18 Sep Sunday - Cost Of Living – Kuwait

For a change of pace I thought I would go to an American Restaurant Saturday Night. Most all my American friends eat at American Restaurant for lunch and dinner.   I am planning to go an American Movies today Sunday to see the Rise of The Planet of The Apes. It may be telling my age but I saw the original planet of the apes with Charleston Hesston at a first run movies theater – not on TV and not on DVD.

But back to Saturday night >>>> I ate at a polar American chain inside one of the many shopping malls in Kuwait.  Chili’s has over 2,000 restaurants in 24 counties. Chili's is said to be the most popular restaruant in Kuwait.  Chili's started as a hamburger joint in Dallas, TX so for “ole time’s sake” I ordered a hamburger with French Fries which is staple food for Americans but I had not had one of more than a year.  It was a very big hamburger and large order of French Fries. For 10 Kuwait Dinars (KD) the waitress brought to me one hamburger, order of French Fries, Southwestern Spring Rolls with black beans as appetizer, one ice tea, and a bottle of water.  The total cost was more than $36.00 USD (10 KD). I could only eat half and it was not that good.  Dinner in an American restaurant can cost $30 - $40 per person with no alcoholic drinks. Alcoholic is against the law.

In contrast today, I shopped at the food market and purchase about 2 weeks of food – about 40 meals for 15 KD or $54 USD for 2 weeks!  I eat primarily vegetables and fruits raw in a green smoothie. Google Green Smoothie to find many recipes.  Many times I will fix lentils (Dahl) with rice. Or fix a variety of Chinese or Indian dishes. 

It is very expensive in Kuwait to eat in American restaurants but very affordable to prepare your own meals and sometimes eat in the locally owned Indian or Chinese restaurants. 

18 Sep - Living A Long Life, Currently Residing In The Desert Of Kuwait

I have not written much since I left Afghanistan and moved to Kuwait.  The pay is much less in Kuwait but the life style is like living in America.  I live in the desert by the beach on the 11th floor overlooking the sea just across the street.  I have a very nice view.  The sun comes bright and hot shining into my bedroom. I am up by 5AM every morning and on my way to work by 6:15AM.  The commute is 1 ½ hours roundtrip and we work at least 12 hours on the base every day. 

I am living a long healthy life.  The keys to long life are the 3 Hs >> healthy, happy, holy.  Living longer and good health is accomplished by movement, medication, mental thinking, healthy eating and Telomeres.

Telomeres are a recent discovery.  As written on Wikepedia, “A telomere is a region of repetitive DNA sequences at the end of a chromosome, which protects the end of the chromosome from deterioration or from fusion with neighboring chromosomes.”  Telomeres have been compared with the plastic tips on shoelaces because they prevent chromosome ends from fraying and sticking to each other, which would scramble an organism's genetic information to cause cancer, other diseases or death.

Taking good care of your genes and DNA is vital to good health. Your DNA strands can wear out if you do not take good care of them. The Telomere is a key indicator of aging. If you have a lot of stress, or inflammation in your body or age too fast, they shorten. And if they shorten up on you, as emerging medical research has revealed, you age and/ or develop an illness.

So how do you take care of your telomeres?  I follow the advice of Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D.  He has more than 25 years experience researching and writing about health, brain health and anti-aging. He is also a Yogi.  He has combined his Yoga training with the medical training.  

He keeps up on the research and his method is simple and easy.  Some of his books are, “Food As Medicine”; “Meditation of Medicine”; The Pain Cure”, Brain Longevity. Check his web site at http://www.drdharma.com/Public/Bio/index.cfm

More at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dharma-singh-khalsa-md/looks-lifespan_b_951388.html

Read about the 12 minutes meditation kriya at:

http://healing.about.com/od/chanting/ht/kirtan_kriya.htm

The kiran kriya is very simple meditation technique and only 12 minutes per day.