Experimenting with Tim Ferriss' Experimental Lifestyle

Tim Ferris should be the ruler of the free world. Last year I read his book The Four Hour Workweek, and I'm about to start his brand-new book The Four Hour Body. Tim is a master at lifestyle design. Amazing because I'm pretty sure he's only a few years older than I am. That is to say, his first book is basically a guidebook on how to achieve the lifestyle you want while still bringing in plenty of money, money, money. He calls his experimentees (or the guinea pigs), the New Rich - those who do not want to be confined to an 8am-5pm workstyle for the next 50 years, those of us who want to have remote offices, work from remote locations, and mostly, get the most out of our workdays so that if we're done at 1pm, hey, go home. Who says you have to stay until 5. It's a look at why the arbitrary numbers of 8-5 have come to rule our life. Why most people wait their whole lives to take vacations, why we are confined to a desk, when you can actually do work from an island off the coast of Mexico. I actually tested out that last one, and it worked great.

He literally teaches you how to be efficient in emailing and communicating, how to get a virtual personal assistant (I'm considering this one), how to create a product to sell and bring in money with minimal day-to-day effort on your part. On days where I slip into my old habits and check my iPhone 465 times, I try to remember Tim, and his advice -- that there aren't too many true emergencies, and if you put down your phone, look around you and smell the roses, the emails will still be there for you to check later.

I have committed myself to one piece of advice, and I'm proud that I have stuck with it. I started "batching" my laundry. Instead of doing small loads of laundry throughout the week, I save everything for Sunday afternoon. It's awesome. Works like a charm. Saves so much time. I try to do the same for email - only checking it at 11 and 4, as he suggests, but this is more challenging since I sit at a computer most of the day. And, as a product of a generation that has sat at a computer for the majority of the last decade, this habit is hard to break, but on days that I do limit my constant email checking, I get much more done. Hmm he's right, again. Efficiency is the key to breaking the 8-5 drone.

I have yet to read his new book - where he personally put his body through a bunch of experiments for, I imagine, the ultimate goal of perfection. We'll see... Anyways, his blog is so much more fascinating than mine! Just google four hour work week blog.

Maybe it's the dreary weather, or maybe it's the fact that I've become so busy with new clients that I've been glued to a computer for at least 72 hours - which is mostly nothing unusual except that it's only Monday and the 72 hours consumed most of my weekend, but I had to post some pics from Isla Mujeres Mexico as a pick-me-up. If you love all things Mexican (as I do), Isla Mujeres is for you. Still remarkably undeveloped considering the little island is a 15-minute ferry ride from Cancun, it's beautiful, the Corona commercials were supposedly filmed there (and I believe it), and they have swing-set bars. My favorite island accessory. There was actually a swing-set bar that was out over the water, but while I was sitting on it having a fresh margarita made 5 inches from me, I didn't have my camera. And, I guess my memory will suffice. Maybe these pics will help ease me through the rain this week and ease the pain when I find out that my ever-deteriorating eyesight IS to blame on my law career - and my computer -  after all. 

Black Bean Brownies

I've been a fan of swaps for a few years now - that is to say, any bad-for-you recipe for which there is a tasty alternative. Hungry Girl, Lisa Lillien, is queen of swaps so that's actually where I got my start. As for brownie swaps, HG has a pretty good one. You take a box of devil's food cake and mix it with a can of pureed pumpkin. Ive tried it before and it was tasty enough for me to eat tons of it, but cake mix is still high in calories so you cant go crazy. Then I saw online that you can actually just add black beans to brownie mix with the same result... and THEN I found the ultimate swap. Black bean brownies - all natural and much healthier and its homemade! I was a little skeptical, but these are actually very fudgey and tasted banana-y, but that might have been because my bananas weren't very ripe. Also, for frosting I mixed together some Toffuti cream cheese, vanilla, smart balance "butter" and powdered sugar and wowza, I've had 3 brownies now.

Here's the recipe i used ( when i make it again, I'll add a little more raw sugar)

One 15 oz. Can of black beans
2 bananas (supposedly the riper the better)
1/3 C agave nectar
1 Tbs cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 C unsweetened coco
1/4 C raw sugar
1/4 C instant oats

Preheat oven to 350. Combine all ingredients except oats in blender or food processor. Then stir in oats. Pour into greased 8 x 8 pan. Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Here is the basic progression:

You can juuuust make out those black beans under the coco and cinnamon

Once it was blended up, I just stirred in the oats, and then it was ready to bake and voila

Finally, my own little taste with my vegan cream cheese frosting. 

I've finally, although very belatedly, entered the world of blogging. While I have an Immigration Blog, I thought it was about time to start this one, which basically consists of my daily, weekly and monthly obsessions and thoughts- and I'm on an iPad, which is so 2011 of me. Today's obsession is the exploration of Vegan cooking and my current muse is Alicia Silverstone. She has this deeeeeelicious breakfast fruity crunchy mix that is amazing as a snack as well.

I do not have any Spirulina (a green algea powder), but maybe one day I'll add it, since it is supposedly the up-and-coming food of the future. I'll just need to actually remember to buy it one day. Either way, you basically just get a couple of cups of any fresh chopped fruit and then you make this amazing sauce to pour over it - its almond butter, soy milk, maple syrup and orange juice and you pour that over the fruit and add cereal (I use any) and shredded coconut and voila!!

Below is Alicia's official recipe for 2 - which she learned from Woody Harrelson. It can be found in her book The Kind Life.

Makes 2 servings

2-3 cups of bite-size pieces of fresh fruit, such as kiwifruit, strawberries, bananas, avocados, apples, pears, or mango
2 teaspoons spirulina
1 1/2 tablespoons any nondairy milk
2 teaspoons almond butter (for this recipe, Alicia likes to use raw)
1 1/2 teaspoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons shaved fresh or dried coconut
1/2 cup kamut flake cereal

Divide fruit into two serving bowls. Use a fork to stir together the spirulina and soy milk in a small glass. Add the almond butter, and mix again. Stir in the syrup and orange juice, and give it a final stir. The sauce should be smooth and neither too thick nor too runny.

Pour the sauce over the fruit, and sprinkle with the coconut and cereal. Serve immediately.