Put items out of sight in a draw like shredded cheese that you might consider sprinkling on pasta or butter on pancakes. If you have to shimmy open a drawer and fish around in it for the item, your laziness might override the decision and you’ll skip it.
Most refrigerators have one shelf that’s taller and more spacious than the others. Stash your produce here. You might be used to putting it in the crisper drawers, but down there it’s out of sight and out of mind. Putting produce in the most prominent part of the fridge will make your brain work with that produce when thinking of recipes.
If you need to keep whole milk, soda or sugary juices in the house, instead of sticking these in the refrigerator door where you can see them, lie them down on their sides. Often that extra step of having to stand the bottle or carton upright will push you to just grab an already standing bottle of water, or the water pitcher.
If you already have the cutting board and knife out for one meal, just throw a few more veggies on there and chop them up. Put these in ziplok baggies in your fridge. If half the work’s already done, you’ll be more prone to eat your vegetables.
If you’re counting calories, try writing the permitted serving size directly on the item itself. You can do this on the side of yogurt, creamy pasta sauce, pancake syrup, milk — just about anything that comes in a container. Even if you don’t measure it exactly, having that reminder there will encourage you to be a little less heavy handed.
Take those saran-wrapped packages of chicken breasts, sausages, steaks and fish and stack them neatly, preferably against the wall of the fridge on a shelf. It’s important to get enough protein at every meal to fight off hunger. Seeing all your protein in a block like that is a great visual cue. You want to see that block get smaller every day and that will mean you’re eating enough protein.
There are so many things that flavor your food without racking up calories. Put healthy condiments in the fridge door such as hot sauce, grainy mustard and chunky salsa. The door is the first place you look when you want to add a little something extra to your food.
All the condiments you’d usually put in the door like mayonnaise and ketchup—move them to the very top shelf, all the way against the back of the fridge. Now you have to really think if you want to take everything in front of those items out of the fridge, reach all the way to the back, and put the removed items back inside, just to glob mayo on your sandwich.
You’ve probably been told bread lasts longer in the fridge, and while that’s true, putting it there isn’t doing your waistline any favors. Bread is a base food meaning tons of meals can be made around it. Plus, it’s probably a weakness of yours so if you see it in the fridge—which you will because it takes up a lot of space—you’ll be thinking of grilled cheeses and triple-decker sandwiches. Leave it in a cabinet or dry space outside the fridge.
Where you’d normally put your ice cream in the freezer, put frozen bananas. These can be quickly blended up — maybe with peanut butter for added protein — and satisfy your urge for something sweet, cold and creamy.
