One of my main purposes as a nutritionist is to help my clients figure out ways to eat healthier. The majority of them have a good idea what is on the list of healthy foods they should eat more of. They are also aware of the unhealthy foods they should eliminate. The problem for them is how to do it. I spend a lot of my time helping clients understand the bad habits they may have around eating. Then we work on strategies to change those habits.
Gretchen Rubin is one of my favorite nonfiction authors. Her book Better than Before is about how people develop habits and strategies for habit change. I reread this book recently. Rubin suggests several strategies that I have used to help myself develop healthier eating habits.
“It’s easier to change our surroundings than ourselves.” This is part of Rubin’s habit manifesto. If you set up your kitchen, refrigerator, and pantry for healthy eating, you are much more likely to stick to your healthy eating goals.
Strategy of Convenience
Make sure that healthy food is quickly and easily available in your kitchen. One way to accomplish this is to keep a bowl of fresh fruit on the counter. If apples, bananas, or mandarins are out, it is likely you will grab a piece of fruit as a snack instead of something unhealthy. A second suggestion is to purchase precut vegetables such as baby carrots, celery, and radishes — each of these is also a good snack item. I make a large salad about once a week and then portion out part of it each day for my lunch. This makes preparing my daily lunch very quick and easy.
Strategy of Inconvenience
If there are bad foods that are extremely tempting for you, don’t even have them in your house. When she decided to begin a weight loss diet, one woman I knew went through her kitchen and threw out or gave away all of the junk foods. I have a weakness for York Peppermint Patties. When we bought a large box at Costco a few months ago, my husband put them in a candy container on our kitchen counter. I could not resist and ate a few every day. Finally I decided to hide them. I put the container on the top shelf of our pantry. I did not see it as often, and so I quit eating them.
Sometimes people can limit the amount of junk food they eat by purchasing items in single-serving packages. You are less likely to overeat cookies or chips if you limit yourself to a small package. Similarly, you may be less likely to overconsume soda, beer, or wine when it comes in small single-serving containers.
Strategy of Abstaining
Do you remember the jingle from Lay’s potato chips commercials? “Betcha can’t eat just one!” I am not a chip lover, but many people are. If there is a large bag of chips open, it is hard to stop and close the bag. This can also happen with cookies, candy, and nuts. If there are foods that act like kryptonite for you, it may be wise to banish them from your house entirely. I have decided to do this with York Peppermint Patties from now on. It is best not to have them in our house, because abstaining from them is very difficult for me.
If you want to eat healthier going into the summer, why not adopt one of these suggestions for your kitchen this month?
