Oh willpower, everybody wants it and only a few people have it. Willpower can be so empowering when you have it and debilitating when you don't. I am the type of person who enjoys proving to myself that I have willpower. There is something you need to know about me. I love Golden Oreos. I mean really love them. I might kill for one. In order to prove to myself that I have willpower, I will leave Oreos in my cupboards. As you can guess, it never ends well. Inevitably I break down the next day and eat one or two. Afterwards I always feel guilty and my willpower is diminished. I'm disappointed that I wasn't strong enough, I start to worry that I never will be strong enough. Then I start to think I'll never lose weight and will be stuck as this fat blob eating anything in sight. See how quickly my irrational thoughts snowball?!? When I first started to lose weight these types of thoughts happened often, but now that I'm a year and a half into changing my life I've realized somethings.
First of all, I need to make things easy on myself. What the heck was I thinking when I was leaving Golden Oreos in my cupboards? That was torture! I was trying to prove to myself that I had willpower and that the delectable, little Golden Oreos didn't control me, but they always ended up wining the power struggle. Since then I've learned that just because someone isn't able to resist some tempting food in their cupboards doesn't mean they have zero willpower. I think it would be difficult for anyone to resists their favorite food if it's in their face. So, I've made life easier on myself, I've hidden the Golden Oreos in my basement and to be honest, I'm too lazy to go downstairs for an Oreo, so they're safe. Out of sight, out of mind works for me. This helps me to keep my momentum of willpower going throughout the week.
The biggest thing that I've learned about willpower is there is an ebb and flow to it. When I first started exercising and losing lots of weight I felt unstoppable. I figured I would meet my weight loss goal within a year of starting...........bwahahahaha nice thought but that wasn't reality. I hit a plateau and my willpower plummeted. Luckily I had a trainer and he helped me push through those times and I found my willpower again. The thing is, a person will have a huge amount of willpower one day and other days they wont. The point is to be consistent in doing those healthy things for your body and success will eventually come and your willpower will flow once again.
Some people are way too hard on themselves. They expect perfect the first time and there is no room for error. Realize there wont be perfection on the first try, and that's okay! Give yourself credit for those little changes that you see in yourself. Maybe instead of a triple chin, now you only have two.....that's great! Or maybe you no longer have cankles......that's success in my eyes. But in all seriousness, see those little changes and celebrate them. Realize that you aren't who you used to be and you aren't going to stay who you are. If you are making changes in your life then transformation is unavoidable.
This week lets make life a little easier on ourselves, realize there is an ebb and flow to our willpower and celebrate the changes we see in ourselves. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go downstairs to get a Golden Oreo ; )
