It’s uplifting and totally something to look forward to and stand for. And then because I was all inspired and feeling dreamy I decided to keep going and write goals. I know sexy, I was out of control.

So I want to share my manifesto with you. I think a manifesto goes hand and hand with having goals because when you set your self some principals they totally have to remind you the overall picture.

So here is my manifesto, and stay tuned for my goals. And by the way, I am not trying to be pretentious in thinking that you care about my goals but I totally believe that reading somebody else’s goals can be inspiring. So I just do it to get some inspiration out there.

1. Remember Simple Rules. And, keep in mind that simple sometimes doesn’t mean practical. Also keeping in mind I don’t need super expensive shoes, or more furniture, or a bigger place, or a better car. I just need what I have, I actually need less. And remembering this will make me understand and really worry about the things I need to do to make a difference.   

2. Eat to live jumping. Eat food that gives me energy, choosing Natural Foods over foods with “hormones, antibiotics, sweeteners, foods colors or flavorings that are not originally in the food.”  I hate when I am bloated, or grumpy and feeling draggy and that happens when I over eat and eat things that my body doesn’t like, like dairy or sugar. After I eat cake I always want more and more sugar but the next day I wake up all grumpy and basically with a food hangover. So stop the bullshit! Sugar is crack and it makes me so happy, but so sick, too. So no more sugar, and be done with the cheese, for real and for all. At least my rule now is: if I don’t know the farmer that made it I am not eating it. 

3. Surrender surrender surrender! Trash what is not working in my life, forgive what I and others have done wrong and let the Divine Spirit do it’s magic.

4. Open my mind. Be truly conscious, and stop ignoring big things that are happening in the United States and in the world. My goals have to be aligned with the true matters on the planet like poverty, hunger, homelessness, lack of water, etc.

5. Pray often. if I could have done it alone, I would have done it all ready.

6. Educated myself, read, read read, and listen, listen, listen. Be open for new and innovative ideas. It’s boring to always think the same way and that is just means you are getting stuck. I love when I am super stubborn about an idea and I argue with someone, maybe my husband?, for hours and then once I put my ego aside, only then I can see, understand and relate to what he thinks. Its beautiful to be able to feel and comprehend his ideas, and somebody else’s.

7. Be honest and love. This emplies to so much. It’s ridiculous.

8. Dish it. Yeah everything sounds perfect but I have to be willing to dish everything and not set this manifesto as THE rules to live by. You know I am a total perfectionist psycho so I can easily get al wild and stress the hell out of me just trying to fallow everything to the dot. Obviously this manifesto is not going to fit with my schedule and I have to be willing to just be present enjoy the moment.

This life that I have gets in the way of my writing.

I have a job, from 9 to 6. Like a normal American person. It feels right for this right moment. And I am trying to do it all. Just like you. But in in the process my brain freaks out and creates unnecessary thoughts.

The other day, I was in my hip mood, dancing and all and then I just start thinking “you are too comfortable, you should be doing the things that scare you”. And for a moment I almost embrace that thought. But I know better.

I do think about doing “what scares me.” You know because you hear that all the time, every where. But come on! There are a lot of things that scare me and I am not doing. Like I am really scared of  taking a bath really late a night with out my man in the house. Because I think somebody is going to come in and kill me. I never will never do it!  I will never take a shower later at night with out somebody in my house. I guess I am a wimp.

Sometimes I think I should  just write down all the things that scared me and do them all, just for fun. To make my life more adventurous.

But, not today.

And I know the whole slogan “do what scares you” should be positive and encouraging but is not, at least not for me.

I lived like that for a long time, I did too many things on the name of that slogan. And a lot of them where very stupid mistakes. So NO don’t do what scares you. Do follow your dreams, be kind and work hard!

At any sport, to win you have to work hard, play by the rules, and most important, stay in the game. I use these same rules for life. Often I see people in this game called life getting sad, mad or pouting, and dropping the ball and leaving at half time.

Like when you decide to eat super healthy and you start on your goal on Monday and then by Wednesday you are all ready eating the whole gallon of chocolate ice-cream. Or when you decide to be more organized and then you find yourself leaving your closet a mess after a rushy, crazy morning. Or when you decide to stop smoking and after a crazy day at work you find yourself smoking that last cigarette you found inside of the drawer of your desk by “accident”.

Relax, It’s fine! Like they say, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” 

Don’t get your ass too crazy on those things. Don’t forget your overall goal. It’s okay if on Wednesday you ate the whole cake, by Thursday you remember your overall goal and you choose a salad. No big deal. You eat it, you enjoy it, and now you move on!

Don’t doubt yourself. Be confident that you are on your way to whatever you want to accomplish. Everyday, every bad and good experience gets you closer to obtaining it. You learn from everything.

Often, I see people leaving their goal for a stupid mistake or a bad day. They judge themselves and let go of their dreams so quickly. Whatever your goal is don’t forget  to stay in the game. Stay strong, get your positive attitude on, don’t compare yourself with anybody and trust that you will win; you will accomplish it.

Just trust.

Even though I presume of being a rehabbed shopaholic, I still buy more than what I need. It’s obvious just come and take look at my closet; embarrassing.

And now I am sitting in my living room, looking around, and I am so grateful for all the stuff I have. Like always, I feel a bit guilty. You know, because I know there is someone in the world at this same exact second suffering, hungry, or in need of some type of health service. And that is not fair. That breaks my heart in little tiny pieces.

And  sometimes when I look at everything I own, I don’t want it anymore. I want to give it away. Yeah! And prove just to me that I don’t need it. That I would probably be happier with out it.That all I need is my man, my dog and a pair of sparkly turquoise shoes. I am at a point in my life where having nothing excites me as much as having it all. Whatever all means.

How many more things do I need?

How much space do I need to take?

200 pairs of shoes? 500?

Does all that stuff really makes me better?

Happier?

The answer is common sense now, obviously all the stuff has no true value in my life. The true happiness comes in those moments when I take chances, when I live in spirit, following my bliss. And in true business I know the sparkly stuff is just a side of the Ego to distract me from my true duty.

Implementing a Vegan or a Vegetarian life style doesn’t make sense. It’s just doesn’t, because it’s not practical or convenient for anybody, I totally get it. The majority of us are born in a meat eaters household and we’ve been eating animal products since then.

Being Vegan it’s a lot of work. It takes a ton of time and research, and it can be totally overwhelming. Truly, I don’t like to spend hours at the grocery store looking at every single product and at every single ingredient of everything I buy checking for eggs or milk. And to be an honest Vegan I have to research every product I buy and make sure that it comes from an honest facility.

I trust nobody. I do my own research. And that is totally inconvenient. I mean in an ideal world I should be able to trust the FDA to do their job.

Also being Vegan is expensive. I mean that is probably because I like to buy organic too, but seriously to this date, to be a completely balanced Vegan I feel I have to spend more money for groceries and for food at restaurants than meat eaters. For example, you can buy a value meal for $3 bucks and with 3 bucks I can’t not even buy organic blueberries. And it’s totally not fair that when you order a salad with no chicken at any restaurant I have to pay for the chicken still.

And what about the looks you get from other people when you tell them you are Vegan? I am serious. I think I can get a better reaction if I tell them I was a coke addict than a Vegan. Yeah, it’s not cool when you go to your office Christmas party and you have to order off the menu and your boss is looking at you like you are smoking some weird shit. People get all snarky.

Seriously I am making my life harder. I mean I am a Mexican, a woman, and a Vegan. Two of those things I didn’t decide for myself. Like seriously, think about it, the difference between meat eaters and vegans is that we Vegans just like to make things more complicated for ourselves.

So if it’s so freaking inconvenient why do I do it?

Well, see, I am a dreamer. Sounds lame right?  Well it doesn’t stop here, my lameness proceeds.

I believe in equality, I believe one person can change the universe and I care for you and them. I truly do. I may not know you in person but I care for you. I know you care for me, too. It breaks my heart in little tiny pieces to know that every night 14 million children in America go to bed hungry. Picture that. Isn’t it sad? You may never suffer hunger. I never have, but just thinking about it makes me extremely sad. I want to do something about it. I want to help.

What does helping eliminate hunger have to do with being Vegan? Lets connect the dots people! There’s nothing so pervasively damaging to our environment – and to world hunger – than eating animals. Bottom line it cost more to produce a piece of steak than producing rice and beans. Because it takes more space, food and energy to sustain livestock. So basically the fact that you are having a a burger helps increase hunger in America and in the World.

I can adjust to inconvenience, but I can’t imagine somebody adjusting to hunger.

I am trying to learn as much Italian culture as possible, you know, for that trip that I am going to take next week. I’ve been in Italy before, but that was 4 years ago, so obviously I don’t know anything about their politics anymore. I just didn’t keep up. You know, other countries are very aware of American politics.

If you have been in other countries and tried to speak to the locals you know what I am talking about. They know a ton of facts about the US. Foreigners are well informed. Like sometimes they even know more about our politics than we do. Or at least that is how it seems.

So anyway, I was reading that this guy the Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is a piece of shit. But let’s first say that I love Italian last names and for the longest when I was single I thought I was just going to marry an Italian boy for the last name, but the PM’s last name is ugly and it doesn’t sound sexy it all. And if you happen to have that last name, never mind then.

This dude has endured 105 judicial probes and trials and 2,500 court hearings and spent more than 300 million euros in legal fees defending himself against allegations of tax fraud. bribery, corruption, and more.

Signore Silvio is a very sick man, and you should not be friends with him or anybody that looks like him. The Prime Minister paid to have sex with a minor, a young Moroccan dancer whose stage name is Ruby Heartstealer. That’s right, she got an English stage name. I think that is totally dumb because she could had some very exotic name but I guess having a name in English is exotic because she lives in Italy. DUH!

And of course like any sick man, he has his nasty followers. There are some statistics saying that 61% of the Italians would vote for him in the next election. The majority of those people share his conviction that the Democratic Party is riddled with communist, or who admire him as Italy’s ultimate self-made man and model of virility. Blah!

I get extremely excited about holidays, or any important date that I have in my imaginary calendar. Yeah like all my energy goes to waiting anxiously for the special date and preparing for it. For starters, lets talk about one of the most important holidays: Christmas. I was totally enthusiastic about it. I started waiting for it once Thanksgiving was over.

I know some people prepare for months buying present and collecting recipes, and some others start cooking early, maybe making some things even a week early. It’s just a ton of pure excitement and HO-HOs happening. And then to add to this capirotada, the media and the consumerist behaviors add more excitement to my  freaky jumpy energy. Same with New Years, Valentines Day, and any other holiday. But then it’s always the horrible day after. Yep, yep, I hate the day after any holiday. The day after any holiday I am blah. I am a nobody. I never know what to do with myself and then I start questioning things like “why I am here” “what is my purpose in life,” – a complete fiasco!

It’s way too harsh to have all this candy, food, drinks, presents and then, then? What? The next day? NADA! So yeah, I do get more than a little bit down the day after any holiday.

I don’t know why I get so excited about holidays. I am sure it’s not my fault. It’s probably one of those things I can blame my mother for.

I propose we should have a mini-celebration after a holiday. And then another much smaller celebration after that one. And maybe we can keep going gradually down. Brilliant! But let’s be realistic. We know that it’s not going to happen even if we want it to happen. We are too tired from the holidays that we don’t want to really do anything after.

Oh and before you go “come on Aidee! Just don’t get SO freaking excited so you don’t get so freaking down the day after” Whatever! That doesn’t work with me, I can’t control myself. Stupid holidays! I wish they would come without the day after.

Anyway, I know you probably can’t sleep since my Valentine’s post wondering what I got from the man that makes me laugh until I pee. Well prepare yourself to be jealous because I got the most thoughtful present from all the history of presents: a super cute watch from Sprout.  My favorite color and all. Sprout is a company that has been selling watches for 50 years and they dedicate themselves to being environmentally aware and to seeking ways to be kinder to the earth. Just like me!

At least 80% of my watch is made from Eco-friendly materials. I love it that they come in different colors and I think you should get one because it looks extremely cool and I all ready had two people asking me about it. So go get you some girl!

Oh, oh and the watch comes with some sprouts! Genius! And now go floss, because people who floss lives 6 years more than those who don’t.

Every year I deal with the combination of consumerism and guilt. Since Valentines day is not a real holiday, I mean it’s not Christmas or my birthday. Those two are the only ones I consider important. Oh yeah and of course our first kiss anniversary and don’t let me forget our wedding anniversary either. If I keep thinking I am going to end up realizing that Valentines Day is actually an important holiday and I may add it to my top 3 holidays.

Anyway, yeah, Valentines Day is another holiday probably created by a very smart marketer. I bet right now she is drinking martinis in her own private island laughing at the whole Cupid story. Actually that can’t be true, but somebody for sure is getting the benefits of all our red and pink buying .

Today I was not thinking about the ones that needed my money the most, I was selfish and I was just thinking about my man and making him feel special. He did the same for me. So when I got my presents. I didn’t feel guilty. It was okay. I keep convincing myself it’s okay.

I love today, I possibly will return some of my presents and donate the money to the Farm Sanctuary. That doesn’t matter right now, I just love I got to show the love to the rock star and the great conversations that I get to have with him. He gets me so inspired about possibilities that lie ahead for us.

I Love that we’re  Together. Happy Heart Day!

I get confused with the overload of nutritional information that’s available. Just this morning I was reading that popcorn was bad for you. WHAT?? This is terrible news. The NY times is stupid and probably deeply unhappy with themselves and because of that, now they want to make my movie experience shit. They are talking about movie popcorn, so now I am writing a letter to the the corporation in charge of the movie theaters asking them to make my delicious snack healthier. I guess I do have too much time on my hands. I hope they listen to me. I doubt it. For now NO more popcorn in movie theaters for me.

Nutrition in this country is extremely confusing. I am constantly hearing about new studies proclaiming the health benefits of certain food. One day they say that yogurt is good for you, the next day it’s bad. It is the same with coffee, wine, eating meat, dairy, salt and soy products. The information I get as a consumer depends in whoever pays for the study.

Lets add the fact that I come from another country so my confusion goes to the maximum level of confusions. The information can dramatically change from one country to another. And when I try to find the right information, I find myself frustrated.

I constantly want to punch the food industry with my imaginary pink boxing gloves because they clearly don’t care about the health of the American population, and all they care about is feeding their pockets with the greens.

They make our job as consumers pretty hard. There is constant questionnaire about what I eat: what is this made of? Can I eat high-fructose corn syrup? Why not? Why is it bad? Why did the FDA let them put it in a product to be sold to me? Why do they let candy be made with animal fat? Why does chocolate have pig fat? Why is organic more expensive? Why do healthier foods cost more?

We all deserve to eat organic, healthy, fresh food.

“Good nutrition is straightforward and simple, yet in America, public nutrition has been dictated by a corporate agenda to maximize profits. What did we end up with? Confusing dietary advice, a marketplace saturated with low-quality food and a population of sick, overweight people.”

We can do better. We must do better.

And to do so, we need to understand the fundamental relationship between poor nutrition and the lamentable state of the population’s health.“What we eat makes a enormous difference in our health; yet very few doctors, corporations or politicians stand for this truth.”

Prevention is the key to help the health crisis in America. And yeah my friends I sadly like to break the news to you: we are in a health crisis in America. We spend more money on Health Care and we are sicker than other countries and we don’t live as long either. Our grandparents, our parents, ourselves and our children are getting sicker and sicker and we have no other option than claim our right to health. It’s simple and it starts with choosing better food.

Here are some facts:

America spends more than $2.5 trillion a year on health care, so you would think we would be the shining example of health and happiness throughout the world. Yet, chronic diseases are the epidemic of our generation.

In 1980, less than 50% of Americans were overweight; today that number is more than 65% and growing.

80% of preventable disease risk factors are influenced by behaviors like smoking, over-eating, poor diet or lack of exercise.

One-third of all children today will eventually suffer from diabetes.

By 2020, it is estimated that half of all Americans will have a chronic disease.

Wellness and prevention, to me, is one of the true keys to changing the health paradigm in this country.

-First Lady Michelle Obama

*I grabed some of the facts and the quotes from http://www.integrativenutrition.com/

I am going to Italy in March with my lover and I am learning Italian. Not really. I have some podcasts downloaded on my phone, but I never ever listened to them. It’s fun to learn a new language. I know that because English is my second language, and it was fun to learned it. It’s still fun to discover new words.

I love languages. I think they are just alluring. I am subscribed to the Italian Groupon just because I like to get Italian e-mails. And I once had an Italian girl student in my yoga class and I have to admit, when I found out she was Italian I got a happy feeling in my belly.

I think Italian and Portuguese languages are so similar to Spanish, and it would be really easy for me to just learn them.  Actually, I know for a fact Portuguese is easy to learn for me and it would take no time to speak it, because I kind of have learned in the past. Yes I did, I forgot it all now. But I can claim that in the past I had a conversation in Portuguese (Lets call it Portuspanish).

See I went to Brazil  for a while some years ago. And I stayed with a non-english speaker family and I communicated just fine. I learned some simple words, I  had my dictionary on hand all the time and before I knew it I was having serious conversations about politics and emotional girl stuff over the greatest pedicures ever.  By the way Brazil has the best beauty treatments, the best part is the prices. So cheap you would want to have a pedicure every day.

Anyway, my portuguese was pretty good and I am proud to say there where no caipirinhas involved. Because we all know alcohol helps when speaking another language. But to your surprise I don’t think speaking a language under the influence of anything counts. So this goes to my sister-in-law, you don’t speak Chinese. I know I have spoken many other languages under uncountable tequila shoots and late nights. Usually alcohol tends to help to speak a new language. Like my Romeo, his Spanish gets sooooooo much better when he has a few Margaritas on him.

I miss Brazil. I think I have said this in a past blog. One day I may buy a home down there. Now I am getting all melancolic about Brazil and the family that I stayed with. Brazil is amazing. It’s my favorite country, oh wait I love Peru, too. Never mind about favorites, I love too many places to have just one. Talking about places and languages I should be learning French, too. Remember I am a bit obsessesed with France.

I have this very active and powerful sensation inside of me that is calling me to learn French, Portuguese, and Italian.

OMG, OMG, OMG! I have a brilliant idea! I should first learn Italian. This time for real. That is what I am going to do, I am going to study Italian. By March I will be able to ask for a doppia caffe latte. Actually I was able to ask for that when I was there last time.  Oh, I want a doppia caffe latte now. It’s like a latte but bolder and full of flavor, so strong that after drinking it you may just want to start running in a maratton. Literally.

I learned how to ask for a doppia caffe latte the accidental way though. I asked for a latte and all I got was steam milk. Then later that night I talked to one of the locals. And he explained to me how to ask for it, he also recommended to ask for doppia caffe latte.  Brilliant!

Anyway, I am serious about learning Italian. I will learn some charming phrases and then maybe I can have political and girly conversations with the locals.

I can’t wait to go to Italy. Italy has LOVE written all over. It’s like Italians where born all ready in love. The energy there is so liberating. You see people kissing everywhere. Italians don’t care about showing public affection, you see them kissing in every corner, like Starbucks here in the United States. Italians don’t care about arguing in front of you either. I love it.

And yeah you should be thinking to go somewhere this year, somewhere exciting, because every country opens the door for a new you. A better you. And now for me,  lesson #1 from this Italian book I got a year ago. Oh it’s about time.

Arrivederci and grazie for reading my blog!