Making snacks less accessible

I love snacks as much as the next person. And by snacks, I don't mean an apple or carrot, I mean potato chips or popcorn.

Of course, for health reasons, I want to make sure I eat the less-than-nutritionally-optimal snacks only on occasion. So, I don't keep the actual snack on hand, so I could just open up the panty and start chowing. I keep the raw ingredients for snacks. For example:

1. Microwave potato chips - they're awesome, relatively quick to make, and not too unhealthy! And all you need is a potato, some oil, salt, and parchment paper. And a microwave, of course.

2. Popcorn. Need I say more?

3. I keep chocolate cake mix in my pantry - it takes me about 15 minutes to use it to bake some great chocolate chip cookies. I don't generally do this for myself, just for when there's kids coming over.

The theory is - make the healthy snacks easily accessible, and make the less healthy snacks just a bit harder to get to, but still doable.

Organizing tip - you need a "Donate" box right in your closet!

I used to be pretty good about getting rid of things - I'd occasionally (every year or so) go through my closet, and put aside things that I no longer needed. That still left a whole year or more for things to accumulate, though.

Recently I put a box, labeled "Donate", right in the closet. It's amazing what a difference it's made. Now, when I decide that I no longer want something, I don't put it back on a hanger until my yearly clean-up. I just put it in the "Donate" box. Having the box right there may not seem like much, but the mere fact that I don't even need to take an extra step makes a big difference. Then, when it gets full, I bag it and put it in the car to bring to the goodwill.

I've noticed this in a lot of areas of my life. The easier you make it to "do the right thing" (having the right foods right there when you want to eat better, exercise clothing and equipment ready when you'd like to exercise more), the more likely it will happen.