Column 15 – Body Clutter Bandwagon by The FlyLady, Marla Cilley

This past weekend Leanne Ely and I had a “Girls Weekend”! We had a great time reminiscing about our decade of friendship. We have been on quite a journey! Those life experiences have had many up and downs emotionally and with our personal Body Clutter!

I met Leanne when she came to my house to interview me for her newspaper column. We hit it off. A few weeks later, I asked her to write for my FlyLady Email Group. I help you get your kitchen clean and she helps you put dinner on the table.

In 2002 Leanne moved to California to have her own radio show. We were excited for her. The next year on the 1st anniversary of her radio show, they changed their format and Leanne was jobless and scared. I will never forget sitting on my front porch listening to her vent. Through the tears we had epiphany!

This was just before we started our monthly habit of Moving in May! We focus on exercising every day! We were determined to help the ladies address their Body Clutter issues at the same time. That very day we outlined our book, Body Clutter and set up writing assignments to get started. We turned a low point in our lives into a positive one with a vision.

Our goal was to bring awareness to our Flybabies and help them declutter some of that most personal of all clutter; Body Clutter. We were in such denial about our own Body Clutter. It took a major health crisis for both of us to get our attention. Leanneâs was a blown out thyroid from the stress of a bad marriage and mine was bacterial infection in my chest. My infection got me to the doctor. The following tests revealed that I was pre-diabetic.

Our book Body Clutter was just a manuscript. We were having a hard time turning it into something that was worth reading. We were told that it was because we were not walking the walk. We got serious about taking care of ourselves by losing weight and moving. On that journey Leanne and I both lost 53 pounds. Leanne did it by cooking and exercising every day. I did it eating out and watching every bite of food I put in my mouth.

This weekend we realized that over the last six years since Body Clutter was published our weight has crept up again. For me it has been about nine pounds a year. Leanneâs has be gaining a losing the same twenty pounds. We asked ourselves why this has happened.

The answer was not easy to stomach. We have been arrogant and in denial. We have not been aware of what we were putting in our mouths. We made a commitment to one another and to ourselves to be honest with each other and with you. We will be doing this with our Body Clutter Page on Facebook. This weekend we looked at what habits had stuck with us and what habits needed re-establishing.

We are going to use all the tools available to us. The first tool is being kind to ourselves. We need each other to be accountable. Three years ago when my friend quit smoking I was her quitting smoking buddy. She set a quit date and stuck with it. Before her quit date she started implementing some new habits to help her. I wrote out little distractions on popsicle sticks with a small reward on the opposite side. For every cigarette that she did not smoke, it was a dollar toward her big reward.

Leanne and I are committed to jumping back on our Body Clutter Bandwagon. We will be talking daily to each other. I think we may even record our conversations for our Body Clutter Blog on Facebook. Thanks for keeping us accountable.

For more help getting rid of your CHAOS, check out her website and join her free mentoring group at www.FlyLady.net or her book, Sink Reflections published by Random House and her New York Times Best Selling book, Body Clutter published by Simon and Schuster. Copyright 2011 Marla Cilley Used by permission in this publication.

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