4 Day Diet: Tame temptations, lose weight

Visualize the consequence
The key to overcoming temptation is to strengthen your mind so that triggers no longer overpower your resistance. One method I’ve found helpful is to teach your mind how to visualize the consequence of your action. Let’s say you’re craving a bowl of creamy fettuccine Alfredo. Satisfying that craving could be as simple as picking up the phone and ordering delivery from your favorite restaurant. Within the hour you could be happily finishing off the bowl of tasty pasta. Then what? You’ve satisfied the craving, but now you’ve dumped almost 900 whopping calories into your body. Visualize the consequences.

You’d have to run almost 7 miles, ride a stationary bicycle for two hours, or hit a punching bag for two hours to burn off the equivalent of what you just consumed in one bowl of pasta. Imagine all the fat inside that creamy sauce pouring into your arteries, narrowing the opening through which your blood is trying to flow. The more of that creamy sauce you eat, the narrower the opening becomes and the greater the chance of your suffering a heart attack or stroke. Imagine yourself in a dressing room barely squeezing into a pair of pants and not being able to button them because all that creamy pasta is building up a fortress of fat around your midsection.

Is the temporary satisfaction you got from eating that pasta worth the consequences? This is the type of pro-con question you must always ask yourself when faced with temptation. You should also consider the context. The pasta gratification may be immediate and thrilling, but it is short term and will quickly fade. The long-term gratification of not eating the pasta and sticking to your plan of losing weight can be a more satisfying thrill, especially when you move closer to your goal, start wearing clothes that you haven’t been able to fit into in years, or your doctor takes you off medications for your high blood pressure, diabetes, or high cholesterol. Each situation should lead you to a quick cost-benefit analysis, and if you do the correct calculations, you’ll find that the long-term cost of indulging in your craving far outweighs the short-term benefit.

Keep out of reach
If it’s not there, you can’t eat it. This seems like a simple strategy that shouldn’t need repeating, but it’s one that too many people don’t use. Why stock your cabinets and freezers with foods that you know you’re either not supposed to eat or you’re supposed to consume in small amounts? You are tempting yourself unnecessarily and creating a conflict between your mind and your body.

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Controlling your food environment is a smart way to avoid making yourself vulnerable to temptation. Your home environment isn’t the only thing you’d be smart to regulate. The workplace can be an equally dangerous place.

Don’t keep jars of candy and finger foods stocked in or on your desk. Vending machines are another “hot” area to be avoided at all cost. Avoid the cafeteria or the hallway where these “temptation depots” are ominously lurking, waiting to draw you into their sugartopia.

Don’t forget about all those office parties and social events that will be full of tasty but fattening food. You will undoubtedly be offered limitless alcohol, but don’t be fooled. Alcohol is nothing more than liquid calories. Many mistakenly believe that because alcohol is liquid it’s not as bad as eating a cheeseburger and fries. A calorie is a calorie. Whether it’s from liquid alcohol or fried foods, the calorie will still add pounds on the scale and cholesterol in your arteries.

Create a temptation plan
Temptations won’t suddenly disappear from your environment. Since temptation is a permanent part of the world we live in, it’s best to create a plan to deal with it. This plan must be portable, easily accessible, and simple enough to be activated at a moment’s notice. My high school basketball coach would call it the lesson of the five P’s: Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.

If you prepare for the possibility of temptation, then you’ll perform well when it’s time to resist whatever is trying to reel you in.

Forming a plan is as easy as adding more information to your trigger chart. Pull out the chart and make a third column that lists a response you can choose instead of giving in to the tempting food. Copy your chart on an index card and keep it with you at all times. When you have new ideas for ways to distract yourself from temptation, add them to the chart. Make several copies and keep them strategically placed so that whether you’re at home, work, or running errands, you can quickly reach a copy and activate your plan.

Go ahead and enjoy — within reason
There is enough convincing evidence that avoiding cravings might only make the cravings stronger and more frequent. In fact, some nutritional psychologists urge their patients to listen to their cravings and respond accordingly by eating a small amount of what they crave. Moderation is, of course, the part that can be tricky. Many people who get a taste of that tempting food can’t stop themselves from overeating. But there are a couple of ways that you can help satisfy your taste for something sweet or chocolaty and not overdo it on the calories.

Portion out your cheats in advance (or have someone else do it for you if handling the indulgent food is too tempting for you at this point). To avoid eating too much, divide any food into smaller allotments. For example, let’s say you have a craving for Oreo cookie ice cream. When you purchase the ice cream, don’t store it in your freezer in the original packaging. Instead, purchase smaller disposable containers. Gladware and other brands make some great disposable snack-size bowls with lids. Take the pint or quart of ice cream and divide it into small one-scoop portions and store them in the individual containers. Stack the one-scoop containers in the freezer. Now when you have an urge, you can go ahead and have the ice cream, but allow yourself only one container at a time, which means one scoop. Whether it’s putting chips into a smaller Ziploc bag or slicing up that candy bar and refrigerating it in sections, you can plan ahead to satisfy those cravings without overindulging.

Excerpted from “The 4 Day Diet” by Ian K. Smith, M.D. Copyright (c) 2008, reprinted with permission from St. Martin's Press.

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