What does it take? It takes what it takes.

Had a HUGE win yesterday. It was a long day — two-hour drive to a gig, a long session afterwards with a dear friend who is coping with job loss and serious marriage crisis. Forgot my pre-packedj weighed and measured lunch at home. Then came home to find my dear little pug Blackie limping and yelping when I tried to pick him up.

Normally, these are the things that would cause me to eat sugar and flour. The voice in my head telling me to eat was SO LOUD. It was like my brain literally thought I was going to die if I didn’t eat right now. I spent an agonizing hour debating in my head.

Finally, a combination of things worked:

— I reminded myself that ANY “use” just increases the cravings for me. It doesn’t make the voice in my head stop. I need to hold fast to my belief that I only eat to nourish my body, not to cope with emotions.

— I reminded myself that I really really really want to keep up the gold stars on my calendar. I have some momentum and don’t want to lose it because it is so hard to get it back.

— I promised myself that I could order a dress I’ve been eyeing for a while IF I didn’t eat. I even

went online and put it in my checkout basket but wouldn’t pay for it until I made it through the night.

— Once I’d reassured myself that my little guy didn’t have a fracture and didn’t need to go to the emergency vet (that is, he’ll be all right to make a visit to the regular vet in the morning), I put him on my lap. So I literally couldn’t get up without potentially hurting him.

Blackie just before being lifted onto my lap

And it WORKED!! It worked.

In the light of morning, this sounds like a ridiculous amount of work just to keep from eating. Honestly, I have to tie myself down with a dog to keep from eating?

But the voice in my head can be ridiculously loud and insistent.

What does it take to keep off sugar and flour? The answer is, always, that it takes what it takes.

I am so happy to wake up today proud of myself, able to add a gold star to my calendar.

And I just ordered that dress!

Little Lies We Tell Ourselves: Part Five

I've posted five blog entries about the lies we tell ourselves to justify continuing to eat sugar and flour.

Here's the last one. And it's a whopper.

Little Lie Number Five: 

Just a little bit won't hurt. Everything in moderation.

My Response:

This thought is the door that opens onto sickness, addiction, and despair. When I find myself using it, it is almost invariably because I'm trying to find an excuse to justify doing something unhealthy.

"Just a little bit won't hurt" leads to just one more little bite. One more more bite leads to eating an entire slice or bag or container.

Any time I give into my brain's request for sugar and flour, it feeds the addictive voice and keeps my cravings alive and loud.

Every bite leads to more, not less, craving. It is much easier to stop.

Get off the sugar and flour train. Eliminating, not moderating, sugar and flour, is the path to health, healing, and happiness.

Because I'm not eating sugar and flour today ...

When you stop eating crap, it's a negative. You've removed something. But you've also added a lot. You've freed up your brainpower, your energy, your health.

Sometimes it helps me to step back and notice all the little things I'm doing today because I'm not messing up my brain with sugar and flour.

So here's today's challenge:

Finish this sentence:

Because I'm not eating sugar and flour today, I ...

• got everything on my to-do list finished by 11 a.m.
• returned all my work emails quickly and without a lot of stress
• finished an essay that has been hanging over my head for a few weeks
• packed up and mailed off to a consignment store clothes that no longer fit me (WIN!)
• decluttered and tidied up a lot of papers around the house that have been piling up
• took a long walk with my pugs and enjoyed the fresh fall air

Not actually me walking a pug. But in my mind, it totally is.

Every time you give up something, you add something to your life. In the case of sugar and flour, when you give them up, you add a LOT to your life.

Little Lies We Tell Ourselves: Part Four

This is my fourth in a series of posts about lies we tell ourselves because we don't want to give up eating sugar and flour and we don't want to start eating more healthfully:

Little Lie Number Four:

I don't have time.

My response:

Thinking we don't have enough time to shop for, prep, and cook fruits and vegetables is one of the most popular excuses we use to not eat well.

And I get it. You do have to shop more frequently if you eat a lot of fresh produce. It does take time to core and deseed bell peppers, peel carrots, chop onions, and all the other gazillion things you need to do, especially when you eat a lot of produce.

But really, I think the time excuse is just an excuse.

The other day, I found myself on the couch scrolling through Instagram. Just a few hours later I was grumbling because the bell peppers need to be prepped and I just didn't want to. So I told myself I didn't have time. Yeah, right, but I had plenty of time for Instagram. It was just an excuse.

My brain wants me to think that prep works takes an unreasonable amount of time and effort because it doesn't want me to eat this way. It wants to give me an excuse to grab a packet of crackers and peanut butter rather than chop and prep bell peppers for lunch.

And I do willingly and happily give myself permission to pay a little extra money to buy pre-prepped veggies. If a store will sell me peeled carrots and pre-cut pineapple, yeah, I'll pay a little more to save myself a little extra work.

But there's more than that. There's a shift in thinking.

When you think about it, eating lots of sugar and flour takes AWAY time. It makes your brain fuzzy so anything involving brainwork takes much longer. It makes you tired so you lose time with family. If you're eating especially large quantities of these things, you're likely to fall into a food coma, frequently.

Heck, you take it to the extreme and notice that eating the Standard American Diet takes away YEARS by robbing you of health, giving you hypertension and high cholesterol, obesity and all the other health complications that come with chronic poor eating habits.

Yes, it takes time to prep veggies, pack your meal in advance if you're taking a road trip, and scan menus to see if the restaurant you're going to has something suitable for you to eat.

But that time is well-spent if it leads to years of healthy, quality living.

It's all about how you choose to see it.

Little Lies We Tell Ourselves: Part Three

Today I want to talk the third lie we tell ourselves when we give up sugar and flour:

Little Lie Number Three:

It's too expensive.

My response:

It is a lot more expensive to recover from a sickness than it is to buy healthy food. Buying healthfully is about thoughtfully spending your hard-earned money to become -- and stay -- well.

Eating healthfully helps stave off infections and reduces your chances of developing obesity-related diseases. You don't have the expenses associated with walkers and wheelchairs from weak knees and hips, pacemakers, physical therapy after a knee or hip replacement. You won't have to buy insulin to manage your diabetes.

Your brain benefits too. A healthy brain functions better. You'll have more money because you'll be making better decisions.

It is a lot less expensive to eat well than to cope with diseases caused by chronic poor eating habits.

Little Lies We Tell Ourselves: Part Two

My previous post talked about the lie we tell ourselves 'this will be hard.' It's not true.

And that's not the only lie we tell ourselves.

Little Lie Number Two:

I don't want to deprive myself.

My response to that:


And it sounds kinda logical, doesn't it? If you white-knuckle yourself into willpower to turn down, say, cake at the office birthday party, it seems to make sense that you'd want a piece of that cake even more.

Weight-loss programs makes tons of money on this doozey. I can't even count the number of times I've heard, "If you deprive yourself of something, it just makes you want it more."

This is why so many weight-loss programs tout moderation. "You can have anything in moderation!" "I can eat anything I want, just in moderation!"

The funny thing is -- it doesn't really work.

Moderation doesn't make me want something less. Whenever I've tried to moderate, it just makes me continue wanting that thing. Every time I have a piece of that cake, I want another. I keep wanting a piece of cake every time I see cake. 

The way I've come to not want cake? By giving it up.

Abstinence makes me want something less, not moderation.

Consider this. No smoking-cessation programs tout moderation as a long-term, lifestyle strategy. I can't name one smoker who decided that having one or two cigarettes a day was much effective in promoting long-term health and wellness than giving them up altogether. 

I've never heard of a drug rehab center that tells addicts, "you can have any drug you want, just in moderation!" (To me, sugar is as addictive and sickness-inducing as cigarettes or drugs.)

So why do weight-loss programs continue to trot this one out -- so persistently?

Probably because the addictive nature of sugar isn't fully accepted and known.

But I think the real reason is because it's what we WANT to hear. Of course, we want to be told not to deprive ourselves. That means we don't have to give up our favorite "hit."

But here's a better way to look at it:

When you give up sugar and flour, we aren't depriving ourselves. Just the opposite. When sugar and flour are a big part of our diet, we rob ourselves of the things we REALLY want -- good health, energy, memory, and a longer, higher quality life.

Getting yourself healthy, well, and happy is about abundance, not deprivation. It's about adding all those good things to your life.

What do you really deprive yourself of when you give up sugar and flour? You deprive yourself of diabetes, depression, poor sleep, headaches, hypertension, dementia, even cancer.

Now those are things I'd happily deprive myself of.

Little Lies We Tell Ourselves: Part One

To kick sugar and flour, I have to get my mind in the right place. Too many people come up with a bazillion excuses to stay sick and addicted.

I've used them myself, over and over. The little lies that keep me fat, shackled, and depressed.

So I want to bring my lies out into the open. No more hiding in the dark recesses of my mind. And with them, I am going to write down the responses that blow them out of the water.

Here we go:

Little Lie Number One:

This will be hard.

My response to that:

It is much easier to focus on getting healthy and recovering than to stay sick/addicted/slowly degrading your brain. Yes, change is hard at first. Any major change is hard at first. The human brain hates changes. Hates, hates, hates it.

So of course it will resist change and try hard to do what it has always done. But with the right attitude, strong strategies, and a firm commitment, it can be hugely rewarding.

Lie number two coming tomorrow ….

[Thanks to Daniel Amen's Memory Rescue book for the inspiration for writing down the little lies I tell myself]