3 major changes I’ve made

Has been already 14 months since I started to make significant changes in the way I live, in order to build a new and completely different lifestyle.

I started a long and demanding process of re-educating some of my needs, habits and thinking about the stuff I do. I was basically digging into a system to understand how it works. This process includes awareness about self and continuous introspection. The second step was to see what I want to change, what I can change and what I need to accept about myself.

The biggest goal was to change my lifestyle. I usually don’t care much about things, but rather about experiences and learning. I wanted to create discipline and consistency.

Suddenly everything was about will and motivation. I was following this simple thing – Your body won’t go where your mind don’t take it!

At the end of the day it’s all good mental training

1. Alcohol.

In December 2015 I celebrated Winter Holidays in Berlin. During my vacation I had time to read, relax, explore the city and contemplate. I read a phenomenal book about habits called “The power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg. I wanted to understand the mechanism and science behind my behaviour.

One reason I don’t drink is that I want to know when I am having a good time. Nancy Astor

In 2015 one of my new Years Resolution was to stop drinking alcohol. No alcohol at all! So I did it but kept some exception, which I call “special events”, where I drink wine. Good wine!

I was never a big drinker and never really enjoyed drinking. I was living in Berlin, where people gather around food and drinks. I didn’t care much about the role that drinking is playing in social life and meeting new people, especially in the Startup world.

2. Food.

Food was a topic that started to interest me for more than 2 years now. I moved a lot in the last 3 years, from different cities to different countries. I experienced different lifestyle, work cultures and social events around food.

Living in big cities like Berlin, Lisbon or even Bucharest, gets hard to keep a balanced life and eating properly. I was getting tired of eating my lunch in different places, having breakfast in metro or bus stations or having dinner too late at night. I wanted to completely change that!

Food is the place where you begin. Vandana Shiva

Big shift happened in between. In the last 14 months I have been not only creating a list of stuff that I don’t longer eat or drink but I’ve realised that I succeeded in replacing old habits and having the power of not making exceptions, even during peer pressure, which I sometimes find hard to manage or resist.

I don’t have weigh issues and I am getting to that point where the new habits are so strong that I don’t longer think or feel like I want to eat something that is on the unhealthy list.

I don’t measure calories intake and all that stuff but I’ve developed a discipline around food and its importance for health, body and sport performance. How much we move is connected with how much we eat, but more about this topic, I will explain in a further article. 🙂

3. Sport.

I was very active in sports during my primary and high school. I played handball for around 7 years or so. I started in the primary school team, continued in the high school team and later on I was part of the local handball city team, where I’ve had some tough and very competitive teammates.

I always enjoyed physical activity and since I finished my high school till now, I’ve had periods of intense physical activity but nothing consistent or linear.

Last summer in 2015 I started to be very active in sports. I was really into body building around four times per week. One month later I start running and biking. In between, the biggest pleasure and relaxation was gardening in my father’s garden, which was close to Danube Delta River.

At this point of my life sports has become a form of self-expression, education and mental training. I am working now on prioritising daily and weekly activities. The purpose is to create a discipline around making more intense physical activity like (trail) running and functional training.

Everything you need is already inside. Bill Bowerman

I find the process very challenging because sometimes I feel trapped about daily activities that suck my energy. It’s not about making time for a longer running session. I think it’s actually about energy management more than anything else.

There are big learnings about self and new discoveries I make during the process. What I love the most is that I can apply learnings and principles in both, my personal life and professional career.