Ever heard a doughnut cry out your name? It happens to me every time I pass my neighborhood 7-Eleven store and inhale that intoxicating, sugary aroma. Most days, I’m able to resist. But sometimes before I know it, I’ve broken one of my New Year’s resolutions, and stuffed one into my mouth. What happened to my willpower?
Many of us struggle with that vexing challenge–whether it’s sticking to a new diet or resisting a shopping spree. Why is our self-control so strong some days and so weak on others?
Contrary to popular belief, willpower is not dependent on psychological factors such as blood sugar, brain chemistry, and hormones, also influence. You can undermine the forces that weaken your self-control, you can do a lot to strengthen it. Here’s how to reinforce your willpower so it’s ready when you need it.
Budget your resolve. Each of us has limited supply of self-control, which means, if you try to exert it in too many areas at once, you’ll rapidly deplete your reserve. Here’s a game: Divide a group in two. Place freshly baked chocolate chip cookies before the two groups of participants, instructing one group to eat two or three cookies, and the other to eat lettuce (while watching the others partake). Then everyone was asked to try to solve an impossible puzzle: The participants who had to resist the test gave up on the problem twice as fast as those who were allowed to indulge.
Concentrate your willpower where you need it most. Don’t try to cut down on your computer Facebook time and lose weight at the same time. If you’ve spent the whole day fighting the urge to tell a difficult colleague, don’t go shopping after work. That people were willing to purchase more when their willpower had been drained by a previous unrelated exercise of self-control.
Keep your blood sugar steady. Even a small blood-sugar dip, which occurs after you’ve skipped a meal, can impair the areas that oversee planning and self-restraint. Ironically, exerting your willpower decreases glucose even more. So if you skip lunch and spend the afternoon fighting the desire to dip the peanut butter jar, you could set yourself up for an evening binge.
Eat small meals that contain both complex carbohydrates and protein throughout the day (including breakfast). By stabilizing blood sugar, you’ll be better able to resist overeating and other impulsive activities–later.
Don’t overdiet. Eating a little not only depletes glucose; it also curtails the production of leptin, a hormone made by fat cells that helps regulate appetite. Within a few days of a starting to diet, your leptin levels can drop off.
Follow the rule of 20: Multiply your target weight by 10, and never eat fewer calories than that daily total and be sure to exercise 30 to 40 minutes each day (taking a brisk walk is fine).
Don’t skimp on sleep. Research shows that getting less than six hours of snooze time decreases decision-making abilities and leads to “failures of self-control” as the day wears on.
Sleep between seven to eight hours each night. To get that amount, keep your room dark, quiet, and cool, and develop a pre-sleep ritual, such as a 10-minute meditation, to banish the day’s stresses.
Ourem Loren Casinto
[email protected]
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