How to boost your willpower and stick with your diet

Posted on 31 October, 2018

In 2011-12, 2.3 million Australians over 15 years old reported to be on a diet. That’s 15% of all women and 11% of men*.

Of those who were dieting, the majority of them were on a diet to lose weight.

Even though the majority of dieters are not successful in achieving long-term weight loss, culturally we continue to diet. Apparently, it’s a $600 million industry.

We’ve become diet hoppers: switching from one diet to another, mostly based on the thought that maybe the one we failed on wasn’t right, and we just need to find the one that is. Before we know it, we’ve tried ketogenic, paleo, fasting, the local personal trainer’s ‘get shredded plan’, shakes and a pre-made meal delivery service.

But it’s all too hard. We’re fine for a few weeks (or a measly few days), but then it all starts to unravel. We fall back into old habits, and sometimes, we fall hard. For example:

• Keto was too restrictive. You missed bread, crackers, hot chips and cake.
• Paleo left you scared that grains were giving you dementia (they don’t, by the way).
• Fasting made you hungry (surprise surprise).
• The ‘get shredded plan’ left you tired and hangry, and if you have to even look at broccoli and sweet potato one more time you’ll scream.
• The shakes are gross and you miss eating food.
• The pre-made meals are tiny, you don’t like everything they make, and now you’re worried about the perils of everything you’re eating being microwaved.

Argh! How frustrating! The reason that all of these potential strategies don’t work for you is that you can’t stick to them. Wouldn’t it be great to just have more willpower so you could actually get the results you want?

There actually is a way, but it’s got nothing to do with increasing your willpower. Instead, it’s all about making it easier for yourself to stay consistent.

You see, you’re not going to stick to a diet next time by just ‘trying harder’ and being more disciplined. Willpower is a limited resource. The more you use it, the more you fatigue. So rather than trying to get more, you should be focusing your efforts on building skills that make the healthy choice the easy choice.

Skills are habits, behaviours, or routines that support a particular outcome. In this instance, you want to build skills that support consistent (everyday) healthy eating long term. Here are some ways that you can boost your willpower by building new skills:

You must be organised

You have to have healthy food and meals available to you: at home, at work, and when you’re out and about. If you rely on chance and just hope for the best, as soon as life gets busy and stressful you’ll fall back to your default behaviours and ingrained habits. Many of these are subconscious and we do them without even thinking.

You must create a healthy environment

If you have chocolate in your house, you’re so much more likely to eat it compared to if it’s not in your house. Sometimes you need to give your willpower a break and let your environment help you make the food decision. At the time of writing this article, I’m pre-menstrual, looking to drop a few kilos after a long and stressful winter, and wanting chocolate so badly. However, there isn’t any in my house. So I’m sitting here, typing away with a cup of tea and dealing with it. In fact, I’m glad that I don’t have to make that decision because based on my current mood, I’d most likely decide to overeat the chocolate, which could disrupt my consistency.

Make decisions based on your future self

Choice experts suggest that all decisions are between what we want to do and what we ought to do; between our current wants or needs, and our future wants or needs. You can boost your willpower through frequent reminders of your future self. It’s often the immediate gratification part of your brain that says ‘yes’ to the chocolate binge. It tastes good, it takes the edge off a stressful day, and the sugar releases happy chemicals in your brain. The long-term part of you, the part that values health, says ‘I’ll only have 2 pieces’, or ‘tonight I’m saying no’. Set reminders or triggers that can help you remember ‘future you’ so you can make choices accordingly.

You must know how to basically prep food

If you can’t prep your own food or you have a limited repertoire of meals, you’re going to find it difficult to eat well long term. Your willpower will quickly wain unless pulling together a healthy meal feels easy to you, and it’s simply all about perspective. I have high-level skills in the kitchen. When I’m lazy and have no willpower, I can whip up a meal with salmon, greens, and rice, portioned to my exact needs, and it feels easy! Why? Because having the skill means that it comes naturally to me. Unless you’re keen to survive on microwave meals, or you can afford a personal chef, you’ll want to invest in your ability to prepare yourself healthy, tasty, enjoyable food.

You must have good advice

It’s hard to have willpower 24/7 when the diet you’re trying to follow is simply too difficult for you and doesn’t suit your lifestyle.

If you’re an active, fit, muscular woman, a 1200 calorie diet is not right for you. You will get hungry. If you are a breastfeeding mother with toddlers, a very low calorie shake diet is not recommended for you. If you like eating carbs and deep down you want to eat carbs long term, the keto diet is not for you. If you can’t eat every two hours because you’re with clients or don’t like food prep, a six meal per day diet probably isn’t a good idea for you. Strict ‘get shredded fast’ plans are boring and often very low calorie. Meal plans can be stifling and make socialising difficult. Fasting is not suitable for active people.

It’s much easier to stick to an eating pattern that actually suits your lifestyle. It’s worthwhile exploring what that might look like.

You must deal with your emotional attachment to food and drinks

‘I need this hot chocolate to get through the afternoon.’

‘I can’t cope without my nightly wine.’

‘I’m addicted to sugar.’

If you rely on food (or alcohol) to help you emotionally, no diet of any kind will work for you. Willpower is absolutely useless against a strong psychological association with food. Unless you’re able to find an alternative solution to helping you deal with stress, depression, anxiety or sadness, you’ll find any diet difficult to stick to. In this instance, your food choices are a symptom of a deeper issue.

If you need help with building skills, habits, behaviours, and routines to support a healthy diet long term, I can help.

*References: Australian Health Survey: Nutrition First Results.