Recipes

Sunday, February 28, 2021


 As an overeater, shame erodes our true identity. We identify as fat, unappealing, and a failure. Our attempts to diet have failed over and over enforcing the belief that we aren't strong enough.
Our inner critic reminds us how inadequate we are, we self-criticize resulting in more shame and self-hatred. We attempt to take matters into our own hands and diet. We label certain foods "bad" and begin our restriction as a punishment for who we've become.
The intense pain caused by dealing with our addition in this manner, after a time, causes us to break our diet and binge with our favorite forbidden foods. We binge in a daze of peacefulness that is temporarily created. When we emerge we are ashamed and horrified at our actions, further enforcing our addition and further eroding our true identity.
In Step 7 & Key 4 https://forwardreset.com/steps.html : We eliminate our shame and begin to rebuild our identity to emerge other than an overeater. By step 7 we have reviewed our true intentions, sought to eliminate bad behaviors and characteristics, sought the help and guidance of those who have recovered before us, and Key 4 we took action.
We find a new way of living, happier and healthier for today. Like the butterfly we transform from an identity of shame and overeating into our true selves, we are becoming.
Wherever you identify on the spectrum of food addictions, you are welcome, please join us at FORWARD RESET.

Monday, February 22, 2021

Homemade Seitan

 


Seitan is made from Vital Wheat Gluten (VWG).  Wheat gluten is the wheat protein that is left when all the starch has been washed away.  VWG is available in many natural food stores and can also be purchased online.  Here is the link to our favorite products on Amazon: 

Here is my favorite recipe for Seitan.

4 c vital wheat gluten
1 c potato flakes
4 heaping T of onion powder
3 heaping T of garlic powder
1 T black pepper
1 T of salt
1 T poultry seasoning
1/2 c nutritional yeast
Mix well

2 c hot water and dissolve 1 heaping T "Better than Bouillon" vegetable paste/
Pour this into dry mixture.
Add 2 more cups of water.  I find it easier to mix with my hands at this point.  Dough should be kind of like rubbery cookie dough.

Divide the dough into 6 equal parts.

Tear 6 sheets of non-stick foil about 12-16 inches long.  

Place a share of dough onto the shiny side of the foil.  Roll up like a summer sausage and twist the ends closed.  Fold twisted end over. 

Place onto rack in Instant Pot, add 1 c water, secure lid and cook on high for 60 minutes natural release.

Experiment with more or less spices, hot spices, etc.



 "...having lost over 200lbs I felt very successful. I was living life happier and healthier one day at a time. It was easy to forget that gratitude is what got me here and without it I'd be right back where I started. In time that's exactly where I found myself, back in the old habits of control, resentments and stress longing for something to ease the discontentment that had re-entered my life. That longing re-created an emptiness that I eventually began filling with food. So now after regaining the 200+ lbs I find myself starting all over again... starting with gratitude."


Sunday, February 21, 2021

 


Often we take ownership of things that don't  belong to us.  It isn't for us to take ownership of the person speeding down main street, that's on them.  We might easily become irritated and carry that attitude throughout the day but it isn't really ours to carry.  

In those times of irritation, discontent, and emotional stress, we as overeaters have turned to food for the temporary comfort that comfort-foods, binging and overeating can provide.

As we begin our journey to living happier and healthier we want to put down the burdens we carry that aren't ours.  We want to program our brains to see the things in our lives that we can be grateful for and use that thankfulness to fill a space in ourselves that overeating was being used to fill.


What are you grateful for today?

Today I am grateful for  _________________________.




Saturday, February 13, 2021

FR Step 10


We’re driving along successfully and all of a sudden we realize we’ve missed an exit, we’re now off course.  However a quick assessment determines we can get off at the next exit and get back on course fairly easily.  In this case we continue our journey without stopping but making a minor course correction.

Our simple plan for simply living is very similar to this, we continue along day-after-day and when we get slightly off course we make a quick correction and continue.  These simple corrections don’t need to derail our journey, there is no need to start back at the beginning or throw in the towel.  These are the common, everyday corrections that we will need to be observant of and make corrections for as the process of living healthier becomes part of our daily routines.

There are times, when you may find yourself completely off-course and it will be necessary to pull over, figure out where you are, make a plan to continue your journey, then get back at it.  It is at these times in our simple plan for simply living that we use the FR Step 10: We continue to make personal inventory and admit when we are wrong.

FR Step 10 allows us to reconnect with our journey, get back on track and move forward.  It allows us to find our way, release what isn’t ours to carry, and be honest and true to ourselves.

If you find yourself slightly off track go ahead and make those immediate corrections and continue moving forward.  However if you find yourself lost, totally off-track, go ahead and pull over, stop the car, suspend your journey but don’t quit!  Use your resources:  FR Support, sponsors, friends, coaches, or even therapy to get a clear map to your journey, then pull your vehicle back on the road and get moving toward a happier healthier you; reset and move forward!

 

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Forward Reset (FR) Step 3

We made a decision to entrust our will and our lives to the care of the collective wisdom and resources of those who have searched before us.

Forward Reset - FR 12 Steps

I've come to understand FR Step 3 as surrender.  Surrendering to the wisdom and resources available to me and not trying to modify everything to fit my lifestyle.  After all, while I feel most things in my life are manageable, my compulsive overeating is not something within my control.

In past attempts I would manipulate my food plan to best fit my situation at the time.  This would work for a time but always seem to back me into a corner that for which I found no way out.  My desire was to lose weight quickly and worry about long-term consequences last.  

Today I use a food plan based in science, a proven plan that I can surrender control and let the plan do it's work.  I do have to be mindful but I don't have to control it.

Allowing surrender kind of switches the tracks of compulsive food thoughts.  It stops the cycle mentally because I'm no longer in charge.

Today I am willing to go another day.

-Steve C


Monday, February 8, 2021

 

Feeling hungry but you just ate? Nothing is filling you up?
HALT!
HUNGRY: Maybe you are hungry. Did you get enough to eat at your meal? Is it time for a snack? Don't let hunger get away from you, keep it in check by not starving yourself.
ANGRY: Are you angry? Anger needs to be soothed. Many of use turn to food for the solution. Check your attitude and emotions, are you angry? If so, try and resolve the anger, nothing is worth carrying it around. Release it and let it go.
LONELY: Sometimes we use food in an attempt to resolve loneliness or boredom. Can you find an activity, phone a friend, tackle a task on your to-do list?
TIRED: Tiredness and low energy can result from lack of sleep, overeating, sugar crash, etc. Try to identify if you are really hungry or just looking for a pick-me-up. Sleep is the only resolution to being actually tired.

Sunday, February 7, 2021

Find Your Motivation Every Day!

When you wake up each day, take a minute to do a quick inventory of yourself.  Is there stuff you’re carrying that doesn’t belong to you, if so let it go.

Find something to be grateful for this morning.  Think about it for a minute and really feel the gratitude.

Remind yourself what living happier and healthier in your body might be like, feel like, look like.  Use that information to create some mental imagery for a second or two.

 

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Once is Never Enough

Once is never enough, every time counts. 

As we continue our journey to living happier and healthier we find ourselves traveling a path that is unfamiliar.  We are learning to live our lives with gratitude, reconstructing our reality, continuing to take inventory of ourselves and releasing what is not ours to carry.

Our new journey is not perfect, we may get lost so we will ask for direction, we may breakdown so we ask for help.  We take encouragement from others, we accept praise and we honestly review criticisms without judgement.

We move along step by step, the progress is more important than the perfection.  Looking back we’re not sure how we’ve made it this far but here we stand. We had to be entirely ready to make changes and changes have led us here.

Today I am grateful for my imperfect journey.  I am learning that my goal need not be perfection but progress.  It is not enough to do it once, every time counts!

 

Monday, February 1, 2021

 

First time? Maybe getting started again?

First time? Maybe getting started again? Whatever the reason you are now considering a new plan of eating how to get started seems to always be a daunting task.

Sometimes when we look at the big picture it is too big, too much, too insurmountable but as the ol' saying goes, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."

I think it is important to ask yourself what your intentions are for starting a new food plan. Can you verbalize and visualize what eating better will do for you? Maybe you picture yourself going for a walk, maybe you verbalize you are looking forward to your legs not aching. Whatever the intention it is important to start with intention.

From intention we can create a goal. Perhaps the goal is to get through a week, maybe it's day, maybe it your goal needs to be getting through the very next moment. These goals, no matter how small, are the steps we take one in front of the other. Each step takes us closer down the path to our initial intentions.

All we can worry about is the here and now, this moment. We can look back at our past and recall what worked for us and what did not but we can't change it. No sense crying over spilled milk, what is done is done, move forward with this new information and taking your next step forward educated by your past.

 

Resetting the Button on Old Mindsets

Resetting the button on old mindsets.

This past week I've been thinking about an old mindset I have, I feel I have to be in control of my food plan. I use a plan that is scientifically structured to allow me to lose weight sensibly, it provides the tools I need to be successful, yet I have a strong desire to want to control the plan and change it in a way I think I know best.

One of these ways is to restrict. I restrict food from the daily plan to lose faster, because I can't lose weight like others, etc. It has occurred to me recently that maybe I struggle because I don't let go and allow the plan to take control?

So this week in moving forward, I'm resetting the old mindset that I need to be in control, I do not. I need to follow my plan, continue to educate myself, use the tools available and let the rest go. It is not for me to rewrite what I think works best.

 

Resetting Our Mindset

Resetting Our Mindset.

For many of us we’ve decided to make changes to our daily routines in the favor of weight loss. We are familiar with the common recommendations: "You have to make it a lifestyle" and "Don't call it a diet", but what does that really mean?

Sure, we are willing to change for a period of time, maybe willing to give up our overeating to reach a goal, but are we really willing to change make a forever change?

A mindset change for life isn’t only about making the conscious effort to change, it’s about becoming willing subconsciously to allow that change. Resetting the mindset requires in inward review of why we continue patterns in life that result in weight gain, steal from our happiness, and why we have held firm to old habits of eating that have never provided for a lighter healthier body that we long to live in.

Resetting the ideas that the relationships we’ve built with food and eating are ours forever, they don’t have to be, we decide. It is with great strength we can take time to search our deepest thoughts and begin to identify connections in our subconscious about our relationships with food. The fact that we are even taking this journey reveals our true strength. Our inner strength can look at allow us to make decisions to end lifelong food connections or continue on the same path.

In the end, resetting the mindset isn’t about eliminating those connections but about the willingness to be entirely ready to live without those connections. Without the willingness the connections wither and die on their own.

The process is about recognizing our strength, the honesty and bravery to look into ourselves and face the unknown path head-on. It is this strength that we will call upon as we let those subconscious connections go. We have a new way of living, to use our bodies as vehicles to achieve our goals, experience our lives to the fullest, and to be the happiest we can be with the bodies we travel in. We make these decision, consciously and subconsciously, every day…. Resetting our mindset.

 

 

The Brain Doesn't Always Get It Right!

The brain doesn't always get it right. It uses information from past experiences, our perceptions of those experiences and creates reference points when a similar event takes place. But, the brain could have it all wrong. 

It could be that we stored a bad experience as a reference point and now when the same experience could have a favorable outcome we tend to immediately pass judgement. This happens in criticisms toward ourselves and others.

Going forward, I will pause and reset my reaction to experiences instead of immediately passing ill judgement, I will use wisdom to evaluate and form a new opinion, recognize the difference, and ask my brain to store the new information.