Men can't think straight when they see pretty women!

An article in the Daily Telegraph got me thinking. The researchers at Radboud University in The Netherlands said 'We conclude men's cognitive functioning may temporarily decline after an interaction with an attractive woman.'

The same part of the brain, the pre-frontal cortex, is involved here as with willpower. Just a little bit of decision making reduces our capacity for self-control. So we can't rely on our willpower to help us control our eating any more than men seem able to think after seeing a pretty woman. Making constant demands on our willpower just makes it weaker.

So if we are wanting to lose weight, what can we do?

Making a few small changes in our daily behaviour every week, allows them to become automatic, so that we don't need to use our willpower or think about controlling our desires. For example, if you find that you eat when you are bored, then think of something that might resolve the boredom to replace the eating.

What about origami? This has the additional benefit of being a bit of a party piece as well as being very portable. Or what about knitting? Or reading a book, or learning a language? What interesting thing could you be doing that stops you from picking at food when you are bored?

www.carolinebrowntherapy.com