating either the lentil soup that my mum made, or tuna sandwiches or nutella sandwiches. Anything to avoid the meat. And really, I haven’t even missed it.

Working at a chicken wing restaurant though, I smell it everyday. I am amazed I haven’t succumbed and bought some wings. But really, I haven’t had the desire to. The important thing there is that I bring food to work. If I have food in containers, healthier food, cheap food, then I have no incentive to spend $5 to buy some unhealthy food. I have to remember every single time to pack lunches. In a long seven hour shift, sometimes I need to eat twice. Then, I eat my food that I packed and eat some of the healthier options they have, like a veggie wrap.

It is interesting though, how just in my lifetime, I have noticed the insurgence of meat-eating and especially restaurant eating. When we were younger, we went out to eat maybe four or five times a year. Just for birthdays and special occasions. But now, we order from outside at least once a week, if not twice. It is still better compared to a lot of people who eat out 4-5 times a week, in addition to eating out for lunch at work. And when we were younger, meat/chicken was a rarity. We ate mostly vegetables and lentils for our meals. Fish was a rare occasion meal as well. But now, we have begun to eat meat at every meal.

I have noticed that I smell better all over as well, due to my change in habits. My nether regions as well as my armpit has a different smell to it. A sweeter smell somehow. I used to think that I cannot survive without meat. I need it to stay strong and to keep my iron levels up, but I really do not. They were all just excuses.

I am not going to turn completely crazy and avoid meat/chicken completely. I will occasionally indulge in it, and I will not become one of those vegetarians who begins preaching at every meal to everyone around them. Lets see how long it lasts.