Today I want to talk about New Year’s resolutions. It’s likely you’ve set a food- or weight-related resolution in the past, and perhaps you are planning one for this year. But I want to talk about a specific benchmark that is worth shooting for on New Year’s Day.
If you’re high on the Food Addiction Susceptibility Scale, and your food and weight problem is not solved, you’ll be orienting at New Year’s toward thinking about solving that problem. Your focus will be on food and weight. However, once your food and weight problems are resolved, you won’t be thinking about your weight when the New Year rolls in. Your focus will be elsewhere—on the book you want to write, the marathon you want to run, the decluttering you want to do, and so forth… and that’s a good benchmark to note.
There are three identity shifts that need to happen to achieve this benchmark and to become someone who is capable of living at their goal weight long-term.
The first identity shift is to settle into acceptance around a certain plan of eating that you’re doing long-term, not just while you’re trying to lose weight. This plan must be the way you eat now, and who you are now. If you’re doing Bright Line Eating, for example, you identify as a Bright Lifer, and this is rooted in your deep-seated identity.
The second identity shift is to become someone who doesn’t turn to food and use it as you used to: for numbing, for entertainment, for nurturing, for soothing—whatever. Food provides fuel for living, and is lovely and delicious, but no more. You become someone who has tools, coping strategies, and friends to support you, instead of food. As part of this identity shift you fall in love with the journey of personal growth inherent in moving beyond the food…and that keeps life endlessly fascinating and the food in its place forevermore.
The third identity shift is to become someone who has solved the food and weight problem. Past tense. It’s done. You’re not focused on “the last five pounds.” You’re not tweaking your food plan, unless you need to add or subtract some food to stay in your maintenance range. All the time you used to spend thinking about your food and weight is now reallocated to other life pursuits. Relationships. Self-care. Work and vocations. Hobbies and avocations.
And this is where the benchmark comes in. Because New Year’s will arrive, and you will not be thinking about food, your weight, or your body.
And you may not even notice at first.
We have courses in Bright Lifers—Maintenance I, II, and III—that cover this and take you through these shifts. They hold your hand until you solve this problem.
So, what do you do if it’s January 1 and you still absolutely do have a food and weight problem? Then you resolve to handle it in a science-backed way. Do this by tackling your identity first, because this is central. Your identity produces actions, and they, in turn, produce outcomes. You work from the inside out, meaning you start with identity, then you take on new actions, and the meshing together of your new identity with actions leads to outcomes.
In other words, don’t resolve to lose 40 pounds by June 1st. You’ve done that before, and it doesn’t work because you can’t start with outcomes. You need to start with identity.
BUT HERE’S THE PRO TIP: Invest in following a PROVEN SYSTEM that gives you an identity and lays out your actions.
That’s what Bright Line Eating gives you. It starts with the Boot Camp and continues with Bright Lifers, in a Bright Roadmap that takes you through the transformation. It gives you an identity and a community of people who are on the same path.
If you want to hit this benchmark of noticing that you’re not thinking about your weight and food, your task is simple: surrender to following the system.
There’s a link below the vlog to the registration page for the Boot Camp. Boot Camp tells you what action to take and helps you build your new identity day by day. It’s a slow process, but it happens faster in community, and when you follow a plan you believe in. So just follow the fabulous plan.
And someday, you will notice, as an afterthought, that it’s January 1st and you’re not thinking about your food and weight. You’ve got this. Click below and we’ll see you in the Boot Camp.
*This special event has now ended.
