Soooo… How’s your willpower today? Are you feeling strong? I resisted bagels this week. Fridays used to be my favorite day o’ the week. I’d drop The Kid off at daycare (a few years back) or school then swing by Target on the way to work and pick up two chocolate iced kreme-filled Krispy Kremes and a venti iced white chocolate mocha.
Don’t you just love that they call it kreme because there’s probably no real cream to be found in the donut. But Target had the best of my worlds rolled into one with the Krispy Kreme/Starbucks combo. The Kid is now in 7th grade and I stopped this habit about 18 months ago, so my “daycare” indication tells you just how long this went on.
I added it up at that’s a 1700 calorie breakfast. Then I’d have lunch and Friday Night Dinner at a restaurant after that. There were some snacks thrown in too. Nice peek into my past life there, huh? This week I started cutting. Cutting is bodybuilder lingo for leaning out or dropping fat pounds. In my experience, cutting is somewhere between dieting and contest prep.
It’s not pretty for someone who likes to eat.In this corner, we have Extreme Willpower ower-ower-ower! I’ve been asked how I manage to eat low calorie, workout like a fiend and not give in to old habits while doing this. Co-workers tell me all the time that they don’t have that kind of willpower. I’m not convinced that it is willpower keeping me on track.
It boils down to having a goal to focus on – a finish line of sorts. Goal – I want to cut to get to X percent body fat. To do this, my trainer lays out a weekly plan. I implement the plan and repeat weekly until I reach the goal of X percent. When yummies roll across my desk, I absolutely want them. I still think longingly every Friday about my old breakfast.
Then I think “If I eat this, I will be cutting for longer until I reach my goal.” Is it worth waiting an extra week, two weeks, whatever to get there? Some days I focus on the goal and how good it will feel to reach it. Honestly most days I focus on just ending the hunger as fast as possible so that I can eat for real again. Whatever gets you through, I say… and sometimes you just have to go to bed hungry.
If you’re trying to stay strong and firmly on the wagon and feeling like your willpower is fading, think about how much faster you’ll reach that goal if you stay on course. If you don’t have a goal to aim for, set one. Even a small one helps me. Without a goal, it’s a different story. There’s no reward or consequence for an eating choice so there’s no reason to say no.
Do you think this is willpower or just wanting a goal more than a treat? Maybe that is the definition of willpower. Hmmm. What do you do to keep yourself on track? I could always use other ideas to fall back on.
PS – Interestingly enough as soon as I finished writing this post, a tweet came in from the incredibly awesome Evan. Eerie timing.
Discipline is doing what you know needs to be done
even when you don’t feel like doing it.
Maybe I don’t have willpower afterall, but I have discipline. What do you think?
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