Speaker 1: I won't let my body out, me out well everything
Speaker 1: that I'm made dope, won't spend my life trying to change.
Speaker 1: I'm learning to love who I am. I get I'm strong,
Speaker 1: I feel free, I know who every part of me.
Speaker 1: It's beautiful and now will always out way if you
Speaker 1: feel it with joys in the air, She'll love to
Speaker 1: the moon. I am there. Let's say good day and
Speaker 1: did you and die out? Happy Saturday? Outweigh fam, and
Speaker 1: I guess as we say Happy Saturday. Just a quick
Speaker 1: little note here that Lisa and I have tossed around
Speaker 1: moving the Outweigh episodes to another day, but we will
Speaker 1: definitely give you a heads up if that happens. So
Speaker 1: just once y'all in on the conversations we're having of,
Speaker 1: you know, possibly moving it from a Saturday to another day,
Speaker 1: so you're not totally surprised if that does happen. Um.
Speaker 1: But today's episode, we're gonna talk about a question that
Speaker 1: I sent to Lisa because it was a genuine thought
Speaker 1: that I had, and I don't really know that I
Speaker 1: know the right answer. I know what's been working for
Speaker 1: me when it comes to trigger foods, but my question
Speaker 1: to Lisa was should I keep trigger foods in the house,
Speaker 1: like in the pantry, in the fridge. And you know
Speaker 1: my thought process Lisa behind sending this was, you know,
Speaker 1: we've talked about the as if mentality. And for me,
Speaker 1: when I'm shopping at the grocery store, if i see
Speaker 1: oreos and I know I want the oreos. I don't
Speaker 1: know why oreos are always my go to example, but
Speaker 1: they are, maybe because I just never would have allowed
Speaker 1: oreos in my house. But I throw them in my
Speaker 1: cart sometimes as if just because I want to put
Speaker 1: them in my cart, as if that's normal for me
Speaker 1: to buy them, And I put them in my pantry
Speaker 1: as if it's normal for me to have them in
Speaker 1: my pantry. And now they can sit there for weeks,
Speaker 1: sometimes even months at a time. And I was the
Speaker 1: girl where that was not a possibility whatsoever. If I
Speaker 1: bought a thing of oreos, I didn't trust myself. So
Speaker 1: I either had to eat as many as I could,
Speaker 1: and then of course I would get sick feeling, and
Speaker 1: then I would have to just throw them in the
Speaker 1: trash and destroy them somehow, get them wet or spray them.
Speaker 1: What's something so that I couldn't eat them? So anyway,
Speaker 1: my question for you, being the expert, is should you
Speaker 1: keep trigger foods in the house? Great question, and I
Speaker 1: think you really did a great job explaining what a
Speaker 1: trigger food is. But for anybody listening, I think the
Speaker 1: way Amy's defining that is any food that you feel
Speaker 1: like you can't be controlled around. So those foods that
Speaker 1: if you have one, you will have them all. And
Speaker 1: my my answer really stems from personal experience and working
Speaker 1: with clients over the years, and two specific clients come
Speaker 1: to mind when we talk about this. One was a
Speaker 1: client who was obsessed with dried mangoes. And I give
Speaker 1: that example because it could be any food. It could
Speaker 1: be an oreo, it could be a blueberry, it could
Speaker 1: be a raisin, it could be raisin bran, and what
Speaker 1: it is really doesn't matter. It's your relationship to that food.
Speaker 1: I want to throw in, since you're saying that that, yes,
Speaker 1: hummus used to be on my list of things I
Speaker 1: couldn't trust myself around because yes, it's you know, made
Speaker 1: of chickpeas and has all the quote unquote healthy ingredients
Speaker 1: that fit my box. However, I couldn't buy a thing
Speaker 1: of hummus without completely finishing off the thing of hummus.
Speaker 1: So then it got to where I wasn't even allowing
Speaker 1: myself to have hummus because again I couldn't trust myself.
Speaker 1: So hummus was a trigger to me over eating something.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm glad you clarified that because people maybe
Speaker 1: need to examine as they're thinking through this, like what
Speaker 1: foods have played that role in my life before? And
Speaker 1: mine too was actually hummus For a while, I forgot
Speaker 1: about that, And in college, the joke used to be
Speaker 1: that I would buy the party size for myself and
Speaker 1: go through an entire container of it. And I think
Speaker 1: that stems from the idea of hummus is quote unquote
Speaker 1: healthy and therefore I can eat all of it. But
Speaker 1: then you eat all of it and you still feel
Speaker 1: bad about it somehow, right, And that's because whether again
Speaker 1: it's an oreo or hummus or chicken, whatever, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: it doesn't really matter. It's your relationship to that food
Speaker 1: and whether you trust yourself, whether you've put that food
Speaker 1: on a pedestal, and what's kind of happening because of
Speaker 1: all of that. So the client with the dried mangoes,
Speaker 1: I remember when she came into my office and she said,
Speaker 1: I cannot keep dried mangoes in my house. If I
Speaker 1: keep them in my house, I will eat every single
Speaker 1: one of them. And my reply was, it's time to
Speaker 1: go shopping for dried mangoes and start having them regularly.
Speaker 1: Another client, and we'll get to kind of how both
Speaker 1: these stories ended up. Another client had these like special cookies.
Speaker 1: They were from like Switzerland or something, and she's like,
Speaker 1: I cannot have just a single cookie. And I was like,
Speaker 1: I promise you that it's possible for you to enjoy
Speaker 1: a single cookie, because she was eating ten fifteen cookies.
Speaker 1: So the point where it doesn't matter what the food is,
Speaker 1: nothing is enjoyable at that level when you're feeling so
Speaker 1: stuffed physically and mentally going through the guilt because of
Speaker 1: you've eaten so much, and um, you're afraid of those
Speaker 1: quote unquote consequences. And she looked at me, she's like, Lisa,
Speaker 1: you don't understand. These are the most special cookies. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, I get it. I've been there too with
Speaker 1: my own, you know, special cookie. And both of them
Speaker 1: we reintroduced into their life in a way that I
Speaker 1: want to encourage anybody listening to do in the same way,
Speaker 1: and I mean weeks months later, both of them said
Speaker 1: the same thing either a the one with the cookie
Speaker 1: was like, wow, I can really enjoy and savor a cookie,
Speaker 1: two cookies, three cookies, whatever, and the other one was like,
Speaker 1: I forget the dried mangoes are in my house and
Speaker 1: the freedom that comes with that. It's not about eating less,
Speaker 1: it's not about not eating it. It's just about not
Speaker 1: being so absorbed with the food that it's all you
Speaker 1: can think about, and when you consume them, they kind
Speaker 1: of take over. My own anecdotal story as well was
Speaker 1: besides for the hummus was chocolate covered almonds. This was
Speaker 1: this food that if I had one chocolate covered amond,
Speaker 1: I would eat all the chocolate covered almonds. And they're
Speaker 1: heavy food. A nut is a calorically dense food that
Speaker 1: and provide us with a lot of energy, and therefore
Speaker 1: eating that in mass amounts is going to leave you
Speaker 1: quite uncomfortable, especially if it's a snack, right, not part
Speaker 1: of my meal. Long story short is I found with
Speaker 1: myself that like two years ago, I remember when we
Speaker 1: were living in d C. I opened up the cabinet
Speaker 1: and I saw the chocolate covered dommonds just sitting there
Speaker 1: and I was like, I forgot that I even had those,
Speaker 1: And I think I wrote a post about it, like
Speaker 1: literally two years ago, and I was like, this is
Speaker 1: what happens when you make room for the quote unquote
Speaker 1: bad foods that you can't be controlled around in your life.
Speaker 1: They simply just become part of your everyday life that
Speaker 1: you sometimes think about, sometimes don't think about. And I
Speaker 1: think that's that's the freedom there. I want to recognize too,
Speaker 1: because Lisa and I've been on both sides of things,
Speaker 1: and now that I'm in recovery, I'm like, I just
Speaker 1: want to scream from the rooftops. Yes there is hope, Like, yes,
Speaker 1: food doesn't have to be on a pedestal. You mentioned
Speaker 1: the word pedestal a few minutes ago, and I think
Speaker 1: that's a great way to put it. Is we elevate
Speaker 1: these foods and make them so amazing that sometimes when
Speaker 1: we bring them back down to reality, they're really not
Speaker 1: as great as we made them out to be. So
Speaker 1: there's that hope too. There's a lot that I have
Speaker 1: allowed myself to have even this last year in recovery,
Speaker 1: where I take a bite of something that I even
Speaker 1: remember for my teenage years being so special that like,
Speaker 1: I denied myself at all the time, And now I
Speaker 1: take a bite and I'm like, oh, oh, I was
Speaker 1: really obsessed with this. These are gross, Like I got
Speaker 1: no satisfaction from this whatsoever. So there's that piece of
Speaker 1: hope there for you. But then also I want to
Speaker 1: recognize that, you know, when Lisa mentioned her post on
Speaker 1: you know, the chocolate covered almonds, old me that wasn't
Speaker 1: in recovery would have seen a post like that and
Speaker 1: been hopeful, yes, but also like, uh, that's so great
Speaker 1: that happened for her, but that could that will never
Speaker 1: happen for me. That just seems so impossible and it
Speaker 1: seems so out of reach. And I want to speak
Speaker 1: to whoever that person is that might be listening to
Speaker 1: Lisa and I talked about this and be like, well,
Speaker 1: this is really great for y'all, but this will never
Speaker 1: happen for me. I'm more damaged, or I have more
Speaker 1: going on, or I just have way more issues than
Speaker 1: you'll ever had. I want you to know I had
Speaker 1: all those same thoughts. So I hope that you hear
Speaker 1: this and you're not discouraged, You're encouraged, and you know
Speaker 1: that we're sharing this so that you know that there
Speaker 1: is there is that hope. I'm glad to hear that
Speaker 1: my approach was was right. I don't know if I
Speaker 1: heard that from somewhere else, and it might not be
Speaker 1: for everybody. I want you to speak to that too
Speaker 1: and how people introduce it, because I am in a
Speaker 1: healthy place where I can live in that as if
Speaker 1: you know, every person is so different that, yeah, what
Speaker 1: works for me might not work for you. But Lisa,
Speaker 1: I'm curious to see your take on that, so I
Speaker 1: want to I want to give you some actionable things
Speaker 1: to do so that you can start bringing those foods
Speaker 1: off of the pedestal and down to what you called
Speaker 1: amy reality. And I also just want to mention that
Speaker 1: your relationship to said food will continue to evolve. And
Speaker 1: I'm in the next evolution of my relationship to chocolate
Speaker 1: covered almonds, where you know, first it was I would
Speaker 1: binge on them, then it was I'd forget about them,
Speaker 1: and now I'm so happy to report that in my
Speaker 1: postpartum experience, the high of my day is from chocolate
Speaker 1: covered almonds. So there isn't a complete neutrality or that
Speaker 1: or like Amy said, where she'd eat a food from
Speaker 1: her past and be like, I don't really like them.
Speaker 1: When I eat these foods, they're the high of my
Speaker 1: day right now in postpartum. They provide me with just
Speaker 1: this sweetness and serotonin, the happy hormones in our brain,
Speaker 1: and it's so cool that I'm able to enjoy them
Speaker 1: and eat them and sometimes more than the amount of
Speaker 1: just a handful, and then I'm still not swarmed with
Speaker 1: that guilt even if I overdo it. So again just
Speaker 1: kind of highlighting here that your relationships to these foods
Speaker 1: will change. The goal is not to eat less, but
Speaker 1: rather to be present to what's going on and really
Speaker 1: break down and understand why these foods are trigger foods
Speaker 1: for them. So getting into the nitty gritty of how
Speaker 1: you can start to break these foods down and knock
Speaker 1: them off that pedestal, so Tippenham. Or one is to
Speaker 1: eat these foods when you're not craving them. And that
Speaker 1: might sound really crazy because you might reserve them for
Speaker 1: that special occasion, whether it's you know, your birthday and
Speaker 1: you're allowed to have it, or Thanksgiving and you're allowed
Speaker 1: to have it, or just when you have that intense craving,
Speaker 1: But going into it with that intense craving is still
Speaker 1: keeping them on a pedestalitais I can't have them now
Speaker 1: unless I really really want them. So eat them when
Speaker 1: you aren't completely craving them thinking about them all the time,
Speaker 1: and which really means introduce them to your daily life.
Speaker 1: The best way to do that Tip number two is
Speaker 1: to add them into your normal meals. So let's say
Speaker 1: a food for me. One of the foods that I
Speaker 1: also struggled with as a trigger food was French fries.
Speaker 1: So I made a point to order French fries with
Speaker 1: my normal meals whether I went to lunch and I
Speaker 1: really wanted a salad, Oh great, can I have a
Speaker 1: side of fries with that too, so that I was
Speaker 1: introducing them and not just eating them on their own,
Speaker 1: which would typically leave to the binge because as I'd
Speaker 1: only eat them at these specified occasions on their own,
Speaker 1: and then therefore they were the problem. So a good
Speaker 1: way to do this is to also pair it with
Speaker 1: a safe food, So a food that you feel really
Speaker 1: comfortable with added onto that plate makes sense. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: love that. The next tip is to avoid eating these
Speaker 1: foods on an empty stomach. So everything tastes better when
Speaker 1: we are hungrier because biologically that's what's keeping us alive.
Speaker 1: The hungrier we are, the more body is asking for fuel,
Speaker 1: and therefore we feel like we can't stop because our
Speaker 1: bodies are trying to get that fuel in as fast
Speaker 1: as it possibly can. That's your body taking care of you,
Speaker 1: but you might misinterpret that as you can't be controlled.
Speaker 1: So a good way to separate that is to not
Speaker 1: eat these foods on an empty stomach. So maybe it's
Speaker 1: again with the meal, or maybe it's an afterthought to
Speaker 1: the meal. And my final tip is to take a
Speaker 1: pause before you eat the food and simply ask yourself
Speaker 1: do I want them? Because I think so often we're
Speaker 1: tangled up. It sounds so simple, I know, but sometimes
Speaker 1: we're so tangled up in the story of it's my birthday,
Speaker 1: I'm allowed to have them, it's Saturday night, this is
Speaker 1: my cheat day, whatever it is, that we just go
Speaker 1: running for it, and those wheels are turning so fast
Speaker 1: that we are shoving the food in our mouth. We're
Speaker 1: not even enjoying it because the guilt train is already
Speaker 1: you know, out the gate, and we haven't even checked
Speaker 1: in to say do I want it in this moment,
Speaker 1: and that answer really might be yes, and it really
Speaker 1: might be no. But taking that pause for a second
Speaker 1: is giving yourself a chance to decide what's going on.
Speaker 1: I think that pausing is so important because for so long,
Speaker 1: so many years, at least for me, I lived in
Speaker 1: such a disconnected state to eating. It was almost like
Speaker 1: a turned into some sort of a zombie or something same.
Speaker 1: But I was present because I was getting the what
Speaker 1: is is it a dopamine hit or in serotonin when
Speaker 1: we eat, especially if it's sugar or carb or fat
Speaker 1: food feel good for our brain? Yeah, so I was,
Speaker 1: especially if I had a planned binge or I was
Speaker 1: in a situation where I knew I was going to
Speaker 1: get to indulging this. I mean, there was a certain
Speaker 1: level of excitement where I was present for a minute
Speaker 1: and I got rewarded. But then it all went out
Speaker 1: the window and I turned into almost Yes, I guess
Speaker 1: we'll describe it as a zombie. I didn't even know
Speaker 1: what I was doing. And now I'm thinking of zombie
Speaker 1: and walking dead, and I'm like, maybe that's not even
Speaker 1: the right analogy, because I think we understand what you
Speaker 1: mean when you're in a trance and you just can't stop.
Speaker 1: But again, like if it feels good, the best thing
Speaker 1: you're gonna want to do is chase that high, and
Speaker 1: that high is going to feel much higher if it's
Speaker 1: on an empty stomach, if you're not allowed to eat
Speaker 1: this food at a certain time, if it's your one
Speaker 1: window to do so. So it's less about you know,
Speaker 1: should I keep this food in the house, Yes, that's
Speaker 1: the answer. It's really about breaking down all your other
Speaker 1: structures and relationships to food, food timing, you know, all
Speaker 1: these different things that play into that situation, and being
Speaker 1: present with your food can be one of the tips
Speaker 1: like that Lisa said, and having gratitude for what you're
Speaker 1: about to take in and take some deep breaths and
Speaker 1: combining all of those tips that you shared, I think
Speaker 1: are super important and help full. And you know we're
Speaker 1: all at different stages, so don't beat yourself up if
Speaker 1: you know you're not quite where you can tackle any
Speaker 1: of those tips just yet, but keep them in your
Speaker 1: back pocket and start testing them out because you never know,
Speaker 1: like when once you give yourself that success at least
Speaker 1: for me, and I could show myself that I could
Speaker 1: do it. I just kept taking that one next right
Speaker 1: step and another next right step. And the last thing
Speaker 1: I just want to add is for many of you,
Speaker 1: when you go and buy that let's use your Oreo example,
Speaker 1: when you bring it home the first time, it's very
Speaker 1: likely that you will quote unquote fail. You will eat
Speaker 1: all of the oreos because that is step one. Step
Speaker 1: one is allowing it into your life after so long
Speaker 1: it not being allowed into your life. I put that
Speaker 1: word fail in quote because it's not a fail. It's
Speaker 1: your first major leap in breaking down the cycle because
Speaker 1: what happens next is going to be different. Yes, you're
Speaker 1: gonna have those daunting thoughts that say, I have to
Speaker 1: go do blah blah blah to burn it off. I
Speaker 1: can't keep the oreos in my house. But then you're
Speaker 1: going to take another pause that to I'm working on
Speaker 1: my relationship to food and this is step one and
Speaker 1: I'm doing the best that I can in this very moment.
Speaker 1: So I don't want to sugarcoat this process. As you
Speaker 1: know you try it and you're there, I want to
Speaker 1: encourage you to continue with the process even if you
Speaker 1: think that you're failing, because what we've coined as a
Speaker 1: fail is not a fail, it's you learning to trust yourself.
Speaker 1: Thank you Lisa for helping with that question and breaking
Speaker 1: down you know, can we keep trigger foods in the house?
Speaker 1: And so hopefully this was helpful to you all. We
Speaker 1: would love to hear from you. We're still taking personal stories.
Speaker 1: If you have one that you think you would like
Speaker 1: to share with our Outweigh family, you can email us
Speaker 1: hello at Outweigh podcast dot com. We'll have that in
Speaker 1: the show notes as well, so you o case you forget,
Speaker 1: you can just click on there send us a note,
Speaker 1: or if you have any topic ideas or a question
Speaker 1: you would like answered, just like I sent that question
Speaker 1: to Lisa, you could send us your questions as well.
Speaker 1: So thanks for joining us and we hope you have
Speaker 1: a great rest of your day.