Day five: underwhelm, underwhelm, underwhelm

Day five of my current resume completed. All four of my bright lines are shiny and bright.

And you know why? Because I had a day with no stress. Zero. Everything went easy-peasy. No bad traffic. No work stress. No phone calls or emails that got me riled up.

The house is clean. I wasn’t waiting anxiously for news about anything. It was just ... easy.

And I’m always surprised what a huge impact that has on my eating behavior. In these first early days of getting back on track, this is exactly what I need. To keep the stress levels low. Keep things easy. Don’t take on unnecessary issues. Do the minimum.

Ok, I know, that isn’t always possible. You can’t just stop you life. But you can cut back on anything inessential.

Belle Robertson of tiredofthinkingaboutdrinking.com puts it this way: “Strive for underwhelm.” She recommends that people aiming for alcohol sobriety do the minimum necessary. Don’t just enough at work so you don’t get fired. Eliminate invitations out. Order take-out for dinner. Go to bed at 7:30 if you need to. Strive for underwhelm.

The same applies to food recovery too. Treat yourself as if you are recovering from a really awful bout of the flu. Don’t say yes to invitations out unless you really, really have to. Eat at home as much as you can; restaurants can be too overwhelmingly tempting.

Pamper yourself with whatever you’ve got that’s healthy: hot baths, going to be really early, that special herbal tea you love.

Avoid overwhelm in whatever way you can. These early days of squeaky-clean lines are precious and deserve some pampering