List of micro-challenges to resist temptation (6-9) and examples of facing desires

6. Distract yourself by doing something else small. It's best to think about what you can do before you get tempted.

7. Reward yourself in other ways, or "treat yourself." This could be watching TV instead of eating tortilla chips, or buying that T-shirt you've always wanted instead of ice cream. Any non-food reward that won't make you gain weight will do.

8. Take a walk. Just step out of your house and go for a stroll. Walks are enjoyable, assuming, of course, that you live in a safe place.

9. How did the walk feel? If you've made it to the 9th mini-challenge, you've already won big! If you still want to eat, and these challenges went well, making you feel great and want to do another one, then discuss with yourself how much you can eat, or postpone it for another day, while maintaining a balance between not feeling ashamed (don't unconsciously indulge in it) and feeling happy (don't be too hard on yourself).

This concludes the list of mini-challenges for dealing with temptation. Feel free to change the order of these challenges if you wish. Some may be more effective than others. Don't wait until you face temptation to decide the order of completing this list, as making decisions consumes willpower, and we need to build up our willpower (especially when facing temptation).

You can adjust this order as needed, depending on the specific circumstances. If your usual order is the same as mine, but a different reward (i.e., the 7th micro-challenge) is more convenient at a particular time, then go straight to the 7th one. Even so, consistently practicing the same thing still has many benefits, because the more you do the same behavior, the more accustomed you become to using it to resist temptation. Therefore, I recommend that you establish a fixed order and adjust it as needed.

Faced with examples of desire

It's 11:34 PM, and you're sitting on the sofa when suddenly you think, "Oh my god! I want ice cream right now!" That's craving. Relax, don't let craving become a stressful "dieting decision," don't be afraid to give in to the craving, and try to deal with it calmly.

First, recognize that shame is the real enemy, and allow yourself two small challenges, then you can eat ice cream without shame. Before, you wanted complete control, so you set strict rules, then broke them. Now, you're slowly changing your "either don't eat or binge eat" approach and starting to make decisions calmly.

1. Meditate for one minute.

2. Eat healthy alternatives (if you don’t have healthy food, skip to the third mini-challenge).

3. Do a push-up (or other light exercise).

4. You can give yourself more mini-challenges, or you can just go eat ice cream-eat as much as you want. You can eat ice cream, and no one will stop you, but don't stop thinking while you're eating. Eat mindfully, enjoy the ice cream, think about how much ice cream you really want to eat, and take all factors into account (including the extra weight).

According to the law of diminishing marginal utility, we'll find the first slice of pizza tastier than the fifth. This holds true regardless of the delicacies we eat, so it's crucial to remain alert and rational while consuming food. We might eat unhealthy food and not feel particularly happy because we're eating in a daze, without conscious awareness. Whenever we eat, we should be mindful of what we eat.

If you're going to eat, then eat well.

Sometimes you might complete the mini-challenges above (or not), and still end up eating onion rings, fast food, and drinking soda. That's okay; you're only human. In such situations, never deceive yourself or your body with "dietary foods."

Never, ever eat diet foods. Not only will eating diet foods make you gain weight-because weight gain is a metabolic issue, and diet foods do more harm to metabolism than real sugar-but they also have the biggest negative psychological impact on weight loss.

The most classic image is people comfortably eating baked potato chips, drinking bottle after bottle of sugar-free carbonated beverages (since they have no calories), and gulping down skim milk as if cows had all gone extinct. Foods touted as "slimming" make you believe that eating them won't make you fat, or that you'll gain less weight than eating regular food. This isn't downplaying shame; it's downplaying the truth! This misconception is bad enough, but worse, it makes you unconsciously want to eat more than usual because you think of these "slimming" foods.

If you're going to eat unhealthy foods, make sure they contain plenty of real fat and real sugar. First, these foods taste better and provide a physiological sense of satisfaction because your body can process them. Second, you'll be more aware of your decision. It's like paying with cash instead of a credit card-handing a banknote to the cashier feels more like a loss than swiping a plastic card to spend hundreds of dollars. Similarly, when you eat a big bite of a three-layer chocolate sundae, you'll feel your weight increase! But you won't feel ashamed because you've anticipated that shame. Linking these foods to weight is a good thing because even if a food is full of artificial additives or labeled "low-fat" or "slimming," it can still make you gain weight.

I encourage you to do this not to make you feel that eating unhealthy things is bad, but to help you understand that there are no shortcuts to weight loss if you eat cake all day. Real foods repair the metabolic system because they reduce inflammation levels, stimulate appropriate rewards and satisfaction, and give the body time to slowly recover from the damage caused by eating Frankenstein's-style foods.

The right mindset when facing temptation: Stop the internal struggle

While this book introduces many excellent strategies, if your view of eating and exercising habits remains, "I have to exert myself to eat healthy foods and do things that are good for my body," you'll still be sabotaging yourself. This idea might sound reasonable, but fighting against your current eating and exercising habits is essentially declaring war on your subconscious. That's a terrible move. Some people encounter significant difficulties implementing micro-habit strategies because they haven't actually abandoned their old ways of thinking.

The micro-habits and alternative strategies introduced in this book are somewhat arbitrary. The advantage of micro-habits is that they don't trigger any internal struggle or threaten your existing lifestyle. Micro-habits are like a taxi; no matter where you are, they will hop you in without complaint and take you to a new place.

Understanding the following is crucial; you can reread it if needed. If you feel resistant to completing micro-habits or micro-challenges, it's because you're resisting in the wrong way-because you're too focused on doing the "right thing."

When faced with temptation, your first reaction shouldn't be, "Oh my god, how do I get rid of this craving?" Even if your subsequent methods are clever, your initial attitude of directly resisting temptation already puts you at a significant disadvantage.

I'm going to write this important sentence three times.

The harder you try to resist temptation, the less you want to do the right thing.

The harder you try to resist temptation, the less you want to do the right thing.

The harder you try to resist temptation, the less you want to do the right thing.

Resisting "wrong things" will annoy your subconscious (because the subconscious wants to do wrong things), and then you'll develop a resistance to even simple things like doing a push-up or drinking a glass of water. These things are ridiculously simple when there are no other distractions, but once you see them as stumbling blocks to "having fun," they become only slightly easier than the grand goals that people often can't achieve.

Blindly believing in "quick fixes" is the biggest obstacle to successfully cultivating micro-habits. We should change our behavior through freedom, self-acceptance, and strategic, consistent action. Describing mental processes may be a more effective way to convey the right attitude.

Good idea: These cookies look delicious, I want to eat one. I know these cookies will make me gain weight, so I'll complete two mini-challenges first, and then eat them.

Bad thought: These cookies look delicious, I want to eat one. Ugh, I can't eat them now! I shouldn't! I really want to lose weight, but these cookies look so amazing! I need to think of something now! What strategies can stop me from eating cookies?

See how calm, casual, and gentle the first reaction is? See how impatient, defensive, and out of control the second reaction is? The first reaction is better because it doesn't create a "it's either you or me" situation, and it doesn't put too much pressure on you or force you to change yourself immediately. The first reaction allows you to "catch your breath."

Another bad thought: I'm going to use this mini-challenge to beat my desires.

The "ultimate goal" of micro-habits is simply to complete the micro-habit, nothing more. You can't expect micro-habits to help you resist temptation, make you exercise for extended periods, or make you fall in love with green beans one day, but you can expect them to gradually help you make progress in all of these areas. Does that make sense? If you expect micro-habits to fulfill your immediate desires, your goal is no longer to complete the micro-habit, but to fulfill your immediate, specific desire. To avoid this, you can't just focus on individual events and results; you need to focus on consistently making small actions. In weight loss, every battle is important, but no single battle can completely turn the tide. Don't be afraid of failing a single battle; be afraid of a single battle throwing you off balance and causing you to lose the whole war (which brings us back to the question: which is worse, eating a cookie or feeling ashamed for eating a cookie?).

I know you really want to make a change, and I know you really want to get rid of those bad habits that aren't helping you get healthy and slim. Apply that strong will to mastering micro-habit strategies, and you'll see real progress, not the typical "dietary weight loss rollercoaster"-losing 10 pounds in 10 days and then gaining 15 pounds in the next 60 days.