From Eileen: The hardest part of any diet and/or exercise program is … staying on the diet and/or exercise program.
We get tired. We get tempted. We give in. We give up. It happens to us all.
And then we berate ourselves for our lack of willpower. A new book called, appropriately enough, “Willpower” by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney, examines the mysteries and vagaries of self control. The authors compare willpower to a muscle that needs to be built up.
In a review in the New York Times, noted author Steven Pinker writes:
Willpower” is filled with advice about what to do with your willpower. Build up its strength, the authors suggest, with small but regular exercises, like tidiness and good posture. Don’t try to tame every bad habit at once. Watch for symptoms of ego fatigue, because in that recovery period you are especially likely to blow your stack, your budget and your diet. For that matter, don’t diet in the first place, since it starves the very system that implements self-control.
As to be expected, it’s not as easy as all that. The authors also note that strong-willed people are only a smidge better than average at controlling their weight (think Oprah) and plenty of self-disciplined folks fall prey to temptation (think Eliot Spitzer.)
Most of us find it easy to resist one thing, but not another. Yet, the idea of practicing self control in order to have more self control is an interesting one. I gave up television for the summer … in order to cleanse myself of an addiction to the Housewives series on Bravo.
In never occurred to me that not watching television might also help me control my “eat the whole bag” of trail mix addiction. I’ll let you know how it goes.