Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?: An Easy Plan for Consuming Less and Living More

Written by Peter Walsh

Narrated by Peter Walsh

Diets don't work. Why not? Because they focus on what foods we should and shouldn't eat but completely ignore everything else that makes us fat. Look at your own situation: You say you want to lose weight, but you just can't stop indulging. You say you'd exercise more if only you had the time, yet you spend precious hours every night in front of the TV doing what? Munching nutrition-free snacks and drinking supersized beverages.

Peter Walsh, the bestselling author of It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff, believes that the secret to successfully losing weight is to forget about calorie counting and weekly weigh-ins. Instead you need to focus on how, why, and where you eat. When it comes to clearing clutter (the fat in our homes) it isn't about the stuff itself, it's about the life you want to live. The same is true for losing weight: It's not about the pounds, it's about living the life you deserve in the body you want.

Using his expert techniques honed from years as a clutter expert and organizational consultant on TLC's Clean Sweep, Peter helps you address how the clutter in your kitchen, your pantry, and your home is directly related to the clutter on your body and negatively affects your ability to lead a full and healthy life. This book shows you how to clean up not just the spaces where you eat, but the routines around them: from planning meals and shopping to dinnertime rituals.

Peter knows all the pitfalls and all the excuses. In Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? he gives you the tools (and courage) you need to get over all your excuses, face the issues, and make the change to a better life.

This is not a diet book. This is a book about your life -- about creating the healthy life and body you have always imagined for yourself. Peter helps you kick the food-clutter habit forever. You have only one life. Start living it today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Feb 5, 2008
• ISBN: 9780743570411

Peter Walsh

Peter Walsh is a clutter expert and organizational consultant who characterizes himself as part-contractor and part-therapist. He can be heard weekly on The Peter Walsh Show on the Oprah and Friends XM radio network, was a regular guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and was also the host of the hit TLC show Clean Sweep. Peter holds a master's degree with a specialty in educational psychology. He divides his time between Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia.

Reviews for Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?

[jmoncton_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I needed motivation to clean up some of the clutter in my kitchen and this book was perfect! Peter Walsh gives good practical advice in a funny no-nonsense way. End result - I spent a day cleaning out the kitchen pantry and shelves, filled the recycle bin and garbage can, have another box to donate and have a much cleaner kitchen.

Not quite a diet book, but good motivation for cleaning up physical (or mental) clutter. Now if I only drop 7 pounds...

[dukefan86 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was a little skeptical when I first started listening to this audiobook, but well before the end, I was enjoying most of the advice and tips. My main gripe was that he kept referring back to things in a pdf file, quizzes to take, things like that. I listened to this in my car, so I never tried to find that pdf file at home.

[njmom3 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? falls into the genre of self-help books that focuses on the behaviors and habits - rather than specific foods - that lead to weight gain and what people can do to change those paradigms. The information in this book is valid. It is not new. The tone of the book came across as judgemental and negative. It focuses a lot on the "don'ts" or "can'ts". Example of statements are:"If you can't be bothered to preserve a good table for your household, then it's very unlikely that you will bother to take good care of your body.""You can't practice mindful eating if you're a zombie.""If you don't respect yourself enough to create a happy space to live, then how can you treat your body with the honor and respect it deserves?"

[cariola_6 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

OK, I'll admit it: my house is cluttered and my butt is fat. And the subtitle ("An Easy Plan for Losing Weight and Living More") promised a "kill-two-birds-with-one-stone" solution. But if you've seen Walsh on TV or have read any of the many "how to declutter" articles in popular magazines, and if you've ever been on a sensible diet, you won't find much new here. Clear your kitchen countertops. Throw out tempting unhealthy foods. Plan your meals in advance. Sit down to eat at the table. Live in the moment. Sort your mail daily. If you don't love it or use it regularly, throw it out. The book is full of quizzes that I didn't find very helpful overall. Walsh claims there is a connection between clutter and obesity--but hey, not all of those folks on 'Hoarders' are fat, and not all fat people that I know are clutterers. I do agree with him that there's less stress living in an uncluttered house: that's a no-brainer.I'd recommend instead that anyone, fat or thin, who wants to declutter look into a book that offers more concrete suggestions for storage. Or better yet, just adopt the three-box or bag approach so often recommended (one for keepers, one for trash, one for donations) and start plugging away, one room at a time. I could have gotten rid of a lot of clutter and gotten in a few workouts in the time it took me to read this book!

[aliila_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book is good for getting the common sense aspects of losing weight and changing lifestyle slapped into your brain. When I was losing weight, the things he describes as advice were exactly the things working for me, and when I wasn't losing weight, the obstacles were also similar to his description.But, like most self-help books, it eats a bit like dry toast. I found myself skimming chapters thinking "I already know all of this". I would use this book again in the future to remind myself of those things that I know, but forget to remind myself that I know. A very practical approach to weight loss. Better than most, and the letters from his readers were interesting. It satiates the tiny fraction of me that likes to organize details and make lists. Which is what you would expect from a book written by one of Oprah's organizational gurus.

[cecilturtle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Based on his philosophy that physical clutter causes mental clutter, Walsh postulates that a clean kitchen can help you lose weight. His book contains examples, homework, advice and guidelines on how to change one's mentality towards food to achieve long-term weight goals. His view is sound enough, moderate yet enthusiastic, full of energy and no-nonsense steps. I'm not convinced however that it is enough. Bad habits are hard to break, life steps in and thwarts the best intentions - the precepts are too vague to really help. Worth a read however - it's fun, light and well written.