Three turning points that were essential in my BLE journey

After slogging along on this BLE path for so many months, it's easy for me to feel like I'll just never get it. It's just never going to click for me.

So sometimes I have to stop and acknowledge that I've had some many "ah-ha!" moments on this journey. And those turning points have been profound. Here are the three most remarkable turning points I've hit:

1. Realizing that I cannot have "just one" and resume BLE tomorrow. This belief wasn't something I ever really consciously articulated. In fact, the longer I did BLE, the easier BLE seemed to be. So, since it didn't seem that hard, I couldn't understand why I couldn't just resume. "I do this every day. I can take a day off and then just go back to doing it." It took 16 months of trying to resume for me to realize that resuming is wildly, incredibly difficult. So no, I cannot take a day off. I cannot take an evening off. I cannot have just one.

2. Realizing that flour is as much a problem for me as sugar. Early on, I thought that my real problem was sugar, so I could have flour, at least in moderation. It wasn't until I eliminated sugar entirely that I realized how quickly my addictive behaviors switched to flour-based foods. After binging for months on Ritz crackers and croissants whenever life got hard, I realized that, yes, flour is a problem and yes, I need to eliminate it.

3. Realizing that "not eating" is not a substitute for "eating." When I broke my bright lines, it was usually because I was trying to avoid something: feelings I didn't want to feel, thoughts I didn't want to think. For a long time after starting BLE, I didn't know how to deal with those overwhelming feelings and thoughts. Eating had been my primary, if not my only coping mechanism. "Not eating" wasn't a coping mechanism. I needed better coping strategies and habits. Meditation was a good start, but it wasn't enough for me. I needed a lot of other tools: gratitude work to help shift my thinking patterns, developing solid self-care habits (learning to say no, relaxation rituals, time-outs), learning to sit with uncomfortable feelings. I needed tools to deal with the feelings I was trying to avoid by eating. Only when I got those in place did BLE work for me.


An eating-disorder recovery expert, Andrea Wachter, said, "If you keep going and don’t give up, your awareness will deepen and your progress will reveal itself, often when you least expect it."

Disclaimer: This blog and I are not officially affiliated with Bright Line Eating or Susan Peirce Thompson. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.