Will Power and Outsourcing Self Control Key Factors in Keeping Diet Resolutions

(This article was first published as Will Power and Outsourcing Self Control Key Factors in Keeping Diet Resolutions on Technorati.)

Let's just say that my "Post-holiday, Back-on-the-Fat-No-More" bandwagon was rather disappointing.

OK, so it was more than rather disappointing. The  disappointment was epic. Epic because I did all the things I needed to do and was supposed to do. Things like watch calories, eat tee-tiny portions and exercise five times this week. I get tired just thinking about it.

I even went to that special Fat Yoga class I signed up for. OK, so maybe it's called something like "Yoga for Weight Loss and Weight Management," but since I'm not a big fan of euphemisms, I call it my "Fat Yoga" class to distinguish it from the other classes I attend like the "Hotter-than-the-Dickens Yoga"  (my Monday night hot yoga class,) or the "I'm-staring-at-my-toes-because-I-can't-do-that-pose Yoga" class (my Wednesday night Power Yoga class) or the "I've-fallen-and-can't-get-up yoga class" for the other Thursday night Power Yoga Plus class.

Jeepers.

Despite my best efforts, my weight remained unchanged this week, but my resolve to finish out this "Frying In My Own Fat" Weight Loss Challenge remains strong especially after reading this New York Times article.

According to the article, people fail to keep their New Year's resolutions (or any resolution for that matter) because they simply run out of willpower. Will Power apparently is a "real form of mental energy, powered by glucose in the bloodstream, which is used up as you exert self-control."

And, sadly, once Mr. Will Power is gone, well chaos ensues, and you fall off whatever fat-no-more bandwagon you were on and  become part of that 36 percent who break their resolutions by the end of January or that 56 percent who cave in by July.

The article gave a bunch of tips on how to stay the course. One was to outsource your self-control by holding yourself accountable to friends or publicly pre-committing to your resolution. (Sort of like what I've been doing here.) I've always said public humiliation is a great motivator. There are even APPs to help you with that.

So apparently I'm just going to have to try harder and watch my internal Will Power meter because I am not giving up on this fat-no-more thing.

No siree, Missy. I'm determined not to be a resolution failure statistic.

Maybe Week 2 of my Fat Yoga class will wring out a pound or two this upcoming week, and Mr. Will Power will remain strong.

How's that for a bit of outsourcing self-control? And I didn't have to go off-shore to do it either.

New Year’s Resolutions & the Fitness Challenge

At 5:30 a.m. with the temperature below freezing and frost glistening on the windows, I stood in my garage with my kickboxing gloves on wondering what in the Sam Hill I was doing.

If I weren’t the black widow of exercise, I would be inside some warm gym somewhere in some sort of organized class. But in the last year, my exercise partner and I have somehow managed to breeze through four different exercise venues. Breeze through as in they went out of business, moved away or ditched us. I’ve written about this before. You can read about it here and here.

So this frosty morning left me with no alternative if I was going to keep true to my New Year’s resolutions. At the top of my list—and apparently on the top of a lot of people’s lists—is the “let’s lose a gajillion pounds” resolution.

Of course, this is the same resolution that has topped my list year after year after year. I stuck it back up there any way.  I noticed, too, that another teacher blogger also resolved to lose weight this year except he has a Wii. Joel wrote about his plans to try and shed some pounds in 14 weeks with the goal of running his first 5k in April.

I don’t have a Wii (can’t afford one).

I don’t plan to run a 5k (running has never been my thing).

But I do plan to really, really, really try and lose some weight this year which is why I stood frozen in my garage before dawn.

Blame it on the brain freeze, but I had this brilliant idea. I thought to my chubby self, “Chubby Self, let’s issue Joel a challenge.  Let’s start a new blog. Let’s see how we do—he with his Wii and me with my sad little kickboxing bag and yoga. Let’s see if technology makes any difference.”

This could be fun.

Well, fun in a twisted sort of way.

Maybe if we have to blog about it, I thought, we might actually do it. I’ll even have the nurse at my school keep an “official” chart of my progress to keep me honest in my reporting.

Of course, that means I have to put away those gingersnaps now.

Let the games begin, and may both of us win!