December 11 – 11 Things. What are 11 things your life doesn’t need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life? (Author: Sam Davidson)*This became epically long. As I was crafting it, it began to feel like the blueprint for my life in 2011. Skim if you wish--or just say "Good luck" in the comments. I know you'll mean it even if you haven't read all the particulars!
Eleven things I don't need in 2011: can each of those things be ten pounds? That would be wonderful!
OK, OK. 11 things to get rid of: should these be physical things? Concrete things? Or just noun-things?
When I contemplate physical things, the following comes to mind:
1) My scanner. I listed it for sale on-line last fall. It didn't sell.
Plan of elimination: take it to the depot the city runs for worn out electronics.
How will it change my life: I will have room to put away the waffle maker and the yogurt maker hubby and I got for Christmas. That, in turn, will make the kitchen table useable again. And that will lead to less stress and less pain in my life. And more joy. Honest. Keep reading.
2) My son's Tae Kwon Do sparring gear. I doubt he's ever going to get back into it.
Plan of Elimination: Research prices and list it for sale.
How will it change my life: Well, not much, actually. It will give my son more room in his closet which may help keep the dust bunnies under control.
3) My hair. I'm hoping it will make an 8" pony tail at the nape of my neck: that's what's needed to make
wigs for cancer patients.
Plan of elimination: Get hubby to measure it tonight! Then wash, cut, and send off.
How will it change my life? My hair will be so much easier to take care of! I had short hair most of my life: it fits my self-image better.
Well, that's it for the straight forward nouns. Now for the interesting ones:
4) Sloth. I have everything I need to do everything I need to do each day: the laundry, tidying/decluttering, dishes, and housework. I just need to actually, physically do it.
Plan of elimination: (sigh) Just do it. Follow your routine checklists. You can do it. (Hint: Find a carrot).
How will it change my life: Less stress. A lot less stress.
5) Boredom. I am extremely bored with my life. I keep thinking I have to get *this* managed and *that* done before I am "allowed" to do anything interesting. Of course, I *cheat* and read interesting books while the dishes and laundry pile up around me: but I do feel guilty about it. Come to think of it, I could use less guilt, too.
Plan of elimination: Find a few projects to work on. Some are on this list already. I'll keep expanding my reading list, too. I recently read "The Biology of Belief" and while I have strong reservations about most of its message, learning about cellular biology was fascinating.
How will it change my life? Well, we'll have to see if it does, won't we.
6) Pain. Simply, it hurts to carry about 100 pounds more than I ought.
Plan of elimination: Shed 40 pounds by June 30th. I think that's reasonable. I know when I was 40 pound lighter the Fall before last (Really, it was that long ago? How does this happen?) my back pain was gone. Kaput. Like it had never been.
How will it change my life? Well, life is just so much
easier without pain.
7) Fat. Not just mine, but my son's too.
Plan of elimination: My intent is to exercise every day. (Since I made this resolution, I have done so 14 days out of the last 19). As for my son's exercise, I'm not sure what to do. My husband was paying him to use the exercise bike: but now the novelty has worn off, it isn't working. Now that I'm reading Daniel Pink's
Drive, I understand. I do wish we'd never started.
As for the eating side of the equation, I'm not entirely sure what to do. I have read
Ellyn Satter's materials--I've requested them from the library again and will re-read them. At the very least, I can put three healthy meals
on the table every day for the both of us. I confess, I haven't been doing that.
As for my eating: well, I followed a 1600 calorie portion control plan in the past and got rid of the weight in relatively short order. Then, I gained it back. I am scared to try this route again--even though it wasn't the eating --but the total lack of exercise which was the major factor in my re-gain. On the other hand, I don't know any other way to get it off except to eat less and move more.
How will it change my life? Well, I will worry less about my son. I will have less pain: and we can save some money. We recently renewed our term coverage (and upped it for my healthy husband). But the Life Insurance company aged me
by 10 years because of my weight--and our premiums are out of this world (partly) as a result. Soooo ironic. I quit smoking to bring our insurance rates
down. 8) Stress in our homeschool. It is a battle to get my son to start working. It is a battle to get him to keep working. Personally, I would like to be finished our day by 4pm. Given that we often don't start until 1 or 2pm, it doesn't happen.
Plan of elimination: I honestly don't know. It's really a discipline issue and reading Pink is confusing me more than ever. Perhaps the next author I need to read is Alfie Kohn.
How will it change my life? Well, not to overstate the case, but it just might bring joy back into my life.
9) Debt.
Plan of elimination: I have an idea of how much we need to pay on the credit card and the line of credit to make them go away. What I don't know if whether we can live on what's left over given all our other bills. I will have to figure that out.
How will it change our life? Honestly, I don't know. I don't really stress about it. My husband does. Maybe he wouldn't work so much over-time? (Somehow I doubt it. He was dirt poor growing up. I doubt he'll ever shake the insecurity that seems to accompany that.)
I am beginning to feel quite overwhelmed by this list.
10) Processed Food. We don't eat that much of it. After buying our meat and vegetables and other foodstuffs from the supermarket (rather than the Organic food store, or the Farmer's Market, or some other more politically worthy location) we purchase the odd frozen pizza, ice-cream, frozen battered fish, yogurt, Eggo waffles, Cheerios, Shreddies, arrowroot biscuits, hot dogs, and peanut butter. I suppose condiments are considered "processed food" are they? And what about canned beans? Oh, and I buy bread, rather than bake our own, though I'm tempted to try. Yeast scares me, though.
Plan of elimination: Start with the waffle maker--find a great buttermilk waffle recipe (and make up batches ahead of time to freeze and toast when wanted). Then, move on to making our own batches of yogurt. I'm planning the garden more aggresively this year too.
How will this change our lives? I think we'll enjoy eating more--especially in the summer/fall when the garden begins to produce. I hope our bodies will feel better nourished.
11) Long blog entries.
Plan of elimination: Actually, I am seriously considering abandoning this blog entirely. It has become completely unwieldy. I want to re-do many of my categories and expand things to include more of my life: but in a less overwhelming fashion. Somehow. I'm thinking of learning and using the type-pad platform. I'll let you know, for sure.
How will this change my life? Well, I doubt it will, actually. But, you never know.
As a bonus, here's a self-portrait from my new camera today.
Yeah--bring on 2011!
