Developing Your Willpower

Diet Tip: Don't use the excuse that you have no willpower to stick to a diet. Of course you do. Willpower is like a muscle. You have to exercise that muscle until it become strong enough to see you through the tough times, when you'd really like a bowl of icecream but you're going to bed in 5 minutes!

I was feeling a bit depressed today. As a freelance writer, I had spent a couple of weeks working on a project that I was very enthusiastic about, and which I wrote well, and I anticipated it being a big hit when I debuted it to the readers of my aviation blog (one of many blogs I have.)

Well, my work went over like a lead balloon. Very depressing. I'd gone from the heights of euphoria to the depths of despair just like that.

And when that happens, I want chocolate.

I didn't have the right kind of chocolate in the house - I keep Oreo cookies and Nabisco Chocolate chip cookies for my dessert, because they satisfy my craving for chocolate, but I can eat two for dessert and not be "called" to them again until the next day. But freshed baked cookies - no, can't have them at all. I'd eat them all in a single sitting.

Well, that's the kind of chocolate I felt like having today. So I drove to the store to pick up some cookie dough.

On the way into the store, however, I got to thinking. We'd had hot, hot, hot weather for two weeks, and I had been extremely inactive (normally, regardless of the heat, I'm out there, bundled up on my bike, but not when there's +90 degree heat!), so I tried to exercise a little will power. I finally settled for a single candy bar. 180 calories as opposed to 1,000 or more - not too bad.

So I had my chocolate, and took a long cold bath, and bought a book for my Kindle, and now I've recovered from my depression and will start working on yet another writing project.

How To Strengthen Your Willpower
If you have the willpower to resist eating after dinner, or to exercise and run/jog every day without missing once, then you probably aren't reading this blog because you dont need to.

But what if you hate feeling hungry, and so give in to hunger pains every might? Isn't that how those commercials for weight loss products suck you in - eat less and never feel hungry!

Well - you are going to feel hungry on occasion. Tell yourself, so what! You're not "depriving" yourself of food, you're just ensuring that when you do have your three square meals a day, you'll enjoy them all the more.

If you do eat decent meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, chances are your hunger pangs won't be bad in the evening...they probably just occur from force of habit...you're bored and you always eat when you're bored. Get up, then, but instead of heading for the refrigerator, perform some stretching exercises, read a book for a few minutes, go outside for a walk. Drink water while you do so, that will satiate the hunger pangs. If you still can't prevent yourself from eating, wean yourself away by eating a few carrots, or an apple. NO POP! (Not even diet pop - it has stuff in it that is worse than real pop.)

Work on your resistance. No snack for the last half hour before you go to bed. Extend the time. No snack for the last hour. Then, for hte last hour and a half. Finally, get it down to where, after you've had dinner and dessert, you dont eat at all for the rest of the night.