Tag Archives: Willpower

Twelve Wishes

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  1. Laddie_Head SquareI wish that foods that don’t need sweetening weren’t always loaded with sugar. Chicken salad used to be a friendly food for me but most restaurants now add various sweeteners to the dressing along with dried cherries or cranberries.
  2. On a related issue, I wish that Whole Foods and Panera Bread didn’t think that filling a food with honey makes it health food.
  3. I wish that my best was better than it is.
  4. I wish that when I was reading a book on my iPad that I didn’t keep switching to Candy Crush or to Pages to work on a blog post.
  5. I wish that I had a large house to live in and a small house to clean.
  6. Magic WandI wish that I had as much willpower as everyone thinks I do.
  7. I wish that I could be young again with the wisdom and happiness that being older has given me.
  8. I wish that I didn’t constantly miss the “a” on my iPad keyboard and keep typing “disbetes”.
  9. I wish that winters weren’t so cold in Minnesota.
  10. I wish that I enjoyed cooking because then I would have better meals to eat.
  11. I wish that I could be a guy every November and December and have Thanksgiving and Christmas magically appear.
  12. I wish that I could be friends with all of the people whom I’ve met through diabetes without any of us having diabetes.

Willpower with Frog and Toad

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Laddie_Head SquareOne of my favorite children’s stories is “Cookies” found in Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel.

The plot follows the two amphibians as they work out how to resist eating a whole batch of cookies baked by Frog.  After eating “one last cookie” several times, Frog determines that they need “will power” to stop eating all of the cookies.  In reply to Toad’s question about the meaning of will power, Toad says “Will power is trying hard not to do something that you really want to do.”  They consider various ways to stop Frog and Toadeating the cookies such as putting the cookies in a box tied up with string or putting them on a high shelf.  But they are smart enough to figure out that scissors and a ladder can easily overcome those obstacles.

Finally Frog takes the cookies outside and yells for the birds to take them away.  When Toad bemoans the fact that they no longer have any cookies, Frog replies “Yes, but we have lots and lots of will power.”

I’m not sure that it is really willpower when you take away temptation, but removing tempting treats from my house is the best way for me to resist eating them.  I have very little problem resisting “bad” food throughout the day, but the post-dinner hours are another story.  It’s a boredom issue, I think.  It’s also an issue that chocolate tastes really good and sometimes I crave it so much that it hurts.  I’ve never been able to figure out why I am so satisfied with one piece of chocolate when it is a sample given out at Costco and then I can’t stop at one (five) at home.

I love cookies.  I love candy.  I love ice cream.  I hate willpower.

Lest you think that Frog and Toad have it all figured out, the story ends with Toad’s scathing dismissal of willpower:  “You may keep it all, Frog.  I am going home now to bake a cake.”

I know what you mean, Toad.