Think You Need Willpower To Lose Weight? New Evidence Suggests Different Answer

Do You Have The Willpower To Lose Weight?

When it comes to cookies, chocolate, and potatoe chips I possess no willpower whatsoever.  I can easily eat an entire box of oreos by myself, and have in the past. 

I used to beat myself up for this, but I am going to share with you the concept that has not only helped me stop binging on cookies (mostly), but also helped me make many other positive changes in my life.  If you’ve ever struggled with not having enough willpower to lose weight, this article may give you the tools you need to get the weight off for good.

No Super Powers Needed.

A while back, when I was looking to make a major change in my life, I came across an article in Oprah magazine called The Willpower Myth.   Here is the first paragraph:

You say you need to make a change, but you can’t—you’re weak, you have zero self-control (sound of forehead being struck). Instead of beating yourself up, you can do what researchers are discovering actually works. We have the three Rs of transformation.

This caught my attention… Big Time.   So what are the three Rs of tranformation?

#1. Relating

To make a change in your life like sticking to a healthy diet to lose weight,  willpower is not usually enough.  The most important thing you can do according to The Willpower Myth is find someone that you can relate to who can show you how to do it.  You want someone you that you can look at and say "If she can do it, I can do it."

The good thing about this is for this to work you don’t need to be good personal friends with someone.  Think mentor.  This relationship could be with a teacher, boss, advisor, or in my case people I have met online.

#2.  Repeating

As the relationship that you have formed in step #1 begins to inspire you to make the change, the next step is repeating the actions that create the healthy eating habits that lead to weight loss.  Realizing that change comes naturally to almost no one, will help get you through the tough spots at the beginning.  

Keep repeating what you know will work and what you’ve seen your mentor do.  Eventually if you repeat it enough it will become natural to you.

#3. Reframing 

As you copy your mentor and keep repeating the actions that lead to positive change, you will begin to think about yourself and your abilities differently.  This is a really important change., and probably the most important part of the whole process.   Here is an exerpt from the article that explains it really well.  It’s about a woman who wanted to break the cycle of addiction in her life.

"A counselor named Cydney Reyes came to me when I was arrested, and I’m sure I was an absolute mess," Weigand says. "I remember how good she smelled, and she had these crystal blue eyes and said, ‘Do you need some help?’ I broke down and admitted I needed a lot of help.

"I got into the program and I stayed right up under her. I wanted to know how she lived and breathed and acted. She shared her story with me, and I thought, ‘Wow, she was even worse than I was.’ She worked with me every day, and I probably sucked her dry of every piece of energy she had. I remember the moment that she gave me a hug and whispered into my ear, ‘You are such a good girl.’ That was the moment I believed I really was a good girl and I could do good things with my life. From that moment on, I never looked back."

These three Rs will give you power over your life and your weight that you never thought were possible before.  Applying these principals has completely changed my life.

For more information on these concepts read the book that they come from, Change or Die by Alan Duetschman.

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