For many of our Optimal Body Balance clients, setting goals and making action plans helps keep them on track and guides good decision making. But sometimes plans go out the window. Things happen. For those times when you don’t have a plan in place, it helps to “think healthy” before making a poor food decision.
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology conducted a brain-imaging experiment examining food choices. Participants were shown images of different kinds of foods and were asked whether or not they would like to eat that food when the experiment was over. They found that when participants were asked to consider the healthiness of a food, they were less likely to eat unhealthy food and more likely to eat healthy food even if they did not consider the healthy food to be tasty.
The brain-imaging found that thinking about healthiness lights up an area of the brain linked with self control. You can use this to your advantage. When you feel like you are in a situation where you may make some poor decisions, take a couple of minutes to just “think healthy”. Think about the healthiness of the choice you are about to make, take some time to review your goals, maybe keep a small reminder with you (a “before” photo or a number of how many pounds or inches you’ve lost).
