Bright Line Eating 14 Day Challenge

Wow!  Yesterday was a landmark day for several reasons.  First of all, we just had a terrible day.  My son had a very difficult day at school, my daughter fell and cut her hand, and I found out that I will be making very little money this summer.  It all just piled up and caused a huge emotional mess last night.  I also, still had to quickly eat dinner and go teach my night class.  The one thing I'm excited about is that I didn't turn to food for comfort or stress relief.  In fact, I didn't even think about that until the next morning.  WOW!  This is HUGE for me!  I always turned to food in these stressful situations. I'm so thankful to God for delivering me from that bondage.  I can't explain any other way this all happened.  Thank you, God!

What is Bright Line Eating? Now that I have followers, I suppose I should explain the program I'm following.  It's called Bright Line Eating, and it was discovered by Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson.  She bases it on overcoming food addictions.  She has 4 Bright Lines that are established and must not be crossed.  The Bright Lines are: 1.  No Sugar 2.  No Flour 3.  Eat only 3 meals a day 4.  Weight and Portion all food It may look complicated but it's actually very simple.  Here's the food plan: Breakfast: 1 grain, 1 protein, and 1 fruit Lunch:  1 protein, 1 vegetable, 1 fat, and 1 fruit Dinner:  1 protein, 1 vegetable, 1 salad, and 1 fat Here's an example of what that looks like: Breakfast: Greek yogurt (4 oz) and 2% milk (4 oz), Fiber One Cereal (1 oz), and 1 banana Lunch:  Chicken (4 oz), Roasted peppers and mushrooms (6 oz), Cashews (.5 oz), and 1 apple Dinner:  Tilapia (4 oz), Asparagus (6 oz), Salad (8 oz...

WHO AM I? I am having an identity crisis.  I don't know how to answer people when they ask me if I like chocolate.  I would always respond with a very passionate YES!  Now, I stop and think about it.  My automatic reaction is yes, but do I still love chocolate?  Is that who I am anymore?  Have I really stopped eating it forever and removed it from my list of favorite foods?  Or am I only not eating it for a while? I really don't think about it much anymore.  I definitely don't crave it like I used to.  In fact, it's actually not that hard for me not to eat it.  My kids have even been eating Easter candy around me and it doesn't phase me.  But for some reason, I still feel like I have to act like it does because that's who I've always been. Whatever the outcome, I will keep plugging away at this.  I love it!!

I have two exciting things to report for Day 16! 1.  It wasn't difficult for me to turn down chocolate being offered to me by a student.  I always worried about offending them, so I always said yes.  But, this time I just told her that I couldn't eat sugar anymore and thanked her very much for offering.  It wasn't difficult or awkward at all!! 2.  I noticed on my drive home from DMACC that I don't always think about food now!  Usually on my way home I would be thinking about either what snacks to pig out on or that I wasn't going to be able to eat anything when I got home.  Last night, I wasn't thinking about either.  I was thinking about what I want to DO when I get home.

I DID IT!!!!  WAHOO!!!  14 Days.  I loved it!!  I really hope I can do the boot camp now.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!  For St. Patty's day I ate A LOT of green veggies!!  I didn't end up eating what I had written down, but I did observe my bright lines!  I love this way of eating!  I really do want to continue doing this.

Wow!!  Day 12!  Things are going great!  I just watched Susan's video about changing my identity.  I don't think I'm there yet, but I definitely want to be.  I want to be a Bright Lifer!  "I don't eat flour and sugar" instead of "I can't eat flour and sugar right now."  I'm looking forward to the day when I make that shift.