breaking up with energy squashers

Everyone has them - those people you see, the things you do, and the foods you eat that all make you feel worse than before they came. Their lure is strong, so tempting and attractive, it's hard not to indulge time and time again. Sometimes their bite isn't that bad, it's subtle even, but it's always, always the same: you're left drained and far less energetic than before it all began. Everyone has energy squashers (I'd like to believe I just coined a term!)

My energy squashers are many and come in various shapes and sizes. They are human, inanimate, physiological and edible. They are big, they are small, sometimes they are even made up. If I had to pick the top five however, they would most definitely be, in order:

1. TV.
2. Junk food.
3. Gossip.
4. Clutter.
5. The Interweb.

TV and the Internet:

TV has become a habit. I get home, I'm tired, I make dinner and clean up. Then I'm even more tired, so I plunk myself in front of the tube, often with a glass of wine, and watch something (the PVR ensures it not just anything). An hour or two later, I'm more tired. I crash and repeat it all the next day. I watch TV because I'm tired; TV makes me more tired. It's a vicious circle, really. I'm lumping the Internet into this category because the dynamic is exactly the same: when I'm tired, I site surf aimlessly, facebook, etc. Then I'm more tired.... and repeat.

Junk Food:

Then there's junk food. I've covered my feelings on junk food a post or two ago so I'll keep this brief. Junk food = bloated, unhappy belly = all energy is used to aid belly (and agonize about another poor decision) = tired, unhappy, unhealthy Maya = bad.

Gossip:

Gossip is a bit more interesting. Its effects run deeper than TV and junk food. Put simply, gossip makes me feel rotten, and I do it a lot. I try to keep the conversations positive, pointing out people's good qualities and highlighting their achievements, but even that is draining (and let's be honest, the positivity doesn't always happen). Talking about people with other people, whatever the content, is gossip and 95% of the time, it's unnecessary. Through all of tenth grade Spanish, I had to stare at the following quote day in and day out: Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people. It has haunted me every since.

Clutter:

My hubby-to-be likes to refer to me as a clean freak and it's true, I do like a clean house, but it goes beyond wanting my house to be presentable, cozy and inviting. Clutter stresses me out. Too much stimuli of any sort just doesn't sit well. The cycle is again the same - clutter makes me tired, then I'm too tired to deal with the clutter. Clutter builds and I collapse in heaps of exhaustion (Matt also says I have a flare for the dramatic). ;)

SOOOOOOOoooo...... during this month of focusing on vitality, it is essential that I part ways with the things that strip me of my energy. Loosely, during vitality month, I resolve to:

• Watch no more than three hours of TV per week. I don't want to cut it out completely because I'd miss out on weekend movie dates with my honey.
• No more than 30 minutes of site surfing per day. End of story.
• As little junk food as absolutely possible (for me, this means sugar, dairy, anything processed, and obviously, anything artificial).
• Spend 10 minutes every evening de-cluttering.

I suspect this will be my hardest challenge given how engrained a lot of these things are in my daily routine... but when have breakups ever been easy?! ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

mxo