Cake is great. You are allowed to eat cake and truly enjoy it. But your body does require variety—a reasonable balance of disparate, nutrient-loaded, energy-packed foods—in order to feel good and function well. If you’re reaching for goodies like cake every single time your stomach growls, you’re missing out on opportunities to feed your body with other valuable goodies, too (like fiber, protein, probiotics, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals).
The Secret to Making Balanced Food Choices
How can you make it easier to choose something like fresh fruit over cake (again)? The answer may be less about what foods you keep in the fridge or pantry and more about how and where you store it. “We tend to gravitate toward what’s easy and in front of us,” says Chelsea Stegman, MS, RD, LD, CPT, who explains that a disorganized kitchen can feel overwhelming. “If finding kitchen gadgets or nutrient-dense foods seems like a timely, uphill battle, we’ll most likely feel overwhelmed, which might lead to us making the ’easy’ choice, which is often not a real, home-cooked meal.” “When your kitchen is a disaster, and you can’t find anything when you’re hungry, you’re [probably] going to eat whatever you can grab first,” agree Brandie Larsen and Ryan Eisland, professional organizers and co-founders of Home Sort. With a show on The Design Network and a line of organizing products with mDesign, no one understands this more than these busy moms and entrepreneurs. When it comes to eating well, extreme (and unhealthy!) measures like counting calories, eliminating entire food groups, or obsessively reading food labels usually aren’t the answer. Instead, you can simply start by rearranging your kitchen shelves. Here are Eisland and Larsen’s smart organization strategies to make nutrient-packed food choices even more convenient than opening a bag of chips. “An organized freezer full of commonly used items is a must, especially when you’re busy,” Stegman says. “It’s best to keep frozen vegetables and protein stocked for in between grocery visits, when you aren’t buying these items fresh.” RELATED: Want to Start Eating for Better Brain Health? Here’s How to Stock Your Pantry, Fridge, and Freezer To make your life even easier, Larsen and Eisland also suggest organizing your pantry in zones. Cluster like items together, and “[s]tore the stuff you use every day in one spot and the things you need less often somewhere else.” RELATED: 3 Strategic Ways to Organize Your Snacks Larsen suggests cutting up unwieldy produce (like pineapple, cantaloupe, and watermelon) as soon as you get home from the supermarket and storing the fresh-cut cubes or slices into tightly wrapped, air-tight food containers near the front of the fridge. After all, it’s easy to forget that fruits and veggies are an option (and to let them spoil and waste your money!) when they’re stored in the bottom back corner of the produce drawer. And since it can be a challenge to motivate yourself to slice and peel produce when you’re hungry or busy, taking some time upfront to make your life easier in the future can be a real game-changer. Most cut-up fruits and veggies should last up to a week in the fridge if stored well in an air-tight container (give it a sniff to make sure it’s still safe to nosh on, if it’s been a few days and you’re unsure). While slicing and decanting certain types of fresh produce might technically shorten their lifespan (compared to storing them uncut on the counter—watermelon, for example), doing so can actually be smart way to incentivize yourself to reach for it sooner. RELATED: The Secret to Storing Every Type of Fruit and Vegetable Decanting can be a good step toward avoiding unnecessary food waste as well. While stocking up on containers can be an initial investment, your food will ultimately stay fresher for a longer—helping you save a little money and cut down on food waste overall. (Here are some of our all-time favorite food-storage containers.) Eisland and Larsen also recommend decanting shelf-stable foods into clear jars (they like these airtight glass containers with bamboo tops from mDesign). Sustainably made and stackable, cylindrical vessels like these maximize vertical space. If you keep your pantry well-stocked, it’s easier to spot healthy dinner staples like beans, brown rice, and whole wheat pasta in jars.
