My Life Re-examined...Again!

My bookgroup read 7 by Jen Hatmaker in March. This was my second reading of that book. Each time read got me to thinking more about the excess in my life, something I've been working on for the last five years or so.

I've decided to take each of her 7 categories of excess and work on each one for a month. So this is what my schedule looks like.

March-Food
April-Clothes (a good time as I'll be changing out my winter clothes for summer ones)
May-Possessions (major decluttering)
June-Media (mostly eliminating the over 400 e-mails hanging around in my inbox and getting my photos organized)
July-Waste (we have too much trash)
August-Stress (school will be starting again. Nuf said)
September-Shopping (I spend more from Sept.-Dec. than any other months)

I'm really excited to get rid of anything excessive in my life. I know my children will thank me one day after I've departed this life and they don't have to go through it all!

Here's how March went:
I've tried on and off to lose weight for the last ten years without much success. Never having had a weight problem before, it's vexing to have one now. I'm not grossly overweight. I've just become kind of square in shape, even though I have an hourglass figure. There's just too much sand in the hourglass!

I've learned a lot from my oldest daughter about Paleo, Whole30, and clean eating. So after reading the Food chapter in 7, something just clicked and I was ready. I borrowed It Starts With Food by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig and started reading. I picked a day to begin and eliminated dairy, wheat, sugar(mostly),legumes, and all grains.

The purpose of Whole30 is to eliminate all foods from your diet that are known to cause inflammation and bad digestion. It really wasn't hard at all for me. I didn't have the flu-like symptoms a lot of people do, I think because I normally eat pretty well anyway. I just have sugar binges on occasion.

Well, at the end of the 30 days, I was definitely happier. My children commented on that. It affected my mental/emotional state more than anything. Oh, and I lost ten pounds! That alone was amazing, since it's been such a struggle for so long. Also gone was my depression and feelings of being overwhelmed and hopeless. And my stomach isn't bloated nearly as much.

After the 30 days are past, you are supposed to slowly add back in each of the food groups to see how they affect you and whether you want to add them back into your diet. Well, I didn't do very well on this part, so I'm starting another round, maybe 3 weeks this time, and THIS time I'll do the reintroduction right.

I do know that I'm never going to go back to my old habits of eating even if they were better than most peoples. It just doesn't work for me anymore. I want to find out what foods are causing the persistent cough I've had for over 25 years. I'm tired of feeling like an old woman when I know I can feel better. I already do!