Breininger - Stuff Your Face or Face Your Stuff: The Organized Approach to Lose Weight by Decluttering Your Life

Praise for Dorothy The Organizer

Dorothy is a life coach. She is about organizing; she is about putting together an action plan for setting up the interval steps to get you where youre going, setting realistic goalsand she is good at it.

Dr. Phil McGraw, the Dr. Phil show

A few hours of Dorothy Breiningers time saves me hundreds of hours of my own time, while bringing me greatly increased efficiency and peace of mind.

Dr. Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize winner bestselling author, Guns, Germs and Steel

My early success was built on creating sexy, carefree, unstructured hairstyles for men and women. My staying power is due to structure and organization in my life. Dorothys book will give you what you need to achieve that carefree feeling with the long-term staying power for success.

Jos Eber, worlds most acclaimed hairstylist

Dorothy Breininger is winning a squeaky-clean reputation as a clutter-buster without equal. A five-foot-tall former gymnast and former executive assistant to deans at Northeastern University in Boston and the University of California, Ms. Breininger has morphed herself into a compact white tornado.

Christian Science Monitor

In her book, Breininger says what is eating you today can serve up heaps of self-destructive habits that can last a lifetime. And the worlds best makeover will not alleviate the pain unless you face your stuff.

Warner Center News

Some people go to Bali on vacation. I just call Dorothy!

Susan Beckman, artist

Dorothy Breininger can turn your To Do list into an Its Done list!

Organize magazine

Dorothy Breininger knows a thing or two about motivation and goal setting.

Rapid City Journal

For years Dorothy and her staff have organized my business and my life. For me, Dorothy is like a monthly vitamin, which ensures my personal and business success.

Roxanne Davis, attorney

Dorothy Breininger and her team were amazing to work withthey took mountains of paper and created organized files. We no longer feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information we process.

Southern California Edison

Nobody appreciates a high-class pigsty like Dorothy Breininger. Her tales from the upper crust of disorganization will send you jogging to the nearest Staples.

Forbes magazine

Health Communications, Inc.

Deerfield Beach, Florida

www.hcibooks.com

The information contained in this book is not intended as a substitute for the advice or care of the readers physician nor is it intended to discourage or dissuade the reader from the advice of his or her physician. Any eating or lifestyle regimen should be undertaken under the direct supervision of the readers physician.

The names and other identifying information of the individuals in this book have been changed to protect privacy.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Breininger, Dorothy K.

Stuff your face or face your stuff : the organized approach to lose weight by decluttering your life / Dorothy K. Breininger.

pages cm

ISBN-13: 978-0-7573-1737-8 (Paperback)

ISBN-10: 0-7573-1737-5 (Paperback)

ISBN-13: 978-0-7573-1738-5 (ePub)

ISBN-10: 0-7573-1738-3 (ePub)

1. Weight lossPsychological aspects. 2. OrderlinessHealth aspects. 3. Compulsive hoarding. I. Title.

RJ506.E18B74 2013

616.8526dc23

2013011149

2013 Dorothy Breininger

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

HCI, its logos, and marks are trademarks of Health Communications, Inc.

Hoarders is a registered trademark of A&E Television Networks, LLC.

Publisher: Health Communications, Inc.

3201 S.W. 15th Street

Deerfield Beach, FL 334428190

Cover photo of Dorothy Breininger by Keith Muyan

Cover design by Dane Wesolko

Interior design and formatting by Lawna Patterson Oldfield

Contents

Stuffing It: A Recipe for Disaster

Facing It: Do You Have a Food Obsession?

Do You Have a Clutter Problem? Unearth Your Stuff to Get Your Ideal-Size Body Back

Banish Your Emotional Clutter : Learning Emotional Resistance

Curb the Chaos of Life: Face Your Lack of Sleep and Time (and Overwhelm)

Unstuffed: Get Inspired to Implement Your Own Action Plan

There are people who come along in life to ensure you are cared for. My business partners, Debby and Ken Bitticks, care for me and others deeply. They have made it their lifes work to listen, advise, and then mobilize themselves and others to create solutions for our greater success, happiness, and good health. I dedicate this book to them because of their unrelenting support of me over the years. In every case with me and with others, they always seek to do the right thing. Bottom line: they show understanding and kindness to all those who come into contact with them.

For once, Im going to do it right and put my mom first on the list. Thank you for becoming such a graceful parent. As we age together, I have finally found a way for my temperamental self to love you and accept your love in return. You are remarkable.

I would like to thank my business partners, Debby and Ken Bitticks, Lynn and Steven Benson, and all of our Delphi staff, investors, bankers, attorneys, vendors, and clients who supported our companyespecially during the darkest days of the recession. I would like to thank my sister Pat, who was my guide for this book: her intelligence and confidence helped me to turn the corner in creating this books success. I would like to thank my sister Chris and my brother, Edd, for their willingness to overlook my egotistic nature and love me anyway. I would like to thank my contributing writers: Val Sgro, Debby Bitticks, Lynn Benson, Pat Brady, MaryAnne Bennie, Karen Koedding, Dr. Charlene Underhill Miller, Kipling Solid, Timolin Langin, Dee Dee Wilson Barton, and, most especially, our very own Gillian Drake. I would also like to thank my stand-behind-me, stand-beside-me, pull-me-up-from-under friends Martina Koerner (my cousin), Nancy Korn, Jeanette Brennan, Dr. Kevin Brennan, Diana Thatcher, Amy Siu, John Hanley, Andrea Eitland, Ed Thein, and Valerie Pugliese.

I am grateful to my mentors: David Boyd, Abdelmomen Afifi, Marty Feldman, Tony Robbins, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Denise Kovac, Kristin Maclaughlin, Sharma Bennett, Winston Alt, and the staff and course leaders of Landmark Education. Of course, I must thank my publisher, Peter Vegso; PR guru Kim Weiss; and my writing Sherpa, Allison Janse. Gratitude also goes to my wise copy editors, Cathy Slovensky and Bob Land. Hooray for my amazing book publicists Gretchen Koss and Meghan Walker. Thank you to A&E Network and Foxtel in Australia, the Screaming Flea Production team of Hoarders , and all the clients, experts, and production crew on the show Hoarders . Finally, I thank the thousands of professional organizing experts who belong to the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), the Institute for Challenging Disorganization, and the millions of anonymous members who belong to the 12-step world.

The ultimate goal of this book is to inspire you to take action in one or more parts of your life that you may be avoidingespecially if you are overeating or obsessing about food because of it. My guess is that you, like me, have tried countless numbers of books, diets, or programs and still find yourself wondering why you continue to gain weight and muddle up your life. Perhaps that is why you are reading this book. No matter what your age, you realize that you need to find an answernot just to the weight gain but to other parts of your life that you just dont talk about. You see, I have learned that the messier my home gets, the more my bills pile up, the more phone calls I avoid, or the more times Im late to appointments, it is seemingly linked to my overeating. Its the stuff we dont want to talk about that is causing us to overeat or make unhealthy choices. Because I am a professional organizer, I liken it to lifting up the clutter to see whats underneathwhether its others or my own. This book helps you do that.