When it comes to dieting, eating healthily, or even just giving up a certain unhealthy food that we’ve always eaten, it can be extremely hard to follow through on these things sometimes. But why is that the case? Is there something wrong with our willpower that makes it so tiresome to stick to our goals? Is something faulty about the human spirit? No, and there’s no need to beat yourself up about it either. Here’s the reason it’s so hard to give up certain foods, and how to overcome it.
We Love Our Routines
Sure, there are certain substances, such as sugar and caffeine, that can be physically addicting, and they can both be hard to kick for physiological reasons. But let’s be real. If these ingredients weren’t part of foods that were so psychologically and emotionally entrenched within our routines, then we’d have a much easier time stopping.
If our coffee breaks weren’t such big parts of our day-to-day work lives, then it’d be easier to give up caffeine. If our weekly movie dates with our spouses weren’t such common things, we’d have an easier time stopping to eat popcorn. The list goes on and on.
In other words, the first step to breaking the cycle of consuming something isn’t focusing on the thing itself. It’s understanding where, when, and why you usually eat it. Only when we take a long, hard, and honest look at its role in our everyday routine, that’s when we’ll be able to make real change.
