112. Reflections on Travel

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on, everybody.

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Welcome back to the elemental Ivan show.

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Thank you all so much for tuning into this episode today.

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I'm super excited to share all of my thoughts on my travels and just kind

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of have a quick little episode on what I thought about traveling and why I

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think it's good for us as well as what benefits can be had from traveling.

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So before we jump into that, just wanted to also mention that I am

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officially no longer traveling.

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This is the.

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Uh, first episode, I'm recording back home.

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So kind of nice to get home and get situated again.

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It's been a little bit of an adaption phase for me personally.

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Having gone back just a few days ago.

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Uh, so still getting adjusted to life out here.

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Um, I came back from France, which was pretty cold at the time.

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So, uh, it's always nice to come home to some warmer weather.

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Uh, but today I'm going to share some of my reflections on the traveling

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that I did as well as just kind of the benefits I see from travel in terms of

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our brain health and adaptability, and also kind of quality of life that I saw

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in some of these other countries, which by the way, I visited Portugal, France,

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Morocco, and spent one day in Switzerland, which was just to really pop in and

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see what's what's going on in Geneva.

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Um, really, really nice off all four of the countries were super beautiful.

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And yeah, on top of all of that, I would say that my first opening, uh,

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kind of thought or topic here is simply that travel really helps to open up

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your mind is so I remember the first time I really traveled by myself, not

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like with a family member or anything.

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I was actually traveling again with Ashley.

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And it was our first travel abroad.

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So we went to, uh, Spain and while in Spain, I was taking

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some Spanish courses out there.

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And, you know, just even going to school and seeing how the people were

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a little bit more laid back about the time in which you got to class

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and, uh, you know, taking a break.

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In the middle of the day for a siesta, right?

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Like, uh, not every place was doing this, but there were definitely a lot

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of stores that would close down mid day.

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And these are all things that were totally foreign to me.

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And took me some time to kind of adjust to and, uh, get okay.

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Like, you know, yeah.

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A customized to them.

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But it's a really great way to understand how, you know, we are all humans.

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We all do the same thing, like at the base of it, right.

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We all need to eat, sleep, um, you know, have a partner and,

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uh, You know, enjoy life, right?

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Like go out, enjoy good food and, uh, just have a good time.

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But the in-between is where we kind of differ and we do

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things a little bit differently.

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So it's really interesting to be able to see that.

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And also it's a really great way of building connections with

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communities around the world.

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So being able to travel and speak with other people and hear new thoughts and,

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you know, people who are thinking in maybe a completely different way than

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you are, this is really great to get out of your comfort zone, which obviously.

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Obviously, you know, I'm all about, I love getting into situations that are not super

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comfortable, such as an ice bath, right.

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That's one of the big, uh, benefits of an ice bath is just being

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uncomfortable and learning to find comfortability in that uncomfortability.

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So, uh, travel can definitely be one of those.

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It can open your mind and, uh, really allow you to.

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Kind of see things from a different perspective that you wouldn't

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normally get if you just stayed in the community that you're in.

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And especially if it's the community that you've been in since childhood.

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Right.

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So it's a really, really great way to kind of break those boundaries.

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And open your mind to many different, uh, ways of thinking, right?

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Now, the second thing would be, it's a great way to reflect on

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your country and to ask yourself if there's room for improvement.

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Right.

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So when I'm traveling, one of the big things is I always compare

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that country to kind of back home.

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And, and how is it different?

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How is it better?

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How is it worse?

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You know, every country is going to have some positives and some

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negatives to it, including the country that you're in right now.

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But I think it's a really great way to.

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Kind of observed your country by getting outside of it and seeing how

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are people doing things differently?

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You know, one of the big things that I see is in Europe, for example, they

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use a lot of public transportation, as well as walking as a form of

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getting from point a to point B.

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Whereas here in California,

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We pretty much had drive for everything.

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The only time you go out walking or something like that is if something is

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really, really close to you, or if you're trying to go out and get exercise, but.

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I found that when you are kind of not really forced, but in a way

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it's, it just makes more sense to use public transportation.

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You are naturally going to be walking more so while I was

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out traveling, I love walking.

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So naturally I was already walking a lot, but even to just get to the subway

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or to get to a bus station, or maybe after you get off that bus station,

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then you're just walking around and checking out all the sites there.

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It's a really, really great way of staying in shape.

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And that's something that I noticed here in California

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is not always a great option.

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You know, walking from point a to point B can be very difficult because

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it's very far or maybe, uh, The sidewalks are not properly built.

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So you end up having to like walk on the road or something.

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So these are things that I definitely would notice when I'm traveling.

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And this is a great way for me to reflect on, you know, what ways

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can we improve, uh, our country.

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And it also gives you a great respect for your country because when you're traveling

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in countries that are not as developed, for example, Then you get to really,

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really respect, for example, maybe a hot shower or heating and air conditioning.

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You know, these luxuries that we don't normally think about as being luxuries,

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because we just always have them at the, at our fingertips, but it's definitely

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a really, really great thing to, uh,

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Give you some gratitude and respect for your country.

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So really enjoyed that.

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And then number three is obviously you get to practice a new language, which

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is really, really amazing for your brain, but it also gives you a really

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big respect for people who speak two languages here in, uh, California.

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Obviously, uh, we have a lot of people who speak Spanish, but also speak English.

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And so I think a lot of people always take for granted the fact that, you know,

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these people are speaking two languages.

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And, uh, you know, being, if you speak English, It's really easy for

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you to get away with just speaking English and, uh, to always, you

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know, think like, oh, why, well, why doesn't that person speak English?

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Or why don't they just learn English?

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It's not that easy.

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It's quite difficult actually to learn a second language.

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And that is coming from someone who already does speak a second language, but,

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you know, being in these other countries, like in Morocco, trying to speak some

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Arabic as well as, uh, Portuguese in Portugal or French in France, um, those

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are not, you know, languages that I'm very good at speaking, but I definitely would.

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I try to, you know, say a few words at the minimum to show at

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least a little respect to them.

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And it really goes a long way, but I just always am in awe at how many

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languages, some of these people speak.

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Um, you know, there were people who were speaking four or five different

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languages, which is just incredible and so, so good for the brain.

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So it's a great chance for us to, you know, practice these new

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languages while we're traveling.

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And then the last one is the quality of food in other countries.

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I was very, very interested in this, obviously, because I'm

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all about the health foods.

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Right.

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But one of the things that I really noticed, especially in Morocco, As well

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as some of the meat, uh, the, uh, sorry, the butcher is in Portugal and France was

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that they had a lot more organ meat there.

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So eating things like liver, lungs, stomach, um, heart, you know, these

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were all very common things that you would see in the meat markets, as well

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as, you know, like kidneys as well.

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All of these organ meats are very, very commonly consumed.

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Uh, definitely in Morocco.

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And like I said, in, in a few of the, uh, butcher stores in Portugal and

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France as well, but I thought that was really great to see the fact that

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people are utilizing the whole animal and eating these really nutrient dense.

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Uh, organ meats as well as obviously the muscle meat.

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But this is a really big thing that we need to start doing here in the us

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as well, and is becoming more popular.

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But, you know, I don't think we should be, uh, allowing these organ

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meats to go to waste or used in some other way when they're so, so

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beneficial for us to be consuming them.

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So, um, that's something I try to do is, you know, I try to consume more

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organ meats out here in the U S but I was really, really excited to see that.

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You know, so many people were doing that in these other countries.

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So that was really neat.

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And then also just the fact that.

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You know, the eggs in all these other countries, they were the cheapest eggs.

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You could pretty much buy, but they all had really, really high

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quality yolks, which is like, they're basically pasture raised.

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At least most of them are.

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Um, while out here you can spend, you know, triple the price, uh,

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to get those exact same eggs.

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Um, so it's just really interesting to see the difference in the quality

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there, as well as just noting that we use so many ingredients in

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our foods that are actually bad.

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Band in a lot of these other countries.

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So even, you know, a lot of packaged goods that have certain food colorings and, you

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know, really, really bad, terrible stuff for our health and them out here in the

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U S they're actually banned out in these other countries because they're just

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deemed as really not healthy foods, which they aren't, they're terrible for you.

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And, uh, really, we should not be consuming those.

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So.

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It was really interesting to walk around some of the grocery stores and just look

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at the different foods and even compare their ingredient lists to what they

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would be back in, uh, the United States.

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So, uh, that was very interesting for me and also, um, just really eyeopening

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to the point of, you know, why are we allowing a lot of these terrible,

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terrible products in our foods, right.

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And allowing our citizens to consume these and not educating them on this right.

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Uh, so that was a really big one for me.

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And something that was very interesting to see was just the fact that the quality

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of food in a lot of these markets was.

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In my opinion, much higher and also at a better price.

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So, um, that's something that I'm very curious about digging more into, uh,

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while I'm out here and maybe looking, you know, doing a little research

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on it and figuring out why that is.

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Um, but yeah, those were some of my takeaways from travel.

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I absolutely enjoyed.

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Every moment of it.

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Anytime I'm out traveling.

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It's an opportunity to, you know, just see a whole different part

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of the world, a whole different perspective and to meet some new people.

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So, uh, Such a great time.

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Happy to be back.

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Of course, I'm so grateful to be in a beautiful country and a beautiful state.

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That has so much to offer here, but, um, you know, it's always good

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to get out of the comfort zone.

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Always good to get out of what is normal and kind of shake things up a little bit.

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So I'm super happy to have been able to have that opportunity to even do that.

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And.

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Uh, yeah, we're going to, we're going to create some really great

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topics here coming up in the future for some of these episodes.

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Uh, one of them will be on sleep apnea that is coming from.

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Uh, S uh, requests on Instagram.

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So if you guys have any requests for future episodes, you can

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always reach out to me on Instagram at elemental underscore Evan.

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And I will go ahead and have that in the show notes.

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You can go ahead and find me on there, follow me and send me any questions

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or concerns that you have or anything that you would love to hear more about.

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And I will happily go ahead and create some episodes on that.

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So feel free to follow me on there.

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Elemental, Ivan, I post a lot of the videos on there, so you can

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go ahead and see some of those.

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Instead of just listening to me, you can also see the video footage of it.

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And yeah, you guys, uh, I hope you've had a really, really

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great first month of the year.

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Uh, it is almost at an end here with January and the month or the

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year is just moving right along.

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So, um, let's go ahead and make the most of it.

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And thank you all so much for tuning in to this episode.

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You guys know I'm so grateful for all of you every single time.

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in, uh, yeah, in the show notes.

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Go ahead and check out any of the links in there.

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uh, any of the, you know, probiotics that I use or whatever it may be.

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Go ahead and feel free to check out the links in the show notes.

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I appreciate all of you, so, so very much.

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And, uh, yeah, have a beautiful rest of your week.

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And I will see you all later on, on this next week or on this week's.

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Next podcast episode.

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Alrighty, everyone do everything with good intentions and