The link between clutter and overweight

Just caught a really interesting episode of Oprah with Peter Walsh, the de-clutter expert and author of "Does this clutter make my butt look fat?" The show was about an overweight family and the link between all of the excess stuff and the excess weight. There were some really good points Peter made:

• eating healthfully is impossible in an overcluttered kitchen (many people resort to takeout or eating out when their sink, refrigerator or cabinets are a mess)
• children model the behavior of their parents, including all of the excess

It served as a good reminder that environment plays a huge role in a child's healthy development. If we want kids to move freely in their surroundings and learn appropriate amounts of everything, we need to do our best to resist excess. If we want our children to eat right and exercise, we better eat right and exercise. Sometimes it's easy to forget that those little ones are watching all of our healthy or unhealthy habits. Here are some tips from Peter for tackling the excess:

• stop buying "stuff" - de-cluttering is first and foremost
• choose what's good and not what's easy (in other words, nourish yourself with a homemade meal and give the takeout menus a leave of absence)

With these points in mind, I think I'll go do the dishes and then get dinner started!