SRI LANKA

This interview is number 20 in the Worldwide Wellness Series and the last one, for at least a while. I am stoked to wrap up with such a great interview. This week's guest is a princess from SRI LANKA. Suhani and I met when she attended Webster University in St. Louis and I was a staff member. We always stopped to chat and give each other hugs when we saw each other on campus. However, when we became neighbors our friendship grew even stronger. I loved the fact that there could be a knock on my door and there was Suhani with a smile on her face and a cup of tea in her hand. We spent many hours just talking, talking, talking. She is force of nature, always with tons of stuff going on and I am so thankful to have her in my life. Take it away Suhani! 

Do you have a “ritual” you do every morning to get your day off to a good start and if so can you please explain it? I dehydrate very easily, so I need a cup of water and then I take my multivitamins. This makes me feel better mentally, which sounds silly (but as long as it works, life’s good!). Then I make sure I have a breakfast. This is usually a cup of black coffee with cereal or oatmeal. Simple, given that I wake up just 45 minutes before class/work!

Any natural food products that you use for beauty purposes externally? Tomatoes and olive oil. I mash the tomatoes in the oil and it helped me to get rid of dandruff. :)

If your parents utilized some techniques to promote healthy eating while you were growing up, what did those techniques look like? Sri Lankan cuisine has a lot vegetables, so it wasn’t that difficult to feed me those. But I absolutely disliked fruits. So my mother would try to juice them. It would work sometimes but not always (Yes Ammi, I know you’re reading this).

Any website/blog/podcasts that lifts your spirit? I use an app called PumpUp. It’s fantastic because it’s one way, a social way, to motivate yourself to exercise and also they create a workout for you. So even if you are home or at a gym, you could create a workout by selecting your equipment and target areas and track yourself. The people on it are super serious fitness addicts and no matter your experience, you will be encouraged. Added bonus: NO CREEPY PEOPLE! 

Any healthy food that is a staple in people’s diet in your home country? Red rice! People eat it a lot. It’s filling and packed with fiber.  

What is the “weirdest” advice, health wise, you have heard from someone in your home country? Did it work? When you get a stiff neck, you should let your pillow rest under the sun BUT you shouldn’t tell anyone that you did so. I have left my pillow out once (but I did tell my maid, which FREAKED her out) but I really can’t remember if it worked! 

Any guilty pleasures (food wise) you have? And do you have a healthy variety/spin on that? Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. It’s a problem and thanks to Emma, I put in coconuts and chia seeds in it. Well, I guess you could give me more advice on it Emma.

If money and time was no object, where would you go for an active vacation in your home country? Well I would first start at the beaches because they are by my house. Then I’ll go up to the Central Province and enjoy a cooler environment. So I’ll go to Kandy (where the temples are) and to Nuwara Eliya (tea estates and the atmosphere is cooler there). Then I would go to Sigiria to climb the rock palace. Then I’ll go up north to Arugam Bay, Trincomalee and Jaffna because the last time I was there I was a baby and haven’t been there since the war ended. Well, not necessarily in that order, but that’s where I’d go to.

Thank you so much my dear for being part of this! I can't tell you how much I miss being your neighbor! I would love to still go grocery shopping together and be able to give you advice on what you can put in your chocolate to make it healthier :) I hope you will have an amazing senior year and I also hope to see you soon, somewhere in the world!