We are using the food as a doorway to understanding the rest of our lives.

It's important to focus on the good in life and appreciate it.

To discover what you really believe, pay attention to the way you act -- and to what you do when things don't go the way you think they should. Pay attention to what you value. Pay attention to how and on what you spend your time. Your money. And pay attention to the way you eat.

And if you worry that not finishing the food on your plate is a slap in the face of all the hungry people everywhere, you are not living in reality. The truth is that you either throw the food out or you throw it in, but either way it turns to waste. World hunger will not be solved by finishing the garlic mashed potatoes on your plate.

Real change happens bit by bit. It takes great effort to become effortless at anything. There are no quick fixes.

Ask: is what I'm doing and thinking right now bringing me closer to myself or farther away? Opening my heart or closing it? You have a choice.

For every diet there's an equal and opposite binge (bulimia which is binging and purging is another way of depriving yourself).