A couple of weeks ago, I decided it was time for everyone in my family to start eating more fruit. I had bought a box of those adorable little clementines, and they were just sitting in a drawer in my garage refrigerator, not getting a whole lot of attention. So I took a glass bowl and filled it with the little juicy oranges, placed it on the counter and, voila! They began to disappear. I've been refilling the bowl regularly, as the whole family has been grabbing a "Cutie" or two on their way in or out of the kitchen as a great anytime snack.
This prompted me to think about snacking strategies, particularly as we're all working off the indulgences of the holidays. If you want something to get eaten (by you or others), put it in plain sight. Those clementines would have rotted away in their previous location, but place them in a clear bowl where everyone can reach them (and see them) and suddenly they're appealing. The same goes for the bananas on our metal "banana tree" and the garden tomatoes that I periodically move from the paper bag in the pantry to a beautiful bowl in the kitchen as they ripen (miraculously, in January, we have garden-grown tomatoes!).
You can do the same thing with your refrigerator. Move the fruits, veggies, yogurt and low-fat cheeses out of the crisper drawers to the main shelves, and hide the leftover mac and cheese, and I bet that weight will start coming off as the healthful stuff gets eaten and the not-so-healthful stuff gets forgotten. It's common sense! Now, how to hide the Oreos and candy jar still remaining in the pantry ...
