On This Bright Day by Susan Peirce Thompson Summary

On This Bright Day is a daily inspirational guide designed to help individuals break free from yo-yo dieting and food addiction. It provides 365 reflections, affirmations, and actionable strategies rooted in neuroscience and behavioral psychology to foster sustainable weight loss, emotional resilience, and lasting peace with food. The book complements Thompson’s Bright Line Eating program, offering daily support for maintaining Bright Line habits.

This book is ideal for individuals struggling with food addiction, emotional eating, or repeated dieting failures. It’s particularly valuable for fans of Susan Peirce Thompson’s Bright Line Eating seeking daily motivation, as well as anyone interested in neuroscience-based approaches to habit formation and mindset shifts around nourishment.

Yes, for those seeking structured daily guidance to overcome food addiction. The book distills Thompson’s expertise in brain science and addiction recovery into bite-sized, practical insights. Readers praise its combination of scientific rigor and compassionate tone, calling it “a roadmap to better eating habits and a better life” (endorsed by Atomic Habits author James Clear).

On This Bright Day serves as a daily companion to Thompson’s flagship Bright Line Eating program. While Bright Line Eating establishes four strict dietary “bright lines” (no sugar, no flour, regulated meals, precise portions), this book provides year-round emotional support and mindset tools to sustain those rules, addressing cravings, relapse prevention, and self-perception.

• Daily commitment: Small, consistent actions to rewire the brain’s response to food.
• Self-compassion: Replacing guilt with curiosity during setbacks.
• Addiction acknowledgment: Framing overeating as a biochemical brain response rather than a moral failing.
• Structured flexibility: Balancing Bright Line dietary rules with adaptive emotional strategies.

• “Your brain isn’t broken—it’s just wired for a world without modern food.”
• “Peace with food begins when you stop negotiating with addiction.”
• “Every bright day is a chance to rebuild trust in yourself.”

These lines emphasize empowerment, neuroplasticity, and the importance of rigid dietary boundaries for recovery.

Some readers find the daily format repetitive, while others note the book’s heavy reliance on Thompson’s Bright Line Eating system, making it less effective as a standalone resource. Critics also highlight that its approach—eliminating sugar/flour entirely—may feel too restrictive for those not fully committed to addiction recovery.

Unlike generic self-help journals, this book specifically targets food addiction through neuroscience-based reflections. It bridges the gap between habit-tracking apps (like Noom) and spiritual guides (like The Power of Now), offering both pragmatic dietary rules and emotional resilience tools.

Susan Peirce Thompson holds a Ph.D. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the University of Rochester. A former food addict, she combines personal recovery experience with academic expertise to address the neuropsychology of eating. She’s also the CEO of Bright Line Eating Solutions and a New York Times bestselling author.

The book dismantles the shame cycle around overeating by explaining how modern hyper-palatable foods hijack brain chemistry. Daily entries provide cognitive reframing exercises, relapse prevention tactics, and affirmations to strengthen prefrontal cortex control over impulsive eating behaviors.

While designed as a companion, the book’s daily mindset practices can support any structured eating plan. However, its full impact is amplified when paired with Bright Line Eating’s explicit dietary rules, which target addictive brain responses to sugar and refined carbs.

It merges daily inspirational content with peer-reviewed neuroscience, avoiding fad-diet rhetoric. Unlike calorie-counting guides, it addresses the root causes of food addiction, offering a systematic approach to rebuilding trust in one’s ability to sustain change.