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.
Train your brain as hard as you train your biceps
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?