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.