Marla Cilley and Leanne Ely's Body Clutter Reviewed

Body Clutter: Love Your Body, Love Yourself
by Marla Cilley and Leanne Ely
ISBN-10:1-4165-3462-8 ISBN-13:978-1-4165-3462-4

This book is about why we gain weight or 'body clutter' as much as it is about losing it. Understanding why we overeat is the key to making healthy lifestyle choices. It's not about crash dieting or exercise programs, it's about enjoying the foods you love in moderation and loving yourself, everyday as part of the process.

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At the end of every chapter there are 'Body Clutter Missions." These missions are questions for you to ask yourself and write in your own private Body Clutter Control Journal.

This control journal is a place for you to be honest with yourself and assess how you feel about yourself, your body and your food habits.

The first chapter is on using food for self destruction or as a drug. We've all heard of comfort foods and Marla and Leanne don't hold back.

They share their favorite comfort foods, mac n cheese and chocolate respectively and what they have to do not to give into those foods.

In the next chapter Marla Cilley gives us four questions we can ask our food before eating it.

Are you going to bless my body?


Do you fit into my healthy way of eating?


Is your taste worthy enough to go into my body?


Why do I want to eat you?

These are powerful questions. Ask them to potato chips or an orange and see how far you get. Ever feel guilty about throwing out old food?

Not now that you can ask question number three. And if you find out your just eating because your upset not because your hungry then you know you need to put the fork down or back away from the cookie jar.

In the next chapter Marla Cilley writes openly about the embarrassing physical problems that come with being overweight and Leanne Ely writes about how she used her pregnancies as an excuse to overeat and gain weight. They both explain how they used their weight gain as a shied.

They discuss common excuses and there is advice on forgiving yourself. Then, in true FlyLady fashion, they give the building blocks of routines and baby steps to help get though the process of healthy eating and exercising step by step.

In the chapter on food Leanne shows what a healthy days worth of food looks like and Marla teaches how to read food labels and pick out the good stuff at the grocery store. They also dedicate whole chapters to moving or getting your exercise and having a good attitude.

There are chapters dedicated to getting enough fiber and getting over plateaus, dealing with fear and anger and a final chapter to motivate you to take care of and love yourself.

If your looking for meal plans, exercise routines, tips on picking the right gym or personal trainer skip this book. Some people may also find it overly emotional since most of it is about our relationship with food and with ourselves.

If your looking for a book with mental exercises to work through and deal with emotional eating and help you look at weigh loss not as a diet to be burdened with but as a peaceful way of life than this book is for you.

Learn more about healthy eating and lifestyle.

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