Is there a connection between diet, health, & clutter?

Did you know there is a connection between your diet, your health, and your clutter?

Most folks think of one thing, and one thing only, when I say the word clutter. They think of their stuff. All their piles, jammed up closets, chock-full garages, unfiled papers, and excess stuff!

Their minds and emotions swirl when just the word “clutter” is uttered. Up comes every emotion possible, from guilt, shame, overwhelm, and anger to denial, justification, excuses, and protestation. Sometimes those emotions motivate us to clean it up and clear it out. Most times, it shuts us down, and we avoid it.

We tell ourselves we’ll do it another day. Or that it’s not that bad, just a few piles here and there.

But what if I said clutter is more than just your stuff? What if I suggested that clutter also shows up in your health and your diet?

Did you ever consider that your diet might be the area you need to clear out excess and clutter? Is it possible that clutter is also affecting your health and well-being?

There are many ways in which clutter shows up in your diet. Some are obvious, some not so obvious. Let’s start with the obvious, which is usually motivated by the desire to lose weight or from a scary health diagnosis.

Most folks begin when they decide to declutter and clean up their diets.

They dash off to the store, buy a bunch of healthy fresh veggies, fruits, and lean proteins and add them into their already full pantries, fridges, and kitchens. They might toss what catches their eye as something “bad” for their new diet regimen or something past its prime!

In most cases, however, it never enters their minds to do the purging of their kitchen first. Or, if it did, they tell themselves it’s a waste to throw away perfectly good food. So even junk food gets kept … just in case.

Sound familiar? Most of us have done this. Even if we are brave and toss stuff first, we tend to keep the food we do not need, want, or simply won’t eat. That is if we wish to clean up our diets.

Just like when we decide to get organized, we rush off and buy containers and storage bins before we’ve even purged that which we do not need, use, or want. We excitedly come home with those new bins and begin to toss stuff into them. Once done, we stand back proudly with our new organized home.

But, much like most organizing attempts, our good intentions and packed to bursting refrigerators of plentiful, healthy foods are given up within a few short weeks. If not days.

And, we’re back to old patterns and eating behaviors. Along with cluttered pantries with food uneaten, rotting, and unused.

Not so easy, is it, to shift beliefs, patterns, and behaviors, is it?

Before sharing a simple solution, let’s talk about the “not so obvious” connection between clutter and our diets and health. The connection that well-known organizational mastermind Peter Walsh noticed (and wrote a book about) …

“There’s a definite connection between the clutter in your house and the clutter on your hips.” Peter says, “if you clean up, you can trim down.” 

“After years of helping people organize their homes, Peter says he started noticing that other problem areas in people’s lives started to turn around. “People were contacting me … saying that, ‘Suddenly I discovered that by clearing my space, I’m making much healthier food choices, and I am starting to lose weight,'” he says.

There’s the not-so-obvious connection.

Sounds great, doesn’t it, in theory. Yet, here you sit with all that clutter and an unhealthy pantry, too!

So, what do we do? Throw up our hands in futility? Do we go into overwhelm and do nothing? Well, you certainly are free to do so. However, how about another idea that might just work for your health and well-being?

Peter Walsh alluded to it. In fact, he outright said it. Release the physical clutter, and you’ll see a shift in the other aspects of your life. Clear out the stuff and what shows up is an ability to shift in other areas, too.
 
Sounds easy but is it? Let’s get back to your physical clutter as the avenue to better diet and health. Here’s my simple solution. Keep in mind simple doesn’t always mean easy.

1. Start with a vision of what you want the area to look like. Close your eyes and visualize it—no need to imagine “House Beautiful” unless that’s the result you truly want.
2. Open your eyes. Notice what’s in that area that does not fit that vision.
3. Take a deep breath. Let go of judgment or internal criticism.
4. Tell yourself everything is in divine timing and order.
5. Now, pick up one thing that does not belong and remove it.

That’s it. Five steps. Don’t make it more complicated or more complex than that. Pick one thing and handle it—one thing.

Once you have done so, pick another. It’s one thing at a time.

If you find yourself delaying, putting off, or making excuses, remind yourself that you are building muscle and changing long-held beliefs and patterns. Just as in bodybuilding, a buffed body does not happen overnight. Neither does that area in your home become “buffed” overnight.

It happens, one thing at a time. And as it happens, you’ll also begin to notice your energy, vitality, health, and well-being shift. – not to mention your food choices!

(Pssst! And by the way, clutter does affect your money and time management, too! I’ll be writing more about that later. Keep an eye out for it.)