Happy is the Driver and the Side Effect

I stole that line from a post I made on the HappyEaters.com forum the other day. I think the topic under consideration was something about how one chooses to eat what they choose to eat. I love the Happy Eaters forum because there are lots of different voices all ending up in the same place - being happy around food, which is a place that is not as easy to get to as it might be for many - including yours truly for many years.

If you have angst around food, you will stress about what you eat, how you eat, why you don't stop when you want, etc...and then you are not happy...vicious cycle. If you can get happy around food, then it doesn't really matter how, why , what - it's all good - and you are still happy. Another comment I made was - "my body is a genius, it's about time I started listening to it." When we listen to what our bodies' really want, our food choices are smarter, our bodies feel better, it's easy to be happy about all that. When we are happy about that, it's easy to listen to our bodies...you get my drift, right?

So how do I get on this merry-go-round? Well, since you can't change your body instamatically, change what you can - your attitude - that's all happy is, an attitude. Decide to be happy where you are - smile more - did you know your face can help to change your brain? Smile more, act happy more, start listening to your body more...baby steps. Congratulate yourself on your successes and you will see. It will snowball! When happy is the driver, happy is the side effect. When you are happy, everything else falls into place. If something comes along taking a shot at your happy, then focus on something that lines up with your happy. It's your happy! Defend it! You can do that. You can think about anything at all that makes you happy, it doesn't have to be around food. If you have a hard time getting there, then issue an order to your subconscious - I want to feel happy around food. Set it and forget it, and focus on whatever makes you happy. Do that for 30 days and tell me things aren't better - I won't believe you!

I'm smiling - are you?