Wednesday 21 January 2009

Will Power Or Lack Thereof

It always amazes me how I can have so much will power in some situations and none at all in others. I decided that when I went back into work after the holidays I wasn't going to eat chocolate, and apart from a dessert in a restaurant when we were having a set menu and both options contained chocolate, and a hot chocolate on a particularly cold day, I haven't eaten any. Despite the fact that I have a load from Christmas still just sitting there in my kitchen, and I work in one of those office environments where there is always an absolute ton of chocolate sitting around waiting to be eaten. Pretty damn good willpower, right?
So why can't I apply that to everything? I decided I was going to go to bed at 10pm this week. So how's that going for me, two days in? Well, I went to bed (not sleep, mind you) at 11:45 on Monday night, and 12am Tuesday night. Hurrah for me... not. So why the difference between chocolate eating and bed time? Wish I knew!

3 comments:

K said...

We are creatures of habit and change can be difficult. Think about what you were doing after 10pm the last couple of nights. Is it something you could work into your day a bit earlier? Is your schedule too full? Is there some activity you could cut back on to prioritize your sleep? If your habit is a bedtime closer to midnight, 10pm may be a bit drastic. You could try smaller increments, say 11pm to start. Then when that becomes your new habit, try moving the bedtime back a half hour until you're comfortable with that. Then on to a 10pm bedtime. It will take longer to reach your goal, but you have better chances of success if you change your habits a little at a time. Good luck. :)

PK said...

I have suddenly been able to get a handle on my eating (don't know how long that will last but it's working for the moment)but I can't seem to get to bed at decent time. I am like a little kid that doesn't want to give up the day!

We are a lot alike.

Hugs,
PK

Eliane said...

K, you are right... habits can be very difficult to change. It doesn't help that I often don't get in from socialising until gone 10pm... so I can build a habit for a couple of days and it gets broken very easily. Ah well, I will continue perservering.
And yes, PK, I'm the same - why go to bed, there's far too much fun to be had!