Why You Need to De-Clutter Your Home
by Margarita Mcclure on July 8, 2009
in Home
Do any of these scenarios sound familiar to you?
-You needed a roll of tape to wrap a present, went to the store and ended up buying a 6-pack roll because you get a free roll when you buy 5. You think, “Well, I’ll use them up someday”, and proceed to store them somewhere in your house. 10 years later, you still have 5 of the 6 rolls you bought.
-You have a pair, or several pairs of ’skinny jeans’ or outfits that you keep in case you finally lose that weight you’ve been battling with and start fitting back in your skinny clothes. You never lose the weight. And you never get back into your skinny jeans–which are, by the way, out of style already.
-You keep gifts given to you that you don’t like, thinking you will re-gift them to somebody else someday.
-You collect pens, stationery, soap and shampoo from every single hotel you stay at, but never really use them.
-You keep all sorts of items because you paid good money for them, or just in case you finally find the time to sell them at a garage sale or on Ebay.
There is a big difference between keeping something that you will be using between now and a few months down the road vs. keeping something you have absolutely no need for now or in the near future but decide to keep it “just in case”. Before you know it, you have an attic/basement, and even a house full of just-in-case-I-might-need-them items that are actually nothing more than junk. A lot of people don’t like to let go of all these junk because they usually think they will eventually need them. But what really happens is one of 2 things: either when you actually need that item you can no longer find it among the rest of your junk and end up buying a new one anyway, or you end up never needing the item at all.
I used to be one of those people that never threw away anything. I had tons of magazines that I wouldn’t throw away thinking I might re-read them later. I kept all sorts of stationery or any blank paper thinking I’ll use them for scrap paper someday. I stored all these nifty little gadgets from several years ago thinking I might use them again. But this habit just created a way for my home to gather dust. Then I learned about “space-clearing” from a friend of mine who was a Feng Shui master. All it is is just getting rid of clutter. Surprisingly, the less I had in my home, the more abundant our lives were.
The amount of junk you have in your house inversely relates to the amount of luck/blessings you have in your life. It’s kind of ironic, but true. The more junk you keep, the less fortune you receive. You need to be able to detach yourself from things you don’t need in order to get more of what you do want/need. I’ve been to enough people’s homes to know this to be true. People who tend to keep everything and don’t throw away anything tend to be the ones that are either struggling financially, feel stuck, or don’t have a lot of joy in their lives. Same thing applies to people that buy and hoard a lot of things or have messy, crowded, over-decorated and cluttered homes. If you have a messy desk, chances are that your career isn’t doing too good. If your kitchen, dining area or refrigerator is cluttered, chances are that your health isn’t at its peak. If your bed and bedroom looks more like a dump than a personal sanctuary, love and romance is probably lacking in your life. Get the idea? You need to respect your living area, because it will reflect how your life is going to be.
But isn’t just throwing things away wasteful? Not if you don’t need them anyway. What good are they going to do sitting around in your house and turning it into an oversized trash can? Forget how much you paid for them, how much they’re worth or how much money you can get out of your junk. If you can’t find some way to use them now, or find some way to recycle them or somebody who can use them now, just get rid of them. And learn to stop buying things you don’t need, even if they’re half price. Is all that clutter really worth the few pennies or dollars it might save you in 5 years? There is no point keeping stuff that doesn’t enrich your life or bring you joy. Make room in your home for abundance by simplifying your living space. If there’s less stuff to clean, less stuff to organize, maybe you’ll have more time and space to enjoy what really matters.
How I Lost 20 lbs in 2 Months…Without Any Exercise
by Margarita Mcclure on July 5, 2009
in Home, Kids
It has always been relatively easy for me to lose weight whenever I stuck to a good ’starvation’ diet and workout routine. Problem is, with 3 kids and a business, it’s hard for me right now to make the time to exercise. I can’t even remember the last time I’ve been to the gym. I’ve tried a few types of diets in the past, mostly just different variations of portion control and keeping track of calories. But what has been the most effortless diet for me is eating a vegan diet. I have experimented with this way of eating on and off for over 15 years now but never really stuck with it. However, I have noticed that the pounds always seem to melt away fast whenever I commit to not eating meat. Eating a vegan diet doesn’t necessarily translate to salads, tofu and rabbit food all the time. Once you get the hang of it, it’s really no big deal and not as strange as it may seem.
I gained about 35 lbs. with this last pregnancy, lost 10 lbs with the birth and another 5 lbs. a month after. Beginning May 1st of this year, about a month after I gave birth to Isabella, I decided to get serious about losing all this extra weight, and easily lost the last 20 lbs just by eating vegan as much as I can. I didn’t really have a structured meal plan, or a caloric limit intake. Here is what I’ve been eating the last 2 months:
Breakfast (I eat/drink all morning long from 8 a.m. until lunch time):
Fresh fruit juices (fresh squeezed orange & grapefruit; sometimes I’ll mix in some fresh apple juice if the grapefruit is too bitter)
Fresh fruit smoothie (pineapple, berries, bananas, apples, etc)
Any type of fruit and as much as I want of it
Recently I’ve started adding a vegetable juice concoction (found in Natalia Rose’s book Raw Food Life Force Energy) before eating any of the above
Lunch:
Some type of gazpacho soup or other veggie soup
Vegetable fried rice
Stir-fried veggies & rice
If I get too lazy…peanut butter & jelly sandwich
Snack:
Muffin, mini-bagel or fruit
Dinner:
If I’m good, it’s some type of grilled seafood and veggies. Otherwise, I just eat whatever my husband and kids are eating…including dessert 
What has made this easy for me is the fact that my kids generally don’t like to eat meat (or any kind of unidentifiable object for that matter), so I don’t really have to buy or fix special meals just for me. And I also take it easy on myself during dinner, since my husband likes “regular” food. As long as my first 2 meals of the day is vegan, I get the benefits of that diet. Eventually, I’d like to eat a 100% vegan diet, just because it feels right to me. I feel lighter, have more energy, and can concentrate better. I also don’t get sleepy after a big vegan meal like I do after a big meal at a Chinese buffet. I feel like the food is cleaner, more pure, and not as complicated to prepare. Other than brown rice, most vegan meals can be fixed in 15 minutes or less.
My interest in vegan eating was initially spiked by the fact that the people that I know that eat this way have really clear skin. At that time, I was probably 18 or 19 and obsessed about my skin (at that age, who wasn’t??). When I moved to the U.S., where vegan meals are a little bit more common than where I grew up, I started reading up more about it. Then I learned about all the different types of vegetarian/vegan diets, including eating raw vegan and organic. But more than just another unconventional way of eating, or a way to lose weight, get clear skin, or to live past 100, what it really boils down for me is that it’s a more conscious way of eating. It has led me to really examine and question the type of food we all eat, why we eat it, and if they’re really good for us. There are lots of different reasons people convert to vegan diets. For me, it’s the sheer simplicity of it. The resulting weight loss is just icing on the cake. And it’s a more sustainable way of eating for me because I can realistically continue eating this way for the rest of my life and anywhere I go.
A lot of people may think, well, now I won’t get to eat all the good stuff I used to eat. I personally don’t think of it as deprivation because it’s a conscious choice. And what we consider as “good stuff” is very subjective. There are people in certain parts of the world, and even in this country, that consider cow testicles, sheep brains and fish eye balls as edible, and even a delicacy. For the majority of the population, those things are considered pretty repulsive and chosen not to be eaten. Same thing with meat and processed food. Some people choose to eat them and think they’re good for you, while others don’t. I highly doubt many people will get bummed by not being able to eat sheep brains or fish eyeballs…ever. So it’s really not a big issue for me to no longer eat steak or pork chops.
Eventually, as Isabella starts weaning herself from needing me just about every hour of the day, I will start adding excercise back into my life. And as I learn to undo the lifelong eating habits I’ve formed, I will eventually wean myself completely off of all types of animal products and processed food. But I’m taking it slow for now and allowing a few slip-ups here and there because once in a while, I still like to eat my fried chicken and donuts. Maybe by next year, they will be as appetizing as cow testicles to me.
