Help, I'm knee-deep in clutter!

I can't tell you anything you don't already know about dieting and exercising but I can help you get ready to take the plunge with suggestions for organizing your food, exercise equipment, and clothes, along with those piles of weight-loss books and articles. You're ready for a makeover.
Can you do something about it? Sure can! You just need a plan.

The first part of the plan is SCHEDULE IT.
Check your calendar and figure out how you can fit this project into your busy schedule. For example:

• Monday might be a good time to start sorting through all your nutrition and exercise books and pamphlets while you're listening to music.
• Thursday get all your exercise equipment together.
• This weekend fix up a home gym.

The next part of the plan is ORGANIZE IT.
Follow these three steps to help you get organized:

1ST STEP: RESIST TEMPTATION
Tempting Morsels
It's time to clear out your snack stations.

The Dump Truck
Fill up the dump truck with all the good stuff that's bad for you. For instance:

• Cut way back on the Bad C foods: cake, candy, cheese, chips, colas, cookies, crackers, and (ice) cream.
• Decrease the white foods on your shelves, including bread, potatoes, and rice.

The Healthy Road
It's time to bring in the good stuff:

• Restock with lean meat, and the red, green, and yellow vegetables and fruits.
• Place smaller plates, glasses, and serving bowls in front to help with portion control.
• Set up a spot in your kitchen for your daily food checklist, calorie counter, or Weight Watchers Points list
• Keep measuring cups and a food scale handy.
• Put "healthy cooking" cookbooks and low-fat recipes together on a shelf. Stick the dessert and high-fat cookbooks out of sight.

2ND STEP: WORKOUT
Finding Fitness
If you're getting serious about exercising, either sign up for a fitness program, start walking regularly with a friend, or set up a workout area at home.

Home Gym
Finding a spot can be a problem:

• Can you set up equipment in the corner of the basement? If not, I know people who have an exercise bike or treadmill in their bedroom or dining room. Equipment might include:
  • Stationary bike, treadmill, rowing machine
  • Steps, weights,jump rope
  • Exercise balls and hoops
  • Bench, mirror, carpet
  • TV, DVD, VCR
  • Exercise videotapes and DVDs
  • Radio and CD player
  • Towels, tissues, wastebasket

Looking Snappy
Plan to look good while you're working out:

• Store all your exercise outfits, shoes,and socks in one spot.
• If you're going to a fitness center, stock you gym bag with gym clothes, shoes, socks, towel, and water bottle.

3RD STEP: TRIMMING PAPER PILEUPS

Flabby Files
If you're like me, you've no doubt collected a ton of weight-loss and exercise articles, pamphlets, and books. We can organize them, but we could probably just dump them and make a poster that says, "Eat Less - Exercise More!"

Fitness Books
Gather up all your diet and exercise books:

• Save just the ones that have useful and current information. Donate the books you don't really need.
• Set up a special section on the bookshelf for all your diet, exercise, health, and self-help books.
• If you'd like, file the exercise books in your workout area.

Cookbooks and Recipes
Gather them all together:

• Get real! Is it even remotely possible that you'll make any of those complicated, exotic recipes? If not, pass a few of those cookbooks on to someone who will appreciate and use them.
• Keep the low-fat, healthy-eating cookbooks handy. File them together on a shelf.
• Set up a separate box for recipes that not only have fewer calories but surprisingly taste great.

Clippings and Pamphlets
Zip around and gather up all your diet and health-related articles and pamphlets:

• Again, dump as many as possible. Whatever's left, we'll organize. Set up and label four folders, the kind with two pockets:
  • Diet and Nutrition Tips and Articles
  • Exercise Tips and Articles
  • Medical and Mental Health Articles and Pamphlets
  • To Be Filed

Step to the Music
Gather up DVDs, CDs, and videotapes that can help put you in the mood to move!

• Set up a shelf in your exercise area for your Buns of Steel videotapes and other exercise DVDs and CDs.

WHAT'S THE FINAL STEP?

You're all set for action. Where's that button to turn you from a couch potato into a whirling dervish? Most of us are rarely in the mood to cut back on fun food or to exercise, so we need to rely on a routine. Now it’s time to SET UP A ROUTINE TO GET INTO SHAPE.

DAILY: Take 30 Minutes

• Use a checklist to keep track of the foods you're eating, the calorie count, or Weight Watcher Points.
• Add regular exercise into your daily routine.
• Place any new diet and health articles and pamphlets and recipes in your TO BE FILED folder.
• Don't leave your exercise clothes and weights lying around.

WEEKLY: Take 20 Minutes for Organizing

• Prepare a grocery list with healthy food choices and include a few reasonable snacks.
• Clip and file some of the articles and recipes that you've ripped out of magazines and newspapers.

CLUTTER WRAP-UP

Good luck on cutting the clutter and calories. Don't forget to add some steps, whether it's on the staircase, aerobic steps, treadmill, or around the block.

Stop by again the second week of February.
You'll get some ideas for organizing our next clutter culprit - that tangle of extra cords, and piles of equipment instruction manuals, installation disks, and batteries.

BEST WISHES!
Joyce