Everyone has different living situations and for some with families, eating healthy meals is somewhat easy when everyone is willing to try. However, there may be those who live with someone who isn't into healthy eating habits. What do you do when temptation surrounds you because you share a home?
It certainly isn't easy to live with someone who eats whatever they want. It could mean junk food everywhere from candy to soda. Temptation is literally in your face so what can you do?
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These are just some ideas from the top of my head. Feel free to share your experiences in the comments.
Section Off the Fridge
As silly as this may sound, sometimes you have to do what you have to do. Sectioning off the fridge may mean keeping certain drawers for your healthy items or just sectioning the entire thing down the middle if possible.
Hide the Junk
Maybe the person or people that you live with would be willing to hide their junk food from you. The last thing you need is having that stuff staring you in the face - unless you have tremendous will power.
Train Your Brain
Sometimes the other people just are not willing to bend to accomodate your healthy lifestyle. If that is the case with you, then it is time to train your brain. You have already made the decision to eat clean so viewing junk as unhealthy shouldn't be that difficult. Train your brain to view their junk as evil and you have a much better chance of avoiding it all together.
Are you in this type of living situation? What do you do to avoid the junk in the house?
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
My husband and I work very well as a team. He eats “healthy” junk…but it is still junk! Chips, cookies, toaster pastries but all from the health food section. He feels he is doing well and I don’t want to discourage him as he has lost a little over 40 pounds. I on the other hand eat whole foods, clean foods almost exclusively. What I have done is asked him to put all of his snack foods on a high shelf (he is taller). He was kind enough to go a step further and take them all out of their boxes and place them inside of our punch bowl. I don;’ badger him to eat broccoli and he hides the junk. It works well.
I’ve been eating clean for almost a year–the rest of my family does not. In transitioning to this way of eating I simply stopped thinking of the junk food around me as food. If it is not a whole food (entirely), it simply isn’t a food so therefore, I don’t eat it. I also think of it like I think of cigarettes: In my twenties (I’m almost 44) I used to smoke socially. Now, the thought of taking a drag just seems alien to me. I sometimes think of junk food the same way–as something I used to do that now seems crazy to continue doing now that I am old enough and smart enough to realize the consequences.
Thanks for this. I just started eating clean a few weeks ago and I feel much healthier and better. I used to get eczema and headaches fairly often and I haven’t experienced either since I started sticking to whole foods.
I live with a female roommate and sometimes I feel like she’s pressuring me to eat her processed foods. I understand she may feel it’s polite to offer, but she’ll also leave out things like chocolate or muffins with a note that says she thinks I deserve a treat.
It’s been hard to resist temptation, but I’m going to try and focus on looking at this food as evil – or non-food that just plain makes me feel crappy.
Hi, I live with 2 people one of them is an 8 year old child. The other adult means well and would love to eat clean, but often times brings a lot of unhealthy snacks home. It’s really hard for me not to partake in his indulgences.
We don’t divide the fridge or cupboards. I just have to be the strong one and pretend that there is nothing unhealthy to eat in the house.
The key is to have your fellow housemates supporting your change and to be respectful. As you are not pressuring them to eat your food, they should not be pressuring you to eat theirs.
Kate, I had a housemate like yours .. always with the adage “one won’t hurt”. I tried to communicate to her why eating clean was important, but to no avail. I got tired of having to explain why I didn’t want this chocolate bar or that drink. I moved out in the end.
As I see it, if a friend was trying to quit smoking, I would not leave cigarettes lying around, or take the stance that “one won’t hurt” or “you have been good, you deserve a treat”. Why should it be different with food.
I’m not a religiously clean eater, though I am toying with the idea. However, I lived on my own for 5 years prior to getting married. So, I just didn’t buy it. I figured I ate enough crap out in the world, I didn’t need it at home. And when I got married, my husband kind of just went along with it. Now, I tell him flat out not to buy it, or bring it in the house because I have no will power. Zero. Zilch. So if he does, it goes in the garbage when he leaves. Sorry. I warned you. I had a friend who had a “their” cupboard. It was a cupboard she never went into. Ever. It was used to the “junk” food her hubby and kids wanted. She refused to buy it, so if he did, then he put it in the cupboard and they weren’t allowe to eat it in front of her. They took it outside, to their rooms or somewhere else. She never opened the cupboard, so she never knew what was in it. I doubt I’d have that kind of self control. If I do buy junk food or soda, it goes in the basement. Out of site, out of mind…for the most part. But beaing the shopper in my house, I get the say so. If he wants something else, he can go get it…but he seldom does. Most people know what’s good for them and what’s not, and being around people who influence you one way or the other ultimately will rub off and vice versa. My DH now eats WG and snacks on fruits…something that NEVER happened 7 years ago. And I am more mindfull of the quality of food I eat, because I have friends who are mindfull. It’s easeir to eat healthy when those around you find it important too.
Honestly, I have the willpower. lol! I don’t want it… its in the house, I have 4 kids and they like their treats (I don’t buy ‘junk’, they buy a treat from the store here and there, but I don’t bring home bags of chips, or pop, or choco bars, etc..) but they do like granola bars, pudding, etc… but I just don’t want it. I’ve worked too hard on my clean eating habits to let junk get in the way of how I feel with this lifestyle!!