Willpower is a Muscle

If you've tried diet after diet and failed, you have probably said to yourself, "Well, I'm going to give up. I just don't have the willpower."

Well, there's no need to despair. You may not have the willpower now, but willpower is a muscle. If you exercise it, it will grow stronger and stronger.

That's one reason why I advise people who have a lot of weight to lose - like over a hundred pounds - to do it gradually. To spend a year doing it. Because losing weight is just the first part of the process - you then have to keep it off, and that is actually harder for people to do! Statistics show that most people who lose a lot of weight, gain it back, plus a bit more, within 5 years. And if you watch the commercials for Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig, all of them have a bit of text in tiny white letters, "Results not typical."

You don't need to use Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig, you don't need to replace one of your meals with a Slimfast milkshake.

All you need to do is practice portion control and increase your exercise level.

How do you practice portion control? You eat what you want, just not as much of it.

And at nght when the hunger cravings hit, you eat a few carrots instead of a candybar.

It all takes willpower - and you have to develop that willpower.....or learn how to work with it. (For example, as I've said many times, I can't cook fresh-baked cookies, because if I do I eat the whole batch in one sitting. But if I have Oreo Cookiesin the house...I can eat two for dessert, and that satisfies my chocolate craving. The rest of the Oreos are quite safe until the next day.

I had a long struggle in cutting back on Pepsis. Up until I was 40 I drank several pepsis a day, because I biked a great deal and was able to maintain my weight even though I was drinking a lot of extra calories. But when I hit 40 and my metabolism slowed down...the weight wasn't coming off. So, I had no choice but to scale back on Pepsis, and I wasn't happy about it, I can tell you. But, it had to be done.

And the only way to do it was to do it gradually. I kept track of how many Pepsis a day I drank, and when I drank them - basically everytime I finished taking a break from my computer, I'd grab a Pepsi and then get back to work. It was a habit. I broke it slowly...spacing out the time between Pepsis more and more, substituing water for one Pepsi, and so on, until I was down to two Pepsis a day. (I don't drink Diet Pepsi - awful stuff!)

You keep a journal to record many things, among them how your strength is improving due to your weight training regime. Well, keep a journal on how your will power improves, as well. It may take you several months to work it up to snuff, but you can do it!