September 24, 2025 • 26 mins
Message me with comments or questions
Your brain makes over 20,000 decisions a day, and by evening, decision fatigue sets in. That’s when it feels nearly impossible to make healthy food choices, especially if you’re tired, stressed, or emotional. But what if you could bypass that mental exhaustion and set yourself up for success?
In this first installment of the Back to Basics series, we’re diving into meal planning—not because it’s a cliché “diet tip,” but because it’s scientifically proven to work with your brain’s natural wiring. When you have a clear plan, your brain perceives safety and order, allowing your logical prefrontal cortex to stay in control. Without one, your brain interprets restriction as a threat, triggering panic and poor decisions.
Meal planning isn’t about rigid rules—it’s about giving your brain the structure it craves. It reduces the constant chatter around food, frees up mental energy, and even provides a natural dopamine reward that reinforces positive habits. By working with your brain, not against it, you can break free from emotional eating and build habits that actually last.
Connect with me online:
1. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristinjonescoaching/
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 on Instagram...
Mark as Played
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.
(01:00):
My name is Kristen Jones andthank you so much for joining me
.
This week, I am starting aseries, and the series is going
to be Back to Basics theBreakthrough Method of
Overcoming Emotional Eating andLosing Weight.
(01:20):
So in this series and I'm goingto have each we're going to
address a different component ofmy program that I use and
encourage people to use toovercome emotional eating and to
lose weight at the same time,because we know that losing
(01:41):
weight as an emotional eater canbe.
We know that losing weight asan emotional eater can be
difficult because of the issueswith deprivation and restriction
and all of the mental stuffthat goes along with that, and
so what I do is I present all ofthese, you know these pillars
(02:02):
of my program, and I definitelygive people autonomy to decide
what's going to work for themand what's not going to work for
them.
Um, I think all of these thingstogether work really well.
But if people say, you knowwhat I, that's just not
something for me.
Okay, we can try that and wecan see if you're, if that just
doesn't jive with you.
Everybody's different.
So I don't think that, um, aprogram is you're not entering
(02:25):
prison.
It's not like you know, whenyou work with me, it's like it's
my way, or the highway, becausefor some people there are
certain things that just don'twork and so, but all of these,
these things that I'm going totalk about over the course of
the next five weeks, um, are allgoing to be important pillars
of my coaching and how I coachpeople, and they are very, um,
(02:48):
they're kind of the bread andbutter of losing weight.
But there's also this wholeother component, um, that we go
into as well and uh, and we'lltalk about that.
But the, these components thatwe're going to be talking about,
these pillars that we're goingto be talking about, are all
going to be the pillars thatwill help you not only start to
address your emotional eatingbut start you losing weight in
(03:11):
the process that you are goingthrough to kind of understand
and address your emotionaleating.
So today's topic, topic numberone, is going to be all about
meal planning.
Now I want to be super, superclear that meal planning is not
meal tracking, okay, and mealplanning.
(03:34):
I don't need you to plan yourmeals for the whole week.
I'm talking one day at a time.
But there is a scientific andbrain-based reason for why
planning your meals andfollowing through on planning
your meals is so important.
And it's so important as anemotional eater, but it's also
(03:57):
important for anyone who wantsto develop a new habit, a new
skill, a new routine, a newprocess that is going to get
them to move towards an ultimategoal that they have, and I'm
going to talk about that today.
So this is just not like oh,you need to.
You know, you need to meal plan, because that's just what
everybody says to do.
(04:18):
These things, the things thatI'm going to talk about today,
are all backed by science.
They're all backed by brainresearch, and I'm going to talk
about today are all backed byscience.
They're all backed by brainresearch and I'm going to give
you specific reasons as to whyyou need to, why meal planning
is so very valuable and is soimportant.
And I'm going to tell you it'ssomething that so many people
push back on and that's okay.
(04:39):
Totally can push back on it andlet me know how that goes.
I always let people hey, if youdon't think you want to do that
, that's totally okay.
But if we're not having success, then we need to look at the
things that you're choosing notto do, why you're choosing not
to do them, and then let's justtry and see if it works, and
nine times out of 10, it does so.
(05:00):
So the first thing I always liketo talk about is something that
my uh first business coach andlongtime mentor, dave Smith,
taught me, and it was what getsplanned is what gets done.
We don't plan for anything.
Nothing gets done.
So making a plan is really,really important, and that's
(05:22):
important in weight loss.
It's important in your work, asin weight loss.
It's important in your work.
It's in your job.
It's important in housekeeping.
It's important in just goingabout your day planning things.
You're much more productive whenyou plan things, because when
you have a plan, there's areason why it works.
(05:42):
It's because it does somethingto your brain.
The other reason it's importantis that when you're an
emotional eater, your eating isnot driven by physiological
needs.
It's not driven by the factthat you're hungry.
When you're an emotional eater,you eat for psychological and
(06:04):
mental reasons, and sounderstanding how your brain
works and why your brain tellsyou directs you to eat when you
don't need to, but it does itfor other reasons, why it does
that?
Understanding that the firststep into changing a behavior is
(06:25):
awareness, and part ofawareness is understanding why
something happens, and so wehave to understand how our brain
works.
Understanding your brain is soimportant when it comes to
making any sort of change, anysort of behavior change, and
weight loss is a behavior change.
The end result of weight loss isa change in your behavior and a
(06:50):
change in your pattern and achange in your habits, and I
think that most weight lossprograms neglect looking at how
the brain works, and I thinkthat is that they're making
surface changes and they're notgoing deep, and y'all we go deep
here.
So we have a number ofdifferent things that we need to
(07:11):
look at when it comes to whyplanning your meals ahead of
time.
Why that is so effective whenit comes to you sticking to a
meal plan and actually executingit and then getting the results
that you actually want, which,in this case, would be weight
loss and a management of youremotional eating.
(07:35):
So number one, the first reasonwhy meal planning is so
effective and why it is and whenI say meal planning, I really
mean, like having a structure orhaving any sort of plan.
So it could be meal planning,it could be writing down a to-do
list, whatever, but it's givingyour brain structure.
So the first reason why it's soimportant is that your brain
(07:58):
craves efficiency.
So our brain's number one job isto conserve energy and to keep
us alive, and planning andorganizing reduces the amount of
mental energy that is spent ondeciding well, what do I do next
?
What's my next step?
(08:19):
Where am I going?
What am I doing All of thosethings?
If we don't have those thingslaid out, our brain takes spends
a lot of mental energy worryingabout that or wondering about
that, because if we don't have aplan, it's going to be like
well, we got to keep.
We're always planning for theworst case scenario, which is
what our brain doesautomatically.
(08:40):
We're always in that like Idon't know what's coming next.
So that creates a lot ofanxiety, which creates, which is
, which is a result of all thatmental energy being spent on
what's next, what's next, and sothat is a poor use of your time
and of your mental energy, yourmental energy.
(09:03):
And when we apply it to eatingand we reduce that mental energy
, that mental energy is reallythat food noise that people talk
about all the time and it'sthat chatter and it's that those
thoughts of like, well, what amI going to eat next, what's my
next meal coming?
When we plan, that goes awaybecause we don't, because,
(09:25):
because we don't have to, wedon't, we've already made the
plan.
We made the plan, that's whatwe're committing to and we've
moved on to something else.
Our brain doesn't have to keepgoing back and wondering, well,
what's the next thing, what arewe going to have next?
Because we've already made adecision.
When you plan, you are notengaging in that constant
(09:47):
debating of, well is, whichchoice am I going to make?
Am I going to, what are wegoing to do next?
And that lowers your decisionfatigue.
We have to make over 20,000decisions in a day.
I mean decisions so much as I'mgoing to pick this piece of
paper up, I'm going to you knowsomething as small as.
(10:08):
What's this pen doing here?
Which lipstick color am I goingto put on?
I mean, there's just so manydecisions that we make and so we
have to by the end of the day,we're done, we're tired.
We've made so many decisions.
I don't want to make any moredecisions.
Well, that can derail us whenit comes to your food.
So you need to make decisionsahead of time.
(10:31):
And then your decision fatigue.
You don't have to fightyourself on.
Okay, let me make the decisionand let me make the right
decision.
And now let me stick to it.
They've already been made aheadof time.
That's done.
So you've made the decisionearlier in the day.
Now your brain can focus onmore immediate needs and
immediate decisions that needyour attention.
Second thing is it reducescognitive load.
(10:55):
So that means that we have aworking memory, our working
memory, in our prefrontal cortex, front part of our brain, and
it can only hold a few pieces ofinformation at a time.
So without a plan, your brainwastes energy trying to remember
(11:16):
tasks, details, things that yousaid, that you said to yourself
oh my gosh, that's reallyimportant.
I want to remember thatdisappears If we don't write it
down.
If we don't put it down onpaper, then we spend all of this
time trying to make decisionsbut then, at the same time,
trying to remember what was thedecision I needed to make.
Now I can't remember what thatwas.
So we have to give ourselvesthat opportunity to be able to
(11:41):
not be so bogged, be so boggeddown by all of the decisions
that we have to make and thatenergy that we're putting into
it.
So if food has always beenwhat's top of mind for you, your
cognitive load at work and withfood is like compounded.
(12:04):
It's so big, it's so heavy, andyour brain, if it's always been
on food, your brain's going tokeep thinking it needs to be on
food, and so planning andgetting it out of your brain
where you don't have to thinkabout it anymore, takes all that
load off.
So now your mental focus andyour cognitive load can be
directed towards things, frankly, that really matter.
(12:26):
Oh, I don't know, like youkeeping your job, you doing what
you need to do in your job, youhaving a conversation with your
spouse or with your kid.
That's meaningful becauseyou're able to focus on just
that thing, using lists andfollowing routines.
It takes away the burden ofhaving to remember everything,
(12:49):
having to be on top of it, andit frees up the mental bandwidth
for you to be creative, for youto problem solve and for you to
focus.
And so, instead of spending allthis time trying to remember the
things that I want to remember,write them down.
Write them down and then youcan refer back, you can do what
you need to do with that listand in this case, when it comes
(13:12):
to meal planning, you don't haveto think about what you're
going to have for lunch, becauseit's already been written down,
decision's already been made.
Now I just have to show up andI just have to eat it.
That's it, and then I can getright back to what I need to do
again after lunch, when we havesomething else that comes up
that we need to work on.
So, again, mental load, it getstaken off.
We don't have all of that, thatheaviness around what am I
(13:36):
going to eat, and that justfocuses our minds.
We're able to focus on thingsthat really matter.
Third thing is it providespredictability and safety.
Remember, back at number oneour brain's objective is to keep
us alive and to keep us safeand to keep us having everything
that we need.
(13:56):
Remember that Maslow'shierarchy of needs, all those
needs, that's our brain's firstand foremost, and part of that
is survival and survival.
Food goes along with survival.
So the brain doesn't likeuncertainty, it doesn't like
things that are unfamiliar.
When it, when it active, when,when, when we don't know what's
(14:19):
coming, the amygdala thatportion of our brain that is
responsible for recognizingthreats and then kind of
deciding what we're going to doabout those those threats that
becomes activated and it createsstress and anxiety.
That stress and anxiety thenpromotes us to be able to make
(14:42):
irrational decisions about oh mygosh, I'm going to starve, I
need to eat something and itneeds to be this pan of brownies
, whatever.
But that's what happens is when, when we don't know what's
coming, we go into this worstcase scenario scarcity mindset
(15:02):
and the scarcity mindset tellsus oh my gosh, we have to panic,
we have to, we have to figureout what we're going to do.
And so when we to relate thisto food when you wake up in the
morning and you're like I reallyneed to be good today, like I
need to follow my plan today,but you don't make a plan.
(15:24):
You're just like I need to begood today.
Your brain doesn't know whatgood means.
It just means we need to itjust it just means that.
And if you say I need to be goodtoday, so I need to cut back on
food, well, cutting back onfood tells your brain there's
not going to be food available.
Well, that's going to alert thethreat center that we talked
(15:45):
about.
That's going to alert thatthreat center.
To be like this is not good.
We don't know where our nextmeal is coming from.
And now they want to come backon food.
Well, your brain is going to bebecome this, this crazed.
Oh my gosh.
We need to make sure that wehave food.
We need to make sure that weget food and you'll make some
irrational, very poor decisionsfor yourself.
(16:06):
When you have a clear plan, itsignals to your brain I know
what's coming next, we got this,we know where our next meal is
coming from.
We can be calm, we can bepeaceful.
We can allow our prefrontalcortex, which is responsible for
logic, for reasoning and forfocus, we can allow that to
relax and do its job and it canfunction at its best.
(16:28):
It doesn't need to be in panicmode.
So just by making those lists,planning, having that routine,
it reminds us not only remindsour brain that we have
everything we need, we don'tneed to panic, food's always
available, everything'savailable to us, we have
everything we need and nobodyneeds to stress.
(16:51):
Once our brain knows that andthere's a plan and it knows
what's coming, then all is goodand we can move about our day.
And that's where we can reallythen see some changes in things
that we need, changes in how weapproach things.
Number four so many of us eatemotionally eat because we love
(17:15):
that little hit of a dopaminethat we get when we have
something really high sugar,really sweet, really, oh,
forbidden.
We can get dopamine in otherways and we can get dopamine
from making these lists andmaking these plans, because what
our brain thrives on, what ourbodies thrives on as humans, is
(17:37):
that dopamine hit.
But there are ways of gettingdopamine that don't involve
sugar, that don't involve food,and part of that is when we make
a plan and we're able to checkoff what we've done like oh okay
, I did my.
I, you know, made my bed check,I did my journaling check.
(17:57):
All of those things are allrewards that we give to our
brain and we get that littlebitty hit of dopamine and it
feels really good and what thatdoes is it signals to our brain.
Oh wait, we made a plan and wefollowed through and we got a
dopamine hit.
We want to do that more often,we want to keep doing that
(18:18):
because that's what feels right,and so the more you can buy
into the making of a planacknowledging when you follow
through and giving yourself thatlittle pat on the back, that's
a dopamine hit, that will thenencourage you to continue that
process, to continue to do thesame thing, to build that muscle
(18:39):
and have that habit becomesomething so ingrained and so
easy and so built in that youwill then continue to do it and
you'll get the result that youwanted.
And your brain will also thankyou for it, because it will be
very calm and it'll be veryrelaxed and it will have the
dopamine that it needs, and itwon't be from escalating and
(19:01):
having something higher in sugaror you know more of a risk or
any of those things that we dowhen we need to up our game with
our dopamine.
So it definitely builds uponitself and the habits then that
we are creating become a part ofwho we are and become a part of
our routine, and we onlybenefit from those things.
Number five is it aligns withhow habits are built.
(19:29):
When we make plans and we makeroutines, that is creating new
neural pathways, new thoughtplans, new thoughts, new ideas,
new beliefs, and if we believethat something is going to be
positive and beneficial for us,we will keep on doing it, and so
it creates those plannedpositive behaviors and positive
(19:53):
actions that then serve ourlives and we continue to do them
.
And if those planned positivethings are around food and
around eating and around makingour plans for our, for what our
day is going to look like, thatis just encouraging us to
continue to do that andcontinuing to make that a habit,
continuing to make our goodeating a habit, continuing to
(20:17):
make following through on whatwe say we're going to do a habit
.
That's more dopamine andeverybody's happy.
So it really results in youmaking your plans, sticking to
them, losing the weight you wantand then keeping it off and
feeling accomplished.
That gives you another dopaminehit.
So all of these things verynatural ways of getting dopamine
(20:40):
, as opposed to using thechemicals and food to get your
dopamine Now.
You're doing it because you'reactually accomplishing things
and you're feeling really goodabout it.
It's a win-win.
So, in summary, plans result inless stress, provide more
(21:02):
clarity for your day, especiallymeal planning in the morning,
meal planning for the day lessstress, more clarity for the day
.
It creates peace and calm thatcan help you sidestep emotional
eating.
When you make lists, there'sless cognitive impact on your
brain.
You have more energy for moremeaningful work.
(21:23):
It stops the obsessive foodthoughts that food chatter, and
it allows you to feel inabundance.
You move away from scarcity andfrom lack.
And then, finally, when youfollow through on anything that
is the ultimate in a dopaminehit that you can get that isn't
(21:46):
from food, that is, itreinforces the positive outcomes
that you are creating becauseyou are the one doing the thing
that's getting you that dopaminehit and that then serves to
maintain your motivation, tokeep you to continue to move in
this positive direction and getyou your ultimate goal, which in
(22:07):
this case would be to have amanaged control of your
emotional eating and for you tobe at the weight that you want.
So all of those things all comeabout because of this one
little habit.
It's one little idea ofplanning your meals and
(22:28):
following through on it, and,again, that that process is in
alignment with your brain, thatyour brain wants it.
It wants to be told what to do,it wants to have structure, it
wants to have focus.
(22:48):
So now is the time for you togive it to you, for you to give
it to your brain and then getthe results that you want to
have, which in this case, wouldbe a understanding and a control
of your emotional eating andlosing the weight that you want
to lose.
And that's ultimately what myjob as a coach is is to guide
you through that process and tohelp you decide what's going to
(23:11):
be best for you.
And I always allow my clients tomake the decisions that are
going to be best for them,because they know themselves so
much better than I do.
But if something's not working,wanting to do something and
needing to do something are twovery different things, and so we
get to.
We get to decide what that,what that looks like for each
person.
(23:31):
And and that's the reallyexciting part is is, for me,
it's important that clients haveautonomy.
They get to make their owndecisions, but they also get to
use facts to make thosedecisions and not make them out
of emotion and not just becausethey don't want to do something.
We try to use as many facts aswe can because ultimately, I
want to use those facts to getthem what they want and to make
(23:53):
them and to have them be theirhappiest and their most proud of
themselves that they can be.
So I hope this explanation as towhy meal planning is so
important, I hope this hashelped.
I hope it's something that youwill um, you will try and um and
again.
Meal planning is just writingdown.
You don't have to write downthe exact amounts of food, but
(24:15):
you do need to write down whatare you, what are you saying
that you want to be eating andyou don't need anything that's
not on that list?
And then you honor yourself andyou give yourself the gift of
those things because they're inalignment with what you want and
what your end result is.
So next week we are going to betalking about another aspect of
(24:39):
mine.
I'll tell you what it is.
But there's another aspect ofmy coaching program and we will
just take one at a time andunravel and unwind those pillars
and by the time we're done withthis series, you will
absolutely know everything thereis to know about how I help
(24:59):
people lose weight, and thenyou'll get to make the decision
of is this something that Ithink might work for me?
And in the meantime, I'm goingto have a special guest.
Come on, uh, to next week'spodcast and she will share her
story about how it was, how itwas a fit for her, and I look
forward to you being able tohear from her.
(25:22):
And here's the other thing.
This is the crazy part she lostall of her weight by merely
listening to the podcast, so sheis going to be my guest next
week, so I look forward to youcoming back and hearing that
episode and learning a ton fromher.
All right, take care, have anamazing rest of your week and I
(25:43):
will see you next week.
Bye now.
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,
(26:05):
go to my website,kristinjonescoachingcom.
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.
(01:00):
My name is Kristen Jones andthank you so much for joining me
.
This week, I am starting aseries, and the series is going
to be Back to Basics theBreakthrough Method of
Overcoming Emotional Eating andLosing Weight.
(01:20):
So in this series and I'm goingto have each we're going to
address a different component ofmy program that I use and
encourage people to use toovercome emotional eating and to
lose weight at the same time,because we know that losing
(01:41):
weight as an emotional eater canbe.
We know that losing weight asan emotional eater can be
difficult because of the issueswith deprivation and restriction
and all of the mental stuffthat goes along with that, and
so what I do is I present all ofthese, you know these pillars
(02:02):
of my program, and I definitelygive people autonomy to decide
what's going to work for themand what's not going to work for
them.
Um, I think all of these thingstogether work really well.
But if people say, you knowwhat I, that's just not
something for me.
Okay, we can try that and wecan see if you're, if that just
doesn't jive with you.
Everybody's different.
So I don't think that, um, aprogram is you're not entering
(02:25):
prison.
It's not like you know, whenyou work with me, it's like it's
my way, or the highway, becausefor some people there are
certain things that just don'twork and so, but all of these,
these things that I'm going totalk about over the course of
the next five weeks, um, are allgoing to be important pillars
of my coaching and how I coachpeople, and they are very, um,
(02:48):
they're kind of the bread andbutter of losing weight.
But there's also this wholeother component, um, that we go
into as well and uh, and we'lltalk about that.
But the, these components thatwe're going to be talking about,
these pillars that we're goingto be talking about, are all
going to be the pillars thatwill help you not only start to
address your emotional eatingbut start you losing weight in
(03:11):
the process that you are goingthrough to kind of understand
and address your emotionaleating.
So today's topic, topic numberone, is going to be all about
meal planning.
Now I want to be super, superclear that meal planning is not
meal tracking, okay, and mealplanning.
(03:34):
I don't need you to plan yourmeals for the whole week.
I'm talking one day at a time.
But there is a scientific andbrain-based reason for why
planning your meals andfollowing through on planning
your meals is so important.
And it's so important as anemotional eater, but it's also
(03:57):
important for anyone who wantsto develop a new habit, a new
skill, a new routine, a newprocess that is going to get
them to move towards an ultimategoal that they have, and I'm
going to talk about that today.
So this is just not like oh,you need to.
You know, you need to meal plan, because that's just what
everybody says to do.
(04:18):
These things, the things thatI'm going to talk about today,
are all backed by science.
They're all backed by brainresearch, and I'm going to talk
about today are all backed byscience.
They're all backed by brainresearch and I'm going to give
you specific reasons as to whyyou need to, why meal planning
is so very valuable and is soimportant.
And I'm going to tell you it'ssomething that so many people
push back on and that's okay.
(04:39):
Totally can push back on it andlet me know how that goes.
I always let people hey, if youdon't think you want to do that
, that's totally okay.
But if we're not having success, then we need to look at the
things that you're choosing notto do, why you're choosing not
to do them, and then let's justtry and see if it works, and
nine times out of 10, it does so.
(05:00):
So the first thing I always liketo talk about is something that
my uh first business coach andlongtime mentor, dave Smith,
taught me, and it was what getsplanned is what gets done.
We don't plan for anything.
Nothing gets done.
So making a plan is really,really important, and that's
(05:22):
important in weight loss.
It's important in your work, asin weight loss.
It's important in your work.
It's in your job.
It's important in housekeeping.
It's important in just goingabout your day planning things.
You're much more productive whenyou plan things, because when
you have a plan, there's areason why it works.
(05:42):
It's because it does somethingto your brain.
The other reason it's importantis that when you're an
emotional eater, your eating isnot driven by physiological
needs.
It's not driven by the factthat you're hungry.
When you're an emotional eater,you eat for psychological and
(06:04):
mental reasons, and sounderstanding how your brain
works and why your brain tellsyou directs you to eat when you
don't need to, but it does itfor other reasons, why it does
that?
Understanding that the firststep into changing a behavior is
(06:25):
awareness, and part ofawareness is understanding why
something happens, and so wehave to understand how our brain
works.
Understanding your brain is soimportant when it comes to
making any sort of change, anysort of behavior change, and
weight loss is a behavior change.
The end result of weight loss isa change in your behavior and a
(06:50):
change in your pattern and achange in your habits, and I
think that most weight lossprograms neglect looking at how
the brain works, and I thinkthat is that they're making
surface changes and they're notgoing deep, and y'all we go deep
here.
So we have a number ofdifferent things that we need to
(07:11):
look at when it comes to whyplanning your meals ahead of
time.
Why that is so effective whenit comes to you sticking to a
meal plan and actually executingit and then getting the results
that you actually want, which,in this case, would be weight
loss and a management of youremotional eating.
(07:35):
So number one, the first reasonwhy meal planning is so
effective and why it is and whenI say meal planning, I really
mean, like having a structure orhaving any sort of plan.
So it could be meal planning,it could be writing down a to-do
list, whatever, but it's givingyour brain structure.
So the first reason why it's soimportant is that your brain
(07:58):
craves efficiency.
So our brain's number one job isto conserve energy and to keep
us alive, and planning andorganizing reduces the amount of
mental energy that is spent ondeciding well, what do I do next
?
What's my next step?
(08:19):
Where am I going?
What am I doing All of thosethings?
If we don't have those thingslaid out, our brain takes spends
a lot of mental energy worryingabout that or wondering about
that, because if we don't have aplan, it's going to be like
well, we got to keep.
We're always planning for theworst case scenario, which is
what our brain doesautomatically.
(08:40):
We're always in that like Idon't know what's coming next.
So that creates a lot ofanxiety, which creates, which is
, which is a result of all thatmental energy being spent on
what's next, what's next, and sothat is a poor use of your time
and of your mental energy, yourmental energy.
(09:03):
And when we apply it to eatingand we reduce that mental energy
, that mental energy is reallythat food noise that people talk
about all the time and it'sthat chatter and it's that those
thoughts of like, well, what amI going to eat next, what's my
next meal coming?
When we plan, that goes awaybecause we don't, because,
(09:25):
because we don't have to, wedon't, we've already made the
plan.
We made the plan, that's whatwe're committing to and we've
moved on to something else.
Our brain doesn't have to keepgoing back and wondering, well,
what's the next thing, what arewe going to have next?
Because we've already made adecision.
When you plan, you are notengaging in that constant
(09:47):
debating of, well is, whichchoice am I going to make?
Am I going to, what are wegoing to do next?
And that lowers your decisionfatigue.
We have to make over 20,000decisions in a day.
I mean decisions so much as I'mgoing to pick this piece of
paper up, I'm going to you knowsomething as small as.
(10:08):
What's this pen doing here?
Which lipstick color am I goingto put on?
I mean, there's just so manydecisions that we make and so we
have to by the end of the day,we're done, we're tired.
We've made so many decisions.
I don't want to make any moredecisions.
Well, that can derail us whenit comes to your food.
So you need to make decisionsahead of time.
(10:31):
And then your decision fatigue.
You don't have to fightyourself on.
Okay, let me make the decisionand let me make the right
decision.
And now let me stick to it.
They've already been made aheadof time.
That's done.
So you've made the decisionearlier in the day.
Now your brain can focus onmore immediate needs and
immediate decisions that needyour attention.
Second thing is it reducescognitive load.
(10:55):
So that means that we have aworking memory, our working
memory, in our prefrontal cortex, front part of our brain, and
it can only hold a few pieces ofinformation at a time.
So without a plan, your brainwastes energy trying to remember
(11:16):
tasks, details, things that yousaid, that you said to yourself
oh my gosh, that's reallyimportant.
I want to remember thatdisappears If we don't write it
down.
If we don't put it down onpaper, then we spend all of this
time trying to make decisionsbut then, at the same time,
trying to remember what was thedecision I needed to make.
Now I can't remember what thatwas.
So we have to give ourselvesthat opportunity to be able to
(11:41):
not be so bogged, be so boggeddown by all of the decisions
that we have to make and thatenergy that we're putting into
it.
So if food has always beenwhat's top of mind for you, your
cognitive load at work and withfood is like compounded.
(12:04):
It's so big, it's so heavy, andyour brain, if it's always been
on food, your brain's going tokeep thinking it needs to be on
food, and so planning andgetting it out of your brain
where you don't have to thinkabout it anymore, takes all that
load off.
So now your mental focus andyour cognitive load can be
directed towards things, frankly, that really matter.
(12:26):
Oh, I don't know, like youkeeping your job, you doing what
you need to do in your job, youhaving a conversation with your
spouse or with your kid.
That's meaningful becauseyou're able to focus on just
that thing, using lists andfollowing routines.
It takes away the burden ofhaving to remember everything,
(12:49):
having to be on top of it, andit frees up the mental bandwidth
for you to be creative, for youto problem solve and for you to
focus.
And so, instead of spending allthis time trying to remember the
things that I want to remember,write them down.
Write them down and then youcan refer back, you can do what
you need to do with that listand in this case, when it comes
(13:12):
to meal planning, you don't haveto think about what you're
going to have for lunch, becauseit's already been written down,
decision's already been made.
Now I just have to show up andI just have to eat it.
That's it, and then I can getright back to what I need to do
again after lunch, when we havesomething else that comes up
that we need to work on.
So, again, mental load, it getstaken off.
We don't have all of that, thatheaviness around what am I
(13:36):
going to eat, and that justfocuses our minds.
We're able to focus on thingsthat really matter.
Third thing is it providespredictability and safety.
Remember, back at number oneour brain's objective is to keep
us alive and to keep us safeand to keep us having everything
that we need.
(13:56):
Remember that Maslow'shierarchy of needs, all those
needs, that's our brain's firstand foremost, and part of that
is survival and survival.
Food goes along with survival.
So the brain doesn't likeuncertainty, it doesn't like
things that are unfamiliar.
When it, when it active, when,when, when we don't know what's
(14:19):
coming, the amygdala thatportion of our brain that is
responsible for recognizingthreats and then kind of
deciding what we're going to doabout those those threats that
becomes activated and it createsstress and anxiety.
That stress and anxiety thenpromotes us to be able to make
(14:42):
irrational decisions about oh mygosh, I'm going to starve, I
need to eat something and itneeds to be this pan of brownies
, whatever.
But that's what happens is when, when we don't know what's
coming, we go into this worstcase scenario scarcity mindset
(15:02):
and the scarcity mindset tellsus oh my gosh, we have to panic,
we have to, we have to figureout what we're going to do.
And so when we to relate thisto food when you wake up in the
morning and you're like I reallyneed to be good today, like I
need to follow my plan today,but you don't make a plan.
(15:24):
You're just like I need to begood today.
Your brain doesn't know whatgood means.
It just means we need to itjust it just means that.
And if you say I need to be goodtoday, so I need to cut back on
food, well, cutting back onfood tells your brain there's
not going to be food available.
Well, that's going to alert thethreat center that we talked
(15:45):
about.
That's going to alert thatthreat center.
To be like this is not good.
We don't know where our nextmeal is coming from.
And now they want to come backon food.
Well, your brain is going to bebecome this, this crazed.
Oh my gosh.
We need to make sure that wehave food.
We need to make sure that weget food and you'll make some
irrational, very poor decisionsfor yourself.
(16:06):
When you have a clear plan, itsignals to your brain I know
what's coming next, we got this,we know where our next meal is
coming from.
We can be calm, we can bepeaceful.
We can allow our prefrontalcortex, which is responsible for
logic, for reasoning and forfocus, we can allow that to
relax and do its job and it canfunction at its best.
(16:28):
It doesn't need to be in panicmode.
So just by making those lists,planning, having that routine,
it reminds us not only remindsour brain that we have
everything we need, we don'tneed to panic, food's always
available, everything'savailable to us, we have
everything we need and nobodyneeds to stress.
(16:51):
Once our brain knows that andthere's a plan and it knows
what's coming, then all is goodand we can move about our day.
And that's where we can reallythen see some changes in things
that we need, changes in how weapproach things.
Number four so many of us eatemotionally eat because we love
(17:15):
that little hit of a dopaminethat we get when we have
something really high sugar,really sweet, really, oh,
forbidden.
We can get dopamine in otherways and we can get dopamine
from making these lists andmaking these plans, because what
our brain thrives on, what ourbodies thrives on as humans, is
(17:37):
that dopamine hit.
But there are ways of gettingdopamine that don't involve
sugar, that don't involve food,and part of that is when we make
a plan and we're able to checkoff what we've done like oh okay
, I did my.
I, you know, made my bed check,I did my journaling check.
(17:57):
All of those things are allrewards that we give to our
brain and we get that littlebitty hit of dopamine and it
feels really good and what thatdoes is it signals to our brain.
Oh wait, we made a plan and wefollowed through and we got a
dopamine hit.
We want to do that more often,we want to keep doing that
(18:18):
because that's what feels right,and so the more you can buy
into the making of a planacknowledging when you follow
through and giving yourself thatlittle pat on the back, that's
a dopamine hit, that will thenencourage you to continue that
process, to continue to do thesame thing, to build that muscle
(18:39):
and have that habit becomesomething so ingrained and so
easy and so built in that youwill then continue to do it and
you'll get the result that youwanted.
And your brain will also thankyou for it, because it will be
very calm and it'll be veryrelaxed and it will have the
dopamine that it needs, and itwon't be from escalating and
(19:01):
having something higher in sugaror you know more of a risk or
any of those things that we dowhen we need to up our game with
our dopamine.
So it definitely builds uponitself and the habits then that
we are creating become a part ofwho we are and become a part of
our routine, and we onlybenefit from those things.
Number five is it aligns withhow habits are built.
(19:29):
When we make plans and we makeroutines, that is creating new
neural pathways, new thoughtplans, new thoughts, new ideas,
new beliefs, and if we believethat something is going to be
positive and beneficial for us,we will keep on doing it, and so
it creates those plannedpositive behaviors and positive
(19:53):
actions that then serve ourlives and we continue to do them
.
And if those planned positivethings are around food and
around eating and around makingour plans for our, for what our
day is going to look like, thatis just encouraging us to
continue to do that andcontinuing to make that a habit,
continuing to make our goodeating a habit, continuing to
(20:17):
make following through on whatwe say we're going to do a habit
.
That's more dopamine andeverybody's happy.
So it really results in youmaking your plans, sticking to
them, losing the weight you wantand then keeping it off and
feeling accomplished.
That gives you another dopaminehit.
So all of these things verynatural ways of getting dopamine
(20:40):
, as opposed to using thechemicals and food to get your
dopamine Now.
You're doing it because you'reactually accomplishing things
and you're feeling really goodabout it.
It's a win-win.
So, in summary, plans result inless stress, provide more
(21:02):
clarity for your day, especiallymeal planning in the morning,
meal planning for the day lessstress, more clarity for the day
.
It creates peace and calm thatcan help you sidestep emotional
eating.
When you make lists, there'sless cognitive impact on your
brain.
You have more energy for moremeaningful work.
(21:23):
It stops the obsessive foodthoughts that food chatter, and
it allows you to feel inabundance.
You move away from scarcity andfrom lack.
And then, finally, when youfollow through on anything that
is the ultimate in a dopaminehit that you can get that isn't
(21:46):
from food, that is, itreinforces the positive outcomes
that you are creating becauseyou are the one doing the thing
that's getting you that dopaminehit and that then serves to
maintain your motivation, tokeep you to continue to move in
this positive direction and getyou your ultimate goal, which in
(22:07):
this case would be to have amanaged control of your
emotional eating and for you tobe at the weight that you want.
So all of those things all comeabout because of this one
little habit.
It's one little idea ofplanning your meals and
(22:28):
following through on it, and,again, that that process is in
alignment with your brain, thatyour brain wants it.
It wants to be told what to do,it wants to have structure, it
wants to have focus.
(22:48):
So now is the time for you togive it to you, for you to give
it to your brain and then getthe results that you want to
have, which in this case, wouldbe a understanding and a control
of your emotional eating andlosing the weight that you want
to lose.
And that's ultimately what myjob as a coach is is to guide
you through that process and tohelp you decide what's going to
(23:11):
be best for you.
And I always allow my clients tomake the decisions that are
going to be best for them,because they know themselves so
much better than I do.
But if something's not working,wanting to do something and
needing to do something are twovery different things, and so we
get to.
We get to decide what that,what that looks like for each
person.
(23:31):
And and that's the reallyexciting part is is, for me,
it's important that clients haveautonomy.
They get to make their owndecisions, but they also get to
use facts to make thosedecisions and not make them out
of emotion and not just becausethey don't want to do something.
We try to use as many facts aswe can because ultimately, I
want to use those facts to getthem what they want and to make
(23:53):
them and to have them be theirhappiest and their most proud of
themselves that they can be.
So I hope this explanation as towhy meal planning is so
important, I hope this hashelped.
I hope it's something that youwill um, you will try and um and
again.
Meal planning is just writingdown.
You don't have to write downthe exact amounts of food, but
(24:15):
you do need to write down whatare you, what are you saying
that you want to be eating andyou don't need anything that's
not on that list?
And then you honor yourself andyou give yourself the gift of
those things because they're inalignment with what you want and
what your end result is.
So next week we are going to betalking about another aspect of
(24:39):
mine.
I'll tell you what it is.
But there's another aspect ofmy coaching program and we will
just take one at a time andunravel and unwind those pillars
and by the time we're done withthis series, you will
absolutely know everything thereis to know about how I help
(24:59):
people lose weight, and thenyou'll get to make the decision
of is this something that Ithink might work for me?
And in the meantime, I'm goingto have a special guest.
Come on, uh, to next week'spodcast and she will share her
story about how it was, how itwas a fit for her, and I look
forward to you being able tohear from her.
(25:22):
And here's the other thing.
This is the crazy part she lostall of her weight by merely
listening to the podcast, so sheis going to be my guest next
week, so I look forward to youcoming back and hearing that
episode and learning a ton fromher.
All right, take care, have anamazing rest of your week and I
(25:43):
will see you next week.
Bye now.
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,
(26:05):
go to my website,kristinjonescoachingcom.
Thank you.
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.