what will power

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ReneeDawalga5100
ReneeDawalga5100 Posts: 177 Member
edited November 2023 in Getting Started
Any advise on making your willpower stronger?

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  • grimendale
    grimendale Posts: 2,154 Member
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    Practice and setting reasonable goals.
  • lessismoreohio
    lessismoreohio Posts: 910 Member
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    Pray / meditate on it. It also helps to take it one day at a time, one meal at a time.
  • Derpes
    Derpes Posts: 2,033 Member
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    Slowly but surely and practice moderation....
  • anna1m
    anna1m Posts: 29 Member
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    This is what I think (hope it helps):

    Remind yourself that on the days you don't want to work out, or feel like binge eating, it is especially important to exercise and eat well. If you give in and lay on the couch eating Oreos, then you are not changing anything.

    I believe that personal growth only comes from facing the discomfort head on and dealing with issues. It is easy to exercise and eat well when we are feeling motivated and positive. It is not easy to do so when we want to numb inner pain with cookies and tv.

    If we continue to numb in those moments of sadness, pain, depression, etc., then nothing will ever change for the better and we will never learn anything about ourselves.

    If instead, we say 'hey, all I want to do is watch tv and eat and not care about anything, I wonder what is going on for me?' Then sit there and examine what we are feeling, and try to deal with the emotion instead of numbing it out, we learn something about ourselves and how we cope.

    So on days that you are not feeling motivated, ask yourself what is going on emotionally, or physically - don't revert back to numbing behaviours.

    If you are feeling like crap, and/ or unmotivated, exercise and eating well is the most important thing you can do for your mind and your body. The more you push yourself to stick to your goals when you are feeling like this, the more you will learn about yourself, the better you will feel about yourself, and you will start to want to exercise and eat well because of how it makes you feel.

    Change never comes from a place of comfort.
  • happieharpie
    happieharpie Posts: 229 Member
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    I have had the willpower to do some very unpleasant things during my life, and as far as weight loss, I believe the concept is terribly overrated where weight loss is concerned.

    Instead, I think lasting weight loss results from finding the way to be satisfied by lower calorie portions of nutrient dense foods and reminding yourself why you prefer them over foods that harm instead of help you.

    I also pray, especially Pope John XXIII and Fr. Kapuan, both of whom knew of the pain of food related problems.

    I also remind myself of the advantages of losing weight over remaining severely obese.
  • jvbrooks
    jvbrooks Posts: 82 Member
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    I used to play football, and our coach had an expression -- it's always 0-0.

    It didn't matter if we were up ten points or down thirty, the score was always 0-0.

    What this meant is that it didn't matter what we did ten minutes ago, what mattered was how we played.

    The same goes for MFP and your losing weight. If you overeat one morning, don't act like it's all over and the day's a waste -- start your diet again every time you slip. Your calorie count from yesterday doesn't matter, all that matters is your calorie count for today.

    All that said, keep an eye on the score. Log every single day, and if you see your weight start to creep up, you need to fix that. But the key is logging every day, because that keeps you honest. Some people skip days because they're embarassed, but that's not the way to do it.

    Know how every single overweight person on the planet got that way? One calorie at a time. And that's the same way up as it is down.
  • marilou0511
    marilou0511 Posts: 591 Member
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    ... If you overeat one morning, don't act like it's all over and the day's a waste -- start your diet again every time you slip. Your calorie count from yesterday doesn't matter, all that matters is your calorie count for today.
    ...Know how every single overweight person on the planet got that way? One calorie at a time. And that's the same way up as it is down...
    Hi JVROOKS! Such wisdom from such a young man. Thank you. I'm struggling right now with working out. What do you say to yourself to get to that gym or exercise program.
  • bridgie101
    bridgie101 Posts: 817 Member
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    Any advise on making your willpower stronger?

    I don't use willpower because I haven't got any. I learned this quitting smoking.

    Yes, I managed to quit. Using logic though. Logic power is easier and it doesn't fizzle the way willpower fizzles.

    1. Don't move too fast for yourself.

    2. Track your food. Just track it for a week or 2. As an educational exercise. See how much you are consuming right now. I think if you track for a while, you will eventually start to make better choices just because it occurs to you to do so.

    I think most people, myself included, gain weight because we don't really have a clue how many calories that piece of pizza has in it. when we get the information our logic kicks in and wants us to at least not increase.
  • Willbenchforcupcakes
    Willbenchforcupcakes Posts: 4,955 Member
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    My experience is most people who talk about needing willpower fall into one of two camps - you're either trying to create too severe of a calorie deficit for your body to reasonably sustain, or you feel that since you're trying to lose weight, you need to eliminate a lot of things out of your diet.

    Of course if you're trying to starve your body, your mind is going to have to fight incredibly hard to stay on track. Eat at a more reasonable deficit, and you won't have to fight.

    If you try and tell yourself that you can't eat something, because you're on a diet, you are just going to want it. I did not cut anything out of my diet while I was losing weight. I have dropped the pop habit, but that was because my tastes changed and I found it way too sweet.

    As for working out, find what you love, and do it.
  • jvbrooks
    jvbrooks Posts: 82 Member
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    ... If you overeat one morning, don't act like it's all over and the day's a waste -- start your diet again every time you slip. Your calorie count from yesterday doesn't matter, all that matters is your calorie count for today.
    ...Know how every single overweight person on the planet got that way? One calorie at a time. And that's the same way up as it is down...
    Hi JVROOKS! Such wisdom from such a young man. Thank you. I'm struggling right now with working out. What do you say to yourself to get to that gym or exercise program.

    Like Nike. Just do it :)
  • Rai007
    Rai007 Posts: 387 Member
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    for all the good things around me

    if others can do it why cant i !!

    challenge urself !!
  • ReneeDawalga5100
    ReneeDawalga5100 Posts: 177 Member
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    Thanks guys this helps
  • ArtemisRuns
    ArtemisRuns Posts: 251 Member
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    Exercise. A lot.
  • toofatnomore
    toofatnomore Posts: 206 Member
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    For me it's logging EVERYTHING that I put in my mouth. It is virtually impossible to log the way I used to (and most overweight people) eat. I am firm and strict and won't let myself down by randomly eating this or that or piling on the portions because it is so hard to log food when you are all over the map.
    Now that this way of eating is now a habit, I don't miss the free for alls I had for years.
    FYI, I've only been on MFP for going on 8 weeks and I am down only 17 lbs, but NORMALLY I give up at the 29 day mark.
    This just feels right this time.
  • sonhando
    sonhando Posts: 69 Member
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    I used to play football, and our coach had an expression -- it's always 0-0.

    It didn't matter if we were up ten points or down thirty, the score was always 0-0.

    What this meant is that it didn't matter what we did ten minutes ago, what mattered was how we played.

    The same goes for MFP and your losing weight. If you overeat one morning, don't act like it's all over and the day's a waste -- start your diet again every time you slip. Your calorie count from yesterday doesn't matter, all that matters is your calorie count for today.

    All that said, keep an eye on the score. Log every single day, and if you see your weight start to creep up, you need to fix that. But the key is logging every day, because that keeps you honest. Some people skip days because they're embarassed, but that's not the way to do it.

    Know how every single overweight person on the planet got that way? One calorie at a time. And that's the same way up as it is down.

    Well said.
  • marilou0511
    marilou0511 Posts: 591 Member
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    ..I don't miss the free for alls I had for years. FYI, I've only been on MFP for going on 8 weeks and I am down only 17 lbs, but NORMALLY I give up at the 29 day mark.This just feels right this time...
    Hello from Chicago. Your discipline will get you to goal! Congratulations. I too need to stop the '"free for alls."
  • MuseofSong
    MuseofSong Posts: 322 Member
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    What helps with my will power is that I let myself literally eat anything I want, and I don't make myself eat anything because I 'should'. Anything I crave, I make room for it, and then I am less likely to have a serious problem. Although I have eaten over my calories sometimes, I usually make it up with more exercise or balance it out over the course of the week.

    I do not give myself 'cheat days' because I could have 3 modest sized meals of seriously calorie dense food, without batting an eye, and ruin my chance of any weekly loss.

    The other thing that helps is I'm only set at about 1 lb per week/lightly active as my goal. So, I'm definitely not deprived on calories and usually eat 1800-2000 calories a day. I tried the 2 lbs per week goal when I first got here. It was kinda awful.

    So, yeah, that's pretty much all I got. Everyone is different, good luck and drink more water, it helps!
  • TBates14
    TBates14 Posts: 37 Member
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    I used to play football, and our coach had an expression -- it's always 0-0.

    It didn't matter if we were up ten points or down thirty, the score was always 0-0.

    What this meant is that it didn't matter what we did ten minutes ago, what mattered was how we played.

    The same goes for MFP and your losing weight. If you overeat one morning, don't act like it's all over and the day's a waste -- start your diet again every time you slip. Your calorie count from yesterday doesn't matter, all that matters is your calorie count for today.

    All that said, keep an eye on the score. Log every single day, and if you see your weight start to creep up, you need to fix that. But the key is logging every day, because that keeps you honest. Some people skip days because they're embarassed, but that's not the way to do it.

    Know how every single overweight person on the planet got that way? One calorie at a time. And that's the same way up as it is down.


    I need to remember this and I do know it, I just forget and get discouraged too easily. Thanks for the great post!
  • thepetiterunner
    thepetiterunner Posts: 1,238 Member
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    Make a list. An HONEST list of the reasons why you want to change. And evaluate them. Is it enough? Is it enough to make the healthy choice, a hundred times a day, day after day? Because it might not be.

    It's going to take some real personal introspection to look inside yourself for the motivation and willpower to stay the course. I'm not saying you're not going to have "off course" days or days where you're feeling less motivated. The key is getting to a place where you don't allow that one day to derail you entirely. It's committing to the journey, whether it takes you two weeks or two years. You're still on the same path.

    If the reasons you list are enough, wallpaper your life with them. Put up post-it notes with individual reasons all over the house, your bedroom, the pantry, the bathroom your work space. Put up pictures of the old you and pictures of people who inspire you. Remind yourself whenever you're exercising or making a healthy choice that you're continuing to do something good for yourself and take care of you.

    And most of all, just focus on THIS moment and what you can do NOW. Don't make decisions for later and don't hang yourself up on the past. Stay in the moment. One foot in front of the other. You've got this.
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