News you won't see in controlled mainstream media.

After spending most of my life in depression, self-hate, and eating like there is no tomorrow, I can relate. I think the only reason I didn't gain weight until my mercury toxicity went into stage 3 is because I was very athletic and active.

Among the most important things I've learned in life (and not without difficulty) is:

1. Love Yourself

This is so frowned upon in American culture (and many others), but this is so unfortunate.

So many suffer growing up with the idea that they are not allowed to care about themselves or they will be considered self-centered. I think the healthy way is to first learn to love yourself and then learn to put others before yourself. There is a big difference.

Are you worth all this love?

If you're alive on this planet, yes you are and it's never too late to start!

Those who love themselves—but not in a vain way—are those few who stick with you when times get tough. They make true friends of the type you meet only once or thrice in a lifetime. If you want this kind of friend, you need to be this kind of friend, and you can be.

2. Fight Your Heart

I am so done hearing over and over—in the media, on television, in movies—the phrase, "Follow your heart." Assuming this means "follow your emotions", few things can be more harmful to a person.

Our hearts are not logical. They are not steady and they do not discern. Our hearts tell us to do things that can be harmful and impulsive and not beneficial for anybody.

Rather, we should follow our minds. We should learn what is, for example, good to eat; Design a diet and follow it. It's like working and getting paid after. If you do the work of designing a good diet and then discipline yourself by following it, you will be paid with the great reward of feeling better, losing weight, feeling better about ourselves and it gives us more confidence to be even more disciplined in the future. It's a positive feedback cycle that drives us toward excellence if we let it.

We need also to change our views of discipline and following a plan. Instead of seeing it as "all the things we can't do", we need to see it as the freedom it gives us to be fit, feel physically strong and to feel confident in ourselves.

This type of discipline together with the intellect to make a good plan is what allows us to make commitments. Unfortunately, so many people I know look at commitments as a prison; All the things you can't do. However, a commitment is really a plan with discipline that allows you special privileges.

The commitment to a job gives you the privilege of receiving a paycheck from the firm that employs you. The person next door does not get a paycheck from the firm you work for because they have no commitment to them.

A commitment to your friends gives you the ability to visit them, have dinner with them and otherwise enjoy their company.

The commitment of marriage gives you privilege to your spouse; Access to secrets, love, and other types of intimacy that are otherwise not accessible.

And a commitment to yourself gives you the power to feel better, look better, and have more self confidence than you ever thought possible.

All of this may seem idealistic, but really, life was designed to be idealistic and just as you wish for your children to receive all the gifts life has to offer, so you are entitled to wonderful things so long as you are willing to commit.

Just like knowing yourself is the best education to knowing others, making a commitment to yourself is the best way to learn how to be committed to others.

Sorry, didn't mean to launch into a book here. I just have strong feelings about the power and ability people have to help themselves when they're armed with the truth.

Food chemicals, childhood abuse, self-hate, or whatever the obstacles you face, you're always always always just one day away from a better day.

All the best!