For me, "Wantpower" gets me started and "Willpower" keeps me going. "Willpower" is harder to maintain on a consistant basis.

Jim shared this yesterday:

"I find that NOT doing the right thing one day makes it easier to not do it again the next day. Bad habits are formed just like GOOD HABITS by doing them EVERY DARN DAY!
So just remember whatever you do it's easier if you do it every day. Good or Bad."

I would call what Jim wrote, energetic determination. That is where I need to be every morning. That is not where I am at right now. I've strung together a bunch of no decision days after having company stay with us for a week. And a no decision day ends up being an over-consuming day.

I haven't had a super strong "I want to diet" or "I want to lose weight" because of XYZ. More of a creeping recognition that I was way too fat and my weight went up to the point of being just over the border into being medically obese. My Dr didn't harp at me that I would die soon and really almost never mentioned my weight unless I brought it up.

It is true that I need to be persistent and not get into the habit of the "effits" especially those that accompany an indulgent episode during the day. It can be true that the gift of the "effits" is akin to the gift of a pregnant cat i.e. the gift that keeps on giving so to speak.

Staring down the devîl as in "I wont', I won't, I won't" while facing that hot gooey pizza, hot fudge sundae, or whatever isn't the best approach for me.

OK weird that I am I also look at the results of the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment and some follow-up studies of delayed gratification. Turns out kids (and adults too) do better if they can take their minds elsewhere rather than just daring myself "not to do it".Unlike kids I don't put my hands over my eyes or pretend that that oreo cookie is merely a stuffed animal while stroking it. Sometimes that means changing my own environment by not bringing the "trigger" into the house. Sometimes it meant walking around that corridor of the mall where they have the fumes of cinnabons in the air when I was feeling vulnerable.
Often looking at menus ahead of time gives my brain the chance to go in a better direction as part of that too.


My biggest "effit" this last week was attending a second special catered meal in SoCal. Ate a bit too much at the first catered sit-down affair but really OK. The second one unbeknownst to me was a "buffet" with several scattered tables of tasty choices. It was quite different from the single line where I peruse first, and had custom made to order salads tossed in front of me with tasty dressing already added in, salmon with a "salsa"-ish topping, beef tenderloin, pan grilled zucchini and of course a whole table of dessert choices. At least I didn't sample all the desserts but I did have 3 different ones. I also completely avoided the custom stuffed potato table altogether but wasn't really that much in the potato mood so some good choices. It was a bit hard to keep track of various folks I wanted to talk to, and circulate to the various "stations" for food and drink. We did have our own designated table at least. Oddly others at the table ate less than me portion wise and choices. I acting a bit like the kid lost in a candy farm.

DW can eat just 3 chips out of a small bag and put it back or eat 3 bites off her plate and leave the rest but thats not me. I do best with the right portions on my plate and not having triggers front and center.

I am not a big believer in willpower. I find over time it may be big on will but eventually loses power. I think wantpower can also apply to had badly do you want to be healthy, to be thinner etc.

For me I think want power vs will power is a fine line. For example I the want to lose weight normally over powers the will power. The I want to lose weight is what got me started on the program. The will power came forward when I discovered that I needed to restrain from eating fried chicken on a regular basis. So now I need the want power to kick back in and get back on track to lose weight.

I stayed on track really well till the WW boards went away and darn if I didn't begin to fudge a little and then more till whoa! I've put on about 20 plus lbs. I have more to say on this subject but for now gotta run.

Less I rely on willpower the better. Usually people talking about willpower are all about will and little about the power.

Thing about WW is/was it was a few things to do. Really for me it was go to the meeting and keep the journal. Quickly found if I was going to keep the journal, my life was easier if I had a plan. If I was going to all this trouble, I wanted to lose weight. If I wanted to lose, I should eat within my points.

So really all I needed was enough willpower for the meeting (5min from home btw) and the journal. As long as I stuck with those, the rest took care of itself.

I find willpower overrated. There is a finite quantity of it then decisional fatigue kicks in.

As for wantpower, I certainly wanted to be a normal weight for nearly all my life, but that didn't seem to provide enough motivation to really get me going. Rather the catalyst for my last 2 major weight losses were wanting to NOT be in a particular predicament. In 2001, it was watching my normal weight father struggle with basic activities of daily living after hip surgery. The hip surgery was a success but the anesthesia made his demetia flare up and he wouldn't work with the physical therapists and ended up bedridden for several months. I knew that at 304 pounds I was going to be in a really bad place if something like that happened to me. He got into an in patient rehab and I finally got back to the fitness center. The exercise habit got restarted months before I tackled my food intake.

In 2011, it was a very painful right knee that was impairing my ability to do my job. I was turning 50 but felt like I was 80. That is when I joined WW at Work as I didn't want to live out the rest of my years feeling so old and decrepit.