Your ability to resist temptation is reduced each time you use it.

It takes continual concentrated effort to resist temptation. You can’t just resist temptation once and be done with it. You have to resist temptation each and every time for the resistance to be effective. And with food temptation all around, we have a lot of temptation to resist.

Most of us probably assume willpower to be in infinite supply and we can always resist temptation. But what if that’s not true? What if willpower came from a well holding only a limited supply? What if using a bit of willpower, in the form of self control, left just that much less willpower in the well for you to use to resist the next temptation?

That’s what Professor of Psychology, Roy Baumeister, has found in his research. Your ability to resist temptation is weakened each time you use it. Baumeister speculates that we have a sort of mental energy, like physical energy, that drains away when we use it.

In one test, a group of students were asked to resist eating chocolate chip cookies and eat a radish instead. Another group was given permission to eat the cookies and didn’t have to resist any temptation. The group that had to resist temptation gave up faster on a difficult puzzle when compared to students who were given permission to eat the cookies. It’s as if resisting the cookies used up bits of the students’ gumption so they were less able put forth the effort necessary to solve the puzzle.

Let’s say you have spent all day resisting the continual attack of advertisements on the radio, TV, and magazines. Then you resist all the smells and sights of food assaulting you at work, at school, in stores, and in all the shops that you pass while driving. How much mental energy do you think you have left as the day goes by? Is it any wonder you eventually give in to your cravings?

Many of the strategies, especially the Weight-Proofing strategies, help keep your will power well full of mental energy by removing temptation from your life.