20 Habits that make you fat...not a joke..

[noamnety]

6. I think they're talking about developing the habit.

You can absolutely train yourself to reach for water instead - but an intermediate step might be to tell yourself you can have the ice cream but only if you chug a glass of water first.

If you aren't a fan of cold water, you could have a cup of herbal tea, which may have more of a comforting feel.

I think it's like the technique of giving up smoking gradually, with one of the steps being wait 15 minutes after a meal before lighting up, and then delaying that out further and further. So the thought process isn't "I can't smoke" or "I can't have the ice cream" - but it's more like "I will do that after I do x,y, or z."

The first benefit is that the water fills you up some so you don't do AS MUCH damage with the ice cream, and the second benefit which might be even more important is that you're retraining yourself to have a small amount of power over the food, by consciously decided you can delay it until you do something healthy first.