Lose the Clutter and Lose Weight

Organizing your kitchen can be your first step to weight loss….Here is how I got there:

Good healthy food should be a priority for your life.  Unfortunately most take out and restaurant meals provide you with over sized portions and are often cooked with preservatives and are not prepared in the healthiest way.  That means cooking at home where you control portion size, use fresh ingredients and choose a healthy cooking method will allow you to be in control of your health and consequently your weight.

Is your kitchen such a mess that the idea of preparing a meal means you have to move piles of mail off of the counter, clean off the kitchen table, wade your way through tons of out dated products in your pantry, can’t find a pot or pan, or can’t find a knife?  If it feels like too much just to put some healthy food on the table then your kitchen needs to be cleaned and organized so that meal prep and eating are enjoyable.

Steps to organize your kitchen:

Clear out everything that does not have to do with food.  For example batteries need to find a new home, mail needs to be deposited somewhere else, and homework cannot be left on the kitchen table.

Eliminate excess items that you never use.  I have a small kitchen so I ditched my waffle iron that I haven’t used in 10 years.  Do you have way too many plastic containers?  Get down to a reasonable amount of containers that you will use and give the rest to Goodwill.  All this excess clutter makes functioning very hard.  If you have to move 3 things to get to the item you need you are less likely to want to cook so be ruthless in this step.

Clean out your fridge.  That means dump all the leftover containers, anything growing mold, anything not healthy including soda.  Wipe everything down to prepare for your new healthy food.

Eliminate Excuses:

No time to shop:  Prepare a menu for the week and make your shopping list from your menu.  Once you have all the ingredients you will be set for healthy cooking.  This doesn’t take long but it is the most critical step for success.  This does not have to be complicated fresh simple ingredients.

No time to cook:  wait a minute, you can prepare a meal faster than you can get to a restaurant or wait for takeout.  Consider the time it takes for takeout to arrive (30 minutes at least if it is a pizza), the time it takes to drive to a restaurant, the time it takes once you’ve ordered for you food to arrive, the time it takes to get through a fast food drive up window.

No cooking talent:  Tiger Woods did not become a great golfer without lots of practice.  So it is going to take some practice.     But there are millions of easy recipes out there that have 5 or fewer ingredients that make delicious meals.  Start simple learn one easy recipe for chicken, one with hamburger, and one for fish.  After that add a green salad, bake a potato, and before you know it you are cooking.

Your body only needs so many calories to function.  And the best way to control the amount of calories you consume is to prepare your meals yourself.  Don’t let your kitchen environment sabotage your healthy weight goals.

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HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

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Written by HealthStatus Team
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

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