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Her new book, "The Scientific American Day in the Life of Your Brain," tracks what's happening in your brain during the average day -- the best food to fuel you through your waking hours (she recommends complex carbohydrates and lean protein; "be wary of fad diets that focus on one food type or group. These can wreak havoc by upsetting your body and brain balance"), when the peak time for exercise is ("Some research shows body temperature may peak around late afternoon or early evening, so that might be the best time to work out" but we are individuals so we'd "do best to keep a kind of daily energy diary" to see when we're at our personal best) and more in the interview below.

That's Fit: How does self-control suck your energy?

Judith Horstman: Like most activities, self-control takes energy, and that requires fuel. And yes, not doing something is an activity. A part of your brain -- usually the reasoning thinking part -- has to expend energy to not react to stimulus such as a luscious piece of calorie-laden pie. As one researcher says in the book, willpower is more than a metaphor: It's an expensive metabolic activity. That seems doubly unfair, doesn't it? You need to take in fuel (eat) to control your urge to eat.

Men and women are different, there's no arguing that. And around our house, it's never more apparent than when there's chocolate in the house -- I'm forced to eat it; he isn't.

OK, so not forced. That would imply I'm not in charge of what I eat. But it's really, really hard for me to resist sweets, which is why I don't buy them. He, on the other hand, is like a kid who still has Halloween candy left at Easter. In January, Bev told us that there's a reason for this: Our brains are wired differently. Men can say no to their favorite foods, but women can't stop thinking about them.

Clearly, when it comes to willpower, men have the upper hand. But according to "Newsweek," there are several ways that men and women differ when it comes to dieting. For instance, men might have stronger willpower, but nutritionally, women are smarter. "With women, they're very eager to learn," says American Dietetic Association spokesman Jim White. "They look for nutrients, read food labels and focus on healthy cooking and healthy meals."

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Think the Steelers and the Cardinals have a tough day ahead of them? Try being someone who's trying to diet at a Super Bowl party.

Party food is nearly impossible to resist -- it's salty and crunchy and loaded with flavor. Surely it's okay to indulge just for one day, you're probably thinking to yourself. And you might be right. It all depends on you.

While loading up on extra calories for just one day won't wreck your diet, there are a lot of reasons why you might want to reconsider that plan today. You'll feel terrible tomorrow, for one. And after having a taste of all that fatty goodness, it'll be harder to get back on track. Junk food is a slippery slope, and if you aren't sure of your footing, you could find yourself quickly falling back into bad habits.

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Eat too many Christmas cookies? Don't let a holiday slip turn into a diet slide.

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You know what it's like ... you go through the grocery store, filling up your cart with nutritious foods and turning down most of those treats that will derail your healthy eating plan. But then it happens. You reach the check out lane, the person ahead of you is being ridiculously slow, and you're stuck ... right next to all the candy bars.

According to research published in the Journal of Consumer Research, a little temptation is good for your willpower. They concluded that having "large stocks" of treats in your home may actually help you control your eating.

That may be what their research determined, but based on my own personal experience I say a loud and indignant "yeah, right!" I'm more inclined to believe research that shows when most people are given an option, they opt for the junk.

[via Lemondrop]

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When it comes to healthy snacking, good intentions get their butt kicked by sugar. A candy bar has more control over your actual behavior than an apple.

Dutch researchers asked 585 people to pick between an apple, a banana, a candy bar or a molasses waffle. Huh? Is a molasses waffles a Dutch gnosh? Around half indicated they'd choose fruit. But when presented with the snacks a week later, 27 percent of the fruit-choosers reached for the candy bar or sugary waffle, and nearly all the the candy bar/waffle-choosers stuck with their original intention.

Lesson learned -- back-up your best intentions with no junk food in the house. If that waffle keeps calling your name, here's a recipe for a healthier spelt molasses waffle over at The Whole Wheat.

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It might not be willpower holding you back from cutting the fat you so desperately want to lose. It may be your environment. Check out these eight big fat traps. Could they be what ails you?

Food, Food, Everywhere. Everywhere you turn, there's a food counter. Malls, gas stations, Target. My new Super Wal-Mart even has its own built-in McDonald's.

Bulk Buying. When we buy food in bulk, we eat twice as much in the first eight days. Only when quantities shrink to normal sizes do we slow our consumption.

Salting and Sweetening. Salt is often added to sweet products, and sugar to salty products. Science says this makes it harder to stop eating.

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Sometimes even the best-laid plans go wrong. If you're trying to lose weight and you expect to never falter and never get off track, well ... you're fooling yourself. It's a rare person indeed who can change his or her activity and eating habits and never slip a little bit from their new ways.

Many people who are trying to lose weight succumb to "all or nothing" thinking. As in "I screwed up on my diet this morning, so I might as well just quit."

Occasional slips are just a part of weight loss. Heck, they're a part of life. You may have a slice of cake at a birthday party. You may cave in to a second helping of your yummy dinner. You may skip your fitness routine for a day. And you know what? That's OK. The trick is to not let one little slip become a big slide. One small piece of cake isn't going to negate all of the other efforts you've made toward weight loss. One skipped day of exercise isn't going to throw off your whole routine. Just be sure to get right back on the wagon and keep moving forward. AOL Body has some tips to help you stick to your diet no matter what, including how to regroup after relapse.

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Last week, Bev wrote a really interesting post about willpower and fitness. In it, she referenced a NYT article that said that willpower was like money in the bank -- if you spend some of it on one task, you'll have less of it for another. In other words, willpower is finite.

But then, reader Aymon pointed out another NYT article that calls willpower -- at least when it comes to dieting -- a myth. Many dieters think they can rely on willpower alone. When they fail, they blame themselves.

But according to scientists, it's impossible to succeed on willpower alone. Hunger, appetite, emotional eating -- it's all tied up into brain chemicals, hormones, and lifelong habits. (You:On a Diet is an excellent resource to learn all about those chemical reactions). It's exactly why crash dieting doesn't work. Instead, most diet programs recommend behavior modification to help people lose weight. A good example of this is food journaling, where you write down everything you eat.

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Willpower is baffling. Especially when it comes to willpower for exercise. It seems to fall along a fluid spectrum with some amazingly disciplined, others boasting spurts of regular exercise, and some avoiding fitness much of their lives. Many of us slide back and forth varying points along the spectrum across our lifespan.

Science has much to say about willpower. Here are a two important willpower nuggets to ponder within a fitness framework:

• The brain has limited capacity for self-regulation. Research has shown exerting willpower in one area can potentially deplete the willpower bank -- meaning you may have less willpower for a second withdrawal in the near-term. People investing self-control to complete one task are not necessarily as persistent on a second, unrelated task.

Hmm ... makes me want to take off my Super Mom multi-tasking cape, it's like a Depression-era run on my personal Bank of Willpower. No wonder I feel I can't get anything done unless I focus on only one or two tasks. So if you're just starting a fitness program, remember willpower is finite. Don't simultaneously begin to tackle other serious tasks as they may undermine your original goal to get fit. Keep it simple! But once you've been hitting the cardio and weights for awhile, get this:

• Willpower is a muscle -- it grows stronger with use.

I love it! Consistently using your willpower is a compounding investment. Keep making deposits by visiting the gym and your fitness willpower will spill over to positively influence other areas of your life. One study showed people adhering to an exercise program for a mere two months reduced their impulsive spending, junk food consumption, alcohol use and smoking.

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Willpower may have nothing to do with your inability to lose weight or stick with that elusive fitness routine. According to Alan Deutschman, author of Change or Die: The Three Keys to Change at Work and in Life, willpower is not so important when it comes to the actual mechanism for change. What's important is finding a relationship with a person or group skilled at showing you the way. It can't be just any relationship, though. It has to be an emotional one with someone who inspires hope and belief, someone who makes you say, "If she can do it, so can I."

Think about the high-powered executive told by his doctor he'll suffer a heart attack if he doesn't switch to a low-fat diet and take up yoga and meditation. Left to his own devices, this man, like nine of out 10 who won't do a thing to change his lifestyle, will ignore medical advice even though the stakes couldn't be higher. But put him in a group setting with others just like him and when he sees his peers eating veggies and chanting yoga speak, he'll do it too. And he's likely to stick with his new ways after a little practice.

The message here is this: If there's something you wish to change but feel stuck, seek out others who intrigue you and make you want to alter your behaviors. Form a relationship with these people and most important, learn from it. Forget willpower, my friends. Find a mentor instead.

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I work in an office ... well, at least I do until Friday, when I walk out that door for one last time to pursue my own path as a freelance writer and photographer. There are things I will really miss about the place -- co-workers, sushi lunches, dental plans and a supply closet that magically replenishes itself -- but there are also things I will not miss. Like? Getting up at 5:45am, recycled air, and the company snack table. Every few days, some kind soul fills the table with goodies and as I walk from desk to desk, office to bathroom, I can't help but stop, especially when there's chocolate. It's sabotage to someone with littler willpower like myself, though it wouldn't be fair to take the snack table away from everyone just because my jeans are a bit tight.

I just had my last bit of snack table chocolate, and though it's sad, it's a relief. I don't keep this kind of stuff in my house, so there's no temptation.

What's my point, you ask? Identify your weaknesses and get rid of temptation. You don't have to quit your job, but perhaps you can look at other times when you're tempted. Say it's the food court at the mall. Avoid it -- stick to the stores. Or maybe it's your own pantry. Stop hitting up the junk aisle. If you're really hungry, snacking on carrots will suffice.

What's your major temptation?

We've all heard of willpower, but have you heard of 'want' power? They're not the same thing. Willpower is what you need to get started, and wantpower is what you need to keep the momentum going over time. Willpower is fighting your urges to sit on the couch and eat ginormous servings ice cream, and wantpower is when you actually change your urges and cravings -- it's changing what you want so you don't have to fight anymore.

Training your body and your mind to "want" healthier things is a slow process (like most other good things in life) but it is possible. By using your willpower to slowly shift yourself into a new outlook completely (instead of just forcing temporary change) you'll be so much better able to stick with your new health and fitness goals for the long haul.

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How's your willpower? Mine? Not so good. I can resolve all I want but when those chocolate covered almonds are staring me in the face, I usually cave. But I must be doing something right because I am a healthy weight -- with willpower as bad as mine, you'd think I'd be 300 lbs by now.

But maybe weight loss isn't all about willpower. According to this, it actually has more to do with how you think about food. That would make a lot of sense in my case -- I have a healthy attitude towards food, and I eat healthy almost all the time except in a few cases where my willpower buckles under the weight of temptation. And when I give in, I don't do so without abandon -- I know the difference between allowing myself a small treat and totally gorging on a litre of ice cream.

Read the article and let me know: what's your take on willpower? Is the only successful tool in weight loss, or can you get along with out it?

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