Finished Day 20 and I'm Still Sober!

Still managing to abstain from sugar (especially sugar). Hooray. Still struggling with overwhelming urges when I'm tired and stressed.

Thing I've Discovered: The more I let myself think about breaking a bright line (should I give in and have another handful of nuts?), the more likely I am to break a line. If I can interrupt the thinking and analyzing, I'm much more likely to stay on course.

There's a quote from Tim Grover (an author and performance quote) that I love: "Don't think. You already know what you have to do, and you know how to do it. What's stopping you?"

I already know that I have to abstain from sugar, flour, and snacks. I know that one cookie is likely to spark out-of-control cookie eating. I know that having a snack to "just the ease the hunger" will wake up my addictive brain and make my mind miserable.

I don't need to think about it. All I have to do is act on that knowledge. Not think about it, act on it.

And best part is, the less that I even think or ponder or wonder about breaking my bright lines -- the more that I just do the things I have to do -- the more motivated I become to do bright line eating. The more I keep my bright lines, the better the chance that I'll shatter the addictive thinking that always leads me to break my bright lines.

That sounds obvious, but for me, it's kind of mind-blowing. I always thought (even if just subconsciously) that you have to be motivated in order to act a certain way. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that motivation isn't what creates action. It's the other way around. Action creates motivation.

Behaving like a bright line eater is what creates a bright line eater.