That explanation sounds good in my head but doesn’t quite make sense on paper.
What I mean is, that now I see I do not have to “hate” food and drink. Quite the contrary. I can still love it all. The difference is, I DON’T HAVE TO EAT IT.
Wow! What a revelation.
Fried chicken, hamburgers, pastries, everything! I can still think it smells good, looks good, and I can still imagine how great it tastes but it can end there.
I first realized this when I was confident enough to once again join people for lunch.
On my diet I stayed by myself at lunchtime. All I was having was a Medifast meal which takes all of 5 minutes to eat. Spending an hour at a table with people indulging was something I did not want to deal with. Especially sitting there smelling the food that I was trying so hard to hate.
Slowly though I noticed that the sites and sounds of lunch really weren’t bothering me much anymore and I found me hanging around the lunch table more and more. As I did so, I found that I could be perfectly comfortable sitting there while others ate….but it was those who were eating that would often be the uncomfortable ones. I was often bombarded with pleas for me to eat what everyone else was eating.
I could now simply smile and say “No thanks. I already ate.”
That was often met with, “But it is soooooo gooooood.”, as they jammed more food in their mouth. I’d be chuckling to myself because if they thought that was somehow supposed to make that look good, they’d be wrong.
After a number of these episodes I found myself responding, “No one says it isn’t good.”
That’s when I started hearing the “w” word. Willpower.
“You have so much willpower”.
Do I? I don’t think I do.
And that’s what got me thinking about the definition of the term.
To my mind having willpower implies some type of internal struggle. You are forcibly overcoming your negative impulses with your sheer will.
Magically though, I wasn’t struggling with this. Yes that fried chicken and chili looks great, I just don’t want any. Really! No struggle here. I’ll pass.
That’s not to say I will never eat it. Maybe I’ll have some on my free day. Maybe I’ll have a lot of it on my free day. I just don’t want any now.
Is that willpower?
Doesn’t there need to be some sort of inner conflict going on to be considered “willpower”?
If I really don’t want something, am I simply using “willpower” to resist it?
Part of me wants to argue the point because I want people to know they can have a change of heart towards food. I’ve had a change of heart towards food!
The other part just wants to accept the compliment and call it a day.
How do you define “willpower”?
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