Coming Home

Did you know the door you use to enter your home can determine how difficult or easy it is to lose weight? If you come in through the kitchen and there are cookies out on the table, you are likely to mindlessly grab one. Do that every day for a year and the cost adds up.

Brian Wansink’s research found that people who keep cookies visible in the kitchen weigh about 9 pounds more than the neighbor who does not use cookies as decor. For visible cereal it was 21 pounds, and for soda on the counter, 29 pounds.

The best option may be to enter through a part of the house that has no food, and to find a reason to stay there a while. Doc Russ had a rule that the first place he had to go when he got home was the bathroom — even if he did not need to. That one traffic-pattern change was enough to reboot the mindless brain and break the habit of eating the moment he walked through the door.

Another option is to break the routine by coming home through your workout area, or by stopping at the gym on the way home two or three days a week. If the gym is not practical, take a walk around the block before you settle in front of the television.

If food is in the space you enter, you might eat it. If you can see it, the odds go way up. If you must walk into a room full of food, hide what you are trying to avoid and put the fruit, vegetables, and water out in the open.

Try to hide the television too. If you live in a house where the set is always on, you are likely to stop and watch mindlessly — losing hours and, research consistently suggests, gaining weight. The same holds for video games and aimless scrolling.

Then add a "move more" reminder you cannot miss. Doc Russ kept a treadmill in the living room for years; seeing it was a reminder that he wanted to walk more and eat less. Walking shoes in your line of sight as you come through the door work just as well. So does a quote on an index card, or a photograph that means something to you.

Even if you see the food, you may skip it if you have to work for it. In Stanley Schachter’s classic experiment, people who had to shell the almonds ate fewer almonds — an effect that was especially strong among people carrying extra weight.

To find your own convenience zone, spend a few days observing the path you take for the first fifteen minutes after you get home. It is remarkably consistent. Now walk that path with your arms outstretched: your convenience zone extends a few feet past your fingertips.

That tells you exactly where the healthy, low-calorie snacks belong — and where the trigger foods do not. If you never go to the garage or basement on the way in, move the danger foods there. The food is still in the house; you simply have to work for it. While you are down there, dust off that old exercise bike and bring it up into the zone.

Does coming home stress you out or bliss you out? If it stresses you out, you are more likely to eat. So ask what would de-stress your arrival.

Some homes have a meditation space. Doc Russ made a corner of his home office into one, with candles, a water feature, and plants. Keep it small and uncomplicated and it stays easy to keep clean — and you can quite literally go to your happy place when you get home.

It does not have to be meditation. Doc Russ’s father was not one for sitting still, but he did a lot of wood carving in the garage. That was his happy place. If your house does not have one, can you make one? If you have one, are you using it?