Change Made Easy - Changing The Situation

Posted on August 04, 2012 by Amber Resa, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

When it comes to making changes in our lives, there are many obstacles that can get in the way. We can get so caught up in thinking about how to make the change that we never take action. We get overwhelmed by all the options we have or by the perceived difficulty to be successful. But there is a way to bypass our thoughts and emotions by simply changing the situation. The “situation” can be people around you, distractions like computers and cell phones, or serving dish sizes.

So how much of an impact does the situation really have? Brian Wansink, a Cornell professor, conducted an experiment at a movie theater. He gave away 5-day old popcorn to moviegoers for free during one day. They were either in large or extra-large containers. Even the large size was more popcorn than most individuals would eat in a sitting. After the movie, the popcorn buckets were weighed. Those with extra-large buckets ate 53% more, on average, than those with large buckets! So people weren’t making their eating decisions based on taste or hunger, but rather they took their cues from the size of the container. When participants were later told about the findings of the experiment, most insisted that they were too smart to be affected by something like that, including some of the biggest gorgers.

How else could you apply the smaller container principle? When you serve yourself food, do you fill up your plate completely? Most of us do. Just by switching out your dinner plates with salad plates, you can save calories through portion control. And the best part? You don’t even have to think about it! You continue the behavior of filling up your plate, but the situation (the plate size) is smaller, so you’re eating less. What about snacking? Instead of eating out of a large bag of chips, reduce the size of your container. Put some chips into a small bag and see how much longer that bag of chips lasts. Or better yet, buy the individual size bags so you don’t have the option of grabbing the large bag. Another common culprit of unhealthy eating choices is fast food. You’re on your way home, trying to think of what you should make for dinner, when you pass by that fried chicken place on the way home. Suddenly your emotions get a chance to take over and you pull into the drive through. So how do we change the situation? Change your route home. If you find yourself getting side-tracked by fast food places on the way home more often than you would like, it could be worth a couple of extra minutes to go out of your way and avoid them. We have a limited amount of willpower available before we just give in, so try to save your willpower for the things you can’t change.

This doesn’t just apply to healthy eating habits. If you want to spend more quality time with your family and less time checking e-mail, leave your phone in your car while at home or out having fun. By making your phone inconvenient to get to, you’re much less likely to check it. Find yourself wasting hours on Facebook? Try a site like iFreeFace.com that will block a particular website after a certain amount of time each day. Just a few simple tweaks to your situation can result in lasting change. So think up some creative ways you can make change easy on yourself, and get started today.