Have you watched Forks Over Knives and read the science books and downloaded the recipe apps – but you're still eating meat or cheese or processed food and you can't seem to quit?
And so you think, “What the f— is wrong with me?”
After all, you don't doubt the integrity of the people – T. Colin Campbell and Caldwell Esselstyn and John McDougall and Garth Davis are entirely trustworthy, are they not?
You don't doubt the benefits of the whole food, plant-based diet – you know plenty of people who have totally transformed their lives by adopting it, right?
You don't even doubt that you can be compliant – for a while.
So what's going on?
The Root Cause of Failure
The real reason you don't seem to be able to commit long term is the ghost of all your past failures.
Here's what I mean. Almost everyone succeeds on a diet or exercise routine – for a while. We lose weight, gain energy, improve their mood, shimmy back into our skinny jeans, and life is good.
For a while.
And then, slowly, insidiously, shit starts falling apart. A tiny food slip-up here. A couple of missed workouts there.
And before we know it, we've “fallen off the wagon” and all our hard-won gains are shot to hell.
So why on earth would we ever want to try again? How much frustration and disappointment and shattered hopes can one person endure over the course of a lifetime?
I get it, I really do. The asshole voice in my head is always telling me, “This is how it will always be. Nothing will change. You're broken beyond repair.”
Asshole.
Sometimes I get up the energy to prove that voice wrong. So I'd start some new thing (meditating, journaling, eating mindfully, giving up chocolate, seeing God in strangers, whatever) and hope for the best.
And assume that the only way to succeed was to maintain constant vigilance. 24/7/365.
And the minute I slipped up, that was proof that this was just another thing I was never gonna do.
Howie, meet vicious cycle.
Oh, no need to introduce us. We go way back.
What I've learned from years of study, self-experimentation, and work with clients, is that “24/7/365” is completely the wrong way to think about it.
In fact, “compliance” itself is totally the wrong way to think about it.
Instead of spinning plates, we need to focus on coming into alignment with our new identity.
But easier said than done, right? So how exactly do we do that? What are the actual steps we take to begin and accelerate the process?
I've written a short, no-fluff report called “Staying Off the Slippery Slope: How to Avoid the I'll Have Just One, It Can't Hurt Me Trap and Happily Sustain Your Healthy Habits For Life.
You'll discover the evil secrets of my Eating Nook Ogre, and the three Power Strategies for staying off the Slippery Slope.
Simply tell me where to send it, below, and it will digitally wing its way to your inbox.
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