How do you say no to temptation?

 According to the Australian Better Health Initiative ''1 in 2 Australian adults is overweight. And, irrespective of your height or build, if your waistline is getting bigger it could mean you are at increased risk of chronic diseases like some cancers, heart disease and type 2 diabetes."

A scary statistic in itself and something we should all find motivation from to keep our waistlines under control and say no to desert when out for dinner or no to the yummy canapes being offered at social functions.

But how do we find that extra piece of motivation to say no to all those yummy foods that seem to be offered to us everywhere we go?  Resisting temptation is one of the hardest things you will face in your weight loss journey and finding the willpower to say no can seem as impossible as winning lotto. However if you remind yourself how many calories that little mouthful of yumminess is worth and how many hours you will need to put in at the gym  to burn in off, it may make it that little bit easier to say no.

The best thing is to be prepared. Ensure you are eating a healthy meal before going out to occasions where you know you might be faced with temptations. That way you are full and won't be looking for anything to eat that may stop your tummy from grumbling.  But what else can you do?

We found the best thing to keep us on track with our calories in  our weight loss journeys was to keep a food diary. This way you can hold yourself accountable for every thing you eat, even that fun size mars bar you had at work when 3:30itis hit.

We both feel that the best thing about keeping a food diary, was to calculate how many calories we had eaten in comparison to how many calories we had burnt through exercise, and what we could expect to lose by the end of the week. We will show you a simple calculation  in a later blog that shows you how you can estimate your own weight loss. It is really simple and made us wonder why we hadn't known this earlier.


So food diaries are one thing to keep you on track but how do you find that willpower to say no when offered what looks like a slice of heaven on a plate?
Teneale's answer for this is imagining eating a big blob of lard instead of a mouth watering chocolate. Because really this is what you may as well be doing. Inside that treat is loads of fat that is just going to go straight to your love handles and make you want to cry when trying on that dress, that's suppose to impress, and its just too tight. Imagining eating a whole tub of butter doesn't seem so appealing?

Elise's solution is to tell herself that she is allowed that slice of cake, however she is not allowed it at this exact moment. If she still has the craving for that cake tomorrow , she will have it but count it into her calories well in advance.
Elise finds that  when she does this, the urge for that cake diminishes as it was purely having it there in front of her that the temptation was there in the first place. When the realisation of how many calories were in the treat, and the impulse is no longer there, the calories and energy she will need to burn to get rid of them often outweighs that fleeting desire.

What works for you? How do you stop yourself from eating what we all know we shouldn't but you think tastes to good to resist?