Meet Grace.

She’s in her early thirties, with a busy office job. She’s lately been finding she easily gets out of breath just from short walks, and is finding all her clothes feel too small for her. It’s making her lose confidence, and she really wants to start feeling in control of her health again.

Now, imagine a day in the life of Grace…

She wakes up with 30 minutes to get ready for work. She showers, dresses and throws her things into the car. She doesn’t have time to make breakfast or lunch, or even think about dinner. She stops off at a cafe on the way to work and orders a large mocha and a muffin which she eats in the car.

At work she has M&Ms with more coffee, and at lunchtime she ends up buying a large sandwich and coke from the closest cafe with some workmates. To get through the afternoon she buys some snacks from the vending machine, but she’s ravenous by home time.

On her drive home she always passes a MacDonald’s, and has kinda got in the habit of getting takeaways for dinner as she has nothing else prepared.

At home to unwind, she watches Netflix with a couple of glasses of wine, and finishes off the day with a bowl of ice cream.

Now, can you picture…if Grace wants to improve her health and fitness and lose a bit of weight, she will be struggling against her environment?

Your environment always wins.

Your environment includes:

• Your location – your home, your workplace, your car
• Your friends
• Your colleagues
• Your habits
• Your lifestyle

To see success in changing your life, you have to change your environment.

If you look at Grace’s life, it’s easy to how her environment is contributing to her health worries:

• She wakes up late and therefore has no time to plan her day – she’s rushing around to get ready for her day, without being able to think of food.
• She has no breakfast in the house.
• She’s built a habit of getting a large coffee and muffin on the way to work.
• At her workplace she’s surrounded by “treats”, and her workmates are always offering her chocolates.
• Her lack of sleep and energy means she relies on coffee to keep her going.
• Her workmates often eat lunch together at local cafes and fast food places
• By the time it’s home time, she’s too hungry to think about exercise or even shopping, she just needs food, and fast.
• Her drive home always passes by her favourite fast food place.
• Once she’s home, she’s too tired to leave again for exercise or shopping.
• Her kitchen always has ice cream and chocolate and other processed foods easily available.

But, it’s also easy to see how changing her environment can contribute to her health and fitness goals:

• She could prepare her day in advance – set out her clothes the night before, including gym clothes.
• She could prepare a simple breakfast such as overnight oats that can be eaten with minimal preparation in the morning.
• She could make a coffee at home to take with her in the car.
• She could prepare easy snacks for the office – cut up fruit slices, flavoured sparkling water, soup etc
• She could swap out lunchtime coke for a zero-cal soft drink and prepare her own sandwiches. Or check out menus in advance to choose more nutrient dense options.
• She could take extra snacks to get through the afternoon – protein shakes, more fruit with peanut butter, even protein bars.
• Take a different route home.
• Go to the gym on the way home.
• Cook meal at home, pack leftovers for lunch the next day.

These are just some of the ways Grace came up with to change her environment.

Obviously changing all at the same time would cause a lot of unnecessary stress, but even just choosing a couple of these factors and focusing on them for 2-3 weeks until they become a habit will have great results for Grace’s goals. Then choose another habit to focus on for the next couple of weeks.

Your turn!

1. First of all, think about all the reasons you find it hard to stick to your nutrition and exercise habits.

Remember to think of:

• Your daily routine
• Your time limits
• Your morning routine
• Your workplace
• Your transport, your route to and from work
• Your workmates
• Your work routine
• Your workplace habits (snacks, lunchtime, breaks etc)
• Your feelings in the afternoon (Sleepy? Low energy? Hungry?)
• Your after-work routine
• Your common meals
• Your friends and family

2. Now you have to work out how you can set up your environment to help you overcome these problems.

Here’s some examples.

• Set out all your workout clothes the night before so you have them ready as soon as you wake up.
• Set up a simple home gym
• Make your weekly menu – including snacks – and shop for all the ingredients you’ll need on Sunday.
• Make sure your fridge is packed with fruit and vegetables.
• Meal-prep if possible
• Plan to meet friends in different 
• Low-cal sweet snacks easily available to curb your cravings
• If you’re tempted to buy less-than-ideal foods while you’re at the supermarket, do your shop online and get it delivered.
• If you can never be bothered to go to the gym after you’ve returned home after work, go to the gym on the way home.

3. Choose one or two environmental habits to concentrate on changing

Which habit is the easiest to change?

Start there! The easier it is, the better. Even just deciding to replace your soft drink with a low-cal version, or replace your morning large mocha with a homemade Nespresso…Over the course of a couple of months this can save you thousands of extra calories that are keeping you further away from reaching your goals.

Once this habit has become a normal part of your life, you can choose another part of your environment to focus on, until that becomes a habit.

Changing things a little bit at a time ensures these changes are permanent. You don’t want to be constantly fighting against your environment, and focusing on just one (or two) habits at a time means you’re less likely to feel overwhelmed and you’re more likely to see long-term success.

And if you want to read more about how to transform your meals, little by little, until they are super healthy and delicious, and most of all easy…check out this article!