It must be Spring

I am a decluttering queen these past few days!

Bedding, books, clothes, computers, tools, toys, toys and more toys

It's the Spring Fling!

Flinging it all onto the internet classifieds and out the door.

(not the chair though... I still love the chair)

Feeling Good

No surprise here, but eating all that pretty, healthy food has given me more energy... that's after the initial ten day long carb-flu/hangover/withdrawal (complete with achy joints, mood swings, weak muscles, acne break-outs and raging headaches). That's all over now and I feel brand new.

I am trying to "go with it" and get as much moving around in as I can, but I am finding it difficult to stay on task with desk-work. Also hard to stay in bed after 5 am... I don't want to wake the whole house at that hour, so I lay there.... I will have to find a QUIET outlet if this persists.

The brain fog is slowly clearing too. I feel inspired to declutter, clean, go for walks, garden, chat up my friends, and actually STAND at my standing desk (instead of perch on a stool). Now that I think of it, I haven't watched a whole TV program in days (very uncharacteristic).

Best part is I can't even stand the thought of eating sugar right now. The smell of a cookie is enough for me to think "that smells too sweet" and move on. Because it is getting appealing to live like this, and feel like this, it is getting easier to ignore so many of the aisles in the grocery store.

Here are the rules (and there are 2 sets because I'm not enforcing my choices on the whole family):

MY BODY:
No fake ingredients
Real, living food with every meal (fruits, veg)
No refined sugars (occasionally agave, honey, or stevia leaf)
No juices unless they are part of the whole fruit
No wheat (I may try re-introducing whole grains much later)
Limited white starches (white rice, white potatoes, "gluten free" flours, quick oats, corn meal)
Occasional dairy (cream, and cheeses)
Protein with every meal

GROCERY CART for home:
No fake ingredients
Limited sugar
Limited juice - only 100% juice
Whole grain choices for breads, pastas, etc
Real, living food with every meal (fruits, veg)

We are still working through the pantry items that aren't ideal, but there is no junk food in there anymore. The kids are real sports about the slow switch and hubby is over the moon about it (he hates junk food in the house and always has).

******************
DECLUTTERING:
******************
A few books and piles of clothes have left the building

Also... to test the out-of-sight-out-of-mind theory, I am packing beloved items that I'm not quite ready to lose yet into sealed boxes. I will see how I feel about them 6 months from now.

Decluttering Body

Through this journey of letting go, piece by piece, step by step I have discovered a lot about who I really want to be.  It's not exactly what I expected, but that's not all bad.

What is in my immediate surroundings is gradually being pared down to the useful and meaningful. Things that are in the NOW have taken a higher priority than things in the past (with a few exceptions). Liberating!

And as I evaluate and streamline what is on the outside, I have become more reflective and discerning about what goes on the INSIDE as well.

Part of my personal 2014 resolutions is to eat less processed foods. But that is only part of it nowadays. Since having a chest/head/cold/flu thing in February I became acutely aware of the ill effects sugar has on my metabolism. Oh sugar! I love the stuff. Sweet dairy hurts me now and bloat is a daily, constant annoyance making me feel older than I should.

After that flu shed the light on what I could be (my sense of taste was retarded while I was sick so sugar held no power over me... I lost 6 pounds of "water" in a week!) When I recovered I went straight back into old habits and gained it all back in a couple days. Then I made a pact with myself not to buy anymore of it. No more cookies, cakes (except birthdays), chocolate bars, etc... none of it has entered my shopping cart since March. We are still working through the stash I had built up. But not me or my husband, just the kids for lunch treats so it will trickle down slowly.

I'm finally past the point of being tempted by them. A little sniff and I get enough. We were even stuck out on the road well past dinner time and stopped at the national donut coffee shop chain and I found I didn't want a single thing in that whole shop! I was hungry all right, but I wanted a big handful of nuts, not a pastry.

Keeping myself accountable, I have been sending photos of my meals to my sister since April 1. She is trying the same thing.... here is what has been on my plate lately:

You may notice another ingredient that's missing other than refined sugar.... wheat!
Just an experiment at this point, but it has been surprisingly easy to stay away from.... except pasta, pasta is my go-to base for a lot of quick dinner items....

Having priorities shifted away from acquiring stuff has opened up the possibility of being a healthier me.