The Juice Detox Diet 3-Book Collection. Jason Vale
are at least thinking about life change. You can lead a horse to water and all that. The ability to take action is the key, and as long as you suffer from CBBS you will never take action and never have the body and health you crave.
This is why I know that you personally can be bothered. You have not only gotten hold of a copy of this book but you are actually reading it. And that is way, way further than most people get. However, the reason I’m sitting here banging away on my keyboard is not just to get you to read the book; it’s to get you to take massive action on it so you get the life-changing results that millions of others around the world have experienced. Many people buy a book of this sort, but few actually read it and even fewer act on it from the start and then finish.
We are all increasingly health conscious these days and we constantly hear people spouting off about how “health is the most important thing” and “if you don’t have your health you don’t have anything.” That’s all fine and dandy but nine times out of ten they are saying it just before they shove yet another sweet roll down their gullet!
Talking good health and doing good health are two completely different things. What we “think” we are doing is often a far cry from what we are actually doing. Talking about doing this program and actually doing this program are also two very different things. I know I keep repeating this point, but bizarre as it may sound I actually care about the results you have and you will only achieve results if you take action: MASSIVE action. This is because I have witnessed such truly incredible changes to people’s bodies, health, and confidence that I will do and say anything to get you to actually follow through on this plan. And you will only take action if you kick the CBBS and decide once and for all …
9
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