The Power of Less in a Nutshell

Leo Babauta writes the popular blog ZenHabits which promotes simplifying your life to concentrate your time and efforts on what you want. This 170-page book is based on six principles:

1. Set limitations

2. Choose the essential.

3. Simplify.

4. Focus.

5. Create habits.

6. Start small.

Sounds simple hey? Well surprisingly enough I think most of us could do with going back to basics and digesting the practical advice here. So many of us while away hours online (whether on Facebook or religiously checking email). I must admit I was a little skeptical about how useful the principles would be- but it actually made a lot of sense.

Advice to Take on Board

The most useful things that I found in the book include:

The biggest strength of The Power of Less is that it is straight to the point and could be read in one evening. Most of the advice requires no extra tools – just organisation and being more mindful of the choices you make.

I do need to learn to say “no” to things to ensure my time is used more effectively. It is difficult as I have been involved in many exciting projects due to my enthusiasm in trying new things. I guess now I would consider the opportunity first (whether it fits into what I want) and then deciding whether to go for it.

In fact I’ve been inspired to empty out cupboards and question every single item I own. I have bags of things to take to the charity shop and it is liberating to know that I only have items that I actually need or love in my life.

Green Potential of The Power of Less

While many people think they are green due to using the right products, appliances and transport; it is actually deeper than that. The Power of Less questions what you are buying and why. So many of us have gadgets that we want rather than need, unwanted clutter and clothes that we are never going to wear. I think as well as helping to focus on your goals, this book will offer a different (calmer and more green) mindset.

It is refreshing to know that there is more to life than gathering more possessions, aspiring for a bigger house, better car etc. Treasure the precious things in your life – time, family or whatever your passion is.

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The Ethics of Veganism

Most people would define a vegan who does not consume animal products, i.e meat, dairy, eggs and honey. I do consume honey for two reasons, the first is that it is nowhere near as destructive as the dairy industry, the second is that bees are dying out and it is businesses who sell honey who are putting a lot of time, money and effort into saving our honey bees.  Anyway I digress perhaps I should label myself as a veg*n instead? I don’t think it matters, if you don’t eat meat or dairy it is far easier to say you’re vegan then give some poor unsuspecting person the lowdown on your ethical choices in diet. Perhaps I should be more righteous and spend time convincing people to try it. I prefer explaining my diet to people who are curious and this has made fascinating conversations spanning religion, evolution and general health. No one has become vegan via these informal debates but people leave with more knowledge about the impact of their food choices. That’s all I can do the rest is their choice. If I choose to spend my time preaching anything it will be the science of Krishna consciousness as it would address all the problems of human society but I am not qualified to do either so I’ll leave the crusades to people suited for it.

Mass factory farming and animal cruelty appear to go hand in hand, and you can see for yourself on Peta’s web site if you have the stomach for it.  Meat eaters argue that I am just a drop in the ocean and will not even be missed by the dairy industry. I think it is sad that people think they can’t make a difference. Personally I feel relieved that my decision makes a small but positive effect in reducing animal suffering and environmental damage.  I love that everything I eat is pure and didn’t cause animals to suffer and die.  I also like to support cow protection causes such as ISCOWP

How I Feel on a Vegan Diet

My reasons for veganism were purely ethical and I paid close attention to my health during this time. I am pleased to say that I have been thriving on this diet. Unlike the average person I did a lot of research about the diet, spoke to long term vegans and also based some of my food choices on my Ayurvedic dosha (vata for anyone interested). This worked well and I did not miss any of the foods I used to eat. I rarely eat vegan versions of food such as soya cheese etc, though I have developed a love for nutritional yeast. I started taking a daily spoonful of hemp protein powder in juice and also increased my fitness. I can now do twenty push ups in one go – this is a big deal for me as I have incredibly weedy arms.

Anyway after going vegan and also stopping consumption of intoxicants (caffeine, alcohol, garlic onions etc) I felt an incredible sense of peace. In the past I have been prone to emotional outbursts, irritability and impatience. I have noticed that I am far more balanced, open-minded and compassionate. Some will probably say that going vegan opened my heart chakra.

How Far Do You Go?

I think an ethical lifestyle is something that can always be improved upon.  I am choosing leather-free shoes and bags, though I do own a jacket that would have ended up in landfill and as the animal has already paid the price the jacket will be used rather than just thrown away.  It is incredibly challenging applying this compassionate philosophy in your life. I found myself trying to source an animal-free glue and then discovering that my favourite UHU is vegan! I think it is possible to get obsessed and I feel that this is a double-edged sword. I don’t ever want to become blasé about these principles and not question what is right. But it is still important to have fun and have a life! Either way it’s not in my nature to judge others, my journey in veganism is my own position.

Committing to a Vegan Lifestyle

I’m committed to lifelong dietary choice, and this has had social effects. I don’t eat out (well apart from at the temple) and this isn’t just because of a lack of vegan choices. Restaurants that also serve meat always have the possibility of contaminating your food. And I do not want my money to profit a business that makes money out of selling meat. I am fortunate as this has been relatively easy, one family function was amusing as I devoured a plate of salad and my lovely aunt tried to keep the meat as far away from me as possible.

Exploring vegan foods has been so much fun, I never would have tried so many interesting foods including sea vegetables (which I wouldn’t have been adventurous enough to try a few years ago). I love eating more raw foods, especially in the summer and have a thing about smoothies at the moment.

All of my very close friends and family have been supportive though the understanding comes from a shared love of animals- they are vegetarian. I naturally draw likeminded people into my life and the stubborn people resistant to change naturally drop out. This is great as I want to grow and change as a person and have no time for negativity from people who fear change.  I would recommend trying a vegan lifestyle, though please research it first! Once you do this you will realise that iron and protein are not even an issue, unless you are an incredibly fussy eater. B12 gets a lot of press, yet please remember that B12 affects more meat-eaters than vegans and is due to our over-cleanliness rather than a defect in the diet. Be informed when you do anything, try the free vegan recipes and don’t be afraid to try something new!

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It was a tight finish in Brighton and the Greens beat Labour by just over 1,250 votes. Conservatives were less than 3,000 votes further back. Lucas said: “Thank you so much for putting the politics of hope above the politics of fear.” It is rather interesting that Caroline Lucas has stated the Green Party would possibly lean towards the “left of centre” in the event of a hung parliament. This will be interesting and if Conservatives end up in government- I hope Lucas makes sure that they achieve the environmental aims in their manifesto.

Some of the Green policies are rather controversial (cutting speed limits, taxing the rich and decriminalising cannabis to name a few). Lucas is paving the way for the Greens and she is clearly passionate about politics: “ Green principles and policies will now have a voice in Parliament. Policies such as responding to climate change with a million new ‘green’ jobs in low-carbon industries, fair pensions and care for older people, and stronger regulation of the banks will be heard in the House of Commons”.

I will be watching the journey of Caroline Lucas with interest, and hope that her appointment will get the Conservative and Labour parties to pay more attention to their environmental policies!

1) MyLot.com

MyLot is an interesting site for those who enjoy spending time idled away chatting in forums. Any topic can be discussed on MyLot, except the rather secretive earning formula. No one is clear on how you get paid, though it appears the higher quality posts get rewarded. Default payout of MyLot is $10 via PayPal and it can take a little time to get to that. The site is best approached by those who like to communicate with people around the world- the time that may have been spent on other forums can be paid for on MyLot.

2) Ciao.co.uk

For those who have an interest in writing, the consumer review site Ciao is a good option. The site is a community site so you get paid per member rate. This means that you need to be involved reading and rating other reviews to be noticed to get a decent amount of reads. This site can offer a good amount of extra pocket money. Ciao is a fantastic site which offers consumers the chance to find out about products. Members benefit from their reviews being read (and hopefully being appreciated!). Ciao is more about learning something and getting on with the rest of the community.  The main reason that I like Ciao is because I like the way the rating system works, and the ‘comments’ function is my favourite part where members can voice their thoughts on your opinion. Ciao also offers a ‘Premium Fund’ where extra money is given to high quality reviews. Ciao has something that other paid writing sites have failed to match. It is more welcoming; the community is particularly friendly when you are new. You do need a UK bank account as they pay via bank transfer, but the bonus is you don’t get hit with the Paypal money receiving charge!

3) Bukisa.com

Since Associated Content have changed their policies with regards to payments to international writers many are seeking viable alternatives. Bukisa is a good option in my opinion. It takes mere minutes to join the site, and it is free to join. The site lets you republish your own content though it prefers original content. make sure you choose the appropriate license when you publish your work if you don’t want others to use your article. I did notice the license is set to creative commons by default and you have to select the drop-down to change it. You get paid  via PayPal within about thirty days of the end of the month in which your account balance reaches the minimum $10. You get paid according to the set ‘Bukisa Index’ per 1000 page views and the index varies per month but is has been around the 3.4 mark meaning $3.40 per 1000 page views. Now for the real bonus- you own the content therefore you can republish it anywhere and get paid again. I would say if you write for Ciao or Dooyoo that it is worth spending a few extra minutes to republish on this site and get some additional pennies.

* the above links are referral links so I would get a small bonus for anyone who signs up (no difference to your own future earnings of course).

Other sites you may like to consider:

Dooyoo.co.uk (they pay via cheque – minimum £50 payout, and have an annoying Dooyoo Miles system which takes some getting used to).

Suite101 (for the more serious writers wanting to learn about SEO etc- this site has editors who will flag anything that contravenes their guidelines). It takes a lot of time and effort to make money, and applying for the site is more difficult too.

Demand Studios are now accepting UK writers, and have a stricter application process -they are pretty selective too. Many excellent writers get rejected the first few times. They do pay around $15 per article and there are many writers who think that is a good deal for short articles that don’t take much time. It depends on whether you want to “churn and earn” or have a good quality article which passively earns you good money over time.

iStockphoto is a good tip for creative designers and photographers. Many people make a decent living or sideline by offering their photographs here. It isn’t easy as the site has become very big and it requires imagination to offer something new that people will pay for.

If you do decide to go for trying any of these sites – good luck and let me know how you get on!

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The Lush Discontinued List

So what is going? Well here is the much awaited list for Lush fans:

Happy Pill
Tramp
Yummy Yummy Yummy
Supernova
Q10 Toner Tab
Mirror Mirror
Razorantium
Shave The Planet
Crash Course In Skincare
Candy Fluff Dusting Powder
Karma Dusting Powder
I Should Coco Soap
Hard Shampoo Bar
Soft Shampoo Bar

Many are shocked that Tramp is going especially as there are supporters in Lush management, however at the end of the day Lush is a business and they have to keep profits in mind when selecting their shop range. To be honest there isn’t anything there that I will miss (as you will note by the lack of reviews on them). The other shower gel on the cut list is Yummy Yummy Yummy which appears to be a Lush version of Marmite. There are people who absolutely love it, and others who find it too runny and are not too keen on smelling of strawberries.

The ones that surprise me are Mirror Mirror (there is no other similar product), Karma dusting powder (it is part of their permanent Karma perfume range), Q10 toner tab (very new to Lush) and the fact that two shaving creams are going. I’m afraid unlike many mourning their favourite products I am celebrating the fact that my beloved Coalface is safe as there had been some speculation it would go after the introduction of Dark Angels. I’m also chuffed that French Kiss is staying as it is lovely for bath cocktails.

Instead of being sad about losing products we should be happy that Lush have this system which offers us more choice, and allows them to be more creative. No other store does this! I have my fingers crossed that a Vanillary or Christmas Eve scented shower gel will turn up at some point. And remember some of the discontinued items will end up on Retro at some point- I have a feeling that a handful of the favourites like Candy Fluff dusting powder, Shave the Planet and Tramp will pop up. It is an exciting time at Lush with a revamped Lush times, and plenty of new products for the summer. Let’s all be positive!

1. A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
2. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
3. Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott
4. Brick Lane by Monica Ali
5. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
6. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
7. Emma by Jane Austen
8. Darkmans by Nicola Barker
9. Circles of Deceit by Nina Bawden
10. The Sea by John Banville
11. Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes
12. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
13. Possession by A.S Byatt
14. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
15. Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta
16. My Antonia by Willa Cather
17. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
18. Wild Swans by Jung Chang
19. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
20. Bitter Fruit by Achmat Dangor
21. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
22. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
23. Deliverance by James Dickey
24. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Conan Doyle
25. The Red Queen by Margaret Drabble
26. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
27. City of God by E.L. Doctorow
28. American Psycho by Bret Easton Elliss
29. Middlemarch by George Eliot
30. The Gathering by Ann Enright
31. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
32. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
33. Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster
34. The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
35. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
36. A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
37. The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles
38. The Liar by Stephen Fry
39. The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut
40. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
41. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
42. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
43. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
44. The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
45. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
46. Carry Me Down by M.J Hyland
47. The Cider House Rules by John Irving
48. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
49. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome k. Jerome
50. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
51. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
52. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
53. Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally
54. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
55. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
56. Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos De Laclos
57. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
58. Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee
59. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
60. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
61. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
62. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
63. Angela’s Ashes by Frank Mccourt
64. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
65. Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
66. Sour Sweet by Timothy Mo
67. Jazz by Toni Morrison
68. The Beloved by Toni Morrison
69. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov
70. A House for Mr Biswas by V.S Naipaul
71. A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
72. The English Patient by Micheal Ondaatje
73. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
74. Teachings of Queen Kuntī
75. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
76. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
77. Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
78. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
79. The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott
80. Staying On by Paul Scott
81. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
82. The Accidental by Ali Smith
83. White Teeth by Zadie Smith
84. The Autobiography of Alice B. Tokias by Gertrude Stein
85. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
86. Elegance by Kathleen Tessaro
87. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
88. The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike
89. Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
90. Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse
91. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
92. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
93. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
94. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
95. Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe
96. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
97. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
98. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
99. Cloudstreet by Tim Winton

I figured if I make this list public it will motivate me to get on with it. Please let me know what you think if you’ve read any of these books!

In the words of Albert Einstein ‘you cannot solve a problem by using the same level of thinking that created it’. To me this means you need to change your perspective and way of thinking. I’m guessing that my inner progress will impact outward results. Often our minds are our worst enemies and I believe thoughts become things. So I’m choosing positive ones and am expecting great things this year.

After looking into vegan bodybuilding I noticed that Hemp protein has had a lot of positive feedback. I have ordered some and cannot wait to incorporate it into my diet. Last week I worked out that I need to greatly increase my intake of food to put weight on as a modest increase (approximately 300 calories per day) hasn’t really worked as much as I anticipated. I can see that getting this right is going to involve a lot of trial and error.

I am using the Wii Fit Plus to track my results and my average BMI is 17.36, this is encouraging though I would like it to be at least around 17.5 by the next update. In terms of exercise I am focusing on strength and am enjoying three 20 minute weekly kettlebell sessions. I still do some cardio and yoga too which seem to minimise any of the tightness that I assumed would come.

Diet is going to be one of the harder things, as I have a high metabolism I need to consume more calories. However I am finding that all the food I like and want to eat are naturally low in calories. I did eat half an avocado yesterday purely because it is high in good fats however I am not a big fan of eating in this way. I naturally veer towards foods in their raw state so I am eating more nuts and seeds. One of my not so healthy favourite snacks are the sugary dried fruit packs (Holland & Barratt do an incredibly tasty Caribbean one which has pineapple, mango, melon, papaya and coconut). I did polish off a whole bag in no time so I think I’ll limit myself to two bags a month, otherwise I will have no teeth left.

One of the most satisfying gains this month has been that I feel a lot stronger. I have been carrying heavy things with less effort now and I like being able to lift things myself. I suspect that once I step up to a heavier kettlebell this will increase with time. I look forward to getting more toned triceps!

On future updates I plan to post photographs to keep a visual track of progress. This will also keep me motivated. Overall I think January has been a month to research and plan how I will achieve my aims of increasing strength and weight. I am pleased that I have implemented the exercise into my week quite easily, and really enjoy it. The real test is to make everything into a permanent habit to sustain results. I am looking forward to this challenge!

 

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Most people tend to have losing weight as a focus in the new year- however mine is actually to up my weight in a healthy way. I currently am underweight and have been pretty much all of my life. It is a bit bemusing when people comment on my size or assume I don’t eat. People close to me know that it is just my natural shape, and my veganism is about ethics not wanting to be thin.

When I make goals I like to be quite specific; so I can then know whether the goals have been met or not.

To achieve a BMI of 18

I know that this is still deemed as underweight by many but this is where I feel my best. Also it is quite higher than my current BMI which makes it challenging but not unachievable. If my BMI becomes higher than 18 then I’ll be even happier. I am using the Wiifit Plus to monitor my progress as I am the kind of person who takes six months to put a few pounds but can lose it in a couple of days.

Increased muscle strength

I want to double the weight of my kettlebells, and generally be stronger. My arms are not the strongest part of my body and I want to change this for good. I will need to boost my protein levels for this to work so I shall be testing vegan sources of protein.

Reduce stress

The key for good health for me is to minimise stress and I plan to do this by creating a daily relaxation routine. This will includes yoga and reading spiritual texts – whatever I feel is effective given the mood and time.

I would like to thank my readers for all the support through 2009. This is really motivating and me putting my goals on this blog helps to keep me on track. I plan to post updates on my goal every month, and would love to hear from you about your health related aims.