Turbo Metabolism. Pankaj Vij

most primitive part of the brain, the hypothalamus and brain stem, controls things like appetite, temperature regulation, and the survival instincts. This reptilian brain is designed to help us stay alive, and we could not live without it. Our “survival brain” would kick in if we were dropped on a desolate island or another planet.

      This brain is designed to focus on the four F-words of survival: flight, fight, feeding, and fornication. It prompts us to run away from or to fight threats that might harm us, to eat whatever and whenever we can, and to have sex with whomever we can. The reptilian brain functions correlate nicely with the base chakras of survival and sexuality and with the base of Maslow’s hierarchy, the needs of survival and safety.

      The second brain refers to the limbic system, which is the seat of emotion, including fear, rage, and happiness, and everything in between. This system also relates to our automatic, often irrational reactions and decisions: to eat the cookies in front of us, to engage in road rage, to impulsively yell at a loved one. This part of the brain can be found in most mammals, such as cats, dogs, horses, and chimpanzees. This correlates with the middle chakras of love, power, and communication. This would correlate with the emotional needs for belonging, love, and esteem in Maslow’s hierarchy.

      The most recently developed part of the brain, the neocortex, is the site for abstract reasoning, processing, and long-term memory. The cortex makes up one-third of the human brain and is unique to more evolved species, such as some species of dolphins. In humans, this part of the brain does not fully develop until the age of twenty-five and is needed for making decisions that involve delayed gratification, things that may feel difficult in the short-term but beneficial in the long-term. This correlates with the highest chakras of intuition and spirituality. When we operate at the level of the neocortex, we make thoughtful, pragmatic decisions that take into account all the ramifications of our actions. Mind mastery is all about operating at this level, or having willful control of the decision-making system all the time.

      Figure 2.3. The triune brain

      Rewiring Your Hardware and Software

      With awareness, we can reset our hardware and operating system so that we can acquire the beliefs and the skills needed to achieve our goals. To paraphrase master coach Tony Robbins, Turbo Metabolism is about story, state, and strategy. To achieve Turbo Metabolism, you must first and foremost believe in and tell yourself the right story: the belief in self-efficacy (the idea that you actually have control over your destiny) and in your own personal effectiveness. When the right story gets paired with the right mental state, we position ourselves to do great things. After that, it is simply a matter of finding the best strategy, our most effective techniques, and nothing is impossible.

      You shift toward a healthier relationship with food and the world around you. The strategies and skills needed for achieving Turbo Metabolism are learning to shop for, plan, prepare, and cook the right foods that nourish us with the energy and intelligence of nature; to move the body as it is designed to move; to get enough rest and relaxation; and to have a supportive social environment — all while steering clear of toxins. These beliefs and skills obviously require our complete emotional buy-in and a supportive environment (for more on this, see chapter 3). Our software, that is, our systems for living, the attitudes required to achieve our highest potential — positive thinking, optimism, compassion, and benevolence — will help us become self-reliant, autonomous, healthy, strong, and vibrant agents for good. The goal is to become the very best versions of ourselves.

      Facts and Fallacies

       • You can cure diabetes today by going on a diet.

       Dieting is temporary and faddish. Achieving health requires mind mastery. Diets will die. Lifestyle lives on.

       • You can “fix” your body without attention to the mind.

       Mind and body are intimately connected at every level.

      RULES TO LIVE BY

      • Develop awareness to uncover mind traps.

      • Connect with the Earth to reestablish firm grounding in safety and security.

      • Mind your thoughts because your whole body is eavesdropping. Your thoughts determine your destiny.

      • Heal old wounds with attention, positivity, and optimism.

      • Stop making excuses about past experiences and move on.

      • Maslow’s hierarchy and the triune model of the brain confirm what the ancient wisdom of the chakra system tells us: our personal evolution requires awareness so that we can achieve self-realization, which is our highest need.

       CHAPTER THREE

       The Nuts and Bolts of Getting Started

       If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.

      — TONY ROBBINS

       To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

      — OSCAR WILDE

      If you are still reading this book, the rest of my job is going to be easy. Once the “why” becomes clear, explaining what to do is straightforward.

      One of the best urological surgeons in the country once told me, “I don’t do anything special, I just cut and stitch all day — the magic of healing is in the body itself.”

      In fact, it takes a lot of effort to overwhelm the healing system of the body. Still, we’ve found the perfect recipe for disaster in our modern disease-promoting lifestyle of caloric excess, which originated with toxic substances mislabeled as food and has been coupled with unmanaged stress and a lack of physical activity and sleep.

      When you put the right fuel in your body, health and healing happen almost automatically. You are “designed” to move naturally. You do not need to do anything drastic. My program simply asks you to eat, move, and live in the unique way that you are designed to do. Everything else will take care of itself because the wisdom of healing is within.

      The reason you need to get started right now is that the sooner you follow the right path, the easier it will be to heal. The further you go the wrong way, the greater the effort required to correct course.

      Eating for health — rather than eating for entertainment — should be a conscious commitment.

      Taking responsibility and affirming our control and autonomy, which is what we do when we consciously decide to nurture and nourish ourselves, are as applicable here as in other aspects of our life.

      When we have been addicted to an unhealthy lifestyle, it takes time and effort to break the addiction. In fact, it can take up to forty-five days to take an idea from cognition (understanding) to emotional buy-in and finally to actual behavior change.¹

      The goal is to live in sync with our natural rhythms in an effortless way. This can happen as we move to convert our surroundings and routine so that healthy habits become our default. Think about a child learning to tie his or her shoelaces: The process goes from not knowing how to do it, to learning the steps, to practicing the steps, to finally being able to do it reflexively, without even thinking about it.

      And