In this week’s episode I had an enlightening conversation with Marc David from the Institute for the Psychology of Eating. Marc shares his insight into your relationship with the experience of eating. Willpower is not the only factor contributing to failed dieting,  there is a biological and psychological influence to your eating behaviors and the first step to breaking free from that is awareness! 

Marc encourages you to recognize where your bad eating habits started and points out how common it is that these habits start in adolescence. Sometimes, the associations you make when you are a child end up  hijacking your impulses as you experience stress. If you are always rushing through dinner and never pausing to enjoy your food you subconsciously will crave more and more based off these associations of food being an escape from everything that is stressful in your life.. 

Marc explains that digestion begins in the brain, it is the anticipation, the full experience from thought, to cooking, to sitting down to enjoy the food that satisfies a craving; so without that, you live in perpetual longing. Emotional eating is rooted in dissatisfaction, so really giving yourself the time to experience the pleasure of eating can really change your relationship with food. Ultimately, creating passion, outside of food, in your day to day life will alleviate the temptation of emotional eating.

 

Key Takeaways:

[3:10] Knowing the difference between Biological or a Psychological problem

[4:30] Which archetype within you is steering you towards instant gratification?

[5:57] The rebel in us needs a cause, find a good place to put that energy

[9:45] How do I make better choices when I am bored: Invite awareness and find an alternative

[15:19] Cortisol will desensitize you to pleasure

[21:40] Sitting down and experiencing the pleasure of eating

[27:27] Digestion begins in the mind

[33:25] Tackling emotional eating by creating more passion in your life

[35:02] Our relationship with food connects us to our lineage

[42:30] Transitioning into Menopause: What are you letting go of and what are you embracing into the future

Resources:

https://psychologyofeating.com/

https://www.youtube.com/c/Psychologyofeating

Memorable Quotes:

“ If you can just notice, When did it first start for me? There is a good chance That that’s the young person that we are invoking often times when we are making food choices that go against our own wishes.”  [7:22] 

 

“In that state of anxiety, my brain takes over, my primitive physiology takes over and I want to seek pleasure. I want to be out of pain and we need something to take us out of pain in the moment and I think what happens is the mind instinctively goes to food.”  [13:46] 

 

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