‘Tis the season to drop healthy eating habits, so this piece found in the NYTimes felt extra timely. We’ve all experienced it, “I’ve been so good with my diet,” or “I killed myself in that spin class,” so I earned this chocolate caramel frappuccino. Psychologists call it the “licensing effect” and suggest this tit-for-tat tendency is hard-wired deep within us. The main idea is that we (should) have fairly stable self-control and when we swing too far one way we automatically take action to balance it out. Curiously, those with the greatest self-control are the most vulnerable. In one study weight-conscious people were asked to guess the calorie content of a burger. The average guess was 734 calories. When the same burger was placed alongside three celery sticks, the average guess dropped to 619. These are not rational calculations; they betray the shortcuts your brain takes in its running tally of vice and virtue. What’s the solution? Hold yourself to a higher standard. But isn’t that what get us into this fix in the first place? Read more at NYTimes.com.