Hey there, it's Susan Peirce Thompson, and welcome to the Weekly Vlog.
Okay, happy New Year. Oh my gosh, happy New Year! It is the first vlog of 2024, early, early January, 2024. Welcome to the year, my dear. Welcome to the year.
I thought I would answer a question today that was sent in by someone named Val, that's so apropos for the new year. Here's what Val said, ÒPlease do a vlog on getting past the brain chatter that says, I will start next week, or I will start next month, or I can't do it because I will never be able to eat cake again. I keep wanting to start, but I can't seem to thanks.Ó Oh, Val, yes, delaying starting. It's something that a lot of people grapple with. Well, I want to encourage you to use the January 1st fresh start effect because as we all know, January 1st is the biggest new food plan start day on the calendar year, and I know we're past January 1st by a couple of days already, but even still, Boot Camp registration is open right now, and you can use the combination of turning over into a new year, the beginning of 2024, the proximity to January 1st and the start of a new Boot Camp to really galvanize yourself into a feeling of turning over a new leaf.
It's just easier to do at this time of year. Now, we all know that the fresh start effect isn't enough to keep us going, come February, March, April, May, and sustain us throughout the year. That's why most New Year's resolutions fail, but it is often enough to help us get started. So, I chose this topic at this time of year to say, hey, there's no shame in using this time in the calendar to assist us, right? Because certain times of the year really do lend themselves to certain sorts of actions and mindsets. So, take advantage of it. Why not? I also want to say that to really succeed with Bright Line Eating¨, you're going to want to be in the Boot Camp and you're going to want to join Bright Lifersª after that. That's where the magic is happening. You can take advantage of the fact that the Boot Camp has a 14-day, 100% money back guarantee.
You've got a Part of you that's resistant to starting, clearly, that's dragging its feet, that's convincing you to delay starting. And I'm curious whether you can convince that Part of you to just sort of pretend you're starting temporarily, but that you'll likely get a refund soon. We're just going to give it a try. We're just going to dip our toe in the water, but we're certainly not diving into the whole pool. We're just going to try it for a few days. We're just going to do the initial part of the Boot Camp, and then if we hate it, we can just get a refund and within two weeks you can just be out, have a hundred percent of your money back, no harm, no foul. I think that is a perfectly legitimate way to get yourself over the hump to get started, right? It's kind of like telling yourself you'll just put on your gym clothes and go to the gym, but you certainly don't have to do a whole workout. You'd only have to walk on the treadmill for one minute. But the reality is, once we've put on our clothes, once we're at the gym and we're walking on the treadmill for a minute, we actually find that it feels pretty good to move and we want to keep moving. Almost nobody under those circumstances will give up after a minute. I think that might be a good thing to tell that Part of yourself is that you're not going to do the whole Boot Camp. You're not really going to do Bright Line Eating. You're just going to get started and see what it feels like. You're just going to do it for three days, something like that. Just tell yourself you're just going to do it for three days, and you have to mean it too. If you hate it three days in, get a refund and be on your merry way, but give it your all for three days, and that's it. That's all that you're expecting of yourself. I think that's a great idea as well.
I also want to let you know, Val, that inside the Bright Line Eating Boot Camp, there is a bonus module that you have access to from the very beginning, from day one, and it's specifically designed to help you break through resistance, inner resistance, that kind of self-sabotage Part that just keeps us from being successful. It's called the Break Through Your resistance Roadmap, Break Through Your Resistance Roadmap, and it's available to you right away when you get started. I encourage you to get into the Boot Camp and commit to doing that work first because it will help introduce you to that Part of you that is dragging its feet and is afraid to get started. And you might find yourself befriending that Part of you.
My guess is that that Part of you is protecting you from the pain of failure. It's watched you fail in the past and it doesn't want you to fail. It's so painful and devastating to fail. So, it's trying to protect you by not letting you get started at all, right? That Part of you doesn't of course have access to the updated information that you have now at your fingertips, a program that's really tailored to the way your brain works. You used to be trying plans that would include free days and cheat days and cheat meals and snacks and sugar and flour products and all kinds of things that would keep your brain hijacked. No wonder you didn't succeed at them, right? Those plans weren't designed for the way your brain works. Well, now you have a whole new plan available to you in Bright Line Eating. This resistant Part of you needs you and your highest authentic self to befriend it, to reassure it, and to let it know that it's a new dawn of a new day, that you do not need to be so terrified of failure as you were in the past. Because if you just follow the fabulous plan J-F-T-F-P, just follow the fabulous plan one day at a time. This really works.
Finally, I just need to address what you said here, the Part of you that says, ÒI can't do it because I will never be able to eat cake again.Ó I can't do it because I will never be able to eatÉfill in the blank, whatever food is the food that you can't imagine ever going without forever. I think I've told this story before in the vlog, but I feel moved to tell it again. It's a pretty remarkable thing that happened to me. And it really speaks to the beauty of not worrying today about having to do this forever or particularly sometime in the future that we're imagining we couldn't get through, a best friend's wedding or our son's wedding, and how could I not eat cake at my son's wedding? And my son's getting married in a year, and so therefore I can't do Bright Line Eating because I can't imagine getting through his wedding without eating cake. Well, I had something similar happen to me, and I just want to share that story with you.
As you probably know, I have a history of alcohol and drug addiction from my teens, and I was fully addicted to alcohol when I was 15 and I was addicted to cocaine and then crack cocaine, crystal meth, etc. I quit using drugs when I was 20, and it was August 9th, and my birthday is June 29th. I was 20 years old and a month and a half, and I was living in the state of California where the legal drinking age is 21. Well, I'd done plenty of drinking before the age of 21, but the legal drinking age was 21. Very quickly after getting clean and sober, I found myself thinking, I can't get clean and sober now because my 21st birthday is coming up. I remember talking to people outside of meetings, 12 step meetings and saying, I don't think I can stay sober because I'm going to be turning 21 and I can't not drink then. They said, well, when's your birthday? I would say, oh, 10 months from now. They said, 10 months from now? Why donÕt you not worry about that today? That's in the future. Why don't you not worry about that today? It seemed very dismissive to me because 10 months was going to arrive, and I really felt like it was clear that I was going to drink on my 21st birthday. A Part of me was like, why are you putting in all this effort to withstand these cravings for drugs and alcohol now because you know can't stay sober past that event? So, what's the point? And everyone kept saying, why don't you not worry about that? Just stay sober today. Just stay sober today.
That's what I encourage you to do, dear Val, is to not worry about the future time when you might want to eat cake to just reassure yourself and say, I don't have to worry about the future today. I don't have to worry about the future today, right? I'm just going to follow the plan today, just for today. I'm just going to follow the plan for today. I did stay sober just for today for a while, and I kept talking about my 21st birthday at meetings, and people kept saying, why don't you not worry about that? What is that five months away? Why don't you not worry about that? What is that six months away? Why don't you not worry about that now? It'll work out. Don't worry about it. Just stay sober today. Finally, I forgot about it, and I stopped bringing it up at meetings and I did stay sober. Eventually I was outside of a meeting and some people I knew said, Hey, Susan, are you going to the convention? And I said, what convention? They said, oh, you haven't heard! Every five years there's the international convention and it's coming up and it's going to be in San Diego this year, which is not that far from here. A bunch of us are driving down. Do you want to go with us? I said, yeah, that sounds really fun. When is it? They said, well, it starts on June 29th, and it goes until July 3rd. Do you want to come? I thought, oh my gosh, June 29th will be my 21st birthday. On my 21st birthday, I found myself in San Diego with 60,000 sober alcoholics dancing in a street Party in downtown San Diego, right by the wharf, partying all night long with zero alcohol and zero need for alcohol, and having the time of my life. What I found was that I was so different at that point. I had almost a year of sobriety. My brain had changed. There was this cute guy that I was into. We stayed up through a lot of the night and danced and talked, and we were with another group of people. I was not thinking about drinking at all. There was no Part of that thought, this day isn't complete because I haven't had a drink of alcohol and I'm turning 21. No Part of me, it was completely different because I was a different person by the time I got there.
I'm imagining you staying Bright just for today and reassuring yourself, I don't have to worry about the future. I don't have to worry about my son's wedding and whether I'll eat cake. Because by the time you get there a year from now, you might find that you have a Mastermind Group you've committed to. You've got a buddy you've committed to, that you go to the wedding thinking about your son's well-being and your future, and that maybe just the 50 pounds that you've lost is visible to one of your cousins who just went to their doctor and their A1C is nine, and their doctor said, you're going to die of a heart attack this year if you don't completely change the way you eat. They're now asking you; how do you do what you do? How did you take off those 50 pounds? You're talking with that person and the cake is being cut and you're just passing it on to the next person? You're not even thinking about it. So consumed with the well-being of your precious cousin who's afraid that they're going to die if they don't change what they do, and they just want to know how you are doing what you're doing and why you look and seem so radiant and so comfortable in your skin, and the night goes by and you don't even think about eating or drinking anything off your plan. By the time you get to that occasion, you will be different. It will not be anything like you imagine it to be right now.
The main thing is, dear Val, just get started. Use the fresh start effect and the fact that there's a Boot Camp starting now with a registration date that is actually very firm that you need to register by that date in order to get in and just tell yourself, you don't even have to do the Boot Camp. You just have to try it for three days and just register with that intention, get started, and then just see how it feels. Just get into action. Get into action. You've got this. For anyone else who's thinking about maybe getting over that hurdle to actually get started with Bright Line Eating, there is a registration link right below me right here where you can click and register for the Boot Camp. Or if Boot Camp registration is closed, you miss the boat. But we'll have a wait list there for the next Boot Camp and use our Boot Camps and the registration periods of them to trigger you to take action, right? Research shows that people don't take action if there isn't a deadline. We provide a deadline for you just to help you get started. Congratulations on submitting this fabulous question and knowing the kind of support that you need. A little pep talk to get started. Sometimes we all need that. Those are my thoughts. It's a great question. Happy New Year everyone, and I'll see you next week.
