Hey! This is the second part of last week’s article! Be sure to check it out if you haven’t yet! Simplicity is the core of nutrition I advocate to. Well being and being good-looking is the direct result. No supplements, vitamins, minerals, no junk information.

I’m just a human. I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want.

What I Did

I restricted my feeding window to few hours every day: this is not always possible, due to external factors and events, but I generally eat from 4 – 5 PM till when I go sleeping, at night. If I feel like eating, I will eat something whenever I want, between the eating window.

While you don’t eat, try to get something done.

Activities, writings, whatever you could be interested in. Play you guitar, do whatever the hell you want to do. Just keep moving. Even if you keep your ass glued to a chair, make sure you are doing something. Get things done. Make this time an opportunity to improve yourself and your life.

Move more by walking

There’s no need for weights, bodybuilding trainings, high interval stuff, supplements, anabolic and low fat nutrition. Simply WALK.

Burn the fat, walking. That’s what will give you nice looking abs. A simple walk is the best way to get abs. This is the real truth. If it has worked for me it can work for everybody.

The general idea is to understand if your hunger is just an impulse to stress, or it is real hunger. Make sure you are able to tell this, before you eat something. If you eat too much during a day, you can eat less on the following one. If you are at a special event, you can also eat what you want, the amount of stuff you want to eat. The choice is basically yours.

That is to say: eat whenever you are really hungry.

Eat real meals. Stop eating (too much?) pasta, refined grains and processed foods. Load on vegetable carbohydrates, proteins and fat. Lots of proteins and fats will make you happy, sane and balanced. Lots of vegetables, fruits. Keep your body hydrated with lots of water. No juices, no cola, no diet sodas. Forget about cholesterol, low fat or low carb diets.

Nothing will actually stop you from losing weight because if you live in a fastened state you are always keeping your weight under balance. Moreover, your abs will uncover in a matter of few weeks.

A quick word about artificial junk, flavors, fast foods, fake meats, etc

You can eat and drink junk stuff whenever you want, and that’s OK. But that stuff is really harmful to your body. Artificial stuff is poison for our natural body. So, try to stick to natural alternatives and REAL meals

With intermittent fasting…

You will also be more focused; concentration improves. Creativity will boost tremendously. I have nothing more to tell you about Intermittent fasting except..

Start it NOW!

If you don’t believe me, that’s great, because you should believe your body. I have decided to give IF a try: I listened to my body. I have decided to stick with it because I felt OK with it. If I hadn’t walked this way, I would probably still be wondering if there is a better diet out there!

The best diet you can choose is the one which makes you feel better.

This way of eating respects the way humans have been living.

We’re animals, don’t forget about it. Eating this way is how humanity has been eating for its long existence on this planet. This is how our evolutionary traits are. By eating intermittently we are respecting our nature, instead of destroying it.

This is how we can have the best from our body and mind. This will give full potential to what we really are. Deprogramming, this is what is all about. Discover forgotten eating patterns. In this society we have everything, from the best to the worst stuff we can find around. Be wise on what you choose to feed on.

That’s only a matter of good sense and equilibrium.

I made my choice.

Yours is only up to you.

If there is no struggle, there is no progress

– Frederick Douglass

I think it is important to step back and analyze our habits and our life, sometimes. It’s natural: we need to recharge our batteries, clear our mind and focus the right way towards what we’re really meant to BE.

To me, personal development, stepping back, reflecting on my life means experimenting, analyzing things on my own, while enjoying life for what it is. Life is the result of how much we’ve been able to evolve and to stretch, to change habits, paradigms, mental patterns during our time. The more we can stretch, the more we grow strong and our consciousness about our lives expands. I love keeping myself on the edge, because when you understand you have nothing to lose, that’s the exact moment in which you understand you have everything you may ever need (even if you don’t realize it at first). You are already perfect, and this is why you’re here, walking and breathing on this planet.

Our reality is made of what we introduce in our lives. That’s what lifestyle development, is all about to me.

• •.Learning new stuff  

• •.living differently  

• •.changing our habits 

• •.putting down a bad habit to ingrain a good one  

because everything is a byproduct of HOW we let our lives and our deepest selves evolve. In order to create a balance between our physical and mental realities, we need to stretch, discover, wonder about things and try out new things.
Opening our mind to a new, unexpected experience is the first step we have to take.  Then, all you have to do is removing the junk from yourself and your life, while enjoying the present moment. Moreover, in this process, try telling what’s good from what is bad for you.

It takes time to tell what is good from what is bad for us.
Stop looking for easy shortcuts: they lead nowhere.

Don’t settle for what doesn’t make you shiver and smile.

Start living up to your own standards.

Words, if not turned into actions, lead nowhere.
To me, life is an opportunity to challenge myself. To test where my best self is; when I need to stretch my limits, work and rework, create and destroy what I sense to be a “game”.  Experiments are an opportunity to strenghten bonds or to loosen them with what requires your attention. They are a way to interact with my highest and lowest self, to see what my reality is all about.

Now, getting down to business, let’s call this a reality check paragraph: I have something to tell you about the new things I’ve been living with or without, during the last 2 weeks:

• •.my mobile phone is quasi-always turned off (thanks to the email, I know when someone is going to call me). I think I will recharge my phone battery once or twice a month. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? 

• •.I know I don’t need shaving foam neither, because water and razor work perfectly on my skin. So, after having said goodbye to electric shaving, I can also trash my shaving foam. 

To me, these results speak out loud
I can perfectly live with Less,  effortlessly. We can perfectly live with Less, effortlessly. Yes, we can.

What is this week about?

• •.Dieting: mostly Seeds, Raw fruit and vegetables  

It is about diet, dieting and feeding my body the right way. Intermittent Fasting has been following me since January 2011. Now, I want to hack this diet a bit, by removing excess refined sugars and junk food with seeds, raw fruit and vegetables. Sure, I eat lots of different meals (pasta, sweets, etc) every once in a while. But I am including Raw fruit, vegetables and seeds in order to make them a big percentage of  my daily caloric intake.

• •.Create something right off the bat, at least once a day 

It’s not rocket science understanding the way we need to create stuff in our lives: let’s sit down and create something valuable, worth the time it takes to be read; worth the attention span of a modern sexy reader; worth precious minutes of your time. Read lots of nice books. Let amazing people’s words and actions inspire you (in the way you live and walk on this planet). I am writing every day, at least a simple line of valuable content. This has introduced lots of great experiences and ideas into my life so, I am wondering about how will I be able to keep this habit alive for many months to come.

This article is about reconnecting with the higher self, making change easier and possible for everyone of us. In the long run, to use Bruce Lee’s words, is good to “become water”. We need to adapt, ready to flow freely without worrying about where we’re going to go and where we’re going to end up.

How can we opt for saner and healthier habits?
Simply reconnecting with what’s the saner alternative of something. It is important to make space, breathe and to recharge our batteries every once in a while: it feels reinvigorating to opt for a slow version of a specific activity. I personally encourage you to try these new ideas out, and also trying out new things for yourself!

What am I including into my lifestyle?

• •.Subtract instead of adding 

That’s what Leo Babauta’s Effortless life is all about. I suggest you to read Leo’s wonderful new book by checking it out right now: I personally found it amazing. To me, the idea of subtracting is all about the idea of Enough, contentment, being able to live with less, by enjoying more of what we already have. I always try to subtract whenever I can reduce my consumption of something, from media news to the files I keep saved in my hard disk. Basically, it’s what we usually call “decluttering” and “downsizing” in Minimalism. I was already familiar with this kind of practice but the idea of Enough and subraction helped strenghtening my motivation. I need to save mental cycles for what really matters in life.

• •.Manual Shaving 

Instead of the classic electric shavers available out there. It may just be me, but It’s actually quite fun to shave manually, because it makes the act of shaving feel like a ceremony. It makes shaving like a ceremonial act to respect ourselves as men, as human beings and as amazing creatures. It’s like a return to what’s real, to what’s natural and healthy.

Why I do it:

I am stepping back from technology. I need a less technological life, in order to keep up with what’s really worth living and enjoying. Less electromagnetic emissions.

Enriching our experience with new things and activies makes us stronger, happier and more creative. Trying out new things is a common theme I talk about in Life, the free eBook I published on August.

To me, it is importat to try new things out.

• •.One, because I love to know things by direct experience.  

• •.Two, because I trust my instinct: we, as human beings, are made to feel better when we do new things refusing to settle down with what we already have.  

I love that adrenaline rush when you do something completely new. I love those moments. I also love doing new things, because I feel comfortable in my own skin. I simply love the idea of becoming more and more rooten in my own reality. The more experience you have, in every aspect of life, the more you can ask yourself to do. For example, the more time you work, the more time you want to work (and you can work). Being in the present moment is the key here: the concepts of past and future put a real burden on our existence. That’s why I delete my files periodically. That’s why I am editing my blog’s posts.

I delete what keeps me anchored to a past I will never live again. After all, it’s gone. I don’t need it again. Especially in the context of Lifestyle Design, making new experiences is important, so to replace your old bad habits with new positive ones. Plus, detaching from bad realities feels incredible. So, what’s new in my experience?

• •.cell phone shut off   

when I don’t use it. Last week, I’ve been carrying my cell phone completely shut off; I only checked for calls or messages once every 1-2 hours of complete disconnection. I also make sure to take the battery out of the phone (to keep up to date with the right time and date, the phone keeps emitting radiations if you leave the battery inserted), so I can be free from radiation and electromagnetic signals.

• •.Wifi’s off 

I prefer relying on cabled connection to surf the internet. I want to limit my exposure to unnecessary radiations.

Here you have some inspiring words, written by Brad Branson, an amazing lifestyle development coach.

“I’ve set my life down a certain course, chosen my goals based on concrete life values, and as long as I’m living in alignment with those values, I don’t think. It’s supremely relieving.  I don’t have any questions.  It’s just a matter of keeping on, keeping on. Everyday, every experience, is just putting another coin in the bank account of life.  It’s all building… Towards what, who knows? Ultimately, it’s the process of filling the bank account to enjoy, not the end goal. Let life unfold, stop stressing, and enjoy the ride.”

That’s the right mindset to walk the path of life.

I suggest you to print these wonderful words and read them every day when you have some spare time!

Here I am again, fresh from last week’s Digital Sabbatical. Last night was a magic one too: I was in Perugia (Italy) for a reading, with a friend of mine. We played great music, ambient, post rock and experimental pieces, nice sounds and lots of amazing thoughts by well-known writers such as Henry Miller and Charles Bukowski. It was fantastic!

I sense that things keep getting clearer and clearer  when you watch them from a different perspective. During last week I have been walking along the Italian seaside, soaking my feet in the wonderful sea. Also, amazing things happened: I met wonderful people, sharing with them some thought or just a quick glance. I am pleased to know that there is always something more than technology. There is something more to live and expect out of life.

Sometimes I sense life’s only a TV show in which we choose to be spectators or actors. To put it in Bill Hicks’ words, you can simply enjoy the ride, or you can aim for the bigger picture.

Staying away from computers

It made me feel more and more aware we need to create distance.

We need to create space in our lives for what it’s really worth living. We need to be unproductive when we need some rest. In the end, it is wonderful to enjoy the space we’ve created with technology.

That’s what I’ve been doing. This is what I’m doing just right now. Create. Create content for your life. Create content for someone else’s life. Create content which makes you shiver. I don’t care what it is. Just one rule: you must love it. Quoting Port-royal, We need disconnected love for our disconnected lives.

Don’t forget disconnecting this week! I will personally disconnect from the web one or two days during this week.