Are there personality styles that aren’t a good fit for Bright Line Eating? I received an email from a woman who found the checklists and boundaries too intense for her personality. She wondered if I’d taken into consideration the personality styles of the Myers-Briggs test. She asked if I had any suggestions for people who might find the rigid discipline a challenge.

I laughed when I received this because I am a strong ENFP. If you’re not familiar with Myers-Briggs, in a nutshell, it’s a measurement that breaks down into four segments:

• E vs. I, which is extrovert vs. introvert
• S vs. N, with S meaning sensing and N standing for intuitive. S’s take in info through their five senses, while N’s do so through gut feelings or intuition.
• T vs. F, or thinking vs. feeling. That’s how people make decisions. T’s do it with logic and intellect, while an F will use their heart and emotions. 
• P vs. J, or perceiving vs. judging. J’s like structure. P’s prefers spontaneity and resist locking down plans.  

Myers-Briggs and Bright Line Eating

If you have a personality that is more freewheeling and easygoing—a P vs. a J, for example—and prefer to live spontaneously, you may struggle at first with BLE and with planning your meals in advance. 

What may feel like the death of spontaneity can be a big deal for people like us. I recommend that you watch a past vlog I made. Go to BrightLineEating.com and click on vlogs. Search for the word “hourglass” and you’ll find a vlog that talks about how recovery can be in the shape of an hourglass.

The Hourglass Shape of Food Addiction Recovery

Think about the shape: wide at the top, then narrow, and then wide again. That wide top narrowing in feels like your Bright journey at first, when you suddenly have less freedom over food, and in your life in general, and it feels constrictive and narrow. 

But that feeling doesn’t last. As you get used to planning your food and sticking with it, automaticity goes up, just like the hourglass widening out again. Automaticity takes all these habits and tools and planning and puts them in the background. 

Think about all the things you do when you get in the shower, for example, without thinking about it, because of automaticity. The same thing happens with your food. What felt like discipline and lack of spontaneity at first becomes automatic. 

I didn’t go out to eat with my family in the first 90 days of my recovery. During that time, it was important for me to be home and eat my meals there, as I planned. But once automaticity kicked in, I was able to eat out and enjoy myself. I paid my dues at the beginning, as the hourglass got narrower. When it opened out, it got easier.

My freewheeling, unstructured way has led me astray in the past. I would weigh and measure my food, and avoid flour and sugar, but I abandoned all the rules and regulations, and soon was eating addictively again. 

Myers-Briggs and Food Addiction

My conclusion is that while I am a strong P, there’s a side of me that’s a closet J, because what I long for is a life that works. And my food addiction is strong enough that life doesn’t work for me unless I adhere to all the structures of the program. Now the sweet spot is when I stick with my tools and habits, the way Bright Line teaches me to, and I get my spontaneity and creativity in other ways. In fact, people who are incredibly creative and also productive use structure as the tool to unlock their creativity. Super productive writers like Stephen King, for example, typically keep very strict writing hours each day; what happens while they sit at their desk to write is where the magic happens. The structure enables the spontaneity.

So, yes, I do think that some personality styles resist living Bright more than others. I’m one of them. If you’re high on the Susceptibility Scale, you may need the structure regardless. I certainly do. My life doesn’t work if I’m not Bright and structured. And I like having a life that works. Automaticity makes that happen.

In Bright Line Eating, we help you build habits and lock them in, in morning and evening habit stacks. Yes, you may suffer at the beginning, but once you pay your dues, the gift you give your future self is a lifetime of wellbeing and health.

It doesn’t feel like structure if it’s automated and you’re not thinking about it. For some personality types, BLE is easy, but for those of us who struggle, automaticity is the answer.