How many times have we made that January New Year resolution to lose those few pounds and yet soon found ourselves with a chocolate biscuit in hand when we weren’t even that hungry! We can all relate to stories like this because the chances are we have all tried to rely on willpower alone. Sadly willpower alone just doesn’t work.
You see willpower is a limited resource. Research shows that anything we do that taps our self-control or requires a lot of thinking or effort depletes our willpower, leaves us in a state of vulnerability, and susceptible to making poor choices.
The seat of willpower is located in the anterior cingulate cortex part of the brain. This part of the brain also governs all kinds of other decision-making, like choosing which email to read first or what route to take to work, and is used for emotional regulation too such as how to deal with your child who is having a tantrum, or sitting in frustrating traffic. Willpower works just like a muscle and it can quickly get depleted by all these different tasks. Some research has shown that after as little as 15 minutes of use, it’s basically shot.
It’s unsurprising then, given that the average person makes around 221 food decisions per day, despite our best intentions, we may find ourselves falling into what Susan Peirce Thompson PH.D calls the Willpower Gap – ‘the space between our ideal state of how we’d like to be eating and working out, and the choices that we’re actually making day in and day out.’
We may start the day intending to have a salad for lunch, but by the time we get out of a frustrating morning meeting, a sandwich, coffee and doughnut sounds much better. The part of the brain toggling back and forth between salad and doughnut is one that is easily hijacked by cravings and rationalisations. When we decide in the moment, we are driven by addiction and reward. Given that sugar and refined flour can cause a rush of dopamine in the brain that feels rewarding we are much more likely to make unhealthy food choices when willpower is low.
The good news is that willpower is replenished through sleep and ‘me time’ and like a muscle gets stronger the more we use it.
So what can we do to keep our willpower high?
Firstly we need to rely on it as little as possible. Planning and preparation reduce the number of choices and decisions we have to make in the moment and so reduces willpower depletion.
If we are trying to change how we eat, for example, we need to plan for this and only make one change at a time, letting it become a habit before introducing another. For example, for the first month we could decide to have fruit as a snack and some vegetables every day. Then the next month we could cut down on caffeine, by introducing alternative drinks. The following month we could cut out sugar, and the month after that we could go to the gym.
For each goal we need to get to a point where our choices don’t take willpower anymore, and this takes time. The good news is that since the more we use willpower the stronger it gets, and achieving each goal gets easier.
If we were to make one change every month for a year, by the end of that year we would be eating very differently, feeling very different and we’d probably be living in a much lighter, smaller sized body than we were 12 months ago.
With strategic planning, support and the right information, being able to say “Wow, I’m eating the right thing every day, day in and day out, without thinking about it” is actually a perfectly achievable goal!
To find out more about how I help my clients achieve their health goals without over relying on willpower please visit livewellandprosper.uk/health-coaching or give me a call on 07545 227272
Join Helen’s 4 month online group weight loss programme starting in January. For a free initial consultation to see if this is the right programme for you call her on 07545 227272
Helen Prosper
Integrative Nutritional Health Coach
