A bathroom scale can be your friend — honest

What is it about our personalities that cause us to put our heads in the sand and refuse to look at the issues? We do this with our homes, our families, our finances, our health and with our Body Clutter! I am one of you, and I will always be. This has been one of the hardest areas for me to let go.

It wasn't until I was faced with a major health issue that I started to look hard at what I was doing to myself by ignoring all the signs. You know those signs. We have all had those disapproving eyes glare at us in a doctor's office when the doctor saw the number from the scale on our chart. I have even refused to look at that number.

In Baltimore for our FLY Fest, I was able to stand on a stage and tell the world that number. For me that 272-pound number was a sign that I had allowed that Ostrich syndrome of putting my head in the sand to hurt me. It was time for me to quit abusing myself! After all this is the only body I am ever going to have. This is when I started to become a scientist when it comes to my weight.

I developed a chart to help me to see if the techniques that my doctor and Leanne (The Dinner Diva) were helping me to learn were working. My scale became my friend. That number between my toes was no long a condemnation of who I am, but it was a guide to help me verify if what I was doing was working and the flip side of that coin — if what I was doing was not working. It is important that you only weigh once a day, and you do that when you first get up as part of your morning routine.

Releasing Body Clutter is not just about getting rid of weight. It is about letting go of the mental strings that attach those pounds to our bodies and hold them there. If we don't address those issues head-on we will be doomed to that never-ending cycle of "Crisis Cleaning, Crash and Burn" and gaining it all back. We have done this with our homes as well as our bodies. You know the drill; your mother is coming and you have to clean like crazy to get the house ready. You rake every thing off of every flat surface in your home and stash it in your bedroom. Then, after your mother leaves, the house gets trashed again.

We do this all the time with other areas of our life; you know that "crash diet" to get ready for a wedding or the beach. After the event is over, all that Body Clutter is put back in place on our hips and backsides, because we did not establish routines for keeping it at bay. It is our routines that give us the power to face our clutter and that most personal of all clutter; our Body Clutter!