Diet and travelling

We all eat. Most of us usually three or four times a day. Something we do that often is worth putting some thought into so we can do it right. Diet is incredibly important and has a huge effect on your physical and mental wellbeing, I wouldn't believe this if somebody told me (it's just food man, how can it affect your mood?!) but having personally experimented with it, I know what a difference it can make. I don't really know why, but I know that it does and that's enough for me to take some care with it.

In Australia I went through a period of about three months while I was working in the north of WA where I was going to the gym three out of four days and experimenting with a really strict diet called the Zone Diet. The basic premise is lean meats, vegetables, nuts, seeds, some fruit, little starchy carbs and no sugar, split into four or five meals throughout the day, each with carefully measured quantities of protein, fat and carbs. It sounds complicated because it is, and if I hadn't had the amount of free time up there that I did I'd never have bothered. Actually it gets quite easy to judge once you get used to it and I did have amazing results, physically I was (and probably still am) in the best shape of my life by far.

While I was working in Karajini, there was an unlimited supply of high quality food, and I had little else to do, so following this diet was pretty easy. Now its slightly different. Trying to survive solely on fruits, vegetables and lean meats in a country where all they eat is pizza and bread is quite difficult. Added to the fact that I don't have a routine and I don't even know where I'm going to be living each day, it becomes a pain in the arse and impossible to stick to.

I decided I needed to figure out a diet that is nutritious, cheap and frankly takes the thinking out of what I'm going to eat. Yesterday Luciana cooked some Brazilian food for me, the national dish is basically just rice and black beans but it tasted great and nutritionally it has pretty much everything you need. Black beans and rice are both phenomenally cheap and lightweight, so I went to the supermarket today and bought two tupperware pots and a bunch of brown rice and black beans (also soy beans which have more protein and are EVEN CHEAPER, 75 cents for half a kilo). I think if I can make this a baseline for my meals while I'm here, occasionally using fruit, vegetables and lean meats as a supplement rather than relying on them, I can eat pretty well. I also think you could eat for under a dollar a day on this diet which is ricockulously cheap.

I will try it for a while and if the flatulence problem doesn't get too out of hand, maybe I'll stick with it.