Living in a small apartment - Not an interior design tutorial

I live in a small but wonderful apartment in a quiet neighborhood filled each morning by the laughter of  happy children and the strong voices of young mothers. "Strong, independent, black women" I like to call them, though they are not black, but their spirit fits the saying.

Photo source: http://maaclink.org

 When I say small, I mean 50% of the people I know will probably get claustrophobic spending more than a day in there. But I don't see the limits or the walls. All I can see is the warm sunlight filling the room, the wide window through which I follow the leafs dancing in the afternoon wind and my home, my wonderful and happy home.

The dangers of living in a small apartment are the same with the side effects of drinking alcohol: it intensifies everything that you feel. If you are happy, you can only see the window, whole world shares your happiness and your small apartment seems to extend above the entire street. If you are sad, you can only see the walls getting closer and almost feel them crushing into your soul. Living in a small apartment forces you to look in the mirror and be in touch with yourself more than you might like. You have no space to make your thoughts lost, no "other room" where to leave them while you try to forget about your problems, fears or questions.

There are all in there with you, either you like it or not. It is not place for the ones with a poor heart. But you can make a great home in such a place.

As the title says, this is not a "small spaces design tutorial", I will not tell you how to design your apartment and make it look nice, or bigger. But I will try to tell how you might make it a happy home.

I believe that your home, either small, or large, should be the physical expression of your mind and soul. Your mind decides the dimensions and how you divide your space and your soul decides your colors and textures.

If  90% of your mind is preoccupied with work, if there is where you give your passion and find your happiness, then your home should also be 90% working space. If you love reading, listening music, watching TV, then you should definitely create a space in your home for that. It can be just an armchair which in the afternoon becomes the armchair that you stay on in front of the window, in the warm light of the afternoon, reading a good book and drinking a nice flavored tea or a cold beer. Or it can be a whole corner of your room.

If you love cooking, if it is the only thing that gets you to relax and forget all about work and problems, than you should give yourself a generous kitchen space. If you like having your friends over, playing games and talking, give more space for your living area, get some comfortable chairs, or pillows and cluster everything else in a small space.

How much time do you spend in your home? What are your favorites activities in there? Make space for them.Your home should express how you like to leave, what you like to do and offer you all the comfort for doing that. Your home should not restrict your mind. It should never force you to think "smaller" or deny yourself ideas or activities just because your home is not big enough.

When you choose your colors and furniture, forget about what is appropriate or in style. Look for ideas that you like, no matter how different and unusual. You can't fit in too much stuff in a small space, so it is very important to like each and everyone of the elements you bring into your life.

If you have a vivid imagination, if you are an artistic person, choose curtains rather then blinds. You will be amazed how easy it is to escape through the transparent plies of a soft curtain gently dancing in the wind. If you are a practical person that loves precision and well-defined elements, then definitely go for the blinds.

The colors are very important. Choose the colors for your home only when you are calm and serene, neither sad, nor happy. If you choose your colors when you are extremely enthusiastic and happy you might be tempted to choose colors that are much too strong and lighted, and which can become annoying in days when things are not very good. If you choose them when you are sad, you might be oriented towards choosing colors that are much too pale, or contain tones of gray that you might not even notice at first.

Choose texture that make you feel good and comfortable, and most of all that make you feel yourself. If you like smooth and fluffy textures, use them. If you like well defined, minimalist furniture, choose that. Yes, there are rules that help you make a small apartment look bigger, but you can use those rules and still have what you like. For tricks and tips about making a small space look bigger, I will let you now surf the Internet and ask master Google because there are hundreds of nice articles out there. A small tip, look for images first and then read the rules. You will understand them much better.

When you don't know

What do you do when you don’t know what to do? Where do you go when you don’t know where you want to get? Have you woke up one day, early morning with the sun in your eyes and the birds singing in your years and wandered where do you go from here?

You try to remember what was the plan. Get a good job, fall in love, maybe make a family, but you can't really remember what was supposed to feel like having all these. Or maybe none of it came true, you feel that you moved around in circles and you keep coming back to same point, to the same problems, to the same morning with the sun in your eyes when you wonder "where to now?".

Where do you go from here? And the answer is so simple you almost miss it: back to you. Always back to you. Back to what you love, back to what you dream, back to what you dreamed of when you were a child if you have the guts, back to who you really are beyond all the what you should be or must be for the others.

Riding a bike in the park on weekend, eating pasta in the middle of the night with a bear and a great movie, singing aloud in a karaoke bar with your friends or with total strangers, traveling to India, getting a dog even if you know it will eat your black, classy, business shoes, running around the block Sunday evening despite your old fat neighbors that would kill you with their eyes because you are still slim. Taking dancing classes, or learning how to box, joining an organization of volunteers hoping that you still have something to offer. Learning how to open your wings and fly. Again. Or maybe for the first time.

All the things that you think you have to do, they are not really yours. Under that "must be" recipe hides the true you. Your passions, your fears, your dreams, your hidden wishes. Nothing is ridiculous or illogical, or not for you or too late for you. Absolutely nothing.

Life is so short you couldn't imagine. You still can't. Not until you are 70 or 80 and your body is not really what it use to be. At 30 you are amazing and life is an open space. 

What you do when you don't know what to do? You start living. 

Where should you go when you don't know where to go? Anywhere you want because the sky is the limit and the world is endless. It's sole purpose is to help you define yourself and grow as a miraculous flower. And it waits for you.
 

Zucchini cream soup - 150 calories per cup

I love zucchini and I love garlic so this becomes one of my most preferred recipes of all times. The fact that preparing it takes less than half an hour is the reason that I laminated it and put in on my fridge in my "Easy to make" collection.

I like to cook, I love to eat but I don't really have so much time and space for very complicated recipes. So it became a hobby of min to collect tasty and easy to make recipes. If you keep your calories under control, a cup of zucchini creams soup is approximately 150 calories (52% fat, 34% carbs and 14% protein). Without the toasted bread :)

So, all you need to make this soup are:

• 3-4 medium zucchini (which I cut in small cubes)
• 750 ml chicken soup  
• 7 cloves of garlic (cut in small pieces) 
• 1 medium onion
• 1 teaspoon of butter
• salt
• pepper
• mint
• ginger

After you have washed the zucchini, onion and garlic and cut them in small pieces take your favorite pan, put it on the stove at low heat along with the butter, the onion and the garlic. When they become transparent and soft, put in the zucchini and cook for 15 minutes, low heat, until it softness.

Heat the chicken soup in a pot and through in the what you cooked in the pan. Add salt, pepper and ginger. Boil low heat  for 10-15 minutes. Put the soup through the blender.

Because you used butter you need to serve it a little heated. For an amazing taste some mint before serving and rub a garlic clove on the toasted bread. Bon apettit!

A "couple" of sports - Jogging and Tai Chi

Last year I discovered that it's much fun and easier to make not just one sport, but two. The main reason for this discovery is that I get bored very easy, especially if I am supposed to do the exactly same thing over  and over again. The second reason is the "return" point, like I call it and I'm referring to that point after starting a new sport, when you are extremely tempted to give up.

For me the "return" point is at about a month after starting jogging or tennis or any other sport I choose. It is determined by a combination of factors: first of all, if I stick with the plan and I go to gym or I get out to run every other day, after 3 or 4 weeks I start feeling really tired. The first week is great. It's a novelty, I'm strong, I like it, I'm out there doing my best. But by the third week, I start to feel that what was looking simple in the beginning, seems to be getting harder every day.

Second of all, I start feeling pain in my ankles, knees, wrists (if we are talking about a sport like tennis) and start wondering if I am doing it wright, or I will end up hurting my self. So, I start looking for information on how do it right, and besides my physical effort I now have an intellectual one also.

And the last, but not the least important, mentally I start to associate that sport more with work than with pleasure, and this makes me not to look forward with very much enthusiasm on my next session.

So, what do I do for all that? A few years ago I started jogging in the summer. I quit, I started again. I quit again, and started again. I am a very, very stubborn person and I truly believe that saying "Success is falling 7 times and getting up 8". So, last year, in the spring, I started again. But this time I combined jogging with Tai Chi. I don't really remember where I heard of Tai Chi for the first time, but I can tell you it does miracles.

Tai Chi is a very soft type of movement. Essentially is moving meditation, you move continuously but very slow using a set of movements that you can very easily learn from the Internet. What Tai Chi did for me was that it gave me a light sport session to look forward, after finishing the jogging one (I did one day Tai Chi, one day jogging). Also, it gave me time to relax my tired muscles in an active way and it strengthen my ankles, knees and wrists while enhancing equilibrium and concentration.

Don't get me wrong, Tai Chi is not a piece of cake either. Yes, you move very slowly but because you move continuously, it becomes challenging after 10 - 15 minutes if you are a beginner, and you inevitable start to sweat and your knees my start to tremble. It took me two months before Tai Chi transformed from work and, why not admitted, a little bit of frustration, into pure joy. But it's worth while. Between a soft sport and a more dynamic one, I doubled my chances to get it going with both of them for a long time.

This year I'm doing Aikido and Pilates. Martial arts are a passion of mine from childhood, in the category "why do you want to do when you grow up, get a job and have all the money in the world". My answers were "buy a big bag of bubble gum" and "learn martial arts". But about this combination, in the next article.

If you are curios of what Tai Chi looks like, I included some videos below. If you not familiar with this kind of sports, it might look hilarious in the beginning, but believe me when I say it gives you an amazing body, especially if you want to look fit but not to develop your muscles very much. Like yoga, it strengthens your core and enhances flexibility. Most of the movements are also used in martial arts either as warm up, or as actual stances but done quicker. So if you are thinking of doing some kind of martial arts, Tai Chi will also help you with coordination and in learning some basic movements.

Most of the people I know are leaning either towards soft sports like yoga, pilates, Tai Chi, or towards dynamic sport like aerobic, jogging, tennis, kick boxing and so on, depending on their personality. So you might find it hard to combine two of different types because one does not really fit your style. I believe that we evolve by getting out of our comfort zone and trying new things.

If you are a very active person, Tai Chi or yoga will teach your mind to stay still for a second. They will teach you patience, relaxation and they will enhance your concentration at work.
If you are a very calm and still person, a dynamic sport like jogging, aerobic, martial arts will wake up your energy and give you a little boost that will make you see life a little bit different, even if you don't thing you need it.

Just pick a couple of sport you find fit or interesting for you, give yourself the benefit of the doubt and invest two months in this formula and after two months decide if it works for you or not. But not earlier. I am exaggerating here, but with a new sport, and especially if you are not an active person, you will get to hate it, before you will get to like it. So, put two months by default, no matter what (except medical cases, if something happens take a break) and make the decision after you're out of the woods.

Best of luck and keep on moving. If you have a preferred sport and you have already combine two, I would love to hear about it so leave me a comment!

Cool movies and songs

What is life without the little pleasures? Like movies and music. My favorites this week "Private Practice" and "I don't feel like dancing" with Scissor Sisters for the independent, strong and happy women world wide (that speak English).

1200 calories a day

I have never been great at being disciplined or not eating chocolate and not having real problems with my weight, I never really tried to follow a diet. The only thing that worked for me is the 1200 calories per day rule.

What does it mean? It means that for my weight and my lifestyle some applications say that I should eat around 1200 calories a day to get and maintain the desired weight (53 kilos or about 117 pounds). This is the ONLY rule and I can eat everything I want.

The trick is that if I eat junk food like a chocolate and a bag of snacks, I use approximately 1000 calories of my 1200 and then I get really hungry. So, the effect is that I am careful with what I eat. I eat chocolate, but not an entire one in a single day, I eat snacks from time to time and everything I like but in the right quantities. And it has done miracles for me because it gives me a lot of freedom. I am not stocked in some "must follow" recipes or aliments for day x, y or z.

I have over 3 months since I started this. I lost over 2 kilos. I know, it's not much but it is stable. I have already gotten used to eat 1200 calories a day without even checking it in my app (I use my Fitness Pal). I guess my stomach and my body have gotten used to this quantities. No advertising intended, I just get along well with this app. There are many more available out there.

My favorite breakfast is 1 avocado made with lemon juice, salt and a little bit of garlic, with toasted bread and a really juicy tomato. I put some cheese over all this if I have any. I usually finish this kind of breakfast with a piece of black chocolate. This happens somewhere around 9-10 in the morning. (this is approximately 400 - 450 calories).

Launch is somewhere around 14 o'clock. And, let's see my favorite (this week) is fried rice with vegetables and a piece of grilled fish (this is approximately 275 - 300 calories).

Dinner is for cream soups lately. I love zucchini cream soup, potato cream soup (extremely easy to make) and tomato cream soup which I will make this weekend with some fresh basil I grow in a flowerpot on my window sill (this is around 300 calories with toasted bread included).

I usually have a 200 - 300 calories difference that means some fruits during the day, ice cream, extra chocolate, etc. And, I found a way to bend the rules. If I used my calories and I want to eat something extra, like I'm in the mood for ice cream or some boiled corn or a some water Mellon, etc., etc. I go out for a run like 20 - 30 minute and ... get a extra "free space" for 100 - 150 calories. I don't know if this is okay, but for me it works.

If you jogg, you should pay atttention to your ankles and knees

Like any other sports you might start to practice, jogging will put pressure on your body but especially on your knees and ankles. You may not feel it after your first day, or after the first 3-5 runs, because your muscles will feel harder, but you will sure feel it later.

Very important: Take care of your ankles and knees, if they heart take a break.

There three ways to protect them while you are jogging:
- a proper warm-up
- running the right way
- proper equipment.

And there is a way of taking care of them when you are not running and that is making exercises that strengthen your knees and ankles. The best I found on the Internet and that I use I included below. The first is a short and very simple set of exercises that you can do each morning. I found it on KIM Fitness YouTube channel along with other amazing fitness routines so feel free to check it out and look for other types of exercises you might like.

This is another set of exercises I find really good. It uses an inclined block which you might not have but you can improvise and you find the details in the clip.

I am always looking for more efficient exercises so I will probably update this post so stay in touch. If you have your own cool exercise I would appreciate your contribution to this post, so, please, comment:)