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Changing Environmental Cues that Affect Your Exercise and Nutrition

Spring Cleaning Redefined

By Christopher Mohr

Renowned nutritionist Christopher Mohr, PhD, RD, encourages a healthy lifestyle with suggestions of periodic sweeps of your environment to make sure you do not let established unhealthy cues and behaviors worm their way back into your lifestyle.

Ahh, it's springtime! Plants are in bloom, days are longer, and it's time to reflect on. work to be done? Wait a second, this article started so well. But honestly, do you have some things in your life that need a little "dusting off," so to speak? I'm not talking about your coffee table; how about your eating habits and exercise program? If your New Year's Resolutions are collecting dust somewhere on a 'good intention' shelf, then it's time to get to work!

Remember, beach season is just around the corner, which means it's time to shed some clothes; you don't want to have "winter's insulation," to expose, do you? A common concept in the area of psychology and behavior change is known as stimulus control. Stimulus control refers to cues (stimuli) in our environment that encourage us toward specific behaviors. These cues can be subtle (a TV commercial for your favorite snack food), but aren't always (e.g., the smell of chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven).

If you own exercise equipment such as a treadmill or bike, don't keep it hidden in the corners of your house as a clothes hanger or storage unit, move it to a key location such as the living or family room. By having exercise equipment in an enjoyable location, you are more likely to use it regularly.

Chris Mohr Video on some healthy breakfast protein options

Either of these cues can make you forget your commitment to a healthier eating plan. Thankfully, all cues are not negative. Take for example a bowl of fresh fruit on the countertop or a refrigerator stocked with fresh vegetables. These cues are much more likely to remind you of your healthy eating plan.

Cues in the environment can also affect your exercise program. For example, there has surely been a time you skipped a workout because a more appealing option was offered to you. That's a negative stimulus. How about those dreary, rainy Mondays when you don't feel like getting out of bed to exercise? You've got it, a negative stimulus again. The problem with these cues is that they are so strongly linked to years of learned behavior, you unconsciously respond without even realizing it!

Fortunately, you can break these bad habits and regain control of your behaviors to get back on the track to healthy success!

Identify the negative stimuli that are affecting you.
Clean up negative cues.
Eliminate or replace negative cues with more positive ones.

Step 1: Identify: take an honest look at your surroundings.

Walk through your house or apartment. Focus on subtle negative signals that you may not have realized were present.

Do you keep food in any room besides the kitchen?

Is there a snack drawer in the office or candy dish in the living room/family room? If you have any exercise equipment in your home, is it buried under clothes or boxes? As you walk through each room, identify the stimuli and associated behaviors you have had a hard time trying to change. For example, do you snack while watching TV, or every time you walk through the kitchen? These things can be changed; in this example, you have to consider 1) what behavior is occurring (snacking) and 2) what is linked to the behavior (sofa and watching TV after dinner).

Step 2: "Clean up" negative cues in each of the following rooms:

The Kitchen

The kitchen is the by far the worst location for negative eating cues. When "spring cleaning" the kitchen, remember the cliché "Out of sight, out of mind." If tempting, high fat, high calorie foods in the house are a must have, they should not be visible. But before you automatically put them away in the 'junk food cabinet', consider this cabinet's affect on your behavior as well.

Most houses have them. It's the place you turn to when you're looking for a snack, the first place the kids open when they come home from school hungry, etc. "The cabinet" contains all foods easy to reach, easy to snack on, and more likely than not, most likely to sabotage your diet. If eliminating "the cabinet" and its high calorie items is not possible, consider moving it.

Pick an out of reach, less accessible cabinet or drawer in the kitchen and switch the items in each location. The next time you unconsciously open "the cabinet" just because, instead of finding a pantry full of high calorie foods, you'll be faced with something different such as storage containers or spices. This alone will provide a mental cue that you intentionally wanted to break this habit, and may lead you to choose a healthier snack, or forget the snack altogether.

If you must have high-fat, high-calorie foods in your house, keep them out of sight.

Next, check the countertops. Do you see tempting foods out in the open? Make the switch from clear storage containers to opaque ones so food is not visible. Anytime you walk past food that is visible, you receive a cue for food and eating. This does not mean you will act on that cue every time, but the more frequently you are cued, the more likely you are to act.

The Living Room/Family Room

Now take a walk through the rest of your house. Think about your typical habits. Does walking into the living room entice you to sit in "your" favorite seat on the sofa or chair and turn on the TV? If so, make some changes. Rearrange the furniture or make a conscious effort to sit someplace else when you watch TV to break this learned pattern of behavior.

If you own exercise equipment such as a treadmill or bike, don't keep it hidden in the corners of your house as a clothes hanger or storage unit, move it to a key location such as the living or family room. By having exercise equipment in an enjoyable location, you are more likely to use it regularly.

The Bedroom

Think about your normal morning and evening routine. Eliminate the things that stall your commitment to exercise. If you typically hit the snooze button on the alarm clock instead of getting out of bed to exercise, move the clock. Place it in a location in the bedroom where you have to get out of bed to turn it off. Do you find it difficult to keep track of your exercise clothes and shoes? Organize your exercise clothes in a drawer or section of the closet so they are easily accessible. Create a place to keep your exercise shoes so you can always find them.

Step 3: Eliminate And Replace Negative Cues With Positive Cues

Here are a few ways to put some of what you learned into practice and replace negative cues with more positive ones in each room of the house:

In the kitchen, restock the refrigerator so you are faced with healthy options when you open the refrigerator door. Keep fresh cut vegetables, and yogurt on the top shelf and move high-fat, high calorie foods and leftovers to the bottom of the back shelf.

Place a bowl of fresh fruit on the countertop in place of a candy dish or cookie jar. In the living room, keep exercise videos beside the television. Order a subscription to a health or fitness magazine or keep copies of the Lean Body Newsletter on the coffee table as a source of motivation.

Hang an exercise/diet calendar in a visible location and check each day that you exercised and ate well. Seeing a month full of check marks can be a powerful reminder of your commitment to a healthier lifestyle. In the bedroom, pack your gym bag or even wear your workout clothes to bed to give you a little extra encouragement to exercise the next day or first thing in the morning.

Summary

We are influenced by our surrounding environment. That does not have to mean your environment dictates your behavior, though. Do periodic sweeps of your environment to make sure you do not let old, unhealthy cues and behaviors find their way back into your lifestyle. To clean house, you just need to remember to 1) identify, 2) clean up, and 3) remove and replace, to create a clean fresh start to a healthier you!

About Christopher Mohr

Dr. Christopher Mohr, PhD RD is a nutrition spokesperson and consultant to a number of media outlets and corporations including Discovery Health Channel, The Dairy Council, Clif Bar, and Nordic Naturals. He is also the Sports Nutritionist for Under Armour's TNP Training Council. Through his company Mohr Results, Inc., he works with all types of individuals from soccer moms to collegiate and professional athletes. His weekly health segment can be heard on WHAS radio in Louisville and often appears on TV as a nutritional guest expert, including an appearance with Chef Emeril Lagasse.

He is a sought out nutrition expert who has written over 500 articles for consumer publications, such as Men's Fitness, Weight Watchers, Men's Health and Fitness, to name a few. Dr. Mohr has Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Nutrition from the Pennsylvania State University and University of Massachusetts, respectively. He earned his PhD in exercise physiology from the University of Pittsburgh and is a Registered Dietitian and Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics. For more information, visit www.MohrResults.com .

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