Hi costello,
I'm not familiar with the book by Baumeister and Tierney, but it sounds interesting. I can suggest a few ideas of my own about "willpower", along the lines of what I discussed in
my interview with with Julien Smith. Willpower is like a muscle...it needs to be exercised to get stronger. But getting stronger at anything -- lifting weights, improving eyesight, resisting stress or temptation -- doesn't happen overnight. It's a gradual process that takes weeks or months, not days, before you see real, sustainable progress.
The concept of "ego depletion" that you refer to seems to assume that we have a fixed supply of expendable energy that allows us to resist daily stress. This may be accurate as a static view of what the immediate response to stress might be for a given individual. What it overlooks, I think, is our ability to grow this reserve by progressive exposure to increasing stress.
Cold showers represent a stress that people will respond to differently. In some cases, it might produce an immediate response in terms of thermogenesis and release of adrenaline that can suppress appetite. But in other cases, the initial discomfort might not be accompanied by these compensating benefits. A lot may depend on individual metabolism and psychology. Based on these differences, it might take longer for some people to "adapt". And it might fail to work at all to deliver these benefits, in certain cases. But I would not take your very initial response as necessarily indicative of what cold showers might do for you in the long term. I found that after several weeks, cold showers definitely increased my resilience to stress in general -- particularly in how I responded to sudden, unanticipated stresses thrown at me -- insults, bad days or whatever. My reserve increased. Hence, less need for pleasures like comfort food, alcohol, etc. to calm the nerves. And more energy for physical activities like running, rock climbing and social interactions.
So I would take note of your initial reaction and weight gain, but not be too quick to throw in the towel on cold showers and blame it on "ego depletion". If you stay with it, and find other ways to test your growing "stoic" mental toughness, I'm sure your willpower muscle will grow rather than wither. (You might try adding in some type of intense exercise). There is evidence that these sorts of practices upregulate receptors and physiology that help increase your sense of well-being and lower your body fat "set point". (See my article, "
Change your receptors, change your set point"). Of course, as with any application of hormesis, there is a balance. You have to be careful not to overdo and to get periodic rest. But if you take the long run view, I think you'll be able to get back on track with your weight loss program, and you'll derive other benefits as well.
Good luck!
Todd
