I have a lot of stuff. It’s really bothering me how much stuff I have and it’s time to get rid of it. I’m not a hoarder. I just have things that I have acquired over the years that take up space in my life. Have you noticed that the more stuff you have that bothers you, the more it impacts all the areas of your life? As I look at my stuff, I begin to calculate the cost of it. How much money could I make if I sold it? That leads to a look at my financial life and the clutter that is residing there. Then that leads to the clutter on my body and what I’m carrying around there.
I’m starting to clear the clutter from my body first. If I can “lighten up”, it will lead to an enthusiastic clearing of stuff in my home and at the Center. All of that leads to a better outlook on my finances as I move forward. One year ago, I eliminated sugar, gluten, dairy and any fermented foods from my diet. I lost almost 40 lbs and I have kept it off. I never really looked at the number of calories I was eating because I was eating mostly vegetables with some animal protein. I experimented with some raw food to give me more options and that was fun. A lot of the raw food recipes use agave, maple syrup or coconut sugar. What I found for me however, was that sugar is sugar is sugar. Whether it is natural sugar, agave, stevia or other, my body responded by putting on body fat. Not a lot, but I found that although the scale said about the same, my composition looked different. This past week, I started on a new food regimen. I won’t share the name because I feel it needs to be medically supervised as it is a significant and stringent plan. There are some retail imitations of this plan in which I have no idea of the purity of the product. I needed to try it for myself, before I recommend or refer anyone else to try it. My physical body is ideal for this plan as I have a very easy time of putting on muscle, and it’s just as easy putting on fat.
What I found as I started this plan was just how much “stuff” we put into our body to obtain “fat’ status. The first two days, I got to gorge myself with anything I wanted to eat. I was encouraged to eat anything and everything without limit of fat or calories. In the name of science (ha, ha) I went at it with full gusto eating things that I haven’t had in my body for a year. By day 2, I felt awful. I was bloated, heavy and put on about 4 pounds of weight. I wanted to sleep all the time. I use to feel like that all the time. What a difference a year makes.
I’m on Day 6 of the plan with another 15 to go. I’m really hungry, even after a meal. I do feel better, lighter and more clear-headed. My weight is lower than when I started the plan, before the gorge. Even though the calories are limited, I find that if I’m doing things throughout the day, I really don’t tend to focus on what I’m missing or what I need. I’m organized with my food for the day. I stay present with everything I’m eating. Truth be told, before all of this cleansing and detoxification started a year ago, the extra calories came in because I thought I needed something to calm, soothe or distract my mind. That would be the opposite of being present in my life.
I’ll keep you posted on my progress on this diet plan and with clearing the clutter in my house. I encourage you to take a look at your life and start with just one area and ask yourself “How much stuff do I really need to live in this world?”.