A strategy to break away from a habitual activity is to:

• Recognize your dependency
• Acknowledge how the bad habit affects your life
• Control the Cues to minimize triggers.

Companies make us habitual. Companies like Facebook, Netflix, and Uber spend millions on R&D of better tools to minimize friction, to get people to use their services more and more and form a habit.

Just merely knowing something is good or bad for you is not going to give you any benefit, unless the implementation is done. Conscious knowledge cannot change your behavior, one has to make necessary changes to successfully act in self-control.

If you know that you will eat junk foo...

Though companies like Nike try to ignite our willpower with their slogans, ultimately willpower cannot squash our subconscious and unconscious behavior.

Repetition of action and thought can make the required change seep into us, turning it into a machine-like, habitual behavior.

Toothpaste companies heavily advertise scary messages of tooth decay (a cue) ensuring people buy their product.

The taste was designed to produce a certain tingle in the mouth, a fresh, irritant taste that provided a 'reward'.