We live in a noisy and distorted crazy world! Sometimes I wonder how people can manage to go on with their daily lives totally unaffected by this ubiquitous distortion. Personally, I don't think I can do it. I can't seem to live a normal structured life in the midst of all what's happening around me. The pace that life dictates is too fast for someone like me. So I tend to concentrate my efforts on what I believe are positive actions. In some ways I consider those "actions" to be my contribution to the civil society. Veganism and reducing my carbon footprint seem to top my priority list. It's a combination of my respect to other living species on this planet (probably more than my respect to humans) and the eco-system that are the main driving engine behind my actions. I believe in "cruelty-free" diet. Modern societies have gone too far in their farming practices; modern farms have become more of industrial sites rather than tradition farming… Anyway let us not dwell over this point, there are a plenty of literature on the net on why veganism is the best step humanity can adopt in order to save this planet. Mind you, I am no perfect vegan, I did cheat a couple of times and had a bit of cheese and Nutella. As for reducing my carbon footprint, I try to adopt a minimalist approach in doing things. Perhaps not minimalist enough, but I like to think of it that way; it can be summarized in buying less stuff, trying to cut on processed food, significantly decrease car, water, and electricity usage, use less cutleries, etc… I have adapted my work to suit my lifestyle, slow and flexible working hours. So I am getting enough time to train, read, sleep, walk and use public commuting system. Of course this sometimes comes at a cost of earning less, but you can't always have it both ways. Cycling… hmmm where do I start? Well things have been going in a positive direction. The long training hours (sometimes averaging to 16 hours a week) have paid off in a 3rd position in national rankings; dreams of Olympics qualifications have started to lure me. The idea was my team mate's. He suggested we ride the Asian Championship to try to qualify at least one rider (in this case it would be him) for the 2012 Olympics; my turn would naturally be 2016; but hey… you've got to start somewhere. Enough rambling for now! I want to end this post on this high note: Dreams of qualifying to the 2016 Olympics.
Is the summer officially over?
-
With the winter season knocking on the door, our long Lebanese summer has
officially ended. Gotta respect the laws of nature or else we'd be in big
troub...
1 year ago
2 comments:
I actually want to mention that I admire what you're doing. And I am trying to lead a healthier lifestyle myself. I've quit cigarettes, I've quit shisha (a month ago lol although I only did it once or twice a month tops), I've decided to significantly cut down on my consumption of diet soda and tapering off it and hopefully in a month be completely off it. I exercise 4 times a week. I hope that once I finish my phd this academic year, I'll have more time on me and I'll exercise even more often. I generally eat generic unrefined and unprocessed foods. Lots of leaves, veg and fruits and pulses. However, I doubt I can handle being vegan or even vegetarian. I love and I need animal protein. I hate going to restaurants because I love to hand pick my own ingredients (organic) and prepare from scratch!
So I really understand what you're doing and I salute it. I think this world would be a better place if people started somewhere - maybe not as extreme as you cause it's difficult. But maybe dropping the McDonalds, Burger King, KFC and all fast food and all refined snacks! That's a good start. A bowl of cherries beats all this refined crap!
Am replying directly to your email :-) check it later tonight!
Post a Comment