Getting Better Answers

Actually, it makes more sense to ask that question in this setting. 

We think about our looks when we get dressed and not when we eat. Got to switch that around.

Food choices, not clothes choices, are the key to looking and feeling better.

Does "Natural" mean "Safe?"

Health food stores and alternative medicine also teach that "Natural" means "Safe."

Nope.

Whatever it takes, but within reason

Sleep aids do have side effects, but sleeplessness causes direct harm to our body, mind, emotions as well as impacting the work we do. I don't think sleep aids should be written off because of their side effects, but they should be monitored to insure that the medicine doesn't cause more damage than the malady it is designed to solve.

The 5 stages...

Bargaining worked for me for a while. When I had to get up early to go to Grad school, I used to promise myself a special treat if I got up some of those difficult mornings:  a stop at Winchell's Donuts for coffee and and a large, hot, apple fritter.

This worked pretty good, until my wife found the receipts.

Diet Lies We Tell Ourselves

One benefit of being married is that when you vocalize your diet rationalizations to your spouse, at least one of you hears how stupid it sounds.

PS. Pop-Tarts don't count as a serving of fruit either.

Self-loathing Not So Helpful...

Plenty of people hate themselves when they fail big time. It wouldn't be so bad if all that self-loathing could rebuild a better you in place of the one you have to deal with now. But it doesn't.

Self-loathing only marks the building that needs to be demolished. Tearing down the old you and rebuilding a better one in its place requires more than just you and your emotions. It requires a lot of hard work and the help of someone outside yourself to lift you up to get the job done. 

So feel the feelings, but find the help you need and do the hard work. All the pity parties in the world won't do a thing for you, except make you worse off than before.

How Following Your Feelings Works in Real Life

Disney movies and other media often carry a message that tells us to look inward, follow our hearts and be in touch with our feelings. 

But when I do this, I look inward and find I am hungry, then I follow my feelings to the fridge and clog up my heart arteries with what I find there.

My health and waistline are better served by looking outward at empirical evidence, such as what the tape measure, scale, mirror and current belt notch and then deal with what those outside indicators tell me about myself.