Summertime Changes in our Eating & Food Environment

Summer changes things. The weather gets warmer. We may have more get-togethers. Enjoy more outdoor activities. And even our food desires might change a bit.

We may start to crave different foods. There’s a tendency to gravitate more toward food that is made on the grill. Food that is lighter and easier to digest because we are in the heat or moving more. Fruits & veggies are ripe and taste great.

All of this is to say… your food environment may change.

Maybe it’s quicker, “grab & go” packaged foods.

Maybe it’s more snacks, grazing foods due to the heat & lower appetites.

It could also be that you have leftovers of sweets & sides from a get-together to “work your way through” or “to not waste”.

What we have around us and in the open matters. That becomes a major influencer to the things that we begin to crave because they’re relevant to us. They’re out in the open. They’re easy for us to get. And they’re probably satisfying. For anyone who has followed James Clear or read Atomic Habits, these four things put the likelihood of this becoming a habit… The reaching for the extra little things here and there… a lot more likely.

Are you still feeling a little unsure about this?

Think about it this way.

Have you ever watched a show or seen a commercial and suddenly felt the need to have something you just saw? If you had that thing in the house, how likely are you to go for it? It’s kind of crazy how quickly we’re influenced by our surrounding & various influences in our lives.

Mindful Eating: Appetite & Craving Scavenger Hunt. had a lot of in-depth information about this, but the shortlist of factors that can change appetite:

1. Social cues
2. Cultural norms
3. Blood sugar levels
4. Hormonal changes
5. Smells of familiar foods
6. Exercise
7. Mood and emotions
8. Sleep quality
9. Stress, loneliness, and boredom
10. Certain medical conditions or medications

With the added availability to us, our ability to say “no” or “not right now” dwindles. Are we going to be reliant on sheer willpower? Do you feel that your self-control can handle walking past cupcakes sitting on the counter? I know I most likely won’t. I am going to be thinking about those cupcakes every single time I pass that until I go ahead and have one.

Now, before we go into a place that this had no intention of going… There is nothing wrong with having a cupcake. That is not going to make me fat. It possibly will make me happy. Unless it taste bad… Then it will not make me happy. But if I do not wish to have a chocolate cupcake, and I find myself in a place where I’m seeing it constantly and suddenly, I am craving something that I never even wanted in the first place… That’s a problem to me.

Sometimes I like to think of this situation like… a toddler (or my internal toddler) when they see something at a store that they had no idea it ever existed and immediately insist on having it. You tell them “no” and then maybe spend the entire rest of the time in the store saying “no” while they lose it. Maybe it wears you down. Maybe it doesn’t. This is one of those Hunger Games moments… may the odds be ever in your favor.

And like we talked about in Control what you can control.… Control is limited and self-control is even more limited. Because that is about our own acceptance of the responsibility of our choices. And if we choose to leave those out in the open, it makes the acceptance of that responsibility, a heck of a lot harder.

How Can We Help This

So what can we do? Like what can we really do?

When we start the coaching process, quite often us coaches want to know about your environment, different behaviors that you may display, and maybe some things that are capable of happening and other things that might be nonnegotiable to you.

Within this, we can find help even for these moments. We don’t only need to know the things that you may have reactions to or might have the opportunity to do. We need to know how we can possibly implement action and constraint as well.

Out of sight

The very first thing… Make it disappear! Find a means to put it all away somewhere where you aren’t able to see them all the time. If left out or somewhere we frequent, these things as items that are going to weigh on our decisions and trigger decision fatigue.

Try taking something like cookies that are on the counter on a plate covered in cellophane that were left over from the weekend and place them in an opaque container. If you need to, move that container to the refrigerator or the pantry.

For myself, I run into a whole other issue. My children are home for the summer, and that means that the house has more food available that they gravitate to, and it is out in the open a little bit more. My husband and I have worked through this over the course of the last decade with a bunch of different options.

1. Separated our pantry from the kids pantry. We have our own separate cabinet spaces and they have their own cabinet space. The only time we have a tendency to go into their cabinets is before a grocery trip. I also have the convenience of my children being older, so I don’t need to necessarily go in there for them. If you do, this just adds a little bit more of an obstacle, but it is still their cabinet and you won’t be in there for everything at all times.
2. In other houses that we didn’t have the excess space available to do this, we simply put their stuff in a lower area that was not at our eye level. Then we put our items at our eye level.
3. We also have a tendency to put things in opaque baskets or shaded containers that don’t allow us to immediately see what’s inside. We were able to do this by going to the dollar store and picking up some of their cheap plastic squares that allowed us to store all of the gummy snacks in a singular container that we did not immediately see as gummy snacks as it were in a box labeled that way in an open area.
4. Currently, we have had the blessing of a situation to have two refrigerators because of our move and the refrigerator from the old house coming with us. This has allowed my husband and I to set up the main refrigerator with a lot more fresh food options that can be grabbing go like clementines, apples, blackberries, carrots, snacking bell peppers, and mini cucumbers. We have the ability to open the refrigerator and grab some of these items because they’re in our sight and out in the open for quick snacking.

Mindful Eating & Food Environments for Weight Management

Send a plate home

In Surviving the Holidays, I mentioned being prepared to send leftovers home with guest by picking up some additional plastic containers while you are ready for your party. This can be a very heartfelt act that helps both you and them. The big thing here is just to be mindful of the fact that people may not necessarily want to take some of the food home for the same reason that you want to send a plate home. We don’t want to become food pusher.

Unsupportive People with Health Journeys: Food Pushers

Break down & Recreate the leftovers

This is one of my favorites!

Take the different leftovers and break them down into individual containers for meal prep and portioning help.

If you only have certain things available, like proteins, try to see what you have to go alongside that. It doesn’t have to be anything complicated or food critic-worthy. You could pair some grilled chicken with some black beans, a 90-second rice pouch, and some salsa to enjoy during the week.

If you only have sides available, try to see what proteins you can pull together to do the same thing as I mentioned above. The sky is the limit with this. You can be a creative chef and pair together a bunch of different sides to become something similar to Chipotle lifestyle bowls.

If you have a fruit platter left over, mix it all and have a fruit salad for the week as your dessert, make yogurt parfaits, or create some adult “Lunchables”/bento boxes for grab & go.

If you only have dessert left, slice it into portions and put it in separate containers that you could grab one container and have that piece of cake mindfully each night without seeing the immediate possibility of having more.

Shoot even the 333 Method could work for this too. Starting Simple: 333 Method Balanced Meal Planning

Takeaway

The summertime does not need to be the time of year that simply ends our ability to manage our weight. Anything is possible at any time depending on what we are able to do and the choices we are able to make. It won’t be easy. But honestly, it will never be easy. At least this way, we have a say, and we have a choice. I really hope this helps!

Lots of love,

Coach Nik