Grateful Hearts Don't Binge Eat

It really struck me a couple of days ago what I've accomplished and how I've changed in the past 15 months. I knew intellectually but all of sudden one day last week I really FELT it. I felt how enormous the changes were -- and I don't just mean my body which is 76 pounds lighter now. Many of the changes have nothing to do with my body or the way I look, or the way I eat. They are internal -- mental, spiritual -- changes. Meditation: Part of what got me to sign up for the Bright Line Eating Bootcamp last October was that it came with a daily meditation course from Monique Rhode s. I'd long wanted to incorporate daily meditation into my life. I did some of the meditation course during bootcamp but wasn't able to make it stick as a daily habit -- probably because there were so many food and eating related habits to build up. However I got back to the meditation course this Summer and this time it did stick. I meditate for 15 minutes almost daily. I'm stil...

There's no going back now -- I'm about to take all of these clothes to ENCORE , the consignment shop at my church. This is the second batch I've taken. Last Spring I took Spring/Summer Clothes that were already too big even before I reached goal weight. Now I am taking Fall/Winter clothes. I decided to keep one pair of pants from my highest weight. A pair of size 18W Talbots jeans (I wear a size 10 jeans now). I tried them on -- something I haven't done since I lost 70+ pounds. What an amazing experience! They were HUGE and fell off of me if I didn't hold them up. It was a very powerful visual reminder of how much I've lost. What also amazes me is how much in denial I was before. I mean, I knew I weighed 220 pounds which at 5'7" is obese but I didn't think I looked that fat. No wonder people keep commenting in amazement at how I look now. So, I'm keeping this pair of pants as a reminder that I never, ever, ever want to go back there. I a...

I've been doing the maintenance dance since May 23rd when I added my first additional component over the weight loss plan: 1 grain serving (4 oz of cooked, 1 oz of dry grain) at lunch. Yesterday I added my 5th additional component: Another 1/2 grain serving at lunch. My full food plan looks like this: Breakfast 1.5 grain servings 2 protein servings 6 oz fruit Lunch 1.5 grain servings 1 protein serving 1 fat serving 10 oz vegetables 6 oz fruit Dinner 1 grain serving 1 protein serving 1 fat serving 10 oz vegetables Extra on Days I do Weight Training with my Personal Trainer (2x per week) 1 fruit serving .5 protein serving I lowered my goal range to 146-150 and am really comfortable at 147-148 as my weight. I haven't weighed this little since the early 90s before I had children. Most of my adult life I've been in the 150s or much higher so I originally set a very  modest goal of 155. I made it into this new range as of August 8th -- after a week of ...

I made it to my goal range of 148-152 pounds! YES!. At 151 -- that's a total of 69 pounds lost on Bright Line Eating and 73 pounds lost from my highest weight ever. I've been adding back in food per the Bright Line Eating maintenance plan since May 23rd. I've been going slowly and have added in 3 components so far: 1 serving of grain at lunch, additional 1/2 serving of grain at breakfast and an additional serving of protein split between breakfast and dinner. It may be time to add the 4th soon, but we will see. Loving this program because it works, it's flexible enough that you can still live your life while eating healthfully -- and for the amazing support being in the Bright Lifers program brings. If you are interested, I updated my measurements and other Stats on the Statistics page, and there are photos in the blog post I wrote in June.

The New England Bright Line Eating Group recently hosted Susan Peirce Thompson when she was in Boston. I couldn't make it to the event unfortunately, but decided to participate in the book that the group is making for Susan. Below is my contribution, photos and a letter to Susan.  I found BLE totally by accident. I’ve been a binge eater and emotional/stress/comfort eater my whole life, but the bingeing had been really bad over the past year mainly because my job was so stressful – I have a toxic, micromanaging boss. After about 8 years of remaining between 210 and 220 lbs I’d popped up to 224 lbs. I knew something had to change and I wanted to address the binge eating. I had come to terms with being heavy and made peace with my body so losing weight was not my motivation. I’d given up on being able to lose weight anyway. The lowest I’d managed to get in the last 10 years was 203 and that was with so much effort, deprivation, and feeling bad about myself when I cheated – i...

So six months here I am. Down 52 pounds from the beginning of boot camp on October 4, 2017. I have lost: 6.5 inches in my Bust 10.5 inches in my Waist 8.5 inches in my Hips 10.25 inches in my Stomach Seeing those numbers in incredible to me. I really didn't see myself as I was before I guess, but I can see it now -- that I was heavy before. Still not sure exactly why I am able to stick to this, when I could never stick to Weight Watchers or anything else, but it must be this program. I'm thankful.

My weekly weigh in was yesterday and I broke the 180 barrier and am now down to 179.8.  That's a total loss of 40.2 pounds since I started Bright Line Eating (BLE) Boot Camp on October 4th. I haven't seen the 170s for at least ten years. I can't find any record of exactly what I weighed after I was pregnant with Sam but I do know that the lowest I got back down to was 168 pounds when we were in Italy in June 2004. I think I was in the upper 170s when we moved from Athens, GA to Rhode Island which is when I began gaining a lot of weight fast because of emotional binge eating of sweets -- because I was depressed about having to leave a job and friends I loved. Anyway -- this is a huge success and I'm going to pat myself on the back and take it. I've been losing weight lately at a rate of just under 2 pounds per week which is excellent. I think that my twice weekly weight training is helping this, but I could be wrong. I've been doing that for a couple of ye...