The path to changing our behavior has very little to do with resolve.
We achieve control, not through willpower but by finding ways to take willpower entirely out of the equation.
The central force for eliminating bad habits, according to social psychologist Wendy Wood, author of “Good Habits, Bad Habits,” is friction. In other words, making bad habits inconvenient.
She cites the ways in which increased friction has produced a decline in smoking: laws that ban it in restaurants, bars, airplanes, and trains; taxes that have helped triple the price of cigarettes in the U.S. in the past twenty years; the purge of cigarettes from vending machines, and of tobacco ads from TV and the radio.
We can apply the same concept to eating behaviors. But first, I think it’s important to explore the science behind cravings.
In an ideal world, your desire to eat would only be triggered by the internal signals that come up from your body to your brain.
Hungry. Seek food!
Except we no longer need to seek food. And our desire to eat is triggered by so much more than physical hunger. We’re bombarded with food all day every day and images of food wherever we turn.
The main problem we face is that seeing + smelling + thinking about food creates an effect that mimics what we experience when we’re physically hungry.
When you see + smell + imagine food, all the same processes that happen when you need food occur. The signals that reach your brain through your senses activate a neurological cascade that result in a surge of insulin + a drop in blood glucose. Lower blood glucose tells your brain you need to eat. Additionally, your stomach relaxes so you have a bigger space for food + need more to make it feel full.
This happens in response to simply seeing, smelling or thinking about food. Which was super helpful back when food was scarce. Today though, not so much.
If you’ve ever wondered why using willpower to overcome a craving feels like pushing a boulder up a hill, this is why. When we don’t respond to the cascade of biological events with food – it feels kind of terrible. Even when we don’t need food.
The most effective way to control our cravings is to eliminate triggers as much as possible.
Since Halloween is just a few days away, here are a few tips specific to Halloween candy.
- Don’t buy candy until the day before Halloween (or the day of)
- Have someone in your family hide it if it’s already been purchased
- Buy something you don’t like
- Leave the leftovers in a bowl outside at the end of the night (they will ABSOLUTELY disappear)
Bottom line, make healthy options convenient + visible and unhealthy options inconvenient + out of sight.
💙 Robyn
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