Kitchen is the Danger Zone

Your kitchen is the prime danger zone.  It presents you with many more eating temptations than almost any other place.  For this reason, we are anxious to keep you out of your kitchen!  This isn’t easy because in many homes the kitchen is the work zone, a cosy conversation centre, a hobby centre, or even a relaxation centre.  Literally hours of the day are spent within a hand’s reach of food and often amid the appetite tempting aroma of cooking!

We once had a member who kept records for us which showed an unusually high frequency of eating.  She was snacking every thirty minutes throughout the day and evening.  Although some overweight people will say that they are ‘eating all the time’, most experience some lengthy periods relatively free from food temptation during the average day.  Not so in the case of this lady.  Eventually, we realised the cause of her behaviour.  We discovered she virtually lived in her kitchen.  Her desk, her favourite rocking chair and her hi-fi, were all in the kitchen.  Whatever she was doing, whether reading or relaxing, she was in dangerous proximity to food.

The only solution was to get her out of there and at first she proved somewhat resistant to the move.  Gradually though, we persuaded her to ease her way out.  First, by moving the hi-fi and rocking chair to another room, then her desk, followed by the telephone.  She had to convince herself, step by step,  the benefits of achieving eating control before reluctantly vacating her favourite den.

So, it is a good idea to make a detailed list of all the things not related to food preparation which are kept in the kitchen, for example, you may iron in the kitchen.  Ask yourself could you not do that task elsewhere in the house?  Look at all the things that take you in and out of the kitchen in a normal day.  In many homes, people go in and out of the kitchen door or let pets in and out through the kitchen door, keep telephone and televisions in the kitchen, use the handy kitchen table for paying bills, writing letters and shopping lists etc.  Once again analyse all of this behaviour and decide whether you could do things elsewhere. 

Remember, every time you go into your kitchen, you are putting yourself in close proximity to food and temptation.