“At first people ask WHY you are doing it Later they ask HOW you did it”
On a casual conversation about healthy eating habits with immediate family the most common concern I came across is everyone talking about the WILLPOWER. We all excel in our lives in our own ways, however when it comes to willpower we compare and say my willpower is not as good as yours or I don’t have a strong will to resist a particular type of food. As I get to the core of willpower I found a few qualities that they equalize to it:
- Self Discipline
- Self control
- can do it
- determination
- restrain
- resolve
- resilience
- drive
Willpower according to many seems to be a limited resource where in they follow a rigorous diet and fall back on a Friday evening with a high calorie food and blame it on “Depleted Willpower”.That is probably why most of the diet plans don’t work just like the New Year resolution doesn’t last long. So how is it that some of us don’t run out of will power and some of us do? According to a psychology studies on willpower in early 2000 they found that we are drained out of willpower just like our stamina.However the good part of it is we can build stamina and so can we build willpower.Now how do we do that is a big question?
The simplest example all of us can relate to is learning to ride a bicycle. As a child we all had a will to ride a bicycle and one fine day after days of trying before the will is run out we have the skill to do it.This is how everything in life works. The will is momentary but the skill is lifelong. Applying the same to food if you have lessen salt intake or sugar intake or intake in general in terms of quantity of food instead of drastically cutting down on food you can develop a skill to eat less by reducing one spoon a day till the goal of portion size is accomplished. This slow depletion doesn’t make you crave but trains your brain to automatically eat a dessert with less sugar or a spicy dish with less spice or salt to less salt or 1 big cup to 1 small cup without hampering your spirits. Now that is a skill you have learnt to reduce your appetite! No matter how hard you try you will never be able to eat more once its reduced and you will learn to say NO even to your most favorite food beyond a serving. Trick your will towards conscious eating to build a skill to healthy eating!
The video link below demonstrates the will to skill power technique
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TX-Nu5wTS8
Happy Eating!
PS: Thank you for the overwhelming response for my previous blog.Looking forward for more such feedback’s.
Action points for my readers : Would love to know if you want me to write on topics of your interest in nutrition and spread the knowledge.