Читать книгу The Juice Detox Diet 3-Book Collection - Jason Vale, Jason Vale - Страница 26

Over the years I think I’ve heard them all. In my books I refer to this the “But Syndrome.” But I can’t because I don’t have the time; But I can’t because I have children; But I can’t because I’m too old; But I can’t because it’s different for me, etc., etc. I pointed out at the time:

The More Buts You Havethe Bigger Butt You Will Have

I think it’s safe to say that many people reading this book will want to change their butt, as well as their health and energy levels. However, the only way to change your butt is if you change your but. What I mean by that is changing from your almost automatic “but I can’t because …” set of excuses. These are the excuses we use in an attempt to try and justify what is essentially a clear dose of Can’t Be Bothered Syndrome.

Everybody can, if they choose, come up with a “but I can’t because …” for just about anything and easily convince themselves and others that it’s a perfectly reasonable “but.” And if you’re from the nicer side of town don’t think the word “however” gets you off the hook either: as we learned in that wonderful episode of Friends, “‘However’ is just a fancy ‘but’!”

Instead of automatically saying, “But I can’t because …,” you should immediately change it to, “But if I could what would I need to do in order to make it happen?” By asking yourself a question like that your brain automatically assumes that it is actually possible and just needs to spend a short while thinking about it to find an answer. The change of “but” will then inevitably have a follow-on effect that changes your “butt.” Conversely, if you say, “But I can’t because …” there is simply no way your mind will even attempt to look for a solution and your “butt” will remain the same.

Most people come up with a set of “buts” in order not to do a program of this nature at all. Others will start, but at the first sign of their having to make any degree of effort out comes the “But I can’t because …” set of excuses.

When testing this program on a focus group, I asked a few of my friends to try it at the same time. I gave some of them some simple mental preparation (which you will be getting in the next chapter) and two friends no mental preparation whatsoever. All the two friends had were a few letter-size sheets of paper with the step-by-step program on it. I knew that without at least some amount of mental preparation a few “buts” would rear their ugly heads and that my friends might find it a bit harder than the others, but I didn’t realize to what extent.

Although they started well—as in “Yes, we are going to do this” and making all the right noises and getting all the right stuff—it didn’t take long before the “buts” kicked in.

One of them, Martin, only got to day 2 before his particular “but” caused him to cave in. It turned out he didn’t just have one “but”—he had a bucket full of them. “But it wasn’t the right time,” “But I had too much going on,” “But I was just so hungry”—and this was on just DAY 2! None of these excuses held any water. He said, “But I had too much going on and it wasn’t the right time.” You tell me who doesn’t have a lot going on? And at the same time you tell me about any 7-day period where “stuff” doesn’t happen, where it appears that “this is the wrong time to be doing this”? Life has a habit of challenging us, and this is good: it’s the very stuff that tests our strength of character and makes us grow as people. However, most people see a challenge as a time to sabotage, a time to “but” their way to yet another failure. Martin also used the “But I was just so hungry” excuse and said, “I just HAD to eat something.” Again I must stress he was only on day 2! Or, to put it another way, he had gone just one night without solid food. He wasn’t physically hungry at all—he can’t have been—he was, after all, getting more genuine nutrition than he had been getting for months. The reality was he had a mental hunger, not a physical one, for refined sugar and refined fat. He was feeling mentally deprived and had a bit of an internal mental tantrum that resulted in the inevitable string of “buts.”

The same thing happened with the other friend who “attempted” the program. His “buts” were different, but the reason or “excuses” and the end result were inevitably the same. He lasted one more day than Martin, but that’s still only a little over two days—hardly stretching yourself, I’m sure you’ll agree. Now this friend would never, ever like to admit he has failed at anything. He is a strong person who when he sets his mind to something usually achieves it. So his “but” wasn’t “But I was too busy” or “But I had too much going on” as he knew that wouldn’t wash with me. I have already explained how sometimes doctors and dieticians question the program in terms of nutrition. Unfortunately, we now live in a world where we have such fears about not getting enough of this or that in our diet that it’s all too easy to use this as a “but” excuse.

The man in question exercises a lot and decided during the program to do some calculations. He had worked out that most days his calorie intake on the program was 1,000 calories. I don’t know how he worked that out, especially when one small avocado alone contains 275 calories, but, hey, let’s go with it anyway. He figured he was exercising daily to the point where he was burning off 400 calories a day. He did the math and came to the conclusion that he was only having 600 calories a day and therefore it was unhealthy—so he caved in.

The reality was that he caved in not because of any genuine lack of calories he was or wasn’t having, but for the same reason as Martin—mental deprivation. He knew he could have increased his intake of juices and smoothies to meet whatever calorie deficit he perceived he required. I even encourage this as you should always get nutrition if you are genuinely hungry. So why didn’t he? Because he had a “forget it” moment, suffered from an instant attack of CBBS, and came up with a suitable “but” to justify his action not only to other people (namely me!) but also to himself. That sounds harsh, but most people skirt around the issue, which makes me immediately think of the famous line from the movie A Few Good Men:

Do you want the truth?“You can’t handle the truth.”

The fact is that most people can’t handle the truth. Especially when the truth is that most people try to justify their CBBS excuses as genuine reasons.

The reality is that there are more than enough calories on this program to sustain the average person, so even with some high-impact exercising every day, you won’t collapse. I know this personally because when I did the 7-day program I ran a half marathon on day 5 as well as working out for at least an hour a day on the other 6 days.

I’m not saying this to impress you but to impress upon you that you are not about to waste away on this program. I see this all the time at my retreats—people initially freak out at the suggestion that they will be doing an average of 4–5 hours of exercise a day and consuming just 4–5 juices but then calming down when they find they aren’t collapsing all over the place. The biggest revelation people have on the retreats is just how much the human body can do on what appears to be so little fuel. In fact, we do an hour run/walk, a mini-trampolining session, and Astanga yoga all before our first juice! The “dip” in energy that my friend felt was simply due to the withdrawal from druglike foods and drinks such as white refined sugar and caffeine. It was not caused by a calorie deficiency. In fact, most of the time the symptoms of physical withdrawal people think they get from coming off certain “foods” and “drinks” are often extremely mild. Nine times out of ten they aren’t actually physically deflated but mentally deflated. They are once again feeling mentally deprived and so the tantrum rears its head—and once again the set of “buts” arrives on the scene. Once again though this illustrates that the sugar in fruits and vegetables is not the same as in a doughnut! Martin and my other friend didn’t simply think to eat a load of fruit or a large plate of veggies or an additional avocado-based veggie smoothie, NO, they tucked into the white bread and sweets Why? BECAUSE THE SUGAR IN FRUITS AND VEGETABLES IS NOT THE SAME AS THE STUFF PEOPLE ARE ADDICTED TO! You don’t get withdrawal from apples but you do from doughnuts!

I’m far from the only one who has managed to exercise to a high intensity during this juice-only program. I know a girl who also ran a half marathon on day 6, another person who did the backbreaking work of “mucking out” horses for 2 hours a day and doing 45 minutes of mini-trampolining, and many, many, many more who did a lot of yoga, weight-training, swimming, walking, and so on. Most of the juices have celery, cucumber, and apple in them, all of which add up to nature’s finest balance of sodium and potassium—minerals that we lose when working out. These juices not only replenish our stores but also help with any aches, pains, and cramps usually associated with exercise. So the whole “But I’m not getting enough calories” excuse really is flawed. In fact, since the first copies of this book rolled off the press, I have completed the New York and London marathons, plus five half marathons, all on nothing but freshly extracted juice—no “carb loading” necessary.