Thrive State Podcast

EPISODE 33: Stop Emotional Eating NOW – Secrets to Never Having to Diet Again

Episode 33: Tricia Nelson

Does any of these sound like you?
…love to snack constantly in between meals
…feels perpetually hungry
…can’t resist the ooey-gooey chewy cookie and candy stash
…binge-eat when stressed from, school, work, or relationships
…binge-eat on weekends while marathon-watching of your newest fave series
…eat your heart out but feel bad afterwards
…been trying to change eating habits but couldn’t sustain
…able to lose weight for a while but bounce back like a yo-yo to unhealthy weight

If you’ve been nodding for the last 20 sec, then I hope this episode breaks it down for you in the most honest but compassionate way—you might be an EMOTIONAL EATER.

But don’t feel so bad and down. In my book Thrive State, we have a length of info-packed discussion on how emotion drives so much of our behavior. Thus, as humans, we have a wiring for emotional eating.

Emotional connection with food is not at all bad. Remember our episode with celebrity chef and clinical nutritionist, Serena Poon? Food is a vehicle of our and the Earth’s energy!

That still is true—this episode’s guest, Tricia Nelson, an emotional eating expert, will tell you that, only she’s also here to unpack what’s happening when you’re on the extreme end of that eating habit.

To this author of the #1 bestselling book, Heal Your Hunger, 7 Simple Steps to End Emotional Eating Now, it’s a matter of how far you’ll take it and how much food serves emotional needs beyond physical needs.

Tricia, a well-respected speaker, host of the popular podcast, The Heal Your Hunger Show, and certifier of health coaches, will break down to us this crucial topic on nutrition and eating habits that everyone will surely relate to:

Why “comfort foods” are so comforting
How to differentiate between physical and emotional hunger
Hidden causes of emotional eating and how to heal them
How to deal with obsessive food thoughts
The #1 weight loss mistake you should never make
How to manage stress before it drives you to the kitchen

Check out this episode with Tricia Nelson and get down to the root of binge and emotional eating to Stop Emotional Eating NOW – Secrets to Never Having to Diet Again.

Check out Tricia’s work at The Heal Your Hunger Show, FB Community: The Secret Sauce to End Emotional Eating, IG @tricianelson_

Take the first step to stop emotional eating by finding out where you are in the spectrum. Take the free quiz at healyourhunger.com.

Show notes

03:07

Tricia grew up an emotional eater: ‘We were all in pain and we anesthetized our pain with certain addictions. No constructive tools to deal with pain. There were a lot of unaddressed feelings and I buried them with food.

07:37

Stress at a young age: As a kid, you need to have a lot of appropriate coping tools to deal with the stress. We did what we could. Food is a really useful and accessible way of stuffing your feelings. It’s handy and it works.

10:24

Diet will not work because it just focuses on the symptom. Being overweight is a symptom of overeating. And overeating is a symptom of what’s eating me.

12:39

Emotional eating defined: Emotional hunger can very closely mimic physical hunger; it is needing food for reasons beyond nutritional needs. It’s eating to cover up emotions.

17:41

Nutrition vs Emotion: Three Meal Magic. A lot of our eating is just boredom, unconscious eating. A great place to start is realizing that. Stop snacking and by that, you also cut out the unhealthy food that you would normally snack on.

19:43

Is craving a signal of emotional or physical hunger? Emotional eaters tend to hack the system – skip a meal but then make up for it later and overeat instead. Eating to feel good in the moment vs Eating to feel good in the long term.

24:57

Emotional eater vs Food addict: As humans, we have a wiring for emotional eating. Emotional connection with food is not at all bad, but it’s a matter of how far you’ll take it and how much food serves emotional needs beyond physical needs. Low-end means high control and little consequences; you can course-correct easily. High-end means little control and a lot of consequences.

29:23

98% of diets fail because people focus too much on the symptoms of food and weight. Plan sustainably. Think about replacement tools for dealing with stress aside from food.

32:03

6 Self-Care Success Secrets: (1) Meditation – overeaters are overdoers, so slow down, (2) Write out your emotions – get acclimated with your emotions instead of stuffing them, (3) Prayer – get centered, (4) Walking – change your state quickly, (5) Talking – fill your mind with positive thoughts, and offload the stress, (6) Read positive spiritual messages.

38:56

Anatomy of an emotional eater: React to stress differently than the average person. A top trait of an emotional eater is people-pleasing and needing validation.

45:42

Tricia’s Best Medicine: Love. Connection & community.

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