Ep. 125 - Willpower Vs Discipline | Temptation Bundling | Free Intermittent Fasting Plan for OMAD

Uncategorized May 17, 2022

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In this episode, Dr. Scott and Tommy discuss willpower versus discipline and why that's important, the weakest to strongest portions of willpower, what undermines willpower, what builds discipline, and how this applies to your eating window, to your fasting time, temptation bundling, and MORE!

Let’s continue the conversation. Click the link below to JOIN the Fasting For Life Community, a group of like-minded, new and experienced fasters! The first two rules of fasting need not apply!

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This week in the community, we will continue the conversation about discipline vs willpower. We will share some of OUR best resources and know how to tap into the right form of I WANT power. Get your questions answered, learn from each other, and share your WINS! See you on the inside!

New to the podcast and wondering where to start? Head to the website and download our FREE Fast Start Guide, 6 simple steps to put One Meal a Day Fasting (OMAD) into practice!

Maybe you are experienced faster and wondering about your results and IF they could be linked to INSULIN resistance? Head over to the website and download our FREE Insulin Resistance Assessment!

Or get both here at our website:

www.thefastingforlife.com/resources

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Reference Links:

http://willpowered.com/learn/types-of-willpower

https://jamesclear.com/willpower

In this episode, Dr. Scott and Tommy discuss willpower versus discipline and why that's important, the weakest to strongest portions of willpower, what undermines willpower, what builds discipline and how this applies to your eating window, to your fasting time, temptation bundling, and MORE!

Let’s continue the conversation. Click the link below to JOIN the Fasting For Life Community, a group of likeminded, new and experienced fasters! The first two rules of fasting need not apply!

Fasting For Life Community - Join HERE

This week in the community we will be discussing some of your fav FOOD SWAPS! Fasting is powerful as we know but making better decisions during the nutrition/eating window can accelerate your results. Come share your favorite SWAP!

New to the podcast and wondering where to start? Head to the website and download our FREE Fast Start Guide, 6 simple steps to put One Meal a Day Fasting (OMAD) into practice!

Maybe you are an experienced faster and wondering about your results and IF they could be linked to INSULIN resistance? Head over to the website and download our FREE Insulin Resistance Assessment!

Or get both here at our website:

www.thefastingforlife.com/resources

Follow Fasting For Life: www.facebook.com/thefastingforlife

www.instagram.com/thefastingforlife

Join the Community on Facebook!

Fasting For Life Ep. 125 Transcript

00;00;01;23 - 00;00;03;08
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Hello. I'm Dr. Scott Dr. Watier.

00;00;03;16 - 00;00;06;20
[Tommy Welling]
And I'm Tommy Welling, and you're listening to the Fasting for Life podcast.

00;00;08;09 - 00;00;14;25
[Dr. Scott Watier]
This podcast is about using fasting as a tool to regain your health, achieve ultimate wellness, and live the life you truly deserve.

00;00;15;24 - 00;00;24;09
[Tommy Welling]
Each episode is a short conversation on a single topic with immediate, actionable steps. We cover everything from fat loss on health and wellness to the science of lifestyle design.

00;00;25;00 - 00;00;31;16
[Dr. Scott Watier]
We started fasting for life because of how fasting has transformed our lives, and we hope to share the tools that we have learned along the way.

00;00;40;07 - 00;01;08;17
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Hey Ron, welcome to the Fasting for Life podcast. My name is Dr. Scott Walker, and I'm here, as always, am a good friend and colleague, Tommy Welling. Good afternoon to you, sir. Hey, Scott, how are you? Fantastic. Ready to rock and roll today? We've been going through some research over the last few episodes and today we're going to dove in to one of the more important driving factors that we see when it comes to fasting.

00;01;08;17 - 00;01;35;09
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Success. And if you're new to the podcast, feel free to go back, listen to the first couple of episodes, learn more about Tommy and his journey and why we started this thing. And hopefully you'll join us on this journey because that's been life changing for us. For all of you repeat listeners, for you guys to show up weekly that send us messages, shout out to you all because we are on this journey together and it's just super cool to have so much feedback and engagement from you guys.

00;01;35;09 - 00;01;52;01
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So we're going to continue to keep this conversational and more importantly, actionable so we can continue to level up our fasting skills and adopting the fasting lifestyle. So yeah, with that being said, Tommy, we're going to go into a conversation today.

00;01;52;10 - 00;01;53;00
[Tommy Welling]
About.

00;01;53;05 - 00;02;20;25
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Willpower versus discipline and why that's important is because fasting is pretty simple, right? You just stop eating for any amount of of time, OK? And I know last episode we talked about was last episode or two episodes ago, you know, we talked about those those windows and beginning fasting, the number one question we get is, well, how long do I fast, how do I fast?

00;02;20;25 - 00;02;41;28
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And the second question is, well, how do I break the fast? What do I eat? Right? Like what's on limit? What's what's off limits, what's not but so fasting is really simple from a from a construct standpoint, but sometimes it's not easy. And that's what this conversation today is going to talk through. So we're going to go through the weakest, two strongest portions of willpower.

00;02;42;22 - 00;03;06;21
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Then we're going to go into willpower versus discipline. We're going to talk about what undermines willpower and then what builds discipline and how this applies to your eating window, to your fasting time, or to your grazing, to your freelancing and continuing the pivot and moving the timer and closing your window and opening your window and all of the things in between.

00;03;07;07 - 00;03;23;21
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And I think it's a big combo. So hopefully at the end, we're going to give you an invite to hop into our community group and continue the conversation conversation to get your questions answered. And also add insights for others in our Facebook community group, which is the link is in the show notes. It's a free group. Come on and continue the conversation.

00;03;24;02 - 00;03;36;13
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. And this week's topic is going to be around this distinction between willpower versus discipline. So to me, I have set the stage. Sure. I'm going to ping this back over to you and let's let's start to dove in.

00;03;37;02 - 00;04;07;25
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, this is really cool because I know that over the years I used a lot of what I thought was, you know, willpower versus what I thought might be good discipline. And it's interesting because, you know, after having been on a fasting journey for the last several years and and finally making progress towards my goals that I that I wanted to hit for so, so long, it becomes almost an exercise in in what was I doing wrong for for all those years.

00;04;08;03 - 00;04;47;02
[Tommy Welling]
And it it comes down to some of these distinctions within willpower that I feel like are widely misunderstood. Good. But things start to to make sense when we when we break down willpower into three parts because it's actually three different words that describe that encompass willpower. It's want, will and want. And that's from that's in order from weakest to strongest so I won't power is the weakest I willpower is still weak but less weak than I want power and I want power is the actual strongest one.

00;04;47;02 - 00;05;10;13
[Tommy Welling]
But oftentimes the the the one that's just wants it. Yeah. It's overlooked and it's harder to tap into it takes a little more thought and effort to kind of tap into that one. And I feel like there's not enough emphasis on that one that actually moves the needles, that moves the needle and we spend too much time on, on the other two that that actually don't get us anywhere or take us in the wrong direction sometimes.

00;05;10;29 - 00;05;38;09
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. So for definitions of where we're coming from on a construct we'll break down the three there and go into each one in detail and then talk about this push pull between willpower and discipline. But willpower is really the strength of will to carry out one's decisions. Wishes are wishes or plans. Right. And discipline is this I love this word, training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement.

00;05;38;09 - 00;05;58;25
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Now, you alluded to in the beginning, Tommy, the mental gymnastics that you used to play and I played and played for so many years with and we referenced this research article often about the amount of food related decisions that the average individual makes in any given day. Yeah. They surveyed a bunch of people and they thought it was 14.

00;05;59;06 - 00;06;23;15
[Dr. Scott Watier]
It was really 240 or 260 different decisions. And thoughts that we have around food. So I love the fact that that says training, discipline, training and expected to produce a specific character or pattern, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement because again, fasting is simple, but to get it to become a lifestyle and not just another diet is the complex part.

00;06;23;15 - 00;06;45;02
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Everybody is different, right? We all have different stresses and circadian rhythms and hormonal places that we're starting from a hormonal standpoint and cravings and are all our stories are relatable but different because it's almost like a fingerprint, right? Your weight loss journey has brought you here through all the trials and tribulations and mental gymnastics and all these other things.

00;06;45;02 - 00;07;14;14
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So I love the fact that we're going to start at the least, right? Unpack what that is, go up to what we should be focusing on, and then really build the foundation of how we're going to move out of the weakest discussion and topics around willpower. Because that's where we tend to live, especially when we start a new diet or workout plan or lifestyle overhaul or insert anything you're trying to do that's complex.

00;07;14;25 - 00;07;25;28
[Dr. Scott Watier]
OK, yeah. This is where we start. We start at the least effective points, and that's why we tend to if you look at New Year's resolutions, they tend to fade out by the third or fourth week of January.

00;07;26;14 - 00;07;57;09
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, yeah. I mean, because it's so easy, we're our brains are wired as worst case scenario generators. And they're they are also fear and danger avoidance. Survival, you know. Yeah, survival for sure. So when we when we set out on a new thing, like a new diet or a new regimen, maybe it's a, maybe it's a fitness or a health regimen or anything else, it could be anything that requires willpower and or discipline, some new set of thoughts and actions and behaviors to get us to a new result.

00;07;57;17 - 00;08;18;25
[Tommy Welling]
We oftentimes think, OK, what am I doing wrong? Right now? So what should I stop doing right now is usually the first thought that that comes to our to our mind. So if we're talking about fasting or diet weight loss, et cetera, it might be something like, OK, don't don't do don't eat breakfast, don't stop for donuts on the way to the office.

00;08;19;05 - 00;08;39;03
[Tommy Welling]
Don't go hit the fast food like don't have late night snacks because these are all of the things that that I'm doing now that I feel like I need to remove, eliminate or reduce in order to get better results. But when I start talking about don't, don't, don't, don't, then it's all of a sudden it's don't think about the pink elephant.

00;08;39;27 - 00;08;49;17
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Whoa, hold on. So yeah. So I like that I like this juxtaposition here. So I want to I think you told me the story about when you were talking about your kids in the car, right?

00;08;49;17 - 00;08;50;11
[Tommy Welling]
So yeah.

00;08;50;21 - 00;09;12;07
[Dr. Scott Watier]
We're talking about I won't power. Right. But it's like when you're telling yourself no. And I love that like mental like escapade where you're like, wait a minute. Yeah. So it's like, I won't give in to the late night cravings. I won't give in to the food that's brought to the office on Monday mornings. Right. And I'm going to wait and eat lunch.

00;09;12;07 - 00;09;34;19
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Right? Like, I won't give in to bingeing popcorn and Netflix tonight, right? Like, yeah, I won't get stressed out from all my rude clients that came in. And now I'm going to go, you know, calm myself down and get a dopamine hit with food, right? So it's like, I love that. It's like, don't do this, right? And then I love your story about how that especially with kids, how that doesn't work.

00;09;35;12 - 00;09;56;04
[Tommy Welling]
Right? Yeah. Like, if, like, my daughter, she used to not fall asleep, she would not take a nap in the car. She would she just wouldn't do it. She refused to do it. And but as soon as you would say Hey, you know what? You're not allowed to sleep in the car. Don't fall asleep in the car. Don't even think about closing your eyes right now.

00;09;56;22 - 00;10;21;20
[Tommy Welling]
You can't you're not allowed to do it. All of a sudden, she would fight tooth and nail to close her eyes because she goes, OK, well, I you brought this this defensive rebellion center. You activated these these rebellion neurons that we all have deep down that will will help us to fight against something like an opposing force. But that that's that's part of what we're activating there when we're telling ourselves.

00;10;21;20 - 00;10;33;29
[Tommy Welling]
No, no, no, no, no. Because then we go, well, why did I want it so bad that I have to tell myself no over and over and over again. It becomes it becomes the temptation. It becomes that that thing that I can't have.

00;10;34;28 - 00;10;52;23
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. So I love the I won't power because that that is that's right in the middle between the I will and I want in terms of the most or least effective. And the willpower really is the one that we see where it's like, I will go to the gym every day after school. Right? I will stick to my fasting window.

00;10;53;09 - 00;11;01;24
[Dr. Scott Watier]
I will. This is a fun one. Oh, I'll say that in a minute. I will close my window on time and set my timer.

00;11;02;04 - 00;11;03;01
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, I will.

00;11;03;01 - 00;11;26;18
[Dr. Scott Watier]
I will break my 24 hour fasting plateau. I will I will, I will. But then it's interesting because then you can combine the two and say, I will, I will close my, I will stick to my timer and I won't insert whatever you've told yourself that's off limits. Say it's a food, a macro group or you know, a binge worthy food or something like that.

00;11;27;09 - 00;11;47;16
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And that's where, you know, we are simple. We're supposed to be simplifying the process here. Some of you might be listening, going, well, this is just complicated. Don't worry, we're going to get there, right? So the willpower and I won't power gives us that short term burst. And I love this this, this quote from insights ecom on willpower versus discipline.

00;11;48;03 - 00;12;29;24
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And it says Willpower is rather a sudden and momentary burst of focused energy, while self-discipline is structured well thought out, inconsistent willpower in the moment is more tangible and seemingly more powerful. The reality is, is that the power of self-discipline dwarfs that of willpower. But in the moment when we're saying, I will, I will, I will, or I won't, I won't, I won't, it does not feel that way, because willpower gives you that momentary burst of focus energy like a rocket launching and the burners, whatever those things are, that those are the thrusters they burn off and then the rocket keeps going, like you've burn through all of that energy.

00;12;30;12 - 00;12;38;18
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And then when that energy wears out, or we'll talk about some of the triggers that undermine that, then you're stuck going, OK, well, I'm going to go back into my old habit pattern.

00;12;39;16 - 00;13;04;13
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah. Because that's a lot easier when I don't have the energy or the mental gumption anymore. Because I've expended all that fuel. Right. And these can be the the willpower ones can be very tempting to do where like I've done it before, where I'll write it down. I'll just keep writing it. Kind of like if you're a kid and you get in trouble and you go write on the chalkboard ten times, you know, I will be nicer to other students.

00;13;04;13 - 00;13;31;09
[Tommy Welling]
Or I like I will exercise more. I will eat healthier foods. I will finally lose this £20, dang it. I will do something that I've wanted to do for a long time. But the thing is that that these things often become almost just like like a simple affirmation ritual that doesn't necessarily lead to any actual actions. And so it can kind of get compartmentalized where I can tell myself these things over and over again.

00;13;31;17 - 00;13;51;24
[Tommy Welling]
And there's nothing necessarily wrong with that. But but if the buck stops right there, then and no actual action is behind it because I haven't tapped into the things that are really motivating me, I'm just I'm kind of trying to self hypnotize at that point, just change myself talk a little bit. But it's, it's surprisingly ineffective most of the time.

00;13;51;24 - 00;14;12;10
[Tommy Welling]
And that's the, that's the frustrating part of that process right there. And it actually it just that process doesn't have really any grip. It doesn't have any teeth to kind of move the needle forward, to take the necessary next step, which is the actual action behind it. And that's where the I want power actually comes in.

00;14;13;01 - 00;14;26;20
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And it's cool because this a lot of this stuff came from the I don't know, it taught me if you're familiar with this, but I just it just popped into my head. The marshmallow experiment back in the seventies. Yeah, I believe it was the early seventies. And they were doing the, the, the idea would they bring kids into the room.

00;14;26;20 - 00;14;41;15
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And it's been a long time since I've thought about this. So this will be a poor paraphrase. So give me some grace here. Sure. But I remember they put them in the room and they put a OK, here's a marshmallow. They leave the room 15 minutes I believe, and they said, if you can don't eat this, then you get to die.

00;14;41;16 - 00;14;44;18
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And all the kids wiggled around and bounced and stood in their chairs and.

00;14;44;23 - 00;14;45;18
[Tommy Welling]
Very uncomfortable.

00;14;45;25 - 00;15;12;02
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah, very uncomfortable. There's probably like Instagram accounts and tick tock accounts that do this and a much more updated version, right? Sure. Maybe it's like delete some easier, you know, ring pops or whatever. Back in the day in the seventies, it was the marshmallow experiment and it's all about that delayed gratification, right? So it's like, who the children who are willing to delay the gratification showed, you know, higher scores in school SATs, lower substance abuses and addictions, lower likelihood.

00;15;12;02 - 00;15;30;13
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Like I'm just remembering obesity, stress, better social skills. Right. And if you think about this, like if you delayed gratification of watching TV and let's say get the work done or that project or that email that needs to be sent or the parenting that needs to be done, you're you you'll actually have a better outcome, better relationships, less stress, better sleep.

00;15;30;13 - 00;15;48;02
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And for the kids, it was, you know, decreased the television, get your homework done. Then you get better grades. If you delay gratification of buying desserts or stopping to get donuts on the way home or the the the snack for the car ride home from the office you'll eat healthier when you get home. Right. Right. As long as you haven't bought the whole snack aisle.

00;15;48;02 - 00;16;09;15
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Right. So it's like the delayed gratification of finishing your workout early and maybe putting in a few more reps or getting it done before the day takes takes over. You have that long term health outcomes so that that piece of delayed gratification you're like, OK, that sounds great. How how does that fit into the strongest portion of willpower, which is that I want power.

00;16;09;27 - 00;16;30;20
[Dr. Scott Watier]
That's really where the magic happens and that's you know, you can label it as your Y or your anchor, but, you know, any given time, there's millions of people trying to lose weight. Yet the stats show we're going in the wrong direction. OK, sure. Yeah. And it's like, OK, well, why are we not being able to make these things stick?

00;16;30;20 - 00;16;53;04
[Dr. Scott Watier]
It's because we're living in that instant gratification where you get that short term hit, right? But then the long term, it moves you farther away, your long term goal. And that's where the I want power comes into play because this the I want power is actually like a muscle. It can be trained. It's the part of the brain that remembers the long term goals and desires of what we really want.

00;16;53;21 - 00;17;11;15
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And getting into the habit of focusing on that and not putting the blinders on is difficult, but it takes repetition, just like you can't go to the gym once and expect to have big biceps. So you have to do bicep curls three times a week over and over and over again. And in 90 days you're going to look in the mirror and go, Wow, OK, now I see the change.

00;17;11;26 - 00;17;29;23
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, yeah. When you start to get into that, I want power. You're like, you're removing those decision making muscles that are like, Oh, well, let me remind myself why I don't want to do or let me remind myself what I did want to do. But instead of doing that, you're actually focusing on the deeper motivators, like, Why do I want to lose this?

00;17;29;23 - 00;17;56;21
[Tommy Welling]
£20 is it because I just like the number on the scale? Well, you know, maybe that's that that's not really very that's not going to go very deep, right? So so what if what if it was more like, oh, because I want the energy to keep up with my kids or with my grandkids. Something, something that I actually really, really want that I know if I stick to my fasting timer, if I make better food choices, I'm actually going to get closer to that.

00;17;56;27 - 00;18;23;13
[Tommy Welling]
That's going to be a heck of a lot more motivating in the moment. When I have that temptation or that thing that I used to use willpower to fight against in order to not make the old decision, it's going to come a lot more automatic when I've actually it's easier to remember in the moment, too, during those like those really kind of make it or break it moments, those motivating why statements and the things that I actually want come to mind.

00;18;23;21 - 00;18;35;28
[Tommy Welling]
And then in the moment I go, Well, I don't want to do that because I want the thing that I want. So never mind so I can put off the short term temptation for the long term goal. It becomes more automatic.

00;18;36;13 - 00;18;55;15
[Dr. Scott Watier]
The easiest way to tap into that I want power to is pretty self it's self-guided and self-regulating, and it doesn't take a lot of energy and it moves you away from the I will and I won't, and it's simply self awareness. So it's writing something down that you will be like, if you write down, I will skip the gym today, right?

00;18;55;15 - 00;19;15;22
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Your prefrontal cortex is, you know, wait, hold on like you were supposed to be getting in shape for the beach this year, remember? And this is why like we don't track or tell people to count calories or macros. We give guidelines, right? Because you need to figure out what's sustainable for you long term. If you want to eat more low carb or more high protein or carnivore, paleo, insert whatever it doesn't.

00;19;15;22 - 00;19;32;07
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Vegan, vegetarian doesn't matter what's sustainable. For you. Yes, more some are more beneficial and some have more pros and cons. But that's you got to figure that out. But that's why when people come in, they get stuck. Like, Yeah, I'm trying is fascinating. I just can't seem to get to work. It's like, OK, well, track a food diary track for like a week.

00;19;32;27 - 00;20;02;06
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So you can be self aware of what's actually happening. And then when we activate that prefrontal cortex in a positive way, right? When we when we start to think about the resistance, the neurons in your brain for that are responsible for self-control actually start to activate. Yeah. And when they activate without you thinking about it, the motivation to resist the temptation becomes more it comes to us more naturally, right?

00;20;02;06 - 00;20;21;20
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Where we don't have to be so self aware and our cravings will become less powerful. Never mind if you're fasting and sticking to your timer, you're going to help balance out those hunger hormones. So the easiest way to tap into it is a little bit of self-awareness. And like you said, Tommy entering into something greater than the scale or a bigger desire that you want to achieve.

00;20;21;20 - 00;20;39;29
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So that rush of motivation you get from that newfound like I want power or awareness will surprise you, which transitions into the sport. The point that we like to say about, you know, what actually gets results, is it taking action? Is it motivation and that kind of framework where people typically have it inverted?

00;20;40;20 - 00;21;05;07
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, we usually think about it like, OK, I'm going to wait for the motivation to strike. And once that happens, then I'll finally be able to take that big action that's going to lead me to the results. But but really, that's that's not the order of operations right there. We have to take the action first, then see the results, and then the motivation to continue really starts to snowball.

00;21;05;12 - 00;21;34;15
[Tommy Welling]
And that's an incredibly powerful process. And it can feel really almost weird or counter counterintuitive, especially if you've been stuck in the I Won't Power telling yourself not to do certain things or the I will power trying to will yourself towards something. Once you start to tap into that I want power. It really kind of flips flips this whole thing on its head and and allows you to move forward in a more in a more natural kind of way and it feels more natural.

00;21;34;24 - 00;21;40;14
[Dr. Scott Watier]
You can't even get out of the starting blocks. Right. It's like, I'll start Monday. Oh, it's Thursday. I'll just I'll start Monday. Right. It's more.

00;21;40;15 - 00;21;40;23
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah.

00;21;40;28 - 00;21;42;17
[Dr. Scott Watier]
I'll do it after the next half the summer.

00;21;42;27 - 00;21;43;05
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah.

00;21;43;15 - 00;22;03;12
[Dr. Scott Watier]
I will be able to pivot. Yeah. I didn't plan for what I'm going to eat today. I'll just set my timer and I'll do an open ended fast. No, not unless you are maintenance maintaining lots of repetition and that that that I want muscle is very strong. Will that be successful? And that's why we get stuck on this diet roller coaster, right?

00;22;03;12 - 00;22;26;24
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So juxtaposing the difference between willpower and discipline, we need to come up with that framework of, OK, ok, where do the problems start? And then how do we insulate ourselves and put in a jig or a system of that training? Right, that we that we worked at with off of that original definition of discipline training, expect to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior.

00;22;26;24 - 00;22;44;01
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And this is where James Clear Atomic Habits has aggregated all the people that came before him into this really digestible plan of like, OK, well, what do we do? And this is a lot of what we use that I've used. That's one of those books, just like Dr. Fong's books that are always on my bookshelf. Those don't get donated to the local library.

00;22;44;07 - 00;23;17;18
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Those don't get put on the top shelf. And the other room, those are on my bookshelf because they're so they're so important. So it's it's why does the willpower fade or how does it get undermined? And then how do we build the discipline? So the two big things for why willpower fades are your environment right? And then personally, for me, and this is also found in the research sleep, I'd like to add in another one around that that that kind of relates to both of those which would be stress.

00;23;17;28 - 00;23;44;01
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So that can come from your environment bosses, husbands, kids, spouses, family the guy cutting you off on the interstate, all of that. Right. And then physiological stress. So that's that's the emotional stress with the environment piece and then the physiological stress that your body goes under with improper sleep or decreased sleep or sleep deprivation. I'm not talking about Navy SEALs, sleep deprivation.

00;23;44;01 - 00;24;00;10
[Dr. Scott Watier]
I just mean, you know, less than six to 7 hours a night for a few nights can really drive your physiology. So now it's like, OK, well, we did a whole episode on Sleep if you want more guidance, go back and listen. We deep dove into the physiology and how to actually, you know, over the next six year, 90 days get some traction there.

00;24;00;21 - 00;24;07;26
[Dr. Scott Watier]
But the two reasons why willpower fades or the environment or external stresses and then sleep those physiological imbalances.

00;24;08;08 - 00;24;43;06
[Tommy Welling]
What about the the stressor that is holding on to the extra weight what about the the self-perpetuating cycle of each pound of fat that again puts an additional stress on my physiology on my body and that makes it that much more difficult to, you know, build those discipline muscles and to feel like I have to muster through the willpower to make the next right decision because every minute of the day, my body is just a little more stress than normal, right?

00;24;43;28 - 00;25;12;12
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. And it comes down to really putting in some easily implementable routines. So one of the things that we talked about earlier was just that that self-awareness piece, we want to give you a couple of tools two strategies to build boost the I want portion of the willpower. OK, so you got to do some some self reflection here and think, OK, why do I really want to lose the weight?

00;25;12;12 - 00;25;34;19
[Dr. Scott Watier]
What is the me £20 less from now off medications no longer a diabetic. What does that individual look like? Feel like? How do they go throughout their day? Take 5 minutes and visualize what the heck that looks like because that feeling is what you can tap into that can get you closer to figuring out why you actually want to lose the weight.

00;25;34;19 - 00;25;59;16
[Dr. Scott Watier]
You don't want to lose the weight because your doctor told you you don't want to lose the weight because the internet because you know you should you don't want to lose the weight because your coach back in whatever, you know, volleyball back in the day, it was like, yeah, you need to be a certain body weight or body fat percentage to be to be on this t I don't know, insert whatever construct that you're bringing with you through that through the journey of of trying to be healthy, regain your health and lose weight.

00;25;59;28 - 00;26;18;15
[Dr. Scott Watier]
You know, whatever that is, is, is we need to unpack and move away from that in a healthy way. And that really comes down to just a few things to boost that. I want portion of willpower and become more disciplined. Right, and build those habits long term. And it's really coming down just a few things. It's developing a ritual, right?

00;26;18;15 - 00;26;40;05
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So something you don't have to think about, which is, you know, like if you're going to go to the gym in the morning, lay out your clothes the night before, like remove any speed bumps, right? And then write the second one and one pack these for a few minutes is news, temptation, bundling. And we'll talk about what that is and then plan for failure with the if then technique those are the three things.

00;26;40;29 - 00;27;08;23
[Dr. Scott Watier]
OK, and then the fourth one we already mentioned, which is the elimination of decisions. And when it comes to fasting, that's really like the super power of fasting. You're eliminating those decisions about food, what and when and how like really you just going to focus on the when in the beginning yeah. Right, right. And so those are the things I want to unpack for a few minutes as we kind of say, all right, now that we've unpacked what it is and why it doesn't work, how can we then build those muscles?

00;27;08;23 - 00;27;17;03
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And that first one that I mentioned was the developing a ritual or a pre-game routine to to allow you to not have to think about it.

00;27;17;20 - 00;27;51;29
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, that ritual, I think it starts with, with the most basic fasting tool, which is our fasting timer or alarm clock or, you know, whatever timer you use or by the clock. But, you know, I feel like a lot of folks, as they get more experience in their fasting, they tend to get away from that timer. But the fundamentals of it are really, really important for, for actually removing that decision fatigue that you just alluded to because even if it's a quote unquote 12 hour fast, which is, you know, basically just like I went to sleep, you know, that's it then.

00;27;52;07 - 00;28;23;15
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, right. But, but even if it was just like 12 hours like from, from dinner to breakfast, I'm really not skipping any meals here. But at the same time, I can still be following a timer to go from one meal to the next. And the cool thing in that is that that takes discipline to do that, but it doesn't take any willpower to set that timer because you didn't have to change any, any actual thought process or what I consumed or what my food was or anything else.

00;28;23;28 - 00;28;43;15
[Tommy Welling]
All I did was I simply set a timer but the discipline of doing that makes that first fundamental step that much easier. And so when I go from 12 hours to 16 and now I start to actually tap into potentially, you know, putting off a meal so that I can have a little bit of time to tap into those long term fat stores.

00;28;43;24 - 00;28;58;28
[Tommy Welling]
Now that's going to be that much easier because that muscle is that much stronger, the discipline muscle, but it's not really going to take any willpower. It's the same discipline. I'm just going to change the time on the timer a little bit. But then the result starts to get a little bit different, and that's where the magic starts to happen.

00;28;59;01 - 00;29;20;03
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah, that's where you get you get a result and then your motivation continues, correct action. So just to land the plane on the decision elimination piece, you know, all of those food decisions that we make throughout the day, you know, really, you know, people thought it was 14. It's in the two hundreds, right? So right. If you're thinking about exercising or, you know, let's say you want to eat more vegetables and make better healthy decisions.

00;29;20;03 - 00;29;41;23
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Right. Limit yourself to only one vegetable during the week right. And by limiting the number of choices you have to make, it's more likely that you're actually going to eat it. So just buy green beans. And we do this in our house. And I didn't even realize it until we started talking about kind of unpacking this. We have a very limited rotation of veggies and we love we love all of them.

00;29;41;23 - 00;29;58;09
[Dr. Scott Watier]
I never knew until my mid thirties that I liked brussel sprouts. Right. No idea. Yeah. I'm like, what the hell? I've been missing out on this, right? So yeah, I am not a vegetable person. I would literally juice vegetables just to eat them because I don't like them reheated. I'm very particular about how they're cooked. I don't like mushy broccoli.

00;29;58;09 - 00;29;59;27
[Dr. Scott Watier]
I know. I sound like, wow, I want right.

00;29;59;27 - 00;30;07;27
[Tommy Welling]
But no, but it's one of those things that naturally we go away from these things because it can be hard to figure out a way that I like to eat them, but they're good.

00;30;07;27 - 00;30;28;27
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So you're more likely to do it if there's less. So pick a vegetable, right? So when you break your fast, pick one thing that you want to be putting in, and that's the only thing you eat for the week. Keep it simple. Don't overcomplicate it. OK, right. And then for the exercise, I think it's the same thing and there's a cool study about I think it was who did the research.

00;30;28;27 - 00;30;45;25
[Dr. Scott Watier]
I don't remember the guy's name, but he had a problem going to the gym, like sticking to it. So in it for the first six weeks of a new lifestyle overhaul. Right. He's like, I'm going to get in shape. I think it was maybe you trying to run a marathon. I can't remember. I will set a.

00;30;45;25 - 00;30;46;13
[Tommy Welling]
Rule to it.

00;30;46;26 - 00;30;50;08
[Dr. Scott Watier]
He was not allowed to exercise for more than 5 minutes.

00;30;50;27 - 00;30;51;21
[Tommy Welling]
Oh.

00;30;51;29 - 00;31;12;23
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah, that's cool. And what it did was it made it like the first six weeks of exercise. It was very easy. It was almost too easy where he's like, what am I doing? Right? But he did it. And then after that, he was like, Oh, my brain now knows exercise is easy. He remove the interference and then you end up losing like £150 or something crazy.

00;31;12;23 - 00;31;15;17
[Tommy Welling]
That's discipline right there. Yeah. Strengthening that discipline.

00;31;15;21 - 00;31;37;03
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah, exactly. So we try to overcomplicate that stuff. So those are two. So that was the decision fatigue and the developing rituals. Right? So just think, pick one. Don't, don't try to start with five, OK? If it's closing your window on time, if it's sticking to your fasting window, if it's well, you just kind of willy nilly freelance it every week, right?

00;31;37;03 - 00;32;06;06
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And you just give him back the same five to £10 or you're grazing throughout the day like. Right. Think about those things. Right? And then the last two is temptation bundling, which this was new to me recently and it's cool and how do I say this? So the easiest way to explain this is if you have like framework for sacrificing to perform a good behavior like going to the gym after a long day of work.

00;32;06;17 - 00;32;13;05
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. That requires you to pay an upfront cost that's but provides a long term benefit.

00;32;13;24 - 00;32;14;05
[Tommy Welling]
Right.

00;32;14;16 - 00;32;39;15
[Dr. Scott Watier]
The opposite is indulging in a bad behavior, like skipping a workout to watch TV or stopping get your favorite food can provide a spike of short term enjoyment in the beginning, but has long term negative effects. Right. So what you want to do is you want to bundle these. And I used to do this when I was on a virtual rowing team and I was rowing like four to 600,000 meters a month, right on a on a concept to rower yeah.

00;32;39;17 - 00;33;05;08
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And I would, I would because some of those workouts were terrible. Like you're sitting, your butt falls asleep, your bat low back can be achy if your form doesn't stay good. Right. Your arms are burning. Mm hmm. So it's called temptation bundling. And what you do is what I used to do is watching my favorite shows. I went back and rewatched like the soprano toes, and because I used to try to do personal growth stuff on the runner, but I'm like, OK, now I'm doing personal growth and I'm torturing myself.

00;33;05;08 - 00;33;06;04
[Dr. Scott Watier]
This is awful.

00;33;06;15 - 00;33;07;13
[Tommy Welling]
Right? So yeah.

00;33;07;22 - 00;33;19;27
[Dr. Scott Watier]
You can get a short term benefit of indulging in the thing that you want to do, right? In that bad bingeing behavior, right? So combining the two, like watching your favorite TV show only at the gym.

00;33;20;13 - 00;33;21;09
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah. Yeah.

00;33;21;20 - 00;33;32;19
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Now you've bundled the temptation with the positive. That's right. And you're getting that long term benefit. And I absolutely I didn't realize I was doing it back then, but that's when I was the most successful.

00;33;32;28 - 00;33;33;10
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah.

00;33;33;11 - 00;33;43;22
[Dr. Scott Watier]
On the rowing team is when I was doing that. I was using that time to reward myself yet I was also getting the benefit in the last one time. We we love for Mel Robbins, which was the if then technique.

00;33;43;29 - 00;34;07;01
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah. And the intent is then technique is really cool because I need to understand what what might tempt me, what might come up in the moment, what might derail me from my next fast and let me go like, like for me for me, it's a revolving pantry door. Like if I have something crunchy, something snacky, then it's like, OK, well, I'm going to need to come back to it.

00;34;07;01 - 00;34;10;19
[Tommy Welling]
And then you just like keep keep returning back back to the scene of the crime, the.

00;34;10;19 - 00;34;15;25
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Bag of chips. I'm just going to grab a handful and then just and then the bags gone better.

00;34;15;25 - 00;34;44;19
[Tommy Welling]
Can't have just one, you know? Right, right. Like, good luck. Yeah, no kidding. And I mean, so true. But so if I know that that's something that might derail me, then I want to have an if then statement ready if I feel tempted to go into the pantry or to have my my tempting snack, then I'm going to go do something that I really do enjoy but I'm only going to do it when I when I feel like I need that to get away from from from something tempting.

00;34;44;27 - 00;35;03;15
[Tommy Welling]
If I feel like I'm being pulled towards the snack pantry, then I'm going to go scroll social media for 10 minutes, which I don't normally do, but I might want to do right for that dopamine hit. So that that almost reminds me of the temptation bundling there too. But I'm using it to attract me, to pull me away from something that I don't want to do.

00;35;03;21 - 00;35;09;01
[Tommy Welling]
And, and so I can kind of reward myself for not taking the action that I didn't want to do.

00;35;09;26 - 00;35;19;28
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. And this is one of those things where it's like planning for the chaos, right? Like the universe is expanding, right? It's not, it's not coming in. It's moving out. Right? More more dissociation, more chaos.

00;35;20;04 - 00;35;21;00
[Tommy Welling]
More chaos. Yeah.

00;35;21;04 - 00;35;29;17
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So we we want to I want you to an action step. You can do just with this one. Alone is write a list of the things that mock you up.

00;35;30;01 - 00;35;30;13
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah.

00;35;30;28 - 00;35;51;22
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And then if then so if this happens, right? Like if I don't wake up in time to work out in the morning, then I'll do it after work. Your brain already knows. OK, boom. Got it. Don't have to think about it. Yeah. If I happen to buy something unhealthy for lunch or eat lunch, when I wasn't supposed to, then I'll make a healthy dinner choice or I'll fast through dinner.

00;35;52;08 - 00;35;52;18
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah.

00;35;52;29 - 00;36;18;12
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So it's if then if then if then and that really leads to that, the one that we've already talked about a couple times today, which is that decision. Excuse me, fatigue. Yeah. So there's a lot more to the longevity of this conversation, right, Tommy? Like, yeah, as, as we are continuing to, you know, continue our journey and more people come in to the fasting lifestyle and reach out.

00;36;18;12 - 00;36;35;11
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And we really wanted to make this conversational but also begin with the end in mind. That's something we say often in our programs, in our coaching, is we want to begin with the end in mind. Right? And I love the fact that the I want power taps into some of that long term vision of like, why are you really doing this?

00;36;35;11 - 00;36;46;19
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Like, why does it matter to you not to anyone in the external? OK, and you can't it's a visual medium. I'm like putting a big circle around me right now right like not be an internal stuff.

00;36;46;29 - 00;37;13;23
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah. They're not going to be the ones taking that. But making that decision, taking that action in the moment, it's going to be you. So why do you want it? You're going to have to tap into that and that. Like, there's a reason why this is this is a big part of what we talk about, like during our challenges and what we talk about in the ongoing community discussion and you know, like, like all of the conversations that we have, this is a big part of it because you have to be able to tap into these things in order to successfully implement a long term fasting lifestyle.

00;37;14;07 - 00;37;33;21
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So that's the action set for today. Come join us, continue the conversation about willpower versus discipline. Head to the show notes. You can click the link that's going to bring you to our free Facebook community. This is where the first two rules of fasting do not apply. And if you are new, the first two rules of fasting are do not talk about fasting.

00;37;33;21 - 00;37;43;19
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And do not talk about fasting. Because we know when we tell people that don't fast or haven't done it, you get some crazy looks and reactions and concern.

00;37;43;19 - 00;37;44;12
[Tommy Welling]
That you do not.

00;37;44;12 - 00;38;11;28
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Need if you're trying to make fasting stick for you and become the long term solution in lifestyle. So we're going to continue that conversation, get your questions answered add some insights. But it is a tree of trust. It is a safe place. We're going to continue to support and encourage this community. And it's been really cool to see over the last few weeks as we've started this initiative to keep this conversation on just the engagement and the interactions that we've been seeing and the positivity that's been coming out of it.

00;38;11;28 - 00;38;19;02
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So add to the show notes, click the link. We'll see you on the inside. Tommy, as always. Thank you, Sarah, for the conversation and we'll talk soon.

00;38;19;21 - 00;38;20;14
[Tommy Welling]
Thank you. Bye.

00;38;22;15 - 00;38;30;23
[Tommy Welling]
So you've heard today's episode and you may be wondering where do I start? Head on over to be fasting for Life.com and sign up for our newsletter where you'll receive.

00;38;30;23 - 00;38;31;06
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Fasting.

00;38;31;06 - 00;38;35;04
[Tommy Welling]
Tips and strategies to maximize results and fit fasting into your day to day life.

00;38;35;26 - 00;38;49;09
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Why are you there? Download your free fast start guide to get started today. Don't forget to subscribe on iTunes. Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Make sure to leave us a five star review and we'll be back next week with another episode of Fasting for Life.

Ep. 125 - Willpower Vs Discipline | Temptation Bundling | Free Intermittent Fasting Plan for OMAD

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