8 Tips To Increase Your Willpower

16 December 2009

My husband asked me recently what I wanted for Christmas, fortunately for him I'd already overspent on a recent clothing trip so I was able to produce two tops with labels attached and say "here, you can give me these for Christmas!" That doesn't mean I don't expect a surprise under the Christmas tree though, because I surely do expect one! It doesn't matter how big or how small the surprise is, it's all about the thought he puts into it... which got me thinking, what would be my perfect Christmas present?

All I Want For Christmas Is...

I can imagine waking up Christmas morning expecting the usual presents - another packet of scorched almonds I don't need, dishcloths for the kitchen (yes I really got those one year from someone who shall remain nameless), some more embroidered hankies - but right at the back of the present pile is a beautifully wrapped present with my name on it. I shake the box, it makes no noise. I rattle it, squeeze it, poke it, and still have no clue what is in it.

So I peel back the beautiful ribbon and rip the wrapping paper off with excited anticipation and open the box... "Oh!", I exclaim, "It's just what I've always wanted, willpower!" Willpower to help me get up earlier for work, willpower to get me out jogging when its raining, willpower to turn down potato chips, willpower to decline the chocolate mousse - more willpower is just what I've always wanted!

Willpower - Is It The Perfect Christmas Gift?

Do you ever feel like everyone but you seems to have plenty of willpower? I certainly do, I watch people at parties and barbecues turn down foods that I adore... and I wonder "how can they do that?" Willpower, I assume. Maybe if I just had more willpower I'd have the perfect diet and the best exercise plan and the most organised life where old emails didn't sit in my inbox for weeks.

While it's lovely to think someone could give you willpower for Christmas, the good news is you don't need to start praying for that miracle, you can actually start growing your willpower yourself with a few simple steps!

8 Tips To Increase Your Willpower

Here are some important tips to increase your willpower:

• Willpower or self control is a limited resource - research suggests that we only have a limited amount of will-power, so conserve yours for the things that really matter to you.

• Eat regular healthy snacks and meals to increase your willpower -that means no skipping meals, even when we're trying to reduce our energy intake to lose weight - strange but true! Using willpower seems to reduce our blood-sugar levels and having low blood-sugar levels makes using our will-power more difficult. Eat regular small, healthy snacks and meals to help with your willpower. Nothing destroys willpower like an overly restrictive diet.

• Recall memories of things you really value in life - to boost self-control, say researchers.

• Think happy thoughts and have a laugh - laughter and positive thoughts all add to your self-control reserves.

• Self-control is like a muscle - exercise it so that it grows stronger, in other words you need to use it regularly if you want to have strong willpower.

• Start small with self-control and progress to bigger issues - strengthen your self-control muscle by using it for less important things, like making yourself brush your teeth with your opposite hand for a week (as researchers did) or use your self-control to make your bed every day. Practise these small things first before you try using self-control on the big issues. It's like starting a weight lifting program with some 5kg weights before you progress to 30kg weights - very sensible! But remember self-control is a limited resource, so don't expect to use your self-control on small and big things at the same time.

• Find an important internal reason to motivate you to make each change. This will improve your chances of  success. So "I will remove all crispy skin from my chicken and turkey before I eat it to reduce my cholesterol levels and heart disease risk" is more likely to work than "I should take the skin off because my mum told me its full of saturated fat."

• Take one step at a time - you're more likely to succeed if you focus on the immediate moment only. If you start thinking about how many more times you must exert self-control you'll tire yourself out just thinking about it, say researchers. Don't think about the whole marathon, just take one step at a time, and the next step will look after itself.

So after all that I figure I can look after the self-control thing myself, grow it, nurture it, and develop a big box full of it. Hopefully then, my husband will get me a big box of chocolates for Christmas instead, then I can practise using my self-control to eat one chocolate every second day!

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About The Author

Jennifer Bowden Nutritionist, MSc (Dist), BSc (Hons) - Human Nutrition

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