Habits not willpower are the key to making healthy food choices

Let’s talk willpower. All too often the term is synonymous with weight loss and therein lies the problem. We’re made out to believe that willpower is something we either have or don’t have. And if we don’t possess willpower then we are somehow less, a failure.

What is willpower?

The crux of willpower is the ability to resist short-term gratification in order to achieve long term goals. In practice willpower is the steely resolve to decline the biscuits at work or the Friday night chippy tea run. It’s something you either have or don’t have.

The language around dieting and heavily on willpower. We’re told to resist sugar and carbs and cut out fat. When friends decline a slice of cake with the words, ‘no, I’m being good’ they’re displaying willpower.

When we use willpower as a catch all approach for making healthier food choices, we leave ourselves open to failure. When our willpower is strong, we’re on top of the world but what about when it falters as it inevitably will. Where does it leave you then? Does it make you question where the power went? Why did this power not work this time? Maybe you’re not as committed to your goal as you thought?  

Healthy behaviours and actions

There’s too much riding on willpower, which can wax and wane like the moon. The key to improving your health with food is developing a range of healthy behaviours and actions, driven by determination to achieving a goal. Making consistent choices based on habits will get you there.

40% of our actions are the same as yesterday. Great if you’re where you want to be but not so great if you’re looking to make changes. Most of our actions are undertaken without a thought and this is because our brain has an autopilot setting which reduces the number of daily decisions.

We’ve evolved to reduce decisions to preserve our energy in order to survive. The reason we reach for that sugary muffin on the commute every morning even though we know it’s not good for us is because our brains take the path of least resistance.

When your habits are serving you and adding to your life, all of this makes sense, but how can we make healthy food choices when our behaviour is linked to unhealthy habits?

Build a habit

The good news is our brains are malleable and respond to repeated actions. My advice is to make one change and build a good habit. The temptation is to change everything but the likelihood of overwhelm is high. Start with one and accumulate success and then add in another.

When migraines plagued my every day, I knew I had to make lifestyle changes. I started by removing all caffeine from my diet. No coffee and no chocolate for me!

I relaced coffee with a collection of herbal teas and let me tell you, at first, they were no substitute! By removing coffee from my house and always carrying a few Pukka tea sachets with me in my bag, I made this habit stick. I didn’t substitute anything for chocolate, I just didn’t buy it again. I’ve not had coffee or chocolate for over two years and removed one of my main migraine triggers.

How to build healthy food habits:

1.     Start with one meal

Make the first meal of the day a balanced one to get you off to a great start. Who has time to prepare a breakfast feast when they’re rushing off to work in the morning? Prepare the night before. Overnight oats, veggie and lentil salad, or an apple and a few oatcakes to eat once you’re at the office.

2.     Look at your snacking

Snacking is almost always driven by habit. TV and crisps? Replace it with something else. If I’m watching TV, I’m usually writing a letter at the same time (yep, I still put pen to paper and send snail mail), just to kill two birds with one stone but it means my hands are less likely to reach for a snack because they’re busy already.

3.     Find and repeat

I went through a phase of having the same work lunch 3 days a week and it took away the need to make a decision or bend to a whim. Apparently, Steve Jobs wore same outfit to work every day, recognising he had finite brainpower to make decisions every day.

4.     Remove the temptation

Don’t make it possible for you to succumb to your chocolate addiction – remove the temptation by not having chocolate in the house. I’d advocate not buying it at all but if that’s too much to bear right now, store it somewhere inconvenient, like in the boot of your car or the garage. You’ll be less likely to seek out a bar of chocolate at 9pm in your dressing gown if you have to go outside in the rain!

Read more on habits

The Power of Habits by Charles Duhigg

7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey

IMAGE: "Rain Drops" by weimieweim is licensed under CC BY 2.0