My Experiment with Bright Line Eating

In April I watched some videos from Susan Pierce Thompson, the founder of Brite Line Eating. She had many compelling things to say about the typical American diet. I was very intrigued. Even though I don't really have any health or weight challenges, I knew that I wasn't eating a very healthy diet. I then searched for what the diet consisted of and found mybrightlife.net. It seemed like something I could do, but wasn't sure I wanted to commit to do it for the rest of my life. Sara, the author of the website, suggested trying it for a week. That didn't seem like long enough to me, so I decided to try it for the month of May.

The biggest thing about this diet is that you don't eat flour of any kind, or any sugar or sweeteners of any kind. Ever. You also have to weigh your food and only eat three times a day. The amounts of food seemed pretty good, so I thought I was set.

The first day I did it, I had a huge battle going on in my head. It was really hard. Since I had decided to try it myself, I had no one to really tell me to keep on it. It felt like there were two people in my head. One telling me it was way too restrictive and why do you even need to do it, you look and feel fine, you don't have to do it, no one is going to care if you stop, and on and on and on. The other voice was telling me that I always make big commitments and then don't follow through on them, and wouldn't it be great to follow through on one for once, it's just the first day, you'll get used to it, you might feel so much better if you do it, etc. That first night, I decided to not do it, and ate a bowl of cereal.

   

The size of breakfast on the Bright Line Eating plan.

 The next morning, I felt much better than I had the night before. I realized that I just waited too long to eat and had worked a long hard day. I decided to start over. I ate a nice big breakfast that was according to the plan. Then I went to the store and bought lots of vegetables and fruits. I decided that I better start bringing a dinner as well as a lunch to work, because I never know what time I get done. That alone helped a ton.

As the month went on, it did get easier. Surprisingly, not eating sugar wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. But it was very hard to not snack throughout the day, especially at night when I was vegetating in front of the t.v.  It was also hard if I waited too long to eat dinner, or if I went out to a restaurant.

Now the month is over. My experiment worked. I have lost 15 pounds that had crept up on me. I don't have a ton of energy that the diet promised, but I know it's better for me than how I was eating. I did cheat about 3 times, but always went back to it the next day. I feel pretty good about myself. I finally followed through!

But, the battle in my head is starting again. I thought that maybe after this long I wouldn't want to eat sugary treats, but the devil voice is telling me, "Okay. This is over. Now can we just eat a Snickers bar and drink a giant Pepsi?" The angel voice says, "What would be the point of this if you just went back to your old ways?" So what I have decided to do is keep eating this way, with a few modifications. Eat a bit more of everything. And allow myself some treats on special occasions. I hope this will work. I'm sure I will slip sometimes, but I will also cut myself some slack.

Wish me luck!

Memorial for Charlotte Nelson

Yesterday in church Beaver Ward had a shock. First of all, Charlotte wasn't at the organ. I only remember that happening once in my 20+ years of being in this ward. Then as the announcements were given, we were told that she had passed away. No one knew of any reason. I was so shocked and saddened. We had been pretty good friends a while back, but hadn't been as good as keeping in touch lately. Her husband had passed away just a few months ago. She had never had any children, so I wanted to write about her so she wouldn't be forgotten.

When our family first moved into the ward, I noticed that Charlotte played the piano for primary and the organ for sacrament meeting. I thought that I would get one of those callings pretty soon. Then I found out that she wanted to play for both. I was surprised, because not that many people would want to do it. I remember when I was a primary teacher, she and the kids would have races to sing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. She could always play it faster than the kids could sing it. She must have played it hundreds of time. There were a few times where we would have hymn testimony meetings in Sacrament. Whoever wanted to would say what their favorite hymn was and why, and then we would sing it. Charlotte could always play it, no matter what it was. I know that I would have been really nervous and messed up, but she played them perfectly.  I have never seen someone as faithful in their calling as she was. As I said, she never missed church. No matter what.

Soon after we moved in, we decided to get some lambs. She was always someone that we went to with questions and for help. She helped us to dock their tails, she told us how and when to give them shots and whenever there was something wrong, she came to help us out. I remember one time, our sheep had a huge abscess on her jaw. She told us to poke it with a knife and drain the puss. I was pretty squeamish, so Charlotte did it for me. It was disgusting. Yuck! The smell was horrible. I was so grateful to her for that! She was always so willing to help out in any way she could.

When they brought in wild turkeys, Charlotte loved them. I asked her one year on Thanksgiving what she did, and she said one of the things she did was feed the turkeys. I laughed and told her that she was probably the only person who fed turkeys instead of eating them on Thanksgiving. She was a really great photographer and the turkeys were one of her favorite subjects. In fact, the turkey association used her photo. Something she was very proud of.

Photo by Charlotte Nelson

Our family asked her to take some family photo's for us. She did such a great job. I just loved all of them. She was very creative. She also was very good at landscape and nature photography. I always thought that she should make a calendar of her pretty photos.

In front of Charlotte's barn.

Hancock Family by Charlotte Nelson

Photo by Charlotte Nelson

Another thing that Charlotte did was farming. I always thought it was so cool to see her in her tractor. She worked very hard on the farm. 

She was very knowledgeable about nature, both plants and animals. If you wanted to know what something was, she could tell you.

When her aunt got ill, she spent most of her time taking care of her. Then she did the same for her husband, David, when he got Alzheimer disease.  

The world lost an amazing woman yesterday. As it seems whenever someone passes, I have regrets about not talking to them more often. We never know when we are going to lose someone. It seemed that Charlotte would always be there, playing in Primary and Sacrament meeting. She will be sorely missed.