Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Willpower

I read an article in the Washington Post today about diets and why it is so hard to keep up with them. One thing the person said that struck me was if you look at a donut 19 times and don't eat it, but then you do eat it on the 20th time, you lose the willpower game. You don't get any points for the 19 times you didn't eat the donut. What only matters is that you ate it in the end and now those calories are a part of you.

I play this game a lot where I will focus on a food and ignore it for a long time but then eat it in the end. I lose. When being strictly on the Whole30, I didn't have that problem once the carb cravings went away. I think it's because my focus on bad foods gets super magnified by sugar addiction. It's probably a little similar to alcoholism. I can't just have a little sugar or carbs or dairy. It triggers things to cascade until I am eating Lucky Charms out of a coffee mug at 8pm.

So I guess I can't just have a little sugar. It's like having a little crack or being a little pregnant.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Will power is for sure the most undermined virtue for a person to have. I have seen lives getting better only because of strong will power being shown by concerned people.