Your environment sends you cues on what action to take. The book Atomic Habits by James Clear explores how your physical environment can signal you to continue the same old habits, or, alternatively, cue you into action to support newer, healthier habits. Is it possible to change your home or work environment to help cue you to actions that align with your goals? Let’s explore!

How Your Food Environment Impacts Your Nutrition Choices

Have you ever come home from a long day at work, tired, hungry, and walked into the kitchen. You see a bag of chips, and within a few minutes, you find yourself eating chips. You are not alone! Our brain makes thousands of decisions everyday. When we’re fatigued, our brain wants to make things simple. So, we eat what is in sight, and what is easy.

What if when you came home from work, fatigued, needing a snack, you open the refrigerator, and the first thing you see is some cut veggies and your favorite dip (like hummus or Ranch). What if those chips that typically call your name were stored away in the pantry, out of sight. Think about your food environment. What do you see when you open your refrigerator, pantry, cabinets, drawers, and lunch box? Is there an opportunity to alter where you store things so they are either “in sight, and in mind”, or maybe “out of sight, and out of mind”?

Consider ways to make healthy eating more automatic. For example, if you want to snack on veggies and dip when you get home from work, rather than chips, do yourself a favor and prep those items on your day off work, when you have more energy. Your hungry and tired self will thank you later this week!

Setting Up Your Environment to Support Your Physical Activity Goals

There are a variety of ways to cue ourselves to follow through on a new exercise habit. It might be laying out your exercise clothes or setting notifications/reminders on your calendar. Some people change their route home from work to pass by their gym to make it more automatic to stop in. Others keep a pair of walking shoes at work, so they can take a short walk on their lunch break.

Think about your routine, and supporting yourself in making a change. Take Jane, for example. Jane had a goal of walking around her neighborhood after work. She knew she felt better when she walked, it boosted her mood, energy, and improved her sleep. She figured out that walking was more fun, and she would walk longer, if she listened to podcasts or audiobooks. However, she continued to find herself coming home from work and sitting in her favorite chair to relax. It was such an automatic habit, she basically forgot about walking until it was too late to do it. So, to cue her into action and bring her goal to the forefront – she started leaving her headphones in her chair. That way, when she got home, she couldn’t sit down in her chair without seeing them. She could intentionally put her headphones in, and head out for a walk, or, she could move her headphones, and choose to sit. She gave herself a simple cue to lean into her new healthy habit. And it worked! Over time, it became easier and more automatic to walk after work, and then sit and relax in her favorite chair later.

Takeaway

How can you alter your environment to help make your movement goal, or your nutrition goal, easier to achieve? How can you reduce barriers or cue yourself to align your actions with your health goals?

Written by: Stephanie Anklan, Registered Dietitian