The most frequent New Year’s resolution is to lose weight. However, one thing that gets in the way of the best goals and intentions are cravings. Cravings tell us in a very clear voice what we should do, and they have tremendous motivational force. They often seem to trigger a string of actions as if we were on autopilot – we do whatever they tell us, disregarding our own previous plans.

To help with these moments, I’ve created a visual guideline (you can download it in full size as a pdf, if you click on it):

At first my idea was only to create a reminder for myself, but then I realized it might be helpful for others too, so I turned it into a more self-explanatory and shareable design. It is meant as a quick guide to help you reclaim control over your own decisions – in the heat of those craving moments.

My recommendation: save the image somewhere close by (on your desktop? on Evernote? your photo app?) — wherever you can access it quickly at times you’re most likely to succumb to cravings.

Then, the next time you feel a craving (it will happen!), take a look at it and just go through those quick steps.

After you’ve done it a couple of times, it will become a more natural way of your thinking and you may not need the image anymore.

by Ursina Teuscher (PhD), at Teuscher Decision Coaching, Portland OR

Credits:
So many different sources have inspired this drawing that it’s hard to know where to begin and end citing, especially because I’ve taken the liberty to change original concepts to suit my purpose here. The most important sources are: the frameworks of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and the Stop Think Do idea that is used in a variety of behavior management and cognitive-behavioral skills training approaches.