Is your house making you fat?

Is your house making you far? Ok, waht????

I came across this article by Barbara A. Desteni on a local new site and of course it caught my attention. How in the world could my house make me fat? I did not know that we as humans get as big as our environment lets us as is the case with some fish and snakes.

We all know that scientists can relate being fat to just about anything, you know like too much food, not enough sleep, stress, just about anything makes us fat, but our house?

Below are some times that were listed in the article with a few of my comments.

Shed some light

Dimming the lights gets you in the mood fora host of things, not the least of which is binge eating. So the researchers at the University of California, Irvine suggest to turn up the lights before you sit down to eat. Bright lights also encourage activity, which burns calories and fat.

-Now I can think of a few things that we do in the dark that will also burn calories and fat and if you binge eat, you are going to eat wether you can see what your are eating or not.

Order the blue-plat special

Blue is the key word here. Research shows that blue is a natural appetite suppressant and that using blue plates, decorating your table with blue and putting a blue light bulb in your refrigerator can inhibit your appetite. By contrast, red, yellow and orange stimulate appetite. We are suppose to avoid these colors in the kitchen, or use them ot our advantage by consuming more antioxidant-rich colored fruits and veggies.

-Hmm, so if my kitchen is decorated in blue I can eat what ever I want an not get fat. Oh come on, you know there is someone out there that thought that same thing...I smell a law suit.

Downsize it

Replace your oversized plates with and utensils with smaller ones. Serving your main course on a salad plate instead of a dinner plate is the first step toward portion control.

- Ok so you are eating on smaller plates with smaller utensils and controling your portions, but you are tripling how many times you go back for seconds. The small plate and utensils just limits how much you can shovel in at one time.

Stay out of your Kitchen

If you hang out where the food is, you are going to eat. Kitchens are the focal point in many homes.

-Yes, because modern technology has made refrigerators with TV's build into them, now the family can get a snack and not miss a thing while watching their favorite shows and can skip the commercials. Maybe that walk from the living room to the kitchen for that snack was not such a bad idea after all.

Color with Calm

Hormones released sureing time of stress can make you fat. Most pastel colors have a calming effect that let you get rid of stress and keep hormones such as cortisol - which had been linked to fat storage around the abdomen-under control.

-So does that mean the blue in the kitchen has to be pastel blue? Some how I do not think that is what they meant. And do you think that fat stored around your abdomen could be alcohol consumption, I have seen my ex and it looks like he swallowed an intertube...pretty sure that is not stress related.

Sleep scents

Sleep deprivation has also been linked with lowering your body's ability to burn fat. To help yourself fall asleep and stay asleep, spray lavender oil on your pillow.

Peppermint and jasmine scented candles increase energy.

-Yes, and next year lavender oil will be in the top 20 causes of cancer as we all lay our heads on our lavender oil soaked pillow.

Simple Equipment

You don't have to spend thousands of dollars to equip a fancy home gym. All you really need is an exercise mat and a couple of dumbells to get inspired.

-What about a walk with a loved one? All you really need to do is get out and have some fun, play a game of ball with the kids, how about that local softball or basketball team? Those do not cost anything and the time spent with people you care about....priceless.

Get rid of your fat clothes

If you have recently lost weight and bought a new wardrobe, get rid of the old clothes that are too big and donate them to charity. Keeping larger-size clothes in your closet is like giving yourself permission to put the weight back on.

-Yep, because I want that size 20 dress hanging in my closet. Of course we are going to get rid of the bigger clothes in our closet, we will have twice as much room now. And donating the "big" clothes to charity, isn't that like giving someone else the permission to be fat.

Decorate with success

Spruce up your decor with items that remind you of your goals. If you want a slim figure, find a picture of a thin person in a magazine and put it on your refrigerator door. For extra incentive, get a pic of yourself, cut off the head and attach it to the picture.

-Where to start with this one? Why would we need to hang that picture of a thin person on the frige when in todays society we are faced with thin, beautiful people every day. I do believe the numbers of anorexic people are higher today than they have been.

We need to stop finding excuses and find what works for us. We are all different in every way and what works for one person may not work for another.

Big or small, it does not matter. It is not the size of the person but the size of their heart that matters, as long as your are healthy.

Love who you are and others will too.

(House is Frank Lloyd Wrights Fallingwaters)