After completing tasks that required some degree of self-control, individuals had less physical stamina and increased difficulty with problem solving. This finding led researchers to suggest self-control is more like a renewable energy source than an analytical thought process or skill.
Learning how to maintain and replenish the "resource" of self-control could be helpful in treating behavior problems such as gambling addiction or alcoholism.
The experiment set out to test the three main theories about how self-control operates and determine whether self-control could be depleted. One theory relates self-control to a strength like willpower, another suggests it is an analytical thought process, and the third views self-control as a skill to be learned.
Study participants performed various tasks that required self-control and then were asked to perform a second task. For example, participants were asked to stifling emotions while watching a disturbing video and then their physical stamina was tested using a handgrip device while others were asked to resist chocolate after working on difficult geometric puzzles.
Participants who used self-control in the first task were less able to complete the second task, leading researchers to suggest that self-control is like a resource that can be consumed.
Positive emotional experience and sleep may be two ways that self-control energy could be replenished. Further, preliminary findings indicate that self-control exercises, such as food diaries or attempts to regulate emotions, may build your self-control "strength" over time.
Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research February, 2003
If this novel observation is true, then it would be wise to limit the times when you had to use self-control. When I first started using nutrition as my primary tool to improve people’s health, I had a far more limited understanding of nutrition.
At the time, I was correct about many of the important basic principles, but many people had to rely on their discipline and self-control to change their diets.
Many were successful at doing this in the short-term but failed to have long-term improvement because the changes I asked them to make were not individualized enough to activate their healing systems.
Well, Metabolic Typing has changed all of that. The most important and consistent change is that the most people’s food cravings rapidly disappear after using nutritional typing.
This means that they don’t have to exercise any self-control after the first few days of the program. Amazingly, nearly all of the food cravings disappear during this time.
That doesn’t mean the program is a major success for everyone. For many people emotional issues complicate things. Fortunately, we have a half dozen therapists in our office who address these problems with wonderful tools like EFT.
It is also important to note that this study found that adequate sleep was important to recharge your self-control, thus providing yet another reason to make sure you get enough rest.