It all starts off with that glance in mirror. What we see staring back at us is often an image we don’t like or at least we don’t rave about. The instant reaction too often can be – ‘I need to go on a diet’.

You don’t like package, so you need to alter it in some way. But truth is that often it is ‘packaging’ that is distorting picture – distorting our image of ourselves and not you (the package).

Consider this: Everything about you is perfect as it is, and has a purpose. Your shape, your height, your size, your hair colour, your eye colour, shape of your features, and size of your knees - they all combine to create you. Having a negative personal image can lead to weight gain or weight loss. Most eating disorders occur as a result of a negative body image.

Your packaging – or your style and your way of dress – has a huge impact on your personal image – how you see yourself, how much you like way you look and …how large or small you look.

Just imagine how you feel when you are presented with a gift that is packaged with fanciest ribbon, shiniest paper and with care and attention. In fact, it almost doesn’t matter what is inside package! It is same for you, your packaging has an impact on yourself – how you feel about yourself, your confidence levels, and how others treat you.

So before you go on a diet, please consider following:

Are you wearing clothes that don’t fit you? Squeezing into an item of clothing is just plain unflattering and although you think you can stay in denial of your true size, every other person that passes you in street will notice that you are squeezing in. You will only draw more attention which can make you feel more sensitive about how you look. More importantly wearing clothes that are bigger than you or too small for you will make you look bigger.

Dear Candice,

A common dietary misconception is that if you crave a food or drink, then it must contain a vitamin, mineral or other substance that your body is lacking. The underlying principle is rather New Age myth that our bodies possesses an innate wisdom,and if we can get in touch with and listen to our bodies, they will guide us to health, freedom, and happiness. I'm here to tell you there may be some truth to that, but it's not that simple!

Idea #1: Your body knows what it needs and that's why you're craving it. The human body does sometimes tell us what we need to eat or drink, especially when it is relatively healthy. We get thirsty for water when dehydrated, crave protein when our activity level increases, or carbohydrates when we are more mentally active. In an extreme situation, pica (eating non-nutritive substances like dirt or paper) may be a desperate attempt to fill a mineral deficiency.

Idea #2: When your body is out of whack (yes, that's technical way to describe it), you may crave thing that makes it worse. Maybe you're craving that ice cream because your body needs calcium, or maybe it fits with your other cravings for candy and soda into a pattern of sugar addiction. Oops, I said addiction didn't I? Sorry, it won't happen again.

But here I must go into Chinese Medicine for a minute to explain basic point of my article, which is that sometimes your body knows what it needs, and other times it is stuck in a vicious cycle wherein it craves exactly what is worst for it.

Chinese Medicine and Food Cravings Chinese dietary therapy is as complex as chinese herbal medicine, which is extremely complex (go ask some Chinese Medicine students and they'll tell you all about it). Instead of going into that level of detail, we can talk more broadly from a Five Element perspective and still get some good insights.

Five Phase Relationships Chinese medicine talks about a system of 5 phase/element relationships. Each phase has an associated season, emotion, taste, organ, etc.

The sweet taste is associated with Eearth phase. Let's talk about Earth type person and how their food cravings work.