Removing Temptation

You’ve made the decision to start eating healthy and maybe even lose a few pounds, congratulations! The next step is to change your environment as much as possible to help you keep this commitment. So many of us commit to eating healthy in the morning, but then reach for chips or cookies in the evening. Why are chips and cookies even within your reach?!

Get the junk out of the house! The easiest way to overcome temptation is to simply remove it. And I mean remove it: throw it away! Don’t you dare force it on your friends just because you feel bad throwing your junk food away. Don’t wait until it’s gone—throw it away.

Don’t use your kids and family as an excuse either. “But why should my family suffer because I have to?” The truth is: if it isn’t good for you to eat, why in the world would you feed it to them? “That’s easy—because I want my children to have all the same issues with food that I have.” Remember The Hunger Chat? Do your kids a favor and teach them how to eat properly.

If—after all that—you still can’t bring yourself to get rid of the junk food, then try something new. Take all of the tempting foods in your house and put them in a box. Put a BIG label on that box that reads “Why am I eating this?” or “Am I hungry?” or something similar. Take that box out to your garage or up to your attic and put it in a high, hard-to-reach, difficult-to-get-to place. We’re making your laziness work for you in this instance. You’ll be sitting on the couch thinking “I really want something munchy.” But then you’ll remember you have to go all the way out to the garage to get it. Should you actually want something munchy enough that you get up off your butt to go get it, read that label before opening the box and take a minute to consider the answer to that question.

The goal is to make it as hard as possible to break your commitment!