As the New Year approaches and many people consider resolutions, psychology experts at the University of Dundee have shown that overcoming cravings and minor setbacks are all part of the journey of changing behaviours.

Researchers from the School of Humanities, Social Science and Law (HSSL) carried out a seven-month study following a group of people changing from carnivorous to vegetarian or vegan diets.

Throughout the study researchers tracked participants’ cravings and occasions where meat had been eaten, and found that the number and strength of these cravings gradually reduced over time.

They also found that people used several mental strategies to deliberately avoid acting on their cravings, including removing themselves from triggering environments.

Dr Blair Saunders, a Senior Lecturer in Psychology who led the study, said, “Once people develop strong habits to behave in a certain way, we used to think they wouldn’t need more deliberate self-regulation methods."

“But we now know that this is only the case for simple behaviours, those that are pretty quick to do and involve a one-step decision, like brushing your teeth."

“More complex behaviours which are multistage and take a long time to execute, or require multiple stages of decision making, need a combination of habitual factors and more deliberate strategies.”

Dr Saunders explained that developing a strong habit for one replacement behaviour, in this case eating vegetarian or vegan food, might not be sufficient to overcome cravings to eat meat because this old behaviour is also very strongly engrained.

“Even after we have developed a good habit, we still seem to need a range of strategies to overcome unexpected cravings,” Dr Saunders says.

“There are a range of strategies which could be used. Try changing the situation, moving away from the place or thing that is triggering, distracting yourself to reduce the craving, or thinking again about your reasons and motives for the change.”

The data from the study showed a continual month-on-month decrease in cravings and lapses over the seven-month period and a significant reduction when month seven was compared to the first month.

This highlights that behaviour change takes time, and that initial lapses during one-month challenges, such as Veganuary, are normal and should not be viewed as a sign to give up.

“The most important thing is not to see the craving, or even minor setbacks, as a sign of failure,” Dr Saunders adds.

“These setbacks happen and over time they will become less frequent and easier to overcome – they are not a reason to fall back into an old habit.”

A paper Food cravings are associated with increased self-regulation, even in the face of strong instigation habits: A longitudinal study of the 'transition to plant-based eating’ has been published in the journal Applied Psychology Health and Wellbeing.