#4 Why Do I Eat when I'm Stressed cover art

#4 Why Do I Eat when I'm Stressed

#4 Why Do I Eat when I'm Stressed

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00:04 - 00:38 Speaker 1: Life can be really hard at times, and the body a really painful place. It can be a place of fear, distress, scarcity, sorrow, pain and even loss. All of these bear a heavy burden on the human spirit. In the pursuit of solace, many of us turn to a seemingly comfortable companion, food. In today's episode, we're going to delve into the intricate relationship between stress and our eating habits. 00:38 - 01:41 Speaker 1: We'll explore the depths of emotional connections to food and unravel the physiological mechanisms at play here and discover evidence-based strategies to navigate the turbulent waters of stress-induced eating. It's time to understand why we eat when we're stressed and more importantly know how we can break free from this cycle. So welcome to your continued journey of self-discovery and empowerment. I'll never forget this. Following a tumultuous year, filled with this string of a relationship breakup, the heartache of my first pregnancy loss, and this disorientating fog of losing my sense of direction in life yet again, I made this really bold decision. 01:42 - 02:26 Speaker 1: I was gonna leave my job and move from my role running 1 of Australia's prestige women's health clubs and embark on a solo journey around Australia. Yep, me and my trusty Corolla, that was it. In the aftermath of these profound losses, I really sought solace and I needed to rediscover myself and sense of purpose. I needed a little place to heal and reconnect and find my way again. I wanted to focus on me and my health instead of the health and wellness of the 2,000 health club members that I actually felt responsible for. 02:26 - 03:17 Speaker 1: Now traveling alone, it sounds really glamorous to some, yet the aloneness can it can have this really deafening void that amplifies the relentless inner chatter. While striving on my own, kilometre after kilometre, and in the midst of awe-inspiring landscapes, This internal dialogue turns into this discord of self-doubt, haunting reflections, and this distressing sense of isolation. I used food to self-soothe. I used food to dampen the intensity of my discomfort. I use food as this momentary escape to suppress the grip of overwhelming waves of painful emotion and the untethered sensation in my body that accompanies that emotion. 03:17 - 03:32 Speaker 1: So this particular day I was driving through the colorful countryside of Tasmania, Australia when I hit a proverbial wall. I was emotionally exhausted and I was done. I was done. I was done with crying. I was done with feeling. 03:32 - 04:00 Speaker 1: I was done just screaming to music that was turned up to this offensive level. I was done. I stopped at the next food outlet that I came along and it kind of looked like If the health authorities checked it out, it would be closed down. It was like this little fish and chip shop at the side of the road. I went in and I ordered a battered fish burger, chips and a few potato scallops, sat in my car and absolutely inhaled them. 04:02 - 04:21 Speaker 1: Sweet relief. Fat, salt, and carbohydrate. Connections of comfort. I enjoyed it, and it shifted my state for a moment. Then I just got on with feeling the discomfort that I'm actually used to. 04:21 - 04:42 Speaker 1: The discomfort that I can control. The guilt, the shame and this disgust in myself for eating fried food. For eating food that I knew better not to. The thing was, these feelings, although uncomfortable, they were also familiar. And I was like totally okay with that. 04:42 - 05:25 Speaker 1: It feels safer to have Familiar uncomfortableness than unfamiliar uncomfortableness. Because you see, we all make decisions based on what we consciously or even unconsciously will assume give us more advantage over disadvantage at any given moment. We see food as this welcome relief because many of us don't have any other momentary, viable alternatives to balance the holds of stress or dampen the grips of emotional discomfort. We just want to check out for a while in the land of saturated satiation. Give me that over stress. 05:25 - 06:09 Speaker 1: Now, even though we consciously know that overeating or gorging on processed food is toxic, in those moments it becomes our tonic. The toxic becomes a tonic and the brain links that emotional and chemical connection of comfort and pleasure to the food that we're consuming. Now, each time we do this, each time we repeat this behavior, the stress strategy that you've come up with, it becomes reinforced. Our reward centers in our brain light up like the night sky on the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. Now, I was and I actually still am 1 of those annoying kids. 06:09 - 06:25 Speaker 1: And now people that, you know, I want to know why. Like, why do we do this? Why does this happen? Why against all of our learning and knowledge and knowing what to eat and what's healthy and what's not? Why do we keep coming back to these foods? 06:25 - ...
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