Unexpected Tips for Decluttering your Life!
Tomorrow is March 1st, and the first day of Spring!
You may be wondering, does Spring begin on March 1 or on March 20th, the Spring Equinox?
A: Well, both…..
Astronomically speaking, the first day of spring is marked by the spring equinox, which falls on March 19, 20, or 21 every year. Equinoxes are the only two times each year that the Sun rises due east and sets due west for all of us on Earth. And, the Spring Equinox, for us here in the Northern Hemisphere, marks the date that the amount of daylight each day will continue to increase until the summer solstice in June. More daylight; now that’s something to celebrate!
Meteorologically speaking, the official first day of spring is March 1 (and the last is May 31). Weather scientists divide the year into quarters or meteorological seasons which are based on annual temperature cycles rather than on the position of Earth in relation to the Sun. Hey, if the weather folks decide that the first day of Spring is March 1st, I’m going with them; the sooner the better!
So what does all this Spring-talk have to do with our Health? I’m sure you have heard the phrase “Spring Cleaning” which simply started as a way to clean away Winter's mess.
Well, let’s talk “Spring Cleaning” in the Health realm. Do you have some areas in your life that might need some cleaning up; such as your daily diet, your surroundings, your personal relationships, maybe your exercise routine? In the beginning of Spring, I like to look at my current situation and evaluate what I’m doing successfully and what’s needing some special attention. Last year it was my food intake, as well as my cluttered kitchen that needed some special attention. This year, it’s my exercise routine that needs some tweaking.
Below are some helpful tips on how I tackled my cluttered kitchen and diet last year. I’m hoping these are helpful for you as you are welcoming Spring and all the inspiration it brings! Then, after you read my tips on “de-cluttering”; make sure to check out our Essential Life Transformation online class at the end of today’s newsletter if you haven’t completed it before. This class helps you create a roadmap, with actual footsteps, to get you to the healthy life of your dreams.
BTWay, if you missed last week’s post on “Some of the most hilarious Weight Loss scams in History”…. from skinny cigarettes and tapeworms, to diet glasses; you can access the newsletter HERE.
#1 Get rid of the clutter in the kitchen
You are embracing new healing habits. Get rid of the clutter in the kitchen. Throw away everything that's past its expiration. Are you going to fuel yourself with vibrant energy, or stale and dying energy? Organize the fridge and cabinets. Make the kitchen a room you want to be in.
The first step is to free yourself of everything in your kitchen that’s keeping you stuck. In order to create the path for a new, empowering relationship with food, you have to clear the existing clutter that’s standing in your way!
By purging, the goal is to break up with everything in your kitchen that’s holding you back from being the healthiest version of you – both foods and gadgets.
It’s time to say goodbye to that addicting can of Pringles, the package of cookies you swear you’ll only eat one of (but then end up eating 5… or was it 10?), the expired foods you’ve put off throwing out for several years, and the massive of amount of cooking equipment that makes your kitchen feel more like an episode of Hoarders.
If your cupboards are full of chips and cookies, don’t beat yourself up! This is a no judgment zone! The food industry has engineered these products to be super addicting so it’s not your fault. By cleansing your kitchen, you are exactly where you need to be!
Okay, so here’s what to do to purge your kitchen.
Go through these four areas – your refrigerator, freezer, cupboards, and shelves – and either throw out or, if appropriate, donate the following:
Expired foods
Food that has gone bad
Foods you know you’ll never eat
Food you know isn’t serving your health goals (hint: this is where you throw out the Pringles and the cookies 🙂 )
Food containing refined sugar (hint: if a sweetener sounds more like a chemical than a food, it’s probably a refined sugar)
Food containing processed ingredients (hint: if an ingredient sounds more like a chemical than a food, it’s probably a processed ingredient)
Kitchen equipment you haven’t used in the past year and don’t know when you’ll use again!
This process is about progress, not perfection, so do the best you can! If you’re unsure about whether or not a food contains refined sugar or processed ingredients, do a little research or trust what your gut is telling you. Even if you don’t break up with every single food that meets the criteria above, your kitchen will still be worlds better than it was before you began your cleanse – and that is a huge victory!
#2 Clean your Kitchen
This step is pretty straightforward. Now that you’ve cleared out some shelf space, it’s time to give your kitchen a facelift and transform it into a bright, sparkling, welcoming space you actually want to be in.
This is where you’ll put in some good old fashioned elbow grease and clean the surfaces you’ve avoided for months… or maybe even years. You’ll remove the dried spills, caked on grime, and all the crumbs and debris that have built up. By the time you’re finished, you’ll have a space that’s a clean as your new eating routine!
If possible, use non-toxic cleaning products. Your skin is your largest organ and absorbs everything it comes into contact with. That includes the potentially harmful chemicals used in most conventional cleaning products. However, you if don’t’ have access to non-toxic cleaning products, don’t let that stop you! A kitchen cleaned with conventional cleaning products is still a massive upgrade from a dirty kitchen.
Here’s what to do. Remove any food or gadgets and sweep, scrub, and/or wipe down the following areas:
Refrigerator shelves, drawers, and exterior
Freezer shelves
Cupboards (including exterior)
Shelves
Counter and table tops
Stovetop
Sink
Bonus: kitchen floor
I recommend splitting this cleaning phase into at least two days. Tackle half of the bullet points one day and finish the rest on day two. Cleaning your entire kitchen in one go is overwhelming, like I’ve mentioned, overwhelming is not what we’re after. By breaking it up into two days, this task becomes a much smaller, more manageable chunk of work!
3. Restock your Kitchen with Healthy Food
Once you’ve tossed all the foods that are holding you back and created a clean environment where you can do your best cooking, it’s time to stock your kitchen with whole foods that will nourish your body and fast track your health goals!
In this step, you’ll hit your local grocery store and fill your shopping cart with clean, high-quality foods.
You may be wondering what exactly I mean by “real food,” “clean foods,” or “high-quality food,” so here’s some helpful tips:
Buy food that is grown by the earth, not a laboratory. Apples, avocados, lettuce, grass-fed steak, almond butter, wild caught salmon, broccoli… these are all foods that are exactly the way nature intended them. And your body knows what do with these!
Shop the perimeter of the grocery store. As a rule of thumb, the perimeter is most often where you’ll find the fresh, real foods like produce, meats, and seafood – foods you should be stocking up on! The inner aisles mostly contain the processed foods you want to steer clear of. If an ingredient looks more like a chemical than a food, don’t buy it. You already learned to identify refined sugar and processed ingredients during the purge, so continue to stick to those rules during your restock.
Upgrade your usual meals with clean eating swaps. Eating clean has come a long way in the past decade, so many of your usual ingredients can easily be upgraded for a healthier alternative. For example, instead of pasta, purchase zucchini noodles or a spaghetti squash!
Now, HERE’S THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF SHOPPING… PLANNING!!!!
Give yourself some time to go through recipes and choose your meals. Get excited about the possibilities. Tell yourself that this can be fun!
At the grocery store stick to your list and don't go rogue (at least in the beginning). Have a plan for everything you purchase. The healthiest foods are placed along the perimeter of the store.
Figure out dinner way before dinner time; don't decide what to eat on an empty stomach. And have your last bite no less than 3 hours before bedtime.
Double your recipes so that you have leftovers and aren't starting from scratch every day. Keep the ingredients separate so that you can mix and match and come up with fresh combinations throughout the week.
Keep it simple. Don't stress about having a different meal every evening of the week, or about repeating the same meals from one week to another. You won't be bored, pinky promise. Make things easy on yourself.
Reframe. Be open to new thoughts. Dinner can be breakfast and breakfast can be dinner. Call them meal #1 and meal #2 to break the habit that you should eat specific things at specific times. And once you're fat-adapted, start shortening the window that you are eating. Know that your body is doing the best it can with the inputs you're giving it. Choose to become even more intentional.
4. Reorganize your Kitchen to make cooking Easy
You may have expected the kitchen cleanse to end with the restock, but my friends, there is one more essential step. Now that you’ve acquired all this glorious health-supporting food, it’s time to organize it, along with your kitchen equipment, to make your kitchen is a place where you’re in total control.
To do this, you’ll group different categories of food and cooking equipment in their own individual locations, making them as easy to find as possible. For example, if you’re looking for a bag of walnuts, you won’t have to search through 3 different cupboards – you’ll know exactly which cupboard to look in – the one that has all your nuts and seeds.
Then, you’ll redistribute these different groups throughout your kitchen so the items you use most are the most easily accessible.
Here are the 3 keys to upgrade your kitchen organization:
Group similar items in one location. Put all pans in one cupboard, place all snacks on one shelf. By grouping similar items, you’ll know exactly what your options are with one glance versus having to open every cabinet.
Use clear organizer bins. Organizer bins are one simple method for keeping similar items (especially small, loose items like snacks or spices) in one place. With a clear bin, not only can you can see exactly what’s in it, but you can also pull it off a shelf and look through it.
Place commonly used items within easy reach. Make the foods or equipment you use (or want to use) on a daily basis as easily accessible as possible by placing them on chest or eye level height shelves. By doing so, you’ll remove a barrier of use by eliminating the need to bend down or dig through a cabinet. Conversely, put items you rarely use on shelves that are harder to access.
A Take-Home Message
There you go! You now have the information you need to create an organized, user-friendly kitchen that makes cooking and eating healthy food efficient, easy, and hopefully even, fun!
As I mentioned earlier, for more great tips and tools to take massive action in your life, make sure to check out our Essential Life Transformation online class if you haven’t completed it before. This class helps you create a roadmap, with actual footsteps, to get you to the healthy life of your dreams. You can access the completely free online “self-paced” class using this LINK.
Our office can help you gain a better understanding of a healthy lifestyle you and anyone in your family can LIVE with. Please give us a call or ask at the front desk for what we can do to help. We can help you regain your personal balance of true health.
THE most important thing in life, is how you feel about YOURSELF!!!!
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