2509: What Are You Feeding? Learn to Recognize the Reasons Behind Why We Eat by Lea Genders

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[00:00:55] This is Optimal Health Daily Episode 2509. What are you feeding? Learning to recognize the reasons behind why we eat by Leah Genders of LeahGendersFitness.com

[00:01:07] And I'm Dr. Neal, your very own personal narrator. Hey there happy Saturday and welcome back to Optimal Health Daily or OHD where I act as your narrator of popular health and fitness blogs and always with a bit of my commentary at the end.

[00:01:22] And don't forget we have a bunch of shows covering different topics. Just search for Optimal Living Daily in any podcast app to find all of them.

[00:01:31] And with that, let's get right to it and start optimizing your life.

[00:01:39] What are you feeding? Learn to recognize the reasons behind why we eat by Leah Genders of LeahGendersFitness.com

[00:01:49] When we eat, we are feeding something. Sometimes it's hunger. Sometimes it's boredom or sadness. Sometimes we feed our goals or our relationships.

[00:02:01] If we learn to evaluate our awareness, we can ensure we aren't mindlessly feeding or feeding for the wrong reasons. People often say food is like the fuel for your body, like gas is fuel for your car.

[00:02:15] I agree with that analogy for the most part. If you don't put enough fuel in your car, your car won't go far. If you put low quality fuel in your car, your car probably won't run well for a long time. Your body is similar.

[00:02:29] We need to fuel our body with high quality nutrient-dense foods in the right quantities to look, feel and perform our best. The analogy ends there.

[00:02:41] Your car doesn't have a favorite type of gasoline that is just like his grandmother used to make. Your car doesn't choose a certain fuel that has cultural significance.

[00:02:52] Your German car, for example, doesn't prefer bratwurst.

[00:02:56] Your car doesn't remember its favorite fuel from childhood. Your car doesn't meet to fuel up and wind down with friends. You see what I mean?

[00:03:06] Sure, food is fuel, but to be truly healthy in mind and body, it's important to recognize and understand that food is so much more than just fuel.

[00:03:16] The first step in raising our awareness level about the foods we eat is to think about what we are feeding when we eat.

[00:03:24] Feeding your relationships

[00:03:26] If you look at food as only fuel, you miss a major piece of the puzzle that can lead to disordered thinking.

[00:03:33] Sure, food is fuel, but as humans, we build relationships and bond over meals. It may be socializing with friends, celebrations with family or negotiating over dinner with business partners.

[00:03:47] Food is a big part of the equation. To pass up on every social occasion, dinner outside the home or kids' birthday party because we're worried about accidentally consuming an extra gram of sugar is taking healthy living too far.

[00:04:02] There has to be a balance between high quality nutrition and living a full and connected life.

[00:04:08] Relationships are an important part of a healthy lifestyle. While yes, we want to be mindful to put helpful foods in our bodies most of the time, there are occasions when our relationships are a higher priority than the macro breakdown of our meal.

[00:04:24] If you strive to eat well 80% of the time, the other 20% of less than optimal nutrition while bonding with friends and family will only leave you a healthier, more well-rounded human being.

[00:04:37] Healthy living is not all or nothing. It's most important to be mindful of your choices. Optimal or not, your choices are thought out and intentional. Feeding your goals.

[00:04:50] Often we start a stricter dietary regimen in order to feed our goals. If we want to lose body fat, build muscle or run a marathon, the food choices we make are more important than ever.

[00:05:03] Nutrition is the foundation of any effective fat loss, performance or health-related goal. If you're not feeding yourself properly for your specific goal, it's more challenging to achieve.

[00:05:15] Maybe you're not training for anything. You just want to eat higher quality foods so that you have a healthier body to enjoy life to the fullest. That's a great goal to feed.

[00:05:25] Proper nutrition comes first. It doesn't mean there isn't room for treats and indulgences. It just means that when we are feeding our goals, our focus is on the nutritional choices that are necessary to achieve them.

[00:05:39] Feeding your emotions. This is where things get tricky and why a lot of people struggle with food.

[00:05:45] We aren't eating because we are hungry. We aren't eating because we are training. We aren't eating to have a healthier body. We aren't eating to bond with people.

[00:05:54] We are eating because we are bored, sad, tired or angry. When we feed our emotions with food, we tend to ignore all the signals our body sends to tell us when we're hungry, satisfied or full.

[00:06:09] When we ignore the signals our body sends, we're more likely to lose control. We are eating to feed emotional needs rather than physical hunger.

[00:06:19] Learning to tune in to our body's signals is a skill that can be developed to help us control our weight. Our body knows what it needs and it tells us.

[00:06:28] But if we've been ignoring or overriding these signals for years, we often have to start again and learn how to listen.

[00:06:36] If you are eating to feed your emotions, before you can change your eating habits, you often have to discover the root of the problem.

[00:06:44] What drives you to overeat? Where are these feelings coming from? What feelings are you trying to dull with food? I certainly don't have all the answers.

[00:06:54] These issues can go a lot deeper than what can be solved by hearing a blog post.

[00:06:59] There is great strength in asking for help when you realize you can't do it alone.

[00:07:05] What are you feeding? The first step is awareness. Take a step back and ask yourself, what am I feeding?

[00:07:13] If you keep a food log, don't just track your calories and macronutrients, track how you feel before and after you eat each meal and snack.

[00:07:22] You don't have to change all of your behaviors in one day or even in one week.

[00:07:27] The first step is recognizing your habits, noticing your feelings and how they affect your actions.

[00:07:33] Before you eat something, ask yourself, what am I feeding? Once you are aware, you can begin to make changes.

[00:07:45] You just listen to the post titled, What Are You Feeding?

[00:07:49] Learning to recognize the reasons behind why we eat by Leah Genders of LeahGendersFitness.com

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[00:09:38] Dr. Neil here for my commentary. When I was a health educator and led classes on weight management,

[00:09:45] I would spend a lot of time discussing reasons why we eat.

[00:09:49] As Leah said in today's article, we don't always eat because we're hungry.

[00:09:54] Instead we may eat because we're stressed or anxious or bored or because it's noon and that means it's lunchtime so we should eat

[00:10:02] even if we're not really hungry at all.

[00:10:05] I would have my patients think about times when they may have eaten for reasons other than hunger.

[00:10:10] I mean, we all do it at some point. It's just some have a tendency to do this more often which can lead to unintended weight gain.

[00:10:18] My patients would share stories like after coming home from a long day at work or school,

[00:10:24] the first stop wouldn't be the closet to hang up their jackets. It would be the refrigerator.

[00:10:30] I would ask them, when you go to the refrigerator are you hungry? They would say no.

[00:10:36] This is just what I do when I get home. I'm not hungry. It's just a habit.

[00:10:41] And that's the aha moment. Finding those moments in our lives when we may eat for reasons other than hunger.

[00:10:49] Once these situations have been identified, we can then do something about it.

[00:10:55] All right, that'll do it for today. I hope you have a great weekend and of course I'll see you back here tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.