Diet

Revamping your diet may be what you need to get back some control over yourself, reduce stress and feel physically better. Having an attitude of open exploration, without preconditions of what may be good or right for you is essential. All that matters is that the diet you adopt makes you feel healthy.

We recommend that you begin by monitoring how your diet is now. Our e-book Take Charge Of Your Life contains some simple charts you can use to see where you are at. See the side margin for details and a sample. Or sign up for therapy and you will receive a copy for free.

You don't need to stress about it. All you need is a attitude of finding out what works best for me, now. Where we often get screwed up, is making it black and white. Diet is complex. And what works for one person may be completely wrong for another. So there is no set "right way". If the diet (or regime) you are adopting doesn't appreciate that everyone is different, maybe it isn't a flexible enough diet.

Dr Scott Terry, the director of The Ardent Center, personally recommends an Ayurvedic diet because it depends on your Ayurvedic body type, so it is tailored to the individual.

There is no point setting yourself targets that are impossible to achieve. Then it becomes almost an excuse to fail, and you end up not doing anything at all.

All someone else can tell you is what worked for them. You have to find out yourself if it will work for you. Of course there are some general principles to follow that you probably already know:

Reading some books, seeing a nutritionist and getting some basic blood tests, etc. can be helpful. But in the end, it will be up to you, to do it.

The main thing is not to get lost in your own dramas, your own traps that you set in your mind to run away from actually doing what you know you need to do.

You should not think about it being that you are becoming disciplined or adopting an iron will. It is better to feel like you are just choosing to see the world in a new way – the way where you are in control of you.

Or you can look at it like this – if you don't smoke, never smoked, or quit, and then found it disgusting – you are not attracted to cigarette ads. It does not even register with you. You do not even see it, because it has no bearing on your life.

If you are a vegetarian, not because you wanted to become one, but because your partner is, you may you secretly crave meat. So you haven't made any shift in your basic inclinations towards meat.

But if you are a vegetarian, because meat just doesn't work for you, then you are just not inclined towards eating meat. It isn't a matter of whether you like it or not. You have become sensitive to what your particular body needs and you have found that meat did not agree with you. It has become something you just know and accept as part of your makeup.

For example, you may think "I hate brussel sprouts", or "I love peanut butter". But your tastes can change. Do you remember what you liked and disliked as a child? Surely you aren't as picky now.

Sometimes we can trust our cravings and sometimes we can't. For example, some people crave ice-cream. But they know from experience that if they satisfy that craving every time they have it, the result is that they start feeling ill later on.

If you are inclined to be vegetarian, seeing someone else eating meat, does not change your mind, and make you want to eat it. This is not to say that you should, or should not eat meat, or anything else. How would I know? How would anyone else know, but you, or someone simply reflecting back to you, what they see working, or not working, for you?

It's time to take the power back into your hands. But be careful with running away with good intentions. You can get so lost in your new diet plan that you forget to live your life. Balance. That is the word, simply "balance". See what works and try and try again to find some new ways of eating that suit you.

Nothing stays the same. Nothing remains constant. We all have to change and see again and again what works for us.

Just because when we were young, we hated brussel sprouts, and loved peanut butter, doesn't necessarily mean that it will be the same now that we are older. We may find we actually like brussel sprouts especially if they are prepared a different way.

It is a matter of being in tune with what our bodies actually need. You can get an indication of this by how well it digests. What do you want to change, for you?

What should I do next?

Contact us to arrange for face to face therapy in Chicago (city, north, west and southsides) and in the Northern, Southern and Western Suburbs or online therapy in other areas by phoning 1-888-870-1775 or by contacting us.

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