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In This Issue
Make The Fat Clutter Connection
Reclaim Two Days Per Year
It's Like Eating Carrot Cake
If You Can Do Only One Thing This Month
Bleeding Edge Science
Ask The Doc
Exciting Developments From Dr. P.
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Issue: #
September 2008
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Make The Fat Clutter Connection
Right now, quickly, whip out your wallet. What does it look like? What about your car? Think about your workspace at home and at the office. Now look at yourself
in the mirror. Do you see a pattern here? You can't get and stay fit when everything around you is chaotic.
It's the hectic fall season, with school, work and all the holidays rushing toward us at breakneck speed. Is your home or workspace Fit to Live in? Do you have miles of piles all over the place?
The Environmental Weight you're hauling around day after day is landing on your waistline. You need an environment to live and work in that is conducive to practicing your healthy living habits. You can't take a walk if your sneakers and sweats are buried under a mess in your closet. You can't eat well if your fridge and cabinets are filled with food that is junk, outdated, or nonexistent because someone I know hasn't been to the store. You can't live cost effectively when you can't find your checkbook or bills to pay on time, because they've been thrown somewhere on the desk from hell. How can you feel calm and peaceful when you're walking around in
angst, shame and guilt, surrounded by chaos?
I'm here to stir it up again, this time about our Toxic Living situations. Just like we've ballooned up physically, so have we in our home environments. We're not only mindlessly eating too much food, we're binging on too much stuff. Our mountains of possessions and the clutter that results are a huge energy drain on our Mental, Mouth, Muscle, and Money Fitness.
"So what?" you ask. Well, believe it or not, the bigger you are, the more stuff you probably have lying around. I discovered this filming the National Body Challenge for Discovery Health. I went into people's homes and tripped over clutter everywhere.
Garages were scary places where that bike or weight set was buried under tons of
Xmas tree lights, broken appliances, and deflated basketballs.
I vividly recall the times when my patients finally make the Mouth-Mess Connection.
They sit before me in wonderment recalling how they mysteriously have begun to clean up everything from the banana peels and fast food wrappers in the back of the car, to hallway closets with dead bodies under all those boxes and clothes. I smile and congratulate them. I know that instead of dropping into a food coma in front of the tube, they're now more aware of how toxic their living space is, and how it fosters their distress, overeating and Toxic Lifestyle habits. They begin naturally gravitating to the clean, white spaces where Environmental Fitness can begin.
Do you feel overwhelmed by the miles of piles? When you stumble into your home after work and hopelessly gaze at the mess in every room, do you feel that sinking feeling of helplessness, shame, and defeat? If this is your mindset, you're stirring up those stress hormones. You go from zero to anxiety, walk past the mess, and head
for the kitchen where the supersized fridge and overloaded kitchen cabinets of anesthetics await you. Back into food coma you go, and you're wearing that stress and extra food in your Belly Fat.
Messy living and working spaces, lead to distressed minds, which lead to Toxic Lifestyle habits like overeating and overdrinking, which lead to more fat around your waistline.
Cluttered environment, cluttered belly. Make the connection and commit to springing into Fall in an environment that promotes Mind, Mouth, Muscle and Money fitness.
Remove the clutter and you'll be astounded how it will affect your ability to remove the fat on your body as well.
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Reclaim Two Days Per Year
Did you know that the average person gets 30 pounds of junk mail per year? With one quick visit to
www.dmaconsumers.org/offmailinglist.html
, you can stop this clutter from coming to your door. You'll gain more than empty ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's Like Eating Carrot Cake
When you're trimming Environmental Fat, treat it like eating carrot cake. Take small slices. If you try to do the entire house in one hour you'll just end up with a bigger mess-with the Mental Fat of discouragement and hopelessness as well. Slice it off one spot at a time-your desk, one closet, the living room, one set of cabinets.
It's very important that you take a little patience pill here and aim to achieve
small steps.
Approach it with a plan. Be methodical and prioritize. Go first for those things
that will directly affect your ability to become Fit to Live. Dig in the bottom
of that closet. I know you've got sneakers in there somewhere. Find them so you
can walk regularly. Next the socks, then the sweats and find the other piece to
your CD player and you're ready to rock.
Do not wing this. That's part of what got you into trouble in the first place. Establish organizing rituals. For instance, say to yourself, "Every Saturday morning I'll go through all the newspapers I left in a huge gigantic heap all week. I will blast through them and put them in recycling as fast as possible so I have nothing left."
Ritual is so important in self-care whether you're ritualizing shopping for food
or decluttering. You can even combine rituals. For instance, on Saturday morning as soon as you go grocery shopping and before putting them away is the perfect time to clean the next kitchen cabinet.
If you have a problem decluttering, get help. There are software programs, books, and people to assist you. And be sure to read my chapter on decluttering in Fit To Live, which offers a wide variety of other suggestions.
Order your copy today
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If You Can Do Only One Thing This Month
Try A Daily Ten Minute Tidy
bedroom closet? Instead, take ten minutes in the morning or evening and knock off a piece of it. Organize the gift wrap one day, the recycling bins another. Bottom
line: Just like successful weight removers look for times during the day for movement, finding ten minutes to tidy will actually get you somewhere rather than waiting for that mythical big block of time to materialize.
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Bleeding Edge Science
In
Fit to Live
,
I expose the obesity epidemic and offer my 5-point plan for bucking this dangerous trend. This is a majority you don't want to be part of! According to a brand new
study, 86% of us will be overweight or obese by 2030, with related health care spending projected to be as much as $956.9 billion. Don't be one of them!
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Ask The Doc
Dear Dr. Peeke,
I read in Fit to Live how important sleep is in keeping weight off. Can you give
me some ideas for more restful sleep?
--EL, Chicago
Dear EL,
It's true that you should never underestimate the power of sleep in trimming your belly. Be sure to get enough, on average, 7 hours a night (kids and teens need more!).
Naps are okay, but nighttime sleep is best. Try to go to sleep and get up at the
same time. Stay away from caffeine past noon. Create a relaxing routine-warm bath, soft music, reading for pleasure. Keep the bedroom cool, dark, and quiet. And get off that TV, computer, and Crackberry an hour before sleep! If you have chronic trouble sleeping, you may be taking your stresses to bed with you. That's a crowd you don't need. Rather than run for a pill, do at least 30 minutes of brisk cardio exercise earlier in the day. It really helps. Listen to a meditation tape or CD.
Avoid the national news before you hit the sack. Just as your other daily routines need to be ritualized, so does rest. Sleep on that!
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Exciting Developments From Dr. P.
Watch for my new series on the
Discovery Health
TV network, "Could You Survive?" which asks the question, Are You Fit to Live to
Survive the 21st Century, from Divorce to Disaster?
It is scheduled to begin to air December 5th in prime time. I'll be hosting this
reality show based on my latest book, Fit to Live. Tune in to watch me guide participants through a mind blowing, eye opening experience in which they discover how unfit they truly are to survive day to day life, and the simple, amazing steps they can take to turn themselves around in only four weeks.
Our Discovery Health TV pilot, originally entitled Fit to Live, aired January 11th and is a finalist for the Freddie Award, in the Health and Wellness category.
The audio CD has already won the Audie Award, the highest award in author narration in the Life Improvement category.
Purchase Your Copy
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Visit
www.drpeeke.com
to stay up to date on all my information.
Start your healthy, mindful living today. If not now, when?
Pam Peeke MD, MPH, FACP
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Have Dr. Peeke Speak to Your Group
If you are interested in having Dr. Peeke speak to your group, or organization contact our Marketing Department at:
marketing@drpeeke.com
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