July 14, 2025 • 30 mins
Are you an entrepreneur or successful leader and struggled with overeating? Or maybe you have had years of inconstant success with your eating habits and weight loss? Our guest today is Dr. Glenn Livingston, and he shares with us how one simple rule can help you defeat your cravings.
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ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Glenn Livingston, Ph.D. was the long time CEO of a multi-million dollar consulting firm which has serviced several Fortune 500 clients in the food industry. Disillusioned by what traditional psychology had to offer overweight and/or food obsessed individuals, Dr. Livingston spent several decades researching the nature of bingeing and overeating via work with his own clients AND a self-funded research program with more than 40,000 participants. You may have seen his (or his company's) previous work, theories, and research in major periodicals like The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Sun Times, and other major media outlets he’s appeared on including ABC, WGN, and CBS radio and UPN TV. He earned his Ph.D. is in psychology.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Tom DuFore (00:01):
Welcome to the Multiply your Success podcast,
where each week, we helpgrowth-minded entrepreneurs and
franchise leaders take the nextstep in their expansion journey.
I'm your host, tom Dufour, ceoof Big Sky Franchise Team, and
as we open today, I'm wonderingif you're an entrepreneur or a
successful leader and you'vestruggled with overeating or
(00:21):
maybe you've had years ofinconsistent success with your
eating habits and weight lossand I know it's something that
we don't often talk about as asuccessful owner or successful
leader.
Well, our guest today is DrGlenn Livingston, and he shares
with us how one simple rule canhelp you defeat your cravings.
(00:42):
Now, glenn is a PhD and was alongtime CEO of a multi-million
dollar consulting firm whichserviced several Fortune 500
companies in the food industry.
He was disillusioned by whattraditional psychology had to
offer overweight or foodobsessed individuals.
Dr Livingston spent severaldecades researching the nature
(01:04):
of binging and overeating viaTimes and other media outlets
he's appeared on, including ABC,wgn and CBS Radio and UPN TV.
(01:29):
He earned his PhD in psychology.
You're going to love thisinterview, so let's go ahead and
jump right into it, glenn.
Thank you so much for being aguest on the episode today and
what I'd love for you to talkthrough here a little bit and
it's really tied to even thename of your company Defeat your
(01:50):
Cravings and it's really thiswhole idea about overeating and
entrepreneurs and businessowners.
Our audience, as we talkedpre-show here, tends to be
mostly successful entrepreneursand founders and CEOs of
high-performing organizationsand CEOs of high-performing
organizations, and I'd love foryou just to give some overall
insights into what this is about.
It's a fascinating topic to me.
Dr. Glenn Livingston (02:13):
So, just by way of a little bit of
background, I'm a psychologistbut I've also been an
entrepreneur my whole life.
I consulted for dozens ofFortune 100 companies and I was
also about 300 pounds.
I would walk around thinking,you know, we had this
multimillion-dollar company andI was thinking if I'm so smart,
(02:33):
why am I fat?
I could tell you a long storyabout how that all came about in
detail, but I know this is akind of short-form podcast, so
I'm not going to do that shortform podcast.
But I'm not going to do that.
I will tell you that while Iwas consulting for the big food
companies on the wrong side ofthe war, I eventually figured
out that it wasn't because mymama didn't love me enough when
(02:54):
I was a kid, it wasn't becauseof some deep psychological
problem that these companieswere engineering these
hyperpalatable concentrations ofstarch and sugar and
excitotoxins and salt, and itwas all geared to hit the bliss
point in the reptilian brainwithout giving us the nutrition
to be satisfied.
So you take these evolutionarybuttons that are designed to get
(03:18):
as many calories with as littleeffort as possible in the
smallest time possible, and thenyou provide that so you can go
down to the convenience storeand buy 10,000 calories for $100
and walk across the street anddo it again and it's kind of
like a perfect storm forovereating and problems and
there's a lot of mythology abouthow to work with that.
(03:39):
So people like you and I areentrepreneurs and we like to
study documented, evidence-basedsystems and if you lay out a
path for us, we can usuallyfollow it.
The problem is seeing the rightpath in our current society
because we're told to followguidelines.
Don't follow hard and fastrules.
(04:00):
We're told to eat well 90% ofthe time and indulge 10% of the
time, but nobody tells you thatif you don't know how to choose
that 10% of the time, thenyou're going to be making food
decisions all day long.
Every time you're in front of achocolate bar you're thinking
should I or shouldn't I?
Decisions wear down yourwillpower.
It's a losing game.
(04:21):
To start with, it's a greatidea in theory, but you're much
better off saying I'm only goingto have chocolate on Saturdays
and no more than four ounces.
Make all your chocolatedecisions ahead of time.
But the world is frightened ofthat and we're given the wrong
information.
The path is not really laid outin front of us.
Dr. Tom DuFore (04:38):
That's great.
I'd love to hear more of yourstory about how you ended up at
that point I mean, I think, notonly being a professional in
this field, but also being anentrepreneur and having grown
businesses and done this kind ofwork running your own business
as well as being on theprofessional side of
understanding and research andreading these things and
(04:59):
understanding that.
So I'd love to hear a littlemore on that story and that
revelation for yourself and thenjump into some pieces here
about what someone who maybelistens into this can be
thinking about doing.
Dr. Glenn Livingston (05:10):
As an entrepreneur, we're subjected to
more stress than the ordinaryperson.
I don't know if there's such athing as a nine to five job
anymore, but there's definitelyeight to six, and people go home
and they can have life.
And we are people who will work23 hours for ourselves because
we don't want to work one hourfor somebody else right, and so
(05:31):
we don't tend to have the samelevel of self-regulation.
We're talking about gettingpower, morning routines they're
really important, but the truthis we act as if we're three or
four people, and everybody knows.
To really get a business offthe ground, you have to pretend
you're three or four people, andeverybody knows.
To really get a business offthe ground, you have to pretend
you're three or four people.
You usually don't have thecapital to hire enough people,
and if you do, you want to beconservative with it in the
(05:53):
beginning because cash is king.
And so we're sacrificingself-regulation.
And it turns out that the brain, on a gross, oversimplified way
of explaining it, it has twoparts.
It's like the reptilian brain,this brainstem that's all about
eat, mate or kill very primitivesurvival stuff.
(06:13):
And then there's the neocortexthat says before you eat, mate
or kill.
What about the people that youlove?
What about your long-term goals?
What about weight loss andfitness and everything like that
?
Well, it turns out that thisvery primitive survival response
has the ability to knock yourneocortex, your higher self,
your thinking self, strategicself, out of the way if it
(06:36):
perceives there to be anemergency.
And when you're not gettingenough sleep, when you're not
nourishing yourself throughoutthe day, when you're not getting
enough water, if you get tooisolated by sitting in a cubicle
and hoping electrons flow intoyour bank account for too long,
then your brain starts toperceive.
This animalistic part of yourbrain starts to perceive that
(06:57):
your basic human needs are notbeing met.
And so what does it do?
It knocks that out of the wayand it says feed me, feed me now
.
And that's why you can have thebest plans Sunday after reading
the world's best diet book, andMonday afternoon you can be in
a Starbucks and there's achocolate bar on the counter and
you say screw it, I'll juststart tomorrow.
(07:18):
Right?
It's like a perfect storm.
And the important thing aboutthat is to understand it's not
your fault, but if you want tofix it, you have to do something
different, right?
A craving brain is not a sign ofdisease or sickness or weakness
(07:38):
.
It's actually a sign of ahealthy human being with a brain
that's doing its function in asick food environment, because
100,000 years ago the people whohad the strongest cravings
would have been the mostmotivated to do what was
necessary to gather and huntfood in a scarce environment.
Today it's not helpful to us tohave those strong cravings, but
(08:00):
it's actually a biologicalsurvival advantage that you have
.
So you're not sick, you're notdiseased, you're not powerless.
It's a biological strength thatyou have that that takes away a
lot of the shame when you kindof understand what's happening
and it makes it possible, I find, for people to look more
rationally and realistically atwhat the evidence says really
(08:21):
works.
My grandfather said he was a fanof Yogi Berra and he had a
paraphrasing Yogi Berra.
He said if you don't know whatyou're aiming at, you're
probably going to hit somethingelse.
And so, if you think about it,when an Olympic archer aims at
the bullseye, they don't hit it100% of the time, but they know
where it is and it's veryclearly defined.
(08:41):
And if they miss the bullseyethey have specific feedback
about by how much and in whatdirection.
But for some reason in ourculture people are taught to be
afraid of very specificallydefining their bullseye with
food.
They say food rules aredangerous, they're going to make
you rebel.
What if you miss?
Then you're going to feel tooguilty and then you're going to
(09:03):
eat even more.
And so they're taught to goafter progress, not perfection.
And what they don't understandis that progress, not perfection
, is a great mindset.
After you miss, like if you missthe bullseye, then you figure
out what adjustments do I needto make?
You don't say, oh my God, I'm apathetic archer, I should just
(09:24):
shoot all the arrows up in theair right or into the audience.
You say, let me get up, figureout what I learned.
And then you want to commitwith perfection.
An Olympic archer doesn't letgo of the arrow.
They call it loosing the arrow.
They don't let go of the arrowuntil they feel at one with the
bullseye.
They can actually see the arrowgoing into the bullseye before
they let go.
And they purge that doubt andinsecurity out of their mind If
(09:48):
they're thinking maybe I'm goingto make it, maybe I'm not going
to make it, they're probablynot going to make it.
There's an old Gary Larsoncartoon about a drummer in a
marching band thinking I'm notgoing to F up, I'm not going to
F up, I'm not going to F up, andunderneath the caption it says
Gary F's up.
So when you're constantlythinking, maybe I'll make it,
(10:09):
maybe I won't, you don't realizethat that doubt and insecurity
is detracting from your abilityto focus on the goal.
So I call this committing withperfection, but forgiving
yourself with dignity.
And the way to get started iswith one simple rule.
This functions on many levels,but you want it to be a low bar.
(10:30):
Bj Fogg is a psychologist, abehavioral psychologist, who
works with habits.
He's figured out that becausemotivation waxes and wanes, it
comes and goes.
That if you read a diet bookand you have all these new rules
and you're going to, you knowyou're going to be a perfect
eater from now on, or at leastuntil you lose the weight.
That's really great while youhave your mojo, but a couple of
(10:53):
days later, when you wake upwithout your mojo, it's not
going to be so easy to do that.
So you want to start with a lowbar, and an example might be oh
, I knew a trucker who said I'lltell you what.
I can't give up fast food, butI can stop going back for
seconds.
I have to eat fast food threetimes a day, but I'm just not
going to go back for seconds.
And because that was a lowenough bar for him to hit every
(11:16):
single day, he triggered what wecall the identity function.
He starts to think, oh, maybe Ican beat this game.
Most people feel kind ofhopeless and powerless and, you
know, despairing when it comesto overcoming their food
problems.
But you set a low bar, you hitit every day and your brain says
, maybe I can do this, maybe I'ma person who doesn't go back
for seconds.
(11:36):
It's really interesting.
Some people find out that Idon't eat chocolate and they say
, well, how do you just neverhave chocolate again?
And I say, well, that's notexactly how I think about it.
I just became a person whodoesn't have chocolate.
You can become a person whoblank.
You know it's much, much easier.
Your brain is set up for thosetype of character.
(11:57):
Building shortcuts, characteris just what you habitually do
at the moment of temptation.
Okay, so you set a low bar, onesimple rule what could and would
you do?
That would not be tooburdensome.
Yet you know what would make adifference.
For some people it's I won't goback for seconds.
For other people it's notrestrictive at all.
It's just that I will alwaystake three deep breaths before a
(12:19):
meal, or I'll always put myfork down between bites.
For other people it might be,you know, I'll only have
chocolate on the weekends, orI'll only have pretzels at Major
League Baseball parks.
Just think about one simplething you could do so you can
learn how this game is played.
Once you have that rule in place, it functions as a kind of trip
(12:41):
wire.
It's like an alarm that tellsyou when this part of your brain
is going to wake up.
Right, because inevitably, whenI say I will only have
chocolate on the weekends and nomore than four ounces, there's
going to be a Wednesday sometimewhen I'm in a chocolate bar
when this thing is going to sayyou know what?
You worked out hard enough,you're not going to gain any
weight.
A little won't hurt, it'll bejust as easy to start tomorrow.
(13:01):
And this is a little crazything that I did to make myself
better.
I probably should have calledit something different, but I
called this thing my inner pigway back when I kind of figured
out what was going on and I saidokay, anything that suggests
I'm going to break my rule ispig squeal, and anything that is
off my plan is pig slop.
(13:22):
I'm a sophisticatedpsychologist with all types of
credentials.
Dr. Tom DuFore (13:27):
And just for someone who doesn't see the
video on this, you're referringto that reptile brain, and so
what?
Dr. Glenn Livingston (13:34):
this rule does is it functions as an alarm
to wake you up when this partof the brain is what you're
talking about.
Yeah, and so what this ruledoes is it functions as an alarm
to wake you up when this partof the brain is getting active.
But you can still listen to itif you want to.
We have free will.
The good news is that we havefree will, and the bad news is
that we have free will.
I can't stop you fromovereating, but you can.
You're free to binge if youwant to, but you're also free
(13:55):
not to binge.
So what I can do is wake you upso you have the opportunity to
choose one way or the other.
Once you're awake, what you'reessentially doing is put a space
between stimulus and response.
Your brain wants to automatethe acquisition of calories, so
you're not even thinking aboutit, but you kind of put a pause,
an unnatural pause, in thatspace.
(14:16):
There are a number of thingsyou could do.
What I did to get better was alogical intervention which might
appeal to a lot ofentrepreneurs.
I said what's wrong with whatmy pig is saying?
How is it lying to me?
And over time I figured out itwill usually say a half truth to
get my attention but then it'llhave a bigger lie.
So, for example, it seems likeit will be just as easy to start
(14:38):
tomorrow and it seems like I'mnot going to gain any weight.
But the way that the brainworks, if you have a craving for
chocolate on a Wednesday andthen you indulge that craving
after you say to yourself, I'lljust start tomorrow, by the
principle of neuroplasticity youcan look it up if you want to.
But it just means that whatfires together wires together.
The thought will get reinforcedand the craving will get
(15:00):
reinforced.
So I'm going to have a deepercraving for chocolate tomorrow
if I indulge it today and I'mgoing to be more likely to say
start tomorrow.
So you can only ever use thepresent moment to be healthy,
right, and if you're in a holeyou better stop digging.
So that's an example of what Iwould call a cognitive
refutation, or just fixing yourthinking about food.
(15:22):
It takes away thatjustification.
It's only one thing that youcan do in that space.
Sometimes that's the wholestory, Sometimes it's not.
But when you no longer havethat excuse, suddenly you feel a
little guilty and uncomfortableif you're going to break the
rule and it gives you pause andit's more likely to get you to
stop.
That's how I got better.
(15:42):
I didn't do anything else toget better than that.
I kept the journal for eightyears.
I lost 75, 80 pounds and hadall types of little miracles
with my health, with that and myenergy, and I actually dug
myself out of debt during thatperiod also.
It turns out okay.
So I published a book when Igot divorced in 2016.
I published it in 2015.
(16:03):
It got popular in 2016.
And all of a sudden, I havemillions of readers and a little
coaching agency.
I'm talking to all theseclients.
We had, over the course of thenext eight years, about 2,000
paying clients.
I got really good at helpingpeople fix their thinking about
food.
I know all the excuses.
I know reasons to overcome them.
(16:23):
Right.
I fix everybody's thinkingabout food really quickly Within
about a month.
The people that engage with ussome people buy coaching
programs and they don't engage,which drives me crazy, but I
can't force people.
When they engage with us andmore than half our clients did
they would get an 84% reductionin overeating in the first 30
days, drops down to about 60%,55% or 60% at the six-month
(16:47):
level, because some people stopusing the tool.
If they keep using the tool, itkeeps working.
Why do they stop using the tool?
This really bugged me the lastyear or two we had the agency.
I really wanted to figure thatout.
Turns out that there is a pointthat people get to a lot of
people where they say I know, Idon't have any excuses, you took
(17:09):
all my excuses away, but screwit, just do it.
I just really want to.
And I said, well, what'scausing that?
Because these people, we have aprocess called the big why,
where we figure out why do youwant to do this?
And this is like so I don't getdiabetic retinopathy, so I
don't have another heart attack,so I don't get disabled, so I
can roll on the floor with mygrandkids or I can go hiking
(17:30):
with my dogs.
These are really big reasons.
Why in the world would you stopusing something that worked just
because, well, I really want to.
It turns out there's somethingcalled a simple word, for it is
distress.
It's organismic distress, butit's what we were talking about
before.
If you don't get enoughnutrition or rest or
self-regulation, then this partof the brain can push all of
(17:53):
your reasons out of the way,including all your good reasons
for doing what you want to do,and so it turned out, like
everybody else was saying, wealso had to focus on getting
people to self-regulate, moreparticularly with nutrition.
That turned out to be the kindof magic formula to do them both
, and I've written eight bookson overeating.
Defeat your Cravings isactually the eighth one, but
(18:14):
that's the best one thatincludes all this information,
so that's the shortest version Ican give you on how to tackle
this problem.
Dr. Tom DuFore (18:22):
That's fantastic , and I was actually just going
to ask how someone can get acopy of your book or the one
you'd recommend.
Where can they do that and howcan they connect with you?
Learn more about what you'redoing here.
Dr. Glenn (18:34):
Defeatyourcravingscom is the website and there's a
big blue button on the websitewhere you can get a free copy of
the Kindle, Nook or PDF, nocharge whatsoever, and a copy of
a food plan of them.
But it's actually a verycompassionate process and I
(18:59):
wanted you to hear people gofrom feeling despairing and
hopeless and confused to feelingexcited and confident in just
one session, so I recorded abunch of that.
This is all free atdefeatyourcravingscom and that
will lead you every place elseyou need to go, If you need to,
if you're looking for a coach,if you're looking for other
materials.
That'll lead you every placeelse.
(19:21):
Defeat your Cravings is theeighth book.
It's really the only one youshould read at this point.
I can't take the others off themarket because of business
contracts, but Defeat yourCravings is really the only book
you need to read.
Dr. Tom DuFore (19:33):
It's great info you've shared, as well as not
only your expertise in this as aprofessional and really
understanding it, but alsohaving lived through this, and I
think that's inspiring,especially for other
entrepreneurs that are in thegrind and have been the founder
and know the startup to growthand all of the other things.
You've been through that aswell.
(19:54):
I really appreciate that.
Thanks, Glenn.
This is a great time in theshow and we make a transition.
We ask every guest the samefour questions before they go
and the first question we ask ishave you had a miss or two on
your journey and something youlearned from it?
Dr. Glenn Livingston (20:08):
I learned that there is a fine line
between stupidity and fortitudeand persistence.
And in 2001, I had run thisadvertising research
organization for a lot of yearsvery successful, was doing
million-dollar projects and wedecided to change sides of the
(20:29):
industry.
The industry is comprised ofeggheads, like my ex-wife and I,
who advise companies about howto design their research and
then they interpret it for them,and then there are facilities
that execute the research foryou.
It's not quite that simple, butthat's it.
And we decided we were going tochange size because we thought
we really knew both sides of theindustry and we didn't.
(20:50):
On top of that, it was in NewYork City right before 9-11.
And we had $150,000 not everymonth the fanciest focus group
facility that we'd ever seen atthat point, and we were sure we
were going to be successful.
And then 9-11 came and nobodywanted to do groups in New York
(21:11):
and I couldn't agree with myex-wife about when to close the
business.
And we decided to be stubbornlypersistent and we went $700,000
in debt and that took me sixyears to pay off, if not to
clear bankruptcy.
I have to give my ex-wifecredit for that, because I
wanted to and she didn't, butevery entrepreneur has their
(21:34):
debt story and out of thePhoenix, out of the ashes, came
the Phoenix and we climbed outand built and sold an
advertising agency after thatand had a little publishing
company and then, when I gotdivorced ever since then all
I've done is this is the mostmeaningful thing I've ever done
in my life is to help peoplewith overeating, because it was
(21:55):
the bane of my existence for alot of years.
So, yes, I've had a miss.
How's that for a miss?
Dr. Tom DuFore (22:01):
Thank you for sharing that, and very, very
commendable as well, for you tohonor commitments and figure out
a way to dig yourself out ofthe financial hole that you had
dug, and without declaringbankruptcy.
Well, let's talk about a makeor to a highlight that you'd
like to share.
Dr. Glenn Livingston (22:16):
I have over 2 million readers for my
series of books on over-readingEver since I got divorced and
published that and kind of putmy heart and soul into it.
It's not the most lucrativething I've ever done, but it's
the most successful thing I'veever done and the most
meaningful thing I've ever done.
There was a period when we weregetting about between 60 and 90
(22:40):
new clients a month and I had10 coaches working for me and I
was really spreading the wordfar and wide.
I got a blog on psychology.
Today I got another millionreaders there.
That was definitely a make.
That was definitely a make, butnot the make that showered
millions of dollars on me,because I didn't need millions
of dollars after I got divorced.
But it was the make that mademe feel like I was.
(23:03):
I did the most in alignmentwith my mission and my personal
soul drives that I've ever done,so that was definitely a make.
Dr. Tom DuFore (23:12):
Let's talk about a multiplier that you've used
to grow yourself, personally orprofessionally, or any of the
organizations you've run.
Dr. Glenn Livingston (23:19):
It was documentation, partially.
I read a book about the e-mythI'm sure you know the e-myth and
I started documenting systemslike that.
But more so, I created this20-hour training that taught
coaches to do what I did,because I realized I couldn't
handle 60 new people a month.
(23:39):
And so I got this 10-hourtraining and I recruited people.
At first I tried to recruitout-of-work psychologists and
they were eager to work with me,but they didn't get it.
They didn't quite get it theway I wanted them to, and then I
realized that you had to havethe problem yourself and you had
(23:59):
to have felt like this solvedthe problem for you.
So I actually recruited peoplewho ascended through my systems,
who had read the book and feltlike it was like taking the
thorn out of the lion's paw, andthey were the ones who wanted
to work with me and I combinedthat with the training and then
I put them all in a group and Isupervised them once a week and
I told them they could call meif they had to, and that was
(24:22):
very successful.
We were able to, you know, workwith thousands of people over
the years doing that.
So that was a real multiplierfor me.
Dr. Tom DuFore (24:31):
And the final question we ask every guest,
Glenn, is what does success meanto you?
Dr. Glenn Livingston (24:36):
It means I can do what I want to with my
time and I can spread the wordof what I've learned far and
wide fairly easily.
That's what it means to me Inmy old age.
I just turned 60 and I actuallyhad a heart attack.
I had some genetic risks verybad genetic risks from my family
, and before I stopped bingeeating when I was about 40 years
(24:59):
old, I probably did a lot ofdamage.
I probably bought myself anextra 20 years before it
happened by fixing all my eatingand eating really well.
So I'm just kind of doublingdown right now.
This is only a month ago, butit's caused me to be very
pensive and think about thingsand I realized that what makes
me happiest is seeing clientsmyself not necessarily
(25:22):
supervising my coaches I likethat too but seeing clients
myself teaching myself notnecessarily having people teach
for me and writing, and so whenI'm making a plan for what I'm
going to do, I'm going to slowdown a little bit.
I'm going to keep a smallpractice.
I still have a couple ofcoaches that will stay with me.
But I had this plan to build abillion-dollar company up until
(25:45):
a couple of years ago and it wasgoing okay, but it was going to
be another 10 or 15 yearsbefore it really came together
and I decided that that's notreally the path I want to be on
right now, because I don't knowhow long I will have and I
really want my life to meansomething more.
So I'm going to be a countrydoctor.
I hope that's not the wrongmessage for your audience, but
(26:09):
for me personally that resonatesthe most.
I've done a lot of big thingsin my life.
I've run international projectsfor big companies.
Right now I'm just going to bea country doctor and I'm going
to write books to have more ofan influence and multiply myself
.
Dr. Tom DuFore (26:23):
So thank you for sharing and, glenn, as we bring
this to a close, is thereanything you're hoping to share
or get across?
You haven't had a chance to yet.
Dr. Glenn Livingston (26:31):
I mean, I could talk for two hours about
the intricacies about that, butone thing I wanted to make sure
people understood is that onesimple rule is just the
beginning.
It's just so that you can get awin in the first couple of
weeks and start to feel like asuccess rather than a failure
and get a sense of how thesetechniques work.
Once you've done it for acouple of weeks, then you start
(26:52):
to make adjustments with otherrules, and there are examples in
the book that will help youachieve your health and fitness
goals, because you can'tnecessarily always lose weight
with one simple rule.
So the guy who lost 150 poundsthat trucker started with one
simple rule.
That was not the only rule thathe used.
He started losing weight withthat one rule, but he added a
(27:13):
few things after that.
So just wanted to make surepeople understood that they
didn't have to stay with onesimple rule.
Dr. Tom DuFore (27:20):
Glenn, thank you so much for a fantastic
interview and let's go ahead andjump into today's three key
takeaways.
So takeaway number one isreally just this idea of having
this conversation today andthinking about it as a talking
point, something that we'venever had on our show and
thought it'd be something worthnoting and talking about.
(27:43):
Takeaway number two is theadvice that he said was to start
with one simple rule to helpwith the cravings.
He said you start with onesimple rule and it has to be a
very low bar for that.
So it might say to havechocolate at one certain
(28:03):
specific time or not, to go backfor seconds or to take three
deep breaths or some of theother suggestions that he said.
And remembering the saying whatfires together wires together
for neuroplasticity.
So I thought it was a greatlittle catchphrase to remember
that.
Help him build off that onesimple rule.
(28:23):
Takeaway number three is when hetalked about there's a fine
line between stupidity andpersistence, and he said he
found that he was on the wrongside of that statement when he
and his ex-wife and formerbusiness partner went into over
$700,000 in debt and it tookthem seven years to pay it off.
(28:43):
So I think the takeaway thereis what he was talking about,
that stupidity and persistence.
But also I say, you know,congrats and good job for being
committed to honor yourcommitments, to pay that back
over that time period.
And now it's time for today'swin-win.
And now it's time for today'swin-win.
(29:06):
So today's win-win comes whenhe was talking about what
matters most to him and how hepreviously thought that he
wanted to have a billion-dollarcompany which he was poised to
grow to, but he decided thatwasn't what was really most
important to him.
And after he discovered that, herealized how he truly wanted to
spend his time, which, for him,was running a much smaller
(29:29):
company.
He wants to work directly withhis clients and he wants to
write more, and he found outthat that is really what's most
important to him.
And so I thought that's just agreat win-win to end the episode
on for you to think aboutwhat's really most important to
you and what you are spendingyour time doing.
(29:52):
And so that's the episode today.
Folks, please make sure yousubscribe to the podcast and
give us a review, and rememberif you or anyone you know are
ready to franchise their companyor take their franchise company
to the next level, pleaseconnect with us at
bigskyfranchiseteamcom.
Thanks for tuning in and welook forward to having you back
next week.
Welcome to the Multiply your Success podcast,
where each week, we helpgrowth-minded entrepreneurs and
franchise leaders take the nextstep in their expansion journey.
I'm your host, tom Dufour, ceoof Big Sky Franchise Team, and
as we open today, I'm wonderingif you're an entrepreneur or a
successful leader and you'vestruggled with overeating or
(00:21):
maybe you've had years ofinconsistent success with your
eating habits and weight lossand I know it's something that
we don't often talk about as asuccessful owner or successful
leader.
Well, our guest today is DrGlenn Livingston, and he shares
with us how one simple rule canhelp you defeat your cravings.
(00:42):
Now, glenn is a PhD and was alongtime CEO of a multi-million
dollar consulting firm whichserviced several Fortune 500
companies in the food industry.
He was disillusioned by whattraditional psychology had to
offer overweight or foodobsessed individuals.
Dr Livingston spent severaldecades researching the nature
(01:04):
of binging and overeating viaTimes and other media outlets
he's appeared on, including ABC,wgn and CBS Radio and UPN TV.
(01:29):
He earned his PhD in psychology.
You're going to love thisinterview, so let's go ahead and
jump right into it, glenn.
Thank you so much for being aguest on the episode today and
what I'd love for you to talkthrough here a little bit and
it's really tied to even thename of your company Defeat your
(01:50):
Cravings and it's really thiswhole idea about overeating and
entrepreneurs and businessowners.
Our audience, as we talkedpre-show here, tends to be
mostly successful entrepreneursand founders and CEOs of
high-performing organizationsand CEOs of high-performing
organizations, and I'd love foryou just to give some overall
insights into what this is about.
It's a fascinating topic to me.
Dr. Glenn Livingston (02:13):
So, just by way of a little bit of
background, I'm a psychologistbut I've also been an
entrepreneur my whole life.
I consulted for dozens ofFortune 100 companies and I was
also about 300 pounds.
I would walk around thinking,you know, we had this
multimillion-dollar company andI was thinking if I'm so smart,
(02:33):
why am I fat?
I could tell you a long storyabout how that all came about in
detail, but I know this is akind of short-form podcast, so
I'm not going to do that shortform podcast.
But I'm not going to do that.
I will tell you that while Iwas consulting for the big food
companies on the wrong side ofthe war, I eventually figured
out that it wasn't because mymama didn't love me enough when
(02:54):
I was a kid, it wasn't becauseof some deep psychological
problem that these companieswere engineering these
hyperpalatable concentrations ofstarch and sugar and
excitotoxins and salt, and itwas all geared to hit the bliss
point in the reptilian brainwithout giving us the nutrition
to be satisfied.
So you take these evolutionarybuttons that are designed to get
(03:18):
as many calories with as littleeffort as possible in the
smallest time possible, and thenyou provide that so you can go
down to the convenience storeand buy 10,000 calories for $100
and walk across the street anddo it again and it's kind of
like a perfect storm forovereating and problems and
there's a lot of mythology abouthow to work with that.
(03:39):
So people like you and I areentrepreneurs and we like to
study documented, evidence-basedsystems and if you lay out a
path for us, we can usuallyfollow it.
The problem is seeing the rightpath in our current society
because we're told to followguidelines.
Don't follow hard and fastrules.
(04:00):
We're told to eat well 90% ofthe time and indulge 10% of the
time, but nobody tells you thatif you don't know how to choose
that 10% of the time, thenyou're going to be making food
decisions all day long.
Every time you're in front of achocolate bar you're thinking
should I or shouldn't I?
Decisions wear down yourwillpower.
It's a losing game.
(04:21):
To start with, it's a greatidea in theory, but you're much
better off saying I'm only goingto have chocolate on Saturdays
and no more than four ounces.
Make all your chocolatedecisions ahead of time.
But the world is frightened ofthat and we're given the wrong
information.
The path is not really laid outin front of us.
Dr. Tom DuFore (04:38):
That's great.
I'd love to hear more of yourstory about how you ended up at
that point I mean, I think, notonly being a professional in
this field, but also being anentrepreneur and having grown
businesses and done this kind ofwork running your own business
as well as being on theprofessional side of
understanding and research andreading these things and
(04:59):
understanding that.
So I'd love to hear a littlemore on that story and that
revelation for yourself and thenjump into some pieces here
about what someone who maybelistens into this can be
thinking about doing.
Dr. Glenn Livingston (05:10):
As an entrepreneur, we're subjected to
more stress than the ordinaryperson.
I don't know if there's such athing as a nine to five job
anymore, but there's definitelyeight to six, and people go home
and they can have life.
And we are people who will work23 hours for ourselves because
we don't want to work one hourfor somebody else right, and so
(05:31):
we don't tend to have the samelevel of self-regulation.
We're talking about gettingpower, morning routines they're
really important, but the truthis we act as if we're three or
four people, and everybody knows.
To really get a business offthe ground, you have to pretend
you're three or four people, andeverybody knows.
To really get a business offthe ground, you have to pretend
you're three or four people.
You usually don't have thecapital to hire enough people,
and if you do, you want to beconservative with it in the
(05:53):
beginning because cash is king.
And so we're sacrificingself-regulation.
And it turns out that the brain, on a gross, oversimplified way
of explaining it, it has twoparts.
It's like the reptilian brain,this brainstem that's all about
eat, mate or kill very primitivesurvival stuff.
(06:13):
And then there's the neocortexthat says before you eat, mate
or kill.
What about the people that youlove?
What about your long-term goals?
What about weight loss andfitness and everything like that
?
Well, it turns out that thisvery primitive survival response
has the ability to knock yourneocortex, your higher self,
your thinking self, strategicself, out of the way if it
(06:36):
perceives there to be anemergency.
And when you're not gettingenough sleep, when you're not
nourishing yourself throughoutthe day, when you're not getting
enough water, if you get tooisolated by sitting in a cubicle
and hoping electrons flow intoyour bank account for too long,
then your brain starts toperceive.
This animalistic part of yourbrain starts to perceive that
(06:57):
your basic human needs are notbeing met.
And so what does it do?
It knocks that out of the wayand it says feed me, feed me now
.
And that's why you can have thebest plans Sunday after reading
the world's best diet book, andMonday afternoon you can be in
a Starbucks and there's achocolate bar on the counter and
you say screw it, I'll juststart tomorrow.
(07:18):
Right?
It's like a perfect storm.
And the important thing aboutthat is to understand it's not
your fault, but if you want tofix it, you have to do something
different, right?
A craving brain is not a sign ofdisease or sickness or weakness
(07:38):
.
It's actually a sign of ahealthy human being with a brain
that's doing its function in asick food environment, because
100,000 years ago the people whohad the strongest cravings
would have been the mostmotivated to do what was
necessary to gather and huntfood in a scarce environment.
Today it's not helpful to us tohave those strong cravings, but
(08:00):
it's actually a biologicalsurvival advantage that you have
.
So you're not sick, you're notdiseased, you're not powerless.
It's a biological strength thatyou have that that takes away a
lot of the shame when you kindof understand what's happening
and it makes it possible, I find, for people to look more
rationally and realistically atwhat the evidence says really
(08:21):
works.
My grandfather said he was a fanof Yogi Berra and he had a
paraphrasing Yogi Berra.
He said if you don't know whatyou're aiming at, you're
probably going to hit somethingelse.
And so, if you think about it,when an Olympic archer aims at
the bullseye, they don't hit it100% of the time, but they know
where it is and it's veryclearly defined.
(08:41):
And if they miss the bullseyethey have specific feedback
about by how much and in whatdirection.
But for some reason in ourculture people are taught to be
afraid of very specificallydefining their bullseye with
food.
They say food rules aredangerous, they're going to make
you rebel.
What if you miss?
Then you're going to feel tooguilty and then you're going to
(09:03):
eat even more.
And so they're taught to goafter progress, not perfection.
And what they don't understandis that progress, not perfection
, is a great mindset.
After you miss, like if you missthe bullseye, then you figure
out what adjustments do I needto make?
You don't say, oh my God, I'm apathetic archer, I should just
(09:24):
shoot all the arrows up in theair right or into the audience.
You say, let me get up, figureout what I learned.
And then you want to commitwith perfection.
An Olympic archer doesn't letgo of the arrow.
They call it loosing the arrow.
They don't let go of the arrowuntil they feel at one with the
bullseye.
They can actually see the arrowgoing into the bullseye before
they let go.
And they purge that doubt andinsecurity out of their mind If
(09:48):
they're thinking maybe I'm goingto make it, maybe I'm not going
to make it, they're probablynot going to make it.
There's an old Gary Larsoncartoon about a drummer in a
marching band thinking I'm notgoing to F up, I'm not going to
F up, I'm not going to F up, andunderneath the caption it says
Gary F's up.
So when you're constantlythinking, maybe I'll make it,
(10:09):
maybe I won't, you don't realizethat that doubt and insecurity
is detracting from your abilityto focus on the goal.
So I call this committing withperfection, but forgiving
yourself with dignity.
And the way to get started iswith one simple rule.
This functions on many levels,but you want it to be a low bar.
(10:30):
Bj Fogg is a psychologist, abehavioral psychologist, who
works with habits.
He's figured out that becausemotivation waxes and wanes, it
comes and goes.
That if you read a diet bookand you have all these new rules
and you're going to, you knowyou're going to be a perfect
eater from now on, or at leastuntil you lose the weight.
That's really great while youhave your mojo, but a couple of
(10:53):
days later, when you wake upwithout your mojo, it's not
going to be so easy to do that.
So you want to start with a lowbar, and an example might be oh
, I knew a trucker who said I'lltell you what.
I can't give up fast food, butI can stop going back for
seconds.
I have to eat fast food threetimes a day, but I'm just not
going to go back for seconds.
And because that was a lowenough bar for him to hit every
(11:16):
single day, he triggered what wecall the identity function.
He starts to think, oh, maybe Ican beat this game.
Most people feel kind ofhopeless and powerless and, you
know, despairing when it comesto overcoming their food
problems.
But you set a low bar, you hitit every day and your brain says
, maybe I can do this, maybe I'ma person who doesn't go back
for seconds.
(11:36):
It's really interesting.
Some people find out that Idon't eat chocolate and they say
, well, how do you just neverhave chocolate again?
And I say, well, that's notexactly how I think about it.
I just became a person whodoesn't have chocolate.
You can become a person whoblank.
You know it's much, much easier.
Your brain is set up for thosetype of character.
(11:57):
Building shortcuts, characteris just what you habitually do
at the moment of temptation.
Okay, so you set a low bar, onesimple rule what could and would
you do?
That would not be tooburdensome.
Yet you know what would make adifference.
For some people it's I won't goback for seconds.
For other people it's notrestrictive at all.
It's just that I will alwaystake three deep breaths before a
(12:19):
meal, or I'll always put myfork down between bites.
For other people it might be,you know, I'll only have
chocolate on the weekends, orI'll only have pretzels at Major
League Baseball parks.
Just think about one simplething you could do so you can
learn how this game is played.
Once you have that rule in place, it functions as a kind of trip
(12:41):
wire.
It's like an alarm that tellsyou when this part of your brain
is going to wake up.
Right, because inevitably, whenI say I will only have
chocolate on the weekends and nomore than four ounces, there's
going to be a Wednesday sometimewhen I'm in a chocolate bar
when this thing is going to sayyou know what?
You worked out hard enough,you're not going to gain any
weight.
A little won't hurt, it'll bejust as easy to start tomorrow.
(13:01):
And this is a little crazything that I did to make myself
better.
I probably should have calledit something different, but I
called this thing my inner pigway back when I kind of figured
out what was going on and I saidokay, anything that suggests
I'm going to break my rule ispig squeal, and anything that is
off my plan is pig slop.
(13:22):
I'm a sophisticatedpsychologist with all types of
credentials.
Dr. Tom DuFore (13:27):
And just for someone who doesn't see the
video on this, you're referringto that reptile brain, and so
what?
Dr. Glenn Livingston (13:34):
this rule does is it functions as an alarm
to wake you up when this partof the brain is what you're
talking about.
Yeah, and so what this ruledoes is it functions as an alarm
to wake you up when this partof the brain is getting active.
But you can still listen to itif you want to.
We have free will.
The good news is that we havefree will, and the bad news is
that we have free will.
I can't stop you fromovereating, but you can.
You're free to binge if youwant to, but you're also free
(13:55):
not to binge.
So what I can do is wake you upso you have the opportunity to
choose one way or the other.
Once you're awake, what you'reessentially doing is put a space
between stimulus and response.
Your brain wants to automatethe acquisition of calories, so
you're not even thinking aboutit, but you kind of put a pause,
an unnatural pause, in thatspace.
(14:16):
There are a number of thingsyou could do.
What I did to get better was alogical intervention which might
appeal to a lot ofentrepreneurs.
I said what's wrong with whatmy pig is saying?
How is it lying to me?
And over time I figured out itwill usually say a half truth to
get my attention but then it'llhave a bigger lie.
So, for example, it seems likeit will be just as easy to start
(14:38):
tomorrow and it seems like I'mnot going to gain any weight.
But the way that the brainworks, if you have a craving for
chocolate on a Wednesday andthen you indulge that craving
after you say to yourself, I'lljust start tomorrow, by the
principle of neuroplasticity youcan look it up if you want to.
But it just means that whatfires together wires together.
The thought will get reinforcedand the craving will get
(15:00):
reinforced.
So I'm going to have a deepercraving for chocolate tomorrow
if I indulge it today and I'mgoing to be more likely to say
start tomorrow.
So you can only ever use thepresent moment to be healthy,
right, and if you're in a holeyou better stop digging.
So that's an example of what Iwould call a cognitive
refutation, or just fixing yourthinking about food.
(15:22):
It takes away thatjustification.
It's only one thing that youcan do in that space.
Sometimes that's the wholestory, Sometimes it's not.
But when you no longer havethat excuse, suddenly you feel a
little guilty and uncomfortableif you're going to break the
rule and it gives you pause andit's more likely to get you to
stop.
That's how I got better.
(15:42):
I didn't do anything else toget better than that.
I kept the journal for eightyears.
I lost 75, 80 pounds and hadall types of little miracles
with my health, with that and myenergy, and I actually dug
myself out of debt during thatperiod also.
It turns out okay.
So I published a book when Igot divorced in 2016.
I published it in 2015.
(16:03):
It got popular in 2016.
And all of a sudden, I havemillions of readers and a little
coaching agency.
I'm talking to all theseclients.
We had, over the course of thenext eight years, about 2,000
paying clients.
I got really good at helpingpeople fix their thinking about
food.
I know all the excuses.
I know reasons to overcome them.
(16:23):
Right.
I fix everybody's thinkingabout food really quickly Within
about a month.
The people that engage with ussome people buy coaching
programs and they don't engage,which drives me crazy, but I
can't force people.
When they engage with us andmore than half our clients did
they would get an 84% reductionin overeating in the first 30
days, drops down to about 60%,55% or 60% at the six-month
(16:47):
level, because some people stopusing the tool.
If they keep using the tool, itkeeps working.
Why do they stop using the tool?
This really bugged me the lastyear or two we had the agency.
I really wanted to figure thatout.
Turns out that there is a pointthat people get to a lot of
people where they say I know, Idon't have any excuses, you took
(17:09):
all my excuses away, but screwit, just do it.
I just really want to.
And I said, well, what'scausing that?
Because these people, we have aprocess called the big why,
where we figure out why do youwant to do this?
And this is like so I don't getdiabetic retinopathy, so I
don't have another heart attack,so I don't get disabled, so I
can roll on the floor with mygrandkids or I can go hiking
(17:30):
with my dogs.
These are really big reasons.
Why in the world would you stopusing something that worked just
because, well, I really want to.
It turns out there's somethingcalled a simple word, for it is
distress.
It's organismic distress, butit's what we were talking about
before.
If you don't get enoughnutrition or rest or
self-regulation, then this partof the brain can push all of
(17:53):
your reasons out of the way,including all your good reasons
for doing what you want to do,and so it turned out, like
everybody else was saying, wealso had to focus on getting
people to self-regulate, moreparticularly with nutrition.
That turned out to be the kindof magic formula to do them both
, and I've written eight bookson overeating.
Defeat your Cravings isactually the eighth one, but
(18:14):
that's the best one thatincludes all this information,
so that's the shortest version Ican give you on how to tackle
this problem.
Dr. Tom DuFore (18:22):
That's fantastic , and I was actually just going
to ask how someone can get acopy of your book or the one
you'd recommend.
Where can they do that and howcan they connect with you?
Learn more about what you'redoing here.
Dr. Glenn (18:34):
Defeatyourcravingscom is the website and there's a
big blue button on the websitewhere you can get a free copy of
the Kindle, Nook or PDF, nocharge whatsoever, and a copy of
a food plan of them.
But it's actually a verycompassionate process and I
(18:59):
wanted you to hear people gofrom feeling despairing and
hopeless and confused to feelingexcited and confident in just
one session, so I recorded abunch of that.
This is all free atdefeatyourcravingscom and that
will lead you every place elseyou need to go, If you need to,
if you're looking for a coach,if you're looking for other
materials.
That'll lead you every placeelse.
(19:21):
Defeat your Cravings is theeighth book.
It's really the only one youshould read at this point.
I can't take the others off themarket because of business
contracts, but Defeat yourCravings is really the only book
you need to read.
Dr. Tom DuFore (19:33):
It's great info you've shared, as well as not
only your expertise in this as aprofessional and really
understanding it, but alsohaving lived through this, and I
think that's inspiring,especially for other
entrepreneurs that are in thegrind and have been the founder
and know the startup to growthand all of the other things.
You've been through that aswell.
(19:54):
I really appreciate that.
Thanks, Glenn.
This is a great time in theshow and we make a transition.
We ask every guest the samefour questions before they go
and the first question we ask ishave you had a miss or two on
your journey and something youlearned from it?
Dr. Glenn Livingston (20:08):
I learned that there is a fine line
between stupidity and fortitudeand persistence.
And in 2001, I had run thisadvertising research
organization for a lot of yearsvery successful, was doing
million-dollar projects and wedecided to change sides of the
(20:29):
industry.
The industry is comprised ofeggheads, like my ex-wife and I,
who advise companies about howto design their research and
then they interpret it for them,and then there are facilities
that execute the research foryou.
It's not quite that simple, butthat's it.
And we decided we were going tochange size because we thought
we really knew both sides of theindustry and we didn't.
(20:50):
On top of that, it was in NewYork City right before 9-11.
And we had $150,000 not everymonth the fanciest focus group
facility that we'd ever seen atthat point, and we were sure we
were going to be successful.
And then 9-11 came and nobodywanted to do groups in New York
(21:11):
and I couldn't agree with myex-wife about when to close the
business.
And we decided to be stubbornlypersistent and we went $700,000
in debt and that took me sixyears to pay off, if not to
clear bankruptcy.
I have to give my ex-wifecredit for that, because I
wanted to and she didn't, butevery entrepreneur has their
(21:34):
debt story and out of thePhoenix, out of the ashes, came
the Phoenix and we climbed outand built and sold an
advertising agency after thatand had a little publishing
company and then, when I gotdivorced ever since then all
I've done is this is the mostmeaningful thing I've ever done
in my life is to help peoplewith overeating, because it was
(21:55):
the bane of my existence for alot of years.
So, yes, I've had a miss.
How's that for a miss?
Dr. Tom DuFore (22:01):
Thank you for sharing that, and very, very
commendable as well, for you tohonor commitments and figure out
a way to dig yourself out ofthe financial hole that you had
dug, and without declaringbankruptcy.
Well, let's talk about a makeor to a highlight that you'd
like to share.
Dr. Glenn Livingston (22:16):
I have over 2 million readers for my
series of books on over-readingEver since I got divorced and
published that and kind of putmy heart and soul into it.
It's not the most lucrativething I've ever done, but it's
the most successful thing I'veever done and the most
meaningful thing I've ever done.
There was a period when we weregetting about between 60 and 90
(22:40):
new clients a month and I had10 coaches working for me and I
was really spreading the wordfar and wide.
I got a blog on psychology.
Today I got another millionreaders there.
That was definitely a make.
That was definitely a make, butnot the make that showered
millions of dollars on me,because I didn't need millions
of dollars after I got divorced.
But it was the make that mademe feel like I was.
(23:03):
I did the most in alignmentwith my mission and my personal
soul drives that I've ever done,so that was definitely a make.
Dr. Tom DuFore (23:12):
Let's talk about a multiplier that you've used
to grow yourself, personally orprofessionally, or any of the
organizations you've run.
Dr. Glenn Livingston (23:19):
It was documentation, partially.
I read a book about the e-mythI'm sure you know the e-myth and
I started documenting systemslike that.
But more so, I created this20-hour training that taught
coaches to do what I did,because I realized I couldn't
handle 60 new people a month.
(23:39):
And so I got this 10-hourtraining and I recruited people.
At first I tried to recruitout-of-work psychologists and
they were eager to work with me,but they didn't get it.
They didn't quite get it theway I wanted them to, and then I
realized that you had to havethe problem yourself and you had
(23:59):
to have felt like this solvedthe problem for you.
So I actually recruited peoplewho ascended through my systems,
who had read the book and feltlike it was like taking the
thorn out of the lion's paw, andthey were the ones who wanted
to work with me and I combinedthat with the training and then
I put them all in a group and Isupervised them once a week and
I told them they could call meif they had to, and that was
(24:22):
very successful.
We were able to, you know, workwith thousands of people over
the years doing that.
So that was a real multiplierfor me.
Dr. Tom DuFore (24:31):
And the final question we ask every guest,
Glenn, is what does success meanto you?
Dr. Glenn Livingston (24:36):
It means I can do what I want to with my
time and I can spread the wordof what I've learned far and
wide fairly easily.
That's what it means to me Inmy old age.
I just turned 60 and I actuallyhad a heart attack.
I had some genetic risks verybad genetic risks from my family
, and before I stopped bingeeating when I was about 40 years
(24:59):
old, I probably did a lot ofdamage.
I probably bought myself anextra 20 years before it
happened by fixing all my eatingand eating really well.
So I'm just kind of doublingdown right now.
This is only a month ago, butit's caused me to be very
pensive and think about thingsand I realized that what makes
me happiest is seeing clientsmyself not necessarily
(25:22):
supervising my coaches I likethat too but seeing clients
myself teaching myself notnecessarily having people teach
for me and writing, and so whenI'm making a plan for what I'm
going to do, I'm going to slowdown a little bit.
I'm going to keep a smallpractice.
I still have a couple ofcoaches that will stay with me.
But I had this plan to build abillion-dollar company up until
(25:45):
a couple of years ago and it wasgoing okay, but it was going to
be another 10 or 15 yearsbefore it really came together
and I decided that that's notreally the path I want to be on
right now, because I don't knowhow long I will have and I
really want my life to meansomething more.
So I'm going to be a countrydoctor.
I hope that's not the wrongmessage for your audience, but
(26:09):
for me personally that resonatesthe most.
I've done a lot of big thingsin my life.
I've run international projectsfor big companies.
Right now I'm just going to bea country doctor and I'm going
to write books to have more ofan influence and multiply myself
.
Dr. Tom DuFore (26:23):
So thank you for sharing and, glenn, as we bring
this to a close, is thereanything you're hoping to share
or get across?
You haven't had a chance to yet.
Dr. Glenn Livingston (26:31):
I mean, I could talk for two hours about
the intricacies about that, butone thing I wanted to make sure
people understood is that onesimple rule is just the
beginning.
It's just so that you can get awin in the first couple of
weeks and start to feel like asuccess rather than a failure
and get a sense of how thesetechniques work.
Once you've done it for acouple of weeks, then you start
(26:52):
to make adjustments with otherrules, and there are examples in
the book that will help youachieve your health and fitness
goals, because you can'tnecessarily always lose weight
with one simple rule.
So the guy who lost 150 poundsthat trucker started with one
simple rule.
That was not the only rule thathe used.
He started losing weight withthat one rule, but he added a
(27:13):
few things after that.
So just wanted to make surepeople understood that they
didn't have to stay with onesimple rule.
Dr. Tom DuFore (27:20):
Glenn, thank you so much for a fantastic
interview and let's go ahead andjump into today's three key
takeaways.
So takeaway number one isreally just this idea of having
this conversation today andthinking about it as a talking
point, something that we'venever had on our show and
thought it'd be something worthnoting and talking about.
(27:43):
Takeaway number two is theadvice that he said was to start
with one simple rule to helpwith the cravings.
He said you start with onesimple rule and it has to be a
very low bar for that.
So it might say to havechocolate at one certain
(28:03):
specific time or not, to go backfor seconds or to take three
deep breaths or some of theother suggestions that he said.
And remembering the saying whatfires together wires together
for neuroplasticity.
So I thought it was a greatlittle catchphrase to remember
that.
Help him build off that onesimple rule.
(28:23):
Takeaway number three is when hetalked about there's a fine
line between stupidity andpersistence, and he said he
found that he was on the wrongside of that statement when he
and his ex-wife and formerbusiness partner went into over
$700,000 in debt and it tookthem seven years to pay it off.
(28:43):
So I think the takeaway thereis what he was talking about,
that stupidity and persistence.
But also I say, you know,congrats and good job for being
committed to honor yourcommitments, to pay that back
over that time period.
And now it's time for today'swin-win.
And now it's time for today'swin-win.
(29:06):
So today's win-win comes whenhe was talking about what
matters most to him and how hepreviously thought that he
wanted to have a billion-dollarcompany which he was poised to
grow to, but he decided thatwasn't what was really most
important to him.
And after he discovered that, herealized how he truly wanted to
spend his time, which, for him,was running a much smaller
(29:29):
company.
He wants to work directly withhis clients and he wants to
write more, and he found outthat that is really what's most
important to him.
And so I thought that's just agreat win-win to end the episode
on for you to think aboutwhat's really most important to
you and what you are spendingyour time doing.
(29:52):
And so that's the episode today.
Folks, please make sure yousubscribe to the podcast and
give us a review, and rememberif you or anyone you know are
ready to franchise their companyor take their franchise company
to the next level, pleaseconnect with us at
bigskyfranchiseteamcom.
Thanks for tuning in and welook forward to having you back
next week.
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