So, you have read parts 1 and 2 and wonder - "How do you solve this addition behavior issue!?!?"
Tony Robbins advises the following when making any big life change:
-Get leverage
-Interrupt the pattern
-Have a New Pattern "Ready"
'Get leverage?' This means that one should really get a focus, get a grip, get clarity about how much the change is needed. What are the stakes? Why should the change be now? Are you desperate to change? Are you certain through and through that change is the only way to get what you want?
'Interrupt the pattern?' This means that one has to break the pleasurable association the unconscious has with the behavior. Suppose you love tea, but you burn your hand picking up the tea pot. Suppose due to some twist of fate you then burn you hand ten times in a row - every time you reach for the tea pot - can you see how this is going to change your 'tea behavior?' Depending upon what your unconscious mind associates to the burns, and how severe the burns are, you might buy a different tea pot or just quit making tea. Think also - how many times would you have to burn your mouth eating pizza in order to make you stop 'wanting' pizza? If you ate chocolate ice cream and immediate got sick and threw up, how long until you would want that ice cream again? What if, next time you got the chocolate ice cream, you threw up again?!?! Do you think that would interrupt the pleasure association pattern you have for chocolate ice cream?
Here's a real world example. We had a friend who wanted to quit smoking. He decided that he would stop letting himself smoke in any of the situations which he knew he really, deeply, enjoyed smoking - for example, when driving. So, if he wanted to smoke when driving, he stopped the car, got into the back seat, and smoked. Imagine how that changed his association to smoking - do you think he enjoyed it even half as much? Heck no - smoking became a pain in the gluteus maximus. Another real world example - when I quit using smokeless tobacco in 1983, I imagined how I would explain my mouth cancer to my then only conceptual (but not conceived) child; this drill certainly replaced my positive association with snuff to a negative.
'Have a new pattern'? This one's tough. Can you substitute jerky or coconut oil or macadamia nuts for the sugar, bread and such that you've eaten with pleasure (and relief of physiological distress) over the years? Can you associate a new, deep satisfaction when you eat real food - "this is prime fuel that is going to help me meet the challenges of this day!" Can you get excited about discovering and cooking new paleo foods? Can you generate some focused excitement about losing weight, feeling better, and being healthier? About eating to fuel performance, mental clarity and a sense of well being?
For long term success you have to minimize the pleasure you feel when you eat sugar/bread/wheat - first by reversing your metabolic dependence on sugar intake, and second by starting to associate sugar with what you will feel when you eat sugar after you are no longer dependent on sugar to sustain normal blood sugars - which is, not as much pleasure as you used to feel. You also have to associate eating good food TO pleasure. Lastly, you have to use emotional energy to 'set' these associations. That is to say, in making a new association to the unconscious mind, one cannot simply resolve logically to change - one has to apply the energy of emotion to the association. Only emotional energy - not rational thought - get the attention of the unconscious mind.
Long story short - get rid of the guilt, the frustration, the helplessness by finding a way to associate pain to the behavior you don't want, and finding a way to associate pleasure to the behavior you do want. Learn the techniques that allow your conscious mind to effectively communicate with your unconscious mind in the necessary round about ways. In the end, you'll find a deeper pleasure in eating good food, real food - and your resulting vibrant health and mental/physical performance - than in the desperate recycling pattern of stuffing carbs to stave off sugar crashes.
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