Sitting With Food Noise Can Help You Change It

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Episode Description

What happens when you stop trying to immediately shut down the thoughts and feelings you have around food?

That is one of the biggest challenges in getting the upper hand on food noise.

In this episode, I talk about what it means to actually sit in the noise, experience the thoughts and feelings that come up, and give yourself enough time to understand what is happening instead of immediately deciding that those thoughts are something you need to eliminate.

For some people, food noise is tied to guilt, shame, anxiety, decision fatigue, restriction, emotional eating, or years of feeling like thinking about food means they lack willpower. Those experiences can overlap, but your relationship with food is still uniquely yours.

This is why I continue to encourage working with a therapist who is the right fit for you. There can be a lot tangled together underneath our relationship with food, exercise, our bodies, and the way we see ourselves.

I also talk about why quieting food noise is not automatically the same thing as changing your relationship with it. If the noise becomes quieter for any reason, you are allowed to enjoy that relief. You do not have to immediately turn it into another project.

There is no finish line.

You are building a lifestyle that you may be navigating for decades, and what matters most is creating a foundation you can return to.

Part of that foundation is becoming more comfortable with your own ability to make choices. Sometimes you may emotionally eat. Sometimes you may make a choice that looks different from what you originally planned. The goal is not to turn every decision into another reason to judge yourself.

It is learning to own the choice, observe what happened, let it go, and move forward.

I also share how I changed my own relationship with foods I once believed I could not keep around by giving myself permission to have them and allowing the intensity around them to gradually change.

As you work through this episode, pay attention to what you actually feel when the food noise gets loud. Write those thoughts down. Notice where food overlaps with other areas where you may fixate, criticize yourself, or feel like something needs to be fixed.

Then remind yourself of what you are working toward.

You can have thoughts and feelings around food without allowing those thoughts and feelings to control everything that comes next.