My free Truce with Food community call is Tuesday, Aug 1 at 2 pm EST. This month will be an open Q&A. Sign up instantly here.
Drum roll…Why Am I Eating This Now? (WAIETN) Live is back! I didn’t have the capacity to run it last year but what a difference a year makes. Registration is September 11-18. We begin September 20. More details soon.
Last month, inspired by The New York Times’ Food Noise piece, I shared why food noise makes sense and addressed its’ physical root-cause. Today, I’ll address its’ emotional roots.
In the Times’ piece, Kelsey Ryan shared that Ozempic helped her eliminate “internal negotiations about whether to eat in front of other people, wondering if they’ll judge her for eating fried chicken or if ordering a salad makes it look like she’s trying too hard.”
In other words, all the worry about whether she would look bad for her food choices was eliminated. This food noise is driven by a need for belonging, not satiation.
Emotionally-driven food noise is not exclusive to food choices. Anytime we worry about looking or being bad, food noise escalates (if food is our thing). Because food is safety. And safety is a primal need.
In Kelsey’s example, my bet, based on personal and professional experience, is that her internal negotiations are at the root, about feeling inadequate. Therefore, food noise will arise anytime Kelsey feels inadequate because…
Emotional food noise shows up when you feel separate.
Both with food and in “spicey” areas of your life.
It’s when you’re at a family gathering and feel separate because you couldn’t break through to your Mother-in-law so you eat when you return home.
It’s when you’re out to dinner with a friend and you feel separate because you compare yourself to her body and life and you don’t come out even or ahead.
It’s when you can’t get everything done, including not having time to enjoy meals, and feel separate because you’re always behind and food is a way of rewarding yourself for all your hard-work.
By identifying the roots of your food noise triggers and working through them, you dissolve this sense of separateness you feel in your life, food choices included. Otherwise, you’ll continue to turn to food because belonging is non-negotiable.
While belonging the first 18 years of your life revolved around being chosen by caretakers, teachers, peers, and God (even for the non-religious), a more resilient and satisfying belonging you can cultivate as an adult involves choosing yourself first.
This type of safety means being a great friend to yourself and having your own back. Whether you want pizza (or not), you want to change your career, or slow down. This involves honoring your needs and desires. And treating yourself well when the scale and life are challenging.
Your emotional food noise decreases in direct proportion to the amount of “I choose” satisfaction you feel when working through the four emotional food noise triggers. No white knuckling food required.
And this sense of safety is what offers the food freedom, sustainable, and life-changing results you want. As Shelley, a WAIETN alumni said of her own triumph in upgrading her source of safety, “I wish I could bottle this feeling up and give it to everyone.”
Ozempic cannot inject this relief or satisfaction. It’s an inside job where you have to put in the reps. (And I’m not implying Ozempic is the easy way out because I think it’s a very hard route to take, especially when it comes to sustainability and lasting food freedom).
Curious about the four emotional triggers that generate your emotional food noise? Take the first step with this free 5-minute coaching exercise.
And if you have any questions about food noise or the next step on your food and body journey, come to our free community call next week. And consider WAIETN Live this Fall.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Limited replay available for those who cannot make the live call.
Be Well,
P.S. WAIETN Live will run this year. Registration runs September 11-18 and we begin September 20.
P.P.S. If you’re a practitioner who wants to confidently go deeper with clients on their emotional food noise (and subsequent falling off track), are finding some holes in your coach training (especially around sustainability), and/or want to have a solid change structure you can use to create impactful and scalable group programs like WAIETN, my ICF-certified, trauma informed Truce Coaching Certification is worth a look. It opens for registration September 19 – October 6. Register here for our monthly Health Coaching Disruptor Hour call which will also get you on the Interest list.
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