Forward to Normal

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You have some big decisions to make. 

And big decisions are much easier to make when your “mind is right.”

Besides being VP Anger Management for Plan Z, my “other” job is as a sales and management consultant and trainer. For nearly nine years, I conducted The Leadership Institute with two colleagues. High-level executives paid $3200 a seat to hear us pontificate for 3-1/2 days. These leaders were always dealing with big changes in their companies and their industry.

We spent a large portion of the seminar discussing how to lead their teams through these massive changes. As a Plan Z Insider, you are making significant changes in your life. There are predictable passages that you will go through—all of us do—in order to get to your thinner future. So let me describe the “transition curve” that most of us go through any time there is a significant change. The left side of the diagram represents your heavier past and the right hand side represents your thinner future:

THE FIRST REACTION MOST OF US HAVE TO CHANGE IS DENIAL.

We resist change and cling to the past. When people first learn about the rules of Plan Z they say things like this:

• “I could never give up milk. I think milk is good for me.”
• “Maybe I’m not really all THAT fat…am I?”
• “Maybe I’ll do Weight Watchers again. Your diet sounds too strict.”
• “I’m too busy to diet.”

THE SECOND PHASE IN THE TRANSITION CURVE ABOVE IS RESISTANCE.

You buy the diet, you lose a few pounds quickly and you are happy, but the old thought patterns are still there. This is how people in resistance think and talk:

• “It’s my daughter’s birthday. I should have a piece of cake to be polite.”
• “I went to an after work networking event and all they had were finger foods.”
• “My other diets all let me eat broccoli and cauliflower.”

THE THIRD PHASE ON THE TRANSITION CURVE IS EXPLORATION.

You have immersed yourself in the Plan Z education. You’ve watched the Gary Taubes Dartmouth interview once– and maybe a second or third time. You have watched Dr. Robert Lustig’s Sugar The Bitter Truth lecture. You yell at the television when the commercial comes on urging you to eat more whole grains in the form of breakfast cereal. You now know this is garbage information. You are experiencing the tremendous feeling of well-being on ZReboot.  And you keep the weight off for six weeks without a lot of effort. These are some of the thoughts you may be having and some of the things people in this phase say to us:

• “I could live like this the rest of my life.”
• “It takes me longer to shop because I read the labels on everything.”
• “I never knew how much sugar I was eating.”
• “I am so glad I found this diet.”
• “I feel better than I have in years. I have energy all afternoon.”
• “I’m not craving sweets.”
• “I’m in control.”

THE FINAL PHASE OF THE TRANSITION CURVE IS RE-COMMITMENT.

You are completely committed to ZLife and free from the cravings of the past. You sit down at Thanksgiving dinner and pity the people who are piling the mashed potatoes and gravy onto their plates.  You feel badly that they are misinformed.   You don’t feel sorry for yourself for NOT eating the 300 grams of carbohydrates at one sitting. You understand that ZLife is ZReboot with a little bit of cheating. You are free of the past. You have a different way of thinking and talking about food. Here are a few things people in the final stage think and talk:

• “I’ll have the cheese, bacon and onion omelet. Hold the potatoes  and toast.”
• “My friends tell me I’m going to kill myself by eating so many eggs and so many filet mignons.”
• “My doctor tells me he has a hard time approving of my diet, but that all of my markers are perfect.”
• “My friends tell me I’m going to gain all of the weight back and I pity their ignorance.”
• “I can’t believe how much I have learned.”

KNOW THAT YOU MUST GO THROUGH ALL OF THESE PHASES IN ORDER TO COME REACH YOUR THINNER FUTURE.

And know that there will be some clinging to the past and resistance. Know, too, that not everyone will make it all the way through. Without the reeducation of why you got fat and what foods guarantee you’ll get fat, you may fall back into old patterns. I am writing this because a woman called last week and said, “I’m from The South and I want to make sure I can go back to eating my normal diet once I’ve lost all the weight on your diet. It says here on your website that I’ll get my hypothalamus rebooted and a better metabolism.”

“What do you mean by regular diet?” I asked.

“Well we have to have corn, potatoes and bread. I can’t live without bread, potatoes and corn and I know my husband would never stand for it.”

Imagining a future without your favorite “comfort foods” may seem like a life not worth living (this woman still hasn’t purchased our diet). But if you get your mind right, eating potatoes, corn and bread makes as much sense as ordering a cup of sugar and pouring it over your steak.

So let me ask you this:

Have you noticed the voices in your head wondering, “When can we get back to normal?”

The answer is you can never go BACK to normal, because that is what made you need Plan Z by Zola in the first place. You are establishing a “new normal” that you can commit to for the rest of your life.

You will have gone “Forward to Normal.”

You will have reached your thinner future. Stay informed and angry. Plan Z works on your body and your brain. Embrace the changes in your body AND your mind.

Stay Angry,