The key to self control and discipline
Hi guys! Welcome to Episode 186 of the Wildly Successful Lifestyle podcast.
I had a meeting this week with my Functional medicine Dr. I have been on this nutritional protocol for a few months with the goal of getting rid of yeast that was in my gut. I retested recently and it’s gone! I was so excited because I have pretty much completely changed the way I eat.
I feel really good, my mind is super clear, my joint issues have almost gone away and I am where I want to be size wise so I love all of that. So during my meeting with Dr Osborne he asked me about all of the symptoms I had talked about originally and how they were doing. So many are gone and there are a few that are better but lingering and there is one that has kind of returned a little bit recently. I love wearing heels when we go out but my big toe for the last probably year hurt really bad only when I would wear heels. Well this started getting a lot better but recently it has started hurting again.
So we went through my routines and what changed. When exactly did it start hurting again and we realized quickly the problem. Over Halloween I did a little bit of damage to chocolate, chocolate and peanut butter to be exact anyway, I also started having a couple skinny margaritas each week which I had not been doing either.
He told me that I was in the danger zone. Which sounded ominous but he said lots of people he has worked with experience it too. You work super hard, you start feeling a lot better and then every once in a while you eat or drink something that you had cut out of your diet. That every once in a while turns into more frequent and eventually you’re right back where you started.
I didn’t like the sound of that, but it’s true. I was slipping a little…For 3 months we have had my husband’s sister and her guy living with us until they move into their new house. We have enjoyed it so much. But here’s the thing. He likes to keep those little snickers in the freezer and for almost the first 2.5 months I never touched one. Didn’t even phase me. But once I started slacking a little I started noticing them and I snuck one and then another.
It’s super easy to get off track and if the farther you let yourself get the harder it is to get back on track. Why all of a sudden was I having a hard time with self control?
I was listening to Peter Attia’s podcast last week. Sometimes his medical episodes go way over my head but he was interviewing James Clear, so I knew I would love this episode and I was right!
James Clear wrote the book Atomic Habits, which I loved. I actually did a whole episode where I interviewed his book because he wasn’t available. I thought it turned out fine. He talks all about habits and how we are pretty similar as humans. We think there are people that are super disciplined…and there are obviously some that are but most of us are similar. The most “disciplined” people you know are probably just better at structuring their life so they don’t have to use heroic willpower and self esteem all the time. He says the key to self control is basically not really having to need it.
So Eric and I would never normally have snickers in the freezer and we rarely ever ate Mexican. We had stopped doing it because we recognized it was not helping us reach our goals. You see, having the snickers around causes me to need heroic type self control, and I absolutely love my sister in law and her guy and we had so much fun at the Mexican restaurant we just decided to make it a weekly thing.
My self control is being tested regularly because every time I open the freezer there are those little snicker bars.
The moral of the story is this. If you want to have a more healthy diet, the key is to only have healthy food around. If you want to exercise more, you have to make it where you almost trip over your gym clothes. You want to stop scrolling on Instagram all the time, delete the app. You want to stop grabbing a daily donuts, drive a route that doesn’t include you seeing the donuts shop. Most of us don’t have infinite willpower so we have to give ourselves a chance by taking away the temptation.
I interviewed Olesya Wilson mindoverbody.me and she literally uninstalls Instagram every evening so she can spend time with her family and reinstall it in the morning because she uses it for work.
The point is. Your environment has more to do with your ability to be disciplined than any willpower you try to muster up. If you don’t have snickers laying around the house, you aren’t going to have to say no to them.
My challenge to you this week is to pinpoint an area where you’ve been struggling with self control and ask yourself “What environment do I need to create to make this happen”? And then do it. I love you guys and I’ll talk to you in a few days!
