How New Environments Create New Food Habits

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to play out familiar patterns when you're around your parents or family or the home you grew up in?

Being around familiar people and environments spark our habitual responses that we may not even be conscious of what is happening. Creating these habits in familiar environments actually frees up our brain power. An environment that is predictable means we can rely on habits more, giving our brain space to focus on the important things in life.

So if you eat in the same environment and in the same way you may notice you have the same patterns with food there. That pattern has become automatic as a way for the brain to attend to other things. Think about how many times in the day you engage in the same familiar habits with food in the same familiar environments. If you eat in the same places, cook in the same way, you can often expect the same outcome to occur in your relationship with food.

In many studies when participants engage in new activities, they are training their brains to create new neural pathways. With repetition, those pathways get stronger until the behavior is the new normal. This can mean that if you have a habit with food that does not leave you feeling vibrant, confident, at ease, and satisfied then something might need to change in your environment and the way you're eating to shift that pattern around food.

For example…

let's say every time you sit down to a movie you pour yourself a bowl of popcorn. You mindlessly eat the popcorn until the bowl is gone and because there is little mindfulness there and your brain is on automatic pilot, you pour yourself another bowl of popcorn. You suddenly notice that every time you sit down to watch a movie you end up eating a whole bag of popcorn. This used to happen to me as a kid with a large bag of Doritos. Sitting down on the couch after school equated to grabbing a bag of Doritos and eating the whole thing. Without awareness, we will just continue doing the same patterns because our brain is just off doing its habitual thing.

If you're nodding your head right now completely understanding what I'm talking about this is great! This means you now have a piece of awareness to begin to explore what new actions you would like to take. Little things you can start to play with can be:

• changing the room you typically eat in

• change the plate or bowl or silverware you usually use

• use your non-dominant hand to eat

• add something to your eating environment like a candle or different music

When you eat, make it a novel experience so you will be creating new neural pathways in relationship to your food.

This automatic pilot mode can work in your favor. By creating these new experiences with food, you will be creating new patterns in your relationship with food that may feel more nourishing and satiating, and grounding. These food experiences will start to become your new normal. It can all start with slowing down and bringing in awareness of what environment you're typically in and who you're around when habitual patterns occur with food that you would like to shift and change.

You may have an opening to start practicing this now. This holiday season may feel very different this year. You may not be traveling or around family as much. There is a powerful opportunity here. Maybe not engaging in the same typical holiday events might be the baby step you need to start cultivating a different relationship with food around the holidays. So much is already different in the world. This is your chance to create new rituals and traditions in how you would like to show up with food around this time of the year that you can carry forward with you into the future.