The Truth About Willpower: Why Blood Sugar and Brain Energy Are the Real Keys to Self-Control

Ep 110. Unlocking True Willpower: Why Mental Endurance Is Fueled by Blood Sugar and Cognitive Energy

The concept of willpower is often misunderstood and overstated. Contrary to popular belief, willpower is not a fixed trait—it’s a dynamic biological and cognitive process that hinges on two key factors: cognitive decision-making and glucose availability in the brain.

When we talk about self-control or discipline, we’re really talking about the brain's ability to maintain focus and regulate behavior in real-time. This process—known as self-regulation—requires a steady supply of mental energy, much of which is derived from blood glucose.

Our Ego and self-image also play a significant role in how we exert influence and interact socially. These aren't abstract traits; they're active cognitive functions that burn energy and affect our mental stamina. When we feel "ego-depleted" or mentally exhausted, it's often a sign that we've used up the fuel needed to manage these processes effectively.

This depletion is a major reason why mental endurance can falter during challenges, high-stakes problem solving, or prolonged stress. True willpower, then, is not just about grit—it's about energy management and mental clarity.

If we want to build real self-discipline, we need to understand how neurobiology, nutrition, and psychological conditioning intersect. Willpower isn't magic—it's a mechanism. And like any high-performing system, it needs the right fuel to function.

➡️ Understand your biology.
 ➡️ Train your focus.
 ➡️ Fuel your brain.
 Understand deeply. Will powerfully. Walk well.

Transcript

Welcome back folks to episode 110 of the Running Man Self-Regulation Skills Project Podcast with me, your host, Dr. Armando Dominguez, PhD in Health Psychology, licensed professional counselor and an adjunct professor at the local community college. What we're be discussing today has to do with power and not just power, but personal power and also what we consider willpower and the fact that it is not merely just a conception.

but a physical reality in the sense that whatever it is that we call will often is very closely coupled with the understanding of what we call power applied in our lives, personal power, professional, actual power, that sort of thing. But glucose, blood glucose has a lot to do with what actual willpower is in our body and often is depleted depending on what it is that I'm going through cognitively as well as physically.

And it's not as clean cut as some people make it out to be when they try to discuss the development of self-regulation. The question is, what do we really mean when we say willpower? Off this discussion, what I'd to point out is that what we understand is will often is touted as being just merely a cognitive process. We just change our mind and decide to do or not to do something. And the

inherent understanding that there is a measure of control, but I'm not going to do and a measure of control or trying to control something outside of us what I will do or I'm choosing to do is somehow just within the realm of cognition or ability to process a Conception of what I'm going to do or not to do and it's much more than that To even have the thought we have to have neurotransmitters firing and also we have blood sugar to do the thought process so to speak

So when we're discussing will, Baumeister actually came up with the idea and studied it quite extensively that will, what we call our will to do, has to do with not only our ability to make a decision, but the blood glucose required to make said decision, which is the fundamental building block of your thought process.

armando (02:48.503)
No blood sugar, no thought so to speak, therefore no will without blood sugar. Now I'm asking what does this have to do with self-regulation? And the fact of the matter is, is that it has a lot to do with it. Because anything that we do to better ourselves, to change our circumstances, to apply our will in this universe or in our environment, to create change, often requires a bit of dynamism, anger, in some cases is known to...

be used to create change in environment and there is a of blood glucose that gets fired that way in addition to our neurotransmitter, but even the thought process itself, the process of conceiving, of making change and willing something to happen and even being creative requires that we have blood sugar to do the requisite process of creativity or change in our environment or even to do the very thing that we want to do such as changing our mind.

and therefore our trajectory of who it is that we are going to become in the future or what it is that we are going to do in the future. And that process once again is burning energy. So as an idea, what I would like us to understand is that our brain in our day to day tasks follows the Pareto principle, the 20 % rule in the sense that the most gets done with the 20 % that the 80 % is generally affected by.

And our brain does the largest percentage of our fuel burning, 20%, that affects what we do day to day in every physical and intellectual sense. So it's a very powerful tool, but it's always on. And that can be thrown out of balance rather quickly if we have stressful events, if we're under stress, or we feel like we're somehow threatened at the physical level, or even if we conceive of something that is threatening, or we feel somehow lacking where our

maybe peers may seem smarter and I feel less than, that sense of perceived threat, even though it's maybe not a physical threat, is a conception that has enough weight to it that our body starts burning more fuel and we lose what's called a little ego strength. We become ego depleted when we feel less than. So even the sense of my comparing myself in an intellectual sense is enough to change my physicality.

armando (05:11.857)
to where I will burn more fuel in a very defensive, self-protective sense. So it is not merely just all in your head, but now it's our body following what's happening in our mind with our head, so to speak. If we take into consideration very stressful events, then we're understanding that if we look back, we are a little more emotionally exhausted, a little more mentally exhausted at the end of the day.

If we've had things that have been challenging not only to our mind, but maybe even our physical body. And if we really had to reach down and do some problem solving, especially if things are particularly a new or novel, then we've had to work a lot harder than normal. And we tend to use up our fuel stores. And if we feel any kind of threat, our adrenaline dumps. And then we have our emergency energy pack in our liver, unleashed some glycogen that is broken down.

into usable energy for our muscles and that is something that burns a little dirty we don't think is clearly but it helps us become a little more hyper vocal in that we can get a job done or a goal accomplished more effectively but we're not particularly sociable so whenever we are thinking about will the will has to do with what it is that i'm trying to protect and we spoke about ego depletion earlier

And often, even if it's not a physical threat, we're trying to protect our identity, our sense of self, who it is that I am when I'm thinking that I am me when I'm interacting with you out in the world, in the marketplace, so to speak. And the more I am able to believe in myself or the way I conceive of myself, the more I'm able to approach things with confidence. And that requires effort, requires energy.

And at the end of the day, yes, it can leave you very tired. And sometimes if you've ever had the experience wherever you arrive at home and you just don't have a whole lot left, you feel spent. That means that even thinking of yourself, and we do think of a lot of ourselves throughout the day, then even that is taxing. Sometimes we just like to veg out and do things that have nothing to do with bolstering my ego, with making myself feel better, look better, be better so that way I'm accepted and

armando (07:33.265)
more successful what it is that I'm trying to do, be getting a job or doing well in a job or acquiring acceptance in a group. All of that requires a lot of effort, a lot of curating and a lot of behavior that is in quotes acting and getting along to get along. That's a huge process. But often whenever we feel threatened or stressed, what it is we're trying to protect is that sense of self image. And if we rewind a little bit of what I said,

we realize that at the end of the day we're even sometimes too tired to think of ourself. And that does not necessarily mean we're not valuable. It just tells us that it's one of those things that are not exactly life support, but that we can actually set aside for a time. So there's some wisdom within that. And if we learn how to do that, it becomes a very useful self-regulatory skill where you can apply will and control itself.

without necessarily feeling the ego threat, without necessarily having to think yourself into being, so to speak, which we do moment to moment, in the egoistic sense. Not egotistical, mind you, but in the sense that we're creating our sense of self within a dynamic or a situation. The reason I'm pointing all this out is this idea of will. How can we leverage that? How can we get more of it? Part of it is understanding that

Throughout our day, we're always kind of burning fuel, maintaining, so to speak, our sense of self. But whenever we get to a point where we need to accomplish something or do something new, often becoming more efficient and more effective, and you know who you are, you know who you are since you're very young, you don't necessarily have to feed fuel in that direction. But if we can redirect some of that, we can gain some more capacity and self-control. What we're doing actually is

partitioning how our energy goes towards certain activities. Whenever we are self-conscious, we're worrying about acceptance, working around worrying about looking dumb, we become bad students. Not terrible, but not as good as we could be because we're worrying about our self-image. And sometimes we have to invest in what some martial artists would call being a fool. And that does not necessarily mean that you are foolish, but rather not worrying about

armando (09:59.432)
looking foolish in the process of learning and being clumsy and not being sad because you can't take off like an expert and we know rationally that's the case but often when we're learning something we tend to be so invested in self that we can't let go or idea of ourself that our ability to resist the temptation to quit and that sense of self-control goes down our ability to choose to will ourselves forward

In spite of what we would call in quotes a failure or a fall or maybe less than a sterling presentation and those things if we know that we're learning are part of the process of learning and we get better without mistakes we don't improve. We're not all perfect ballerinas when we get out onto the dad's floor. That takes many years of trial and error. Error is not fatal. It is something that teaches us and the same thing.

the same vein, more correctly. We're looking at living a life. We haven't lived what's going to happen next. We may have done similar, but every day is new. And sometimes we have this sense of confidence because of a level of expectation that we have of ourselves and of our world, so to speak, and that we're going to see similar things. And I kind of know what to do with that. That's where we start developing job skill and we start developing a sense of self-efficacy.

That means I can do this, but also a sense of efficiency. That means not only I can do this, but I do it well and it takes less effort for me. And then I gain confidence as a result of that. It's a really important thing. When we come to the idea of self and what we do, often we want to be able to say, Hey, I did this well. And it's like a pat on the back, so to speak, but it's also an ego boost.

But it can also become problematic if we go too far with that. If we think that every little thing that we do must require a pat on the back, this sort of thing, versus just being, and versus just doing what it is that we're doing. And we're going to run into times where we have to draw on that will to be able to learn more and do more and become more in our lives. But at the same time, we have to learn how to let go of that ego identity to where it doesn't get in the way so we can learn.

armando (12:22.258)
So we can be trainable, so we can be teachable, so we can also be learnable in the sense that we can allow ourselves to be a learner and also allow ourselves to teach in a way that someone can learn from us, not only what we're doing, but how we're doing what we're doing in a more effective way. Now there's an aspect to will, to this power of self that often

is actual and that is what it is that we are able to do and that we exude in a very real sense that is perceived by others. The principle of power perceived is power achieved. There are some creatures such as a jaguar or mountain lion in the cage. Whenever you're next to them and they growl, it is very intimidating. But you know that you'll survive the experience because, well, they're behind the cage and they're not on the side of the cage that you are standing in. Hopefully, anyway.

And that is an understanding, that is a belief. Now, that is actual power that you wouldn't want to contend with. Well, what about placebo power? What is it that whenever I feel or believe things to be that causes change on the outside, this is the perceived, this power achieved perspective where you look powerful, where you might put on the guise

And sometimes this is an ego stroking for some that people get stuck in and not an actual development of capacity. And this can be a rather poisonous thing to us that we start believing in the power that assumption has given us. We may look bigger, look stronger to someone else and get the influence that we pursue. But the fact of the matter is there is a couple of subtleties that happen within us.

One is that if we look powerful and show up powerful and people believe it, we actually release more testosterone and cortisol. That means we're in the upswing of power, so to speak, just by virtual belief, not just our own. But the fact that people are believing us is enough to jar our neurotransmitters such that we start kind of exuding that and that our hormones are released.

armando (14:45.256)
that are supportive of the fact that we actually have power even though maybe it's just a belief that other people entertain of us. Now that's the underlying part of that. Now the placebo power is something that can go away very quickly if somebody tests it and then they figured out, no, they fooled us. And it seems almost dishonest to somebody that follows that. But an important part of this is that the placebo power is something that occurs

outside of the realm of what is real, but it occurs within the realm of what is conceived or believed to be real, so it does have a real effect. But it's not too far from actual power in effect, but it is very far from actual power in the sense that if it is plied or tested, it'll fall apart in many cases and often is considered dishonest and people get really hurt when in actuality they may have been the ones that assumed it without necessarily you.

Encouraging it intentionally so in effect to explain that very effect of somebody following along being trained to your conception of power that they have given you by the virtue of assumption we realize that our belief leads and Our willpower follows so we show up once again in a sense that we are Confident in how we stand how we walk how we talk and seem not only certain

but convinced of what we're saying, more than likely that will exude the influence that it is that we're seeking, that many people will believe what it is that we're portraying. And they won't question very often. So why is this important in as far as self-regulation? Well, it is important because often how we show up will shape what it is that we receive from other people. And we can't control what it is that they do or how they see us.

But we definitely have an impact and we have to be very careful as to how we apply that placebo power, so to speak, that conception of power that is given us. So being ethical is a good thing. But on top of that, being careful is best because sometimes we don't know how it is that we may shape somebody's response. And at the end of the day, we don't know the impact we have on someone's life. And sometimes we don't know the full impact that somebody has on ours.

armando (17:09.916)
until we're able to look back. And sometimes it's a rather profound thing. Now, willpower is a word that's thrown around very frequently. Most people misunderstand and think, once again, that it's merely a conception. When in actuality, it's an exchange of blood glucose. Many Navy SEALs, whenever they are told to near drowning, to take one breath and go to the end of a pool and come back. And until basically, not only the glucose, but the oxygen runs out and they pass out.

They have divers get them there to the end of the pool when they're literally within feet or inches of the edge to make sure that they don't drown. But they've made their decision. They chose to go as far as they could without necessarily worrying about their own health, but their goal was to meet that. But when the blood glucose runs out, when the oxygen runs out, and the ADP-ATP cycle is no longer moving along given this energy, what happens? Well, we end.

the goal is not met, but we have made a decision to the point of finality. And this is something that placebo power can help us with, actual power can help us with, but it also points out that no matter what level of fitness you may be at, we run into our limits at some point. And if we exceed that limit, accidentally or on purpose, beyond that, only God knows what exists. And we have to be careful. Let it fly on our will to get to our goals. Yeah, we can go that far.

Sometimes we fear going a little further because we don't know what we're running into, but rarely do we get to the point that some of these Navy SEALs go to. Rarely do we get to the point to where we tax ourselves to the very end or the limits of what it is that is our being. The reason I want to talk about this is because all the things that we do in this life somehow involve will, no matter how small and insignificant we may think it is. Doesn't have to be a big grandiose thing, but the process of self.

or being self is a process of thinking that requires glucose to think it. When we're tired, we don't do it so much. Whenever we have a really big goal, sometimes it frightens us, but it uses the same fundamental fuel. And that is something to keep in mind. So for now, we'll go and close out this podcast. I just want to say thanks for listening. And I know it seemed a little rambling, but there was a lot of information I want to put in there because we're going to build on it as we move forward with this podcast.

armando (19:35.81)
and we'll probably refer back to it at some point. But I want to say thanks once again. If you have any feedback, or questions, or comments, please send them to the gmail at runningmangetskillsproject at gmail. And I'd love to hear from you. And have a good evening. Take care. And I hope you will things in the right direction for yourself. I know I'm trying over here on this end. Talk soon. Take care. Walk well.