Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
If your world is anything like mine, you might still be facing a steady temptation: cookies and candies and chocolates leftover from the holidays. And you’re probably aware that the fleeting pleasure of eating sweets comes with unfortunate and longer-lasting effects, both physical and cognitive.
But there they are, begging to be eaten. Because sugar is addictive,1 indulging over the holidays has probably made you crave sweets even more than usual. I know it has had that effect on me.
But there is a way to navigate the post-holidays sugar-minefield; there is a way to be strategic rather than relying on pure willpower. Actually, there are probably several ways, but here’s the one I’m using to resist these goodies:
I typically feel a craving to eat the chocolates that are lying around the office where I work right after I eat lunch. The solution? Immediately brush my teeth. (Yes, I keep a toothbrush at work.) If I brush my teeth, my brain takes it as a clear signal that eating time is over, and it lets go of the desire to eat the sweets. Eating sugar right after brushing my teeth would feel more wrong than eating sugar before brushing my teeth. Furthermore, they won’t taste as good mixed with the taste of toothpaste. Lastly, I’m using my desire to avoid inconvenience to help me overcome my desire to eat sweets. I would have to brush my teeth all over again if I did eat them after brushing, and I don’t want to have to do that.
True, I do have to use willpower to get myself to brush my teeth in the first place instead of diving into the chocolates, but I’m using willpower strategically so that I don’t have to continuously resist temptation all afternoon.
1 Taubes, Gary. The Case Against Sugar. Knopf, 2016.