Breaking the Ultra-Processed Foods Habit
If you’re like me, a trip to the pantry usually doesn’t result in healthy choices. I rarely choose to cut up slices of cucumber or apple when I could simply pop open a bag of chips. When I’m hungry and not feeling particularly motivated, I sacrifice health for convenience. Breaking these habits is challenging if our environment is not setup properly to encourage good habits.
Today’s focus is going to be on making healthy choices easy and unhealthy choices hard. In order to do that, we’re going to have to make some changes to how our lives are organized. Depending on whether you live alone or live with others who may not share your desire for healthier habits, how you will approach this will differ. If you don’t live alone, make sure the people you live with are aware of and consent to your plan.
Today’s Checklist
If you’re following along with the 40FRESH Challenge, here’s your homework for today:
Read this post
Make healthy choices easy
Make unhealthy choices hard
Keep the food journal going
Make Healthy Choices Easy
Remember all that work we put into understanding the NOVA Food Classification System? We’re going to put it to use right now, starting with our pantry (or wherever you store your packaged foods). Your first task is going to be separating everything into two groups: ultra-processed and everything else.
It’s probably easiest to just pull everything out of the pantry for this task. You’ll probably find a number of items that have long since passed their expiration date and can safely be tossed (you’re welcome). I’m going to bet that the majority of the things you pull out are going to fall into the ultra-processed camp.
Now that everything is pulled out and separated into groups, go ahead and set the ultra-processed foods off to the side. Remember your health mantra?
I care about my health and I make healthy choices.
When you open your pantry or cabinets, you want the most accessible choices to be the ones that are the healthiest. Think about where you typically look when you’re feeling hungry. What’s easiest to reach? Go ahead and put all your group 3 and below items back there.
Make Unhealthy Choices Hard
Okay, now we need to deal with that pile of ultra-processed foods. When you put these away, you want to make them as hard to get to as possible. For some of you, that might mean putting them on the highest shelf in the pantry where you need to get out a step stool if you want to reach them. Great! If that’s the case, make sure you put the step stool away in a room far away from the pantry.
Many people store their food in cabinets. If that’s you, consider buying a combination lock to make access more difficult. I use these ones. Our brains associate these ultra-processed foods with a high reward, so to break that habit we’re going to have to put as much friction as possible between us and them. Eventually, we’ll want to get rid of them entirely. For now, however, just make it as difficult as possible. If you use a lock with a key, don’t keep the key nearby. If you use the combination locks, have someone else in your household set the combination and make it so they need to open it if you want something.
Your Fridge and Freezer
Given the confined space of your fridge and freezer, it’s not going to be as easy to create friction in these spaces. However, you can still make small changes, like moving all of the ultra-processed items to the rear of the fridge and putting all the healthier items in front of them. Again, if necessary, make sure you have the consent of your household before you go making major changes!
Don't Forget Your Food Journal
We have a few more days of food journal left! Don’t forget to write out your health mantra at the top of today’s page. Every time you look in the fridge or open up your pantry from now on, I want you to say it to yourself. Or better yet, say it out loud. Hopefully you’ll find yourself starting to reach for those healthier items now.
Don’t beat yourself up if you’re still shoving aside items to get to the ultra-processed foods at the back of the fridge. We’ll get there. For now, if you do make an unhealthy choice, I want you to tack something on to your mantra:
I care about my health and I make healthy choices. This is not a healthy choice, but I am learning how to make better choices and I will make healthier choices in the future.
Whatever you eat and drink, make sure to record it in your journal under your health mantra. We’re going to eliminate ultra-processed drinks from our diet in a few days, so now would be a good time to start assessing what that’s going to look like for you.
Up Next...
Another day in the books! Go ahead and mark a big fat X on your progress calendar. If you’ve missed a day, don’t fret. Just remember: never miss twice.
Not an easy day today… Don’t worry, the next few will be easier. Tomorrow we’ll spend some more time diving into things that make our habits stick.