The hardest word in the world to resist is…(drum roll, please) FREE!

We love free. We can’t get enough of it. Give someone a free piece of crap, and they’ll take it. Actually, they’ll wait on line for it!

Give someone free food and not only will they wait on line for it but they’ll get all their friends, and they’ll all wait in-line together!

Let’s explore why we have such a hard time resisting free food.

We’re hard-wired to like sweets. Give a baby something sweet and they’ll like it over something unsweetened.

Now give anyone a combo of sugar, fat and salt and that becomes irresistible. And I mean that in every sense of the word.

Our brain loses its ability to regulate itself when we eat a combo of sugar, fat and salt. As humans we’re programmed to focus on the most ‘rewarding’ stimuli – because back in the day we actually had to worry about surviving.

But the combo of sugar, fat and salt (pick anyone of your favorite unhealthy tasting foods and snacks) has a pull on us. It literally overrides our brain’s natural ability to regulate itself.

There in lies the true problem.

Give me a bowl of broccoli and I’ll feel full.

Give me a bowl of cookies and I can keep eating them and eating them and eating them and eating them and eating them and eating them and eating them and eating them and eating them and eating them and eating them (You think I’m kidding?) – no matter how much I already ate!

We lose our ability to feel full when we eat irresistible foods.

If you put a plate of cookies in front of me, it’s going to be very hard for me to focus on anything else.

Why?

Well our dopamine (chemicals that make us feel good) levels are rising in anticipation of the reward. We can’t stop thinking about it…or can we?

Our brain works like that, unfortunately.

Now without having to pay for it – which is an act that makes you stop and think, “Wait do I really want this?” we lose that precious time to choose.

There is nothing in our way. The floodgates are open!

So, besides me telling you the obvious to avoid situations where there is free food, we can fight back and have a game plan.

In fact, having a game plan is the most important strategy.

Most of the time we’re either going to a party, or a work event or some sort of planned function – that we can prepare for. The key is to mentally prepare for it.

1. For example, if you’re going to your friends house who makes the best chocolate chip cookies – decide before you go how many you will have – if you decide it’s really worth it. Mentally rehearsing what you’re going to do before you do it is a great strategy. Because when we mentally rehearse we’re thinking with our long term, rational mind.

When we’re tempted we’re thinking with our short term, irrational mind.

Whether it’s shooting a basketball and seeing the ball go in before you shoot, or envisioning what you’ll order and eat, they both help a lot.

2. Finally, do not teeter. Do not waver. If someone put a plate of cookies in front of you right now (for those unexpected times) choose immediately.

“No! I don’t want this. It’s not going to make me feel good. It won’t make me look better or feel better.”

“If I eat this now, I won’t feel good about myself later and tomorrow!”

But the second you start to entertain the idea, you’re going to lose. Never negotiate with yourself.

It can’t be a negotiation. It has to be a quick decision.

“Nope! Not for me!” “It’s not a part of my plan!” Next thought…

Imagine watching TV and a commercial comes on that’s tempting you in an uncomfortable way – what would you do?

Change the channel!

You can do the same. Think about something else. Talk about something else. Snap a rubber band on your wrist.

So today and this week remember: change that channel

P.S. I understand how just writing the word c-o-o-k-i-e can stimulate us. That’s why it’s important to think about something else. Anything else! It doesn’t matter. Change that channel. Here, how about you watch this video (safe for work). Next time someones puts food in front of us that’s tempting I think we should all laugh at it like this!

Deprivation is a popular word when it comes to losing weight. No one wants to feel deprived but everyone wants to lose weight. Something has to give…

Let’s explore. Shall we?

We feel deprived when we’re giving up something we (think) we want. But in the moment we feel deprived we’re only thinking with our short term, rational mind.

Don’t forget: We also want to feel energized and healthy and reach our health and fitness goals.

Here’s what I try to remind myself: If I give in to the discomfort (instead of embracing it) and listen to my short term, rational mind, I’m also depriving myself of getting to feel awesome.

We don’t (usually) think about this in the moment, though.

Tonight and this weekend remember that if you choose to indulge your irrational mind because you don’t want to feel deprived, you’re actually depriving yourself of long term goals and desires that’ll ultimately bring you far more happiness than 5 minutes of pleasure.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend that was hurricane free!

Sometimes when it rains a lot, I have the desire to stay in and relax and snuggle up with a good murder mystery and junk food.

However, every time I eat junk food, I feel the same way I did last time I ate it: Not good.

Like the lactose intolerant who loves pizza and ice cream or the diabetic who keeps eating sugar – we tend to forget the bad times when we’re craving something.

For example, do you remember how you felt after you ate a bunch of junk? Like really remember? Chances are you might think you do but if you completely did – you’d never binge again. It wouldn’t be an option.

During an intense urge/craving – we start talking to ourselves. We start rationalizing with ourselves. “I want this candy! I deserve this candy!” “No I really don’t want this! It’s not going to make me feel good. I shouldn’t!”

We go back and forth and we have this inner conflict with ourselves. When there’s inner conflict this causes there to be a feeling of discomfort.

It’s the discomfort that we become a slave to. The discomfort is caused by us not being completely sure if we want to resist the candy or not. We still think we might deserve it. We think about how it tastes too.

But then we think about how it’ll make us feel and how it’s not in alignment with our goals.

And we go back and forth…

Until, eventually, the discomfort is so uncomfortable – that we wind up giving in to ease the pain of the discomfort. We’re not even eating it because we want it so badly. We’re eating it to shut our mind up already!

And once you do – our mind fixates on something else and we move on.

Think about that for a second. The pain or discomfort of a craving is what might cause us to actually go over the edge and give in. Not even the food itself. And when it’s so intense – we give in – to ease that pain.

So here are some things I want us to remember for this week:

1. With fear – there is nothing to fear but fear itself. The first step to overcoming our fears is to acknowledge them. What are you actually afraid of? Why? But why? If you really probe and ask yourself questions like this you can learn a lot about yourself. All fear is self-induced. Fine…99% of it is.

The point being is that pain or discomfort is only pain and discomfort. Next time you feel uncomfortable acknowledge it. Think “Wow, I feel really uncomfortable right now. Recognize the inner conflict. Hear the battle between the devil on your shoulder and your Body Tutor on the other.

Be a spectator. But don’t participate. Just observe. Pretend you’re a fly on the wall. Because whatever the devil says will make sense. He knows how to get to you. And of course whatever your Body Tutor says on your shoulder will make sense too.

2. Remember that all pain and discomfort passes. <— This is worth reading again. Because in the moment we tend to forget this.

3. Don’t let yourself have the conflict in the first place! Conflict only occurs when two parties don’t agree. Instead of opening yourself up for negotiations walk around with a master plan. “I WILL not eat junk food or greasy foods because they don’t make me feel good. They never made me feel good!” “This isn’t a part of my plan. Thanks anyway!”

It’s not an option. The less we negotiate with our selves the better. Maybe admitting to yourself that you’re just junk food intolerant is the way to go. It removes an option. The option of even eating it.

Like a vegetarian or lactose intolerant person meat and milk just isn’t an option.

Think about that and be on the look out for the pain and discomfort!

But make sure you get first row seats…

Happy Saturday!

You worked hard to get to this point – why give in now? Let’s keep pushing forward!

Easier said than done, of course, for many reasons. One of them being that we might find our selves with a persistent craving.

Here in lies the question we all face: Who do we listen to? Our short term self or our long term self.

Our short term self relentlessly tries to convince our long term self that we want those cookies or ice cream or chips or fries. That same short term self would try to convince a drug addict that just one more hit is okay.

Our long term self is what motivates us to exercise. To get up and go to work. To eat healthfully. To evolve. And improve. To resist. To achieve. To read this daily inspiration.

So who do we listen to?

Well, I believe when we listen to our short term self – not only are we being impulsive – which usually leads to self-destructive things happening – but we’re indulging in pleasure.

(Big difference between being impulsive and spontaneity, in my opinion.)

A life filled with short term pleasures is very different from a life time of happiness.

I don’t think pleasure and happiness are one in the same, at all.

A drug addict probably feels better than all of us when they are high. (I have no idea. I’m just assuming – why would people do the things they do for drugs?) Yet, what happens after they experience that intense pleasure?

Same for the person who refuses to give up the pleasure of indulging in fatty and fried and sugary food day after day. Sure it tastes good on the way down. But, of course, it doesn’t feel so good when our clothes no longer fit us. Or when we hate how we look and feel later on.

Pleasure is fleeting. Happiness isn’t.

I think the problem with cravings is that we entertain them to much. We think about them too much.

You know why? We’re stuck in our own damn head.

This weekend I’d like for us to all try something when we face a craving. It’s simple, unselfish and will benefit others (and you too).

Ready? When a craving hits simply:

Think away from yourself.