Picture this:  You’re trucking along your day – everything’s going pretty well, when BOOM: You see a picture of yourself, and you’re instantly triggered.  “Is that really what I look like?” you ask yourself.  You can’t believe your appearance. Maybe it’s extra weight, or the shape of your hips or stomach.  But whatever it is – you feel your heart start to sink, and a crushing sadness races in.  Before you know it, you’re spiraling into that incorporeal place made famous on Netflix’s acclaimed series.  (And let’s just say, it’s not “The Good Place.”)  Sound familiar?  Most of us have had the disconcerting experience of getting triggered around our weight or appearance. So in this episode, we take a special look at body image triggers, where they come from, and how to begin healing them.  You’ll hear Marc David work with 41-year old Jen on her triggers with weight and body image.  While Jen is hungering for weight loss – she’d love to lose around 40 pounds – she comes to realize in working with Marc that there’s something she’d like even more: Being able to love and stand by herself, even if she’s not yet at her goal weight.  Because Jen’s body image triggers have been preventing her from so many things, such as: Taking photos of herself with loved ones.  Role modeling a healthy body image to her daughters.  Feeling confident in her own skin. Living in a state of freedom and joy.  Tired of feeling sad, afraid, and anxious about her weight, Jen is ready for a big shift … even if she’s confused about how to get there. While her wisdom, self-kindness, and high values have served her well so far, her body image triggers are clearly still blocking the way. But one thing she’s clear about? It’s time to break the door down.  Nothing is going to stop Jen from doing the inner work she needs to do, so she can finally embrace herself – and the life she so deserves.  Listen in as Marc shares:  How to understand the root causes behind your weight and body image triggers. Reframing the core negative beliefs and old traumas that are often at the root of body image challenges.  How to recognize and shift how you speak to yourself about your body. A powerful exercise for learning to embrace your appearance.  And much more… Don’t miss this remarkable eating psychology coaching session, where Marc lays out the path for all of us who are ready to release our body image triggers, and discover just how good life can be on the other side.  --------------- 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://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 #bodyimage #bodypositivity #bodypositive #bodyneutrality #selfimprovement #selfawareness #selflove #weight #weightloss #dieting #psychologyofeating

Managing emotions with food, otherwise known as emotional eating, is something that humans have been doing for millenia. And the reason is simple: when we eat, we reliably feel better – no matter how fleeting those “feel-good” feelings may be.  While many people intuitively understand that emotions play a key role in our eating habits, it can often be a lot harder to understand the emotions themselves. The truth is, our inner emotional world is fantastically complex, and influences our relationship with food in so many diverse and fascinating ways.  Which brings us to guest coaching client Beverley, 70, whose deepest desire is to understand the “dark places” inside herself that drive her to food – and to finally bring healing to the challenging emotions she’s been feeling for over 50 years.  As Beverley shares with Marc David, she’s never really been able to understand her negative feelings, where they came from, or why she has them.  Beverley reflects that she’s had an “amazing life,” with so many blessings. She’s developed a fulfilling career as a theater director, helping young people develop their skills and confidence as an actor. She raised four incredible children of her own, and was, herself, born to a remarkable mother who always inspired and supported her.  And it’s this latter feature of Beverley’s life – her special bond with her mother – that is especially interesting. As Marc explores with Beverley, her love for her mother runs so deep, and a very real part of her – her Child Archetype, doesn’t seem to want to let go. Even though Beverley’s mom has long since passed away, a part of Beverley still wants to be her mother’s daughter.   Her uncanny way of staying connected with her mom is by continuing to engage in a behavior – emotional eating – that she knows her mom would have always encouraged and supported her to not judge herself for. By turning to food and being childlike when it comes to soothing her emotions with eating, Beverley has found a way to symbolically stay connected to her mother.  As Marc reflects, sometimes our “dark places” aren’t actually what they seem. They aren’t actually dark, or sinister, or even flawed. They’re just young parts of ourselves that hold onto a pattern out of fear of letting go of something – or someone – we love.  So be sure to tune into this powerful, wise, and heartfelt session that highlights the mother-daughter connection when it comes to food, and how we can continue to learn, grow and transform at any age in life. Episode highlights:  ✅ Why “going dark” with food isn’t always what it seems.  ✅ Key transformational tools to bring consciousness to your own unique relationship with food.  ✅ Why overcoming emotional eating often requires us to “graduate” from our parents house.  ✅ Learning to see yourself as equal to your parents – and why that matters when it comes to food. ✅ How to forgive yourself around food and emotional eating. ✅ And much 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! 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 #emotionaleatingjourney #relationshipwithfood #wisdom #innerchild #childarchetype #selflovejourney #selfsoothing #bekindtoyourself #loveyourself #elder #holisticnutrition

When it comes to body weight, most of us are focused on one thing: losing it! But many people aren’t prepared for what happens after weight loss.  Any thoughts we may have about post-weight loss life are pretty dreamy. We imagine we’ll feel uber confident, accomplished, and ready to boldly move forward in life.  But all too often, that simply isn’t the case.  For many, the striving and struggle for weight loss ends up getting replaced by an equally unwelcome visitor: WEIGHT WORRY. That can look like constant fear that we’ll gain the weight back, or nagging anxieties that we really should lose another few pounds.  Our food worries continue, and the voices in our head never stop criticizing. We judge our body, we shame ourselves for having body fat, and we belittle ourselves for not having absolute control over food. While weight worry might fit into that box called a “1st world problem” – it can nevertheless be pretty debilitating.  So what do we do when losing weight doesn’t stop us from worrying about weight? Tune into this episode to find the answer. You’ll hear from guest coaching client, Armine, 51, who has dieted for most of her life – and recently lost weight after a gastric sleeve operation. Armine thought she’d feel happier, but instead is often consumed by intense anxiety that she’ll gain the weight back.  How can Armine shift into a new relationship with her body, where she’s not constantly worrying and fretting about her weight? As Marc David helps Armine see, it’s a question of how she finds peace with herself and her body. Through a powerful new approach focused on personal growth, embodiment, and self-compassion, Armine discovers how to reframe her lifelong struggles with weight – and forge a beautiful new path forward.  Some of the key episode highlights include: ✅ How to send the body the unmistakable message that it’s a safe and welcome place, and why that matters when it comes to weight worry. ✅ Using a favorite form of “embodiment” to quiet the mind. ✅ Let go of perfection through the power of the Queen archetype. ✅ A key breathing technique to shift energy out of the mind and into the body. This fascinating session demonstrates that weight loss by itself doesn’t guarantee inner peace and happiness. Freeing ourselves from weight worry ultimately comes down to living in joy – which is a daily practice we devote ourselves to, no matter how we look or what we weigh. --------------- 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://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 #weight #weightworry #dieting #yoyodieting #weightlossjourney #selfawareness #personalgrowth #marcdavid #psychologyofeating #foodpsychology #positivepsychology

Night-time binge eating.  It’s a pastime that many people struggle with, and can feel truly insurmountable. But nightly binge eating doesn’t have to get the best of you.  The reality is, there’s a clear road to recovering our power and being in control with food – all that’s needed is a deeper understanding of why nighttime binge eating – otherwise known as “nighttime eating syndrome” – happens, and a wise framework for overcoming it. In this episode, we meet guest coaching client, Megan, who would like to finally break free from this challenging nighttime habit.  As a former fitness competitor, Megan spent many years on a low-calorie diet. Eating only 1,200 calories a day, and exercising extremely hard, Megan would find herself ravenous at night. And this would inevitably lead to giving into unwanted cravings – and heavy duty self-rejection. Years later, Megan is no longer competing, and isn’t so restrictive with her diet. She eats well, and takes care of her body. And yet, she hasn’t been able to kick her nightly binge eating … a habit that takes a full 2 hours every night snacking, munching, and roaming the kitchen for food. Disempowered and deflated, Megan feels like a failure with food. As Marc David helps Megan see – it’s understandable given her history that she’s having a hard time kicking her nightly binging. Bringing compassion and self-awareness to the table is the first step in transforming nighttime eating syndrome. The next step is identifying an effective approach that addresses the root problem. And that’s where things get really interesting in this episode! Marc offers Megan a soulful, unusual approach to healing binge eating that you won’t hear anywhere else. So, please be sure to tune into this powerful episode to discover this beautiful tool in overcoming binge eating! Marc gets to the heart of why we eat at night, and how to gently transform it without the fight or struggle.  Some of the key insights & practices you’ll learn: ✅ The concept of “conscious ritual” – and why it matters. ✅ Identifying nourishing nightly rituals that powerfully transform binge eating. ✅ The relationship between “fast eating” and nighttime cravings ✅ The counterintuitive need to stop fighting and criminalizing nighttime eating. ✅ Learning to trust pleasure & how to make friends with food. ✅ And much 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! 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 #nighttimeeatingsyndrome #bingeeating #nightlybingeeating #consciousritual #fasteating #emotionaleating #mindfuleating #sloweating #foodpsychology #marcdavid

Like so many of us, Cherie, age 56, wants to lose 20 pounds – but without the constant fight and struggle. Cherie has been battling these 20 pounds just about all her adult life – and she’s feeling ready for a new approach. Cherie’s kids are about to leave the house, and she’d like to focus on her life for the first time in many years. She dreams of letting go of her day job and taking on an exciting new career, and she knows that now’s the time to step into her power. Everything is falling into place for Cherie to take a big leap in life.  But her weight continues to weigh her down. In this week’s episode, Marc David coaches Cherie to finally have a breakthrough with her weight. And it’s all about focusing on this one weight loss secret: ➡️ Becoming a natural eater. You see, Cherie has been a rather *unnatural* eater. Since age 13 when she was a young gymnast, her life revolved around working out, looking trim, having very little body fat, and winning the approval of others. For young Cherie, food quickly became the enemy. Eat too much of it, and everyone will notice your extra body fat. Starve yourself, and you’re doing exactly what you need to do to keep being loved and successful. Unfortunately, Cherie has taken this same unnatural relationship with food that developed during childhood into her adult years. She has no idea what it’s like to truly enjoy food and not be on a diet. As their conversation unfolds, Cherie opens up to what being a natural eater might feel like, including: ✅ Making friends with food. ✅ Letting go of the inner bully that’s beating herself up around weight. ✅ Allowing herself to feel hungry, eat a meal, and enjoy it.  ✅ Stop looking at food like it’s going to become fat on her body. ✅ Give dieting a long vacation.  ✅ Listen to her body’s wisdom when it comes to food. As this episode explores, having an honest and sustainable approach to weight loss means that we need to look beyond dieting, calorie restriction, and self attack. Instead, finding a natural rhythm as an eater, finding nourishment in food, and discovering what our individual body needs is key. When we’ve been trying weight loss strategies for decades and they continue to fail us, it’s time for a new approach. Tune into this fascinating session and watch as Cherie realizes why her approach to weight loss hasn’t worked, and how she can have a whole new and inspiring weight loss journey.  --------------- 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://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 #naturaleating #intuitiveeating #bodywisdom #stopdieting #antidiet #weightlossjourney #weightloss #marcdavid #psychologyofeating

Raelene, 46, would love to lose about 40 kilos. And she’s had great success in the past: all she has to do is eliminate sugar, cut down on the carbs, watch her calories and portion sizing, and the weight will eventually come off.  But the problem is, she just can’t seem to stick to a diet plan for more than a few months.   A cooking teacher and mother of two, Raelene says she simply doesn’t have the discipline to stick with it. And after 15 years of off-and-on-again dieting, Raelene still hasn’t reached the promised land – and like so many of us, is pretty frustrated and confused about what to do.  This is clearly a conundrum.  She knows what she needs to do, but she just doesn’t have the discipline to do it.  In this episode, Marc David helps Raelene realize something important:  Diagnosing the cause of her weight challenges as a lack of self-discipline is misplaced. And we know that to be true, in part, because her many years of trying to simply muster more discipline hasn’t been working. Discipline by itself will never solve her weight loss problem.  The reality is, Raelene hasn’t been in the right conversation with herself, all because of an incorrect assessment she made about herself many years ago.  As you’ll hear in this episode, Marc helps Raelene refocus on the true heart of the matter:  ⇒ Understanding what’s truly driving her relationship with food (her eating psychology), and changing her core beliefs about food, weight, self-worth, and lovability.   So many of us focus on our weight from a place of judgment. But we deserve so much more than that. When we can bravely learn to step away from our harsh inner critic, and instead evoke compassion towards ourselves, we can discover what’s really behind our patterns with weight.   For Raelene, part of that is understanding the impact of what she learned in childhood about weight loss: she was a “good” girl only if she was slender. Fat girls would never be loved and accepted.   It’s no wonder that food became a source of anxiety, and the simple act of eating took on so much stress and pressure. If being overweight means being unlovable, then everything she eats must be just right, and her appetite must be in absolute control so she can finally receive love.  But the reality is, Raelene knows deep down inside that this is a battle she can never truly win. So a part of her rebels against dieting because her dieting is being driven from a place of low self worth. Eating to prove one’s self worth is unnatural, and it goes against our humanity and our dignity.  Marc helps Raelene see the beautiful truth that she is unconditionally loved by her kids, her husband, and the people who care about her the most. There is no one in her life who needs her to lose weight so she can be more lovable. Except for herself.   And it’s time to give herself some love when it comes to her body and her weight.  Episode highlights:  Eating psychology tools to help change unhelpful beliefs about food and body How to take the pressure off of weight loss, while also setting ourselves up for weight loss success How to shift out of dieting mentality Discovering who you are as an eater, and why that matters when it comes to weight How to quiet the unwanted inner conversation around food 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! 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  #weight #bodyimage #sellove #weightlossjourney #sustainableweightloss #foodandbody #eatingchallenges #emotionaleating #chronicdieting #yoyodieting #antidet

Barbara, 60, is finally ready to explore the world, go on adventures, and find the man of her dreams. She’s done lots of therapy, read all the books, and it seems like nothing should be in the way. But something is clearly holding her back.   A lifetime of dieting and disliking her body, and a string of unfortunate dating experiences in the past has her majorly doubting herself. Barbara so deeply wants to move on and create the life she feels like she’s long overdue for – but there’s part of her that is having a really hard time trusting that it’s possible.  For all of us who struggle with weight and body image, this can be an all-too familiar story.  What do we do when we’re ready to embrace life, but we feel held back by negative constructs about our body, our weight, and our past? How do we heal patterns that have been around for decades? And how do we find trust in life when we’ve been previously hurt?   In this episode, Marc David identifies some of the hidden forces at work that are driving Barbara’s confusion, and delivers some powerful advice to help her take a big step forward.   At the core of Barbara’s challenge is a lack of confidence in herself, and her body – which are intimately entwined. To help Barbara find her confidence and self assuredness, Marc focuses on a surprising area: cultivating her dating and relationship skills.  Previously, Barbara wasn’t clear about what she wanted, and what she was willing to put up with when it came to dating men. But as Marc helps her to see, it’s time to bring clarity to this important part of her life.   Using the powerful frame of our eating archetypes (or inner personas that drive our life and relationship with food) – Barbara realizes that her inner Child Archetype has often been the one making her decisions. But as Marc shares, it’s Barbara’s Queen Archetype that is best suited to help her find her inner confidence and choose the right partner.   When our inner Queen or King Archetype is leading the way, we can finally transform our lives through the maturity and self-knowing that these personas represent … and make the very best decisions for our life and relationships.  Episode highlights: ✅ How our relationship with food often reflects our intimate relationships. ✅ How developing dating and relationship mastery can help us transform old insecurities into massive self-confidence. ✅ Why listening to your dating intuition is essential to finding the right partner.  ✅ Owning the power of “no” without needing to apologize.  ✅ How to restore our trust in ourselves, our body, and our relationship with food.  ---------------  Learn more about us at The Institute for the Psychology of Eating: https://psychologyofeating.com/   Struggling to understand what’s at the root of your challenges with food and body? Discover the eating archetypes, or hidden personalities, that may be driving your eating challenges in our free mini-course, THE 8 EATING ARCHETYPES: A Self-Discovery Tool. Sign up here: https://psychologyofeating.com/eating-archetypes/  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 #bodyimage #bodyconfidence #bodypositivity #weight #weightlossjourney #dating #datingafter60 #relationships #foodfreedom #selfconfidence #selflove

If you’ve been dieting for many years, you know it can get to be a little “much.” Chronic dieting can leave us frustrated, exhausted, and exasperated. Why does something so simple – weight loss – have to be so hard?  Millions of people around the world are realizing that they’re just plain tired of dieting. So much so that an increasing number of people are deciding to take a break from weight loss altogether.   But taking a diet break doesn’t alleviate the very real fear that many of us experience: that the second we stop dieting, we’re going to gain weight.   In this episode, Marc David works with Stephanie, 47, who has taken a 1-year break from weight loss – but has gained a stone (about 14 pounds) during that time, and is afraid she’ll only gain more.   Nevertheless, she’s given herself this time to move away from “weight loss at all costs” to approaching her weight from a mindset perspective, and doing all the reading and learning she can from self-help experts like Dr. Kristin Neff and Brene Brown.   As Stephanie shares, she’s at an inflection point. She’s been dieting since she was a teenager, often with the help of slimming clubs that are popular in the U.K. She became so disenchanted by her experience in the weight loss world, that she knows she can’t go back.   She believes that her spiritual path lies in trusting her body and accepting it the way it is – but three decades of dieting have lodged deep-seated fears around weight gain.   Stephanie asks, “What can I do to overcome the conditioned fear of weight gain?”  Regardless of where we’re at with our weight, this is one of the very best questions we can ask of ourselves. Because the truth is, we may want to lose weight … but deep down, we’re wanting to love and accept ourselves even more.  Episode highlights:  ✅ Why finding the right foundation for ourselves as a person – one based on our true value instead of our weight – is so important. ✅ Why it’s unrealistic to think you’ll 100% accept yourself one day – and why allowing yourself to be imperfect can help you heal and grow.  ✅ How our collective judgment around weight clouds the notion of what it means to be truly healthy. ✅ Why BMI science is outdated, and can contribute to our weight gain fears.  ✅ The interplay between “self” and “self-improvement” and why we need to sometimes let go and allow ourselves to simply “be.”   ---------------  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://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 #dietbreak #antidiet #dieting #weight #relationshipwithfood #selfimprovement #selftrust #selfacceptance #eatingpsychology #holisticnutrition #marcdavid #podcast

Emotional eating always has a psychological or biological reason for showing up in our life. It never just “happens” … it’s almost always an unconscious psychological strategy to regulate difficult emotions.  That’s the case for guest coaching client, Katy, who’s going through a period of massive change – and is struggling to manage her feelings about it all. As a newly-turned 30-year old, Katy is figuring out what’s important to her in life, what sort of career she wants to pursue, and how she wants to earn money. She’s hoping to find a life partner, and would one day like to become a mother.  And all this great change is bringing up major uncertainty, as well as feelings of anxiety, fear, and self-doubt.  Amidst all of this, Katy has been experiencing on-off cycles of emotional eating, overeating, and body judgment. She wishes her food habits didn’t feel like such a roller coaster ride, and that she could just feel consistently joyful and positive about her relationship with food and her body. But as Marc David explores with Katy, it can be pretty difficult to maintain a consistently positive and joyful relationship with food when the rest of our life is in a state of change and upheaval.  The truth is that our relationship with food is a reflection of the rest of our life. If we find ourselves in an uncertain time of life, it’s natural to feel uncertain and inconsistent with food.  Through self-awareness and self-kindness, we can begin to see food as the powerful and effective emotional regulator that it is – and stop making ourselves wrong for turning to it sometimes when we aren’t feeling so good about life.  As Katy looks to the bigger context of her life, she realizes that her love-hate cycles with food and body, and in particular, with emotional eating, are simply reflecting the cycles of change she’s experiencing in her inner and outer worlds. And with this new awareness, she can bring some much-needed forgiveness and self-compassion to herself – which ironically, can begin to free herself from the very unwanted eating patterns that are weighing her down.  Episode highlights: ✅ Why seeking to be in a constant positive state with food can keep us trapped in our eating patterns.  ✅ How to find forgiveness and self-acceptance in your relationship with food – and why times of change call for it more than other times of life. ✅ How to know whether fasting or cleansing is right for your body, or when it might exacerbate yo-yo dieting tendencies. ✅ How to take baby steps with mindful eating. --------------- 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://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 #overeating #bodyimage #relationshipwithfood #eatingpsychology #foodfreedom #intuitiveeating #mindfuleating #slowdowndiet #marcdavid #podcast

It’s no surprise that many people around the world would like to lose weight. In fact, between 2017 and 2021, 55% of all Americans have expressed the desire for weight loss. And unfortunately, many people who are single and would like to find love in their life are instead putting it off until they’re at their desired weight.  That’s the case for 41-year old Shawnna, our guest in this episode of the podcast.  Shawnna would like to lose about 50 pounds, and find a more peaceful relationship with food – one where she’s not constantly thinking about what, when, and how much to eat. As she shares, she’s tired of feeling like food and her weight is holding her back from following her dreams, including finding a significant other.  But despite her best efforts, Shawnna has struggled over the last decade to not see her weight as one of the most important aspects of life to overcome.   She’s tried every approach she knows to lose weight. And she’s tried everything to try to forget about her weight, move on, and have a happy life.   No matter what she does, Shawnna feels limited by her relationship with food.  So what should she do next?   As Marc David shares with Shawnna, part of the solution is remembering that our relationship with food is a great teacher – one of the key tenets of eating psychology, otherwise known as food psychology.  When we understand that our eating challenges are here to help us learn and grow, we can then turn to a powerful question: What is my relationship with food and body trying to teach me? What can I learn from this situation?   And for Shawnna – like so many of us, part of the answer lies in being clear about what we truly want from life – and learning how to prioritize and put those things first.   Episode highlights: ✅ How our family “tribe” influences our eating challenges, and what’s important to know as you’re healing your own relationship with food.  ✅ Why learning to pay attention to our desires is key to transforming our food and body challenges — and how to start. ✅ How to be the “real” you now and have the life you want, even if the weight isn’t gone yet.  Tune in for a beautiful episode on not waiting to lose weight to find love. Because we all deserve to experience love in our life…  ---------------  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://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 #weightloss #weightlossjourney #bodyimage #selflove #selfimprovement #foodfreedom #eatingpsychology #foodpsychology #marcdavid