How To Save Up Enough Willpower To Crush Your Junk Food Cravings With Ease

You tried cutting back on fattening foods so many times in your past. You really did make an honest effort to eat healthier. Every single time.

But the truth is, staying away from all that deliciousness can be incredibly tough. Sometimes, it even strikes you as completely impossible.

And to make things worse, you feel fully confident when you decide to make some changes to your diet. During those first couple of days you actually feel strong enough to turn things around.

But no matter what you do, cravings for the foods you love the most start creeping in. Slowly, but surely, your power to resist them starts to fade away.

And then BAM! It surprises you right out of the blue.

The miserable failure of willpower

You were dead-set on ordering a salad before arriving at your favorite restaurant. But in that split-second, right before you give the waiter your order, you simply can't resist the urge anymore.

You order your all-time favorite, the "Burger Fries and Cherry Pie" menu.

You voraciously feast on that delicious junk, as if some dark force took over your mind. Soon afterwards, your mind goes crazy with guilt and regret: "I can't believe this! I was doing so awesome! How the hell did I fall off the wagon this time?!?"

You think back at that critical moment, right before you ordered that junk food menu.

After resisting the temptations for so long, you felt like you simply ran out of self-control. You wiped out your willpower reserves and suddenly felt completely powerless to resist anymore.

Just like so many times before, you start seriously doubting that you'll EVER be able to change your self-destructive ways.

But you can relax now. You're about to learn a simple psychology trick that will help you accumulate huge amounts of willpower, so you no longer run out of it when you need it the most.

Are you leaking precious willpower?

Now, I realize this might sound overly simple, but that's only because it really is (once you get the hang of it).

Here's exactly what you need to do:

Stop wasting your willpower BEFORE you actually need to make a tough food choice.

What exactly do I mean?

If you spend a good part of your day thinking about how hard it will be to order just a salad at the restaurant in the evening, then stop.

If the entire time during work hours, you keep stressing about how you need to avoid stopping at that fast food joint on your way home, then just stop.

If in the days before you visit your mother, you keep worrying that her irresistible cookies will throw you off your diet, then seriously, you need to stop.

All that mental torture is only draining away your willpower way before you actually need it.

If you keep wasting your willpower in advance, you really shouldn't be surprised if your reserves run dry by the time you actually need to make a smart food choice.

How to stop wasting your willpower

Here's what I suggest you do instead:

As soon as you catch yourself worrying, stressing, or obsessing about some critical "food-intense" situation in your future, you should start calming your mind down right away.

Just say stuff like this to yourself:

• "I don't need to waste my thoughts on what I'll eat later. I'll decide when I'm actually in that situation."
• "There's no need to commit to eating anything in advance. I'll just cross that bridge when I get to it."

Or even:

• "I can eat whatever the hell I want! I'll pick what I feel like when it comes to it."

The exact words you say to yourself don't really matter. It doesn't even matter if you're straight up lying to yourself.

What matters, is that you calm your mind down as soon as you start feeling that familiar tension and nervousness about some future food choice. You need to soothe your mind without forbidding anything to yourself, without restricting yourself in any way.

Because ONLY IF you can create that true sense of freedom in your mind, you'll finally be able to stop wasting your precious willpower.

Easily resist your junk food cravings

So when that waiter finally arrives at your table in the evening, when you're actually driving towards that fast food joint on your way home, or when your mom places that platter of cookies directly in front of you, you'll have a ton of willpower left.

Only then, and not a minute sooner, it's time to bring out those big willpower guns - and crush those junk food cravings with everything you've got.

I can promise you this:

With your willpower batteries fully charged, you'll soon be able to making better food decisions, even in what used to be impossible-to-resist situations for you.

Only practice can make perfect

But this will only happen, if you practice this stuff - if you make it a permanent part of your mindset.

It's not hard, and you sure can start right away. Just pay attention to your own thoughts and learn how to "catch" yourself whenever you're stressing about some food choice in your future.

Once you get the hang of it, you'll be able to take away a boatload of stress and suffering. You'll be able to conserve more than enough willpower to resist the temptations for junkier stuff with ease.

Now, I can't pretend my "willpower savings" trick will solve ALL your issues with food, but I do have a lot more aces up my sleeve.

So you make sure to keep in touch, and I'll make sure to keep delivering nothing but highly useful & actionable stuff.

David Brown is a weight loss blogger who can show you how to use the power of psychology to break your bad eating habits - and slowly, but surely transition into a lifestyle that allows you to reach your ideal weight on autopilot. To start receiving his highly actionable tips, subscribe to a free newsletter on his weight loss psychology blog - or keep in touch with him via Facebook, Twitter or Google+.

The post How To Save Up Enough Willpower To Crush Your Junk Food Cravings With Ease appeared first on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement.