Food is something which we all love to have!! But it could be a boon when we start snacking frequently and finally gain weight. However, healthy snacking is good for staying fit. The best part is that you can do it at home without wasting much of your time!
The solution is to fix your kitchen in such a way that healthy eating is developed into your lifestyle automatically, without you realising.
1. Keep your counters clean and uncluttered.
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According to a 2016 research in the journal Environment and Behavior, a disordered or uncluttered counter can drive you to eat more. Wansink was one of the study authors. He found that people ate more snacks when they were in a disordered kitchen particularly if their mindset was also disorganised.
2. Try to have a fruit bowl on your counter.
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A study published in 2015 in the journal Health Education Behaviour,
Wansink observed that people who kept fruit on their shelves weighed less than the others who didn’t. And while these evaluations are correlational, putting a bowl of fruit on the shelf is an excellent way to get your courses in for the day, even if you’re not trying to drop some pounds.
It all comes down to convenience, says Wansink. He also opines that the fruits could be kept in a bowl which is attractive so that you find the fruits more appealing. And when the bowl is easier to reach, you are likey to eat it.
3. Keep a water cooler or a dispenser in plain view, if possible.
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Keeping yourself hydrated is one of the important things that you should never forget. The best way to drink water at regular intervals is by keeping the water cooler or a dispenser in a place where you will be able to see easily and thus remind you to drink water.
Spence opines that if the water is kept in a place, we can reach easily, we tend to drink more water. Another alternative is to keep water in bottles nad keep it near you. This will also assist you to increase your water drinking capacity.
4. A junk food drawer or cabinet can help you.
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In the same study conducted by Wansink, he found that women who had their cereal on their counters weighed around 20 pounds more than those who kept their cereals away. This is the same case with those people who had soft drinks on their counters.
Wansink suggests storing all of your junk food in cabinets or drawers. Make sure that you keep all the junk in one cabinet than in different cabinets.
5. Organise your fridge
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You must organise your fridge in such a way that whole foods come in the front, and the processed food stuff come in the back. You can also warp the processed food in aluminium foil or something opaque. The concept for this idea is that you tend to eat foods that you will be able to reach easily. If the processed foods are kept in the back, where you will not be able to get it, you avoid taking it and thus you can easily cut down your sugar or processed food intake.
6. Invest in a few different colours of bowls and plates
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A 2012 study which was published in the Journal of Consumer Research by Wansink, reveals that people serve themselves 18% less food in one meal if the colour of their plate is contrasting to that of the meal. He further explained that if you serve food in a dish which has the same colour of the food, you never understand how much you are serving since it all blends. This, in turn, makes you eat more.
7. Buy some smaller plates, too.
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The dinner plates that we get can run upto twelve inches in diameter these days. So eating from that plate is always going to make you eat more. In order to stop yourself from overeating, you may need to buy smaller plates of around 10 inches diameter. This will help you in managing your portions better. This was proved in a study conducted by Wansink in the year 2012. It is mainly because, the same portion of food, when we have it in a smaller plate, it may look full, whereas if you have food on a larger plate, the same portion will look smaller and thus you tend to serve more.
8. Save those family-style serving bowls for really special occasions.
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Wansink has also found that people tend to eat about 20 percent lesser when they serve food for themselves and keep the serving bowl away from them rather than keeping it near to them. So, on regular nights, it is always better to serve yourself one plate right from the pan and then leave the food pan on the stove. This will make you eat the right amount of food.
9. Don’t have food in front of your TV or laptop.
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One of the studies which were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2013, found that watching television while eating may make you overeat, and you wouldn’t even realise it. Spence says that watching TV distracts by taking your attention away from the food that you are eating, making you overeat. This logic applies with eating while you are on your laptop or even phone.
10. Eat at an actual table
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Wansink and his team found that people who eat the exact same foods by standing at a standing table or sitting down are likely to eat less throughout the day than those who don’t make table time. Wansink explained that it is because you’re more likely to treat the experience as an actual meal when you sit down, and this makes you eat less food and does not make you feel like having snacks in between. On the contrary, you can also say that it is all mind trick that is involved in this. Your mind tends to think that you have had a whole meal and that thought makes you stop from having snacks in between.
11. Set up a music station adjacent to your table.
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You could play slower-tempo songs when you have food. Spence says that there are studies which prove that human behaviour actually imitates the music you are listening to meaning if you’re listening to fast music, you’ll possibly eat faster, and if you listen to slow music, you tend to eat slowly.
However, try not to turn it up too loud. In another similar study, that was published in the journal Food Quality and Preference found that people tend to eat more when they couldn’t hear themselves eating.
