A series on setting Boundaries

Setting boundaries with your FOOD:

One area that I have practiced boundaries successfully (and not so successfully at times) is around my eating. I follow a nutrition plan called Bright Line Eating. It was created several years ago by Susan Peirce Thompson PhD. She is a neuroscientist and self proclaimed recovering addict. She noticed that addiction to drugs and alcohol were very similar to addictions to certain foods and is leveraging research and brain science to combat obesity with the science that supports that sugar and flour (processed foods) act much like drugs in the brain. By creating a plan that draws bright lines (a legal term referring to no ambiguity) around certain foods, she helps people overcome food addiction and battle obesity and weight issues. In my almost 2 years of following the plan, I have definitely learned from my own “research” around creating bright lines for sugar, flour, meals and quantities. When I break my sugar line, it takes days if not weeks to recover. Much like an alcoholic, it never ends with just one drink, or in my case one cookie.

When I hear about others in the diet industry talk about “intuitive eating” I feel happy for them and a little bit jealous. I’ve tried, but it just doesn’t seem to work for me. I’ve never been a 1 cookie kind of girl, so I now know it’s better to just say NO to the cookies altogether. I’m not always perfect, and that’s another reason I love the Bright Line Eating community… when we “break” one of our lines, we are encouraged and supported to give ourselves some self-compassion and “simply rezoom.” Resume is spelled in this funny way to encourage speed in resuming with the program and getting on with your life. One bite off plan, if unavoidable, isn’t going to sabotage all your progress AS LONG AS you rezoom quickly and don’t let one bite lead to, what Susan often refers to as, being “face down in cookie dough.”