I usually don’t date vlogs, but this one is date-specific. This is the week we are officially ending our year-long celebration of our ten-year anniversary. 

Bright Line Eating was conceived on January 26, 2014. That day, I was meditating at 5 a.m., and the universe told me to write a book called Bright Line Eating. I saw it spreading around the world and having a tremendous impact. At that moment, I felt the prayers that people were sending up, asking for help with their weight and their food. I tapped into a global pain over their utter powerlessness. I knew I could help. 

Fast-forward to August 2014: I started the Bright Line Eating email list. That’s the day the “me” became a “we.” In these ten years, more than two million people have signed up for that list. Some of those people are still with us, and some are not, but they all had their perspectives shifted. 

In October 2014, the very first Boot Camp launched, which—along with our courses—has had a tremendous impact. Well over 100,000 people, from across the globe, have signed up for one or more of our courses. 

This week, we’re taking down all the digital assets from our anniversary year—the logo, the timeline, the anniversary page. And now, moving into our second decade, there’s something else I need to retire.

Early on, I could feel the impulse, deep down, to make sure this movement had global impact. At first, I articulated that by saying we were going to get a million people to goal weight by 2040. That’s what it says in the first book, Bright Line Eating. A year later, I was talking to a marketer who said I should make it earlier, so we went with a million to goal weight by 2030.

Then we stopped talking about goal weight. We noticed the frustration of so many people who had lost huge amounts of weight but were still focused on “the last few pounds” and realized it wasn’t about weight loss; it was about transformation in body, mind, and spirit. 

So our slogan became a million Bright Transformations by 2030. Then, in 2021, I got a fire in my belly and felt a calling to scale up. So then we said a million Bright Transformations by 2025. 

We hired a couple of executives to help us scale up the company. It was a disaster, and a wake-up call. But it taught us an important lesson about what, and who, we want… and don’t want to be. We rediscovered our soul through that process. 

A few years ago, I started to publish more papers, and got in touch with an international community of people studying food addiction. I attended and spoke at conferences. It became clear to me that the big needle-mover is to get ultra-processed food addiction recognized as a disorder in the DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and the ICD, the International Classification of Diseases. 

With those changes in place, amazing things will happen. People seeking bariatric surgery will be educated and tested for ultra-processed food addiction. People with eating disorders will be screened for it. Ultra-processed foods will be subject to policies and regulations. Perhaps they will be banned from schools, daycare centers, prisons, and hospitals. 

The big limiting factor in getting ultra-processed food addiction recognized is having more studies on treatment, and what happens to people who stop eating these foods. With our community, we can contribute in significant ways. 

I no longer have a big drive to grow this company to a million customers. We’ve got 6,500 Bright Lifers now, and we serve them well. I’m not closing the door to amazing growth, but as a CEO and founder, I wanted to let you know that although the global impact of the company is massive, we as a company get to be cozy. It’s a sweet arrangement.

So we’re officially retiring our tagline of “a million transformations…”. I’m not sorry we had it. Good goals are goals you maybe have a chance of attaining. We didn’t fail. We learned, and we grew. 

That’s what happens to companies as they grow and mature. Some scale up and get bigger, bigger, and bigger. Most go bankrupt and cease to exist. But some get wiser and clearer on their vision: who they serve, and how. 
We are a boutique company who provides exquisite care to the people we serve. That’s who we are.

As we move into our second decade, we’re going to formally revamp our mission, vision, and values, and we’ll share those when we can. The team is firing on all cylinders. Our community is stable and thriving. We have a big impact on our members and beyond. 

Thanks for being on this wild ride with us, however long you’ve been here. The future is BRIGHT!!!