Giant clear jars of chocolate kisses lurk at every receptionist desk..
Cookie-grams are being brought to your offices by charming vendors…
And Valentine’s day chocolate beckons.
Sounds tasty, doesn’t it?
It seems that some people have an easier time than others being mindful about food choices, while others more readily succumb to temptation when faced with it. This is often attributed to “willpower” (or lack of it). It’s not like these people are super-disciplined humans with no sense of smell for homemade chocolate chip cookies.
Somehow, over the course of time they’ve managed to use “willpower”- the power to use discipline and self-awareness to make choices that steer them towards achieving their goal, no matter what the occasion.
The good news is you can exercise your “willpower muscle” much like you exercise your muscles when you lift weights. The more you “train” your brain to either resist a temptation or make a positive choice, the easier and more natural the process becomes.
If you stop and think about it, how many times have you been faced with a temptation and you hear two voices in your head battling it out? Or how many times have you “spent” your mental energy all day at work, resisting the urge to tell a complaining customer or boss to shove it, then come home and bury your sorrows in cheesecake or a bottle of wine (or both!)?
Perhaps you’ve exhausted your willpower muscle, and something has gone on in your head that either steers you to make the best choice for your diet/fitness goals or away from it.
So what are some simple exercises that you can do to build willpower, and cultivate the discipline to make sensible food choices?
1) Deep breathing. Simply take 5 minutes to focus on the inhalation and exhalation of your breath without focusing on much else. This can be done 5 minutes before bed. Just be still. If you’re like me and have a hard time with that, engage in any sensory ritual that does calm you: listening to music, talking a bath, lighting candles and having some quiet time. After the 5 minutes of quiet time, do you still have a real, physical craving? Were you stressed and using food to soothe you?
2) Distract with movement. When faced with a “temptation” or urge, wait 10 minutes before you actually give in. Take a walk, do the dishes, stretch, and otherwise solidly find a way to distract yourself from the urge to have the EXTRA slice of leftover cake that you really don’t need. The urge is most likely not real hunger if you find the craving dissipate or disappear entirely after the 10 minutes of light movement.
3) Surround yourself with willpower “advocates,” or basically a support network of people who want to see you succeed and have habits that help them achieve their goal. We all have friends who seem to have practiced building willpower. Find out what they do. Not everything they say will apply to your situation, but something might.
4) If there’s a particular role model that you feel generally makes the best food choices, ask yourself, what would they do when faced with a moment of weakness? Give in? Question what’s really behind the craving. The point of such an exercise is simply to create more of the self-awareness that’s necessary when faced with cravings; and to listening to the voice in your head that’s advocating for the stronger, healthier you.
5) Go public with your willpower challenge. Social media and joining online forums make it easy to find virtual cheerleaders. It’s also nice when your family’s got your back, and when they do, they will certainly take pride in watching you reach your goals.
6) Hire a diet coach (I can be reached at sumi@shailafitnes.com). Email check-ins with someone who is actually paid to care and keep you accountable is an excellent option. The practice of simply being accountable and taking stock of your food choices and honestly reporting them helps build self-awareness; which is important for not just weight loss, but maintenance too.
7) Use journaling to track and identify your problem. As I mentioned early on, self awareness is key to building willpower. If you have no idea how you’re being triggered, you won’t be able to fix it. For instance, does a super stressful and long commute tend to cause you to make poor choices with food? Does drinking with your buddies lead to a late night binge? Does a long day at work mean you’re skipping another workout? What exactly, is the trigger that leads to the poor decisions with food and exercise?
8) Quietly listen to the dual voices in your head that you know are speaking to you when you’re faced with a temptation. Really ask yourself if the decision you ultimately pick will you steer you towards the long-term, bigger goal. Are you justifying a poor choice because you “deserve it?” Turn it around for your long-term goals, and say “I deserve the choice that will make my body healthier.”
9) When faced with a setback, allow yourself to fall as long as you get right back on track. The “damage” caused by eating one cookie is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. But an entire box because you somehow “blew” your diet on one cookie is possibly a sign of a bigger problem . It’s much easier to overcome a temptation when you actually allow for it, in a sense. Forgive yourself and move on, or simply allow smaller treats (portion control) as part of your long-term strategy. Working with a good diet coach can help plan for that, or track your calorie intake for your fitness goals.
10) Practice a task that forces you to make a mental effort to stop yourself in your tracks before you engage in a typical behavior. Something as simple as trying to use your left hand to open doors or pick up an object if you’re right-handed (and vice versa for lefties), will engage your brain in correcting an ingrained habit. Or try eating with the fork in the non-dominant hand. The exercise will help you be more mindful of the bites you’re taking and slow down with the typical hand to mouth patterning. At the very least it will make you believe that you can change an ingrained habit.
11) Exercise. Naturally, I have to include this one. Even if it’s just 5 minutes of activity, some light resistance band work at home, or walking outdoors, just getting moving can reduce stress, improve your mood, and focus. Exercise is a critical building block to an overall picture of better health. One healthy habit will often generate others that can help build the discipline you need to achieve your fitness or weight loss goals.
Paul Crane
February 9, 2016 at 12:09 amAnother great and timely article as usual, Sumi. New web site looks fantastic too!
shailafitness
February 9, 2016 at 1:19 amThank you!
Margie
November 27, 2017 at 3:24 pmLove them all!!! You’re such an inspiration, Sumi! You practice what you preach and you are soooo REAL!!!