Did you find yourself sweeter and kinder after Whole30 reintro?

[MeadowLily]

 

Another binge is not a cure for a food addiction or a broken heart.

If your motivation is waning....GET MAD and GET IT DONE. 

No one can do this for you.  Snap out of it. Get mad and do it.  You can smooth your ruffled feathers out later.  

 

[MeadowLily]

[MeadowLily]

[MeadowLily]

In the later years, married couples start to look like one another.  One of my Grandmaws looked like a combination of George Washington and Walter Matthau. 

My favorite part of the movie in Grumpy Old Men is Walter sitting in his easy chair eating his "macaroni dish". Reminds me of Grandmaw, sooooo schweeeeet. My maternal grandmaws are long lived people, up in their 90's. Grandmaw did not work out.  She was a seasonal gardener and it was her favorite activity to avoid all of the kids and grandkids that were driving her cray, cray.  So many, she didn't know what to do. Great grandmaw would come and help out but didn't stay too long. Everyone swinging from the rafters and making huge messes in the kitchen was too much. 

Grandmaw didn't have too many heirloom pieces because of the kids. I still remember doing the dishes at about age 8 and I broke one of her few fancy red serving dishes. I did not know what to do. So I picked up the pieces and threw them into the irrigation ditch.  I watched them float away or sink to the bottom.  I still feel bad about not telling anyone. 

Grandmaw loved to gad around town while Grandpaw was at work.  We'd all pile into the car and thankfully, she did drive like a snail. One door wasn't shut and as she was winging around the corner towards the 'dairy queen' some of the kids fell out.  They were hanging onto the doorknob for dear life. Everyone was screaming, it was such a madhouse but a heckuva lotta fun.  We were all free and easy and down the road we would go. 

Grandmaw did not have the best quality of food and neither did the kids. And yet, everyone lived.  Grandmaw did not spend her days exercising or running down the road but moved slow and steady. 

I've often wondered if she had pristine paleo meals and super foods, how long would the grandmaws live. I know there's much more than food and exercise that carries a person through all of the days of their life. Genetics and the spiritual connection. 

Our grandparents were made out of blue steel.  They lived through the Great Depression and hardships beyond belief.  My husband's parents came through the Dust Bowl Days and some of his relatives were eating fresh tilled soil in the fields. They were so hungry, they were literally eating dirt and it made them sick. 

My lovable lug says we must never forget what our ancestors came through. And we know that if really hard times hit, many wouldn't make it.  We've become soft and sedentary and coddled.  A bunch of over-pampered chefs. 

My grandpaw was so hungry, he once ate a porcupine.  Talk about offal awful, there was nothing he wouldn't do to put food on the table. My paw and his brothers had rickets. They were starving as young kids.  He still suffers from the consequences today. 

It Starts With Food and it ends with food. Some people don't have any. My ancestors won't let me forget the good times along with the hard rock candy very, very lean Christmas times.  There weren't any Christmas presents under the tree for the kids on both sides of my family. All they had was each other.  I hang on tightly to family. 

They matter more than anything else in this world. Paw says that old age is really not a blessing when your health is failing.  It sure ain't for the faint of heart. 

Food addiction is a chronic disease of food rewards.  It can start when you're young because of  lack and the lean years.  It can be carried down through the generations because your ancestors were starving. 

 

[MeadowLily]

Do you ever wonder how there could possibly be enough KerryGold Butter to go around the entire world.  In every little berg and roadside grocery we can find the best butter. Are there really enough dairy cows in Ireland to go around.  It's a mystery and I don't take it for granted.

I know that in only a couple of days time, if the trucks stopped running...every shelf would be wiped out of groceries and butter. Could you live without the drive-thru or  packaged and restaurant meals.  Those would dry up in day's time, too. What would you do.

Run for the hills? Without the gas tankers running down the road, no gas for the stations or cars. It's something to think about. 

I throw it out there to bring appreciation for all that we have. I can stand on my head for 30 days. When you have 3 meals aday....3 hots and a cot,  you're eatin' good in the neighborhood and have more than many in this world.  Be thankful. You've got it made in the shade. 

Tomorrow is another day but good quality food is not promised to anyone. Enjoy every single bite.  I don't waste food.  I don't buy paleo treats, take one bite and throw the rest in the trash.  I share with my family.  I would go without before I'd ever let one of them go without. Again. That's just the way I tick. 

[MeadowLily]

I wish Maw had incorporated the Saturday Only Snackalicious Window when I was growing UP. I was freefalling and flying by the seat of my pants from the age of 2. Kids thrive on routines. I didn't have any routines and I used to think it was a badge of honor. Flinging myself around and flitting in and out of full on food bender blowouts. I was freefallin' and it got me nowhere good.  

Sometimes it's hard not to ruminate on all of the mistakes I've made. It really gives me a pinch.  What a dipstick. If  I had only known what I know now, I would be so much further ahead.  Maw didn't know and we can't give what we don't have.   

The buck stops here.  I drew my line in the sand and I meant it.  That was back in 2014.  I haven't changed my mind.  Not one day and or one iota.  I stopped freefallin'. Developing routines and consistency is the best thing I've ever done for myself.  I have tools that guide me.

Look inside of your fridge and cupboards.  Are they a tee-total wreck.  Or do you have the sweet spot where you place your homemade mayo like somebody does that I know here. 

Do you food prep like a maniac.  She's a maniac...maniac...food prepping for her life. I thought that kind of activity was for the birds in the beginning. Recipes and food prep. What's that?  But I observe the birds who spend their days making strong nests for their young.  Robins are great mothers.  I respect them soooo much. They feed those lil mouths, day in and day out with a lorra, lorra love.  

Your fridge and cupboards are a reflection of what's going on in your head. Lovable lug likes to put everything into groupings and alpha dog order. I roll my eyes alot but I can find everything.  Maw's are like mine used to be.  A mish-mosh and everything on the bias.  You open them up and everything falls out that's on the higher shelves that we can't reach.  On the bias.  

I recommend routines, consistency and making order out of your socks that are fomenting revolution with your underpants. Some sort of order in that chaos must be imposed.  

I don't have a sweet spot for my mayo but I have a sweet spot for Felicias like me. I'm still not a maniac in the kitchen but I am on the dance floor. I can tape my feet like one, too.

 

Much love. Felicias. 

 

[MeadowLily]

Addictions - food, alcohol, online shopping, gambling...are defined as a chronic disease of rewards. 

Brain rewards, motivation, and memory.  Disorders and addictions manifest as the individual is in constant pursuit of rewards for relief. 

Food addiction like the others involves relapse and remission. And just like the others,  food addiction progresses until you find yourself in a physical disability, heart attack, stroke, joints that can no longer hold up under the pressure or premature death.  

Food addiction and others = a dysfunctional emotional response. It comes with an intense hunger for rewarding food experiences and a lack of recognition that you are in disorder/dysfunction. The emotions are blunted with a diminished recognition a problem exists.

Not letting the left hand know what the right hand is doing. Pulling the wool over your own eyes.  In addition, there's those out of whack hormones from too much cortisol blowback along with others that drive you to continually eat it all back.   Year after year.

I don't know if you can understand what it feels like unless you've been there. There are hormones that will drive you to eat it all back.  Relapse happens and remission seems like a distant dream.

The power of cues all around us drive the food addict, too. They are as powerful as the super moon. 

There is the persistent risk of relapse after a short period of recovery. Just like someone who loses a limb and experiences the ghost memory or sensations of their missing limbs.   We are a body, mind and spirit.  The spirit has a memory of being altogether because it is always intact.  Now and forever.

There's Oooo sooo much more to any addiction recovery.  

I don't reward myself with food.  I don't substitute other rewards for food addiction recovery.  Those are temporary bandaids that can lead you right back down the path to full blown food addiction.

I don't reward myself for cleaning the house, washing clothes, vehicles, irrigating, mowing, shoveling snow or taking care of the folkaronies. 

My brain has ghost memories of those former food rewards that got me nowhere good.  I can still feel those missing sensations but I do not reward myself with food.  It would lead to a total relapse.

In my recovery program, there are people who chew and spit. They take one bite and spit it out.  Some have spent 100's of dollars on binge foods, chewing and spitting as they tool along. Or taking a few bites and throwing the rest in the trash.  

This is another reason why I do not take one bite and throw the rest away. For me, it would lead to relapse. The chewer and spitters don't normally have a "weight" issue because this tends to lead to over-restriction and the flipside of my food addiction.

The alcoholic doesn't reward themselves in recovery and neither do I.  Giving myself constant attagirls would still be hitting that reward center in the brain.  It would be just a matter of time before I'd be right back at it.  

I've had to reframe my thinking about that reward center. It didn't happen overnight.  It's taken years now.  Food addiction can take years off your life as it progresses.  

Bear does all kinds of things for my folkaronies.  Every single day. Paw's favorite saying....here's a lil something until you're better paid.  Bear says, I don't need to be paid for anything.  I don't do any of these things for a reward. I do it because I love y'all. I love you so much that you've been better to me than my own family.  He tells Maw...you're the Maw I always wanted to have.  

He hugs and kisses each one of them every time he walks out the door.  My folkaronies love the attention and extra special care he gives them.  He takes Maw shopping so she can get out of the house while I stay home.  They gad around and have a great time.   

He cooks like a maniac and doesn't want anything in return.  Sometimes, our best examples are right there under our own noses.  Remember, your thank yous that you were hoping for may never be forthcoming on this old earth. 

But one day, your rewards will come.  They won't be in the manner of foods or online shopping.  You will be better paid.  Those rewards will be everlasting and worth their weight in gold and rubies.  I hope I'm there to see you get them.  I'll be in the cheering section...clapping my hands and raising my arms like a champion does in the ring.  I'm in your corner.  I care. 

It's enough for me.  

Much love. Felicias. 

 

[MeadowLily]

There is one quality, a rare virtue with a price above diamonds...patience.

It is the ability to accept delay or decline...calmly, quietly, unselfishly and with grace and a smile.  There are entire people groups all over the world that have this rare virtue of patience. It does not empty their tomorrows of sorrows or lessen their struggles but they are strong. They keep pushing themselves forward towards greater things. They don't let delay or decline defeat them.  They are each one...very significant.

Trust in the process of recovery.  Be patient.  Don't give up. Don't give in.  Give it all you've got. 

[MeadowLily]

Snowshoe days are here again. Blizzard season blew in through the door like TNT. Blizzard of the month club has a 'whole' new meaning here. 

[MeadowLily]

Be-You-Tea-Full. 

 

 

Happy Hour was originally for bored sailors to break up the monotony of being on a ship for weeks at a time. Most of the time, it was boxing or wrestling matches to boost the morale of sailors.  Nothing like a little fist-ta-cuffin' to break UP the day. 

There were other athletic activities but it wasn't about the booze.  I think it's sooo sad when people can only be happy for one hour aday.... 

[MeadowLily]

 

I don't drink for all kinds of reasons or jack myself UP with Jack. I don't want to ride with anyone who's drunk or who tips a few every day.  I don't think the bleary teary eyed look is a good look on most people. 

All of our hours can't be happy but one hour aday or once aweek on Wednesday, I can't go for that.  If all of your healthy selfies include more pics of the drinks....than anything else, Houston...we may have a problem. 

 

 

[MeadowLily]

I've been dumpster diving for almost 3 years now.

You have to break yourself down to build yourself back UP again. You have to go dumpster diving to look at all of your blunders. 

The opposite of fear is not courage.  It is curiosity.  Lewis and Clark had it, Einstein, Dora the Explorer,  pilgrims and those who want to go to Mars have curiosity. 

Small, yapping dogs have fear.  They try to project courage by barking louder but they're still in fear of the big dogs on the porch.

Having curiosity does not make you less judgmental but more accurate in your judgments about yourself. When you can judge yourself and examine your dumpster full of blunders...then you can have empathy for others.  

When someone is busy projecting that they have all of the answers without any recognition of their dumpster full of blunders....I am more curious about the why.  But it's fear. Fear of losing face or not coming across as the most intelligent person on the planet.

The less we know the better off we are... is not true. Heckatoot, I just heard that someone threw the towel in who promised someone they would be getting married on a reality show. There was sheer terror on their face. Complete fear. So much fear they may never get married.  The hurt party was totally blindsighted and had no idea what was about to be dropped on their doorstep. 

Marriage requires curiosity.  So take a leap and jump on in.  If you live in fear every day that the entire thing is going to fall apart because someone won't jump through your hoops and meet all of your expectations, don't even bother.  Marriage is a curious institution all the days of your wedded bliss. 

Stay curious, Felicias.  Go dumpster diving.  Pull out all of the dross.  Turn around and take a good hard look at your garbage.  It won't be pretty.  Blunders are messy but when you come out of the dumpster, soot all over your face and trash, candy bar wrappers and gummy bears in your hair...you'll have empathy for others who are struggling, too. 

When you break through all of the barriers that are holding you back, stay curious.  Don't fall back into fear. 

 

 

 

[MeadowLily]

Back in the day of the King's Court, it was a cutthroat, dog-eat-dog kind of life. It was all about who could offer the King the very best thing to eat. If it did not satisfy, you may not live to see tomorrow. This is where the cooking channels got their start and my fave, .  

Burnt sacrifices, my style of cooking would be met with a brutal and swift ending. I shudder at the thought of my offerings for the King. Cooking is central and I realize how closely the King's Court resembles politics. There's really nothing new under the sun and it's all about what we can offer UP.  Who's the best butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker. The cobbler and best sous/Sioux chef.   

It ain't me, babe...it ain't me you're lookin' for, babe.  Dylan.  I could win a name-that-tune challenge for the King with singing and dance. Cooking, not so much. 

Today, I will be making a lemony cauliflower. Lovable lug has been making jerky for a few days and my dog is patiently waiting for a crumb to drop off of the King's round table. 

There's always been that dark underbelly since the beginning of time and in ancient arenas.  Maybe that's just the way humanity bounces...only a slender thread's difference between us and the animals and who's at the top of the food chain. In my neck of the woods, it's the grizzly, Bear and Alpha Dog.

Good cooking separates us from the animals. It can soothe the troubled soul and bring smiles to hungry faces. Bear says good food fixes everything.  

It Starts With Food and it ends with food.  

     

[MeadowLily]

It's all 'bout da Energy Balance, no troubles. 

I am fascinated with paleo peoples who have their Energy Balance all figured out.  Curiosity does not kill that cat. 

Energy Balance is everything.  I mean it and this is where I am hanging out until that process becomes my second nature.  

There are peoples who do not have to think about their exercise routines. Bear is one of them.  He has never dieted a single day in his life. He moves, he lives and enjoys all of his being without tracking a cotton pickin' thing.

They say, whoever they are...that physical activity has always been the answer for the pandemic of obesity and heart disease.  Regular exercise is the closest we will ever come to tackling these problems. 

Only 20% of americans get enough exercise.  That would be 23% men and 18% women. 

64% of americans never do any exercise at all.   None.  Nadda.  Nothin'. Couch mode. 

This is where the rubber meets the road and has caused the biggest Energy Crisis that americans have ever witnessed in their lifetime.  We have become soft and mushy, and our mellows have been marshed by lack of movement.

You cannot wait until all of the weight releasing is done before you start to move.  Your skin will hang like a shar-pei dog down to your knees and all of the collagen peptides in the world won't fix it.  

If you don't get out of couch mode on Day 1....it ain't happening.  It is the handwriting on the wall.  Your Energy Balance will be stuck at ground zero. There's no such thing as the Finish Line.

You can't move temporarily through a dieting phase and hold rebound weight gain back.  Felicias, that's the recipe for gaining every pound back and the additional 10 or 20 on top due to cortisol blowback with an Energy Balance that has not been conquered.

There are people who instinctively know their energy limits and reserves. They move and refuel accordingly.  But it's been my observation, these people have not messed themselves up with dieting or over-restriction. That manner of thinking is foreign to them.   I lurve these people and I am so curious about what makes them tick.  

I want what they have.  That's why I'm still here.  I'm figuring things out as as I tool along.  I am curious about all of the answers for the why, why, why's.  

Your folkaronies may be bored out of their heads about food and energy balance talk.  Talk to the their hands, they don't give two hoots about it. But I do.  I am coming out of my dumpster of blunders.  Lifelong blunders.

It's not complicated but that instinctive energy balance conundrum is catapulting me foward.  It's a brainteaser.  I don't know if I'll get to other side of everything.  I hope so. 

When I come out on the other side,  I want Energy Balance.  Quid Pro Quo. 

Don't wait until you get there to make it happen.  If you do, you might edge up against it with a glancing blow.  Just hanging in that balance for a few micro secs and then falling back into doing things you didn't want to do in the name of weight loss.  This is the recipe for gaining all of the weight back.

That old approach will no longer serve you. Don't hold yourself back by focusing on your old goals or weight loss programs.  It's going to be a total clash with finding your energy balance. 

Water seeks its own level.  Old stinkin' thinkin' won't address the head games we play with ourself.  Trying to get 'skinny' will keep you fat.  

Swing that mountain of momentum the other way.  Fat is not a feeling and yo-yo dieting cycles are cycles of hail.  We're not going backwards. 

We will find our energy balance.

Much love.  Felicias.   

 

 

 

 

[MeadowLily]

My folkaronies say....are you still hanging out there every day?  Why.  Why don't you hang your spurs UP and ride off into the sunset.  

A funny thing happens on the way to the forum.  Old movie.  I can pull old memories and blunders up out of thin air,  blather and foam at the mouth about anything... but the minute I think I have to write something that I might send out to my folkaronies or friends, I shut down like a clam.  I find that curious and hi-larious.

I get all "talk amongst yourselves" with a dismissive hand gesture as in Coffee Talk. I found my voice here. I used to eat my voice away and stuff my emotions down, down, down with food.  I'm not doing that anymore.

They say there's safety in numbers and this is the Lady's Round Table. There are a lorra, lorra Lady's and Whole 30 friends I've made here. Many are long gone but they're out there in the ethers.   I shoot the breeze with the Universe and I'm talking to them. Some days, I can hear their reverb in my ears.   I miss 'em. 

One day, dcducks asked me... what in the world are you smokin'?   

Nothin'.  Nuttin' honeys. All of these things were shoved down my gullet and the artesian well has not run dry. They keep gushing out all over the place like a certain geyser that runs and puts on a show every hour on the hour.  You know the one, Old Faithful.  

I try to go because that might be the copasinki thing to do but here I am. Once again, I'm    talking your ears off.  I believe in momentum.  It is a gift. 

You've got to ride that wave for as long as it takes you.  I was beached for so long. The turkey vultures were circling and I was almost a goner.  

Not anymore. 

[MeadowLily]

Anyone out there looking for a mate.  Let momentum be the Universe's gift to  you and your guide. 

Some potential that you've got your eyeballs on, all the stars are lining UP and you're hooked on a feelin'.  Heckatoot, maybe there's that instant chemistry and attraction on every level.  Go with it.  Now if this potential is a scaredy-cat, loaded to the gills with fear, one step forward and two steps backward kind of person, hightail it out of there for the hills and do not look back.

Marriage is truly a partnership.  They've got to be able to meet you head-on, action for action and word for word.   Anyone who's pulling back even a smidge, they're not for you.   You may try and convince them with your salesmanship but later on the down the road, Felicias, it's going to flop.

Fearful potentials.   Let them eat your dust.  The sooner the better.  

When you find the one and it took me quite awhile, you won't be scary to them. The momentum will keep rolling at a fever pitch and it won't stop.  Don't let the music stop playing.  Keep dancing.

Some used to tell me that I scared them.  Ooooo,  dem eyes, dem eyes, dem eyes. Thanks, Paw. And I suppose I was looking right through them without rose colored glasses but they weren't right.  Fear is really a deal breaker.

The right one won't be scared of you or anything about you.  They'll accept you no matter what you weigh or how you look.  They'll love the smithereens right outta you, no matter what.  That's the keeper.  Let momentum be your guide.  It won't let you down.  I promise. 

[MeadowLily]

Bear and I recently watched a program about Alzheimer's. 

The number one supplement you can take for Alzheimer's is exercise.  You've got to move that blood in your toes UP to your brain. Every day. 

That's the ticket for Alzheimer's prevention and obesity and diabetes prevention,  heart disease and yes, even cancers.  

I was visiting with Bear over lunch and he agreed, exercise is the ticket for rebound weight prevention.  He's noted most start exercising through their weight loss program and then stop.  The metabolism goes back to hail in a handbasket and stops. All of the weight stacks back on at an alarming rate and people have no idea what happened in a fraction of the time it took to release it.

It's the handwriting on the wall.  You've got to be willing to start moving on Day One and don't quit.  If you quit, you'll end up right back where you started.  The willingness to move will help your brain engage along the way.

Without the brain engaging while you're tooling along, you're just going through the motions. Old habits die hard.  They'll creep back in, old sneaky snakes will unwind all your efforts.

Your euphoria bump will fly right back out the window.  It's exercise that will help you find your energy balance and give your equilibrium with foods back.

I used to put the pedal to metal and blow the carbon out of the engine. I would be screaming around the corners coming in on two wheels.  I don't do that anymore because I sold that car with the racing engine.  It was da bomb.  

There are people all over the world who've released the big numbers. I do not want to rebound back with every pound.  I started moving on Day One and I've kept going. 

Now, I 'm trying to calibrate the movement so I can stay in the sweet spot. It's not complicated.  It's something that people have always told us but it doesn't stick with you until you have to work through it all by yourself.

No one can figure this out for your particular body chemistry or makeup.  But the common denominator for disease prevention is exercise.  

Follow your own arrow and find exercise that you enjoy.  Do all of it on your own terms but don't stop, Felicias.   

[MeadowLily]

Putting the pedal to the metal and blowing the carbon out of your engine.  You can't out-exercise a food addiction. 

I'm talking about the right amount of exercise that cooperates with your own positive food management plan. When the snow is blowing in and piling up to the window sills, it's difficult to get outside and do the things I was doing.  

It does give me a pinch and I can't wait for Spring.  We kid each other about the long winters and cabin fever but it's not really very funny.  Just doing a thing is the best way. I'll get the snowshoes out.

There are times you have to shut out extraneous thoughts about exercise. Long winded speculation always gets in the way. Not relevant or essential. 

I always like to put some spice on exercise with music.  A little extra flair helps the medicine go down. 

 

 

[MeadowLily]

 

If you make sure you're connected,
The writing's on the wall
But if your mind's neglected,
Stumble you might fall
Stumble you might fall, hear me out
Stumble you might fall

 

One of the secret keys to food addiction recovery is found in the subconscious mind. While you're in the throes of a food addiction, the mind is mostly operating out of an unconscious state.  Some say they feel drugged or like they've been knocked out for surgery.  You're going through the motions and the brain is shutting out everything but food. It's all you can see and think about it.  Getting your hands on it and in constant pursuit of it. Driven. 

Food addiction is a driver and it will drive you right into the ground. 

It is a chronic disease that progresses and sitting down Face-to-Face with a professional is the way to snap yourself out of it before it drives to the point of no return. 

Animals often behave better for a new trainer and so do kids.  Kids will listen to the teacher when they might be tuning their parent's voice off at home. You know what they say about familiarity.

Brain imaging shows what's going on when you're in the sugar state of mind. Food addiction is the obsessive attraction to food before eating.  The binge cycle is activated by the first bite of addictive food.  It jacks up all of the endorphins and it's true, you are on a food high.  Higher than a kite.

There are those who are genetically inclined to food addiction. Just like alcoholism.  The longer you go, the chronic disease of food rewards  -addiction..the greater the chemical dependency on sugars/refined carbs grows.

Those who opt for WLS often develop a cross-addiction to alcohol. Recovering alcoholics can develop a taste for ciggies, coffee and sugar/flour/fat products. Cross-addiction is for real. 

You can be drunk on sugar/flour/fats. 

Detox breaks the grip of chronic food reward addiction.  It creates the possibility for seeing, believing, and telling the truth about yourself.

Support is needed to break the denial of food addictions and that they will eventually take you out.  Heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, pancreatic cancer, and the like. 

Dieting will not solve the problem of a chronic food addiction. It is a temporary bandaid and another imaginary activity that only intensifies the addiction to food rewards. 

The food addict cannot deal with feelings or emotions that have been shoved down if all of the instincts are distorted and continue to be medicated with food.

When you no longer medicate your feelings with food or alcohol or online shopping or gambling or....... it takes a very professional electrician to help you rewire your thinking. 

Food addiction denial.  Massive rationalizations.  Rewarding yourself with food if you clean the house, go to work or manage through a stressful meeting with the boss.  A chronic disease of food rewards.  

Break through every barrier of denial. Learning to cope without relying on constant food rewards is transcendent.  

Food rewards are the superficial payoff of the moment with lasting consequences.  Break on through to the other side of food addiction. 

[MeadowLily]

Snow puts the fires out and it does a proper job of it. 

So what is this.  

It's a Warrior's Workshop for recovering food addicts. 

We have momentum. We have the tools to increase the momentum and retain our results. Felicias, you've been a huge part of getting me to this breakthrough. I am grateful to you. 

A spirit of heaviness hangs over the food addict. Heavy in heart. There is battle-fatigue.  Recovery can be grueling. There are days when you cannot shake the anxious suspicion that it might all go up in flames like a raging wildfire. 

This thread is a war chest of feelings and emotions. I've stayed on the frontlines because of this war chest.  Now comes the greatest challenge of all.  Retaining the results.

There will always be a plethora of streetcars filled with our desires coming around the corner. They will nag at us to gaze upon them during times of stress, emergencies and when we're drained with worries.

Food addiction gets a megaphone and wisdom, good common horse sense gets duct tape over its mouth.  There will always be times that rob us of our peace, bring a deep restlessness and  rinse all of the color and enjoyment right out of our lives.

We may grow weary deep in our soul.  But now is the time for joy and another Christmas miracle.  Joy is stronger than all of our food situations.  

You can find joy in the midst of heartbreaks and heartaches and loss. We've covered alot of ground together.  It's time to walk in victory and joy. 

My goal was to stay on the frontlines while I was working through the process.  Retaining the results is my new vision for the future. 

I'm not saying Goodbye because I can't.  I don't want everything to go up in smoke. 

We're in this Warrior's Workshop...together.  I'll keep putting out fires, covering more ground. Retaining results requires more strategies, tactics that overrule, neutralize those beastly battlements of human shortcomings, blunders, and food addiction.

I work behind the scenes, tinkering with surprises and some nitwittery.  It's all fun.  Really.  

 

[MeadowLily]

[MeadowLily]

 

Backhanded compliments.  Bee Ready.

Those usually come from the ones that are closest to us. They feel the freedom to say whatever they please. Words matter.

At this particular time,  I have released 100 lbs to the sun for solar flaring.  Ayup. That's correct. 

We've had an abby normal fall. Warmer temps up until a week ago. That would be me.  Yes, Felicias, I've released 100 lbs to the sun for solar flaring and it's warming up the entire planet.

   

 

[MeadowLily]

Solar Flaring = the fat went splattt as I released it to the sun. It came to back to earth in the form of warmer temps.

Remember...a long time ago, dcducks went to a conference and he shared a vital fact that I will not forget.  Do not say you are "losing" weight. Do not say you've "lost" weight.  

The subconscious mind will start tracking that on its' radar screen and try and find if for you again.  Rebound.  I can't go for that. 

 

[MeadowLily]

Do not skip meals. 

When you skip meals and eat all of your food through a window  eating the kitchen in a few hours time...your metabolism will slow down. You will not burn that food like you should. 

Your body thinks you are starving.  So when you eat again the next day, everything through the "window"...you body will store away more than usual resulting in more fat. Usually the belly kind of fat.  The unhealthy kind.  

If you do this for months and years at a time,  the unhealthy kind of belly fat multiplies like amoebas.  You are in for the fight of your life to release it once that happens. 

 

[MeadowLily]

I don't do pre/post anything because eating 5 meals aday wouldn't do a thing for T2 and the insulin resistance that I've been working so hard to release.

Insulin Resistance and T2 did not go to the sun. I've released it into a black hole.  It's swirling around in some vortex and that's where it's going to stay. I'm not going down into that vortex again. I will not.