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November 29, 2025 12 mins

Do you find yourself trapped in a cycle of labeling everything as "good" or "bad," "right" or "wrong," especially when it comes to food and your body? 

Join us for the fourth episode of our series 5 Signs Your Food Struggles Actually Have NOTHING To Do With Food, where we tackle the pervasive mindset of black-and-white thinking. 

We'll explore how this rigid mentality permeates every aspect of your life, fostering feelings of guilt, shame, and restriction. Tune in as we uncover the detrimental effects of this binary, all-or-nothing approach and provide strategies to embrace a more nuanced and balanced perspective.

HOSTS:

Amy Brown // RadioAmy.com // @RadioAmy

Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @leanneellington

To learn more about re-wiring your brain to heal from the all-or-nothing diet mentality for good....but WITHOUT restricting yourself, punishing your body, (and definitely WITHOUT ever having to use words like macros, low-carb, or calorie burn) check out Leanne's FREE Stressless Eating Webinar @ www.StresslessEating.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I won't let my body out outwait everything that I'm
made done, won't spend my life trying to change.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm learning to love who I am again. Strong, I
feel free, I know every part of me. It's beautiful.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
And then will always out way if you feel it.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
But you.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
She'll some love to the mood. Why get there, Let's
take you one day, Anita? Did you and die out way?

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Happy Saturday, outweigh Amy here and I've got Land by
my side. We are working through a five part series
called five Signs Your food struggles actually have nothing to
do with food, and we are on sign number four,
week number four. So last Saturday was three, the one
before that was two, and the Saturday before that was
Signed number one. If you miss them, go back and listen.

(00:56):
But sign number four. I love Signed number four that
your food struggles actually have nothing to do with food
because it's a black and white thinking and there are
so many things in my life where I was black
and white, and I love living in the gray and
in fact, when Lisa Hayme and I started Outweigh, we
were covering the gray area and our tagline is a

(01:17):
life without disordered eating Outweighs Everything and we wanted to
talk about the gray area that not a lot of
people were talking about at the time. And this was
a couple of years ago, and our first piece of
artwork was black and white. Yep, we took black and
white photos and then we made the whole thing kind
of gray. And I love living in the gray. It's

(01:37):
a really good place to live.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, especially like when you're talking about the extremism that
comes up, you know, And so the sign and symptoms
to kind of look out for is if you notice
yourself saying words like good, bad, right, wrong, should, shouldn't healthy, unhealthy,
you know, supposed to, not supposed to, shouldn't have this,
should have this, all of those things. And it's not
just food, right. It could be your it could be movements,

(02:01):
it could be you know, habits. I don't know, but
there's an extremism that we want to really get intentional about.
You know, we talked about this last week as well,
and as you're learning, there's so much crossover for all
of these but it's that black or white, all or nothing,
but then the always never as well, or like you know,
I'm never going to do this or I'm always going
to do this, and so again, if the first thing

(02:23):
that comes to your mind is food, like maybe it
applies more for food, but this is for everything. And
so when I say, like, food is not the problem,
this is where again we're just getting really nitty gritty
in these distinctions. This is a languaging thing, right, this
is the way. And remember our thoughts create everything, right,
and so how you believe about food? And I'm going

(02:44):
to totally endorse the episodes that we did a couple
weeks ago where if the alternative to not being on
something scares you, let's talk about that, because that was
the case for me. It's like, wait a minute, if
I'm not using this language right, if I'm not using
terms like good, bad, right, wrong, should shouldn't help the unhealthy,
you know. And then it comes down to like, you know,
carbs are good or bad, fats are good or bad,

(03:05):
and we become carb phobic, fat phobic, we become food phobic.
Food becomes a fear, right, Like I have a client
who shares she's like, I used to be afraid of
any food, whether it was celery or a cookie. Like
it doesn't just mean these you know, processed foods or whatever.
And then it's you know, my body looks good or
my body looks bad. And that's the PG thirteen version, right,
if you want to hear about the nitty gritty of like,

(03:25):
what's the alternative to the black and white thinking? If
not being in the black and white scares the living
daylights out of you like it did for me and
like it does for so many of my clients, because
we think, like if I'm not thinking this, I'm going
to go off the deep end, because really it's a
false sense of control. We think we're in control, yet
ironically the more we try to control it, the more
out of control we feel.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
It's a fake sense of control.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Right, So definitely, if you want to hear, there's an
entire five step process I teach you to get into
the nitty gritty of that. It was actually a two
part episode before this series, but that being said, really
getting in your mind's eye about noticing and becoming aware
of the good, bad, the right, wrong, the should, shouldn't.
And then the first step is honestly awareness and I
know that's not sexy, right. We want to have a replacement,

(04:08):
and so that's why I said check out that other episode,
but part of.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
It is just noticing that.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Let's just say metaphorically, you've learned how to speak Spanish,
and that we'll call the diet mentality Spanish. Right, the
good bad, the carbs are good, fats are bad. Whatever
it is, right, and probably the opposite. Right. But if
you want to go think a different way about food,
you have to learn a new language, right, you have
to learn the language of freedom. But again without going

(04:33):
over to that other side where you feel out of control.
And so what happens, and this is unconscious and subconscious,
and that's why we want to talk about it so
that it becomes conscious. Is we think that if we're
not on something, we're going to go off the deep
end and eat everything in sight, gain a bunch of
weight fill in the blank. And for some people intuitive
eating and mindful eating works, but for a lot of

(04:55):
us it really fell short because it's like, wait a minute,
my ticker's broken.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
That's what I thought about myself. I'm like, this isn't
a hunger scale issue.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
I'm not hungry when I'm eating ninety percent of the
time or when I'm over eating ninety percent of the time. Right,
So that's why this is the conversation that needs to
be had if like things like intuitive eating or mindful
eating never worked for you because your intuition made you
feel out of control. But what I'm not saying is this, Okay,
what I'm not saying is, right now, if black, white, good, bad,
all or nothing thinking is your sense of control and

(05:25):
the language that you're speaking. I'm not saying, like, take
it away and don't replace it with anything, because that's
often what the kind of intuitive language does, because it
does replace it with like a logic and reason based answer,
when again, ninety percent of our overeating isn't logic and reasonable.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
It's emotional, it's unconscious, it's subconscious.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Right, So what I'm not saying is just stop using black, white, good,
right wrong labels and don't replace it with a new
language that sets you up for freedom or teaches your
brain how to make better decisions around food that serve you.
So I'm not saying don't replace it. What I'm saying
is replace it with a new language, right, And that
that's where people fall short. They say, Okay, I'm going
on the whole non dieting, or I'm ditching dieting like.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
It's very in vogue, which I'm all for.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
But then again, if you don't replace that way of
thinking and teach your brain like a new language, and
it wouldn't serve me to try to explain it in
ten minutes, you know. But I did dedicate two episodes
to it a couple of weeks ago to explain the
intricacies of that. It's one of those things you have
to replace it with something or else. Your brain is
going to rely on what it knows, which is that paradigm,
which if you're anything like me, I mean I started
learning that language at seven eight years old.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
Oh wow, then that's really hard to break.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah, if you don't replace it. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
And then the episodes before this series started is what
you're talking about, can walk through people how to replace
it exactly.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
And today was really just about that awareness of the good, bad,
the right, wrong, the should shouldn't because what that is
again it looks like we have no willpower, but we're
setting ourselves up for failure because that whole paradigm, that
whole language is the problem.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
Food's not the problem.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
Your ability to not control yourself around the food is
not the problem.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
It's the language. It's the thing that causes that.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
And you know, last week we talked about the actual
planner program. Right the week before that, we talked about
this idea that you've just lost trust in yourself. So
even if you had the perfect plan and program, you
don't trust yourself. And the week before that, it's that
open loop of like, Okay, I'm putting a band ait
on a bigger problem. And that's where this black and
white thinking. I purposely put it like downstream as signed
symptom number four, because we've got to become aware of

(07:23):
that bigger picture stuff before we just get into the language.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
You know, I talked about that I had black and
white thinking in other areas too, and living nearly gray.
I think that this can serve you in so many
other ways. I know, even as a refresher for me.
I'm sitting here thinking of the way I was with
my kids this week, where I got very black and
white about something that I should have been more gray about.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Yeah, but it's because I was stuck.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
I mean, that was my default, and I went there
and I didn't want to budge for whatever reason.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
For sure, he was a little hormonal.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
I feel down that, But at the same time, I
think I have compassion for myself total and knowing that
that's okay. At least I have that awareness right now
that I did that, and next time, I know that
I can be a little more gray with some of
the stuff that we were talking about, yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
Or even just accurate, you know, Like I caught myself
the last week in my head, I was having an
argument with somebody in my head, and I heard myself
say they always do that, and then I was like, actually,
that's not true.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
This happened this one time.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
Maybe twice, but they don't always do that, so or
like you never do that for me or whatever. So
we're even using always a never to like accuse somebody
of a pattern, and it comes back to the whole
data drama. Like even saying that you always do that
or I never do that, it's drama.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
The data is, well, actually I didn't do it this.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
Time, and yeah, I technically didn't do it last time either,
but like I did do it that one time, so
it's not an always never, so it could even be
like the gray, but also the data like getting really
like truthful about the reality of the situation.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
Thing I just felt convicted about something else my head
of you know, my co parent got divorced last year,
and my ex husband can be very black and white
and more than me.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
Like, way, he's always black and white, I'm never blacked.

Speaker 3 (09:15):
I did have that thought the other day when we
were having a conversation about something, and in my head,
I was thinking, Oh, he's always this way, He's always
black and white, when the truth is he has come
so far and worked so hard to not be that
way that of course it still pops up. And hello,
it's still popping up for me. But I literally just

(09:36):
said that in my mind about him when we were
on the phone about something, and I'm like, here we
go again.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
Of course he's always been this way. He always never
going to change.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
Yeah, and when the data is that there's actually so
many examples I can think of in the last six
or seven months where I've been taken aback by his grayness.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
Absolutely. And that's the thing.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
When you're convicted of something, it's just like an awareness
of like, oh, I'm out of a alignment or whatever.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
So I'm constantly convicting myself.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
And that's what I love about this work, is like
you can have an awareness of something that's not happening,
and when you relinquish shame about it. It can just
be data. So I love that you called that out
where of like I feel convicted because I'm raising my hand.
I'm like, I convict myself all the time because it is.
It's you know, it's so much easier said than done.
I know it's easy to come on this podcast and
listen and be like, oh that's so much easier so
than done.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
It's a practice. It does take commitment.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
I talk about the exact process of that in those episodes.
But just again, like you were, you know, you were
just sharing an exemplifying give yourself grace and when you
feel convicted, let it just be to anybody, you know.
I know for me, I like, just let it be
a little nudge of like okay, there's something I want
to explore about and get curious.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
So I love that you just brought that up.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
Well, And there was an article the other day about
words you should never say to your partner, and it's like,
you should never say these words, and it's like words
like you never do this or you always do that,
but really you should never say that. That's an appropriate
time to use never, right, But yet we are all
likely guilty of saying that, especially in the moment. But
if you think about it, to maintain a healthy relationship

(11:01):
with your partner or people, or your coworkers or people
in your life, you shouldn't use that language.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
Then you also shouldn't use that language to yourself. Yeah. Absolutely,
what just came to my mind. And I love this.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
You know, so many times I'll hear from my stressul
seating clients they're likely inn everything I've done has had
nothing to do with food. Yet I don't have this
food struggle anymore. And that's what I really want everyone
to understand. I know, I know, when we're in the
throes of that food and body prison, we feel like
we are just a slave to it.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
Like it owns us, it controls us.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
But really, when you become a better version of yourself
and you focus on becoming mentally, emotionally, three dimensionally healthy
and happy first, and then bring that version of you
into your relationship with food, you'll find how little your
relationship or your.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Struggles with food has to do with food. Food really
is just the symptom.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
And that's what brings us back to you know, last
week we were talking about if you are spending un
goodly amounts of time thinking about food, thinking about your
body again.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
And I know it feels like a food problem, but
it's not.

Speaker 3 (12:02):
And you can go back and listen to those weeks
if you miss them. Next Saturday, we'll be signed five
And Liann, where can people find you?

Speaker 1 (12:10):
Liann Ellington over on Instagram. And if you want to
turn off the part of your brain obsessed with food,
head on over to Stressless Eating dot com and.

Speaker 3 (12:17):
We will see you next Saturday.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
Bye.
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Amy Brown

Amy Brown

Leanne Ellington

Leanne Ellington

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