Have you ever thought about how your environment impacts your health, wellness, and choices you make? Believe it or not, our environment plays a huge role with our choices and impact our health positively or negatively. For example, take a look at your fridge and assess the following:
Do you have: a family photo near the door handle, precut fruit on the center shelf, precut veggies on the center shelf, cut up fruit or veggies are in a “see-through” container, salad and veggie leftovers are in transparent containers or plastic wrap, healthiest snacks are on the front middle shelf, less healthy snacks are in the back or lower sides, health snacks such as yogurt, string cheese, eggs, low fat milk, etc are available.
Do you see the theme here? Putting our healthiest items in the front and center of our fridge so that when we open the door, we see them first, will help us make healthier choices! Also- putting those healthy foods in easy to see containers will remind us that we have them available and make them easier to choose. I am sure you all have bought a healthy item such as carrots and they got shoved to the back of the fridge and didn’t get eaten before they expired. It’s that concept of “out of sight, out of mind”….if we aren’t seeing them, we aren’t going to choose them and the fruits and veggies are not prepped initially, we are less likely to choose them as well. This requires a little work, but once we get into the habit of making our environment healthier, it will be easier to make healthier choices!
If you want to learn more about this concept, go check out the book Slim by Design. It’s a good read!
-Kelsey