Don't Chance Your Health On Self-Control

Turns out we aren't that good at it

We’ve all had experiences of giving in to our temptations at some point in our lives. Many of us have found out the hard way that the more often we expose ourselves to a given temptation, the more likely we are to give into it.

There are many things in life that offer pleasure and some of those things should not be indulged in very frequently (or in some cases at all). These things often find their way into our lives through temptation. This is especially true when it comes to our diet.

We know how good that chocolate doughnut is or that slice of pepperoni pizza. We also know how it will make us feel afterward, especially when eating that food doesn’t align with our current health goals and it causes us to feel guilt. This is temptation.

The most effective way to deal with temptation is to completely remove our desire for whatever that temptation is. But let’s be honest, some things in life are pretty damn good sp that’s easier said than done.

What do we do about that then? Many of us make the mistake of thinking the answer is developing better self-control. We just think, “if I can just say no, I’ll be alright.” The truth is that having self-control is no easy feat and generally speaking, humans are pretty bad at it.

In short spurts, we may be able to use motivation to achieve a certain goal to bolster our self-control and make us more likely to avoid temptation. But as many of us have found, over time our motivation weakens and so does our self-control and we end up giving into the temptation in the end.

So, what’s the answer?

The answer is to simply remove the tempations from our lives or remove our proximity to those tempations. When it comes to dieting, this looks like asking the waiter not to bring the bread basket before our dinner. It looks like not walking by the dessert section of the store during our weekly grocery shopping trip. It looks like cleaning out the pantry and fridge to remove junk food so late night you isn’t likely to make a decision they’ll regret in the morning.

Of course it is impossible to completely remove all of our dietary temptations from our lives. There is always going to be that co-worker that brings cookies into the work lounge, or that friend who wants to stop by the ice cream shop on the way home from the gym. Many times, these experiences may be beyond our control. But if we focus on what we can control and reduce our exposure to our biggest tempations when we can, we find that our ability to say no does improve and we actually do develop better self-control to compliment our new strategies for resisting temptation.

We just can’t depend on self-control right away and who wants to chance their health on a fleeting skill that most humans aren’t very good at anyway?

Thanks for reading,

Chris Irvin

P.S. I want to give a shoutout to a product that has become my most used over the last three months. HVMN’s Ketone-IQ has been a game changer for me. While many people are using this product for its endurance benefit, I have been using it for the cognitive boost it provides and it’s been unparalleled. I use it before podcasts, work meetings, and late in the afternoon when I need an energy boost but want to avoid coffee. Whether you are keto or not, Ketone-IQ is brain fuel and you’ll notice the difference right away.