7

Week Seven


The Lists and

Finding Your Truth


















My Yellow List
Rewrite your Yellow List adding any new items that “could” interfere with your journey. Your Yellow List “could” be getting even smaller in size.
1. ______________________________ 6.___________________________
2. ______________________________ 7. __________________________
3. _____________________________ 8. __________________________
4 ______________________________ 9. __________________________
5.______________________________ 10. __________________________


Your Yellow List needs to be used only when absolutely necessary. Be sure YOU are making the choices when using your Yellow List and not your addict/disease. Using your Yellow List only when absolutely necessary will help make your abstinent muscle stronger.




















My No Matter What Red List - Week Seven

1. ______________________________ 6____________________________
2. ______________________________ 7.____________________________
3. ______________________________ 8.____________________________
4. ______________________________ 9.____________________________
5. ______________________________ 10. ___________________________



-A short note from your addict/disease
“I'm such a hated disease, yet I don't come uninvited. You choose to have me. Many have chosen me instead of love peace and ultimately even life.
(Think of this note, as you read the following suggestions.)
♥If you’re still cooking and baking any of your trigger foods, you might want to ask yourself why. My answer was usually “my family needs them.” Do they need them more than you need life?
♥Let’s talk about buffets, the good, the bad and the ugly! When you go out to dinner are you still choosing buffets? You might want to ask yourself why. If truth were to be told, my answer, before I started an exactly weigh food plan, would have been so my addict could talk me into over-eating, since I had never been to a buffet without eating more than I needed. The good is, if you are adhering to an everywhere, all the time, exactly weighed food plan, like I do; buffets are a great place to get the large amount of veggies your body requires to keep your addict/disease in her place. The ugly is looking around at a buffet and seeing the unhealthy amount of weight many of those that frequent buffets are carrying, I know I use to be one of them.
♥By now, the concept of FOOD IN ONE POCKET, LIFE IN THE OTHER: DON’T MIX “could” be cemented; if it’s not, keep saying it until it is.




♥Your addict/disease loves it when you feel like you’re going to die if you don’t eat XXX. But the “truth” is that many of us ate so often that we only felt truly “hungry” a few times in our lives and never true “hunger.” I surely fell into that category. You might want to replace the phrase, “I’m really hungry” with “I really want to eat.” For me, it helped me keep my addict from tricking me into thinking I was starving.
♥As your B2B No Matter What Red List day count accumulates so will your self-trust. Thus, accruing your day count has to be the number one priory in your life.


Notes and Positive Thoughts




































My Green List - Week Seven
For this weeks Green list, concentrate on exactness on your Green List. This list really exercises your abstinent muscle when done exactly.
1. Continue to drink your eight ounces of water before each meal.
2. Your lunch will remain, twelve exact ounces of vegetables again for this week.
3. For dinner you need to continue eating your exactly measured 16 ounces of veggies. Keep in mind that your addict/disease hates, loathes and despises vegetables but you body craves them.
4. Suggested food plan
Breakfast- 4 ounces protein
8 ounces fruit
Optional small serving carb..
Lunch- 5 ounces protein
12 ounces vegetables
1 ounce fat
8 ounces fruit
Optional small serving carb
Dinner- 5 ounces protein
16 ounces vegetables
1.5 ounces fat
8 ounces fruit
4. You need to continue having at least four hours between your meals.

5. Knowing in your “heart” that becoming Thin and Serene is an
inside job.

♥If it’s not already; it’s time for your exactly weighed vegetable to be part of your B2B No Matter What Day Count.


♥Many of us (me included) need to be eating our exact amount of vegetables, No Matter What in all circumstances. i.e. restaurants, others’ homes, etc. This means that at times, you may need to bring extra veggies being we eat a lot.


♥ At first this used to be embarrassing for me, but I thought, “What’s more embarrassing; sitting at a restaurant or friend’s house eating extra veggies or sitting there weighing an extra 100 pounds?” I opt for the extra veggies. (I call this taking back-up food because living the Thin and Serene Way of Life, you do eat loads of vegetables and your hostess may not have enough to cover all you require.








































Finding Your Truth

Now that you have made a valiant attempt to stop stuffing your face, you are ready to face your stuff.
Before recovery I was the ball in the pinball machine, but I did not realize it until I was out of the food. That ball has no life and neither did I. I was being controlled by the pinball wizard (my food addict/disease) and at his or her mercy. I never acted on anything, just reacted. During that time I thought I had a life, but in hindsight, I realize I was just being moved along by the dysfunction around me. This was no way to live. Today I feel like I’m one of the lucky ones who found her “truths” and a way out.
By this time you have most likely uncovered some “truths” about yourself. (I also refer to “truths” as “ahas.” They are life altering, new ways of thinking.
Let me share with you some “truths” about me, that were uncovered to help you decide what your new “truths” might be:
♥I want to grow up to be just like my granddaughter. I get chills just thinking about her. Taking into account that my granddaughter laughs 283 more times a day than I do.
♥I love and I mean worship music. In my dictionary of “truths” right next to the word Heaven is Music. Music for me is Heaven on Earth. In fact, this year I received one of the best Christmas gifts ever, a hand-me-down IPOD. (my son got a new one). I immediately put three hundred and thirty of my favorite songs of all time. What a loving gift to myself.
♥Food is not the answer. If you are not sure on this one refer back to the Activity where you wrote the binge paper.
♥There is another meal coming. The first few months into recovery, I noticed I wanted to eat as though each meal were my last. Whatever stopping mechanism inside that lets one know that another meal is coming is nonexistent for me. My food addict made sure that mine was broken and stayed that way. As far as I was concerned, each meal was my last.
♥I think that’s why staying on my food plan was so hard when I was in early recovery. It sounds crazy when I think of it now, but this is what my food addict had me brainwashed into believing. This “aha” was a real eye-opener. Realizing this untruth did not change it immediately; it took a great deal of self-talk to change it. For years I had to remind myself on a daily basis that there would be another meal coming. Now not only do I know that there is another meal coming, but also know that I get three meals a day, ninety a month and over a thousand a year. Remember earlier when I talked about the old tapes I keep stored away in my recovery brain? Well, here’s another one: over a thousand delicious meals just waiting for me. It makes it so I don’t mind when a meal ends. For the first time in my life, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there’s another meal coming.
It’s all right to waste food. In my past somewhere I got the idea that it was unacceptable to throw food away. Maybe it was all the starving babies in India that my economical practice was going to help. (I wonder why it didn’t bother me when I wasted food on my waist?) However, throwing food in the garbage is still something I struggle with; therefore every time I discard leftovers in the garbage, I pat myself on the back. (Remember I said I was a great cheerleader for myself.)
♥It is impossible for me to binge today and be Thin and Serene tomorrow. One bite is too many and a million is not enough. If it’s a No Matter What List food, even one bite can hurt me
♥It’s ok and even encouraged for me to waste food. I spent the first thirty-three years of my life wasting food on my waist, now it’s time to spend the next fifty+ years wasting food where it belongs, in the garbage.
♥Silence is golden. “Never miss a good chance to shut up is one of my favorite mantras. I spent many years being quiet until l learned to say only nice things to people.
♥What is my “truth” is often inconvenient.” “Truth” may not be easy, but it is simple and comes with practice. “If at first I don’t succeed, try, try again.”
♥I have never gone to a buffet without the intent of pigging out. Buffets do not pave the way to a Thin and Serene life. I think, that buffets are my addict’s weekend home. I have never gone to a buffet when my addict was not leading the way. Going to a buffet is tempting the food pocket. Very few of us, if any, can go to a buffet and leave our addicts at home.
♥Today’s recovery is all I have, these 24 hours. Hence, if you have 24 hours, you could say you have the same as me. It all starts and ends with 24 hours. Yes, they accumulate, but it is still just 24 hours.
♥I can be nice to someone who is not nice to me; be nice then detach with love.
♥When I focus on what‘s “fair” in my life, magically my life is transformed.
♥You’re not the same person you were 24 hours ago. You have changed one day at a time. You have a new way of living and a program to follow that will keep you abstinent and serene as long as you are willing to follow it
Activity
Write a list of your new “ahas” and “truths”.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
(Add more spaces if necessary and I hope it’s necessary.)


























I’m
Beginning to
Know
“My Truth”