Out of Control Fatroll

When I think “total cleanse”, I don’t mean the cayenne-pepper lemonade that drives you to the bathroom every twenty-minutes kind of cleanse.

In fact, I’m referencing the type of cleanse that includes both mind and body. In my case, I had the opportunity to clean out a lot of things in my life and to restart.

Here I am now unemployed and preparing to return to school for the first time in almost five years. In addition, I’m moving, I’m traveling and I’m on a diet. Quickly, I recognized that not only should I shed my physical weight, but it was time to shed the “pounds” all around.

I’m pretty sure there’s a saying about having a cluttered mind results in a cluttered life? Excuse the paraphrasing; but, I didn’t want that feeling any longer. Why be both physically and mentally heavy?

Recently, I’ve started to really enjoy the blog Zen Habits, which focuses on Simple Productivity. The blog promotes extreme efficiency at work and living a minimalist lifestyle. A quick evaluation of my room, and I wondered why I had over 50 pairs of socks. Or, why I had 10 pairs of pants?

Luckily, both my move and my travel plans have driven me to re-evaluate my stuff and to cut the excess fat. It’s just like this diet. For every meal I eat, it’s now understanding what – at the bare minimum – will keep my body going. Do I really need to eat that cupcake, nah.

Almost four hours later, I’ve pulled, sorted, evaluated and resorted all of my closet (haven’t tackled the bookcase yet). I used the five-second rule and went with my gut evaluation. I discarded clothes that didn’t fit, shoes that I never wore and purses I never used.

Approximately 85 gallons of clothes, six purses, eight pairs of shoes, four pairs of jeans and one Nerf gun later, I’ve just slimmed down years of excess.

It’s like moving from a size 16 to a six.

Don’t get me wrong. It was difficult parting ways with my favorite college organization shirt. Oh, the memories; but, again, it’s like food. I shouldn’t eat the cake because it reminds me of my 8th birthday. I should eat it because it’s nutritious (huh, bad example?).

In any case, it feels great. I’ll be donating these items to Goodwill bright and early, and I look forward to leaving that fat behind.