No More Binges, The End!

It’s back: my self-guided 30-day get-your-eating-under-control program. Like my book, it is funny, pithy, simple, smart, effective and leaves no weird aftertaste. It covers many of the same ideas as my book (see below), but it’s for you if you like to take your time integrating and experiencing new ideas.

That frying pan → fire thing is real when your nerves are jacked.

We have one or two questions today:

Bewildered and Horrified in Michigan writes: On the one hand, I am appalled at the US’s descent into authoritarianism and fascism and want to get my family (including own non-binary child) the f out. Working on an application for Canadian residency, and feeling like we can’t go farther due to an aging parent. On the other hand… this feels like copping out. Should I be focused on resisting instead of leaving?

Purl writes: How do I cope during these stressful times in the United States? I am ashamed to say I am an American.

Sounds like you ladies live in America all right!

But you could live in Britain. Or Brazil. Or Liberia or a lot of other places where people experience the tyranny of the minority.

All over the world, there are citizens that don’t feel like their government represents them. Is doing bad things against their will.

And all over the world, there are rational people who understand that citizens are not their government.

A lot of governments right now are shameful. But citizenship is often an accident of birth, and in fact nothing to be ashamed of.

And pride, hmmm, I don’t know. Hometown pride is probably a good thing, but a whole country? I think it’s too much of a mixed bag on its best days.

Questions for you.

What does it mean to leave a country because you’re not aligned with the will of the government there? Have you vetted the government of your future host country? Are you satisfied with what you found?

I have a Canadian passport, btw. (Pro tip: start the paperwork today, and answer all calls from unknown numbers. Could be a provincial bureaucrat.) Guess what it’s a beautiful country but it’s hardly pure. Off the top of my head, I mean it’s full of unmarked graves. Recent ones!

How’s it going to be when you land in Canada? Or Mexico or Portugal? Will you be involved in local politics? Will you be standing for election there? Will you be using your strong American dollar in the competitive local housing market, inevitably making things harder for the natives?

Are you going to live in an expat bubble? Do you imagine that amidst the considerable strain to your nervous system and cognitive functioning after fleeing your home, effectively becoming an emotional refugee, you will actually have time to improve your language skills fast enough to make the kind of friends that give you the belonging we all need?

I know I am harshing your mellow.

And I will say that if what you want to do with your wild and precious life is live it elsewhere, I salute you! Go for it! We’re all gonna be dead so soon! Have a good time!

I am the last person to say you shouldn’t change your circumstances when you don’t like them.

And I am also the last person to say you should stay and fight. You must do what is right for you and your family. That doesn’t always mean resistance.

All I am saying is: no one know what’s going to happen next no matter what they say afterward, but try have a balanced view of the possible futures, because that frying pan → fire thing is real when you’re responding to a powerful flight response coming from your nervous system.

And let me know what you decide to do!

🤓

Buying (and reading, and reviewing) my book is an EXCELLENT way to support my work, including this newsletter.

Eat meals at mealtimes. Stop when the meal’s over. Don’t eat again until it’s time for the next meal.

Sounds simple, right? TOO simple, perhaps?

Well it’s not. It’s the exact right amount of simple. It’s also easy, sustainable, dignified, delightful, cost-free, satisfying and extremely effective.

If you believe that all eating disorders are “very hard to overcome,” you have been misled.

If you can’t seem to get control of your eating, read this book. It will help.

💯

RECOMMENDING.

writing.

Sometimes even I have to acknowledge how commercial self-care has become. Join me for that on Modern Daily Knitting: Self-care … In this economy?

reading.

No one in print makes me laugh harder than Sam Irby. Her newsie Bitches Gotta Eat is one of my faves.

I am reading Friends Helping Friends by Patrick Hoffman because it was Sam’s rec. This book is harrowing AF and is not making me laugh. It’s about a luckless criminal that gets FBI pressed into joining a hideous racist cult in exchange for a get-out-of-jail-not-even-close-to-free card. Edge of my seat. Have to read in small increments.

Would you like to read about thoroughly detestable people who are also the most prolific art thieves in modern times? Then you might enjoy The Art Thief by Michael Finkel. It’s very well written and researched. I enjoyed the parts about art 1000x more than the parts about the awful thieves and their awful relatives.

I also recommend to you Agatha of Little Neon, by Claire Luchette, about a young nun living at a halfway house in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

listening.

New Black Keys: No Rain, No Flowers. Mostly missing that heaviness of sound aka what I am here for. I would even say the sound is top-heavy. I mean, the Bee Gees come to mind. Also the Allman Brothers in their more contemplative mood ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Plus the weird Springsteenlike cover art. Haha it will most likely wind up being my favorite album of the year.

Anyone else have thoughts?

watching.

Finished Hacks. So good. Need your recs now plz.

knitting.

I am taking on intarsia! Finally. I’m making Florence Spurling’s beautiful carpet-design-inspired but to me southwest-looking Elvan shawl. (Kits on sale at MDK rn btw. The yarn is delightful.)

NEXT TIME.

Next time, let’s talk more about my GLP1 journey. It’s been a ride.