There are many reasons that people struggle with their weight and food for their entire lives – their thoughts are right up there among the biggest.

I have seen this scenario play out a million times in people everywhere — hell, I lived it.

Our thoughts are creating our results. 

You look in the mirror in disgust. That prompts the thought, ‘I’m disgusting’. That thought creates a corresponding feeling of inadequacy (or even hatred) for not having “willpower” or for being so “lazy” or for not being able to “stay on track”.What kind of choices do we make for things we hate? NOT good ones. NOT choices that are in our best interest. So, those feelings create negative actions towards the objection (in this case the thing we see: our body). We slam it with insults, berate it, punish it with either more restriction or go in the other direction and binge on stuff that makes us feel like crap – and we give up on it (and ourselves) until the next time we get motivated to try again when the same old cycle just keeps repeating itself. 

Or we see the scale go up a pound and think, “I’m such a screw up, I’ll never lose this weight.” That thought makes us feel terrible and makes us either try to restrict further (which almost always ends in overeating) or giving up and eating everything the rest of the day.

The result we’re getting on the outside with our bodies is merely the result of the actions we’re taking because of the thoughts and feeling going on IN us. Our body didn’t decide to starve itself because the scale went up 2lbs and our body didn’t decide to punish itself by chasing a half gallon of ice cream with a bag of potato chips and two glasses of wine because we had a crappy day and are feeling bad about ourselves.

And our hearts are so tired from fighting the same war it’s just looking for ways to numb itself.

That’s why we keep getting the same result. There’s not a single diet on the entire planet that can fix any of that. They just make it worse.

Notice the contrast in this second graphic below…

If we work on switching the thoughts, we can switch how everything turns out.

Positive thoughts create positive feelings. And how do you treat something you have positive feelings about? You treat it with kindness, and care.

Actions based on kindness and care create, you guessed it… some pretty awesomely positive results. ?

Ending the war with food and our bodies, actually trusting ourselves, being mindful and present in our bodies, listening to them and honoring their needs changes literally everything.

And it starts with taming your inner critic, changing your brain and your thoughts—not another diet.

Your brain controls everything so change that and absolutely everything changes.

Can you relate to any of the thoughts I discussed and want help changing them? Check out the two new mindfulness based cognitive behavioral courses available and see which one fits you best. 

Roni Davis for Stone’s Pharmasave, Baddeck, NS