Getting in Shape. Willpower and Discipline

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Introduction — Falling off the Wagon

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Have you ever tried to get lean and muscular but couldn’t stick to a regimen because of lacking willpower and discipline? Have you been told to exhaust yourself to the end fighting your body’s urges only to lose the battle, feel ashamed, and get labeled as one who fell off the wagon? If that’s the case, that makes us two. I fell off the wagon in 2013. And (actually) never got on it again. Being the second of three parts, this article shares some lessons I learned about willpower and discipline while building and improving my physique.

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The Other Parts

The first part summarized what “I think” are the best dietary tactics to stay lean and muscular. And the third will cover the training approaches I see in the same way. Placed in between, this one examines the role of willpower in body recompositions from a person who stays in the shape you see year-round.

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The Reasons for This Article

The reasons for putting it in the middle are because “I believe:” (1) Willpower and discipline need a better explanation regarding getting in shape and many other things. And (2) not being idealistic (regarding them) can immensely help improve your results with diet and training.

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Disclaimer

As mentioned in the previous post: this content’s purpose isn’t to argue with others. Instead, I have two aims. The first is to “hopefully” inspire you to do something about your physique after watching this video rather than playing another falling into a rabbit hole. Whether you’ll consider the information I share is optional. In fact, I urge my clients and readers to always be skeptical and approach things like scientists.

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Empiricism not Dogmatism

That means testing and comparing your empirical results. So you can develop a nonbiased perspective. The second is to provoke you to consider body recomposition as impacting your whole life. Understanding it can cause misery ‘but also’ improve your entire being, not just look. And that wholly depends on how you’ll approach it.

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Conventional Wisdom

Conventional wisdom (often) explains obesity as the overconsumption of calories and a sedentary lifestyle caused by a lack of willpower and discipline. According to gurus and influencers, getting in shape is all about the two latter. Essentially, this translates into two main things: (1) Using willpower (and discipline) to prevent your body from eating something or at all. And (2) force-feeding a certain number of calories of foods it (often), let’s just say, ‘doesn’t necessarily enjoy.’ The latter includes undereating and never getting satiated. As evident by examples like the TV show the Biggest Loser, which can cause tremendous anxiety, we’ll discuss whether it is effective in a moment.

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The More Extreme Cases

In more extreme scenarios, gurus advocate approaching going to the gym and everything in life similarly. While the third’s outcomes will be discussed in another video, we’ll focus on body recomposition, examining what that actually means in day-to-day living. To do that, we have to look at the scientific models of willpower, a thorough examination of which you can find in my book Discipline or Something Else.

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Willpower 1. The Muscle/Resource Model

Popularized by Roy Baumeister, the more classic perspective on willpower is that it is like a muscle (or resource) that gets fatigued and depleted as you use it. Hence the more you do that, the ‘less willpower’ you can exert. According to this school of thought, draining your willpower puts you into a condition called willpower (or ego) depletion, which includes decision fatigue. Adherents to this model explain that once your ‘willpower’ is gone (or depleted), you can’t use it. So simple tasks start feeling super challenging, and your focus and performance go south. Thereby you need to let your willpower get restored before using it again.

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Willpower 2. The Emotion Model

More recently, researchers like Michael Inzilcht reasonably argue willpower isn’t a depletable resource since there isn’t an actual resource to be depleted and measured. Instead, they outlined the theory that willpower is an emotion that ebbs and flows and thus has its ups and downs.

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Question 1

Delving into that perspective, authors like Nir Eyal offer willpower doesn’t get depleted but is available for different things at different times. Considering that, I’ll be happy to know how often and for how long your willpower is available for controlling cravings and hunger. Feel free to let me know in the comments under the video.

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The Notion of Fatigue

Since they see it as fluctuating, the proponents of the emotion model recognize willpower as very ineffective to rely on for pretty much anything, especially for things that are 24/7, like your eating regimen (for instance). Instead, they recommend working with your identity, habits, and environment as far superior for achieving success — more on that in a moment.

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Ego Depletion or Mere Fatigue

They also clarify what others define as willpower (or ego) depletion is “in fact” very consistent with the notion of fatigue — which they recognize as tangible and measurable. Finding common ground with some concepts of Roy Baumeister’s classic Willpower: The Secret Power of Success, the emotion model’s proponents admit that exerting too many mental efforts inevitably leads to mental and, in some cases, physical fatigue. Most importantly, they agree willpower is useless against biology and hormones, the disbalance of which is precisely the root cause of hunger, cravings, and often even sedentary living. Simply said…

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“Regardless of strong it is, your willpower is a joke against the infinite hunger and cravings your body triggers when leptin and ghrelin are messed up…”

— POTB

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Willpower Against Biology/Hormones

More about the latter is in the Adaptation chapters of my book OMAD GAINS. Otherwise, I’ll be happy to know whether some of that resonates with you. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

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Prefrontal Cortex

Scientists also found that using willpower to do something, stop yourself from doing something else, or take any action to pursue some long-term benefit or goal, are all associated with activity in different areas of the prefrontal cortex, which is where willpower comes from. The more these areas get used, the sooner mental and/or physical fatigue occurs — whether you want to call it willpower depletion. When the prefrontal cortex is somewhat altered due to an injury, the person’s willpower and discipline automatically disappear — more on that in Kelly McGonigal’s The WillPower Instinct.

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Emotional Eating and Anxiety

That reminds us that humans have two parts of the brain that evolved at different times. Also known as the ‘reasoning brain,’ the prefrontal cortex developed about a million years ago; it is responsible for planning, predicting, and reasoning. In fact, some consider all these functions of willpower which is reasonable since they massively suffer in the cases of willpower depletion or mental fatigue.

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The Survival Brain

Besides that, we have another, more ancient brain. Also referred to as the ‘survival brain,’ this includes the autonomic nervous system, regulating primitive survival responses and urges. The survival brain is also where the actually-addictive emotions of anxiety, stress, and worry emerge from.

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Temporary Distraction

According to Judson Brewer, an MD and Ph.D. at Brown University, worrying gives a temporary distraction or relief from negative feelings, working like a reward mechanism. It is part of the reward-based learning system which ensures our survival. This leads to craving more of those feelings which invites various destructive habits to comfort oneself. Later that turns into what Brewer defines as a habit loop. Part of that is the shame and guilt most people experience after binging or merely eating more than their diet allows. Let me know if that resonates with you.

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Shame and Guilt

It is well-established that shame and guilt lead to stress, anxiety, and indulging in self-destructive habits like binging and re-inforcing the habit loop Brewer and others talk about. It’s also worth mentioning that feeding your mind baseless slogans like “you fall off the wagon” or “you are undisciplined” doesn’t really help. Instead, it worsens, things initiating more shame, guilt, stress, and eating. It is why they call it ’emotional’ or ‘compulsive’ eating. As Brewer says:

“You become trapped in a cycle of despair and self-flagellation that will keep you on autopilot survival mode…”
— Judson Brewer. Unwinding Anxiety (Blinkist)

The Root Cause of Eating Disorders

This is crucial because when one’s stressed or anxious, the prefrontal cortex shuts down. And as most people nowadays know, stress and anxiety (and not lack of willpower and discipline) are the root cause of eating disorders. When that happens, the old brain gets in charge. So the person has no impulse control. And while “willpower” is ineffective for fighting cravings when food addiction is less severe, it becomes unavailable when attempting to use food to comfort or ease themselves during a full-blown panic attack.

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Question 2

Let me know what you think of that? Have you used emotional eating to cope with stress and negative emotions? And if yes, did you try using willpower to prevent yourself from such habits. If so, how that went. I’ll be happy if you share some experiences in the comments below the video.

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Discipline

One of the fundamental questions I answer in my book Discipline or Something Else is whether self-discipline is self-sustained? Based on tons of research, the answer is No. Self-discipline is not self-sustained or self-sufficient. It largely depends on faculties and forces like willpower, grit, (intrinsic and extrinsic) motivation (including one’s specific desire for status), habits, and others.

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The Engine Needs Gas

Thus discipline mimics or has an identical pattern or dynamic of the force/faculty through which it is sustained or kept. Because of that, I often liken discipline to an engine requiring fuel, without which it doesn’t work. In the case of using willpower to sustain it, ‘discipline’ inevitably follows the dynamics of ‘willpower.’

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The Permanent Inner Debate

This is very important because the permanent inner debate of when, how much, and what you should eat dramatically alters your ability to exert willpower. This isn’t to discourage you won’t be able to pull from eating a cookie now. Instead, it is to help you understand that exerting willpower to fight your hormones is a lost battle with a very high price. And this is why, as my Instagram followers know, I firmly believe:

There’s no such thing as free willpower. There’s only free will. The ability to rely on willpower now is paid by or (costs) the inability to do that later and for something else. Use your willpower accordingly, never forgetting you have free will…

— POTB

What That Means in Practical Terms

Exerting willpower now to sustain the discipline of not eating a cookie will likely alter the quality of that coding, writing, or designing session you planned for later. Deciding to eat a salad instead of cake 5 times for 5 minutes will likely affect your overall experience of the day’s resting hours.
Eating without reaching satisfaction and making yourself hungrier initiates an inner debate of whether to eat more or wait for the next meal. That leads to remaking the same decision over and over, eventually diminishing one’s executive function for the rest of the day. In more extreme cases, it will also increase stress, leaving you “willpowerless” (and undisciplined).

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Question 3

Do some of this resonate with you? Have you recognized identical patterns in your or the lives of those around you? If so, in what manner. Feel free to let me know in the comments section under the video. And most importantly, reflect on it for your own good.

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Should You Give Up Healthy Living

Now… Does this mean abandoning healthy living and body recomposition and thus surrendering to cravings to preserve willpower? Luckily, it doesn’t! It means making those independent from your willpower.

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Choice Architecture

According to some of the latest research, one effective way to do that is using choice architecture. Also known as ‘designing’ or (as I like to call it) ‘disciplining’ your environment, the latter eliminates any potential cues of the “habit” you don’t want to engage in.

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Disciplining the Environment

Instead, it saturates your life with the ‘cues’ for the healthy and productive habits you want to develop. For instance, if you don’t want to eat cookies or cake, don’t have them in your house. You also go far from pastries and bakers. To learn how to code, you better have VS Code or another word processor on your Mac, such as coding books around.

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Compassion

While people like James Clear and BJ Fogg glorify choice architecture, Judson Brewer regards it as (somewhat) ineffective due to working primarily as a distraction. Instead, Brewer recommends practicing mindfulness and cultivating compassion for ourselves and our cravings. Along with this, he advocates adopting what another behavioral psychologist calls the growth mindstate, which is basically the perspective that nothing is fixed, and change is available to us.

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Reverse Engineering

Brewer explains that doing this will allow deconstructing the destructive habit, recognizing that the damage it does clearly outweighs the pleasure it provides — but that likely taps into some willpower since decision-making and comparison are involved. So which of them is really the solution? Well, neither and both.

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Common Sense

While choice architecture might be superior when it comes to learning a skill or quitting particular bad habits, it has its limitations. In the same way, though essential, merely being compassionate and nonbiased about your cravings won’t necessarily eradicate them.

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Personal Experience

As anyone who has ever had such issues knows, not having their substance of choice in their house won’t prevent an addict from abusing it; it will only postpone it. Yet, drugs are expensive, illegal, and associated with numerous obstacles, risks, and real dangers, which can more easily outweigh the high as long as you are ready to change and recognize them; also, with the incomparable guilt for betraying your loved ones.
Food, on the other hand, is mainly cheap, legal, and instantaneously available. Despite subculture, doing drugs is considered shameful and utterly unacceptable, whereas eating is encouraged 24/7. In fact, most of the gurus (who adore using phrases like “You fell off the wagon) encourage frequent eating, including some of the most addictive foods.

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You’ve Been Imprinted

In some former soviet countries, grandmas considered fat kids healthy. And most people (subconsciously) associate pizzas, cookies, and cakes with their childhood and family gatherings. That is crucial because such notions are imprinted in your subconscious and either facilitate or hinder whatever measures you take when your willpower is at its lowest.

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Biology Again

Besides, there’s biology again. The good news is that. You were meant to advance. While you can learn new habits or skills by growing new neural connections, your body isn’t made to crave drugs in any shape or form. The bad news, on the contrary, is that our bodies are made to store and are great at that.

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Survival Mechanisms

The way they see it is that this will make us survive during a potential famine, which is technically correct, although it also prevents one from having visible abs and separation. And that is precisely where the issue has to be addressed — on a biological level by patiently working with your hormones to eradicate hunger. While what’s likely the complete manual to achieving that is in my book OMAD GAINS, the first part of this video covers some basics you may find valuable.

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80-90% of Bodyrecomposition

According to Vince Gironda, nutrition is 80-90% of bodybuilding. Some people blatantly neglect that suppressing hunger makes succeeding with those 80-90% independent of willpower. It also frees that so we can use it for meaningful things, like building our best selves. And while not getting remotely close to certain foods is unrealistic, IMHO, choice architecture still applies here.

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One Choice to Change Everything

Undergoing a hunger suppression process and developing a new relationship with food essentially erases any potential need to make such choices, hence is a choice architecture in and of its own. Just like fasting is staying on a deficit of calories for extended periods. And eating OMAD is technically a form of CICO, alternating a 2-hour stage of calories in with a 20-22 hour state of calories out.

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Training

Okay, but what about training. After all, that plays a huge role too. Well, yes! And that’s precisely why you should never make your workouts depend on willpower. Instead, I suggest making it what people like James Clear call identity-based habit while genuinely finding the joy of it. For instance, when I began my journey, the people who inspired the most were Serge Nubret, Frank Zane, and Vince Gironda. Such as others from the early 90s like Lee Haney or Mike Christian. Besides proponents of the health-promoting and muscle-building foods I mentioned in the first part, they all trained with some high volume and frequency.

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A Matter of Identity

I wanted to look like them. So I started copying and later customizing their training making it part of my identity. I am a gym rat, and I adore training and getting a pump, such as how I look and feel. Deep within, I perceive myself as a non-competitive natural bodybuilder. So it’s non-negotiable and independent of willpower, discipline, and even choice architecture. I also don’t need to be mindful of it, but instead can’t wait to do it. So I can proudly say I haven’t used willpower for it for the past 9-10 years.

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Different People Different Identities

Suppose, for some reason, you cannot recognize that part of your identity but want to do one of those shortcut programs. In that case, I suggest having realistic expectations and some compassion regarding the results.

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So What’s The Moral of All This?

Well, the moral isn’t that willpower is particularly bad. Instead, it’s a priceless force/faculty. Depending on how you look at it, willpower has its limitations and can be plain unavailable under stress. This is why you shouldn’t make your health and body recomposition depend on it. But plan your life accordingly and use it for that extra hour of coding, handling business, writing, or working on your big project on Friday night. As my Instagram followers also know

If you use it wisely, you’ll be able to do the extra lap or mile with the help of willpower. You’ll have to do all the laps or miles relying on willpower if you don’t.

— POTB

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And that is precisely why I firmly believe that:

If sustaining your eating regimen requires willpower (including decision-making), your eating regimen has already failed you.

— POTB

Final Words

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But all this is just my opinion using willpower and discipline to keep healthy lifestyle. It may not resonate with you. Whatever the case, I’ll be happy if you let me know your take on the topic. Feel free to share that, such as your personal experiences with using willpower to sustain an eating or training regimen. Also, your suggestions for videos and articles to do after finishing this series.

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