Why I'm getting things done (plus random ramblings about Christmases past and present!)

I just love this time of year and always have. I enjoy the celebration, the get-togethers with loved ones, the excitement, the anticipation and (since Christmas 2002) the sheer magic of experiencing it all with a small child. And almost as much as all of the fun stuff, I enjoy the natural urge to take stock of the year that’s closing and to plan for the one about to begin.

But for me, until a few Christmases ago, my enjoyment of all of the above was curtailed by the fact I invariably spent this season in a junk food-induced fog. I’d exist on a diet based around canapés, mince pies, chocolates, cake, cheese, wine, champagne and more chocolates.

I’ve been ‘health conscious’ since the tender age of 14, but until my 'rawakening' I’d invariably assume a different personality over the festive season...one that wanted to consume its weight in marzipan and Milk Tray! Over the last six years that has all changed, and during that time I’ve been lucky enough to make many friends who have walked just the same path as I have, with the same happy results.

Like all of us, I also have a few people in my life who remain genuinely perplexed as to why I eat the way I do. I wish I could make them understand I’ve had hands down the best Christmases ever since I banished junk food from my life! The fog I used to be in for the whole of December and into the new year? I still remember exactly what it felt like... Yes, I had fun, but once you really experience that you can have all that fun and more without the negative side effects…well, why wouldn’t you?!!

This Christmas was the first one for many, many years when I didn’t touch a drop of alcohol. I even ended up making mulled wine for everyone, and its seductive spicy aroma and all the memories that invoked almost had me glugging it back. But last year I ventured half a glass of the stuff on Christmas eve and it was followed by a hangover that blighted much of Christmas day. I repeated the tiny-amount-of-alcohol-followed-by-horrible-hangover process a handful of times throughout 2007, yet I have actually not vowed never to touch a drop again. I just have zero urge to consume alcohol right now, and I suspect the occasions in the future when I do choose to will be few and far between, if ever.

After all, (a) there are so many raw, non-alcoholic drinks that are SO much tastier; and (b) they make you feel amazing, not lousy – while you’re drinking them, and after! I could build up my tolerance to alcohol again so that I could ‘indulge’ without feeling the effects quite so dramatically. A few years ago I could sink half a bottle of cab sauv and not feel any worse than I now feel on a few sips. But referring again to (a) and (b) above, and also adding to the mix: (c) I now have plenty of fab friends who also know how to have fun without alcohol...well, it's just a no-brainer to me that I don't need it.

As well as enjoying the festive season more, the other happy effect of living on a pure, high-raw vegan diet is that when I’m struck with that late-December urge to purge the old and prepare for the new I can now act on it in a useful way!

We are all different, but one thing is for sure: no matter who you are, when you’re on the standard diet you are operating at a fraction of your true capacity.

It’s only when you eat a diet centred on raw plant foods that you meet your true self and your true potential.

Eating right is not just about losing weight, having more energy and reducing your chances of illness. It does all of that, of course, but that's only the start.

Diet affects your destiny in every way imaginable because what you consume becomes YOU.

In the past, I simply wasn’t capable of acting on the intentions I naturally had at this time of year. I would be capable of more impressive results at other times of year, but staying on track in January, as I was coming off the sugar roller-coaster? Forget it.

But I live in a different reality now and I’ve spent the past couple of days getting everything in my living environment, and my life, shockingly ship shape. I have a humongous amount to achieve in 2008 and I need to up my game in order to do it. By happy coincidence, while in a bookshop a couple of months ago I happened to pick up a book that is proving to be rather a life-changer (nay life-saver!) for me: Getting Things Done, by David Allen. I had never heard of either the book (which was written six years ago, it turns out) or the author, and I wasn’t even looking for anything of the kind at the time. But something made me pick it up and leaf through it, then decide to buy it.

I’ve read A LOT of books on this subject over the years and I’ve gained many valuable insights by doing so, but I can safely say this one provides a system that (for me, anyway) is head and shoulders above all the rest.

What’s different about it? It combines organizing your home and work space, room by room, with identifying your goals and commitments and organizing your life. The system is pretty elaborate (see the author’s website for more information) and takes some time to implement, but I can already see that once it is up and running it will make life so much easier! When I first realized this, I was unfortunately too busy and disorganized to do anything about it(!) But for the last few days I have been happily engaged in working through it during every spare moment.

I’d highly recommend this book to you if you are feeling inspired right now to de-clutter, de-stress and de-light (yourself, with how smart and efficient you can be).

I can’t even tell you how driven I am to 'detox' externally right now, and this morning it hit me that I have a simultaneous urge to do some internal detoxing. More about that soon, no doubt! ; )

Comments

[Russell James]

Must be the time of year for this sort of thing, as I've just been reading and working through my copy of Getting Things Done, too!

I've probably owned it for over 2 years but was put off by the first half of the book, because it didn't seem like it was giving me any real ways to change anything.

But something made me pick it up again, and I found that when he talks about the actual methods and how to implement them, things start to get exciting.

I can highly recommend this book.