Question: In your opinion what Is the best way to resist temptation?

Heather McKee answered on 24 Jun 2010:

Exellent question! It really depends on a number of factors-hence why it’s so hard to overcome! Firstly it depends on your personality type some people are ‘moderators’ so can have things they like in small portions and not over indulge however most of us tend to be in the ‘all or nothing’ category where after one bite we’ve got to have it all-therefore not having that first bite is the key.
However the environments we create can also have a massive effect on our behaviour if we are exposed to temptation on a daily basis our resistance gets broken down. For example a study was done on people who had sweet bowls with M&M’s in them within their eye line from their desks at work and those who had sweets in the cupboard(out of sight)-those who could see the sweets ate 75% more M&M’s than those who had them in the cupboard. Those who could see the sweets had to make a decision whether or not to dig in every time the bowl came into their view eventually their good intentions got broken down and they gave in to temptation. So keeping the cookie jar out of view is a help, however sometimes knowing that it’s there is enough to induce a full on binge. In reality we cannot entirely engineer temptation out of our lives so we must develop skills with which to be able to resist hence what I’m working out at the moment. If you learn to continually resist temptation your vulnerability to it decreases over time and your less likely to fall off the wagon. What were currently looking at is how this can come about in the first instance, that’s the key!