I think the overall quality of the writing I’ve done so far is good and could be of value to my readers. But I’m lacking in both execution and knowledge when it comes to other subjects:

• SEO: or Search Engine Optimization. Since I’m using WordPress with a theme that has SEO build in, my on-site optimization is pretty good, but far from perfect. I also have to make sure that my content is optimal for both search engines and humans. Off site optimization is non-existent, except for some incoming links I’ve put up. I have a general understanding of the concept now and are applying some of its rules, but that needs to be better.
• Social Media Strategy: I’ve already have some strategy in place with an accompanying Twitter account to the blog, where, besides the posts on the blog, I share things related to its subject. This needs to be build upon further and I especially have to make sure that I use the different channels to their strength.
• Marketing/Promotion: when it comes to marketing/promoting the site there’s still a lot of work to do. Partly this is because I want to make sure that before I start with this I have quality content already up and partly because I still need to learn how to do this effectively.

There’s still a steep learning curve for me here and I know that. I’ve started to learn SEO now and will move to social media strategy after that. Marketing and promotion will be last on the list. I’ve chosen this order because I think it’s the order of most importance.

Since I want this experiment to work, I really don’t mind going about this. I have to admit it’s a bigger challenge then I first anticipated, but that makes it worth while.

Besides having a great holiday in september, I also did a small experiment: I asked for what I wanted. Whether it’s about some extra perks you can get in the hotel/hostel you’re staying, a more personalized dish in a restaurant or better seats on a flight. There are a lot of possibilities out there which are not willingly advertised, but are feasible nevertheless. And all you have to do is just ask.

It’s also a trick of wording your question just right. When booking a rafting trip I thought the price was a bit high. So I asked him if any type of discount was available. When the answer to that was no, I asked if there were any combination trips available which would lower my price. When it turned out that I could also book a personal driver for a day there, which would help me get from Sanur to Ubud AND look at some sights along the way, which would half the price of the rafting and get a 25% discount on the ride I booked immediately.

I did have one rule though: when the definite answer was no, I didn’t push further. I hate it when people nag about something not being possible (especially when you notice the person you ask is trying to help but just can’t) so it would be wrong for me to do it myself. When something just wasn’t possible I thanked them for trying and let it go.

Asking for what you want is a bit of a trick and for me a change in mindset. You often think that when it’s not advertised it’s not possible, but that proved to be a wrong assumption in some cases. As said, the wording of the question is important and if you do it right the benefits can be great. I know it helped me enjoy my holiday more than I already did.

There are a couple of reasons why I want to try this. a) I’ve been toying with the idea of running a (professional) blog for a while now b) it would give me a chance to learn about running a business and branding c) I could do something with a subject I’m passionate about (travel) d) it seems like fun.

I’ve already done some research to see if there’s a chance of succeeding with the goals I’ve set myself (see those below) and it seems there is. So that’s a good thing. Although my strategy isn’t exactly set in stone right now, it will feature a blog that will be the central hub of it all. I’ve bought the domain name and a friend of mine is now tweaking the theme (my php-skills where just lacking too much). I have some ideas on how to monetize (there are several options like ads, sponsored posts, affiliate marketing, products etc. etc) and promote it (guest posts, article marketing, social media) and I want to have that strategy ready to go by launch date.

As with every experiment there should be some goals. I’m aiming for a August 1st launch and in half a years time (so that’s February 1st 2012) I would like to make 100 euro a month from it. Everything that’s above that is a bonus. Also I would like to create some form of community with people who feel as passionate about the subject as I do. I also want to see if there can be some opportunities that derive from me doing this.

As said, there are still some details to work out on how I’m going to go further with this, but luckily that’s what experimenting is all about. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Then some time ago I stumbled upon the site of Mark Sisson. A former pro marathon runner and triathlete, he wrote a book called The Primal Blueprint where he outlines a lifestyle that promises better health, loss of weight/weight management and a good eating experience. Sounded to good to be true at first to me, but the more I read his site, the more it made sense to me. So I ordered the book, read it cover to cover and decided to give it a month to see if it would stick.

If you want the elevator pitch to what primal living is, it’s this: eat what you want, as long as they are no sugars, corn/grain based foods, legumes or artificial. Move around a lot at a slow pace, do 2 weight-lifting (bodyweight) and one sprint session a week and enjoy. Sisson gets more detailed in his book of course (using his 10 laws) but that’s the gist of it. So how did I fare during this month?

The Good:

• The promise of weightloss was true: I lost 3.1 kg this month. The change in my diet was mostly cutting out the corn/grain based and sugary foods (but not entirely: more on that later) and keeping a food dairy. The latter helped me understand foods more and how you could fill your day with foods that would give you everything you needed.
• No hunger feeling.
• Great recipes for lunch and diner.
• Feeling better. This is of course very subjective, but I seem to sleep better, have more energy and just have that better overall feeling.
• I can still have my Meatless Mondays. Although eating meat is highly recommended due to its protein value, you can still go all veggie or vegetarian if you want to.
• The 80/20 rule. We’re all humans and despite you may strive for 100% success it’s certain you’re going to fall off the wagon at some point. Sissons solution for this is his view that you have to aim for perfect, but you need to get it right at least 80% of the time.

The Bad

• It seems I have the backbone of a sea horse when it comes to sweets and italian pastry, which are pretty much no-no’s in primal living. During this month, I’ve indulged myself in eating chocolate, chocolate covered “pepernoten” and pizza (although I’ve discovered there’s a primal alternative) on a pretty regular basis. If I didn’t I may have even better results, so I’ve taken it upon myself to better myself in this area.
• Social situations make living primal difficult. When you’re out and about with friends there’s often some kind of eating involved. Maybe that’s having a slice of pizza, grab a burger, eat some pasta. All of those are not at all considered primal. You quickly realize that eating primal in restaurants is a tough task. You also don’t want to be a hassle to your friends turning down every option they come up with. Luckily there’s the 80/20 rule, but it can be a bit of a problem
• Breakfast. Most of the breakfast recipes I came across are egg-related. I don’t  mind the occasional egg, but not every morning. Solution to this have been that I skip breakfast (if I’m not hungry that is) on most days I don’t have to work or eat fruit. But it would be nice to have some other form of breakfast.

Miscellaneous

• Part of the Primal Blueprint is the exercising part where you move alot at a slow pace, do 2 weight and 1 sprint session a week. I haven’t implemented that at all. These sessions are designed to take little time but high impact (max 20 minutes) and the book provides evidence that chronic cardio is not always benificial. The moving at a slow pace is highly implemented: cycling to work, going hiking, walking to stores etc, etc. The weight lifting part I’ve done maybe once or twice. The routines are straight forward enough and consist of body weight exercises but as with many weight exercises they just don’t excite me. The sprinting exercise for me is my weekly Spinning session. According to Sisson it’s part of the chronic cardio and should be done sparingly, but I enjoy that way too much to give it up. I do want to change my approach to this though and am planning to give that weight training a second change.
• Primal Community. There’s a large community when it comes to primal living and you can find all kinds of sites who give you tips and recipes for expanding/simplify your experience. This has been of great help.

Primal living goes against common knowledge on a various subjects of what is considered healthy living. This could scare people off. Although for me it still is a bit of a work in progress as you can conclude from my story above, I enjoy primal living extremely. The benefits for me greatly outweigh the downsides for which I think there are solutions I just haven’t found/thought of. I can see myself living this way for a long time.

To give you a bit of a background I now speak 3 languages well (my native Dutch, English and German) and a little bit of French. That knowledge has helped me on earlier travels, but since I’m now going to a part of the world where Spanish is the main language I do not have a real fallback when it comes to communicating. I looked at different courses, but the traditional ones don’t offer much because even with an increased learning speed it will take you several months to learn the language.

Then I remembered reading an article by Tim Ferriss on how he learns languages quickly. As he mentions in the article it’s not so much about mastering the language but knowing enough about it to put it to good use. So I put his methods to the test to find out if it would work for me.

Pretty soon I started to understand what was being written (Engadget Espanol helped me with that one). When it comes to actually understanding to what is said (I watched some football and basketball with Spanish commentary) it’s another matter. Maybe it’s because of the difference in phonetics or the fast speed with which they speak but I was able to understand maybe 5-10% of what was being said.

Despite that fact I’m pretty impressed with how his method worked. I’m sure that if I have time to put in a little more effort to perfecting my way of working it (which sadly will be after my holiday) I’ll be able to get the hang of it. For now I’m just happy with the way I understand some thing and I’ll just ask them to slow down a bit when they go to fast. And if all else fails: a friend who will join me is an interpreter so he can do the talking for me.

In order for this to be a bit of a challenge I’ve set up a few rules:

1. Articles have to be at least 300 words: This would stop me from writing a sort of tweet and consider it a post.
2. No writing on how hard this experiment is: So no post about “I have no inspiration today/I find it hard to write today” etc. etc. No, these posts should have a subject not related to the experiment.
3. No multi-parters: It would easier to find one subject and talk about it over a multi post spread. Nothing of the kind.

I know these are not the strictest of rules, but I think they well be quite a challenge for me as it is. If readers of this article have suggestions for other rules (open to interpretation from me of course) you’re welcome to add them in the comments.

I’m wondering how this experiment will work out. To be honest I have no idea. But I’ll soon find out.

Of course the main outline was to go completely vegetarian during the week and having the opportunity to eat meat (which I have stated before I love to eat) during the weekends. I added a provision though: if I would find myself in a social setting where eating was involved (say eating out with friends or anything work-related) I would choose at the time. During the month I found myself to be in one of those situations about once each week. And I have to say that I chose the meat option on every one of those occasions (did I mention that I love meat). So all in all I was completely vegetarian for about 4 out of 5 weekdays (with 2 out of 3 meals on the other days being vegetarian as well).

So what did I eat? Well, same as in my first experiment with being a vegetarian I would eat soy based replacements. I also started to eat fruit in stead of bread in the morning. As for dinner I just experimented with vegetarian dishes (some came out better than others). I think this has helped to improve my eating habits towards an even healthier diet and I even lost a fair bit of weight (although, to be honest, that could also have to do with my increased exercise regime).

I have to admit that changing from just a Meatless Monday to weekday vegetarianism was an easy step. As stated before, I will never give up meat entirely (with this lifestyle though, it seems I enjoy eating meat even more) but with the apparent advantages it has I will keep on living the weekday vegetarian lifestyle for the foreseeable future.

As for replacing the meat I have to tell you surprisingly well. All it really took was cutting the meat out of my daily eating habits and just replace it with something different (it helps if your eating habits are fairly healthy to begin with and not based on say fast food). For breakfast and lunch I would replace the meat on my sandwiches with cheese, jam or soy based meat replacements (which nowadays taste a whole lot better than the ones I tried a few years ago). For diner I just tried out a few vegetarian dishes (some I’d tried before) or again replaced the meat with soy based meat replacements.

And as stated the taste of the substitutes was surprisingly well. That didn’t take away the fact that for me the dishes would be better if it would’ve contained meat. It’s not that the spaghetti with soy based meatballs tasted bad; it’s just I think it’s better when the meatballs are really meatballs. And that’s all a matter of taste I’m sure.

It wasn’t difficult to change to an all vegetarian diet nor did it produce awful or tasteless food. It went well enough and because I also read more about the advantages of being a vegetarian and cutting down on my meat consumption, I’ve decided to join the Meatless Monday movement and from now on make my mondays meat-free. That way I’m helping to reduce my carbon footprint while I still can enjoy something I love to eat the rest of the week.

Yes, with a small exception of showing my friend how easy it was to get online on a phone in Starbucks and that was for maybe 3 minutes. But I didn’t tweet, read blogs or use the web for my usual stuff the rest of the week. As suggested by Graham, I also didn’t read my mail for a week.

I didn’t miss some of the things as much as I thought I would. Sure there were the occasional times I wanted to tweet some of the things I heard or saw (airports/planes are a gold mine for funny things to see and hear), check on the one social site I’m on or see what people I know shared or said. But overall that’s something I could do without.

What I did miss was the way the web makes communication so easy with email, chat or apps like Skype. I also missed the fact that it’s so easy to just whip out your phone and look something up. The information at your fingertips and it’s 24 hour access is really something I love about the web. Finding information about certain subjects (like say if my countrymen won something in the Olympics) could be done but not as fast or easy (especially when you’re in a place that doesn’t care about the subject).

Another thing is that after being away from it for a week a whole pile of mails, tweets and blogposts are waiting for you to digest and it takes time to catch up. This however gives me an opportunity to look at my feeds carefully and see which blogs I want to see every entry from and those I don’t feel as strong about. There will be some unsubscribing involved.

Being away from the web for a week and even longer is manageable and a lot of the things I do on it I could live without. The thing is though that they are so much fun to do and when I have the time and access I love doing them. I just have to be careful that they will not start to rule my life. And of course there are other ways than the web to communicate or find information. The fact is though that the web makes it so easy that it’s hard to find a good substitute. So I could live without the web if needed, but as long as I have it, i’ll use it. A lot.

I don’t suffer from web overload or boredom. I do believe it would be interesting to see how much (if any) I would miss the thing I spend most of my free time on. Especially what I would miss. It’s convenient that it coincides with a vacation I’m taking next week (more on that in a later post) in a place where I don’t know if I can get on the web easily (I know my friends place where I’ll be staying is connected, but know nothing about mobile web availability).

So what does this entail? As from sunday morning 21st of February 0.01 AM CET until 168 hours later I will just check email with my usual regularity (once a day) and that is all the internet activity I’ll allow myself. For all the other stuff I use the web for I’ll either have to find alternatives (for things like news gathering) or just be without (things like chatting or Twitter). Of course until midnight comes I’ll probably share, discuss and tweet so much it will look like spam-like activities.

See you in a week.