August 6, 2025 • 26 mins
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Are you feeling frustrated with weight loss, despite doing “all the right things”? You’re not alone—and the solution may be far simpler than you think. In this week’s episode of The Breakthrough Emotional Eating Podcast, host Kristin Jones explores how cutting out one common habit—snacking between meals—can dramatically shift your weight loss progress and relationship with food.
Kristin shares her evolution from prescribing rigid food plans to guiding clients with a more intuitive, sustainable approach rooted in real-life behavior. Drawing inspiration from naturally slim individuals who don’t obsess over dieting, she breaks down the four major reasons why eating just three nourishing meals a day—without snacks—can be a game-changer. From reclaiming control over emotional eating to activating your body’s natural fat-burning systems, this episode dives into both the mental and physiological wins that come from a no-snacking lifestyle.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why snacking may be sabotaging your weight loss without you realizing it
- How cutting snacks puts you back in control of your emotional and physical hunger
- The body’s natural fat-burning process—and how to trigger it
- How three satisfying meals a day create more intentional, balanced nutrition
- Why this habit shift is a foundational step in overcoming emotional eating
- What to look for when distinguishing real hunger from emotional cravings
Whether you’re stuck in a weight loss plateau, overwhelmed by emotional cravings, or simply tired of the all-or-nothing diet cycle, this episode will give you a grounded, doable strategy that creates clarity, consistency, and confidence around food. Tune in and learn how one simple change can spark powerful transformation.
Connect with me online:
1. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breakthroughemotionaleating/
2. You Tube channel, Kristin Jones Coaching: https://www.youtube.com/@KristinJonesCoaching44
3. You Tube channel, Breakthrough Emotional Eating Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@breakthroughpodcast-44
3 . Website: https://www.kristinjonescoaching.com
If you want to learn more about how to stop overeating at meals and lose weight easily, get my How To Stop Overeating At Meals Guide: https://go.kristinjonescoaching.com/stop-overeating
Needing more specific and direct support for your emotional eating and overeating? Check out my online course, Stop Dieting Start Feeling, and my personalized coaching program, Breakthrough To You.
If you found this episode helpful, don't forget to leave a review on the platform you used to listen and share it with your friends on your Instagram stories. Also, be sure to follow me o...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Do you want to lose weight but struggle to stay
committed to a meal plan becauseyou constantly feel hungry?
Does food provide you comfortwhen you're bored, angry, lonely
or sad?
If so, you are in the rightplace.
My name is Kristen Jones andI'm a life coach specializing in
emotional eating and weightloss, and I'm also a lifelong
(00:24):
emotional eater.
I want to provide you withinformation, motivation and
support so you, too, can learnto manage your issues with food
and develop a healthyrelationship with yourself.
Welcome to the BreakthroughEmotional Eating Podcast.
(00:59):
My name is Kristen Jones andthank you so much for joining me
this week.
Name is Kristen Jones and thankyou so much for joining me this
week.
When I started coaching eightyears ago, I was very, very
restrictive with my clients.
I told them what to eat, I gavethem a food list, I told them
how much to eat, I told themwhen to eat and, consequently,
(01:22):
people struggled.
People either would lose weightand then immediately gain it
back when they stopped eatingthe way that they were eating,
or they wouldn't lose any weightat all because they kept not
following the plan, because itwas too restrictive, it was too
hard and people just didn'tenjoy it, and I really struggled
(01:43):
with what I was going to dowith clients in the way of
helping them to lose weight.
I had not developed anyawareness of my own emotional
eating, nor that emotionaleating was even an issue.
I didn't even know that I wasan emotional eater at that time.
And so I started, you know,kind of like paying attention to
(02:04):
how people ate who I felt had,you know, had pretty good eating
habits and that maintainedtheir weight, and one of those
people was my dad.
My dad maintained the sameweight within a five pound range
for his entire adult life andmy dad ate, and my dad never
(02:25):
dieted.
My dad ate exactly what hewanted to eat.
He ate exactly what my mom madefor dinner.
She made him the same lunchevery day.
He'd have breakfast, you know,he'd have a breakfast that he
wanted.
But my dad never ate in betweenmeals.
He just didn't do that.
He came from a family.
He was, he was, uh, he was fromthe South and his um and my
(02:46):
grandparents were from Oklahoma.
They didn't have a lot of money.
So you didn't snack, you didn'teat in between meals because
usually you were working most ofthe time In between breakfast,
lunch and dinner.
You were working if you weren'tat school.
And if you were at school, youwere playing sports and so there
wasn't time to eat.
You just didn't think aboutfood.
And so my dad, consequently,did not have any kind of weight
(03:11):
issue his entire life.
And so I really started lookingat what he did, and not only
did he eat what he enjoyed, buthe did not snack in between, and
so that kind of became.
It gave me an idea of like, okay, what if I, for myself as well
as for my clients what if wejust went back to basics?
(03:31):
What if it wasn't so complicated?
What if?
What if trying to lose weightand this isn't even even
touching the whole emotionaleating piece, but it ends up
helping with the emotionaleating piece but what if we just
, like, made it simple?
What if we just stopped makingit so complicated and counting
carbs and doing all of thesecrazy things?
(03:54):
And what if we just decidedthat we were just going to eat
three times a day and we weren'tgoing to eat in between, and
you could eat what you wanted,but you just didn't eat a ton of
it, and you just you hadportion control, you ate what
you wanted, but you just didn'teat a ton of it and you, just,
you had portion control.
You ate what you wanted.
Because you eat what you wanted, you could stop when you were
satisfied, but there was nosnacks in between you.
(04:14):
Just you ate your three mealsand that's what you did.
And when you got to your nextmeal, you were pretty stinking
hungry.
But that was okay,no-transcript, and at that time
(05:15):
I didn't even didn't even thewhole idea of emotional eating
didn't even come into play.
It does now, but the idea is tomake it really simple, like,
let's just get back to basics,let's not stop making this so
complicated, let's just eat whatwe want, but we only eat three
times a day and we don't snackin between.
(05:36):
So today's episode is all aboutwhy.
What is the whole reason behindwhy I would encourage you not
to snack in between meals and tonot make it like it's a hard
fast rule.
But to really look at, is itjust a habit that you have
(05:57):
developed, that you think youneed, when in reality it really
isn't?
And it's really something thatcould be holding you back from
being where you want to be andfeeling the way you want to feel
in your own body.
So today's episode is going tobe about snacking and why or why
not, and why I say do withoutthe snacking and see your
(06:23):
battles with your weightdisappear and have a much easier
time maintaining your weight orlosing weight and then keeping
it off.
So the four things we're goingto talk about today are the four
whys of no snacking, and thefirst one is it eliminates
untracked calories.
(06:43):
Secondly, it allows you to takeback control of your thoughts,
your beliefs and your habits,and it encourages you to tell
your brain what you are going todo throughout the day and then
following through with that.
So that gives you back yourpower when it comes to your
thoughts, because we know ourthoughts lead to our feelings
(07:06):
and our feelings drive ouractions.
And so if we don't have controlof our thoughts and we don't
tell our brain what we want itto do, it's going to do whatever
it wants to do and it's goingto do what it's always done.
So if you've always snacked atthree o'clock in the afternoon,
it doesn't matter what's goingon at three o'clock in the
afternoon, it's going to thinkyou need a snack.
So we'll talk a little bit moreabout that.
Third thing it creates a processcalled fat adaption within your
(07:29):
body and that allows your bodyto become a fat burner and you
are able to tap into fat cellsand burn them and lose weight.
And the fourth thing that itdoes is it forces you to be very
conscious and very deliberateand very nutritionally minded
(07:50):
when it comes to your meals,because you're going to go from
one meal to the next, so youneed to be very, very conscious
and deliberate about what youchoose to eat at a meal, because
it's going to get you throughthe next three to four hours and
get you through to your nextmeal, going to get you through
the next three to four hours andget you through to your next
meal.
And so you really have to bepretty specific and really eat
(08:15):
the things, not only that youlove, but the things that are
going to nourish your body, so,in fact, it ends up being a
healthier way to eat.
So we're going to address those, those four things.
So the first thing I want totalk about is that whole idea of
when we snack, we don't countthose foods as foods that we've
(08:35):
eaten.
It is so common for people tosay, well, I was standing up in
the kitchen, I was standing inthe, at the at the refrigerator
eating something it doesn'treally count and I mean that's a
joke.
But at the same time peopledon't think about that.
They don't think of all theunconscious, untracked.
Just walked by my you know myboss's desk and there was a bowl
(08:55):
full of M&Ms and stuck my handin and grabbed them.
Or went into the office andthere are gummy worms and I had
a few of those and I had, youknow a quick, you know a quick
few Mike and Ikes, or I had aJolly Rancher or five, and any
of those things.
They're all untracked calories.
They're all things that we,that we take in, that we're not
(09:15):
paying attention to and it'sjust allowing us to kind of go,
you know, just just not not takeresponsibility for our eating
habits.
And then oftentimes people getfrustrated because they're like
I'm not, I'm hardly eatinganything.
I mean I don't understand whyI'm not losing weight.
Well, it's because they're notreally tracking and they're not
paying attention to what they'reactually.
(09:36):
They're really truly eating.
They're kind of dilutingthemselves and we don't want to
dilute ourselves If we reallywant to, to feel good in our
bodies and we want to be at theweight that we want to be at
which is going to be a healthyweight that's going to allow us
to be able to live the longest,best, most health filled life.
We need to be honest withourselves and we need to start
(09:57):
being accountable for thedecisions that we're making.
And so you know, eliminatingsnacking just takes that all
away.
You don't even have to worryabout, you don't have to worry
about tracking calories, youdon't have to worry about about
a sugar rush or a sugar crash,because that's just not what you
do.
Um, so that's the first thing.
Second thing is it this thisdecision to not snack anymore
(10:22):
allows each individual to be incontrol of their brain, to tell
their brain what they're goingto do throughout the day.
Because when our brain goesunchecked, when our brain
doesn't have parameters orboundaries or guidelines, our
brain will do whatever the heckit wants.
And when it doesn't know whatto do, it's going to recall what
(10:44):
would you have done in thissituation previously?
What was the last thing thatyou did?
What was the last time you werein this situation?
What did you do then?
So if it's four o'clock in theafternoon, you are super
stressed and you're driving homeand you feel totally stressed
and you're getting anxiety.
Your brain's going to say okay,what did she do?
Cause your brain, all yourbrain wants to do is make you
happy.
So it's going to say what didshe do the last time?
(11:05):
Oh, she stopped at thedrive-thru.
That's what we need her to do.
Okay, let's tell her to go tothe drive-thru, and that's what
it's going to do.
So you get to make the decisionahead of time.
We're not going to snack, andthis is what I'm going to do.
Instead, when that situationarises, instead of driving the
drive-thru, I'm going to callsomebody.
I'm going to acknowledge thatthis is how I'm feeling, that
(11:27):
I'm feeling stressed, that Iknow food's not the answer.
I've already made the decisionthat I'm not going to snack.
So what am I going to doinstead?
I'm going to feel my feelings.
I'm going to recognize that Ineed to talk to somebody and I'm
going to pick up the phone andcall a friend.
I'm not denying that.
I feel that way.
I'm acknowledging it, I'mowning it.
And then I'm choosing to make adifferent choice.
And when you make thosedifferent choices, your brain
(11:49):
learns a new pattern.
It gets out of the destructivepattern that you have of always
turning to food and it starts toadopt this new chain of events
that will move you in adifferent direction.
So we have to start veryconsciously doing that and
making different and betterdecisions for ourselves so our
(12:09):
brain can take on these new,more healthful and more
supportive systems and processesin place.
So we're not continuing to dothe habits that we've always
done that aren't working for usand that aren't getting us where
we want to be.
So it puts you back in controlof your brain, allows you to
(12:32):
make the decision, but you haveto make that decision In the
beginning of the day.
You have to say, like we're notsnacking in between, we're
going to eat good, solid, threesolid meals and we are going to
make sure that we drink lots ofwater and we are going to make
sure that we get through the dayand we're going to feel really
good.
And when those circumstancescome up where we feel like we
want to eat something, we'regoing to consciously make a
(12:53):
decision.
What are we going to do?
And we plan ahead.
We plan that ahead.
We have some ideas about how wesupport ourselves and that's
where we go from there.
So that is really that's thoseare hugely.
Being in control of your ownthoughts is sometimes a hard
concept for people to understand, but it's so absolutely vital
when it comes to any kind ofbehavior change that you have to
(13:15):
recognize the thoughts that youhave and the negative thoughts
that you have that cause you todo things that, in the long run,
are not going to be in yourbest interest.
And so you have to, kind of,you have to make a plan, you
have to give yourself some, someguidelines and some boundaries,
and some and some paths tofollow in order to be successful
(13:37):
.
And so planning things out, howam I going to handle if this
happens?
It's called if, then planning.
If this happens, then I'll doblank, and so if, then planning
is really, really powerfulbecause it empowers you to take
control of your thoughts and toactually lay out a plan.
As my former business coachalways said, what gets planned
(13:58):
is what gets done.
So when you make a plan, it'smore likely for something to
happen, for the end result to bewhat you want, than if you
hadn't planned and just hopedthat something was going to
happen.
All right.
The third reason why giving upsnacking is something that can
be very, very powerful when itcomes to weight loss and
especially when it comes to uh,to emotional eating as well, and
(14:21):
that is, it creates a processin your body called fat adaption
, and what that means is is thatyour body becomes a fat burner.
So what does that mean?
Your body becomes a fat burner.
Our body's always in a state ofbeing able to burn fat.
Well, no, it's not.
When we constantly have food inour system and we need energy,
(14:47):
our bodies are always going togo to the foods and to the
reserves that are immediatelyavailable, and those reserves
are usually the last things thatyou've eaten, the most recent
things that you've eaten.
So, if you need to have energyand energy when I say energy, I
don't mean like you'reconstantly exercising, I'm just
talking about like doing a mathproblem or being on the computer
(15:11):
, because your brain takes doingmental processes.
Your brain requires energy todo that, it requires calories to
do that.
So it's really, reallyimportant to be able to have
those, those that, that thosereserves in place, and so your
body needs those reserves to doa myriad of things.
(15:35):
But we want to have myriad ofthings, but we want to have.
We want excuse me, we want tohave our bodies be able to tap
into fat cells.
So what do we have to do to getthere?
Well, the first thing is, whenour bodies need energy, the
first thing it turns to is thefoods that we've just eaten, the
most readily available energysources.
It then taps into.
Once those are exhausted, itthen taps into your fat cell,
(15:57):
excuse me, your muscle then tapsinto your muscle glycogen
that's stored in your muscles.
There's a pretty small amountthere, but it goes there next,
uses that, and then the thirdarea that it goes to is your fat
cells.
Now, if we constantly arefeeding our bodies, it never
gets to the point that it evergets to the fat cells, because
it always has food available touse, and we want our bodies to
(16:21):
start using those stored fatcells.
And so you want to allowanywhere between three to four
hours between your meals.
It also allows your blood sugarto be stable and to not have the
fluctuations of blood sugargoing up when you eat and then
(16:42):
coming down, crashing downafterwards, and so it's really
important to make sure that youallow yourself to be able to
have the um have a steady,steady state of blood sugar that
isn't always going up and down,because that is also what
(17:02):
causes cravings.
And so, when we are able tostabilize our blood sugar and
we're able to make sure that weare eating the things that we
really, that we, that we, weneed to eat at our meals, and
then we go without our, we gowithout in between meals.
Our blood sugar is going tosettle down, because our blood
sugar always elevates no matterwhat we eat.
(17:22):
Blood sugar is going to elevateafter you eat and then it's
going to settle down and it willstay at a low level until you
eat again.
And that will help you befocused, be able to get things
done, to have more muscularendurance, to have more mental
endurance.
But it also allows your body totap into those fat cells to use
(17:44):
that energy instead of usingthat readily available energy if
you had eaten instead.
So being fat adaptive reallyhelps the process of burning fat
and, in turn, losing the weightthat you want.
But it also has a dual effect ofhelping with emotional eating,
because it's not creating thosecravings that are oftentimes
(18:07):
attributed to the roller coasterof your blood sugar going up
and down from you eating.
Now, that doesn't even takeinto consideration the emotional
component of emotional eating,but it's a great start because
there is a physiological.
There is a physiologicalcomponent to emotional eating as
well, and this kind of takescare of that.
(18:29):
So we still haven't touched theemotional eating aspect or the
emotions, and that aspect is awhole different topic and a
whole different podcast episode,but this is more of the
physiological and thephysiological things that happen
.
So that is the third.
The third reason why notsnacking is really is really
helpful, and then the fourthreason and the fourth thing that
you can do to really help withweight loss and again, this is
(18:53):
just this is this isn't theanswer for everybody, for every,
every possible reason why you,or every possible way you need
to lose weight or you want tolose weight.
It's just a great start to lookat.
Okay, am I consuming untrackedcalories?
Am I allowing my brain to dowhatever it wants to do?
Am I just constantly eating andmy body just never has this
(19:16):
opportunity to be able to tapinto fat cells?
And there are so many othercomponents along with it.
This is just one, but it's agreat start.
It's a great place to start tosee.
Hmm, what would happen if Ijust chose to eat three meals a
day and I didn't diet.
I just ate meals that I wantedto eat, but then I didn't eat in
(19:37):
between.
So I'm just giving this as a asa kind of as a a training
(20:03):
wheels kind of, as a beginningstep to to the things I teach,
but I think it's a great way toshow people that like oh wow,
I'm eating is really helpful isbecause you're being asked to go
for four hours, sometimes maybeeven five, between meals.
You have to be very, veryconscious of the foods that
you're choosing to eat.
Now, I always want people toeat what they want, but if you
have an entire meal that isnothing but carbs and nothing
(20:23):
but sugar carbs and you're goingto get hungry really fast.
So it's always a great idea tomix evenly or equally in an
(20:46):
appropriate distribution of fats, protein and carbs, and also
making sure you have some fiberand make sure that all of those
macronutrients are representedand you have a solid meal that
is going to sustain you throughto your next meal.
(21:08):
And I think that really helpspeople be much more aware of
what they're eating, instead ofjust like I'm just going to
throw down uh, you know, throwdown, uh, uh a hamburger and
fries and that's just going tobe it.
And there's nothing wrong withhamburger and fries.
I'm not saying that.
But I'm saying is we need tomake sure that if we're going to
(21:30):
have, if we're going to have,something like that, we want to
make sure that it's evenlydistributed.
It's going to be somethingthat's going to sustain us to
your next meal, and so whatyou'd be surprised, what I will
say is if you're a person whoreally loves salad, that is
amazing, great.
Eat a salad, but make sure youhave some bread with it.
(21:52):
Make sure and I know people arelike bread with salad.
That's terrible.
No, it's not.
Our body needs carbs.
It needs more sustainable, kindof stick to your ribs carbs,
but it also needs protein.
You got to have a proteinsource with that salad.
Don't just eat salad and think,well, this is going to make me
really full, it's going to makeyou really stuffed because it's
all nothing but fiber, butthat's going to pass really
(22:15):
quickly and you're going to beunsatisfied and you're going to
get hungry, and so it's.
It's a really great opportunityto really play with and really
explore what are the things thatI really like to eat and how do
I want to go about eating themand how do I want to help myself
when it comes to making surethat my meals are ones that I
(22:36):
really enjoy.
They're going to sustain meover the course of the next four
hours or so and they're goingto give me the opportunity to
start tapping into those fatcells and actually get a little
hungry towards the end.
That's all very, very important, and it's just a really quick
and easy way to see if you'vebeen eating too many unaccounted
(22:59):
for calories in between, andthat may be keeping you where
you are and it's allowing younot to actually lose the weight
that you want to lose.
So those four reasons are thefour reasons that I would
endorse, why you eliminatesnacking and you eat your three
meals a day and you eat what youwant, foods that you enjoy,
(23:21):
foods that are nutritionallyvaluable, that, again, are what
you want, and to really savorand enjoy your meals.
It's not the end, all be all.
It just begins to touch thatarea of emotional eating, but
there's so much more to that.
But this is a great way, agreat place to start, to start
(23:41):
to see some changes, but to alsorecognize that you can make the
decision that you're not goingto snack in between and you'll
realize that it really isemotions that are kicking in,
that are causing you to want toeat, because it's what you've
always done.
Your brain will tell you thatthis is what you need to do and
(24:02):
you'll realize that you reallydon't need it and that you can
then make other decisions thatare going to other ways of
dealing with your stress, otherways of dealing with things in
your life that are challenging,uh, that don't involve food.
So it's a great stepping stoneto getting there and recognizing
what it is that you need to dowhen it comes to your eating and
(24:24):
your response to emotions withfood.
So if this podcast has beenhelpful I really hope it has
been.
I know it's something that haschanged so much for me, but if
this has been helpful for you,please would love for you to
like this episode.
I'd love for you to leave me areview, on whatever platform
you're on.
(24:45):
I would so appreciate it.
I would also love for you tocomment and let me know what you
thought about this episode, ifyou think, if you've ever tried
this before and if you think youcould try it, and if you do,
give it a shot, and then let meknow in the comments how, what
your success was, if you thinkyou could try it and if you do,
give it a shot and then let meknow in the comments how, what
your success was, if youstruggled, and then I we can
always I can always direct youto some resources that I have
(25:06):
that might help you, that mightsupport you in being able to
adopt this into your eatingregime.
I hope, again, this has been,this has been, helpful for you.
Thank you so much for joiningme, for listening, for
supporting the podcast, and Iwill see you all next week, take
(25:26):
care.
Thank you for listening to thisweek's episode.
If you are interested inlearning more about how I can
help you understand and manageyour emotional eating, including
the use of hypnosis to uncoverthe root cause of your eating,
go to my website,kristenjonescoachingcom.
(25:54):
Thank you.
Do you want to lose weight but struggle to stay
committed to a meal plan becauseyou constantly feel hungry?
Does food provide you comfortwhen you're bored, angry, lonely
or sad?
If so, you are in the rightplace.
My name is Kristen Jones andI'm a life coach specializing in
emotional eating and weightloss, and I'm also a lifelong
(00:24):
emotional eater.
I want to provide you withinformation, motivation and
support so you, too, can learnto manage your issues with food
and develop a healthyrelationship with yourself.
Welcome to the BreakthroughEmotional Eating Podcast.
(00:59):
My name is Kristen Jones andthank you so much for joining me
this week.
Name is Kristen Jones and thankyou so much for joining me this
week.
When I started coaching eightyears ago, I was very, very
restrictive with my clients.
I told them what to eat, I gavethem a food list, I told them
how much to eat, I told themwhen to eat and, consequently,
(01:22):
people struggled.
People either would lose weightand then immediately gain it
back when they stopped eatingthe way that they were eating,
or they wouldn't lose any weightat all because they kept not
following the plan, because itwas too restrictive, it was too
hard and people just didn'tenjoy it, and I really struggled
(01:43):
with what I was going to dowith clients in the way of
helping them to lose weight.
I had not developed anyawareness of my own emotional
eating, nor that emotionaleating was even an issue.
I didn't even know that I wasan emotional eater at that time.
And so I started, you know,kind of like paying attention to
(02:04):
how people ate who I felt had,you know, had pretty good eating
habits and that maintainedtheir weight, and one of those
people was my dad.
My dad maintained the sameweight within a five pound range
for his entire adult life andmy dad ate, and my dad never
(02:25):
dieted.
My dad ate exactly what hewanted to eat.
He ate exactly what my mom madefor dinner.
She made him the same lunchevery day.
He'd have breakfast, you know,he'd have a breakfast that he
wanted.
But my dad never ate in betweenmeals.
He just didn't do that.
He came from a family.
He was, he was, uh, he was fromthe South and his um and my
(02:46):
grandparents were from Oklahoma.
They didn't have a lot of money.
So you didn't snack, you didn'teat in between meals because
usually you were working most ofthe time In between breakfast,
lunch and dinner.
You were working if you weren'tat school.
And if you were at school, youwere playing sports and so there
wasn't time to eat.
You just didn't think aboutfood.
And so my dad, consequently,did not have any kind of weight
(03:11):
issue his entire life.
And so I really started lookingat what he did, and not only
did he eat what he enjoyed, buthe did not snack in between, and
so that kind of became.
It gave me an idea of like, okay, what if I, for myself as well
as for my clients what if wejust went back to basics?
(03:31):
What if it wasn't so complicated?
What if?
What if trying to lose weightand this isn't even even
touching the whole emotionaleating piece, but it ends up
helping with the emotionaleating piece but what if we just
, like, made it simple?
What if we just stopped makingit so complicated and counting
carbs and doing all of thesecrazy things?
(03:54):
And what if we just decidedthat we were just going to eat
three times a day and we weren'tgoing to eat in between, and
you could eat what you wanted,but you just didn't eat a ton of
it, and you just you hadportion control, you ate what
you wanted, but you just didn'teat a ton of it and you, just,
you had portion control.
You ate what you wanted.
Because you eat what you wanted, you could stop when you were
satisfied, but there was nosnacks in between you.
(04:14):
Just you ate your three mealsand that's what you did.
And when you got to your nextmeal, you were pretty stinking
hungry.
But that was okay,no-transcript, and at that time
(05:15):
I didn't even didn't even thewhole idea of emotional eating
didn't even come into play.
It does now, but the idea is tomake it really simple, like,
let's just get back to basics,let's not stop making this so
complicated, let's just eat whatwe want, but we only eat three
times a day and we don't snackin between.
(05:36):
So today's episode is all aboutwhy.
What is the whole reason behindwhy I would encourage you not
to snack in between meals and tonot make it like it's a hard
fast rule.
But to really look at, is itjust a habit that you have
(05:57):
developed, that you think youneed, when in reality it really
isn't?
And it's really something thatcould be holding you back from
being where you want to be andfeeling the way you want to feel
in your own body.
So today's episode is going tobe about snacking and why or why
not, and why I say do withoutthe snacking and see your
(06:23):
battles with your weightdisappear and have a much easier
time maintaining your weight orlosing weight and then keeping
it off.
So the four things we're goingto talk about today are the four
whys of no snacking, and thefirst one is it eliminates
untracked calories.
(06:43):
Secondly, it allows you to takeback control of your thoughts,
your beliefs and your habits,and it encourages you to tell
your brain what you are going todo throughout the day and then
following through with that.
So that gives you back yourpower when it comes to your
thoughts, because we know ourthoughts lead to our feelings
(07:06):
and our feelings drive ouractions.
And so if we don't have controlof our thoughts and we don't
tell our brain what we want itto do, it's going to do whatever
it wants to do and it's goingto do what it's always done.
So if you've always snacked atthree o'clock in the afternoon,
it doesn't matter what's goingon at three o'clock in the
afternoon, it's going to thinkyou need a snack.
So we'll talk a little bit moreabout that.
Third thing it creates a processcalled fat adaption within your
(07:29):
body and that allows your bodyto become a fat burner and you
are able to tap into fat cellsand burn them and lose weight.
And the fourth thing that itdoes is it forces you to be very
conscious and very deliberateand very nutritionally minded
(07:50):
when it comes to your meals,because you're going to go from
one meal to the next, so youneed to be very, very conscious
and deliberate about what youchoose to eat at a meal, because
it's going to get you throughthe next three to four hours and
get you through to your nextmeal, going to get you through
the next three to four hours andget you through to your next
meal.
And so you really have to bepretty specific and really eat
(08:15):
the things, not only that youlove, but the things that are
going to nourish your body, so,in fact, it ends up being a
healthier way to eat.
So we're going to address those, those four things.
So the first thing I want totalk about is that whole idea of
when we snack, we don't countthose foods as foods that we've
(08:35):
eaten.
It is so common for people tosay, well, I was standing up in
the kitchen, I was standing inthe, at the at the refrigerator
eating something it doesn'treally count and I mean that's a
joke.
But at the same time peopledon't think about that.
They don't think of all theunconscious, untracked.
Just walked by my you know myboss's desk and there was a bowl
(08:55):
full of M&Ms and stuck my handin and grabbed them.
Or went into the office andthere are gummy worms and I had
a few of those and I had, youknow a quick, you know a quick
few Mike and Ikes, or I had aJolly Rancher or five, and any
of those things.
They're all untracked calories.
They're all things that we,that we take in, that we're not
(09:15):
paying attention to and it'sjust allowing us to kind of go,
you know, just just not not takeresponsibility for our eating
habits.
And then oftentimes people getfrustrated because they're like
I'm not, I'm hardly eatinganything.
I mean I don't understand whyI'm not losing weight.
Well, it's because they're notreally tracking and they're not
paying attention to what they'reactually.
(09:36):
They're really truly eating.
They're kind of dilutingthemselves and we don't want to
dilute ourselves If we reallywant to, to feel good in our
bodies and we want to be at theweight that we want to be at
which is going to be a healthyweight that's going to allow us
to be able to live the longest,best, most health filled life.
We need to be honest withourselves and we need to start
(09:57):
being accountable for thedecisions that we're making.
And so you know, eliminatingsnacking just takes that all
away.
You don't even have to worryabout, you don't have to worry
about tracking calories, youdon't have to worry about about
a sugar rush or a sugar crash,because that's just not what you
do.
Um, so that's the first thing.
Second thing is it this thisdecision to not snack anymore
(10:22):
allows each individual to be incontrol of their brain, to tell
their brain what they're goingto do throughout the day.
Because when our brain goesunchecked, when our brain
doesn't have parameters orboundaries or guidelines, our
brain will do whatever the heckit wants.
And when it doesn't know whatto do, it's going to recall what
(10:44):
would you have done in thissituation previously?
What was the last thing thatyou did?
What was the last time you werein this situation?
What did you do then?
So if it's four o'clock in theafternoon, you are super
stressed and you're driving homeand you feel totally stressed
and you're getting anxiety.
Your brain's going to say okay,what did she do?
Cause your brain, all yourbrain wants to do is make you
happy.
So it's going to say what didshe do the last time?
(11:05):
Oh, she stopped at thedrive-thru.
That's what we need her to do.
Okay, let's tell her to go tothe drive-thru, and that's what
it's going to do.
So you get to make the decisionahead of time.
We're not going to snack, andthis is what I'm going to do.
Instead, when that situationarises, instead of driving the
drive-thru, I'm going to callsomebody.
I'm going to acknowledge thatthis is how I'm feeling, that
(11:27):
I'm feeling stressed, that Iknow food's not the answer.
I've already made the decisionthat I'm not going to snack.
So what am I going to doinstead?
I'm going to feel my feelings.
I'm going to recognize that Ineed to talk to somebody and I'm
going to pick up the phone andcall a friend.
I'm not denying that.
I feel that way.
I'm acknowledging it, I'mowning it.
And then I'm choosing to make adifferent choice.
And when you make thosedifferent choices, your brain
(11:49):
learns a new pattern.
It gets out of the destructivepattern that you have of always
turning to food and it starts toadopt this new chain of events
that will move you in adifferent direction.
So we have to start veryconsciously doing that and
making different and betterdecisions for ourselves so our
(12:09):
brain can take on these new,more healthful and more
supportive systems and processesin place.
So we're not continuing to dothe habits that we've always
done that aren't working for usand that aren't getting us where
we want to be.
So it puts you back in controlof your brain, allows you to
(12:32):
make the decision, but you haveto make that decision In the
beginning of the day.
You have to say, like we're notsnacking in between, we're
going to eat good, solid, threesolid meals and we are going to
make sure that we drink lots ofwater and we are going to make
sure that we get through the dayand we're going to feel really
good.
And when those circumstancescome up where we feel like we
want to eat something, we'regoing to consciously make a
(12:53):
decision.
What are we going to do?
And we plan ahead.
We plan that ahead.
We have some ideas about how wesupport ourselves and that's
where we go from there.
So that is really that's thoseare hugely.
Being in control of your ownthoughts is sometimes a hard
concept for people to understand, but it's so absolutely vital
when it comes to any kind ofbehavior change that you have to
(13:15):
recognize the thoughts that youhave and the negative thoughts
that you have that cause you todo things that, in the long run,
are not going to be in yourbest interest.
And so you have to, kind of,you have to make a plan, you
have to give yourself some, someguidelines and some boundaries,
and some and some paths tofollow in order to be successful
(13:37):
.
And so planning things out, howam I going to handle if this
happens?
It's called if, then planning.
If this happens, then I'll doblank, and so if, then planning
is really, really powerfulbecause it empowers you to take
control of your thoughts and toactually lay out a plan.
As my former business coachalways said, what gets planned
(13:58):
is what gets done.
So when you make a plan, it'smore likely for something to
happen, for the end result to bewhat you want, than if you
hadn't planned and just hopedthat something was going to
happen.
All right.
The third reason why giving upsnacking is something that can
be very, very powerful when itcomes to weight loss and
especially when it comes to uh,to emotional eating as well, and
(14:21):
that is, it creates a processin your body called fat adaption
, and what that means is is thatyour body becomes a fat burner.
So what does that mean?
Your body becomes a fat burner.
Our body's always in a state ofbeing able to burn fat.
Well, no, it's not.
When we constantly have food inour system and we need energy,
(14:47):
our bodies are always going togo to the foods and to the
reserves that are immediatelyavailable, and those reserves
are usually the last things thatyou've eaten, the most recent
things that you've eaten.
So, if you need to have energyand energy when I say energy, I
don't mean like you'reconstantly exercising, I'm just
talking about like doing a mathproblem or being on the computer
(15:11):
, because your brain takes doingmental processes.
Your brain requires energy todo that, it requires calories to
do that.
So it's really, reallyimportant to be able to have
those, those that, that thosereserves in place, and so your
body needs those reserves to doa myriad of things.
(15:35):
But we want to have myriad ofthings, but we want to have.
We want excuse me, we want tohave our bodies be able to tap
into fat cells.
So what do we have to do to getthere?
Well, the first thing is, whenour bodies need energy, the
first thing it turns to is thefoods that we've just eaten, the
most readily available energysources.
It then taps into.
Once those are exhausted, itthen taps into your fat cell,
(15:57):
excuse me, your muscle then tapsinto your muscle glycogen
that's stored in your muscles.
There's a pretty small amountthere, but it goes there next,
uses that, and then the thirdarea that it goes to is your fat
cells.
Now, if we constantly arefeeding our bodies, it never
gets to the point that it evergets to the fat cells, because
it always has food available touse, and we want our bodies to
(16:21):
start using those stored fatcells.
And so you want to allowanywhere between three to four
hours between your meals.
It also allows your blood sugarto be stable and to not have the
fluctuations of blood sugargoing up when you eat and then
(16:42):
coming down, crashing downafterwards, and so it's really
important to make sure that youallow yourself to be able to
have the um have a steady,steady state of blood sugar that
isn't always going up and down,because that is also what
(17:02):
causes cravings.
And so, when we are able tostabilize our blood sugar and
we're able to make sure that weare eating the things that we
really, that we, that we, weneed to eat at our meals, and
then we go without our, we gowithout in between meals.
Our blood sugar is going tosettle down, because our blood
sugar always elevates no matterwhat we eat.
(17:22):
Blood sugar is going to elevateafter you eat and then it's
going to settle down and it willstay at a low level until you
eat again.
And that will help you befocused, be able to get things
done, to have more muscularendurance, to have more mental
endurance.
But it also allows your body totap into those fat cells to use
(17:44):
that energy instead of usingthat readily available energy if
you had eaten instead.
So being fat adaptive reallyhelps the process of burning fat
and, in turn, losing the weightthat you want.
But it also has a dual effect ofhelping with emotional eating,
because it's not creating thosecravings that are oftentimes
(18:07):
attributed to the roller coasterof your blood sugar going up
and down from you eating.
Now, that doesn't even takeinto consideration the emotional
component of emotional eating,but it's a great start because
there is a physiological.
There is a physiologicalcomponent to emotional eating as
well, and this kind of takescare of that.
(18:29):
So we still haven't touched theemotional eating aspect or the
emotions, and that aspect is awhole different topic and a
whole different podcast episode,but this is more of the
physiological and thephysiological things that happen
.
So that is the third.
The third reason why notsnacking is really is really
helpful, and then the fourthreason and the fourth thing that
you can do to really help withweight loss and again, this is
(18:53):
just this is this isn't theanswer for everybody, for every,
every possible reason why you,or every possible way you need
to lose weight or you want tolose weight.
It's just a great start to lookat.
Okay, am I consuming untrackedcalories?
Am I allowing my brain to dowhatever it wants to do?
Am I just constantly eating andmy body just never has this
(19:16):
opportunity to be able to tapinto fat cells?
And there are so many othercomponents along with it.
This is just one, but it's agreat start.
It's a great place to start tosee.
Hmm, what would happen if Ijust chose to eat three meals a
day and I didn't diet.
I just ate meals that I wantedto eat, but then I didn't eat in
(19:37):
between.
So I'm just giving this as a asa kind of as a a training
(20:03):
wheels kind of, as a beginningstep to to the things I teach,
but I think it's a great way toshow people that like oh wow,
I'm eating is really helpful isbecause you're being asked to go
for four hours, sometimes maybeeven five, between meals.
You have to be very, veryconscious of the foods that
you're choosing to eat.
Now, I always want people toeat what they want, but if you
have an entire meal that isnothing but carbs and nothing
(20:23):
but sugar carbs and you're goingto get hungry really fast.
So it's always a great idea tomix evenly or equally in an
(20:46):
appropriate distribution of fats, protein and carbs, and also
making sure you have some fiberand make sure that all of those
macronutrients are representedand you have a solid meal that
is going to sustain you throughto your next meal.
(21:08):
And I think that really helpspeople be much more aware of
what they're eating, instead ofjust like I'm just going to
throw down uh, you know, throwdown, uh, uh a hamburger and
fries and that's just going tobe it.
And there's nothing wrong withhamburger and fries.
I'm not saying that.
But I'm saying is we need tomake sure that if we're going to
(21:30):
have, if we're going to have,something like that, we want to
make sure that it's evenlydistributed.
It's going to be somethingthat's going to sustain us to
your next meal, and so whatyou'd be surprised, what I will
say is if you're a person whoreally loves salad, that is
amazing, great.
Eat a salad, but make sure youhave some bread with it.
(21:52):
Make sure and I know people arelike bread with salad.
That's terrible.
No, it's not.
Our body needs carbs.
It needs more sustainable, kindof stick to your ribs carbs,
but it also needs protein.
You got to have a proteinsource with that salad.
Don't just eat salad and think,well, this is going to make me
really full, it's going to makeyou really stuffed because it's
all nothing but fiber, butthat's going to pass really
(22:15):
quickly and you're going to beunsatisfied and you're going to
get hungry, and so it's.
It's a really great opportunityto really play with and really
explore what are the things thatI really like to eat and how do
I want to go about eating themand how do I want to help myself
when it comes to making surethat my meals are ones that I
(22:36):
really enjoy.
They're going to sustain meover the course of the next four
hours or so and they're goingto give me the opportunity to
start tapping into those fatcells and actually get a little
hungry towards the end.
That's all very, very important, and it's just a really quick
and easy way to see if you'vebeen eating too many unaccounted
(22:59):
for calories in between, andthat may be keeping you where
you are and it's allowing younot to actually lose the weight
that you want to lose.
So those four reasons are thefour reasons that I would
endorse, why you eliminatesnacking and you eat your three
meals a day and you eat what youwant, foods that you enjoy,
(23:21):
foods that are nutritionallyvaluable, that, again, are what
you want, and to really savorand enjoy your meals.
It's not the end, all be all.
It just begins to touch thatarea of emotional eating, but
there's so much more to that.
But this is a great way, agreat place to start, to start
(23:41):
to see some changes, but to alsorecognize that you can make the
decision that you're not goingto snack in between and you'll
realize that it really isemotions that are kicking in,
that are causing you to want toeat, because it's what you've
always done.
Your brain will tell you thatthis is what you need to do and
(24:02):
you'll realize that you reallydon't need it and that you can
then make other decisions thatare going to other ways of
dealing with your stress, otherways of dealing with things in
your life that are challenging,uh, that don't involve food.
So it's a great stepping stoneto getting there and recognizing
what it is that you need to dowhen it comes to your eating and
(24:24):
your response to emotions withfood.
So if this podcast has beenhelpful I really hope it has
been.
I know it's something that haschanged so much for me, but if
this has been helpful for you,please would love for you to
like this episode.
I'd love for you to leave me areview, on whatever platform
you're on.
(24:45):
I would so appreciate it.
I would also love for you tocomment and let me know what you
thought about this episode, ifyou think, if you've ever tried
this before and if you think youcould try it, and if you do,
give it a shot, and then let meknow in the comments how, what
your success was, if you thinkyou could try it and if you do,
give it a shot and then let meknow in the comments how, what
your success was, if youstruggled, and then I we can
always I can always direct youto some resources that I have
(25:06):
that might help you, that mightsupport you in being able to
adopt this into your eatingregime.
I hope, again, this has been,this has been, helpful for you.
Thank you so much for joiningme, for listening, for
supporting the podcast, and Iwill see you all next week, take
(25:26):
care.
Thank you for listening to thisweek's episode.
If you are interested inlearning more about how I can
help you understand and manageyour emotional eating, including
the use of hypnosis to uncoverthe root cause of your eating,
go to my website,kristenjonescoachingcom.
(25:54):
Thank you.
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