How do you put this into practice? When you look at a doughnut, take a second, and vividly imagine the way you are going to feel 15 minutes after eating it - the post sugar-rush crash that leaves you exhausted and craving more doughnuts, the sense of guilt at falling off the wagon. Go further and envision, in rich detail, the greasy fat lining your arteries. Then picture yourself after eating doughnuts every day for three months: 20 pounds heavier with bad skin and exhausted all of the time. Take a minute to live in all of the negative emotions that you know will be associated with eating that doughnut. Really summon up these feelings and will them to permeate your whole being – body, mind, and spirit. Making yourself feel these emotions is the key to making this technique work.

After a minute, banish all of this negative imagery and replace it with a picture of yourself having achieved all of your fitness goals. In your minds eye, you are already lean, toned, and athletic. You look and feel the way you’ve always wanted to look and feel. Feel the sense of accomplishment, the pride at having achieved this body. Now envision what your life will be like: The increased energy and confidence. The way that people look at you. That guy or girl who never really noticed you before who now checks you out every time you walk by. Live in these feelings. The vision of being who and where you want to be - and the emotional experience visualization and association provide – can give you the focus and drive to get there.

All of this imagining only takes about two minutes. Best of all, the more often you do it, the better you get at it. After a few weeks of practicing visualization/association, you’ll find that you naturally have more control over your desires without even having to close your eyes and consciously visualize. The image of the body and the life you’re trying to build will remain in your mind all of the time. The idea of doing something (like eating garbage food) that will keep you from building that body and that life will start to seem crazy. As with sports, or sewing, or typing, or any other activity, mastering your emotions is a skill you can acquire. Visualization and association is the way you acquire it.

For more on fighting food cravings specifically, see Controlling Cravings. This section is all about how to eat and exercise to stop cravings before they start, or nip them in the bud. Combining the right nutrition and exercise strategy with this visualization/association technique will help you to take command and build the body that you want. And hopefully, if you find visualization/association helpful in improving your health habits, you be able to apply it successfully in other areas of your life as well.