A Bright Lifer wrote in with an interesting observation. She said, “One of my buddies told me recently that she started Bright Line Eating not to lose weight, but to avoid being in bondage to eating or food. Has this been addressed in your vlog? I found it a potent comment and have to admit that yes, we are in bondage to food.”

I agree. We talk a lot about freedom around here. We have people who sign up for the Boot Camp who do not need to lose weight. My guess is that most of them are suffering profoundly from food addiction, even without needing to lose weight because of whatever compensatory methods they use, whether it’s vomiting or laxatives or something else.

You can be a 10++ on the Food Susceptibility Scale and not have weight to lose. You may start BLE purely to get freedom from a feeling of bondage.

Others may be lower on the Food Susceptibility Scale, and may or may not need to lose weight. Consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: it places physical needs like food and shelter at the bottom; cognitive needs and intimacy needs in the middle; and at the top, you’ve got self-actualization needs—the need to be all you can be. These people may be living at the top of the hierarchy and yearn to be free of bondage to food so they can be all they are able to be in life.

Bright Line Eating also meshes with a lot of personality types. Gretchen Rubin talks about abstainers vs. moderators. People who are abstainers, who need to feel really clean and free, may be drawn to Bright Line for the feeling of liberation and clarity, rather than weight loss.

In my own life, almost everything I do to protect my sparkling Bright Lines is for freedom. It’s literally what I’m thinking as I order in a restaurant. What will protect my freedom?

And to update my vlog a few weeks ago on scraping the bowl, I’m not doing that now. Every meal I think: I want to be free after this meal.

When I choose an apple to eat, I notice which ones are bigger than others, because I am a food addict. But I don’t want to feel enslaved to that thought. So, before I choose, before I even open the refrigerator door, I commit to picking the closest apple to me, not the biggest one.

This is not an obsession with virtue or perfection. It’s an appreciation of freedom, and I savor it. I protect it.

And if we come to Bright Line Eating to lose weight, we may stay for the freedom we earn through adhering to our Bright Lines.

That freedom can motivate us to keep our program’s flywheel spinning. And once I’m free, I can focus on an attitude of gratitude and service. Grateful hearts don’t eat addictively.

So thank you for that fabulous observation, and for allowing me to wax poetic on the value of freedom.