FITNESS MATTERS
‘Exercise’ your willpower
DR. SHEELA NAMBIAR, M.D.
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There is more to making and keeping resolutions than meets the eye, especially when it comes to working out.
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Don’t give up: Work on cultivating your will power.
You’ve made your New Year’s resolution to exercise six days a week, cut sugar from your diet, have dinner by 8.00 p.m., wake up by 6.00 a.m. and walk your dog.
It all starts out well, your enthusiasm gets you through the first two weeks, you even manage to complete 45 minutes on the treadmill. Then fatigue sets it, excuses make their appearance with greater frequency.
You begin to get more and more discouraged and frustrated with yourself. This is perhaps your fifth attempt at weight loss and every time the narrative has unfolded in a similar fashion.
You begin with a great deal of aplomb and zeal but within the first month, what began as a well planned challenge disintegrates into meaningless justifications for self sabotage. “Have I no Willpower that I cannot sustain a simple thing like exercise and weight loss?” you ask yourself, and despair sets in.
Truth is there is more to making and keeping resolutions than meets the eye. There is a strategy to it and scientific evidence that ‘Willpower’ is not an endless supply of energy that can be called into play as and when required.
Like a muscle
Willpower has been compared to a Muscle (R. Baumeister, Clinical & Experimental Research, 2003). Just as a muscle needs to be exercised, rested, nourished and challenged, so must ‘willpower’ for it to be effective. Willpower is not just a mind-set, but a physiological process involving the mind and body. It is a mind–body response to an external challenge like continuing to exercise beyond your comfort zone when you would prefer to leap off the treadmill to slump in front of the TV. It is the ability to work through instant gratification.
In the context of exercise, the ability to keep long term goals in mind is important while pursuing an activity that may not, in that moment, be an enjoyable experience and may, in fact, be quite uncomfortable. Results like weight loss, for instance, are not instantaneous; it requires months of diligence followed by a consistency with lifestyle changes if weight loss is to be maintained.
Suzanne Segerstrom, Ph.D., was the first Psychologist from the University of Kentucky to study the scientific basis of Willpower. She found that when willpower is exercised various changes occur in the body in relation to the autonomic nervous system (sympathetic and parasympathetic), the cardiovascular system, the immune system and even the neuro-endocrine system. All these systems act in coordination to enable our body to adapt to any challenge that requires self control.
Energise
The energy for Willpower is derived from Glucose. So what does this mean? If you are low on energy (glucose) it is highly likely that you may give up your assigned task more easily. It has also been found that blood sugar drops following acts of exercising your willpower.
Or, if you have already expended a lot of energy in exercising your willpower like in, let’s say resisting chocolate; you will be less successful in completing yet another difficult task such as working out for an hour, or sitting down to write a term paper or an assignment.
So does this mean you can’t have it both ways? That you cannot choose to follow a well balanced diet and exercise at the same time? No, it only means that one needs to prioritise, forgive oneself occasional set backs, reward oneself and have a sense of humour!
It also means that allowing yourself to arrive at a state of relative hypoglycaemia, for instance by skipping a meal, will impair your ability to keep your resolve with anything from working out regularly to losing your temper.
Lack of rest has also been found to deplete one’s willpower. Trying to persist with an exercise regime when low on sleep can be an uphill task very likely to fail.
The writer is a practising Obgyn, a Fitness and Lifestyle Consultant NAFC (U.S.A) and Director, TFL Fitness Studio, Chennai. E-mail: drsheela@tflinc.net
Strategies
Don’t starve and don’t skip meals. Small frequent meals with foods that have a low Glycemic index and keep blood sugars on an even keel will serve you well when trying to exercise your willpower to be regular with your workout.
Get enough rest. Not only is this important for muscle growth, but also to get you to the Gym in the first place!
Reward yourself from time to time to replenish stores of energy for your resolve to re-exert itself.
Plan ahead. Don’t allow yourself to be trapped in a situation where your have to challenge your ‘willpower’ when you are in an already weak frame of mind. For instance, if you are tired and hungry from work and need to make decisions for a meal, it would help if you already have a plan at hand or a partially prepared meal with cut vegetables, cooked spinach or a ready salad, rather than having to face a fridge full of ice cream that you are supposed to resist! Similarly, making a shopping list when in a positive, rested and nourished frame of mind will prevent you from buying those nasty fried snacks, aerated drinks, cookies and sweets which you will then have to wrestle to stay away from.
Don’t make too many difficult resolutions at the same time all of which may be demanding on your willpower reserve. Take it one step at a time. Practise one act of good behaviour like regular exercise, long enough for it to become habit so it no longer involves immense amounts of energy and self-discipline. Then introduce other lifestyle changes like eating more vegetables and fruits.
Physical exercise! It has been found that although the act of physical exercise can initially stress Willpower stores, consistency will actually improve a variety of behaviours requiring acts of self-control like healthier eating, giving up smoking and impulse control.
Accept the fact that will power is inherently limited and also influenced by a variety of factors such as mood, stress and even low blood sugar and don’t judge yourself as ‘weak willed’ or ‘self-indulgent’ if you are unable to immediately stay with a plan
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