What is around you has an incredible ability to influence your behavior. And making small changes in your everyday environment can go a long way towards building good habits. I’ll tell you how it works in practice.
1. Use small plates
The larger the plate, the larger the serving. This means that you eat more. According to a study by psychologist Brian Wansink and his research team, if you replace your usual dinner plates with a diameter of 30 cm for plates with a diameter of 25 cm, then next year you will eat 22% less food.
When you eat a small meal from a large plate, your brain is frustrated. But the same portion will seem more satisfying when eaten from a small plate. The circles in the picture below are the same size, but your brain (and stomach) doesn’t consider them equal.
2. Keep drinking water close at hand
Most of us automatically drink soda or coffee as we go about our day. Try buying a large bottle of water instead and keeping it nearby throughout the day. You will notice that when you always have water on hand, you will stop choosing unhealthy drinks. Read about the benefits of water here.
3. Drink from narrow glasses
Want to drink less alcohol or soda? Drink from tall and narrow glasses instead of low and bulging ones.
Both lines in the picture are the same length, but our brains tend to overestimate the vertical lines. In other words, taller glasses of drinks are judged by our eyes to be more voluminous than bulging, low glasses. And since tall items always appear larger than wide ones, you will actually drink less thanks to tall glasses. In fact, we typically drink about 20% less from a tall, narrow glass than from a low, wide glass.
4. Store healthy food in a visible place
For example, you can place a bowl of fruit or nuts near your front door or somewhere else that you pass by before leaving the house. When you are hungry and in a hurry, you are more likely to grab the first thing that comes to hand.
5. Wrap junk food in foil or store in an opaque container.
The old saying “out of sight – out of mind” is just what comes in handy here. Eating is not only a physical but also an emotional event. Your brain often decides what to eat based on what your eyes see. So, if you hide unhealthy food by wrapping it or removing it from sight, the chances that you will eat something harmful are much less. Store healthy food in clear plastic packaging.
6. Store healthy foods in large bags and containers, and unhealthy foods in smaller ones.
Large boxes and containers tend to be more conspicuous, take up space in your kitchen and pantry, and come handy in every possible way. As a result, you notice and eat these foods more often. At the same time, smaller items can hide in your kitchen for several months.
7. Serve Food Using the Half Plate Rule
When serving dinner, start by filling half of your plate with vegetables and other healthy plants. And then fill the other half of the plate with this limitation in mind.
8. Take advantage of new technologies and services, for example, the delivery of ingredients for cooking at home
Many do not yet know that several companies have appeared in Moscow and other cities of Russia that deliver ingredients for cooking at home. You only choose dishes for dinner a few days in advance – and you receive sets of products, formed in such a way that you can prepare the desired dish for the number of people you specify.
This saves you the time you would spend putting together a week’s menu and grocery list and going to the store. In addition, you get the opportunity to eat a variety of foods, instead of eating borscht cooked on Sunday for four days in a row. If you want to try some new dish for yourself, you do not have to buy a whole package, for example, a special spice: they will bring you the amount necessary for one dish, thus saving you money. In short, you get the opportunity to eat healthy, varied, home-cooked foods, and not waste your time on the additional hassle associated with it.
You can use this approach in almost all walks of life. If you want to make your bad habits less accessible, then simply increase the number of steps between you and your habits. Conversely, to make your healthy lifestyle habits more accessible, reduce the number of steps. For example, if you want to jog more often in the morning, display your athletic shoes in the evening. This is one step less between you and your workout.
Most of the ideas, Brian Wansink, is a professor at Cornell University and has done a lot of research on how the environment can shape our food decisions. And he outlined these ideas in his book Mindless Eating.