Jump Start: Self Care September: Day 7

It’s the last day of Food & Drink Week for this Jump Start month, and today we’re looking at a different way to help ourselves eat more healthily. Sometimes it isn’t all about what we eat and drink – it’s about how easy we make it for ourselves to eat in the way that we want to.

That’s why today’s activity is to think about the ergonomics of food and drink in our lives, and make one simple change during the day to make things physically more convenient for ourselves.

You’ve probably heard about ergonomics before when people talk about product design, but ergonomics also includes putting things in places that are easiest for people to interact with them.

For example, I recently decided that I want to eat more dried fruits at snack time, but I found myself reaching for the chocolate again and again, even when I wasn’t in the mood for chocolate. What made the difference for me was rearranging my store cupboard so that the dried fruit was at the front of the eye-level shelf, instead of being kept right at the back of the lowest shelf. When it was quicker and easier to eat the healthier snack, I reached for the fruit far more often.

Yes, it really was something that simple that made all the difference.

So, what could you try for today? Maybe pick one of the following:

• move the fruit bowl to the living room table
• put less healthy foods on a shelf so high you can’t easily reach them
• buy an attractive but small-sized bowl for snacks
• move the skimmed milk to the outer edge of the fridge door
• chop veg sticks on a Sunday evening and keep in the fridge, so you can snack on them on Monday & Tuesday

Or maybe there’s another quick win that you can think of, that fits your lifestyle and either sets up a new good habit or disrupts an old habit that you want to change.

Pick one, try it and see whether it makes a difference. Let us know how you get on…