Strategy #3: Your Quarantine Stress Eating Survival Guide
Rig Your Environment In Your Favor
I realized fairly early in my health journey that it so much easier to make healthy and nourishing food choices when my immediate food environment encourages me to do it. But it is also equally as easy to make poor food choices when my immediate food environment encourages me to do it.
To illustrate my point, consider the following scenarios:
Scenario #1
You are hungry and you walk into the kitchen for a snack. The chips are on the table so you walk by and grab a handful. Next, you spot the plastic container full of the cookies you baked yesterday with the kids so you grab two of those. You now want a drink to wash it all down so you head over to the refrigerator. The first thing that catches your eye when you open the door is the orange juice so you take a few swigs.
By the end of your walk through the kitchen, you consumed chips, cookies and juice. None of which you had planned on eating when you walked into the kitchen for a snack. And none of which truly nourished you. You leave the kitchen still feeling a bit hungry and looking forward to your next meal. You’re already thinking about what and when you’ll get to eat.
Scenario #2
You are hungry and you walk into the kitchen for a snack. The counters are clear and the only thing you see is your fruit bowl. You grab an apple and then head over to the pantry. When you open the pantry door, you see bins of whole grains, beans and nuts. You select the almonds and dish out a handful. You now need a drink to wash it all down so you head over to the refrigerator. The first thing that catches your eye when you open the door is the pitcher of infused water that you blended earlier. You pour yourself a glass.
By the end of your walk through the kitchen, you consumed an apple, almonds and fruit-infused water. None of which you had planned on eating when you walked into the kitchen for a snack. But all of which nourish your body and are in alignment with your health goals. You leave the kitchen feeling satisfied and go about your day. You don’t think about food for another few hours until it is mealtime.
Our Environment Influences Our Food Choices
The scenarios above illustrate how our environment influences our food choices. Scenario #1 and #2 encourage us to make two totally different snack choices. In scenario #2, the kitchen was arranged in such a way that brought nourishing options front and center. Making a healthy choice was effortless. Scenario #1, on the other hand, was an invitation to eat random junk.
Sure, you could make a healthy choice in scenario #1 but you would have to use a good bit of executive functioning power and self-regulation in order to do it. You would have to pass by the chips, cookies and juice and make a very conscious decision to choose something else. I’m not saying it can’t be done but I am all for avoiding the mental tug of war that would ensue.
You know, the one that goes something like this:
“I’m hungry and I need a quick snack. I will just grab a handful of chips and a few cookies.”
“Not so fast. That is not in alignment with your health goals.”
“A few chips and a few cookies won’t hurt. Plus, that’s what I really want. 80/20 remember?”
“But you know full well that you’ll be hungry a few minutes later.”
I don’t know about you but I want to set myself up to reserve my mental energy for things other than rationalizing with myself over chips and cookies.
Arrange Your Kitchen In A Way That Is Conducive To Healthy Eating
When we can rig our kitchens, our pantries and our refrigerators in a way that not only makes healthy eating easier but also invites us to make healthy choices, it stands to reason that we will naturally start to eat healthier.
It is very empowering to set your immediate food environment up in a way that encourages healthy eating and reduces the likelihood you will overeat or make unsupportive food choices.
When it comes to healthy eating, one of my core philosophies is to eat as much whole, real food as you can. Minimize the artificial and processed stuff and increase the number and variety of plants that you consume. This means eating lots of vegetables and other things that come from the earth and looking to incorporate colors that span the rainbow.
So the question becomes how can you create an immediate food environment that sets you up to eat more fruits and vegetables? To incorporate more color? To eat more whole, real, living foods?
Here Are Some Of My Favorite Kitchen Space Hacks:
1. Keep kitchen counters clear.
My husband is naturally tidy. I am not. However, clean counter tops are one of those things that really set me up to be successful so it is a habit that I have worked hard to create and maintain over the years. One, they make me feel so much more organized when I walk into the room. And two, if the counters are clear, I am far more likely to make intentional and supportive food choices.
2. Ensure that everything that is at eye-level in your kitchen supports healthy eating.
Open your refrigerator and your pantry. What is the very first thing you see? Could you move things around so that foods that support your health goals are front and center?
For example, I love storing vegetables in a plastic bin on an eye-level shelf in the refrigerator. It’s the first thing I see when I open the refrigerator and I instantly feel inspired by all the beautiful colors. It also ensures that I use all my produce before it goes to waste.
This is how I store my vegetables in my refrigerator. I know it’s not the best storage technique in terms of humidity and temperature. However, I haven't tossed a single vegetable since I started doing this. Things get lost in the crisper drawers. Don't lose your vegetables!
#3. Put Snacks Away.
The more resistance you can put between yourself and snack foods, the better. The old adage “out of sight, out of mind” applies here.
One of my most favorite indulgences right now is popcorn. Now there is nothing wrong with popcorn but I don’t need to be making myself a big bowl of popcorn every single evening.
There for awhile I was storing my popcorn kernels in my pantry with the rest of my grains. Every single time I would open the pantry door, it’s like that damn jar was calling my name. “You know you want some popcorn tonight!”
I moved the jar of popcorn out of the pantry and am now storing it somewhere where I don’t see it every single time I open the pantry door. I removed the cue and my natural response changed. Score.
We Have Control Over Our Home Food Environment
The big takeaway point is that we have control over our home food environment. So why not rig it in our favor? This is going to look different for everyone but I encourage you to take inventory of your kitchen space and arrange it in a way that invites you to make better nutritional choices.
Here is a fun little exercise to help you do that.
How To Take Inventory Of Your Kitchen Space:
Walk into your kitchen from each entry point. Scan your space. Notice how it makes you feel upon entry. What could you do to make your kitchen evoke feelings of calm? Is there anything you could place in your kitchen to encourage you to live a healthy lifestyle? A fruit bowl? A pretty water bottle? Or maybe an inspirational quote or image? What inspires you to make healthy choices? Purposely bring it into your kitchen space.
Go to each place that you store food and notice the things that are at eye-level. Do these items support your health goals? Could you organize things in such a way that the foods that are whole, real and living become the very first thing that you see?
Notice where you store non-living and artificial foods. Are they easily accessible? Are they somewhere where you see them often? Could you move them so that they are out of sight? And what could you do to add a little resistance so that grabbing these foods becomes a little more mindful and intentional?
See These Kitchen Space Hacks In Practice!
I had the pleasure of speaking about food environment with Bernadette Wagner, host of Prime Time For Women, on one of her Mindful Monday segments. In this segment, I share a bit about my health journey as well as some tips for success.
At the 12:30 mark, I give a tour of my kitchen so that you can see how I have set my kitchen space up so that it encourages a healthy lifestyle as well as each of the above hacks in practice.
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