My problem is I like food too much

"My problem is I like food too much." This one belief may be the single most irrational and untrue belief underlying the diet life.

It's just not true. The opposite, in fact, is true. You don't love food enough. You don't love it enough to:

1. Eat only the intensely delicious form of it
2. Time your eating so the taste of your food is magnified
3. Build rituals around setting the table and arranging the food
4. Give it your full attention
5. Savor every bite
6. Honor your likes and dislikes
7. Build it into culture, rituals and romance
8. Allow eating to be a sensuous experience

Folks who don't love food enough disrespect it, and are mean to it. They:

1. Eat any old place, such as standing at the refrigerator
2. Eat when they're full and can't appreciate the taste
3. Force it to act as their therapist
4. Wring all the delicious fats out of it, then serve
5. Chow down on appetite-killing snacks right before going out to eat
6. Eat it when it's burnt, underdone, or otherwise should have been thrown away

Perhaps it's time to consider that some of your beliefs, part and parcel of the dieting life, are exact opposites of the truth. This certainly is the case when it comes to loving food. And that means more unraveling. Ask yourself today "What was it again that I was feeling guilty about?"

Then shed your guilt over loving food. Loving food is part of the answer, not part of the problem.