This morning, I bolted out of bed, aware that I needed to cut it into bite-size pieces and then marinate the meat for tonight’s dinner: Chicken, Broccoli, and Peanut stir fry. Yesterday, I did a lot of chopping and dicing of the vegetables, including onions, broccoli, mushrooms, celery, fresh ginger, and garlic.
Also, I needed to make our daily salad of romaine lettuce, carefully washed and cut into bite-size pieces, shredded cabbage, celery, and grape tomatoes. I make salad dressing using Greek yogurt, salt, and sweetener, tossing the salad right before dinner. Tom eats a small bowl of salad, and I always have a large portion. However, I eat about half as much as his main course. while he enjoys his white rice each evening.
Today, I have to fold the now-dry laundry on the indoor rack and put everything away. But, a little later, after I am done with today’s post, I am doing Day 2, my new 28-day exercise regime, from an app I found online entitled Better Me, which is an intense chair yoga program.
I’ve never been one to do yoga. But, after yesterday’s first day, I realized how badly I am out of shape, and walking is not improving my strength and stamina in my muscles. Also, my legs continue to hurt while walking, and I thought perhaps this program would help improve my leg strength in a more focused manner. I will continue to walk, but not as much, and will focus on combining these two modalities.
The entire yoga workout is 21 minutes, and with another 15 minutes of walking each day, that is enough for me for now. I don’t have a yoga mat and don’t want to carry one worldwide; thus, this chair method is ideal. The only “tools” I need are two water bottles or other equivalent items such as cans or other identical bottles of anything of the same weight and size and a chair.
I will try this for the 28-day program, and if I find it beneficial, I will continue. The nice part about this program is that I can do it anywhere we may be in the world. I don’t need a fitness center or equipment. Much to my surprise, I was actually feeling like I was working out and feeling a little stiff today, which is good.
This morning, I paid our second installment for our rent in South Africa, and before we get there, our three-month rent will be paid in full. The only “rent” we have to pay up until next September is the final installment on the place in Apache Junction, which is only $800, our hotel in Los Angeles when we visit my sister, and the about seven nights of hotel bills on our road trip to Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
We already paid so much that it’s comforting to know we’re only a few thousand dollars away from having all of our rental obligations paid into half of September 2024. The odd thing about world travel is that most rental situations require payment in full in advance of our arrival. In a “normal” life, most people pay rent or mortgage payments., one month at a time instead of paying any of this in advance.
The only other financial obligations we have each month are groceries, dining out and entertainment, flights, fuel and car rental, health insurance, and expenses relative to our website maintenance. Of course, there are federal tax obligations along with all of that. But we love not paying cable and utilities, although we pay for a few streaming services, never more than $60 monthly.
Each month, we pay Google Fi less than $80 for cell phone services, the best plan we’ve found so far befitting our nomadic lifestyle. It’s great not to pay a car payment and insurance since we often drive a new car with all the features we need, with no maintenance costs, and the credit card we use covers the insurance for the first 30 days. That’s why we’ve been trying to pick up a new car every 30 days. Annually, a rental car costs a maximum of $8100, or $675 a month.
We pay for everything using credit cards that acquire lots of reward points and pay them off each month, often using our accumulated points for additional future travel. It all works out well for us.
That’s it for today, folks.
Be well.
Photo from ten years ago today, February 26, 2014:
