As a personal trainer, I had work with multiple people over the course of my 12 years in the health and fitness industry. There is one topic that always stands out the most, and that is “how do I have more self control?”
I recently was working with a client who reported saying that he was so determined and motivated to stick to his diet plan which consisted of eliminating all processed foods from his diet. He went out to eat at a restaurant one day. It all stated out good as he planned, he ordered the healthiest food who could find on the menu, asked for water instead of his favorite drink which was a highly sugary drink. The server had left a basket of bread on the table as she left. He kept looking at it as if it was calling his name. The urge to eat it kept intensifying as the minutes went by. And suddenly he decided to take a tiny bite. One bite turned into another bite. It was as if he could not stop eating until the bread basket was gone .
How many of you have been in the same situation as the client mentioned above? I am sure most of you have been there before. Self control is specially harder when it comes to dieting and exercising. You can be very motivated and determined to stick to your diet and exercise plan but give in the moment you are faced with your goal of satisfying your self with a delicious bread basket or the cheesecake at a restaurant or to stay home to watch your favorite show instead of going to the gym to exercise. You might be asking why is that ? After all, aren’t we in control of our movements and decisions. The answer is a simple yes and no . Let me explain why this happens. Your goal of dieting and exercising is vey abstract. it is far in the future. It is a few months to a few years away. On the other hand , your goal of satisfying your self with the delicious bread basket or the cheesecake is in the present moment. You can accomplish that goal right there and then . It is an immediate accomplishment. So when these two goals are in conflict with each other, the goal that is more immediate will win over the goal that is far in the future.
This incident prompted me to do an extensive research on self control . I wound like to share with you 3 simple and very effective strategies that I found can help you stay strong with your goals and not to give in to temptations.
The first strategy is avoidance. This means that you have to do anything within in your power to stay away from the things that will provoke you to give in to temptations. For example. Let’s say you would like to give up on eating donuts for a few weeks and you know that there is a Donut store on your way to work. You would have to find a different route to go work in order to avoid driving by the donut store . Another way to use the avoidance strategy is to not have any food available in the house that will remind you of eating the foods that you are trying to avoid . If increasing exercise is your goal , you can avoid watching tv by first stopping at the gym for exercise before you go home .
The second strategy is to tell a few people about your goals. This strategy works very well because if you tell people about your goals before you go out to eat , or before you start a diet and exercise program, you will be more likely to have self control over the temptations. And let’s face it, temptations are every where. Another reason why this strategy works is because you don’t want to feel like a failure, or someone that can’t stick to his words. People will hold you accountable.
Third strategy is to set reminders everywhere. You will have to place reminders in your kitchen, bedroom, office , work place, bathroom and even on your screen phone so you can be reminded of your goals all day. One of the reasons people give in to their immediate goal is because your goal of dieting and exercising is not fresh in your mind. The longer you go without remembering your goals, the more susceptible you will be to temptations. The brain puts information in the back of the head if the information is no longer needed. However when you are constantly being reminded of your goals, the brain keeps the information in front and center . This means you will have more Will power and more courage to say no to temptations.
Self control is hard but having tools to to counter attack the temptations will help to stick to your goals longer than any other time before you had tried to diet and exercise. If would like to learn more about how to live a healthier and fitter lifestyle, check out my page. I offer an online health and fitness coaching. I focus on nutrition, exercise and lifestyle changes.
This way I can take the thinking and the hard planning away from you and most importantly I can hold you accountable to your health and fitness goals .