How Minimalism Has Positively Impacted My Approach to Lifestyle, Sports and Nutrition
I question everything.
1. Do I really need this?
IF NOT, GIFT IT, SELL IT OR THROW IT. Avoid emotional attachment, JUST. LET. GO.
IF YOU DO NEED IT,
2. Why do I need it?
IF THE ASNWER PORTRAYS A PHYSICAL NEED TO LIVE, OR IF THE ITEM IS CONSTANTLY USED FOR YOUR PERSONAL LIFESTYLE, KEEP. IT. & FOLLOW THE NEXT QUESTION.
IF NOT, GIFT IT, SELL IT OR THROW IT.
3. Does it cater to my personal goals and lifestyle needs?
Be honest. If not GET. RID. OF. IT.
The answer should then provide you with a specific answer that you mustn’t allow to be coerced by what you’ve been taught or told by others.
The hardest decisions may come when faced by an object that was gifted or carries a highly valued connection towards another person, but personally, looking ahead and placing my future into perspective allowed me to make a decision that sat well with my conscience and enabled me to move forward.
Everything in life is connected. The more you own, the more time and space you need to store it. The more space you own, the more you spend to maintain it, the more you store, the more you stop questioning and the more you want without really questioning or sticking to your personal lifestyle principles.
We are taught to be as involved as we can in all aspects of life, work, sports, education, family, business startups, etc. We have been infested by millions of possibilities that detract us from our path and ultimately trap us into a cycle that completely defers from our personal vision.
I was raised in an environment where my friendships and close family had millions of material processions. The lifestyle portrayed by them, along with my desire to belong catered to the idea that in order to be happy and have a good standing lifestyle I needed to have options. Those options transferred to physical assets, and the accumulation of things I neither wanted nor needed. My decision to purchase such items came from a perspective I was faced to change when having to move from apartments more recently through school and the pandemic.
I began to realize that the more stuff I carried, the more time I had to waste on it, and the more physical and mental energy I had to devote to it, which hindered my personal lifestyle goals and needs. This mentality carried over to the way I approach nutrition and sports as well.
Here’s my minimalistic approach to life:
I have 24 hours in a day, 8 hours to sleep, 3 hours to eat (lunch, bfast, dinner), 3 hours of physical activity, and 10 hours left for a balance of productive work/school. I am able to allocate through those hours, connections with family, friends, and multitasking by adding other less time consuming activities.
When I approach nutrition and sports, I ask myself those three main introductory questions.
“Do I really need this? Why do I need it? Does it cater to my personal goals and lifestyle needs?”
Nutrition:
I understand nutrition to detail. I know how macros, micros, vitamins and nutrients work. I know what my body needs, and I know how it reacts to certain things. I am open to flexibility but when food shopping I know exactly what to go for to get the most out of its nutritional value in order to spend less, have a higher quality nutrition and allow my body to adapt simultaneously.
I keep both a flexible training and eating routine. Within it’s flexibility I also limit myself in order to maintain a healthy balance and to feel good at any time I want to be physically active or at peace while doing work or studying. My approach to foods is simple, I spend the longest time at the fresh produce section. Where nature directly provides me with an organic nutrition, where the foods are naturally protected and not wrapped in plastic. The items that not only cater to the above mentioned but are also part of our natural cycle. I have a protein source at every meal, eggs, fish and chicken, and I combine these with my main sources of carbohydrates, Ezekiel bread, sweet potatoes, banana, broccoli and other veggies. While there are millions of healthy options, I have my set of choices within them. A higher level of wellness is achieved when one doesn’t only account for a healthy eating style but goes as far as recognizing those foods that are beneficial and portray the highest nutritional value for one’s needs.
These are my go-to food source options:
CARBOHYDRATES:
“LIGHT:” Kale, cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, broccoli, carrots and onions.
“HEAVY:” Ezekiel bread, sweet potatoes, bananas.
PROTEIN:
Eggs, Salmon, chicken.
FATS:
I switch it up on the nuts and try to keep 3–4 healthy sources of fat. Salmon, and eggs already contain a good amount.
Olive oil, almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almond butter, cacao nibs, chia seeds, flax seeds.
I personally keep stored grains, like quinoa and wild rice but don’t have them as much as I feel like my body doesn’t do as well.
I keep my diet simple, much like the stuff I buy for lifestyle and sports purposes. The less I have, the less time and money I need to maintain it and the more I can focus on the things I actually want to do in life.
“Do I really need this? Why do I need it? Does it cater to my personal goals and lifestyle needs?”
Training:
I also keep a flexible training style but within it’s flexibility I understand that my body needs a certain amount of hours of physical activity in order to maintain a healthy level of fitness that enables me to stay well grounded mentally and operate well at work/school.
Minimalism brought me to really prioritize training as it is part of personal/lifestyle goals. I chose to invest my money into ensuring I am well equipped with the technology that allows me to keep a steady progress as well as gear that allows me to perform and feel good while doing so. To take it to extreme levels, if I were to decide to take off on a cycling journey through the US, I’d be able to have exactly what I need and leave my lifestyle clothes at a friends house in one suitcase.
“Do I really need this? Why do I need it? Does it cater to my personal goals and lifestyle needs?”
Clothing:
I have constantly heard criticism towards people who spend a high amount of money towards designer clothes, but I respect the fact the even at the lowest level of purpose, by buying such clothes, one is limiting the amount spent on countless amounts of items that would only remain accumulated through time and cater towards the consumerist mentality which feeds off underpaid clothing manufacturers in third world countries.
I am not big of fashion designers, I keep a simple style but I do go for a balance in quality, quantity, price and look.
“Do I really need this? Why do I need it? Does it cater to my personal goals and lifestyle needs?”
Time & Space:
I go as far as to question how much time an activity will take me, and if it involves money, I make sure it’s worth it. Time and space are the most valuable intangible assets we possess, as time cannot be recuperated and defined space deeply affects our behavior, actions and consequentially our lifestyle. We are constantly running out of both, the reason being is the accumulation of stuff brought by other stuff that we haven’t stopped to question if we even need. Ultimately, our lifestyle choices, accumulation and approach compromise the time and space we have which elapses into a never ending cycle of stuff that carries no value but rather adds stress to our lives
How it all comes together:
Constant awareness and self-questioning drives us to the core of who we are as people and what we need to be fully ourselves. I am constantly questioning everything. A lifestyle choice that has unclustered my life from material attachments to live a life of full adaptability and peace.
Detaching and becoming a minimalist takes time. I am still surrounded by things I don’t need, and I am waiting to sell. When I purchase an item I understand it’s going to bring value to my life and go for a quality that won’t add stress by constantly breaking or slowing down. I do my research on the company and costumer’s previous experiences.
I came to reach this lifestyle by questioning whether or not I truly wanted to be an architect, whether or not I needed that job, where I wanted to go with sports and who I wanted to become. I sold a lot of stuff, moved out of my apartment, quit my job, graduated, and forcefully reached a zero-productivity standard in order to rearrange my course of action. I quit it all in order to continuously allocate my energy and ensure I wasn’t over working my body as I had been for the past years. Such overworking lead to poor thinking which then lead to poor lifestyle decisions, constantly adding to my life through stuff, food and even unmeaningful experiences that I didn’t believe in.
