Hello, welcome back to the podcast this week. I’m so happy you’re here today. I want to talk about why foods aren’t the problem. And I know that seems like a very bold statement to start off with today, but I really want to talk about how so many of you are believing that food is what the problem is when it comes to your food struggles. And today I want to focus on teaching you why you’re believing that’s the case.
Now what you’re doing to solve for your food struggles when you’re believing this and what you’ll need to believe in stead to actually solve for your food struggles. So you’re understanding the root of the problem. Now, before we get into that, I do want to mention that so many of you tell me how much you love these episodes and how helpful they are. Some of you tell me you like to take notes, which means you are my people.
I am the same exact way. So if that is you, I recommend you get on my email list because each week when the podcast comes out, we send you an email. And in that email is the link to the podcast page. And on every podcast page, there is a transcript and there’s a link to a transcript you can print out. So for those of you who are the note takers and the highlighters and the A-plus students, you’re more than welcome to subscribe to my email list.
So you get sent that link every week. And when you’re on my email list, you’ll also be getting all announcements and updates from my practice first as well. So if that’s your jam, you can go to cat, run, test.com forward slash subscribe to make sure you’re getting on there and getting access to all of the resources. Now let’s get into today’s episode and why foods feel like a problem.
And when I say that you feel like foods are the problem. I’m saying that you believe what you’re eating is the problem that what foods you are choosing to eat are what’s getting in the way of the eating habits you want. And this makes sense a little bit because food is what creates the results with our body in some ways of course, but what we’re not taking into account is what’s leading you to make all of those food decisions.
And if you’ve been a podcast listener for some time, especially if you’re my client, you know, that that is what we solve for in my practice. It is the cause of your eating habits. It’s solving for your food struggles at the deepest level. But when you’re coming into this work, you really will believe that the foods are the problem. And my first question to anyone who really believes this, whether they’re a new client or someone who applies to my coaching program, I always ask them when they first started believing that foods were the problem.
When they first started believing that foods needed to be micromanaged and changed to be perfect so they could get the results they want. And what it always comes back to is we were taught this by the diet industry, by the weight loss industry that so many of us have been brought up in.
And really what that has taught us is to get the results that we want with our bodies to lose the weight, to get healthier. We need to change the foods that we are putting into our mouth so we can get that result. And some parts of that will be true, but it’s such a small part of the equation. And when this is the solution that is offered to you, and do you think that it’s just the foods that need to be changed?
You’re going to do everything in your power to change the foods, to micromanage the foods, to willpower the foods into place. And especially if you’re like the women I work with, I would call them very high achieving women who love to learn, and they know how to solve problems that come their way. If you identify as this type of woman, you are going to aim to be the best student of any diet of any weight loss program of any meal plan.
And you’re going to do everything in your power to change the way you eat and to micromanage and force those foods into place. And to you, this will seem like the solution. This will seem like what you need to do and what this creates when you’re trying to control food in such a rigid way, is this ongoing stress response with food, with your eating habits, you are constantly going to feel pressure, unsatisfied, unfulfilled, a lack of enjoyment with food.
You’re always going to be thinking about food and all of this is going to lead to burnout with your eating habits. You’re going to get tired and you’re going to feel spent after a certain amount of time, trying to force yourself to eat a certain way. And as high achieving women, we really consider ourselves very emotionally tough. We’ll believe we can handle things that life throws our way and that we always just need to be stronger to get the results we want.
So then what happens when doing all of these things still can’t control the way we eat longterm, what will happen is we will make it personal. Our brains will make everything we’ve done mean that we’re not capable. That we must be doomed to have the eating habits. We have forever that other people must just be lucky unicorns, and that something is wrong with us. And this is just because you have a brain that is trying to make sense of the world.
So what happens is your brain identifies you as being this problem solver that can get it done. So if you can’t make it work with food, it’s going to believe something is wrong with you. And it’s really going to suffer here. And it’s going to spend out not wondering what to do next. This is what leads to suffering. And it’s interesting because all of the women who come to me and join my program, or they want to receive coaching, they’re really in this place where they’re making their struggles with food.
So, so personal and I have been here. And it’s interesting because of why they’re making their food struggles personal is because they’re having the belief that they can get it done everywhere else in their life. And they’re massively successful in other areas. So something is wrong with them because they can’t make it work with food. They can’t force the eating habits they want in to place.
But it’s interesting because they’re using the fact that they are high achieving women against themselves here. Right? Think about it. They’re taking the fact that they’re capable in all other areas of their lives. They’re using that. It gets themselves. And what’s interesting is if you identify as this type of woman as this type of person, I want you to know that you’re free to use this as evidence that the solutions you’ve tried are the problem.
The problem is not you.
If you were able to make those solutions work, you would have, you would have done it already because the results in other areas of your life will indicate to you that you are someone who is capable. You are someone who can figure it out and you’re someone who can make it work. So if that is not occurring with solutions, you’ve been given I at the diet industry. And what if you can just believe that the solutions that have been presented to you are the problem, and it’s not you, but you can notice how that’s not what most of our brains do.
Our brain will make it personal. It will make it mean that something is wrong with you. And this is just what it does sometimes. But when it does that, I encourage you to redirect it and to also know, oh, I actually can accomplish things I set out to do in other areas, I own a business, or I manage a team or I’m a mom, whatever the case is for you.
And then use that as evidence to support the fact that everything that hasn’t worked for you was because it didn’t work. Not because you didn’t work. It’s a very small but powerful shift. I want you to consider. And how we find ourselves here is because we’re believing that foods are the problem. We are hyper focused on this being the case. And when you have taught your brain for years, that foods are the problem.
This means you’re going to hyper focus on those types of solutions. So those types of solutions may look like trying different meal plans that tell you what to eat, changing the timing of the meals. You eat, trying different methods of meal prepping or cooking, right? Basically, if you’re believing that foods are the problem, then you are going to create solutions that have to do with micro-managing the food, rather than going deeper with the work and understanding what brings you to make any eating decision in the first place, right?
Because what brings you to make any eating decision has nothing to do with a meal plan, the timing of your meals, your cooking skills or meal prepping. And maybe here, it seems fairly obvious, which is why I’m laughing a bit, but it’s not obvious to us in the beginning. And it’s totally safe. If this is not obvious to your brain, your brain will see all of those things as very useful and necessary.
And it’s conditioned to see foods as the problem. So when I come in here and I tell you that the solution has nothing to do with the foods, it’s what brings you to eat the foods your brain is going to be like, but wait, I think I’m different. And I really just need to know what the right way to eat is. I really just need to know the right times of the data eat.
I really am just not good at cooking. So that’s the problem. I really just don’t have time to prep my meals every week. So this is why I’m gaining weight and why I have no control with food. We’re all the same too. I promise you. We all find our brains in this place where we’re believing that these things are the issue and all actually have women who listened to this podcast. For years. I have listeners who have been here with me since the beginning, and when they decide to join my program, they have a human brain too.
And they come to the calls, really believing that they need to be given the right foods to eat. They need to micromanage the foods to see success. And the first step for each of these clients is to teach their brain why that’s not the case. And when clients join my program, that’s what they learn how to do.
First. They learn how to understand and show their brain. That foods were never the problem. It was what was leading them to make food decisions. And I want you to take a moment from a very compassionate and loving place to notice all of the ways that you’re making food. The problem notice how your potentially believing that you need to find the right foods to eat, to solve for your food struggles.
And here’s, what’s interesting. I’m telling you, it’s not the food, but some of you may be skeptical. Some of you may be attached to the idea that the foods are the problem and that they do need to be micromanaged. This is safe. I say I’m not in the business of convincing any of your brains to believe different things, because that’s not necessary. You can honor anything you believe now about your food struggles, but I want you to question it a bit because I’m guessing for most of you, if you really think about it, you likely know on paper, the food decisions that you would want to make.
If you had complete control with food, right? If you had complete control with food, you likely already know what foods you would put into your mouth. If you could just decide on Sunday, every week, what foods you would put into your mouth, the rest of the week, and it was done, most of you would have no problem doing that. And so notice how your brain is believing that the problem is the food, but most of you will already know what foods you want to be eating.
So then that allows us to question, why are we still convinced that we need to figure out the foods? Why are we still believing that we don’t know the foods to eat when we already can be making those decisions? Trust me, most of you just like me will have already spent time trying to follow meal plans, diets, weight, loss regimens.
You’re going to have an idea nutritionally of the foods that you want to be putting in your mouth. Really, most of us will know this, and this was never the problem, your problems. Aren’t the foods it’s having the control with those foods. It’s having the power to make decisions with food ahead of time and honor those decisions without fail.
It’s being able to make decisions on the foods. You’re going to eat from a place that allows you to feel fulfilled with it, rather than relying on willpower and discipline. Notice how, when you’re focused on solving for the foods, knowing the right foods, here’s what you’re not solving for. You’re not solving for overeating, emotional, eating, unconscious, eating those moments.
When you get home from work and you think, oh, I just had a long day and you eat and you eat the moments. When you go out to a family dinner, or you go out with your friends and you wake up the next day guilty because of how much you unconsciously ate you, not being able to enjoy food without constantly thinking about it.
Whether what you ate was the right thing or the wrong thing, how much brain space, these struggles are taking up for you in your life. Everything that you’re really struggling with right now with food has nothing to do with knowing the right ones to eat. It just doesn’t for most of us. And I encourage you if it’s accessible to you now, if it’s not, it’s perfectly fine.
But if you’re able to question this, I encourage you to get to a place where you can just decide. It was never about the food. The food was never the problem. It was me being able to have control with these foods. So then what do we want to solve for? We know we want to solve for the control piece. What allows us to make every food decision, deliberate and intentional without extra effort, discipline or willpower.
And if that’s something you’re interested in, you’re in the right place.
My friend, that is exactly what we do here. The problem isn’t the foods. The problem is the cause of your eating habits. It’s what leads you to make every eating decision in your life. I want you to think about the foods you’re eating as the symptom of the problem of the deeper root of your eating habits. Now we want to solve for the cause of your eating decisions.
What is leading you to make every eating decision in your life and what leads you to make every eating decision? Aren’t the foods, they’re your emotions and what your body needs. It’s the brain and the body. It’s very simple. And this is what you can learn. If you think the problem is the food, it will always feel complicated. There will always be new methods to try. And it’s always going to feel outside of you.
You will continue over learning over, researching, over solving for the way you eat, because you’re not believing that the cause of your eating habits comes from within you.
I will say I don’t spend a lot of time bashing the diet industry because I think our energy is better spent elsewhere. But notice how the diet industry benefits when you believe that the solution to your eating struggles is outside of you. If you believe that the solution to your eating struggles is the food micromanaging, the foods, trying a new meal plan, doing another diet, never was the case.
Becoming a naturally healthy eater means you’re learning to harness everything inside of yourself to have control with food. All of us were always meant to have control with food. When we stopped having control is when we created a relationship to food and our body that was emotional. And this is what the diet industry teaches us to do from a young age. Therefore we have to learn to change this relationship, manage our emotions and listen to our body in order to eat naturally healthy women who joined my program.
It’s less about them becoming someone new with food, which is what happens. But I also want them to see it as getting back to how they were always meant to be eating in a way that’s natural for all the humans, where we’re able to make eating decisions based on the answers we have within our brain and within our bodies, we never needed an outside source to tell us the foods that we needed to be eating.
And the foods were never a problem. My friends, I hope after listening to this episode or this rant, depending on how you want to define what I said here today, I hope it gave you value and allowed you to have a new perspective on how you’re seeing your food struggles now. All right, thank you for being here today. My friends, I love you and I’ll talk to you next week.