I wish I had your willpower…

I wish I had your willpower.

I hear this quite often and it surprises me because when I look at my attitude to food I don’t consider myself to be using my willpower.

But in the past this was a real sticking point for me.

Willpower?

I don’t have enough willpower
I can’t help myself
It’s too difficult to resist
I just keep giving in

Sound familiar?

Different self help books give you different techniques and coping mechanisms and different jargon to understand why we do what we do and how to overcome it.

But the bottom line here is this

Willpower is an easily depleted energy.

We only have so much and once it’s gone, it’s gone.

We don’t achieve success with willpower, at least not with willpower on its own.

If you’ve ever stuck to a fad diet of salads and lemon water and then binged on ice cream on day three you know what I mean.

If you find yourself irritable and angry at your loved ones just for asking how you are because you’re so consumed with staying away from the bad foods then you know what I mean.

If you go to bed hungry because you’ve eaten your calories for the day and you feel exhausted then you know what I mean.

If we rely on willpower all we manage is a delay between craving the food and finally giving in. So how can we stop this?

Find your motivation

Personally, when I had to give up gluten my motivation to not diving head first into a porridge bowl was the fact that if I did, I knew I would feel exhausted for the rest of the day. Unable to think, unable to even stay awake. I’d be bloated, unhappy and it would stay with me for days.

The pain of giving in to that temptation was enough to motivate me to find another option.

If I had used sheer willpower I wouldn’t have lasted a week. Gluten is in everything and it required a complete dietary overhaul to eliminate it. It would have been so much easier to give in.

How do I ditch willpower and find my motivation?

Sit down and write out your goals. And I don’t just mean bullet points for example,

I want to lose weight. 

Ok, why?

Why do you want to lose weight?
What are the downsides to you staying the same weight?
Is it a medical reason?
Social pressure?
Is it weight loss or fat loss?
Do you want to change your diet?
Do you want to start exercising?
Do you want to hire a personal trainer?
What will your life be like once you lose the weight?

And most importantly:

What is your strategy for when you are faced with temptation?

Make this goal like war and peace if you need to, but get to the root of the reason.

You might be surprised.

If on the surface you say you want to lose weight but if you don’t give your unconscious mind a rational reason is it any wonder that you’ll need to use your willpower to stay on track?

If you decide to lose weight because

you are worried about developing diabetes

because it runs in your family and

has lead to serious health problems for loved ones.

^^^ That there, is your motivation.

Dieting for no reason
vs

Changing your eating habits because of your very real fear of disease and early death

I know which one is more motivational.

This is why blindly following diets doesn’t work.

I’ll give up sugar for 30 days because this book says I should
I’ll go Paleo and stop eating grains because this website says I should
I’ll give up meat because apparently it’s bad for the environment

No.

If you are seeking these diets out, ask yourself why.

Why do I want to start this diet?
What will it do for me?
Do I really want to do it?

Because when the temptation comes

and it will

if you have a rational, rock solid REASON you won’t need your willpower to drag you away.

You’ll be able to stand there and turn down whatever it is being offered to you, because

You have a reason.
You have a goal.
You are motivated.

Don’t berate yourself for not having enough willpower

Give yourself some credit, sit yourself down, write out your goals and understand the reason.

Only then can you find success.

Ainzlie xx

P.s – If you’re ready to achieve your goals and stop relying on willpower, get in touch and let’s start your plan. Limited spaces left for summer training.