17.05.12
Exercise. Exercise is work, and work isn’t very much fun. But, in general, I’ve developed willpower where exercise is concerned: I do it even when I don’t want to and thus my self-control where exercise is concerned has increased with practice.
The second thing you need to know is that I ate four pieces of chocolate when reading the article off which this post is based. I have very little will-power where food is concerned. I can do the latter (eat crud) without the weight-gain repercussions many people have when eating high-fat, high-calorie food partially because I do the former (exercise hard) and partially, according to the research in this article from the New York Times Magazine, because my body is genetically less likely to pack on the pounds – perhaps because I’ve never had to go on an extreme diet. But more importantly, I could be giving into food because my willpower muscles have been weakened by the fact that they have to be used to get me to exercise. (This is following the theory that willpower is a limited resourse .
Source: Tucson Citizen (blog)