I've only recently got out of the (bad) habit of working from my kitchen.
Not because it meant that the occasional crumb would accompany a nutrition plan or because it meant my kitchen was messy (which I'll come on to later)
But because I would find myself snacking more.
Having a cuppa just to procrastinate.
Looking at the fridge and trying to persuade myself not to eat.
My environment was dictating what I was doing and thinking
^^^ which begs the question, when isn't it?
You go on the High Street and see McDonalds after McDonalds and Starbucks after Starbucks.
We're constantly "reminded" to eat.
But just being aware of this stuff can make a massive difference.
I'm a big fan of Professor Brian Wansink, who's all about designing your environment to make you SLIM!
Because it turns out that for every 4 minutes you spend in the kitchen, you eat (on average) an extra 80 calories!!!
And considering that an extra 100 calories per day for a year can lead to 10 lbs of weight gain, you can see how the stomach fat can easily sneak up on you!
Is it actually your "slow metabolism" or is it your environment?
Are we simply moving less and eating more?
And that's not all, a "messy" kitchen can increase our snacking by 44% (so put that Daily Mail away...).
But what can we do about this (apart from tidy up)?
Well, we can slowly change our habits and environment to help us make better lifestyle choices that'll get you a flat stomach.
For example, just one of the changes a client recently made on my coaching programme was moving all her "snack" food into 1 cupboard (as opposed to 4).
So, she wasn't restricting herself, but she was creating an environment where she didn't have to say "no" to Cadbury's milk chocolate buttons every 4 minutes...
Speak tomorrow,
Matt