I took a bag of clothes to the Good Will today and I hope it will be my last time there for a long while. I watched a special about the used clothes black market a few weeks ago (I think it was on "Dateline") in which it was explained that Americans dispose of more clothes per year than any other country (it's something like billions of pounds of clothes). These items get sold on the black market all over the world. So, the Ann Taylor blouse that I, fortunately, outgrew when I lost weight a few years ago could, in all liklihood, end up on a woman in Nigeria. It's not that I mind a Nigerian woman wearing my old blouse, but the whole process is just such a gross testament to my own overconsumption.

Losing weight is one thing, but most of the times I get rid of old clothes because I don't like their "energy." They remind me of an old boyfriend, or a time when I was feeling particularly bad, or they just reek of 2002. (One time I bought furniture from a guy who I eventually dated and let's just say that furniture energy is not quite so easy to change.)

The point is that I'm ready to learn how to change my energy without shopping. My ideal self would discard clothes that are unusable and only buy new clothes when I absolutely need them (my plan to buy clothes only made in America lasted all of six months). I don't want to make any promises I can't keep, but I'm willing to learn to curb my overconsumption.

Just for today, I can change my shopping ways.