It has been shown that willpower is a limited resource… you only have so much in the day. So, if you have too many things in your life that require willpower, you may deplete it early in the day and fail to maintain your willpower later in the day. Hence the late night binge or “I’ll workout tomorrow” syndrome.
I believe one of the reasons that I am as successful as I have been in my latest incarnation of deciding to lose weight is that it is the only willpower-sucking thing I am doing in my life at the moment.
In the past, every time I became “motivated” to change my physicality, either to lose weight or become more fit, I would use a combination of diet and exercise. The problem with that is I would have two major willpower vampires fighting over my swollen carcass at the same time, and I found that each and every time I got on a new track I got “sucked dry” early in the day. So I would eat something I shouldn’t. So I would skip the morning workout telling myself I would do it later that evening, only to be exhausted the next morning. And the vicious cycle continues…
Or rather… doesn’t. I would fall off the wagon. I would give myself a day off, which would turn into a week, and there go all the marbles.
So, when I decided enough was enough the day I stepped on the scale at 268 I decided to focus on one thing only – my diet. And focus on it like a laser.
Studies show that exercise is a minimal factor in losing weight. Watch this surprising video. So, Goal 1: Lose the Fat. Goal 2 – start exercising… to get fit. But only after losing the fat.
And so far, so good. I have lost 38 lbs in just over 2 months – an average of half a pound per day – simply by eating a low carb-high fat diet known as “keto”. Because my diet was the only willpower-sucking event I have going on in my life right now, I have been able to stick to it, and wow, the results have been amazing.
I’m actually looking forward to going clothes shopping in the new year when I hit my target weight! Walking through a clothing store on the way to the Apple store in the mall last week I was experiencing clothing envy for the first time in my life!
So, all that to say, don’t do more than your willpower can handle. If you are trying to start a new business, lose weight through dieting, start a new exercise program, go ahead, but don’t bite off more than your willpower can chew. Choose ONE. Do what you can and do it well. And once you hit your goal, take on the next project.