The Glass Wall Mistake That Everyone Seems to Make (and How to Avoid It)

Each week there is a theme in our consulting practice.  This past week the theme was loud and clear and I hope you can learn from it.  Here’s how almost all of my consults started.

Me:  “How have you been feeling?”

Becky:  “I’m frustrated and sad.  This last week has been awful.  My skin is breaking out, I can’t sleep and my energy is gone.  Not to mention my stools are super loose again.  I’m not sure what’s going on.  I think we need to make some changes…”

Me:  “Really, well how were you feeling the week before?”

Becky:  “I was feeling amazing!  Seriously, what we were doing was working so well.  It’s just not working now.  Well, I mean it was working until…”

What follows the until is a very common set of mistakes that leads to what I like to call the ‘Glass Wall Mistake’ of Healing.

How to Make Sure You Have a Setback

As the self-proclaimed king of setbacks, I feel like I should tell you exactly how to do it.  It’s actually wicked easy.

The very simple formula has one pre-requisite; be dedicated and working hard to get your health back (and it’s actually beginning to work).  At this point please follow these steps:

1. Smile because you are feeling better
2. Make a list of all the things you have been wanting to do now that you’re not sick
3. Choose at least 2 (for best results 4) from the list and do them all in the same week

And BAM!  About 2 days later you’ll be in a full-fledged setback and maybe, if you really do it up, a flare.

Of course, no one really wants a setback.  So how does it actually happen?

The Real Life Mistake Pattern

This common mistake pattern is pretty easy to see in other people once you do it yourself, which is why after talking to 5 out of 8 clients I immediately knew the questions to ask to reveal this simple pattern.

Here’s how it works in real life:

You are making progress, the diet and supplements are working great, and you begin feeling better and better.  You start thinking, wow this might actually fix me!

With your newfound energy and mental clarity, you begin to dream about life before sickness.  It’s only natural after all this pain and suffering.  Then, sure enough you get invited out 2 times this weekend.  And you sign up for that new fancy gym in town, because you FINALLY feel like you can workout again.  What a great week it’s turning out to be!

Your exercise class is great, you’re making new friends and you have a few excursions this weekend.

It’s Saturday morning and after coffee with a friend you’re feeling awesome.  That night you’re feeling so good you don’t really hassle the waiter into making sure the food is perfect.  You feel too good and are laughing too much to be bothered by this.

And low and behold you don’t actually feel bad after dinner – Hooray!

The next day (Sunday), you go for a run and decide to add a few more foods into your diet.

By Monday, you’re in denial that your stools aren’t perfect and you go to the gym again.  Tuesday rolls around and it smacks you in the face.  You feel awful!

Has this story ever happened to you?

Why It’s Called ‘The Glass Wall Mistake’

I like to explain the story above using the following analogy…

You’re in your house working hard to get healthy.  You’re starting to feel great and you finally decide to re-emerge from your break from the real world because you feel so good.

You open the door and the sun is shining and the birds are singing.  You can’t take it any longer; you have to get out there.

So you take off sprinting right out into the sunshine and BOOM – you smack right into a glass wall just outside your door!

It hurts like hell and you feel like crap, so you crawl back into your house, sulking.

What is This Mysterious Glass Wall?

The glass wall that almost all of us sprint right into at some point is our upper health limit.

Over time, the glass wall will move further away from your house and one day disappear.  But for now it sets the limit of how far your newly discovered health can actually be pushed.

The cool thing is you can learn to see it now that you know it’s there.

That’s my hope in doing this post; I don’t want people sprinting into walls and causing setbacks.

How to Avoid This Mistake

Honestly, it’s very hard; the trick is to not be in a hurry to make up for lost time.

As you begin feeling better and better, make sure to ease back into your life.  Take it one week at a time.  Of course, get out of the house and be more social, but don’t expand your diet at the same time.

Sure, start going back to the gym, but not 7 days a week.

Most importantly, stick with the principles you’ve followed to get to feeling this good.

The hardest thing to do is WALK when your body, mind and heart are urging you to run.

But trust me, if you can remember to walk first, you’ll be sprinting in no time and you won’t hit any glass walls.

Who else has hit the wall?  Tell your story below to help others…

-Steve