Blog

5 Ways To Strengthen Your Willpower Now

Being stuck inside all day for the past month, a lot of people have been dealing with feeling like they have a lack of willpower when it comes to their diet and nutrition. But you’re in luck…there are ways that you can strengthen it! Read on for our best tips on strengthening willpower. 

1) Practice! I know that sounds silly, but your willpower is like your biceps or any other muscle you have. If you use it more, you strengthen it! The more you say no to some things and yes to others, the easier it becomes. Then these decisions become habits. It is much easier to depend on habits you have built than willpower. 

2) Avoid temptation in the first place. I personally know that if there are some oatmeal raisin cookies sitting around, I will sniff them out like a bloodhound and eat them. I know that for me personally, they are way too tempting for me to be around. So I choose not to have them in The Angry Nutrition House. Can’t eat them if they’re not here! You really have to ask yourself what foods can I actually moderate successfully and what foods would be a trigger. If it’s a trigger food, DON’T BRING IT IN THE HOUSE!

3) Remember your why. Think about why you want to lose that weight or change your body composition in the first place. Is it so you can play with your kids or grandkids more easily? Is it so you can perform better at your job? Or maybe it’s simply to feel better in your own skin? Remember all of these things when you’re about to stuff your hand into that bag of chips. Is this temporary satisfaction really worth it? Is it worth not being able to get down on the floor easily to play with your kids or worth looking in the mirror every day and hating what you see? 

4) Have your implementation intentions or if/then statements ready. For example, if my husband/wife comes back with a pizza for dinner, I will have just one slice and then have a salad and lean protein on the side. Or, if my kid wants to bake cookies I will have one cookie after dinner but I will not have that usual handful of M & Ms I always have before bed. 

5) Take your goals one at a time so you don’t stretch yourself too thin. If you’re trying to get your nutrition in order, and start working out at home, and start doing yoga, and start meditating, etc etc etc it will be overwhelming to reach all of the goals you set for yourself. Start with small manageable goals. Otherwise you’ll feel like it’s too much and find yourself giving up on everything and eating a pint of Ben and Jerry’s on the couch watching Netflix instead.

Willpower really is a finite resource. If you are exhausted and at your wit’s end, willpower is very hard to rely on. That’s why you need to strengthen it as much as you can and build strong habits in the process. This way, you can rely on those habits more instead of just pure willpower. You’ve got this!  Contact us now if you have any questions!