Good Intentions Weren’t Enough

Same person. Different mindset.
I stopped fearing failure—and started planning for it.
Plan A. Plan B. Always a path forward.

“I didn’t need more good intentions. I needed to act on what mattered.”

This line came out of my weekend writing—about my long-time failure to act in my own best interests. To face my overeating. My binge eating.

Most weekends now, I use some time to write—to shape my personal story in a form that feels honest, layered, and real. Closing the gap between knowing and doing challenged me for years. If I’m honest, it still does sometimes.

For so long, I set expectations I couldn’t meet. I believed I had to do everything right for the struggle to end. But aiming that high only kept me stuck. I carried the weight of the food and the good intentions that never turned into action.

What changed everything was this: I built a clear success plan and a clear failure plan.
Plan A and Plan B.

It’s a strategy I used with children for years—offering two good choices to help them stay steady. In many ways, that’s what I had to learn to do for myself.

Because I felt powerless in a world of hyper-palatable foods designed to keep me hooked.

Plan A is ideal.
Plan B is livable.
Plan B isn’t the best of me—but it’s so much better than my worst.

Even last weekend, in the 100+ degree heat and humidity that used to send me into the wrong foods, I stayed grounded.
One day was a clear Plan A.
The next was a clear Plan B.
But I stayed on the path.

That’s what these plans give me:
Structure. Flexibility.
Guardrails that keep me out of the garbage fires I used to walk through daily.

Action over inaction keeps me moving.

Cheers to forward motion.
Even if it’s Plan B.

My Transform Shadows Framework

This is the framework that I use to explain my ongoing mental processes to build successes and handle failures in my health journey and my broader life.

Name the shadows.
Honesty is the starting point. For me, it began with naming binge eating.

Face the shadows.
Truth alone isn’t enough—I had to act on what I knew, not just carry it.

Understand the shadows.
Misinformation runs deep. Understanding what’s true for me helped me move forward.

Fight the shadows.
Instincts and pressures pulled hard. Fighting meant doing something different—on purpose.

Reframe the shadows.
Change took root when I saw food, hunger, and myself in new ways.

Transcend the shadows.
Some days feel effortless. Living well becomes its own rhythm—and something I want to return to.