If you’re a fan of Tim Ferriss, you know about the slow-carb diet. In case you don’t here’s a link to blog where Tim tells you how he used the slow-carb diet to lose 20 pounds of fat in 30 days – http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/04/06/how-to-lose-20-lbs-of-fat-in-30-days-without-doing-any-exercise/
Alex Lickerman, who runs a blog called Happiness in this World: Reflections of a Buddhist Physician, wrote a brilliant post (at least in my opinion) explaining why even a reasonably easy diet like the slow-carb can difficult for people to follow.
Willpower is not only among the weakest of mental forces, but in most people it actually fatigues with continued use. Some have suggested this is part of the reason the cheat day helps people stay on the diet: it gives their weary wills a much-needed chance to recover enough to resist the subsequent week’s temptations. The problem, though, is that the time horizon over which willpower fails isn’t days—it’s hours (not that the cheat day isn’t crucial—just not, in my view, for recharging the will).
This almost certainly explains why most of my patients who gave up the diet told me that when they would come across a tempting carb during the week, too often their wills weren’t strong enough to resist it. When they found themselves confronted with a piece of pie, a brownie, or a bagel—especially if it was near the end of the day—they’d end up eating it almost as often as they’d pass it by. It didn’t take too many weeks of failing this way for them to become discouraged and give up.
But the reason they failed wasn’t because the slow-carb diet doesn’t work. The reason they failed was because they were relying the wrong strategy to implement it. The key to resisting the temptation isn’t willpower. It’s distraction, avoidance, and acceptance. What follows below, then, is the 7-point plan I gave them for beating temptation without relying on willpower.
You can read his 7-point plan for beating temptation without relying on willpower by visiting his blog – http://www.happinessinthisworld.com/2013/03/24/an-alternative-to-willpower-for-losing-weight-distraction-avoidance-and-acceptance/
Even if you’re not interested in the slow-carb diet, I think you can benefit from what Alex has to say.