January 28, 2023 • 10 mins
OUTWEIGH: If you are struggling with constant thoughts about food—you are not alone. Amy shares some things that worked for her in stopping the neverending thoughts about food. You deserve to think about other things…so listen and add these tips to your tool box of recovery!
Link to tickets for the Amy’s ‘4 Things’ LIVE in Nashville at Franklin Theater:
https://secure.franklintheatre.com/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=370547~cfe40b7d-1c56-4c4b-b937-600bdd7c5904
Best places to find more about Amy: RadioAmy.com + @RadioAmy
To contact Amy about Outweigh: hello@outweighpodcast.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I won't let my body outly out way everything that
I'm made do. Won't spend my life trying to change.
I'm learning to love who I am. I get I'm strong,
I feel free, I know who every part of me.
It's beautiful and then will always out way if you
(00:24):
feel it with your hands, and there she'll some love
to the food. If that, let's say good day and
time did you and die out? Happy Saturday? How I
fam amy here And if you're struggling with constant thoughts
about food, you are not alone. I've been there. Now again,
I am not the expert here and it is just me.
(00:46):
Actually don't have an expert joining me today, but I
can share some things that worked for me to help
minimize the never ending thoughts about food that I had
for years and years and years. Now. First thing I
want to mention is something that I've said before and
keep saying it, and Catherine Hansen taught me this eat adequately.
We need to make sure that we're eating enough food.
(01:08):
If we are restricting and we start nourishing ourselves well,
we have a much better chance of lessening the food thoughts.
Thinking about food all the time can be a big
red flag that we aren't eating enough, and sometimes I
literally have to ask myself, have I been eating adequately today?
Have I been eating adequately this week? I have a
(01:28):
little conversation with myself of my brain and I try
to work through whether or not my body is deprived.
The relationship between food restrictions, the brain and food cravings
is really really complex, so I can only speak to
my experience, and restriction causes me to think about food
more often. The less I restrict and the more I
(01:49):
actually nourish my body, the less thoughts about food I have.
When I had a lot of strict rules regarding what
I would and wouldn't allow myself to eat, it took
up so much space in my brain. I had to
get rid of my off limits foods list and learn
to trust my body. I know that's way easier said
than done. But when I allow myself to enjoy certain
(02:10):
foods that I can't stop thinking about, and I find
the thoughts popping up less and less, that's showing me, well,
this is really working, and it's essential that we need
our body's needs and again eat adequately. It's also good
to acknowledge and celebrate when our brains aren't thinking about food.
(02:32):
I'm going to read something that was posted on a
brain over binge blog about noticing when you're not thinking
about food. I know it can sometimes feel that you're
thinking about food all the time, but I know that
there are moments in the day where you're not thinking
about it. There are times when you're focusing fully on
your work or on someone else in your life. I
want you to notice that and see that your brain
(02:55):
does have the capacity to go in other directions. Now,
I realized that looking for those moments that you're not
thinking about food and then possibly saying, well, this is great,
I'm not thinking about food right now can possibly have
the unintended effect of making you then think about food.
So try to do this in a way that you're
just observing your mind in a relaxed way, instead of
(03:18):
constantly judging whether or not you're thinking about food in
that particular moment. When you do notice the food thoughts,
you can do things to redirect your attention back to
the present moment and focus on whatever you're doing or
whatever you do want to focus on instead of food.
You may need to refocus a lot at first, but
it will get easier over time. You could compare this
(03:39):
to a meditation practice. When you do a meditation practice,
your mind naturally wanders and then you bring your attention
back to a focal point or a mantra. And when
you first start a meditation practice, you may need to
refocus your attention on the mantra or the focal point
hundreds of times, even within just a minute. But it
gets easier over time, and your brain starts to stay
more and more focused on what you want to be
(04:01):
focusing on. That's the end of the part I'm reading.
I just pulled a section from a blog again, brainover
Binge is an amazing resource. But Healthline also had an
entire article dedicated to this topic, and they mentioned that
we can learn to let the thoughts pass. So if
we notice these thoughts arise but know that we aren't
(04:21):
really hungry, we can proactively take our mind another direction
by doing one or multiple of the following things. Pause
and take a break from what you're doing. Stand up
and stretch, take a walk, drink a glass of water,
Read something that interests you, work on your favorite hobby,
meditate for a few minutes. There's awesome apps you can
(04:44):
use for that. Journal about how you're feeling that doesn't
say this one from healthline, but I'm throwing this in.
Do you have a friend or a loved one that
you can call and see how they're doing, check in
on them? Switch it up in your head to not
about you, but about someone else. You may need to
proactively take your mind another direction, many many, many many
(05:06):
times before it starts to become more effortless and the
food thoughts lesson. You know. I also learned from brain
over binge that your brain learns that the thoughts you
focus attention on are the ones that are important to you,
and it will keep producing those thoughts over and over.
When I first learned that my mind was blown, I
(05:27):
was fascinated. I was like, oh wow, okay, no wonder
I keep having these thoughts over and over. My brain
thinks that these thoughts are very important to me. However,
when you stop focusing attention on certain thoughts, the brain
will learn that those thoughts are less important to you,
and in return, the food thoughts will stop ruling your
brain and your life. So hopefully some of this is
(05:49):
at least just helpful to first of all, know that
you're not alone. If you're someone that is thinking about
food all of the time. And I think for me,
it started in my teenage years when I started dieting
and I started restricting, and then my brain started freaking out,
and my brain was like, okay, I can remember thinking
about food all through school, all through college. I felt
(06:10):
like my friends could enjoy other things and I couldn't
because I was just constantly thinking about food. I would
go to bed thing about food. I would wake up
thinking about food. Of course, I didn't talk about food
all the time, because I also had this shame in
my mind, like why am I? Why am I the
one thinking about food all the time? And I knew
I had a different relationship with food than some of
my friends, so I didn't really have anybody to talk
(06:33):
to about it. So the thoughts just continued and continued
and continued until you know, I don't know, my late thirties.
So there is hope. If you're listening to this at
a young age, there's hope for you. If you're listening
to this right now and you are fifty, sixty, seventy
years old, there is hope for you too. Thoughts about
food do not have to rule your brain, and if
(06:56):
you're serious about getting help with this or you have
the resources. Is then talking to someone a therapist, a
registered dietitian that specializes in eating disorders by the way,
that can help walk you through this and come up
with a meal plan so that you know that you're
eating adequately. I know it's so hard to know. Even
if your body is hungry, you might be thinking, well,
(07:17):
I don't even know how to tell if I'm hungry anymore.
I mean, it's thinking about food assign that you're hungry. Okay, yes, potentially,
but also do you get headaches? Are you fatigued? Are
you irritable? I mean, sometimes I have to do what
I do with my kids, and I see how they're behaving,
and I'm like, oh, shoot, when is the last time
they ate? And I'm like, oh, they're acting that way
(07:39):
because they're hungry. And I sort of have to sometimes
check my attitude, my vibe and realize, oh, I'm acting
this way because my body needs food for sure, Like
I can assess what I have consumed that day in
that moment and know that I haven't eaten adequately. Remember
I told you ask myself how little conversation with myself
(08:00):
by eating enough today and when the answer is no,
I try to go make myself something that is full
of nutrients that my body wants. And sometimes my body
doesn't want the stuff that's full of the nutrients. It
maybe wants something else, like a cookie, something that I
used to have completely off limits. But I because I
don't have any allergies or anything I used to think
(08:20):
that I did, but but I don't, I can allow
all sorts of foods. In so paying attention to those
cravings too instead of dismissing them is important too, because
I feel like if I am like, oh, I really
shouldn't eat that cookie, well now I'm just going to
think about the cookie until I have the cookie. And
then thankfully I'm to a point now where just because
(08:41):
I have one cookie doesn't mean I'm going to have
five eight cookies. You can rewire your brain and there
is hope for that. So hopefully some of this stuff
was helpful if you are someone that is thinking about
food all of the time. I hope y'all are having
the day you need to have and remember a life
without sort of eating outweighs everything and just a heads
(09:03):
up and be doing a live event in Nashville for
my Four Things podcast, and I would love to have
you there. It's going to be like a night out
with your girlfriends. And I was trying to think about
what do I like from a night out with my girlfriends.
I like laughter, I like sharing with each other, encouragement,
I love the connection. And then I normally get home
from a girl's night out feeling refreshed, empowered, motivated, I
(09:26):
feel seen. And that's my hope for the evening in Nashville.
They we're gonna have at Franklin Theater. So if you
want to join me and my friends and experts for
honest conversations about knowing your worth and using your voice
and building the confidence to have the life that you deserve.
I deserve, we deserve. Again, I'm I'm up there as
(09:47):
as one of you. I'm just facilitating it, hosting it.
I've got the experts that are coming to really share
with us, and then again I can share my experience
and certain things that I've learned along the way. But
we are worthy of a good life. That's my theme
that keeps popping up for me whenever I would think
about this live. It's like, you are worthy. You are
worthy because so many of my friends in our forties.
(10:10):
I've heard at our girls nights, at our dinners that
they're not feeling worthy of a good life, and we
are so. A link to the tickets is going to
be in the show notes. Also, it'll be in my
Instagram bio at Radio Amy, or you can go to
Franklin Theater dot com. All right by
I won't let my body outly out way everything that
I'm made do. Won't spend my life trying to change.
I'm learning to love who I am. I get I'm strong,
I feel free, I know who every part of me.
It's beautiful and then will always out way if you
(00:24):
feel it with your hands, and there she'll some love
to the food. If that, let's say good day and
time did you and die out? Happy Saturday? How I
fam amy here And if you're struggling with constant thoughts
about food, you are not alone. I've been there. Now again,
I am not the expert here and it is just me.
(00:46):
Actually don't have an expert joining me today, but I
can share some things that worked for me to help
minimize the never ending thoughts about food that I had
for years and years and years. Now. First thing I
want to mention is something that I've said before and
keep saying it, and Catherine Hansen taught me this eat adequately.
We need to make sure that we're eating enough food.
(01:08):
If we are restricting and we start nourishing ourselves well,
we have a much better chance of lessening the food thoughts.
Thinking about food all the time can be a big
red flag that we aren't eating enough, and sometimes I
literally have to ask myself, have I been eating adequately today?
Have I been eating adequately this week? I have a
(01:28):
little conversation with myself of my brain and I try
to work through whether or not my body is deprived.
The relationship between food restrictions, the brain and food cravings
is really really complex, so I can only speak to
my experience, and restriction causes me to think about food
more often. The less I restrict and the more I
(01:49):
actually nourish my body, the less thoughts about food I have.
When I had a lot of strict rules regarding what
I would and wouldn't allow myself to eat, it took
up so much space in my brain. I had to
get rid of my off limits foods list and learn
to trust my body. I know that's way easier said
than done. But when I allow myself to enjoy certain
(02:10):
foods that I can't stop thinking about, and I find
the thoughts popping up less and less, that's showing me, well,
this is really working, and it's essential that we need
our body's needs and again eat adequately. It's also good
to acknowledge and celebrate when our brains aren't thinking about food.
(02:32):
I'm going to read something that was posted on a
brain over binge blog about noticing when you're not thinking
about food. I know it can sometimes feel that you're
thinking about food all the time, but I know that
there are moments in the day where you're not thinking
about it. There are times when you're focusing fully on
your work or on someone else in your life. I
want you to notice that and see that your brain
(02:55):
does have the capacity to go in other directions. Now,
I realized that looking for those moments that you're not
thinking about food and then possibly saying, well, this is great,
I'm not thinking about food right now can possibly have
the unintended effect of making you then think about food.
So try to do this in a way that you're
just observing your mind in a relaxed way, instead of
(03:18):
constantly judging whether or not you're thinking about food in
that particular moment. When you do notice the food thoughts,
you can do things to redirect your attention back to
the present moment and focus on whatever you're doing or
whatever you do want to focus on instead of food.
You may need to refocus a lot at first, but
it will get easier over time. You could compare this
(03:39):
to a meditation practice. When you do a meditation practice,
your mind naturally wanders and then you bring your attention
back to a focal point or a mantra. And when
you first start a meditation practice, you may need to
refocus your attention on the mantra or the focal point
hundreds of times, even within just a minute. But it
gets easier over time, and your brain starts to stay
more and more focused on what you want to be
(04:01):
focusing on. That's the end of the part I'm reading.
I just pulled a section from a blog again, brainover
Binge is an amazing resource. But Healthline also had an
entire article dedicated to this topic, and they mentioned that
we can learn to let the thoughts pass. So if
we notice these thoughts arise but know that we aren't
(04:21):
really hungry, we can proactively take our mind another direction
by doing one or multiple of the following things. Pause
and take a break from what you're doing. Stand up
and stretch, take a walk, drink a glass of water,
Read something that interests you, work on your favorite hobby,
meditate for a few minutes. There's awesome apps you can
(04:44):
use for that. Journal about how you're feeling that doesn't
say this one from healthline, but I'm throwing this in.
Do you have a friend or a loved one that
you can call and see how they're doing, check in
on them? Switch it up in your head to not
about you, but about someone else. You may need to
proactively take your mind another direction, many many, many many
(05:06):
times before it starts to become more effortless and the
food thoughts lesson. You know. I also learned from brain
over binge that your brain learns that the thoughts you
focus attention on are the ones that are important to you,
and it will keep producing those thoughts over and over.
When I first learned that my mind was blown, I
(05:27):
was fascinated. I was like, oh wow, okay, no wonder
I keep having these thoughts over and over. My brain
thinks that these thoughts are very important to me. However,
when you stop focusing attention on certain thoughts, the brain
will learn that those thoughts are less important to you,
and in return, the food thoughts will stop ruling your
brain and your life. So hopefully some of this is
(05:49):
at least just helpful to first of all, know that
you're not alone. If you're someone that is thinking about
food all of the time. And I think for me,
it started in my teenage years when I started dieting
and I started restricting, and then my brain started freaking out,
and my brain was like, okay, I can remember thinking
about food all through school, all through college. I felt
(06:10):
like my friends could enjoy other things and I couldn't
because I was just constantly thinking about food. I would
go to bed thing about food. I would wake up
thinking about food. Of course, I didn't talk about food
all the time, because I also had this shame in
my mind, like why am I? Why am I the
one thinking about food all the time? And I knew
I had a different relationship with food than some of
my friends, so I didn't really have anybody to talk
(06:33):
to about it. So the thoughts just continued and continued
and continued until you know, I don't know, my late thirties.
So there is hope. If you're listening to this at
a young age, there's hope for you. If you're listening
to this right now and you are fifty, sixty, seventy
years old, there is hope for you too. Thoughts about
food do not have to rule your brain, and if
(06:56):
you're serious about getting help with this or you have
the resources. Is then talking to someone a therapist, a
registered dietitian that specializes in eating disorders by the way,
that can help walk you through this and come up
with a meal plan so that you know that you're
eating adequately. I know it's so hard to know. Even
if your body is hungry, you might be thinking, well,
(07:17):
I don't even know how to tell if I'm hungry anymore.
I mean, it's thinking about food assign that you're hungry. Okay, yes, potentially,
but also do you get headaches? Are you fatigued? Are
you irritable? I mean, sometimes I have to do what
I do with my kids, and I see how they're behaving,
and I'm like, oh, shoot, when is the last time
they ate? And I'm like, oh, they're acting that way
(07:39):
because they're hungry. And I sort of have to sometimes
check my attitude, my vibe and realize, oh, I'm acting
this way because my body needs food for sure, Like
I can assess what I have consumed that day in
that moment and know that I haven't eaten adequately. Remember
I told you ask myself how little conversation with myself
(08:00):
by eating enough today and when the answer is no,
I try to go make myself something that is full
of nutrients that my body wants. And sometimes my body
doesn't want the stuff that's full of the nutrients. It
maybe wants something else, like a cookie, something that I
used to have completely off limits. But I because I
don't have any allergies or anything I used to think
(08:20):
that I did, but but I don't, I can allow
all sorts of foods. In so paying attention to those
cravings too instead of dismissing them is important too, because
I feel like if I am like, oh, I really
shouldn't eat that cookie, well now I'm just going to
think about the cookie until I have the cookie. And
then thankfully I'm to a point now where just because
(08:41):
I have one cookie doesn't mean I'm going to have
five eight cookies. You can rewire your brain and there
is hope for that. So hopefully some of this stuff
was helpful if you are someone that is thinking about
food all of the time. I hope y'all are having
the day you need to have and remember a life
without sort of eating outweighs everything and just a heads
(09:03):
up and be doing a live event in Nashville for
my Four Things podcast, and I would love to have
you there. It's going to be like a night out
with your girlfriends. And I was trying to think about
what do I like from a night out with my girlfriends.
I like laughter, I like sharing with each other, encouragement,
I love the connection. And then I normally get home
from a girl's night out feeling refreshed, empowered, motivated, I
(09:26):
feel seen. And that's my hope for the evening in Nashville.
They we're gonna have at Franklin Theater. So if you
want to join me and my friends and experts for
honest conversations about knowing your worth and using your voice
and building the confidence to have the life that you deserve.
I deserve, we deserve. Again, I'm I'm up there as
(09:47):
as one of you. I'm just facilitating it, hosting it.
I've got the experts that are coming to really share
with us, and then again I can share my experience
and certain things that I've learned along the way. But
we are worthy of a good life. That's my theme
that keeps popping up for me whenever I would think
about this live. It's like, you are worthy. You are
worthy because so many of my friends in our forties.
(10:10):
I've heard at our girls nights, at our dinners that
they're not feeling worthy of a good life, and we
are so. A link to the tickets is going to
be in the show notes. Also, it'll be in my
Instagram bio at Radio Amy, or you can go to
Franklin Theater dot com. All right by
Feeling Things with Amy & Kat News
Host
Amy Brown
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