I am in the middle of teaching a six-week class called Detox Your Life. Discover More Joy.

This week’s focus is on detoxing our schedules.  This is one of those things that can really get away from us…. before we know it, our day is doing us instead of us doing our day.  Our days can become a slippery slope of meetings, emails, phone calls, texting, TV, and internet surfing that leads to a week, a month, a year that happened by default, rather than by design. If we want to create our ideal day and string a bunch of them together to create the life of our dreams, we need to learn how to clear the clutter from our schedules and be intentional about how we spend our time.

Here are some tips to help you clear the clutter from your schedule…

1. Go to a meeting and leave with NO additional responsibilities. This was something I would challenge myself to when I worked in the corporate world.  It’s not easy, but it feels great to walk out of a meeting without a whole new list of tasks to do.  If you can do this this week, give yourself a star.
2. Resign from a volunteer commitment that does not feed you. Giving of our time is a wonderful way to contribute.  But make sure that the time you give also feeds you and contributes to your vision of the life you’re creating.
3. Switch to HULU. This is my new favorite.  I’ve been watching this season of The Bachlorette (I know, I know….) on HULU.  Yes, I do need to wait until the next day, but it’s FREE, I’ve eliminated a cable TV bill and I can watch TV anywhere that has an internet connection.  Check it out to see if you can get your favorite shows on HULU.
4. Hire a Virtual Assistant (VA) to handle everything from balancing your checkbook, to bookkeeping for your business, to making travel plans, to managing your social media accounts, and much much more. You can hire a VA for as little as 1-5 hours a week.  Offload all the stuff that distracts you from focusing on the things you are best at and that give you the most joy. I just submitted my request to AssistU this week, and now I have several well qualified candidates I can interview and choose from to offload the stuff that distracts me from the stuff I LOVE doing the most.
5. Unsubscribe from everything. The unsubscribe button is your friend.
6. Subscibe to NutshellMail… to get your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn sent to you once or twice a day and end the constant trolling to see what is new.  It’s FREE.  Be sure to customize your settings so you only see what you really want to see.
7. Stop the endless stream of automatic email notifications. The default setting for all your social media accounts is to notify you about everything.  But you can turn those off.  Here’s how to turn off the notifications you don’t want on Facebook, Meetup, Twitter and LinkedIn… and set yourself FREE.

Here’s how to manage notifications on Facebook…

• Click on Account at the top of the page
• Select Account Settings
• Click on the Notifications tab
• Uncheck everything you don’t want to be notified about

On Meetup, this is a bit more tricky.  This is what you do….

• Click on the meetup group you are a part of
• From the menu, select Members/My Profile
• At the top of your profile, you will see a Settings hyperlink – click that
• Uncheck everything you don’t want to receive a notification about.

If you are on Twitter, here’s what you do…

• Go to your profile page
• Click Settings at the top
• Click Notices, and uncheck everything you do not want to receive emails about

If you are on LinkedIN, here’s what you do…

• Log into your account
• Click Settings at the top
• Scroll down to view Email Notifications
• Click on Receiving Messages.
• There you can adjust your settings, including selecting NO EMAIL for everything

Phewwww.  It feels good to get the clutter out.  Now go ahead… create your ideal day.

Today’s Observations
Detoxing is contagious.  I’m finding that as my body is detoxing itself and bringing in new energy and vitality,  I’m also wanting to get ‘cleaner’ in some other areas of my life.  I expect that I will experience this in different ways in different areas of my life, but the first one that has come to the fore is how I spend my evenings.  What I have noticed is that my evenings have become filled with more and more television, starting around 8PM and ending sometimes after midnight as I watch a combination of previously taped shows and then ‘whatever is on’.  I want to be more deliberate than that in how I spend my time. So, for this week, I want to invite new energy and vitality into my routine by going to bed by 10:30 PM and getting up at 5:30 AM.

Today’s Menu
Smoothie – Meat and water of one coconut, one mango, 1/2 cup frozen raspberries (my favorite)
Left over Tabouleh for lunch
Snacks – pear, pistachios, pecans
Macadamia nut Hummus for dinner with veggies

Today’s New Recipe
I’ve wanted to learn to make a raw version of hummus, and it just so happened that I had all the ingredients on hand to make it… and it was super easy to make.  After I made it though,  I remembered that sometimes I have a hard time digesting nut ‘cheeses’ and dips – oops.  So I ended up just having about a 1/2 cup.  It was pretty good, but needed a bit more flavor, so I added a few “amendments”.   I’ve indicated my additions below.

Macadamia Nut Hummus (2+ Yums)
11/2 cups macadamia nuts, soaked for 1-2 hours
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
11/2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1/4 cup raw Tahini
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup water
1 small clove of garlic
I added about a teaspoon of cumin, some more salt, and pepper to taste.

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy.  Enjoy!

Today’s Affirmation
I embrace a well-being in all its forms.

Today’s Observations

One of the things I’m noticing today is that my joints are not achy… like, at all. When I eat less raw and more wheat in particular, my joints become stiff and achy, and sometimes even painful.  From everything I’ve read, that achyness is from inflammation caused by low-level, or not so low-level, food sensitivities or allergies.  Inflammation is the immune system’s healing response,  but when in a constant triggered state, it can be damaging to the body.  Casein, the protein in dairy products, and gluten, the protein in wheat are common allergens.  Without wheat and dairy in my diet, my joints are happier… and so am I :)

Another observation is that I had a major sneezing and runny nose episode this afternoon.  Could this be by body detoxing??  I think so.  I googled ‘raw food detox symptoms’ and runny nose and headache (which I now also have) were at the top of the list.  The remedy – power through it, drink plenty of water, and get plenty of rest.  I think I’ll be going to bed early tonight.

Today’s Menu

Green Smoothie with OJ, cucumber, lime, a handful of cilantro, and an avocado

Snacks – grapes, apple, raw cashews

Angel Hair ‘Pasta’ with tomato, basil and capers for dinner and a salad of micro-greens

Today’s New Recipe

I always used to love angel hair pasta with olive oil, tomatoes, fresh basil, and capers with freshly grated parmesan cheese and black pepper.  I wanted to try to recreate this same dish raw, over cucumber noodles.  The result was deeeelicious.  Please note that my measurements are not exact as i usually just ‘eyeball’ everything.

Angel Hair ‘Pasta’ with Tomato, Basil, and Capers (4+ Yums)

1/2 cup diced tomatoes

1/4 cup fresh Basil chopped (or to taste)

1/4 cup capers

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Celtic sea salt to taste

Freshly ground pepper to taste

1/4 cup raw pine nuts

1 English cucumber, peeled

Mix the tomatoes, basil, capers, olive oil, salt and pepper in a bowl and let sit so the flavors blend while you create the noodles. Julienne the cucumber with a julienne peeler (my favorite gadget which i picked up at Whole Foods) and place cucumber noodles on a plate.  Top with the tomato, basil, caper mixture and top that with pine nuts and enjoy!

I served this with a small side salad of organic micro-greens that I picked up at Trader Joes.  I dressed the greens with a drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice, and topped with salt and pepper and a few pine nuts.  This was the biggest surprise of the meal.  I loved the micro-greens!

Today’s Affirmation

I rejoice in my body’s ability to clear itself of unwanted aches and pains.