Week Sixteen, Day One
Upgrading Your Mental Health
We got ourselves into this mess of living in the Food Dungeon by unknowingly becoming addicted to sugar and excess carbs. This happened in one of two situations.
In situation one we were basically emotionally/mentally healthy, but because the people around us ate sugar and excess carbs, we did too. Once we recognize what the problem is (sugar and excess carbs), we change what we eat (replace with protein, veggies, good fats, etc.) and the problem is solved.
And then we have situation two. Those of us in this situation (I’m in this category), had some issues in the past that were hurtful and stressful and we found that eating sugar and excess carbs temporarily soothed or entertained us. Our brains got addicted to reacting to hurt and stress with sugar and excess carbs. This is a lot harder to heal from, since these folks have to re-program how they think about life (this is in conjunction with getting rid of the sugar/excess carbs, of course).
We have previously discussed grandiosity (“I never get high-enough treatment”) and insecurity (“I don’t think I am as important as other people”) as the twin culprits for egging on our desire to medicate ourselves with food. We also have discussed isolating ourselves vs. the importance of connection and community. Our relationships and connections are the single most important factors in our long-term recovery. It is imperative that we forgive others, return good for evil, have deep connections in our lives with others, have service in our lives, and find healthy sources of enjoyment and relaxation.
Having good mental health is not usually taught, but is caught from your family of origin. But no worries, you can change all aspects of your mental health, such as what you think about (emotions come from thoughts), how you respond to adversity (there is opportunity in obstacles), whether you are isolated or connected, if you forgive or hold on to resentment (huge!), how grateful you are, if you take responsibility for finding work/hobbies you enjoy or you blame others, and if you focus on loving and giving to others (service) or focus on who is not giving to or loving you enough (self-pity). You can change your mental health 180 degrees! I am talking here as one who knows this first hand! What a complete mess I was in my twenties! (…and what a mess I still am, though I am thankful for the work God is continuing to do…)
Don’t make excuses. Start working on yourself. Devour the Scriptures. Get rid of any known sin in your life (like resentment, sexual immorality, self-pity, greed, slander, lying, etc.). Get serious about following the Lord, and living to please Him. We humans can change. And it is glorious.
A Woman’s Journey to Give Up Sugar
As I talked with this woman months ago, she was having some success with Ditching/Planning/Waiting BUT she was reluctant to give up her nightly desserts. The desserts were one of the main pleasures she experienced, she said. She admitted she was a little bored with her life and admitted that she experiences self-pity in her relationships (others don’t love and give enough to her). Desserts calmed her, she said, and gave her delight. She also said that she looks forward each day to the moment when she and her husband relax and share a dessert together after dinner. 
There was a lot more in that scenario that just the pleasure of the dessert. Did you hear all of it? The dessert soothed her, it entertained her, it quieted her boredom, it “gave” to her since no one else was, and it was a ritual that she and her husband shared.
That was a lot of habit to break.
I mean, she had to find replacements for soothing, for entertaining, for handling her boredom, for handling her self-pity, as well as give up a ritual with her husband. You can’t wave your hand in the air and change the habit of eating dessert easily, when all of that is tangled up with the dessert.
I recommended she write down all of the reasons she wanted dessert (see paragraph above) and then, I suggested that she write down all of the reasons she wanted to quit eating the dessert.
The three reasons she gave me for why she wanted to quit eating the dessert were that she feels bad after she eats it (The Crud Descends, i.e. guilt), she thinks the sugar is bad for her health (causing inflammation and she already had health issues), and she feels it makes her waist big (belly fat is worse with sugar and carbs).
I asked her to rank those concerns and she said that “feeling crummy” was number one, and worrying about the inflammation that it is causing was number two. Actually, she said that the belly fat was not much of a bother. (I know, I was surprised, too.)
So then, I asked her if she could read those reasons every night before dinner, and prepare for “uncomfortableness” since she was changing habits (the brain resists changing habits).
Then we discussed another ritual to replace the dessert. We agreed that she would save her sugar grams and eat fruit after dinner, as well as prepare hot herbal tea.
It’s not easy to retrain the brain with new habits, but it is doable, with work. People do it all the time. You have to toughen up mentally to endure some discomfort, especially at the beginning, and have “substitutions” ready, making the transition less unpleasant.
Everything you do is about your mind and about what you are thinking. It’s beyond cool that you can “listen in” on your current thoughts, and decide to upgrade them to thoughts that serve you better.
Changing habits is huge to your health, energy, and happiness. Don’t expect it to be easy. Expect to work to change them.
Update: It is now months later and our friend is near her Goal A weight. After a few weeks of the new habit, it was not such a problem. This woman said the hard part was when they went out to dinner and the “new” desserts tempted her. She decided to let herself have a half of a dessert when she went out (they only go out once a week) and now, this is how she lives. She doesn’t feel deprived, and because her cheat is so controlled, the Crud doesn’t Descend, and she can enjoy it without guilt. Also, she doesn’t feel like her health is suffering with one half of one dessert every week.
This is how this woman solved her sugar issue. How are you solving yours?
Week Sixteen, Day Two
All Humans Can Change Habits
I love reading books about habits and how the brain works. Scientists have learned that all habits can be changed. All habits. Even the worst alcoholic can change habits and become sober. You realize what that says about your former habit of eating junk, don’t you? It says that OF COURSE you can learn a new habit. Don’t even sulk one second about it.
Here is your ticket out of the Food Dungeon: 1. Firmly decide to change habits. 2. Learn how to change habits (Skinny School is teaching you). 3. Stay with it until the new habit is formed. Your eating woes are simply bad habits and we must replace them with good habits (i.e., replace wrong thinking with right thinking). Not easy, but not that hard either.
You must decide you want it and will do the work to change habits by re-learning how to think about food and eating. If you are still looking for some crash diet and want to lose 20 pound in 2 weeks, then you have not learned what Skinny School is teaching. Permanent weight loss comes because you change how you THINK and that will form new HABITS!!
What I love, and I mean love, is that you can change from eating Trash Food and NOT exercising to eating God’s jubilant food and exercising, and that will astronomically improve your health and hip size. But you have to do the work to change these habits. Work, I said. Work.
That’s why I beg you to form groups (just being with one other person is better than doing this by yourself) and to read and re-reread your SSO lessons as well as the Genie teaching. I beg you to fill out your Ruby Journal with good sentences and bathe your mind with them. Why? Why? Because this is putting new thinking into your brain. And voila, how you think determines if you eat Trash Food or if you make an appointment to exercise.
I continually say that the only folks who will not get this are the ones who give up. What I’m really saying is that ALL habits can be changed and your habit of eating Trash Food and NOT exercising will NOT change if you give up working on changing your brain. Don’t give up. Maybe your habit is stubborn. No big deal. You can change it. You must keep working on your brain, though. You must.
You are human and all humans (unless they have brain damage, brain disease, etc.) can change habits. All humans. You are responsible for changing your thinking, which will change your habits. It’s so doable.
And here’s what I absolutely adore: you can change habits so much that you no longer consider eating Trash Food because your new habit of thinking overrides your old one, and that is to choose healthy foods that nourish your body. Why, I wouldn’t even consider eating some janky Trash Food (unless there was absolutely no other choice and I was extremely hungry). Why would I poison my one and only car that must drive around my soul for the rest of my life?
And after a couple days of NOT exercising (because of vacation, travel, family issues, etc.) my body starts wanting to exercise. This is the same woman who used to binge eat and not exercise. I’ve gone from a binger to someone who doesn’t consider Trash Food. So have many Skinny School Champions. And so can you.
What happened? We made new habits because we changed how we think. And you are making new habits because you are changing how you think. You can’t do it overnight. That’s why these lessons are many weeks long, because forming these new thought patterns in cement will take a while. But my desire is that you, an ex-chub like me, will experience freedom from Trash Food, and have a new lifelong habit of eating for nutrition and hunger. God still has many things He wants to change in my life, but at least I’m not trying to change my eating. That habit has been changed. That thinking is in cement.
IF you stick with it, and do the work, you can have a new habit, a new way of thinking, and then be free from the Food Dungeon forever, wearing skinny jeans and not ever worrying about covering up your fat again!
Love it!
Lesson 10 in Skinny School: Important Thoughts That Retrain My Brain
List 10 in the book, Skinny School, is “Important Thoughts That Retrain My Brain”. This is one of the most important lists you will ever fill out in this course. This list in your Ruby Journal is where you can daily find motivation to Ditch/Plan/Wait. This list is an accumulation of ALL your reasons (when you are sane) you want to eat for nutrition and hunger, not self-soothing and entertainment.
If you have been in Skinny School very long, you know the common reasons to eat correctly: thinness, health, and freedom of mental anguish. Here are some other reasons that women have accumulated:
(1). When I over-indulge, I lose my keen mental edge. I no longer have the energy to be productive in the same capacity. I don’t like the part of me that seeks medicating uncomfortableness or stress. I hate it when I go unconscious so I can cheat. I am only trying to find a temporary escape. I must learn to relax and soothe myself in legitimate ways, not ways that harm me.
(2). I don’t want to be the kind of person who can’t handle boredom, but must medicate it. That’s not who I want to be. Boredom is often creativity that is not being used.
(3). I know God can’t use me in the same way when I have over-indulged, because I am not outward-focused, but instead, inward-focused. It is fine to have some comfort and entertainment in life, but I know I often cross an invisible line of what is best for me and what allows me to best serve others.
(4). I want to be a disciplined person. Discipline is a virtue. Self-control is a virtue. This is who I want to be. This is who I know God wants me to be.
(5). My life is short and I don’t want to waste time and energy. Over-indulgence is not how God wants me to live. Therefore, I will confess my weakness in my flesh, the part of me that does not want to endure uncomfortableness and wants illegitimate comfort. I will continue to seek legitimate ways to self-soothe and relax, instead of ways that harm me.
(6). When I over-indulge, I do not like myself. Proverbs 15:32 says, “He who neglects discipline despises himself.” Life is too short to be upset with myself for stupid choices. Motivation controls my choices. Renewing my mind controls my choices. I choose discipline and self-control every day because it honors God and it makes me a happier person.
(7). When a point of temptation comes and I want to give in, it indeed feels stressful. It feels like if I give in, the stress will go away. But the opposite is true: if I don’t give in, if I can think about something else and get through the desire to inappropriately medicate, the battle will go away. When I give in, the Crud Descends. Don’t fall for the lie that “giving in” is the answer. Withstanding is the answer. Find a legitimate substitute.
These are only a few of the hundreds of reasons that you want to Ditch/Plan/Wait. Bathe your mind with your own reasons. When your motivation is clear and right up front in your brain, the battle dies down and choosing becomes easy. It is all about training your mind on how to think.
There will be no victory without your mind being prepared to make good choices.
Week Sixteen, Day Three
Motivation to Not Eat Junk
Over and over again, I remind you that you now know how to get thin: Ditch/Plan/Wait. But the recurring problem is motivation. Here are my main motivating reasons to “not eat junk”:
(1). Health is the major motivator I have for eating right. In the last two years, three of my immediate family members have developed rare diseases. They are polyarteritis nodusa, ehrlichia, and hashimoto’s. We have a genius doctor who has treated us, and the first thing he does is put all of his patients on a low sugar/low carb diet (often dairy free). This guru doctor says that sugar and excess carbs produce inflammation and inflammation is not good for healing or wellness. Life slows down or halts when illness arises and the link between eating correctly and maintaining your health cannot be over stated. It is not selfish or shallow to take care of your health. How can you be of service to others if you lose your health?
(2). Indulging in junk or even too much good food affects my mental state. It causes me to be sluggish, down, slow, and irritable. I like feeling light, happy, alert, and energetic. I do not enjoy feeling like I’m in a stupor. Eating junk makes me feel like I’m in a stupor.
(3). I don’t like feeling frumpy and chubby. I just don’t like it. This may sound shallow, but I’ve been chubby and it makes me feel crummy. It just does. I know very few women who are truly happy with their bodies when they are chubby. And in contrast, feeling thin and fit gives you a feeling of self-forgetfulness. You just don’t think about it. You live your life without the ball and chain of feeling fat. This is freeing and invigorating.
(4). I don’t like to spend time finding something to wear. I have a few things that fit and I wear them and don’t think much about it. The time and money I used to spend to try to “look thinner” was ridiculous. Again, it’s the freedom that comes with “not thinking about it” that is so wonderful!
Gooey Trash Food just doesn’t excite me very much anymore. There’s much too high a price to pay for that junk! Quit eating something that is harmful to you in so many ways. Only you get to decide what you put in your mouth. No one is stuffing food down your throat. No excuses, okay? Ditch/Plan/Wait and get on with your life.
And Joy Will Find You
Just because you grew up in a home where things weren’t perfect doesn’t mean beans. I mean, if you are still blaming mama and daddy for your issues, you need to confront your self-pity and immature behavior.
Because once you are an adult, you get to decide what kind of person you are going to be. You get to decide if you are going to be a complainer or if you are going to be a sunrise in the lives of others. You get to decide if you are going to focus on who is NOT loving you enough and who is NOT giving to you enough, or if you are going to focus on how you love and how you give to others.
When you become an adult, you get to decide if you are going to shake your fist at the world for not making an easy yellow brick road, or if you will accept “what is”, all the while, taking daily massive action toward your current Top Four Life Goals.
When you become an adult, you get to decide if you will pursue the Lord, make time for prayer, Bible study, and community. You get to decide if you will be a lifelong learner, instead of holding on to the regrets of the past. You get to decide if you will be a person who “takes the blame and gives the credit”, which comprises only a tiny percentage of mankind.
When you become an adult, you decide what you are going to think about. You can focus on being alive, having people who care about you, being grateful for your legs, your children, your gifts. Or, you can focus on how you don’t get “high enough treatment” from everyone, and sulk all the time.
You get to decide who you are going to be. I don’t care what you saw modeled as a child. I don’t care if you were mistreated when you were a child (get some counseling and get that behind you!). It’s time for you to be one of the people who make life better here for everyone else. Sure, take incredible care of your needs, but quit being whiny, needy, and unpleasant. Return good for evil. Be what God designed you to be.
And of course, (you knew this was coming, right?), you decide what food you eat, you decide how much food you eat, and you decide how much you’re going to move your body. And that will decide if you live your one short life in a skinny flip of a body or as a tank.
Hey, life is precious and a gift. And you get to decide how you live it. You don’t always get to decide what happens to you, but you always get to decide your response to what happens to you. Choose to be one in a million. Choose to be God’s agent on earth to bless others, to encourage others, and to take pristine care of the temple you were blessed with. Have God-given goals that excite you and make this world a better place to live. Discover your gifts and give them away.
Never blame again. Throw self-pity into the deep recesses of the ocean. Live in a way few others do because you think in a way few others do.
Your happiness and joy is all about your thoughts. No one with self-pity is happy. Let go of all the regret from the past. Quit thinking about what is missing and disappointing and instead, be a problem solver, as well as someone who cries out to God for what only He can give you.
It’s a sowing and reaping world, so focus on your sowing. And I promise you, joy will find you.
Week Sixteen, Day Four
New Rituals and Habits
Some new rituals and habits are forced on you. For example, our two youngest boys moved to another city to work this summer and forced us into empty nest. Going from having a busy household of six kids for almost thirty years to a household with no children is quite the change in ritual/habit. The first week, I was still cooking large portions of food. And at night, I sort of “waited” on people to come home (but of course, they didn’t). This new ritual/habit was forced on me. We are adapting, figuring out our new life without kids at home.
But no one is forcing you to change rituals and habits about your food and eating. You have to decide to do that yourself. Everyone agrees that changing habits/rituals is extremely difficult. That’s why so few people are actually successful at changing habits: it’s hard!
One helpful idea to help you change rituals/habits is to plan when you are going to plan. I have a ritual that I plan on Sunday afternoons. I plan menus, I look at the week and plan for upcoming activities, I plan exercise, etc. Plan when to plan. Make your planning a new ritual. Planning is such a huge tenet in Skinny School. You used to wing it; now you plan.
I know some of your skinny friends don’t do all this work. But you have to. You know your Demanding Child is a little brat and if you don’t plan and do the work, she will win. You know that. You’ve experienced it countless times.
How many years have you had your previous habits/rituals? Don’t expect to change your habits/rituals in 7 easy days. Expect to work on this for weeks and months. But one day soon, the Skinny School thought will be your habit/ritual, and then you will be free. You will be free from the Food Dungeon of bad health habits, nothing to wear, The Crud Descending, and feeling frumpy. That’s a pretty cool freedom.
There’s always a price. Pay the price of planning, to avoid the bunk of chubbiness.
Discipline Rocks
I want you to think of words that describe someone who could capture and conquer a city. What comes to mind? Authority, power, influence, self-control, responsibility, and confidence come to mind when thinking of a general or a king like that. Now think through Proverbs 16:32 “…he who rules his spirit (is better) than he who captures a city.” The Scripture says it is grander to have self-control than if you are a mighty general or conqueror.
Do you rule your spirit? Is your Sane Adult in charge of how you think and thus, how you make choices? Do you choose to live a life of discipline?
If you are not living with self-control, you are going to beat yourself up. “He who neglects discipline despises himself” (Proverbs 15:32). I love that verse. In Skinny School, we call that Biblical concept “when The Crud Descends”. You are down and in despair because you neglected discipline.
Here’s an important sentence in my Ruby Journal: “If you eat junk, you will be in a funk.” Previously, I have spent many years trying to figure out how NOT to be in a funk, and there are many ways (they will be detailed in Happy School, Where Women Learn the Secrets of Contentment). But one truth for sure is that if you ignore discipline, if you allow Demanding Child to rule, you will be in a funk and despise yourself.
There are so many reasons to Ditch/Plan/Wait. My four personal favorites are these: (1) Sugar and excess carbs promote inflammation, which promotes disease. (2) I am depressed when I eat junk, because not only does the sugar make my brain less alert and feel slightly insane, but also “The Crud Descends” because I did not choose discipline. (3) I hate having wide hips, a big belly, and feeling frumpy. (4) I hate thinking about my size and love the freedom of NOT thinking about “what will I wear?”
Find your reasons that make your willpower and resolve sizzle and soar. Write them in your Ruby Journal and highlight them. Then bathe and re-bathe your mind. I’ve told you before that when I had to learn to put a contact in my eye, I just thought I couldn’t do it (this was twenty years ago). Seriously, I thought the skill was beyond me. Yesterday, I popped my contacts into my eyes without a mirror. Why? Because of habit. This is what you are learning in Skinny School, the habit of thinking with your Sane Adult, stripping Demanding Child of all of her annoying and self-destructive reasons.
Don’t give me any excuses either, that you are a “creative type with low conscientiousness”. So was I, and I learned discipline. So you can learn it too. The past does not have to be a predictor of the future as far as human behavior. We humans can change, because we are made in the image of God.
Being un-disciplined makes me extremely self-focused, and uses up a lot of the energy that I otherwise would have to serve others. Being disciplined gives me energy and a freedom to serve others, which you and I both know God wants us to do.
It’s hard to have joy and freedom in your spirit when you’re not walking with discipline. Kick your Demanding Child out of the house. She doesn’t get to be in charge because she never chooses for your long-term best.
Discipline rocks. It gets you what you want.
Week Sixteen, Day Five
Finding New Color and Zest
The excuse of “boredom” is pretty popular among women as the reason they indulge in Trash Food (or even when they indulge in too much healthy food.) As students get more immersed in the Skinny School thinking, their reasons for eating when they are not truly hungry begin to emerge. Eating out of boredom seems to be an extremely common one.
To combat this tendency, I am challenging all of my students to add a page in their Ruby Journal called “Color and Zest” (it is similar to List 6, “Pleasures and Comfort in Life Besides Food”, but different and necessary). We must, absolutely must, develop other areas in life in which we experience color and zest, besides food. This has been quite a journey for me. What I thought was color and zest ten or fifteen years ago (riding Seadoos, ballroom dancing, etc.) has not continued to be color and zest. Now I like playing games with the family, such as Kemps, Speed Scrabble, Family Feud, etc. You have to adjust as you age.
“Color and zest” are legitimate ways to refresh yourself, entertain yourself, and enjoy yourself. I just chatted with a girl who likes adventure and recently came back from hiking in the mountains in South America. Another friend just opened a booth at an antique mall with her vases. A third friend likes hospitality and lunching with friends. You will have to find your own legitimate ways to experience pleasure and restoration. I love reading books, laying in the sun, and going to movies with my adorable husband. I don’t know how much rest and restoration God will allow in your life (I barely know how much God allows in my life), but I know you get some. You don’t have to work all the time.
Find legitimate color and zest in your life for the places illegitimate Trash Food used to fill. There are millions of choices. This will take a little work for you to figure this out. Use the energy you were wasting on Trash Food and now use it in energizing and satisfying new outlets. Brainstorm. Try some things and if they don’t work, try some more. It’s a discovery process, learning how to re-direct the energy Trash Food used up into profitable and enjoyable paths.
Color and zest are important in life. Find yours.
(FYI, the norm is to read this and NOT make a “Color and Zest” page in your Ruby Journal. Only true Champions will do this. Your work ethic in Skinny School, as well as how you handle failure, will predict your success. Be sure and discuss your Color and Zest with your group.)
Unraveling the Reasons Why Women Won’t Do the Work of Skinny
I love getting emails from women in Skinny School. This one particular email, since we are friends, turned into a phone conversation. This lovely woman told me with great emotion how much she wants to be thin. But yet, she says, she can’t understand it. She just won’t Ditch/Plan/Wait. Normally when women say this, there is a hidden truth or reason they are not aware of.
We started talking through her life. She works a full-time job, has a very lovely and supportive family, and has in general, a busy, full life. She even exercises in group fitness three times a week. As we pulled apart her life, a few things stuck out to me about this lovely woman. One, is that on days that she works, she is exhausted. She still goes to group fitness after work three days a week for an hour (which really takes 1.5 hours) and then when she gets home at 8 p.m., there’s no way she wants to prep, cook, and pack.
I understand this. But my question to her was, “Since eating is 80% and exercising is only 20%, why don’t you exercise less and plan/prep/cook more?”
Then, I challenged her about her job. Is this really what you want to give this much of your life to? Do you really need the money? Could you cut back and work 30 hours? Women get in a rhythm and then, don’t challenge if it is what they really want to do. We get caught in so many webs that we could really get untangled from, if we wanted to.
Then she said the most interesting thing yet. She said, “Planning and prepping are torture.”
When she said that, I was so startled. Torture? If I asked her to run twenty miles, then that might be torture. But planning and prepping are not torture. Planning and prepping are gifts so that you can eat healthy. She said she was so tired from work and her exercise classes, that to still add planning and prepping to her day was torture.
I do get this. Exhaustion is real. And when I’m exhausted, don’t even ask me to make you a cup of tea. This woman is exhausted from her work and hour long class and can’t plan and prep at this hour.
I challenged her to look at her work hours (10 hours a day). I challenged her to exercise for shorter periods of time (maybe only 30 minutes on a couple of her work days, saving the group fitness hour classes for the weekend). And I challenged her to do most of the planning, prepping, and cooking on the weekends.
What we have to intensely decide is if we really care about being thin and eating healthy. I mean, something has to go. What can we change so we will have the time/energy to plan,prep, shop, and pack? Do we truly care…or do we just think we should care?
You have to challenge yourself to find the point and the reason why you are not Ditching/Planning/Waiting. You have to unearth why you are not doing the work. Sometimes, big changes are in order. My hunch is that you are not in a SS group, are not journaling, are not reviewing the Genie teaching, and are not reviewing your lessons. My hunch is that you are not doing the work of Skinny School.
IF you care (and sometimes people don’t and that’s fine), then you have to think hard about why you’re not doing the work and how you need to change your life so you have energy to do the work, especially of planning and prepping.
Getting thin and fit is not complicated: Eat clean, work-out, repeat. But the eating clean takes work. If you’re not eating clean (Ditching), then you must figure out why. You can’t be thin without Ditching.
Crises happen and you have to do the best you can in those situations. My husband was in the hospital for almost a week last month (in another city) and there was no planning or shopping going on. But still, even in that hospital setting, you can eat clean. We both did the whole time. Neither of us cheated one bite the whole time. The eggs were crummy and so was most of the food, but you can still choose salads, lean meats, veggies, soups, a little fruit, and nuts.
FYI…Vacations, busy summer days with kids, and company are not crises. They are life.
Over and over I tell you, you have to want to be thin and want to fuel your body right. You have to care enough to let something else go, so you can plan, shop, and bathe your mind with the right thought.
Eating clean is easy for me, because not only do I want to be thin, but I want to help my body at a cellular level with healthy eating. And another huge motivation for me is I don’t want the suffering that comes from being chubby. If you don’t want thinness and health badly, I can’t help you. Motivation has to come from inside.
Personally, I don’t think eating clean and working out is very hard. I think being fat and unhealthy is hard. You have to pick your hard.
Again, you have to figure this out. That’s why I beg you to have groups, so you can dialog about this. At some point, if you will stay with it, you will see that eating junk is the hard choice. Eating clean is the easy choice. Planning is a gift. Prepping is a gift. Trash Food creates suffering.
Questions For Group Discussion
- How is your mental health overall? What could you do to upgrade your mental health?
_____________________________________________________________ - Describe your journey with giving up sugar. What would be helpful to you?
_____________________________________________________________ - Have you ever changed a habit before? What would be helpful to you now to change your habits with food?
_____________________________________________________________ - What is your motivation for not eating junk?
_____________________________________________________________ - Have you decided to pay the price of planning to avoid the price of chubbiness? Explain.
_____________________________________________________________ - In what areas have you discovered new color and zest?
_____________________________________________________________ - Have you unraveled the reasons why you don’t Ditch/Plan/Wait? What are they?
_____________________________________________________________
We are now at the end of Skinny School Online. Have you experienced the click and the flip? Hundreds of you have, but some of you have not. To those who have not, I ask you, have you done the work? If not, you are still okay. Let’s just start over. You will need to go through all the lessons again, printing them and highlighting what is meaningful to you, as well as re-read all of the Genie’s teaching again. This time, fill out the lists, write good sentences in your Ruby Journal, answer the questions, and meet with a group. There is no reason you can’t retrain your brain how to think about food and eating, if you are willing to spend the time and energy doing it. I want to help you, but you have to want it.
Blessings,
Julie Gordon
JULIE N. GORDON 