Clutter causes weight gain!
If you don’t believe me, try uncluttering your environment to see how it affects your weight.
Clutter contributes to weight gain or makes weight loss difficult by making it hard to eat well.
Clutter tends to make us eat more heavily processed foods. These foods typically have a lot of added sugar and fat which increases the calories per serving.
If it sounds silly to you that clutter affects food choices think about this. Clutter creeps over and into all spaces including the refrigerator. A cluttered, disorganized fridge discourages cooking meals made with fresh, whole ingredients. Often the clutter in our fridges are mostly a bunch of leftovers at varying stages of going bad, to bad, to really gross.
Clutter in the kitchen impedes meal preparation.
When you can’t find the tools you need, you’re forced to find a more labor-intensive tool to stand in for the one you really need. In addition to difficulty finding the tools you need clutter takes up precious counter space. Fixing food for meals is inconvenient to the point that you just don’t want to do it at all. It’s easier to go out for meals or bring home takeout.
I do not believe that takeout and restaurant eating and gaining weight is a forgone conclusion. It’s perfectly possible never to cook at home and still be able to manage your weight. It’s possible, but it takes a lot of attention and planning. The problem is if you’re eating away from home mostly because your kitchen is too cluttered to prepare and eat meals, the chances are you’re not paying attention to the nutritional and calorie content of your meals.
Clutter promotes inactivity.
Many people who live with clutter don’t like the clutter. They hate the clutter because they know it’s a major waster of their time. Nothing is quick and easy for people surrounded by clutter. Clutter makes it hard to find what you need, clutter has to be pushed aside to do stuff. Just the thought of all that clutter in the way makes us want to not bother.
We hear people say, “I hate the clutter, but it’s gotten so bad I don’t even know where to start. I get exhausted just thinking about it!” That exhaustion creeps into our daily actions without us noticing. We become too exhausted to do much more than sweep away the clutter on the sofa so we have a place to sit. Cluttered environments have the odd affect of turning us into sedentary beings.
There is an emotional connection between clutter and weight.
Clutter is a source of embarrassment. People are ashamed of their clutter and some feel that their clutter is a sign of their poor character. “If I were a worthy person, I would keep my environment clean and organized.” Clutter isn’t a sign of poor moral character, but we’ve been conditioned to believe otherwise.
Some of us already have issues with low self-worth and clutter exacerbates that, as does body weight. People are already feeling worthless because of their clutter and they deal with that painful emotion by eating. Eating causes them more embarrassment and subsequently weight gain which further reinforces their feelings of low self-worth. They want to clear up their clutter, but the clutter makes them tired and lethargic, so instead of tackling the clutter, they reach for more highly palatable foods – those highly processed foods with a lot of added fat and/or sugar and salt.
Author Peter Walsh says, “there’s a link between mess, increased stress and weight gain.” He writes about it in his book “Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight: The Six-Week Total-Life Slim Down.
Watch what happens to your energy level, your self-esteem, and your ability to lose weight when you unclutter your environment!
”If you live among clutter and you want to lose weight, lose the clutter to lose the weight!
