“Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es.”

[Translation: Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.]

Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, “Physiologie du Gout, ou Meditations de Gastronomie Transcendante,” 1826

The idea that to be fit and healthy you need to eat good food has been around a while. But an even older concept is the idea that we are what we think.

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.”

Buddha (c. 563 BCE to 483 BCE)

What if both are true? In yesterday’s blog I shared how our thoughts are the foundation of every part of our lives. What if the food we eat—and what we think about it—impacts not only our body, but our state of mind?

For many people there’s a vicious cycle with thoughts and food. You have a stressful day or feel badly about yourself and you reach for the chocolate chip cookies to find some comfort. But then you feel guilty about eating the cookies, which adds to your stress and self-criticism, and the negative pattern repeats.

There are a number of things that have to happen to break that unpleasant and unhealthy spiral. You have to figure out how you can comfort yourself—or fulfill your emotional need—in more healthy ways. You have to decide who it is that you truly want to be and the actions you want to take to move you towards becoming that person. And you have to break out of the victim mode and become empowered to handle any situation in your life.

Really, it boils down to thinking about your life differently, and then aligning your actions with your new thoughts to move you towards creating the life of your dreams.

What new thought can you think today?

Together we can do it!