A New Kind of Resolution

Enough with the New Year’s resolutions for dieting already! It’s another year of “New Year, New You!” BS. How many times have you heard that? How many times have you said it yourself? How many times has it actually worked?

It doesn’t work because people rarely look deeper than counting calories or carbs or macronutrients. They rarely look at what created the relationship with food and their body that started them down this path and ended up with diet after diet. They don’t look because they are afraid of what they would actually see. They don’t look because they are afraid to learn that what will actually help them doesn’t come in the form of a pill, surgery or a treadmill. They don’t look because they know it will be much harder.

Our relationship with food and hatred of our body forms early. It stems from pain throughout our lives that has felt so overwhelming, we look for something like food to take it away. It works for a little while. Then, as we age, our body can’t fend off emotional eating the way it could when we were young. It also takes more and more food to stay numb.

It is only when we truly explore the things we have been actively avoiding, that we can be free. We no longer need to run when acknowledging our pain isn’t scary anymore. Food isn’t our only coping skill when we can sit with our emotions and know that they won’t hurt us. So, my challenge to you is that you stop buying in to the empty promises the diet industry keeps selling. Instead, stop running from your pain and start healing it. Make healing your pain your New Year’s resolution this year!

Michelle Lewis

Michelle Lewis

Michelle Lewis has a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Weber State University and a Master's degree in Social Work from the University of Utah. She has been working in the mental health field since 2001.
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