So you survived Thanksgiving, and are praying that the added cost of pumpkin pie + halloween candy + office parties + Christmas parties + New Year’s  doesn’t totally derail your fitness or weight loss goals. Perhaps up until you turned comfort food corner, you’ve been doing real well.

In  reality, if you intend to take off the weight and keep it off, Holiday season or not, you’ve got to be continually vigilant about the choices you make year round. And sometimes it seems that some of us have a way easier time than others being mindful about food or fitness choices on a regular basis, while others more easily succumb to temptation when faced with it (this tends to be worse during the Holidays when sweets and comfort foods are EVERYWHERE).

Train your brain like you train your biceps.

It’s not like these people are super-disciplined humans with no sense of smell for homemade chocolate chip cookies, but the one thing they probably have in common is willpower- the power to use discipline and self-awareness to make choices that steer them towards achieving their bigger goal, no matter what the occasion.

The good news is you can exercise your “willpower muscle” much like you exercise your muscles when you lift weights. The more you “train” your brain to either resist a temptation or make a positive choice, the easier and more natural the process becomes.  If you stop and think about it, how many times have you been faced with a temptation and you hear two voices in your head battling it out?

And how many times have you “spent” your mental energy all day at work, resisting the urge to tell a complaining customer or boss to shove it, then come home and bury your sorrows in a cheesecake or a bottle of wine (or both!)?  Perhaps you’ve exhausted your willpower muscle, and something has gone on in your head that either steers you to make the best choice for your diet/fitness goals or away from it.