Bright Line Living™ - The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast

I’ve been immaculately Bright now for two and a half years, but I know what it’s like to be in and out of the food. In this vlog, I share 8 reasons why it’s worth it to work toward a Bright life—8 real benefits that being Bright earns for you. FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/tcrjhx Why We Stay Bright | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast

You work hard to remain Bright on holidays, but there’s another pitfall you may need to address the day after: post-event collapse syndrome, or PECS. PECS occurs after holidays, when you may have let your guard down. Knowing it may happen, however, can help you avoid it. In this vlog, I break down what it looks like and offer tips to fight it. FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/zl4aby Post-Event Collapse Syndrome (PECS) | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast

We’re coming up on the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States of America. For information on negotiating the day itself, check our vlog archive. Go to www.BrightLineEating.Com and click on the “vlog” link in the menu. Type “Thanksgiving” into the search bar for a treasure trove of entries. Look for a vlog called “Thanks and Giving,” about the twin pillars of navigating the holiday: gratitude and service. There’s also one called “Your Thanksgiving Plan” with concrete information and two on “How to Have a Bright Thanksgiving.”  Today I want to talk about another aspect of the holiday. There’s an old saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the same result. Any chronic dieter can feel that.  Bright Line Eating can give you a new orientation; it helps explain why your brain has been hijacked in the past. It offers multiple suggestions to avoid the insanity, such as uncoupling exercise and weight loss and breaking up with the foods that plague you.  I also say that insanity is finding what really works and then deciding to stop doing it. Anyone who has been Bright for a stretch and then decided to leave BLE has experienced that first-hand. But there’s a third type of insanity with food, and I see it crop up a lot before holidays. It’s thinking that what you really need to make that day work is an alteration to your food plan. For example, you may think, I don’t get fruit at dinner, so I need to rearrange my plan for Thanksgiving so I can have fruit because I need something while everyone is eating dessert.  Or, I would never eat mashed potatoes, I would just have a plain baked potato, but it’s Thanksgiving, so I need to have mashed potatoes.  I’m sure there are a lot of people who think they can take the day off on a holiday. But the only way I’ve ever found to live peacefully Bright is to adopt it as a deep identity and live it 365 days a year.  When I call this insanity, I’m thinking of something like the scales of Lady Justice, with balanced weights on each side. In this case, you may have six ounces of strawberries on one side, counterbalanced with the time spent obsessing over the fruit for days and days before the holiday, as well as the very real possibility that mucking with your food plan may throw you off altogether and result in months or even years of excess eating, weight gain, misery, and myriad health complications. Really, is six ounces of strawberries worth it? A better plan might be to go do the dishes when everyone else is eating dessert; or maybe that’s a good time to lead the table in gratitude sharing. Instead of thinking obsessively beforehand about whether you will or won’t move your food plan around, you could spend that time researching interesting ways to have your family connect at dinner.  For me, this is one of the biggest hallmarks of my disease. When my thinking is diseased, I put my health, my happiness, my self-confidence, my ability to show up for my family, my higher power, my ability to wear all my clothes, my comfort in my own skin—all these things—on one side of the scale, and somehow I have it outweighed by an extra six ounces of strawberries—or a cookie, or whatever—on the other side.  When I am in the grips of my disease, I am unable to call to mind the consequences of going back to my food addiction. The presence of some small bit of food seems to me like it balances out the risk of giving up all those other things. That’s insanity. INSANITY: a lack of proportion, an inability to think straight. Insanity. I’m not saying that it’s a crime to move your food plan around. But I am inviting you to be curious if the negotiator part of you—that’s a form of the food indulger—has started with an insidious “maybe I could, should I make this change…?” loop in your head. If there’s a story you’re telling yourself that a portion of food is the only way to make the day go well, be curious about the lie that may be buried there. In my experience, the only way I have a joyful holiday is by focusing on gratitude, the people, and the day’s meaning. As soon as I start believing that more or better or different food is the answer, I’ve already bought into the insanity.  Remember: there are no Bright Line Eating police. You do you. But I invite you to think clearly about what will make your heart soar on that day. FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/bm9ayy Pre-Holiday Insanity | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast

I was on the Accountability Call on Sunday morning, and a woman needed support. She’s the mother of two small children, and she’s not staying Bright. She’s had success with Bright Line Eating, but is currently struggling.  What’s happening is that she’s going, going, going for her family and getting depleted. At the end of the day, she doesn’t have the energy to start cutting vegetables. She orders takeout, sits on the couch, and overeats.  She commented that it seemed like Bright Line Eating was mostly working for older, retired people who don’t have kids at home. She felt like it was impossible to stay Bright with her kids. The part of her that allows her to indulge is a caretaker part—a food indulger part that has, as its motive, taking care of her, so that she can rest a bit. I related. I was Bright through my kids’ earliest years, but when BLE blew up, and I had to juggle a growing business, it tipped me over the edge. Every few weeks, I’d get a bunch of food, sit on the couch for hours, and binge my brains out. I realized that, just like her, I had a part that was trying to give me a rest. It knew I wouldn’t permit myself to take a break unless I was in the food. What I needed was to learn to give myself permission to rest—without eating. I needed to learn, for example, that I could go take a bubble bath. If I had time to binge, then I had time for a bubble bath.  We talked about the story this mother has in her head about how Bright Line Eating is just for retired folks. Our population indeed skews a little older than average, but that’s mainly because it takes time for people to do enough research to understand that they want to embrace a solution as potent as this one.  What was great was the parents who kept popping into the chat thread to tell us how they were super-bright. This mom realized it was possible to stay Bright and raise your kids at the same time—many others are doing it. Bright Line Eating is for anyone who realizes moderation doesn’t work for them and wants to embrace a powerful approach so they can be free and healthy. Lots of people in their 20s and 30s are doing it successfully. Here are some additional tips: Someone mentioned that you can have a habit stack with kids; it may just mean getting up earlier. Do your self-care before the kids wake up. When our kids were little, they went to bed at 7 pm and woke up at 7 am. I woke up at 5 am, so I could get my self-care done. That may sound like a lot, and it is. Being a parent of young kids is a lot. But it’s way better to do it with gas in your tank, having meditated and having had an amazing breakfast.  We also talked about mom groups in BLE. That support is important. It’s a great strategy to have access to others in a similar situation when you’re working to become Bright.  Another option? She needs to have an easy-to-grab, emergency dinner meal. So if she reaches the point where she is depleted, she can still have a Bright meal. She needs baby carrots, bags of frozen peas, and then mozzarella string cheese sticks, pre-weighed baggies of nuts, or pre-hard-boiled eggs for protein.  If you do this right, it’s faster and easier than take-out. If you have food that you can assemble in 90 seconds—and I’ve done this—you’re set. She loved this idea. All this toward what end? We talked about how it’s so important when you have little kids to be structured and steady. That’s what children need. And when we’re in the food, we can’t do that. When we’re Bright, we’re eating our weighed and measured food on time, we’re feeding them good nutritious meals on time, we’ve got time to be with them in between, to go to a park or museum, or play with them, and we are steady and present for them. We stay Bright so we can be that kind of parent. We can’t be that way if we are binging.  I’m so glad this topic came up. If it’s your situation, please get connected to our BLE community, because there are other parents there who want to know you. FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/qc3rzf Doing BLE When You Have Young Kids | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast

We had an election last night in the U.S., where I live. I suspect that no matter where you live, you know about it. I’m not going to talk about the specifics, for many reasons, one of which is that I’m recording this on Monday, before the election.  I wondered, since we don’t talk about politics in Bright Line Eating, if I should just ignore the election and talk about something else. I decided to address it, though, because I have four thoughts to share. First, I will watch the election returns with my daughter at my dad’s house. We’ll watch late into the night. I remember doing that for two other presidential elections. For one of them, I was happy with the results and for the other, I wasn’t. But in both cases, I binged my brains out while watching with a big bowl of sugar and flour.  I’m not doing that this time. Maybe I’ll have a cup of ginger tea. Maybe I’ll have nothing and just cuddle with my daughter. I feel like there are two separate tracks: Life is happening over here on one track, and on the other side, I’m eating Bright, avoiding sugar and flour, on a totally different plane from all the life-gets-lifey stuff. I wasn’t always able to do that, and I have no judgment on you if you ate your way through election night. I thank God that I don’t need to do that now.  My second thought is that this election brings to mind the Serenity Prayer, and the difference between what we can and can’t control. We do have some control with this election: we can vote, we can canvas, we can donate. But we can’t control the outcome. The results are out of our hands. But research shows that people are happier when they focus on outcomes that are within their control.  So, this is a good opportunity to ask ourselves how much we’re focused on things that are out of our control. Leading up to this election, I’ve been reading a lot of political news and receiving lots of negative inputs. I realized I needed to stop, so I broke the cycle and stopped reading the news for a night. I have control over how much of that stuff is in my sphere. My third thought is this: I am so grateful for our Bright Line community and how we handle politics here. Just so you know, if you post comments about specific candidates, how people should be voting, or anything contentious that’s not about how we Bright Lifers navigate life, we will remove them. We do a beautiful job of staying focused on our primary purpose: creating a safe space for people to find a healthier relationship with food through Bright Lines.  Our people participate in numerous groups: Mastermind groups, Gideon Games groups, and other forums, and we come from many different backgrounds and perspectives. We love each other and get along. There may be topics we don’t discuss, but we see each other as humans and are reminded that people are good. We can have a lot in common with people we don’t share political views with. We have a common challenge with food and a common solution with our Bright Lines. That binds us together.  At Bright Line Eating, we’re connected to others in a loving, trusting way, regardless of our political views. Many people do not have that kind of connection. It’s a blessing to have a safe, protected space, without political ads or other distractions, where we can connect.  My final thought is something my mentor brought up recently related to the election. It’s what she’s been asking herself regularly: is this self-inflicted pain? Am I torturing myself mentally? That’s what I had to ask myself when I was reading too much political news.  So happy day after the election! I’m grateful to be in community with you, to have carved out a little piece of the world where we can be together focused on our own healing. We stay Bright so that we can be happy, calm, and useful. If outside events are shaking us, it’s our job to bring ourselves back to our center.  FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/p6ptie The Morning After Election Day | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast

The holidays are coming, and with them come a great deal of socializing—often around food. It can be daunting. But what’s the worst that can happen?  I have three stories for you about times when the worst did happen.  Here’s the first: a friend told me a story about being around a campfire with his family. A family member offered him something they were cooking—it was NMF (not my food). He said, “No thanks,” but the person just shoved the food closer to him and insisted he take it. When they shoved it into his face a third time, he got mad. He was rocked by the fact that his “no” wasn’t honored.  Another story: When I lived in Sydney, Australia, I was going through the worst relapse I’d ever had. I finally put down the sugar and flour and got peace, but I was fragile. During that time, we were Baháʼí—I’m not anymore, but I was a devout member of the faith then—and frequently went to religious gatherings.  There was always a large contingent of Persians at these gatherings. In Persian culture, there is a rule of hospitality called taarof, where the host offers a guest food several times, which they turn down twice, and then accept the third time. It’s a sort of dance between host and guest. It’s woven into their culture.  I’d go to these gatherings, and invariably the host would bring a tray of baked goods around and I’d refuse, as clearly and strongly as I could. And they’d lift the tray higher and insist. And by this point, tears would be in my eyes and I’d be looking for a way to escape. It was very hard to not have my “no” respected, and I eventually stopped going to these events.  And one more: There was a man I didn’t know very well at a camping event. I told him that I didn’t eat sugar or flour. After that, he took a chunk of NMF and shoved it in my mouth. He meant it as a joke. He thought that since I wasn’t initiating the action, it was a freebie and I’d enjoy it.  I freaked out and ran to the sink to spit out the food. He didn’t get it—he didn’t understand that I wouldn’t appreciate a freebie. If you’re not a Bright Lifer, what support can you get for these circumstances? First, there is the vlog archive. Go to BrightLineEating.com, click the vlog tab, and use the search box. There’s one called “How to Talk to Your Partner about BLE.” It can help you if someone is obstructing your progress. You can search the vlog archives on terms like “holiday,” “Thanksgiving,” and “Halloween.” There are good tips there to help support you. There is also support in the books: Bright Line Eating: The Science of Living Happy, Thin, and Free and Rezoom: The Powerful Reframe to End the Crash-and-Burn Cycle of Food Addiction. Get them from the library or cheap on Amazon. If you are a Bright Lifer, there’s even more support. We have a whole course called “Bright Line Holiday,” and it goes into depth about navigating the holidays and staying Bright.  If you’re in Boot Camp, there’s a module Called “A Full, Flourishing Life: Navigating Friends, Family, and Social Situations.” There’s also the Friends and Family video—you can copy the link and send it to your loved ones. They get an explanation from a neuroscientist—me—on why your brain is different.  Insults and misunderstandings are hard to navigate but it is not, after all, the job of others to understand what you’re doing with your food. And they may never. But you can stay strong in your “no, thank you” regardless of whether they understand. Think about it this way: If you were allergic to peanuts, and someone made you a peanut butter sandwich, you wouldn’t eat it no matter how much they urged it on you. You would say, “No thank you, peanut butter makes me sick.” That’s helpful language because sugar and flour make us sick. It warps our minds, spirit, body, and brain.  I want to leave you with a quote from the Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti: “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” We have a food landscape that is sick. People eat themselves into illness and early death. For us, it’s even worse because we have an addictive relationship with ultra-processed foods. It’s not good for us, even on the holidays. So stay strong in your “no, thank you.” Appreciate the people who accept this and God bless those who don’t. And bring it here. Bring it here. Bring it here. We get you, we love you, we support you. FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/dw1qy7 When They Won’t Take Your “No” | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast

Today I’m coming off a near-all-nighter at the emergency room with a loved one. It’s my second night this week in the ER—with two unrelated circumstances.  Sometimes this happens. And it occurs to me that it might be helpful for you if I describe how I navigated going through a situation like this while staying Bright. So let me lay out how I managed, in the hope that when you’re facing moments like this, it could help you out. The first incident happened Wednesday night. David and I were woken up at 2 am with the news that one of our loved ones was on the way to the hospital. I knew it would probably be a long time in the ER, so I packed my breakfast. I don’t leave the house without my food any more than I’d leave the house without pants on. There’s always a moment to pack a quick meal. I didn’t pack the breakfast I had written out the night before. Instead, I threw some nuts, an apple, and a portable grain in a Tupperware. It took me only a minute.  A day and a half later, I was still recovering from that long night. I had a meeting that morning and didn’t think I could face it. I meditated and cried and crawled back into bed for a little while until my Highest Self told me it was time to get up. I went to the meeting…super late, but better late than never. And it was essential that I stay sensitive to my need to fill my tank back up after the ER experience.  Then, last night, I was out with one of my kids and some loved ones, and one of them passed out and fell face first into a concrete floor. It was 8 pm, and we were on our way to the ER again.  I’d had my dinner and did not need to pack food. I thought, rightly, that we’d be done before morning. If needed, though, I could have swapped out with David to get home for breakfast.  A word about my food thoughts and food cravings this week. I shot a vlog a while ago on dragonflies and dragons. A food craving is like a dragon that swallows you up; it demands that you eat. A food thought is like a dragonfly that lands on your shoulder. It feels like an invitation to consider food. When the dragonfly lands on your shoulder, you’re at a choice point. You have the option and the ability to brush it away before it grows into a dragon. As soon as you turn toward it, however, it opens the door to further thinking about that food and before you know it, you have a dragon on your hands. In the past few days, it felt like I was walking through a swarm of dragonflies, particularly when I was in the grocery store. So I called a Bright friend, just to tell her that I was grateful to be Bright, but that the food was calling to me. A two-minute phone call. I used my mantras: that’s not my food, that’s poison to me. And I got out of the grocery store Bright.  After I got home last night at 3 am, I went into triage mode and began canceling things. What was most urgent, and what could I put off till later? I canceled a bunch of meetings. I slept a bit, then woke up, meditated, and had breakfast. Then I went back to bed. I needed a nap and then my lunch. I am giving myself the grace of doing this vlog in my office rather than going into the studio because it feels more gentle.  I feel like there’s a part of me that is a very effective, kind, skilled Girl Scout troop master. When the Girl Scouts are on a hike and things go awry, the master needs to handle bruises or broken bones, while navigating the route, and making sure everyone stays engaged and safe and well. And I have a part of myself that reviews the calendar, cancels non-essential events, changes plans, and reorganizes my world when life gets lifey. That Girl Scout master in me knows that staying Bright is the top priority.  The habits and routines that staying Bright includes are all negotiable, but breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the right times with the right foods—that must happen. I’m grateful for the part of me that takes over and makes that happen.  I’ll be in that mode for a few days, I suspect. We’ve been through a lot in the past few days. Today I’m going to go spend time with one of my kiddos and stay close to family. So when life gets lifey for you, I wish you gentleness and care and hope you have a Girl Scout master who can shepherd you through it. FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/ts755i Two Visits to the ER | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast

In today’s vlog, I want to talk about fiber tracts. These are neural pathways that your brain builds every day. Your brain is always changing. You are either learning new things or strengthening pathways that exist.  Say you begin piano lessons. You create new fiber tracts for piano playing. It’s as if you’re in a dense jungle with your machete, and you need to hack your way through to create a path. This is hard at first but gets easier with time. Repetition beats down the path and then widens it more and more.  We come to Bright Line Eating with fiber tracts for the way we used to eat. Maybe it’s a fiber tract for swinging by a cafe on the way to work, scrolling through a delivery app, or rummaging through the cabinet for snacks before watching TV. When we start Bright Line Eating, we abandon those old behaviors and start building new fiber tracts—new paths for writing down our food, assembling meals, weighing our food, and more.  The Bright Lifer has two sets of fiber tracts in the brain: all the ones for the old way of eating, and the newer ones for how they eat now. The old ones never go away; you’re just not using them. They’re like an old, dried-up riverbed that no longer has water in it. That’s the reality of “once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic” or “once a food addict, always a food addict.”  There’s also a third type of fiber tract. We have the old and new way of eating, but there can also be a fiber tract for relapse if you break your lines repeatedly and fall back into old ways of eating.  When you’re Bright you get a clean slate with your new ways of eating. After a few months, if you’ve been squeaky clean Bright, eating off-plan is actually hard—your brain doesn’t want to leave the new path. I live right by the Erie Canal, in Rochester, NY. Canals have thick cement walls that keep the water in. Your brain is like that when you become Bright. It has thick walls that keep you from deviating, like those canal walls.  These walls are so strong that after a few months, you might find it hard to reach out to something that is NMF (Not My Food). But if you do choose to reach for that NMF, you start to create a third pathway, an off-ramp from the Bright fiber tracts back to the old fiber tracts. And every time you deviate, that path from the new to the old gets wider. Before long, you have fiber tracts going from trigger to relapse. After a while, those new fiber tracts may be so strong that without even realizing it, you suddenly have a handful of nuts in your mouth. So you end up with three sets of fiber tracts: the well-worn old set, the new, Bright set, and a third path that goes from Bright to not Bright.  If you find yourself in this position, what do you do about it? The same thing you did when you started Bright Line Eating. The way to create a new reality in your brain is to dam up all the water that was going down into the dry riverbed and become very intentional with your behaviors.  Dam the water upstream by recommitting to your Bright Line journey. Do not allow any deviations. This might mean putting yourself in a new Bright environment. This may involve more support, a lot of intentionality, and maintaining firm, cement-like barriers to keep the water from flowing where you don’t want it to flow. You can’t allow any water to leak out, even though it’s easy for that to happen. It’s going to take time, along with maintenance of your Brighter than Bright Lines. You’ll need to up your game a lot. And if you’re not in that situation, keep your canal walls thick and strong, and don’t let any deviation happen. Savor that experience, and protect it. Because the minute you deviate, you’re starting to create new fiber tracts. I spent from 2015 to 2019 in and out of relapse. I built pathways from Bright to not-Bright. But today, I’ve been as Bright as possible, even in restaurants, for two and a half years. I changed by putting myself in a different environment with stronger support and more guidance, and I drew the line in the sand. It took a lot of work. There’s a mysterious grace involved, too. So if you’re in this state, don’t give up. It’s not easy, but you got this. I know how it feels. And you can get Bright again, with vigilance, a stronger program, and time. FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/9odlcg The Pathways to Relapse | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast

I want to introduce you to something called arousal theory. Understanding the arousal mechanisms in your nervous system can help you see how you may have used food in the past to moderate it, and how you can avoid doing that now. Here’s what arousal theory is: we all have a mechanism that works like a see-saw, moving us from high arousal to low arousal. The sympathetic nervous system, our “fight or flight” response, is associated with high arousal. The parasympathetic nervous system, the “rest and digest” response, is associated with low arousal.  The sympathetic nervous system can be active from events that range from being bitten by a spider to riding a roller coaster—activities like these are high-arousal and may involve fear, excitement, sexual desire, or other high-octane emotions.  What does low arousal look like? It can include being bored, relaxed, sedated, sleeping, or vegging out on hour eight of a Netflix binge—all these activities turn down our mental dial.  Generally, the brain goes to great lengths to keep your state of arousal moderate. So, if you have been watching TV for a few hours, for example, it might feel great to get up and move around and take a hot shower. Or if you’ve been riding roller coasters all day at the amusement park, you might pass on a friend’s offer to go out dancing that night. Your brain has had enough high arousal.  There are a few wrinkles to this. Here’s one: the level of arousal that’s optimal depends on the task. A moderate level of arousal is fine for a moderately difficult task. So if you’re helping your kid with their math homework, you want a moderate level of arousal to function best. But if you are taking a calculus exam or trying to pass the Bar exam, you want a lower level of arousal to help you perform your best.  Or picture someone at the Olympics: on the high dive, right before they jump, they’ll close their eyes and breathe deeply, doing whatever it takes to bring down their nervous system to an optimal low-arousal state. That’s because the task at hand is extremely difficult. What about easy tasks? Let’s say you’re working for a charity and you’re stuffing envelopes for ten hours. You need to perform fast and consistently. You might want to have your favorite dance-party music pumping to keep yourself in a state of higher arousal. It’s a super-easy task. One last factor: People’s baseline level of arousal varies. Some people are high-arousal naturally. They don’t have enough of the neurotransmitter GABA that dampens arousal in the brain. These people are constantly seeking arousal-dampening experiences. And they might be more drawn to flour products, which have a sedating tendency.  Others run low-arousal. They may look for more stimulation. These are the people who ride motorcycles and jump out of airplanes. They do this to supplement their low-arousal brains. I’m one of those people—I’m a hard-core extrovert, have owned a motorcycle, and have had my skydiving license.  I remember when I was writing my first book, I was alone in a cabin on a writer’s retreat. When I went to the grocery store I drove like a banshee, with the music as high as it would go! My brain was flipping out from way too much time in a state of low arousal. I needed stimulation. That’s the same thing as eating a lot of sugar. Sugar produces high arousal; flour produces low arousal. Notice how you may have self-medicated in the past to obtain an optimal level of arousal. And notice that sugar and flour aren’t the best ways to achieve those ends.  Turning on fast music in the kitchen and dancing while you chop your veggies is a great way to increase arousal. Taking a bubble bath is a lovely way to get some low-arousal gentleness into your evening.  So as you go through your day, I want you to look at ways you’ve used food to change your brain state. Notice that food isn’t the sharpest tool you could use. You can do it better with awareness, without toxic foods. Make a conscious decision to find a pick-me-up or a slow-me-down that’s not toxic. If you used to turn to sugar, try dance, or play. If you used to turn to flour, try aromatherapy, a meditation track, or a gentle walk with a friend. FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/jzwfdqArousal Theory | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast

Today’s a big day: it’s the start of registration for the Fall Food Freedom Boot Camp. It’s usually our biggest cohort of the year. It’s a wonderful time to start because it takes you through the holidays— the hardest time of year for food. Boot Camp gives you the support you need. And when January comes and you’ve lost weight and are feeling amazing in your body, you’ll be on top of the world. So many of our successful Bright Lifers started with the fall Boot Camp. Every year, we send out a survey at this time to find out what’s challenging you. What we noticed this year was that there were a lot of people who have cursory experience with Bright Line Eating, but who haven’t done the Boot Camp, or tried it but drifted away. They haven’t gotten traction yet. Boot Camp is the strongest foundation for a Bright life, and because registration is starting today, I want to give you my four best success tips for making sure that you start strong. So if you’ve made an effort but are floundering, or haven’t started yet, here’s what you should know: Carve out time at the beginning to get started.Bright Line Eating takes time at the beginning. Week One is a lot—because you’re changing your whole life. I want you to carve out several evenings or a weekend at the beginning. I know, you’re busy. But this is important. For a rocket ship to get from the earth to the moon takes a tremendous amount of fuel, but 90 percent of that is burned off just getting it 100 feet off the ground. Once you’re launched, it gets SO much easier. So be aware that the beginning is time-consuming. Learn how to get help.What happens if you get stuck, or overwhelmed? We have so much for you in the Boot Camp! There’s a green oval in the bottom right of most of our website pages. It says “Bright Line Eating Support & FAQs.” Click on that and you can do two things: First, you can search our FAQs—and I want you to practice that! Type in, “How do you measure soup?” for example, and see what you find out. There are 100s of FAQs, carefully crafted to answer your questions.Second, there’s a little word bubble that says “ask,” and if you click there, you contact our support team, who are standing by waiting to answer your questions. So click on that green bubble and give it a try.But there’s more: there’s our amazing Bright Line community, who are there 365 days of the year, 24/7, to support you and help you. Practice asking a question—like, “How long did it take you to lose your weight?”—and see what you find out. Pick at least one person to share the Friends and Family Video with.This video explains Bright Line Eating and why some people’s brains work differently. It explains why, for some people, if they have a craving, they can indulge in that food, and that scratches the itch. But for other people, scratching the itch just makes it itchier, and a policy of “none” is way easier than “some.” The video explains the neuroscience of this so you don’t have to.Think of how helpful it will be for those in your innermost circle to understand this. The Friends and Family Video is located in Bonus Number One, which comes up at the beginning of the Boot Camp. Look for “Bonus 1: A Full, Flourishing Life—Navigating Families, Friends, and Social Situations.” One of those videos is “for friends and family” and you can send them the link so they can watch it. Take baby steps.Focus on just the next, right action. I think we undervalue the potential in just taking baby steps. Every single step in the Bright Line journey is easy and simple. And it’s all laid out for you if you start at Module 0: the Planning & Preparation Process. There’s a worksheet right up top there; a PDF checklist download that details all your steps. The PDF is called “Module 0: Action Steps & Invitation to Reflect.” Download it. Print it out. Breathe. Ask God, the universe, your guardian angel, or your higher self for support. And take it one baby step at a time. That’s your formula for success. It's daunting, perhaps, to start Bright Line Eating. But it doesn’t have to be. You just need to start with action. And the action you need is to get yourself into the Boot Camp. That’s where the magic is. If you’re one of the people who said in the survey that you’re struggling with the basics, with food prep, with letting go of sugar, with stringing your first few Bright Days together, with cravings, with feelings of self-doubt, let us help you. This is what we do, all day, every day—help you transform. Here’s the link to get started with the Boot Camp: https://www.brightlineeating.com/programs Imagine it’s January 1st and you’re soaring. You will have had the best holiday possible, focused on family, the camaraderie, the joy, with the food in its right place as a supplement. Be with us. I love you and can’t wait to see you on the inside. FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/ak9jlq4 Essential Tips to Kickstart Boot Camp Success | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast

Restaurants are my Achilles’ heel, and I want to share with you a few meals recently that didn’t go well—and what I did about it. I used to try to game the system and get the biggest, sexiest meals when eating out, but that was giving me near-panic attacks afterward. In 2022, I started to analyze my restaurant behavior and decided to go back to day one because I wasn’t being honest about how I was navigating it. Eating out has been a breeze since then.  Here’s how I achieved that: I partnered with someone who has peace with eating in restaurants and we went through my behavior with a fine-tooth comb. Then I stopped triggering myself.  An example: at my local Japanese restaurant, I used to order a salad with dressing that had a little sugar in it. I rationalized it as part of my vegetable portion. But when I cleaned up my habits, I started ordering my salad without dressing. I eat it plain now with soy sauce.  I also started being more honest about proportions. For example, I used to order French onion soup, (without the big crouton, of course), on the theory that 8 ounces of broth is fine, and I wouldn’t count the cheese as anything. Now I don’t eat melted cheese at all. So fast forward to about a month ago. We went to a restaurant to celebrate my daughter’s birthday. She had been talking about how good their deep-fried Brussels sprouts were. I ordered them without cheese. This was a rationalization. Mind you, the place has steamed broccoli. That’s what I should have ordered. I ate the Brussels sprouts and they were great—but I left the restaurant feeling all swirly in my head. The next morning, my ring didn’t fit because I was swollen from that oil. My thinking didn’t feel right for several days.  This was not a big deal, but I didn’t have peace about it. So I talked to several people who have peace in restaurants to debrief. One asked me, “What do you have going on? What is that indulger part of you trying to get from those greasy Brussels sprouts?” I hadn’t noticed that my food indulger part was active, trying to please me and make my life better. But a few days later I walked out of a restaurant again feeling panic and shame. I ordered salmon sashimi and ate it with soy sauce and wasabi. Afterward, I picked up the bowl of soy sauce and drank it. I had a bowl of vegetables with a little butter on them, and I drank that bowl of buttery soy sauce too.  I called a friend to talk about it, and I remembered something from my childhood: when my father and I would go to get Chinese food, I’d pour soy sauce and white vinegar together, take my fork, and eat the liquid from the fork.  My motive, in all these cases, was a food addiction motive: More. Can I get more of this food to soothe, to calm, to satiate me? Can the food do something for me and help me achieve some level of okay-ness? But food doesn’t do a good job of that. I need to find my okay-ness inside, instead. So I rezoomed. I didn’t break; I just didn’t make good choices. If you need more information on breaks, check out my book REZOOM—there’s a section there on what makes a break.  I’m glad I used my tools, talked to people, wrote about it, and sought the lesson. I want to claim the win that keeping my quantities in restaurants has now become automatic.  If you’re not high on the Susceptibility Scale, this may all sound crazy. That’s fine. Do what gives you peace in restaurants. For me, analyzing food is vital, because I’m a 10+++ on the Scale. I have to keep my behavior really clean. But keep doing what’s working for you. For me, what’s been working regarding my quantities in restaurants is to HONESTLY eyeball my portions, taking what I’m not going to eat off onto a side plate. Then I start eating. But if, while I’m eating, I start to second-guess my quantities and think I may be about to eat too much, I take more away. I keep taking bits away until I have peace. If you have a restrictor part of you, and taking away food could be an act of anorexia, then don’t do this. I’m an overeater and don’t have a strong restrictor part. So for me, taking food away is healthy. If it’s the reverse for you, you may need to surrender and eat all your food.  I share these specifics because I think it’s helpful to have this boots-on-the-ground understanding of what it’s like to live a Bright Life and have these long stretches of freedom. Sometimes, that freedom may get interrupted, and it’s good to know what to do when that happens. For me, it was time to check my motives. FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/sofbsoMotives in Restaurants | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast

I was coaching someone yesterday on an Accountability Call who is going to Italy, and it reminded me of something I wanted to tell you about my very first trip to Italy this past summer.  While I was in Italy, I posted on the Bright Line Eating Facebook Community. It was the morning of our last, long day of tours and I wrote this: “My beloved Bright Lifers: I haven’t done this in a long time, but am posting because I need support. I’m in Italy with David on our 25th anniversary trip. Long days, in the hot sun, powerless over when we stop for lunch. Lots of watching people eat NMF (not my food) and drink NMD (not my drink) and my knee hurts and I’m feeling run-down. We are in Florence and have one more 10-hour day of sightseeing. Tomorrow is a day at sea, with time to journal, make calls, and recharge. I told David this morning that I’m depleted. I cried. I’ve posted like this in the past and have been buoyed up by the flood of support that comes in. I’m breathing, and praying, and trusting that I can make it through this day. It feels so good to be Bright no matter what. Thank you in advance for your love and support.” I was thinking I might not go that day, skipping out to rest and recharge. I think the day before in Rome had really weakened me—it had been a hot, long day with a disastrous tour guide. I was exhausted.  After I posted, though, David and I joined the tour. And then a miracle happened. The tour guide was amazing: organized, calm, and clear. The day was laid out beautifully. I felt calm. I kept checking my phone and finding comments of love and support—dozens of them. They urged me to hang in there and keep moving forward. It was the easiest day I’d had. I had so much reserve in my tank. Putting that post out to the world and letting the love flood in gave me tangible support.  It reminded me of another time in my life when I put out a call for support and found myself living and floating on peoples’ prayers and support. That was when our twins were born prematurely. A nurse practitioner in the NICU told me they were the sickest of the 54 babies currently there, with a four percent chance of survival. My heart was breaking. But the substance of the prayers we received was so palpable.  Last night I went for a walk with a friend. It was a bright, hot summer evening. As we turned a bend, the sun had set and the sky was the most gentle, pastel colors. It was a precious light-filled moment. The moon was almost full, hanging on the horizon, and the air was gentle. That’s what the air felt like in Florence when I was walking through the day supported by all those prayers. Suddenly, the quality of the day turned gentle, positive, and fresh. The Duomo was so beautiful I wept. I was so glad I didn’t miss that day. It was incredible. I bring this to you because an SOS post in our online community gets so many responses. And the results are not what you might expect. It’s not that you get advice. Instead, it activates mysterious forces that change the tone and tenor of what you’re facing, that melt difficulties and buttress your strength.  The reality is that, sometimes when we’re living Bright, we’re content to watch people eat and drink stuff that we don’t eat and drink. And sometimes, it wears us down. An SOS post to our community activates a flood of responses that generates energies that my scientific brain is convinced have spiritual and physical substance to them. Something happens to make it possible to get through gracefully and Bright. The next day on that trip, I was fine. I was buzzing from what a great day I’d had in Florence. So if you’re one of the 400+ people who posted, thank you. If you said a prayer or sent strength, thank you. If you do that for anyone in our community, thank you.  And if you post an SOS post, thank you for allowing us to show up for you, to rearrange the molecules for you. We are there for you.  This is another tool in your tool belt when you’re feeling worn down. Ask us for help. We’ve got your back. Always. FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/cb6l5zAn SOS Post From Italy | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast

Wendy Reynolds wrote in with a great question about diet mentality: “This term is used repeatedly in coaching calls. I have asked several people in my own circle how they would define it. And I'm hearing so many varied explanations. So I decided to search through all the vlogs, all 3 books (minus the cookbook) and I found only one entry, on Feb 13th in "On This Bright Day" which was fantastic. I would love a more in-depth, clear understanding of what diet mentality means in BLE. THANK YOU.” In essence, diet mentality is an approach to eating that is short-term and focused on weight loss.  Your Bright Transformation happens at the physical level, for sure, but also at mental, emotional, and spiritual levels. If we focus only on the physical, we are missing pieces of the whole picture. You can focus on weight loss even to the exclusion of health. For example, consider someone who is on a GLP-1 medication like Wegovy. They could be in a state of diet mentality: taking it for weight loss, and not caring about other health benefits or detriments. They might not eat healthy foods, or perhaps they save up points so they can eat desserts. They aren’t trying to stay healthy; they’re trying to lose weight. That's diet mentality.  Diet mentality is common in BLE as well. There are people, for example, who break their Bright Lines occasionally, but still lose weight because they have a strong metabolism and they’re following the plan 90 percent of the time. They might not even notice that they’re not allowing themselves to experience the full mental, spiritual, and emotional benefits. They may think it’s going great and not even know that they are not really doing Bright Line Eating. They’re just using it as a diet. When we focus on the mental, emotional, and spiritual benefits we have a different experience—sometimes in direct contradiction with diet mentality. Spiritually speaking, surrendering to the Bright Life can lead to tremendous peace and freedom. Emotionally, we can let go of resentments, judgmentalism, and criticism of ourselves and others. We may do deep emotional work. We work our Bright Lines not as a diet, but as a way of life.  What we are talking about here is an issue of identity. Who are you really? Are you fundamentally the person you always were, who is just adopting this food plan to lose weight? Or are you fundamentally someone who does Bright Line forever, as an identity? It’s the difference, when the platter of food is passed, between “Oh, I can’t, I’m in a weight loss program right now,” and “No thanks, I don’t eat sugar.” Do you hear the difference? The model that I get from James Clear’s book on forging new habits is this: at the core of sustained behavior change is identity. The next level is the system or process you’re following—which for you may be Bright Line Eating. If you’re here with a diet mentality, you may be less interested in the rest of the system, like getting a buddy, doing Gideon Games, or other support we offer. You might overlook the routines like meditating or starting a gratitude process. You may gloss over anything not directly related to losing weight.  What it comes down to is this: is this a short-term or a long-term thing for you? Any of the popular weight loss plans can be done as a diet or they can be worked on in a deeply identity-rooted way and not just with a diet mentality. It’s not the plan you adopt that identifies it as a diet or an identity shift. It’s your orientation toward it.  So you need to ask yourself: why am I doing this? If you just want to lose weight, it’s a diet mentality. And if it’s a diet, you will regain the weight, because that’s how diets work. They’re short-term things.  If you have a diet mentality, though, don’t beat yourself up. A lot of people “come for the vanity, stay for the sanity,” as the 12 Step saying goes. Just consider working on it a bit. You want to develop a deeper identity as someone who does this long-term, one day at a time. Move from diet to lifestyle mentality. Do some WOOPs—wish, outcome, obstacle, plan. Visualize yourself ten years in the future, still doing this.  Really, truly, ask yourself: Why am I doing this? Think about who you want to be as a person, and what you want your life to mean. Weight loss is always for a reason. Why are you here, really? When you have the answer to that question, you’ve moved beyond diet mentality. FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/gmh9wdDiet Mentality | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast

Today’s topic is a great one, and I’ll follow it with an announcement. A woman wrote: “I am embarrassed to join the community because I don’t have a weight problem, but I have a food addiction. I’m a nine on the Susceptibility Scale and have benefitted from your books and other materials. I’m afraid of being out of place in BLE, but I feel I could benefit from increased support.” You are not alone! It is shocking how common it is for someone to have a food addiction even with no weight to lose. In fact, a study I did in 2015 showed that 22 percent of the respondents who were at a normal BMI tested high on the Susceptibility Scale. Food addiction and the propensity to accumulate weight are completely separate systems in the brain. Because many people do come to BLE to lose weight, it can be easy to think that we’re not the right place for you—but that’s not true. Conversely, those who have weight to lose but aren’t high on the Susceptibility Scale sometimes feel they don’t belong here—and that’s not true either. Almost everyone feels like they don’t belong at some point, for whatever reason: I have too much weight to lose. I don’t have enough weight to lose. English isn’t my native language. I don’t see people from my ethnic or racial background. I’m too young for Bright Line Eating. I’m too old. I’m too much of an introvert. I could go on. I remember at an early Family Reunion Gathering, Everett Considine was on stage and asked the crowd to raise their hand if they felt like they didn’t belong. And three-quarters of the room—including me—raised their hand. Having a part of you that says you don’t belong is something that almost everyone needs to overcome. Search “choose to belong” at our vlog page and you’ll find a vlog I shot on exactly that topic. Ultimately, we choose to belong. We claim our seat by sitting in it. Consider the story you have in your head: that if you are seen in public weighing and measuring your food, without having weight to lose, you’ll be stirring up thoughts that you have an eating disorder. People might think you were disordered. But remember that all of us in Bright Line Eating, walking around in our Bright bodies, are weighing our food in public. Here’s my favorite story about this: there was a Bright Lifer who worked at Apple, where there were amazing buffets. She brought her food scale to one and was about to pull it out when a really good-looking guy got in line behind her. She considered not pulling out the scale. But finally, she summoned her courage and pulled it out, and he immediately struck up a conversation about how amazing it was that she did that. He said, “Everyone who is smart weighs their food. It’s the only way to dial in your nutrition.” If we are the type of person who weighs our food publicly, we can be a beacon to others. They will see that we’re not restricting our quantities—we’re eating healthy, abundant quantities and living in Bright, balanced bodies. Besides, it doesn’t matter what others think. Those that matter don’t mind, and those that mind, don’t matter, as the saying goes. All this is to say that I think you belong in Boot Camp. Come all the way in. Bring your body, that is not burdened by weight but is burdened by mental chaos. Start to shed that load. You belong here. Let us love you. You’ll find others who are like you here. And here’s my big announcement: Starting today, scholarship applications for Boot Camp are being accepted—but only for a limited time. Today through Sunday, September 8, 2024. We will grant twenty FULL scholarships for the Boot Camp in October. At the end of September, the Food Freedom videos will come out, I’ll do YouTube Lives and a webinar, and the Boot Camp will start in the first week of October. I think you should be part of it. If you need a scholarship, now’s the time to apply. There’s a link below the video with more info on the application process. It’s scary to branch out—but that’s where the magic is, and the growth starts. I hope you join us. *Applications for a Boot Camp 2.0 scholarship are now closed. FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/iaagld A Sugar Addict with No Weight To Lose | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast

I’ve been waiting to do this vlog for months!  A few months ago, someone wrote in about the book, ON THIS BRIGHT DAY, to find out what happened after our launch. What about the contest? Did it make the New York Times Bestseller List?  It’s true—I never did a vlog to sum it up for you.  Here’s what happened: It sold about 5,000 copies, about half as many as would have been needed to make the New York Times list. But that’s twice as many copies as REZOOM sold. It continues to sell well.  We had three winners for the contest. They came to Rochester to visit with me, but then life got lifey: I got the flu the day they flew in. I couldn’t meet with them. I took medicine, went to bed, and it didn’t work—I was still sick.  JoAnn Campbell-Rice, the book’s co-author, had also flown in. She and the contest winners ended up hanging out together. The next day I put on some flannels and met them outside, very separated, and we chatted. But the sweet thing about it is that they all bonded and got very close. So we planned another trip, timed with the Bright Line Eating anniversary, and they had dinner at my house. That all happened just earlier this month, hence the delayed vlog.  More updates: We got JoAnn Campbell-Rice listed as a co-author. We worked with Hay House to get a new cover for the Kindle edition and audiobook version—that all happened immediately. We rewrote the author page for the paperback version, which is coming out in October.  We also have a title page with JoAnn’s name which you can download at OnThisBrightDayBook.com. On that website, we have other fun things, too. If you post on Instagram, for example, and use the hashtag #OnThisBrightDay, your post will get loaded on the website so everyone can see your picture and posting! Mainly though, I’d like to talk to you about what is so soul-satisfying about this book. It is really helping people to live the Bright Life. It’s a daily reminder with 366 ways to help you break away from the tyranny of addictive eating and live Bright and clear in community with others like you.  In fact, in the UK, there’s an accountability call each day with 20-30 people, and they begin each call by reading that day’s reading from the book. And every day, someone shares that it was exactly what they needed on their journey.  JoAnn Campbell-Rice and I shared in a recent conversation that we both read the book every day and we both said that it feels magical to us every morning. The book keeps on giving.  So was the book a success? What makes a book a success, anyway? I want to let you in on a publishing house secret.  I had a private conversation with Reid Tracy before the first book—BRIGHT LINE EATING—was published. I asked him what it takes to make a book launch a success.  He said that people tend to focus on the launch and forget what’s really important about a successful book. The key, he said, is to write a really good book that impacts people.  Let some time go by, he told me. A couple of years. And then look on Amazon and see how many reviews it has. No phenomenal book launch of a truly mediocre book will get a thousand reviews on Amazon. The only way to get a thousand reviews is to write a book that truly impacts people. I’ve always carried that with me. It’s gratifying to me that REZOOM, which we gave the weakest launch ever, has 966 reviews. It’s a good book. People are still discovering it. ON THIS BRIGHT DAY has 356, but it just came out. So I invite you to reflect on this book. And if you enjoy it, consider writing a review on Amazon. I’d be very appreciative. I suspect that, in the fullness of time, it will creep up to a thousand reviews.  I am deeply proud of it, and I know JoAnn Campbell-Rice is as well. Thanks for your patience with me during the months it took me to get this vlog out to you. If you’re trying to do anything for yourself other than the standard American diet, this book will support you every day. You will feel ever-better and ever-Brighter because of it. Get the new title page, read the authors’ bios, and more: https://ble.life/j4wp2z  FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/exj21sBehind the Scenes with ON THIS BRIGHT DAY | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast

I’ve been sharing a great deal about anniversaries lately, and today I have another one: it’s nine years this month since I began doing the weekly vlog. That’s roughly 270 vlogs. In all that time, I’ve only missed three or four weeks. Here’s a little insight into how it happens: I usually film each Wednesday’s vlog on the Monday morning before. Then my team does all the processing that needs to happen to have it ready by Wednesday.  I have an Evernote on my phone titled “future vlog topics,” and it goes back for years. I use it to capture thoughts or add links to articles. The team also keeps track of suggestions you write in—we get about one a day.   Sometimes I come up with a topic related to something that’s happened to me that week. Sometimes I want to talk about science. Other times I want to share a life lesson.  Sometimes, like today, I come to the vlog in an emotional state that makes it hard to talk about anything. The vlog feels to me like truth serum. I look into the red dot above the camera lens and I feel all of you—thousands of you—there with me. What I have to say has to come from a genuine place. I’m an emotional creature. My astrology chart is loaded with water: Sun, rising sign, Mercury, and Saturn all in Cancer; Moon in Scorpio, and Jupiter in Pisces. If I’m affected by life, it’s hard not to bring that to the vlog.  I spent this past weekend with a dear friend who is dying. Though she’s very dear to me, we just met for the first time. We became close online. She drove up from Appalachia, where she lives. She’s dying, and isn’t yet at peace with that. She has less than a year.  Then this morning, I got a call from someone who was affected by something I had said to them about their weight. She was feeling comfortable in her body, so what I said sent her reeling. I’ll shoot a vlog about it sometime, as I will on my friend who is dying, with their permission. I can’t shoot those topics yet. I only shoot a vlog topic once, so I have to make sure I’m ready to say everything that needs to be said. I thought I was going to shoot today’s vlog on the book, On This Bright Day, but I’m not ready for that, either.  All these things were in my head and on my heart when I was getting ready. I sat down and cried after my shower, and scrolled through my Evernote document. I scrolled through pages and pages of ideas that were nowhere near anything I could remotely face talking about today.  And then I found something way back at the end, that I must have written down years ago, and it’s something I can talk about today. It’s a bunch of bunny slipper mantras. Here they are: When I have an extra hard day,I will take extra good care of myself. When I am under a lot of stress,I will treat myself with a lot of kindness. When I feel more overwhelmed than usual,I will take more time to rest than usual. When my emotions are strong, My self-compassion will also be strong. When I am feeling additional tension,I will make space for additional relaxation. When I am feeling deeply, I will also practice accepting my emotions deeply. When I am really tired,I will be really gentle with myself. —Unknown  That’s all I could resonate with this morning, and I’m giving myself permission to do a vlog that is pieced together with duct tape and chicken wire. And it’s okay.  We have such a sensitive community, and we’re all—myself included—just showing up for each Bright Day. And sometimes that day is vlog day. So, on this day I made space for an unusual topic.  I hope that, if you are the one who sent these to me years ago, or posted them on Facebook, you’ll make yourself known so we can give you credit. FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/0dq3ywBunny Slipper Mantras | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast

On Friday, August 9, I celebrated 30 years clean and sober. When I lay in bed that morning, I felt suspended in time: then, and now, and all the points in between. I want to talk with you today about the passage of time in a recovery journey. Being clean and sober for 30 years feels utterly improbable and surreal—like I’ve been flipping a coin and it keeps coming up heads. The first coin flips, especially, were true miracles. It was a miracle the day I hit bottom—I’d been smoking crack all weekend, with no food, water, or sleep for five days. I was sitting in the crack house wearing a blonde wig because I’d been working as a call girl, and the vision I got was a crystal clear awareness of the contrast between who I was and the identity I had imagined for myself when I was a kid. When I was 11 years old, I wanted to be an astrophysicist— a scientist and an academic. The cognitive dissonance between what I wanted to be and where I was was mind-blowing. I knew, at that moment, that unless I got up and got out, my life was never going to be anything but what it was at that moment. So I got up and walked out the door. That was the first coin flip. It felt like I had a 50-50 shot. Then improbability kicked in. I thought I was just going to quit. I didn’t think it would be hard. I didn’t know I was an addict and an alcoholic. Then the next coin flip: I had a date with a guy and he took me to a 12-step meeting on our first date. THAT coin flip seems very improbable. It was a Tuesday night, and that’s what he did on Tuesdays, at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. I stayed clean and sober for the next week, and he took me back to the meeting the next week. And the coin flips kept coming, and each time they came up heads. Addicts tend not to get clean and sober. Same with food addicts. But we have people in BLE who’ve been flipping the coin for years and coming up heads. Being Bright doesn’t mean you don’t have to work for it. It does get easier, though. To use my coin metaphor, what happens is that you take actions that weight the coin in your favor. I didn’t feel, when I woke up today, that I wasn’t sure I’d be clean and sober. It’s not a certainty, but it’s likely. Why? Because I have taken so many actions to weight the coin. So when I flip it, it’s likely to come up heads. The actions I took over the years changed my identity. I now identify as a recovering addict and alcoholic, clean and sober. I do not drink or do drugs. I don’t eat sugar or flour, and I weigh and measure my food faithfully. I saw someone at the ten-year luncheon who had a tattoo that read “If the cost is my peace, it’s too expensive.” I relate to that. Last night I went out to dinner, and the salad looked like a little too much. I went over to the trash bin and flicked some of the salad in it. I don’t ever want to walk out of a restaurant wondering if I ate too much food. A few years ago, I wondered if I could pick up drinking alcohol responsibly and safely and have it work for me. I took that idea to David and most definitely did not think it was a sound idea, and his reaction snapped me out of it—and once again the coin flipped in my favor. Time, in recovery, takes time. You don’t get a single year Bright without putting in the time. It isn’t one big Herculean effort. But the time passage isn’t exactly linear. Not linear at all. In fact, I do believe the passage of time in recovery is logarithmic. The early days tend to take forever. Those first hundred days of Bright Line Eating is several eternities because you’re changing everything about yourself. It takes so much focus and many coin flips each and every day. And all day, every day, you have to hustle to do things that will weight the coin. After a year, you may feel like you’re reborn. To have gone through a full year is miraculous. After two years, you start to feel like you know what you’re doing if you’re really working the program. It gets easier. When you get to 5, 7, 10 years, you’re such a different person. When milestones come around, you feel like you’re in an incredible state of grace. You’re Bright, and in your Bright Body, and you feel awestruck that it feels so good. After that, the years start to race by quite quickly, and eventually you feel like you’re just getting credit for not dying. The secret to staying willing to weight the coin is that you must fall in love with the growth you experience. Pour yourself into each new challenge, whatever that might be, whether that’s working on your marriage or getting a new degree or finding new ways to be of service in your relationships. There’s always a new frontier of growth. When you stay engaged, you’re doing what it takes to weight the coin. And it’s all worth it. So very, very worth it. FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/bx8o2830 Years of Coin Flips | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating

This week marks the 10-year anniversary celebration of Bright Line Eating. The conception of BLE was on January 26, 2014. That’s the day the universe told me to write a book called Bright Line Eating. After that, there was a gestation period where I learned that for the book to be successful, I needed to grow a following. So I spent some time writing a report called, “The 3 Huge Mistakes Almost Everyone Makes When They Try To Lose Weight.” I promised to send out emails explaining the psychology and neuroscience of sustainable weight loss. Around 75 of you downloaded the report on August 5, 2014—the day the “me” became a “we.” That’s the Bright Line Eating birthday. This past Sunday we had a celebratory luncheon followed by a book signing at Barnes & Noble. The feeling of community was vibrant. We had groups with printed t-shirts celebrating the anniversary; we had people from out of town sleeping on air mattresses on the floors of other Bright Lifers. There was so much camaraderie. The line for the book signing went out of the store and down to the nearby Starbucks. The manager said he’d never seen such connection and fellowship. One person went out and got a case of bottled water for everyone in line. Others were encouraging those in the back. People had flown in from all over the East Coast, mid-Atlantic, and Midwest, from Florida, California, and Oregon. The most profound thing I personally experienced was that two of my three kids were there—Robbie and Zoe. Maya is at summer camp. But this was a first. None of my kids had ever witnessed first-hand what their mom does for a living. I gave an informal address, and the first thing I did was thank my kids. I told them I know how much they’ve sacrificed because of Bright Line Eating (and they nodded in agreement). I showed pictures of our family in 2014 and 2015. I told them that I hope to bear witness to how a person can commit to an idea and do a lot of good in this world. I was nervous about having them up there with me, but we had fun. They were surprised by how many people knew them! The theme of history was present, too. I’m wearing a BLE pendant that was given to me by the BLE Team in 2017. Now we’ve come full circle. Arianna, who runs our BLE Emporium, has sourced a jewelry maker who is creating beautiful BLE-logo pendants in different metals and designs. There was someone there who was in our first Boot Camp. And, at the book signing, a couple came up to me and said that a vlog I shot four years ago about talking to your partner about BLE was about them. I shot it right after coaching her on a coaching call. Her spouse was with her, and proclaimed that now BLE is no longer a source of tension between them. Amazing! The theme of embracing imperfection was also evident. We commit to maintaining Bright Lines, but we know some of us will falter. We’re not actually striving for perfection; we’re striving to be unstoppable. A funny anecdote: at one point, Chris Davis, our chief of staff, whispered to me that they had no cooked vegetables at the luncheon. I was absolutely horrified! We had worked with the caterer very closely to make sure there would be PLENTY of both raw and cooked vegetables for everyone. NO COOKED VEGGIES? How could that be?? I shared the situation with the handful of Bright Lifers within earshot. And you know what they told me? “It’s not about the food, Susan. We’re just here connecting and having fun! There’s plenty of raw veg at the salad bar. We’re fine!” All I could think was: oh my gosh, I’ve trained them well! Embracing imperfection came up again later when I signed a book that had clearly been chewed by a dog. The Bright Lifer took the chewed-up part and used some colored pens to create a small corner of artwork. Other people had dog-eared books that they’d been cooking meals from for years. I’m excited to see what the next ten years hold. We’re doing good work. Over the next year I’ll be talking more about our big-picture goal to get ultra-processed food addiction acknowledged as a legitimate disorder, and the impact that will have on medicine and the world in general. The best is yet to come. I have no doubt. FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/tyna9kBLE’s 10-Year Birthday Celebration | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast

A Bright Lifer wrote in with an interesting observation. She said, “One of my buddies told me recently that she started Bright Line Eating not to lose weight, but to avoid being in bondage to eating or food. Has this been addressed in your vlog? I found it a potent comment and have to admit that yes, we are in bondage to food.” I agree. We talk a lot about freedom around here. We have people who sign up for the Boot Camp who do not need to lose weight. My guess is that most of them are suffering profoundly from food addiction, even without needing to lose weight because of whatever compensatory methods they use, whether it’s vomiting or laxatives or something else. You can be a 10++ on the Food Susceptibility Scale and not have weight to lose. You may start BLE purely to get freedom from a feeling of bondage. Others may be lower on the Food Susceptibility Scale, and may or may not need to lose weight. Consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: it places physical needs like food and shelter at the bottom; cognitive needs and intimacy needs in the middle; and at the top, you’ve got self-actualization needs—the need to be all you can be. These people may be living at the top of the hierarchy and yearn to be free of bondage to food so they can be all they are able to be in life. Bright Line Eating also meshes with a lot of personality types. Gretchen Rubin talks about abstainers vs. moderators. People who are abstainers, who need to feel really clean and free, may be drawn to Bright Line for the feeling of liberation and clarity, rather than weight loss. In my own life, almost everything I do to protect my sparkling Bright Lines is for freedom. It’s literally what I’m thinking as I order in a restaurant. What will protect my freedom? And to update my vlog a few weeks ago on scraping the bowl, I’m not doing that now. Every meal I think: I want to be free after this meal. When I choose an apple to eat, I notice which ones are bigger than others, because I am a food addict. But I don’t want to feel enslaved to that thought. So, before I choose, before I even open the refrigerator door, I commit to picking the closest apple to me, not the biggest one. This is not an obsession with virtue or perfection. It’s an appreciation of freedom, and I savor it. I protect it. And if we come to Bright Line Eating to lose weight, we may stay for the freedom we earn through adhering to our Bright Lines. That freedom can motivate us to keep our program’s flywheel spinning. And once I’m free, I can focus on an attitude of gratitude and service. Grateful hearts don’t eat addictively. So thank you for that fabulous observation, and for allowing me to wax poetic on the value of freedom. FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/p8itk1Freedom from Bondage | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast

Here in the U.S., we’re in the middle of summer. There are picnics and parties and food all around us. I’ve been thinking about how we orient toward that food, whether someone is staying Bright, eating addictively, or relapsing. This brings up a question: Do you need to binge to be a real food addict? The answer is no. There are different flavors of addiction and they’re all equally legitimate. Think about smokers. Nicotine is addictive. Cigarette smokers are addicts, engaging in an addiction. But it’s not a binge addiction; it’s more a steady, slow drip. It’s a grazing style of addiction. Alcoholics come in either variety. Some are binge drinkers, and some are just maintenance drinkers, who may drink steadily through the evening, but never get black-out drunk. Caffeine is another addiction—but it’s probably more often the grazing, slow-drip variety of addiction. With food, we have both varieties. Some people may graze all day long, a little at a time, never eating to the point of getting overly stuffed. Others may binge. Both can be food addicts. Most people who are active in binge eating disorder also have food addiction. Not all, though. For a diagnosis of binge eating disorder, your bingeing must be pretty intense and pretty frequent. But there are food addicts who binge periodically, or have a subjective experience of bingeing but do not eat enough for it to qualify as a technical “binge.” So they wouldn’t qualify for binge eating disorder. What that means is that they may lose control over what they eat. I have a family member like that. She might be prepping a rotisserie chicken for storage, for example, and suddenly gobble up a bunch of that chicken and feel like she’s lost control, but in actuality she may not have eaten more than four ounces of chicken. She may have eaten it quickly, though, with a sort of furtiveness and loss of control. That might not qualify for a binge eating disorder diagnosis, but it is a symptom of food addiction. It's important to keep in mind what addiction is about. It’s about having difficulty stopping when you want to stop. That could mean bingeing, or it could mean grazing. It might be that when you stop, you have difficulty staying stopped. Addiction is about mental chatter in the mind, the will-I-won’t-I insanity. Addiction is also about continuing to eat (whether you're bingeing or grazing) despite consequences that start piling up—physical, social, practical, or psychological consequences. That’s addiction. So when we think about it this time of year, and what it looks like when someone relapses, it could be a binge, or it could be someone who just eats an extra ear of corn at a cookout and then feels demoralized and desperate. They know it was off the plan and they’re sick in their guts about it. But they’re not bingeing. Addiction is terrible, even without the binge. Obsessing over that ear of corn is indicative of a disordered relationship with food, which is a component of addiction. One of the questions on the Food Addiction Susceptibility Scale asks about bingeing. But you can be a 10 without giving a high number to that question. If you’re 10+, you may binge, and bingeing does add a layer of experience to the addiction. But it’s not necessary for food addiction. FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/v0rc77Do You Have to Binge to be a Real Food Addict? | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast