Surrender to Win

January 15, 2025

A new year is underway, and many people are engaging in their Bright journey. Some are here fresh for the first time—welcome to you!—and others are doubling down after years of being here. Thanks to you for your fortitude and unstoppability. I’m so glad to be on this path with you.

I’ve been thinking about the concept of surrender. We talk about that because we surrender a lot here. We surrender sugar. We surrender flour. We surrender snacking, and eating whatever, whenever. We surrender going to events or places without having to consider our food choices.

But there’s an orientation to it that makes it more effortless. That has to do with the depth of our surrender—how clear we are that the old way of eating didn’t work for us. Surrender is the shift that gives us the fortitude and commitment to embark on this Bright Line Eating journey in a way that sticks.

It can be hard. We’re taught that you fight to win. You don’t give up. But in this program, we surrender to win. That can feel like defeat.

So I came up with a little story, an analogy that makes sense in my mind, and I hope it will for you too. Imagine that life is a game. The playing field is a massive playground, holding countless people and much activity. The game happens in two phases.

The first phase is the first part of your life, however many years that is. During that phase, when you make life choices, you migrate to a certain quadrant of the playground. You are just living your life, making choices as you go along, and patterns start to emerge. Your life takes on shape and form. That process moves you to a certain area.

Once you realize you’re there, the second phase begins. During that phase, your job is to notice what the teams are doing and to join the winning team.

That’s it.

You may wake up one day and realize that the choices you're making have a lot to do with food and weight. You know you’re like this when, every time the new year comes around, the first thing on your to-do list is to lose weight and get your food under control.

That defines your playground. What you’ve eaten or not eaten has outsized importance. Not everyone is on this playing field, but this is your reality. It’s the playground you’re on.

Now, you need to notice the teams. There are only two on this quadrant of the playground. There’s a team of people who eat whatever they want, whenever they want. They are struggling and feeling less happy; they have low self-esteem. They get to eat a lot, but at a big cost. They’re losing the game.

And then there are those who have surrendered the foods and eating behaviors that caused them difficulty. They have adopted habits that serve them and have banded into supportive communities. They’re happier and more fulfilled. They are winning this game.

In this context, you surrender to join the winning team. You wake up to the reality that there’s one team that is playing this game to win, and they’re doing it together. Surrender to join the winning team.

That’s the game we’re playing here at Bright Line Eating. I’m pretty happy to be here. We fall down sometimes, but we help each other up. It’s a good place.

If you resonate with that, welcome to the team. Surrender is an elusive thing. In all my years on this journey, I’ve never figured out how to wave a magic wand and give someone the gift of surrender. But maybe this concept will help you—because, truly, surrender is a gift.

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Surrender to Win | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast

Episode Transcript

Hey there, it's Susan Peirce Thompson, and welcome to the Weekly Vlog. We have a new year underway, and I know a lot of people are engaging in their Bright Journey, a lot of people who've Rezoomed?, a lot of people who are here in our community, fresh, brand new, welcome to Bright Line Eating?, a lot of people who are doubling down on their Bright Line Eating journey after years being here. Thank you for your fortitude and your unstoppability. I'm so glad to be on this path with you.

I'm thinking about the concept of surrender. It's a big topic that we talk about here a lot because we surrender a lot here at Bright Line Eating. We surrender sugar, we surrender flour, we surrender snacking, we surrender eating whatever, whenever, just because we feel like it or it might taste good. We surrender just rocking up to events in places without thinking about our food or not having to worry about anything about the food. We actually plan and prepare in advance, which is a surrender. We surrender a lot, and especially in this modern food environment, it feels like an ongoing surrender in a lot of ways, but there is an orientation to it that makes it feel a lot more effortless and a lot more just like a no brainer. Like, "Oh, this is just who I am. This is what I do." A lot of that has to do with the depth of our surrender, how clear we are that that old way of eating and living did not work for us, and that this is the path we want to be on.

Surrender can be a spiritual thing, it can be an emotional thing, it can be a physical thing, it can be a health choice, but there's a shift that happens for a lot of us that really gives us the commitment, the fortitude, the oomph to embark on this Bright Line Eating journey in a way that sticks. When I think about the word "surrender," the concept surrender, I think it can be hard for us because we're taught that you fight to win. You fight to win, you don't give up, you keep fighting to win. That's what we're taught. In this program, we surrender to win. We surrender to win, and that can feel weak. It can feel like a defeat. It can feel like an oxymoron, surrender to win. You fight to win. So, I was thinking about a little analogy, a little story, and I hope this will play well. It kind of makes sense in my mind.

Let's imagine that life is a game and it's a game that you're trying to win, like legit win. There's points and you're trying to win the game, all right? It's like a sport and it happens in two phases. The first phase is the beginning chunk of your life, which could be who knows how many years, but during that phase, you, well, first of all, the playing field is a big massive playground like a kid's playground, right? With all kinds of balls being thrown around and all kinds of things happening. Just picture the massive activity of a playground with thousands, millions, billions of kids, all it's a big playground. What happens in the first phase is just through making your basic life choices, you end up migrating to a certain quadrant or area of the playground. A lot of that is non-conscious. You're just living your life, making basic choices. But patterns start to develop and your life starts to be about something. It starts to take on shape and form, and that process moves you, unbeknownst to you, into a certain playing field, a certain area. Once you realize you're there, the second phase begins. During this ever important second phase, your job is to notice what the teams are and to join the winning team. That's your job. The winners are those who've been on the winning team of their quadrant for the longest. That's what you're trying to do. And so, within this paradigm, waking up at one point in your life and realizing that the quadrant you're in, the game that you're playing has a lot to do with your relationship with food. That food and weight seem to have been defining the terms for a long time. You're a person like this when every time the new year comes around or you get the impetus to turn over a new leaf to really get your act together, the first thing on your to-do list is, "I've got to lose the weight. I've got to fix my relationship with food. I've got to solve this already." That's the key right there. That means this is your playground. That's the defining area of what's going on for you, what you've eaten or not eaten, how it's going with your food, that, for whatever reason, has outsized importance.

Now, not everybody's on that playground. Some people are on other playgrounds doing other stuff. God bless them. But if you're on that playground, then you got to look around and notice what the teams are. There're really just two teams in this quadrant of the playground. There's the team of people who are eating whatever they want, whenever they want, starting and restarting diets, struggling, feeling generally less happy. Generally, their self-esteem is lower. They're scoring way fewer points in this game. They're getting to eat a lot of stuff on the way, but they're losing the game. Then there are people who've surrendered the foods and the eating that cause them difficulty. They've adopted habits that are serving them. They're banded together in communities where they're really supporting each other. They're generally happier, they're more fulfilled, and they are absolutely, without a doubt winning this game. And so, in this context, you surrender to join the winning side. That's how you surrender to win. You surrender to join the winning team. You wake up to the reality that one team is playing this game the way it should be played, and they're doing it together. There's a lot of support and a lot of camaraderie, and they're getting the results that they want in this game of life, in the quadrant of the playground that they seem to have been assigned to. For whatever reason, right there you surrender to join the winning team.

That's the game we're playing here at Bright Line Eating. We're doing it pretty darn well. I'm pretty happy to be here, throwing the ball back and forth, racking up points, grinning, helping people up, falling down sometimes. There's always someone to help me up. It's a pretty good place to be over here on this team. So, if you resonate with that, welcome to the team. I'm so glad you're here, and I hope that helps because surrender is an elusive thing. I've never, in all my years coaching people doing this, and all my years thriving and struggling, thriving and struggling with my own food journey. Never once have I figured out a way to wave a magic wand and give someone the gift of surrender. Never once, but maybe something in that concept might help somebody. If it does, that would be an amazing thing because surrender is the gift. It really is the gift you surrender to win. That is the bottom line of addiction in my book. That's the weekly vlog. I'll see you next week.

Surrender to Win

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