De-Clutter

Anyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE to be organized and have a "plan".  I love the idea that everything has a place and everything gets put back where it belongs as soon as you are done with it.  I have been called a "neat freak" before and I take it as a compliment, because for me, having things organized reduces stress and makes me happy to be in my home. I also applied these same skills out in the corporate world, which made me very successful at my job.
In my endeavor at training for this half marathon, it has occurred to me- that I should apply these skills to getting healthy. One of my absolute favorite professional organizers, Peter Walsh, has a show called Enough Already with Peter Walsh.  In these episodes he helps people deal with not only their physical clutter, but also their emotional clutter as well.  Now I definitely don't have physical clutter, but I do have emotional clutter (I think we all do), so I'm ready to explore that and see if I can push through.

Peter has 5 steps to decluttering that I believe you could apply to almost anything facet of your life.

• Step 1 - Empty the Room (during this process, arrange like items together)
• In this step, as related to health, its important to clear everything out.
• for me - decluttering the kitchen - I removed all food from the kitchen, and decluttering my thinking - I got a piece a paper and split the paper in half........on one side I wrote positive and on the other I wrote negative. On the positive side, I wrote all the positive things about me.  On the negative side, I wrote all the negative things about me.
•   Step 2  - Create a Vision
• In this step, what do you envision your health looking like?
• for me - I see my new healthy lifestyle equalling:
• healthy meals for myself and the family
• running and/or exercising on a daily basis
• having lots of energy and vigor
• losing weight
• reading more <--watching TV less
• Step 3 - Sort Into Two Piles
• In this step, sort items or thoughts into two "piles"
• The Vision Pile - in this pile you would keep all items or thoughts that support your new vision
• for me - kitchen - I put all the healthy food that I pulled out of the kitchen and put it in this pile, thoughts - I put the Positive part of the piece of paper on this side
• The Out the Door Pile - in this pile you would put all items or thoughts that Do Not support your new vision
• for me - kitchen - all the "un-healthy" food, and thoughts - the Negative side of the paper
• Step 4 - get rid of the Out the Door Pile of items
• In this step, I burned the Negative thoughts side of the paper (maybe too dramatic, but that's a memory I can go back to) and I threw away the un-healthy food or sent the food to my husbands work to be eaten by someone else
• Step 5 - Rebuild - using the items in the Vision Pile
• This step requires a continued commitment to the new Vision
• for me - Kitchen - I put the healthy food that I already had back into the kitchen and I have committed myself to buy primarily unprocessed food to restock our pantry and fridge. Mostly fruits and vegetables, brown rice, whole wheat/grain bread and pasta and so on. Thoughts - I put the Positive side of the paper in my journal so that I can see it everyday to remind myself what I already thought was good about myself and I have committed myself to recognize when I am "negatively" speaking to or about myself and immediately address the feelings. Also I am committed to defend my healthy lifestyle decisions against the negative "nay-sayers" <--- whats a nay-sayer? Anyone who tries to tell you that you can't do it, or tries to implant seeds of doubt that you can't do it. (on purpose or not, these individuals will sabotage your progress, if you allow it to happen)

Here is a link to Peter Walsh's website, http://www.peterwalshdesign.com/
He truly inspires me in so many ways!!