How to Change Your Mind about Diets … and Everything Else

Two Belief System Shifts You MUST Make to Lose Weight

 My sister has a tremor.  She insists that it’s because Mom had one.  Now my Mom was diagnosed early in her life with Hypothyroidism … way before the concept of autoimmune disease was even considered.  Actually, way before autoimmune disease was even discovered.  And took massive doses of the strongest thyroid medication around for years … way before they discovered new ways to treat it.  My theory … the tremors came from all that toxic medication.

My sister’s tremors … my theory here is that hers is from massive doses of chemotherapy and radiation (and it just dawned on me … that’s not unlike the chemical pollution my Mom experienced).  Being an expert in cancer alternative therapies (I was even invited to write several chapters about supplements in cancer textbooks), I’ve seen it many times in my patients.  But still my sister clings to the belief that it’s because of Mom.

It’s Because of Belief Systems

I’ve always been fascinated by the idea that we can influence our physical bodies by changing our belief systems.  In the cancer community, I’ve seen spontaneous healings when people let go of limiting beliefs and toxic people in their lives and choose instead to follow their own heart and sensibilities.

I’ve been intrigued for years with the book, “Health, Youth, and Beauty through Color Breathing”, by Linda Clark, for years. It’s out of print, but a new copy in German is listed on Amazon for $4,115.65 (FYI).  One five-star reviewer said, “If you believe that everything is energy, and that color vibrates energy, you’ll love this book.”  That’s me … I’m a sound healer, use Tibetan singing bowls to vibrate energy, and know that color (you can see them on any chakra chart) vibration also corresponds to the chakras … the energy centers of the body.

If all this sounds too woo-woo to you, how did the subject of the book change her health and look 30 into her 60s?  Or how did a cancer patient of mine who had a death-sentence diagnosis suddenly go into remission when she told her toxic family to go “F” themselves? Easy … they changed their beliefs.

Even healthcare practitioners who are multi-degreed clinical people are talking these days about “parasitic thoughts” … negative emotional environments that attract unwellness.  And research has even shown that emotional states like shame can promote bodily inflammation, which can further lead to whole host of autoimmune, digestive, mood, body-pain and other disorders that I treat every day.

Changing Beliefs Can Change Your Life

Culturally we believe in diets.  Which is why we do them in the first place.  They’re embedded into the cultural iconography that we grow up with.  One study showed that from 34% to 65% of girls aged 5 years had ideas about dieting. Girls learn their behaviors from their mothers, so this statistic is not surprising in light of the fact that over 90% of the mothers in the same study reported dieting behaviors, some of them “health-compromising”.

So … if we learn these beliefs from an early age … how to we counteract them?  I’ve seen unexplained miracles in the cancer community.  And people transforming their health by doing alternative treatments.  But I think that the key lies in changing your belief system … and sometimes it happens during … and even after … your other transformations occur, such as an improvement in your health or body size.  But ultimately the key is …

It’s All About Choice!

In the movie, The Devil Wears Prada, the main character keeps saying “I didn’t have a choice”.  As a result, her whole life falls apart.  When she finally breaks free, by throwing the cell-phone tether to her toxic boss into a Paris fountain, she redeems herself.  The message is a bit heavy-handed, but right-on.  It IS all about choice.

So, even though we’re all but brainwashed … by our parents, the media, experts … you name it … about the fact that food is a diet (it ISN’T!), what’s a good diet, how to diet, yadda yadda, the ultimate choice lies with you.  Even if you’re working with a dietitian or other healthcare professional who specializes in diets, they’re not going to be there at 2am to pry the cookie dough out of your hands.  Or point to the lite salad on the menu when everyone else is ordering drippy burgers and chili-cheese fries. YOU have to make those moment-to-moment food choices all by yourself.

We tend to blame the food (“it was there, so I had to eat it”), others (“he made me eat it”), even divine forces (“the devil made me eat it”) for our choices.  Time to stop that!  The first step in realizing that you have a choice, therefore, is to take 100% responsibility for your actions.

 I worked for years in addiction facilities and helped thousands of people understand that they weren’t responsible for their current circumstances (how CAN you be with diets as you’ve been indoctrinated to their various cult beliefs since you were born), but they were 100% responsible for their recovery from them.  The same goes with changing any belief system.

If you really want to change your beliefs, you have to be willing to make other choices.  And any choice entails costs and consequences.  For example, you announce that you’re going to eat differently from now on, and your wife keeps bringing tempting pastries into the house.  She may be unconscious about the fact that she’s sabotaging you, but you run the risk of not only being tempted yourself but alienating your wife.  And, as a result, triggering more sabotaging behavior from friends, other family members, and yourself.

So then you have to step up … and have a family meeting to REALLY name the pink-suede sabotage in the room.  You have to have courage … yes, but courageous behavior becomes easier when we all realize that any change in belief has costs and consequences.  And understand that you can control you own actions but not those of others … they’re not YOUR responsibility.

These little wins build confidence … confidence that you CAN change beliefs.  You can change ANYTHING … even sagging skin and death-sentence diagnoses.  But how to do that is another discussion for another day …

Leave Your Comments About How to Change Your Mind about Diets … and Everything Else Below

What are your current beliefs about diets?  And what do you think you need to do to change them?