Starting My Day Differently | Intermittent Fasting | Earthing

 

Today I began a lifestyle reset, and already I can report excellent results! First, I didn't drink any coffee. Instead, I drank two cups of Earl Grey tea, so I've had substantially less caffeine than usual. Coffee tends to upset my stomach, jangle my nerves, and dehydrate me, and I suffered none of these adverse effects from the tea. 

But before I even had the tea, I brushed my teeth and then drank a cup of water with slices of lemon and a few ice cubes. I took it outside, raised my eyes to soak in some sunlight, and walked barefoot on the grass. The latter practice is called earthing. My chiropractor mentioned it to me, so last year, once it was warm enough, I began starting my day this way. You can read the list at the top of the page of all the amazing benefits.

The basic idea is that connecting your feet to the earth grounds you. The earth's electrons, which give off a naturally negative electrical charge, flow through you, and this helps to neutralize the electrons in our bodies. I notice a positive boost in my mood from just a few minutes of walking barefoot on the grass. 

The quality of sleep we get each night is influenced by what we do from the moment we wake up in the morning. Getting exposed to sunlight first thing helps to set one's circadian rhythms for wakefulness during the day and better sleep at night, and the earthing practice also promotes healthy sleep patterns. 

For breakfast, I usually have fig bars with my coffee or tea (Nature's Bakery brand are whole grain), but I find that, like the hobbits, I function best if I have "second breakfast". So today, awhile after eating the fig bars, I had a slice of avocado toast and vegetarian sausage. 

Another practice with many health benefits is intermittent fasting. This basically means that you eat all of your food in a window of a set number of hours. Inspired by Jennifer L. Scott of "The Daily Connoisseur" blog and YouTube channel, my goal is an eight hour window. However, I find that I sometimes need to give myself an extra hour. This afternoon I went to the greenhouse and planted flowers, which ran into my usual dinner making hour. So I gave myself an extra hour in my eating window.

A window of anywhere from 8 to 10 hours is standard, though some do an even smaller window. Jennifer lost 30 pounds in a year just from practicing intermittent fasting. I am hoping to lose weight as well, to make healthier dietary choices and avoid snacking in the evenings, and to optimize my metabolism and general health. 

Before getting showered and ready for the rest of the day, I had devotional time with my breakfast. I find that prayer and spiritual reading in the mornings set the tone for my entire day, helping me to be more calm, happy, patient, and productive. It also helped immensely that I slept through the night and got a solid 9 hours. Praise God! 

The last thing I did differently this morning was to take quercetin and homepathic allergy treatments instead of my usual Claritin. I want to taper off all my prescription and OTC meds and replace them with natural remedies and dietary changes. For now I'm still taking my nighttime asthma medicine, plus Benadryl, but I'm cutting down on that. I ran out of Flonase nasal spray and don't plan to refill my prescription. I also used my neti pot this morning and will make that a regular part of my daily routine. 

I got a lot done today, enjoyed myself, and spent quality time with my daughter while my husband was out of town. Every day may not go so smoothly, but I feel encouraged that I am setting myself up for success with better habits around food, sleep, and time in the sun. Now I'm going to take an evening stroll to cap off a lovely day! 

My 2021 Blog Themes | A Clutter Free January

 (old monastery turned into a home, homeworldlife.com)

I was delighted today to watch Jennifer L. Scott's first video of the new year at "The Daily Connoisseur" and to learn about a cooperative project of YouTube vloggers called "A Clutter Free January," begun by Dawn at "The Minimal Mom." Another of the participants is "Diane in Denmark," and she has a playlist of all of the videos so far. They have begun with their kitchens. 

I'm joining in this project, not as a vlogger myself, but just to get inspiration and focus my efforts, as I had already decided to set decluttering tasks for my home this month. And this fits nicely into one of my blog themes for 2021, the domestic monastery. My other two themes will be the preservation of liberty and the literary life. I will outline the basics of each theme in the days to come. 

We experienced so many alarming things in 2020, which unfortunately promise to continue well into this new year, and many people are exhausted, frazzled, in grief, and very uncertain of the future. I think the Catholic principle of subsidiarity can help us to navigate these tumultuous times, by teaching us to put first things first, and to begin with what we can most easily and effectively influence and control. 

I will keep it short today, and simply encourage you to check out the videos for A Clutter Free January posted so far. Ruminate on some plans for how you can get started in your own home, beginning today with just 10 minutes in the kitchen, which Diane in Denmark can guide you through.

Peace and joy to you this New Year!!

 

Home Efficiency, Part 2: Stop Striving

After more than a month, here is the video in which I wrap up reflecting on the home efficiency tips discussed in Part 1. What surprisingly happened to me since then is a reassessment of my feelings about Jennifer L. Scott's blog post on her best efficiency tips, which she followed with some related posts that gave me a different impression; and while I haven't done a complete 180 degrees on the subject, I have significantly modified my viewpoint. I noticed a certain hidden attitude of striving and idealism that I think can actually undermine our goals to be efficient at home. 

I do value Jennifer's insights at The Daily Connoisseur and have often been inspired by her approach to life, but I think I've gotten to the point where I need to move on and find my own way, which is what I encourage you to do in this video. I hope it helps you to cease from striving so much and to rest in the Lord instead.

Godspeed,
Rita Michele 

Home Efficiency, Part 1

I'm so excited to finally share my latest youtube video! I was snapped out of the summer malaise I had been in after watching Jennifer L. Scott's video on her best efficiency tips over at The Daily Connoisseur. This is my take on a couple of them. Unfortunately my husband came home unexpectedly and I had to cut it short, so I will be doing a follow-up soon. 

This discussion includes the tips to "wake up before your family" and "embrace schedules and routines." With school starting next week, it's not a moment too soon to get myself in gear. What strikes me most is that by establishing an organized pattern for her days and not wasting time, Jennifer has created a life that she truly loves. Watch Jennifer's video to get the low down on all seven of her best tips on how to be efficient at home! 
https://dailyconnoisseur.blogspot.com/2018/07/how-to-be-efficient-my-best-tips.html

I'd love followers to share what efficiency tips work best for you. Are you trying anything new? It's time to break out of our comfort zones and become the women that God created us to be!

The Daily Minimalist

I received Zara Fagen's book, Minimalist Homeschooling, a couple of days ago, and I dived right in! What it amounts to is a do-it-yourself workshop for discerning your homeschooling values, prioritizing subjects, and resetting your mind to a paradigm of plenty. I'm reading the book with my journal open and pen in hand. 

I'm reordering Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing magic of Tidying Up from the library. Using these two guides together, I'm going to bring order to my home--and my life--once and for all! My key words for this new year are simplicity and contentment. These words encapsulate the minimalist philosophy for me. 

I've changed the byline of Organic Mothering to "The Daily Minimalist" (yes, a bit of borrowing from "The Daily Connoisseur" blog by Jennifer L. Scott!). My plan is to blog a little bit about this journey on a more regular basis, except for Sundays, which are all about rest. Posts will be short and sweet, and I hope, inspiring. 

Today is all about laundry. I got seriously behind again. Clothing is the first category to declutter with the "KonMari Method". I don't have much to do in this area, since I've already pared down my wardrobe. But I recently bought some new items from Dress Barn, and it helps to have all your clothing clean in order to determine what pieces you may wish to purge...  

After clothing comes books. We pared them down in my house, but they are sitting in boxes waiting to be sold to a used book store an hour away! Just moving clutter somewhere else is no good. It needs to leave the house, my friends. Our homeschool co-op has a curriculum sale coming up next week. Whatever doesn't sell there will join the boxes heading to the book store. So in the next two weeks the first two categories for decluttering will be knocked out. Who wants to minimize daily with me?

S & F Series--The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Okay my little chickadees, I know I told you I was going to post on Mondays, and now it's Tuesday. And I said that I would talk about skin care. But so much has been happening that I think I will need to blog more than once a week. Also, a couple of days ago I finished reading Marie Kondo's the life-changing magic of tidying up: the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing (this is how the capitalization appears on the cover). I borrowed it from the library and have given it to my husband to read. While I have referred to this book frequently, it deserves a post dedicated to it. Skin care will have to wait. 

I am already experiencing the results of the KonMari Method. I pared down my spring/summer clothing, took what I am keeping to the laundry room, and bagged the rest up to give away. My dresser drawers have been completely reorganized, and my closet is well on its way. I am paring down so much that I might not even have to store my off season clothing!

Now, Jennifer L. Scott of The Daily Connoisseur blog, who I have also mentioned quite a bit, does not agree with Marie about not storing the off season wardrobe. I haven't decided yet, but I will give you my verdict by next week. At first it might seem to make the most sense to pack away items that you only wear in the summer or winter, so that what you see when you open your drawers and closet are strickly those pieces that you would actually wear.

Then again, I live in Ohio. This means that we have lots of transitional weather. I would never be wearing shorts in winter, and some clothing is way too heavy for summer. Or so it might seem... I'm beginning to suspect that my wardrobe could be considerably expanded if I didn't store anything away, and it would certainly free up my time. We shall see.

One of the wackier elements of Marie's book is that she anthropomorphizes material things. In other words, books don't like to be at the bottom of a pile any more than you or I would. Clothes can be happy or sad. In fact, she seems to suggest that our possessions reincarnate! This is entertaining, but strangely I am discovering that there is some mystical truth to all of this.

I don't want to spoil the pleasure you will get from reading her book by quoting from it or telling you too much about how the method itself works. What I can tell you is that the furniture in my bedroom told me in a very real way that it wanted to be moved. And some of the cardigan sweaters in my closet announced that they were unhappy hanging and getting saggy shoulders and wanted to be folded instead.

I am not joking. I have had very physical experiences and radical shifts in perspective from reading this book and implementing the decluttering process. The promise given is that we will literally figure out what to do with our lives once we have tidied our homes, all in one go. We will be different people. We will be our real selves. We will only have to do this method once, and we will be changed forever. I'm talking metamorphosis, baby! From worm to butterfly.

So just get your hands on this golden nugget of a book, and let's do this! I expect to be reading many comments from you as we go along in this together. It's time to dry off our wings and fly!!

Joie de Vivre

Joie de Vivre: a French phrase used to express a cheerful enjoyment of life; an exultation of spirit.

Joie de vivre "can be a joy of conversation, joy of eating, joy of anything one might do... And joie de vivre may be seen as a joy of everything, a comprehensive joy, a philosophy of life... Robert's Dictionnaire says joie is a sentiment exaltant ressenti par toute la conscience, that is, involves one's whole being" (Wikipedia).

Lately everything has been coming up French. It began with an article in More magazine about two women who swapped eating and exercise habits. One was French, the other American. The American lost two pounds in two weeks and substantially increased her energy level via adopting the French way. Plus, she didn't go to the gym in the mornings as was her standard routine before work, but walked to work and other places instead. The French eat high fat foods like cheese, real butter, pastries, and red meat. They also eats lots of local, fresh fruits and vegetables. And of course, wine is regularly drunk with meals.

I went to Paris in 1990 for eight days. I haven't lived in France, so I can't give you in depth knowledge about what it is like to actually live there. I did, however, witness people walking everywhere. The French are not in love with their cars. The cars I saw were very small by American standards and often dented. Evidently they don't worry over every bump and scratch. I also saw tons of bicycles. Something else that stood out was the seeming lack of makeup worn during the day. I was told that French women reserve makeup for going out in the evening.

After reading the magazine article, I started to incorporate the French eating habits. This involves a big breakfast and lunch cooked oneself, and a very small dinner. No snacking, and the kitchen is closed at 8:00 pm. Meals are leisurely, eaten together at a table with the family, and food is savored. Real food, not fast food, take out, or processed and packaged foods. One day this week I had a small but substantial breakfast of granola with organic yogurt and dried cranberries. Often I either only have coffee, or I eat a bowl of cereal (or some cookies!).

For lunch I began with a plate of hummus, carrots, organic blue corn chips, and dates. Usually that would constitute a normal lunch for me. But after that I cooked some scrambled eggs with organic cheese, onions, garlic, and mushrooms, and added curry powder and Trader Joe's everyday seasoning mix. It was so delicious! I forget what I had for dinner. I can tell you that after that large lunch, I had so much more energy than usual, and my mood was much improved!

I'm currently having camera trouble, so in lieu of featuring fall Gypsy Mama fashions, I'm going to explore the French concept of joie de vivre. I've ordered French lifestyle books from the library, and I've been inspired by Jennifer L. Scott's blog, The Daily Connoisseur, and her youtube videos.

Yesterday I felt very French. It was my husband's birthday, and also that of our cousin who just turned 8, so we all went to see Smurfs 2, which was, to my delight, set in Paris! Afterward we crossed the street from the movie theater and shopped at the farmers market on the town square. We got tons of produce as well as some homemade soap. In the evening we went out to a nice restaurant where a live jazz band was playing. I wore a simple but chic outfit and had followed Jennifer's "le no makeup" look (which, incidentally, is a significant about of makeup).

So I hope to keep up my French lifestyle aspirations, and I will share my journey with you. By the way, if you have read this far, be aware that this is the blog of a woman who has caught up on her laundry! At this moment I have merely one basket of dirty laundry in my basement. It is much easier to get dressed when one's clothes are clean, and life is certainly more joyful without that mountain of dirty laundry hanging perenially over my head. If I can do it, anyone can! Until next time, peace be with you...
Love,
dancingmommio