How to Live with Less and Eat Less
Today it’s all about how to live with less and eat less. Did you know that living with less stuff is more rewarding than having a house full of stuff? It’s true. Minimalists find that the less that they own frees them up from extra stress in their lives, while keeping more money in their wallets.
Even in their diets, they use the same habits to live better. It has been discovered that eating less might actually slow down the aging process, allowing you to live longer while being healthier. Here are a few ways that you can live and eat less with a minimalist approach.
How to Live with Less and Eat Less
Quality over Quantity
Living with a minimalist approach will allow you to value quality over quantity. It’s about making the best of what you do have, instead of buying more things to try and make life more enjoyable.
This might require a total transformation in your thinking process. Having extra toys will be fun for a short time, but the emptiness will still be there after the monthly payments need to be made on them.
Thinking Before you make a Purchase
When you go to make a purchase you need to ask yourself, “Is this a want or a need?” There’s nothing wrong with purchasing a “want” from time to time, but you need to pay close attention to how often this is the case.
Minimalists stick to their needs and avoid making those pointless transactions to simply pleasure themselves.
It’s Declutter Time
One of the first and hardest steps to living with less is kicking to the curb “stuff” that is not needed anymore. Decluttering your home can be stressful, especially if you have a lot of stuff. Yet, if you want a healthier you and home, this step is vital.
Take baby steps by decluttering one room at a time and get rid of trash, and things that you don’t find yourself using again. If it’s something you may use one more time, consider if you could borrow it from someone instead. When it’s time to declutter your children’s toys, use some caution so the child won’t wig out at the loss of a possible favorite.
Get Rid of Clothing
Take a look at your closet space. You could probably empty out at least a quarter of your clothing that you can no longer fit, or maybe have no interest in wearing again anyway.
Why are you holding onto it? Toss it out. Goodwill, Deseret Industries, and the Salvation Army are great places to donate your clothing, plus they’re doing you a huge favor.
Unnecessary Decorations
You might not notice it, but sometimes decorations and ornaments are simply distracting. Do you have too many decorations or pictures hanging on your walls? Maybe even decorations sitting on coffee tables or other furniture?
If you want to have a minimalist approach, it might be time to toss it out. Having fewer decorations means less clutter and makes your home look even bigger and cleaner.
Removing Furniture
After decluttering your home, do you find that you have too much furniture now? There’s an easy solution. Put it at the end of your driveway and watch how quickly it gets picked up.
I’m not telling you to get rid of your great grandmother’s antique hutch passed down through the family, just extra pieces of furniture that no longer serve the original purpose.
Less Monthly Payments
The less big purchases that you make now will keep you from more monthly payments to take care of at the end of the month. This saves a lot of stress on marriages and keeps there from being more month at the end of the money.
Keto Diet
Many minimalists choose to have their diet shaped around the keto diet. This diet helps you burn more fat by avoiding foods with carbs while eating more fatty foods.
They eat more protein such as nuts, meats, cheeses, and low-carb vegetables. Sadly, this means many of your favorite snacks and bread are out of the picture.
Intermittent Fasting
Another great way to watch your food intake is by intermittent fasting. There are several different types of fasting that work, depending on the individual and their lifestyle.
Fasting helps close the window on the amount of time during the day that you can eat. A common one is not eating after 8 p.m. and only drinking water till twelve noon the following day.
You still need to be careful, because gorging after that window defeats the whole purpose of eating with less time in the day. Plus, you are working at watching your calorie intake.
Drink more Water Before Meals
We’ve been told that we don’t drink enough water during the day, so here’s a great time to start. Drinking more water right before a meal will fill you up quicker and keep you from eating as much.
Use Blue Plates
Think blue! Studies have proven that eating meals on blue plates actually suppresses hunger more than if you were to eat on any other colored plate.
Seems silly, but hey, if you struggle by eating too much already, this might help you more than you would think. See how easily our brains can be manipulated to think incorrectly?
Simplify your Meal Diet Menu with Less Ingredients
What do I mean by this? Take a look at your breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. Are there any common ingredients? Omelets use certain ingredients like eggs and ham.
For lunch, you could use that same ham to make a ham sandwich. Maybe dinner could consist of Asian stir fry that uses eggs and onions. Hey, that’s more ingredients that you already have. How about that!
Make a game plan before heading to the store and stick to these items instead of throwing a bunch of food and junk into the cart you don’t need to meet the menu requirements. This will keep you within budget with fewer throwouts too. Keep your diet menu simple.
Final Word
Here are ways to live and eat with less. What areas do you need to work on to make a transition to this kind of lifestyle? If you’ve already become a minimalist, tell us about your successes and challenges while living with less.
