If you’re going to have new behaviors and habits in 2014, you’ll need healthy beliefs, not just about eating and your body, but about life and how you interact with the world. So that you don’t need to bother coming up with them yourself, here are 30 beliefs to hold you in good stead. Feel free to add to them. From now on, you believe:

 

1. The world is full of abundance regarding happiness, pleasure, and food.
2. My body deserves to be treated well 24/7/365.
3. My primary duty is to take care of myself not others.
4. There are many activities in the world which bring me pleasure, not just eating.
5. I can say “yes” and “no” in the right balance with food and in other areas of my life.
6. If I lack skills, it doesn’t mean I’m defective, only that I need more practice.
7. Having a dysfunctional childhood doesn’t mean I can’t have a functional adulthood.
8. I deserve all the best the world has to offer.
9. I don’t have to please other people or prove things to them.
10. Taking care of myself and not others means I’m mentally healthy, not selfish.
11. My body may not be perfect, but it’s functional and can become more so.
12. Nothing tastes or feels better than pride when I do what’s best for me.
13. Fat-talk about my body or someone else’s is neither healthy nor kind.
14. My goal is to be healthy and fit, and if I lose weight along the way, that’s a plus.
15. I trust my ability to make beneficial choices and decisions for myself.
16. What I think of me is more important than what other people think of me.
17. People don’t have to love, approve of, or understand me for me to have a fine life.
18. Being hard on myself or trying to be perfect doesn’t work to make for a satisfying life.
19. Only I know what my authentic needs are.
20. Just because I deserve something doesn’t mean I must have it if it isn’t good for me.
21. Food is for nourishment and the rest of life is for everything else.
22. If I practice, I will reach my realistic goals.
23. It’s just as easy to focus on my achievements as my failures or mistakes.
24. I don’t have to tolerate neglect, abuse, or mistreatment from anyone, even family.
25. I don’t want to be perfect, because that’s an impossibility.
26. I have the abilities to make myself healthy, whole, and happy.
27. I will become a “normal” eater by practice, patience, curiosity and self-compassion.
28. Anything I feel is okay because feelings are simply bits of information.
29. It’s okay if I hurt someone’s feelings if that happens when I’m taking care of my own.
30. I love myself no matter what.