Out with the clutter, in with the healthy
By Michaela Gibson Morris
Daily Journal
Tupelo, MS
Cleaning up your lifestyle and your house don’t have to be separate items on your New Year’s resolution list.
Getting rid of the junk and the junk food can build on each other, said author/organizer/TV host Peter Walsh, who will be the featured speaker at the Jan. 21 Spirit of Women “Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight” program at The Summit in Tupelo.
“The approach is to remove the stuff from your home, from your life that is impeding you from creating the life you want,” said Walsh, who appeared on TLC’s “Clean Sweep” as well as the Oprah Winfrey Show and OWN’s “Extreme Clutter.” In 2015, he published “Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight,” which detailed a 6-week program to organize a home and build a healthier lifestyle.
“Getting organized and losing weight are usually two of the most popular New Year’s resolutions and with our program being in January, we thought bringing Peter here would be a perfect fit,” said Liz Dawson, North Mississippi Medical Center community health director. “We are excited to hear about his unique perspective.”
Walsh, who is an expert in organizational design, said he initially resisted getting into the weight loss arena, but he began seeing transformations that went beyond organized rooms.
“Once they started removing stuff, they saw it was impacting their health,” said Walsh, who notes in the book the research caught up with the anecdotal observations.
The focus of “Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight” is not about creating a perfect bikini body or a house that looks like a magazine centerpiece. It’s about making sure what you own, what you eat and what you do help you create the life you want, he said.
“If you’re happy, great,” Walsh said. “If your home stresses you out, there’s a problem.”
If the kitchen is messy and uninviting, it’s not a place you want to spend time, and it’s easy to default to quick, usually high-calorie options, Walsh said.
“You can’t make your best choices, the healthiest choices in a cluttered, messy unorganized house,” Walsh said.
While it makes great television, it isn’t practical for most people to pull everything out of a room into the front yard.
“I have a whole team helping me,” Walsh said.
For people without a small army of assistants, Walsh recommends tackling the clean up one shelf, drawer or closet at a time. Ten minutes a day will make a massive difference over time.
“Small changes consistently applied, yield huge results,” Walsh said.
Step by step
Walsh developed the six-week program detailed in “Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight” with the help of a registered dietitian and an exercise physiologist. It comes together as a comprehensive program to declutter, move more, eat more healthfully and be mindful. They had 20 volunteers go through the program. They lost an average of 10 pounds and three inches from their waists and bags of clutter, Walsh said. The biggest loser dropped 21 pounds. Compared to pre-tests, they reported feeling less anxious, less depressed and more focused.
“You won’t get it all done, but you’ll make a huge dent,” Walsh said.
The eating program gives folks a range of healthy choices with lots of fruits and vegetables, lean protein and whole grains.
“I wanted to keep it simple,” Walsh said.
The decluttering program tackles the house piece by piece. The first week focuses on the kitchen; the next week the master bedroom. Each week has it’s own task list starting with creating a vision for the space.
The exercise program focuses on walking and basic strength training using everyday objects as well as the extra movement that comes with decluttering.
The decluttering and exercise tasks are often intertwined. During a 10-minute brisk walk, Walsh charges you with planning your decluttering strategy for the day. During Week 2, the bags you’ve filled while cleaning out the master bedroom are used for biceps curls.
The mindfulness component – paying attention to what we bring into our homes and what we take into our bodies – is central to success of building a healthy life.
“We live in a society that tells us more is better, but that’s just not the case,” Walsh said. “Mindless eating and mindless buying, they’re really, really bad for you.”
There’s a lot of emotional unpacking that needs to happen along with the decluttering, exercise and healthy eating.
“It’s never about the stuff,” Walsh said. “You have to look at what the stuff means.”
As the relationships with stuff and food get healthier, it’s important to build in systems to keep things balanced. Walsh suggest instituting a one-in, one-out rule for things.
“We have all these traditions of bringing things into our homes,” Walsh said. “We have no traditions for things leaving our homes.”
michaela.morris@journalinc.com
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JOIN THE FUN
• What: NMMC Spirit of Women “Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight”
• Featuring: Author/Organizer/TV host Peter Walsh
• When: Jan. 21; doors open at 5:30 p.m.; program starts at 6:30 p.m.
• Where: The Summit Center, Tupelo
• Tickets: $25, includes dinner; available until Jan. 15
• Bonus: Spirit of Women members who have paid $10 lifetime fee receive a free copy of Walsh’s book; Door prizes include custom jewelry set.
• Info/ticket purchase: Call (800) 843-3375 or visit nmhs.net/spirit_of_women
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