The only way to establish a habit is to put the action you want to become a habit into a routine. You’ll have to do the action enough times for it to become automatic. In order to do that, you have to focus on doing the action and not be distracted by other options. In other words, don’t give yourself the option of not doing the action you want to have become a habit. 

For example, if you want exercise to be part of your routine, then you have to stop giving yourself options out of exercise. Options abound. Until exercise is a habit, your options will always look better than exercise. But if you’ll stay focused on what it is you want it'll be easier to establish that new habit of exercising every day.  

To really lose weight you have to change the way you eat. Duh!

Recently there was an article that dealt with the psychology of overeating. It told about a couple of studies you might be interested in. One was conducted by researchers with extraordinary credentials from prestigious educational institutions, but the article concluded with this quote: “Ultimately, all this research shows we need to understand the brain chemistry behind overeating a lot better. Until we do, there won’t be any really significant advances in medications to help people lose weight,” Dr. David Herber, a professor of medicine and director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of California, Los Angeles.

You have the power to change your brain chemistry with your thinking and feeling. In one of the studies young women were asked to sit in a brain scanner while drinking a chocolate milk shake. Half the women were told that the yummy treat was a regular shake; the other half were told it was a low-fat version. In truth they all got the same shake!

As the researchers watched their monitors, the reward centers of the shake drinkers’ brains lit up when the women consumed the shakes. But the women who thought they were getting a low-fat shake had much less activation. In other words, “knowing” that the shake was low fat took a lot of the fun out of the experience. Low-fat labels may backfire by making food seem less tasty, according to scientists at the Oregon Research Institute. Nelly (my inner child) can attest to that! She hates those words “low fat” on a label!

Because of these fancy scanners we now know that we have a “reward center” in our brains! I know we can activate that center by having positive and loving talks with ourselves. Here’s an example before I tell you about the other study.

40 years ago Peggy and I were miserable slobs but we developed a get organized system on 3x5 cards that not only helped us find direction in the chaos, it helped millions get their homes organized. Sidetracked Home Executives: from pigpen to paradise is now available on Kindle.

Just click on the cover to purchase the Kindle version.

Did you notice on the cover my name was Pam Brace? Once I got organized I got my power back. I was no longer willing to take any criticism from a very angry husband. My motive was to get organized so I'd have more free time to play and have fun. I got organized, the house got organized but the criticism didn't stop. At that point I realized that I didn't get organized to please someone else, but to please me. Then I was free to ignore the criticism and be happy in spite of an unhappy husband.

A year after I got organized, I was divorced and discovered it had taken a lot of energy to ignore the negative partner, but much of that energy used caused me to grow spiritually. We were meant to have fun in this life. Well being is the natural order and whenever we don't feel that well being, it's only because we've cut off the source of it by getting upset. Learning not to get upset just because someone else is, is a huge and valuable lesson that takes energy! Once you learn a lesson through practice it gets easier and easier. My ex husband was a great teacher and I'm so grateful for what I learned by being married to him.

Here's a recent video of one of my appearances on a popular, Portland talk show. This time I shared some memories of my sister and me on our book tour. Just click on the photo of us way back then.

In our writing career we spoke to thousands of groups and rarely did we have men in our audiences. We even thought about having a seminar just for men, but most wondered if we could have a television there with "the game" on in the background or better yet, conduct the workshop from a tavern or sports bar. Of course we never were able to pull off a How to Organize Your Home exclusively for men, so we did the next best thing. We put some thought into how to get husbands to help around the house. Here we are on television with Gary Collins talking about just that.

 The video has some really good ideas that will help.

When you scoop all you can out of that mayonnaise jar, did you know there's still enough left in the jar to be a creamy part of a salad dressing? All you have to do is add some yummy ingredients, put the lid on and shake it! Voila-- you've just created a creamy, gourmet salad dressing good enough for a fancy five star restaurant. Who knows.....after you blend up this flavorful masterpiece you just might decide to open one!

And for the heck of it I'll toss in a LOW CARB white sauce that's delicious. Also, since I no longer eat sugar-laden catchup I make this instead.

If you don't believe me about the carbs, look at the back of a ketchup bottle and read how many there are.

This time of year church foyers offer tables of free produce brought in by Christian gardener’s wanting to share the abundance of nature’s bounty. One ubiquitous vegetable on those church tables is the GIANT ZUCCHINI. 

It’s not that gardeners let these grow to the size of dachshunds on purpose, rather it’s usually an accident perpetrated by a beginner gardener. (Have you ever noticed zucchini has camouflage skin so it can hide under their big leaves?) Many a gardener has shared with me her horror upon discovering a giant, green, squash monster suddenly exposed by hoeing. The woman holding this one is Missila and she has a YouTube video you might like to watch. Just click on her, but please come back to my blog because you're going to learn a lot!

There are no warning labels on zucchini seed packages and there should be! In fact they should read:

Does your mouth get you into more trouble than any other hole in your body?

Thank goodness we only have one mouth! How many times have you wished that you didn’t say that, or didn’t eat or drink that?

I’m sure there’s a legitimate reason why we were made with one mouth and two ears, instead of the other way around. Maybe there’s a clue here to the ratio of use. What if, just for today, we listen more than we speak? How do you think you’ll feel tonight when you go to bed?

We’ve been blessed with the precious gift of speech, but this gift (as with every gift) can be abused and come back to bite us. Balancing speaking and listening will serve you in great ways. I’m suggesting we use our mouths half as much as we use our ears (just for today).

Here are 6 benefits to speaking less and listening more. At the end of my blog, I’ll share how I stopped nagging as a young, single mom of three children ages 4, 9 and 12.

In this video you'll see my pathetic garden in spite of help from a master gardener who showed me exactly what to do to grow enough to feed the harvest to an entire neighborhood.

WELL, the biggest lesson learned is in this video. Watch to find out.

I will warn you, there are just some things we SHEs should not attempt.

If you have a home-based business (38 million Americans do and $427 billion per year is made by them), or you are a full-time peacekeeper and peacemaker at home, or you’re doing both, this blog is for you.

When you think about it, every institution has its “costume.” Prisons, hospitals, courtrooms, restaurants, car repair shops, beauty salons and the list could go on-and-on. But if you Google, Dress for Success at Home you’ll get a gob of photos of people in offices, outside big city buildings and walking on sidewalks all dressed for success for business outside the home.

Hey, you don’t need to look like a Wall Street tycoon to work at home, but there are some important guidelines for you to follow if you want success and to feel good about your work and yourself. 

When you’re home all day, if you’re not careful you’ll end up in recluse attire! You know, your pajamas. God knows they’re comfortable and cozy and if you don’t have some style boundaries, you could hang out in them for days. That’s probably what’s happened when you see an adult in the grocery store in pajamas. Just remember, this person could be contributing to that $427 billion dollars! 

Actually working at home as a full-time caregiver or an at-home entrepreneur or both, you actually need a wardrobe that changes during the day. Before you panic, the changes are simple, and will save you time, money and peace of mind in the long run.

1.   Pajamas are for sleeping.

Dress in your jammies right before bed as part of your before bed routine. In the morning, get dressed for the next activity which might be exercise, housework, office work, yard work depending on your daily schedule. When you work at home, if you stay in your nightwear, you invariably have that somebody-might-come-over monkey on your shoulder. For your peace of mind, get dressed first thing in the morning.

BOs (Born Organized) could never do what I do in this video. It'd drive them crazy.

But we lucky SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives) have no problem doing this.  

Watch this 2.52 video and Pam will show you how to save a lot of time in the next year by NOT folding your sheets. 

Do you like to putter? 

When you have time to putter, it gives you a stage to come up with new ideas! That's why creative people love to putter around. But it's hard to putter when there's too much clutter. So if your only reason to declutter is so you'll have more free time to putter, it's a good enough reason. The best question to ask yourself when you have a decluttering session is:

Would I buy this at Goodwill?

In deciding what to keep and what to get rid of, ask this question: ‘Would I buy this at Goodwill?’” Just that question opens your eyes to the item you’re looking at. If you were at Goodwill, would you buy this? Because when you’re buying something secondhand, you take your blinders off and put your examination lenses on.

I Was Blind and Now I See!  

At home, your blinders allow you to relax in private and not see what you don’t want to see, just like your sunglasses keep the sun from hurting your eyes. Your home isn’t subject to scrutiny until you’re going to have company at which time you get out your examination glasses and see with “company eyes.”

If you'll put your timer on for 15 minutes and spend that time looking for stuff you wouldn’t buy at Goodwill, you’ll probably be able to fill up a box to give away or pitch. As I wrote that sentence, it inspired me to do just that. So, I’ll be back in 15 minutes if I don’t get sidetracked and end up taking a bath or sweeping the deck.

It’s no secret that kajillions are deluged by household clutter.

Flylady says; “The most common clutter hot spots are children's bedrooms, home offices, attics, and garages.” What does it take to create a clutter-free space? Here are my 10 best home organization strategies straight from my book, The Joy of Being Disorganized.

1. Stop Homelessness

One of the main reasons stuff piles up on counters, dining tables, coffee tables and floors is that it’s homeless. When an item has no "home," it gets added to an IPOD
 (Important Pile Of Decisions). The free chapter I'm giving you has great information about the IPODs in your home and how to eliminate them. That’s why it’s important to make sure everything in your home lives somewhere. “Homing” items in the room where they're used, helps ensure that they get put away when you're finished. For example, I keep a sewing kit in a drawer of an end table in my living room, because I like to mend garments in that room and not in my sewing room in the basement.

2. Stop Clutter at the Cash Register

Use that, waiting-to-buy time when you’re standing in line at the cash register, to re-think what’s in your hands or cart. Imagine it as clutter. What you buy today can turn into clutter tomorrow. The better you are about keeping things out of your home, the less likely you’ll be to create IPODs when you get home.

3. Baby Step your Way to Clutter-free

Start with the room that’s bothering you the most. (In my 40-year career helping moms get organized, the kitchen is the room most picked.) Marla Cilley, the Flylady
says, “Start by shining your kitchen sink.” That’s so brilliant! In order to keep your sink shiny, you have to keep it empty. In order to keep it empty, you and your family have to put dirty dishes in the dishwasher. In order to put dirty dishes in the dishwasher, it has to be empty!

You've probably heard the cliche, "get off your high horse." We all know someone who's on one and they're not that fun to be around. But if someone can be on a high horse, then being on a low one is certainly possible! Being around a person on a low horse isn't fun either. In my career helping SHEs get organized, I've never had to suggest getting off a "high horse" but much of my help has come from getting a person off her "low horse." Being on a "low horse" is that feeling you're not good enough. Feeling that way can come from thinking you've failed at something and especially when it comes from the subject of being organized.

 
How many times have you made "get organized" be your New Year's Resolution? When it comes to getting organized, it’s such a juicy project complete with visions of peace, joy, beauty and order in your home.

But if you’re not careful, the thrill of the thought of victory can end in the agony of feeling defeated. It’s hard being human, but it’s even harder when you beat yourself up because you're disorganized and didn’t achieve what you set out to accomplish because of it. 

Getting organized just enough to please you is so simple, but being a creative, you can blow the whole project up like it’s a major motion picture.

Because you are creative, there’s nothing you love more than a new project, except for maybe breakfast, lunch and dinner! You get so excited and enthusiastic as you dive into a new mission with astonishing glee. But like the poem you learned when you were a kid, “First came love, then came marriage, then came pushing a baby carriage,” projects have a honeymoon period and then the reality of the situation kicks in and the work can be a drag if you're not careful.

Have you ever been close to a “blue blanket” moment? (If you don't know what that is, you'll learn about it if you read on.) When we got home from Italy last week, at 2:00 am (11 the next day in Italy) we walked into our home, exhausted after 24 hours of travel. The first thing I did was go out on our deck to see if the Wisteria had engulfed it. (It grows up one leg of our deck and completely surrounds the railing on three sides.) While surveying the 20 inches of new growth on that busy bush, a bat flew into our house and for the next ½ hour, Terry and I took turns ducking as it recklessly flew at us from the living room to the kitchen frantically searching for an escape route. (Sounds like a great computer game to play...Bat the Jet Laggers.)

It was a big bat with a furry wing-span of about a foot! (Having a bat in my house is as terrifying to me as having a terrorist in it, leaping from chair to table to counter itching to use his oozy.) At one point the bat's radar must have miss-fired for he and Terry bumped heads! That’s when we decided to leave the sliding, glass door to the deck open with the light on outside, turn off all lights on the inside, hope he'd go to the light, take our chances chipmunks or raccoon didn’t decide to move in and flop into bed, thoroughly exhausted.

Do you remember a long-running Ladies’ Home Journal column that started in 1953, called “Can This Marriage Be Saved?”? It featured real-life couples and the juicy details of their marital issues.