Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight Read Online Free PDF Page A

messages. It’s relentless!”
    Marketers often exploit your insecurities, Dr. Roberts says. They make you wonder, “Do I smell bad? Am I unattractive? Is everyone else having fun somewhere because they bought a certain object, and I’m left out? What can I buy so I’ll be more accepted?”
    But above all, marketers sell the promise of happiness. “Buying new jewelry or pants or a car makes us feel better about ourselves. If we have low self-esteem or we’re depressed, we get a lift from the purchase,” Dr. Roberts says. “I think it simply has to do with distraction. When we’re spending, we’re not thinking about things at the core of our unhappiness. We don’t have to think about problems with our spouse or kids or problems at work.”
    It’s often difficult to know exactly what we’re buying when we hand over our cash or swipe our credit card. You might
think
you’re buying a specific item, but I’d challenge you to think about this a little differently.
    When we buy a “product,” we frequently—and unwittingly—hand over our money for the
promise
we hope that product will deliver on. We buy:
    A treadmill (the product), but what we’re really investing in is the dream of losing weight and being fit (the promise)
    A beautiful set of pots and pans (the product), but what we’re really hoping to get are the wonderful dinner parties and the appetizing food that will amaze our family and friends (the promise)
    Remember: Every product you buy comes with a corresponding promise that you invest in. Your heart is set on attaining both. But while you’ll definitely come home with the object in your hands, you may or may not get the promise you see in your daydreams. Always look beyond the product to understand what’s really motivating your purchases.
    Here’s another force that’s accelerating the pressure on us to keep consuming: the people we want to look like. Both Dr. Roberts and Leonard pointed out that we’re no longer trying to keep up with the Joneses. After all, the Joneses live across the street from you and are more or less in the same boat. They have pretty much the same size house and the same class of car as yours and generally the same educational background, and they’re in a similar tax bracket.
    â€œThe gold standard now is keeping up with the Gateses,” Dr. Roberts says. He’s talking about billionaire Bill Gates and his family. You may not want to dress like him or adopt his haircut, but his mansion, toys, and checking account would certainly be fun to have.
    If you don’t have a roof over your head or enough to eat, you
do
need more, Leonard says. But once their basic needs are covered, people tend to decidewhether they have enough stuff by comparing themselves with not just their neighbors but also the celebrities on TV. “Now instead of comparing my shoes to my neighbor’s, I’m comparing them to Angelina Jolie’s or Kim Kardashian’s, because our media is so focused on these celebrities and we have such access to their inner lives,” Leonard says. “Television disproportionately shows wealthy people. The more media we watch, the more substandard we feel by comparison.”
    Can you learn to resist all this pressure to buy, buy, buy?
    Sure.
    Is it easy?
    No. But you can do it, and I’ll help you like I’ve helped many other people. It starts with developing an
awareness
of how you feel about material possessions and an
awareness
of the factors that influence your urge to shop.
    â€œI live in Berkeley, California, where people wear clogs and flip-flops year-round,” says Leonard. “In Berkeley, my clogs feel totally fine. But when I’m in New York City, where the women have the
best
shoes, I get overwhelmed with this desire to buy shoes.” She used to think she actually needed new shoes in those moments, so she’d buy