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The Sugary Secret of Self-Control

nytimes.com

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Re: The Sugary Secret of Self-Control

#21

Post by tomjen3 »

sliverstorm wrote: post #6

As far as food & overeating/unhealthy foods- I've learned you don't necessarily need self-control. You can stop caring instead. That's how I wound up after going hungry for months, and got used to it. It's frighteningly effective. Right now, the last meal I remember was about 20 hours ago, and the last meal before that was another 20-24 ago. My stomach is aching, but it doesn't bother me. Of course, this is not witho…

That's a super interesting idea, but how do you stop caring in the first place?

Re: The Sugary Secret of Self-Control

#22

Post by mechnik »

ehsanu1 wrote: post #17
mechnik wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recent findings by Carol Dweck and others challenge the prevalent notion that willpower is an exhaustible AND finite resource. She found that the subjects who believed that exercising one's willpower strengthens it rather than depletes it actually increased their willpower. One's mindset was the key. http://www.stanford.edu/~gwalton/home/In_the_News_files/Job,...

Why can't you believe both? The analogy to muscles and strength training is appropriate here. The day after a workout with very heavy weights, it's hard to lift much at all. So you need to recover. The thing is that recovery is as important as the actual exercising, because it is during recovery that muscle strength increases. It may be just like that with exercising willpower: it is depleted temporarily, but given t…

Of course one needs breaks. One interesting point is that people who view their willpower as limitless can be more productive with fewer breaks. Here is an article with comments from the researchers clarifying their findings: http://www.stanforddaily.com/2010/10/25/willpower-can-be-an-...

Re: The Sugary Secret of Self-Control

#23

Post by sliverstorm »

dualogy wrote: post #20
sliverstorm wrote: post #6

As far as food & overeating/unhealthy foods- I've learned you don't necessarily need self-control. You can stop caring instead. That's how I wound up after going hungry for months, and got used to it. It's frighteningly effective. Right now, the last meal I remember was about 20 hours ago, and the last meal before that was another 20-24 ago. My stomach is aching, but it doesn't bother me. Of course, this is not witho…

Starving for hours and ignoring your body's warning signals? Whatever happened to "don't eat less, eat better" -- "don't reduce quantity, increase quality"? If you enjoy eating and don't enjoy the sounds made by a hungry stomach... you can munch down as many of those fresh veggies as you like and will feel all the better for it, while not gaining a pound. Something to consider. Not the same for fruits as they do cont…

I'm not saying it's the right way to do things. I don't think that starving myself is GOOD. A hungry stomach just doesn't bother me anymore, so I have to proactively think about food. That may seem nonsensical to you if you are still deeply in touch with your sense of hunger, but take me at my word.

I didn't choose for it to be this way, I just didn't have much money for a while.

Re: The Sugary Secret of Self-Control

#24

Post by olliesaunders »

sliverstorm wrote: post #23
dualogy wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starving for hours and ignoring your body's warning signals? Whatever happened to "don't eat less, eat better" -- "don't reduce quantity, increase quality"? If you enjoy eating and don't enjoy the sounds made by a hungry stomach... you can munch down as many of those fresh veggies as you like and will feel all the better for it, while not gaining a pound. Something to consider. Not the same for fruits as they do cont…

I'm not saying it's the right way to do things. I don't think that starving myself is GOOD. A hungry stomach just doesn't bother me anymore , so I have to proactively think about food. That may seem nonsensical to you if you are still deeply in touch with your sense of hunger, but take me at my word. I didn't choose for it to be this way, I just didn't have much money for a while.

You didn’t have enough money to eat? That must have been tough. I hope things are better for you now.

Re: The Sugary Secret of Self-Control

#25

Post by tokenadult »

mechnik wrote: post #14
rkalla wrote: post #2

A really excellent followup to the study that was linked to around here about 6 months ago that found out "willpower" is an exhaustible resource that needs to be managed throughout your day. The book[1] this article is reviewing discusses learning to exercise your will power through little mini tasks throughout the day (sit up straight, don't curse, don't eat the whole cake, pickup your desk before going to lunch, et…

Recent findings by Carol Dweck and others challenge the prevalent notion that willpower is an exhaustible AND finite resource. She found that the subjects who believed that exercising one's willpower strengthens it rather than depletes it actually increased their willpower. One's mindset was the key. http://www.stanford.edu/~gwalton/home/In_the_News_files/Job,...

Thanks for the links. I'm always interested to hear about Dweck's latest research.

From the submitted article, this passage is food for thought: "The disasters reveal a limitation of the muscle metaphor: certain evolutionarily prepared drives seem to withstand even the most bulked-up powers of will. The authors note that people with the highest levels of self-control are only slightly better than average at controlling their weight, and they describe disturbing experiments that confirm the old saying 'When the penis stands up, the brains get buried' (it sounds better in Yiddish)."

It would be interesting to test, by methodologies proposed by Dweck or by others, just how far willpower can go in controlling the most biologically driven behaviors. There are, of course, some problems with the ethics of human experimentation involved in setting up some of these experiments in rigorous fashion.

Re: The Sugary Secret of Self-Control

#26

Post by sliverstorm »

olliesaunders wrote: post #24
sliverstorm wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying it's the right way to do things. I don't think that starving myself is GOOD. A hungry stomach just doesn't bother me anymore , so I have to proactively think about food. That may seem nonsensical to you if you are still deeply in touch with your sense of hunger, but take me at my word. I didn't choose for it to be this way, I just didn't have much money for a while.

You didn’t have enough money to eat? That must have been tough. I hope things are better for you now.

At least, not enough to eat properly. It's ok though- that was years ago, and I learned a lot from those times.

Re: The Sugary Secret of Self-Control

#27

Post by Jun8 »

tokenadult wrote: post #25
mechnik wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recent findings by Carol Dweck and others challenge the prevalent notion that willpower is an exhaustible AND finite resource. She found that the subjects who believed that exercising one's willpower strengthens it rather than depletes it actually increased their willpower. One's mindset was the key. http://www.stanford.edu/~gwalton/home/In_the_News_files/Job,...

Thanks for the links. I'm always interested to hear about Dweck's latest research. From the submitted article, this passage is food for thought: "The disasters reveal a limitation of the muscle metaphor: certain evolutionarily prepared drives seem to withstand even the most bulked-up powers of will. The authors note that people with the highest levels of self-control are only slightly better than average at controlli…

"certain evolutionarily prepared drives seem to withstand even the most bulked-up powers of will..."

From Kung Fu: When Grasshopper feels the first stirrings of love (and sexual needs), he remembers his teacher's guidance on the subject: "To suppress a truth is to give it force beyond endurance".

Re: The Sugary Secret of Self-Control

#28

Post by mechnik »

tokenadult wrote: post #25
mechnik wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recent findings by Carol Dweck and others challenge the prevalent notion that willpower is an exhaustible AND finite resource. She found that the subjects who believed that exercising one's willpower strengthens it rather than depletes it actually increased their willpower. One's mindset was the key. http://www.stanford.edu/~gwalton/home/In_the_News_files/Job,...

Thanks for the links. I'm always interested to hear about Dweck's latest research. From the submitted article, this passage is food for thought: "The disasters reveal a limitation of the muscle metaphor: certain evolutionarily prepared drives seem to withstand even the most bulked-up powers of will. The authors note that people with the highest levels of self-control are only slightly better than average at controlli…

I imagine the findings might be statistically significant but the proverb will generally hold. Incidentally, I googled the proverb and it does sound better (funnier) in Yiddish: Ven der putz shteht, ligt der sechel in drerd

Re: The Sugary Secret of Self-Control

#29

Post by zach »

The application of this research on sports performance don't seem to have been explored much as far as I've found.

Which seems surprising to me seeing that Dr. Baumeister is a professor at Florida State. You'd think at least the ability of offensive linemen to stay completely still would have the football program interested in this research.

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