Put Your House on a Diet

Decorate your house and lose weight.

Written by Vera Tweed and Beth Salmon

When it comes to accelerating your weight-loss goals, your house can help (or hurt) you. Our experts tell how to decorate to actually lose weight.

Holding on to extra pounds? Could be your house is holding you back. From having a living room that makes you lazy to a kitchen that’s loaded with dieter downfalls, you may be surprised at the many ways your home can hinder your weight-loss goals.

If you’ve ever spring-cleaned your entire house, painted a room or planted a garden, and experienced a rush of good feelings, you know the power that your home has over you. In fact, feng shui, the ancient Chinese art of aesthetic placement, has long acknowledged this link between our inner and outer worlds. Case in point is how a clean, organized closet can make you feel energized and even excited about getting dressed in the morning, while a cramped, cluttered one can make you feel tired, beaten down, or worse—fat.

“Our homes, heads, hearts and hips are intimately connected in ways that we can’t even imagine,” says Peter Walsh, organizational consultant and author of Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? (Free Press, 2008) and Enough Already! (Free Press, 2009). Walsh contends that when we clear the clutter—or fat—in our homes, we can start to create the lives we really want to live and truly deserve. And only by nurturing ourselves with this level of love and respect, he says, can the extra weight finally come off for good.

Clearing the path to weight loss in our homes begins with clearing clutter, but don’t just stop there, say our experts. They offer some smart, low-cost tips to create the ultimate weight-friendly environment that will make you feel naturally lighter, and brighter, too.

Remove Clutter, Reduce Stress.
“If you think about waking up or walking into a room or house full of clutter on a daily basis, the cumulative effect is crippling,” says Mark Brunetz, celebrity designer and co-star of “Clean House” on the Style Network. “Not only does one physically waste time looking for items, which leads to frustration and even more stress, having a disorganized household consumes people emotionally,” Brunetz explains.

Decluttering has several benefits: It turns your home into a haven where you can relax and restore balance, enabling your body to more efficiently convert food into energy and store less fat. Plus, the process of cleaning out clutter burns a significant number of calories. And you gain new and improved spaces for preparing food, dining, exercising and doing other things you may have been putting off because there simply wasn’t enough space—or so it seemed.

Draw Lines, Eat Less.
When it comes to eating, a lot of it is done without much thought. “Nowadays, people are eating in every room of the house—in the family room, sitting at a home desk, standing in the bathroom,” observes Brunetz, The remedy, he says, is to draw a line in the sand: Designate eating to spaces that are designed for the task, such as an eat-in kitchen, dining room or outdoor eating area. And keep food out of the rest of the house.

In the kitchen, his tips include: Keep tools accessible; store like items together; use clear containers for food storage; add mini-Lazy Susans for storing spices; use drawer dividers to keep things from sliding around; and throw out things you don’t use. Keep counters uncluttered to have space for preparing fresh food.

Swap Spaces and Exercise.
After clearing out clutter, you should have a better idea of what space you actually have, and that’s the time to reevaluate how you’re using it. Chances are, space is allocated to nonexistent activities and, says Brunetz, it can be “swapped” for exercise space. “The basement that stores old LPs or the family room that is full of toys all can be redirected, making way for exercise equipment,” he notes. But whatever you do, warns Walsh, don’t let that treadmill store clothes and clutter. “If you’re not going to use them, lose them,” he says. Whatever choices you make have to work for you. But first, realize that you can make those choices.

Color Your Appetite Down.
Like clutter in your environment, colors affect mood—and appetite. There are reasons why McDonald’s arches are golden. Bright yellow, orange and red are “fast food colors,” because they stimulate appetite and mindless, high-speed eating, says Washington, D.C.-based color strategist Kate Smith. However, muted shades have a relaxing effect and are more likely to evoke conscious eating at a slower pace. Muted shades in your kitchen and dining areas can be helpful for reducing stress and controlling appetite; if you want to add bright color, do it with accent pieces, such as a vase. Save bright colors for areas for exercise because they will make you feel livelier.

Plate colors affect perceptions of food, says Smith. Compared to white ones, colored plates, or those with colored borders, make small portions look bigger. And, dessert on pink plates tastes sweeter. While all this information comes from marketing research, Smith isn’t a believer in a one-size-fits-all approach. “Everything about color is very personal, because color affects each of us in a different way,” she says.

Surround Yourself With Positive Messages.
“Your environment is the easiest to change, because things don’t talk back,” says Jillian Michaels, strength coach for “The Biggest Loser” and author of Master Your Metabolism (Crown, 2009). One of her top tips for creating a weight-friendly environment: Fill your home with cues that will stimulate you to  improve your well-being. Pin up wish lists of what you want to achieve with motivating photos or clippings, she suggests. Another idea: Paint an affirmation on the wall, such as “Live Well. Love Much. Laugh Often” or “Every Day I Get Better in Every Way.” Not only do the words function as decoration, they serve as a reminder to focus your energy on creating the life you truly want.

---

Energy Essentials
Clear Cupboards of Clutter. You don’t need a shelf full of diet aids to reach your weight-loss goals, but a few smart supplement staples can support overall energy and health to keep you on track.

Eat Your Lawn.
Landscape your yard with edible plants. Not only will you enhance curb appeal, but eating fresh fruits and veggies every day can curb your appetite. And doing rigorous gardening for one hour will burn as many calories as jogging four miles.
 

Quiz: Is Your House Overweight? In his book Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? (Free Press, 2008), Peter Walsh takes readers on a fat tour of their homes to get clues to their hidden diet downfalls. “If you don’t respect yourself enough to create a happy space to live in, then how can you treat your body with the honor and respect it deserves?” he asks. Use our room-by-room guide with Walsh’s top tips to see if your house is helping—or hurting—you. Mostly “A” answers suggest your space is healthy, while mostly “B’s” suggests you’ll get in better shape after your house does. Front Door What It Says About You: Makes a first impression to others, and reflects your values. Rate Your Space: __ A. I feel relaxed and happy when I enter my house. There is a sense of order because items such as shoes, coats and mail are in their place. “Your entranceway should say that you value your living space and welcomes others,” says Walsh. __ B. I feel overwhelmed or stressed when I step in the door. There are reminders of unfinished projects or just too much stuff cluttering the area. Bedroom What It Says About You: Drives the energy of the house, and reflects the health of your relationship with your partner or, if you’re single, with yourself. Rate Your Space: __ A. I feel a sense of peace. “When my clients talk about how they want their bedrooms to feel, they use words such as ‘haven,’ ‘intimate,’ ‘kid-free’ and ‘spalike,’” says Walsh. “Your bedroom should say, ‘I value my relationship enough to create an area that fosters a deep connection with my partner, or if I’m single, with myself.’” __ B. This room is cluttered with so much stuff, such as laundry, old magazines and videos, that it makes me want to go to the kitchen for a decompression snack. Kitchen What It Says About You: The heart of your home, this room reflects the many ways that you “nourish” your family. Rate Your Space: __ A. My kitchen is clean, uncluttered and reflects my desire to nurture my relationships. I enjoy being in my kitchen, and its organization allows me to easily prepare healthful meals. __ B. My kitchen is cramped and cluttered. The counter tops are so filled with stuff (e.g., appliances, tools, etc.) that I don’t have enough room to efficiently prepare food. Garage What It Says About You: Tells if you’re too stuck in the past or future to live the life you want in the present. “They’re also about decisions you’ve put off,” says Walsh. Rate Your Space: __ A. My garage is generally neat and not filled with relics of my past. __ B. My garage is filled with clutter of unlived lives either from the past (e.g., wedding dress, photos of me when I was younger and thinner) or future (e.g., thin clothes I may fit into someday), rather than the life I want right now. “If your garage is too full of holiday decorations, for example, your garage says that you have no limits,” says Walsh. “And this value—that you can own as much as you want—is ultimately conveyed to your children as a way of life.”

Fat-Burning Tricks for Your Fridge
Because the refrigerator is at the core of your kitchen, important thought should be given to what goes inside of it. But how do create a “healthy weight” fridge and not a “fat” one? We asked our experts to give us their tips for turning up the fat-burning power of the fridge:

• Get it clean and organized with smart snacks.
A “fat” refrigerator can look like its owner “just got a tip on a famine.” says Mark Brunetz, celebrity designer and co-star of “Clean House” on the Style Network. A “healthy weight” one, however, is clean and well-organized with a few trays of quick, raw snacks, such as cut-up fruits and veggies, and healthier options for dipping: organic yogurt instead of sour cream, or organic hummus instead of a cheese-based spread.

• Fill It With Meals, Not Just Food.
Rather than just filling your refrigerator with food, try to organize it around specific meals that you’re planning, says Peter Walsh, organization expert and author of Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? (Free Press, 2008). “If you don’t,” warns Walsh, “you’ll end up making the easy choice—not the good choice—when it comes to preparing you meals.”

• Prep and Wash Produce.
“Washing and prepping produce before you put it away will help to ensure you’ll default to good food during a busy week, rather than just cracking open a box of food that is not nutritious,” says Walsh. And on Sunday night, consider making double of something so you can freeze it and eat it on a night when you just don’t have time to cook up whole food, he adds.
 

Quick Tip Design Your Life, Then Your Kitchen. • Want closer relationships? Allow room for your family to gather. Open up the space to the main living rooms and/or provide a prep table so others can join you. • Want to be healthier? Allow for space to prepare healthier food with ample work surfaces and storage, but pare down tools to just the essentials you use regularly. • Want more free time? Create an efficient work triangle between the sink, refrigerator and stove with ready-access drawers and easy-to-clean surfaces.