POd food noise naturally RAW
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[00:00:00] Hello, hello and welcome back to the podcast. I'm your host, Elizabeth Dahl, and I'm so glad that you are here with me today. We are going to be talking about how to quiet food noise naturally today. But before we jump into that, I want to let you know of a couple resources I have for you if you are struggling with your relationship with food or emotional eating.
The first is my emotional eating fix toolkit. This is a complete toolkit like it says, to help you not only stop emotional eating in its tracks, but also prevent that urge to eat emotionally and. Get stuck back in that cycle of restrict and binge. Or I'll start fresh tomorrow because I've already screwed up.
If any of those phrases, um, ring true for you, this is a complete toolkit. Just like it says we've got a full PDF we. [00:01:00] Workbook to help you. I have, um, audio downloads, audio meditations. Um, we also have some really cool bonuses including, um, a self-love audio meditation to help support your body as well. So it really is a complete toolkit to help you overcome and prevent, um, emotional eating in your life to support a healthier, more positive relationship with food.
So the link is in the show notes. If you wanna grab that, it's just $27 and it's. Something that I even as a coach turn back to, I go back to and use, um, and, and, and access quite often as well as my clients and students. So that's a really good resource for you. The second one, if you are looking for more in depth support and more, um.
Lifelong support of healing your relationship with not only food, but also your body and how to live in balance with food and in the world. Our food freedom program is opening in. September in the fall. [00:02:00] Okay. And we are going deep in these areas, and it is a coaching program specifically coached by me, um, to help support you in really A to Z um, creating that.
Freedom within yourself. Um, lots of healing involved in all of that. So I'm gonna be sharing more details as it gets a little bit closer. If you want to get on the wait list, you can go to a woman of wellness.com/food Freedom. Um, and I'll let you know more about when it's coming. So thank you so much for letting me share those couple things that I hope will support you even on a deeper level than this podcast.
But let's get into talking about how do we quiet food noise naturally.
Okay. Uh, couple years ago, I think maybe last year, I released a podcast called How to Quiet Food Noise, and it has been my all time most popular downloaded episode. But a lot has changed [00:03:00] in a year or two. And I thought we need a, we need a little bit of a deeper conversation or a part two. Um, so if you want, you can go back, um, and look at, you can listen to the previous episode.
You don't need it for this one, but, um, it does, it can supplement, um, this episode as well. But I thought we need to talk a little bit more about, um, how to quiet food noise naturally, because.
The conversation has shifted a little bit. Um, yes, GLP one medications were kind of big right then too, and they're a little bit bigger now, I'd say a lot bigger now. Um, but they were kind of new in what they could do for like the general population and all of that. And, um, there's also a, a, a big movement for microdosing peptides.
And while I don't know, I, I am. Still, I'm still on my research track with that [00:04:00] one. Um, lots of people are doing it and it's really common, and I am in a fairly neutral place because what I believe is that we all can choose how to support our bodies best, and sometimes we need different pieces. So I'm not here to say, if you're on a GLP one or a peptide, um, this is, this isn't for you.
Or if you're not, this isn't for you, right? This is for all of us because here's the truth. While you may find help, um, and many people are turning to these, some of these external tools such as, you know, GLP ones and all of that because. The, the main benefit that people are, are sharing over and over again is that when they're taking these, it's basically quieting the food noise for them, and so they're able to eat less.
And so we almost feel like, well, that's what I want, right? That's what I need to be able to [00:05:00] eat less. And so. There's a message there that's saying, yeah, this is quieting food noise, and yeah, it is working. Of course it's working. Um, and so we've got, you know, a, a, a gamut of, I guess people, um, maybe yourself, um, on these external tools.
And I still wanted to have a conversation about how we. Um, how our bodies also have built in systems that can be retrained and supported. So whether or not you choose to use some of these outside tools, that's okay. Um, I, I want you to feel supported no matter what, and I also want you to recognize that you have, there's only a very, very, very small percent of the population that actually doesn't have some of these, um, hormone signaling to help them with hunger and fullness.
It is a real thing. Um, but it's [00:06:00] not as big of the population as you may think. Um, but. Every one of us has built-in systems. That's really what I want you to remember is you've got a built-in system that we can support and retrain. Because what happens sometimes is, you know, how do we, how do we rely on ourselves if we choose to go off some of these medications?
Or, um, how do we kind of get back to, um, support relying on our bodies and, and being intuitive because. It still takes effort and energy to support our bodies, even if we're choosing some of these additional supports. I hope that makes sense. I hope that invites you wherever you are to this conversation, because I really believe it's for everyone, and I share this all the time, but you know, as as babies, we were born with an innate gift to know when we're hungry and when we're full.
And what happens over time is that noise creeps in. And we're gonna talk about what that noise is. But the reality is, is some sort of [00:07:00] distraction and noise creeps in that takes you away from, or causes you to forget that gift of that built in system of knowing what your body truly wants and needs within itself.
Because everybody is different. And you know, I, I think, I don't know, I'm gonna share this anyway, I, I think that a lot of the. Internet world is saying this is the way do it, and I'm going a little bit of against the green. Um, and saying, actually, I really believe you have those tools within yourself. My goal is to help you figure that out.
So it's really hard because I can't tell you follow X, Y, Z, right? Or do step one, step two, step three. I can ex I can help you with the steps to help you then reconnect with your body. But everybody's gonna be a little different, not only in body chemistry, but also lifestyle. And that's, [00:08:00] that's perfect. Um.
We, we, we want to, we wanna have, it's so cool that we have unique bodies, so let's talk a little bit about what food noise really is. I am sure you probably have a pretty similar definition, but basically it's constantly thinking about food, obsessing over what to eat, second, guessing every choice, and just kind of like, I like to think of it as just someone that feels like they have the munchies all the time, right?
You're, you're just, you're feeling like you're grabbing food, you're eating more than you want, um, you're thinking about it often. Um, and that, that's what food noise is. Well, where does this come from? One could be years of dieting. Um, so if you have hunger cues that are completely out of sync, um, you may feel this way, right?
If you've, if you've been told only to eat this amount of food at this time, this kind of food, right? Then you have had the, this noise telling you this is what [00:09:00] you're supposed to do. And so you've been, you've basically gotten out of sync with those hunger and fullness cues in your body. Other causes stress, poor sleep, emotional triggers, right?
When we're stressed, when we don't sleep well, when we are struggling with some emotions, which I actually shared in last week's episode. So make sure you go back. It's the gift of emotional eating. Um, that's the title of it, and that could be really helpful because I really dive into emotions and emotional eating.
Um, but. So, yeah, having, having poor sleep, having stress, these can interfere with those signals in your body trying to tell you when you're hungry and you're full and what to do. Right. We, we just get really mixed up signals because of other things that are going on in our bodies that are against, kind of, against what we really want is, is kind of coming into tune with it.
But when we're out of, out of whack, essentially, right, we're stressed, we're not sleeping, then we are. [00:10:00] Our hormones are outta whack. Our signals are out of whack. That also includes some blood sugar, highs and lows, right? So if your blood sugars are off, if you're getting spikes because you're eating just carbohydrates and no other, you know, proteins, fats, um, you might get some highs, you might get some lows.
You may struggle with low blood, blood sugar, and that's again, an out of whack system that is going to give you out of whack signals to your body. You can't rely on those. And that makes sense then that you're feeling like, well, I've got food noise. How do I rely on my body? Well, we have to address these, this food noise.
Um, the other thing is constant exposure to food marketing. Right? I mean, it's insane how I think if you really paid attention, if you sat down today and just like, you know, went through Instagram even and noticed the amount of like, eat this to lose this or, um. This is, this has 25 grams of protein in it, or, um, this is the best [00:11:00] breakfast you'll ever eat.
Or if I wanted to drop three dress sizes, this is what I would eat. I mean, crazy. Right? And also like, you know, the super foods and the good for you foods and the clean foods, and they're not clean foods. And, and we're, we're bombarded. Okay, it's, we're bombarded. So this is a little bit of a, kind of the big picture of where food noise might come from, and you may be aware of that.
Right. I really think the other thing too, you know, you may have just food available at your house and your home. I've kind of noticed this as we've, um, you know, been home for summer and now I'm homeschooling my kids a little. I have noticed like we're just in the kitchen most of the day, and so if I'm not careful and in what I put out or you know, see with my eyes, it's easy to kind of graze.
Um, and so that could just be like an availability thing. Here's what I want you to know. Food noise is not a willpower problem. We often think, okay, well I just need to track harder or eat [00:12:00] less or more restrictions or, or, um, take that away. Don't have it in my house. It's not a willpower problem. It's your body's way of telling you some things.
What's the phrase we just used out of whack or out of balance? Out of whack. Sounds kind of funny, doesn't it? 'cause it seems like it's. Wow. In whack anyway. Um, it's some out of balance, right? Our body just feels, maybe the word is wacky. Either way, don't, don't correct. I guess my grammar, I need to figure out a few things, but, um.
Something, something's out of balance, and that's where we're getting this, this food noise, and it really feels louder than ever because we do have more processed, more that, you know, highly palatable foods, that the truth is they're created to, you know. Stir up, I guess addictions like to, to, to really create that.
Like, oh, I like this, I [00:13:00] want to keep going for it. This is full of sugars and fats and, you know, just like the highly palatable, like, this tastes good. I wanna keep going. We have so much more of that, um, in our society now. Okay. Also, you know, you're probably, like I said, you're seeing it everywhere. Um, it's available more in your house sometimes.
Um, it's available more on your phone in terms of like the content that you're seeing. We're also seeing a lot more food rules. You know, we think, oh, we're not in the diet industry of the, of the eighties and nineties, but we are, it's just in a different form. And we have to acknowledge that because it's still there.
We're still getting, oh, eat your protein, which is good, but we have to be, be wary of like, okay, what are we trying to get out here? You know? Is it because, just solely because we're trying to lose weight, um, you know, we just have to be aware of like, there's [00:14:00] marketing to get you to purchase, which like, that's great.
That's how our world works, right? But it's just awareness that. There's more availability, more access to food and food content. And the other reason that food noise can feel louder than ever is that these new medications that I mentioned, these. Newer to the public, I would say medications and also newly adjusted.
Um, they've been using these medications for a long time, but you know, they're being adjusted to fit a different, um, a different population. It's really kind of changing the conversation around food noise, but it's often leaving women, um, unsure what to do without them. So we don't have a game plan of do I go off of these?
Do I stay on for the rest of my life? I mean, right now the conversation is. Pretty consistently, I'm going to stay on these for the rest of my life. Um, and I'm not a doctor, so I'm not even gonna continue that [00:15:00] conversation other than saying, you know, there may be situations in life where you still need to learn how to support your body, right?
Just because this one area is easy or, um. It's helping you out. It doesn't mean that we get to still disconnect from our body just because that thing, right? That medication is doing it for us. So we're having, you know, it's just like going on a diet. What do we do when we get to the end of the diet, when we get to the goal weight, when we, when we get to the goal?
Sugar levels, whatever it is for you. What do we do without 'em? Or how do we support our bodies without them, because it can be done. And we're not really in that conversation right now because there's not a lot of people that are exiting, um, the medication there. So, so we've still got more conversation to have about this.
But right now, I mean, really, it's like I don't know what to [00:16:00] do. Um, and I don't know. I don't know how I would support my body, um, if I went off of it, or in general, if you're not on these medications or even not considering them, but still want to support your body, um, what do we do? How do we eat? So let's talk about it for a minute.
Okay. I'm going to walk you through, um, four natural strategies to help you. Quiet food noise. That's what we're gonna do, and I just want to remind you. Okay. Um, medications can turn down the, those hunger signals, but they don't teach you to interpret them. So your body, Hardy has these built-in cues. I told you you were born with it.
Hunger, fullness, satisfaction, and what we need to do, especially if you've been in the diet world, if you're on a medication, if you're struggling to find that balance, we need to learn how to retrain and [00:17:00] support those systems. So that they can work for you again. And that's gold. That's that's gold, right?
That's, that's the goal. So trust means trust with your body, right? That's our goal. We're trying to rebuild trust with your body. And if you join my food freedom program in the fall. Uh, the very first module is all about rebuilding trust with your body and a relationship with your body, because a lot of times we have felt let down by our bodies.
We're miserable in our bodies. We're the heaviest we've ever been. We feel like we can't trust them. We've been through a lot, and if we can't. Recreate that trust with our bodies, we can't get anywhere. So trust means that you know when you're hungry and when you've had enough to be able to say, I'm hungry.
This is how much I need to eat, and I can stop when I'm satisfied. It also means you can enjoy food without guilt or losing control. You can enjoy that cookie [00:18:00] without feeling like you need five more because you've already blown it with one. Right? You know how to have moderation and balance, and trust also means that you feel in charge of your choices.
How empowering is that? That's the word I wanna use. I want to empower you to feel in control, in charge of your choices. Rather than letting food control you or feeling out of control, um, that is so powerful. So we're gonna, we're going to talk about four natural strategies to quiet food noise.
There are four really good beginner steps to help you quiet food noise, and to help [00:19:00] you just feel like you have more control, more balance, more trust, um, with food. And these are both oath physiological. And emotional, um, and intuitive, I guess maybe would be the better word. So there are some physiological things that will support your body's hormones, doing the right things, and also in intuition, intuitiveness connection with your body.
Um, that will also support. So no particular order of importance. Okay. This is, this is okay.
10 minutes don't bother me.
The first one is to balance blood sugar. What does this mean? If we are, if our blood sugars are, are all over the place, it can, it can be misinterpreted as. [00:20:00] Hunger cues and sometimes they are real hunger cues because we don't have the right nutrients in our body. Um, but we really wanna make sure that with as many meals as possible, that we are getting the right balance of macronutrients.
This means protein, fiber, and healthy fats every meal. So that would be a really great place to start, is to say, I'm gonna look at my plate and I'm going to, um. I'm going to, you know, where's my protein? What, where's my fiber, my carbohydrate with a higher fiber content, right? Where's my healthy fat? And all of these things together support you in feeling better.
And we teach this, um, in all of our programs. Um, the, to help you understand how to create a blood sugar balancing meal really easily. And I use. Um, a really easy method. Um, and it, you don't have to track anything [00:21:00] or worry about anything. So if that's a concern of yours, um, you can join our food freedom program and we'll teach you that.
Avoid extreme hunger, right? If your blood sugar is low, what do you want you, if you are extremely hungry, you do not want the broccoli, you do not want, you know, the carrots. You wanna go straight for the treats. I mean, you want that like. You want that rush? That's what we're looking for. So for example, you could do something like Greek yogurt, which is higher in protein, like a plain Greek yogurt mix, a little bit of maple syrup or honey in it with some berries and chia seeds, which are high in fat and nut butter as well.
So that gives us kind of a good balance, right? Instead of just saying, oh, I'm just gonna grab a yogurt out the door. How could we make it a little bit stronger so that you feel better and you're able to balance your blood sugar? Okay. Number two, practice your hunger and your fullness awareness. That was a, that was a mouthful.[00:22:00]
You want to practice your hunger and fullness and what it feels like to be hungry and what it feels like to be full check in before and during your meals. And again, our, I think we've got some, um, mindful eating meditations in our emotional eating, uh, fixed toolkit. And also we have a whole module in food freedom talking all about how to.
S how to be aware of hunger and fullness and what that looks like and how to know when to eat and how much to eat and how to stop and, and all of those steps because that is really an awareness. And it takes, it takes understanding and it takes skills to be able to master. Um, we're looking for, you know, that feeling of satisfaction but not stuffed.
And if we let ourselves get too hungry, then we usually overeat to the point of. Definitely over satisfied, right? More stuffed. So we wanna practice that hunger and fullness awareness. Then you are going to number three. Um, how can we reduce stress and support your nervous system? Higher cortisol [00:23:00] circulating in our body can lead to more cravings, so we need to find some support, um, such as, you know.
Some sort of like daily resets where you're walking, you're breathing, you're stretching, you're doing something to support your nervous system. If life is stressful, you're, um, recalibrating, you are adjusting, you are trying to bring it back to calm. Um, and, and balance. You know, I, I don't think life is ever gonna be always calm, but learning how to not let that.
Become a chronic issue. And again, our emotional eating fixed toolkit will help you with that because not only are we helping you in the moment, we've got full scripts to help you in the moment. Um, but also how to prevent those things from happening, right? Those, those cravings and those emotions that are linked to stressful situations or, you know, situations.
How do we, um. Support that. Okay. Number four, [00:24:00] create a supportive food environment in your home. In your life. Make sure you have satisfying foods available. Okay? The more you restrict, the more you'll crave it's science. Okay? And you know it, you've experienced it before. Make sure that you have some things.
I always have a little tiny, some sort of treat in my house for. You know, occasional after lunch snack, like a little after lunch. That's like my time where I like to sit and just kind of like mindfully have a treat. I have a boundary for myself that, you know, I don't just eat treats, um, what's the word?
Um, like I don't just binge 'em, I don't just shove 'em in my mouth, but if I'm going to eat one, I'm, I'm gonna choose to do it mindfully and I'm not perfect at it, but that's what I'm working on. That's the goal. Um, and sometimes I'm like, gosh, you know what? I just grabbed that because blah, blah, blah, and I was aware of it and I let it go before it, you know, turns into 10 of them.
Um, and so it's [00:25:00] okay to have satisfying foods available and if you're, if you're navigating, you know, this whole process and you have a, a messy relationship with food, that can be scary. Um, and that's okay. Um, don't. Just know that balance comes, um, as you practice these steps and the steps that we teach you in food freedom, like where we really help you, you know, be able to have that happy relationship, whether it's in your home or anywhere else.
Um, you don't have to feel like you're losing control all the time, or you have to go through this series of losing control before you gain control. Um, it's, it's. It's a process and it's a, and it's a, it's a practice that we work on and it, and it's all about being intuitive with yourself and, you know, this is just a very practical thing, but really put nourishing options front and center.
Um, if you're putting out, you know, fruits and vegetables on your counter [00:26:00] versus a bag of chips. Every time you pass that, you're gonna be more likely to grab the fruits and vegetables rather than the chips. Um, well, sorry. You're gonna be able to, you're gonna be more willing or you're going to grab what's available.
How can you put nourishing options available? Sorry, I had a little brain cramp there, but, um, that's what's gonna help you have some of those nourishing options when you see it. It's a little bit, you know, more desired when it's, when you're not seeing it. It really is that like out of sight, out of mind. I understand this.
I also know that like, I've got treats in the, in the pantry. I know they're there. They're not out of my mind, but you're not passing them all the time and seeing them visually with your eyes, because as you see them visually with your eyes, it kind of creates that connection of, oh, that's good. I want that.
Um, and you can do the same thing with fruits and vegetables. Oh, that, you know, there's some like carrots and dip out there right now that looks really good. I want that. And that [00:27:00] might be something, Hey, I'm trying to work on more vegetables. I'm gonna put them out so that maybe I snack on them more. What about instead of a bowl of, um, a bowl of, um, at like M and mss, you put out a bowl of broccoli at your desk, um, and a little dip or hummus or something.
And you kind of snack on that throughout the day, that would be quite a difference. And you'd be surprised to know that you're not just going to crave the m and ms because you're, you're starting to not only emotionally satisfy, but you're physically satisfying your body's needs. So it's not gonna tell you that it wants the m and ms.
It's a really cool thing that you have to practice in order to understand that it really does work. Okay. Those are our four steps. It's, I think they're pretty simple. Um, we wanna start there, start getting in tune with your body. So I thought, okay, what could we have some maybe quick wins for you today?
[00:28:00] Um, here's a couple ideas. Add a palm size serving of protein at your next meal. So just look at your palm and ask yourself, what can I, what can I do to have that much protein, that size of my palm, not. Size of your hands, but the palm, you know, not your fingers, but you get what I'm saying. Um, how can, how can I have that much protein at my next meal?
Simple, right? Or pick one meal to eat without distractions and check in halfway. How am I feeling? How do I wanna feel when I'm done? How do I know when I'm full? Asking questions is so powerful, and if you could pick one meal to ask that question, you're already recreating that connection, um, with your body.
I like to think of it as a plug, right? The plug is there. It's, it has the power to be accessed, but we have to plug into it. And that's what being mindful with your eating is. And we also have a full mindful eating, um, uh, meditation [00:29:00] in our emotional eating toolkit as well. So that's there. And then one more I was thinking of is.
Just doing like a daily stress reset. And if you have a five minutes to breathe, great. If you have 10 minutes, great. Whatever it is, just do a stress reset. And I would say a little bonus here is to do a stress reset before you eat, before your next meal and see what that does for you. Because so often food and emotions are connected.
And if we can calm the emotions a bit, it helps us calm. Food. And that's really powerful. So I hope this was helpful today. I want to remind you, this is, I will preach this from the rooftops that you have the ability to quiet food noise naturally. Your body is wired for it. It, you came that way. It, it was the way you were born and we've just lost touch with it.
And your first step to rebuilding that connection, right? [00:30:00] Plugging back into, um. Reconnect to, to, you know, get back to that is learning to listen. It's learning to listen. So you can use this, um, podcast episode to support you. And if you wanna go one step deeper, you can use the emotional eating fixed toolkit to help you.
And if you want to. Do the whole thing, the whole life change. That's what our food freedom program is. So we have all kinds of different resources to support you in this. Um, and you don't have to do it alone. And it's okay if it takes some time. Like I said, it's a practice. Um, and it takes practice and it takes daily check-in and daily practice.
And that's the beauty is that we have that opportunities to support our body every day and. When we do that, it shows up for us. We can show up for our lives in [00:31:00] a better way. And that's the whole reason I teach what I teach, is so that you can show up for the life that you want to live as the woman of wellness you want to be.
So thank you for letting me be part of that and cheer you on and, um, support you in those efforts. And I will be back next week with another episode.
