How To Protect Your Willpower On A Diet
Willpower refers to the concept of being able to control oneself and determining one's actions. Recent studies have shown that our willpower is like a muscle. If we use it too much, it gets exhausted. An exhausted willpower muscle (also referred to as ego-depletion) will make it more likely that we make decisions that are incongruent with our goals. This becomes especially important when your goal is to lose weight.
Here's an interesting study by connectedcongress.org that was done to better understand the concept of willpower. Subjects arrived hungry at the lab where the study was conducted. They were told that a taste test was conducted. In the lab room cookies and radishes were served.
Group A was allowed to only eat radishes, but not the cookies. Group B was allowed to eat both cookies and radishes. Most people would agree that cookies are a lot more tempting than the radishes. Therefore group A had to use their willpower to resist eating the cookies.
In phase two of the study both group A and group B were subject to another test that required willpower. The subjects were told they were tested on who could solve a puzzle the fastest. However there was one caveat, they didn't know that the puzzle was unsolvable. The researchers only wanted to test the subjects' persistence.
On average group B tried for 19 minutes while group A gave up after only 8 minutes. The researchers concluded that group A had already depleted their willpower muscle once they started the second part of the experiment, therefore they couldn't persist as long as group B.
This study illustrates how easily our willpower muscle can be depleted under everyday circumstances. You need to be aware that any decision or thought during the day might use up this limited resource.
Therefore the key to being able to make the right diet decisions is to be economical with your willpower and to protect it wherever you can. Because once your willpower runs out, your level of self-control will be low and that's when you give in to unhealthy snacks and fattening foods.
This post will show you several strategies to protect your willpower and use it in the most economical way.
Train Your Willpower Muscle
Your willpower is really quite similar to a muscle. Just like your willpower muscle will get exhausted by over-exercising, you can also carefully train it to grow over time. You can do this by creating little exercises for yourself on a daily basis. For example, by paying attention to sit up with a straight back or by consciously resisting the fattening snacks that are waiting for you in the office.
Get Enough Sleep
Sleep not only affects your willpower muscle, but is very important for us in our overall functioning. Make sure you get enough rest so you spend the hours you are awake with maximum productivity, enjoyment, and the ability to make the right decisions to reach your goals.
Some people can function well on less sleep and some people need more of it. You can test this out for yourself by tracking the amount of hours you sleep per night and your overall productivity during the day. Over time you will discover patterns, you might need 8 hours to get to 100% productivity and 7 hours will get you to 90%. That means if you have to, you get away with 7 hours a couple of nights per week and still function very well.
Minimize Temptations At The End Of The Day
During the course of your day you are faced with dozens of decisions. Should we go ahead on this business venture? Shall I ask her out for dinner? Do I want fries with that? The more challenging your day is the more you will feel worn out at the end of the day.
On a very challenging day your ability to make decisions and resist temptations will be very limited by the end of the day. That's why you should minimize temptations at the end of the day that can lead to overeating or consuming unnecessary calories.
For example your colleagues might ask you to join having dinner at the pub and beer. Well, pub food and beers are pretty much the worst food choice you can make to lose weight. In order to counteract, you can already plan your healthy dinner with friends or your partner upfront. That way when you are faced with the temptation at the end of the day the decision has already been made for you.
Pre-Schedule Your Meals
Making decisions before the fact is effective at helping you to guarantee that you make the right decisions. Just like you can apply this strategy to avoid temptations at the end of the day, you can use it at any time during your day.
Applying this to your diet would mean that you decide tonight what meals you are going to have tomorrow. Write down what you will have for breakfast, lunch and dinner and any snacks you might need in between (or you can just pre-log it in your food diary app).
Planning breakfast and dinner is normally the easiest because you will often have these meals at home. Lunch can be a bit trickier if you have it at the office. One great option is to bring your own lunch to the office, that way it's healthy and you don't need to worry that you make an unhealthy choice.
If your office environment offers healthy food choices, already decide the night before where you will go the next day for lunch. That way you are proactive and once the daily "What's for lunch"-question comes up in the office, you can get some of your colleagues to join you instead of being at the mercy of their decision.
Use Intermittent Fasting
One often overlooked benefit of intermittent fasting is the fact that it can save you tons of willpower. If you already decided not to fast the entire morning until lunch on Thursday, that decision has been made for you. Once it's Thursday morning you know what to do, you simply fast in the morning and have your first meal at lunchtime.
Not only does this save you calories in the morning, it also saves you willpower. Because for every situation involving food that comes up in the morning, you don't have to think anymore.
Intruder: "Want a piece of birthday cake?"
You: "No, sorry I'm full."
Intruder: "Hey, try this candy from the new store next door."
You: "Thanks, I'll have it later"
And so on. Many people don't understand the concept of intermittent fasting so it can be easier to just make up a reason why you don't want to eat anything.
Don't Let People Drain Your Energy
Some social interactions are pleasant, others can really drain your energy. Look at your day and take account for the times when you will face socially challenging situations. Plan enough rest before or after one of these occasions.
Do you have a long presentation on Wednesday afternoon? Plan something relaxing for the evening. Maybe a short run that can clear your head or just a lazy evening on the couch with a healthy meal.
The worst decision to make is to put yourself in an environment where you need to resist temptations after your energy has already been drained by another event. These are the kind of situations when you go over aboard and make stupid food choices.
Stay Motivated
Last but not least, your motivation is an extremely important factor in terms of your willpower. If you are really motivated to stick to your diet, then pretty much any situation can come in your way and you will still make the right decision.
Keep up your motivation by tracking your weight loss progress. You should review your progress regularly to keep in mind what you have accomplished already. Especially taking photos of your body every week can help you do this.
A few weeks down the road you will look at the first photos you took and think "wow, I was a different person back then". These kinds of reviews will give you a huge motivation boost to keep going.
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