Idea to try: Get a magical piece of jewelry

One of my favorite tools for healthy eating is my magical “unstoppable” bracelet.

OK, so it's not really magical. But it feels like it is.

It’s a bracelet I had made from a website called MyIntent. I have no affiliation with them, and there are many other places where you can get a mantra bracelet made (you can even make one yourself by writing on a rope bracelet or something).

It’s just a simple word — I chose “unstoppable” — that I see every time I look down at my wrist.

What makes it magical is that every time I wear it, I really feel powerful. It even feels like when I wear it, it’s impossible for me to break my bright lines. I have to eat healthfully, with no sugar, no flour and no snacks, because when that bracelet is on, it keeps me on track.

I like thinking this way. There’s something about having that bracelet on, seeing it regularly, touching it during the day, and knowing that in the past when I’ve worn it I’ve been solidly on-plan. It just seems to work. I don’t want to break the spell.

Could be a useful tool in your toolbox too if you need some extra support.

Why Summer is an Ideal Time to Take a Break from Sugar and Flour

If you’re fed up with vowing every morning that you’ll eat healthfully and then breaking your vow by evening, then summer might be the perfect time to take a break from sugar and flour.

Here are 4 reasons why:

1) Summer is full of fun things you can’t experience fully when you’re eating crap.

There are so many joyful things about summer: the scent of flowers and fresh-cut grass, the cold splash when you jump in a pool, the sound of birds singing when you wake up in the morning, the feel of sand between your toes.

Eating crappy food — and overeating food — not only numbs you from the lows in life, it also numbs you from those kinds of joys. If you really want to feel, smell, hear, and immerse yourself in summer, you have to stop numbing out with sugar and flour.

2) Learning how to have fun without sugar and flour will transform you.

When you can’t celebrate summer with ice cream and popsicles, you learn how many other wonderful ways there are to enjoy the season without junk food.

How about trying things you’ve always wanted to do — like rock-climbing or zip-lining? Or, if peaceful things are more your speed, what about starting a ritual of starting the day with a cup of tea out on the patio or balcony? Finding an outdoor yoga class? Learning to create the perfect container garden?

There are so many fantastic things to do in summer. But they all start with getting off the sugar and flour. That’s the foundation. That’s where it starts. Being sugar- and flour-free is the start for all the wonderful things that summer can be about.

3) You can get closer to people you love.

Overeating takes a lot of time and energy. You spend time worrying about what you’re going to eat, how much you’re going to eat, and whether you’ve gotten enough. Not to mention the time you spend feeling bloated and sluggish.

Wouldn’t you rather spend that time and energy playing in the park with your children? Or walking in the woods with your spouse? Or just watching a beautiful sunset?

When you’re not stuffing yourself with unhealthy food, you’ll be present and alive for time with your children, your partner, your friends and your family. That’s not just a gift to them, it’s a tremendous gift to yourself.

4) You’ll look better.

I don’t just mean you’ll have a slimmer body, although that is awesome. Healthy food gives your skin a glow and your hair a shiny sheen. Your eyes will sparkle when your brain isn’t soaked in sugar and flour.

If you’ve been thinking about giving up (or resuming giving up) sugar and flour, don’t wait for “motivation” to strike you. Motivation rarely hits out of the blue and when it does, it rarely lasts. Instead, action often comes before motivation. Action often is what leads to motivation.

So consider using the motivation of summertime to give yourself a challenge. Quit sugar and flour until Labor Day. Resume your healthy eating plan for the next two months. Whatever. There will never be a better time than right now.

Four ways to de-stress other than eating

Sometimes, you really just gotta do something to work the stress out. But you can get yourself into a horrible food addiction mess by constantly making that “something” a little some-some to eat.

When you regularly self-soothe with food, that’s just adding stress to the stress. Eating thinking it will de-stress you is not self-care, it’s self-sabotage.

So here’s some things to do that will de-stress you with love and care, not destruction:

OLD HABIT: It’s been a really tough day at work, so I need a glass of wine to unwind.

NEW HABIT: Sit down for a healthful meal with your partner or a good friend. No TV, no books, no social media. There are lots of studies that show how social connection helps boost mental health.

OLD HABIT: I’m exhausted from a long day of hard work. I just want a bowl of ice cream for dinner

NEW HABIT: I’m tired, so what I really need is a nap to get some energy back. Sleep will restore me in a way food never can.

OLD HABIT: I’m tired of being on-the-go all day. I just want to sit and watch TV.

NEW HABIT: Take a bath or meditate for 20 minutes. When I’m overstimulated, I need to just sit and be still for a while. TV tends to be stimulating, not relaxing. I need to let my mind be still for a while if I really want to feel better.

OLD HABIT: I’m bored so I’ll go online to social media and get sucked into endless Pinterest searches or political debates on Twitter.

NEW HABIT: When I’m bored, I take a walk outside in nature. Being out in fresh air energizes me in a way social media just can’t.

Inspirational self-love quote for the day

Be the love you never received.
-- Rune Lazuli

Inspirational self-love quote for the day

It's not selfish to love yourself, take care of yourself, and make your happiness a priority. It's a necessity.
-- Mandy Hale

Inspirational self-love quote for the day

You can't hate yourself happy. You can't criticize yourself thin. You can't shame yourself worthy. Real change begins with self-love and self-care.
-- Jessica Ortner

Story Time: Life Seen Through an Empty Wrapper

It’s late at night and I’m sitting on my patio, looking at the moon, which is bright and very high. And the stars shimmering on the nearby pond. I should go inside and get some sleep. But before I do, I’m sitting here, finishing my tea and thinking. I’m thinking about you.

Yes, you. The one who is sitting on your patio, or in your living room, or at your kitchen table right now. Staring at an empty wrapper of something you just ate. Something you swore you would not eat today.

It’s not like you don’t know better. You know exactly what and how much you need to eat in order to lose your excess weight and free yourself from the demons of overweight and food obsession. Those demons you have been battling for years. You finally found a plan that works, and it worked beautifully. For a while.

Then somehow it didn’t work any more. You had an unusually stressful time at work. Or someone you dearly love passed away. Or it was a really, really, very special occasion. You just really wanted to celebrate or you just really needed to take the edge off.

Whatever it was, you decided to give yourself a little pass. Just for this once. You would go back to the plan right away, but on this one occasion you just really needed something.

So you had a little bit. And you went right back to the plan again.

Except that now the wolfie voice was awake again and whispering in your ear. You didn't know it was awake, but it was.

So in a short while, maybe a few days or maybe even a few weeks, you had a little more to eat off your plan. A bite here, a bit more there.

But really, still, you were going to go back to the plan, no question. But it would be tomorrow.

And then another tomorrow came and it happened again. You started the day with the best intentions but things happened and well, by evening you had veered off course again.

And then it happened again. What was going on? What was wrong with you? Why couldn’t you just resume successfully? You did it so well for a long time. For weeks and weeks, you were eating exactly according to plan and it wasn’t that hard. Why is it so hard now? Can’t you just Stop. Picking. Up. The. Food.

And maybe you even decided you needed to hide it. Can’t let anyone know you're eating uncontrollably again, after they have seen you do so well for so long. Maybe you hid a stash of goodies in the garage, or in an upper cabinet, or in your car, out of easy access. But in your heart, you know there's a good chance you'll go and get some, when the wolf voice is calling too loudly.

Maybe there are empty wrappers hidden in your car right now, so your spouse or your kids won’t know how much you’ve been eating in secret. Maybe you have stuffed wrappers into the bottom of your kitchen garbage can, so no one will find them.

And now, it's practically a daily thing. Every day, it’s the same. You wake up and vow to yourself that this is it. Today is the day you will resume your eating plan. For real this time. There is no way you are going to revert to old eating patterns. Not today.

But then life happens and you come home tired and it just feels like too much. So again you eat and now there’s an empty wrapper on the table.

You are not alone. I have been there. Dozens, hundreds, thousands have shared this experience.

This is what happens when wolfie takes over your brain. And it is absolutely, completely and unquestionably possible for you to resume successfully.

I want you to know that. I am sitting here right now because it was possible for me. And I never thought I'd be able to resume. If I can do it, and thousands of others can do it, why not you?

One way to start is by putting down the food right now.

Throw away that wrapper. Do the next right thing. Then do the next right thing. And then the next right thing. Keep doing the next right thing until you get where you want to go.

BLE Relapse Recovery Strategy: Course Correction High Intensity Protocol

When my bright lines were hopelessly broken and I was eating again at will -- whenever the urge struck me, and often endlessly throughout the day -- I started poking around in the Bright Lifers social media page for tools that might help.

In the files section, I stumbled upon an idea that turned out to be a lifesaver.

The original document was titled "Nili's Course Correction High Intensity Protocol." I haven't been able to track down Nili to thank her for this. It saved my program several times. It saved me.

The concept builds, I think, on the idea that if committing to a full day of Bright Line Eating feels too daunting, then just commit to doing an hour. An hour is a lot easier to get through. An hour feels manageable.

And you can track it. Simply to make a chart with the days of the week listed across the time, and every hour of the day down the side.

You fill in "Bright Line Meal" at your regular meal times. And for every other hour of the day you write "No food at all."

Here's what my version looks like, based closely on Nili's original:

Print out a copy and carry it with you all day. Every time you successfully complete an hour's assigned task, put a big X in that hour's column.

After a while, I found myself spurred to get to the end of a day with a full row of X's in that day's column. I even used a bold red felt-tip marker to make my X's. It felt soooo good to have a full column of bright red X's. Having a full week of bright red X's was magical!

If your bright lines have broken and seem beyond repair, using a CCHIP chart might help.

[If you want a copy to print, you can find Nili's on the Bright Lifers Facebook group's "files" section, or message me and I can send you mine in Microsoft Word.]

[Disclaimer: I am not officially affiliated with Bright Line Eating and the ideas expressed here are my own.]

When you’re afraid to resume BLE because you’re afraid to fail again

One of the biggest struggles I have faced in Bright Line Eating is how to resume after breaking my bright lines repeatedly. How do you get your bright lines back after you’ve broken them ... again and again and again.

And in the back of my brain was always the niggling thought, “What if I break my lines again? What if I fail again?”

For me, this usually quickly escalated into “I fail everything.” “Of course I’m going to fail again.” “Why should this be any different?”

So the other day, I sat down for a good chat with myself. I decided to do what I've read is good for when obsessive thoughts start wandering around in your brain. I challenged myself to turn those thoughts around.

Sure, I'm afraid of breaking my bright lines again. But that doesn’t mean this fear is a bad thing.

It’s perfectly OK - it could even be good -- to be nervous about trying again. That just means I know Bright Line Eating is a good idea. I know this is what I want.

For another, it means I know that overcoming food issues will be tough. I don’t think it’s going to be a breeze. That'll be helpful when a craving or challenge strikes.

And there will be cravings and there will be challenges. I know I’ll get stressed and want to eat. I know I’ll want to eat. These things are going to happen. That's just life. It's OK and it's not an excuse to break my bright lines.

And that means I can take the next step. I'm not doing BLE because I think I'll never be hungry and have cravings and want to eat like crazy again. I'm doing it because I don’t want all the crappy things that come with eating addictively — the constant thinking about food, the headaches, the low energy, the pasty skin, the obesity, the not being able to go on roller coaster rides, the needing seatbelt extenders on airplanes, the diabetes, the losing everything.

And you know what, it worked. I'm not so nervous about making resuming BLE again. As always, when I break my bright lines, I learn from the experience, pick myself up and start all over again.

Relapse sucks and it's great if it never happens. But fear of relapse isn’t bad. You can learn a lot if you sit down and listen to your fears.

How I Maintain my BLE Habits When I Travel

The other day, I read a great article by Zdravko Cvijetic about “How to Maintain Your Habits When Traveling.” He’s interested in habits in a broad sense — things like exercising or reading every day — and how to ensure you don’t drop those habits when you travel.

But the article struck me as totally applicable to Bright Line Eating habits. So powerfully, in fact, that I decided to see if I could adapt/refocus/rearrange his approach to work for my food habits.

So here goes:

If is one thing I’ve learned since beginning a no-sugar, no-flour, no-snacks food plan (Bright Line Eating) in October 2016, it’s that sticking to the plan when you travel can be challenging. Not for everyone, but for sure for me.

It doesn't matter whether it’s a vacation or a work trip. When I leave the safety of my own home and kitchen, and change my environment, a lot of things suddenly leave my control. It’s hard to be consistent and stick to the tools that work.

Part of it — a big part of it — is just not being able to control my food. You often can’t cook or even grocery shop when traveling. That’s fundamental, and in the bootcamp for Bright Line Eating, dealing with the details of food (what to eat, where to eat, what to buy) while traveling gets covered in beautiful detail.

But there’s more to it. A lot of other things also leave my control:

— Interrupted sleep (jet lag, early flight departures, trouble sleeping in a strange bed)

— Forgetting crucial items, like batteries for my food scale or the phone number of a buddy.

— Being on the go all day (not enough down time to recover and restore)

I could go on, but you get the picture.

It’s stressful when you can’t keep up with the things that have become part of your daily routine and are essential for success on this journey. And the really critical problem is that once I’ve delayed or skipped a certain tool, it’s harder and takes much longer to go back to it once I’m home again.

So what can I do to make it easier for me to stick to my routines and tools? How can I do everything possible to ensure I don't break my habits even though I'm traveling?

1. Make a plan.

Susan Peirce Thompson, the guru of Bright Line Eating, uses the great quote, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

So when it’s time to travel somewhere, remind yourself that you'll need to do certain things to maintain your habits. Then, make a plan for how you'll do that.

Say, for example, meditation is an important tool for you. How can you ensure you’ll meditate? Maybe you will download a ten-minute guided meditation and set the alarm for 6:30 every morning to do it. Or, if you don’t know your schedule, make a commitment to yourself or a buddy that you will do a short 4-minute meditation every day, no excuses.

Do the habit, even if it’s for a shorter duration than you usually do at home.

2. Prioritize your habits.

Now, take some time to really look at the habits you do every day to keep your healthy eating plan going. Write down the 4-6 habits that you do every single day. Can you pinpoint the 2-3 that have the most significant impact on your life?

Make a commitment to do those 2-3 habits every day, no excuses. If you can do the others as well, great. But those 2-3 are non-negotiable.

Sometimes, it’ll be possible to do 6 of your regular habits while traveling, sometimes you’ll only be able to do 4. Or 3.

You don’t have to beat yourself up if you can’t commit time to all your tools. But make sure the most significant ones get done.

3. Create a travel habit kit.

Pull together whatever you need to maintain your habits. If a habit is to meditate, pack your favorite meditation bench or make sure your iPhone has your favorite meditations downloaded in case the hotel wifi isn’t working.

If an important habit is to call a buddy or two, make double-sure you have their phone numbers and email addresses. If it’s important that you weigh your food, pack your scale and bring extra batteries. If you have trouble saying no when friends encourage you to join them for a quick drink in the evening, brainstorm what you’ll say and commit that you will say it.

For me, an important habit is getting 7-8 hours sleep, so I do not, under any circumstances, schedule a flight for too early or too late in the day. I pack an eye mask,  some soothing fall-to-sleep music and ear plugs.

Do this for every habit, whether that habit is non-negotiable or not. Do whatever you need so that you have all the available resources to maintain your habits. Otherwise, Wolfie will jump in and tell you why you don’t need to do it (“oh, your batteries died and you have no extras and the motel has no shop and there’s no store in walking distance?  Just skip weighing your food for the rest of the trip.”)

Last Thoughts

I have a 10-day trip coming up. Ideally, I'll be able to travel and still stick to all my usual habits. That is the best-case scenario and what I always aim for when I travel. But circumstances change and it’s not always possible.

It is really easy in those moments to give up, skip a habit and lose momentum.

Consistency is what you’re aiming for. Even if you can only achieve it minimally.

Momentum can be very hard to achieve. So do whatever you can to keep the momentum going. Even if it means meditating for 1 minute rather than your usual 30. It’s all about consistency and momentum.

[Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Bright Line Eating or Susan Peirce Thompson, and the thoughts here are my own].

The unique struggle of starting BLE from a smaller number

Bright Line Eating recently added special interest groups and I'm thrilled. Hooray! A way to make the big Bright Lifers facebook group seem smaller and less intimidating. A way to connect with people who share your struggles.

And ... there was no group for me.

Sigh.

I was hoping there might be a group for people who have relapsed repeatedly (yeah, that would be me). Or introverts who avoid phone calls the way vampires avoid the sun (also me).

Or ... for people who began with smaller numbers.

Now, that last statement might make you pause. Aren't the people coming from larger weights the ones who need Bright Line Eating most? Isn't their weight often a serious health issue? Even a life-and-death situation?

Yes. Yes. And yes.

And.

And I am convinced that people who begin the program at lower weights have unique struggles and challenges. I don't say worse. Not bigger. Not more important. But unique and absolutely challenging struggles.

I've been thinking about this a lot ever since I read somewhere that some members of Overeaters Anonymous feel resentful of people who come into meetings and don't look obese. That broke my heart, because my fight with food (and I bet many others' fight) has been decades-long and immensely painful, even though you might not see it as clearly on the outside.

So here's my attempt to address the issues, for those curious about why people who struggle with food addiction but don't have huge weight problems have unique challenges:

1. It's easy for us to tell ourselves "it's not that bad. I don't need to address my food issues."

I've been a food addict for at least 39 years, going back to the days when I hid candy in my childhood puppet theater and sometimes bought two ice cream cones pretending one was for a friend, even though I planned to eat them both. I once bought a box of cake mix so I could eat the whole thing out of the box. In high school, I never ever ever wore pants without a long sweater or tunic over it, to hide the "enormous" size of my butt (I wore a size 12 at the time). Food issues tortured me through high school, college, graduate school, my early career. Years and years.

Still, with restriction and deprivation, I managed to keep my weight in the "overweight" category. At my heaviest, I wore a size 18 on my 5'7" frame — very upper limit of overweight-but-not-obese. But thoughts of food consumed me. It was my best friend, my go-to resource, my constant companion. I hid food from my roommates so they wouldn’t eat it. I panicked if the kitchen didn’t have enough sugary treats in it. I carefully planned trips according to what I could eat on the road.

But when you're not obese, it's easy to tell yourself that your problems just aren't that bad. If you really had a problem with food, you'd be heavier. You're not, so you must be someone who just really really really likes food.

So committing to any food recovery or weight-loss plan was incredibly difficult for me. It was so tempting to quit when it got hard. I would look at people who were obese and reassure myself that I was not as bad as them. They had a problem, but clearly I didn’t.

Except, of course, I really did.

2. Since we're not as heavy as other people, it's easy to make little exceptions that lead to big falls.

I relapsed about 2 weeks after my first Bright Line Eating bootcamp ended.

Yep. Two weeks.

It was Christmas. All my favorite treats were around. I told myself, "hey, I did this thing successfully for 8 weeks. I did great and after all, I'm not as heavy as some of the other people in bootcamp were when we all started. I afford to make one exception. I don't have all that much weight left to lose. Besides, these goodies were made by my niece, who I adore. It would hurt her feelings if I didn’t eat at least one. I can afford to have just one."

So I did. That "just one" led to a string of bright-line breaks, which led to 18 months of heart-breaking, challenging, unsuccessful attempts to resume Bright Line Eating. Eighteen. Months.

Actually, I'd told myself all through Boot Camp that my issues weren't as bad as some others. I hadn't even started Bright Line Eating in order to lose weight. I didn't mind the idea of losing weight, but I'd be OK if I stayed where I was (at the time, at 181 pounds).

So I'd made some little exceptions right from the beginning. Kept the won-ton strips on my Asian salad. Ate some popcorn a few nights when the hunger was really bad. Had a piece of bread in a restaurant if it was a special occasion.

Not surprising, others in my Boot Camp House hung on to their bright lines afterwards for much, much longer. Whenever I poked into Facebook houses, they were talking how they still had squeaky-clean bright lines 10, 25, 50 weeks after boot camp ended. I read the stories of how they'd lost 30 pounds, 50 pounds, 70 pounds. They were wearing smaller clothes and posting photos of huge celebrations.

And there I was, stuck, not moving down any further than my initial 17-pound loss, consumed by my addictive food voice, unable to lose any more and completely unable to resume successfully.

3. It’s easy to feel guilty for being in a weight-loss program, like you’re doing it for selfish and vain reasons, rather than addressing a serious food issue.

One of the first Bright Line Eaters I met in person, rather than virtually, said to me, not long after we met, "Oh, you're in maintenance, right?"

At the time, my BMI put me still in the "over-weight" category. Not even close to the weight goal of 140 I’d set for myself. Miles away from the goal weight of 120-130 for the French plan Susan Peirce Thompson described in Boot Camp.

I felt like a loser, so miserable since I was having so much trouble resuming Bright Line Eating. Her sweet comment, clearly intended as a nice complement, should have made feel proud to be where I was.

Instead it made me feel selfish and vain. Why did I think I even needed to keep doing this food plan? Clearly, I looked fine to others. Was I just wanting to get a handle on my food for vanity's sake, so I could wear skinny jeans and look like a model? It felt like I didn't have a right to want this -- I just needed to get over my vanity and accept my body where it was.

Final Thoughts

Again, I don’t say that food-recovery issues for a person beginning at a smaller number are worse or larger or more painful than for others. But I do say that there are struggles and they are unique struggles.

My particular struggles with relapsing over and over have a lot to do with these challenges.

So in a variation of what Susan Peirce Thompson says about the temptation to monitor what others are eating — I say, when it comes to how much weight a person does or does not have to lose, I really have to keep my eyes on my own plate, not compare myself to others, and remember why I'm on this journey.

[Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Bright Line Eating or Susan Peirce Thompson. The ideas expressed here are my own.]

"If you have a wooden leg, don't dance around the campfire"

Quick thought for the day:

In the grocery store yesterday, I was remembering how when I first gave up sugar and flour, I'd still buy bread and treats for my husband (didn’t want to deprive him). I picked up goodies at the bakery to bring to clients (didn’t want to deprive them). I even went to restaurants where my favorite desserts were sold (didn’t want to deprive my family).

Hanging out at goodie-filled restaurants and passing through the bakery section of my grocery store made me feel like I wasn't abnormal. I was still living in the real world. Sure, I didn't eat that way any more but I still had the fun of choosing yummy goodies.

Yeah. After relapsing a few times, I realized that I simply had no business in any restaurant or store or part of a store, where sugar and flour items that I really, really, really like are sold. It stressed me out and tempted me. It just set me up for a relapse.

Avoiding encounters with tempting food makes my life so much easier.

And helps me stay true to my belief that no one really needs to eat sugar and flour the way we do in our society.

Eight great salads to kick up your routine

In summer, my favorite go-to meal is a giant salad. But I have a habit of getting into a rut. So this summer I'm challenging myself to mix up my favorite salad recipes.

It’s pretty easy to adapt salads to fit your food plan — leave out things like honey if you’re no-sugar; measure protein separately if you measure your food, etc.

Here are a few I've been loving lately:

-- Colorful Chopped Salad With Carrot-Ginger Dressing by Cookie and Kate.

Crunchy healthy twist on a boring Asian salad. The edamame means it can work as a meal in a bowl.

Photo: Cookie and Kate

-- Healthy Broccoli Salad With Creamy Avocado Dressing by Kari of Getinspiredeveryday.com

I make this one for lunch so the grapes can be part of my fruit serving, and the seeds become part of my protein. Also, I can't believe how easy it is to make your own avocado dressing. Where has this idea been all my life?

-- Kittencals Famous Greek Salad

Seriously the best Greek salad dressing I've had, but plan ahead since it needs to sit about 2 hours before serving so the flavors can meld.

-- Mexican Chopped Salad with Lime Cilantro Dressing

You really don't need the chips she recommends, if you’re no-flour.

-- Apple-Walnut-Feta Salad from Anna of themeasuredmom.com

Anna's blog post is full of great Bright Line Eating meal ideas. This salad might be my favorite of her recommendations.

-- Greek Yogurt Chicken Salad from Well Plated by Erin

Like Erin, I've never been a big fan of mayo so the tangy Greek yogurt in this chicken salad is yum-o

Photo: Well Plated 

-- Spicy Thai Cucumber Salad from Debbie of Onelittleproject.com

Spicy but not too-spicy and a great use for a spiralizer

-- Pineapple Cucumber Salad by Trish of momontimeout.com

I never would have thought to mix pineapple and cucumber but they work together surprisingly well.

Anyone else have good salad recommendations?

Motivation is like a shower. You need it every day.

Operation resume day 18 completed. Treat for finishing 18 days: new pair of earrings

"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing -- that's why we recommend it daily." - Zig Ziglar

In my ongoing quest to figure out how to resume and stay in the healthy-eating game, I think about motivation a lot. When my motivation is high, eating on my food plan is easy.

And when do I always fall off? When my motivation sinks low.

This used to bother me. Oh, come on! I got myself all inspired and worked up yesterday. I meditated and listened to some Susan Peirce Thompson videos and prepped my meals and talked with a buddy. Why did I wake up this morning feel unmotivated?? Why do I have to keep doing all these things all over again today? Why doesn't the motivation just stick?

Then I stopped to get gas for my car yesterday and while waiting for the tank to refill, I started thinking about how gas for my car is just like motivation for me. You fill it up, it gets you somewhere, you have to refill it occasionally.

I never complain about having to refill my gas tank (well, sometimes when the price is ghastly high). 

I never start saying, "oh come on, I just filled up the gas tank a week ago! Why do I have to keep doing this every few days or weeks???!!!" No. It's just accepted that the gas will get used up and I'll need more. 

That's pretty much what motivation is like. You fill up your motivation "tank," it gets you through a certain period of time, and you know that periodically you'll need to refill it.

In fact, it's pretty much like anything we need to periodically redo. We take a shower every day and never complain, "Oh come on, I just took a shower yesterday." I've never once felt resentful that I need to reapply deodorant every day. It wears off. Of course I need to reapply.

Motivation is just like that. It wears off and you need to regularly "reapply" it. 

Every once in a while, when I feel like my motivation to do Bright Line Eating is slacking off, I take some time to really, deeply, fully reapply it. I listen to a bunch of BLE videos or coaching calls, I take a day off for full self-care (mediate, walk in the woods, soak in the tub), or read some sober blogs (I don't have trouble swapping out "alcohol" for "sugar" -- for me they're pretty parallel).

Thinking about motivation this way makes it a lot easier for me to stick to the tools that help refill my tank.

[Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Bright Line Eating or Susan PeirceThompson]

I need sleep, not food

Operation Resume day 13 completed. Treat for another bright squeaky clean day: Pedicure

It was a pretty normal work day for me yesterday. Usual driving, usual kind of work. Nothing out of the ordinary.

But oh my word. The food thoughts? Nuts. I was thinking about food just 2 hours after breakfast. All morning I was looking at the clock for lunch hour. When I finished a job at 3 p.m. and got in my car, all I could think about was eating.

The wolfie voice in my brain immediately jumped in, “You’re hungry, you should have a little something or you won’t make it till 5 p.m.” And then, “Maybe instead of eating your packed dinner, you should stop somewhere for a special dinner.”

Then the voice really got nasty: “Why don’t you just order some bread with dinner, how much can one piece of bread hurt?” “It’s been a hard day, you deserve a normal-sized meal. Don’t worry about measuring or even eye-balling.” “Hey, there’s an Italian place. Go there for dinner!”

Arrrrrrggggh. What in the world? Suddenly I was back in the world of food-thought madness, circling in my brain like a maniac. Every other thought was about what I was going to eat, how much, how soon. What was going on?

I stopped for a cup of decaf coffee and sat down to just gaze outthe window and watch my thoughts.

And gradually, it was clear. Crystal clear. I was tired. I woke up at 5 a.m. and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I finally just got up and went on with my day.

And now that sneaky little wolfie addictive brain was using my tiredness as an excuse to start playing all the old tapes in my brain, sending the same messages that have messed me up in the past.

But this time, I know better. I know that very time I give in to Wolfie, Wolfie gets stronger, while I lose my momentum, do a U-turn and have to go through the struggle-to-resume dance.

And I know that every time I stick to my plan, I get stronger. Every time I refuse to give in, I build resilience. I develop the tools I need and get more and more confidence that I can do this.

So I went to bed early last night. Another round to me, Wolfie. Ha! Take that.

Do one small thing

When you are feeling shaky about your eating plan — stressed, tired, worn-out, fed-up, this-close-to-breaking — try this:

Do one small thing.

Do one small action that will bring you closer to your food goals. It doesn’t have to be a major thing, like prepping healthy meals for the rest of the week or calling a health-eating-plan buddy or walking outside for 30 minutes (although all of those are great ideas). Sometimes, when you’re on your last nerve and feeling desperate, even those actions feel too big.

So do a teeny-tiny thing. Make your bed. Put on a nice outfit. Write down your next healthy meal. Do a one day inspirational reading. Meditate for 1 minute.

One tiny step towards your goal.

If you can take one tiny step, you prove to yourself you can take another. And another.

Sugar is not a treat

I came across a great video today of a Ted Talk by Jody Stanislaw titled “Sugar is Not a Treat.” While not all of her ideas mesh with the Bright Line Eating plan (she recommends moderation rather than abstinence), her points are powerful.

My favorite line: “At the rate we are consuming sugar today, sugar is not a treat. Ladies and gentlemen, at the rate we’re consuming sugar today, sugar has become a gradual death sentence.”

You can watch it HERE

Sneaky ways my brain tries to get me to eat

I had to travel today. A one-day in-and-out visit from my home near Chicago to a small city two states away. Flying there required transferring planes in Detroit. The Detroit airport is huge and I once missed a flight there (when I couldn’t race from one gate to the next in time), so it always stresses me out going there. I was nervous already when I woke up this morning. It didn’t help that I had to drive to O’Hare Airport during early rush hour Chicago traffic.

When I arrived at O’Hare Airport, I was informed that the first leg of my flight was delayed. Delayed an hour. Grrooaaann.

That meant I wouldn’t arrive in Detroit in time to get to the gate for my second flight. Grroooaannn again.

No worries, the gate agent told me. They had transferred me to a different flight for the first leg of my trip. Same departure time as my original flight.  Just one hitch — it was leaving from Midway Airport not O’Hare. Midway is about 45 minutes away. They’d give me a cab voucher.

I raced outside, grabbed a cab and begged the driver to get me to Midway as fast as possible. Go, go, go. The driver raced down there, while I hyperventilated in the back.

I’m making a short story long, but the point is this — it was a stressful morning. Very stressful.

And for the first time, I really noticed how all that stress immediately set my addictive brain in action.

No, more than that. Actually, I think my addictive brain was thrilled. Here was the perfect excuse to get me to eat. I was stressed! What could be better?! Bring it on! The more stress, the more likely she is to break!

My addictive brain just thrives on stress. It loooooves it when I’m stressed.

No wonder I immediately was thinking about food, where I could go for a treat, what airport food I’d eat, where I’d go for dinner tonight as a reward for all this stress. I was thinking about food, rather than thinking about how to keep myself calm and at peace.

No wonder my brain tells me it’s a good idea to start doing laundry at 10 p.m. Or to start cooking something when I’ve only got 20 minutes till I need to leave the house.

My addictive brain has a lot to gain when I work myself up into a stressed condition.

And, to get my food thing under control, I can’t let get myself get caught up in the stress cycle. I just have to do the best I can, and then release the results.

This isn’t an easy process, but at least I know what tricks that little devil is up to. And that’s the first step to getting him to stop.