Everyday Systems

I don't know how to use the search feature without getting hundreds of matches, so I'm sorry if this book (Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength) has already been discussed. It has one chapter on dieting. Once again, it reinforces Reinhard's insight.

Very near the beginning of the chapter on diet they say that "if you're serious about controlling your weight, you need the discipline to follow these three rules: 1. Never go on a diet. 2. Never vow to give up chocolate or any other food. 3. Whether you're judging yourself or judging others, never equate being overweight with have weak willpower. (p. 214-5)

Of course there are other great observations, but here's another one that dovetails with No S: "Instead of going for the quick weight loss today, you're better off using your self-control to make gradual changes that will produce lasting effects (219).

And on. One of the most interesting facts brought up was that there is an English bookmaker that has a standing offer to bet against anyone who plans to lose weight, giving up to 50 to 1 odds. The bettors get to set their own goal and rate of loss! The bettors lose 80% of the time, sometimes to the tune of thousands of dollars.

Lastly (because I'm probably breaking a copyright law by now:) "Instead of making general plans to reduce calories, you make highly specific plans for automatic behavior in certain situations (229)." The suggestions they came up with seemed even more complicated than they needed to be. I just kept thinking, "Just put food on a plate and that's it! Done!"

hi, i figured i'll come back here...dusted my book off and started to read it again...no more counting...hopefully this time i learned a lesson...i heard something on tv once that said "some mistakes we can learn from, other mistakes can change your life".

i like the facts you stated here from the book.

i dont' see any of the people i regularly communicated with on here...i guess like me, one day they'll be back.

see on the boards.
deb

Summary from Conclusion: The Future of Willpower – More Gain, Less Strain (As Long as You Don’t Procrastinate)

You only have one source of self-control. Everything that requires will power -from making decisions to biting your tongue to your obnoxious co-worker - draws on this one source. Your ability to self-regulate can get depleted.

Low levels of blood glucose have been correlated with depleted levels of self-control. A beverage will help restore levels (like milk). So will eating healthy meals.

Even more important than food is rest. Be sure to get regular and plentiful rest to replenish your self-regulation.

It is not always easy to tell when your self-regulation levels are being depleted. The best sign is that you feel things more strongly than you otherwise would. When you get to this point understand that your ability to self-regulate is endangered.

For these reasons, self-control is best expended to “play offense†rather than rescue you from emergencies.

Playing offense includes regular planning at an appropriate scale. Set broad long range goals and more specific intermediate goals (i.e. monthly) but be aware of the planning fallacy which is overestimating your abilities as well the lack of obstacles and challenges in doing a task. Daily planning should be very, very clear and specific to tell yourself EXACTLY what you should do.

Playing offense also means keeping on top of the daily basics of life such as being tidy and reasonably organized. Research showed the people were able to self regulate longer on a tidy desk than a messy one. Allow yourself enough time to do these maintenance tasks but not too much as they will expand to fill the time allotted to them.

Playing offense means setting aside time to work on one thing at a time. Even if the one thing is not going particularly well don’t hop to something else till your predetermined time is up. This helps establish the “If X then Y†strategy in your life – if I want to do this, then I must do that (if I want to eat sweets, then I will eat them on S days; If I want to buy clothes, then I will pay cash; if I want to drink wine, then I will only have two glasses.) Etc.

Other core ideas in playing offense are:

Bright lines – clear, unambiguous rules, a law term apparently – make self-regulation easier.

Keep track. Research shows self-monitoring is an important part of successful self-regulation. It eliminates mountaintop elation/valley of despair thinking by providing objective assessments of your accomplishments.

And finally, reward yourself. Trophies for genuine accomplishments are fine. A reward can add a sense of accomplishment to dreary tasks.

You are a talented summarizer.

Isn't it amazing how much of this Reinhard had figured out oh, so many years ago?

I went back and edited my post above. Between being really tired and a glass of wine just before I wrote the post, my proof reading suffered.

In the book, Baumeister noted that often times findings from psychological research is greeted with "Oh my grandmother knew that."