Changing our perceptions of "food."

In it's simplest form, food is nothing more than a fuel that the body needs to keep us alive.
However, most of us realize that food is used for many other reason than that. Food is used to celebrate special events, punish or reward bad and good behaviour, and also to help us deal with emotions that we are trying to suppress. We give food so much power that it's no wonder that many people continue with their cycle of unhealthy eating.
Our belief systems are developed early in our lives and many factors have influenced this. Most of them come from the way we were brought up. Speaking for myself, I remember that all the family functions I attended had food as it's center piece. Can you remember a time in your life when a special occasion wasn't accompanied by food? For most of us we can have the occasional unhealthy food and it has little impact on us over the long term.
However, if these patterns are repeated over and over again it is easy to see how an unhealthy lifestyle can be created.
What I teach to my clients is how to make small changes to their current lifestyles. I may only start with one meal and work with them on how to change that before I start with something else.
Once my clients begin to eat healthy at least 80% of the time, they notice that they cannot eat the same types of food they ate in the past without it affecting their digestion, energy levels and sleeping.
Our bodies are amazing machines but we need to provide it with healthy foods the majority of the time in order for it to work more effectively.