Discipline, consistency will rid you of body clutter

By Leanne Ely
For the Deseret Morning News
Published: Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2006 4:34 p.m. MST
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One thing I have learned, especially around the holidays, is that the process of losing body clutter is a journey, not a destination. It's also a process that doesn't go on holiday when we do. We are either on task or we're not. Being off, so to speak, is an invitation to trouble. It's putting your guard down and going back to old behaviors. "Just this once" and "This little bit won't hurt" and "Well, I'm only eating half" are red flags that you're rationalizing.

You have to make rules for yourself. Oprah Winfrey does this with mashed potatoes. One bite and that's it. She can't do more because that kind of eating takes her down the wrong path. FlyLady and I order dessert when we travel. We take one bite, and that's it.

Or it should be. The one-bite rule flew out the window the last couple of trips, and the next thing you knew, we were practically splitting a dessert! Multiple that by a few nights of going out to dinner and suddenly your jeans start talking to you (as in giving you a massive wedgie) and the scale is less than friendly when reporting your morning weight.

When we set out to do something that's new to us, it's very rare that we ever have the foresight and/or skill set to accomplish it without looking outside ourselves for help. This is how we get the education we need to make informed decisions on what to do. This is also how we develop skills we may not have had previously.

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But there is something we bring to the table — we either have it or we have a lack of it. And that is discipline. The D word. There's a word we all love to hate. Discipline is one of those things we all bristle against, and yet it is one very necessary component to dealing with our body clutter, whether it's having only one bite of dessert (and definitely not having dessert every night, either!) or moving for just 15 minutes at a time. The requirement is discipline.

There is another thing we either have or don't have. That is consistency. You've experienced how well consistency works already — consistency is what got your house cleaned up, and it's what gets dinner on the table night after night. Baby steps becoming routines, performed a couple of times daily, have turned your house from a castle of chaos to a palace of peace. Remember this: It was discipline that got you to execute your routines on a daily basis (consistently) that got you to the place where you now celebrate your home rather than dread it.

And lest you think FlyLady and I have lost our way in regard to dessert. We have a new way of handling desserts when we go out to dinner. We take our forks, clink them together (as if to "toast" this special occasion) take our bites and throw the forks on the floor! We do fish the forks out from under the table — we don't leave them for the wait staff to retrieve. Others have mentioned that we could put salt and pepper on the dessert and deal with it that way, but the whole idea of clinking forks, eating the bite and throwing the fork on the floor is more fun and will (I'm sure) become a beloved ritual and tradition between the two of us.

Our dessert ritual is a great example of discipline and consistency. The discipline of the one-bite rule will help us keep desserts in our lives; the consistency of doing it will prevent the body clutter from creeping back.

Keep these two qualities in mind as you're dealing with your body clutter. The food you eat (or don't eat) and the movement you make (or don't make) all rely on those two things — especially during the holidays, where treats are lurking just about everywhere.

Leanne Ely, a k a Dinner Diva, is the author of the best-selling "Saving Dinner" and "Saving Dinner the Low Carb Way" (Ballantine). What's for dinner? Go to www.savingdinner.com and find the solution!

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