- Self-compassion is a motivator for change and Food Fix is full of reminders about self-compassion. Studies show that athletic performance, business productivity, weight loss and personal growth intentions are helped more with caring self-talk than with judgments. At the end of every chapter, Food Fix offers antidotes to self-criticism by inviting readers into a deep connection with their innate abilities to move forward with their resolutions with great kindness. Each chapter gives practice in strengthening what is already in us.
- Fruits and vegetables increase our well-being on all levels. Food Fix has practical exercises in every chapter to help readers increase these vital foods in everyday life. As their intake increases, so does our feeling better. All current nutritional research agrees that a diet loaded with fruits and vegetables leads to great health and happiness. Popular diet books disagree on whether or not meat is good or dairy is bad, but all tout the benefits of a wide range of colorful produce to fill us up, and to give our bodies the antioxidants and phytonutrients we need.
- As Socrates said, “Know Thyself.” To heal old repetitive habits, the first step is awareness. Only with self-knowledge can we integrate, change or heal what we want to transform. Each chapter of Food Fix offers inquiry questions to help readers get really clear about their histories, patterns and preferences.
- You will see that you are not alone. What I call food frenzy is epidemic in this culture. I wrote memoir pieces for every chapter of Food Fix to help you know that there are others who suffer with what is rampant in this society. Just like you, millions struggle with issues of food, body and weight. Since studies in neuroscience prove that we are wired as social animals, loneliness itself can lead to more suffering. Reading Food Fix will lessen your sense of isolation.
- Your struggles are not your fault. Food Fix will help you see that we are all up against the billions of dollars spent by the meat, dairy, and sugar lobbies to get us to eat more and more of the addictive substances of fat, salt and sugar. Food Fix is meant as a guide to help you see clearly the “pushers” from agribusiness and empower you to make your own individual healthy choices.
- Food Fix gives on-going modern-day motivation. New Year’s Resolutions tend to run out of steam after a few days or weeks. Pick up Food Fix any day of the year, open to any page and read whatever you find for on-going support. See how modern-day real people navigate through the question of “how do we best live in a human body?”
- Food Fix offers daily inspiration from the ancients. On most pages, readers will find quotes from wise and compassionate ancient sources; mystics, poets, writers, spiritual traditions and leaders. Some seem to have nothing to do with food. Yet how we do one thing is often how we do all things. Advice about life from centuries ago can help inform how we think and feel about our bodies and lives today.
- Food Fix asks us to increase our time and attention to our resolutions, gradually and with ease. Since the energy and focus for long-term change is difficult to sustain, a New Year’s Resolution can be like a flash in the pan. The intention underlying Food Fix is to help readers extend their self-commitments over time, to maintain long-term recovery from food frenzy, to return to that place of peace over and over again when and if we lose it. Every chapter offers practice.
- Studies show that journaling, writing, jotting down feelings can help us heal. Each chapter of Food Fix offers invitations to record experiences as you journey through change. Human beings tend not to remember what we go through. It is our nature to forget. When we document how we feel, we have a way to look back every now and then. Food Fix gives you that opportunity.
- You will journey from the emptiness of the not-real (as pictured by the junk on the cover) to the fullness and vitality of the real (as shown by the apples on the back). Resolutions can not be made once and for all. They need to be made moment-to-moment. Food Fix gives you the opportunity to flip pages over and over, all year long, thereby increasing your chance of success.
