Your Eating Decision Maze (part 3): Name Your Walls

You don’t have to be superhuman to change your eating habits. Life design trumps will power.

If you’re struggling to change eating habits, it’s probably because your walls/barriers are blocking the options you want to take advantage of. And your free paths lead straight to your current habits. It would take superhuman strength to break through those walls. But, you don’t need that.

The secret to changing your eating (and any behavior, really), is a little finesse. Shift your walls. Rearrange your paths. Sure, you’re inside the maze, but don’t forget that you’re the one who built it!

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Follow these 3 steps to change your eating by re-designing your maze:

1) See The Maze

What Influences Our Choices?

• Barriers and Predisposing Factors

2) Name Your Walls and Paths

What Do Behavior Change Barriers Look Like?

You have these very real barriers in your life. They may be hard to see because they’re abstract in concept. But, once you learn to identify barriers, it’s hard to miss them. Our goal here is to help you recognize those barriers. And, guess what- that’s the first step in changing your habits!

Some common barriers to changing eating habits:

• TIME:

  • “I don’t have enough time to prep healthful foods because I’m balancing family responsibilities and work, and I just don’t have enough help.”

• ACCESS:

  • “I don’t have access to healthful foods because I live far away from a grocery store” or “Some healthy foods are so expensive, I can’t even afford them.”

• SKILLS and KNOWLEDGE:

  • “I wouldn’t know where to start making a healthful meal. How do I even cook vegetables?“

• CRAVINGS/EMOTIONAL EATING:

  • “I laaaaahv fries [Oprah voice]! They make me feel warm inside, especially after a stressful day. I want to cut back, and eat more veggies instead, but I don’t know how I could possibly fight my fry cravings.”

Think carefully. Which of these types of barriers have you run into? What can you do to shift them?

3) Redesign Your Own Maze

What does shifting barriers look like?

• To shift barriers, context is key