Quick intro if this is the first post you are seeing on this subject

I'm writing about my year before I turn 50, which happens in June, 2020. I was inspired to make my own “bucket list” which was more about personal development and decluttering than adventure and scary things. If you'd like to read other past posts, they are all on a list here:   (just click the link and you'll be taken to the page)  https://rebeccatervo.com/my-journey-to-turning-50/

This first month I've chosen to work on the following things off my list:

BOOK:  “The Year of Less” by Cait Flanders . (see link at the end of this post)

HABIT: Release Sugar from my regular diet

DECLUTTER: Clothing and Office

WHY I CHOSE THESE THINGS:

The book seemed fitting. It's about a woman's journey in the year before she turned 30 to get a hold on her overspending and her clutter. I love that it's written in a year's timeframe with each month being its own chapter.

There are some things about what she says about her reasons for being very intentional about goals for the year and cutting back that really inspired me to come up with what I wanted for my year before I turned 50.

I have been drawn to minimalism and less clutter for over 10 years. And, I've done the Kondo method on (ALMOST) my whole house once already. (Read “The Magic Art of Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo if you want to know what that's about.)

DECLUTTERING

This month, I started on the process again of doing the Kondo method. This year….I'm determined to finish my WHOLE house….not just start and then quit when the going gets hard (like the garage and the basement).  The good news is that my closet was the first place I started because I knew how easy that would be.

In fact, I've done the Kondo method on my closet at least annually, and it now makes me really aware of clothing that is sitting in my closet that doesn't belong. This time when I did it, I only found 9 items to release and bring to Goodwill, and 3 items to release to the trash. This includes going through EVERY piece of clothing, undergarments, sleepwear, footwear, winter gear and summer gear.

I love waking up to a closet that is decluttered, 1/2 empty, and where everything fits. And, my dresser has 6 drawers. The only drawer that is full is the drawer with my pants, jeans, and capris in it. The rest of the drawers are 1/2 full or less. It feels so wonderful!

When I first did the Kondo method several years ago, the first picture of all the clothes piled on my bed was SOOO much worse than this one below. That time, It took me 4 hours to go through every piece of clothing. I couldn't believe how much I had! This time it literally took less than an hour to touch everything and try on a few things and then decide to keep or not.

And, at the beginning of this year I also did a huge decluttering and got rid of 67% of my wardrobe:) I really have learned the lesson of “less is more” with clothing. I tended to keep a lot of things that I didn't like, or that didn't fit, or that I felt guilty for getting rid of. Not anymore!

Here are some before and afters:

HABIT UPDATE:

Today is day 7 without sugar. Let me explain what I decided the boundaries are for my sugar free journey:

  1. I can eat 70% or darker dark chocolate several times a day
  2. I don't do artificial sweeteners. Or honey, or Agave, or any of the other stuff.
  3. No candy! or Chocolate bars that aren't what I said in #1.
  4. I am allowed to PLAN at least 24 hours ahead of time for exceptions. For instance, I've planned for 2 exception days this month. One on the 4th of July and another which I haven't decided the exact date of. For those days, I'll plan ahead of time how many pieces of candy I'll allow. And if I want to eat ice cream or a hamburger bun, that will be planned too,
  5. I am allowed to chew gum. I usually chew a piece of gum 2 times a week on average and that is fine with me right now.

I actually am not seeing this as very hard at the moment. The first 3 days I noticed a slight headache…and took excedrin. Otherwise, I seem to be doing well.

And, there was the NO FLOUR thing…

I should note that today is also Day 36 without flour. Except for my birthday….when I planned to have a piece of cake and some bread from the basket at my birthday dinner.

I decided to cut flour from my diet after having a thing called “biofeedback” done. I won't explain it here. But, basically that test showed me that my body didn't respond well to gluten. I was fascinated by that result, so just decided to experiment with what it would feel like to have NO FLOUR at all. Not even those other kinds of flour like almond.

This means for the past 36 days I've had no breads, buns, crusts, pizza (except for one birthday dinner with my parents when the restaurant served gluten free pizza….and I tried it out) cakes, cookies, bakery, pasta, etc.  I don't do “GLUTEN FREE” types of foods either. I just stick to a pretty simple diet of meat, cheeses, potatoes, brown rice, oatmeal, eggs, fruit, veggies, nuts, seeds, dressings and some sauces.

I'm not yet to the point of being so particular that I don't have sauce when I go to a restaurant. I'm pretty sure lots of sauces have sugar and wheat in them. When I decide I want to be more picky….I can do that. For now, it was a big enough jump to cut flour and sugar.

When I cut out flour I noticed some interesting health benefits: I slept better, had more energy, no heartburn, and the skin on the heels of my feet all of a sudden started healing itself. I can only imagine what can happen now without sugar AND flour. I'll report what I notice as the year goes on!