Fitness Tips: Does willpower work?

by David Garred,
Club Manager Dusit Resort Sports Club.

Hello readers, so tell me, have you all been seizing the day? Are you taking charge or are you drifting along? I hope the former.
Over the next couple of weeks we are going to take a look at the relationship between fat burning/weight loss and how to achieve it.
Just do it? The accepted way of managing what people are trying not to eat is willpower or self-control. Culturally, this approach is accepted. People think that they can be around food and not eat it. Forget it!
Willpower does not work. If willpower worked, no one would need help with weight loss. The definition of insanity is, “doing the same things and expecting different results”. This is what people are doing each time they start a new diet. “This must be the one. This one will work,” they believe, or even, “I think that I am ready this time, this time I am going to stick to it.”
Willpower is not a skill, you cannot increase it, you can’t count on it. If it worked then I would not be talking about it. Willpower is not what kept our great-grandparents “thin”. Their enviro nment kept them thin. They didn’t have more willpower than we have today. They had two major things going for them, one, their environments were not full of foods that they were not struggling to eat and two, the greater percentage of them were physically active on almost every day of the week by virtue of their work and lack of all the conveniences we take for granted. They automatically got plenty of physical activity and they did not have to go to the local gym to get it, they couldn’t afford it, it was called life!
Imagine yourself, every-where you go, in places that are full of foods that you like or love which you are trying not to eat - another fine mess that you have gotten yourself into. What is the likely scenario? Plenty of reasons, rationalisations, even excuses why to go ahead and eat, putting off dieting another day. It’s simple, the more times that people have to choose between eating something - the more times they will eat it.
Alcohol, drugs and smoking cessation treatments don’t suggest people can successfully quit without avoiding the environments that produce theses temptations. This is also one reason why weight management is so tough, you can’t quit eating.
Using environmental management is like hazardous path analysis to the task of healthy eating. By limiting the stimuli to eat high fat/high calorie foods, intake is automatically reduced. Think about betting on yourself, would you bet your pay cheque on not eating ice cream if you worked in an ice cream parlour? Not a chance.
Let’s take a look at why environmental management is an absolute must.
Consider some statistics I have from America. In 1900, 5% of the adult population of America was obese. In 1995, the figure was around 40% and we are on track for 50% by 2000. What is the difference between then and now? Our world is greatly different than theirs. Our world now provides an excess of calories 24 hours a day and makes it really easy to be sedentary. Americans (Western civilization) are eating 31% more fat (regular diet allowance is 20%, this means that 50% of their food is fat) and 43% less vegetables, fruits and whole grains to compensate for the fat increase.
In 1994, beef consumption was back at a five year high, and cheese consumption was at an all time high. Americans spent $15 billion on salty snacks and 77% of the milk they drink is 2% or whole (35% and 49% fat, respectively).
The food industry caters to what sells: large portions and high fat. The food served today is often double the size served 20 years ago. True story - Ching ching. Most of what the average person born or raised in Western society eats did not exist in 1900! All the processed and restaurant foods add up to high calories and high fat as compared to the 1900 diet.
No one will “just do it” in our current culture and it is not going to get any easier. Today weight management requires taking the offensive - environmental management.
That’s it for this week. Next week we will be taking a further look at environmental management, however this time you will learn some hopefully new ideas on HOW.
Between now and then, keep yourself active and start having a look at your eating habits. Is there something you can change to reduce the fat content? Be honest with yourself. Healthy eating is a significant portion of the battle.
Carpe ‘diem

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