Journaling

I keep forgetting to mention journaling, and why I am writing again. Part of Bright Line Eating is of course the food; no sugar or flour. But part of it is re-wiring the brain, and learning to trust in ourselves again. Another part is learning how to support our willpower, since it is a limited resource.

To these ends I do a couple of things each day that revolve around my paper journal. Each page is a day, and is divided into three sections. The first section is for gratitude, and for important ideas. I usually listen to a vlog by Susan B. Thompson, the author of Bright Line Eating, and in my journal I write anything that sparks; something that hits home, and my resulting thoughts. Today it was a song in Rent as noted below in my sample. Next on my daily page I write, and commit to, what I will eat the next day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Finally the bottom section of the page is for notes on things I don't want to forget; things that bear repeating or that I have learned in a BLE video.

Here is a sample page from my beautiful little faux-leather journal. Today's page, in fact.
--------------------------------------
Sunday 1-5-20
I'm thankful it's Saturday, and that I kept my bright lines yesterday.

One Day At A Time. You can only decide about today; that is how the future unfolds - one day at a time. There is only today. "There's only this, there's only now, no day but today."  (Rent, sing it.)

(b) sausage, triscuits, orange
(l)  meatballs, roasted veg, apple
(d)  lentil veggie soup w\ ham

Notes: Emergency Action Plan: vlog, blog, call D, meditate

1. Human connection
2. Pray - ask for help, strength, relief
3. Meditate - find a calm center
4. Gratitude - write a list\tell someone
5. Servie - help someone else
6. Distraction\Activity
---------------------------------------
Then, the next day (after dinner at the earliest) I pick up my journal, and first I check off that I ate exactly what I had committed to on the prior page. This exercise is to restore integrity after years of intending to eat one thing and then eating cake. or pie. or chips - you get the idea. I am learning to trust that I can do what I say I will. Then I start the next journal page, and following the above format fill in my gratitude, important ideas, my food for the next day, and notes on what I wish to remember or reinforce.

Finally I write about the day here. The good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful. I try to be honest instead of writing what I wish had been, I try to 'show up real' and not sugar coat my life or lie to myself. Hopefully most of the time I succeed.

And most of the time C interrupts me and wants my laptop to watch Paw Patrol 💙😼

Time to share.