Two

The Willpower Instinct: Your Body Was Born To Resist Cheesecake

I starts with a flash of excitement. Your brain buzzes, and your heart pounds in your chest. It's like your whole body is saying Yes. Then the anxiety hits. Your lungs tighten and your muscles tense. You start to feel light-headed and a little nauseous(1). You are almost trembling(2), you want this so much. But you can't. But you want. But you can't! You know what you need to do, but you aren't sure you can handle this feeling without falling apart or giving in.

(1)令人作呕的 ˈnɔːziəs (2)发抖 tremblɪŋ

Welcome to the world of craving. Maybe it's a craving for a cigarette, a drink, or a triple latte. Maybe it's the sight of a last-chance super clearance sale, a lottery(1) ticket, or a doughnut in the bakery window. In such a moment, you face a choice: follow the craving, or find the inner strength to control yourself. This is the moment you need to say "I won't" when every cell in your body is saying "I want."

(1)博彩 ˈlɒtəri

You know when you've met a real willpower challenge because you feel it in your body. It's not some abstract argument between what is right and what is wrong. It feels like a battle happening inside of you—a battle between two parts of yourself, or what often feels like two very different people. Sometimes the craving wins. Sometimes the part of you that knows better, or wants better for yourself, wins.

Why you succeed or fail at these willpower challenges can seem like a mystery. One day you resist, and the next you succumb. You might ask yourself, "What was I thinking!" But a better question might be, "What was my body doing?" Science is discovering that self-control is a matter of physiology(1), not just psychology. It's a temporary state of both mind and body that gives you the strength and calm to override your impulses. Researchers are beginning to understand what that state looks like, and why the complexity of our modern world often interferes with it. The good news is that you can learn to shift your physiology into that state when you need your willpower the most.

(1)生理学 ˌfɪziˈɒlədʒi

A Tale of Two Threats

To understand what happens in the body when we exercise self-control, we need to start with an important distinction: the difference between a saber-toothed tiger and a strawberry cheesecake. In one important respect, the tiger and the cheesecake are alike—both can derail(1) your goal to live a long and healthy life. But in other ways, they are critically different threats. What the brain and body do to deal with them will be very different. Lucky for you, evolution has endowed you with exactly the resources you need to protect yourself from both.

(1)使出轨 diːˈreɪl

When Danger Strikes

Let's start with a little trip back in time, to a place where fierce saber-toothed tigers once stalked their prey.3Imagine you are in the Serengeti(1) in East Africa, minding your own early hominid(2) business. Perhaps you are scavenging(3) for lunch among the carcasses scattered across the savannah(4). Things are going well—is that an abandoned, freshly killed antelope you spy?—when all of a sudden, holy shit! A saber-toothed tiger is lurking in the branches of a nearby tree. Perhaps he's savoring his antelope(5) appetizer and contemplating his second course: you. He looks eager to sink those eleven-inch teeth into your flesh, and unlike your twenty-first-century self, this predator has no qualms about satisfying his cravings. Don't expect him to be on a diet, eyeing your curves as a bit too calorie-rich.

(1)塞伦盖蒂平原(位于坦桑尼亚西北部) ˌserənˈɡeti (2)原始人类 ˈhɒmɪnɪd (3)清除ˈskævɪndʒɪŋ (4)热带和亚热带草原 səˈvænə (5)羚羊 ˈæntɪləʊp

Fortunately, you are not the first person to find yourself in this very situation. Many of your long-ago ancestors faced this enemy and others like him. And so you have inherited from your ancestors an instinct that helps you respond to any threat that requires fighting or running for your life. This instinct is appropriately called the fight-or-flight stress response. You know the feeling: heart pounding, jaw clenching, senses on high alert. These changes in the body are no accident. They are coordinated in a sophisticated way by the brain and nervous system to make sure you act quickly and with every ounce of energy you have.

Here's what happened, physiologically, when you spotted that saber-toothed tiger: The information from your eyes first made its way to an area of the brain called the amygdala, which functions as your own personal alarm system. This alarm system sits in the middle of your brain and lives to detect possible emergencies. When it notices a threat, its central location makes it easy to get the message out to other areas of your brain and body.

When the alarm system got the signal from your eyeballs that there was a saber-toothed tiger eyeing you, it launched a series of signals to your brain and body that prompted the fight-or-flight response. Stress hormones were released from your adrenal glands. Energy—in the form of fats and sugar—was released into your bloodstream from your liver. Your respiratory(1) system got your lungs pumping to fuel the body with extra oxygen. Your cardiovascular(2) system kicked into high gear to make sure the energy in your bloodstream would get to the muscles doing the fighting or the fleeing. Every cell in your body got the memo: time to show what you're made of.

(1)呼吸的 rəˈspɪrət(ə)ri (2)心血管的 ˌkɑːdiəʊˈvæskjələ(r)

While your body was getting ready to defend your life, the alarm system in your brain was busy trying to make sure that you didn't get in the body's way. It focused your attention and senses on the saber-toothed tiger and your surroundings, making sure no stray thoughts distracted you from the threat at hand. The alarm system also prompted a complex change in brain chemicals that inhibited your prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain in charge of impulse control. That's right, the fight-or-flight response wants to make you more impulsive. The rational, wise, and deliberative prefrontal cortex is effectively put to sleep—the better to make sure you don't chicken out or overthink your escape. Speaking of escape, I'd say your best bet in this situation is to start running, now!

The fight-or-flight response is one of nature's greatest gifts to mankind: the built-in ability of your body and brain to devote all of their energy to saving your butt in an emergency. You aren't going to waste energy—physical or mental—on anything that doesn't help you survive the immediate crisis. So when the fight-or-flight response takes over, the physical energy that might a moment ago have been devoted to digesting your morning snack or repairing a hangnail is redirected to the task of immediate self-preservation. Mental energy that was focused on finding your dinner or planning your next great cave painting is rechanneled into present-moment vigilance(1) and rapid action. In other words, the fight-or-flight stress response is an energy-management instinct. It decides how you are going to spend your limited physical and mental energy.

(1)警戒 ˈvɪdʒɪləns

A New Kind of Threat

Still in the savannah(1) of the Serengeti(2), fleeing the saber-toothed tiger? Sorry about that. I apologize if our trip back in time was a bit stressful, but it was a necessary detour if we want to understand the biology of self-control. Let's come back to today, away from the prowl of now-extinct predators. Catch your breath, relax a little. Let's find our way somewhere safer and more pleasant.

(1)大草原 səˈvænə  (2)塞伦盖蒂平原 ˌserənˈɡet

How about a stroll down your local Main Street? Imagine it now: It's a beautiful day, with bright sun and a gentle breeze. The birds in the trees are singing John Lennon's "Imagine," when all of a sudden—BAM! In a bakery display case, there sits the most delectable strawberry cheesecake you have ever seen. A radiant red glaze glistens over its smooth, creamy surface. A few carefully placed strawberry slices bring to mind the taste of childhood summers. Before you can say, "Oh, wait, I'm on a diet," your feet are moving toward the door, your hand is pulling the handle, and bells chime your tongue-hanging, mouth-drooling arrival.

What's going on in the brain and body now? A few things. First, your brain is temporarily taken over by the promise of reward. At the sight of that strawberry cheesecake, your brain launches a neurotransmitter called dopamine(1) from the middle of your brain into areas of the brain that control your attention, motivation, and action. Those little dopamine messengers tell your brain, "Must get cheesecake NOW, or suffer a fate worse than death." This might explain the near-automatic movement of your feet and hands into the bakery. (Whose hand is that? Is that my hand on the door? Yes, it is. Now, how much is that cheesecake?)

(1)多巴胺 ˈdəʊpəmiːn

While all this is happening, your blood sugar drops. As soon as your brain anticipates(1) your mouth's first creamy bite, it releases a neurochemical that tells the body to take up whatever energy is circulating in the bloodstream. The body's logic is this: A slice of cheesecake, high in sugar and fat, is going to produce a major spike in blood sugar. To prevent an unsightly sugar coma and the rare (but never pretty) death by cheesecake, you need to lower the sugar currently in the bloodstream. How kind of the body to look out for you in this way! But this drop in blood sugar can leave you feeling a little shaky and cranky, making you crave the cheesecake even more. Hmmm, sneaky. I don't want to sound like a cheesecake conspiracy theorist, but if it's a contest between the cheesecake and your good intention to diet, I'd say the cheesecake is winning.

(1)预测 ænˈtɪsɪpeɪt

But wait! Just as in the Serengeti, you have a secret weapon: willpower. You remember willpower—the ability to do what really matters, even when it's difficult? Right now, what really matters isn't the momentary pleasure of cheesecake molecules hitting your palate(1). Part of you knows that you have bigger goals. Goals like health, happiness, and fitting into your pants tomorrow. This part of you recognizes that the cheesecake threatens your long-term goals. And so it will do whatever it can to deal with this threat. This is your willpower instinct.

(1)颚 ˈpælət

But unlike the saber-toothed tiger, the cheesecake is not the real threat. Think about it: That cheesecake cannot do anything to you, your health, or your waistline unless you pick up the fork. That's right: This time, the enemy is within. You don't need to flee the bakery (although it might not hurt). And you definitely don't need to kill the cheesecake (or the baker). But you do need to do something about those inner cravings. You can't exactly kill a desire, and because the cravings are inside your mind and body, there's no obvious escape. The fight-or-flight stress response, which pushes you toward your most primitive urges, is exactly what you don't need right now. Self-control requires a different approach to self-preservation—one that helps you handle this new kind of threat.