Podcast 8
The show is hosted by Colleen Dwyer, a senior Allen Carr’s Easyway therapist who is joined by Sir Richard Branson & Monique Douglas
Available from wherever you get your favourite podcasts https://www.allencarr.com/podcasts/#subscribe
Featuring Sir Richard Branson & Monique Douglas
Please click the video below to watch the podcast
In this episode we have Monique Douglas, who is an Allen Carr therapist for weight and sugar addiction seminars. Monique has personally experienced the power and effectiveness of the Allen Carr method, as she used it to improve her relationship with food and overcome her sugar cravings. Now she shares this method with others through the live seminars.
And we have a special message today from Sir Richard Branson, who is a supporter of quitting smoking with Allen Carr’s Easyway. Sir Richard Branson has some motivational words for those who are thinking about quitting smoking, and we’re very thankful that he took the time to record them for us.
If you’d like your questions answered drop us a line on <a href=”mailto:pod@allencarr.com”>pod@allencarr.com</a> with whatever you’d like to say or any questions that you have.
Welcome
“to the Allen Carr’s Easy Way podcast,
the program that will change your assumptions
and beliefs about addiction here.”
“We don’t advocate
for using willpower to quit because we’ve”
“discovered a much easier
and much more effective method.”
My name is Colleen Dwyer.
“I’m a senior therapist to Allen Carr’s
Easy Way.”
“I’m the presenter of our online
video programs and your podcast host.”
“With me is John Dicey global
CEO of Allen Carr’s Easy Way and co-author”
“of the Allen Carr books and a senior
Allen Carr’s Easyway therapist.”
“John has over 25 years of experience
in helping millions of addicts”
break free from their addictions.
“And he has a lot of valuable knowledge
and wisdom to share.”
“John and I are answering questions
from listeners such as Why”
“am I not able to quit with the book
second time around?”
“And why does the alcohol book not resonate
with me like the smoking book did?”
“If you’d like your questions answered,
drop us a line on POD at allencarr .”
“com with whatever you’d like to say
or any questions that you have.”
“Also joining us today is Monique,
who is an Allen Carr”
“therapist for weight and sugar addiction
seminars.”
“Monique has personally experienced
the power and effectiveness of the call”
“method as she used it,
to improve her relationship with food”
“and completely
get rid of any sugar cravings.”
“Now she shares this method with others
through the life seminars,”
“and we also have a special feature
today from Sir Richard Branson,”
“who is a supporter of quitting
smoking with Allen Carr’s easy way.”
“Sir Richard
Branson has some motivational words”
“for those
who are thinking about quitting smoking,”
“and we’re very thankful that he took
the time to record them for us.”
“We’re happy to answer any questions
that you have about any addiction.”
“And even if we don’t actually feature
your question in a future episode”
“of the podcast, we will personally reply
to every single question”
“we receive, providing you
with detailed advice and guidance.”
“So don’t forget,
get in touch on pods at Cars.com and do”
“also check out Allen Carr dot com and see
the host of Addictions and issues.”
“Allen Carr’s easy
way has now been applied to.”
“So sit back, relax and open your mind
to a new way of understanding addiction.”
“This is the Allen Carr’s Easy
Way podcast just addictive addiction.”
We want to hear your success stories
and provide advice
to you.
This advice is free.
“John will answer every question
we receive with no exception.”
Take this now apart at Allen Carr dot com.
Right.
“So we’re back again
for addiction Central on the new podcast.”
Welcome John.
“We’ve got three questions
through from the listeners”
“which we’re going to go through
and the first one is from Linda.”
Basically, Linda says she’s 51 years old.
She stopped smoking by reading the book.
“She didn’t say what title,
but she said it was in 2000 and she quit”
for 17 years successfully and happily.
“But then she made a mistake of thinking
that one wouldn’t hurt.”
“She picked up a cigarette
and we all know what follows from there.”
“She kind of linked it to the fact
that her parents both died.”
“But then since then,
she’s reread the book twice and she says”
it’s the new version from 2014,
which isn’t the new version.
“But she’s also attended about three online
seminars”
and one in person seminar in Perth,
“but she hasn’t kept it
and she says she’s struggling”
“to get what she got from it
the first time,”
“even though she knows the method
and she believes in the method,”
“but she’s just not getting back
to where she was and she’s on top of that.”
She’s like really struggling financially.
“She’s got a lot pressure
on her risks of losing some assets”
“and she needs to get
a budget under control.”
“Her health has been deteriorating
and now she’s getting like warnings”
from the doctors that
she’s got mild COPD.
“But it will get worse if she doesn’t,
you know, address the issue.”
“She’s taking painkillers
and anti-depressants and,”
“you know, she’s got the cancer scares
and other health issues.”
“So she’s she sounds pretty desperate
and pretty frustrated.”
“She’s taking
or she’s reading the book again, but she’s”
“wearing patches and she knows that
that goes contrary to what Alan says.”
But yeah,
“she says she’s desperate
and she just doesn’t know”
why she’s finding it difficult this time.
“So I know that you have already replied
to Linda, and I read the response,”
“which is very detailed,
and I hope that she’s, you know,”
getting some success with it now.
But what would you say to Linda?
Yes, interestingly,
“because I think witch hunters
aren’t people as quickly as we can.”
“And in future, those answers we think
will be useful to the listeners. So”
it is good
“when we do sort of provide
advice and guidance”
is really sort of
well rounded so
“that people do
get quite a lot of advice back.”
“If they follow it, normally they’re fine
and that’s the”
really important thing about it.
So sort of do two days really.
“There’s so many issues there for Linda
was on there in terms of”
“the better work for her in the past,
which is brilliant.”
“So she’s got that reassurance that it does
work,”
“hasn’t worked for,
you know, this time around.”
There can be a few reasons for that.
I think quite often
“when the method works for somebody
and they make a mistake,”
“what they do is they try to recapture
the feeling they had before”
when when the method worked
“and if if when they finished a book
or a seminar or whatever else,”
“if they don’t feel exactly the same way
as they remember feeling before,”
they automatically assumed that it works.
“And that that leads to failure is sort of
a just becomes a”
self-fulfilling prophecy, so to speak.
So I think
really important thing is
try not to recapture
the feeling you had before.
“So how do you feel at the end,
whether you read the book again”
“or whether you watch the online
video program or attend the Life seminar”
or in person, how do you feel
“once you’ve completed
that is right for you”
“here and now and it’s
most likely going to be completed.”
“If it’s how you remember feeling before,
you might feel less confident”
“or you might feel more confident,
you might feel”
“a bit nervous
about it, but apprehensive about it.”
That’s all very natural
“and it’ll be absolutely fine
as long as you don’t let the fact”
“that you don’t feel the same as you did
before for both of you.”
So anybody it becomes becomes a problem.
“I always compare
this sort of couple of examples really.”
I remember the first time
I saw my favourite band play
and it was just magical.
“It was just, you know,
I really wanted to save a life.”
I really wanted to
see how they were
and it blew my socks off.
It was just the most amazing experience.
But then I went to see them again.
I loved every minute of it.
It was really brilliant.
It wasn’t the same as the first time,
“and if I let that bother me,
maybe I would have enjoyed it as much.”
“But each experience,
I saw them quite a few times.”
“Each experience was brilliant,
but not the same as the first time.”
I felt like if that makes sense. So.
So that’s really important.
You feel different than before
“and you’ll be familiar
with what you read or or hear.”
And as long as you go through
“that sort of familiar process
in a positive way, thinking,”
okay, I understand that.
“Yeah, I understand Now I accept that
rather than I knew this last time.”
But if that I knew this last time.
“But that gets in the way of the sort
of the cognitive process.”
“So that’s, that’s quite,
quite an important point.”
“How we feel once you’ve completed
the programme this time is fine for you.”
This at this moment.
Don’t worry, don’t worry about that.
Couple of things she mentioned was
also possibly
“bothering her
in terms of achieving success”
to the breathing, sort of,
“you know, condolences again, Linda,
if you feel bereavement.”
But I think
bereavement wouldn’t normally cause
“someone to go back to smoking
who uses this method.”
“I think it’s understandable
that sometimes it does.”
“But I think if people understand
when you have bad news or”
tragedy
“or even the sort of minor
or trivial stress,”
“it creates a really unpleasant feeling,
like an anxious, uptight, tense feeling.”
It’s exactly the same feeling as
“smoking used to get when I used to smoke
when a cigarette could have one.”
“And it’s
almost like an echo from the past.”
“And if you don’t careful, you kind of
you accept that for that feeling.”
People sort of think, well,
“you know, just like fancying
a cigarette out of the blue”
“or stressed and everything was going
wrong in life or whatever.”
That’s just a feeling of stress.
That’s all it is in the cigarette.
Never took that feeling away.
And the way they deal with
“stress is just to realise
that’s what it is and take it off really.”
“Sunny when you think that that cigarette
might be a solution to that, it becomes”
becomes an issue.
“And, and there’s more on that now
and it’s quite a detail with Linda”
explaining that further.
“And the other factor
which is quite similar is”
the ill health Linda was experiencing.
“She’s got lots of stuff going on,
you know, real stress involved in that.”
And people try to use health issues as a
as a motivated to quit to help succeed.
But it actually is counterproductive
when you focus on something,
“you know, really negative or scary
or whatever.”
“The first thing a smoker does
when they experience”
that is have a cigarette.
And it it kind of becomes
it just becomes top of your mind.
“Rather than thinking of freedom,
you’re on your way, you’re escaping,”
“you become ensconced
in this sort of kind of negative place,”
“just burdened by, you know,
what’s going to happen if you don’t stop.”
“So it’s really important to treat,
you know, release”
“from those concerns as far as you can
be, release most concerns.”
“And as a bonus,
when you when you get free, I think this”
that’s really important. And
when you do
that, it’s almost as if it lifts the fog.
“You can actually start
focusing on the methods and”
and letting the letting the method
and the method work.
I think that’s about it.
And it’s really something out there Now.
I think you covered the points. It’s
you know, it is terribly
sad when things go wrong in life and
and we lose people we love and
“we face disappointments
and all the rest of it.”
“But I have to say, since I quit smoking
without a cause easy way,”
“every that I always
no matter how bad things have gotten,”
“I think I’ve I’ve at least
I’m free to know.”
“Like, at least I don’t smoke so that
it will never, ever be that bad again.”
“And I’m not trivialising
you know what what people go through and”
“and certainly for for
days he’s had a really rough time of it.”
“But you’ve got one positive
when you quit smoking this time around”
“and that’s
the you’ve got your freedom back.”
“So that’s something to treasure and can
always give you a little bit of a lift.”
“But and the other thing I was thinking
actually reading Linda’s email was that,”
“you know, like, I don’t I’m
not saying that Linda did this, but I know”
“that I might be a bit prone to it, that
I misremembered how I felt at the seminar.”
I think we talked about this in a previous
“podcast that I came to my seminar
with one of my brothers”
and my best friend and
“when I
when I after seven, after I quit smoking”
“and I was really enthused about it all
and I wanted to”
“join the organisation, my best friend and
my brother were laughing at me and I was.”
And I said, Why are you laughing?
“And they said, Because of how you felt
when you left the seminar.”
And I just I didn’t get it.
“I thought, I don’t understand.
I was really happy.”
“I couldn’t wait to kind of get out there
and start, you know, enjoy my freedom.”
And they, they laughed.
They said, No, you were not like that.
You were like, What was that all about?
“You know, like you weren’t
you weren’t convinced.”
You weren’t like,
like, really happy about it.
“But but I was remembering it in that way
because”
“I later on down the line,
I knew the outcome.”
“I knew that
it was everything that was promised to be.”
“So it was kind of like I was,
I don’t know.”
I was just misremembering it.
“So when you’re like in
in the case of someone who’s quit”
“and then returned to smoking for
whatever reason,”
“and then they reread the book
or attend a seminar, again,”
“maybe their expectation
is like unrealistic.”
I’m not saying that people aren’t happy.
“Of course people are happier when they
when they quit, but at the point of you”
“realising that you’ve quit
and you’ve done it”
“and you’ve got your moment of revelation,
I think that was it.”
“I was remembering my moment of revelation
as happening”
“immediately
as I put out my final cigarette.”
“But actually my moment of revelation
probably came a few days after I quit.”
“Obviously I didn’t smoke since
having my final cigarette, but”
“yeah, some just maybe bear that in mind
and just take it as it comes.”
“Because when you first read
that book, Linda,”
“you had no expectation
of how you were meant to fail.”
You just took it as it came.
You were open minded about it.
“And I think you need to drop that again
this time around.”
“Just have no particular fixed view of
I have to feel this way”
in order for it to to have worked.
“I think I also just
one more thing as well on that”
“and you alluded to this earlier,
which was Linda.”
Linda thought she was reading the new book
Doable 2014.
It’s now a very old book fact.
So the most up to date
“cutting edge version of the method
in writing”
is an easy way to quit
smoking, rather easy way to stop smoking.
“And that’s that’s really quite important
because it has something”
like 25 years of
upgraded information, examples, anecdotes.
“It touches on stuff
that wasn’t even an issue”
“when the original book was published
and the subsequent updates were published.”
Even. And
it’s crazy.
“We, you know, we offer people advice on
how to succeed using the book.”
“They already have even said
books 30 years old.”
“We’re very confident
that this should work.”
But why?
Why miss out on
the best possible treatment you could get
in the new version of the book?
It’s just not worth the risk.
“Cost less
than a couple of packs of cigarettes.”
“So this isn’t by any means a commercial
for the new upgrade of the book,”
but just it’s really important.
You know, we did it for a reason.
“And the reason was
it was time to include all kinds of stuff”
“that really just enriches
the method even more.”
So it’s well worth well worth it.
Assignment cost easy way to quit smoking.
I think there’s a subtitles. Quit smoking.
Course these quit smoking.
The method upgraded for the 2020s.
Think that’s the F?
Yeah. On there as well. So nice. Great.
Fabulous, Great stuff.
And good luck, Linda.
“Not that you need luck,
but all the best with it.”
So the next
one that we have is about vaping.
It’s from Ryan
in London.
“Where was Linda from?
She was from Australia.”
“So Ryan says I’ve stopped smoking
by vaping and now I want to quit vaping”
and can’t seem to manage it.
“It feels like the fact that it doesn’t
stink like smoking does”
“and it isn’t as inconvenient
like smoking was”
“because I can take sneaky puffs
wherever I want to, whenever I want that”
“because it doesn’t have those negatives,
it might make it harder to quit.”
And I loved your reply to this one, John.
I’ve got to try and remember what it was.
No, but notice I think
this has come up quite often.
It’s not just Ryan.
“A couple of people inquire
along these lines”
and the the
“the thinking they have
is that because it doesn’t stink anymore”
“or because it’s not inconvenient anymore,
they can do it pretty much”
wherever they want.
“It’s harder to stop
as if the fact it stank”
“and was inconvenient
ever helped anyone stop.”
It never helped me quit.
Yeah.
So it’s really just kind of good looking
“and no way around is,
I think, what these become.”
They’re like sort of.
We try and work out why we failed to quit.
“And if we come up with an answer,
it sort of seems to make sense.”
“It doesn’t really matter
whether it’s right or wrong,”
but it seems to make sense
“that what we say, I think what Ryan’s done
there is is really just assumed.”
“Yeah, it’s because it doesn’t stink
and it doesn’t I can do whatever I want”
and I think
once you accept that
“never helped anyone
stop smoking and never helped anyone”
stop fighting.
“Not not having to do with the smell
anymore, not having the control”
in the slavery.
“What is a brilliant bonuses to enjoy
once you once you stop?”
They’re not that motivation for
for quitting successfully
so it’s turning around that way.
“I mean and this is quite interesting
isn’t it?”
“Because you know, you know,
vaping doesn’t stink.”
Vapers don’t tend to stink.
I mean, when they’re doing it, it does.
“I think quite
a lot of people think it’s a nice smell.”
“I think if they’re vaping, it, if anyone
around them, it’s normally pretty foul.”
“It’s,
it’s kind of sickly sweet gross sort of”
smell.
“And you know,
I used to smoke like a chimney and”
I’m not complaining about the smell.
“I don’t mind the smell of cigarette smoke,
for example, for some reasons,”
“like smoke seems like,
you know, particularly”
unpleasant.
“I don’t know why, but I think part of it’s
because it’s this fight for, isn’t it?”
There’s vapour there and it’s got sort of
“whether it’s cold candy or candyfloss
flavour or caramel flavour,”
“it’s kind of like this weird stuff
being puffed out by someone.”
“And if you walk,
if you walking through town and you get”
“caught in a plume of it, it’s like hold
your breath before you get out.”
“Just because it’s
just because it’s so, so GROSS.”
“So I think it’s the synthetic nature
of the smell and it’s just really off.”
But no doubt, I don’t think
somebody vapes
“smells in the same way as a smoker did,
thinking like an absolute ashtray,”
“Never stop me from smoking, if that’s why
so else smelt most of the time.”
“So it’s a bit of a red herring
really, isn’t it?”
And the same goes for the convenience.
“I mean, the fact that people can like
pretty much wherever”
and whenever I want actually,
“just because that can seem more and more
and more of the drug”
and more and more almost become
hooked in constantly vaping,
which is
pretty scary.
“And this sort of still not much evidence
of the harms of vaping.”
I think it’ll be years before that becomes
available and not
“when the first studies do
come out about the harms caused by vaping.”
It’ll be based on, you know,
“those the original e-cigarettes
that look a bit like cigarettes,”
those original stuff.
“They’ll be based on that now
and they those products bear”
“the resemblance
to what’s going on at the moment where”
“whether you use a tank,
where you regulate the amount”
“of nicotine strengthened
nicotine is huge things, kind of just”
“plumes of smoke coming out
or whether it’s disposables”
“or any of the sort of equivalent
of 45 cigarettes”
worth of nicotine in a disposable.
“The kids are buying these for five quid
a time or six or $7 a time.”
And and going through them in a dying.
And this is a not correct situation to be.
So I think that’s a sort of
gave the advice to Ryan and then
really just provided this kind of
step by step
advice for how he can
see reading the book, I think.
Wasn’t he?
Yes, he was reading the book on smoking.
But to get him off vaping. Right,
to to read the book again.
“And I think the book commission member
could easily quit smoking”
“but that that does include vaping
and other nicotine”
products.
“So is really the best, best book
for somebody who smokes”
“and vapes
or recently stopped smoking and advice.”
“Now he’s going to quit vaping,
which is really best for somebody”
“who hasn’t smoked for a long time and
who is or has never smoked and only vapes.”
“And there are more and more
those people around.”
“I remember when I was a smoker
and I really used to dream”
“I wish they would come up with a
a clean cigarette, you know, like, well,”
“I suppose like a vapour it,
but yeah, basically something that didn’t”
wasn’t offensive and it wasn’t anti-social
“and it didn’t like cost the earth
and it wasn’t that bad for your health.”
And, and what I recognised
“when I quit with Alan Carr’s
easy way is the, I wouldn’t”
“care if they came out with a cigarette
that legitimately”
“was not bad for your health and was free
and it wasn’t anti-social.”
“I still got no interest,
you know, like because if you take away”
“all the negatives, what you’re left with,
like it’s still a pointless activity.”
It’s still
“like wearing
tight shoes just to take them off.”
“I mean, it’s a bit of a it’s
a it’s a nonsense really.”
“So it doesn’t matter if there’s a lot
of negatives to it or no negatives to it.”
“The point we’re making
is that there’s no there’s no plus side.”
“I think went further with Ryan as well,
which is to sort of”
suggest that
he does some sort of
mindful vaping of what you call it,
“but just, you know, stand
in front of the mirror and and fight.”
Look at yourself, look into your eyes,
do it for 5 minutes and just fight.
It doesn’t matter that you can do it
“locked away in a low
or we’ve taken a sneaky path on a desk”
“at the office or even,
you know, on a train or bus or whatever.”
“Look, look at what you’re doing
and understand.”
This is a thing that has
had you
have down
to that level of this sort of weird
“sneaking a puff here and sneaking
a puff there and getting away with it.”
“But if you actually look at it,
confront yourself with what it is”
“you’re doing,
you’ll see how just very weird is.”
“And if the controlled to the slavery,
which is the most brilliant thing,”
“once you are released from that,
that’s the most brilliant thing about it.”
“It’s also most fully one of the most
insidious things about about doing it.”
“But again, rather than use
that as a motivating factor”
“that you control
the slave way is enjoying it”
“fully when you’re when you’re free,
that’s really, really important. So”
goodness gracious.
“And finally,
we have an email in from Spencer”
“who said, I read articles
how to quit smoking and it worked wonders.”
And I’ve been smoke free for several years
“and I thought I should do
the same method for my drinking.”
“I’ve read the book several times,
but it’s not clicking like smoking book.”
What am I doing wrong?
“That’s kind of similar to
some of the points that Linda was saying.”
“You won’t want to repeat all of that
in one go”
“expecting to feel the same way as she did
before or whatever, I think.”
But I think there’s just a case of
“of understanding that there
there is a difference.”
There is a different process.
“It’s the same method,
but you’re going through”
something very different than you were
when you were quitting smoking.
And try not to relate those
those two experiences.
“I think I think it was a really short
question.”
“Spencer
crossed with a really long sketch for me.”
“I think also I think it’s the importance
of reaching out for advice”
“from us direct as well, so that
which is exactly what expense has done.”
I think it was anyone out there having any
“conflict and experience with the easy way
or it doesn’t seem to be working for them”
“or work for them
once it is working for them again.”
“And it really just just takes
minimal effort to get in touch with us.”
“And we do put a lot of effort
into providing them the free, free”
“of charge advice, which is what it would
have done with Spencer. But”
we’ve touched twice
“in a previous episode as well,
which is that”
“the difference between the alcohol method
and the smoking method,”
“some people think,
Oh well, they just changed the words”
“smoking, nicotine, alcohol
and drinking or whatever.”
“And it just really isn’t as simple
as much,”
“you know, very different addiction
in many,”
many different ways.
And I’m sure that
“I think Spencer,
if he’s if he’s read the book”
he’s been through the method once.
“So I think I always say
my number one recommendation to anybody is”
to attend a life seminar and think in this
this is what I situation is where
I thoroughly recommend it because
“there are
there’s there’s things that therapists”
“facilitate doing throughout the
seminar, which will just set”
Spencer’s mind at rest
that will, you know,
“you can ask questions,
you can check your understanding of things”
“and be reassured
by the therapist facilitator”
in the room.
And that’s where I go.
Why mess around with it?
“Why not just go straight,
go straight for the life seminar”
If someone can’t afford that?
“I say,
I’m not sure whether Spencer did end up”
“attending a large seminar, but, you know,
even if you’ve read the book is quite”
full as it was, he should be fine.
You know, you should. You should go free.
Yeah. Yeah.
I’m really, I suppose what you were saying
“before as well is that
you can’t be surprised by something twice.”
“So I remember when I did my smoking
seminar, actually,”
“not that long afterwards
I did the alcohol seminar and.”
But my
“feeling going into the alcohol
seminar was quite different to my feeling”
“as I entered the smoking seminar,
because when I was going to my smoking”
“seminar, I was very dubious,
I was very unsure.”
I didn’t know what to expect,
“I didn’t know what the hypnotherapy
was going to be like.”
“I didn’t know, you know,
if I was meant to talk.”
And, you know, I didn’t.
I was very uncertain.
And then it works and I was thrilled.
And then when I went along to my
alcohol seminar,
“I was much more
I sort of knew the process.”
I knew the programme in a sense.
I know it’s not exactly the same,
“but I knew I knew the format at least,
and the general psychology.”
“And at the end of the alcohol seminar,
I, you know, I, it was easy.”
It was easy, It was wonderful.
“But I wasn’t surprised that it was easy,
you know.”
“So I wasn’t quite, you know, I didn’t have
Yeah, it just wasn’t quite as”
taken aback by.
I was just like, oh okay, cool.
There’s too much emphasis.
“I think, sometimes on how you feel
at the end of the seminar”
“or reading the book, because people think
that maybe your feeling is the indicator”
“of whether or not it’s people are looking
for confirmation that it’s, that it’s”
“that it’s happened,
the magic has happened or whatever.”
“But actually just you as an individual
making your decision, that’s”
when it’s happened.
Absolutely.
“And I love helping people
in social meeting.”
“We got sort of several social media groups
for stopping smoking, slash vaping,”
alcohol, sugar addiction,
whites, emotional eating.
And we just started one for cannabis.
“Somebody asked how would you smoke group
for the kind of business”
there isn’t, but there is now.
So that’s up and running now as well.
Just as a portal where people can can join
and get advice from other members,
“guidance from other members
and and from ourselves”
and I think
I’m amazed.
“It’s really important to me
to get an insight from that because, well,”
“it’s helping people,
you know, learn all sorts of stuff.”
So that’s people quite often
don’t understand certain things.
“So they’ve got an online call book and
they say this just isn’t going to work.”
“I’m reading, I’m reading it
and I’m puffing away.”
“Okay, how is this is this is stop
working of sort”
“of what it does say that it does carry
on smoking all the way through to the end.”
And so I think
the book can be a bit repetitive at times,
“and that is quite deliberate
because people do”
“clearly do need to to be reminded
that, you know, just carry on.”
“Smoking
is not what you’re already smoking.”
“And at the end
you’ll be ready to have a final cigarette”
“and then that’s when you start
now your final cigarette.”
“So those sort of insights
are really interesting,”
“but it’s amazing how much they they
they come up the same way.”
The alcohol book.
People say, you know, to stop working.
“It’s a little difficult,
but I have a horse.”
“I haven’t finished the book yet,
but it’s one of those weird”
sort of situations.
“But the groups
the groups are really helpful.”
I think people do.
“People have got free with a method,
enjoy it,”
“give it encouragement to people
who are struggling.”
They see it as a way of
paying back and it is lovely. So.
“So people celebrate their freedom
together.”
“People get encouraged
if they’re struggling.”
And, you know, we were repeatedly
“offering the free advice,
you know, from the group”
and and touching
responding to those people who need help
“by suggesting
he can easily get in touch with us.”
Free advice.
It’s much easier.
“And it was sort of ten or 15 years ago
with so much support”
“and advice
available to anybody from anywhere really”
who needs advice.
“And that is interesting
because I think Facebook even”
automatically translate languages.
“We got, you know, all kinds of languages
represented in the Facebook”
groups each, and they can interact
“perfectly
well as as people do in an English.”
“That’s wonderful but but it’s good
hopefully is fine.”
“I say whether you read the book again
or attended”
a seminar, I’m sure we would be wonderful.
Thank you so much, John.
That’s it for for this episode.
We’ll see you next time.
“And and you know, hopefully
people will send in some more questions”
“and things that we can address
that will be useful for everyone.”
“Obviously, we have we had great success
this time with people saying”
“where they were from,
that that was a pretty good idea.”
“But forget to tell us where you’re from.
Just it’s nice to know.”
Yeah, it’s a bit of interest to.
So when we were asking the question
and like, say keep those questions
“coming in and please, what do we want
people to do on the down load.”
Subscribe and write the podcast as well.
“That’s very, that’s very important
for getting the word out out there”
that this is sort of
podcast.
It hopes to help advise people
“who want to otherwise
make it to make it free.”
Yeah. Wonderful.
Thank you for having me as a wrap since.
Just additions a dig since
we want to hear your success story
and provide advice is pretty darn
“sure that you want to use
this advice is free”
“so will answer every question
we receive with no exception.”
Take this now from Alan Carr dot com.
Now it’s time for our special feature.
Our guests.
“Richard Branson is a long time
advocate of the easy way method.”
“You might know him
as the founder of Virgin Atlantic”
“and he also controls
more than 400 companies in various fields.”
“We’ve worked with Virgin Atlantic
for many years, helping their employees”
“to quit smoking, and more recently
since 2019,”
“we’ve been working with Virgin Pulse,
which is the health and wellbeing platform”
“in the workplace, to deliver all
stop smoking services to their clients.”
Employees.
“So get ready to be inspired
by one of the most successful”
entrepreneurs of all time.
“Alan Carr has helped thousands of people
to stop smoking”
his method is absolutely unique.
“Removing your dependence on
cigarettes while you smoke.”
And I’m pleased to say
“that his work for many of my friends
and my staff,”
“I stopped smoking a number of years ago
and certainly agree with Alan”
“that life is much fuller
and much more fun without cigarettes.”
Good luck.
“And now we have the pleasure
of talking with Monique,”
“who is one of our very experienced
and successful weight and sugar”
addiction therapists.
“She’s here to share her insights
on how to break free”
“from the chains of sugar addiction
and to live a healthier life.”
Welcome to the show, Monique. Hi.
My name is Monique
“and I’m a senior therapist for the weight
loss and sugar addiction seminars.”
“Ban Sugar
has kind of always been in my life”
from the start, but I’d say, you know,
mentally and
“physically, I thought it helps me
feel better.”
You know, comforted.
“But in reality, it negatively impacted
on my moods how I dealt with stress.”
It affected my anxiety levels as well.
“And and just how, you know, generally
how I just dealt with life”
as it as it came at me.
So I didn’t sleep very well.
I often stayed up really late
“into the night
during college and university time.”
“And that wasn’t because I was going out
lots or anything.”
“It’s just, you know,
I just didn’t sleep very well.”
“But physically, my skin,
you know, was affected.”
“I had achy joints, which is
probably unusual for somebody so young.”
“And I struggled with bouts of kind of IBS
like type flare up flare ups.”
“So, you know, I fell ill numerous times
throughout the year as well.”
“And I usually felt bloated
and I just thought that was normal.”
“You know, I really struggled with flip
flopping with my weight.”
“So, you know, I put on lots of weight
and then I’d lose lots of it as well.”
And this often happens for for many years
I was probably about 13 stone.
“So I was like a UK size 14 or so,
or at least”
I tried to fit into a UK size 14.
But yeah, I’d say that was my worst,
“but often kind of really go up and down,
fluctuate with my weight.”
“I just didn’t have
a very good relationship with my eating.”
I often equated,
“you know, weight loss
with very little basically.”
So I just continued eating junk.
“But I just thought, Oh,
I just had to eat less of it.”
“So I’d go for long periods of
restricting myself when it came to eating.”
“So basically starving myself and and not
getting very many good foods into my body.”
“And then, of course, there’s only so long
you go on doing that.”
So I did eventually fall off
“and go right back into eating
lots of brown sugar,”
“so refined sugars, processed
starchy carbs, junk food, basically.”
“And when would you say your relationship
with food became distorted?”
I’d say college, actually.
Or coming out of secondary school
because I’d
“put on a significant amount
in a way, over a over a summer.”
I think it was I’d, you know,
“probably wasn’t very active,
but also eating lots and lots of junk.”
So I’d put on a lot of lot of weight.
And college was kind of a time where,
“you know, I wasn’t
I was meeting new people.”
So you know, socialising a lot more.
“And I think that was around
the time where I thought, oh gosh,”
I think I need to lose some weight.
“This is probably probably
when I started to, to I guess, diet.”
“So how did you hear about Alan Carr’s
Easy Way?”
Yeah.
So funnily enough it was through a friend
who wrote the Stop Smoking book, so
this might surprise you.
Can. In fact, I was a smoker as well.
Oh, I didn’t know that.
“I know I don’t tell many people,
but it wasn’t a.”
Huge.
“Issue for me at the time, But
it was beginning to snowball a little bit.”
It was kind of in my uni years.
“So, you know,
you kind of end up doing lots of things.”
And smoking was one of them.
“So I was a bit of a casual smoker,
but I could tell that it was getting”
to be a bit of a problem.
“So anyway,
I heard about it through a friend”
“who had stopped smoking
successfully through reading the book,”
“and this inspired me
to want to read the book myself.”
So I basically stopped.
“Then of course, I’m a bit of a researcher
I like to call myself.”
“So I looked more
into what this was all about,”
and that’s when I
“discovered, you know,
there was more books available.”
“So yeah, that’s kind of how I came
across the method, though.”
“Did you read the book
or did you come along to a seminar?”
“Yes. Yes, I read The Weight
The Easy Way to Lose Weight book,”
“which is a slightly older
version of the method,”
“and that kind of transformed
my way of thinking”
“surrounding foods
and kind of fat diet mentality”
“and that kind of
yo yo thing that I was doing with my”
with my weight and my eating.
“So that really inspired and changed
the way I looked at food in general.”
“So you changed your relationship with food
and then what made you”
then want to become a therapist?
Yeah.
So I was invited to help
“with the life seminars, help
create the life seminars for the”
weight loss and sugar addiction program
and with the books, actually.
“So this kind of at this point,
I was already kind of”
“very inspired
by the easy way to lose weight book.”
“You know, I had this, you know, interest
in the way I ate”
“and using food as a form of medicine,
I guess, and improving on my health.”
“So at that point,
I was very much interested in my eating”
“and I was invited to help
with developing the new”
“weight loss and sugar addiction program,
as well as”
going on to develop the the books as well.
“And what’s it like now for you to be
delivering the message to other people?”
Yes. So very, very interesting.
“And Exciting, actually,
because you get an array”
“of different types of people
coming along, people who kind of”
“just want to focus on their sugar
addiction”
“are the people who have joined
with the view of losing weight.”
“And then it’s wonderful to kind of start
to see the”
“the Cokes, the wheels changing and turning
as you kind of”
“go throughout the day in them
and then realising actually the”
“the source of the problem
is, is essentially brown sugar”
and helping them to get free of that.
“It’s it’s wonderful to see that kind
of mindset change as you work for the day.”
“And you know, it’s it’s
great to be able to help”
“all sorts of people come along and,
you know, stop eating junk basically.”
So yeah, it’s, it’s exciting.
“So what kind of people come along to
your seminar”
is is it mainly men or women or what?
What’s the general demographic?
Yes, it’s a mixture of people.
“I’d say it’s
usually the both women and men,”
“but I’d say kind of between their forties
and fifties.”
“But I do often get people who are
in the younger years or much older.”
So there is an array,
I guess the
“majority are usually in their forties
and fifties.”
So it’s kind of an interesting
“point in their life because obviously
they’ve gone for years of dieting,”
“you know, losing lots of weight,
but also just put it all back on”
and been unsuccessful.
“So it’s great
because they’ve come to a point”
where they’re like,
“I need to make a serious change and
I want to make this a lifestyle change.”
“So it’s wonderful
to have that group of people.”
“Now that’s the thing, because
once you’ve been through that binge”
“cycle a few times and the dieting and
and you realise that it doesn’t work,”
“then you, you recognise that you need
a completely different approach.”
“And that’s what’s great about the Alan
Carr programme is”
“it’s not a set of recipes
from the latest celeb, it’s completely”
“resetting your psychological framework
around eating.”
Yeah, and is this a lifestyle change?
So we’re not promoting
“that kind of documents fallacy
or about counting calories as actually”
“undoing years of brainwashing
surrounding what we view what junkies”
and the kind
“of undoing diet mentality
that you must lose”
“as much weight as soon as possible
in order to be successful.”
“It’s actually kind of just drawn you back
to a more natural way of eating and”
“inspiring a lifestyle change
that you can live this way”
“for the rest of your life
and enjoy it too.”
“So when I refers to Ban Sugar, it’s
kind of talking about refined”
“sugars,
processed and starchy carbs as well.”
“So most people think, oh, it’s
this sugary items that are an issue,”
“but actually it could be
things are savoury to processed.”
“But what you would wouldn’t associate
with sugary items like,”
I guess, breads, pasta,
“things like that,
they are all processed and can cause you”
“and then an issue in the form of bad
sugar addiction.”
So yeah, when I talk about brown sugar.
“It’s not just overtly sugary items,
but it is also,”
“you know, starchy,
processed carbs as well.”
And it’s kind of undoing that brainwashing
“that we need them
in order to enhance our lives in some way.”
“And by not having them, you’re missing out
in some way.”
“You know, people feel like it’s a way
of connecting with family, friends or,”
you know,
“it’s it’s to help you
through the stresses of life”
“or to comfort you
or when you’re feeling low.”
So brown sugar kind of gets all these,
“you know, all sorts of credit
for all sorts of things.”
“But actually, in reality,
it doesn’t do any of those things.”
And Shorten does the very opposite.
“It’s just just keeps you
in that addiction trap.”
“So is your aim
to reduce the intake of bad sugar”
or is it to eliminate it completely?
Yes, to it to remove that
desire to have it at all so that if you
so that you can eat
“more wholesome foods, foods
that are easily digestible”
“give you the lovely news
that your body is actually yearning for”
“and gives you the real energy
and vibrancy.”
“So basically fruit,
vegetables, nuts and seeds.”
“But you know,
you don’t to be a vegan for this to work.”
“And I’m certainly not
promoting veganism at all.”
“But if you want to be a vegan,
that’s great.”
“If you don’t totally, you can be totally
successful without becoming.”
“So you can continue to eat
things like meat, fish, dairy”
and be absolutely fine.
“But it is about inspiring and encouraging
the bulk of what you’re eating”
“is going to be primary foods,
fruits, vegetables and things like that.”
“And the idea is to completely remove
that desire for junk food”
so that you can go on about your day.
Choosing the foods,
“give you the real energy
your body’s body is yearning for.”
“And what are the results
that you’re achieving?”
“What’s the feedback
like from the seminars?”
“Yeah,
so generally I’ve had people who said”
that they feel more energised,
“you know, just you know,
not having to experience these mood swings”
“that they thought previously were normal
and, and every everyday part of their life”
“they’ve discovered that they do
enjoy certain fruits that they thought”
“they didn’t enjoy before,
but because they were eating junk,”
“they couldn’t actually taste the lovely,
wonderful tastes of fruit and vegetables.”
“And then I guess there’s the, you know,
the the external changes like weight loss.”
“It’s often I’ll get somebody say
they’ve lost two stones or,”
“you know, however
much over a certain period of time.”
So it’s great to hear.
“Most importantly,
it’s great to hear how they feel”
“and how that’s impacted on their life
in that way positively.”
“And when did you quit
anything else with Allen?”
Cause easy way.
It did actually stop drinking
and I think
“that was of is as a result of me
stopping eating junk.”
“So it was a by-product of that
because what I realised was”
my body just kept.
“I was more sensitive, I think I was more
I recognised that I just couldn’t”
take drinking any more.
“And it was, I guess, the last addiction
I had to deal with.”
And it happened quite naturally.
“I just thought, okay, if I feel like this
with if I felt like that with junk,”
“how can I continue
to ignore how I feel without coal?”
So it just inspired me to want to stop.
“And I’ve actually been a non drinker
for four years.”
“I think it’s coming up to four years
or even maybe more.”
“Yeah,
five years in January. I think it is.”
So yes, it’s gone really quickly.
I it’s just crazy.
“Thought alcohol
was always going to be a part of my life.”
You know, I’ve
you know, it’s very social thing.
“It hasn’t been quite demonised
like smoking has, even though,”
“you know, people will still go
to great lengths to continue to, to smoke.”
But yeah, it just,
“it was quite natural for me to stop after
stopped eating junk.”
I just continued to ignore.
“How and why did you think you’d be now
if you hadn’t come across?”
Allen calls easy.
“Way, probably still drinking,
smoking and eating junk. So.”
And yeah, I have no clue.
I don’t.
I can’t even consider it, to be honest.
I can’t even imagine it what life would be
“if I was still
if I hadn’t come across the all.”
Yeah.
I can’t even imagine that.
It’s not even worth giving the energy to.
But yeah.
“And how have your friends and family
reacted to these changes that you’ve made?”
“Because, you know, sometimes
there can be a bit of resistance.”
And there was. Yeah.
So funnily enough, when I
stopped drinking,
that was probably one of the biggest ones.
You know, I was, I was very much,
I guess the party starter,
so I would usually be the one going,
Hey, let’s have shots or
you know, I’d be the last one drinking.
So I think going from drinking locks
to just not drinking at all, that was
“that was probably a bit of a shock
to some of my friends”
“and they just had to make
a slight adjustment.”
“Some of them didn’t understand right
away, but, you know, when they realise”
“actually, you know,
I was looking brighter, healthier,”
they were quite happy to just support it
in terms of food,
I’d say that was probably easier.
Initially there was,
“you know, there was probably
some questions about, Oh,”
“are you on a diet or you know,
what are you doing this for? But”
yeah, it was it was pretty easy.
“I think it was
alcohol was the one that was”
“the one that most people
had the most issue with,”
“because that’s pretty much
what everyone does, really.”
So yeah, so.
“What do you do now then,
when you’re going out with your friends?”
So I’m a connoisseur of sparkling water
and a bit of lime,
fresh lime.
In terms of eating,
“I will tend to either eat
before I go out or”
“I am the sort of person
who will call the restaurant”
“beforehand
if they can offer me some lovely options,”
“or if I can choose the restaurant,
then I’ll check out the menu.”
I am very much an organiser
“so I love to organise where we eat anyway,
so it’s easy, easy for me”
“and I often cheese great spots
for everybody else if I say so myself.”
But yeah, yeah, for easy.
And I think what helped with the method
as is, I gave me a lot of confidence
“because there will be people who question
what you do.”
Why are you doing it?
“But actually the method
just kind of helps you to see,”
“do you want to keep giving up your freedom
any more?”
“Is that worth that time and energy,
that money spent?”
Not really.
“And actually I’m much more confident
now than I was ten years ago”
when I was eating and drinking.
“And finally, funnily enough,
those are the things I thought”
“helped me with my confidence, helped me,
you know, be more sociable.”
“But actually they were stopping me
from developing those social skills”
“in a sense, because I’d quickly down
a couple of glasses of wine,”
“I’d have, you know,
that junk food too to make me feel better.”
But actually
“they were just stopping me
from living life to its fullest,”
“stopping me from actually finding out
what I really wanted to do in life.”
I really wanted to enjoy in life.
“And it had nothing to do
with those addictions.”
“Those addictions were stopping me
from being mine.”
Happy yourself, I guess.
“Yeah, because I remember
when I was eating Bad Sugar,”
“it was something that I really regarded
as being a treat.”
Like if I was coming home
“after a long day at work
and I would think, Oh good, you know,”
“I could get home all slumped in
front of the telly and I’ll just eat junk.”
But what’s lovely is through the Alan
“Carr method, you can understand
and recognise that that is not a reward.”
That’s slavery.
Yeah, absolutely.
“And I think it’s funny because, you know,
you’re not the only person.”
“I think
lots of people who attend the sessions”
“will say that will say, Oh,
but what am I going to do in the evening?”
“What am I going to enjoy like home,
How am I going to enjoy my evenings?”
But actually it’s not an enjoyment
“to sit in front of the telly and eat
all of that junk because the junk is”
“what’s making me feel slow, is
what’s making you feel low.”
“In fact, it has a really aggressive effect
on your on”
“your your mood and your your
and your body as well.”
“So the very thing that they think will
help them feel comforted is the very thing”
“that is actually stopping them
from truly relaxing, truly,”
you know, enjoying that evening.
Yeah, that is amazing.
“Thank you so much for sharing your time
with us and for all the work that you do,”
helping people, too.
And it comes easy way too.
A free themselves from addictions.
What a fantastic episode.
“We appreciate all your questions
and we’re thrilled”
“to have had Monique
and John as our guests alongside.”
Sir Richard Branson.
“If you enjoyed this episode as much as we
did, please help us get the message”
“out there by liking subscribing
and rating the podcast and don’t”
“go anywhere because we still have
some amazing episodes coming up soon.”
So keep listening.
