[00:00:00] Food noise, food noise, food noise.

[00:00:03] There is a lot of noise about food noise these days.

[00:00:07] And in today’s episode, I wanna break it down, because food noise is not just one thing.

[00:00:13] It has different voices.

[00:00:15] Your body has a voice, your habits have a voice, your emotions have a voice, your environment has a voice.

[00:00:21] And yes, your inner rebel and critic can get loud out there, too.

[00:00:26] So in today’s episode, we are gonna stop treating food noise like one big scary monster

[00:00:32] and start breaking it down so you can understand what’s really driving your cravings and begin shifting it from the inside out.

[00:00:40] So come on in.

[00:00:49] Did you know that our struggle with weight doesn’t start with the food on your plate or get fixed in the gym?

[00:00:56] 80% of our weight struggle is mental.

[00:01:00] That’s right.

[00:01:01] The key to unlocking long-term weight release and management begins in your mind.

[00:01:07] Hi there.

[00:01:07] I’m Rita Black.

[00:01:09] I’m a clinical hypnotherapist, weight loss expert, best-selling author, and the creator of the Shift Weight Mastery process.

[00:01:17] And not only have I helped thousands of people over the past 20 years achieve long-term weight mastery-

[00:01:24] I am also a former weight struggler, carb addict, and binge eater.

[00:01:29] And after two decades of failed diets and fad weight loss programs, I lost 40 pounds with the help of hypnosis.

[00:01:36] Not only did I release all that weight, I have kept it off for 25 years.

[00:01:42] Enter the Thin Thinking podcast, where you too will learn how to remove the mental roadblocks that keep you struggling.

[00:01:50] I’ll give you the thin thinking tools, skills, and insights to help you develop the mindset you need, not only to achieve your ideal weight, but to stay there long-term and live your best life.

[00:02:03] Sound good?

[00:02:05] Let’s get started.

[00:02:06] Hello. Hello, welcome. Come on in and have a seat.

[00:02:10] And if it sounds a little noisy in here today, I am so sorry, but we are talking about food noise.

[00:02:16] And as you probably know, food noise can be very loud.

[00:02:20] It can feel like a whole rock concert going on inside your head.

[00:02:24] What should I eat?

[00:02:25] What shouldn’t I eat? Is there something sweet in the house?

[00:02:29] Why am I thinking about food again when I was so good all day? I just ate.

[00:02:33] Why do I feel hungry? Maybe I’ll just have one bite.

[00:02:36] Maybe I’ll start over tomorrow.

[00:02:38] And then that noise gets loud enough, it can start to feel like food has more power than you do.

[00:02:44] So today, I wanna help you look at food noise in a very different way.

[00:02:50] Because food noise has gotten a big reputation in the past months, the past years.

[00:02:57] It’s this sort of catchphrase, really.

[00:02:59] It’s an umbrella phrase for several different things happening in your body, your brain, your environment, your habits, your emotions, and your subconscious mind.

[00:03:09] And this is important because when we see food noise as one giant monster, we can feel like victims of it.

[00:03:17] We can think like, “What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I control myself?

[00:03:20] Why do I keep doing this when I know better?”

[00:03:24] But when we can slow it down and look underneath the lid, we begin to see what is actually driving the noise.

[00:03:31] Is my body needing steadier fuel? Is this a cue in my environment?

[00:03:37] Is this an old habit loop? Is this an emotional need asking for comfort?

[00:03:43] Is this my inner rebel reacting to restriction or diet thinking?

[00:03:48] Because once you can name the noise, you can begin to work with it, and that was such a huge piece of my own journey.

[00:03:56] For years and years when I struggled with my weight, I struggled with lots of food noise, not just once in a while.

[00:04:03] It could start the moment I woke up and follow me all through the day.

[00:04:08] Food thoughts, cravings, planning, negotiating, feeling good, feeling bad, promising myself I would start again tomorrow.

[00:04:18] But things began to change when I stopped seeing food noise as some mysterious force that I had no control over and started understanding what was actually driving it.

[00:04:29] And I learned how to stabilize my hunger.

[00:04:32] I learned how to work with my body instead of fighting it.

[00:04:35] I learned how to clean up my environment so I was not constantly being cued and triggered.

[00:04:41] And I learned how to listen to the emotional and mental patterns underneath the urge to eat.

[00:04:47] And that’s what I want you to understand today.

[00:04:50] It is absolutely possible to begin turning down the volume on food noise naturally.

[00:04:57] But the first step is getting clear on which kind of food noise is speaking.

[00:05:01] So today, we are gonna look at five types of food noise that may be driving your cravings, your trigger foods, your late night kitchen wanderings, carb and sugar fixation,

[00:05:11] or that endless mental chatter about what you ate or what you shouldn’t have eaten and when you were gonna start again.

[00:05:19] So today with our session, we are gonna get started, and I am also gonna share with you how we can take this even deeper inside my upcoming one-day online retreat called Mastering Food Noise.

[00:05:33] I am so excited about this event.

[00:05:36] It’s an all-day retreat online, and we’re gonna slow the food noise down and look at the three main places food noise comes from: your body, your environment, and your mind.

[00:05:48] Because as we are discussing today, it’s not just one thing, and when you can identify it and you can start to really take care of these things.

[00:05:59] And inside the retreat, I’ll help you identify your own food noise patterns, give you practical tools, coaching, hypnosis, closed-eyed processes,

[00:06:11] meditations to begin really mastering food noise and turning down the volume all the way.

[00:06:18] The retreat, like I said, is called Mastering Food Noise,

[00:06:22] and it is going to be happening Sunday, July 19th, 2026, uh, from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM.

[00:06:30] The link is in the show notes.

[00:06:32] And if you want, you can go to www.shiftweightmastery.com/noise to learn more as well.

[00:06:41] The retreat will also be recorded and turned into a program inside our Kajabi library, which is our online course portal,

[00:06:52] and then you can access your course from your desktop, your tablet, or your phone, and we also have a mobile app.

[00:07:00] So your course will always be easily accessible and easy to use, and you will have it for life.

[00:07:07] So you can revisit the hypnosis, the meditations, and the tools again and again.

[00:07:11] And this retreat is really designed to help you understand and turn down the food noise.

[00:07:17] So check it out.

[00:07:18] Like I said, www.shiftweightmastery.com/noise and, or check out the show notes.

[00:07:26] And now, today, I do wanna dive into the five main food noises and how to be the boss of them instead of them bossing you.

[00:07:37] The first one I would say is body noise, the hunger, blood sugar swings, carb cravings, protein needs, hormone shifts, sleep issues, biological signals that can really make food feel loud.

[00:07:52] The second one is cue noise, environmental triggers that wake up food thoughts, seeing food, smelling food, walking into the kitchen sitting in front of the TV, et cetera, et cetera.

[00:08:04] Habit noise is the third one, automatic patterns in your brain that have been learned, like nighttime snacking, picking while you’re cooking, finishing what’s on your plate.

[00:08:15] The fourth one would be emotional noise.

[00:08:18] When food becomes a way to soothe, comfort, reward, numb out, take the edge off.

[00:08:25] And the fifth one is diet and rebel noise.

[00:08:29] The mental chatter that comes from restriction, guilt, perfectionism.

[00:08:33] “I was good. I was bad. I blew it. I’ll start over tomorrow.”

[00:08:37] And that inner rebel part of us that pushes back when we feel controlled or deprived.

[00:08:43] So those are the five, and I want you to notice something right away.

[00:08:47] Those are very different noises.

[00:08:50] Because needing steadier fuel in your body is very different from being triggered by the cookies on the counter.

[00:08:56] And being triggered by the cookies on the counter is very different from eating at night because that is what your brain has practiced for years.

[00:09:05] And that is different from eating because you’re lonely, stressed, bored, or exhausted.

[00:09:12] And that is different from eating because you’ve been so restrictive all day that your inner rebel is now saying,

[00:09:18] “Forget this. I want something.”

[00:09:21] So when we say, “I have food noise,” it is helpful to ask,

[00:09:24] “What kind of food noise is this?”

[00:09:27] Because the more specific we can be, the more powerful we become.

[00:09:31] We’re no longer the victims of thinking about food all day long.

[00:09:34] We can begin to look underneath the lid and say, “Okay, what is actually driving this?

[00:09:40] And what is the right tool for this particular kind of noise?”

[00:09:44] So let’s begin with the first one, which is body noise.

[00:09:49] And body noise is the food noise that comes from your body needing something or from your body need- being dysregulated in some way.

[00:09:57] And I can certainly relate to this.

[00:09:59] This can be true hunger.

[00:10:01] It can be blood sugar going up and down.

[00:10:04] It can be not eating enough protein.

[00:10:06] It can be eating foods that fill your stomach but do not actually stabilize you.

[00:10:12] It can be stress, sleep deprivation, hormone shifts, menopause-regulated charges,

[00:10:18] or simply going too long without food and then coming home ravenous.

[00:10:23] And I really wanna start here because many of us have been taught to look at cravings only through the lens of willpower.

[00:10:31] We think, “Why can’t I just stop thinking about food? Why can’t I be good? Why can’t I control myself?”

[00:10:36] But sometimes your food noise is not coming from a lack of character.

[00:10:41] In fact, all the time, it’s not coming from a lack of character.

[00:10:47] But it often is coming from a body that is not stabilized.

[00:10:52] And like I said, I know this when I struggled with my weight for years and years.

[00:10:56] I could wake up in the morning already thinking about food.

[00:11:00] Sometimes I would wake up thinking about what I was gonna eat for breakfast.

[00:11:04] Sometimes I would wake up thinking about what I was not gonna eat because I’d eaten so much the night before.

[00:11:10] So the food noise could begin almost immediately.

[00:11:14] And very often, I would start the day with something incredibly carby like cereal.

[00:11:20] Now, the cereal might have filled my stomach for a little while, and I might have consumed many, many calories, but it did not stabilize me.

[00:11:29] In fact, a big bowl of cereal, or in my case, sometimes several bowls of cereal, could stimulate my blood sugar, wake up more cravings,

[00:11:40] and leave me feeling hungry again incredibly quickly, like within 45 minutes.

[00:11:46] And I always say this because it is true.

[00:11:49] I could eat five bowls of Cheerios in the morning and still not feel satisfied.

[00:11:54] And when that happens, you feel like you are insane and your body is broken.

[00:11:59] You think, “How can I have eaten that much food and still be thinking about food?”

[00:12:05] But this is one of the important things to understand about body noise.

[00:12:09] There is a difference between filling yourself and stabilizing yourself.

[00:12:14] You can fill your stomach with a lot of refined carbohydrates and still not feel deeply nourished or satisfied.

[00:12:21] And you can eat plenty of calories and still not have given your body the protein, fiber, healthy fat, or steadiness it needs to calm down.

[00:12:31] And this is why I often talk about naked carbs.

[00:12:35] A naked carb is a carbohydrate eaten by itself, especially a more refined carbohydrate; cereal, bread, crackers, sweets,

[00:12:46] and, but sometimes even fruit without enough protein with it to stabilize it.

[00:12:53] And I am not saying you can never have bread or rice or cereal or potatoes, but what I am saying is that if you eat a carbohydrate by itself,

[00:13:02] especially on an empty stomach, you may notice that it does not quiet your food noise.

[00:13:08] It may actually turn the volume up.

[00:13:11] You might eat an apple by itself and think, “Well, that was healthy. Why am I still hungry?”

[00:13:17] But depending on your body, that apple may not be enough to stabilize you.

[00:13:22] You may do much better having that apple with protein, maybe Greek yogurt or cottage cheese or a nut butter or another protein source that works for you.

[00:13:32] You might have toast in the morning and then wonder why you’re hungry an hour later.

[00:13:36] But if you add eggs or turkey or tofu or protein yogurt or whatever works for your way of eating.

[00:13:44] You may notice a very different experience, and this is where I want you to get curious, not perfectionistic,

[00:13:51] because your body will give you feedback, and you can begin asking, “After I eat this meal, how long do I feel satisfied?

[00:14:00] Do I feel calm and steady, or do I feel hungry again very quickly?

[00:14:05] Do I start thinking about food an hour later? Do I feel like I need something sweet?

[00:14:12] Do I feel like my brain is still searching?”

[00:14:15] That information is gold, because one of the first ways to begin managing food noise is to notice what your food noise does after you eat.

[00:14:26] If a meal technically has calories but does not keep you satisfied, that’s useful information.

[00:14:33] If a snack wakes up more hunger than it quiets, well, that’s useful information.

[00:14:39] And if you eat something on an empty stomach and then find yourself thinking about food for the next two hours, that is helpful.

[00:14:47] This is not about judging the food or judging yourself, it is about learning what stabilizes your body.

[00:14:55] And one of the things I see all the time with students and clients is that their pattern of feeding themselves can be very erratic.

[00:15:04] They may have coffee for breakfast, a light lunch, and maybe something in the afternoon, and then they go six or seven hours without really feeding themselves.

[00:15:13] Then they come home from work or from errands or from a kid’s baseball game or from taking care of someone else and their blood sugar has been dropping and dropping,

[00:15:22] and then what is the quickest thing for them to reach when they’re in that state?

[00:15:27] It’s usually not a chicken breast and broccoli.

[00:15:31] It is usually something fast crackers, chips, cereal, cookies, bread, something crunchy, something fast.

[00:15:38] And because your body is not stabilized, it’s very easy to overeat that food.

[00:15:45] Not because you’re bad and not because you’re broken, but because your body is looking for quick energy.

[00:15:52] And then, as we will talk about it in habit noise, that pattern can become familiar.

[00:15:58] You get home, you’re depleted, you snack, you get a little relief, and your brain starts learning, “Oh, this is what we do when we walk in the door.”

[00:16:08] So body noise and habit noise can start working together.

[00:16:12] The same thing can happen in the evening.

[00:16:15] If you’re under-eating during the day, or under-eat protein, or go too long in the afternoon without stabilizing yourself, then evening food noise can get much louder.

[00:16:24] You may think, “Why do I always lose it at night?”

[00:16:29] But part of the answer may be that your body is simply not steady by the time you get there.

[00:16:35] So one of the simplest places to begin is with protein.

[00:16:40] Now, how much protein you need is individual.

[00:16:43] It depends on your body, your age, your size, your health, your activity level, and your goals.

[00:16:47] And you can always consult your doctor, a nutrition professional, or other trusted resources for what is best for you.

[00:16:55] But for many people, especially if you’re trying to feel more stabilized,

[00:16:59] it can be helpful to look at whether or not you’re getting at least 60 to 70 grams of protein over the course of the day.

[00:17:07] Some people will need more, but I think it is worth asking yourself, “Am I actually giving my body enough protein to feel nourished and steady?”

[00:17:17] Because when I began paying attention to protein, and when I stopped eating refined carbohydrates or even fruit all by themselves on an empty stomach,

[00:17:26] I noticed my food noise began to come down significantly.

[00:17:31] And not because I became a better person, but because my body was more stable.

[00:17:38] And that is the key point I want you to take from body noise.

[00:17:42] Before you assume your craving is a moral failure, ask whether or not your body is stabilized.

[00:17:49] Have you eaten enough protein today?

[00:17:51] Have you gone too long without food? Are you tired or stressed or underslept?

[00:17:57] Did you eat a naked carb that woke up that hunger?

[00:18:01] Because when you learn how to stabilize your body, you can often turn down a huge amount of the noise.

[00:18:07] Not all of it, because we are gonna talk about food noise also comes from cues, habits, emotions, and diet thinking.

[00:18:14] But body noise is a very powerful place to begin.

[00:18:18] So your first food noise mastery question is this: Is this food noise coming from my body needing steadier fuel?

[00:18:27] And if the answer might be yes, the first tool is not shame, the first tool is stabilization.

[00:18:34] Now, the second kind of noise of food noise is cue noise, and cue noise is so important to understand

[00:18:42] because sometimes food noise is not coming from your stomach at all.

[00:18:47] Sometimes it’s coming from your environment.

[00:18:50] It’s coming from the time of day, or being on the couch, or the TV, or the kitchen, or the pantry

[00:18:56] some location that you always associate the fact that you want something sweet after dinner.

[00:19:02] Cue noise happens when your brain has learned to expect food in a certain situation, and I often think of cue noise like a ringing phone.

[00:19:11] When I work with smokers, many people believe that the urge to smoke is always coming from the body needing nicotine,

[00:19:17] and of course, nicotine can play a role, but very often the urge is actually coming from the brain expecting a cigarette at a particular time, in a particular place,

[00:19:27] or with a particular feeling: after coffee, or a meal, or in the car, or on a break, or when you’re stressed, or talking on the phone.

[00:19:34] And the brain says, “This is when we smoke,” and then the dopamine begins to agitate the system.

[00:19:41] It creates that sense of pull, that sense of urgency, that feeling of like, I need something.

[00:19:48] And it is like the phone starts ringing, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, and that food can work in the very same way.

[00:19:57] So let’s say you’ve gotten into the habit of sitting on the couch after dinner and a few minutes into the night or a half hour or an hour, you are used to getting up and making popcorn.

[00:20:07] And now maybe the popcorn itself is not the biggest problem, but maybe for you, the popcorn opens the door.

[00:20:14] It leads to yogurt-covered pretzels, and then the yogurt-covered pretzels lead to ice cream, and the ice cream leads to standing in the kitchen wondering what else is there.

[00:20:23] And then suddenly, what started as just popcorn has become the whole evening of a food noise concert.

[00:20:32] So there you are sitting on the couch, watching TV, trying to be good, and all of a sudden, the phone starts ringing.

[00:20:39] Ring, ring, ring. The popcorn is in the cupboard.

[00:20:43] Ring, ring, ring. You’re trying not to think about it.

[00:20:47] Ring, ring, ring. You tell yourself, “I’m not gonna have it tonight.”

[00:20:51] Ring, ring, ring. But the cue is hardwired.

[00:20:56] The couch, the TV, the time of night, the kitchen, the cupboard, they all have become linked together in your brain,

[00:21:02] and the longer you sit there arguing with it, the louder it can feel.

[00:21:06] And maybe you get up and walk into the kitchen, and now the ringing changes because the brain says,

[00:21:12] “Ah, we’re good. Okay, we’re answering the call.”

[00:21:15] And you open the cupboard and you take out the popcorn packet and you put it in the microwave and the sound begins, pop, pop, pop.

[00:21:22] The smell begins, the expectation begins, and now the ringing phone can get even louder because the reward is coming.

[00:21:28] Pop, pop, pop. The brain is anticipating that first bite.

[00:21:32] And when you finally put the popcorn in the bowl and take those first few bites, there may be this wave of relief, not just pleasure, relief,

[00:21:43] because you have answered the ringing phone.

[00:21:46] The agitation settles for a while.

[00:21:48] The expectation has been fulfilled.

[00:21:51] The cue routine reward loop has completed itself. But here is a fascinating thing.

[00:21:57] After the few bites, you may not even be aware of the popcorn anymore.

[00:22:02] You’re just eating it. You are in the routine.

[00:22:06] That brain got what it expected and now the habit is running.

[00:22:11] And if your evening pattern has more than one cue, then you may have more than one ringing phone.

[00:22:17] The popcorn phone rings, you answer it.

[00:22:19] Then the yogurt-covered pretzel phone rings, and you answer that, and then the ice cream phone rings, and you answer that.

[00:22:25] And now the whole evening has become a series of ringing phones that you feel obligated to pick up.

[00:22:31] This is why cue noise can feel so powerful.

[00:22:35] It’s not because you’re weak-

[00:22:37] It is because your brain has learned when we’re in this place at this time doing this thing, this food comes next, and the brain loves to complete a pattern.

[00:22:47] So if you wanna begin quieting the cue noise, one of the most powerful thing, things you can do is stop putting yourself in the middle of the ringing phone room and expecting yourself to have endless willpower.

[00:22:59] That is not freedom. That is torture.

[00:23:03] If popcorn is a trigger food for you right now, you may decide,

[00:23:07] “While I am breaking the spell, I’m not keeping microwave popcorn in the house.”

[00:23:13] Or if it belongs to someone else in the family, maybe it goes in a specific cupboard that is not your cupboard,

[00:23:19] or maybe it goes out of sight, or maybe it’s not sitting there visually calling to your brain every night.

[00:23:25] This is not punishment. This is environmental leadership.

[00:23:29] You’re not saying, “I’m bad and can’t be trusted.”

[00:23:31] You’re saying, “My brain has learned an association here, and I’m going to support myself while I unwire it.”

[00:23:37] You can also create a clear closing cue for the kitchen.

[00:23:42] Maybe after dinner, you clean up, turn off the kitchen light, and make a cup of herbal tea and say, “The kitchen is closed.”

[00:23:48] Or maybe you decide, “I am food-free in front of the TV.”

[00:23:52] That is my favorite mantra. Food-free in front of the TV.

[00:23:59] Not because food is bad, not because you’re being rigid, but because your brain needs a clear boundary.

[00:24:06] The subconscious mind loves clarity.

[00:24:09] If the rule is, maybe I will have some popcorn, maybe I will not, maybe I will just have a little, maybe I will see how I feel, your brain is gonna keep negotiating.

[00:24:20] It will feel actually anxious.

[00:24:22] It is called decisional anxiety, and that is what can prompt a ringing phone.

[00:24:28] Ring, ring, ring.

[00:24:29] But if the rule is, I do not eat in front of the TV, or after dinner, I make tea and sit down

[00:24:36] and the kitchen is closed after I clean up, the brain begins to learn a new pattern.

[00:24:41] And this is really the important part because you’re not just trying to not answer the old phone, you are creating a new phone to ring.

[00:24:49] Instead of couch equals popcorn, you begin teaching your brain couch equals tea, TV equals hands wrapped around a warm mug, evening equals calm, kitchen light off- Equals done.

[00:25:05] After dinner equals freedom from food decisions.

[00:25:09] And at first, I will tell you, the old phone is still gonna ring.

[00:25:12] Of course it will, it’s been ringing for years. But if you stop answering it and begin to consistently answer the new one, the old ringing starts to get quieter.

[00:25:22] The brain begins to learn, oh, this is what we do now.

[00:25:27] This is how you begin to break the cue spell, not by shaming yourself, not by testing yourself against trigger foods every night,

[00:25:35] not by sitting in front of the TV with the popcorn in the cupboard and hoping you magically become someone else.

[00:25:42] You break the cue spell by changing the environment, creating a new routine, and giving your brain a clear, repeated signal.

[00:25:50] So your second food noise mastery, the question is, “is this food noise coming from a cue my brain has learned to obey?”

[00:25:59] And if the answer is yes, the tool isn’t more willpower, the tool is a new cue, a new boundary, and a new routine.

[00:26:07] And that brings us to the third kind of food noise, which is habit noise.

[00:26:13] Now, cue noise and habit noise can overlap, so let me differentiate them.

[00:26:19] Cue noise is when something in your environment rings the phone.

[00:26:23] You see the food, you smell the food, you sit in the place where you usually eat, you walk into the kitchen at that time of night when you usually snack.

[00:26:31] That is the cue.

[00:26:33] Habit noise is what happens after your brain has practiced the same response over and over again.

[00:26:39] Habit noise says, “This is what we do next.”

[00:26:42] So let’s take a different example.

[00:26:45] Let’s try every night after dinner, you want something sweet.

[00:26:49] You’re not necessarily hungry, and you’ve had a perfectly satisfying dinner.

[00:26:54] You may not even want a large dessert, but the moment the dinner is over, your brain starts scanning.

[00:26:59] “Mm, do we have chocolate? Do we have cookies? Is there ice cream? Is there something just a little sweet?”

[00:27:09] And maybe this has been going on for years.

[00:27:12] Dinner ends and something sweet begins.

[00:27:14] That is habit noise, and it is not always dramatic or emotional or a binge.

[00:27:21] Sometimes it’s just simply a pattern your brain has come to expect.

[00:27:25] The meal does not feel finished until the sweet thing happens.

[00:27:30] And this can be so subtle because it may feel like a preference.

[00:27:34] I just like something sweet after dinner, and that may be true, but it is also a habit loop.

[00:27:40] Dinner is the cue, the sweet thing is the routine, and the reward is the little pleasure, the completion, the signal that the day is winding down.

[00:27:49] And once the brain has practiced that enough times, it starts to feel like a need, not because your body necessarily needs sugar,

[00:27:56] but because your brain expects the sequence to be completed.

[00:28:00] So with habit noise, the tool is not to argue with yourself for two hours. The tool is to change the sequence. If dinner has always ended with something sweet, you may need to create a new ending.

[00:28:14] Maybe dinner ends with brushing your teeth or a cup of tea, or with going for a 10-minute walk, or closing the kitchen, turning off the light and saying, “I am complete.”

[00:28:26] And if you do choose to have something sweet, you make it conscious.

[00:28:31] You plate it, you sit down, you enjoy it, and you do not let it become the automatic bridge into grazing for the rest of the night,

[00:28:39] because the goal is not to punish yourself.

[00:28:42] The goal is to teach your brain a new completion signal.

[00:28:46] Instead of, “Dinner is not done until I have something sweet,” .

[00:28:49] The new message becomes, “Dinner is complete. I am complete. The eating part of the evening is done.”

[00:28:57] And at first, the old habit may still make noise.

[00:29:00] Of course it will.

[00:29:01] But every time you practice the new sequence, the new ending, you are helping your brain learn a new pattern.

[00:29:08] So your third food noise mastery question is, is this food coming from an old habit my brain has learned to complete?

[00:29:17] And if the answer is yes, the tool is not shame, the tool is a new sequence.

[00:29:23] And then we come to the fourth kind of food noise, which is emotional noise.

[00:29:28] And this is when food is not really about hunger, and it is not only about a cue or a habit.

[00:29:36] This is when food is trying to do a job for us.

[00:29:39] Maybe the job is comfort. Maybe the job is relief or reward or decompression.

[00:29:46] Or maybe the job is a little moment of pleasure after a day of taking care of someone else.

[00:29:52] And this is where I want you to be very compassionate with yourself because emotional eating is not a character flaw.

[00:29:58] It is a coping strategy.

[00:30:02] I remember working with a woman I’ll call Peggy.

[00:30:05] Peggy had a demanding marketing job.

[00:30:07] All day long, she was running a team, managing people, solving problems, putting out fires, and holding everything together.

[00:30:15] And then at the end of the workday, instead of going home and taking a breath, she had to rush over to her mother’s house.

[00:30:22] Her mother was 85, in pain, and needed help with her dinner and getting into bed.

[00:30:28] The nurse left at 6:30, so Peggy had this very tight window where she had to get from work to her mother’s house and take over.

[00:30:36] And her mother was not exactly warm and appreciative.

[00:30:41] She was older, cranky, and uncomfortable, and often very critical.

[00:30:47] So Peggy would arrive already depleted, stressed, already carrying the whole day on her shoulders, and then she would step into another caretaking role.

[00:30:56] And while she was putting her mother to bed, she would find herself going into the kitchen and shoving whatever she could find into her mouth: cookies, candy, crackers, whatever was in the cupboard.

[00:31:08] Now, if we looked at that only from the outside, we might say, “Peggy needs more willpower.

[00:31:14] Peggy needs to stop eating cookies at her mother’s house.”

[00:31:18] But when we look underneath the lid, we see something very different.

[00:31:22] Peggy was not eating because she needed a cookie, she was eating because she needed relief.

[00:31:27] She needed a pause, comfort.

[00:31:30] She needed someone to take care of her, and she needed to feel like she got something after giving and giving and giving all day long.

[00:31:41] And then of course, after eating the cookies and candy at her mother’s house, she would go home feeling like she had already blown it,

[00:31:47] so she would have a couple of glasses of wine, and then because the I blew it thinking had kicked in.

[00:31:53] She would eat something that she was not really proud of or it wasn’t very helpful or healthy for her.

[00:32:00] So what began as an emotional noise became a body noise, diet noise, and rebel noise, too.

[00:32:06] And this is how these noises can stack one on top of the other.

[00:32:11] The craving may sound like, “I want cookies,” but underneath, the need may be, “I need relief.”

[00:32:17] The craving may sound like, “I want wine,” but underneath, the need may be, “I need to come down from this day.”

[00:32:25] The craving may sound like, “I already blew it, so who cares?”

[00:32:29] But underneath, the need may be, “I’m exhausted and I do not know how to care for myself right now.”

[00:32:36] And when Peggy began to understand this, this is when things started to shift because she realized her problem was not that she needed more willpower.

[00:32:45] Her problem was that she needed more care.

[00:32:48] She needed to stop arriving at the most emotionally demanding part of her day starving, depleted, and ungrounded, and unsupported.

[00:32:58] So she began creating a new plan.

[00:33:01] First, she started bringing nourishing food to her mother’s house.

[00:33:05] Simple things she could reach for quickly and put together into a stabilizing dinner for herself.

[00:33:11] Instead of being at the mercy of whatever cookies and candies were in her mother’s cupboards,

[00:33:16] she had protein and nourishing food available that helped stabilize her body instead of stimulating her carb brain and making her want more and more and more.

[00:33:26] That alone began to change the pattern.

[00:33:30] But she realized she also needed emotional nourishment.

[00:33:35] So before she went into her mother’s house, she would sit in her car for 10 minutes and listen to a meditation.

[00:33:42] Not a long thing, not a complicated thing, just 10 minutes where she could breathe, ground herself, come into her body, come back to herself before entering the caregiving role.

[00:33:55] And during that meditation, she would remind herself, “I am a good person.

[00:34:01] I am doing something hard.

[00:34:03] I’m here for my mother, but I’m also here for myself.”

[00:34:07] And that was very healing for Peggy because part of what was really being triggered was not just the adult woman caring for her elderly mother.

[00:34:18] But it was also the little girl inside Peggy who wanted to be nurtured, appreciated, and cared for.

[00:34:27] Her mother needed care now, but Peggy needed care, too,

[00:34:32] and when she began giving that care to herself before she walked through the door, the food noise started to soften.

[00:34:39] She also began taking better care of herself earlier in the day.

[00:34:44] At lunchtime, instead of pushing through, answering messages, and staying in work mode,

[00:34:50] she started shutting everything off and taking a 20-minute walk, just enough time to breathe, move her body, regulate her nervous system, and remind herself, “I exist, too.”

[00:35:03] She began creating a couple of check-in points during the day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon,

[00:35:08] where she would pause and breathe and ask, “what do I need right now?”

[00:35:13] Because if you wait until the end of the day to notice that you are depleted, the food noise may already be screaming.

[00:35:20] If you check in with yourself along the way, you can begin meeting your needs before they become urgent.

[00:35:27] And this is what I love about Peggy’s story.

[00:35:29] She did not solve emotional eating by shaming herself.

[00:35:33] She did not solve it by saying, “I’m never gonna eat cookies again.”

[00:35:37] She solved it by understanding what the food was trying to do for her and then giving herself real support, stabilized her body, she grounded her emotions, and she created a transition ritual.

[00:35:52] She brought nourishing foods.

[00:35:53] She took breaks during the day, and she listened to the part of herself that needed care.

[00:35:58] As she did that, she was able to go to her mother’s house, help her mother, eat a nourishing meal, go home,

[00:36:06] skip the two glasses of wine that were disrupting her sleep, and actually end the day feeling more cared for instead of more depleted.

[00:36:14] So with emotional noise, the first tool is not arguing with the craving.

[00:36:21] The first tool to ask is, “What is the job the food is trying to do for me right now?

[00:36:27] Is it trying to comfort me, reward me, distract me, help me transition, give me pleasure, help me avoid a feeling, or help me feel cared for when I feel completely depleted?”

[00:36:40] And then you can ask the inner coach question, “What do I really need, and how can I give myself some of that without abandoning myself?”

[00:36:51] Maybe you need rest or a boundary or support or a walk at lunch, or to shut off your messages for 20 minutes, or to sit in your car and breathe before you walk into the next caregiving role.

[00:37:03] Maybe you need to bring a stabilizing meal or snack so that you’re not at the mercy of somebody else’s cupboards.

[00:37:10] Maybe you need a meditation, a journal, a bath, a phone call, or 10 minutes where nobody needs anything from you.

[00:37:18] This does not mean food can never be pleasurable or comforting.

[00:37:22] It means that food is no longer the only tool your emotional self has.

[00:37:28] So your fourth food noise mastery question is

[00:37:31] “is this food noise coming from an emotional need that is asking to be cared for?”

[00:37:37] And if the answer is yes, the tool is not shame.

[00:37:40] The tool is compassionate listening and giving yourself another way to receive comfort, relief, care, or support.

[00:37:50] And finally, we come to the fifth kind of food noise, which is diet noise, or what I often think of as rebel noise.

[00:37:57] And this one is sneaky because sometimes it sounds like discipline.

[00:38:01] It sounds like, “I have to be good today. I can’t have that. I shouldn’t eat that.

[00:38:07] I already blew it. I was so bad last night. I’ll start again tomorrow.

[00:38:12] I’ll start again on Monday. This is my last chance before I get back on track.”

[00:38:17] Now, on the surface, that might sound like you’re trying to take control, but underneath, it can actually be creating more noise.

[00:38:25] Because when the inner critic gets very loud, when it starts shaming you and restricting you, judging you, telling you you have to be perfect, guess what?

[00:38:36] That inner rebel often wakes up.

[00:38:39] And then a rebel says, “Oh, really? You are gonna control me? You are gonna deprive me?

[00:38:44] You are gonna tell me I can never have that again?

[00:38:47] Well, mm, watch this.”

[00:38:50] And now the food noise gets louder, not because you’re weak,

[00:38:54] but because part of you is pushing back against feeling trapped, punished, or deprived.

[00:39:01] This is why so many people can be good all day and then feel like a completely different person at night.

[00:39:08] The 12% conscious mind says, “We are going to be perfect today.”

[00:39:12] But the other 88%, subconscious mind, says, “I do not feel safe. I do not feel satisfied or heard, and I don’t want to be controlled.”

[00:39:24] And then the negotiation starts. “Eh, maybe just one bite. Hmm, maybe I’ll just have it now and then start fresh tomorrow.

[00:39:34] Hmm, I already ruined the day anyway. I should eat the rest so it’s not here tomorrow.

[00:39:40] Hmm, this is my last chance before I get really serious.”

[00:39:44] That is not just craving, that is diet noise.

[00:39:47] That is the old diet mentality turning food into a moral dilemma.

[00:39:52] Good food, bad food. Good day, bad day. On track, off track. Perfect, ruined.

[00:39:58] And when you live inside that drama, food gets louder and louder because every choice feels loaded with shame and rebellion and fear or urgency.

[00:40:08] So let’s say someone has been very strict all day.

[00:40:11] She skips breakfast because she ate too much the night before.

[00:40:14] She has a good angelic little salad for lunch, and then she tells herself she can absolutely not have carbs.

[00:40:21] She absolutely cannot have sugar or mess up.

[00:40:24] And then by the evening, her body is underfed, her brain is tired, and emotions are worn down, and her inner rebel is furious.

[00:40:33] She sees one cookie, and suddenly it’s not just a cookie, it’s freedom, relief, rebellion, comfort, and it’s the thing she’s not supposed to have.

[00:40:42] And once she eats it, the inner critic jumps in and says, “Well, you blew it.”

[00:40:47] And then the inner rebel says, “Fine. If we blew it, then let’s really blow it.”

[00:40:53] And that is that start over cycle.

[00:40:56] And so I want you to hear this clearly.

[00:40:58] The problem is not that you need more shame.

[00:41:01] And the problem is that shame and rebellion have been running the show, and this is where your inner coach comes in.

[00:41:08] Because the inner coach doesn’t say, “You’re bad. You failed. You start over.”

[00:41:11] The inner coach says, “Okay, let’s pause- Let’s take a breath and what’s happening?

[00:41:18] What do you really need? What can we take care of? And you still stay connected to yourself and your bigger vision.

[00:41:28] The inner coach can help you move from control to leadership, and that is a very different energy.

[00:41:33] Control says, “You’re not allowed,” and leadership says, “Well, let’s choose what supports us.”

[00:41:40] The critic says, “You blew it,” but your leadership says, “One choice is not the whole journey.”

[00:41:47] Control says, “Start over tomorrow,” and leadership says, “Come back right now. Let’s just figure this out. Let’s just keep moving forward.”

[00:41:59] And that is how we begin quieting diet and rebel noise.

[00:42:03] We stop making food a moral dilemma and a battleground.

[00:42:07] We stop making every craving mean something terrible about us, and we stop handing the microphone back and forth between the critic and the rebel.

[00:42:16] We start practicing that new voice, the inner coach.

[00:42:20] So with diet and rebel noise, the first tool is to listen for the language of all-or-nothing thinking.

[00:42:27] Good or bad, all or nothing, right or wrong because if the answer is yes, am I saying I was being good or bad?

[00:42:36] Am I being so restricted that some part of me wants to rebel?

[00:42:39] Am I promising to start again tomorrow instead of sticking with myself right now?

[00:42:45] The tool is not more punishment, the tool is leadership.

[00:42:49] I do not need to start over tomorrow, I can stay with myself now.

[00:42:54] I can just keep moving forward. One choice doesn’t define me.

[00:42:58] I do not need to rebel against myself. I can lead myself.

[00:43:04] And this is how we begin turning down this fifth kind of food noise, not by becoming rigid, but by becoming more connected, more honest, more compassionate, and more skillful.

[00:43:17] So your fifth food noise mastery question is: Is the food noise coming from restriction, guilt, rebellion, or start over tomorrow thinking?

[00:43:27] And if the answer is yes, the tool is not shame, the tool is your inner coach.

[00:43:33] So those are the five noises I want you to begin listening for.

[00:43:37] Body noise, does my body need steadier fuel?

[00:43:41] Cue noise, is my environment ringing the phone?

[00:43:46] Habit noise, is my brain running an old script?

[00:43:50] Emotional noise, is food trying to meet an emotional need?

[00:43:55] Diet and rebel noise, is restriction, guilt, or start over tomorrow thinking making this louder?

[00:44:03] And I hope you can see why this matters, because food noise is, like we said, not just one big giant monster.

[00:44:11] It is not that big, mysterious force that has more power than you do.

[00:44:14] It’s made up of all these different components, and when you identify which noise is speaking, you can choose the right tool.

[00:44:22] You can stabilize yourself, you can change the cue, interrupt the habit, care for the emotional need, or bring the inner coach instead of the inner rebel and critic and letting them run the show.

[00:44:36] And that is how you begin turning down the volume, not by shaming yourself, not by white-knuckling, and not by being perfect.

[00:44:45] But by understanding what is actually happening underneath the urge, the craving, and the chatter, and learning how to respond in a way that gives you more power, more calm, and self-trust.

[00:44:58] And that is exactly what we’re gonna be doing inside my upcoming one-day retreat, Mastering the Food Noise.

[00:45:05] It’s an online retreat going all day long from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM Pacific Time, Sunday, July 19th, 2026.

[00:45:18] I’m gonna slow this all down and use hypnosis, meditation, coaching through looking at your body, your environment, and your mind, and how to master food noise.

[00:45:33] So I hope you will consider joining me.

[00:45:35] Go to www.masteringthefoodnoise- sorry.

[00:45:40] I forgot my own website there for a moment, www.shiftweightmastery.com/noise.

[00:45:48] And you can find out more information, or the link will be in the show notes.

[00:45:53] So I hope you found this helpful, and I hope you are beginning already to turn down the volume on that food noise.

[00:46:01] So have a great week, and remember that the key, and probably the only key, of unlocking the door of the weight struggle is inside you.

[00:46:10] So keep listening and find it, and I will be back here with you next week.

[00:46:17] Have a great one.

[00:46:19] Do you wanna dive deeper into the mindset of long-term weight release?

[00:46:23] Head on over to www.shiftweightmastery.com.

[00:46:29] That’s www.shiftweightmastery.com, where you will find numerous tools and resources to help you unlock your mind for permanent weight release, tips, strategies, and more.

[00:46:42] And be sure to check the show notes to learn more about my book, From Fat to Thin Thinking: Unlock Your Mind for Permanent Weight Loss.