So....Who's Really in Charge?
Getting ready for the Sugar Addiction Seminar & Workshop. Lot's of parents have registered, commenting that the problems are with their children! Oh really?
Now I'm not saying that it's easy to build food & beverage discipline in kids, but it can be done. The longer the parent waits, the more difficult it becomes to break food addiction habits. Sorry to say this, but it is OFTEN the parent who doesn't want to do what it takes & can you guess "why"? Of course, you can. Usually when I ask this question to a workshop group, there is lots of "knowing laughter." So, the next question needs to be, "who is the primary owner of the food issues?"
Today I'm going to work on some basic principles of changing lifestyle behaviors. It's never enough just to tell the audience what needs to happen. In order to motivate, we will have to enter the issues & examine them closely, noticing what lives underneath, as well as in the cracks. Then planting suggestions for change can & will be successful.
KNOWLEDGE HOOK - Lifestyle Change Solutions
Here's some points I'd like to make.
While the management of any addiction is certainly challenging, the recovery from the sugar pest is particularly so, as it is so ingrained in our daily lives, as well as the way we socialize. From our children’s day care center asking for freshly baked cookies, to our office party, it is all there greeting us over and over. We cannot sit down and watch a television program or pick up a magazine without some sugar or junk substance staring us in the face.
But on the bright side, just as we can be programmed to fail, we can just as easily program ourselves to succeed. We just need the precise tools and motivation.
This is a "to do" workshop that follows my "to do" book. There are certain keys to addiction management and successful people learn to actively employ all of them..
It is not enough to know what to do as some books would have us believe. Specialized tools are needed to transfer the words in books into action steps. We need to know how to apply these tools even under high stress situations. Just like in the field of competitive sports, one works to gain skills, then works to develop them in practice, then brings them to the competitive arena. These tools are heightened awareness, active imagery or interactive self-hypnosis.
Our population appears to be permanently locked in food stress. Overweight people, or those who think they are overweight, look for new ways to "cut back calories", thereby denying their body and mind the necessary nutrients for day to day functioning. Parents stick their heads in the sand so they can't see their obese children eating fast foods, nor their skinny children junking out all day long. Refrigerators and cupboards are stocked with all the latest advertised so-called foods promising all kinds of happiness. Oh really? Guess they haven't looked at the statistics I presented earlier.
Schools fill their corridors with money-making soda machines to support extra-curricular projects. Cafeterias serve less than adequate nutrition and even if they do it is presented next to the poorer nutritional choices that kids prefer. Yes, Mom & Dad.....your kids do prefer it, but once again, Who's in Charge? Who helped to build these preferences? I have absolutely no trouble in saying this, because I am well aware of the addictive properties of these foods. However, when children grow up eating healthy foods, their preference will sit right there. This doesn't mean that a child will never want or eat junk, but they will grow NOT to prefer this.
STRESS AND DISEASE
I'm planning on introducing this concept around this part of the seminar. More motivation........
There is little education about the daily nutritional connection to stress and disease, nor how it connects to family and personal medical history . Few seem to know how their bodies work in this regard and certainly few know how to stay out of physiological trouble on a day to day basis . Even fewer seem to understand how their mind works in relation to food and beverage intake. They wonder how to enhance focus, concentration, memory storage, retrieval and the all important creativity. They never look at the end of their fork.
All of this connects to the big picture of physical and emotional health, as well as self-image and self-esteem.
Over the past twenty years I have interviewed thousands of people about their nutritional patterns and those of their family. While some are overweight, just as many are not. In my book readers meet adults, teens and children, some with almost unbelievable, quality of life-destroying problems such as the child with no hair or eyelashes clutching her ever-present bag of candy.
People seek out my websites and discussion groups for many unrelated weight reasons including problems with free floating anxiety, panic, phobias, loss of concentration, fatigue, stress, irritable bowel, migraines, emotional turmoil and general feelings of not being well and not knowing why. Many had self-image and self-esteem issues, while others couldn't understand why they couldn't focus and learn.
Others were caught up in addiction patterns with families and relationships paying a hard price. The core cry is this. "I'm sinking. Please help me." This is not melodrama. I invite you to visit my discussion archives and you will see how real this is. The health, prosperity, work, relationships and the entire being of so many individuals are desperate for answers.
LIFESTYLE CHANGING
The book & the workshop are about waking up and covering the bases needed to live a healthy and productive life, while curtailing addiction and preventing disease. It's about moving out of stress, finding health and staying there for life. It is about role-modeling healthy behaviors for our children and assisting them to work with their genetic history, instead of allowing it to destroy them.
Each & everyone of us is different, needing different things. My work is to help you learn complicated concepts through the tools of Heightened Awareness & Interactive Self-Hypnosis .
PLEASE MAKE IT EASY
Lifestyle change is often perceived as difficult, but it can just as easily be seen as easy and enjoyable. Perception programs are best changed subconsciously. Dietary change is seen as one of the more difficult lifestyle changes as food is interwoven with just about every waking moment. Most people have difficulty persisting with this dietary change for very long. High expectation and immediate gratification seem to get in the way rather quickly setting the individual up for failure.
There are four areas of focus for lifestyle change that you will be working with to manage your sugar addiction:
Personal Assessment - Basics! Here you will learn to take a good look in your subconscious mind knapsack. Find out what's there and what's needed to get to where you need to go. The past and present hold many clues and gifts for programming future health and success. There is always room for improvement and advancement no matter how bad it looks on the surface. In the book & throughout the workshop you will walk into and around your own inner mind where the gifts are located.
High Level Nutritional Awareness and Compliance - Fundamentals! The equipment must be in top order. The book & workshop provide spoonfuls of change ... the easiest way to get through the whole plate.
Ongoing Mind and Body Communication - Inner Listening! Answering and responding to body cell phone messages on subtle levels is key to winning all battles. Most people pay no attention whatsoever to what their body is saying. Thoughts enter the mind and become goals without any self-awareness or days are spent in publishing negative mind states without any self-awareness. Here you will meet your body as the friend it is and learn how to benefit from the communications.
Interactive Self-Hypnotic Techniques - The Ultimate Tool Belt!. You will experience your most valuable asset, your subconscious mind. You will find it is possible to change direction in any moment you choose, keeping you on the road towards your goals. Perhaps in the past you were programming your mind for what you did not want and then wondered why you received it. You will experience changing your own body physiology while helping it to heal.
I invite you to be an experiential reader & workshop participant, an exceptional strategist in the battle for your life.
You will be empowered to take responsibility for your own health, well being and level of performance. This self-work is like a unique road map leading you into a world of optimum health, positive expectation with “gently paced action”, the true beginning of a permanent lifestyle change.
Lifestyle changes are just that... knowing what to do, then doing it over and over. When you hit a stone in the path and fall off the bicycle, you must get back on and pedal forward. After awhile you will pick up speed again.
Finishing up and Moving Forward…
Unlike other books on diet and stress management, this book/workshop does not suggest the same strict eating and exercise program for everyone. Instead you will find an individualized approach, encouraging you to create your own unique self-development plan by employing psycho-biological practices in combination with a nutritional plan based on your own unique physiological needs.
The message is simple.
You can do much more for your mind and body than you think you can. This is true whether or not you have an ongoing disease process, or you are looking to prevent one. Your mind state and level of performance is closely related to how you care for yourself in the small moments of your day, as well as what you pop in your mouth.