Among some of the challenge’s clients express as they move along on their Intuitive Eating journey is creating a home environment that encourages mindful eating. Many homes are set up in a way that promotes easy access to food, prompting mindless eating and snacking.

External Cues that Trigger Mindless Eating

Look around your house. What do you have at arm’s reach that you find yourself mindlessly snacking from?

Cookie jar on the counter?

Dish of nuts on the living room coffee table?

Cereal boxes lined up on the counter?

Growing up, my mom always had a dish of nuts on the living room coffee table. Come to think of it, she still does. And my grandmother always had a candy dish on her living room table. I guess that’s where my mom got it from. I always used to think that this is the “proper” way to set up a home.

The only problem with this is that it encourages “refuse-not” unconscious eating. What does this mean? Let’s explore.

Refuse-Not Unconscious Eating

The “refuse-not” unconscious eating style is just as it sounds. You eat what you see regardless of whether you are hungry or not.

Consider a work meeting. You and your colleagues are sitting around the conference room table and centered in the middle are plates of mini danishes and cookies. As the meeting is going on, you reach for a danish, and then a cookie and then another etc. You don’t even consciously realize you are doing it. Until you do.

The same thing can happen at home. You walk in the house and into the kitchen. Your daughter had started to eat a muffin, but left some over on the kitchen table. As you open the mail, you start nibbling on the muffin. When it’s gone, and you’ve finished reading the mail, you realize you just ate the muffin, mindlessly.

Mindful Eating as Part of the Intuitive Eating Journey

Mindful Eating and Intuitive Eating are different. Yet, mindful eating is a part of the Intuitive Eating journey.

Here are 3 tips to set up a mindful home environment:

1. Put All Foods in their Designated Places

While you may not literally have a cookie jar on the counter, look around your kitchen and home and see where you have food “hanging out”. Then make a plan to put all foods away in the cabinet. This will cut down on the mindless picking and snacking.  And when you’re hungry for a fuel snack (or even a fun snack), you know where to go.

Remember, it’s not about the food. It’s about the how of eating.

2. Store Leftovers in Opaque Containers

I always advise my clients to store their leftovers in opaque containers. Why? If those leftovers are in clear containers front and center of the fridge, you may feel tempted to “take another forkful” as you remember how yummy it was at dinner. Therefore, once you’ve enjoyed the food mindfully at dinner, go ahead and store them away in opaque containers towards the back of the fridge, and know that they will be there for you tomorrow to enjoy.

Here’s something to think about. If you eat when you are not hungry, you don’t have as much pleasure from the food as when you do when you are comfortably hungry.

3. Create an Inviting Eating Space

I have a client who would eat her meals at the kitchen table in between piles of newspapers and mail of the day. This led to lots of distracted and mindless eating for her.

While you may not have a formal dining room table, you likely have a table somewhere in your home that you sit down to meals at. Take the time to reserve this eating space for only eating, and not doing work or piling the days mail. A cluttered space takes away from eating enjoyment and creates a distracted eating environment.

The Intuitive Eating journey is all about listening to your body. There are things that can disrupt that attunement process. Creating a home environment that supports your journey is an important step you can take and is key to success.