Hello everybody. As part of taking control of whatever I can control in my life, after quitting may job, selling the house and moving in with my parents for two months before I made the jump to Thailand, I decided I wanted to downsize and live off what I can pack and CARRY.

The hardest part was deciding what clothes i would have and at the end it was 5 shirts, Jeans, cargo pants, shorts, and underwear socks, and ONE pair of well built NIKEs that I can go out on a casual night and exercise. Had to choose ONE pair of shoes, it was tough. I enjoy getting around Bangkok and it feels like one giant playground, so having shoes that I feel comfortable in and built like a tank was important.

The bag that I basically live out of is a THULE carry on size bag. I do have another smaller duffel bag in case i need to pack extra stuff, but the point was to be able to pack and carry this bag easily, and that I can take on a plane, looks decent, and can stuff a lot. It's basically one GIANT bag: https://www.thule.com/en-us/luggage/carry-on-luggage/thule-subterra-duffel-45l-_-3203516

The most important thing when going minimalist I believe was having a goal or two in mind. My main one was to get in shape, and cutting out food was easy since I enjoy fresh fruit, veggies and chicken based meals. The only hard part was eating before and after working out since I am in need of GAINZ and my arms are looking better than ever but eating all the time becomes a chore, but I approach it like any other training. My minimalist approach to eating was to see it as nutrition that supplements my training. I still go out on a weekend here and there and there is always cool shit to do, go play pool or do cool drugs but 80% of the time I am eating right, and by keeping it basic, I always have chicken, eggs with veggies and fruits in the house cut up and ready to go. Even the chicken. I get a rotisserie chicken, shred it, and boom, chicken burrito with veggies. Add sauce or cheese and you have dinner/lunch for 2-3 days.

Sticking to a workout routine and blocking 3 hours for warm up/workout/eating/recovery and making it a point to just focus on the training and rest allows me to cut out the bullshit from my mind a bit. I leave the phone at home and basically learning to not worry or feel like "I am in a hurry" to get through this and really enjoy the warm up to the workout, push through and enjoy the calm after the workout. It also reinforces that working out is a priority instead of "something I have to do", I've been doing my current workout for 6 months now, with eating better and seeing results makes me want to keep my life simple free. Also, my clothes is looking a lot better, alleviating any concerns over wether I should buy new clothes. I did splurge a bit and got me a custom suit, cuz Im a grown ass man, so might as well have that. haven't bought any shoes for it yet.

I am enjoying living in a big city like Bangkok for the fact I can walk anywhere, it's a service based economy so you always have a driver to pick you up, or bike taxi, and not having a car simplifies my life in ways I never imagined. You can go out on a weekends not worry about drinking and driving ing, where you parked your car, insurance, etc. I do have my car in storage now and am now at the point where I can comfortably contemplate of letting go of the car. Growing up in So Cal, having a car is the greatest ever, well, it was when I was a lot younger. It meant freedom, not, not so much. There are only two places a minimalist lifestyle can thrive, off grid, or in a city with excellent public transportation.

I am an artist, and the one sacrifice I had to make was not being able to paint on larger sized canvases, but since I am a multimedia artist I have my MacBook pro to edit, work on my animation, work on my games for iOS, write, whatever. I also have logic installed to make music. But since I have to travel I have to be picky on what I bring. I also brought with me a Novation Circuit to work out beats, runs on batteries so I can use it anywhere. I also have a THULE backpack that fits my gadgets and accessories. I also have a portable short throw projector so I can watch movies, play games . This is the one I have:https://www.lg.com/us/home-video/lg-PH450UG-projector

My wallet is also slim, having two metro passes, ID, ATM card and my rewards car for my favorite smoothie place. Gone are the days of the thick ass ugly looking wallet.

Having had a house, studios, etc, and going to working on my laptop in my car, room, coffeehouses, basically reinforced that I can produce anywhere, and that as long as I keep producing and moving forward, that keeps me happy enough. I decided at the moment not to really worry about any other "progress" other than my health, and Dec I will reflect and add a goal or two for the next six months

I LOVE video games, and ditched the video games last year because again, lots of crap and accessories and I just wasn't feeling the new consoles anymore. Luckily I was able to satisfy that need by installing Dolphin and a dreamcast emulator , got me a cool ass game controller and am gaming like no other. Dreamcast games are wonderful in HD as well as Gamecube / Wii games. Currently playing Resident Evil 4. The controller fits in my bag and no hardware needed other than what I already had. So a win/win.

All in all, going minimal has made me choose on how to use my energy and time better, and having less things to worry about/upkeep/service, etc just releases braincells that I can put to use on other things. I was never into furniture , so the only things in storage is my paintings, guitars, music gear, all my sketchbooks and projects. What I learned for myself is that i am happier with the less shit I have to worry about at any given time, so a goal for next year is to work on a larger sized painting, and then when I am done, no matter where I am at, ship it to my storage.

I hope I was able to give you guys insight on going minimal.