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One of the best things I learned in therapy: "Create a winning environment."
Re-stated: "Make changes in your life by changing your environment to support them."
In my case: I'm coming up on 1 month of no takeouts because there's never any reason to order food in.
Re-stated: "Make changes in your life by changing your environment to support them."
In my case: I'm coming up on 1 month of no takeouts because there's never any reason to order food in.
That seems obvious ("you have a kitchen, just put food in it"), but it was something I overlooked for years on end:
* Planning to have food in the house was not a priority
* The convenience of ordering in let me absolve myself of the responsibility
* I rationalized "not wasting"
* Planning to have food in the house was not a priority
* The convenience of ordering in let me absolve myself of the responsibility
* I rationalized "not wasting"
Mostly, I considered food an afterthought - something I could make appear at the press of a button, so why would I spend any more time on it than that?
Then I started changing my environment.
Then I started changing my environment.
It started with two realizations:
1. I could get the same convenience at the same price just by switching my spend from Uber Eats to Checkers Sixty60
2. In almost all cases, food prep at home is *faster* than delivery, while requiring only minimal time.
1. I could get the same convenience at the same price just by switching my spend from Uber Eats to Checkers Sixty60
2. In almost all cases, food prep at home is *faster* than delivery, while requiring only minimal time.
So that's literally all I did. For every order of Uber Eats, the next one would be an order of the same food stuff (chicken, meat, salad) from Sixty60. I'd then tell myself, "I can have the fast food again, but I should eat this first."
A week in, the self-prep became easy.
A week in, the self-prep became easy.
Next, I finally started using my pressure cooker properly (after some nudging from a friend), and once I had figured out how stupidly easy steamed veg is to make, it very quickly became a habit.
The next thing: Recognizing that "eating healthy" is not an all-at-once change.
The next thing: Recognizing that "eating healthy" is not an all-at-once change.
Going from takeouts every day to home-cooked veg-heavy meals every day is not a 1-step change. In my case, I had to shift my consumption pattern over time:
* Offset fast food with home-prep meals
* Create more reasons not to order in
* Gain more confidence in meal prep (big one)
* Offset fast food with home-prep meals
* Create more reasons not to order in
* Gain more confidence in meal prep (big one)
Right now I'm at the point where my habits have been rewired to the first stage: 100% of the food I've eaten in the last 4 weeks is home-cooked.
It's by no means 100% healthy. I still eat all sorts of "bad" stuff, but that's increasingly under my discretion.
It's by no means 100% healthy. I still eat all sorts of "bad" stuff, but that's increasingly under my discretion.
The next step: Making smarter choices within the new environment I've created. Instead of having to decide between one bad option and one good one, I get to decide between a good one and a *better* one.
None of this feels like a huge sacrifice, but it's already showing results.
None of this feels like a huge sacrifice, but it's already showing results.
That's where the confidence thing comes in. The third realization in this process: I can't actually cook.
I can do all the things in the kitchen and make ingredients turn into meals, but it's not a process I'm confident in, so I tend to *not* do it. Nobody likes sucking at stuff
I can do all the things in the kitchen and make ingredients turn into meals, but it's not a process I'm confident in, so I tend to *not* do it. Nobody likes sucking at stuff
But by the time I want to fix that (by starting to learn recipes and techniques), it will be an *incremental* change in my behaviour - not a *revolutionary* one, where I suddenly decide in a fit of fury to make a major lifestyle change. I'm already stacking the changes up.
This is all still a work in progress for me, but it started with that very simple idea: If you want to make a change in your life, start by changing your day-to-day environment to support it.
That "environment" includes the people you hang out with, too.
That "environment" includes the people you hang out with, too.
