Environmental control

I went to another support group meeting at Healthier Weight today and the topic was environmental control. No, this is nothing to do with global warming (!), it's about controlling your personal eating and food environment. There has been a lot of research published looking at people's eating habits and food consumption in relation to the eating environment, particularly food packaging, the nature of eating utensils, supermarket 'offers', stockpiling and the visibility and accessibility of food. This research shows, in a nutshell, that if food is there (wherever 'there' is), and it is visible, you are MUCH more likely to eat it - than if it is not there and/or is invisible.

For example, one study showed that people are most likely to eat the portion size provided - if a small portion is provided, they'll eat it, but if the portion is large - they'll eat that too. People are also more likely to eat a larger portion when large plates and food utensils are used. Supermarkets also influence our eating habits - for instance, if something is on special offer and we buy loads of it, the resulting stockpile in our kitchen is more likely to be eaten (especially if it is visible). One study that was particularly interesting concerned the visibility and accessibility of food. Consider a jar of attractive sweets and chocolates: If the jar is close at hand and transparent (so you could see what was in it), the contents are more likely to be consumed than if the jar was opaque and further away. So, in terms of what this all means for us bandits, we need to make the food in our homes invisible and inaccessible.

There may also be occasions when we can remove ourselves from a source of tempting food. For example, avoid eating out too often and avoid celebrations in the early days of banding. I have had a particular problem with the staff canteen at work - it tempts me with all sorts of unhealthy foods and large portions. So, I have simply avoided going there since being banded, except on a couple of occasions when I took my own lunch to eat. Another weakness of mine is eating late in the evening. I have known for some time that there is a simple solution to this - go to bed!! However, I am not always 'good' enough to go to bed, particularly if I am in the middle of watching something on the box - but none of us are perfect!

Thinking about my own home situation, I consider myself lucky to have a husband who is not particularly interested in sweets and chocolate. He does have a weakness for cream crackers and digestive biscuits - but neither are a temptation to me. The only thing that does tempt me are the freshly cooked, white, French bread baguettes that he frequently brings home from Tesco. It's not so easy to 'hide' these away, partly because of their size and partly because they smell so nice! One lady suggested that I adopt her strategy which is to eat a little of the 'banned' food in question but no more than a little. That way, I will feel as though I have had a treat, but not so much that it would do any harm. I'll try this and see how it goes. Funnily enough, when I got home, hubby had been to Tesco and returned with a wholemeal loaf (he won't normally eat brown bread). Apparently Tesco had sold out of his favourite baguettes! I used this as an excuse to raise the topic with him about environmental control and I think he's agreed to get wholemeal bread occasionally instead of the baguetttes!!