Clutter Connection


Why Does Clutter Stalk Us So?

Recently in our community forum, members began talking about "clutter." I laughed and cried as the portrait emerged. I have known for a long time that sugar sensitive people are gifted, creative, intuitive and sensitive. We tend to operate in non-linear patterns. We operate more from what people label as "right-brain" thinking. Our structure is looser and our struggle more dramatic. We are so gifted, so talented, so connected to such deep understanding and when our eating is off balance, we are so easily lost in a pile of papers.

My own sugar self, like so many of you, was cluttered and unfocused. She always intended to clean things, but mostly she drifted into "doings" which were nice but went nowhere. It's as if the sugars create a sort of oozing state. Instead of being held firmly in focus, we tend to drift into a state I call "la-la land." Our brains are not quite in focus, our hearts not quite connected and our houses are not quite clean and tidy. I lived this same struggle, shamed by my houses and shamed by my life.

And yet as the food changes, the clutter story changes. Why is it that our closets clear, the attic stuff gets to Goodwill, and we are able to find our desktops when our food is stable? Why do we start balancing our checkbooks, paying our bills on time, getting groceries in the house before we need them? We flap around less, we talk less and do more. We feel less overwhelmed by the clutter and simply go and pick it up. The papers go in a stack to be recycled, the dishes get done after dinner, the laundry is put away.

But we are eating breakfast, not going to an "organize your house" seminar. How can this be? I imagine that my house, my desk even, is a reflection of my "me." My house is a reflection of my brain, my heart, my self. Breakfast anchors my day, creates a stability and a place to start from. Breakfast says, "Oh, another day. Let's think about this for a moment. We need groceries." The choices are made differently. "No thank you" to the sweet roll weaves into papers going into file folders in the file rather than on the floor.

If we focus on breakfast, three meals with protein, no white things, no sugars and the potato before bed, our clutter will change. The shocking thing about the food plan is the pervasive change it creates. It isn't just about feeling better or losing weight. It's about the clutter, the focus, the intention and the sense of direction in our lives. Eat breakfast and find your way. Eat a potato and get a clean house.

It sounds pretty outrageous, doesn't it. My publisher would have thought I was nuts had I included this part of the story in the book. But as you all are doing the plan, you are experiencing this same thing I have experienced. Without prompting, you are living the very same pattern which has revealed itself in my own journey but I never told.

The clutter story is not complete yet. We are writing it as we eat.

(c) Kathleen DesMaisons 2006. All rights reserved.