Episode 46: Your Old Friend Food
Summary
On this episode of Weight Loss for Food-Lovers, Molly Zemek discusses why we think of food as comfort, or as a friend. Initially, Molly shares examples from her own life of times when she has viewed food as something just for her, as a friend. She goes on to encourage listeners to really consider how we benefit from viewing food as a friend.
She describes why our brains often consider food as a friend and how this affects our relationship with food. Molly recommends to really consider whether these types of thoughts are true. She walks listeners through how to address the thought that food is our friend, and all the ways that thought is untrue. It’s important to see how these thoughts are untrue, because that makes it easier for us to begin believing differently.
Not only do we overeat because of thinking incorrect thoughts, we also overeat because we are feeling an emotion. When we overeat, it numbs the emotion, and we never actually process what we are really feeling. When we do this, the negative feeling still remains. It’s much more effective and beneficial to handle and process your emotions instead of turning to food.
Next, in order to show how food is not our friend, Molly describes what a true friend actually looks like. A true friend encourages you, lifts you up, treats you with kindness, engages with you, and more. Instead, food leaves us feeling discouraged, it’s unkind to us in the long run (when we overeat), and it leaves us feeling isolated.
Molly goes on to share from her own experience what it was like to begin to make space for her emotions, instead of overeating. She explains how great it felt to experience emotions that had always been there, but that she’d just been numbing in the past. This resulted in more clarity about her life and who she was and what she wanted. Finally, Molly encourages the listener to consider how to become a friend to yourself, instead of looking to your old friend, food. Consider how you treat yourself and how you support yourself, so that you can stop turning to food for friendship, and better care for yourself.
Topics Covered
· Viewing Food as a Friend
· Thought Errors
· Eating Because of Emotion
· What a True Friend Looks Like
· The Gap Between Your Old Way of Thinking and New Way of Thinking
Key Quotes
“Food is something that you can turn to for immediate relief. In fact, it’s one of the easiest, most accessible, least expensive ways you can get that feel good affect, in the moment, that’s socially acceptable, that’s culturally acceptable.”
“When your brain thinks food is a friend, of course you’re more likely to turn to food for comfort. You’re more likely to hold on to that relationship of overeating.”
“The more you process these feelings, without overeating, the less motivation you have to overeat. There’s not that same compelling need to overeat, because you know how to handle your emotions for what they are.”
“Emotions give us such important information about our experiences. Our emotional life helps us understand who we are, what we want, our deepest desires, [and] what things mean to us.”
“Food is not a good friend, because it doesn’t tell you the truth.”
“Changing your mindset is not an overnight process, but it is the actual solution. It is the way that you permanently change your relationship with food.”
Resources
If you enjoyed this podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/weight-loss-for-food-lovers/id1500464977
Subscribe to Molly’s email list and request her free 6-Point Guide to Kickstarting Weight: