Willpower

Defined as...Self control. Determination. Drive. Grit. Single mindedness.

Can you relate?

Picture Helen, who wasn't going to indulge in even the teeniest, tiniest, itsy bitsyish, mini slice of the cake she had just baked. Controlled. Determined. Eating the left over batter, licking the icing from the knife (after tasting it three, okay seventeen times with her soup ladle (where did she put that tablespoon?) and, lastly, wasn't an eight inch round just simply too big? Compelled to carve it into a six inch round, and being no where near the garbage, Helen consumed the 2 inches of excess.  

But she did not eat a slice of cake.

Immediately Helen called her Weight Watcher, Over Eater Anonymous and Jenny Craig support groups to be commended and congratulated. 

Had she truly exerted self control? 

Actually. Yes.

At least according to the social psychologists Roy Baumeister and the science editor of the New York Times, John Tierney, she did. In their book "Willpower" Rediscovering the Greater Human Strength" they concluded that "willpower is limited and depends on a continuous supply of the simple sugar glucose." When glucose is depleted, you fall prey to impulse shopping, affairs and cookies."

Let me understand this.

If you want to maintain self control, eat a few cookies. Not enough cookies and you might throw yourself on the nearest available warm body, after buying those coveted Jimmy Choo's, and finishing off the entire packet of Oreos?

Does this make sense to you?

Apparently it doesn't make sense to Veronica Job a psychologist who avers that "willpower can be quite limited, but only if you believe it is."  In other words, willpower is in your head, not because of your body's biology.

Let's see.

Tell yourself often and loudly that you won't lose control and indulge in a spree of your choice. Or, eat some cookies, a banana or two, maybe a Mars Bar and your appetites are sated? 

Pass the guacomole, I'm going with door number 2.