Are you fascinated with Hoarders on A&E and Hoarders Buried Alive on Lifetime?
I am too! I find the mindset of a hoarder interesting, which makes sense since I am a weight loss mindset expert and mentor. But we’re looking at hoarders, right? Then what does hoarding have to do with weight loss? Let’s take a look.
Millions of Hoarders, Even MORE Millions of Overweight and Obese!
According to the Hoarders TV Show opening line, “more than 3 million people are compulsive hoarders”.
According to the American Heart Association 154.7 MILLION adults over the age of 20 are overweight or obese (having BMI of 25.0 kg/m2 and higher).
Ok, so the obese have it over the hoarders in numbers, but here’s what is interesting: Almost all Hoarders are overweight or obese (yes, I’ve watched many many episodes of Hoarders on TV, either on A&E or on Lifetime. Some episodes are really gross (mounds of dirty diapers in the tub stands out) but always interesting from a mindset perspective. And, rarely have I seen a hoarder who was not overweight. There have been a few (maybe 2%) and almost always they were men, but even they had health problems.
In general, hoarders do not place a high value on their health, because they do not place a high value on themselves. If they were to begin to highly value themselves and their health then they would not hoard since the hoarding decreases their self-esteem and self-worth dramatically.
The desire to hoard would be released with high self-worth high self-esteem and high self-confidence. Coincidentally these qualities are vital if you wish to achieve permanent weight loss!
Let’s now look at 11 ways that Hoarders on TV relates to your weight loss battles.
11 Ways Hoarders TV Show Relates To Your Weight Loss Battles
1. Hoarders Hang On. Hoarders don’t want to let go. Hoarders feverishly hang on to objects, patterns of thought, emotions, and weight! What’s interesting is that with all of the healthy lifestyle information that is freely available today, you are doing the same things to hang on (just like hoarders do) if you are still struggling with your weight. Your problem is not information. Your problem is mindset.
2. Hoarders Have a Mindset Problem. Hoarders have a mindset problem and their mindset matches their hoard. The overweight and obese have a mindset that matches their overweight body and prevents them from losing weight permanently.
3. Hoarders Feel Great Shame. Hoarders don’t want others to know about their hoard so they hide behind their front door in their hoard. Whether you are struggling with 10 pounds of extra fat or 100 pounds, if you are in struggle then you also feel ashamed of your inability to lose weight and keep it off.
4. Hoarders Live in Denial. This is really amazing: Over and over again on multiple episodes of Hoarders on A&E or Hoarders Buried Alive on Lifetime, I have watched the psychologist ask the hoarder, “Do you believe you are a hoarder?” or “Do you think you have a hoarding problem?” and guess what the hoarder’s reply is?
They always answer “NO”!!
There they are, surrounded by an excess of papers, waste, shopping bags, food, (along with the excess fat they are hoarding on their body!) and they state with firm belief that they do not have a problem with hoarding. Even though the city is about to condemn their house due to the unlivable conditions.
The hoarder is in Denial AND they Think They Can Do It Alone. They don’t think they need help and they never would have gotten help if their home and/or their children were not about to be taken from them. This mindset of denial directly correlates to the F.A.T. mindset of the overweight. It’s so interesting because I cannot tell you how many people I have spoken with on a complimentary weight loss discovery session who at the end of the call think that they can somehow someway solve their lifetime of food and weight struggles on their own, when they have never solved it after 20, 30, 40 or more years of living in the struggle!
Denial is a dangerous place to live, which is why I speak and publish the Get Real episodes on The JoLynn Braley Show. You cannot make Real Change in your life if you don’t first Get Real with where you are right now. Denial will never yield permanent weight loss, and it’s a symptom of an F.A.T. Mindset (fat mindset = a fat body).
5. Hoarders Have a Weight Problem. On all of the episodes of Hoarders on A&E (or Hoarders on Lifetime TV) maybe 2 percent of the hoarders were not overweight, however they were usually men and if the hoarder was not overweight they had health problems anyway. So, just like you, hoarders are struggling with their weight.
However, to be clear, I’ve never seen an episode of Hoarders that included an overweight hoarder who was trying to get healthy and fit. Due to their mindset issues (which is all that hoarding is about, just like your struggles with food and your weight) and their overwhelming hoard, most likely they have given up on their physical health, while giving up on themselves and their environment.
6. Hoarders Do Not Get Help Until It Is (almost) Too Late. You’ll only see Hoarders on the tv show getting professional help when their house or their children are about to be taken away. They live for a lifetime in a hoard but only when there is a threat to their survival do they make a change (notice that survival is not the same as thriving in life).
Note that they are not getting help in order to THRIVE. They are getting help only to survive (at least these are the hoarders we see on the Hoarders TV show. Millions never get help at all, just like millions never will allow themselves to get the help of a pro to achieve permanent weight loss through a weight loss mindset.)
7. Hoarders HIDE. Hoarders do not want others to know about their problem and just like it is so easy to hide behind the fat, hoarders hide behind their front door. Besides shame (see #3) there are many reasons that hoarders hide. Low self-esteem, low self-confidence, and just plain feeling really crappy about themselves and their environment causes them to hide out.
Notice how you are hiding behind your fat and how this correlates to a hoarder hiding behind their hoard. When you have something to hide behind then people don’t get a chance to see and know the Real YOU! You could be unconsciously hiding due to Fear (F.A.T. = Fear Attracting Thoughts) while attempting to protect yourself, however who (or what) exactly are you trying to protect yourself from?
More than likely this protection you seek is due to an experience you experienced more than 20 years ago. Is there honestly a Danger that you must protect yourself from today with your excess fat? Good question to ask yourself!
8. Hoarders Begin Hoarding After an Emotionally Charged Life Event. Many of the stories of Hoarders on A&E involve a death or a divorce. Either a death of a parent or someone else they were close to, or a spouse divorcing them sparked their hoarding.
Hoarders begin to hoard and hang on to what they can in an attempt to control the uncontrollable. The fact of the matter is that you cannot control anything or anyone in life EXCEPT your own mind and emotions. YOU are the only thing in life that you have any control over. There is no amount of stuff or fat that you can collect on your body or in your life that will change what is “out there”. Anything that is outside of yourself is out of your control.
What would happen if you stopped trying to control what is Out There and instead focused on learning exactly how to control YOU? Which means you would step into the driver’s seat of your own mind and emotions and learn how to take control of YOU. How would this change your emotional eating? This, by the way, is the core transformation work that I do with my amazing coaching clients in The Inner Self Diet. My proven, proprietary, step-by-step system to lasting success with your weight. It’s an exclusive program though, so it’s not a fit for everyone, but if you are 100% Serious about allowing yourself the results of permanent weight loss then your first step is to apply for a complimentary weight loss discovery session.
9. Hoarders Are Indecisive. Hoarders do not have a proven, specific way in their own mind to make a decision and therefore, they make the decision to not decide, which is a decision! But it leads to their hoard growing in mass.
Did you know that a hoarder’s hoard represents their Inner Self and their mindset? A hoard is a symptom of a cluttered mind, just like the excess fat on your body is a symptom of your fat mindset. The Inner and the Outer always match (this is Universal Law and you cannot change Universal Law. You CAN learn how to change YOU to work with the laws of this Universe! Once you do that, then weight loss will be the least of your concerns.
10. Hoarders Avoid. Because hoarders do not have a proven way for making a decision in their brain (yes, there IS a system for making quick decisions!) they avoid anything that would require a decision.
Also, since hoarders have never healed the Root of why they began hoarding in the first place (this is the #1 reason 95% of dieters fail, too!) they avoid anything that could possibly bring up painful emotions or memories and stuff those down with their hoard.
This is the same thing you are doing to yourself with the food, and it makes sense when you don’t know how to effectively deal with your pain that you turn to food to try to stuff it down. But then you get the results of overweight and frustration, so it’s really not a solution that’s working for you, is it?
11. Hoarders Stuff. Yes, hoarders stuff. They stuff their house, their yard, their car, and themselves, all in an attempt to make the pain go away. But they only end up walling themselves up in a death trap.
Isn’t this exactly the same thing that your fat is doing to you? Have you ever considered the bottom-line health risks of your overweight or obesity? What most never think about is the INNER fat that is loading down your organs. Yes, you do not just gain fat on your butt and thighs; you cannot exclude fat deposits from any area of your body and the most dangerous fat is the fat Inside of you.
The inner organ fat is a direct match to the inner fat in your head, which is what has created the fat on your body. The good news is that once you get a weight loss mindset then it’s easy to LIVE the healthy lifestyle that supports the body of your dreams.
A Final Thought
You can take the hoarder out of the hoard but unless the Root of WHY they began hoarding in the first place is healed, the hoarder is still a hoarder (they never address this fact on Hoarders, they only go for the fast fat loss diet which for a Hoarder means calling in the dump trucks and removing the mess.)
An interesting example is Richard who was evicted from a homeless shelter for hoarding…at the homeless shelter! He was evicted from his home by the city due to his hoard but then he began hoarding up his room at the homeless shelter he was living in.
This is why you have never lost weight and kept it off successfully without a fight. You can force yourself to lose weight, all the while hating it and struggling (same as a hoarder being forcibly removed from his hoard, like Richard) but as long as you continue to be fat on the inside (like Richard, still a hoarder on the inside) then eventually you will recreate the fat on the outside.
The Inner and the Outer always match. Always. (Universal Law)
What If?
What if you could become fit, slender and sexy on the inside so that it would become easy for you to become it on the outside?
What if you could get a weight loss mindset and be done with your frustrating food and weight struggles?
What if you could release the clutter at the same time and ensure that you don’t end up on Hoarders on A&E!
My proven, proprietary, step-by-step The Inner Self Diet is the solution for permanent weight loss. Everyone who I’ve mentored through the steps has succeeded as long as they have done the steps of course! How in the world can you expect to get results in any endeavor in life if you don’t do the work?!
Yes, it’s not enough to hope, wish, or even pray for success. It takes action, consistent action, and that action needs to be with steps that work. Steps that will heal your Inner Self so that you can finally have the body you’ve always wanted on the outside.
Take your first step now if you are serious about putting your food and weight struggles in the past: click here to apply for a complimentary weight loss discovery session. This is for you if you’d love to stop asking yourself “Why am I so smart and successful but I still can’t succeed with my weight?!”
Go ahead and leave your comments about hoarding and weight issues in the comments section below! What do you think is a bigger challenge: overcoming a hoarding mindset or overcoming a fat mindset? Please share this article with your friends, too! Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, wherever you hang out the most so that your friends can check it out.
