So my wife and the ladies in her family have an annual cookie bake every year around Christmas. Each year they cook a metric shit ton of cookies and get together to swap them. 

Which means they come home and I end up eating approximately 4,285 cookies the week or two before Christmas. This does absolutely nothing to keep my diet on point. 

However, being that this is the 6th Christmas we’ve celebrated together I’ve learned a thing or two about how to reduce my cookie consumption. Now don’t get me wrong the cookies are glorious and they taste great, but even during the holidays I try and keep some semblance of healthy living intact. 

They used to come home and sit on the counter and usually every time I walked by I’d pop one or two in mouth. After a few years though I learned they can’t sit on the counter because they are just to easy to access. 

(This is the cookie cabinet)

Now we put them in a cabinet. I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal but even one small barrier to getting into the cookies can make a difference. It is the holidays so I’m going to indulge but this hack really helps me keep it reasonable instead of being the Cookie Monster. 

Making small changes like this may not seem like a big deal, but it really does help. Even more so when you add a few of them together. 

Consider Google a few years back in their New York office, they just made the office M&M container black instead of clear glass. Over the course of seven weeks the entire office consumed 3.1 million less calories. 

One simple change yielded incredible results. It just goes to show that simple hacks like putting your cookies in a cabinet can help. So take a look around your house, the office, or wherever and see what small changes can help you make better decisions.