There is little doubt that when dieting one is often faced with temptation. Just walk into a supermarket. When you get to the checkout stand there before your eyes are displayed sweet, delicious, candy bars. Oh, what you would give for a Snickers bar right now? You begin to salivate, feel cravings deep inside your body. You know it is not something you should do but you can and who would know. The simple truth is that you would know. Does it make any difference to you if anybody else knows as well? It shouldn't because you are the one here that counts.
I found three things that work for me. I've used these three tricks for many years and I tell you that they work for me. Why shouldn't they work for you as well.
Avoiding temptations: Live in the Moment
One of the best ways avoiding temptations is to live in the moment. The past, well it is already gone, nothing can put Humpty Dumpty together again. Why worry about what cannot be changed. Tomorrow is yet to be written but you cannot predict what has not yet happened. You may think about it, plan for it but in the end, it will unfold the way it wishes. What you can do is act in the 'here and now.' And you can act with intentionality.
This means that you begin to feel the temptation, say to yourself that You'll have that candy bar tomorrow, just not today. It is a conscious decision to not have to act against your best intentions today. It is a way of dealing with temptation without making the decision permanent.
Avoiding Temptations: Nothing Lasts Forever
Guy Clark, a singer/songwriter from Texas wrote the following lines:
"Nothing lasts forever
Say the old men in the boatyards,
Turning trees into shrimp boats,
Hell, I guess they ought to know."
Diets are like that as well. There is no diet plan that lasts forever. In fact, if you had to give up something that was addictive and you said to yourself "I'll never have another ________." I'll let you fill in the blank. I would say that forever is a very long time. What you can do, much like with avoiding the candy bar, is to commit to your plan for today. Tomorrow, simply decide again and see what happens. If, when I quit smoking that I could never again smoke another cigarette, well I wouldn't quit. That was ten years ago and I am still not smoking today, Tomorrow, well it is unlikely because I now find even being in the room with a smoker abhorrent.
Avoiding Temptation: Mistakes Are Only Horses In Disguise
I have to draw on Guy Clark once again. He wrote:
"As far as I can see
Mistakes are only horses in disguise
Ain’t no need to ride ’em over
’Cause we could not ride ’em different if we tried"
There is a great deal of truth in this brief rhyme. We humans are so quick to find guilt when we have done something wrong. Guilt turns into defeat, We beat ourselves up until we are overwhelmed with fear that the problem we created is so great that there is no turning back. The result is thinking like a quitter.
That is simply wrong-headed. So you couldn't resist the temptation. Okay, is it the end of the world? Has the problem been so terrible that there is now no turning back? NO! There is no need to feel guilty, to feel shame. Rather, get back up on the horse and continue to ride. Learn from the temptation. Try to avoid it in the future. Nothing is so terrible that it signals the end of your struggle.
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