Speaker 1: I won't let my body out be outwait everything that
Speaker 1: I'm made done, won't spend my life trying to change.
Speaker 1: I'm learning love who I am again. I'm strong, I
Speaker 1: feel free, I know every part of me. It's beautiful.
Speaker 1: And then we'll always out way if you feel it,
Speaker 1: but yours are, She'll some love to the d why
Speaker 1: get there? Take you one day? Ana? Did you? And
Speaker 1: die out way?
Speaker 2: Happy Saturday?
Speaker 3: Outweigh Amy here And I'm with Leanne Allington and this
Speaker 3: is a new series. It's gonna be five parts and
Speaker 3: it is Binge Free Brain, so B F B and
Speaker 3: I think that defining binge Leanne is a great place
Speaker 3: to start. And in this first part we're going to
Speaker 3: get into mistakes about healing binge eating. And I am
Speaker 3: a recover binge eater and I know that my brain
Speaker 3: played a huge role in that, but I never really
Speaker 3: knew that until I read Brain over Binge, which was
Speaker 3: an impactful book when it came to my healing. So
Speaker 3: I'm very excited about what Leanne has put together for us,
Speaker 3: the binge Free Brain.
Speaker 2: So let's define binge.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know a lot of women that I talked to.
Speaker 4: The first thing to say is well, it's not necessarily.
Speaker 2: An outright binge.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm not sitting there and driving through McDonald's
Speaker 4: and you know, getting four I've almost haid whoppers, but
Speaker 4: that would be big Max.
Speaker 1: But you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: So a lot of times our brain just feels out
Speaker 4: of control and it's excessively consuming something or it feels
Speaker 4: almost compulsive. So that would be one definition of binge,
Speaker 4: even if it's not necessarily in one you know setting
Speaker 4: or the volume that my people think is associated with
Speaker 4: a binge. But the other definition of binge that I
Speaker 4: feel like really gives us a lot of clarity around
Speaker 4: this is when something controls you more than you feel
Speaker 4: like you control it. And that's where a lot of
Speaker 4: women when it comes to food, and.
Speaker 3: I know one of the parts of this five part
Speaker 3: series we'll be talking specifically about the difference between men
Speaker 3: and women when it comes to this, and men have
Speaker 3: disordered eating as well. They have eating disorders they binge eat,
Speaker 3: but it is interesting where women fall in that, So
Speaker 3: we'll get into that in an upcoming week. But what
Speaker 3: are some of the mistakes that we're making in this
Speaker 3: healing process? And thank you for defining it because you know,
Speaker 3: I think that's a great place to start, is knowing, Okay,
Speaker 3: if you don't have control over something like even if
Speaker 3: you're binging shopping, or you're binging TV or shows over
Speaker 3: it and over, why are you just mindlessly going on
Speaker 3: to the next And that's how I would feel. It's
Speaker 3: almost like this zombie type state where I was mindlessly
Speaker 3: grabbing the next thing from the pantry or next thing.
Speaker 3: I know, yes, I was going through a different drive
Speaker 3: through when I just went through a different place and
Speaker 3: it was very out of body out I just combined
Speaker 3: three different things, a zombie, out of body, and mindless.
Speaker 2: But it feel to find it absolutely and that's why it's.
Speaker 4: So I'm glad that you brought up the definition of
Speaker 4: binge because sometimes even just that word we might not
Speaker 4: associate with it. But I don't want you to discount yourself.
Speaker 4: If you are struggling and you're in that cycle where
Speaker 4: you feel like it's almost like an out of body,
Speaker 4: out of control experience, this is going to be very
Speaker 4: relevant to you. And so there's a few different mistakes
Speaker 4: that people make, but you know, the top three that
Speaker 4: come up are you know, the first one is really
Speaker 4: treating it like it's a will power problem. This is
Speaker 4: where I tell women like you could be the most strong,
Speaker 4: willed and powerful woman that if you experience this specific
Speaker 4: firing and wiring in your brain, it doesn't matter, because
Speaker 4: willpower will last you for a couple of days, maybe
Speaker 4: a couple of weeks if you're really strong. Right, But
Speaker 4: willpower is something that we have a finite source of,
Speaker 4: and we don't have the ability to just endlessly reproduce willpower,
Speaker 4: and so it eventually runs out right, and so relying
Speaker 4: on it for long term change it sets you up
Speaker 4: for frustration and really that bounce back, that that update
Speaker 4: down in out that binge restrict cycle, because the restriction
Speaker 4: is a lot of times what comes off the back
Speaker 4: of the over eating or the mindless eating or the
Speaker 4: zombie eating or whatever it.
Speaker 2: Is for us.
Speaker 4: But that being said too, like playing food police and
Speaker 4: using willpower all the time, it's exhausting. It's no way
Speaker 4: to live, right, And so I don't want people to
Speaker 4: think that trying to rely on willpower is the strategy,
Speaker 4: because it's no way to live as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I experienced that it only got me so far.
Speaker 3: To your point, I would be able to go a
Speaker 3: certain amount of days. But then I was right back
Speaker 3: to my pattern, my behavior, and there was no stopping
Speaker 3: it until I had an understanding of what was happening
Speaker 3: inside my brain and I thought, oh, okay, yeah, my
Speaker 3: willpower is only going to get.
Speaker 2: Me so far.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, And when we think that it's a willpower thing,
Speaker 4: but then we aren't able to use willpower against it,
Speaker 4: then we think, oh, I'm a failure.
Speaker 1: This is just me.
Speaker 2: This is how it's always going to be.
Speaker 4: And it leads into those beliefs that we're going to
Speaker 4: cover in a future a week as well.
Speaker 3: I'm weak and I this is just how it's going
Speaker 3: to be the rest of my life, and this is
Speaker 3: just who I am. And I'm the only person that
Speaker 3: is probably suffering in this way or whatever.
Speaker 2: And trust me, you're not alone. You're not the only person.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, And so that's where we just want to bring
Speaker 4: that to awareness of, like, you know, instead of looking
Speaker 4: at as a willpower thing, what if the answer the
Speaker 4: solution was to actually not fight your sugar cravings or
Speaker 4: your food cravings. And I know that might sound a
Speaker 4: little bit counterintuitive, right, but part of it is when
Speaker 4: you reprogram your brain and give it what it really
Speaker 4: needs in those moments. And as you're learning, food is
Speaker 4: not what it really needs, it will never fill those voids,
Speaker 4: or maybe you're becoming aware of it. But when you
Speaker 4: give your brain what it really needs and fill in
Speaker 4: those gaps and be emotionally available to yourself in those moments,
Speaker 4: the sugar cravings and the compulsions will disappear eventually on
Speaker 4: their own once you feed your brain what it really needs.
Speaker 4: And the hint here is your brain is not really
Speaker 4: craving food. It's craving something that's deeper embedded in the
Speaker 4: firing and wiring in your brain, which will also cover
Speaker 4: in future episodes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and also I just feel like this is a
Speaker 3: good point to mention, like these ten minutes on a
Speaker 3: Saturday where you're listening to this and this five part
Speaker 3: series isn't a replacement for further care that you may
Speaker 3: need or further work. This is to accompany the work
Speaker 3: that you're doing and the support that you're receiving from elsewhere,
Speaker 3: whatever that may look like.
Speaker 2: So I just want to be clear about that.
Speaker 3: And it's also just Leanne and I, I mean, she
Speaker 3: works in this field and she has a stressless leading program,
Speaker 3: and it's her life's mission to work with people women,
Speaker 3: mostly to try to empower them with the knowledge and
Speaker 3: the information to live. I feel like to exhale and
Speaker 3: not have to worry about some of these things. I
Speaker 3: am just someone that has experienced it. So at the
Speaker 3: end of the day, we're two friends of yours that
Speaker 3: have walked through this ourselves, and we're just trying to
Speaker 3: offer a resource, a tool, stuff to keep in your
Speaker 3: back pocket. But again, Land's one doing the work more
Speaker 3: on the backside with clients and everything.
Speaker 2: So just know, this is just in addition to.
Speaker 4: Right, absolutely, and this is the kind of stuff that
Speaker 4: I wish somebody had told me. You know, I went
Speaker 4: to the counselors and the programs, and I went to
Speaker 4: overeaters anonymous, I mean, and you name it. And these
Speaker 4: are the kinds of things that weren't being talked about
Speaker 4: because it was looked at as such a food problem.
Speaker 4: And that's actually a really good segue into the next
Speaker 4: myth is that when you're demonizing foods in your brain,
Speaker 4: that's another thing that's going to actually make the problem
Speaker 4: harder and worse. And so I think a lot of
Speaker 4: times when you're looking at it as a food problem,
Speaker 4: we label things as danger foods, or when we're looking
Speaker 4: at as a willpower thing, we look at it as
Speaker 4: there's like good, right, wrong, black, white, all or nothing
Speaker 4: kind of mentality that we need to use willpower against.
Speaker 4: And demonizing that or thinking of things as dangerous is
Speaker 4: actually going to further ingrain the problem, and it's actually
Speaker 4: going to most likely trigger even more cravings. And so
Speaker 4: trying to commit to giving up certain foods or sugar
Speaker 4: all together, that's a big one. I hear a lot
Speaker 4: of women are like, I need to just completely abstain
Speaker 4: from sugar.
Speaker 3: Or it's this is all given an example for me,
Speaker 3: it was, okay, this is the last day I'm ever
Speaker 3: having sugar, and from here on out, I am never
Speaker 3: having it again because it is bad and I am
Speaker 3: bad today for eating it. But tomorrow I'm going to
Speaker 3: be good and eat the good to foods. And so
Speaker 3: I demonize not only myself but also the food I
Speaker 3: was consuming, because then when I inevitably would go back
Speaker 3: to eating sugar, then I was bad again, and it's
Speaker 3: the cycle of good and bad and good and bad.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you make such a good point, because we're not
Speaker 4: just demonizing the foods. There's shame in that we are
Speaker 4: demonizing ourselves, making ourselves wrong, you know, And that's where
Speaker 4: the shame is. And oftentimes secrecy too, because if we're
Speaker 4: doing something air quotes bad, we think we need to
Speaker 4: hide it. And that's why mine was such a source
Speaker 4: of shame as well, Like no one knew that I was,
Speaker 4: you know, binge eating cookies in my closet, so to speak,
Speaker 4: my metaphorical closet, because I was trying to show everyone
Speaker 4: that I was ordering salad. So it does become this
Speaker 4: kind of personal thing. And so, well, what's the alternative?
Speaker 4: And I know it sounds kind of daunting because it's like, leanne,
Speaker 4: if I've been thinking about food as good, bad, right, wrong,
Speaker 4: healthy and healthy my entire life, what's the alternative? And
Speaker 4: the way I describe it is you've got to teach
Speaker 4: your brain a new language, Like if you've been metaphorically
Speaker 4: speaking Spanish, you know, good, bad, right, wrong?
Speaker 2: Should shouldn't?
Speaker 4: You need to teach it a new way of thinking.
Speaker 4: And really, what that looks like is a new decision
Speaker 4: making process, right because the good, bad, right, wrong, it
Speaker 4: has become a decision making process. Okay, is it good? Yes,
Speaker 4: is it bad then it's a no. Or if it's
Speaker 4: bad and it's still a yes, then I'm bad.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: So it becomes this decision making process where it's if this,
Speaker 4: then that right. So we literally need to redirect and
Speaker 4: teach our brain a new way to make decisions, which,
Speaker 4: in the nutshell of it, it's stop telling our brain
Speaker 4: what we think we know and ask it better questions
Speaker 4: so that it.
Speaker 2: Will learn a new program.
Speaker 4: It's kind of like a computer, you know, if you
Speaker 4: want to give it a new program to spit out,
Speaker 4: you've got to update your software new software, And that's
Speaker 4: kind of a metaphor for this. But this time around,
Speaker 4: when you're teaching your brain a new language, make sure
Speaker 4: that it's one that gets easier the more you practice it,
Speaker 4: and you get better at it, the more you practice it,
Speaker 4: so that you can just practice it less and lessen
Speaker 4: It just be comes your way of thinking versus dieting,
Speaker 4: restricting willpower control. It never gets easier, our brain never
Speaker 4: learns it. It never becomes a new way of thinking.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I like to use the software thing to I've
Speaker 3: heard a few people reference that recently, and it resonated
Speaker 3: with me for sure, because you wouldn't operate from a
Speaker 3: cell phone and whatever system it had from let's go
Speaker 3: all the way back to two thousand and six, because
Speaker 3: some people have been living, you know, eighteen twenty twenty
Speaker 3: five years with an eating disorder or longer. So let's
Speaker 3: just go back to when cell phones really first came around,
Speaker 3: which for me nineteen ninety nine. I know they existed
Speaker 3: before that, but it was around that time where everybody
Speaker 3: kind of started to have their own and it was
Speaker 3: like a little no Kia or whatever.
Speaker 4: Literally the year I was thinking and the no Kio's mind, and.
Speaker 3: So act as if we were here in twenty twenty
Speaker 3: four operating on what we had available with a cell phone.
Speaker 3: And I think that sometimes we get stuck in that
Speaker 3: and we live in that, but you wouldn't ever stay
Speaker 3: with that technology. You have advanced and so when we
Speaker 3: fault to our old technology and we're just like, well,
Speaker 3: this is just how I'm wired, This is just who
Speaker 3: I am. To me when I would behave that way,
Speaker 3: and I can say it now, I was just me
Speaker 3: not wanting to face the music or put in the
Speaker 3: work to update my software, to grow to you know,
Speaker 3: have new experiences and to live a different type of life.
Speaker 3: And sure I could still be talking on that cell
Speaker 3: phone if I wanted to probably be easier, I would
Speaker 3: have to deal with all this other stuff and these
Speaker 3: updates and whatnot. But look at what I would be
Speaker 3: missing out on and how much faster everything is. And
Speaker 3: when our brains are bogged down by all this other stuff,
Speaker 3: we're operating at a slower level. We're stuck in the past,
Speaker 3: and we're not able to be present and live in
Speaker 3: the moment.
Speaker 2: And so you know, for me, I don't know.
Speaker 3: It's kind of fun to picture yourself like do I
Speaker 3: want to really walk around with my little Nokia phone?
Speaker 3: Which I do want to. On that note, there's some fun,
Speaker 3: There is simplicity in that. So that's a different type
Speaker 3: of analogy of taking it back and maybe not being
Speaker 3: dependent on it. But think of our computers and how
Speaker 3: much they've advanced and how much leverage your life is.
Speaker 3: And that's what I want y'all to feel, is like, oh,
Speaker 3: if I upgrade my software, my life is going to
Speaker 3: be more efficient, it's going to be more enjoyable, it's
Speaker 3: going to be easier. And so getting rid of some
Speaker 3: of these myths, it's a huge or mistakes that we're making,
Speaker 3: excuse me, is a huge part in you updating your
Speaker 3: software and teaching your brain that new language and getting
Speaker 3: it firing and wiring at the optimal level.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, And like here's the thing. Could I do long
Speaker 4: division with a piece of paper and a pen? Absolutely,
Speaker 4: But I'm spending so much brain power doing that when
Speaker 4: I could break out my iPhone and do it in
Speaker 4: thirty seconds or less then, right, And so it's about leveraging.
Speaker 4: I mean, our brain is the most powerful supercomputer there is.
Speaker 4: Like talk about technology, it's infinite, right, And so it's
Speaker 4: about leverage. It's about really working smarter, not harder, so
Speaker 4: that your brain does the heavy lifting for you so
Speaker 4: that you don't have to think about it anymore. Like
Speaker 4: that's what we're talking about, is that freedom that piece
Speaker 4: so you can go use that mental real estate on
Speaker 4: other things.
Speaker 2: Which is huge.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I mean we can probably both have like
Speaker 3: a long testimony about how much brain space was taken
Speaker 3: up by food and body image thoughts and how much
Speaker 3: we missed out on because yeah, it took up Everything's true,
Speaker 3: and it was so exhausting totally. And so what about
Speaker 3: the final and third mistake?
Speaker 4: Yeah, It's a perfect segue because you know, what we
Speaker 4: were just talking about is really upgrading your software and
Speaker 4: looking at it like it's a brain solution rather than
Speaker 4: a willpower or food solution. But the other thing, the
Speaker 4: other mistake that I went down was thinking that it
Speaker 4: was strictly a psychological problem. And so here's the thing.
Speaker 4: The problem, as we were talking about, is deep in
Speaker 4: the brain. It's in our programming, right, It's also in
Speaker 4: your nervous system and your beliefs, which we're going to
Speaker 4: talk about in future episodes. And until you address that,
Speaker 4: the other things will keep coming back with a vengeance.
Speaker 4: And so this is also noting that, like, there's so
Speaker 4: many benefits to taking a psychological and a therapy based
Speaker 4: approach to different things, But if all you do is
Speaker 4: look at it like that, you're going to ignore the
Speaker 4: deeper fired and wired patterns in your brain that are
Speaker 4: creating the psychologus, that are creating the physiological that are
Speaker 4: creating the emotional components that are happening downstream. We're so
Speaker 4: in it, like, we're so deeply embedded in it that
Speaker 4: we think like this feels physical, this physiological pull that
Speaker 4: I have to sugar, or this feels, you know, psychological,
Speaker 4: because I feel crazy, But it's the neurological components that
Speaker 4: are going higher up in the brain like upstream, that's
Speaker 4: what's causing all of this downstream stuff. And if we
Speaker 4: look at it just like it's a purely psychological or
Speaker 4: even purely physiological thing, we're still going to continue solving
Speaker 4: the wrong problem. And we've got to solve the right
Speaker 4: problem on making sure that that's happening in the brain.
Speaker 2: And so what do we do instead?
Speaker 4: We instead address the cause and effect root that's causing
Speaker 4: all of this downstream stuff that's embedded in our nervous system,
Speaker 4: because even though it feels mental and physical, it's actually
Speaker 4: a brain thing.
Speaker 2: Correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 3: There could be other components than just the brain thing
Speaker 3: in people's lives, depending on what happened in their life
Speaker 3: that maybe then food became a tool for them to
Speaker 3: get through, like if they're filling the void, like I'm
Speaker 3: trying to think of the best way there you go.
Speaker 3: That's the word coping mechanism. Food became that. So there
Speaker 3: could be other stuff that you need to talk through,
Speaker 3: work through. There's talk, therapy, there's different things. But I
Speaker 3: see how for me, I can speak to this and
Speaker 3: I can see how it's likely the case for a
Speaker 3: lot of people. My brain developed a pattern of binging
Speaker 3: and then I became dependent on it. But it was
Speaker 3: because I was so restrictive in my teenage years when
Speaker 3: my brain was developing, and so then that's where I
Speaker 3: was just constantly living in the animal part of my brain.
Speaker 2: So that was my experience.
Speaker 3: But again, I guess I'm just cautious because it is
Speaker 3: such a sensitive thing, and I know you sure just
Speaker 3: too LM that there's there could be many many layers,
Speaker 3: of course, and this is one of them. And depending
Speaker 3: on when and how food came into your life as
Speaker 3: this coping mechanism, there could be other things that are
Speaker 3: very beneficial for you to work through that are very
Speaker 3: personal or that happened specifically to you. That's not just
Speaker 3: about the wire wiring is yeah, So yeah, no, this
Speaker 3: is no, that's such a perfect point.
Speaker 4: And I think it's really important what you just said.
Speaker 4: And part of it is like, if there's an emotional
Speaker 4: experience that happens and we've learned to use food as
Speaker 4: a coping mechanism to fill those voids, until we address
Speaker 4: that the residue, so to speak, we are going to
Speaker 4: constantly be having to put fires out, put fires out
Speaker 4: without addressing the cause of the fire. So it's not
Speaker 4: like just a brain thing. What I'm saying is it
Speaker 4: is three dimensional. There is the physiological and psychological components
Speaker 4: to it that have to be addressed. But until you
Speaker 4: address the kind of neurological residue that's gotten left, your
Speaker 4: brain will keep doing its thing without you. So it's
Speaker 4: like an it's not an either or it's an end.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well that was what was so fascinating to me years
Speaker 3: ago when I read Brain over Binge as she had
Speaker 3: done all kinds of therapy as did I, and was
Speaker 3: trying to figure out like, oh, well, this that happened
Speaker 3: in my life is clearly the reason why I am
Speaker 3: doing this, And she kept trying to solve that, and
Speaker 3: it wasn't until she understood the brain that she had
Speaker 3: healing exactly. But I will say, everybody's on their own journey,
Speaker 3: and it might be that if you get healing in
Speaker 3: a certain area, it clicks and you're like, oh, okay,
Speaker 3: but I think it's important to work on it all. Sure, No,
Speaker 3: I'm just probably overlying. No, it's sensitive to making sure
Speaker 3: that we cover all those bases.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's.
Speaker 4: Great because you're right, it's one of those things where
Speaker 4: it's such a personal experience, you know. And I was
Speaker 4: the same way, Like I was psychoanalyzing my problems to
Speaker 4: death and until I understood like how things it was
Speaker 4: the cause and effect that was causing it all, and
Speaker 4: the emotional stuff was a big part of that. It
Speaker 4: was like a cocktail almost. I was always going to
Speaker 4: be missing the ingredient. I was always going to have
Speaker 4: to be kind of mindsetting my way through it until
Speaker 4: I was able to address the mindset and the brain
Speaker 4: set so that it could my brain could do the
Speaker 4: heavy lifting for me without me having to think about
Speaker 4: it so much.
Speaker 3: Awesome, And we'll be back next Saturday for another chat
Speaker 3: about this.
Speaker 2: What are we going to be doing next week?
Speaker 4: Yeah, we're going to be talking about the binge free
Speaker 4: brain beliefs because there's three main beliefs that come alongside
Speaker 4: it that you could be doing all Actually a lot
Speaker 4: more of the mindset kind of psychological piece of the
Speaker 4: puzzle that you could address the system of thinking. But
Speaker 4: if you have any underlying beliefs that are keeping you
Speaker 4: stuck in these patterns, it will continue to sabotage your efforts.
Speaker 4: So we're going to be getting into more of the
Speaker 4: psychological mindset belief piece of the puzzle next week.
Speaker 3: And y'all make sure to check out Lean's other podcast.
Speaker 3: It's called What's God Got to Do with It? And
Speaker 3: a lot of great interviews up there, a lot of
Speaker 3: inside of yeah, just life and hey kind of questioning, well,
Speaker 3: What's God got to do with it? Leanne is brilliant
Speaker 3: and I think that she has a lot to offer,
Speaker 3: So I encourage all to go check that out. And
Speaker 3: then where else can people find you?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm over on Instagram Liann Ellington.
Speaker 4: But also if you do want to learn about how
Speaker 4: to turn off the part of your brain that's obsessed
Speaker 4: with food and really rewire your brain for peace and freedom,
Speaker 4: you can check out the Stressless Seeding preview where I've
Speaker 4: just really peeled back the curtain and showed the system
Speaker 4: that I teach my clients over at Stresslessseeding dot com.
Speaker 2: Awesome. Okay, see y'all next Saturday. Bye bye,