Hi Gretchen

What great progress!!! It's amazing isn't it?

I too was a huge scale watcher, and actually what led me to finding this program in a way, was the fact that I managed to lose weight on a calorie diet before I found this way. It was a massive help because I had always been big growing up and was convinced that if I was thin, everything in my life would be perfect. I had gone from a size 18 to a 12 on a calorie diet, and was feeling huge and wrapping a sweater around my waist in the summer, in an attempt to hide what I felt was a huge behind.

I realised then that weight was not the issue, just a symptom of whatever the real problem was. If I had been unfortunate enough to have never achieved weight loss on an ordinary diet, I would have always believed that I felt unhappy because I was big, and never looked any deeper than that. So I thank God that I managed to lose weight beforehand.

It gets even better, there comes a time when we don't even care about the weight anymore, which ironically is usually when it starts to come off, we get comfortable and happy with life and decide to start doing whatever it takes to get that weight off, if extra work is needed to just the diet itself. For me, I was lucky, it wasn't, but even if it had been, I would have been doing what it took to lose the weight by going for walks etc every day, and just through doing my BE raising activities.

It might sound easy for me to say, regarding journal, I never had any shame about writing anything down, but I can imagine having. Just try to tell yourself that the shame is biochemical (which it is) and it will go as you move further along the steps. No one should have shame about what they eat, it doesn't logically make sense, the same way that being a size 12 after an 18 made me feel fat doesn't make sense. Although I never had shame with regard to the journal, I did have shame with regard to eating in front of people, or even buying food in front of people. Of course it was always "bad" foods that I was ashamed about, my Dad used to ask me if I wanted an Ice Cream when I was growing up and I would say "Yes please," but then he would give me the money, and I refused to go and get it. He realised this after a while and used to get it for me, rather than let me go without. I also would not take my own children into McDonald's on my own when they were younger, another adult would have to order the food, if there wasn't another adult with me, I wouldn't go in. Never had the same problem buying clothes or anything else, and it of course made sense to me after I found this program, the only things I had shame about were the things I had a problem with.

Love

Jane
xx

: Hello everyone-

: I wanted to share a bit of what I've
: learned over the last several
: months. I'm feeling like I've had
: some good progress and it's fun to
: look back on it now.

: I started at the beginning of April.
: I was sure that I was already
: doing everything 99% right. I just
: needed to slowly add some even
: doses of complex carbs throughout
: my day and I would be ready to
: roll. I was thrilled about the
: support here since I was having
: some big emotional reactions to
: adding back carbs after a long
: period of low-carb dieting.

: Three and a half months later, I'm on
: Step Two. As much as part of me
: still very much wants to be
: rushing ahead, I'm also realizing
: there are some good things I've
: learned along the way.

: Here are a few of them:

: - I took in all four components of
: breakfast. Timing, consistency,
: sufficient complex carbs for me,
: and sufficient protein for me.
: I've read so much about nutrition
: I should have a degree. But it
: actually took quite a while to
: allow just these simple
: instructions to filter into my
: brain and my habits.

: - I learned to put me first in the
: morning. I used to be a mom who
: took care of everyone else and
: rushed out the door without
: eating.

: - Just eating breakfast on time,
: every day, sufficient protein and
: "brown" actually helped
: me feel better. Kind of amazing.
: This was true even though I was
: eating more junk than before
: starting the program (maybe
: because I was shifting the pattern
: and not putting all my energy into
: saying no, or maybe because I was
: "saying goodbye" to
: sugar)

: - Lingering on breakfast gave me time
: to make it a solid habit and start
: turning my focus to feeling
: physically and emotionally well.
: This is a big shift away from
: scale-watching and carb-counting.

: - I've logged food on previous diets,
: but journal is proving to be a
: challenge. Some of my new
: awareness about myself is
: uncomfortable. I'm really glad
: that breakfast is a solid support
: under me as I work on this.

: - There are a lot of nano steps to
: journaling when you break it down.
: And it's much easier to start
: building a new habit by taking on
: little steps instead of trying to
: do it all at once. Learning the
: four components of breakfast was
: great prep for breaking down
: journal into manageable pieces.

: Thanks for listening,
: Gretchen