It's amazing how in two weeks I have easily squelched the urge to shop. (Check in with me in 3 months when I am crawling the walls). This week, I've started to see the connection between Shop Your Closet and some seemingly disconnected ideas.
- Michael Pollan and the creator of Food Inc., the movie, have made me think about simpler eating. One-third of people born after the year 2000 will get diabetes. This is terrifying. I don't want that for my kids. It makes me want to revamp what we eat. I am scared of processed food!
-- The NY Times article this week on people living simply, have made me see the freedom of getting off the work/spend treadmill. Managing to work less while simultaneously getting out of debt? This really resonates with me. I've gone beyond my young years and the urge to climb corporate ladders and achieve, achieve, achieve. For years I've been telling myself I want to write novels but how can I, with the expense of raising two kids near a major metropolitan area? I need to earn some money during the 18 hours of childcare I have each week. It might take some creativity and bold moves, but now I believe there might be a way.
-- Shop Your Closet and dieting, and books like "Women, Food and God" and "The Four-Day Win" by Martha Beck have helped me see a connection between over-shopping and over-eating. I've also read some of the shopping ban blog entries on www.alreadypretty.com and the resulting binge after a shopping ban (just like the binge after a diet) has led me to decide that dieting won't work and shopping bans won't either. Deprivation triggers an equal and opposite reaction. What I want to do is release the need to do either of these.
More than ever, I am beginning to view my life as a way to experiment. Is this a mid-life crisis? Maybe I should just go and buy a red convertible and get it over with!
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Good for you! I especially am interested to see how you manage the living simply part. I look at our expenses and I see so much waste. But I am not inspired to do anything about that. Yet. :)
ReplyDeleteI used to be an emotional eater. I'm now an emotional shopper.
ReplyDeleteWell I am not exactly buying a yurt and heading into the wilderness but my eyes are definitely opening. :) I know what you mean about timing Kristen, and right now I am open to it. Not sure why!
ReplyDeleteAnna, you are right, eating and shopping are the same compulsion. I am trying to calm down the thing inside that wants to do both!
Hi, I actually know you from the youlookfab forum for a long time now although I'm a member and haven't made a comment and more than a year.
ReplyDeleteI was on holydays and seen your posts about SYC and I identified so much with it that I was wondering if I could join in.
And I arrived to the same conclusion(also seen the same NY article, by the way)
Finding other ways to make me happy is the answer,maybe shopping once in a while because I *really* need the items.
Looking forward to see your progresses :)