“Free will.”
Sounds easy, doesn’t it?
The “free” in free will lends to the appearance of ease: of availablity, of availability, without cost or charge.
Yet, consider the realm of body weight and its affects our health.
How many of us are over-weight?
Are we overweight because we “will it”? Would we impose the consequences of obesity on ourselves . . freely?
Do you say or think that it because of the excercise of free will – some would call the deadly sin of gluttony – that we/they are over weight?
Or are we over weight, fat, obese – matters of degree – because of the absence of free will?
What is the role of “will” in weight loss or weight gain?
I would like to think that my rational thoughts and beliefs guide my behavior. For instance, I KNOW that carrying extra pounds is not good for my health as I advance in years. I can see the effects of obesity all around me: people riding motorized chairs in Sam’s Club, people struggling to get about. So, plainly, I see, know, believe that maintaining a “healthy weight” is important, critical, necessary.
But why doesn’t the issue end there? I have free will. So may it be!
Impulsiveness? Laziness? Gluttony?
“I did it to myself”? Be responsible! Take responsibility!
I’m finding that, when it comes to diet, weight loss and weight management, this thing we call “will” tends to align more with free-and-easy ONLY when it comes to satisfying cravings, giving in to impulses, eating as a temporary reprieve from some pain or discomfort of life.
I’m not one to shuck responsibility and I accept that, at the end of the day “it’s all mine”, but I’m beginning to think that free will is over rated when it comes to what we as humans do with our eating. I suspect the food scientists have a pretty good handle on this, too, as evidenced by the growing volume of food-crud that has been lining store shelves for years.
If my weight was an expression of a will that is “free” I’d be down 50 pounds by now.
So I’m guessing what I need to employ in order to get my weight down isn’t free will at all.
It’s likely going to take something more akin to:
- hard-will OR
- bring-on-the-discomfort-will OR
- it’s-gonna-cost-me-and-that’s-okay-will.
Why? Because free will, all by itself, isn’t cutting it. 
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