Sunday, November 8, 2015

The act of becoming healthy

I am making my attempt to become a self-conscious eater.  This is coming from someone who's never had any dietary restrictions and was raised on a high carb Mexican cuisine. Over five years ago, I made the decision to initiate a "diet". My goal was not to eat healthy, but rather my goal was to lose 15lbs. I lost the weight (mainly by eating 600 calories a day), but gained it back.

Recently, due to my constant breakouts my esthetician recommended a non-dairy diet. I gave it a try and thirty days later my skin cleared up! She reminded me that you are what you eat, and I decided to take a look at what exactly I put in my mouth- where is this grown? Is this processed? Does this contain milk?

I started to get serious about my eating habits due to my skin. I was spending hundreds on chemical peels, lotions, clay masks, etc.  Something as simple as preventing my intake of dairy and processed food could clear my face and save me hundreds of dollars (and of course the embarrassment of acne).

I took this moment to begin my journey on health conscious eating habits.

I must admit that at times I fall off the "wagon", but I can assure you it less frequent as it use to be.
It's been a challenge, since it seems everything has milk!

 I drink water daily and with every meal, except for times at breakfast when I prefer tea or coffee.   I hope one day to become a Vegan.  Since I have been staying with family and friends, I find it difficult to stay on my course ( as a good guest I eat what is available). But I keep a food journal app that allows me to track my caloric intake. What also makes it difficult is my cultural background. It seems everything has red meat, butter and milk. One thing I learned from this journey is that it's perfectly fine to take baby steps.  Besides my skin clearing , I find myself more active and accustomed my pallate to more richer, nutritious food.  One of my favorite food is sweet potato. I enjoy this as both a side dish and dessert.  When I had regular potato fries recently after months of none, I realized how bland they are. Now I know why people dump their fries in ketchup! Oy Vey!

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Less than a month away....

In a few weeks, I head back to France (Toulouse) to complete a 4 week intensive course on Teaching English in a foreign language (TEFL). I always planned to travel the world and in the majority of the countries I've traveled to there has been a need of TEFL teachers. I have chosen France as I would like to take the opportunity to improve my French and live there for a month to get the 'feel' of what life maybe like living in France.  As you can tell, I am not employed at the moment. Earlier this year I resigned from a 6 figure job to search for a non profit position close to home. I did find a non-profit position and resigned from that to move to NY for the summer. I was given the opportunity to stay in NY as my recruiter found me a job. But something was calling me back home, and I returned to the Midwest.  Being disappointment with the competitiveness of the job market and realizing that my passion is traveling, I decided that this was good timing to pursue my goal to get TEFL certified.  The timing couldn't be perfect and this will not be 'cheap', especially since I am living on savings, but what the heck! You only live once.

Even though many people have told me I was 'crazy' for resigning my 6 figure position. This year has been amazing to me. I also had the opportunity to travel immensely this year and realized many things...

Places traveled thus far in 2015:
1. Miami, FL  ( I am a pisces, we love water)
2. Portland, Oregon  (Hello, foodie/brunch capital)
3. Colorado, Aspen, Denver, other small towns I can't remember ( I fell in love with the scenery, so much beauty in this state)
4. New York, NY ( I've been here many times and always want to come back)
5. Paris, France (Je t'aime)

Lessons learned:
1. DO WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY!
2. Money isn't everything (repeat #1)
3. Stop buying unnecessary items ( when I moved out of my apt. in Chicago, I realized I had too much clothing. I donated over 5 large black trash bags of clothing, some brand new. I realized I was heavy on retail therapy and since I had the money I shopped cause I was bored).
4. Be more adventurous ( I love meeting new people! The fact that I am traveling more allows opportunity to meet new people. So far, I got invited to Germany & had great conversations with many awesome people that have positively affected my life. I hope I was a positive affect on theirs too.......)
5. Have fun  ( I use to be the queen of seriousness.  Life is so short, shit happens, get over it! I also realized that these are the people I am attracted to.)
6. Take risks ( I applied for an MSW program at Loyola. This would be my second Masters and I applied just to see if I can get in, since I already have heavy student loans. It turns out I wrote a great essay, got accepted and was awarded a scholarship for my first semester).

There's still many wrinkles I need to iron out.. What if I stay in France longer? Will my funds be enough? Will I sell my car? Would I stay at Loyola after the first semester?

Things will work out, and in the meantime I will enjoy the ride and have fun. :)