Ep 0108 – It’s All About Those BCs!

Laurie holding her recorder in the shade at the top of the trail
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On a hot blustery day, I finish the second half of the show at the Top Zen place hoping for shade and a little less wind.

Podcast Recap

It’s a blustery day on the mountain, and despite the wind, today’s show is all about the BCs! After I let go of the idea of trying and embrace the idea of being, I welcome a record number of new brave companions – Chelsea, Dave and his wife, Jo, Nola from Alberta, Rachel from Sydney, Justine and Devon. I thank Nola for her 5 star review on iTunes Canada. We catch up with a few BCs we haven’t heard from for awhile, including Happy who has questions for us about binge durations and what we think of Brain Over Binge by Kathryn Hansen. We also hear from Lisa, Maria from a Spanish Speaking country and my in person BC pal, Sandy. We celebrate the bravery of BC Carol from Detroit for posting her story on Who are the Brave Companions. We also feature comments on that story by Dawny and Sue from the UK. Amy from WI shares why I asked for prayers for her last show and Stéfanie from Quebec tells us why she’s been quiet of late.

Laurie in her red hiking scarf in front of the trail

I start the show at my usual Next to Top Zen place – but the wind and the sun get to be too much for me and so I move.

Blue skies, puffy white clouds and stark foothills

It is a gorgeous day for hiking up the mountain.

Laurie smiling as she takes a selfie in her mirror wearing blue shorts and a sleeveless striped tee.

Why this selfie? Because I feel good in my body today. Great sleep, no overeating lately, no restriction, starting to regain body balance.

Mentioned

New BC Justine’s post on FB

New BC Devon’s post on FB

New BC Chelsea’s IG page at Chel_Say

New BC Dave’s first post on Day 1

New BC Jo is from England and works in Asia. Post here to say hello to Jo.

New BC Rachel from Sydney is from Australia. Post here to say hello to Rachel from Sydney

Nola from Alberta’s first post on Day 79

The Certificate for Catching up on all episodes that Nola mentions

Happy’s questions on Day 107

Lisa’s comment on Day 78

Maria’s comment on my Letting Go of Stuff blog post

Sandy’s comment on my status 4/1/15

Carol from Detroit’s story on Who Are the Brave Companions

Amy from WI’s comment about why she needed our prayers

Stéfanie from Quebec’s comment on why she’s been quiet lately

One of my blog posts about cleaning

My blog post about our Messy Embarrassing House

The Bravery Coach

TheBraveryCoach daily tweet is a morning mediation on how I either did, or can incorporate an aspect of bravery into my day. It is cheerful. It is esteem building. Those who want to follow these on Twitter may, by searching for the hashtag #bravery or by seeing my profile:

Daily Bravery Tweets via TheBraveryCoach on Twitter

Ways to support the show financially

Credits

Host: Laurie Weaver

Main Theme: I’m Letting Go by Josh Woodward from The Simple Life Part 1 Used by permission of Josh Woodward under a Creative Commons License

Comments box:

23 thoughts on “Ep 0108 – It’s All About Those BCs!

  1. dawny

    oh my Laurie, I LOVE the beauty in your happy pictures, that smile is back!! YAAAAY!

    wow, I sure could FEEL your happy chipperness in your podcast this time! Im so happy for you and where you are right now..

    A GREAT fully packed episode this time =-) yes!! SOOOO many NEW friends to meet & greet.. weeehaw!

    Sending you some happiness and wishing you to send me some of your heat & sunshine.. we had SNOW here yesterday! what the yuck?!!?

    it’s also spring break here for our kiddo’s and the town’s a buzz.. especially where i work, everyone is trying to get in..

    im working hard to avoid the YUCK going around my job too. bleh everyone is sick sick sick =-(

    Reply
    1. Laurie@CompulsiveOvereatingDiary Post author

      Thanks Dawny 🙂 I think the more junk I haul out of my house, the happier I get. It IS a metaphor. The more I let go, the more space I create in my mind, my schedule, my emotions, my house, the lighter and happier I feel. It is all cosmic Zen I tell ya! xoxoxox (She says trying to work up enthusiasm for today’s cleaning task)

      Reply
  2. Nola

    I love the big smiles too and the happy look on your face! Obviously getting rid of clutter in your house and in your mind is working for you. I tend to be someone who lets things slide a little around the house and can totally relate to the mad clean up just before company comes. Once again, you have inspired me to change, this time into a person who does a little bit every day to keep things tidy. Not just to try but to actually BE that person :-).

    Thanks again for the warm welcome! Welcome to all the other new BC’s!

    We could use some warmth here too after a few days of off and on snow fall. Typical Alberta spring!

    Reply
    1. Laurie@CompulsiveOvereatingDiary Post author

      Once again, you have inspired me to change, this time into a person who does a little bit every day to keep things tidy. Not just to try but to actually BE that person :-).

      Hooray Nola! It does work. I feel so much better as we have used this new approach to the house. I guess it is the same as what I use for my eating. Moment by moment. I can choose to put something away instead of letting it lay there. I can take 5 minutes to clean a mirror when I notice it is spotted without waiting for “bathroom day”. It’s a revelation! Sending you virtual warmth Nola, until your beautiful sunny days arrive. xoxoxoxox

      Reply
    2. Cheryl

      Hi Nola!
      Just wanted to say that I, too, suffer from TOMORROW SYNDROME! Though I’ve been a yo-yo dieter for years, I had never experienced that until this last time I gained some of the weight back. I don’t pretend to know where it came from, but would sure like to hear more about your struggle with it.

      So glad to have you on board!

      Cheryl

      Reply
      1. Dave

        I really enjoyed this post. You mentioned you are part of a writers group….is there a website.

        Here is a question: How much of our shame and guilt is from delayed or procrastinated dreams?

        I am a very creative person and have great desires to express them, right now I do it in the form of gardening and cooking (cooking and overeating hmmmm) and photography… I really want to learn to draw as well write. I have written an outline for a childrens book and I need to either flesh out the story and then find an illustrator r become one. I think I procrastinate this because I’m not perfect (episode 25-26) when I start a project ( I know it is irrational) I have problems enjoying the learning curve.

        I know I beat myself up the longer I put off these dreams.

        Junk in your house…..the secret for us is to move every couple of years…we get rid of the boxes we have not opened in months or years…although we keep only the truly important papers and memories.

        Reply
        1. Dave

          oops I think I posted this in the wrong place.

          [No worries, I tried to move it for you, but I couldn’t get my dang system to STOP recognizing the post from me, and I’d rather the recent comments show your thoughts as coming from you vs. having everything in perfect order. Guess it’s just another lesson for us 😉 thanks for posting – L]

          Cheryl I too am the King of Tomorrow, I have to work on doing things that pop into my mind right away.

          Reply
          1. Cheryl

            Hey Dave!

            Little lost in the conversation here, but as Laurie said, I started a blog on Word Press in October and have met TONS of folks who love to write — short stories, poetry, articles, just about anything you could dream up. Every few months they have writing courses on there. They’re free. I’m currently doing Writing 101. They send out a new assignment to do every day for four weeks (excluding weekends). The great thing about these groups are you get immersed in a community that is all about what you’re about. I enthusiastically encourage you to start a blog to just explore what kind of writing you’re really in to. Stop by mine anytime. It’s Impromptu Promptlings. The address is https://promptlings.wordpress.com/

            As to the Tomorrow Syndrome thing, my deal is if I screw up during the day it’s always, well, I’ll start over tomorrow. Then I forget about working on my eating habits for the rest of the day. This is new to me. Feel like I’m just spinning my wheels.

          2. Cheryl

            Hey Dave!

            Hope you got on WordPress and poked around a little. You should be able to find a few people who are currently writing children’s books. Any luck?

            Cheryl

        2. Laurie@CompulsiveOvereatingDiary Post author

          Hi Dave, if the writing group question is for me, I go to one in Burbank, CA that I found originally on meetup.com. That’s a great resource for finding people with similar interests in your local area. If the question is for Cheryl, she’s been doing an online blogging group through WordPress.com I believe. Maybe she could expand on that.

          As to your book, I am very similar. I have many unfinished projects around and always felt I needed to do it all, from money issues to control issues, and for me, I also think the guise of having to learn and perfect a skill protected me from the rejection pain of trying for real. I’m trying now (and not always succeeding) to base my creative work, not on any finished result, per se, but on how much I enjoy the process. If you love drawing and thrive on learning, then it’s a great match! If you really love the writing, and like the “idea” of illustration, more than the doing of illustration, you would be better served to find a collaborator who LOVES to draw already. This is a hard, hard lesson for me. For example, I’m OK at graphic design, but not great. For some of my projects, it fit my genre. Like my original website for kids, it served me to look homemade. Even this one, it is all about ME doing new things, so it fits. But once I redo LaurieWeaver.com to pursue voice acting, I will hire a professional to give me the look I want. I want every once of that branding to reflect professionalism and the other attributes I want my voice brand to be (once I determine my niche and marketable strengths). It will KILL me to give up that control, but my project will be served by my getting help. I hope this all makes sense. I think it is learning to prioritize and to realize where our strengths lay and what gives us actual joy. As a PS, I LOVE to feature creative work by BCs. Feel free to record some of your story yourself for the show, or send a story for me, or my voice actor friends to read.(no pressure, just an offer). I’m really hoping to prove that BCs are MORE than just eating disordered folk. We are talented, creative and have huge hearts and we are worth sharing our visions with the world – no matter what level of perfection we have attained. 😉

          Reply
          1. Dave

            Cheryl,

            Thanks for sharing I will look up your blog.

            Laurie,

            You have inspired me I am going to spend my 45min (see My 5-4 email) developing the skills to write the children’s book and illustrate it.

            I will move boldly in the directions of my dreams and out run the voices of the Alien Compulsive Overeating Robot.

          2. Laurie@CompulsiveOvereatingDiary Post author

            Hooray Dave! I think Cheryl’s advice is very, very good. Go to WordPress.com, you can make a free blog there and connect with the writing community. And I bet you can find some there who are in the same genre. It is a great way to explore your creative writing side.

      2. Nola

        Thanks, Cheryl. I’m glad to be on board!

        About the “tomorrow” syndrome, where should I start? I’ve been plagued by this for most of my dieting history. This goes hand in hand with the “last meal” syndrome. Because I am always going to start the diet “tomorrow” I need to eat all the forbidden foods today. Unfortunately, tomorrow never comes so it often becomes day after day of over-eating the “bad” foods. Lately I’ve been working on overcoming the thought of starting something new tomorrow but I’m still not quite there yet. Weekends are particularly bad because of this attitude and by Monday I’m ready to get back on the wagon and try to follow whatever new (or old) food plan or diet that I decide will be my next miracle cure. I mentioned in my original post that I have had problems with insomnia. This has gone on for years and I’ve tried all the different suggestions and tips to overcome it without significant result. Anyway, often by Thursday I’m very tired and sleep deprived and after being “good” for three days, I start to slip with my food choices or portion sizes and that’s when the tomorrow syndrome kicks in once again. I tell myself that this plan, whatever it might be, isn’t working and on Monday I’m going to start x plan. Of course that opens the door for me to eat whatever foods I’ve been denying myself. Despite this cycle I’ve been able to keep my weight under control, which is to say that I haven’t been gaining. This whole maintenance thing is relatively new for me since I’ve either been gaining or losing weight for so many years. Again, unfortunately, the weight that I’m maintaining is not one that I’m happy with. I am a few pounds under my WW goal of 158 lbs but when I picked my goal I picked the top weight of my range for my height. That was over 15 years ago and now I’m an inch shorter!?! Also, in between I’ve been gained up to 35 pounds over my goal and lost to get 35 pounds below. Most of my clothes are tight fitting right now and I would really like to be about 15 pounds thinner.

        I am trying to make the tomorrow syndrome work in my favor. I’m working on changing my thinking from starting the diet tomorrow to telling myself that I can have that muffin, cookie or chocolate tomorrow. The other solution that I’m trying is to quit labelling foods good or bad. This is all a work in progress and being a part of this community and listening to Laurie has made me do some serious thinking about my old patterns. I just got the book Intuitive Eating from the library and after reading the first few chapters I think that this is a book I need to own. I recognize myself in so many ways as I read. I’ll keep everybody updated on my progress. In the meantime I have to confess that I’m a little afraid. If I’m not thinking of food and which diet plan to attempt next, what will I think about?

        Reply
        1. Cheryl

          ” If I’m not thinking of food and which diet plan to attempt next, what will I think about?” Got to admit, Nola, that’s not a thought I’ve ever had. Guess I figure I’ll always be planning on losing! Actually, if I’m caught up in something stimulating, I often forget to even eat (or plan dinner, which really makes his lordship irritated!). I think where my main struggle actually stems from is something you said — insomnia. I get so tired mid-morning every day that my body thinks it needs fuel to keep going. So I’ll start to pick at little things (unless I’m really immersed in something) then by dinner I’m not hungry, and at bedtime I’m starving. So I eat, thinking it’ll be better tomorrow. It’s so true what they say about your sleeping habits affecting your weight, isn’t it…

          Reply
          1. Nola

            I must say I’ve never in my life forgotten to eat no matter how stimulating my activities. And it’s definitely true about sleep issues and hunger. It doesn’t look like that’s going away for me.

          2. dawny

            this thread has been very thought provoking for me, Im so truly thankful for all the conversations taking place, and the thinkings..

            I relate on so many levels

            Im so glad to have so many friends that are in the same place, and knowing im not alone in my quirks

            it’s a rainy wet day, but I let it stop me or derail me NOT.. rain-gear ahead.. foraging on! soggy-woggy-wet-a-bout today..
            let it be spring I guess *sigh*

            I put my fit-bit back on Saturday, and the steps add up so fast, Im impressed with myself to say the least,
            I do giggle a little at how many Activity Points the fit-bit converts into food point values on the weight watchers e-tools site tho..
            I don’t eat them, never really have.. but.. interesting for sure..

            Hoping life is well for everyone in your land, feeling on-track with your life goals and desires, happy, healthy, wealthy, lovely and well..

            Im going to check out a purre barre class at the end of this week, not really sure what that is, ive saw some you-tube videos, looks interesting, and it’s a free class, so what the hey eh? maybe i’ll LOVE it.. er.. uh.. well.. it’s a free class.. there’s that

  3. Cheryl

    Great show, Laurie! You came fully loaded today. I really identified with what you said during the first segment about affirming to yourself that you ARE a voice actor. You know I struggle with the same thing with writing. I guess we just have to keep telling ourselves until we believe it, eh?

    So good to hear you so up!!! Great pictures. Love that smile!

    Hugs,
    Cheryl

    Reply
    1. Laurie@CompulsiveOvereatingDiary Post author

      Thanks Cheryl! I feel I have turned a huge corner in self-acceptance. I don’t just tell myself things, I believe them. Since I realize I will NEVER be perfect, nor even the best in the room, I accept where I am. This is the huge burden off of my shoulders, that I think is the lightness in my speech and attitude you BCs are hearing lately. Now, being prone to depression etc., I also know I won’t be Zen and rainbows every day. But like my last binge lasting for only one occurrence vs. weeks or months, my defeatist attitudes are growing shorter and happen less often. Progress. And for writing? You ARE a writer, no need to convince me or you my lady. You are a writer through and through. xoxoxoxoxox

      Reply

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