Beat the Dieter's Dilemma: What to Do When Willpower Fails

Copyright 2006 Howard McGarity
Everyone can recall a time when their best intention to stick with a particular task weakened and failed. I’ll bet it’s happened to you more than once, especially if you have been a player in the diet and exercise game
Being heavy and failing to stay on your diet feels like a personal defeat. It is demoralizing to imagine people thinking, "He just has no willpower"..."she lacks character"..."he can't control himself".
The worst thing is that you may believe these things yourself. But you are wrong. Wrong! And here is why:
Depending on willpower to sustain you through a diet and fitness program is like jumping out of an airplane with a handkerchief for a parachute.
Evolution is Against You.
The problem is that when you set out to get in shape and lose a significant amount of weight, you are actually forcing your body to do something that it has been designed to resist.
At the most basic level, evolution is against you. Since the dawn of mankind, our physiology has developed mechanisms to conserve precious energy. In earlier times, loss of bodyweight was always a potential threat to survival and as a result, our body’s immediate response to a reduced caloric intake (a diet) is to slow its metabolic rate and store fat.
To compound the problem, physical deprivation quickly results in a deep, systemic urge to eat that is impossible to deny.
Next, social and emotional factors come into play to further test your already weakened resolve. In time, be it three days, three weeks or three months, your diet plan will eventually crash and burn.
It is clear that willpower is no match for nature. There are, however, strategies you can easily learn that are far more effective and reliable.
Create Systems and Habits.
It is not enough to simply decide to “eat less” or “cut out junk food” or to just pick a new “diet de jour” from the long list available.
What you must understand is…. exactly why you are doing this in the first place…. exactly what the rewards of success will be…. precisely how you will handle every detail of exercise and nutrition…. who will be your supporters…. and finally, how you will manage the internal and external saboteurs that lie in wait to defeat you.
If you are able to use systems that later develop into habits, you command powerful tools that replace and eventually eliminate any dependence on willpower.
Here are some important examples. You can easily use your imagination to customize these and also design new ones to meet your needs.
1. Use a structured eating plan. If you are not completely confident that you understand what constitutes a healthy, balanced diet and that you can design a plan to consume enough calories so that you lose no more than one or two pounds a week, buy a session with a registered dietitian. This knowledge will last you a lifetime and puts you way ahead of all the other “dieters” out there
2. Avoid Hunger. Plan what you are going to eat for the entire day in advance, three small meals and two or three decent snacks. Don’t get caught short, starving with nothing to eat. Buy a small, insulated cool-pack, stock it with snacks and always have it with you. Eat a meal or a snack every two-and-a-half to three hours. Allow yourself one “anything I want meal” each week; enjoy two when you are on track and losing steadily. Schedule them and write it down.
3. Always include some exercise. Walking is best; jog if you are able. Easy and simple is best; save the tough stuff for when you are in shape and exercise is a habit. Schedule your exercise in advance and log exactly what you do. Track your TV viewing for a week. It is easy to find shows you watch that you can live without. This is where you will find your exercise time. If a crisis occurs commit to doing five or ten minutes. Something is a thousand percent better than nothing.
4. Get a partner to join you; at the very least, show and explain your plan to someone and ask for their support. Set daily, weekly and monthly goals in writing and have your supporter hold you accountable. If you make your goal, they take you out to dinner. If you fail, you buy them dinner…. twice.
5. Create a vision. Sitting in a quiet place, relax and visualize exactly how you will look and feel and enjoy life more when you have reached your goal. Make a movie in your head; make it in color with sounds, smells and actions. Look at yourself in the movie and then write a list of ten or twelve adjectives that describe how you look and behave. Describe yourself physically, mentally, socially and spiritually. Envision and repeat: “I am (your description)”. Do this at least three times a day and whenever you are feeling stressed, overworked, tired, angry, nervous or afraid.
Strategies like this do three things for you.
They help you avoid circumstances that lead to bad lifestyle choices in the first place.
They help create an environment that is conducive to making healthy lifestyle choices a habit, simply a natural part of your routine.
They build motivation and a correct mental attitude that is the essential first step to achieving weight loss, health and well-being.
When you have systems and habits working for you in place of unreliable willpower, success is much easier. A fitness plan that does not include this kind of an approach is usually doomed to failure before it begins.
Be Strong…. Be Lean Howard McGarity ”Coach Mac”