Revisiting "Why Healthy Within?"

Shortly after I began this blog, I wrote a long, rambling post entitled "Why Healthy Within?" I don't know whether that post said what I intended to say about my purpose for this blog. An insight this morning prompted me to again answer "Why Healthy Within?"

I chose this title for my physical recovery journal, because after many years of struggling to change external habits, I learned that what I BELIEVE or my attitude about my body, food and eating habits determine whether or not I will successfully replace unhealthy habits (especially disordered eating habits) with healthier habits. So I wrote and will continue to write about the process of replacing counterproductive beliefs with more nurturing, gracious, healthier beliefs or becoming healthier 'within' my mind and belief system.

Some of my counterproductive beliefs came from childhood experiences, such as being forced to sit at the table until I cleaned my plate. So I want to remember 'that was then and this is now' as I consider what is true for my body, my relationships and my life today.

Other counterproductive beliefs resulted from failed attempts to change habits. For example, when I tried to resist bingeing, I sometimes started bingeing after snacking on sweet foods which I seldom let myself eat. Then I developed the counterproductive belief that certain FOODS made me binge, rather than my beliefs about those foods or even my beliefs about 'snacking'. I replaced those counterproductive beliefs with realizations that (1) Nothing MAKES me binge ... I CHOOSE to binge according to what I belief in the moment; (2) Although certain foods can make me hungrier, rather than make me feel satisfied for long periods, I can use that observation to combine 'make me hungrier' foods with foods that stay with me longer to avoid the experience of getting hungry soon after eating certain foods; (3) I can moderately, consciously eat any food unless I have diagnosed food allergies or experiences with intolerance symptoms to that food. When I examine counterproductive beliefs and consider how and when I developed those beliefs, I can see that circumstances change and long-held beliefs may no longer be true.

OK, enough examples. I don't want to write another long, rambling post. My point is my body can become healthier, when I replace unhealthy, counterproductive beliefs with more nurturing, healthier beliefs. I intend to use this journal to describe that process.