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NUTRITION HABIT

Kitchen Makeover

Design your environment.

WHAT:

This habit involves strategically organizing your kitchen and dining areas to make healthy food choices more convenient and appealing while making less healthy options less prominent.

WHY:

You are more likely to eat whatever food is around you, for better or for worse.

  • If you choose to keep lots of junk food around… You are more likely to eat it.
  • If you choose to keep lots of healthy food around… You are more likely to eat it.

This is NOT about willpower, motivation, genetics, or luck. It’s environment design, and whether you are setting yourself up for success or failure by default.

By making small tweaks to design your environment, you can make healthy food choices effortless and less healthy options less tempting. Do this and you’ll set yourself up for consistent, healthy eating habits.

HOW:

This habit is less about taking any specific daily action and more about frequently taking stock of your environment to see if it’s working for you or against you and see how you can optimise it.

For example, see if you can:

  • Make healthier foods more noticeable – e.g. put healthier foods at eye level in your fridge or pantry.
  • Make healthier foods more visible – e.g. put them in transparent containers or in plain sight.
  • Make healthier foods more accessible – e.g. put them at the front of your cupboard/fridge and within easy reach.
  • Do the opposite for less healthy foods – e.g. either get rid of as much of them as possible, or at least make them less noticeable, less visible, and less accessible.

You can also extend this thinking beyond your kitchen to things like:

  • Make a conscious effort to go grocery shopping at the shops that make their fresh fruit and veg look appealing – and maybe skipp the shop with the amazing bakery.
  • Make a conscious effort to not buy unhealthy food at the shops that you think bring home into your household kitchen environment.
  • Make a conscious effort to not stand next to the snacks table at a party or braai.
  • Make a conscious effort to pick restaurants to eat at that you know have healthy options (e.g. steakhouse, seafood restaurant, vegan restaurant, etc) – and perhaps skip the one that makes your favourite dessert.
  • Make a conscious effort to go to the farmer’s market on the weekend that sells healthier food options rather than the goods market and focuses more on pastries and treats.

These small up-front decisions can save you hours of willpower to stay on track.

TIPS:

✅ Schedule a weekly or monthly kitchen makeover reminder for you to take inventory of your kitchen and see how you can design it to make healthy choices easier.

✅ Team up with someone who is also looking to make healthier choices. Share your kitchen makeover tweaks and tips with them.

✅ Start small, you don’t need to overhaul your entire kitchen at once. Begin with one shelf or one type of food and expand gradually. Small, manageable changes are less overwhelming and easier to maintain.

✅ Link the habit to something you already do. For example, doing shopping on the way home from gym might help you stay on track with making healthy choices at the shops (provided you aren’t starving – never shop while hungry!).

✅ Store healthy snacks in fun, appealing containers that catch your eye.

RESOURCES:

Back to #21STRONG Habit Library
Take the 21-Day Nutrition Challenge