There is No Such Thing as Willpower (or Lack Thereof)

You're welcome. I hope it helps a few people to lose weight painlessly.

Learning more and more about consciousness and self-awareness are one of my weird hobbies. I'm an artist, but I just adore the brain. I find it amazing how much stock us humans tend to put in our own thoughts, especially negative self-talk. It's like we've never considered the possibility that those voices of self-doubt and criticism are lying.

Oh dear, I'm a psych major (emphasis on relaxation therapy)...it's not a weird hobby for me, it's worth my tuition lol I love behavior management, it makes so much sense to me. I also buy into Reiki and meditation, I didn't think it worked until I took a course in Reiki, and I'm now a believer, even if it's in my own head. The thought of changing my energy and thought patterns is fascinating...i can believe what ever I want and it's real (to me)...it's amazing to me that it's just as easy to say "i can do it" as it is to say "i can't do it" but the affects of those simple statements are HUGE!

Great post and so true. You can apply this to so many things, stopping overeating/drinking/smoking or any other negative behaviours.

bump

I got bumped! <blush!> :blushing:

:laugh: It works that way...nice way to kick it over to 'my topics' for a later read

There's a weird, emotional heft to the word "willpower" in our society. When we claim that something "requires willpower", we are really saying that it will be difficult. But is it always? It is often repeated that weight loss "requires willpower", but is that everybody's experience? It hasn't been mine. In terms of counting calories and working out, it only seems to require some math.

This line of thought applies equally well to quitting smoking. I quit, finally, after many years of smoking, Afterward, it occurred to me I could have stopped much sooner if only I hadn't believed it would be too difficult.

Thanks, I needed that!

This is very good, and I mostly agree with you. I mean, personally once I realized that I was using my weight as a reason not to have good relationships, it was a logical next step to realize that each small food transgression was still a judgement against having people in my life. I realized that for me it really came down to what was more important: food or people. Thankfully I chose people and since then I have been able to lose weight, exercise, and enjoy eating healthy!

The only thing is, I really do believe in will power, or something like it with a different name. I was reading some clinical studies of brain scans done, that showed that using will power on ANYTHING (saying no chocolate, or saying yes to cleaning) used up stores of glucose in the brain, and made it significantly harder, sometimes impossible to make more consecutive "will power" decisions. Basically it is hard work for your brain when you override it's instincts and try to do something you don't want to do. It requires more energy, is exhausting, and you need to be replenished.

I don't think that this is out of line with what you are saying though. Because really, for me now I don't have to tap into my "will power" glucose stores in order to follow my diet plan. Diets I tried doing before my revelation about food vs. people were a torture of continuous hard decisions, but now I really am happy and excited to do those things. Perhaps because of that I am also not letting other areas of my life suffer because of my diet like I had done during those previous torture diet spells.

The literature I read about the will power glucose stores suggested that students should be sure to eat small healthy snacks while studying to ensure they continued studying and also had the will power to make good meal decisions later in the day. I think that for dieters like us who have tapped into a reason that dieting is not a chore, this knowledge is mostly useful in times of diet trial like Thanksgiving, or a plateau.

It's also useful to me to know that if I have a long day of chores ahead of me, I should make sure to bring small healthy snacks along for the ride :P

I love your half mile by Christmas goal! Last year I did "Couch Potato to 5K" (You can google it) and it was sooooooo helpful. I did not make my 5K goal, but went from not being able to run 60 seconds without sucking wind to running 2.3 miles and 25 minutes steady!!! I was so surprised at how short a distance I could go in those LOOOOONG 60 seconds at first LOL

@lehuagirl - Yes, I am using C25K, but kind of modified. I listed to the Ullrey podcasts in order to direct the intervals, which is very helpful. I am really happy to hear that you found so much success with it. It isn't necessarily my goal to run in 5k's I just really want to be able to run. It is something that I didn't believe was possible for me to do my whole life, but I recently realized that the only thing holding me back was the belief I couldn't. Anyway, I can run about a quarter mile right now, which is huge progress since I could barely run a few feet before I started losing weight and exercising. My attitude towards running has also changed and I'm slowly beginning to actually enjoy it!