This is going to be a bit of a rambling post covering sorting out my compulsive spending habits, my eating habits (NOT a diet) and de-cluttering. It's a mixed bag so grab a cuppa.
Eat for heat
About a month or so ago I was recommended to read a book called Eat For Heat by Matt Stone. I read the book in an evening and started to change my habits almost instantly. It's not a diet, in fact it's probably the anti diet as to break the book down to it's very basic tenets, you eat more sugar, salt and good fat. It's basically a way of giving a body which has been dieting for a long time a swift kick up the arse and kicking your metabolic health back into high gear. I'd recommend reading it if you've been dieting for years as your body is probably as fucked up as mine is.
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| Photo from Amazon |
'Eat for Heat' discusses simple principles on how to make minor changes to your meals and drinking habits to keep your body in a better metabolic “zone” all day every day. It’s a tactic that can be applied to any dietary belief system, and can even yield tremendous health benefits to those eating just a regular Western diet. Everyone can benefit from the simple concept put forth in Eat for Heat. In terms of specific benefits from mastering this idea, you can expect to… • Eliminate frequent urination and waking up at night to urinate • Overcome frequent headaches, migraines, and seizures • Increase body heat and body temperature to 98.6 degrees F and higher • Improve or eliminate anxiety completely, stabilizing mood • Sleep deeper and longer, waking feeling more rested • Enhance immunity and increase the speed of tissue renewal • Eradicate heart palpitations • Moisten your skin and hair, especially dry skin around the hands and lower legs and feet • Eliminate dry mouth and excessive thirst • Lower LDL, total cholesterol, and triglycerides • Increase sex hormone production like progesterone and testosterone • Be able to eat whatever you want, when you want, without gaining fat • Strengthen bones and teeth. And more...
What has it done for me? It has given me more energy, simply. I'm never going to be energetic in the true sense as I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but I have energy compared to my usual levels and that's good. Because I'm eating food with salt in/on it (I avoided it like the plague before) my almost constant dizzy spells have become far less bothersome. I feel slightly more well and seem to be sleeping better even though I'm having less sleep overall. This feeling of wellness may be down to the combined effects of almost entirely giving up bread & diet drinks and the effect the longer days bring as we approach spring but I'm certain some of it is down to this book. The author talks simply and doesn't drown you in techno-babble, so it's an easy couple of hours read, if that. I'm going to re-read it to see if I missed any of the finer points.
40 bags in 40 days
Because I'm feeling like I have a little energy to spend I've been doing a little exercise around the house, either hand held weights or standing crunches, or doing some extra housework. As I've mentioned a couple of times recently we're aiming to move in about a year or so (depending on finding the right place to move to, of course) and it's given me the push to start de-cluttering. I saw someone post a hashtag on Instagram about 40 bags in 40 days and looked into it. It's a 40 day de-clutter challenge to be done over Lent, but I'm late starting, hey ho. You can read about 40 bags in 40 days here. I started yesterday, just one cupboard. I found vouchers to the value of £55 so it was well worth doing! I'll be donating things to charity, holding back some things for clothing swaps, giving things to friends and family and getting rid of crap I'm holding onto for sentimental reasons. I've moved a lot in my life (it's no exaggeration to say I've lived in 20 different houses) and have always maintained you never know how much crap you have until you start packing to move. Then it's too late to do anything about it! So this time I'm starting the purge now. I know I'll feel so much better for it when the time comes, especially as I've gained so many clothes, shoes, bags and jewellery since we've lived here.
Compulsive shopping
This brings me to addressing my spending habits. Since James and I decided we needed to tighten our belts ready for the move I've been using a few different things to stop the urge to add to the sum of my belongings.
The first is asking myself 'Do I want this more than I want a bigger place to live and a couple of cats?' The answer is almost always no and I've closed so many shopping carts recently, even for things I really wanted. (Or really thought I wanted.)
The second is using the Money Saving Expert credo - Do I need it? Can I afford it? Nope and nope in most cases.
The third is thinking I have enough crap already and I can't be adding to that when we're thinking of moving.
I put myself on a 2 week spending ban 13 days ago and broke it once to buy a t-shirt from Tee Fury commemorating the life of Leonard Nimoy. (I are nerd, and I wanted to get it before they took it off sale.) I'm going to do a spending ban for 2 weeks of every month. This doesn't mean when the 2 weeks are up I'm going to go hog wild. Tomorrow is the last day of the ban but I have no intention of spending money the day after. What it is doing is reminding me it's good to slow things down, to wait, to not have to act on every whim. It's doing me good. I feel positive about many things right now.
What now?
Of course being less of a consumer will have repercussions on the blog, but I hope to be able to keep everyone's interest with what I already have, supplemented by clothes swap and charity shop finds, the occasional purchase and any items I might be gifted in the future. I'm feeling jaded about plus size fashion right now, with size equality going backwards in a lot of cases and I'm feeling really let down by some of the major stalwarts of plus size shopping. One thing I'm definitely NOT jaded by is blogging though, so you're stuck with me, whatever else happens in my life. :)
Thanks for listening to me empty my mind out.
Leah xoxo
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