The Hard Slog, Week 2

The Hard Slog

Where we're at

In the beginning, healthy lifestyle changes
can be a real mental battle of willpower

I'm now on Week 2 Day 4 of my fitness challenge to see what advice in the health and fitness industry actually works and it isn't as easy as I hoped it might be. It's easy to understand how people fall off the fitness train even after only doing it for a little while. I think until the changes you have made become habitual and a standard part of everyday life then you will be engaged in a real mental battle.

Will Power

From the start of doing this until now every day has been a mental battle to make the healthy choices, to spurn what is the most convenient, to get home from work at 9pm and cook something nutritious rather than something quick. Everyday is a challenge it keeping that willpower in place and as the first week progressed I could feel those reserves of will power being used up.

I don't think that willpower is binary, I don't think you either 'have it' or 'don't have it', I think it's like a health bar in games, you can start off on full but every time you have to sacrifice some of it to make a tough decision you lose a chunk from that health bar.

Will Power is like a Health Bar, you can use it up!

I'm going to say this again because it's important; 

Willpower is NOT Binary, it's like a health bar!

My Health Bar

So as the days have rolled on and I have kept making healthy decisions over tasty and easy decisions that will power bar has fallen, until by the end of the first week there was none left and I was slipping into bad practices; it had been a bad day at work so I 'needed' and 'deserved' that caramel latte, I didn't get home from work until super late so rather than cook I grabbed a take away. 

The day after I felt like an idiot, all the work I had been doing in eating better and exercising more had been undone in a few stupid moments when willpower was low, and here I hit on something stupidly simply but mega useful;

If Willpower can be used up it can ALSO BE RESTORED

Every hard healthy decision was using that willpower health bar up, but just like in Mario where you can grab a heart to regain life, you can regain willpower!

My next post is going to be about my personal top ten ways to Willpower heal

But for now here is one of my biggest willpower heals, as promised, those day 1 pictures. I warn you they ain't pretty