RYW 144: Why Emotional States Matter More Than Calories

Hello there gorgeous one and a huge warm welcome back to the Rewire Your Weight podcast where once again we are going to be exploring something that I know you're going to find fascinating.

So I've got a few questions for you before we get stuck into today's episode.

Have you ever found yourself standing in the kitchen maybe even eating your dinner actually whilst you're scrolling on your phone or perhaps eating your lunch out of your desk and you've got one hand on your keyboard and you're all already kind of partway through an email response in your mind even though you've got your food in front of you or maybe you've found yourself and this is really common maybe you've ordered some kind of meal and then you've spent the entire time thinking I should have had the salad with it instead of the chips.

Or perhaps you've already decided that you've now ruined your day.

So you might as well carry on eating and now your hand's going in the bread basket.

You're going to be ordering two extra large desserts afterwards.

And that's the cycle that maybe you've experienced before.

You see, most people think that they're just eating food.

I actually don't think that they are, because I think they're also eating whatever emotional state they bring to the table with them in that moment.

And this is honestly something that hardly anyone talks about, but I genuinely believe it can be one of those really big, important missing pieces when it comes to you actually changing your relationship with food.

You know, we spend so much time, especially in like the food arena, we talk about calories, protein, carbohydrates, macros, meal plans, how to do it, how not to do it, but very little time is actually spent talking about what's happening inside your brain and your body whilst you're actually eating.

But do you know what? That emotional state honestly changes your entire experience of the meals that you are about to have.

I'm Rachel, I'm an eating psychology coach.

And for the last 14 years, I've helped people stop obsessing about food and finally feel normal around eating.

And one thing that I've learned is that food is very rarely actually about food.

Now, the thoughts that you're having, the emotions you're carrying, the state of your nervous system, all of that influence how you experience eating.

And if we ignore those things, we're only really ever trying to solve half of the actual problem.