Weekly Vlog: Dragons and Dragonflies
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 พ.ค. 2024
- Let’s talk about food thoughts and cravings-the differences between them and how to navigate them. We’re heading into the holiday season in the U.S., and food goes along with those holidays.
Many of us experience profound food cravings. A food craving is like a dragon. Dragons are scary and intense, and feel like they can swoop in and then swallow us alive. They motivate us to fulfill their wants and desires. They’re hard to escape from-much like cravings.
With cravings, it can take emergency measures to escape alive. Phone calls to supportive Bright Line buddies can be useful, as can prayer, meditation, or gratitude and service-these are the five actions that science shows can help replenish your willpower.
But here’s the important thing: cravings subside when we do Bright Line Eating. The dopamine downregulation that is the source of those cravings becomes less acute as we abstain from sugar and flour and give the dopamine receptors a chance to replenish.
But that doesn’t mean you’ll never think about food. I call food thoughts dragonflies. Dragonflies are small, harmless winged creatures that may alight near you, but can be shooed off. It’s pretty easy to get them to fly off. That’s a food thought-not a craving.
The trick is to shoo away your dragonflies before they turn into dragons-which they will do. Don’t let them hang around, and certainly don’t feed them. This can happen when we’re not clear in our identity, or not clear about intending to stay bright.
The food indulger part of us wants to eat all kinds of foods and has lots of reasons why it would be a good idea to eat addictively. But we can recruit our rebel part to say “hell, no!” to this.
My favorite way to keep dragonflies from growing into dragons is to use this mantra: “Thank you, God, that’s not my food. That’s poison to me.” Prayer can also help: “God, please remove this food thought. Take it away. Help me to focus on something else.”
There’s also an in-between creature, bigger and more grotesque than the dragonfly but not quite a dragon. It can be shooed away, but you’ve got to be more aggressive with it.
I discovered this when I was in Australia, and was struggling with dragons. When I got about 21 days away from sugar and flour, it felt like it wasn’t a dragon anymore, but it wasn’t yet a dragonfly either. I had some choices restored and had tools that worked. I had to work my tools hard, though. But I kept stringing those days together, like pearls on a necklace, until I had something quite beautiful. 21 days was the turning point for me to be back on firm ground.
So as you live through this holiday season, I want you to know that it’s vitally important to protect your state of mind. If you succumb to the notion that you need to make exceptions because it’s the holiday season, you’ll find that there’s always something that serves as an exception: your birthday, Independence Day, a summer trip....modern life is one long string of “special” invitations to eat off plan. There’s no peace in a life of breaking and rezooming.
If you’re new to Bright Line Eating, know that it will pay off if you double down this holiday season. The first holiday season will, of course, be the hardest, but after that, it will be so much easier because you’ll have done it before. No bite of holiday food is worth the trade, no matter what your mind tries to convince you.
So if you notice that you have a dragonfly, when a food thought rests lightly with you, all you have to do is stay clear and shoo it away. If you let it sit there, it’ll grow. Use whatever tools you can: mantra, prayer, meditation, whatever works for you.
Don’t let it grow into a dragon.
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What a great way to describe those places with cravings, food thoughts, and all that lies in between!
I’ve been doing BLE on and off since the end of 2019.
“None is better than Some” has been a fantastic help this time around. I’ll say it out loud whenever I need to! (Fight those dragons and dragonflies!)
Today is my new Day #79. 😊
That is such a good one! 🧡
You are all kinds of awesome. Thank you, Susan.
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I love these imageries- very helpful to address food thoughts. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and insights-always a lift on this BLE journey!💗🕊😊🌞
Thank you for being here! 🌟🌟
This visual tool is super valuable, thank you for strengthening our resilience to stay bright with such great ideas, much luv to you and all my fellow BLE
I want to stay bright for 21 days.
I really need to hear this. Thank you for doing this.❤😍🙏
You've got it! 🫂
I love how you are so articulate.
Excellent!
Bravo 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻and thank you
Always outstanding information! I love the image of dragonflies and dragons. Easy to remember and I will be much more aware of any dragonflies that land for a moment. And it will ONLY be a moment because I will "shoo" them away! Thank you Susan! Always inspiring!
Shoo dragonfly! 😊😊
I love your analogy. I have also felt like my addiction could be compared to a dragon which is just outside my door. Sometimes I have a sense it is out there breathing heavily and other times it is out there resting but it is always there. I love the dragonfly analogy as well.
Really glad this resonated with you. 💗
🐉Very good vlog! Now when I see a "darning needle" I'll think of BLE. I have a few of these.
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Thank you so much! 💔
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That is great
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How do you feel about coffee? To me, it’s addictive, so I don’t indulge in it. I’d love to hear your thoughts about caffeine.
Hi there! Susan addresses coffee more in-depth in the Bright Line Eating Boot Camp 2.0, but here is a vlog she recorded about it that you might find enlightening! th-cam.com/video/BTz0QnsMQYg/w-d-xo.html
What is so hard is that people around me (all my in laws) will make comments about they way THEY eat and then laugh about it. I realize that’s their defense mechanism. They are uncomfortable so they feel they need to reciprocate.
That is so relatable. Sending love 🧡🧡
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