Healthy Home, Healthy Habits
You want to lead a healthier lifestyle. The benefits are abundant: more energy, higher self-esteem, a longer life. You’ve done the research and made the plan. You know all about nutrition and exercise. You’re smart, determined, and capable. Yet, somehow, your new routines fail to stick. You find yourself slipping back into old habits. They might be eating junk food or watching Netflix instead of exercising. You need to find a way to make your new healthy lifestyle instinctive instead of a constant effort. What you need to do is set yourself up to succeed. The first step is to organize your kitchen in a way that makes healthy choices easy.
Make the healthy choice the easy choice
If you walk into the kitchen and the first thing you see is a bowl of sugary treats, then that’s what you’re most likely to eat. Instead, put unhealthy snacks in high cupboards where they are out of sight and out of mind. On your countertops, have bowls of fresh fruit and nuts. This way, when you mindlessly wander into the kitchen looking for a snack, you’re more likely to opt for a healthier one.
Make preparing food fun
Instead of seeing cooking as just another chore, make it an activity to look forward to. Add into your kitchen some form of entertainment. It could be a radio or smart speaker so you can listen to tunes and podcasts while you cook. You could even install a TV so you can catch up on your favorite shows while preparing food or use it to watch cooking programs for inspiration.
Organize your appliances in a helpful way
If you need your blender but don’t know where it is, or if you have to move a dozen other things before you can get to it, you’ll quickly become frustrated. Make sure you keep things well organized and easy to get to. When organizing your appliances, think about these things:
• Do you use it regularly? The more often you use something, the easier it should be to find.
• Who will use it? If it’s something dangerous with sharp blades, keep it on a high shelf away from children.
• Does the appliance have a partner? Are there two appliances you always use together? If so, make sure you store them together.
Keep your kitchen clean and well presented
If your kitchen is dirty, and every surface is covered in dirty pots and pans, it won’t be a very inviting place. Take the time to clean up after you cook. Make the place look warm and inviting. Give it a fresh coat of paint when needed and add some decorative flourishes so it can be a place you enjoy spending time.
Include a space to sit
If your kitchen is big enough, try adding a chair and a small table. This can be great when your feet get tired or while you’re waiting for the water to boil. You can have a seat and flick through a magazine to relax for a little while. It could be a place where a friend or family member can keep you company.
Shopping lists and meal plans
You can have the best intentions to cook a healthy meal, but if you suddenly find you don’t have the ingredients, it won’t happen. Similarly, if you don’t know what you’re going to cook, you can spend ages trying to decide, before giving up and ordering take out. Create a space with easily visible shopping lists and meal plans to make life as easy as possible.
Improving your diet can seem challenging. If you use the advice here, you can make things much easier on yourself. This doesn’t have to be hard; you can make healthy living an instinctive part of your lifestyle. The kitchen is an important space in your house and your life. Make it somewhere you enjoy being.