Deep personal change – Part 3 – The inner fight continues

Overcome the Inner Pig-Dog and be on the top of the wave

Acceptance and Deep Conviction are already there. However, how do we start and keep things progressing? In this blog series I am sharing the process needed to achieve deep personal change based on my story. In this third part, we will look at starting asap to gain from quick wins and educating yourself continuously to be o top of the wave.

 „Inseparable: me and my inner pig dog!“ – German Say

 But, first things first. What is actually this inner pig-dog I am talking about? 

Let’s see what Wikipedia says: „The term inner pig describes – often as a reproach – the allegory of weakness of will, which prevents a person from performing unpleasant activities, although they are either seen as ethically required (e.g., facing problems, exposing oneself to danger, etc.) or seem reasonable for the respective person (e.g., sticking to a diet). The allegory can thus be brought into a direct connection with motivation“…and in my personal coaching opinion, also with the necessary volition to keep longer term projects ongoing.

In my eyes, one of the important things is to have quick wins at the beginning and not overdo the analysis of things. If you do so, you will fall into paralysis through analysis. So once you have bowed your head, and accepted that things need to change and you have acquired the deep conviction required to do so, you should make sure to have some quick wins as soon as possible.

Lose the angst and START asap

 „Inseparable: me and my inner pig dog!“ – German say

I did not take too much time to start doing changes in my eating habits after the facts were on the table. As a matter of fact, I reached Acceptance pretty quickly, but I know and have seen in others, that it might take some time to reach that status. Bowing your head, accepting your failures, and forgiving yourself can be a difficult and lengthy process. Sometimes it requires the support of a coach, to reach the individual depth necessary to do so. However, I believe that everyone has the potential to reach this status by themselves. You basically need a deep understanding of the issue at hand and PURE honesty with yourself. Does it hurt? Yes baby, it does. The reward of it is a beautiful peace of mind.

As I started pretty quickly to do changes, things came into motion really fast and the first results were palpable. So I had small quick wins in a matter of a few days. The first change in just a couple of days was that my skin began to feel differently. It was not anymore that actually fatty skin. The touch of my fingers, you know when you stroke the fingers of one of your hands, felt differently. Another thing that happened in the first 5 days was, that a surge of energy came suddenly. Somehow I had more energy than usual. Another win then. While reading the second book about the matter, it was mentioned, that „in case you are taking pain-killer medication, you can start reducing the intake“. As I mentioned in the first blog of this series, I was taking 1,600mg Ibuprofen (800 in the morning and the same in the evening), because my whole body ached constantly. So after the 7th day of my plant-based diet, I decided to cancel the evening pills. On day 8th I felt good. The energy boost was there, no pain at all. On day 9, I decided to take 400mg out in the morning. The day was again fantastic. On day 10, I thought, „you know what Erich, maybe take today the pill, as a last day“. So I took the pill and said to myself, this is going to be the last Ibuprofen, that I will take on a regular basis. Day 11 was the first day of my new life without pain-killing medication. And guess what happened? I had no pain at all. You could think I had consumed so much Ibu, that I had a rest in my body that was keeping me pain-free. Thing is, I am still pain-free today. The aches never returned, folks!!!

Now, that was a major quick win. In 11 days I was free of painkillers!!!

And the boost that this gave me was huge. As a matter of fact, I consider this still today incredible, but one of the cornerstones of keeping me motivated and committed to my deep personal change.

But that was not the end of the song, as a matter of fact, my body changed in many ways in the first 30 days. My sense of taste changed impressively in the first 15 days. It was like I could smell and taste single aromas in the food and the air. I longed to use more spices in the meals, which by the way my wife and I cook. Yes, I always love to cook and I always have experimented, but was always attached to meat and dairy. Now I was discovering to cook vegetables and even fruit together in unimaginable combination with spices. I decided to not buy vegan substitute products, but to cook myself everything. OK, there are 3 exemptions, vegan creams for the bread in the morning, oat milk, and sometimes oat cream. Everything else is natural without meat and dairy.

That was the next quick win, sense of taste recovered.

In-between weeks 3 and 4 I saw that my blood sugar plummeted to normal levels, so I decided to not take anymore the insulin injection I had to take with the first meal of the day. The sugar levels kept low, so I decided to take out one of the metformin pills for my sugar, and goes what happened. Sugar levels were still normal. 

Those were the next 2 huge quick wins, but what comes now really surprised me. In week 4, one day I started to feel kind of dizzy. So I worried and thought I was overstretching it. As funny as it was, I read that day, that I should keep a look at my blood pressure, in case I had a high one, so I took the machine out, which we have at home, and guess what, blood pressure was low. Lower than a person in my age should have. So the next day I only took half the pill. And that was the next huge win. 

In a matter of 30 days after starting my change program, I had a boost of energy, my senses (touch, taste, and smell) changed, I had reduced my medication intake from 7 medicaments to 3,5 and for me, the biggest was I was pain-free. Ah yes, and I lost 5kg, but who is counting?

So the reason to start asap with your change program and not get paralysed through analysis is exactly that one. To have the first wins as soon as possible. 

The question is then why are quick wins so important?

Well, change requires quick wins to show that it’s possible. Change also requires them to build momentum and quick wins help to boost morale and motivation and create that necessary forward thrust of momentum. And that is what is hugely important about them. They will keep you going. You will remember them months after you started and will help you to keep on track. They tell you a success story that your mind will need when moments of doubt come. And they will come, but when you remind yourself of your wins, you will get back on track.

So, get up, stop analysing things, and start asap. Do not wait for the perfect plan. You will have the opportunity to do adaptions and corrections along the way because you will need them if you…

Educate yourself continuously

„Every beginner possesses a great potential to be an expert in his or her chosen field“ – Lailah Gifty Akita

With time knives become blunt. Isn’t it? Well, the same happens with us human beings. With time we tend to lose the edge on things and start to lose attention to details. Then things start to creep and the next moment we have lost the track we were walking.

What happens here is, that …life happens! How many times have we heard these words before or how many times we’ve actually used them ourselves? Most of us probably fell into the trap of the daily routine, at least for some time. 

In other words, our inner pig dog starts to take over again. We start to become comfortable, which in some cases is also a self-destructive and non-motivating way to spend our existence. After 10 weeks down the line, I started to do some shortcuts in my diet to accommodate different things like trips with family and friends. I was still eating plant-based, but carbs consumption increased and the rate of losing weight started to drop. The topic was not anymore really present and upfront in my life. And thankfully as part of my coaching habit, I had my self-reflection days. During one of those I saw, that I had stopped to educate myself continuously which is one of the steps for Deep Personnel Change. So, I started reading again, watching documentaries, investigating on the web for scientific articles, and yes, I started following on Instagram and LinkedIn people and organisations who were putting the topic of a plant-based diet as one of the solutions for our modern chronic diseases. Following people and organisations on Instagram has for me the specific purpose of gathering information about books, documentaries, and scientific studies, for me then to read or watch them. 

Confronting ourselves with the topic we want to change has the effect of keeping us alert, and motivated and gives us the will to continue. So, the moment we stop learning is exactly the moment we start betraying ourselves and stop taking care of our mind, body, and soul. Self-Learning is our ability to expand our mind, to keep us awake and committed to our deep personal change cause.

Next time in this series, we will go into the final chapter. The final two steps: „Adapt along the way“ and „MACARENA your mental training – your best friend for difficult times“.

As a native speaker, Erich provides coaching in German and Spanish, as well as in English thanks to his more than 3 decades of experience working at the international level.

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