As you may have seen on twitter, I’ve been reading the famous (maybe close to legendary) “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferriss. I won’t turn this post into a book review so I’ll just keep it short: It’s a truly inspiring book that changes the way you look at jobs, making money, vacations and retirements and pretty much the entire way you live your life. I truly recommend reading this to broaden your horizon and give yourself a glimpse of how great your life could be. Just go read it and convince yourself.

Now back on topic; what did it leave me with after reading?
Even while reading it I noticed myself getting inspired and fired up to take inventory of my life. I started examining the things I was doing that I never really questioned. Naturally there were some that I already noticed before but it got them back in the spotlight.

Cultural Malware
For example; something that I spoke to Toomas about at our Dutch/Belgian bloggers “meetup” a few weeks back. People seem to have a cultural program running that makes them feel obligated to work their asses off for about 40-to-50 years in order to be finally retire when they reach the age of 65. Actually, I wouldn’t even call this a program that we’re running. A program is something that enables us to do something-, that adds some form of value. Now that I’m thinking about this, it’s probably call this a piece of “cultural walware”. (Malicious software that enables other “evil” people to take advantage and-/or control of your computer to use it for their own advantage)
Isn’t that strangely close to the truth? Going to work every day, performing tasks appointed to you by your direct supervisor. Of course you’re getting paid for it, but essentially you’re working to increase your boss’s income. Someone is (ab)using and-/or controlling your time to their own advantage.

The 4-hour workweek brought back to my attention that it’s perfectly okay to question the concept of a job as a whole. A job is not an obligation, it’s a choice! Just like everything else in life, it’s a choice and you are completely free to pick the answer. If you feel fine with the concept of a 9-to-5, providing you with the money and stability you crave, that’s perfectly fine. But it’s just as fine to feel confined by the 9-to-5 concept and crave more freedom to choose how you spend your day.

Passive income & outsourcing
Something that Steve Pavlina has written out plenty of times before is the concept of passive income. Essentially it is the idea of receiving money for value that you provide, but that is no longer directly tied to time you put in. Things like royalties on books or music that you’ve created for example. The same goes for ad-revenues if you run a successful website. I’ve always been fascinated by this concept because, if arranged well enough, it completely eliminates the need for location dependant work. It provides a state where your financial state is no longer directly tied to the maximum of 24 hours that you have to spend per day.
Timothy Ferriss introduces “Muses”, companies that you set up to run as automated as possible, generating income for you. He provides several real-world examples of these and gives tips on how to create your own. A large part of these muses revolves around stripping things down to the bare essentials and then outsourcing the remaining work as much as possible. This really got me thinking about the things I do on a weekly basis. Which parts of my work do really rely on my personal unique qualities to get done and which parts could I potentially get someone else to do? The internet really enables miraculous things for those that are willing (and perhaps daring) to dive into them. 4 euro’s an hour might not great pay in The Netherlands or Belgium, but people on the other side of the world would gladly work for that reward. Why would you do the same work for i.e. 15 euro’s an hour if you can get yourself a virtual personal assistant to do it for you for 5 euro’s an hour? The results: Either you do nothing and still get the 10 euro premium each hour or you decide to focus on other tasks to increase the value you provide to your company. (Yes, you can even do this is you have a boss)

I’m currently exploring the possibilities the many concepts in this book can provide me with, since I touched only a few in this post. Without a doubt there’s more to come!

Do you remember the last time a piece of music gave you goosebumps? Was it a great soundtrack while watching a movie or some lyrics that sounded almost as they had been written just for you? Countless styles of music have emerged these days, something you might say. But one thing that all of them share is that they seem to be able to touch the people that listen to them on a far deeper -almost primal- level. You may be brought to tears, feel like you are in love, get inspired, get fired up to make a change or even compelled to destroy the next thing that gets in your way. Somehow music is able to tap into our being on a much deeper level then words can.

Getting in a state of mind

So now that I just told you something you already knew, let’s start working with it. What does a specific genre of music put you up to? Would you wake up better to a smooth jazz record or some hardrock tunes? I guess most of you would prefer waking up to some slower, softer sounds. But how about tearing down a wall in your house or a tree in your garden?
I’m not sure if you have been following the 2010 olympics or not, but one thing I noticed (especially with this post growing in my mind) was how those athletes were preparing for their events. Pretty much all of them were wearing headphones and using visualization to get into the state of mind that would allow them to perform record-breaking feats of strength and agility. They were trying to condition themselves so that they would surpass themselves in the hope of that being enough to surpass their competitors.

What are you preparing for?

Are you feeling slow when you actually want to go fast? Or are you nervously twitching when you actually wish you could slow down? Do you want to construct or destroy things?
Go find a piece of music that matches your desired state of mind and put it on, on your stereo or your mp3 player. I remember Steve Pavlina talking about “if you want to become something, you have to radiate the energy of the thing you want to become”. This is closely related to a Zen saying I heard from Wan Qi Kim some years back: “Ever thing is what it is because it has the energy to be that thing”. Music is a tool that can help you to start radiating that desired energy faster and thus becoming the thing you desire to be.

Feel what works

There’s no one genre that works for something. Maybe a reggae record wants you to chill out and smoke some pot or maybe it makes you want to cause havoc with a sledgehammer. It’s completely unimportant what piece of music it is, as long as it gets you in the state of mind you want to be in.

On a personal note;
I love to listen to John Mayer records when I want to slow down and relax for a quiet dinner. But highly contrasting I can enjoy the super-fast, energetic tunes from a Power Metal album to get my ass moving when I’m feeling slow. I enjoy some classic Japanese pan-flute tunes to quiet my mind for my meditations. I’ve given classical music a try for studying purposes but it never really did it for me. I enjoy late summer nights in my hammock with some reggae music and get shivers listening to heroic adventure movie soundtracks. Owh, and if I flip on an Enya record I’m sleeping like a baby in less than 15 minutes, lol

I hope these short examples show you that there’s no right and no wrong way to go. No matter how diverse your “tastes” in music may be, what’s important is that it works for YOU.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time you’re craving for a P.G. Snack

Life can be a drag sometimes. There are times when you wake up uninspired, feeling like you have to kick yourself in the ass get moving. Living an inspired life can slip through your fingers and usually you don't even see it happening. You just suddenly realize that it has happened, and you're really dissatisfied with it.

And then there are those other days you wish would never end. You wake up before you set your alarm, your head is spinning with ideas and you have an uncontrollable urge to get up and move, create, inspire,.. just do things. And as has been written time and time again throughout the history of the world, this is a great feeling.
Now let me tell you how I actually went from A to B in under 7 days.

Situation A:

Let me just paint you a picture of my life until the starting point of the transformation:
I had been working on my thesis for about 9 months. It had turned into a routine that held no challenge for me anymore. I got up every day knowing what I "had to do" but my heart just wasn't in it anymore. And as you can imagine, remaining in this routine takes more energy from you then it gives back. I slept 8-9 hours every night and still felt like I was tired every morning.

Even though I had not achieved my master degree I had decided to take a chance and apply for a job that had just "suddenly appeared" into my life. It felt right to do so and I just went with it; what the h*ck right!?
About 1.5 months ago I received the final word that after two interviews I had been selected as the best candidate and that I could start on February 1st of the New Year. So up till that day I remained in my thesis-routine.
I expected a normal transition from one activity to the other but as it turned out, the universe had something else planned.

So what happened?

Five days before I was going to start my new job, I received word through twitter that a friend of mine was going to give a presentation on entrepreneurship at the university. I thought it would be nice to go and see what he had to say, since he's doing well for himself and it would be nice to see him again. And even though it wasn't rocket science that he delivered that day, it did somehow light the fuse to some invisible rocket that apparently I had strapped to my back.

I have taught myself the habit of writing down every (business) idea I have in a small moleskine notebook to make sure I don't lose that thought. And as it usually goes with ideas, most of them are great at the time but upon further examination turn out to be just "okay". That night I got another idea and instead of just writing it down, I immediately went to work on it. The rocket had been lit and had now taken off!

Having a great business venture idea while being at the point of starting my new job was clearly "not the best timing" I could have asked for. But since I also loved the idea of going to work in this new position I had gotten.

Situation B:

So here I am now, a full-time job, a thesis to write and a business venture underway. I wake up every day before my alarm, after about 6-7 hours of sleep. My head is spinning and I just want to do nothing more then get on with the day! Even when I get home after my day-job I don't feel like turning on the TV or play a video-game; I just want to do more things! I'm currently really in the state where I now have to kick my own ass in order to go to bed instead of getting out of it!

I've always been a rational guy, assessing my situation well and deciding what the best thing to do would be. This has always given me a great sense of comfort because I knew that this was "the right thing to do".
But as it is now, I have three major projects on my hands plus numerous things on the side and I have absolutely no clue how I am going to pull it all off. But here's the weird thing (to me); I feel great about it!! I don't even care that I don't have a full-proof plan this time, I just know that I'm going to make it work!

Wrapping up

I had heard the advice "do what feels right" many times before, and I thought I understood it. (And I guess my brain did indeed.) But I had never actually experienced it for myself. Without getting lost in "What if?!" scenario's I took on the challenges because it just felt right! There is just no "left-brain explanation" for it.

You can read all you want about productivity, inspiration, motivation and everything you "think" is going to help you get you to the next level. But I guess it's like putting on your swim shorts, even though you're wearing them you still don't know what it's like to swim.
But in all fairness, it's better to have your swim shorts on when you dive in than still being in your suit or jeans

So without being very original, I will tell you not to restrict yourself to just reading about personal development. Start doing it, start living it, start becoming it!

“Good morning garbage men!”

I was taking out my trash today (just in time) and as I opened the door I found the garbage truck right in front of me. So I asked one of the guys: “Could you still take this trash-bag off my hands”? And with a smile he answered: “Sure, take a swing and toss it in the bag of the truck. You came just in time”. I just smiled, thanked him and went on my way.

As I turned around I realized that those guys on the garbage truck were looking really happy. The radio turned up just a bit too loud, smiling, laughing and making jokes to each other. Apart from their good mood being contagious (I was still smiling) it reminded me of a conversation I had with my driving instructor years back. He told me the secret of why garbage men were so cheerful.

The secret of the garbage men

So, quite some years back I was driving around the city with my driving instructor and he pointed out a garbage truck to me. Apart from the fact that I was more occupied with driving correctly, I didn’t really see the reason for pointing such an everyday scene out. So I rolled my eyes and told him “So?! What’s up with that”?!
My driving instructor smiled at me and then told me “You know, those are probably some of the happiest people you’re going to see today”. Obviously I didn’t get it then so I just shrugged, I pointed out to my instructor that I didn’t see how a garbage man could possibly be happy, doing what he was doing for job. Apparently he started feeling more content with himself because he could now explain me something besides how to drive a car.
“Well” he said; “here’s the thing”. “You probably think of working on a garbage truck as a low-class, low paying job that couldn’t possibly have any advantages, right!?” I had no other choice but to nod and let him advance the story. So he continued: “But in reality that truck is providing those guys with something that’s very hard to find in any other job they could otherwise apply for. (Note: at that educational level) Do you know what it is?” I still had to give him a “No” since I still didn’t get it back then.

“It’s freedom! Freedom to be in charge of their own truck, driving- and sometimes even decorating it. Freedom to do their work without a boss breathing down their neck, checking on their every move."

I was astounded. I had never looked at the job like that and I can imagine I'm not the only one. Most of the time te focus seems to be on it being dirty, low-class job because you're handeling other people's waste. But obviously I had been painfully wrong about all this. The guys riding on that garbage truck have actually got a pretty good reason to be happy, don't you agree?

The garbage man in you

So (probably) taking this a bit closer to home, how does this relate to your occupation? Do you like what you do? And is so, why is that? I think chances are fair that most of you would say it's indeed the freedom to be able to express yourself in one way or another without someone breathing down your neck.
Expressing yourself creatively really is one of the quickest ways to returning to your "so called"  true self. Stop being miserable while trying to fit into somebody elses view of what the world should work function. If you don't feel it matches you, please consider to stop going along with it. Every time you follow a practice you don't feel is close to your heart, you're betraying yourself. Go and find that way in which you can creatively express who you really are, in whatever way you see fit. You'll see that you'll feel so much more content and in touch with yourself that you'll probably wondering  "why in the world did I put this off"?!

As it has been said time and time again, change does not come without courage. Breaking with things you've grown acustomed to is never easy, but nontheless it is an essential part of he growth process. It's challenging, but take comfort in the idea that if it feels right, you are heading towards a happier, more fulfulling life. And if you need help and support, there will always be friends around to commend you, support you and help you succeed at reaching your goals!

Even if it's looking like none of your "current" friends understand you, the personal growth community is an amazing one. I have been surprised time and time again about the amazing, inspiring people that are out there. They too are working on facing, confronting and overcoming their challenges in life and pretty much all of 'm are willing to help you. Because this community is aware that some challenges can be tough and that we all face them, so it is only natural to help people. (And in that process, also grow yourself)
So don't be affraid to reach out. Send an Email, pick up the phone if you're really courageous!

Go out and find your inner garbage man!

Until next time; There's more energy in moving things. So keep moving, never stop!

The ups:
It’s been a while since I’ve written about the progress of my 30-day fruit&nut challenge.
Originally, I thought Christmas would be the worst time in the challenge period due to all the food going around. And even though I had been occupied with the preparations for the Christmas dinner at my girlfriend’s parents I actually made it through perfectly!

I had brought a bag of nuts and some banana’s from home and I knew that there was always some other fruits lying around in the house I was going to. And indeed, I was fine; I drank fruit-smoothies and ate fruit for breakfast, followed by fruits & nuts (that I brought) for lunch. Not a single problem except for the fact I had to explain my “curious new habit” to the family and friends that were gathered that. But they took it okay and we’re pretty supportive on top of that.

The mids:
So the worst part was behind me, or so I thought. But then it turned out that we had tons of stuff to prepare for my girlfriend’s move to Brussels on December 31^st. And instead of what I had planned, she preferred to stay longer at her parents’ house to pack and sort everything out.
I didn’t prepare for more days, so I actually didn’t bring enough nuts to eat the next day. Luckily there was enough fruit in the house, so I took that instead to try and stick to the “diet” as much as I could. It’s safe to say it went pretty much downhill from here.
We were running from one place to another to arrange things, not taking the time to shop decently. So we just ate either what we still had left in the house (which was bread & fruit-juice for breakfast), or whatever her parents had when we were there. December 31^st was the day of the move as well as new-years’ eve! And again from early morning we were on the move. I did manage to get some bananas and mandarins for the road, but that was pretty much it. And at the end of the day we came back to her parents again to celebrate the new year with them…. Exhausted..

The downs:
And boy was I exhausted. I guess I really pushed myself to hard the days before. Three nights of really poor sleep due to the cold, working hard during the day and dealing with the obvious “stress” of my girl moving to a “strange” city abroad. Either way, after the move was completed and we had entered the new year all this kind of “fell off my shoulders” so to speak. I didn’t have to carry it anymore, I didn’t have to keep pushing myself because the “mission” was accomplished.
Off course there were the usual family affairs like visiting grandmothers and my uncle who’s birthday is on January 1^st (which is actually our annual family-new year’s-celebration).

The waaaay downs:
And yes, I guess I did push myself too far. I was already blowing my nose a lot and feeling extremely tired while visiting family. But the next day I really fell ill while I was escorting my girlfriend home to Brussels. I wanted to stay with her the first night in her new home in the new city so she’d feel comfortable before starting work the next week. It turned out I had to spend some more nights there then expected
And when I finally got home I spent 3 days inside, mostly tied to my bed. Resting, sneezing and resting some more. And indeed, there wasn’t a lot of eating involved during those days. So I guess those were indeed the “waaaay downs” of this process. I was without fruits or nuts and was too ill to go out and get some more. One could say it wasn’t the best start of the new year….

The getting-back-up-there’s:
Now don’t think I’m going to sign off with a negative note, haha!
No you guys, I’m pretty much back to health and actually even more committed to eating healthy. Even though I haven’t been able to get a hold of nuts and fruits at the times I set myself as goals I did notice something else in my behavior. Over the past two weeks my relationship with fruits changed quite a bit from something you eat as a supplement to your normal food and/or snacks to food itself. Whenever I’m hungry and I walk into a store or a small kiosk I find myself looking at fruits instead of heading directly for the chocolate- or greasy stuff section.
As I have described in earlier articles I have really noticed the positive effect of eating fruits (in the morning) on my energy levels, and I liked it. As such, I’m feeling I’m really making a change in habits by reaching for healthy “alternatives” without consciously having to make myself do it. I’m doing it by default which I think is great!

As I’m writing this I’m riding the train on my way back from Belgium where I had a great meeting with Daan Buckinx. We spent a great afternoon together discussing so much different things and probably tons more for next times! I’m going drop by the store on my way home and stock up again so I can pick up where I left off.

Until next post… Enjoy life, and share that joy with others!

Related posts:
[Day 3]: "No, you can't have that"
[Day 2]: Saying no to habits and temptations
[Day 1] Kicking off the challenge
New 30 day challenge coming up

Notes up front:

(1) Thanks to Daan & Jan for the suggestions for additions to the selection of nuts / fruits. I bought the sugar-coated peanuts right away to satisfy the occasional sweet-tooth without resorting to chocolate or anything similar.
(2) I haven’t received confirmation from my acupuncturist about concerning the analysis of my the tongue-pictures I take daily. I’ll contact her again today and hope we can work out cooperation.

Sooner or later this was bound to happen right? The moment where you end up in a situation where someone offers you something to eat and you have to tell them “no thanks” even though you actually would like to have it. Well, it happened to me this morning.

Sleep:
9 hours of solid sleep. Nine hours?! I was amazed when I looked at my alarm clock! Without waking up once during the night I “managed” to sleep for nine hours straight. I immediately realized that I must have been really exhausted from the fuss the night before. Nonetheless it was great quality sleep, and that can really do wonders for you.

To be honest, I was quite disappointed that I slept so long because I was expecting to have more energy with this change in diet and thus needing less sleep. But I guess that I should include external factors as well. Also this long night of sleep doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s a pattern and that my expectations towards needing less sleep were wrong.

Breakfast:
I’m actually happy to tell you that today I finally got to “drink” my breakfast I had jumped out of bed and pulled various fruits and vegetables out of the refrigerator and fired up the juicer! I actually didn’t have a great idea of what flavors would work well together so like a true man (;)) I just went by color. 3 Carrots, 1 tomato and 2 Mandarins turned into one (250ml) glass of orange’ish juice. As for the taste; not great. (lol) Somehow the tomato didn’t really fit in there but the taste was more unfamiliar then it was bad.
I figured it’d be most efficient to just create a few bottles more of juice for the days to come. Altogether I squeezed the following through my juice-machine.
- 14 Mandarins
- 16 (large) Carrots
- 7 Apples
- 6 Pears
- 1 (large) mango
This resulted in:
- One liter of Apple-pear juice, tasting really nice and sweet.
- One liter of Carrot-Mandarin-Mango juice. (Really pretty orange color)
- A bit of leftover juice of both, which I drank right away

While I was busy juicing my girlfriend wanted to be sweet and was boiling me a nice egg for breakfast. I didn’t really notice so I was pleasantly surprised when she presented it to me. I was on the point of removing the egg-shell when I realized that this wasn’t part of the plan. (D’oh!!)
Even though she meant very well, and just forgot that I “couldn’t” eat it, I still felt like a bit of an ass for shooting her down. I guess it won’t be the last time something like this will happen these 30 days.

Lunch:
I was feeling really pleased with myself that I had done all this juicing and finally “stuck to” my initial plan for this challenge. I had about two- to three hands of my mixed nuts (Walnuts, Pecan nuts, hazelnuts, madacamia nuts, almonds and cashews) together with two cups of green tea.
And as I’m getting used to now, I have more than enough energy to get me through the afternoon, which is really great .

Dinner-time:
We still had to buy & arrange some things for the Christmas dinner in a few days so my girlfriend and I went into the city to take care of that. And while we were actually planning to cook some Chinese nasi with grilled chicken, we ended up eating out in a great Indian restaurant. (saves me the dishwashing ) So instead I had a Chicken Tikka Masala with some steamed vegetables, rice and naan bread. Owh, and some rice-pudding for desert, which was very nicely done for such a simple desert.

The only thing I had the rest of the night were three (yes, 3) cheese curls and a large cup of tea before going to bed.
Altogether I felt this was a pretty good day in the challenge. I stuck to my “diet” during the morning and lunch while staying open for any opportunities that would present themselves for dinner. Especially during the holidays it wouldn’t be fair to myself to deny dinner invitations or cheat myself out of a great Christmas dinner.

Related posts:
[Day 2]: Saying no to habits and temptations
[Day 1] Kicking off the challenge
New 30 day challenge coming up

After day the first day it wasn’t too hard to continue with the challenge, since I felt my energy was high. I wasn’t sure I was structurally gaining anything but at least it sure didn’t feel like I was losing anything. But as it turns out, there were a few “surprises” I would be confronted with today.

Sleep:7 hours of solid sleep, from 0:30 till 7:30. But somehow I didn’t get out of bed right away, possibly because a 9:00 AM appointment I had was canceled because of the weather conditions. (It’s been snowing like crazy for our standards, and transportation is hard since the country isn’t really prepared for it.) Either way, 7 hours of sleep turned into 8.
A for my energy level at wake-up, I actually felt quite energetic after 7 hours, but I guess lying in bed with my girlfriend was more tempting then jumping out. Obviously, after another hour of sleep I was still feeling ready to kick off the day, and actually a bit jumpy. Kinda like I was bored with lying still and wanted to do stuff.

Breakfast:
Well, once again, because of the weather conditions the last days it hadn’t been a top-priority to go to the store and buy a lot of food / drinks. So I was still stuck with the same fruits I had on day 1. So no smoothy for me today, instead I had:
- 1 Banana
- 2 Mandarins - 1 Apple - About 500ml of tea
Luckily, I had a trip planned to a giant store with my mother, brother and girlfriend to shop for our two Christmas dinners. So I figured I could get all the things I wanted/needed while I was there. Although it wasn’t drinkable, I really enjoyed the mixed flavors of the fruits for breakfast, as well as the different textures you experience in your mouth.

Lunch-time: Nothing fancy either, as I had prepared a large bowl of mixed nuts the day before I just ate from that. Today however, I decided to stick a bit more to a “schedule” of eating, instead of eating small portions throughout the day. I guess that would make for a better comparison to a “normal” lunch. I did not weigh the amount of nuts I ate but it was about two hands-full. I drank some more tea with this, but I realized that I actually wanted something else. (But had nothing in the house at the time, lol;))
The thing that stayed consistent was that I did not really feel hungry between meals; No stomach rumbling or yawning because my body was crying for more food.

Shopping-temptations:
It really surprised me how this affected me, but let me first paint the picture for you. The store I went to wasn’t a typical one; It’s one of those giant industrial-like supermarkets for entrepreneurs. Everything comes in large quantities, is pretty cheap and very good quality of fresh food. They don’t sell 4 brands of .. euhm… let’s say potato chips, but 24. I usually really enjoy going there because I can buy things there that are not available in my local retail store. But today I noticed that I was almost drooling over all that “other” food. But seriously, I really felt myself being pulled from one corridor to the other thinking “Oeh! That looks good!”… “Oeh,. Check that out!” Vegetarians might not appreciate what I’m going to tell you now, but it got the worst when I entered their giant fridge. It literally had over 10 meters of steaks; all sorts, shapes and sizes. And in my mind I could see, hear and smell them sizzling on my barbeque.

I really felt like a bit of a caveman so I got the heck out of there and went shopping for greens. Pfew,..

Dinner:
My roommate had been bugging me all day about wanting to finishing his eggs before they expired. So he made a giant omelet with cheese and ham and I had a piece of it on two slices of white bread. (Thought it’d be easy on digestion) In return I gave the guy half of the ham&mushroom pizza I bought that afternoon. As for drinks, I just had two glasses of water with it.

End of the day:
Throughout the day I had felt really fit and didn’t drink a single cup of coffee. However, after dinner I got into a bit of a discussion / fight / makeup / cry / cuddle scenario with my girlfriend. And this just totally drained me. I’m quite a sensitive person and if you’re like me, you know that extreme emotions can really suck you dry quickly. Off course I was happy that the things that we fought over were spoken out instead of letting them fester inside. So looking back it doesn’t feel like a waste of energy at all, but it does take its toll

Related posts:
- New 30-day challenge coming up
- [Day 1] Kicking off the challenge

Well, this is it. I've started my 30 day challenge yesterday as described earlier. (http://www.pgsnacks.com/2009/12/new-30-day-challenge-coming-up/)
I left most of the things I as described them, but practice turns out to be slightly different then you make it up in your head. I guess it did remind me that this isn't called a challenge for nothing :p

Let me just start off by saying that it wasn't any typical weekend to start with. As a surprise my girlfriend brought home two dogs (one being a 15 week old puppy) to take care of for a night & a day. The ones of you that have experiences raising a puppy knows that these need to go out and pee about every 4-to-5 hours. So all in all, I didn't start this challenge particularly rested.  Having said this I can share with you my first day!

Sleep:
I went to bed at around 1:30AM because we went to see the movie Avater downtown. Also, after a dog-filled day, I actually slept like a rock. It must have been 7 hours before I woke up for the first time. And yes, it being sunday I rolled over and slept for another hour. So all in all, a very quality night's rest.

Food:

• Breakfast: This actually didn't start off as good as I hoped. This was because  I actually did't make s smoothy, but started the day eating just fruits. I had a banana, two mandarins and green tea for breakfast. Content-wise it didn't really feel wrong because wether I had blended it or just ate it, the nutritional value would be about the same I guess. But still, it felt like slacking off on the first day. Not a great start, but a good one nontheless.
  So for the record, I started the day off with a banana, two mandarins and an apple (Fuji-apples are really nice and sweet, with enough bite:)).
• Lunch: As I didn't wake up very early, breakfast and lunch started blending together somewhat. What I did notice is that I liked eating the various nuts at that time of the day. I got myself non-salted ones which turns out have been a very good choice. (I can always add salt when I feel like it anway, right!?)
  For now I have a mix of Macadamia's, Cashews, Walnuts, Almonds (with skin), Pecan-nuts and hazelnuts. I didn't include the easy-to-get peanut because I'm not too fond of those.I really enjoy the variety of tastes these individual nuts have, and each mix of 'm is a different sensation in your mouth. So I'm really glad this isn't a let-down.
  What I've also noticed is that, because the nuts & fruits are always "there", needing no preparation, I tend to eat 'm in smaller portions throughout the day. Not so much one bulk-lunch but a few now and some more in an hour or so. To be honest, I really like this I have something to "snack" whenever I want, and it's actually great nutricional value as well.
• Dinner-time: Although it is free for me to choose what I eat for dinner, I feel it's very important to include because I think it might have a significant impact on my energy levels in the morning. I decided to have some very light mais-based pasta with tomato-sauce, low-fat ham and a bit of cheese, started off by some focaccia-bread with serano-ham. All quite light on the digestive system I think, since non of it was very greasy. One thing I did notice is that I didn't eat a lot, just because I wasn't that hungry. I was actually more enjoying the food for its taste then for the sensation of feeling "full". And actually, while writing this I feel really good about that.

I talked about leaving myself open to snacks whenever I wanted to have them, but today I actually prefered eating some of the nuts instead of grabbing a cookie or piece of chocolate. We'll just see how long that keeps up when I might get fed up with the taste of the nuts, but that's something that'll have to remain to be seen.

Energy levels:
As for my energy through out the day, after those 8 hours I did feel a bit slow to get out of bed. It might have been because I tried to catch another hour of shut-eye, who knows.. :s
But after breakfast things got moving quite easily. Eating only fruit really got my energy levels up in a short time. Besides being very light food containing quick sugars I also feel that the sweets and sours also sparked my awareness and got me "moving" so to speak.
As for the course of the day, I actually didn't feel tired even once. Normally I get a bit of a dip-feeling around 4:00PM. (Sometimes refered to as the cup-a-soup-moment ) Also, since it's the weekend I wasn't at the office writing my thesis. The thing is, when I'm there I tend to drink more coffee then I do at home. (Normal for me is just one or two cups throughout the entire day) But as for a lot of people, I tend to pick up a cup of coffee when I feel like I'm getting drowsy and need a pick-me-up. I'll just have to find out how this actually works out when I'm in the office environment again, but so far I have had no need for a pick-me-up, since my energy-level and awareness were pretty much up where I would like 'm

I guess I'll leave it at this for today. Also, I feel like I want to appologize for the writing I've done since I feel it's still quite messy. The thing is, I haven't quite figured out the best way to journal about this challenge. I'll have to experiment with some different structures or styles to share my experiences as best possible.
For now I'll continue to stick to the fruits and nuts, making sure I actually drink my breakfast-fruits as a smoothy instead of just eating them.

I will keep you updated, so until tomorrow!

Hey everyone,

I'm feeling a bit ashamed that I haven't been able to keep up a steady stream of new content, but a lot's been going on lately. While finishing my thesis I have also been in the middle a job interview and the associated selection process.
Luckily, everything worked out and I got hired. (yeah!) Feels great to get hired on the first try and also feels like a great way to start expressing myself in this new job. It probably doesn't beat being self-employed, but just finishing university I do appreciate the job security. (In case you're curious, I got hired as a junior information consultant for a very large municipality.)

Either way, this was all a bit off topic. Because what I wanted to announce that I'm gonna start posting a new 30-day challenge on the blog. It's gonna be one regarding food & energy levels.
Although it is the holiday season, I wanted to try adjusting my food habits and see how it affects my energy levels throughout the day (and night).

I realized that I have the most control over the first two meals of the day: Breakfast and Lunch. Unlike dinner, where you are usually a bit limited because you're sharing your meal with someone, I can choose what I eat for those first two meals very easily. Partially inspired by Steve Pavlina's 30-day smoothy fest, I decided to create for following plan for myself:

• Breakfast: Smoothies
  I'm not sure how much I'll need to drink to feel "satisfied" but I'll discover that along the way.
• Lunch: Various fruits & Nuts
  I found that I like both these things quite a bit, and there are a ton of fruits&nuts to choose from, all holding important nutriënts. Also, it's very to bring these wherever you go. Fruits are also easy to get at local shops but I can imagine you would like to bring the nuts from home.
• Dinner: Whatever I want, or rather.. what I would normally eat.
  Being realistic, limiting myself to a very strict diët during the holiday is just not gonna happen. There's social events where you don't decide what you get served for dinner. And on top of that, I enjoy good food, so without gorgeing myself I am just gonna take part in the festivities as anyone else would.
• Throughout the day: Whatever I feel like
  This might sound like a trap, but if I get enough nutricional value from my breakfast and lunch I don't see myself running out and go snacking. But, if I happen to feel like having cookies or chocolate, what the heck?! This is supposed to be fun, and not a big strain. Keep it practical and realistic!

I think this is a great challenge because anyone could do it, while staying in the holiday spirit and enjoying all the good times with friends, family and loved ones WHILE still working on a healthier, more energetic feeling throughout the day.
I'm still finalizing the details but as it looks now I'd like to keep track of the following things:

• WHAT I ate during breakfast & lunch exactly
  Specifically: What smoothy I drank, how much and what it contained. Which fruits and nuts  ate for lunch and a rough estimate how much. I'm not gonna weigh it all, this is not a weight-loss challenge after all. It's all about energy!
• Sleep cycles
  The time I go to sleep and wake up. But also the quality of sleep I experienced, since this is hugely important for how rested & energetic you feel.
• Energy levels throughout the day
  I want to record how energetic I feel when I wake up, related to how eager I am to take on the day's challenges.
  During the rest of the day I'll record my energy levels on specific times while noting any sudden changes if they might happen. Naturally I'll keep doing this till I go to bed to get a complete picture.
• I'll be making daily pictures of my tongue in the morning. (yes, this might sound weird but let me explain)
  I've been reading up a lot on chinese medicine lately and one of the greatest tools to get an impression of someones condition is looking at their tongue. I'll take a picture every day when I get out of the shower, before breakfast so my mouth is clean. By doing this I hope to start seeing progression I make visualized.

  I'm trying to make a deal with my acupuncturist at the moment to support me with this. I can email her the pictures and have her make a contribution to the blog post by providing feedback from a professional point of view.

As I stated earlier, I'm working out the final details at the moment and preparing to get all the things I need sorted.
If all goes well, I'll be starting off tomorrow and blogging my progress dialy.
So I hope you keep following me see how I do!

or, better yet.. JOIN ME!!
Share your experiences in the comments below. I'm actually really curious how it'd work out for you.
Or just get in touch with me on twitter: MarkNap or PGSnacks

A close friend shared this story with me last week and I could not resist to turn it into a blog-post to share it with everyone else.
It's simply incredible, and doesn't need many words to move you deeply.

A Love story:

Here, a female swallow has gotten seriously injured.
(She got hit by a car while diving in too low over the road)

Her mate brings brings her food to help her, sharing his love and compassion.

Once again he brings her food but is shocked once he finds out that she has died.
He tries to move her, a rarely seen effort among swallows!

Realising his love has died and will never return, he cries out in agony over his lost love.

He stands by her,... mourning her death.

Finally realising she is gone, never to return, he stands next to her with intense sorrow.

A story worth so more then a thousand words, told by so few.
Some people are still under the impression that animals have no intelligence or feelings, or know love for that matter.
What would they say if they saw this?

These pictures were sold to the most famous newspaper in France for a nominal fee. Every single issue that was printed that day was sold out, touching many, many people. You, like them, have just witnessed a perfect eaxmple of love and devotion.

Think about that for a while, and take it with you as you continue along the path of life.