At JillFit, we’re often talking about the mental constructs around food – how we think about food, and then how those thoughts impact what we end up doing. I’m fascinated with the psychology of why we do what we do, and how we can use those insights to change our behavior.

Honing your mindset, i.e. your perception, is vital in both being able to implement changes consistently and also getting the results you desire over time.

You can never implement sustainable nutrition changes without getting your mind on board. Any physical change you make through deprivation and short-term willpower harnessing (aka “white-knuckling”) will not be sustainable until your mental game is in the right place.

So today I want to talk about nutrition and willpower, and give you an example.

Nutrition and willpower are intricately linked.

You know this. This is why nighttime eating is likely to be more overindulgent. You’re making choices about what to eat after a long day of wearing willpower down, making hundreds of decisions and enduring plenty of stress. These things are not benign. Your willpower if finite – it’s equivalent to your cell phone battery being drained throughout the day. You only have so much charge.

So in a sense, it’s not really our fault when you come home after a long, stressful day and want to eat the kitchen. But that’s also what happens when you don’t protect your mental energy. In fact, most people do this daily, because they’re unaware that they are at zero charge at 8pm, or that there even exists a way to conserve energy throughout the day.

You’re familiar with implementing preemptive cheats, creating “nutritional relief” in your day. These things can reset your nutritional willpower somewhat, so that you at least have a better chance of coming home more satisfied than if you used up all your willpower trying to eat perfectly all day.

You’ve heard me talk about The Habit Loop, outlined in Charles Duhigg’s awesome book ‘The Power of Habit’ too. There are 3 parts to a habit loop:

I want to give you an example of how this works in practice.

I was talking to a client the other day, and she was telling me about how big of a sweet tooth she has. She loves candy, and we were laughing as I was asking her about her habits. She was saying, “Oh, if I go to Target, forget about it! I go right to the candy section, get the biggest box of Milk Duds they have and then eat them as I walk around the store shopping.”

Can you see what’s going on here? It’s so obviously a habit that perpetuates the feelings she wants: relaxation, “a special occasion,” enjoyment, indulgence, comfort, etc. She gets to “relax” with her routine; it gives her that dopamine hit she craves.

Cue: Going to Target.

Routine: Get large box of Milk Duds.

Reward: Relax and enjoy shopping with her yummy sweets.

Why do I feel like I want to go to Target all of a sudden?? Lol. ;)

So how do we navigate this?

A few things:

First, after some prodding, she admitted to me that she tends to deprive herself beforehand if she knows she’s going to Target. So I immediately knew we needed to get her feeling satisfied beforehand. If she walked into Target feeling as though she can have any chocolate any time of day (even if she’s going to Target that day!), that abundance mindset will take the edge off feeling like this is some kind of special, illicit treat that she can only indulge in when she’s at Target.

When we categorize days and assign “treats” to only specific times or days, we are setting ourselves up to feel the illicitness of food. If we feel like we can only eat certain foods on certain days, we continue to put food up on a pedestal, so we’re more likely to need it to get that dopamine hit, or that feeling of “relaxing with food.”

I don’t want Milk Duds to be special. I want them to potentially be accessible any time anywhere.

And in addition, I wanted my client to find ways to feel satisfied BEFORE she hit Target so the pull to get a large box of Milk Duds would be less. This takes practice because the habit loop is so strong.

Which brings me to the next thing: we had to address the habit itself.

We all have to go to Target sometimes. So how can we navigate those trips so that we don’t have to engage in the habit we’ve created?

In order to change a habit, you have to a) take something away and b) add something in its place.

We are going to take away the large box of Milk Duds.

This is sad because we want them. It’s disappointing to take them away. So we need to add in something that is comparably satisfying – maybe not just as satisfying, but something close.

Some ideas:

The key here is finding workarounds and alternatives to boost willpower, create nutrition reprieve without deprivation and then practice a new way.

This doesn’t happen overnight, but with some mindfulness and courage, you can remediate so much of this stuff. But you have to think. You have to actually want to do something different—which is really hard because the nature of habits is that we enjoy them! You have to get creative with your workarounds.

Getting a smaller box of Milk Duds really is better than getting the large box. But often we’ll think, “Well, if I’m going to go ‘off plan’ I might as well go all the way!” No. This mentality is why we continue to struggle and reinforce the all-or-nothing approach. These small changes do matter, and they add up over time.

But you have to have the courage to allow better to be … good enough ;)

I hope you have a great rest of the week! I am heading to LA tomorrow for The Radiance Retreat, an event I’m hosting with fitness favs Jen Sinkler and Neghar Fonooni – be sure to follow all the shenanigans on in Instagram!

Until next week, I’m loving you!

Xo,

Jill