If you eat a plant-based/vegan diet, you are most likely a very environmentally aware eater: You are aware that raising animals for food takes a much greater toll on our natural environment than growing plants for food.
But, in addition to having an awareness of how our actions impact the earth, becoming more conscious of how our personal environments affect our efforts to eat healthy is also key. These familiar environments—our home, our car, our mind—have the potential to greatly support or significantly challenge our journey to improved health.
Here are five “environmental awareness” tips to ease your path toward greater health.
1. Home is where your health is. Our home is our primary environment, so if you are striving to avoid certain foods and beverages, do not shop for them or keep them in your home; they will be too tempting. Even if those “special cookies for company” are kept on the highest shelf, way in the back, you will inevitably find yourself reaching for the step stool when you are home alone. There is plenty of temptation away from home, so strive to maintain a healthy home-base.
2. Create a meal-planning environment. Restaurants aren’t the only ones who use menus. By deciding on and writing down what you’ll be eating for the upcoming week in a menu format, you create a concrete plan for success that leaves no room for foods and beverages you are trying to avoid. List all of your meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner), snacks and beverages for each day, and then do your shopping for that week so you’ll have everything on hand. You can note specific recipes and/or ideas for meals you can easily put together without a recipe (see here for an example of a filled-in weekly menu I found online). In time, create a few different menus and rotate them. Keep them in a binder in your kitchen along with any copies of favorite recipes.
3. Take it with you. Being “en route” is also one of our common environments. So, in addition to being prepared at home, keep some healthy snacks (fruit, sliced veggies, cooked potatoes) with you in the car, in your purse, or in your carry-on bag if flying. Not having access to healthy foods when we are hungry can lead us to reach for whatever is quickest and easiest, like a fast food meal or “fake food” from the vending machine.
4. Dump the diet mentality. Our thoughts may constitute our most important environment of all. “Going on a diet” to improve health or lose weight usually only serves to bring up feelings of failure and inadequacy. Don’t think of getting healthier as a short-term goal (a diet), but rather a long-term lifestyle shift that will continue to reward you all the years of your life. And try not to let negative thoughts about your eating derail your progress. If you eat something that you were trying to avoid, remind yourself you’re still learning and pick up with your healthy eating again at your next meal.
5. Choose your environment. Where we find ourselves at any given time has the potential to chip away at our resolve to eat better. Precarious environments are all around us: Fast food restaurants, slow food restaurants, lunch out with the girls, dinner parties, potlucks, the potato chip isle, Starbucks, the taco truck, the airport, you name it! As you walk your path of good health, cultivate an awareness of the environments in your life that could sabotage you (you can even make a list). Then make conscious decisions to either avoid certain environments, or enter them with a plan (eat before you go, bring/make your own food, decide beforehand what you will and will not eat, etc.).
Join the conversation: Which of your eating environments are very supportive or very challenging? How have you overcome a particularly difficult environment? Thank you for sharing!
First, I have to say how much I love the chickpea & avocado spread. So delicious! 🙂
I live not only with carnivores, but with carnivores who are fond of sweets and unhealthy snacks, and who consume them every day, without fail. I have overindulged in many of their choices in the past; not anymore. I admit it can be hard to bypass the Oreo cookies when they're sitting on the counter, and it could be argued they're technically vegan, but I don't want to "spend" 50 calories on a cookie. More than that, I'm too invested in this healthy lifestyle I've chosen.
I keep hoping my plant-strong eating will win them over. They're willing to taste what I make, but can't understand how they can possibly get enough protein (meat!) in their bodies by just eating fruit and vegetables. I'm going to ask them to indulge me and participate in meatless Monday. I have high hopes.
Hi Ellen, thanks for your comments. 🙂 I hope your carnivores come around. Just keep being a good healthy role model, and teacher if they're open to learning a few things here and there. Your Oreo comment reminded me of a trick that someone used to avoid eating unhealthy food; she would label certain foods (that were challenging for her and were now on her "no" list) as "non-food." Once she made that shift in her mind, the decision was easier for her not to even consider it, because why would eat something that isn't food. Anyway, there are lots of tricks and tips but I liked this one and it stuck with me. 🙂
Hi Cathy. I'll be applying for the PCRM Food For Life Instructor course and I will be submitting a cooking demonstration video. I would so like to use these tips in my video. I'll give you the credit, of course.
Hi Kaia, sure! 🙂 Thanks!
Thank you.
These are excellent tips...straight forward and designed for success! Glad to have encountered your site!
Thank you Carl, welcome! 🙂
Just came over. You were mentioned in an FB group page that you don't use sugars etc... Great blog!
Thank you, and welcome! 😉
I've been a vegan for a while but I'm trying to clean up mine and my family's diets. I'm the only veg-head in the house,but I'm hoping to switch everyone to, at the very least, a whole foods diet. I have a picky 4 year old, so taste and convenience are key.
Hi Christy, welcome! 🙂 I hope your 4-yr-old likes some of the recipes here, let me know how it goes. 😉
Hi Cathy, First I want to thank you for StraightUpFood. Great recipes, educational, and you add a "just right" personal touch. Great job! Up to seven weeks ago I consumed the average american diet. I have been vegan for seven weeks now and your site has been a big help to me. One of my sisters had surgery for lung cancer and is doing well but that scared me out of my food fog and pushed me to change. I started Joel Furhmans, Eat to Live plan and I can feel a difference, I've lost 21 pounds and in general just feel better. I have a long journey ahead of me but at 66 years of age I am proof positive it is never too late. To your health and God bless you, Dianne66
Hi Dianne, you're right: it's never too late! 🙂 Thanks for sharing your story, very inspiring! So glad you're feeling better...be well. 😉 Cathy
The link to the following article in The Guardian newspaper shows photographs of weekly food shopping for families around the world: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2013/may/06/hungry-planet-what-world-eats#/?picture=408373818&index=1
It's striking how expensive a Western style diet is. However, what I find really interesting is just how fit and healthy most of the people on the least expensive diets look. And what do these least expensive diets mainly comprise of? VEGETABLES, GRAINS and FRUIT. Thank you, Cathy, for reminding us all that a tasty, healthy diet is available to us all and it needn't cost the earth or our pockets.
Great comment and link, thanks Alex! It IS expensive to eat poorly, so true.