What Are Motivational Mindshifts?

They are realisations, reframes and challenging exercises that ultimately liberate you. They are not always comfortable but ALWAYS empowering. 

The best way to understand them is to experience them. So let's start now...

The Choice You Don't Know You Have

When you get a strong sugar craving, it feels like you have no choice but to give in.

 

In this course I am going to give you nutritional prevention in the form of sugar replacements - foods that will reduce your cravings. I am going to give you Cravings Busters - strategies to walk away from the addictive food, however compulsive you feel. I am going to reframe the whole idea of struggle to empower you.

 

But first you need to understand the choice you don't know you have - then make a conscious decision. 

 

First of all, I want you to consider all the ways that sugar affects you negatively.

 

In your journal, write down the heading "How Sugar Affects Me" then copy out any which apply to you and rate each out of ten for severity.

 

(Note: you may not be able to identify some of these as being specifically sugar related. If you suspect any may be related to sugar, simply put a question mark next to it on the list. It will be useful to compare after two weeks off sugar).

 

Mood swings  /10

Irritability  /10

Tiredness  /10

Weight gain  /10

Feel out of control  /10

Feel guilty/ashamed  /10

Skin problems  /10

Brain fog/feel confused  /10

(For women) PMT  /10

Other effects of sugar (list them below)

 

Your Effort Percentage

This takes a few minutes but is incredibly exciting and will give you a big dose of motivation over the next few weeks.

 

First of all, write down how many years you have been a slave to sugar. I am going to use the example of 10 years for mathematical simplicity (My actual number was 30 years).

 

Now convert that number into to weeks. Use this handy tool:

http://www.calculateme.com/Time/Years/ToWeeks.htm

For example 520 weeks

 

Next, we are going to guesstimate the time you will need to make a real effort to free yourself from sugar. If you have been trying and failing at this for a long time, your answer here may well be "Aaaaaaargh!" But the good news is that this course is based on The Pauly Principle, which is based on neuroscience. Your brain is not some victorian villain twirling its moustache, revelling in your addiction. It just cares about shortcuts and survival.

 

Habit change, according to some experts, takes three weeks. That is just too unrealistic for sugar addiction (or any meaningful change, IMHO)

 

What I found was that the first month using the principles in this course was work - real effort. The second was easier, but still an effort. And at the end of the third month, I found that I had reached The Effortless Tipping Point, where I could just walk past the deli aisle without a second thought and saying no to junk at parties was easy.

 

Now let me ask you: if you experiment with the ideas in this course, and find the ones that work for you, then apply them consistently, do you think 12 weeks is a reasonable timeframe to reach The Effortless Tipping Point?

 

If you agree, then 12 weeks is your 'Effort Time'.

 

Change this number if you feel it can be lower or should be higher.

 

For this example, I am going to use 12 weeks.

 

We are now going to work out your Effort Percentage. This is how many weeks effort you are going to need compared to the years of struggle you have already been through.

 

In our example, effort time is 12 weeks, and time struggling is 520 weeks.

 

As a fraction, this is 12 over 520.

 

Now we are going to convert this to a percentage.

 

Use

 

http://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/math/fraction-to-decimal-calculator.php

to do this.

 

In our example 12 weeks compared to 10 years is 0.023% 

 

That means that the next 12 weeks, while being an effort, will use only 0.023% of the time spent trying and failing to get off sugar. 

 

And remember, because you are tapping into your brain's powerhouse of the subconscious, that effort has an expiry date on it. It WILL get easier.

 

And just think - once you have used The Pauly Principle to change your sugar habit, just think what else you can apply it to: getting fit, budgeting, learning a new skill. 

 

This is why my work is about helping you reclaim your life from food. 

 

So...What Is The Choice You Don't Know You Have?

It is this: do you want to just read and watch this content like a self help tourist, think "that's interesting" but carry on as you have been for all these years?

 

Or do you actually want to do the work?

 

Because there will be resistance. The diet, health and wellness industries are propped up by marketing machines that get you to mentally leapfrog the real work, which is dealing with your resistance. In between every before and after picture is the demolition of resistance. 

 

If The Pauly Principle is how you get off sugar, the 3 tools of this course are how you stick to The Pauly Principle in the real world - by helping you dismantle your very natural resistance.

 

You could find yourself at a friend's house when they get the junk out and the social pressure will join forces with your sugar centre to try to take you off course. If you have an argument with someone and the need for comfort starts to increase, you can tell yourself a whole range of lies to justify that sugar fix. And they will sound damn persuasive. (My favourite ever justification for junk was buying fairtrade chocolate. I felt oh so generous towards the starving millions as I chomped through my little bar of mood swings and tooth decay. It didn't occur to me to make a simple donation).

 

This is the real work of this course - dealing with your resistance. 

 

So which do you choose: More struggle and self-blame (timescale: permanent) or the effort of freeing yourself from sugar and the amazing self-confidence that comes with outwitting your own inner resistance? (timescale: less than 1% of the time you have struggled over this issue).

 

Which is it? 

 

A) Struggle, being down on yourself, mood swings, brain fog, weight gain, irritability, PMT, worries about diabetes and blood pressure.

Expiry date: NEVER.

You will be sitting in your rocking chair on your 80th birthday still feeling like this.

 

Or 

 

B) Real effort. Dealing with your resistance. Maybe there will be times when you believe none of this can work. Having to spend time cooking when you are just so tired. You may feel disappointment that the replacements just aren't as sweet as you had hoped. You might feel you have to cancel social invitations because you cannot face the temptation (I actually pretended I was ill to avoid a wedding reception when I first gave up sugar, and I don't regret that decision. It was just too important to me.) It is highly likely that none of your friends understand why this is so important.

 

Expiry date: 12 weeks.

 

Make your choice now.