Your environment can absolutely affect your behavior.
Author and entrepreneur James Clear has previously written about choice architecture and environment design, which focus mainly on the idea that it can become easier to stick to good habits when you make small changes to your physical environment.
There he shared many interesting research studies and thought that listing some practical ways to apply environment design to your world might be helpful. It might even make it easier for you to live an adventurous, happy, and healthy life.
So here are 15 simple strategies for designing your environment to eat healthy without thinking so you can spend more of your time and energy on doing other important and amazing things. These strategies are just a start but you can apply these for creating better choice architecture to almost any habit and for designing your environment.
15 Simple Strategies for Environment Design
1. Eat your breakfast daily. It’s important that you don’t skip the most important meal of the day—breakfast. An early meal kicks off your metabolism.
2. Use smaller plates. With bigger plates come bigger portions, allowing you to eat more. According to a study conducted by Cornell University professor Brian Wansink and his research team, making a simple change by serving your meal on a 10-inch plate instead of a 12-inch plate can allow you to eat 22% less food over the course of the next year.
Why do you have to use a 10-inch plate when you can just put less food on your 12-inch plate? Simply because that’s easier said than done. Your mind is more likely to feel unsatisfied when you eat a small portion off of a large plate. But eating the same small portion off of a small plate will feel more filling.
3. Always have your water. Instead of taking a sip of coffee or a swig of soda while doing other tasks, try to always have your water with you and set it somewhere close to you the entire day. If you always have your water close to you, you’re more likely to avoid unhealthy drink options without even thinking.
4. Use tall, slender glasses instead of short, fat ones to drink less alcohol or soda. Vertical glasses will naturally help you drink less as they seem to be bigger than the horizontal ones. Using vertical glasses is a good strategy to drink lesser unhealthy beverages without even thinking.
When you stare at two glasses, horizontal and vertical, filled with the same amount of liquid, we tend to overestimate the vertical glass. Taller drinks seem to be bigger to our eyes than short, fat mugs do. You tend to drink less from taller glasses because height makes things look bigger than width.
5. Use plates with a high contrast color with your food. Sometimes, your brain has trouble distinguishing the portion size from the plate when the color of your plate matches the color of your food. Using plates with a high contrast color with your food, like dark blue or dark green for light foods such as pasta, can help you serve yourself less of them.
6. Display healthy foods in conspicuous places. You are more likely to grab the foods you first see especially when you’re hungry and in a rush. So putting healthy foods in conspicuous areas in your home can help you eat healthy without thinking.
7. Wrap unhealthy foods in a foil. People say that when something is out of sight, it becomes out of mind. There’s some truth to it though. Eating is also an emotional event and not just a physical one. You’re more likely to want to eat something that your eyes see. So wrapping healthy foods in plastic wrap and unhealthy foods in tin foil helps you eat healthy without realizing it.
8. Keep unhealthy foods in smaller boxes and healthy foods in larger packages and containers. Most of the time, it’s easier to notice big boxes and containers as they take up space in your kitchen. As a result, you’re more likely to eat the healthy foods in it than the unhealthy ones in small and almost unnoticeable boxes.
You can re-package those unhealthy foods you bought that come in a large box into smaller Ziploc bags or containers. It’ll make you less likely to eat a lot of it at once.
9. Use the “half plate” rule in serving meals. You can start making half of your plate vegetables or fruits when you serve yourself dinner. And then you can fill the rest of the dish.
10. Skip the restaurant and pack your own fiber- and protein-rich lunch. Skipping the restaurant and packing you own fiber- and protein-rich food help you control your portion sizes. Also, restaurants serve you calories more than you need. Fiber- and protein-rich food helps keep you feeling full as well. Protein can come from eggs, legumes such as beans and lentils, dairy such as milk and yogurt, fish such as salmon and tuna, red meat such as beef, and poultry such as turkey and chicken.
11. Use the “Outer Ring” strategy in buying healthier foods. Don’t walk down the aisles when you go grocery shopping. Shop on the outer perimeter of the store instead where the healthy foods like fish, lean meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and eggs are usually located. Shopping on the outer ring helps you buy healthy foods, making you eat healthy foods when you get home.
12. Don't go hungry. When you are hungry, you tend to be obsessed with the thought of food, making you eat more than you usually do. Some will even go on extreme binges.
13. Get a good night's sleep. Sometimes, feeling sleepy comes with some cravings. But when you are well rested, your brain is less likely to react to the junk food photos compared to when you are sleep-deprived.
14. Establish a flexible eating healthy plan. Establish a healthy eating plan with flexibility. You can allow for a variety of meal types which can make it easier for you to build into your life rather than sticking to the same five meals every week.
15. Apply environment design to the rest of your life. Applying environment design to almost anything in your life is possible. These concepts are small tweaks that put fewer steps between you and the good behaviors and more steps between you and your bad behaviors.
Let’s say, for example, when something unhealthy is wrapped in tin foil, you sometimes naturally open it to see what’s inside and then decide whether or not to eat it rather than grabbing something healthy in a plastic wrap.
Other Tips on How to Start Eating Healthy and Exercising
Eating Healthy
Get off to a good start
Getting off to a good start by eating healthy breakfast every morning can help replenish your blood sugar. It is also important on days when you’re planning to exercise; otherwise, you’ll start feeling lightheaded or lethargic.
It’s also important to choose the right kind of breakfast. Here are some tips to eat a healthy breakfast:
- Eat whole-grain cereals that are high in fiber, like oatmeal and oat bran, instead of sugar-laden cereals. You can also throw in some protein, including chopped nuts, milk, or yogurt.
- Instead of using all-purpose flour for pancakes or waffles, replace it with whole-grain options and stir some cottage cheese into the batter.
- Pair your toasted whole grain bread with an egg, peanut butter, or another protein source.
Count on the right carbohydrates
It’s highly important that you consume the right kind of carbohydrates. Since they are our body’s main source of energy, ~ 45–65% of your total daily calories should come from carbohydrates especially if exercise is part of your agenda for that day.
Instead of relying on simple carbs found in sweets and processed foods, try focusing on complex carbs found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans.
Increase your intake of fruits and vegetables
Fruits and vegetables contain compounds, such as natural fiber, vitamins, and minerals, that your body needs in order to function properly. Since they are also low in fat and calories, filling half your plate with fruits and vegetables at every meal is highly recommended.
Choose healthy fats
Unsaturated fats found in nuts, seeds, avocados, olives, and oils such as olive oil may provide calories and help reduce inflammation.
Exercising
Keep these tips in mind when you start your fitness program.
1. Start slowly and build up gradually
When you’re just starting off with your fitness program, you have to start slowly and build up gradually. Otherwise, it will burn you out. Start easy, give yourself enough warm up and then you can gradually increase the amount of time you exercise once your stamina improves.
2. Be creative
Maybe you’re starting your workout routine with various activities, like walking or bicycling. Don’t limit yourself with those activities and add something that is even more enjoyable to do for you.
3. Listen to your body
Don’t push yourself too hard. Take a break whenever you feel necessary, especially if you feel shortness of breath or dizziness.
4. Be flexible
You can always take a break whenever you’re not feeling good.
Importance of Diet and Exercise
Staying healthy should be our top priority. A healthy diet is very important in order to live a healthy lifestyle. Combined with exercise, a healthy diet can help you reduce your risk of developing chronic diseases, such as heart disease, and promote your overall health. They both have a huge positive impact on our overall wellness.
The Takeaway
There are so many ways to help you eat healthy without even realizing it. It is very essential that we eat healthy and exercise to live an optimal life.
The 15 above mentioned ways can be a good start for you!
