Did you find yourself sweeter and kinder after Whole30 reintro?

[MeadowLily]

It Starts With Food.

I believe we should give it to them straight UP without our personal biases attached to it.

You need to actually read the book for yourself.

It's human nature to add our own personal bias to everything we do or read. We all see things differently and filter it through the lenses of our life and experiences.

Melissa wrote the book. If she's not saying it, I don't want to say it either. Our bias can influence someone to the point that they develop more fear about food, narrowing their choices and dialing it down to a nub. Bare bones everything. Eating in a nutritional bubble.

If it's on the shopping list, I'm having it.

I don't have a fear of fruit and gut issues with nuts. Let others find their way.  If we tell them long enough that they'll develop gut issues, gut irritation and develop a bad immune response to foods that have never bothered them before, we've taken away - rather than adding to their relationship with food.

That's not freedom. At all. It's adding more fear.

Choices and Consequences.  If it's in the book, let them seek it out and experiment what's really going to work for them going forward.

I can eat fruit in an omelette or incorporated into a dish. No problems.  I always eat fruit with a protein. It's a habit now.

Fruit for a condiment and nuts for a decoration. No consequences for me whatsoever in over 3 years.

When we help others narrow their choices rather than spread their wings and find true freedom, it won't last.

It's only 30 days but if you plan on eating those foods on Day 31, learning to manage them while you're on a Whole 30 is good training ground.

Isn't that the way?

Test the waters with all compliant foods. Incorporate as much variety as you can. 

I've watched too many Day 31's become a food fest,  never to return again.

The Reintro Phase is a huge part of the springboard and launching pad into the rest of our life. If you've narrowed all of your choices for years and still cannot find gut healing or relief...Houston, there's a problem.

If your gut is still leaking - if your gut had actual holes in it you would die of sepsis within hours - but not everyone has a leaky gut.  

Not everyone has a food addiction/disorder or suffers with binge eating.  I know that.

We can't let our personal bias become and affect someone's relationship with food. Our personal bias can become legend and color the lens of tender shoots. Newbies.

Read the book. Find your way.

We can lead and guide, point the arrow but for the love of all things whole - give them the freedom to choose. Let's not create more limitations for anyone.

Shawshank it.  Be free. For real and not imaginary freedom.

 

 

[MeadowLily]

Whewwww. That felt good. It felt like actual freedom.

If you want to eat bars on your salad, 'salad bars', do it.

Melissa does.

I'll have whatever she's having.

 

[MeadowLily]

Where words fail, music speaks.

[MeadowLily]

Food inflexibility is a self-imposed prison.

The Food Prison can seem like it's more comforting that Food Freedom Forever.

YOU are not trapped.  You have the keys to the Food Prison.

Don't identify with your captor. That's the Stockholm Syndrome which is developing survival strategies during your captivity.

The captives develop positive feelings towards their kidnappers. You actually learn to love being held hostage.

This has actually saved lives in a real hostage situation but you don't have to live like that with food rewards. Sugar.

Get yourself free.  You don't have to develop compassion and love for the old food rewards that ruined your relationship with food. You are no longer bound by them and obligated to give them the time of day.

They brought you pain and confusion. They were not your food friends and lovers. They were sneaky snakes. Deceivers. 

HFCS and all things really artificial. Highly engineered to be craved. Trigger Trickery.

 

[MeadowLily]

Much Love. Tanto Amore. Peace Out.

[MeadowLily]

Binge and thrill eating alters the brains circuitry. The longer it goes on the higher the threshold.

Every day that passes by the ground grows colder for food addiction recovery.

Food addiction is not a smooth criminal.

 

Obesity and compulsive binge eating are not on your side. Binge eaters sharply increase their thresholds for food reward levels as the years pass by.

The body and mind will do their best to keep UP with the highest weight you've ever been in your life. It will take UP to 3 years before they'll quit fighting so hard against you.

The brain circuitry will do everything within its power to see to it that you EAT IT ALL BACK.  WLS can't stop it either.  The appetite control center is located in the brain and not the stomach. Removing the stomach won't fix the brain circuitry. 

The brain is a driver.  It will drive you right back to your starting position. It will help you... eating by remote control in the unconscious mode.

Remember.

All the while you are eating in the unconscious mode you are  increasing your threshold. Driving it higher and higher and higher.

And not one single time, will the brain and body stop you.  This may go on for months until you are at the top of your threshold looking down and asking yourself....how in the hail did I get here.

You don't even know because there are days and months and maybe even one year that you are living in a total blur and smoke filled haze.

Not. One. Time.  Did the brain and body cue you UP to stop.  Nuh huh.  They were enjoying the process so much while they were pulling the wool over your eyes.

[MeadowLily]

Highly engineered to become a binge eater and food addict?

To start the addictive cycle with wild swings UP and down, dopamine must be felt and will not be denied.

The body and brain will drive you to eat until you have ample dopamine receptors running on all cylinders.

Sugar and everything really artificial is a substance.

Food addicts and binge eaters have and create more low dopamine receptors from the beginning and caused by the compulsive binge eating behavior.

They have to increase the amount of food rewards to get the same hit.

The body and brain are hailbent on seeing to it that you are driven to hunt for dopamine-inducing food reward substances to reach that level of neurochemical rewards so you can just breathe a sigh of relief.

The body and mind won't let you have any relief until you are driven and drive yourself to the scene of your  last food crime to fulfill the quota of dopamine food rewards.

It will take UP to 3 years for depleted dopamine receptors to return to baseline levels.

If you keep starting over and over and over again, Monday Mindset, one month on and one month off...you may become so worn out from trying to regain your footing - your baseline density of receptors - that you throw your hands in the air, pull your hair out and walk off.

 

[MeadowLily]

Got addiction? Of any kind and variety...

Your striatal dopamine D2 receptors were low to begin with.

Increasing your food reward thresholds over the years or decades will only dig you into a much deeper hole.

Food addicts are predisposed to developing these kinds of habitual behaviors.

The 'what the hail' mentality makes it even more difficult for a smooth recovery. There's really no such thing as a smooth recovery because Food Addiction is not a smooth criminal.

 

 

 

[MeadowLily]

Genetics play a huge role in metabolic and neurochemical systems. The genetic flag for addiction of every kind is the TaqIA A1 allele - linked to fewer D2 receptors and addiction and obesity and everything that sux. For real.

Dieting and overrestriction has been proven to be completely unsuccessful for treating Food Addiction.

The brain is hardwired to hunt for multi-crap until it fulfills its quota.  It will not be denied.

That corrupts even more of the brain circuitry. The food addict will keep right on eating until they eat themselves to death.

The sweet spot for the food addict is amassing huge quantities of sugar, in hot pursuit of them for another thrill eating ride.

Trigger trickery is a Smooth Operator. You won't know what hit you until you've reached your highest weight. Only then will the body and mind allow you take a good hard look at where you've been and only then - but they will still sit in the corner and laugh at you. 

My spirit is the best part of me. I can't rely on the other two. They've always let me down, down, down.

This is going to take true grit. I knew that going in. It's going to take everything within your being to fight, fight, fight. Come on now, Felicias.  Don't give up or throw the towel in. Don't keep starting over and over and over.

Get back UP on your feet. No more rope-a-dope for you and me.

On a one day at a time basis, we will become Smooth Operators.

 

 

 

 

[MeadowLily]

Can we talk amongst ourselves. I have witnessed those near and dear...eat it all back even with WLS. Ooooo, yes, it can be done.

The appetite control center is located in the brain. They just start UPPING those snacks. Snackity everything.

Giving themselves another dopamine hit in limited quantities and more often until they're right back where they started. From a stomach the size of a football reduced down to the size of a small banana, the body and mind will see to it, once again, that you are at your highest weight.

The highest threshold of food addiction will not be denied even if you start removing and reducing your body parts.  The threshold for food addiction doesn't give a diddlywhop what you do as long as you give it those non-stop food rewards.  The "cheating" kind.  Cheaters and deceivers. 

Cheat meals won't fix a food addiction. You can't fix a broken brain with a broken brain.  It might be better if one had brain surgery rather than stomach surgery but we can't live without a brain.

Oooo, dear. I just thought of someone. Never mind.

 

 

 

 

 

[MeadowLily]

Snackity? Can't give up the nonstop food rewards and snacks.

You're only increasing your threshold if you have food addiction. Every day and year you let pass you by the ground gets colder.  

Give up those snacks. Eat 3 meals aday with 4-5 hours between them. Give it true grit and fight like hail against that high, upper threshold of food addiction.

 

[MeadowLily]

How we spend our days is how we spend our life.

 

[MeadowLily]

There are many who only need one Whole 30 as the launching pad and springboard into their life.

Ima still here jumping on the trampoline.

If you're still here and I'm still here, isn't this our time, Mr. Hand?

 

 

[MeadowLily]

Potshots will be taken from across the bow. Be prepared, just like food prepping.

There are those who've told me what a total waste of my time I've spent here all of these days and years. It hurt my feelers, bulletproof coffee doesn't fix your feelers.

Where have all the flowers gone? I do notice that many of the flowers have gone missing. It's just a few of us chickens hanging around the coop.

Many have flown over the coop but Ima still here. Now, I'm not sitting on a barstool swilling drinks somewhere. I'm not over at the mini-mart guzzling diet sodas and eating gummy bears. 

I'm not going through the drive-thru ordering a couple of gut bombs and a side of fries. 

Sticks and stones can hurt bones but words do, too.

I'm not who I used to be.  We can't judge others for their choices when we don't know their reasons.

If we just sit around and wait for motivation to strike - we'll get nothing done.

You need to go in search of it yourself.  So I did.

If you're still here and I'm still here doesn't this make it our time. 

If a tree falls in the forest, does anyone hear? Of course, they do. Wild animals hear everything.

 

 

 

[MeadowLily]

You need to go in search of yourself.  So I did.

 

And hey, what about all of those blogs. This isn't a blog. It is a running conversation with myself. When you have a blog, you're always editing yourself. Sprucing it all UP for your audience. That's all fine and dandy until you edit yourself right into a corner.  Boxed in and you don't know how to get back out.

Learning to find your voice, again, when food addiction ate it - gives you a modicum of understanding about yourself.  Me, me, me.  

Milling around and shooting the breeze with the Universe is not overrated.  It's all fun. Really.

I try very hard to stay on topic while blathering and foaming at the mouth about everything. Life after your Whole 30. 

I'm not in love. So don't forget it. It's just a silly phase I've been going through for over 3 years now.

And just because I call you UP. Don't get me wrong, don't think you've got it made. I'm not in love.

I'd like to see you again. But then again, it doesn't mean you mean that much to me. So if I call you, don't make a fuss. Don't tell your friends about the two of us.

I'm not in love, so don't forget it. Ooooo, who am I trying to kid. I lurve this happy place.

Much Love. Felicias. Tanto Amore. 

 

 

 

[MeadowLily]

 

[MeadowLily]

 

[MeadowLily]

[MeadowLily]

I hold these truths to be self-evident. All Felicias are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain undeniable rights. Among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Happiness Awareness is not overrated. Go in search of it. Hitch your wagon to your Happy Place and don't ever look back over your shoulder.

[MeadowLily]

I hold these Food Addiction Recovery truths to be self-evident.

Longterm success = Original Factory Settings

Brain Recalibration and total disconnects for the brain do not mix.  They are oil and water.

[MeadowLily]

Normal people are my heroes.

I study and observe, admire them and hold them UP in high esteem. In my estimation, there's nothing better than being normal.

Ima talking about having a normal relationship with food.

I've met a few of these people in my lifetime.  I have always wanted to be one.  Life is so easy for them.

I remember a time, rompin' through the woods

Sun against our skin...with clothes

When we felt hungry we would eat

When we felt glad, we would dance

Whenever we felt drowsy, we would doze

It was so easy then, never makin' any plans

It was so easy then, holdin' hands

 

 

Never makin' any plans and flying by the seat of your pants is not all it's cracked UP to be. Nuh huh. Not for the food addict. Food preppers rule. They find the sweet spot in their fridge for homemade mayo and no one had better move it or there will be a price to pay.

[MeadowLily]

I hold these weight releasing truths to be self-evident.

Normal people do not plaster photos of celebrities all over their house for motivation. They're not motivated by belly selfies or body images.

They are content to think outside of pandora's box of dieting. That box doesn't even exist in their life and it never did.

They don't focus in on NSV, non-scale victories, because all of their victories are without the mind warp of a scale.

To hail with the scale.

They are victorious every frickity frick frick day. They do not live in a self-imposed Food Prison.

They don't take their beginning and ending measurements because there's no such thing as the Finish Line.

They simply live, move and have their being far beyond the bounds and prison walls of food, thinking about food, dieting, beginning and ending measurements with corresponding progress belly selfies.

 

[MeadowLily]

 

I hold these weight releasing truths to be self-evident.

Telling the world you are not dieting when you really are is a total disconnect for the brain.

It causes confusion.  Massive.

You are not dieting. You believe that. Or not.

The truth will find you out.

If you think the brain and body of a food addict are going to help you out, think again.

Those two nitwits have been riding roughshod over you all of the days of your life. Some order out of that chaos must be imposed. 

Take the bull by the horns.

Weight releasing while attempting to conduct a year long Whole 30. Whole 30's in giant month hunks of time. Has that worked for you then?

Read ISWF.  Don't get your personal counseling from facebook folkaronies.

Sit down with someone. Face-to-Face.  Face the hard, cold truth if you cannot create your own positive food management plan going forward. It's not a crime to ask for actual help. 

Pride comes before a fall.

 

[MeadowLily]

I hold these weight releasing truths to be self-evident.

Progress belly selfies:

When you slide back off the goose with rebound weight gain do you take more belly selfies in reverse as you  head back in the other direction. Has that worked for you then?

Progress belly selfies, from the highest weight ever recorded to the lowest makes me really low. Soooo loooow.

Swing down, Sweet Chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.

Swing down, Sweet Chariot. Please stop and let me ride.

Progress belly selfies make me feel ashamed of myself. Drawing more comparisons and competing with others.

Normal people do not take progress belly selfies. They are content to live, move and enjoy all of their being all of the days of their life without one progress belly selfie.

They don't plaster photos around their house and say Oooo, Lookie there,  I look the same this year as I did last year.  Schweeeet.

They are content to progress and age naturally, gracefully and beautifully.  They're normal and that's what normal people do.  They don't give one iota about the latest dieting craze and overrestriction. They have normal dopamine receptors and I wish I was one of them.

They were probably born that way and/or their environment was conducive to just being normal. I wish I could start over again and just be normal. 

I could've been a contender and just content to live my life beyond the bounds and self-imposed prison walls of food addiction. Thinking about food and believing that another miracle diet would remedy my food addicted brain - along with all of those progress belly selfies.

Abby normal sux. Food addiction does, too.

I'm still standing but don't ever ask me to give you my beginning and ending measurements along with the progress belly selfies.

Has that changed everything for you then?

Do you release 100 lbs of fat in a year's time, only to rebound with every single on them in the next year's time. 

May I suggest that while you are trying to find and work UP your dieting mojo once again, that you throw everything you've done in the past right out the window.

Clear the decks and Clean the slate. 

Doing what you've always done and getting what you've always gotten is not a remedy.  It's living inside of a self-imposed Food Prison.

Is this not the path that was chosen to set the captive free.  Find your greater purpose.Whatever you do, don't take your measurements and stop getting on the scale for real. 

Start living like a normal person. Find one and start observing them. Even if your dopamine receptors don't work like theirs do, following in their footsteps will be fun and interesting while you're tooling along the way.

[MeadowLily]

I hold these weight releasing truths to be self-evident.

We have a dr.'s scale with those sliding counterweights. I duct taped those counterweights a long time ago.

I had a digital scale that never said the same thing twice. I got rid of it.

When I stopped letting the mind warp of the scale run my life, a funny thing happened on the way to the forum.