"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.