Lifestyle Archives - IvanDelano.com

3 Reasons Why James Bay, Victoria BC

James Bay Victoria BC Canada

1. Location is everything – rich in history & quaint friendly character neighbourhoods, all within easy access to James Bay Village, green spaces, Parliament buildings, the Inner Harbour, Beacon Hill Park & downtown areas, with horse drawn carriages and waterfront walkways, it’s a great place to be:-)

2. Live like a tourist in your own town – living in James Bay within an easy stroll to Dallas Rd. with it’s parks, ponds & seaside, as well as activities like urban hiking, beach combing & people watching at the Breakwater & Ogden Point Cruise ship terminals, makes it a fun location. Plus it gets top marks for walk-ability / bike-ability with it’s generally flat lay of the land, making for easy & endless exploration here:-)

3. Foodie or Gourmet ~ enjoy the numerous local delights here – try the local restaurants, coffee shops and food trucks around the neighbourhood, like the Blue Crab, O Cafe & Bistro, Floyd’s Diner, Nourish Kitchen & Cafe, The James Bay Inn Restaurant, Santiago’s Cafe & Tapas Bar, the Bent Mast, Steamship Grill, Barb’s Fish & Chips at Fisherman’s Wharf and so many more – it’s a splendid culinary adventure everytime:-)

Organics in James Bay Victoria — James Bay Organic market

If lifestyle is everything and you want the Victoria experience, then picturesque James Bay will surely be at the top of your list.

Fisherman's Wharf James Bay — Fisherman’s Wharf James Bay

Ivan Delano lives and loves Victoria, he found the love of his life and raised a family here.

Inspired Living Birth

Ivan Delano Inspiration, Lifestyle Animals, change, Life Style, vegan

Wanting inspiration after years of more of the same, no time, and a need for personal development, I was encouraged to focus on something that was outside of myself but important to me…

Not having thought about it very much, I realized that aside from my family and personal integrity, the only other thing I had any real passion for lately, was a world free of animal suffering.

I wondered if one person alone could do anything meaningful about it. The answer I came to terms with was, not to focus on the big picture, only what I could actually do about it in my life. The simplest thing I came up with was, for me to not participate in animal cruelty – by not consuming animals and their products.

It sounded simple enough and would alleviate my participating in animal cruelty – from the grassroots… But being a lifelong carnivore and food lover, it was gonna be a real change that was a comin…

eating

And so, the start of my new life began, and later, InspiredLiving.Life was born.

My real change started as a result of supporting my daughter…

The Accidental Vegan

Ivan Delano Inspiration, Lifestyle Animals, green planet, health, Inspiration, lifestyle, pets, transformation, vegan

I was originally inspired to help my daughter when she was exploring a vegetarian lifestyle & was running into much opposition in her pursuit (through ridicule, criticism and belittlement).

After committing to join her in her efforts for 1 month, I was awakened to my own possibilities for personal growth and fulfillment, now continuing through InspiredLiving.Life, Pinterest.com/InspiredLiving and Facebook.com/InspiredLiving.Life.

So my journey into vegetarianism began.

Let me preface this by saying that, I was a lifelong meat and food lover – and this was going to be somewhat of an onerous task… However, the fact that it was going to help my daughter, and was only for one month, made it do-able for me.

Although I understood why my daughter was drawn to this lifestyle, and had espoused all the health and environmental benefits of it, it wasn’t until she showed me a video on animal cruelty, that I was truly impacted… cat-and-dog My reason for helping her was now solidified.

The day after Thanksgiving a handful of years ago, I ate my last drumstick…

With an overly full stomach, I went to bed happy and awoke the next day wondering what I had been thinking, to embark on such a nutty journey.
The knowledge that I was supporting my daughter pulled me back into the reality of my promise to her. turkey-blog-pic So I had toast, coffee, leftover mashed potatoes and rice stuffing from the day before and ate my way to integrity, lol!

Realizing that I would have another 30 days of this to look forward to, I quickly started to think about how i would get through it without eating carrots & celery sticks all day:-(

Well eating out wouldn’t be that hard as i could always eat veggie burgers, fries and meatless pastas and oh yeah – salads:-)

For my favorite breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast – I replaced it with eggs, avocado & toast, lunches would be noodles / soups / meatless sandwiches and dinners – pastas / stir fries / casseroles, curries and whatever else I could think up.

And so it went for the next 30 days.

Whenever I would get a craving or a reason/excuse to cheat, all I had to do was think about letting my daughter down, or thinking about eating my cat (yes – sounds kooky – but I rationalized that if I wouldn’t eat my cat, that I loved – how could I eat any other animal and deprive them of their life, feelings – and further animal suffering, by consuming them). This was my goto strategy in any moment of weakness, from the smell of KFC, BBQ’s or tempting food that may be in front of me.

The days started to progress quickly and I found myself being conscious of what i was consuming, planning my next meal in my head and coming up with hacks and substitutions for meals that i would be eating… cheese-natchos This transformed my thinking and allowed me to never be hungry or be in a situation where I’d have to eat meat!

Well about 2 weeks into this exercise, everything was going quite well and I thought, why shouldn’t I just go all in? If I was serious about not eating animals – why subjugate them at all? So for the next 2 weeks I would go vegan! I was already doing well as a vegetarian and it would only be another 14 days, so why not go for it…

Now this was a lot harder than I thought, as I loved eggs / cheese / butter and dairy products!

I jumped in with both feet and had to double my efforts to stay on course with my commitment to my daughter. As before, armed with my procedures for my moments of weakness and next meal planning, I was able to do it – & quite well if I do say so myself:-)

It was becoming second nature to think this way, and it enabled me to finish my month! freedom-sunset-wind-surfing I was happy to have completed my commitment and actually felt physically better and morally elevated (i’m so good:-). I had done something to satisfy my non-participation to animal suffering by not eating them or their products. I wouldn’t be part of that chain of suffering any longer and it was awesome!

Well surprisingly enough to me, I felt this great feeling of accomplishment and really how little of an actual change to my way of living it was (the act of substituting vegan burgers / chili / curries / stir frys etc for meat ones was not really a big deal) – so why wouldn’t I just keep going, until it wasn’t working for me anymore? soap-stand-box All these years later it’s reinforced my accidental veganism and I’ve developed so many hacks / easy ways of eating, that now it is my way of life and believe me, I love food and eat more than I ever did – but not at the expense of animal suffering, world ecology or my health. But whatever your thoughts or reasons, why not be the possibility of inspired eating!

Start here – Meatless Mondays or find helpful resources here to begin:-)

This is how it all started for me – Good luck!

Real Authentic

Ivan Delano Inspiration, Lifestyle Authentic, Inspiration, lifestyle, real, transformation

Sounds like a cliché, but I had stopped expecting real authentic moments with others for a while now. After all, I was honest and had integrity, but I kept running up against others who weren’t, – prejudging and quickly discarding those that didn’t fit my test for “real & authentic”, I didn’t have time for phony moments or other’s agendas anymore…

Tired and disillusioned with the inauthenticity all around, I grew cynical, judgemental and guarded with those in my path.

chain-fence

One day I received a call from my little sister (21 years younger than me), and now in her thirties. It was surprising because we had rarely ever talked. She was calling to tell me that she was very sorry that she had not been a good sister to me all these years, and that she had not made an effort to change that and was really hoping that we could mend any problems and start a new good relationship together…

I was blown away! For years, I had felt guilty for not having a better relationship with my sister (I rationalized – that since I was already out of the house, 21 years older and in a different city when she was born and growing up, that a real relationship was not in the cards for us).

I assured her that she was a great sister and I never felt that we had any problems, in fact I thought it was me that needed to apologize and be a better brother to her, after all, I was supposed to be the big brother that was there and looking out for her – but hadn’t been…

paddle-board-hat-gabriela

All these years of guilt, hurt, misunderstandings and stories about each other, was time wasted; opportunities for real authentic moments missed – until now…

Reflecting on my sister’s courage to call me that day, and honestly share her thoughts and take responsibility for her part in our relationship, it opened up a space, a clearing for a real moment between us. It allowed me to ponder my role in this. I appreciated her courage in being open and honest about her thoughts, the impact on me and her desire to start a new relationship, it left me touched and open to sharing my true thoughts with her.

sunset-water-grass

Since that conversation, I have completely changed my thinking of her and am working on transforming our relationship.

Her action left me touched, inspired and wanting to be better. But more importantly, my little sister taught me that if I wanted to have real connections – I must have the courage to set aside my judgements, share and think about the impact I or my sharing will have on that person. Then if we are lucky, we can have opportunities for whatever is possible…

Maybe my “honesty and integrity” was just another story, hiding and preventing real connections from occurring for me, exactly what i was disillusioned about… My judgements and cynical views were shutting down my possibilities for genuine communication – that was why my sister’s call to me, had made such an impact.

This was a new beginning of self examination, allowing me to take responsibility for transforming my moments and creating real authenticity in my world.

My sister later told me what had brought her, to this event, in her personal development…