Thinking of food as good or bad is an All or Nothing mindset.

This way of thinking keeps you on the diet rollercoaster. Here’s how  – We decide to lose weight or get control of diabetes and we say to ourselves:  “I have to eat better. I’ll start a healthy diet tomorrow.  I will get rid of all the bad foods and just eat what’s good for me.”

We think of our eating as right or wrong. When we are following the rules we are good. But if we stop the diet we have failed and we feel like a bad person.

If we are always trying to follow someone else’s diet or food rules, we never really get in touch with our hunger or our reasons for eating. We don’t discover the foods we actually enjoy.

We also miss the best solutions that may be right in front of us because we are so stuck in our beliefs and self-doubt that we never discover them.

Here is an example . . . 

You regularly drink soda several cans or bottles daily. You decide you need to change that habit to lose weight or control blood sugars. What are your options? Switch to diet or water?  You don’t like the taste of water. You are getting headaches due to caffeine withdrawal.

But are there other options to help you transition?  Switching more gradually? Naturally flavor your own water with fruit or juice?  Certain diet drinks that can help you transition?

Improving our nutrition status has incredible power to help heal our bodies but in our world of quick fix diets and medications, it is extremely undervalued. But what I have learned from my own habits and helping others over the years is that before you can make the simple power of nutrition help you get healthier, you need a more holistic approach.

This healing approach includes 3 things:

1. Mindset – a new mindset of respecting yourself and your body. Eventually that will lead you to choose the disease fighting foods your body needs.
2. Motivation – find inspiration within you that brings a life purpose
3. Meal Plan  that YOU choose. This includes having what you WANT, not just what you SHOULD eat.

This approach is not a diet but a journey that really never ends. We have to keep reinforcing this positive approach because it goes against all society norms of dieting. This approach is not a set of rules someone else tells you; it is about discovering the connection between your food choices and eating habits – and your life purpose. It becomes more about eating to live instead of living to eat.

Sign up for my free guide on dealing with cravings to get more help with creating your healing mindset and stop the all or nothing thinking.