If you believe your lack of willpower is sabotaging your fat-loss, this one’s for you!

What does having willpower mean to you? Perhaps eating healthily and exercising all week. Or being organised enough to plan your weekly meals. Maybe it means cooking a healthy dinner, while everyone else around you chows down on a takeaway.

Whatever willpower means to you personally, most of us believe it becomes non existent when we feel ‘too tired’ to workout or ‘give in’ and eat rubbish. ‘Not having enough willpower’ is also one of the most common phrases I hear, when new personal training clients contact me.

Although hiring a personal trainer does not guarantee you will suddenly gain an abundance of willpower for life (sorry but that’s the truth!) it does however provide you with the opportunity and ability to start viewing things differently. Which is the purpose of this article  🙂 

It is important to know the definition of ‘willpower’ itself once implied it was a limited resource. Meaning once it has run out, all the healthy efforts we’ve made all week stop the moment we reach for that Friday night glass/bottle of wine…

If willpower is limited, then why do some people seem to have tonnes when others don’t?

Perhaps it’s not a question of how much one has, but how one views it.

Let’s imagine two different people. Both have hectic jobs and busy lives, but have made the effort to eat healthily all week. Come Friday evening, they are both equally exhausted. Person A gets home, feels to knackered to cook something, so ends up ordering a takeaway.

Person B realises yes they could order a takeaway, but then remembers how hard they have worked all week and how good and energised it has made them feel. They also think about how sluggish this processed food will make them feel physically afterwards; as well as how annoyed they will feel for doing so. Person B views cooking a healthy meal as another thing they will do, that will make them feel great this week.

Essentially, it all comes down to belief! Shifting your mindset to remembering just how empowering making healthy choices feels, will mean it no longer becomes a question of whether the willpower is or is not there.

The more challenges you overcome, the more you will equip yourself to overcome. Remember this the next time you believe your willpower is gone, and you might just rediscover it waiting in the back of your mind. Good luck!