Mini Experiment

So I’ve just wrapped up a mini experiment week from working remotely in Hawaii.  Let me be clear, it wasn’t a vacation, or a typical weekend getaway.  The experiment was to work and live remotely. The goal was to go through my regular routine during my regular hours.  Although I was in a different timezone, I was getting up and going to bed every day during my regular active hours.

It was coincidental that I also had friends on island this week vacationing.  I was able to spend time with them but I also had to be up front and remind them that I wasn’t on vacation like they were.  So I couldn’t just drop everything to go meet up with them.  I also had appointments after work with contractors to get quotes for a little home improvement.  My bathroom vanity needs replacement.  The one that I currently have in my condo is pretty old.  It has an old smell and feel of old wood and is probably the original one installed in the unit.  I’m afraid it will start to fall apart after I start using it.

One thing that I got a kick out of was I could hear one of my neighbors singing Elvis songs on his way to work.  He isn’t half bad of a singer.  Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, I only got the free concert on 2 days out of 7 lol.

I got up relatively early every day.  In Hawaii, it was 2:30-3:00am which translates to 5:30-6:30am back home.  I had to make sure not to make any crazy loud noises or my neighbors would wonder that the heck I was up to during the middle of the night.  So I was getting up at my normal time, making breakfast and coffee as I do if I were home.  For breakfast I had multigrain bread with almond butter and banana.

I found that during the work day I was really less active this week compare to any other week.  When I’m in the office, I get up and walk around a lot so I’m not glued to my desk all day.  Besides walking between conference rooms, I additionally walk a mile during lunch but this week that didn’t happen.  Since I was glued to my computer all day, everything I did felt somewhat normal.  When it was lunch time back home, I was hungry.  When it was time to go home, I felt tired and ready to go.  However, every time I looked outside I was reminded that it was three hours earlier than what I’ve been going on.  That was really weird.  Since I would finish work at a good hour every day I had enough time to go run errands, hike, or go swimming.  I only went hiking once during the work week.  I did go swimming in the pool a couple times and that was great.

So my goal for the month was to not spend over $824.75 on food.  This includes grocery shopping and dining out. My lunch and dinner meals for this week were pretty standard.   Brown rice, broccoli, marinated chicken thighs or rotisserie chicken.  Every now and then I’d have a side salad.  I’m about two-thirds of the way through the month and have spent 678.45 on food already.  Not bad, but there’s definitely room for improvement.  I went out to eat quite a few times this month.  There are a couple of things that I purchased at the grocery store that I could do without.  I need to start creating a list and sticking to it.  I’ve heard a number folks say their whole family’s grocery budget, for a family of 3-4, is the same as mine.

• not gotten the supper hippie peanut butter
• not gotten the supper hippie multigrain bread
• sweet potatoes and yams, I know they’re good for you but I never finish them and they take a while to cook.
• passed on the kim chee (hey, i was going for some of the probiotic benefits)

• I need to skip out on the doordash, it gets expensive.
• I need to prepare snacks for the airport because it costs a lot and the food isn’t that great.
• Skip the dining out, especially the random binges.

I didn’t get any surfing in this week which was a bummer as I would like to get better.  This was a good trip and a successful mini experiment.