When you ask someone what they ate over the last 2 days, they will tell you what they had for each of the 3 formal meals.
They will not mention the automatic eating or mindless munching that takes place outwith a formal meal. But this is the stuff that piles on the weight for most of us.
We only have a limited amount of willpower. Use it to limit your access to the foods eaten outside of mealtimes. This trend to constant munching is pretty new. I remember a sweet advertised many moons ago as one "you can eat between meals without spoiling your appetite". Now we are encouraged to eat as a displacement activity, when there is nothing else to do. In the past we might have had hobbies, or spent time with our friends going to the pictures or for a walk. Now we go and eat. What are your outside of mealtimes eating habits?
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
Showing posts with label willpower. Show all posts
Showing posts with label willpower. Show all posts
Monday, 25 January 2010
Monday, 11 January 2010
Where has my willpower gone?
We tend to believe that a failure of willpower - when we are trying to give up overeating, or smoking, or doing an unappealing task like cleaning someone else's car - is a failure of character. It is not.
Willpower (also called self-control and referred to in academic texts as ego) is always in very short supply. Even making a small decision or making a small effort depletes it. (Known as ego depletion.) Roy Baumeister and colleagues identified that willpower relies on a supply of glucose to the brain. That is one of the reasons you shouldn't go food shopping when you are hungry - you will just load the trolley with all those things you are trying to avoid!
It also means that when you are trying to do things where willpower or self-control are needed, such as trying to change your eating behaviour, you need to be sure you are not also doing something else which takes your energy. So don't try to lose weight at Christmas, because you will be faced with so many opportunities to eat and drink that your self-control gets depleted. And if you have a big task to achieve, that will use up your supply of willpower.
So, if you wish to focus on changing your eating behaviour, then make small changes - little and often. That way you limit the choices you have to make and your willpower will not be overwhelmed.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
Willpower (also called self-control and referred to in academic texts as ego) is always in very short supply. Even making a small decision or making a small effort depletes it. (Known as ego depletion.) Roy Baumeister and colleagues identified that willpower relies on a supply of glucose to the brain. That is one of the reasons you shouldn't go food shopping when you are hungry - you will just load the trolley with all those things you are trying to avoid!
It also means that when you are trying to do things where willpower or self-control are needed, such as trying to change your eating behaviour, you need to be sure you are not also doing something else which takes your energy. So don't try to lose weight at Christmas, because you will be faced with so many opportunities to eat and drink that your self-control gets depleted. And if you have a big task to achieve, that will use up your supply of willpower.
So, if you wish to focus on changing your eating behaviour, then make small changes - little and often. That way you limit the choices you have to make and your willpower will not be overwhelmed.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
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