Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight (73 page)
Read Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight Online
Authors: Peter Walsh
Accept it. Staying active appears to be mandatory if you want to keep off the weight. Struggling against this rule wastes your time and energy.
Learn to love it. I came to enjoy physical activity relatively late in life. For a long time, I looked at exercise as something I had to suffer through. Now I get a lot of enjoyment from it. Find activities that you like to do. If you haven't found any yet, keep looking. Avoid doing the same type of exercise
over and over, since this can lead to injury and burnout. Always set new goals for yourself and celebrate your improvements.
2. Weigh yourself.
A Japanese study that followed 90 middle-aged people after they went through a yearlong weight loss program found that the participants who kept off weight were more likely to weigh themselves. The study of people in the National Weight Control Registry found that those who weighed themselves less frequently had more weight regain.
Yet another research projectâwhich reviewed the results of 12 earlier studies that included more than 16,000 peopleâfound that in 11 studies, those who weighed themselves weekly or daily lost more weight or maintained more of their weight loss. The researchers didn't know exactly how often you need to step on the scales, but they suggested that doing it weekly seems to be a reasonable schedule.
Three-fourths of the participants in the registry weigh themselves at least once a week. Weighing yourself every week is a sign that you're continually mindful of your weight. Though you're not overly focused on every day-to-day fluctuation, you're able to detect any weight gain before it becomes substantial. This weekly ritual also holds you accountable to your maintenance plan. Every 7 days, you have a reminder that you accomplished a powerful achievement and you're working to keep it going.
3. Keep an eye (and your mind) on what you're eating.
You lost weight by moving more and being mindful of what you ate. We've already covered the importance of continued exercise. You also need to stay aware of what you're eating in order to enjoy long-term success.
That's the finding of a study that tracked 110 obese women for 3½ years after they went through a weight loss program. Those who kept an eye on their food and calorie intakeâas measured by a questionnaireâwere more likely to remain “successful” weight loss maintainers.
So keep eating lots of fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains. Limit junk food and heavily processed items. Remove any soda from your diet. Stay aware of the size of the portions on your plate and stop eating when you feel satisfied, even if you're not finished. Focus your mind fully on your food and turn off other distractions while you're eating.
Remember: New physical activity and eating habits led to your weight loss. You can't return to your old ways and expect to keep your new weight.
4. Plan ahead.
The women in the study mentioned above who kept off their weight were also more likely to plan their meals ahead of time. This makes
perfect sense to me. When you keep your kitchen stocked with nutritious options and you think about what you'd like to eat at future meals, you set yourself up for success.
This keeps you from reaching for the easiest optionâsuch as fast food or takeoutâwhen you're hungry and don't have anything at home to eat. Taking time to plan out your meals might also serve a function similar to weighing yourself: It reminds you that you're taking deliberate steps to protect the investment you made in your health when you lost that weight.
5. Keep going.
The study that followed participants in the National Weight Control Registry for 10 years found that people who'd kept their weight off for longer tended to
continue
keeping it off. Perhaps this is a matter of becoming more comfortable with your health habits as time goes by. Staying active, keeping an eye on your weight, and making smart food choices may become easier with more practice.
As your unhealthy old habits grow smaller in the rear-view mirror, hopefully the memories of the good feelings they gave you grow fainter and fainter.
The Clutter Chronicles
Nanette Cooley, 54
POUNDS LOST: 20.6
AMOUNT OF CLUTTER REMOVED: 12 to 15 bags
Nanette knows where her journey into clutter began: in her childhood home. “I grew up in the house that my grandparents built when they were first married,” she explains. “There were three generations of us in this house, and a lot of antiques, dishes, furniture, and
stuff
had accumulated over the years. When my mother passed away, I inherited it.”
It's also no mystery how she put on extra pounds. “I would come home from work after a stressful day, and I'd throw things into my mouth,” she says. “I was self-medicating with food and not even paying attention to what I was eating. Whatever I could find would go into my mouth. After a while, I almost felt like I was a human garbage can!”
She definitely learned how to conquer both challenges. Nanette had the distinction of losing the most weight of all the women in the programâand she had the second-biggest weight loss overall. Not only did she lose 3 inches from her waist and nearly 3 inches from her hips, she also shed almost 10 percent of her body weight!
“Before, I wasn't able to stick to a plan. I wasn't able to stick to my goals. I would get frustrated. There were always personal issues coming up, and I would have stress and anxiety,” she says. But this time, “I did everything in my power to position myself where I would not fail with the program. I maintained the exercise program and the mindfulness and tried to stick to the eating program. I just resigned myself to the fact that
I would not fail with this
.”
She sorted through the possessions that two generations of her family had left in her care. “The program gave me permission to donate those things, to get rid of those things, to let it go without feeling guilty about it.”
She set aside another day just to wrestle her closet into control. “My wardrobe closet was a disaster. I had probably two or three sizes of clothing, shoes I've collected over the years, and stuff I didn't want out in my visual space, so I'd throw it in there to get it out of sight,” she says. “I spent the whole day cleaning that closet, and it was a
transforming
experience.”
We spoke after the program was finished, but Nanette was still seeing improvements from all her new habits. “Now before I put something into my mouth, I think, âIs this something important to me? Is it something I need? Is it something that's going to nourish me in the proper way?' I had a stressful day at work just the other day, and there was candy and junk around. I said, âI'd love to have one of those candy bars. But no, that is not going to do me any good. It's not going to help serve my purpose,'” she says.
“I'm most grateful that I set up some great behavioral patterns. I'm continuing with the program and I've lost even more weight.”
AFTERWORD
W
hen I work with
over
cluttered,
under
happy clients, the time we spend together is frequently very emotional. Sometimes they cry in frustration. Sometimes they grow tense as they reflexively cling to the contents of their homes. Sometimes they argue with their spouses.
But their feelings tend to turn positive as they see the improvements they're making. As they walk around the rooms that are no longer cramped, I see the freedom in their faces. As they haul out bag after bag of trash and items for donation, it's as if all this weight were physically coming off their shoulders.
If we stay in contact afterward, I frequently hear about how they've found new happiness and direction in their lives, which had gotten buried under all their clutter. My clients begin to see how the clutter in their home affects every other element in their lifeâespecially their weight and overall well-being. For me, it comes down to a simple principle that I repeat over and over: You simply cannot make your best choices or your healthiest choices in a cluttered, messy, disorganized home.
I can't tell you how meaningful it was for me to work so closely with the volunteers who signed up to go through this program, then carefully track their progress over time. Not only did I watch their weight fall and their clutter levels subside, I received real-time updates on all their joys and discoveries.
I hope you'll share your own successes from this program with me and the other readers of this book through social media. Believe me, I will be celebrating with you, whether you've just lost the clutter and the weight, or you're maintaining your progress for yet another year.
At the end, I'd like to turn things over to Melissa H., one of the test panelists, who can say it far more eloquently than I:
I have to say that these past 6 weeks went really fast. But 6 weeks was long enough to start some new habits. As for the diet, I can honestly say I started making better choices. As for the exercises, I did struggle with finding time to declutter and do the exercises at the same time. But I am consciously making an effort to walk and MOVE more! As for the decluttering, I was not able to declutter my entire house in 6 weeks, but just getting started has motivated me to keep going. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. This book is not just about the 6 weeks in the plan, it's about what we learned over the 6 weeks that helps us each and every day for the rest of our lives.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
S
o many people have helped to take this book from a vague idea to the object that you're holding in your hand. It's impossible to thank them all.
To my life partner and husband, Kenâalways there, always encouraging, always on my side. This book is as much his as mine.
To my family and friendsâI'm guessing that it's often not easy living with or spending time with the “organizing guy.” I just wish that after all this time you'd all realize it's really not necessary to close the doors to your spare rooms every time I visit! Thank you for the support, the good humor, and the constant encouragement.
To Nancy Fitzgerald, then at Rodale, who made the first call. It was her enthusiasm and belief in this project that started the ball rolling, and her initial guidance was invaluable.
To a wonderful wordsmith Eric Metcalfâthis is our first collaboration and I hope not our last. It's a huge pleasure to work with someone as skilled, smart, and unflappable as Eric. His ability to whip a paragraph into shape, to locate the best piece of research, or to find just the right scholar to chat with is incredible.
To the brave and wonderful people who volunteered as test panelists to trial the 6-week
Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight
program:
Megan Billowitch, Amy Blythe, Margie Cherry, Nanette Cooley, Kristen Downey, Jan Eickmeier, Elizabeth Erwin, Brenda Hanna, Linda Hayes, Melissa Heckman, Dayl Klinger, Melissa Leo, Maria Luci, Robin Musselman, Maria Ramroop, Marcia Rehrig, Tiffany Rehrig-Schaeffer, Joe Shigo, Suzanne Smith, Julie Stewart, Marcia Teeno, and Leah Zerbe.