When Does Thinking About Food Become Food Noise?

Is it normal to think about food?

Of course it is. But if you've spent years dealing with thoughts about food that brought anxiousness, guilt, shame, or other difficult emotions with them, simply having those thoughts can carry a lot more weight.

And that's where I think we need more nuance in the conversation around food noise.

Having a thought about food doesn't automatically mean something is wrong.

If you're taking a GLP-1 and your food noise has gotten quieter, you may be afraid of those thoughts eventually coming back. And if you've spent years or decades struggling with your relationship with food, I understand why you wouldn't want them back.

But I don't want us to replace one source of guilt and shame with another.

If you previously felt guilty about what you were thinking about food, I don't want you to reach a point where you feel guilty simply because you're thinking about food at all.

In this episode, I share some of my own history with food, body image, weight, and growing up with cerebral palsy. I also talk about the work I've done over the years to untangle some of those thoughts and feelings and why I don't believe this is as simple as telling someone to stop thinking a certain way.

Food, body image, exercise, and the way we see ourselves as people can become deeply intertwined.

That's why I want you to give yourself room to figure out what your thoughts around food actually mean to you.

A thought can show up without you needing to focus on it. You can redirect it. You can sit with it. You can explore where it came from. And sometimes you might get pulled into it.

None of those experiences mean you've failed.

Ultimately, I want you to build a relationship with food, exercise, your body, and yourself that supports a forever active lifestyle you actually enjoy.

And please don't be too hard on yourself while you're figuring this out. This stuff can be challenging, and you don't need to navigate it perfectly.

If you want to share your experience, email me at Daryl@YourLevelFitness.com.

If you want to continue the conversation around food noise, join the Your Level Fitness live streams:

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