Binge Dieting

Do you often find yourself overeating, especially when you are stressed? If you answered yes, then there are probably other things in your mind contributing to this behavior. It's not obvious. The subconscious mind is unbelievably complex.

I think most dietitians, including me, would agree that you want to honor your cravings to some degree. Intuitive eating teaches us the value of listening for internal physical cues of hunger and fullness and attempting to eat what the body wants. However, intuitive eating is very tricky. You can easily be confused and think that just because you have an urge for a cookie you should honor that urge every time.

In this episode, I discuss how you can learn how to identify when the urge is coming from an emotional need rather than a physical need to not feel deprived. In this way you can begin to teach the mind a new way of responding to your cravings. You can learn how to teach yourself how to retrain your brain to stop your cravings and impulsive eating habits. Your brain remembers every little thing from your past, so the habits can run very deep. The process involves listening inside yourself so you can understand and reassure the overeating parts of you. You learn to connect with them and literally let them know that you're here for them and you understand them.

If you want to learn more about this process so you can stop overeating, tune in to this episode!

Three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:

1. Learn how to stop overeating by retraining your brain using the process of IFS (internal family systems).
2. Learn ways to tap into your inner guidance and intuition.
3. Consider common triggers that can create urges such as the inner critic, social anxiety, and overwhelm.

Episode Highlights Learn How to Stop Overeating

Eating is a great way to calm the brain. When we feel stressed or out of control, we tend to reach for foods that soothe us. To learn how to stop this, the first step is to get curious about the part of your mind that makes you reach for food unconsciously. For example, the sense of panic about feeling out of control might be held inside of a specific "part" inside of you. This part is alerting you to danger, and it's likely got a good reason for this; in your past you most likely had many times where bad things happened when you had no control. To get curious you must separate from it. Internally, this can look like moving away from the part in your mind's eye and noticing that it's there.

Setting Goals and Adopting Habits

It's often difficult to identify all the eating triggers, especially because they can be buried beneath all the activities of your conscious mind. They can hide. Start by intentionally aiming to be more mindful. Slow down and turn your awareness inside.

Practically, you might write down a few goals to improve your relationship with mindfulness with eating or with food buying. You may make a goal to go to put your fork down between bites of food, or plan times when you go to the grocery store so healthy food is available during stressful times of the day. You might try to make it a habit not to eat in front of the TV. Focus on one goal at a time.

Be Still and Let the Answers Find You

We are our own healers. If you get quiet enough to listen, the answer deep within will come to you. What you can do is sit on a chair and actively do nothing. Just notice the inner world.

It's a helpful exercise to pretend that the emotion associated with eating is a person that needs your attention. It will never leave you alone unless it feels validated, unless it realizes you are listening to it. Communicate with it from a place of curiosity, without being mad at it or wishing it would go away. We need to talk to our eating parts and reassure them that we are there for them.

In the process, you connect with the thing inside of you to understand the reasons behind your overeating. You also can develop a relationship with these parts so that you can let them know that you want to go through life without having to rely on food to cope, and eventually they will learn to trust that you can handle things without eating.

Intuition and Inner Guidance

Within every single person, there is a capacity to be present. We can lead and heal our own parts. But we cannot do this if there is too much fear and noise. To listen without interference, try to find a way to get grounded in the body. Breathe. Recognize that the parts are separate entities! This can lead us to our intuition.

I had a talk with a woman who was a firefighter during 9/11. She had this voice inside of her that said, "You need to get out of there." Thank goodness she trusted that voice because it saved a lot of people's lives that day. She had developed a capacity for listening inside of herself.

We Are Motivated by What We Might Lose

Rather than rewards, we are more motivated by what we might lose. So, if you feel yourself reaching for snacks, you can ask yourself what you might lose. You might lose your sense of empowerment and hopefulness. You can lose a sense of being in control.

Likewise, you can ask yourself, what do I need here? It might just be a relief from boredom, procrastination, or a way to calm your nerves.

Working and Connecting with Yourself

I worked with another client who has chronic physical pain. This client has a part of her who is so tired from putting on a happy, strong, and stoic face despite the pain. To cope with this, she tended to grab baked goods to reward herself and get on with her day.

Ultimately, it was a matter of allowing her to have compassion for and connect with the parts of her that are in pain.

This was the same for my clients who were perfectionists. They needed to separate themselves from their perfectionist part so they could see it from a distance. They could then be curious about it and ask: Why do you need to be perfect?

Be Quiet, Calm, and Curious

We tend to reach for food not because we are hungry, but because we are stressed. What should you do in this situation?

You can leave the room. Calm down and rest a second. Connect with the energy inside that's unsettled. Realize that it's a part of you, but it's not you. It's different from your calm, curious, and compassionate self.

Acknowledge this emotion and say, "I can handle this. I can handle the stress without food."

Conversing with Your Critic

I also worked with a client who developed an association with certain foods. She would eat these foods when she felt overwhelmed and needed relief.

She worked with the part of her that was scared. She also learned how to communicate with her food craving and overeating part. What she ended up doing was to have a conversation with the critic in her mind, since this was the part that was creating such distress. She needed to tell her critic that if she could just allow herself to eat what she was carving without guilt, then she probably won't overeat.

5 Powerful Quotes from this Episode

"It's best to do one at a time. That's how you make progress. It's the little things day in and day out."

"We just take a moment and we just turn towards the inner world. And we let the answer find us because it will be there."

"The brain learned way back when that food could comfort and calm in almost any situation until of course, the brain reverted to that. So we need to reassure our eating part that we're there for them, we understand."

"Social interactions are stressful. That is probably the number one reason I have found that people grab food even though they are not hungry."

"The solution is not a diet. The solution is getting quiet, calm, curious, and [to] stop."

If you listened to the podcast and enjoyed it, please share and post a review!

Have any questions or want to schedule an appointment or take my class? You can email me at [email protected] or visit my website.

To making peace with eating,

Betsy

Do you want to lose weight and change your relationship with food?

We're so used to thinking that the ideal body type is thin, but it's not. "Ideal" is outdated. It's subjective. The world is changing, and we are all waking up to the truth that you are so much more than the body which carries you through life. Yes of course we all want to look a certain way, and it's not a bad thing to attempt to remember to choose healthy foods and slow down the speed of our eating and pay attention at the moment we put food in our mouth. It's not a bad thing to want to lose some weight at times. It's a very good thing to exercise and to drink enough water and get enough sleep. The problem is that we take this too far and overfocus on our bodies, and then we become anxious and preoccupied. We retreat into our minds and notice every little change in our flesh or the tightness of our clothes, and only when our weight is down or we don't feel bloated or heavy can we have a good day. When we get this attached to our weight our inner beauty is completely blocked off.

This is madness. This is no way to live a life.

What if your body is OK the way it is right now? If you are certain that it's not, that you'd feel better physically in a lighter body, then what if you could find a way to want to eat healthy foods and lose some weight without the intensity of needing this? What if you could find a way to detach from the outcome (thinner) and just get on with your life without caring so much? The irony of course is that you would probably stop overeating if you didn't make your body appearance and food so valuable in your mind.

Also, some people inherit a genetic tendency to have more fat cells on their stomach or their legs or some other body part. Some people inherit a more muscular body, or a body that is supposed to be on the large side. But every day, the media tells us how to get thin and lose weight and match the ideal presented in magazines. It's deeply embedded in the cultural narrative. This perfect body obsession is a recipe for stress, hypervigilance and anxiety and it's never going to work if your body is genetically out of alignment with your ideal image. It promotes a diet mentality that will end up fueling overeating and using food for relief and relaxation. Living with the diet mentality will never give you peace of mind, and it usually won't help you get the body you want anyway.

You need to find a middle ground. Calm down. Perhaps be present in your current body without fearing it or hating it so much.

In this podcast episode, I talk about body positivity. I will be digging into what I mean by this and why it matters. You'll also learn how you can eat intuitively and why you must view your body and all bodies from a different lens. Accepting an obese body is the best first step in changing it.

Tune in to the full episode to learn more about how your thoughts can create actual physical changes in the body.

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:

1. Understand the human tendency to judge people by their body sizes.
2. Learn more about what a healthy body weight really means.
3. Learn about intuitive eating and how it can help you.

Episode Highlights The Stigma Around Obesity

The stigma of obesity heavily damages the human psyche. Many of the problems associated with obesity come from it. By letting go of needing to control our bodies and lose weight, we become naturally calmer. Your body parts have committed no crime. They're working and doing what they're supposed to do: supporting you, metabolizing your food.

We're taught to value thinness, activity, productivity, and discipline. Many of my clients with large bodies are terrified of being thought of as lazy, unproductive, or undisciplined. Nothing could be farther from the truth. What do those things have to do with body size? Nothing.

The Body Positivity Movement

Just like people in the "Me Too" movement, we suffer from victimization. What's different is victimizing ourselves is something more likely. We have to take responsibility for ourselves. We need to be the first ones to stop judging and hating our bodies. We need to get off our diets.

The Problem with Culture and Defining Feminine

Every time we go online or go outdoors, we're bombarded by information. Magazines, billboards, and TV commercials try to sway us. They move us towards believing we aren't good enough unless we look a certain way. They say there must be something wrong with us.

The idea ever since was that female bodies should be petite for them to be feminine. To me, femininity is not about body size. It's about the energy we transmit. It's about being openhearted, kind, and taking care of others and ourselves in a way that still leaves space for strength, wisdom, and intelligence.

The Healthy Body Weight

Data show that people who had BMI in the obese range did not necessarily have less death and less disease than thin people. This proves that weight loss and dieting don't give people better health. As you go on more, your body becomes confused and afraid of starving. The practice was making the body overcompensate and compromising the ability to lose weight.

I believe most of the people I work with are less interested in disease and more interested in feeling judged in their appearance. Our goal is to learn to love and accept your body. Stop being mean to yourself, and embrace who you are.

How to Practice Intuitive Eating

Intuitive eating is learning how to eat what the body wants in the portions that the body might want. It's eating in the present tense and not thinking about what you're supposed to eat. Weight loss is the side effect of loving yourself. The bottom line is, can you get out of the way and just let the body figure it out and find its way?

Some people with eating disorders believe that certain foods feel bad in their body, but the truth is they don't feel as bad — it is their mind tricking them. It's the fear that creates more of the problem than the food itself because fear can create physical symptoms in the body.

What Your New Goal Should Be

Your goal should not be about being in control. Change your goal to be about self-care. It has to be about seeing what is attractive about the body that you have right this second and looking at all bodies more holistically. If you want control, you're not going to get control. Wanting and trying is not the same as having control.

5 Powerful Quotes

"As you look at women who have large bodies, I want you to see those large bodies in a different way—as strong, as capable, as loving, as helpful bodies. There's nothing wrong with them at all."

"Why would we or should we even care about somebody else's body? Why are we judging it? It's a funny thing when you stop and think about it. How is somebody else's body size relevant to your life at all?"

"It is time to change your idea that your body is supposed to fit a standard that used to be like a Barbie and a Ken doll."

"The greater goal has got to be to learn how to care for, in respect for, your body. The greater goal has to be to learn how to listen to it, to learn how to prioritize food, shopping, and planning, so you can have on hand foods that work well for you."

"Body size acceptance does not mean that you stop caring about your body. Instead, you start loving your body. You want to make it the best body for your life purpose."

Resources

• Non-Appearance Related Compliments by Jennifer Rollin, MSW LCSW
• Health at Every Size movement

If you listened to the podcast and enjoyed it, please share and post a review!

Have any questions or want to schedule an appointment? You can email me at [email protected] or visit my website.

To making peace with eating,

Betsy

In our journey toward mindful eating, we usually encounter a form of self-sabotage that says, "Why bother?" This little voice urges us to eat even if we're not hungry or even if we know it's too much food or it's harmful to our body. The voice might also say that the situation's hopeless or the mountain is too high for us to climb.

So how can we navigate this part of us that convinces us to stop caring?

In this episode, I show you a simple but powerful trick to calm down that "why bother?" voice in your head. I teach you how to take a bird's eye view of the situation. Whatever intense sensation or emotion you're feeling right now is not permanent. You don't need to give in to the compulsions of the momentary urge. All you need to do is wait. I also talk about how you can examine these thoughts more closely.

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:

1. Learn to recognize that "why bother?" part of you.
2. Understand that all emotions, thoughts, and sensations are temporary.
3. Discover how being honest with yourself will help your mindful eating journey.

Episode Highlights How We Self-Sabotage

Ideally, most people want a healthy, natural, and forgiving relationship with food. In this perfect relationship, you can have room for fun food items yet maintain a balance. You pay close attention to what and how much you eat. You also don't allow yourself to get completely famished.

But even if you have healthy, mindful eating as the goal, it's common to fall into the trap of the mind, that "Why bother?" voice. This voice can make a wide range of excuses:

• You're going to gain back whatever weight you lose anyway. Feeling the disappointment of failure must be avoided at all costs.
• You aren't worthy of looking good. You're inadequate.
• You have too much weight to lose. The mountain is too high.
• You don't deserve good health. You deserve to be punished.

Taking a Bird's Eye View

To take a bird's eye view, you have to start being comfortable with the fact that nothing is permanent. Even that overwhelming wave of emotion will soon come to pass. There's a shelf life to everything.

Your present worry will not be the same in an hour or two. Therefore you can coach yourself into not caring. You say to yourself, 'I don't care what I feel; all I have to do is wait for the feeling to go away."

Being Comfortable with Change

We suffer because we become overly attached to a single outcome or an idea. We start believing that things are permanent or should follow a certain rule. We believe the story in our mind that we have created.

The trick to connecting with that bird's eye view lies in the acknowledgement that your brain is a machine programmed to exaggerate the danger. When you start looking closely at worst-case scenarios, you might realize that most of your thoughts aren't even true. They're wildly exaggerated or distorted versions borne out of your brain's desire to protect you.

An intense craving is often your brain's way of making a big deal out of something temporary. It's your brain doing its job. Once you become aware of that, sit and wait for the feeling to go away. All thoughts and sensations are temporary. None of them are worthy of your panic and obsession; they're generally not even true!

Zeroing in On the Why Bother Part

From that bird's eye view, zero in and examine that inner voice more closely. Start by imagining that you're in a hallway filled with a calm, compassionate, and curious energy. Then, focus on that little voice that says, "Why bother? It's hopeless. Who cares?" Really try to find that part inside of you—it might not be a voice but a tension in the body or an image.

Surprisingly, you might discover that this inner part has your best interests at heart. It's worried about you and scared that you might feel deprived. It wants you to feel comfortable and safe. It might be protecting you from a loud and angry inner critic. It might secretly need you to rebel against dieting rules, or society, or your husband. It might know that if you do lose weight and then gain it back again, the devastation of this will be unbearable.

Once you understand that this voice is trying to help, you can also see how it's hurting you. From then, you can take time to make a connection with that voice. Let it know that you appreciate its efforts but that it's hurting more than it's helping. You have to work with that voice as part of an ongoing project of learning, growing, and loving yourself.

Getting Help

While it's possible to do this work on your own, it's often best to seek professional help to avoid feeling confused or overwhelmed. That "why bother?" voice is tricky since it can change a negative emotion instantly. It works because when you give in to the voice that urges you to eat, it magically lifts your mood.

But while it might think it's helping and it may provide relief now, it's not helping you over the long term. It's your brain doing what it thinks it needs to do to avoid discomfort and pain.

Remember: this emotion will go away. If you find yourself going down the rabbit hole, cling to that mantra. You can also chant:

• I know what healing eating looks like for me.
• I know what would be helpful for me.
• I stop and pay attention to what I eat.
• I don't let myself starve. I plan.
• I allow myself to eat when I'm physically hungry. I am learning to recognize what physical hunger feels like.

Every time you listen to your body, you take good care of yourself. It's not about dieting or deprivation; it's about being honest with what's best for yourself.

5 Powerful Quotes from this Episode

"A healthy relationship with food is one that is natural and easy and not stressful. It's forgiving."

"One of those laws of inner physics: nothing is permanent. So it doesn't really matter what's going on in that moment, if it's an emotion, if it's a sensation, guarantee 100%, it's not going to be there very long."

"So the bird's eye view, this special trick is to remember the impermanence of all things because this is really the core of suffering. We're thinking things are going to be permanent, or we're thinking that things should be a certain way, and they're not."

"Each time is just a way to learn and grow and love yourself through it and be compassionate. There's nothing you can't handle. You're just gonna be present in life doing the best you can."

"There's always a way to take care of yourself. And this is taking care of yourself. It's listening to your body and not doing something that you're going to later regret. And this has nothing to do with dieting. And this has nothing to do with deprivation. This is about being honest with yourself, and what would be the best for yourself and your body."

Resources

• Dr. Amy Johnson's blog

If you listened to the podcast and enjoyed it, please share and post a review!

Have any questions or want to schedule an appointment or take my class? You can email me at [email protected] or visit my website.

To making peace with eating,

Betsy

Have you ever built up good eating habits, only to return to old ones later on? It hurts when it happens. You might feel disappointment, frustration, sadness, guilt — but it's okay to feel these things. They're all normal emotions to have. It's also normal to falter occasionally.

In this episode, I discuss why we often self-sabotage when changing our eating habits. No, it doesn't speak about your worth or ability. You may be looking in the wrong place entirely. Changing habits is a long journey made of small steps, and it's going to have obstacles and challenges along the way. It's more important to remember that you can choose how to act and react. Take these challenges as gifts and opportunities.

Before I recap the show notes I want to alert listeners that I started a class last March 9, 2021 and you can still sign up to catch up with our lessons.

Yes, my CLASS started last March 9 and you can still enroll!

This transformative class includes a lot of weekly content, as well as Zoom sessions from 7:30 to 9 pm Eastern time. The next zoom session is Tuesday March 22. The class includes pre-recorded videos, audio recordings, handouts, and membership in a small Facebook community. It is packed with content and comes with a money-back guarantee! You can't take this class and not begin to understand the roots of your eating habits that you might be frustrated with. From this understanding will come change.

To sign up for the class or to get private help, visit my website. You can also send me an email at [email protected].

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:

1. Learn how you can change troublesome eating habits.
2. Learn how you can you make the change as a process of small incremental steps.
3. Learn more about the understanding that life happens to us, by us, for us, and through us.

Episode Highlights Focus on What Matters

Many of my clients come to me and say they have a habit of not following through with their resolutions. Of course, this is frustrating, and many feel guilty and lose trust in their ability to change.

Here's a little secret: what works is a small, gradual change. You cannot change everything overnight.

We all have habits that stem deeply from childhood or past experiences. These habits can affect our thinking, our emotional state, and our eating patterns. When we want to change our habits, we need to focus on what lies within us.

How Can We Change Our Behavior?

There are two main things to consider when changing behavior: deep reflection and specific habits.

Specific habits should focus on making things happen the way you want them to happen. Examples of habits are food timing, food planning, and food quality, and shopping habits.

Remember, it takes time and patience to change behaviors. It is why we need to be honest with ourselves and reflect on what we can do one step at a time. Make one or two reasonable and achievable goals at a time and focus only on that.

Setting Goals and What That Looks Like

One way to start changing your eating habits is intuitive eating. It is the practice of noticing when you're hungry or full. It's about tuning into what your body might want and need.

What can specific goals look like? Here is a quick list for you to consider:

• Focus on waiting until you know you're hungry before a meal.
• Focus on slowing down when eating and noticing when you feel satisfied. A goal might be to stop eating before you're full.
• Keep a food record to note hunger and fullness throughout the day.
• Consider a specific amount of fruits, vegetables, or other foods per day. Don't be rigid.
• Try boundaries and limits on food portions before you start eating. For example, think about the perfect portion size that would feel right in your body before you plate your food or choose the snack size. Once you are eating and your dopamine takes over you might end up in a food trance.

Remember, your goals need to suit you. It's going to be different for everybody. Small incremental changes over a long period will be more sustainable.

You Need to Trust the Process

The first day we resolve to change, we usually feel confident and determined. However, as time passes, it gets more difficult to stay enthusiastic. Eventually we stop caring and self-sabotage.

When we change habits and incorporate new ones, it is a long process. We're continuously building skills. It won't be perfect all the time, and there will be days when we get overwhelmed with stress.

That's okay. Don't beat yourself up due to these small setbacks; get back up and trust in the process.

You're not alone in this. Tune in to the full podcast episode to hear a similar story about one of my clients.

Life Happens To Us

Life happens to us; we can't always choose the events that happen in our lives. Experiences can make us feel powerless, inadequate, scared, judged, and unattractive. These feelings can stay with us for a long time if we don't know how to work through them.

Sometimes, we take on roles and behaviors to avoid painful feelings and experiences. Life happens by us as defense mechanisms against something else.

When we think life happens to me, we can become control freaks or feel helpless or victimized. We will keep putting attention on where we're lacking and our problems.

The moment we start accepting that life happens through our perceptions and reactions to it, we take responsibility. We realize that we can respond differently. We don't need to be in control all the time, and that's okay.

Choose to See the Silver Lining

Life happens for us. Many people believe that things in life happen for a reason. I choose to believe that life's obstacles can be lessons or realizations. Without these struggles we wouldn't learn important lessons.

You are a gift to the world. You don't have to look like other people. Just focus on what makes you 'you.'

Remind yourself to live your life in the present moment.

Treating Yourself with Compassion

It's normal to go through problems in life.

I have three children , and my middle child was a "nightmare" from a very early age. I read every parenting book I could find and hired experts to help me, yet he continued to present me with ongoing struggles. In his teens he fell into a life of extreme drug addiction which lasted 10 years. He was repeatedly sent to jail, was kicked out of drug program after drug program, and manipulated and lied—as addicts must do to survive. I had to exercise tough love. He had times of homelessness. Over the years, I tried everything to help, but it was a problem I could not fix. My grief and panic consumed me.

During this time, I stumbled upon the concept of 'life happens for us.' This concept changed my life. It gave me relief and acceptance and I was able to stop trying to be in control. I learned to just trust life.

Listen to the full episode for a full account of the struggles I had with my child and how it all turned out. (Even at the time I recorded this podcast I couldn't have predicted the astonishing turns his life would continue to take. He is now part owner of two drug rehabilitation centers and is currently building an inpatient hospital for people who suffer from mental illness)

Take Small Steps

We all get stuck. Feelings of fear and inadequacy can convince us that there's a magic answer out there, and we end up looking in the wrong direction.

Step back and ask yourself, what is it that I really want? Look at the big picture.

Every challenge is a gift and an opportunity for growth and change.

5 Powerful Quotes from this Episode

"Your mind has this habit of wanting to toe the line: a bite here, an excuse there, and we keep doing that over and over. And then, of course, we're frustrated, we're guilty, we're sad, and we don't trust our ability to stay on a diet or have success."

"It's much better to just make one or two reasonable goals and to focus only on that, and to relax and be patient and accept that the process of behavior change takes time."

"You just need to be clear on where you specifically get tripped up and where you specifically need improvement or would like improvement. It's very different for everybody."

"A goal of learning how to honor the body and listen to the body is much more effective and helpful than a goal of weight loss."

"Life happens to us, life happens by us, life happens for us, and life happens through us. . . These concepts are radically important to understand if we want to yank ourselves out of our recurrent patterns."

Resources

• Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Dr. Joe Dispenza

If you listened to the podcast and enjoyed it, please share and post a review!

Have any questions or want to schedule an appointment? You can email me at [email protected] or visit my website.

To making peace with eating,

Betsy

Do you remember how heavy it was to carry your backpack to school? In the same way, your mind has an unseen bag, holding the feelings and weighted expectations you put on your shoulders every day. These emotions and thoughts add enormous weight to our "backpack" that can have real, material consequences in our life.

In this episode, I teach you an exercise where we look inside our mental and emotional backpacks and notice which heavy rocks you might have that represent your emotional weight. I go over the most common "rocks" in the way of happiness among the clients that I typically work with. Once we recognize them, we can start letting them go — one rock at a time.

Before I recap the show notes I want to alert listeners that I have a class starting March 9, 2021 and that you can sign up now to begin receiving class materials and get a head start.

Yes, my 10-week CLASS starts March 9!

This transformative class will include a lot of weekly content, as well as 5 Zoom sessions from 7:30 to 9 pm Eastern time. The content includes pre-recorded videos, audio recordings, handouts, and membership in a Facebook community. It is packed with content and comes with a money-back guarantee! You can't take this class and not begin to understand the roots of your eating habits that you might be frustrated with. From this understanding will come change.

To sign up for the class or to get private help, visit my website. You can also send me an email at [email protected].

Back to the Podcast! Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:

1. Unpack the rocks in your own backpack.
2. Learn to thank these rocks as part of your journey as you let them go.
3. Develop an intention and willingness to put these rocks to rest.

Episode Highlights The Weight on Your Shoulders

Bearing a heavy backpack day in and day out can drain your energy. You might feel guilty for not getting anything done. You might retreat and isolate yourself. Some might feel angry over the injustice of it all and lash out against others.

When you peek inside this mental backpack, you'll discover "rocks" weighing you down. The rocks in your backpack represent an unhealthy belief or attachment to an idea. The first rock contains the word "thin." The problem might lie not in valuing it but in overvaluing it. If you can slowly learn to let go of the intensity of the value to be thin then you will be able to become a more intuitive eater.

Unmasking Secrets and Confusion

The second rock is "secrets." Whether it's a secret binge eating habit or endlessly worrying about your weight, keeping secrets builds tension that can be a problem. Before coming out with the truth, thank your secrets. We need to be grateful for the obstacles that come our way for the lessons they leave us.

The third rock is "confusion." There are countless diets, workouts, and information around us that it's easy to become overwhelmed. But if we learn to stay still, the answer will present itself. When we let go of the need to know, we can tap into the right way to eat.

The Rocks in Your Backpack

Your backpack is filled with many rocks, and some of the ones mentioned include:

• shame
• control
• fear of hunger and fullness
• loneliness

These rocks change the way we see ourselves. Shame builds up and can be hard to let go of — it can take a lot of therapy and research into the roots of the shame, yet practicing a willingness to put the shame aside from time to time can change the course of your entire day.

The need for control is another common rock that can take complete hold of us. Fear of hunger and fear of fullness also can create beliefs that aren't accurate for us, such as the belief that we can't handle a small amount of hunger, or that if we're full it means we're going to get fatter.

Loneliness shackles us to reliance on food or other sources of happiness when people aren't around. The journey of healing might involve letting go of the rock of believing that you can't be with loneliness. Letting go of these rocks one by one frees you and opens your life to more possibilities.

Bearing the Burden

The burden of our rocks limits us and makes us feel insecure, regretful and guilty. Often, we repress our fears which leads to eating. For others, these rocks can strengthen a victim stance, fueling learned helplessness and more fear. Accepting that these rocks exist and weigh us down is the first step.

Learning to Let Go

It's not a simple task to take these rocks out of our mental backpacks. Unlike physical objects, these rocks exist in our minds and cannot be thrown away that easily.

It helps to start with the idea that carrying these rocks for more than what is necessary can get in the way of your happiness. Identify the rocks in your mind and how they may be weighing you down. From then, you can form an intention to thank these rocks for their lessons and finally put them to rest.

5 Powerful Quotes

"We naturally compare ourselves to other people. It's a survival thing. So it's not really valuing the attractive, thin body, it's overvaluing it."

"Thank you for the opportunity to know that I don't have all the answers. And I'm going to surrender because I can't manage this anymore."

"Even our shame is to be thanked. Because it is from our shame that we open up that we change that we are broken apart. So we can realize that we have to love ourselves, or we will not have any chance of having a peaceful life. "

"There's no advantage, there's no benefit – nothing to holding on to this rock. It will not make you not make a mistake in the future. It will not do that at all. It will make you feel miserable and sad and overwhelmed, and it will make you eat. It will make you have sadness. Quick, get that rock out of the bag. And let's move on.

"As we put the rock of denial into the circle, and we accept, all right, yes, I do have some issues that need to be looked at. In fact, it becomes a little lighter and a little easier."

If you listened to the podcast and enjoyed it, please share and post a review!

Do you want to enroll in my class, or have any questions or want to schedule an appointment? You can email me at [email protected] or visit my website.

To making peace with eating,

Betsy

Do you find yourself stuck in a loop of overthinking thoughts about what you should be eating or what you shouldn't be eating or what you want to be eating later in the day? Do you also get stuck ruminating on thoughts about your body?

Our mind sends us innocent little thoughts over and over - scientists guess that we might think 80,000 thoughts in a day. But when these thoughts connect to our self worth or to our buried beliefs that we are not enough, we get hooked.

We ruminate, we try to fix, we panic, we plan, we come up with excuses, and now one innocent little thought has become a hundred or even a thousand thoughts all along the same theme. The mind also loves to think in terms of worst-case scenarios, because then it thinks it is keeping you safe. The mind often believes that if you can just obsess a bit more you will think your way out of the life and death situation of the moment.

Ha! It's sort of hilarious actually. If this sounds like you, well how's that working for you?

The overthinking mind creates a cycle of obsession driven by guilt, fear, and shame and can quickly turn you inside of yourself. You stay in your head, in your thoughts, you barely notice the world around you, and you might become irritable, self-absorbed, or dissociated. when this happens you will have less (not more!) control over your eating habits.

In this episode, I talk about some of the obsessive thoughts that can derail us. I discuss specific ways to stop this obsessive cycle and control the thought machine that is your brain. I also address effective ways to set goals and intentions to give you the results you want. Before I recap the show notes I want to alert listeners that I have a class starting March 9, 2021 and that you can sign up now to begin receiving class materials and get a head start.

Yes, my 10-week CLASS starts March 9!

This transformative class will include 5 zoom sessions from 7:30 to 9 pm eastern time as well as numerous pre-recorded videos, audio recordings, handouts, and membership in a Facebook community. It is packed with content and comes with a money-back guarantee! You can't take this class and not begin to understand the roots of your eating habits that you might be frustrated with.

To sign up for the class or to get private help, visit my website. You can also send me an email at [email protected].

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:

1. Learn how fear drives your obsessive thinking about food and your body.
2. Find out about the basic laws of inner physics that happen inside our body when we think about food.
3. Discover how you can acknowledge but not give in to cravings.

Episode Highlights How to Change Your Fear About Your Eating and Your Body

When you're feeling out of control with your eating habits, you're perceiving an internal state of emergency. The truth is though, this emergency only exists in your mind. Being in this internal state can make you zone out, mindless, and then stop caring. It's so overwhelming that you might just get more out of control in an effort to calm your inner world down.

Everyone's got a list of regular excuses when it comes to eating. Often, you aren't conscious of these — you shut your obsessive mind off so you can enjoy the food in front of you. Parts of you will be very upset with your eating though, and the internal polarized energy will begin growing. Most likely obsessive thinking will take over.

The only way to stop this obsessive thinking is to stop fearing the body you currently have. If you could find a way to make peace with your body in that moment, even just for 5 minutes, everything can calm down. One of the very best tools for understanding and working with the inner world is through Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy. IFS helps us understand that past experiences of shame often create this cycle of needing to focus on eating and your body. The feeling of being unsafe in your body now is often based largely on a memory of past experiences.

Your Brain Is Only a Thinking Machine

You are not totally helpless, even though parts of you will feel this way. Parts of you feel helpless while other parts of you will feel and experience other things. Your brain is just a thinking machine that has a habit of repeating the same thoughts over and over again. There will be parts inside of you desperate not to repeat difficult experiences from the past, and these parts can run our lives. When they completely take us over we can get trapped in all sorts of overthinking. These overthinking, dieting, planning, perfectionistic parts always are trying to help you — even if it doesn't appear that way.

You might think of these thoughts as well-worn pathways in the brain. Every time you think of the fear of how you look or how you eat, you're reinforcing the strength of this pathway and this part will grow stronger. You might end up reverting back to this well traveled pathway with more and more ease. It is very familiar and easy to think what you keep thinking. Remember: energy flows where attention goes.

There is good news! You can change your thinking patterns because the brain can rewire itself. This ability is called neuroplasticity. While it's helpful to acknowledge the fear and the discomfort from these thoughts, learning how to engage with them in a different way or not at all is the trick. There is a process that you can learn, and yes, it takes time.

Establishing Your Goal

Losing weight is not a helpful goal. Paradoxically, the most effective objective is, "I want to not care about my body weight." It's more likely to give you the results that you want. To do this, you have to stop participating in the thoughts about your body, diet, food, weight in the same way. Often it's most helpful to stop participating with them at all.

Meanwhile, some people have the opposite problem—they don't care enough. But generally deep down inside, they care too much. They care so much that they become in denial. It makes them go numb and eating takes them over.

The bottom line is: you need to listen to your body and your thoughts and acknowledge that they're there. You don't have to act on what they're telling you to do. Calm them down, and perhaps tell them that you're not going to talk to them right now.

Often the first step is in just noticing your patterns of eating, obsessing, and reacting. Acknowledging these is where healing starts. To be curious and welcome them is a great option. When you see obsessive thoughts, you can say, "Oh, hello! There's that thought." Often it's very effective when for a moment you just notice it without caring about it or taking the bait to go into the world of obsessing.

Stopping the Obsessive Thinking Over Food

It's very helpful to get into a practice of eating nutritious, nourishing foods on a mostly regular basis. Don't skip meals. Most people need to eat a minimum of three meals a day. If you want to lose weight, you can reduce the amount of food you eat by focusing on portion size but don't go overboard.

Here are some notes on food and eating:

• A balanced meal includes sources of protein, fat, and carbohydrate. Otherwise it's easy to feel deprived and be starving an hour later.
• Fruits and vegetables are very healing the brain and body and keep you satisfied.
• Eating "diet food" that you don't like is a setup to fail. Instead, just eat a smaller portion of what you want.
• Seek balance and moderation, and slow down your eating.
• It can be helpful to reduce your sugar intake, but you don't need to be extreme.
• Highly restrictive diets are not going to work in the long run.

How to Deal with Cravings

Most people go to sugar when they find themselves in that "go off the rails" moment. Having a goal of "no sugar" can be very helpful for some, but it doesn't work for everyone. What might be more helpful is to make the goal not to care about the craving. It takes us back to the basics of not engaging with the fear thoughts. Just notice the craving from a separate place.

You might feel deprived. But feeling deprived boils down to feeling uncomfortable. It's just a sensation driven by a thought. When you learn to stay with this discomfort, recognizing it's merely a thought, you will feel unbelievably empowered. When you get out of the thought stream, a part of you with more wisdom will take over.

5 Powerful Quotes from this Episode

"If you want to lose weight, and you want to stop obsessing over your food choices or your body, you must understand that the problem lies in the paradox: you want it too much."

"It's this physics of life that we have got to understand and work with: we attract to us the very situations that we need to learn to overcome."

"The thing is, the mind knows exactly what it's doing. The mind is always trying to help you. It just doesn't appear that way."

"Whatever you're believing about your body, or the foods, or your obsessions, you're really basing them off of the past. And you know what? We're not in the past. We're in the now; we're in the moment. Every second is an opportunity to change things."

"We can control our lives. We can control our mind when we learn and we realize it's just a machine of thinking."

If you listened to the podcast and enjoyed it, please share and post a review!

Have any questions or want to schedule an appointment or enroll in my class? You can email me at [email protected] or visit my website.

To making peace with eating,

Betsy

Betsy Thurston MPH RD talks about the mind and its relentless overthinking, which leads to behaviors that don't serve us well. The brain at any moment is just doing what all brains do, which is trying to help us. In this podcast she talks about the polyvagal theory and how your nervous system is designed to help you, even as it can trap you into unwanted states of being.

By understanding the brain and the nature of thought you can learn to relax your attachment to unwanted behaviors.

We need food to feed our physical hunger, but at times we eat only to feel better emotionally.

In this episode, I will help you understand addiction from the perspective of an addict and will discuss concepts from some authors in the spiritual and recovery movement. I will share some of my clients' insights on Overeaters Anonymous (O.A.) and will also talk about O.A.'s fundamentals. Like any 12 step program, the solution is a spiritual one.

I am now offering a 10-week virtual class!

The class will include pre-recorded videos, audio recordings, handouts, membership in a Facebook community. In this class, I will teach you how to access your own innate spiritual guidance so you can learn how to correct problems with eating. This is not related to a 12 step program, but will combine spiritual concepts with science. I am so confident that it will help you that I offer a money back guarantee!

If you would prefer more individualized help rather then the class, contact me so we can schedule a private virtual session.

To sign up for the class or get private help, you can send me an email at [email protected] or visit my website.

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:

1. Understand addiction from people with compulsive behaviors.
2. Learn how O.A. works.
3. Discover ways to tackle addiction from a spiritual perspective.

Resources

• Rational Recovery: The New Cure for Substance Addiction

• God of Our Understanding: Jewish Spirituality and Recovery from Addiction

• Radical Recovery

Episode Highlights Why Use Spirituality to Save Yourself from Compulsive Behaviors

Food addiction and binge eating are not that much different from other forms of addiction. For this reason, we can also learn from those who struggle with substance abuse or alcoholism.

In the book God of Our Understanding: Jewish Spirituality and Recovery from Addiction, the author talks about addiction's mysterious power and illness. He explains that most addicts cannot even understand why they cannot leave the thing destroying their lives. In this situation, it is time to try spiritual solutions.

Understanding Addiction from an Addicts' Perspective

The author studied addiction from a purely biological perspective. He then shares its relation to mental illness. He also observed a recovering addict who suddenly relapsed. He concluded that addiction is not biological, nor is it mental.

For an addict, food addiction is not the problem. Rather, it is a solution to feeling better. They continue because they have not found a better solution. People who compulsively eat do not eat out of fun but out of necessity.

Spiritual Awakening as a Solution to Addiction

From the start, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous presented a key statement which shaped the program: "and we prayed to whatever God we thought there was." Every human needs a spiritual connection.

Although many people can live without a spiritual connection, addicts without it are miserable and can become worse. Without having a spiritual awakening, some addicts turn back to their addiction.

Clients' Perspectives on OA

Betsy has clients who have both hated and loved their experience in O.A. This response may have depended on their personality, situation, or the feel and tone of their local group.

The OA literature consists of questions aimed at determining whether or not O.A. is for you.

Listen to the podcast for the details of these O.A. fundamentals and the concept of spirituality as a solution.

Tapping Into Your Inner Power

In the book, Radical Recovery, the author talks about the principles of a higher power and that we do not need a higher power to recover. Instead, we need a higher self that can tap into the power that lies within us.

To further explain, he uses a banana as a metaphor. A banana's outer layer is represented by different religious groups. He believes that the specific religion should not be the focal point. We should seek the inside of the banana for that sense of beingness.

Spiritual Energy as a Solution to Compulsive Behavior

The author of Radical Recovery says that there is no need to do the 12 steps in order. It may be better to engage in a daily practice of prayer and meditation.

This author sees a potential mental block with the belief that we are powerless over our addiction (this is a core belief in the 12 steps). Because you believe that you are powerless, you are bound to give in to your addiction. We are afraid to claim our power because of the risk of failure.

To avoid this thinking, it comes down to focus. By vigilance, we can guard our thoughts and train our spiritual muscle from obsessive thoughts. In this way, you will be able to connect to the God of your understanding.

Believing that You are Good Enough

If we believe that we are worthless, the shame and fear controls us and makes us shrink from life. To provide further insight, the author tells a story about an eagle who grew up with chickens. Unfortunately, this eagle dies without realizing his true potential. Visit the podcast for the rest of this story!

This story introduces the acronym S.O.A.R. for a guide on how to believe in yourself.

• Step out of your comfort zone
• Open your mind
• Accept everything about you
• Recover mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically

5 Powerful Quotes from this Episode

"I hate the word wrongs ... because I am a believer, strongly, that at any given minute in time we do the best that we can. … So in that moment, it's right to us when we're binging on food, it is the solution that is working. "

"If you focus on the banana, not the peel, that's when you can ask to access the ability to change fear into courage, to change resentment to forgiveness, to change anger into peace, to change self-pity into gratitude, to change lust to intimacy. "

"If you consider the amount of time that you spend on thinking about your addiction, and how to feed your addiction, and if you just decided to put that same amount of time into meditating, then you would be meditating for hours a day possibly. And therefore the phrase I don't have time is unacceptable."

"The greatest obstacle is our unwillingness to believe that we are powerful beings."

"If you are struggling, please get help. Your life on this planet is meant to be powerful. You're not meant to play small."

If you listened to the podcast and enjoyed it, please share and post a review!

My 10 week course can help you heal the shame that lies at the core of addiction. To enroll or to work with me privately you can email me at [email protected] or visit my website.

To making peace with eating,

Betsy

Our society values thinness very highly. We see it in the media, major industries, and in our culture. Thus, we internalize the need to be thin and work towards achieving that throughout our lives. But how far will you sacrifice your happiness to be thin? We tend to forget that we are more than how we think our body looks because of these false stereotypes.

In this episode, I discuss the core of the belief systems that drive binge eating and chronic dieting issues and debunk the concept that thinness brings happiness. Make sure to tune in to the full episode to keep your perspective in check about wanting to be thin. My discussion will help you take the first step in taking back your power to create balance in your mind.

I am now offering a 10-week virtual class

Give yourself a gift by enrolling in this transformative 10-week class. It will include pre-recorded videos, audio recordings, handouts, and membership in a Facebook community. It is packed with content and comes with a money back guarantee! You can't take this class and not begin to understand the roots of your eating habits that you might be frustrated with.

If you would prefer more individualized help, I am also available for this.

To sign up for the class or to get private help, you can send me an email at [email protected] or visit my website.

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:

1. Recognize the importance of our early childhood experiences on our present day value system. Where and when does the "importance" of being thin start?
2. Discover how you can shift your focus from wanting to be thin to seeking happiness.
3. Consider the connection between our spiritual being and our physical body.

Episode Highlights The "Importance" of Being Thin

Society values thinness very highly. It's in our standards of beauty, our culture, and our media. However, we have taken it out of balance to the point that we're hanging our life purpose to this one thread of thought. This thread can destroy the bigger picture of having a wonderful life and tapping into our gifts and real purpose.

Where It Starts

Wanting to be thin starts with the message we get as young children. Well-meaning parents present messages to children about body weight and food, either subtly or blatantly. They feel that they are fixing a problem, rooting from their personal fears, by doing this. Often parents see their children as extensions of themselves.

If you encounter these messages daily, you start to internalize the idea that there's something wrong with you if you don't have a particular body. Consider whether you might have misinterpreted these messages relating to being thin. Consider the idea that these conclusions might have been just confused thoughts with no basis in real truth. You're innocent. There was never anything wrong with you.

Remember, you don't need fixing if you are not thin; you are still enough.

Change Your Focus

Taking back your power and changing your focus does not mean you should stop caring about how you look. It also does not mean that you should ignore those times when your eating habits and in disarray. Taking back your power involves examining your belief system and recognizing that your attachment to being thin might have gotten out of hand. Part of freedom from body anxiety lies in the ability to find balance.

Joni Edelman's Story

There is no truth in the stereotype that being thin equates to being happy. This is what Joni Edelman shared in her article, How Do I Learn To Love My Body After Losing Weight? Her focus on thinness had her doing things she didn't like — from eating food she didn't enjoy to obsessing over every detail of her body.

Betsy talks about her article in the podcast. Joni reminds us that our happiness or sadness doesn't depend on how thin or fat our body is. Sometimes letting go of some things related to your weight can open doors to what matters regarding your happiness.

The world wants you to be thin and preys on your insecurities. Thin doesn't mean happy. Fat doesn't equate to unhappiness. If you want to really blow people's minds, be fat, healthy, and happy.

Creating Balance in Your Mindset

There's nothing wrong with losing weight. If you feel uncomfortable in your body, if you have medical issues, or if your body aches, it's okay to do things like exercise and change your diet. But you also have to hold the truth that you don't need to be thin to be happy.

If you hold tight to the belief that "I must be thin to be happy," or "I must be thin to have value," you will be out of balance in life. That belief will be a block for you.

You Are So Much More than Just a Physical Body

There is a powerful passage in the book A Course in Miracles that talks about our physical and spiritual being. A Course in Miracles is a course in changing from fear to love, in recognizing that our minds are run by our powerful ego. Your ego, in its arrogance, has convinced you that your body is you. But your body is a ripple in an ocean. Often, we think that our body is all that we are, but it is not — who we truly are is the powerful spiritual being inside our physical bodies.

5 Powerful Quotes from this Episode

"I am not a body; I am free."

"To set the record straight, can we please line up with the truth: if you are not thin, there is nothing wrong with you. If you are not thin, you are still enough. You don't need to be fixed, and it will have nothing to do with whether or not people would love you."

"Happiness does not require thinness; fatness does not presume sadness."

"10 pounds are insignificant when compared to my willingness to let some things go—to sit with my kids, to sleep. I'm happy. I'm fat, and I'm happy."

Byron Katie: "If I could have one prayer in life, it would be: Dear God, spare me from the approval, needing the approval of others. Amen."

Resources

• How Do I Learn To Love My Body After Losing Weight? By Joni Edelman
• A Course in Miracles by Helen Schucman

If you listened to the podcast and enjoyed it, please share and post a review!

Have any questions or want to schedule an appointment? You can email me at [email protected] or visit my website.

To making peace with eating,

Betsy

If you're struggling with binge eating, you've thought at least once that recovery is not possible. You fall short of your goals, and you think that's it. You can't possibly reach the other side anymore because of this one slip-up.

But sometimes, your body has a mind of its own and may not act in a way that aligns with your goals. But once you free yourself of this obsessive thinking, you'll discover that the hard days are part of the healing process and you need to trust it.

In this episode, I discuss how a lack of trust is one of the biggest blocks to success. I share tips on how to appreciate your food habits and restore your trust in your body and the recovery process.

Tune in to this episode if you want to learn how to challenge your thinking and live a happier, more hopeful life.

I am now offering a virtual 10-week CLASS!

The transformative class will include pre-recorded videos, audio recordings, handouts, membership in a Facebook community. It is packed with content. You can't take this class and not begin to understand the roots of your eating habits that you might be frustrated with. I am so confident that it will help you that I offer a money back guarantee!

If you would prefer more individualized help, contact me so we can schedule a private virtual session.

To sign up for the class or to get private help, you can send me an email at [email protected] or visit my website.

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full podcast episode:

1. Discover how to listen to your body and commit to the journey of intuitive eating.
2. Learn how to stay in the present tense and be mindful.
3. Find out how to challenge fear-based thoughts.

Episode Highlights The Biggest Block

Most people tend to be self-critical, mistakenly believing it's the only way to achieve their goals. However, countless behavioral studies show that negative self-talk makes people less likely to meet their goals.

Learn to relax your "should haves" around eating – be it your list of safe and unsafe foods, a designated time to eat, or all the rules you think you should follow. Entertain the possibility that you might be wrong and calm down long enough to listen closely to your body.

Trust Your Food Habits

When we talk about relaxing, it means trusting yourself around food and trying out some in your unsafe category in small quantities.

The trick is to be self-aware and stay present while eating. Give that cookie your full and undivided attention. Savor the flavors and the textures. Don't go too far off into the future or use the cookie to disassociate from your body. Direct your thoughts to the present moment and the current experience of eating.

Once you're done, slow down and appreciate the food. Over time, you can learn to trust yourself enough to sit around "scary" foods and eat normal-sized portions with no guilt.

Correcting False Beliefs

One or two cookies aren't enough to tip the scales, nor are there any magic foods that will make you fat or thin. When you obsessively follow the rules down to the tiniest detail, you'll only end up being frustrated.

Sometimes, your body may not give you the outcome you expected due to various physiological factors at play. It's impossible to know for sure how your body is going to react. Don't spend too much time worrying about that number on the scale that you're not available for all the other good things in life.

Understand that some things are outside your control. To demand certainty and not get it in return, can be quite stressful. Don't give power to those numbers on the scale — embrace the uncertainty and don't forget to relax into the process of life.

Remember the Basics

Sometimes, the problem is not the food itself but the fear of it. So, eat only when you're physically hungry. Eat what your body is craving and stop once you're satisfied. Remember: you can always have more later since eating is not a one-time thing.

If you're not hungry, don't eat your feelings. Allow yourself to feel the entire spectrum of emotions. No amount of numbing through food will satisfy your body when you repress what is supposed to be felt.

Trust the Process

When you embark on this journey, know that it's not instantaneous. It's not as easy as snapping your fingers and being done with it.

Every once in a while, you may fall back into your bad habits. As long as you're going in the right direction, that's fine. There's no need to punish yourself for that small, temporary weight gain. Along the process, you're sure to gain more knowledge and freedom about yourself that can last a lifetime.

Why Values Weigh More

When you look at the people you love or admire, their weight is hardly the first thing that matters to you. It's their values or qualities that make them stand out.

You're the same person even if you're plus or minus 10 or 20. When you go on this journey, you'll realize that the number on the scale is insignificant in the greater scheme of things. You are more than just a number.

Trust in Life

To trust in life means to quiet the destructive thoughts in your head. Consider the possibility that these may not be accurate. Question them relentlessly and challenge the beliefs that are not serving you in this journey. With awareness and clarity, take control of your mind and start looking at things in a different light.

Sometimes, bad things can bring the most value. It's in our darkest times that we learn and understand ourselves. Only when you let go and trust life in those awful moments can you grow stronger. Trust that everything will make sense, and life happens for your benefit, even if it doesn't appear that way right now.

5 Powerful Quotes from this Episode

"If you can allow yourself to just put one foot in front of the other and trust the process, trust life, and trust your body for a lot of you, then I really think it can be a game-changer."

"You can't be mindful if your thoughts are in the future or you can't be mindful if your thoughts are shut off, and you're not even thinking."

"Sometimes it's not the food or the weight; it's the fear."

"The rule of thumb is if you're not hungry physically, but you want to eat, then feel. Allow yourself to feel. You won't die. You need to feel. No amount of numbing is going to satisfy the body's need to feel."

"Aren't you the same person plus or minus 10, or 20, or 30, or even 50, or whatever?"

If you listened to the podcast and enjoyed it, please share and post a review!

Have any questions or want to schedule an appointment? You can email me at [email protected] or visit my website.

To making peace with eating,

Betsy