March 10, 2025 • 30 mins
Discover the transformative power of intuitive eating in this engaging episode of the Barrier Busting Podcast, with special guest, registered dietitian Heather Fiore, of Free State Nutrition. She'll invite you to explore the importance of listening to your body’s hunger signals and understanding the critical difference between overeating and binge eating.
Join us as we unpack common dietary habits and the psychological factors influencing our relationship with food. With expert insights from our guest we illuminate the pathway to healthier eating practices. Learn how to disrupt unhealthy cycles through intentionality and mindfulness and what it means to cultivate a balanced approach to food.
We also shed light on nutritional science, discussing the role of fiber in our diets and the controversy surrounding fad diets. Tune in for practical tips that invite you to challenge the status quo of your eating habits, leading to profound long-term health improvements. Most of all, Heather encourages (and empowers) us to celebrate the joy of eating, without the guilt!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Are you feeling stuck ?
Is something holding you back?
Are there obstacles in your way?
Well, let's smash through thoseobstacles so that you can live
your best life.
Hi, I'm Matt Brooks, founder ofMatt Brooks Coaching, and I'm
fascinated with how peopleovercome barriers and achieve
success.
Join me for insights,strategies and inspiring stories
(00:34):
as we explore practical tipsand powerful tools to unlock
your full potential.
This is the Barrier BustingPodcast.
Well, hello and welcomeeveryone to yet another Barrier
(00:57):
Busting Podcast in which we aretalking about habits.
This is actually part five of aseries on habits and I'm very,
very happy to bring back myguest from last week.
Just to recap, the first showwas about how habits are formed
in our brains.
The second show was about howwe develop new habits.
The third show was about badhabits and last week we started
(01:18):
a very interesting discussionwith a registered dietitian who
is back to talk to us againtoday.
My guest again is Heather Fiore.
She is a registered dietitianin private practice in Lawrence
Kansas, although she is alsolicensed to work over telehealth
through several states.
You can check that out on herwebsite, which is
(01:39):
freestatenutritioncom.
She holds a degree innutritional science from Cornell
and a degree in healtheducation from SUNY Brockport
and, as I mentioned the lasttime, she and her family are the
proud owners of a pet beardeddragon.
Welcome back, heather.
It's great to see you again.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Hi, matt, good to see you too.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Now, before we get into the topic, let's take just
a quick break and talk about theBearded Dragon thing for a
second.
Sure, how long have you had?
Well, first of all, what's theBearded Dragon's name?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Well, she's had a number of names.
None of them really stuck andwe just call her Beardy now.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Beardy, she is eight years old.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, she's eight, and fun fact about her is that
we just had our oldest child isa senior in high school and
senior photos are a big dealhere, not like the East Coast,
where you go on location, youchange outfits, it's like a
whole thing.
And she just brought herbearded dragon to her photo
(02:36):
shoot yesterday and it was quiteadorable.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Oh my God, that's awesome.
Are they tough to deal with andtake care of?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
No, she's so chill.
She doesn't like one of ourcats.
Well, one of our cats just died, but no, it's okay, she was.
She was sick, it's okay.
But yeah, the bearded dragoncould clearly you could tell she
didn't like that one cat whowas kind of mean, but otherwise
she's very chill.
She doesn't like run around toofast or she just kind of hangs.
(03:04):
She's, she's great.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
That's so cool.
That's very cool Never havingone in my house, but that's very
cool.
I knew someone who also had apet monkey in the fifties, who
lived in Soho, in the city, andhad a pet monkey like just
freely roaming around her houseor her uh, whatever it was, or
whatever.
Yeah, um, all right, we'd leftoff.
(03:28):
Left off last time teeing upthe idea of binge eating.
Let's talk about something youmentioned to me, which is the
difference between hunger andfullness.
Talk about hunger and fullness,if you don't mind.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yes, it sounds like such a basic concept like listen
to your hunger.
You know, eat when you'rehungry, stop when you're full,
and it is much more difficultfor a lot of us than it seems
like it should be.
We just are not trained orencouraged to listen to these
(03:59):
signals and a lot of times we'retrained to try to avoid them or
put them off, particularlyhunger, you know, we just.
You know, there's all thesetricks of like oh, maybe you're
not hungry, you're probably justthirsty, like, drink some water
, wait 20 minutes.
You know, do this and do thatin order to avoid eating, when
in fact you might just be hungryand you should probably just
(04:22):
eat some food.
But we just have all these tipsthat tell us, you know, oh,
don't listen to your body.
You know, follow this scheduleof like here's when to eat or
here's when to not eat andhere's how much food you should
have.
You know, all this stuff, allthe sort of diets or meal or
plans or wellness or whateverthey call it out there, all the
(04:42):
programs are training you tojust do a certain thing follow
the rules instead of listen, andyour body actually knows when
you're hungry.
Your body knows also how muchfood you need to eat.
So if you listen you will get asignal of fullness, but we just
tend to blow past it for avariety of reasons.
(05:03):
But we just if we could listenmore often, it would just be a
lot easier.
For us.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Well, I think this is really important and in
particular, because most of usdon't understand what it means
when people like you say listento your body.
Do you know what I mean?
To be honest, we don'tunderstand because we, you know,
we have our stomachs and ourbrains and they're often working
in conflict with each other.
How do we listen to our body toknow when we're full?
That may seem like a sillyquestion to some people.
(05:32):
I'm sure there's some listenersout there going, oh, he's just
shut up.
But I think a lot of us reallydon't know what we're listening
for.
Help us with that.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Right, yes, and that is one of the things that I
spend a decent amount of time onwith my clients, separately,
talking about hunger andfocusing on that and then
focusing on fullness, and, youknow, asking a lot of probing
questions about what are thecues, how do you know when it's
time to stop eating?
Sometimes I ask it that way IfI say, like, oh, how do you know
when you're full, people arelike, oh, I don't know what you
(06:03):
mean, because sometimes fullthey think is a bad thing.
Like, oh, if I'm full, thatmeans I ate too much, and they
stop eating basically when theirfood is gone.
Right, that's their usual cue.
Well, the meal time is over.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
When the bag of chips is empty, right.
When the bag of chips is emptyright.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Correct, correct.
So instead, you know, let'sthink about what are some, what
are some signals your body givesyou.
Sometimes I've had a few peoplemention you know that there's.
They're going along eatingtheir meal and then all of a
sudden they sigh and they kindof lean back and they just
figure, oh, I'm just taking abreak and then I'm going to dig
(06:40):
back in and it might be yourbody saying I think I'm finished
, you know, like that littlesigh is a tip and you missed it
because there's still food there.
So it just depends, foreverybody it feels different.
Sometimes it's like, oh, thefood doesn't taste quite as good
anymore.
Or, yeah, I could keep eating,but I don't really need to.
(07:02):
Or maybe there's a physicalsensation in the stomach.
But it's really aboutconnecting the brain and the
body, right, like the brain issaying like oh, this food's
delicious, keep going.
The brain does not care whathappens beyond the mouth.
Right, it's like this tastesgood, keep it coming, but your
stomach has a different idea.
This tastes good, keep itcoming, but your stomach has a
(07:24):
different idea.
So it's like opening thecommunication.
Use that big brain of yours tofind out what your stomach is
saying, not just think, oh,food's good.
I should eat more.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah, and you know, I'm glad you said that too,
because in my series on habits,one of the things about bad
habits is that the brain doesnot distinguish or discriminate
between good and bad habits.
The brain, the basal ganglia,records behaviors and turns them
into automated habits.
I call it the human automationapp, right?
It automates our behaviors andit does not care if it's good or
(07:55):
bad.
It makes no determination there.
It's just going to record thathabit and you are stuck with it,
right?
And so it's the same thing here.
The brain just wants more ofthat.
You know, more chips, right?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Or whatever, we're having a good time, let's go.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
What's give it?
Give us a little bit from yourperspective of the difference
between binge eating andovereating.
There is a difference, right?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yes, absolutely.
Overeating is really just thesimple matter of when you've
eaten more food than your, thanyour body really needs.
It's not what your brain thinksis overeating.
Because of our conditioning,our brains might have various
ideas about what's too much foodjust based on oh well, it's not
a portion, so it must be.
(08:37):
I overate, but overeating isreally.
You know, you're full to thepoint of uncomfortable.
You might want to open up yourpants or put on some sweatpants,
or you're just feeling a littlebit nauseous or whatever You're
like.
I wish I could take a few bitesout of there because I went too
far.
That's overeating.
And binging is a much morecompulsive.
(09:03):
And, you know, out of controltype of eating where you've
really eaten a larger volume ina relatively short period of
time.
Usually and you know you maynot register fullness.
Frankly, in these situations,because you're just so
(09:24):
dissociated, you're just goingthrough the motions of doing
this thing.
Again, there could be a varietyof reasons why someone is doing
it, but it's not just like oh,this food's really delicious, I
think I'll binge on it.
It's not, you know, there's nothought, it's just, it just
happens.
And then you're like whoa, whathappened?
What did I do?
Speaker 1 (09:43):
And that's the point of habits is there's no thought.
It's all automated, so youdon't think about it.
And you know I've talked abouthabits from the perspective of
you know everything from.
You know simple things likewhat foot you put a shoe on
first in the morning to how youshop in a grocery store.
I mean one of the things that Ifound interesting in this one
(10:06):
book that I've referred to a lot.
It's called Atomic Habits byJames Clear, which is a
fantastic book I can't recommendenough to people.
But one thing it said was ifyou feel your eating habits are
not good, if you want to makechanges there, shop at a
different grocery store.
Because if you go to the samegrocery store you're in the same
(10:26):
habits.
There's certain habitualbehaviors.
You're going to go down thesame aisles the same way.
You go to a different grocerystore, everything's moved
slightly different, it's indifferent locations.
It's going to force you tothink more than just act out of
habit.
Do you agree with that?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Does that make sense to you?
Yes, it really does.
And I will add to that becausea lot of folks, since the COVID
lockdown and you know peoplestarted ordering online and then
people are like, oh, this isgreat, I never have to go to the
.
Some people have not returnedto the grocery store and they
just re-up their order everyweek.
And if you want to do somethingdifferent, that is not the way.
(11:04):
You're just ordering the samething over and over, You're
missing out on who knows what'sout there in the store.
Yeah, and so I would add notjust go to a different store,
but go to a store if you'resomebody who's ordering online.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah Well, you also get.
If you're one of those peopleobsessed with 10,000 steps a day
, you're going to get a lot moresteps if you go to the grocery
store right.
So we talked last time a littlebit and I think it fits in with
this topic of overeating andbinging and all that about
unhealthy eating habits,skipping meals in the morning
and you know, eventually you'rereally hungry late at night.
(11:41):
What are some tips for breakingthose kinds of habits like
snacking late at night orskipping meals?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yes, and I think for one, you do have to explore your
personal reasons for doing it.
You know, for the purpose ofthis discussion I'm kind of
making an assumption that youknow the person is, you know,
skipping breakfast and, you know, not eating much lunch, trying
to get away with as little foodas possible.
And then you know, sort of, asthe day goes on and their
(12:11):
willpower decreases, you know,they eat more food and their
body is like trying to get themto eat the food because they're
really hungry.
And there's that part wherethey're saying, oh, I shouldn't
do that.
So then they do it again andmore.
So interrupting could happenanywhere along the process.
Really, you could start bysaying, like, all right, today's
(12:32):
the day I'm going to starttrying to eat some breakfast and
see if I can have a differentday.
So you might start at thebeginning of the day, you might
start, you know, in the evening,or sometimes I'll tell people
if they're really not eatingmuch during the day, during work
, and then they get homestarving.
What if you either have a snackbefore you leave work or
(12:52):
something, even in the car?
Like you know, it's not greatto be eating food in the car
when you're sort of you knowmindless about it, but maybe
that would help you get home andhave a different outcome.
You know you're not quite asstarving, so now you can come
home and maybe start cookingdinner instead of running
through the drive-thru.
(13:13):
Or maybe you know you're nothaving this big snack while
you're cooking or whatever.
You know, it's just a way tointerrupt that habit, so that
might be the place to intervene.
Or maybe it's lunch, or maybeyou need to add more snacks
during your day, or maybe youliterally start with your
evening of like.
If you're somebody that takesthe bag of chips and you sit
(13:34):
down in front of the TV, I don'tknow.
Do people still watch TV?
Some people, I guess.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Some of us do.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I don't know what people do.
Maybe they're on their phones,but if you're sitting there with
your food, with your activity,whether it's your phone or your
TV, interrupt that right, Saylike, well, I can watch TV or I
can eat my snack, but I'm notgoing to do those two things
together.
And now I have to decide do Iwant this snack or do I want the
(14:02):
TV?
And that might just cause alittle bit of disruption for you
to decide like, oh, I actuallydon't really need this snack
that much.
Or oh, yeah, I actually amreally hungry.
I'm going to go sit down andeat something, but now you're a
little more intentional about it.
So it's like just break thatcycle somewhere anywhere in the
process.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
It's actually some of the advice given by James Clear
in his book that I've talkedabout it.
But if you want to breakcertain habits, change the
environment, change the cues,all that sort of thing, so again
, read it real quick before wego to a quick break.
I'm one of those people whojust does not want to eat in the
morning, and so years ago Istarted forcing myself to like
eat a banana just to getsomething in my stomach, or eat
(14:44):
a little, a few forkfuls ofcottage cheese or a little
yogurt.
But I don't enjoy it.
I'm not hungry in the morning.
What advice do you have forpeople like me, because eating
breakfast is important, butthere are those I just, I just
don't want to eat.
So what, what?
What thoughts do you have onthat?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think if you can start withsomething a little, you know,
pretty small, and maybe you staythere right, maybe maybe you
eat the banana and and you neverprogress into, like you know,
whatever real breakfast is, youknow that's breakfast is.
You know that's still somethingthat you you've provided a
little brain food which itdidn't have before.
So I think there's value inthat, but it maybe, you know,
(15:25):
maybe you try something likeliquid nutrition.
You know some people like tomake a smoothie or like a
protein shake or something, andthat feels easier to get down
than food when you're not hungry.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
So the advice is don't drink your breakfast is
not necessarily you know it's.
You can drink your breakfast ifyou're someone who just doesn't
want to eat Right.
Good, because I do take proteinshakes in the morning just to
get something down.
So, thank you, you've made mefeel better about myself.
I appreciate that we're goingto take a quick break and we
will be right back with Heather.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Feeling overwhelmed, Struggling to find balance in
your daily life?
At Matt Brooks Coaching, we getit and we can help.
With over 25 years of nonprofitexecutive experience and an MSW
with a clinical focus, MattBrooks offers personalized
coaching designed to help yourise above your challenges and
live your best life.
(16:22):
Whether you aim to advance yourcareer, enhance your skills or
simply find more clarity andpeace, Matt is here to be your
partner and ally.
Visit mattbrookscoachingcom tobook your free discovery session
today.
Take the first step towards abrighter tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Okay, we're back.
Let's talk a little bit aboutthe effects of diet on the brain
and, in particular, about thisreally become controversial
topic of intermittent fasting.
Right, that's been all the rage.
I mean, king Charles is famousfor never eating lunch, so he
(17:05):
sort of was one of the earlyproponents of intermittent
fasting, but that's turning outto maybe not be the best idea.
Talk about effects of diet onthe brain and how intermittent
fasting comes into play with allthat, please.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
So intermittent fasting is not a monolith right.
There are lots of ways to do it, and sometimes it's just like
shortening your eating window ina day, right, it could just
mean, okay, so you, instead offasting for eight to 10 hours,
maybe fast for 12 hoursovernight or, I don't know,
maybe fast for 16 hours.
But intermittent fasting couldalso mean, um, like taking a
(17:45):
couple of days where you onlylike throughout the week, where
you only eat 500 calories, andthen other days you eat more or
whatever.
So it really um, it's, I think,hard to study because people
have all these differentinterpretations of what.
Does it even mean to do this?
Some of the research shows like, oh, it's great for insulin
resistance or it's, you know,longevity or whatever, that
(18:09):
there's potentially benefits forsome folks, depending on which
form of this we're talking about.
But I also think there are alot of us where who it doesn't
work for at all.
For, for myself, I don't thinkI could do it.
I would be a cranky mess, Idon't think I would get used to
it.
Some people are like, oh, Ifeel, I feel great, now I'm
(18:31):
doing this.
The other piece is and obviously, if you have an eating disorder
or any.
You know history of disorderedeating.
I don't think it's advisable.
And two, you really have to becareful, if you're shortening
your eating window, about thechoices you're making.
You really want to like, makesure you get the food you need,
all the nutrition you need, inthat window.
You can't just be you know allthe nutrition you need in that
(18:53):
window.
You can't just be, you know,eating a bag of chips like you
can't afford to eat a bag ofchips.
You got to get the stuff youreally need, nutrient wise.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
And if you're working out every day things like that,
you need fuel right, and that'sa problem.
If you're intermittent fastingor can be right, Talk about that
.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
It can be.
Yes, I, I think you know it isnot advisable to work out on an
empty stomach, nor is itadvisable not to replenish
shortly after.
If you want to get the best outof your workout, you want to
have some you know energy toutilize in the workout, and then
you want to help your body andyour muscles recover afterward
(19:28):
by providing some food.
So in this scenario ofintermittent fasting, that
workout would have to be in thewindow of your eating, and
that's going to shorten yourtime of getting nutrition in too
.
Or it's outside of the window,I don't know.
It's hard to imagine how itreally works.
I just can't picture it.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Well, it's also.
You know there's a lot of faddiets right.
There have been fad diets mywhole life, always.
Do they ever work?
Do you know what I mean?
Do fad?
Diets ever really work.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
It depends what you mean by work right.
There are lots of ways forpeople to lose weight.
Now, they don't all work foreveryone, but they all work for
some.
You know, However, you reduceyour calories can cause weight
loss.
But when we say, does it work?
People don't want just weightloss for a short time.
(20:19):
People want long-term weightloss, and this is something we
do not have.
We do not know how toaccomplish that part.
A hundred years of researchshow us we do not know how to
help people lose weight and keepit off long-term.
Yeah, yeah, and that's trickyfor all of us.
A hundred years of researchshow us we do not know how to
help people lose weight and keepit off long term.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yeah, yeah, and that's tricky for all of us.
You know I'm so tired of losinga bunch of weight and then a
year later bouncing back towhere close to where I was.
I'm just happy when, I bounceback.
I bounce back to five poundsless than what I was.
You know what I mean.
It's sort of, over the years,tried to get my window of where
my weight is down gradually overthe years, tried to get my
window of where my weight isdown gradually.
And we talk I've talked aboutthis in shows in the last few
(20:56):
shows about habits is is don'tyou know, metaphorically, don't
let your eyes be too big foryour stomach.
Make small changes, smallchanges that you can succeed.
You know I talked about whymost new year's eve resolutions
fail because we make grandiosethings and they're just not
achievable.
But if you make 1% improvementsthroughout the year, you might
(21:16):
find by the next New Year's Eveyou've actually achieved that
goal.
You know, um, are there any uhparticular eating habits or food
myths that have been debunkedby research, recent research?
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Uh probably.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Let me think.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Let's talk coffee.
Yeah, because coffee's done alot of research on coffee over
the years.
I jumped for joy about 15 yearsago when I read an article that
said it's one of the mostpotent antioxidants we have and
you can drink as much as youwant.
And then I've been payingattention to the articles over
the years and it's like a pingpong game that goes back and
forth between don't drink itdrink as much as you want Only
have four cups.
Have eight cups, it doesn't youknow.
(21:57):
So what about coffee?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Well, here's just my personal opinion about why that
is.
People who do research drinkcoffee, right?
So they don't want to find outthat it's bad for you.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
It's because they're up all night.
Oh, that's brilliant.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
So I mean, I think you know there's probably some
benefit for some people tohaving some, like you know,
reasonable amount of caffeinefrom coffee itself.
But, like, other people arevery sensitive to caffeine, you
know, can affect their heartrate and their blood pressure
and there are some downsides.
So it's like, across the boardyou can't say like, oh, it's
(22:40):
good for you.
It's like, well, just somepeople that might have some
benefit and for other people itcan be really harmful.
It might disturb their sleep,it might, you know, cause, you
know, bladder irritations.
It can do all sorts of things.
Or if you don't have any ofthose things, maybe it's great.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
But it does have some pretty potent antioxidant
qualities to it, right.
Correct it does have that itdoes, and you know we keep
hearing this term superfood,right Like Superman, superfood.
You know?
Tell me for us, lay people,what the hell is superfood and
why is it good or bad?
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Fill me uh, it is not a like defined word and this is
sort of like a like ultraprocessed food and we don't have
to go down that rabbit hole,but, like these are words that
don't really have any realdefined meaning, it's just
something that, like, we thinkwe know what that means.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
I mean it's full of nutrients and everyone should
eat it, and I guarantee therewere people when I asked the
question listening to this goingoh my God, why is he asking
this?
This is so obvious, but I askedit because we really don't know
what the hell that means, right?
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Right, right.
And it just goes back to how welike to put things in
categories of good and bad.
And now it's not just good andbad, but good and bad and like
the best, like superfood, is wayover here in this category of
like awesome and like it's just.
It's just not true.
(24:09):
Like, eat a balance of avariety of foods.
You know, blueberries Sure,those are good, but also eat
apples and bananas.
You know, we don't just, don'tjust get honed in on.
Oh, I can only eat kale.
That's like no you can eat, yeahright, like those are great,
but don't eat that withouteating all these other things.
Variety is one of the mainthings that we are not doing.
Going back to, you know,ordering your groceries online.
(24:30):
That is the opposite of variety, you know.
We just that's what we need.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I so appreciate you saying that, because I feel that
sometimes these phrases comefrom marketing geniuses.
They want to sell more avocados.
So all of a sudden they put itout as a superfood and guess
what?
Starts showing up at Starbucksand everywhere else Avocado
toast right.
I don't know I'm a cynic in thatway, but let's shift now over
to something that you're prettypassionate about, that I'd like
to hear more about, and that'ssomething called intuitive
(24:57):
eating.
What is intuitive eating?
Because for me, intuitiveeating is again, you know, a bag
of potato chips, right, butwhat?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
is intuitive eating.
Well, it's the thing we've beentalking about the entire time
for these last two episodes lastweek and this week about
listening to your body, findingout about hunger and fullness
cues.
It's about sort of neutralizingfood, not thinking of it as
good and bad.
It's about addressing the shameand guilt we feel about eating
(25:29):
certain foods or not eating thefood, our relationship to our
food in general and ourrelationship to our body and our
relationship to exercise andmovement, and then finally
bringing nutrition in.
But we do not bring nutritioninto the conversation until
we've addressed all these otherpieces, so that nutrition
(25:53):
doesn't feel like the mostimportant thing, like, sure,
nutrition's important.
We want to get all thenutrients that we need for our
bodies, but we also enjoy food.
Food's delicious, food providespleasure and comfort and all
these things, and that's no lessimportant than like the calcium
in the kale or whatever.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Yeah, yeah, I just think when I see the word
intuitive, it refers to,obviously, intuition, and I
wonder, even in myself, how totrust my intuition.
Sometimes, sometimes in my life, they've served me well and
sometimes they haven't.
And when we turn that into food, you know, as I get older, I
think a lot more about food.
You know, I didn't think aboutit before.
All I thought about before wasgetting something in my stomach
(26:38):
when I was hungry.
Now I think a lot more about itand wonder if I can trust my
intuitions because of all thebad habits I've developed in my
lifetime without even realizingthey were bad habits.
Which brings me to my finalquestion to you, Because this is
a series on habits what aresome small, manageable dietary
changes that can lead tosignificant long-term health
(27:00):
improvements for all of us?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Okay, I'll say two things.
One is being intentional.
So not just going for the thingyou think of first oh, I'm
going to grab this because I seeit or because that's the first
thing I thought of, that Iwanted to eat but being
intentional about hmm, what do Ifeel like eating today?
Or you know what nutrientsmight I need, or you know what
am I wanted to eat?
But being intentional aboutwhat do I feel like eating today
?
Or you know what, whatnutrients might I need?
Or you know what am I going todo for lunch tomorrow.
Being intentional is going tocreate a better diet that aligns
(27:35):
with your values.
Okay.
And then, just if you want,like an actual, like food
nutrient you know specific, I'mgoing to say fiber.
If you try to eat more fiber,it's going to lead you to more
fruits and vegetables, morewhole grains, more legumes, more
nuts and seeds Basically, thefoods that we know help reduce
(27:57):
chronic conditions.
People who eat more of those,you know they're not maybe
living longer, but livinghealthier.
So, like fiber, if that's likethe one thing you want to focus
on, that's what I would do.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Okay, fiber Excellent .
You just reminded me of anepisode of the Sopranos, but I'm
not going to get into that.
It wasn't having enough fiberin their diet.
I had a heart attack.
Anyways, you know, I live inJersey now, so Sopranos are part
of my existence.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Of course.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Well, listen, heather , I'm so grateful for you to do
these two shows and I hopeyou'll come back in the future.
We can talk about diet in adifferent.
You know in one of my differentseries of topics that I'm going
to do.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
I'd love to it series of topics that I'm going to do
I'd love to.
It's been very fun.
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
You're the best.
Check out Heather atfreestatenutritioncom and she's
in Lawrence Kansas, but she doesdo telehealth for people in
several states and it's all onher website, so be sure to check
her out.
Thank you again, Heather.
Thank you all for listeningtoday and be well.
(29:03):
Oh, by the way, I keepforgetting to say this.
If you like this, please hitthe subscribe button or the
follow button so you'll find outwhat's coming up next.
Next week I'm going to surpriseyou.
I'm not going to tell you whatnext week's show is going to be
about, but I'm going to doanother series coming up on
pivoting and career pivoting inparticular, and in particular,
pivoting in your fifties, whichis extremely complicated, but
something I personally have done.
(29:23):
So I have a few insights ontothat myself.
But next week I'm going to do aone-off.
That's going to be a little fun.
All right, I'm going to tellyou I'm going to do something on
memes and give you my opinionson memes, and I think you're
going to get a kick out of thatshow.
But for now, thank you toHeather, Thank you for listening
, Be well, and I'll catch younext time on the Barrier Busting
Podcast.
Thank you.
Are you feeling stuck ?
Is something holding you back?
Are there obstacles in your way?
Well, let's smash through thoseobstacles so that you can live
your best life.
Hi, I'm Matt Brooks, founder ofMatt Brooks Coaching, and I'm
fascinated with how peopleovercome barriers and achieve
success.
Join me for insights,strategies and inspiring stories
(00:34):
as we explore practical tipsand powerful tools to unlock
your full potential.
This is the Barrier BustingPodcast.
Well, hello and welcomeeveryone to yet another Barrier
(00:57):
Busting Podcast in which we aretalking about habits.
This is actually part five of aseries on habits and I'm very,
very happy to bring back myguest from last week.
Just to recap, the first showwas about how habits are formed
in our brains.
The second show was about howwe develop new habits.
The third show was about badhabits and last week we started
(01:18):
a very interesting discussionwith a registered dietitian who
is back to talk to us againtoday.
My guest again is Heather Fiore.
She is a registered dietitianin private practice in Lawrence
Kansas, although she is alsolicensed to work over telehealth
through several states.
You can check that out on herwebsite, which is
(01:39):
freestatenutritioncom.
She holds a degree innutritional science from Cornell
and a degree in healtheducation from SUNY Brockport
and, as I mentioned the lasttime, she and her family are the
proud owners of a pet beardeddragon.
Welcome back, heather.
It's great to see you again.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Hi, matt, good to see you too.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Now, before we get into the topic, let's take just
a quick break and talk about theBearded Dragon thing for a
second.
Sure, how long have you had?
Well, first of all, what's theBearded Dragon's name?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Well, she's had a number of names.
None of them really stuck andwe just call her Beardy now.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Beardy, she is eight years old.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, she's eight, and fun fact about her is that
we just had our oldest child isa senior in high school and
senior photos are a big dealhere, not like the East Coast,
where you go on location, youchange outfits, it's like a
whole thing.
And she just brought herbearded dragon to her photo
(02:36):
shoot yesterday and it was quiteadorable.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Oh my God, that's awesome.
Are they tough to deal with andtake care of?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
No, she's so chill.
She doesn't like one of ourcats.
Well, one of our cats just died, but no, it's okay, she was.
She was sick, it's okay.
But yeah, the bearded dragoncould clearly you could tell she
didn't like that one cat whowas kind of mean, but otherwise
she's very chill.
She doesn't like run around toofast or she just kind of hangs.
(03:04):
She's, she's great.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
That's so cool.
That's very cool Never havingone in my house, but that's very
cool.
I knew someone who also had apet monkey in the fifties, who
lived in Soho, in the city, andhad a pet monkey like just
freely roaming around her houseor her uh, whatever it was, or
whatever.
Yeah, um, all right, we'd leftoff.
(03:28):
Left off last time teeing upthe idea of binge eating.
Let's talk about something youmentioned to me, which is the
difference between hunger andfullness.
Talk about hunger and fullness,if you don't mind.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yes, it sounds like such a basic concept like listen
to your hunger.
You know, eat when you'rehungry, stop when you're full,
and it is much more difficultfor a lot of us than it seems
like it should be.
We just are not trained orencouraged to listen to these
(03:59):
signals and a lot of times we'retrained to try to avoid them or
put them off, particularlyhunger, you know, we just.
You know, there's all thesetricks of like oh, maybe you're
not hungry, you're probably justthirsty, like, drink some water
, wait 20 minutes.
You know, do this and do thatin order to avoid eating, when
in fact you might just be hungryand you should probably just
(04:22):
eat some food.
But we just have all these tipsthat tell us, you know, oh,
don't listen to your body.
You know, follow this scheduleof like here's when to eat or
here's when to not eat andhere's how much food you should
have.
You know, all this stuff, allthe sort of diets or meal or
plans or wellness or whateverthey call it out there, all the
(04:42):
programs are training you tojust do a certain thing follow
the rules instead of listen, andyour body actually knows when
you're hungry.
Your body knows also how muchfood you need to eat.
So if you listen you will get asignal of fullness, but we just
tend to blow past it for avariety of reasons.
(05:03):
But we just if we could listenmore often, it would just be a
lot easier.
For us.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Well, I think this is really important and in
particular, because most of usdon't understand what it means
when people like you say listento your body.
Do you know what I mean?
To be honest, we don'tunderstand because we, you know,
we have our stomachs and ourbrains and they're often working
in conflict with each other.
How do we listen to our body toknow when we're full?
That may seem like a sillyquestion to some people.
(05:32):
I'm sure there's some listenersout there going, oh, he's just
shut up.
But I think a lot of us reallydon't know what we're listening
for.
Help us with that.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Right, yes, and that is one of the things that I
spend a decent amount of time onwith my clients, separately,
talking about hunger andfocusing on that and then
focusing on fullness, and, youknow, asking a lot of probing
questions about what are thecues, how do you know when it's
time to stop eating?
Sometimes I ask it that way IfI say, like, oh, how do you know
when you're full, people arelike, oh, I don't know what you
(06:03):
mean, because sometimes fullthey think is a bad thing.
Like, oh, if I'm full, thatmeans I ate too much, and they
stop eating basically when theirfood is gone.
Right, that's their usual cue.
Well, the meal time is over.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
When the bag of chips is empty, right.
When the bag of chips is emptyright.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Correct, correct.
So instead, you know, let'sthink about what are some, what
are some signals your body givesyou.
Sometimes I've had a few peoplemention you know that there's.
They're going along eatingtheir meal and then all of a
sudden they sigh and they kindof lean back and they just
figure, oh, I'm just taking abreak and then I'm going to dig
(06:40):
back in and it might be yourbody saying I think I'm finished
, you know, like that littlesigh is a tip and you missed it
because there's still food there.
So it just depends, foreverybody it feels different.
Sometimes it's like, oh, thefood doesn't taste quite as good
anymore.
Or, yeah, I could keep eating,but I don't really need to.
(07:02):
Or maybe there's a physicalsensation in the stomach.
But it's really aboutconnecting the brain and the
body, right, like the brain issaying like oh, this food's
delicious, keep going.
The brain does not care whathappens beyond the mouth.
Right, it's like this tastesgood, keep it coming, but your
stomach has a different idea.
This tastes good, keep itcoming, but your stomach has a
(07:24):
different idea.
So it's like opening thecommunication.
Use that big brain of yours tofind out what your stomach is
saying, not just think, oh,food's good.
I should eat more.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah, and you know, I'm glad you said that too,
because in my series on habits,one of the things about bad
habits is that the brain doesnot distinguish or discriminate
between good and bad habits.
The brain, the basal ganglia,records behaviors and turns them
into automated habits.
I call it the human automationapp, right?
It automates our behaviors andit does not care if it's good or
(07:55):
bad.
It makes no determination there.
It's just going to record thathabit and you are stuck with it,
right?
And so it's the same thing here.
The brain just wants more ofthat.
You know, more chips, right?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Or whatever, we're having a good time, let's go.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
What's give it?
Give us a little bit from yourperspective of the difference
between binge eating andovereating.
There is a difference, right?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yes, absolutely.
Overeating is really just thesimple matter of when you've
eaten more food than your, thanyour body really needs.
It's not what your brain thinksis overeating.
Because of our conditioning,our brains might have various
ideas about what's too much foodjust based on oh well, it's not
a portion, so it must be.
(08:37):
I overate, but overeating isreally.
You know, you're full to thepoint of uncomfortable.
You might want to open up yourpants or put on some sweatpants,
or you're just feeling a littlebit nauseous or whatever You're
like.
I wish I could take a few bitesout of there because I went too
far.
That's overeating.
And binging is a much morecompulsive.
(09:03):
And, you know, out of controltype of eating where you've
really eaten a larger volume ina relatively short period of
time.
Usually and you know you maynot register fullness.
Frankly, in these situations,because you're just so
(09:24):
dissociated, you're just goingthrough the motions of doing
this thing.
Again, there could be a varietyof reasons why someone is doing
it, but it's not just like oh,this food's really delicious, I
think I'll binge on it.
It's not, you know, there's nothought, it's just, it just
happens.
And then you're like whoa, whathappened?
What did I do?
Speaker 1 (09:43):
And that's the point of habits is there's no thought.
It's all automated, so youdon't think about it.
And you know I've talked abouthabits from the perspective of
you know everything from.
You know simple things likewhat foot you put a shoe on
first in the morning to how youshop in a grocery store.
I mean one of the things that Ifound interesting in this one
(10:06):
book that I've referred to a lot.
It's called Atomic Habits byJames Clear, which is a
fantastic book I can't recommendenough to people.
But one thing it said was ifyou feel your eating habits are
not good, if you want to makechanges there, shop at a
different grocery store.
Because if you go to the samegrocery store you're in the same
(10:26):
habits.
There's certain habitualbehaviors.
You're going to go down thesame aisles the same way.
You go to a different grocerystore, everything's moved
slightly different, it's indifferent locations.
It's going to force you tothink more than just act out of
habit.
Do you agree with that?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Does that make sense to you?
Yes, it really does.
And I will add to that becausea lot of folks, since the COVID
lockdown and you know peoplestarted ordering online and then
people are like, oh, this isgreat, I never have to go to the
.
Some people have not returnedto the grocery store and they
just re-up their order everyweek.
And if you want to do somethingdifferent, that is not the way.
(11:04):
You're just ordering the samething over and over, You're
missing out on who knows what'sout there in the store.
Yeah, and so I would add notjust go to a different store,
but go to a store if you'resomebody who's ordering online.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah Well, you also get.
If you're one of those peopleobsessed with 10,000 steps a day
, you're going to get a lot moresteps if you go to the grocery
store right.
So we talked last time a littlebit and I think it fits in with
this topic of overeating andbinging and all that about
unhealthy eating habits,skipping meals in the morning
and you know, eventually you'rereally hungry late at night.
(11:41):
What are some tips for breakingthose kinds of habits like
snacking late at night orskipping meals?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yes, and I think for one, you do have to explore your
personal reasons for doing it.
You know, for the purpose ofthis discussion I'm kind of
making an assumption that youknow the person is, you know,
skipping breakfast and, you know, not eating much lunch, trying
to get away with as little foodas possible.
And then you know, sort of, asthe day goes on and their
(12:11):
willpower decreases, you know,they eat more food and their
body is like trying to get themto eat the food because they're
really hungry.
And there's that part wherethey're saying, oh, I shouldn't
do that.
So then they do it again andmore.
So interrupting could happenanywhere along the process.
Really, you could start bysaying, like, all right, today's
(12:32):
the day I'm going to starttrying to eat some breakfast and
see if I can have a differentday.
So you might start at thebeginning of the day, you might
start, you know, in the evening,or sometimes I'll tell people
if they're really not eatingmuch during the day, during work
, and then they get homestarving.
What if you either have a snackbefore you leave work or
(12:52):
something, even in the car?
Like you know, it's not greatto be eating food in the car
when you're sort of you knowmindless about it, but maybe
that would help you get home andhave a different outcome.
You know you're not quite asstarving, so now you can come
home and maybe start cookingdinner instead of running
through the drive-thru.
(13:13):
Or maybe you know you're nothaving this big snack while
you're cooking or whatever.
You know, it's just a way tointerrupt that habit, so that
might be the place to intervene.
Or maybe it's lunch, or maybeyou need to add more snacks
during your day, or maybe youliterally start with your
evening of like.
If you're somebody that takesthe bag of chips and you sit
(13:34):
down in front of the TV, I don'tknow.
Do people still watch TV?
Some people, I guess.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Some of us do.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I don't know what people do.
Maybe they're on their phones,but if you're sitting there with
your food, with your activity,whether it's your phone or your
TV, interrupt that right, Saylike, well, I can watch TV or I
can eat my snack, but I'm notgoing to do those two things
together.
And now I have to decide do Iwant this snack or do I want the
(14:02):
TV?
And that might just cause alittle bit of disruption for you
to decide like, oh, I actuallydon't really need this snack
that much.
Or oh, yeah, I actually amreally hungry.
I'm going to go sit down andeat something, but now you're a
little more intentional about it.
So it's like just break thatcycle somewhere anywhere in the
process.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
It's actually some of the advice given by James Clear
in his book that I've talkedabout it.
But if you want to breakcertain habits, change the
environment, change the cues,all that sort of thing, so again
, read it real quick before wego to a quick break.
I'm one of those people whojust does not want to eat in the
morning, and so years ago Istarted forcing myself to like
eat a banana just to getsomething in my stomach, or eat
(14:44):
a little, a few forkfuls ofcottage cheese or a little
yogurt.
But I don't enjoy it.
I'm not hungry in the morning.
What advice do you have forpeople like me, because eating
breakfast is important, butthere are those I just, I just
don't want to eat.
So what, what?
What thoughts do you have onthat?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think if you can start withsomething a little, you know,
pretty small, and maybe you staythere right, maybe maybe you
eat the banana and and you neverprogress into, like you know,
whatever real breakfast is, youknow that's breakfast is.
You know that's still somethingthat you you've provided a
little brain food which itdidn't have before.
So I think there's value inthat, but it maybe, you know,
(15:25):
maybe you try something likeliquid nutrition.
You know some people like tomake a smoothie or like a
protein shake or something, andthat feels easier to get down
than food when you're not hungry.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
So the advice is don't drink your breakfast is
not necessarily you know it's.
You can drink your breakfast ifyou're someone who just doesn't
want to eat Right.
Good, because I do take proteinshakes in the morning just to
get something down.
So, thank you, you've made mefeel better about myself.
I appreciate that we're goingto take a quick break and we
will be right back with Heather.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Feeling overwhelmed, Struggling to find balance in
your daily life?
At Matt Brooks Coaching, we getit and we can help.
With over 25 years of nonprofitexecutive experience and an MSW
with a clinical focus, MattBrooks offers personalized
coaching designed to help yourise above your challenges and
live your best life.
(16:22):
Whether you aim to advance yourcareer, enhance your skills or
simply find more clarity andpeace, Matt is here to be your
partner and ally.
Visit mattbrookscoachingcom tobook your free discovery session
today.
Take the first step towards abrighter tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Okay, we're back.
Let's talk a little bit aboutthe effects of diet on the brain
and, in particular, about thisreally become controversial
topic of intermittent fasting.
Right, that's been all the rage.
I mean, king Charles is famousfor never eating lunch, so he
(17:05):
sort of was one of the earlyproponents of intermittent
fasting, but that's turning outto maybe not be the best idea.
Talk about effects of diet onthe brain and how intermittent
fasting comes into play with allthat, please.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
So intermittent fasting is not a monolith right.
There are lots of ways to do it, and sometimes it's just like
shortening your eating window ina day, right, it could just
mean, okay, so you, instead offasting for eight to 10 hours,
maybe fast for 12 hoursovernight or, I don't know,
maybe fast for 16 hours.
But intermittent fasting couldalso mean, um, like taking a
(17:45):
couple of days where you onlylike throughout the week, where
you only eat 500 calories, andthen other days you eat more or
whatever.
So it really um, it's, I think,hard to study because people
have all these differentinterpretations of what.
Does it even mean to do this?
Some of the research shows like, oh, it's great for insulin
resistance or it's, you know,longevity or whatever, that
(18:09):
there's potentially benefits forsome folks, depending on which
form of this we're talking about.
But I also think there are alot of us where who it doesn't
work for at all.
For, for myself, I don't thinkI could do it.
I would be a cranky mess, Idon't think I would get used to
it.
Some people are like, oh, Ifeel, I feel great, now I'm
(18:31):
doing this.
The other piece is and obviously, if you have an eating disorder
or any.
You know history of disorderedeating.
I don't think it's advisable.
And two, you really have to becareful, if you're shortening
your eating window, about thechoices you're making.
You really want to like, makesure you get the food you need,
all the nutrition you need, inthat window.
You can't just be you know allthe nutrition you need in that
(18:53):
window.
You can't just be, you know,eating a bag of chips like you
can't afford to eat a bag ofchips.
You got to get the stuff youreally need, nutrient wise.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
And if you're working out every day things like that,
you need fuel right, and that'sa problem.
If you're intermittent fastingor can be right, Talk about that
.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
It can be.
Yes, I, I think you know it isnot advisable to work out on an
empty stomach, nor is itadvisable not to replenish
shortly after.
If you want to get the best outof your workout, you want to
have some you know energy toutilize in the workout, and then
you want to help your body andyour muscles recover afterward
(19:28):
by providing some food.
So in this scenario ofintermittent fasting, that
workout would have to be in thewindow of your eating, and
that's going to shorten yourtime of getting nutrition in too
.
Or it's outside of the window,I don't know.
It's hard to imagine how itreally works.
I just can't picture it.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Well, it's also.
You know there's a lot of faddiets right.
There have been fad diets mywhole life, always.
Do they ever work?
Do you know what I mean?
Do fad?
Diets ever really work.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
It depends what you mean by work right.
There are lots of ways forpeople to lose weight.
Now, they don't all work foreveryone, but they all work for
some.
You know, However, you reduceyour calories can cause weight
loss.
But when we say, does it work?
People don't want just weightloss for a short time.
(20:19):
People want long-term weightloss, and this is something we
do not have.
We do not know how toaccomplish that part.
A hundred years of researchshow us we do not know how to
help people lose weight and keepit off long-term.
Yeah, yeah, and that's trickyfor all of us.
A hundred years of researchshow us we do not know how to
help people lose weight and keepit off long term.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yeah, yeah, and that's tricky for all of us.
You know I'm so tired of losinga bunch of weight and then a
year later bouncing back towhere close to where I was.
I'm just happy when, I bounceback.
I bounce back to five poundsless than what I was.
You know what I mean.
It's sort of, over the years,tried to get my window of where
my weight is down gradually overthe years, tried to get my
window of where my weight isdown gradually.
And we talk I've talked aboutthis in shows in the last few
(20:56):
shows about habits is is don'tyou know, metaphorically, don't
let your eyes be too big foryour stomach.
Make small changes, smallchanges that you can succeed.
You know I talked about whymost new year's eve resolutions
fail because we make grandiosethings and they're just not
achievable.
But if you make 1% improvementsthroughout the year, you might
(21:16):
find by the next New Year's Eveyou've actually achieved that
goal.
You know, um, are there any uhparticular eating habits or food
myths that have been debunkedby research, recent research?
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Uh probably.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Let me think.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Let's talk coffee.
Yeah, because coffee's done alot of research on coffee over
the years.
I jumped for joy about 15 yearsago when I read an article that
said it's one of the mostpotent antioxidants we have and
you can drink as much as youwant.
And then I've been payingattention to the articles over
the years and it's like a pingpong game that goes back and
forth between don't drink itdrink as much as you want Only
have four cups.
Have eight cups, it doesn't youknow.
(21:57):
So what about coffee?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Well, here's just my personal opinion about why that
is.
People who do research drinkcoffee, right?
So they don't want to find outthat it's bad for you.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
It's because they're up all night.
Oh, that's brilliant.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
So I mean, I think you know there's probably some
benefit for some people tohaving some, like you know,
reasonable amount of caffeinefrom coffee itself.
But, like, other people arevery sensitive to caffeine, you
know, can affect their heartrate and their blood pressure
and there are some downsides.
So it's like, across the boardyou can't say like, oh, it's
(22:40):
good for you.
It's like, well, just somepeople that might have some
benefit and for other people itcan be really harmful.
It might disturb their sleep,it might, you know, cause, you
know, bladder irritations.
It can do all sorts of things.
Or if you don't have any ofthose things, maybe it's great.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
But it does have some pretty potent antioxidant
qualities to it, right.
Correct it does have that itdoes, and you know we keep
hearing this term superfood,right Like Superman, superfood.
You know?
Tell me for us, lay people,what the hell is superfood and
why is it good or bad?
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Fill me uh, it is not a like defined word and this is
sort of like a like ultraprocessed food and we don't have
to go down that rabbit hole,but, like these are words that
don't really have any realdefined meaning, it's just
something that, like, we thinkwe know what that means.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
I mean it's full of nutrients and everyone should
eat it, and I guarantee therewere people when I asked the
question listening to this goingoh my God, why is he asking
this?
This is so obvious, but I askedit because we really don't know
what the hell that means, right?
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Right, right.
And it just goes back to how welike to put things in
categories of good and bad.
And now it's not just good andbad, but good and bad and like
the best, like superfood, is wayover here in this category of
like awesome and like it's just.
It's just not true.
(24:09):
Like, eat a balance of avariety of foods.
You know, blueberries Sure,those are good, but also eat
apples and bananas.
You know, we don't just, don'tjust get honed in on.
Oh, I can only eat kale.
That's like no you can eat, yeahright, like those are great,
but don't eat that withouteating all these other things.
Variety is one of the mainthings that we are not doing.
Going back to, you know,ordering your groceries online.
(24:30):
That is the opposite of variety, you know.
We just that's what we need.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I so appreciate you saying that, because I feel that
sometimes these phrases comefrom marketing geniuses.
They want to sell more avocados.
So all of a sudden they put itout as a superfood and guess
what?
Starts showing up at Starbucksand everywhere else Avocado
toast right.
I don't know I'm a cynic in thatway, but let's shift now over
to something that you're prettypassionate about, that I'd like
to hear more about, and that'ssomething called intuitive
(24:57):
eating.
What is intuitive eating?
Because for me, intuitiveeating is again, you know, a bag
of potato chips, right, butwhat?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
is intuitive eating.
Well, it's the thing we've beentalking about the entire time
for these last two episodes lastweek and this week about
listening to your body, findingout about hunger and fullness
cues.
It's about sort of neutralizingfood, not thinking of it as
good and bad.
It's about addressing the shameand guilt we feel about eating
(25:29):
certain foods or not eating thefood, our relationship to our
food in general and ourrelationship to our body and our
relationship to exercise andmovement, and then finally
bringing nutrition in.
But we do not bring nutritioninto the conversation until
we've addressed all these otherpieces, so that nutrition
(25:53):
doesn't feel like the mostimportant thing, like, sure,
nutrition's important.
We want to get all thenutrients that we need for our
bodies, but we also enjoy food.
Food's delicious, food providespleasure and comfort and all
these things, and that's no lessimportant than like the calcium
in the kale or whatever.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Yeah, yeah, I just think when I see the word
intuitive, it refers to,obviously, intuition, and I
wonder, even in myself, how totrust my intuition.
Sometimes, sometimes in my life, they've served me well and
sometimes they haven't.
And when we turn that into food, you know, as I get older, I
think a lot more about food.
You know, I didn't think aboutit before.
All I thought about before wasgetting something in my stomach
(26:38):
when I was hungry.
Now I think a lot more about itand wonder if I can trust my
intuitions because of all thebad habits I've developed in my
lifetime without even realizingthey were bad habits.
Which brings me to my finalquestion to you, Because this is
a series on habits what aresome small, manageable dietary
changes that can lead tosignificant long-term health
(27:00):
improvements for all of us?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Okay, I'll say two things.
One is being intentional.
So not just going for the thingyou think of first oh, I'm
going to grab this because I seeit or because that's the first
thing I thought of, that Iwanted to eat but being
intentional about hmm, what do Ifeel like eating today?
Or you know what nutrientsmight I need, or you know what
am I wanted to eat?
But being intentional aboutwhat do I feel like eating today
?
Or you know what, whatnutrients might I need?
Or you know what am I going todo for lunch tomorrow.
Being intentional is going tocreate a better diet that aligns
(27:35):
with your values.
Okay.
And then, just if you want,like an actual, like food
nutrient you know specific, I'mgoing to say fiber.
If you try to eat more fiber,it's going to lead you to more
fruits and vegetables, morewhole grains, more legumes, more
nuts and seeds Basically, thefoods that we know help reduce
(27:57):
chronic conditions.
People who eat more of those,you know they're not maybe
living longer, but livinghealthier.
So, like fiber, if that's likethe one thing you want to focus
on, that's what I would do.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Okay, fiber Excellent .
You just reminded me of anepisode of the Sopranos, but I'm
not going to get into that.
It wasn't having enough fiberin their diet.
I had a heart attack.
Anyways, you know, I live inJersey now, so Sopranos are part
of my existence.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Of course.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Well, listen, heather , I'm so grateful for you to do
these two shows and I hopeyou'll come back in the future.
We can talk about diet in adifferent.
You know in one of my differentseries of topics that I'm going
to do.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
I'd love to it series of topics that I'm going to do
I'd love to.
It's been very fun.
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
You're the best.
Check out Heather atfreestatenutritioncom and she's
in Lawrence Kansas, but she doesdo telehealth for people in
several states and it's all onher website, so be sure to check
her out.
Thank you again, Heather.
Thank you all for listeningtoday and be well.
(29:03):
Oh, by the way, I keepforgetting to say this.
If you like this, please hitthe subscribe button or the
follow button so you'll find outwhat's coming up next.
Next week I'm going to surpriseyou.
I'm not going to tell you whatnext week's show is going to be
about, but I'm going to doanother series coming up on
pivoting and career pivoting inparticular, and in particular,
pivoting in your fifties, whichis extremely complicated, but
something I personally have done.
(29:23):
So I have a few insights ontothat myself.
But next week I'm going to do aone-off.
That's going to be a little fun.
All right, I'm going to tellyou I'm going to do something on
memes and give you my opinionson memes, and I think you're
going to get a kick out of thatshow.
But for now, thank you toHeather, Thank you for listening
, Be well, and I'll catch younext time on the Barrier Busting
Podcast.
Thank you.
Popular Podcasts
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com