Weight And Clutter Problems - Hand In hand?

[CronicBadger]

There is an interesting article in the online Sun Herald in which an author and expert links weight issues with clutter/hoarding issues. It's quite interesting:
Cleaning Up Your House Can help You Lose Weight

I've been combating a hoarding instinct for years, and have noticed the link between the two in my own personal world. It's complex and deep-rooted, but solvable. I've found the application of mindfulness techniques to be helpful, as well as simple practical things like keeping an area of the kitchen bench clear so healthy food can be prepared rather than something akin to fast-food dragged out of the cupboard or fridge instead.

[Blitz]

I think that perhaps he has got it around the wrong way.
The clutter doesn't cause overweightness in these hoarders - rather their being overweight has made their hoarding worse.

Being a pack rat from way back because my tidy wife keeps me in check, the only rooms that are untidy or out of control are the rooms my wife has surrendered to me.
In the old days these rooms were a lot worse than they are now because I was so tired from carrying around those extra 87 kilos - I had no energy to tidy or organise them. Nowadays, they are a lot tidier and organised because I've got more energy.
Even in general life my habits are more conscientious. In the old days I rarely lifted a finger around the house preferring the arduous task of stopping the sofa from running away by laying on it and manning the TV remote control (it's a dirty job but someone has got to do it ).
Now I will clean something up without being asked.
I was slack in the old days not because I was lazy...I was slack and lazy because the effort was greater than a mere mortal could bear.

I will give him the link between rampant consumerism and gluttony.
I once did a sermon on Gluttony (as part of a series on the 7 Deadly Sins).
I surprised a lot of people who would have expected a sermon on weight loss.
Instead I took my cue from Dorothy L. Sayers' essay "The Other Six Deadly Sins" where she talks about society's gluttonous ways; over-consumerism. Our bins are more than twice the size they were when I was a boy and yet they are all filled to over flow.
Every few months the council has a verge collection which almost every household places a mountain of junk by the road.
Worse still, the Bureau of Statics show that the more a household earns - the more they waste.
We Australians literally throw out billions of dollars worth of unused stuff per year.
In food alone we throw out or allow to go rotten nearly $6,000 MILLION dollars per year.

The root causes of both this waste and our overweight bodies is a lack of good stewardship.
No one is prepared to take responsibility for their part and step up and do the right thing.

Kim

[Divalicious]

I don't believe there's a connection between being overweight and hoarding. The latter is a psychological problem centred on insecurity, and the need to "store for a rainy day" mentality; that is, keeping something for use in hard times!! The body may store fat deposits, but it's our hands that put the food into the deposit box!! And it's not always because we think we need (its value) later!! Gluttony and laziness have some commonalities, but the correlation is so slight; it can lend itself to becoming just another "excuse" for over indulgence!!

[Tams]

While I havent read the article, it wouldn't surprise me in the least. It's really hard to establish 'causality', which is why when we see something occurring as well as something else, we can come up with a whole bunch of different hypotheses as to why. All of which may in part be correct, some of which may be the sole reason in some circumstances, and some have nothing to do with it in other circumstances.

I do know that overweight and hoarding in some cases does seem to stem from that need to hold onto stores for another day, or 'bury'/'push away' a terrible trauma. I think of the generation that went through the depression. Many have been affected with both or either hoarding/overeating. My grandfather was probably both - he just had an amazing metabolism and was always a 'bottomless pit' despite always eating vast amounts (he was very lanky and looked like a preying mantis!). He was ever concerned about waste, and when we went through things after his death, we even found very neat boxes of different sized sticks (several sizes!), and a box of pressed out lolly wrappers. He was an organised hoarder (still a hoarder - it was quite dangerous to navigate the stuff that swallowed every bit of space).

And in some cases (no, definitely not the majority!) overeating is a psychological illness. It can also be an addiction with attendant psychological/physiological responses. In rarer cases yet, it is physiological (eg; Prader-Willi syndrome). (The distintions between psychological and physiological can get blurry, as the brain actually physiologically changes in ongoing psychological 'disturbance, so sorry if this is a bit simplified).

The bottom line though, is that we all have to take responsibility for ourselves. We can't hide behind an illness; we need to address it. Just as we can't hide behind our character weaknesses/choices. It's just going to be a harder thing to address for some people (I really feel sorry for the Prader-Willi kids, as symptoms start at around 2yrs - they honesty feel like they are starving. Poor parents too, who must deny a desperately 'starving' child - and they get desperate as their bodies are sending those messages.)

[Divalicious]

Rumour (or research depending on your determination to find a causal excuse) has it that the weather affects people's weight too.......that is, if it's too hot or too cold they won't venture outside the house to exercise!!!
Seriously people.........
Quit the excuses and let's call a spade a spade here!!! Clutter around you is one thing, but excessive fat on your body surrounding your vital organs is another. Clutter can contribute to a messy house and the loss of a few friends, but obesity can (and will) kill you!!!
Don't try and draw a line between them, they are poles apart, and although there may be somewhat (ever so marginal) similarity (ie. excessiveness) there really is no correlation whatsoever!!!
Tam's hit the nail on the head......people have to take responsibility for their actions!!!

[Blitz]

The bottom line though, is that we all have to take responsibility for ourselves. We can't hide behind an illness; we need to address it. Just as we can't hide behind our character weaknesses/choices.

I agree with Josie...great words there Tams!

Quit the excuses and let's call a spade a spade here!!!

I don't - I call a spade a shovel!
It has been my general experience that when people refer to a spade that they are actually (technically) holding a shovel at the time!

Kim

[Blitz]

I saw the book that the article was spruiking at a bookshop yesterday.
Had a good flick through it. It seems to be mostly about de-cluttering with a little bit about losing weight.
Nothing profound in it on the weight loss front.
In the end the book seems to be trying for another take on the clutter/hoarding front.
Since he has covered that subject extensively already he needed a new selling angle to justify a new book.
The book will probably help you organise your junk better but I don't think that it will be much help lighten your gut.

Kim

[Divalicious]

The book will probably help you organise your junk better but I don't think that it will be much help lighten your gut.

I think the author is aiming to lighten people's wallets/purses and that's about it!!
If someone wants to lighten their weight they need to eat better (and less) and exercise more, simple formula, tried and tested, and with no nonsense blame attached to very real (and very sad) psychological conditions like hoarding!!