The Healthy Celiac Podcast

Declutter Your Life: Mastering Celiac Disease with a Streamlined Lifestyle Ep. 181

• Belinda Whelan • Season 1 • Episode 181

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Imagine transforming your life by simply letting go—of clutter, of stress, of what's unnecessary. I found myself doing just that, shifting from a self-confessed hoarder to more of a minimalist during my pregnancy. This change not only eased the burden of too many belongings but also helped lower my stress and mental load while managing my celiac disease more effectively.

Join me as I chat about my journey, where minimalism isn't just about having less but about making room for what truly matters.

I'll give you practical strategies to declutter your kitchen and wardrobe, creating environments that are not only safer but also more efficient for managing celiac disease.
By simplifying meal planning with the "cook once, eat twice" approach, you'll find more time and less stress in your day. Embrace mindfulness and minimalism as I discuss reducing external stressors and being intentional about what occupies our lives.
Learn how to reject the superfluous and focus on progress over perfection. Resources like 'The Minimalists' works are recommended for those eager to explore this fulfilling lifestyle further.
I hope this episode inspires you to lead a more intentional, stress-free life.

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Why Won’t You Just Say No?

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Speaker 1:

On today's show I'm talking about minimalism and how that can support us living with celiac disease, because, basically, simplifying your life can make a profound difference to the way that you feel and you live with celiac disease. All right, so welcome back to this week's episode where I'm talking about minimalism and how that can completely transform the way that you live every single day. Now you've probably heard the term minimalism thrown around, but you might not quite understand what it is or you might be like minimalism is not for me and it's like bare bones, living with next to nothing. But that's not what I want to emphasize today. I want to talk about how you can simplify your life by choosing to focus on minimalism in different key areas of your life and your lifestyle, because when you can pare back things in your life, it can take away some of that stress and can make living with celiac disease so much easier and can make living with celiac disease so much easier.

Speaker 1:

Now my husband has this running joke where pretty much me and everyone that I'm related to are hoarders. He's always called me a hoarder and he'll go you're a hoarder, your mom's a hoarder, your dad's a hoarder. It's kind of like in our DNA and I would have agreed with with him previously, but I would not agree with him today anymore. I am not a hoarder but I used to keep everything. Absolutely everything was like special and had meaning and I just would love to hang on to things. And we used to live in Darwin and when we moved from Darwin to Adelaide my husband's work paid for us to move down here. So it was like pack everything up and off we go. It's fine. But when we moved house after that it was like holy moly, we have so much stuff for a family of three people. It was ridiculous. So we paid an absolute fortune for these removalists to move all of our stuff and looking back it was just nuts. We should have got rid of a lot of it.

Speaker 1:

But what started my minimalism journey was actually when I was pregnant with my second child, with my son Reef, and I can distinctly remember going around the house heavily pregnant and trying to vacuum and I had to pick up all these different things that I had on the floor lots of decorative items, vases and plants and just so many things just sitting in places and it drove me bonkers because I had to pick them all up, move them and then vacuum around them and being heavily pregnant. That is not fun for anyone. And I was like, why have I got all this stuff in my house? And I just started to start getting rid of it. And as I started clearing stuff out, I started to learn more and more about minimalism. I watched a documentary on Netflix actually, multiple documentaries on Netflix and I borrowed books from the library, which I've never previously been a big library book reader. I've usually bought books and hung onto them for dear life. Whether I liked them or not. I still kept those books. It was kind of like part of me would maybe refer back to them one day, or I just spent money on them so I couldn't let go of them. So I started borrowing books from the library and was learning more about minimalism and, yeah, taking on board some of these ways of living that could make my life easier. Now, having said this, I'd been living with celiac disease for many years by the time I started this journey and, in all honesty, I wish I'd done it sooner, because the amount of money I have wasted on stuff and clothes over the years that weren't correct for me, you know it's pretty disappointing. So I want to inspire you to focus on some areas where you could maybe pare back or not purchase things that you don't necessarily need, because it can truly make a difference to the way that you feel.

Speaker 1:

So when I first started my minimalism journey, it did involve getting rid of a heap of stuff. In fact, my journey. I took photos of everything that I got rid of. So I would, I would get rid of stuff and I would take photos of it piled up in my hallway before I would take it to the op shop or sell it. So some things I sold, some things I just gave away, and it was a lot of stuff. Like it was astronomical the amount of stuff that I gave away and the only thing in all of the things that I got rid of, the only thing that I regret getting rid of is Lego manuals, would you believe it? So I had piles and piles of Lego manual booklets that my daughter never used, because she would build her Lego and then she would keep it built and she wouldn't pull it apart. So I was like, oh, we don't need these, get rid of them. But my son is Lego obsessed and he loves to build Lego and he loves to follow the instruction manual, so I only wish that I'd kept them, but everything else I don't miss.

Speaker 1:

And one of the things that I learned was, if you're contemplating getting rid of something and you're not sure, but you think you don't need it, could you replace that easily? Could you replace it cheaply? Could you borrow it from someone? So those are some things that you can look at. I don't really need this. I don't really love it. It's not really important in my life. Get rid of it. If it's not something that you use on a regular basis, you probably don't really need it. So we're going to talk about some key areas within your life and your home where minimalism could play a part in supporting you on your celiac journey.

Speaker 1:

So let's jump into the first category, and that is decluttering your kitchen. So your kitchen is so, so important for keeping you safe in your home environment and making sure that you're, you know, not getting gluten, not getting sick. And one of the big things that I did when I decluttered my kitchen was I actually pulled everything out of my utensil drawers, and my utensil drawers were like I don't know. I like grew up thinking I needed every single gadget to prepare food. I was just in this mindset that I have to have one of everything, and I had stuff in my drawers that I'd never used and I knew I never would and it was crazy how much stuff I got rid of. And now, when I cook, I can find things very easily in my utensil drawers. I have beautiful, massive utensil drawers where everything's laid out beautifully in there and I can find exactly where everything is and I can find each thing as I need it. So that was incredible.

Speaker 1:

Another thing that you might want to look at in your kitchen is getting rid of appliances or storage containers or any type of item in your kitchen that you don't use. I had an astronomical amount of platters. We don't entertain like massive parties or big groups of people on it like a regular basis. So I had all these platters that were just taking up space in my kitchen and just causing me overwhelm. So I got rid of a heap of platters and didn't look back.

Speaker 1:

And then another thing that you might want to look at is your pantry. Do you have ridiculous amounts of either packaged foods or ingredients that you're not using or that you feel overwhelmed by? So get rid of them. If you're never going to eat them, you're never going to cook with them. You don't need them in your kitchen. Get them out of your house and just focus on having food in your house that you will eat and that you will cook with, on having food in your house that you will eat and that you will cook with. I have two big cupboards above my cooking area which are full of jars, and in all of those jars are my cooking ingredients. So my nuts and seeds and my rice and all the different ingredients are laid out beautifully labeled in my jars and I find that really easy for cooking and my mental space and just helping me to find what I need when I cook. I hate having things in packets. If things have been opened and get shoved in a drawer or cupboard or the you know the back of the pantry, I find that it just it gets lost. You're rummaging through stuff. So laying out your kitchen in a way that works for you can be an absolute game changer. So I highly recommend that you make that part of your minimalism journey getting rid of food you don't need, getting rid of items that you don't need in your household. It's yeah, it's a game changer, all right.

Speaker 1:

The next one is simplifying meal planning and prep. So again, what are you? What are you planning on cooking? Are you, are you making things hard for you? I teach cook once and eat twice. I love this philosophy where you can cook a meal and double it it's not much more work and then you've got another meal for another day. So my husband and I, we had a very lazy day the other day. We honestly could not be bothered cooking. It doesn't happen very often, but we could not be bothered cooking and we had some spare meals in the freezer and I literally pulled out a big glass container that I had frozen a big serve of meatballs in and it was enough to feed our family of five and all I had to do was heat it up. So it was super easy.

Speaker 1:

So how can you simplify your meal time and your cooking time and your prep time? That's something that can make a big difference to the way that you feel your mental bandwidth and and just coping with celiac disease, because you don't want to be coming up with different meals all the time. You know different meal for every night of the year, like it. Just it's overwhelming and can be tricky. So simplify, pare back, look at what you're doing. Can people in your household help you? Look at what you're doing. Can people in your household help you? What type of prep can you be doing for the week ahead? And and really just focusing on making it easier for yourself. You know, this could even be down to breakfast ideas. There's different breakfasts that you can make prior and you can freeze them, pop them in the fridge the night before so that they're frosted ready in the morning, or you can make chia puddings the night before, ready for breakfast. Add some fruit and some neat nuts and seeds on top and you've got an easy, nutritious meal.

Speaker 1:

So, looking at ways to make life easier for you that's where I love minimalism. It's about simplifying and caring back. One of the things that I love about minimalism as well is about letting go of perfection and focusing on progress over perfection, because when you can simply make progress each day, it can make a big difference to the way that you feel. So I by no means live a minimalist life, but I use minimalism in my lifestyle to make my life easier. I love things. I still love decorative items in my house. I still love having, you know, more clothes than just 10 items to mix and match. That's just not my style. I would get very bored with that. I like having multiple outfits, but it's about really just letting go of that perfection and living life in a way where it's just enjoyable. So that's something to be aware of as well. Now, when we talk about our wardrobes, that is a massive area of decluttering as well.

Speaker 1:

So if you've never gone through a wardrobe audit, I highly recommend that you do it. If you need some stylist help, I recommend working with a stylist because they will help you identify you know colors that suit you, styles that suit you, what works for your unique situation. Like, I wear completely different clothes to what I used to wear, you know, 15 years ago, when I worked in an office space. I wear a lot of active wear, so a big part of my wardrobe is actually active wear, and then I wear colors that suit me. So, like this is one of my best colors, this seafoam, bright green that I'm wearing at the moment. Blue is another one of my best colors, as well as pink and then a neutral tone. So I learned which colors suit my skin tone, which suit my personality, and you know what I like as well.

Speaker 1:

So I did a wardrobe audit and I was able to get rid of so much excess that if you've ever been into your wardrobe which I'm sure you have and you're like I have nothing to wear, it is just extra mental load where you're like I'm going out, I have nothing to wear, this is stressful, I don't want to go. And when you have clothes in your wardrobe in your wardrobe, rather, that suit you, that you feel, feel good in that, you know you like wearing, it is less stressful to get dressed and every day it can be easier. So work out what is not good for you, your personality, your lifestyle. Get rid of any excess, clear it out of your wardrobe. You will feel amazing that you can get dressed every single day by incorporating clothes that work for you. So that's a big, big one, because how we dress sets us up for the day. That sets us up for how we feel, especially when you know you can get up and you can just put clothes on without having to stress about it, and it takes away from that mental load. That's a big, big one. I highly recommend that you start with that area. It will change your life, trust me, and it makes shopping so much easier when you do go shopping for clothes.

Speaker 1:

So my husband actually makes me go shopping for clothes now, because I tend to not bother. I'm like just wear the same clothes year in, year out and just whatever. And recently we went clothes shopping together and I didn't really want to be there. I wanted to go home. It's just not my jam. And he was like no, we are finding you some new clothes today. You need some new clothes. You wear the same jeans over and over. You live in active wear. Let's get you some new clothes. Oh, twist my arm. What, what, what the heck? So we went shopping. I bought a whole heap of new clothes, but again it was easy because I knew what I was going to be looking for. I knew what colors suited me, I knew what style suited me and he's getting to know the colors that I buy and work with by you know identifying my look. So he's really helpful in helping me shop as well, because he would never go here, try this black t-shirt on, or here, try this white. You know outfit. He just he knows that they're not my colors and, yeah, it's super helpful to go shopping with. So you might be able to teach your husband to help you as well if you've got a husband that likes going shopping, like my man does. So, yeah, all right.

Speaker 1:

So we've talked about the kitchen, we've talked about the wardrobe. We've talked about meal planning and prepping. Let's now talk about streamlining your social life. So this is really interesting.

Speaker 1:

So I have found over the years that I don't love having massive groups of friends. I don't need massive groups of friends. I like having my key people in my life, the key people that are there for me, that check in on me, that I can catch up with, and it's not a big deal that we haven't contacted each other. You know, we might not have seen each other for ages, and it's not a big deal. I love having real friendships. So I focus on those people who are very real in my life and are very true friends, rather than emphasizing constantly having to catch up with lots of big groups. This may be the introvert part of me coming out, but I personally feel that I would prefer strong, solid friendships over massive amounts of friends that aren't really that. You know, you couldn't go to them in an emergency, you couldn't ask them for help, couldn't tell them your deepest, darkest secrets, so that one take from what works for you. You may be an absolute extrovert and you love being around massive groups of people, but when I say streamlining your social life, it's about, you know, making your social life work for you. That's not overwhelming.

Speaker 1:

If you're a yes person that says yes to everything and you don't want to say yes, then you might need to start looking at where you can say no to some of these situations. I will link below to an article that I've written about saying no, because it's very hard for many women to say no. We are brought up to be polite, good girls and say yes, and that's not the case. We should be able to say no quite confidently, and I've been teaching my kids recently that yes is a full sentence and no is a full sentence. So you can say no without justifying yourself, or you can say no and back it up with a reason, if you feel the need to do that, to your friend, for your friends or family that invite you places. So yeah, focusing on those friendships that work for you and that you enjoy spending those the time with those people.

Speaker 1:

I love catching up with my closest friends that know all about my celiac journey. They know about my gluten-free needs and it's never embarrassing, it's never something that I need to be, you know, shying away from it's just that's what it is. We go out, we're going to get gluten-free food, not a big deal, not a problem, never any issues with that. My friends will always check in with me to make sure that where we're going is safe. I went we've started a book club our smums at the school and we went to our first book club, catch up, last month and I was overwhelmed with how many of those amazing ladies had organized gluten-free food for me, like holy moly. I don't even know them that well. Some of them and they made the effort to get me gluten-free food which was just amazing and made me feel so loved and nurtured food which was just amazing and made me feel so loved and nurtured and it made that group feel even more special straight away.

Speaker 1:

So you know, if people make you feel crappy about your celiac disease, you don't need to spend time with them. I've talked about this before. You don't need to focus on those people and putting your energy into those friendships. Focus on the people that look after you and take care of you.

Speaker 1:

All right, the next one is mental clutter. So what is causing you mental clutter, and it could be not having enough knowledge around celiac disease. It could be not knowing how to read labels. It could be about not knowing how to travel All of the different things that cause us mental fatigue. So you need to get to the bottom of knowing how to navigate celiac disease. So that's an easy one to focus on and that's where I come in. Obviously, that's my big emphasis is helping you to get on top of all of that. So mental clutter it doesn't have to be a big deal. Once you've got that information in your brain, you can refer back to it if and when you need to, and it doesn't have to be like this big stress of not knowing everything about celiac disease and not having the answers for everything. So if you want my support in that, that's what I'm here for, a hundred percent. That's what I love to do.

Speaker 1:

And the last one is focusing on mindfulness in your minimalism. So when we talk about mindfulness, it's about just really taking time away from social media, from, you know, online news all the stuff that makes us overwhelmed and stressed and and really just focusing on your health and your wellness and paring back from the outside noise. So mindfulness or meditation can be scary for people, but it's about just being in the comfort of your own thoughts. It can be as simple as just relaxing reading a book, not focusing on the negative side of living with celiac disease, focusing on what you can do and just really taking a step back from the day-to-day hustle. Taking a step back from the day-to-day hustle bustle and just focusing on you and your thoughts and how you can be calm and present and aware of the things that cause you stress and anxiety, and just really taking a look at the things in your life that maybe you don't need to be stressing over, maybe you don't need them in your life. Maybe you can pare back from those things you might want to look at joining a meditation group or doing yoga or even downloading some meditational mindfulness apps online. There's YouTube videos.

Speaker 1:

There's lots of different ways to incorporate mindfulness into your life and meditation into your life. But when we do talk about mindfulness, it's also about really being mindful of what comes into your home and comes into your life and when I say into your life, I'm also talking about what comes into your head. So when you are focusing on the news and you are focusing on all the disasters that are happening around the world. That's within your control to not get absorbed in that. I don't watch the news. I'm too much of an empath to watch any negativity, so I just step away from it. You know I get enough bombardment with everyone filling me in around me on what's going on. I don't need to be constantly focusing on the news and all the negativity. So do what works for you. But when we talk about what comes into our life, that's a big part of stopping that negativity.

Speaker 1:

But I also want to talk about stopping things coming into your home that may not necessarily need to, and this is something that I certainly learned along my journey with minimalism, and that was saying no to being gifted things. You will start to see how often you go to the shops or go to a show or a fair or a marketing event or something, and they're trying to give you freebies, and the freebies will usually be something ridiculous, like a hat with a logo on it, or a water bottle with a logo on it, or you know another pen that you probably don't need with a brand on it, or a sachet of a product that you would never in a million years use anyway and you bring it home and then it gets shoved in another drawer or chucked in the back of the wardrobe and never sees the light of day. It's actually easier to stop that from coming into your home by saying no thank you before you even think about bringing it into your house. So I have said no thank you so many times over the years since decluttering my house, because I just don't need to bring extra stuff into my home that will never get used. So be aware of what you're bringing into your home, whether it's free things, whether it's gifted to you from other people, whether it's other people's clutter that they're getting rid of or things that you're purchasing. So be intentional with your purchasing.

Speaker 1:

You may have heard of Marie Kondo and she is a big person in the minimalism space, and what Marie Kondo teaches is not in alignment with me. It just feels weird. I tried it, I tried Marie Kondo's way, but it just wasn't for me, and it was pull every single item that is the same and put it in a pile in your home that is the same, and put it in a pile in your home and then pick each of those items up and ask does this bring me joy, and if it doesn't bring you joy, then you get rid of it. Okay, let's look at that. So I have cleaning products that do not bring me joy. I don't like cleaning. I would love to have a cleaner. That's like bucket list for me, to have a cleaner again one day.

Speaker 1:

So my cleaning products I can't just get rid of them.

Speaker 1:

I need them. I need them in my house. You know I focus on having natural products that are non-toxic, blah, blah blah. But they don't bring me joy. So if I literally looked at everything in my house that doesn't bring me joy and got rid of it, my family would not be very happy with me because I would get rid of all that crap. I would get rid of so many things that belonged to my children and that's just not fair. Having said that, I did get rid of a lot of their toys that they weren't using and they didn't even notice.

Speaker 1:

So you can get rid of things that belong to other people in a way that's done that doesn't upset them, but don't get rid of other people's favorite things. Don't get rid of you know your husband's favorite ugly shirt or you know your child's favorite toy? That's like falling apart or something that they adore. Do it in a way that, yes, it's good for you, but it's also going to be good for the other people in your household. So I encourage you to look further into this if this is something that interests you, obviously you can be like me.

Speaker 1:

You don't have to go full gung-ho, but you can do a little bit here and there and you can focus on the areas in your life that you need to. You might just want to focus on your kitchen, you might just want to focus on your wardrobe. You might want to do the whole lot. You might even want to go to the library, borrow some books on minimalism. The Minimalists are fantastic. I highly recommend them. They've got a documentary and a book. I think they've actually got two books now, but you can go to the library there's lots of different ones Find what resonates with you and, yeah, just incorporate it into your life and see what works for you moving forward. But I think you'll really appreciate how much mental load it can take away and, yeah, and help you on your journey. So thank you so much for checking out this episode and I look forward to talking with you soon. Have a great week and I'll catch you then. Bye.

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Belinda Whelan

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