Since I got breast cancer my life has exploded into magnificent LIVING COLOR. Two things happened to jet propel me into a new stratosphere of fun and exciting living.

1. “Be Anxious for Nothing and Grateful for all things.” When I figured out the simple yet auspicious equation of how to not be anxious—by being grateful—it not only took most (if not all) of the worry out of my life, but consequently freed up more time to focus on moving forward versus feeling stuck with worry. So… step one, eliminate the anxious junk.

2. The realization we all have an expiration date, we just don’t know when it is. I don’t want to waste one single day of how-ever-many-more-days putting effort toward things out of my control. There will be many unpredictable and unbridled events in your life, but that’s just junk you can’t and shouldn’t try to control. Make the most of each day focusing on what you can control in striving for the goals you want to achieve.

Our Associate Head Coach and dear friend, Chris Waller, explained it to our freshmen in this way, “Miss Val has more going on in her life than I’ve ever known her to have and yet she’s not getting bogged down, but instead THRIVING in living her life fully.”

As soon as he said that I started thinking, “How is it that I am not getting stressed out, freaked out and pissy when I have more on my plate than I ever have had? How am I staying focused on my priorities? How am I literally doing and having it ALL?”

I believe it comes down to a few key things:

1. Constantly realizing I don’t HAVE to do these things. I GET to do these things.

2. Living as CLEAN of a life as I can. Because I want to have the necessary energy to accomplish all that I pack in my day, I need to wake up energized and stay alert and revitalized throughout the day. That means mindfully fueling my MIND, BODY and SOUL constantly with good clean FUEL. Here’s how I accomplish this holistic trinity:

Nutritionally:
I realized that sugar, simple carbs, and alcohol slow me down. NOT GOOD.
Greens, protein and lots and lots of water revitalize.

Physically:
We all know the amazing holistic results of daily activity. Hence my 58 Day Challenge. Yes, it was a fun challenge to commit to working out each day for the 58 days until my 58th birthday, but it also served as my Inner Personal Coach who would discuss with me each night, “OK Valorie, no excuses. What’s it going to be tomorrow?”

The act of planning out my workouts, even if they were simply 15 minutes of a home workout, not only got my body moving and stretching but gave me that daily respite of a mental spa. A wee bit of time to not think about our team, all of my projects, and other responsibilities.

Mentally:
I think this is the most important ingredient. Without a Clean Mental Diet (CMD) the other things don’t exist. I honestly hadn’t calculated all of the positive repercussions that would come from a CMD, I just instinctively knew that in order to continue making progress toward all of my many goals, I couldn’t waste time focusing on negative or inconsequential junk such as gossip, self-doubt, worry, anxiety or the ubiquitous practice of comparison. That junk serves no purpose or assistance in my daily quest to get 1% closer to my goals.

As a nice byproduct of all these clean-living choices I’m in the best physical shape of my life. As I wrote in another Musing, I’ve been adhering to the equation of Addition by Subtraction. I didn’t ADD as much to my daily habits as I SUBTRACTED the junk.

Here’s to Junk Free Living!