I first heard of Feng Shui shortly after graduating from college, when I worked in an office that had been meticulously designed according to Feng Shui principles, on order of the owner of the company. There were mirrors in unexpected places; there were mobiles, there were fountains, there were bells. There were very strict rules about what colors went where and which way your desk faced. The American Heritage dictionary defines Feng Shut as "the Chinese art or practice of positioning objects . . . based on a belief in patterns of yin and yang and the flow of chi that have positive and negative effects." At the time I worked in the Feng Shui designed office, folks, I was not a believer.
This changed when I met Regina Leeds, author of the wonderful One Year to an Organized Life series, as well as her original Zen of Organizing book. Back in the day, Regina was hired by ivillage to lead the Get Organized group, and she is nothing if not a born leader--which is to say, she inspires and motivates others to be their best. For Regina, organizing is not about a perfectly arranged sock drawer; it's about how the order you create for yourself makes you feel. One's physical surroundings both reflect and impact one's life experiences--those "positive and negative effects" referred to above. Chief among the life experiences impacted by one's surroundings is health, and that includes body weight. On the ivillage board, Regina would say: stalled on a diet? Let go of the physical clutter.
This I desperately wanted to believe, if only because I imagined it would be a lot easier to organize my house then stay on a diet. I've since decided the opposite is true, but never mind. The truth is, the more I work on organizing, the less work it is to maintain other healthy habits.
Why is this, exactly? I've often puzzled over this. Here are some ideas about what's behind the Weight Loss-Organization Connection:
When certain chores and systems are in place, it makes sticking to your diet a lot easier.
This is especially true of meal planning, which includes grocery runs and cooking meals, as there seems to be a direct correlation between cooking your own meals and successfully staying on a diet. However:
Diet- and fitness-specific errands and chores are not isolated activities.
For instance, your ability to successfully prepare and cook a healthy meal is impacted by any number of things. If your kitchen is a mess--if you can't open the cabinets without dishes or cans of food falling down, if your counters are piled high, if you can't find appropriate containers or knives, if your fridge smells or is so over-stuffed that you can't fit new supplies, it's not going to be easy to whip up a nice, quick, healthy meal. This leads to:
Control begets control
I don't know about you, but when things are out of control, a pint of Chubby Hubby ice-cream looks awfully good. We're talking comfort food here. But when your place is clean, when you know where things are, when the order in your home lifts your energy and you feel happy and calm when you open a closet or drawer or cabinet rather than feeling stressed or burdened or overwhelmed by disorder, that is the very definition of "comfort." Which brings us to:
Being organized makes healthy rewards easier--and more rewarding
In my book, a bubble bath is much more rewarding than a late-night snack--but only if I don't have to scrub out the tub first.
When you're organized, you're more efficient with your resources, the surplus of which can be re-invested toward your goal.
When you're organized, you tend to have more time and energy, because you aren't wasting them on trying to track things down, whether it's a number or your favorite sweater. And we've seen time a-plenty here on the Quest how being organized saves money, if only by not duplicating purchases of things you can't find. Any time or energy you save can be put to use--by exercising, by keeping a diet notebook, by cooking healthy meals instead of grabbing things out. Likewise, any money you save can be re-invested in exercise gear, gym memberships or yoga classes.
