Dimly Aware

More thoughts on simplifying while on my run this morning.  I was thinking about the things I've been the most successful at, and why.  Specifically (here we go with another weight loss analogy) when one is dimly aware of a desired outcome at all times- for example, frugality, or, as was the case with me for the last several months, weight loss- one significantly increases the chances of one's success. 

Let me clarify:  The last time I went on a diet that I could not stick to (which was not the first time I went on a diet, for sure) I actually did extremely well.  I had a long list of foods I could eat and couldn't eat.  I had an exercise regimen, a trainer, a chart tracking my weight in the bathroom, et cetera (OK.  so I'm a little type A) .  And I did lose a lot of weight, but it was a matter of all-or-nothing.  Eventually, I wanted to eat something besides what was on that list of "permitted" foods, and I wanted to do something else with the 14 hours per week my exercise regimen was eating.  Presto.  I gained a lot of the weight I had so assiduously lost back.  

This time around, I lost weight slowly, over the course of a year, and I maintained my loss by keeping a dim awareness of my calorie target in mind with every food and exercies choice I make throughout the day.  My regimen isn't stressful; I eat when I'm hungry, I exercise a little every day, and the weight stays off.  That is to say, it is a matter of a lot of little choices ( butter on that popcorn?  Want to take a walk?) rather than big choices ("I am going to eat no carbohydrates for a period of 90 days.")

Let's consider this strategy with respect to topics more relevant to this blog, for example, frugality and ordering the home to maximize peace of mind and productivity.  Again.  It isn't about ignoring the house for the entire week, then having a big clean that is hateful and exhausting.  It's about not owning a lot of things that are going to clutter everything up, and always remembering to fold up, to put away, to swipe down, to kick one's shoes off in the closet rather than, say, in the middle of the floor.  With frugality it's the same drill.  Remembering that you're trying to minimize and save money lets you rethink the bottle of flavoured olive oil when you're shopping in the supermarket.  It isn't about having an overarching saving goal each month, then eating eggs and ramen for two weeks because the budget has been blown by Italian imports earlier in the month.  It's about remembering an ethos, its positive effects, and bearing that in mind with the smaller choices.  

Big changes are easiest to make with a goal kept in mind.  The strategy of the "regimen" (like a "no carbohydrate regimen") is perhaps to strict, too unpleasant, too unlike real life to keep at for any significant amount of time.  But the strategy of routinely choosing something smaller, greener, simpler- this can be transformative without the sturm und drang required by a "makeover."  Perhaps it's more like a "make-under" .