If you have a goal to let go of what no longer serves you… and that letting go includes some extra body weight you’re ready to shed, this may be a huge boost to your diet and exercise plan.

When one of my first clients cleared out two rooms of extra stuff to donation and lost 20 lbs in a month, I knew I was onto something.

A decade of seeing lives get more balanced and lighter in every way with some big clutter-clearing has proven the clutter & weight-loss link… and all the science and studies to follow take that link to the next level!

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“If your lifestyle is frantic, it’s likely your diet is suffering. Clutter accumulates because we are out of control. Likewise, weight accumulates because we don’t control it.” – Peter Walsh, well-known professional organizer, writer, and media personality

We all go through times where our chaotic schedules or sheer laziness triumphs over cleaning and organization. There are instances when we only have enough time to cook ourselves a meal, throw the dishes in the sink, and run back out the door. There are times when we only have enough motivation to do our laundry, but not fold it and put it way, and times when we allow junk mail to accumulate into mounds of useless envelopes, when they can easily be tossed in the recycling.

When your home is cluttered and unorganized, it is easy to imagine that you’d find it difficult to maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle. If you don’t have the motivation to hang up your clothes or throw away junk mail piling up on your kitchen table, chances are you won’t have the space in life to get groceries and cook healthy meals or the spark of energy to stick to an exercise routine.

How you choose to keep your environment, the effort you put in to maintain a clean, clear space, can directly correlate to how you feel about yourself and how you choose to treat your body.

Your space is a mirror of your life.

Keeping this in mind, doctors and professional organizers have found a link between clutter and being overweight. In an article entitled, “A Clutter Too Deep for Mere Bins and Shelves” in The New York Times, Dr. Pamela Peeke, assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of Maryland and the author of “Fit to Live”, explains that she, “…often instructs patients trying to lose weight to at least create one clean and uncluttered place in their home. She also suggests keeping a gym bag with workout clothes and sneakers in an uncluttered area to make it easier to exercise.”

Peter Walsh, a well-known professional organizer, writer, and media personality, explains in his article, “The Weight of Our Possessions”,

“Clutter and excessive weight make a perfect match for each other; they both represent an imbalance. Over the years, I have noticed that very often when I knock on homeowners’ doors, the people living in these cluttered homes are struggling not only with the volume of stuff but also with their weight.”

Also, a 2008 study included a group of people who said they struggled with clutter, but who didn’t meet all the criteria of hoarding disorder. These people were found to be 77 percent more likely to be overweight or obese.

In his book, Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?, Peter Walsh gives some easy tips on how to de-clutter your mind and stick to a healthy diet.

• Set asided time. Don’t rush. Take a room at a time and methodically clean it out.
• Drawers, cupboards and surfaces – each item should be assigned a place. If it doesn’t have a place, it’s clutter.
• If you don’t use it regularly or absolutely love it, throw it away.
• Think about the sort of body you want. Make a list of the food that will help you achieve that body.
• Organize what you want to eat in advance, and buy complete meals, not snack foods.
• List all the items you need and shop only for those items.
• Live in the present, not the past.
• Don’t let more clutter into your house. (you can read the whole exerpt HERE)

With your mental and physical health at stake, don’t fall victim to the cyclical downward spiral of clutter.

Take a deep breath, de-clutter in small, thorough steps, and make your home a clean, clear, organized place to live.

You really can do it!

Now… Get excited!!!! The Catalyst Camp is coming for the New Year to open up your life to the new like never before! It’s 8 weeks of de-cluttering, letting things go any lightening up life in radical ways.  You can sign up HERE to start the free 3-video series & revolutionize your clutter clearing.

xoxo Dana

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And, if you want to dive in to your own personalized feng shui in a modern, practical way, Say hello to Feng Shui 101.  Its the guide I made for you to create your own personalized feng shui at home, in the office, wherever you may be… in 8 weeks.  It’s not filled with strict rules or what you “must” do.  Its filled with information, questions, exercises and even videos and classes to help you confidently create amazing spaces with killer feng shui and live with more flow.   Learn more about the 8-week feng shui adventure & grab your copy to get started right HERE…  And, as always, please let me know what happens!