Minimalism, the latest trend on social media, is the philosophy through which people take steps to simplify all aspects of their life. It’s a fancy way of going back to basics. So what does this movement look like in terms of diet? This week marks an important time of year for many. The season of Lent. While some celebrate the Christian significance, others find enjoyment in MardiGras celebrations and revel in the challenge to limit something from their diet for 40 days. For one Lenten Season, I am striving to consume food as a minimalist, or engage in clean eating. Like any other aspect of the movement, there are many ways to interpret minimal eating. Here are my favorites: Food is Fuel: The Minimalists go by the rule that Food is Fuel. It isn’t entertainment. So when it comes to eating, they go basic and only eat when hungry. Joshuan Millburn’s approach is to build a diet of mostly vegetables and unprocessed foods. He eats fish, but avoids all other meat. His reasoning is, “one can make a good argument for eating meat, but I know I feel much better without it.” He doesn’t chastise people for eating meat, he just eats what makes him feel good. Intermittent Fasting: Another tip that Millburn offers is the idea of Intermittent Fasting. Rather than eating 3 meals and 2 snacks a day, he just eats two meals. One around eleven in the morning and the other at 6:30 in the evening. Of course, almost every diet book you read would scream out warning at this method. “Your metabolism will stop!” “You have to have breakfast! It’s the most important meal of the day!” But it seems to work for him. Natural Eating: It’s back to basics. A third strategy is taking a look at everything you consume in comparison to nature. Imagine the world at the beginning of time. Way back to Genesis. Picture the landscape, the animals and the plants. If it isn’t something you could find then, you probably shouldn’t eat it now. Were there frozen pizza’s in Eden? How about Twinkies and cupcakes? No? Best avoid it then. This method is simple, but it also has it’s tricky spots. For my season of minimalist eating (I don’t like to say minimal, that sounds like some low-calorie diet), I am attempting the natural eating course. Here are the rules I am setting for myself starting on March 1, Ash Wednesday. Rules of the Minimalist Diet:
Yes, it’s a bit extreme. Notice that I am only doing this for a short period of time? But it’s worth a try! I’ll keep you posted on how well I’m doing.
So... as the Church gears up for the Season of Lent, the evening before Ash Wednesday is called "Fat Tuesday.” This is a time where rich foods are consumed in preparation of fasting, abstinence, confession and penance. That day is today, and you can bet your a** I’m gonna be stuffing my face tonight. :D Read more: http://www.theminimalists.com/diet/
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It sounds nice, but how do you actually get the job done? The first and most popular idea of minimalism is to de-clutter your life physically. But in order to fully immerse yourself in this task, it’s imperative that you recognize the distinction between de-cluttering and organizing. This is not about putting everything from your kitchen counter away in Pinterest perfect bins. It’s an effort to move the items out completely.
Since I moved into my own place (read: a place with my husband), I’ve been very particular about keeping my house de-cluttered. My younger sister Mary Ann is rolling her eyes right now. When we shared a room for years this was NOT the case. Sorry! But things have changed since high school. I need there to be order where I live. There is an indescribable tension you feel when your life is cluttered with stuff. It’s a level of mental and emotional stress that just complicates things. One would think having this repulsion to clutter would be a good thing. Wouldn’t it keep me in line and help me stay organized? Here is the issue: my new house has a variety of spare rooms and a plethora of additional closets. All together, my house has 6 large closets. It’s far too easy to hide items away and not think about them. And that’s not to mention the large storage room in the basement and huge shelves in the two-car garage. And two walk-in closets? It’s a lot of space. For the record, it’s not like I live in a mansion. Our home is a modest place in a small town. The average square footage for a home in the midwest is over 2,000 square feet. Ours is about 1,600. But still, there are only two of us in a 3 bedroom home. And in this living situation, clutter thrives. It hides behind closed doors, multiplies in back rooms and sneaks up on you in closets. It’s scary! Beginning the Process And so, as part of the new endeavor for the new year, I began the great house purge of 2017. But where to begin? The Minimalists would have you pack everything up. And I mean EVERYTHING. The Packing Party: This is how Ryan Nicodemus cleaned out his apartment. He writes, “I didn’t want to spend months slowly paring down my possessions like Josh had. That was fine for him, but I needed faster results. So we came up with a crazy idea: let’s throw a Packing Party. (Everything is more fun when you put “party” at the end.)” With his friend Josh, Ryan packed up every single item in his apartment, including clothing, his tv and his toothbrush. For the next 21 days, Ryan lived out of these boxes. If he needed something, he unpacked it and returned it to it’s former location. If he didn’t need to use it, it stayed in the box. At the end of that time, everything that hadn’t been pulled was discarded. I was tempted to try it! But I also didn’t want to regret my decision of getting rid of everything and having to buy it all back. KonMari Method: My sister Devon introduced me to Marie Kondo’s work. Devon had recently purchased a new home and was working to combine all of her stuff with her fiance’s. While the Minimalists have you move everything out or pack it all up, Marie Kondo has you organize and purge by category. Just one step at a time. This seemed a better method for me. Here is the breakdown of how I organized my decluttering schedule. Each day. I would focus on one of the following areas:
My Tips for decluttering:
My favorite post-cleanout tips:
Reality Check Of course, sometimes I am tired, cranky and the last thing I want to do is put everything away, but usually I regret leaving it around. My biggest challenge right now: putting laundry away the same day I clean it. I’ll just have to master that skill a different day. Recommended reading: 21 Day Journey into Minimalism http://www.theminimalists.com/21days/ Packing Party http://www.theminimalists.com/packing/ The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo A NEW ADVENTURE FOR A NEW YEARThis past December I came across the new it thing: Minimalism. Everyone and their sister is talking about how to declutter quickly and create their capsule wardrobe. Trips to the donation center are weekly pass times. And I'm right with them, giddily following every blog I can get my hands on. I too have been bitten by the minimalism bug. I blame the library. The book was The Simple Living Handbook : Discover the Joy of a De-cluttered Life by Lorilee Lippincott. Quickly after reading this page-turner my evenings and weekends were consumed with every blog I could find about cleaning, decluttering and downsizing. My hours of obsessing on the topic brought me to the blog and film by Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus. AKA ‘The Minimalists.’ By reading these stories of how other people are living I have become so ecstatic, envious and eager to try it. And so, cliche alert! I’ve decided this is my year to try something new. A year to review my life and try to get my act together. Why now? It’s 2017 and my birthday is October 17. For some reason, it just feels different and exciting. 17-17. Like my golden year. I’m feeling well settled: married for 5 years, same employer for 5 years, in a house for two, and not yet ready for kids (although baby fever does kick in from time to time). And so, I’m trying to figure out what to put my energy towards.
What I’ve learned so far: attempting minimalism opens up a ginormous can of worms. Here are the topics that I plan to try out this year.
1. Declutter and pare down belongings. Warning: this simple idea leads to a major house clean-out taking way longer than you ever expected. 2. Stop buying things and save money. Why not live on less than you make? You can be debt free(yay!) and managing a monthly budget (boo). This one is tricky to say the least. 3. Eat a simple but healthy diet. There are SO many ideas and diets out there. It’s truly overwhelming how much they contradict each other. Most minimalist view minimal eating as vegetarianism. Or if God wouldn’t recognize it as something he created, they don’t eat it. But can I really give up bread? The other end of the spectrum of health is working out intensely 6 days a week on a high protein diet. And there’s everything in between. This one is going to be my biggest challenge, I can tell you now. 4. Simplify your wardrobe, which leads to needing fewer but more fashionable and versatile items and figuring out how to be trendy. And what the heck is my style anyway? 5. Simplify your schedule. Yes, I want to slow down, but I’d also like to avoid the awkward situation of disappointing my friends and coworkers when I say I need to ‘take a year off’ of the fun but stressful and TIME CONSUMING side jobs. I have not even attempted to start this one yet. In other words, minimalism is not so simple. It’s WAY more complex than I originally bargained for. In order to document and process the million and one goals I am setting for myself, I am starting this blog. Not that I actually expect anyone to read it. It’s just my way of figuring out if this new trend is something that could be a good fit for me. So here we go! 2017, the year of minimalism. Wish me luck. Other reading: The simple living handbook : discover the joy of a de-cluttered Life by Lippincott, Lorilee http://www.becomingminimalist.com/becoming-minimalist-start-here/ http://www.theminimalists.com/ |
My name is Kendra and in 2017, I'm giving minimalism a go. Follow me as I work to declutter my house, my diet and my finances.
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