August has come and gone… and to be honest, I have no idea where that time went! It started out sane… and then it got crazy!!! With our church’s new multi-site launching in about a month, my brain, time, and energy has been drained out of my being… It’s exciting, but it’s been CRAZY!!!
Well, this past week, 2 people have asked me “so has this 7 thing changed your lifestyle at all? or did you just binge after your fasting was up?” And my answer was “it definitely has changed my life!” Here is how:
1. Since 7 Foods, my food budget has hit its all time low. During the month of August, I came under $300 on food… that’s ALL TIME LOW for me!!!
2. I’ve started giving out granola bars to homeless people on the street when I come across them. It’s not much, but I’m doing what I can to share Jesus’ love with them.
3. I’m more mindful about going out to eat just because I’m too lazy to cook. In fact, I’m currently trying to eat everything I have in my pantry and fridge before I go food shopping again… And I have a lot of stuff to eat through!
4. I still haven’t shopped for clothes in over 2 months… I’ve only bought 2 accessories this month… I just couldn’t resist, but I had to get a new purse that was on 65% sale… and a laptop bag that was on 70% sale! (I know, I’m weak…) but I have not missed shopping AT ALL!!!
5. I’ve been continually cleaning out my apartment to give things away. Due to my busyness this month, I’m a bit behind on giving away 217 things during the month of August… but I have committed to giving away 217 items, and I will keep that promise as I go into September.
So… now it’s the month of September (it’s 12:34 am on 9/1). “What’s your next 7 things?” has been the big question… And I have to admit that this is the hardest one so far: it’s MEDIA!!! What’s so hard about it? Well, I’m personally surrounded by media… and since I was a latch-key kid in elementary school, the first thing I did when I came home was turn on the TV for background noise… I would fall asleep to either TV or Radio in high school… I’m on my computer majority of my days during the week… Between my iPhone and iPad, I’m rarely unplugged. My life is surrounded by media!!! There’s a part of me that wishes to banish myself from all things media… but reality is, I need to be on email and check my email periodically for work. And realistically, I do a lot of work via social media (yup, weekly blogging and fb is one of my current roles)… thus it’s not realistic to be completely unplugged… but since part of this experiment is to simplify my life but also do something that would help me change the way I live my life now, this is what I’m committing to:
1. NO TV!!! (i have officially put the remote in a cabinet so I won’t even be tempted.)
2. NO RADIO in the car… I often like to listen to music and sing along… none of that this month!
3. NO MOVIES! (I often get movie screening invitations, and that’s how I usually watch movies… I already have 2 tickets for this month… Guess I’ll be giving those away!)
4. NO SPOTIFY, NO YOUTUBE, NO HULU, NO AMAZON INSTANT MOVIES–so NO entertainment on computers!!!
5. NO GAMES!!!
6. NO iPhone nor iPad apps unless it’s work or productivity related such as banking, taking notes, etc… A lot of discernment needed here!
7. LIMITED Social Networking: I say limited because I fb message as much as I email re: work, ministry, network for work purposes… once again, a lot of discernment is needed here… as my goal is not to just sit read every fb and twitter post, but to use it only for productivity.
So when I re-read my 7 media fast above, one thing screams to me: NO NOISE!!! I love background noise.. I just love noise! But with giving up all these things above, I’m sensing that it’s going to be super quiet around here! God, help me!!!
gloria s. lee 