According to research findings from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the best way to prevent pigging out and indulging in junk-food cravings is to not attempt total resistance. Instead, it’s recommended that we postpone our indulgences.
Using this method allows us to resist and be gracious to ourselves at the same time. According to the study, delaying your “craving submissions” works because we’re not likely to eat those junk foods later after all.
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So, what does this mean?
When people are faced with a sugary or fatty food temptation, they experience a tug-of-war between eating (pleasure) and not eating (restraint and deprivation). This is because eating is a natural human tendency, whereas restraint is unnatural for humans and is, therefore, more challenging for us.
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In fact, restraint often leads to overconsumption in the future, because it increases your desire and reduces your willpower.
The postponement gives in to the natural tendency of wanting and having the pleasure, just not at that particular moment.
It tricks the mind and body into thinking it will have that pleasure, which enables people to keep the temptation at arm’s length at the time of peak desire for the temptation. This allows the mind and body to cool off.
But won’t you just end up eating the treat, well, later? Unlikely, the study found.
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“When people don’t indulge in the temptation, the temptation seems less and less desirable in the future, enabling people to continue postponing the pleasure,” research says.
To come to this conclusion, researchers gave student volunteers bowls of M&Ms. Some were told to
