In this week’s episode, Marc works with 52-year old Hulya on the important topic of how we learn to manage stress and regulate our emotions, so that we can experience the most optimal conditions for health. And Marc takes a special look at anxiety, constipation, and midsection weight gain, including some of the hidden wisdom these conditions have for us.  As researchers have discovered, there’s a profound connection between gut and brain health. So much so that “the gut-brain axis” is now established as one of the most important and complex systems in the body.  The gut is often referred to as a “second brain” due it’s separate but interconnected system of over 100 million neurons. This complex system, the enteric nervous system, is responsible for all the major digestive functions including enzyme production, nutrient absorption, and elimination. What’s fascinating is that research is now revealing the intricate relationship between our gut, and our thoughts, mood, and emotions.  When we feel happy, our body naturally goes into parasympathetic dominance (the relaxation response), and our absorption and elimination typically improves. Conversely, when we’re under stress, the gut feels it – and the normal, healthy functions of our digestive system can become impaired.  Many of us are aware of how various stressors, like work or marital challenges, can make us feel physically unwell. Perhaps you get heartburn or a knot in your stomach after a big fight, for example. But what most people do not realize is that our challenges with food and body can become yet another source of stress. For example, when we worry about our weight or feel self-hate for our body for years on end – this creates a powerful neurohormonal cascade in our physiology that can cause gastrointestinal issues like constipation or acid reflux – and ironically, can also lead to further weight gain. Over time, sustained negative emotions can wreak havoc on every part of our body, but the gut is often the first place that we’ll experience illness.    {Ready to call a ceasefire in your battle with eating, and find peace and freedom with food? Learn more about our newest program, The Emotional Eating Breakthrough! https://learn.psychologyofeating.com/} --------------- Learn more about us at The Institute for the Psychology of Eating: https://psychologyofeating.com/  Interested in becoming a certified coach in eating psychology? Then tune in to hear Marc talk about our Mind Body Eating Coach Certification Training, and download a copy of our School Catalog: https://psychologyofeating.com/info-kit/ Learn our powerful, cutting-edge approach, and discover how you can create a unique career helping others find peace and freedom with food. Follow us on social:  - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Psychologyofeating - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IPEfanpage - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eatingpsychology/ - Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/eatingpsych #constipation #overeating #stress #stresseating #emotionaleating #weightloss #guthealth #foodfreedom #bodypositivity #mindfuleating #healthateverysize #eatingpsychology #marcdavid

Let’s be honest: trying to figure out what’s best to eat for our unique body – and stick to it – can be really hard. So can trying to lose weight. If we’re not careful, our whole life can become dominated by food, what to eat – and what not to eat, trying to be “good,” and constant thoughts about our diet.  Diet anxiety can happen to all of us, and it often drives us to what Marc David, founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, refers to as “all or nothing eating.”  One of the hallmarks of this behavior is we’re either eating 100% clean and healthy food, or we’ve ditched our diet and binge on sweets, carbohydrates, or fatty foods. There’s no in between. This “all or nothing” approach keeps us trapped in a cycle that simply doesn’t work.  We may successfully lose weight for a time, but our healthy habits reach a point where they’re no longer sustainable. Our diet starts slipping, and our weight will often go up. Self-attack, shame, and guilt quickly follow.  If you’re prone to all or nothing eating, you’ll want to tune in to this episode, where Marc works with 60-year old Lee. Like so many of us, Lee has been dieting for decades, and goes through, in her words, “healthy” and “unhealthy” phases. Her unhealthy phases seem to last forever, and when they do, she can’t stop thinking about her diet, the 20 kilos she’d like to lose, and what she needs to do differently in order to commit to a healthier lifestyle.  Watch Lee’s breakthrough in her challenges around nutritional extremism and weight – you’ll come away with some life-changing tools and takeaways. --------------- Learn more about us at The Institute for the Psychology of Eating: https://psychologyofeating.com/  Ready to call a ceasefire in your battle with eating, and find peace and freedom with food? Learn more about our newest program, The Emotional Eating Breakthrough! https://ipe.events/EEB  Interested in becoming a certified coach in eating psychology? Then tune in to hear Marc talk about our Mind Body Eating Coach Certification Training, and download a copy of our School Catalog: https://psychologyofeating.com/info-kit/ Learn our powerful, cutting-edge approach, and discover how you can create a unique career helping others find peace and freedom with food. Follow us on social:  - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Psychologyofeating - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IPEfanpage - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eatingpsychology/ - Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/eatingpsych #antidiet #healthateverysize #weightloss #bodypositivity #foodfreedom #disorderedeating #eatingpsychology #marcdavid #podcast

If you’ve ever tried to lose weight, you know it’s not so easy. In fact, it can be incredibly challenging (just look at all the billions of dollars we collectively spend on weight loss every year).  So that begs the question: why is losing weight so hard? While challenges with weight loss are multifactorial, today we look at one of the hidden psychological obstacles that often gets in the way. And that’s feeling like the things we must do to lose weight are a form of self-punishment.  It can seem like we’re being forced to do things that we don’t enjoy, and eat foods we don’t love, and the real kicker? We must do them F.O.R.E.V.E.R.  Healthy decisions like: Eating vegetables at every meal Minimizing processed foods and sugary snacks Fitting in time at the gym most days Prioritizing meditation or yoga over Netflix or surfing the web… … can have us feeling like there’s no longer any pleasure or enjoyment in life. Friends, as long as weight loss feels like self-punishment, we’re always going to be in a battle with ourselves.  As Marc points out to guest coaching client, Adrianne, it’s pretty hard to find freedom in weight loss when getting there has us feeling imprisoned.  As you’re about to learn, a big part of the weight loss journey is reversing the old belief, “I must punish myself in order to lose weight.”  That’s what this episode is all about: learning how to transform this negative belief that holds so many of us back.    {Ready to call a ceasefire in your battle with eating, and find peace and freedom with food? Learn more about our newest program, The Emotional Eating Breakthrough, set to release in early 2023! https://learn.psychologyofeating.com/} --------------- Learn more about us at The Institute for the Psychology of Eating: https://psychologyofeating.com/  Interested in becoming a certified coach in eating psychology? Then tune in to hear Marc talk about our Mind Body Eating Coach Certification Training, and download a copy of our School Catalog: https://psychologyofeating.com/info-kit/ Learn our powerful, cutting-edge approach, and discover how you can create a unique career helping others find peace and freedom with food. Follow us on social:  - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Psychologyofeating - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IPEfanpage - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eatingpsychology/ - Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/eatingpsych #emotionaleating #weight #dieting #sustainableweightloss #foodfreedom #intuitiveeating #healthyhabits #healthylifestyle #bodypositivity #psychologyofeating #marcdavid

Do you love going against the rules? If so, you might have a strong “inner rebel” – an archetype that lives inside us, and can unwittingly make us go against our own best interests, especially when it comes to our health. As Marc David explores in this episode, our inner rebel is often behind the scenes unconsciously making choices for us about things like diet, exercise, sleep hygiene, and so much more.  Thirty eight-year old Daniela from Mexico wants to improve her health but frequently gets tempted by frappuccinos, sodas, and junk food. Daniela, a psychologist, knows that making changes to diet and exercise are important to her weight and health goals, but she just can’t seem to stick with it. As the session unfolds, it becomes clear that Daniela has two competing voices inside her duking it out for control: the part of her who wants to make healthier choices, and the part of her that doesn’t want to feel restricted and controlled. This latter voice is her inner rebel, causing quite a lot of difficulty, confusion and frustration. So how can Daniela - and the rest of us - work with the inner rebel?  Is the inner rebel here to vex us, or is there a hidden wisdom and message this archetype has for us?  You’ll hear the answers to this, and more – and hear some life-changing takeaways, including: How childhood food restriction, food scarcity, and other limitations with food at a young age can lead to a strong inner rebel as an adult The origins of the inner rebel shown in the Biblical “Adam & Eve” story How we can use our inner rebel for constructive and positive purposes when it comes to our health Why positive reinforcement from our loved ones can go a long way in creating healthy habits And more… --------------- Learn more about us at The Institute for the Psychology of Eating: https://psychologyofeating.com/  Ready to call a ceasefire in your battle with eating, and find peace and freedom with food? Learn more about our newest program, The Emotional Eating Breakthrough, set to release in early 2023! https://learn.psychologyofeating.com/ Interested in becoming a certified coach in eating psychology? Then tune in to hear Marc talk about our Mind Body Eating Coach Certification Training, and download a copy of our School Catalog: https://psychologyofeating.com/info-kit/ Learn our powerful, cutting-edge approach, and discover how you can create a unique career helping others find peace and freedom with food. Follow us on social:  - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Psychologyofeating - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IPEfanpage - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eatingpsychology/ - Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/eatingpsych #emotionaleating #weight #mindfuleating #rebel #foodfreedom #healthyhabits #healthylifestyle #healthydiet #foodpsychology #marcdavid

When it comes to emotional eating, so many of us focus on the habit itself -- the mindless munching on potato chips or the quick relief from a piece of chocolate -- without considering the emotions that drive the behavior in the first place. In this episode, we explore the true root cause of emotional eating (our emotions) -- and the role of the criminal mind in driving us to engage in this unwanted eating challenge.  The criminal mind is that part of us that does something in secret out of fear of disapproval or wanting to get away with something we know we shouldn’t be doing. It’s a natural part of the human psyche that’s typically born at a very young age. As children, when we’re told we can’t have something we really want, we find ourselves in conflict. We want to be a “good” girl or boy, so we don’t lose our parents’ love for doing something “bad.” But we also still crave the thing -- often food -- that we’re told we can’t have. This can lead kids to break their parents’ rules and do it anyway -- which is how the criminal mind is born.  When we continue this unconscious pattern as adults, we can find ourselves in unwanted behaviors that we just can’t seem to break. We may still have a deep desire to be “good,” while also having that same strong childhood urge for forbidden foods. Here’s the thing: when we try to be “good,” the desire for the forbidden is still there - along with the thrill and rush of breaking our own rules. There’s simply too much temptation for forbidden foods, and we end up going against what we know is best for our well-being. So in this episode, we look at the role of the criminal archetype in emotional eating, and how our childhood desire to be “good” can derail our best laid plans with food, body, and life. We also consider some of the ways we can begin to shift the criminal mindset, including: The key role of awareness, and how it can help us shift emotional eating How “What Else” questions can redirect emotional regulation Tuning into our our own unique food story {Ready to call a ceasefire in your battle with eating, and find peace and freedom with food? Learn more about our newest program, The Emotional Eating Breakthrough, set to release in early 2023! https://learn.psychologyofeating.com/} --------------- Learn more about us at The Institute for the Psychology of Eating: https://psychologyofeating.com/  Interested in becoming a certified coach in eating psychology? Then tune in to hear Marc talk about our Mind Body Eating Coach Certification Training, and download a copy of our School Catalog: https://psychologyofeating.com/info-kit/ Learn our powerful, cutting-edge approach, and discover how you can create a unique career helping others find peace and freedom with food. Follow us on social:  - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Psychologyofeating - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IPEfanpage - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eatingpsychology/ - Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/eatingpsych #emotionaleating #foodcriminal #sneakingfood #secreteating #bingeeating #weight #healthyhabits #foodfreedom #bodyacceptance #selflove #relationshipwithfood #emotionaleatingbreakthrough #psychologyofeating #marcdavid

In this episode, we explore stress eating – a type of emotional eating – from the perspective of eating psychology. But first, for those unfamiliar with the term ‘eating psychology,’ a quick definition: eating psychology is the study of our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about food and body. It’s a positive and transformational approach that views our eating challenges as an opportunity to learn and grow. Stress eating has a huge psychological component to it. Whether we’re conscious of it or not, our daily stresses can be a HUGE driver behind emotional eating.  But the key is understanding that it’s not really our circumstances that drive us to emotional eating. It’s the negative and anxious thoughts we have about those circumstances that often cause us to turn to food.  Reaching for junk foods – frequently carbohydrate-rich foods like chips, cookies, and candies – is a quick and effective way to quickly relieve stress. The only problem is that the “feel good” feeling doesn’t last, and we can gain weight or develop health issues over the long term. Most of us know this, and we feel guilty and ashamed for what we perceive as “giving in” or being weak around food. And here’s the clincher: shame will often lead us to feel we must be punished for being “bad.” Ironically, an exceedingly common way of self-punishing is with food: eating more “bad” food to punish ourselves for being “bad” with food to begin with. Kind of crazy, right?!  If you can relate, then tune in to hear Marc work with guest coaching client Denise on how to “graduate” from the self-punishment cycle behind emotional eating. --------------- Ready to call a ceasefire in your battle with eating, and find peace and freedom with food? Learn more about our newest program, The Emotional Eating Breakthrough, set to release in early 2023! https://learn.psychologyofeating.com/ Interested in becoming a certified coach in eating psychology? Then tune in to hear Marc talk about our Mind Body Eating Coach Certification Training, and download a copy of our School Catalog: https://psychologyofeating.com/info-kit/ Learn our powerful, cutting-edge approach, and discover how you can create a unique career helping others find peace and freedom with food. Follow us on social:  - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Psychologyofeating - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IPEfanpage - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eatingpsychology/ - Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/eatingpsych #stresseating #emotionaleating #weight #selfpunishment #dieting #relationshipwithfood #wellnessjourney #intuitiveeating #psychologyofeating #marcdavid

In the weight loss world, the concept of a weight “set point” is pretty common. Meaning, our bodies seem to have an intrinsic natural weight that can be different for each of us. For many of us, that natural “set point” isn’t what we think it should be. We want a lower set point weight than we have, so we’ll often fight the body and make Herculean efforts to lose weight. And while you’ll find lots of resources out there on how to change your set point, in this episode we explore weight set point from the perspective of eating psychology.  One of the key teachings of eating psychology is that our challenges with food and body are a great teacher. They’re not here to torment us or drive us crazy, they’re here to show us where our deepest personal growth lies.  So in this episode of “In Session,” you’ll hear Marc work with 62-year old Joanne, who has lost and gained about 15 pounds over the last 30 years. She has a clear idea of what her weight set point “should” be, it’s just that her body doesn’t seem to agree.  Every time she puts herself on a diet, Joanne loses weight. It seems like her “set point” has adjusted – until she starts to eat more pleasurable foods, when she gains the 15 pounds right back.  For Joanne, life just seems like it would be a whole lot easier – and she would be so much happier – if she could simply learn how to reset her weight set point.  But is changing her weight set point truly going to lead to happiness and fulfillment with this one precious, beautiful life she’s been given?  Tune in to find out! --------------- Learn more about us at The Institute for the Psychology of Eating: https://psychologyofeating.com/  Interested in becoming a certified coach in eating psychology? Then tune in to hear Marc talk about our Mind Body Eating Coach Certification Training, and download a copy of our School Catalog: https://psychologyofeating.com/info-kit/ Learn our powerful, cutting-edge approach, and discover how you can create a unique career helping others find peace and freedom with food. Follow us on social:  - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Psychologyofeating - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IPEfanpage - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eatingpsychology/ - Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/eatingpsych #weight #bodyimage #midlife #dieting #relationshipwithfood #happiness #fulfillment #selflove #selfacceptance #eatingpsychology #psychologyofeating #marcdavid

In this episode, we meet 53-year old Lydia, who has been dieting for 40 years. As an adolescent, Lydia developed anxiety about how her body was developing, as is often common for girls and boys at that age. Aerobics was becoming hugely popular at that time in the 1980s, diet culture was booming, and Lydia embraced it all with the hopes that she could shapeshift into the lean, long-legged body type she hoped for. Fast forward all these years later, Lydia is fed up with dieting. But she doesn’t know a life without it. She can’t imagine who she would be, or what her relationship with food would feel like.  All Lydia knows are the “boom and bust” cycles of dieting that define her life. When she loses weight, she feels confident in her clothes, but there’s also a constant fear lurking in the back of her mind that she’s going to regain the weight. And when she does gain it back, Lydia feels like a total failure.  As Lydia shares with Marc, she believes she’d be happy if she could only learn to eat and live like a thin person. But is there really such a thing as thinking like a thin person? And if there is, does it make them happier?  As this episode demonstrates, chronic dieting is not only a way of life – it’s a mindset. And while it usually doesn’t give us the results we’re looking for, it can become so hard to know what to do – and who to be – instead. Because dieting and body image challenges nearly always reflect our own self rejection, part of the solution is learning to accept ourselves and our bodies as they are right now, something that many of us worry means giving up our weight loss goals.  --------------- Learn more about us at The Institute for the Psychology of Eating: https://psychologyofeating.com/  Interested in becoming a certified coach in eating psychology? Then tune in to hear Marc talk about our Mind Body Eating Coach Certification Training, and download a copy of our School Catalog: https://psychologyofeating.com/info-kit/ Learn our powerful, cutting-edge approach, and discover how you can create a unique career helping others find peace and freedom with food. Follow us on social:  - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Psychologyofeating - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IPEfanpage - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eatingpsychology/ - Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/eatingpsych #weightloss #dieting #bodyimage #weightlossjourney #foodfreedom #dietculture #sloweating #intuitiveeating #mindfuleating #embodiment #selfacceptance #marcdavid #psychologyofeating

Ahvanya, 27, from Goa, India, has one wish when it comes to food and body: to never engage in negative self-talk again. Meaning, she would always trust herself with food, and she would never again judge her appearance. She would simply feel good about herself and feel confident all the time.  But is it realistic to think we can somehow stop the negative internal chatter, all those voices that tell us we should be different or better?  And if we could, would this finally allow us to be in perpetual bliss and balance when it comes to issues around emotional eating, body confidence, and weight?  As Marc explores with Ahvanya, it’s natural to see our negative self-talk as a problem. We can feel powerless and paralyzed by the difficult emotions they cause us to feel. But when we try to deny our thoughts, we’re ironically swapping out one type of perfectionism (“my diet and body must be perfect”) for another (“my thoughts are unacceptable and I’m unwilling to allow them”). And this sets us up for feeling like a failure yet again, just in a different way. So what do we do in a world where we’ve been taught to be perfect, inside and out?  Find out in this episode, where we explore the unrealistic expectations we often put on ourselves when it comes to our thoughts and feelings about food, body, and life. --------------- Learn more about us at The Institute for the Psychology of Eating: https://psychologyofeating.com/  Interested in becoming a certified coach in eating psychology? Then tune in to hear Marc talk about our Mind Body Eating Coach Certification Training, and download a copy of our School Catalog: https://psychologyofeating.com/info-kit/ Learn our powerful, cutting-edge approach, and discover how you can create a unique career helping others find peace and freedom with food. Follow us on social:  - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Psychologyofeating - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IPEfanpage - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eatingpsychology/ - Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/eatingpsych #negativeselftalk #perfectionism #bodyimagehealing #foodfreedom #nourishnotpunish #antidiet #emotionaleating #mindfuleating #selfworth #selfacceptance #embodiment #marcdavid #psychologyofeating

Good health is the foundation for every other wonderful thing we could want in life: relationships, career, wealth, happiness, and so much more.  But striving for good health, like anything else, can be taken to its extreme.  One of the manifestations of this is orthorexia, a type of eating challenge hyper-focused on making only the very healthiest of food choices. On paper that can seem like a good thing, but orthorexia has a real dark side.  People suffering from orthorexia eventually find themselves severely bound by the strict food rules they’ve created for themselves about what, when, and how much to eat. And this can feel a lot like prison, except it’s a food prison existing only in one’s mind.  In this episode, you’ll meet 29-year old Rachel, who is overcoming orthorexia – but still has a lot of questions about how to quiet the voices in her mind that drive her to follow certain food rules, or feel really guilty when she fails to meet them. Rachel is exhausted from feeling so bound up by all the rules she follows, and wants to find more freedom with food. As Marc David explores with Rachel, orthorexia can present as the desire to eat healthy, but the fuel that perpetuates the disorder is often rooted in body dysmorphia. When we make the connection between orthorexia and body image/weight, we get to the real truth behind our vigilance with healthy food choices. From there, we can start to implement the key practices that will help us get out of our mental prison, and into a much more natural and intuitive relationship with food.  Whether you have orthorexia, or simply overdo the food rules and restrictions, be sure to tune into this revelatory episode! --------------- Learn more about us at The Institute for the Psychology of Eating: https://psychologyofeating.com/  Interested in becoming a certified coach in eating psychology? Then tune in to hear Marc talk about our Mind Body Eating Coach Certification Training, and download a copy of our School Catalog: https://psychologyofeating.com/info-kit/ Learn our powerful, cutting-edge approach, and discover how you can create a unique career helping others find peace and freedom with food. Follow us on social:  - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Psychologyofeating - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IPEfanpage - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eatingpsychology/ - Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/eatingpsych #orthorexia #foodrules #bodyimage #disorderedeating #weight #healthyating #mindfuleating #intuitiveeatng #selflovjourney #foodfreedom #mindbodynutrition #psychologyofeating #marcdavid #relationshipwithfood