Your environment matters in more ways than you think when it comes to your health and keeping those health resolutions. By environment I do not mean the trees, air and water quality and global warming trends (although those are important to our health), I mean your surroundings, locations you live and work, the places and things you interact with every day. When we make resolutions or contemplate changing something in our life we think about the goals we have, then the actions we need to take to get it done and forget about the supporting cast that can often make or break our efforts. Think about it, you interact with your environment on a continual basis, the things around you influence your actions and most of the time we are blissfully unaware of them. When you first drive around a new town, you follow directions, look for street signs and pay attention. After a few trips to the same location it begins to feel like the car drives itself there. Every time you complete an action your brain notices not only that action but extra info such as location, time of day, landmarks, sounds, smells, emotions and so on. Completing similar actions creates patterns that link the extraneous (environmental) data, actions and results and create a neat little package for future “quick” access freeing our focus for something else. So how does this neat efficiency trick impact our health and resolution success? It creates external cue based habits we are not even aware of.
Do you have a candy dish on your desk or a snack stash in a desk drawer? Ever dial into a teleconference call, put on your headset, then start rummaging through that goodie drawer a few minutes later even though you just ate lunch, then ask yourself “why am I eating this granola bar”? Environmental cues at work. Odds are at some point, probably more than once, you missed lunch then ended up eating something while listening to a conference call at your desk. Or had a candy or two while trying to listen to others talk. It does not take long or many repeats before desk, headset, and people talking equals time to eat. It might not be a big deal but if you are working towards losing weight these little “habits” could add up to many hidden calories or a constant drain on will power as you resist the pull of the drawer. Knowing those environmental cues can help you make small adjustments to mitigate their impact or make them work for you. Taking the candy out of the office makes it harder to mindlessly much while listening, a small adjustment that could pay big dividends over time. Laying out workout clothes where you will see them first thing is a visual reminder to work out before anything else and improves your chances of actually doing so vs. having to remember to find them in the back of the closet. There are many ways that small teaks to our surroundings can make change a little easier. So as you think about making changes, make your action plans and dream about the results, take the time to think about your environment and how it can support your success. If you have questions about resolutions, personal change and designing your environment for success feel free to contact me. I also encourage you to check out the Programs page for the latest local in-person offerings (CT, MA).