food – mayah's site

intentionally

i’ve been on this journey of self-love for years now. i made this blog back in 2014 and if you look back at old posts you’ll see me raving about what it means to love someone or even yourself.

the way i define love now is the commitment to the bettering of oneself or another. so when i think of self-love, i think of what i actually do to better myself. that includes a lot of things, like sleeping, buy nutrious food to eat, cooking for myself, doing yoga, etc. my self love practices answer the question- what am i doing to help me?

so what am i doing to help me? lots of meditation and yoga. lots of meditating in yoga. lots of yoga in my meditations. i’m at the point where i’m doing yoga and meditating twice a day. i probably spend at least 2 hours daily for both. and honestly, it’s been amazing.

i feel more like me. more like me than i’ve ever felt. when i work during the day (i’m in graduate school full time), i am more reflective. i am more thoughtful. i put in more energy to my work and it’s a better quality.

i show up for myself everyday. i can count on my hands how many times in this last month i have not done yoga.

loving yourself doesn’t be have to be anything fancy. it’s just setting an intention. when setting your intention here are somethings to think about:

what makes me happy?
when do i feel most alive?
what’s one thing i can do today to make the day great?
how is my mindset reflective of what i want?
is there anything i can do to make the best out of the situation i am in?

by taking the time out to answer these questions and ones similar to it, you’ll start learning to identify what makes you happy and how you can incorporate that into your life. to often people turn to friends and others to make them happy. true happiness comes from within! cultivating your own happiness is your responsibility. start small. you’ll see big changes.

how to travel on a budget

Going to Atlanta was the first trip I ever paid for on my own! I was so proud of myself. Here are a few tips on how to travel on a budget.

Use google flights- they show you the best days to travel and when the cheapest flights are. Due to this, I went from a Wednesday to Saturday, because flying home on Sunday was really expensive.
1. I ended up flying Spirit, because it was the cheapest. I just took a personal bag (to go under the seat), because I wasn’t going to be gone long; pro-tip- pack light! even if you check a bag, anything over 50 pounds will cost extra!
I stayed in an Airbnb, which I really liked. Below I have a video of the place I stayed at. It was nice, and since I was able to split the price (I didn’t stay alone), I didn’t spend a lot. pro-tip; make sure that you select entire apartment or entire house, or else you will be staying in someone’s home with them!
Use uber. I made the mistake of taking a cab to the airbnb, from the airport which cost me $55! For the rest of the trip, I used uber, and spent less than that. pro-tip- use uberpool! It’s an option to carpool in an uber with other people who are headed in a similar direction than you. It’s a lot cheaper and doesn’t take much longer. From my experience, it worked out fine, since I wasn’t in a rush.
Bring/buy snacks. Buying food for breakfast and snacks, will save you a lot of money and time. For me, I don’t normally eat a very large breakfast so it worked out perfectly!
Pack all the products you’ll need! You want to make sure that you have all of what you need, so you won’t have to buy expensive products at the airport. pro-tip- pack candy and gum for the plane ride, so you don’t have to pay high prices at the airport

I hope these tips are helpful! Happy traveling!

Rest, Water and Food

Those are the three most important things you need to stay physically healthy. Doctors say it’s good to drink half your body weight in water, rest 8 hours a day, and eat all the foods on the food plate (which is posted below). Your body needs these things to function properly. Recently, my sleeping pattern has been off, not to mention this past weekend I worked 14 hours. Last night I slept around 13 hours, and only woke up three times (the second time was at 1:30, and I ate a small dinner). I’m saying all of this to say, take care of your body. Sleep. Eat. Drink. I know that I normally only drink water, so I drink around 90 ounces a day (which makes up for juice and stuff). Also, mediate. Meditation is super important in order to stay grounded and stay positive. Yoga also helps with this. I find that for me, working out also helps me to balance myself. I love to excerise (yes it’s a little hard to get into, but it’s worth it). Make sure that you are at peace with yourself and your life and you will always stay healthy. Have a great day!