ļ»æHey, hey ladies. Episode number four. Okay. We have been live in podcast land for a whole week now. Were you guys at the launch party last Wednesday? The virtual launch party. I decided at the last minute to throw a party. It was so much fun. You guys, we gave away so many prizes. If you missed it, I'm so sorry. We'll have more parties in the future. I promise. All right.
So episode number four. I decided to squeeze an episode about your human brain in here on purpose, because I think this is like foundational knowledge. When I learned that what was happening in my brain was supposed to be happening and that something hadn't gone terribly wrong, it made me so aware of why I was struggling. So I want to share this gift with you. So I want to start today's episode with, in week one of the 16 Week Transformation Program that I run my signature weight loss program.
We talk about the human brain. And I want to read you a page from the workbook of week one in the transformation program. It says, your human brain. You have been given a gift, your human brain is the most powerful computer in the world. No other human brain is quite like yours. Yours is truly unique. Your ideas, thoughts, creations, concepts are one of a kind. They may be similar to those around you, but only you can take action from your brain. The way you think, act, create and promote is uniquely yours. Each one of us has the ability to be whatever we dream. If your brain can create the dream that means that it is possible for you. But how? Right. How do dreams become goals? How do we overcome self-doubt? How do we get past the fear? How do we go all in no matter what, the answer to all of the questions above is to manage your mind. Let's start by understanding our brain a little better. All right, you guys.
So that is just page three and then I go into explaining the human brain. And we're going to talk about that in today's episode, on the podcast here. So the world we currently live in is filled with uncertainty and distractions, quick fixes, instant pleasure, and so much contradicting information. It's the perfect storm for failure. Why do you ask? It is because your human brain is hard, wired to avoid pain, seek pleasure, and conserve energy. Seriously, it's hardwired. I'm sure you've heard about this before, your alligator monkey, caveman primitive brain, better known as your limbic system. We all have one; it's part of our human brain. Now, I'm not an expert in neuroscience, but I do know that this part of our human brain is responsible for our survival, our flight or fight response, and it is fueled by emotion. So it's the limbic systems job to make sure you stay alive and feel good. Preferably all of the time, the limbic system really likes to feel good or numb. It doesn't sound so bad, right? The problem is our limbic system hasn't really caught up with the world we currently live in. It's still stuck in prehistoric time. Basically it's focus is to find food to procreate, don't die, that's its objective. And to do these tasks, it thinks it should avoid pain, so it doesn't die. It should seek pleasure in terms of food, sex to reproduce. And it needs to do this with as little effort expenditure as possible so that it can survive. It doesn't realize that avoiding pain, emotional pain, like feeling discomfort, fear, failure, and other negative emotions is part of how we grow, how we evolve into better versions of ourselves. It doesn't realize that seeking pleasure like food, alcohol, sex, drugs, TV, media, or other instant pleasure sources is causing us so much more harm than good. It doesn't realize that conserving energy is easy now and that we have cars and don't need to save our energy to hunt and travel. So when your brain tells you, you've had a stressful day and you deserve a cupcake, you should skip the workout because you're tired, your brain, my friend, is just doing its job. It means you have a human brain designed to do what human brains do. Here's the secret. Are you ready? You don't have to do what your limbic system wants. You can outsmart your own brain. You can choose to feel and process and lean into the negative emotions like discomfort and fear. And by doing this, you get to experience courage and develop confidence. You can choose to avoid pleasure sources that aren't serving you and create the lifestyle you want. You can choose to expend energy. Do the workout, take the walks, move as much as physically possible so that you are strong and capable of almost anything.
Okay. So how do we know? How do we know what our human brain tells us? So the limbic system is your instant gratification center, it's your pleasure brain. How you know, your limbic system is the one running the show, is when you're doing something that is emotionally charged or is an instant decision. Have you guys ever had a moment where you were driving and you were feeling fine, and following your plan for the day and you drive by a Starbucks and your brain is like, Ooh, let's go get a pumpkin spice muffin, that's your limbic system. That's your brain saying this drive is boring or we're going to this stressful meeting and I'd like to feel better. That pumpkin spice muffin is going to make me feel better. Right. Of course. So your human brain, the limbic system, which is part of your human brain. Think of it as almost like the little devil on your right shoulder. that wants you to feel good as much as physically possible. So as soon as it senses that you are feeling a negative emotion or you are going to do something hard or difficult or scary, it's going to try and stop you by offering you pleasure. So if the plan says to work out, the little devil on your racial they're called the other limbic system is going to be like, but you worked really hard today. We could just Netflix and chill that sounds better. Ooh, let's add some chips to make that sound even more better. Let's add chips and Netflix and chill. This is a great idea. And remember it's your own brain, so it knows you pretty well. It's a sneaky little bugger, so it's going to be smart about it. In the morning when you go to do your cardio, your limbic system is going to look for any reason for you to crawl back into bed. It's going to be like, well, you got up in the middle of the night, maybe you didn't sleep so good or your favorite workout pants are in the laundry, can't work out now. Right? It's so smart.
So I know you guys were thinking this, how do we outsmart the limbic system? How do we override that, because it's so easy to not feel motivated when your brain is like, I'd rather not do it. Let's not do that. Let's do chips and Netflix instead. Right. So how do we outsmart it? There is one sure-fire way that I know how to do this, I'm going to share it with you guys. You're not going to like it. Are you ready? We make a plan. So we have this other part of our human brain, I call it our smart human brain. It's referred to as the prefrontal cortex. I like to think of kind, of where my parts of my brain are. So the Olympic system is like in the back of your brain that's your caveman brain down there. And your prefrontal cortex is right up top by your forehead. So your prefrontal cortex is the part of your brain that sets goals that can think about your thinking, that can plan for your future. I think of my prefrontal cortex as the little angel on my other shoulder that has all of my best intentions at heart. And it knows what is possible for me. It's like that part of my brain, that little angel on my shoulder knows everything that is possible in my life, if I go after my dreams. And my little prefrontal cortex, pixie angel helps me set goals and make dreams for myself that will help me fill my full potential. So with our prefrontal cortex, with our little pixie angel that I keep referring to. We can sit down and we can make a plan for ourselves. We can plan what days of the week we're going to work out. We can make a nutrition plan for ourselves that we know will give us the best opportunities to achieve our goals and to feel really good while doing it. We can make a plan for our day of all the things we want to get done. We can make a plan for our week. We can make a plan to achieve our goals. We can plan and plan and plan until the cows come home. And I suggest that you start small, right? Don't make a plan that is vastly different from your current lifestyle. Make, you know, give yourself a chance and opportunity to succeed here. We're going to be talking about this down the road in the podcast about how to best set goals and how to best achieve goals. But my tip to you right now is to just make baby step changes. So make a plan that is a little bit better than yesterday went. Right.
Make a plan next week that is a little bit better than this week and so on and so on. And then once you have your plan, do you guys do this on Sunday night? You set up a plan for the week and then on Monday morning, your brain's like, I don't want to, I want to stay in bed and I want to eat hamburgers for lunch and ice cream for dinner, please. Right. This is so common. I used to think that I had two different brains and that I was slightly a crazy person. I was sure of it. I was like, why do I have this brain that wants to set goals and has these big dreams and then I have this other brain that refuses to do the work, like what is wrong with me? I thought I was the laziest. I had the laziest brain in the world and then I learned about this limbic system, the prefrontal cortex paradox. And that it was totally normal for my brain to try and stop me from doing these big things because our primitive brain still thinks that those things are dangerous because they make us feel discomfort. Breaking out is not comfortable. Following a healthy nutrition plan is not always pleasure full, right. It can be boring at times. So our brain thinks of discomfort and boring as terrible. And it thinks that the life we have should be far more pleasurable. And you may agree with that but you guys, to get to your goals, to get to a sculpted lifestyle, you need to push into the discomfort. It's amazing how much pleasure you get from pushing into the discomfort and facing the fear and going after your goals so hard, because the joy you get from feeling confident and proud of yourself and like it was earned is so much better than the joy you get from a cupcake. I promise. All right. Okay. So with your prefrontal cortex, you're going to make a plan for tomorrow. How you test it, is tomorrow when you wake up you follow the plan. I'm warning you, your brain is going to freak out. It's going to tell you that it's a horrible idea. You should not follow the plan. There's all sorts of other things you should do instead. There's other things you should eat instead. There's other opportunities to socialize and do all the fun things. Know that anything that isn't on that plan is most likely emotionally fueled. And once you start living in this awareness of your brain's paradox. Once you start watching for your limbic system, it's quite humorous. You guys. I laugh at my limbic system all of the time. Every time I go to do a workout, even still, I work out almost every day and every time I go to do a workout, my limbic system comes up with at least one or two excuses of things I should do instead. I'll be driving to the gym, my limbic system is like, well, maybe we should just go shopping. You did want a new bag? Right. It's sneaky, it's gonna make you want to do things that you actually do want to do, instead of what's going to give you that long term satisfaction of achieving that scary goal. All right.
So you guys, expect your brain to watch for it. Know that it's not going to be perfect. Sometimes your limbic system is going to win and that's okay. Right. Sometimes my limbic system still wins and after the fact I recognize it. I can be aware of it. I can look back and be like, oh, that sneaky little bugger, he got me. And then I can make a plan for the next time I go to do that thing, how to avoid letting my limbic system win. I hope that this has made sense. I know that learning this brain stuff for the first time for me, I wanted to understand it, there was an intellectual knowledge there. But you may want to listen to those podcasts a few times and practice it. Make a plan and then go through your plan and go through your day as planned. And whenever you aren't able to follow the plan, sometimes circumstances get in the way. Sometimes, you know, a kid gets sick at school and he needs to be picked up and not, it's not on your plan, that's okay.
So for all you listeners out there. Step one, make a plan. Step two, follow the plan. Step three, make notes of all the areas where you didn't follow the plan, or any times you didn't follow the plan. And see if you can figure out why. We're going to go more into how our thoughts create our feelings and the actions that we take from those feelings down the road in the podcast. But this is the first step to overcoming emotional eating, overcoming lack of motivation, overcoming fear, overcoming anxiety, all of that starts with understanding your human brain and knowing that you get to choose. Your human brain is going to tell you that it's a terrible idea. It doesn't want to work out. It doesn't want to eat the salad. You get to choose whether you want to believe those thoughts or whether you want to pick new thoughts.
All right my friends, that's all the time we have for today. For my sculptors, if you are in my Lady Sculpt 2.0 membership, there is a worksheet specifically on your human brain and how to dissect it down to figure out what your limbic system is managing in your life and to figure out how to move those areas into a prefrontal cortex goal plan. All right, I'll see you guys next week. Have a fantastic week. Bye for now.
