Have an asterisk if needed
Having an asterisk with some fine print could help build your courage to make a difficult promise.
No asterisk:
I will never eat cake again.
Duration asterisks:
I will not eat any cake for the next year.
I will not eat any cake for the next week.
I will not eat any cake tomorrow!
Day-of-week asterisks:
I will never eat cake again except on Saturdays.
I will never eat cake again on Mondays.
Time-of-day asterisks:
I will never eat cake after 7 PM at night.
I will never eat cake again before 9 AM.
Characteristic asterisks:
I will never eat chocolate cake again.
I will never eat non-homemade cake again.
Location asterisks:
I will never eat cake again in my home.
Special-day asterisks:
I will never eat cake again except on birthdays of my immediate family.
These can all be combined of course:
For the next year, I will not eat chocolate cake except at the Wilsons on Mondays between 5 PM and 7PM, except for my birthday and my son's birthday, when I will enjoy as much as I want.
The key with all of this is to precisely excise the vice that is causing you to be overweight without doing too much collateral damage that makes life a tad unpleasant.* For example, my promise to never eat pre-packaged sweet things that come in a wrapper was specifically targeted at the honey buns and candy bars that came in the vending machine at work. (But in my case I wanted to promise the whole category away.)
Bottom line: do what it takes!
See also this article on PUBIMO™ promises.
For another type of asterisk, see "Consider the source when making promises".
----------------------
* On the other hand, you don't want so many promises that you can't keep up with them! Note that when all was said and done I only ended up with six. Even then there have been times I've had to sit and stare at a particular food item while going through my rules like a checklist making sure that what I was about to eat was legal.
