A. If you walked into a room that only had no food on the counter and a microwave meal in the fridge

B. If you walked into a room with just apples on the counter, microwave meal and a healthy prepared meal in the fridge

Your decisions have been heavily influenced by the design of the room - what you would choose to do in scenario A and B are likely to be different. If you think about the design of your room beforehand you can encourage certain behaviours. There is a lot of research to show that humans tend to do whatever is the easiest thing... that's why supermarkets tap into this - The most profitable items are in the middle of the shelf where you can easily reach, the less profitable items are right at the bottom. Its only a small amount of extra effort but enough to influence you.

This video here will give you more details about changing your environment but below is a good summary if you prefer to read :)

The principle for good environmental design is:

1. If you want to encourage a good behaviour make it as simple as possible

e.g. Have a cold water tap installed / Always have a cold bottle of water available in your fridge

1. If you want to discourage a bad behaviour make it as difficult as possible

e.g. The frying pan is kept upstairs somewhere!

I have applied some design decisions to my environment below to encourage or discourage my exercise and eating habits... please feel free to add more in the comments and ill chuck them in!

1. Only have healthy food on display (fruits, nuts, Carrots...! )
2. Remove all unhealthy food from your house - I need to walk a mile to get a coke!
3. Place your unhealthy cooking equipment in a bag upstairs (frying pan, Pizza Cutter)
4. I have my gym clothes laid out ready to go on a chair before i go to bed
5. I have my coffee machine turn on at 7AM every day
6. I prepare healthy full meals and healthy snacks in advance for impulse eating
7. I have a pint of water next to my bed when i go to sleep and I need to finish it when i wake up