The Spiritual Root of Emotional Eating with Tricia Nelson

[00:00:00] Welcome to Soul Guide Radio where soul guided coaches, healers, and entrepreneurs activate their spiritual gifts to attract soul clients through resonance, not hustle. I’m Allyson Scammell, your host and soul guide.

[00:00:21] Hey, dear ones, today we’re talking about something I know so many of you feel, but rarely talk about openly. And that is our relationship with food Comfort eating, and why we sometimes reach for a bag of chips instead of reaching inward. And that is certainly been something I’ve done to help us explore this.

[00:00:44] I’m joined by the incredible Tricia Nelson in internationally known emotional eating expert whose work goes far beyond diet culture. Tricia teaches that emotional eating isn’t about lack of willpower, it’s about trying to feel better. It’s a way to cope with stress, avoid uncomfortable emotions, which you guys know that I love to talk about or soften the rev of the day, which is how she describes it.

[00:01:13] And for many spiritual entrepreneurs, food becomes the default comfort because it’s safer than the other coping mechanisms. Tricia has lived this journey herself from binge eating thousands of calories in one sitting to discovering the emotional and spiritual wounds underneath her cravings. She now helps people heal from the inside out.

[00:01:37] Addressing the real roots of overeating, stress patterns, self-loathing, trauma blocks, and the deeper hunger we try to satisfy with food. We also talk about emotional eating can muffle our intuition and block our connection to the divine, which impacts everything from your confidence to your visibility to the way you show up in your business.

[00:02:02] Because when we use food to numb, we are also numbing our own spiritual gifts. This is such an eye-opening and compassionate conversation, and I can’t wait to share it with you. Please enjoy.

[00:02:20] Welcome to Soul Guide Radio, Tricia. Thank you. I’m thrilled to be here. We realize that we have a lot in common in the country of the Netherlands. Yes. This is cool. Totally sweet Dutch. Yep. Yep. And, and we’ve been over there many times, um, since we’ve been together, caring for his parents and, um, visiting friends, and I just absolutely love it.

[00:02:45] So that’s a really sweet, I love having that alignment with you. I love it too. And we’re both part of blended families and Yep. Um, my husband’s first wife is Dutch, and ironically, um, she. Is you know, my older two kids live with her, so she’s giving the kids the Dutch experience and then we, the Americans are giving the kids the, the Dutch, you see what I’m saying?

[00:03:13] How that switch? Yes. She is giving the American experience and we’re giving them the Dutch perspective. That’s really interesting. Yeah, that’s great. And, and uh, although my partner’s kids are grown, you know, they’re very Americanized, they’re Dutch. ’cause both their parents are Dutch, but they’re very Americanized ’cause they grew up in Los Angeles.

[00:03:32] So, um, but they, they’re bilingual and do a CI citizenship. So, um, yeah, a lot of, a lot of, uh, similarities. Love it. Okay. Let’s get into this amazing topic we’re gonna be unpacking. And I haven’t really had anyone on the show in a long, long time to talk about diet and eating and food, which is becoming like, you know, it’s always been a hot topic, but I feel like as we evolve to higher consciousness, it’s really getting maybe like, um.

[00:04:04] I don’t know. I, I guess I, I like to say like more complicated. I mean, we’re, I wanna talk about food today, but like the health, uh, sector at large, you know, there’s so many things happening and I do believe that it’s more complicated in the United States than in Europe because there’s just such a bigger conversation happening there and lots of people relying on like.

[00:04:32] The latest technology in their health or like, yeah, things like things that are like common practice there are less even talked about here. So that, you know, so my question is, I guess to like kick this off is, um, sometimes it’s just confusing and intimidating and it’s like, gosh, how do I even know? And, and it just, it’s overwhelming.

[00:04:56] Yeah. Yeah, it is. And it’s so funny ’cause I just did a talk to about, uh, 40 Dutch doctors, um, general practitioners. Um, my partner’s friend is, uh, a several of his friends or gps and, um, he read my book and he puts on this conference, he’s like, I want you to come to the conference and talk about this because your pr your approach is so interesting and.

[00:05:24] Different from what you hear about in the weight loss conversation. And so that was really, uh, I was really impressed, you know, that he was taking to my, uh, methods because it, my method is really about healing from the inside out. You know, which is what I did and how I healed. ’cause I did all the diets, I did all the weight loss things, you know, not all.

[00:05:52] ’cause there’s like, if you do a search on Amazon for weight loss, you get like 50,000 books. You know. So, um, which I’ll basically say the same thing, like eat vegetables and good proteins and good vets and uh, you know, slow metabolizing carbs, whatever. They vary, they vary on that theme, but it’s not a whole lot of different information.

[00:06:11] And diets don’t work for people. Like 98% of all diets fail. So I was one of those quote failures and um, so frustrated. And, um, it wasn’t until I got help to, um, address the underlying causes. That’s how I lost my 50 pounds and was able to keep it off. ’cause no diet ever worked for me. So I was really gratified that the Dutch doctors were curious.

[00:06:38] Open to this different approach to weight loss. I love that. And you know, Dutch healthcare is funny. Um, it’s got, its like all healthcare systems. It’s ups and its downs, it’s, you know, good sides and it’s bad sides. I’m a really holistic person. I often say to a fault, like, I could be bleeding out the eyes and all I need to do is take a few eye drops.

[00:07:02] And I’m like, no, I wanna do it the holistic way. But, um, it’s a pretty, like, generally speaking, holistic society, they don’t. They don’t default to medication. They try to find underlying causes and to let the old body work it out, that’s itself first. Yeah. Yeah. And I really personally appreciate that. Um, amen.

[00:07:24] Yeah. Amen. And I’m also appreciating sometimes you do need to go to the doctor and get medicine and like, I’m, I’m all with that, so like, yes. Yeah. But I do wanna talk about like, comfort food. Um, you know, I’ve got a, I got a salty, salty tooth, if you will. I like my chips at night. You know, that’s the thing I my go-to is like a nice bag of chips.

[00:07:47] Why do, why is like. A fatty bag of potato chips, which is just like oil and a bunch of stuff you can’t even even pronounce. It’s like, it’s like the, you know, like, whatever. Why is that comforting? Yeah. Well, you know, my experience is, uh, people who, uh, emotionally eat and, and the definition of emotional eating is very simple.

[00:08:13] In my book, it’s eating to feel better. It’s just eating to feel better or eating to change how we feel. And, and I put it in those very nonclinical terms because I think it helps people understand what’s going on. You know? ’cause most people are like, I’m not an emotional eater. Like it sounds, sounds kind of messed up, like to admit to being an emotional eater.

[00:08:37] But my experience we’re all emotional eaters. Like, you know, look back. To breastfeeding. I mean, that’s the most, uh, beautiful form of emotional eating, right? You’re emotionally bonding. Um, as you breastfeed you’re bonding with your child, you know, and so there’s nothing, nothing wrong with it. Like that’s what we, you know, are acclimated to.

[00:08:57] And I think. God gives us that ability to find comfort in food. ’cause then we’ll eat, you know? And we do need to eat to subsist, you know, so it’s kind of built in, but some people take it way too far. And that was me. I was a binge eater, a. Emotional eater really, uh, to the extent of being food addicted. And, um, and so I really feel like it’s a spectrum, you know?

[00:09:22] And, um, and actually I have a quiz on my website where people can determine where they are on that spectrum. And the high end, high end of the spectrum is food addiction. On the lower end is emotional eating. But you know, my experience is food is, um, you know, it. Especially sugar and carbs. Okay, so you named carbs as your thing, right?

[00:09:43] Salty carby foods and it’s either sugar or carbs or both. And carbs do metabolize as sugar in our bodies. And so, you know, it’s kind of when you, you know, bring it all down, it’s sugar, um, and sugar is highly. D. Okay. That’s why when you start eating chips, you can’t stop eating chips, but also carbs. Do carbs and sugar.

[00:10:06] Do you know, they give us a serotonin hit. So you’re relaxing as you eat the chips. Like you’re coming down from a busy day, you know, uh, being an entrepreneur. And so, um, we need that. Like we need to come down at the end of the day, um, from our busy. It’s just that food is not the highest and best form of relaxation and unwinding.

[00:10:33] It’s just the most immediately satisfying form of relaxing and, and unwinding, and so. You know, that’s what’s, to me, that’s why sugar and carbs are so effective. Um, not only for the serotonin hit, um, but the dopamine hit as well. Like they are, they’re feeling good, like they’re feeling good, not just relaxing us.

[00:10:53] They, they literally are lighting up the reward center in our brain. And unfortunately, sugar is like one of the most addictive substances there is. So. Uh, we’re getting hooked. We’re getting hooked, and it’s hard to stop. Um, but it’s not our fault. It’s like part of, uh, you know, our, what our bodies are doing, um, with the addiction.

[00:11:14] Now, the thing is, if somebody is like, okay, no carbs or sugar for me, I’m gonna go on a carnivore diet. I’m gonna eat just straight up meat. Sure, that can help. But then there’s the cravings that are not physiological. Like I need something. And that is emotional, you know, like, like I need the carbs and the sugar to get through, you know?

[00:11:40] And a lot of people are using carbs and sugar to get through. ’cause life isn’t easy. Life is stressful. Life is emotional and hard at times. And so it’s just important to know, and, you know, for nobody’s, uh, nobody should be blaming themselves for this, especially if they are on that like high on the emotional eating spectrum and more on the food addicted area, which I was, I mean, I could honestly, once I started eating my binges, I could pack away like.

[00:12:13] 2000 calories in a sitting, I’d start with ice cream and then I’d need, I’d need salty with my sweet, so then I’d have chips and you know, then cereal, but can’t have one bowl, gotta have two. And before I knew it, I had packed away a lot of calories. You know, and felt completely sick, you know, on the couch watching TV and berating myself, like absolutely berating myself, like, why did I do that?

[00:12:38] I can’t believe I lost control and all that. So it’s a pretty, it is a. Complicated thing, you know? And it does affect our self-esteem, you know, and our sense of control in our lives. So it’s really important that we address it. And I will say regarding being an entrepreneur, which I am as well. You know, it affects our show up.

[00:13:03] You know, it affects how we show up. It affects our self-confidence, you know, and so when we’re telling other people how to live their best lives, but we’re binging at night, or at least eating too much and feeling gross. It’s sapping our energy, it’s pulling us down. And um, and that can even affect how much money we make, right?

[00:13:25] Like it can affect, um, when it affects our self-confidence, it affects everything and our ability to ask for the sale or, you know, be worthy of making what we should be making. I mean, it’s, it’s amazing. People don’t realize how much our eating affects our life. I mean, don’t get me started. I mean, do get me started.

[00:13:48] Don’t you know our sex life, right? Like, who wants to, you know, after overeating, who wants to have sex? Like, not really. I just wanna pass out, you know? And it’s affecting the clothes that we wear. We can’t really fit into our cute clothes that are. Collecting dust in the back of the closet. Um, you know, energy, our energy level, but also, um, like we talked about, like the, like Yeah.

[00:14:14] Go, I’ll ask, I’ll let you ask the question because you know where I’m going. Yeah, yeah. And we, and how it cuts us off from our connection to the divine, like junk food literally will do that in. I wanna say this isn’t a beat up session and I love my junk food and I’m, you know, this isn’t a conversation if you feel like you are eating too much junk food to be like, oh my God, I’m not spiritual, or anything like that.

[00:14:36] No, we’re just having a conversation for awareness. And then Tricia’s gonna give us some good tips on how to shift into higher and better decisions. So yes, how does it cut us off from the divine and from our own intuitive gifts? I love talking about this because it is so overlooked. And I do actually, um, you know, when I am talking with people, I do bring up their relationship with the Divine because we think that’s all fine and then we have this food problem over here, but they are connected because, you know.

[00:15:11] Uh, I believe we have that still small voice inside of us, right? That intuition and that that beautiful guidance. I call it my internal GPS God powered solutions. But if we’re overeating and not feeling our best, it’s gonna be harder to, to hear the voice. Like it’s gonna be harder to tap into our guidance because literally our channel is blocked.

[00:15:37] Like we’ve. Put food o we’ve muffled it. Like we’ve muffled the voice, that beautiful, dependable voice inside of us always guiding us, always protecting us, always wanting the best for us, but we snuff it out with food, literally, or not literally, I guess, but it’s feel like that’s what’s happening. Um, and it, it does skew our intuition and I always.

[00:16:05] Talk to people who do struggle with food and weight and, and again, you know, I would recommend people take my quiz. ’cause if you’re on the low end of the spectrum, like you said, it’s like you might not need to just give yourself a pass. You know, like it’s like once in a while perhaps you’re eating min too many chips.

[00:16:23] Fine. Right. If, if it’s. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But if you’re on the higher end of the spectrum and you find yourself feeling out of control or losing control around food, that’s when we really, you know, we need a solution because you’re not living your best life. Um, so the term intuitive eating, I call it three meal magic.

[00:16:45] So, so this is like the only food advice I give people. ’cause people who come to me, they’re not stupid. They’ve read so many books and done so many. Programs, you know, they know salads are healthier than pizza. So, so here’s the thing. Uh, making sure you do eat three meals, but my, my hack is nothing in between.

[00:17:08] Okay? So, and I call it three meal magic. ’cause it is the, in between, the snacking, you know, and even the hummus can, you know, a hummus it can. Like you can pack on some pounds that way too. So that’s true. Hummus is not as, as good as I’m a vegetarian free. It’s like a good thing to have, I think like as part of your main meal.

[00:17:28] But it calories in it. Yeah, you can, you can get away pretty, I mean, I can eat like half of one of those containers frankly, if you gimme enough carrots. So, um, but anyway. It’s really the three meals with nothing in between. I call it three Meal magic because it is pretty magical in that the InBetween, it’s not a diet.

[00:17:46] It’s really a way of starting to connect with our emotions. Okay. So the in-between is where we can start to learn to notice when we’re getting stressed or notice when something uncomfortable is happening. ’cause we’re pretty disconnected as a culture from our emotions. You know, even when we’re on a conscious spiritual path, it’s easy to forget like, oh.

[00:18:13] I’m not feeling good about that phone call or, oh, I’m feeling nervous about this masterclass I have to give. Right? So it’s like tapping in and noticing the uncomfortable feelings and then putting those somewhere again like journaling is great. Um, but. Doing something with those, they’re not like super big emotions, but they don’t have to be to irritate us or make us feel uncomfortable enough to say what, like what’s in the fridge?

[00:18:44] Like was, is there any of that, you know, stuff from last night back. It’s like it, we go to food so easily. When we’re feeling uncomfortable, so not like really making an effort to not snack in between will force you to then sit with it and notice and notice, and we sort of have to learn, like literally learn.

[00:19:11] To be more in touch with our emotions and to learn healthy ways, you know, and places to put our emotions instead. So that’s just as a recommendation. And what’s good about Three Meal Magic too, Allison, is skipping meals is a setup like you’re talking about. I mean, you may not have skipped meals, but under Undereating is totally a setup, you know, for overeating later.

[00:19:35] It’s just, it’s just, we gotta eat proper food. We have to eat proper food. Put it on a plate, make sure it’s enough, you know, so you’re not getting too hungry. ’cause later we’re gonna pay a big price for like skipping meals especially. Yeah, totally. I love three meal magic. I mean, that works for me. I, I notice if I like eat a meal and I feel like.

[00:19:55] Healthy full. Not like overly full, but like my body is like, I am full, I am satiated. That is when I’m like the best and I can feel it. It’s like that click, it’s that sweet spot. Full, but not too full. Yeah. And I do that three times a day. I am set, I’m, I’m all for the three meal magic. I do. I do say though, um, what do you think Trisha Bet I like, so I finished work at five 30 usually.

[00:20:19] And I’m cooking dinner from five 30 to six. Like all Dutch households eat dinner right at 6:00 PM So at 6:00 PM food goes on the table. Okay. But, um, from about five 30 to six, I will, um, I think it’s good choices to eat. Like let’s say no carrot sticks, let’s say carrot sticks and apple slices, let’s say it’s like super healthy.

[00:20:42] Would you say that’s okay or would you say No, hold out to the meal? I mean, I’m gonna be tasting whatever I’m cooking, make sure it tastes good. But, um, you know, for sure carrot sticks are always gonna be healthier. Um, choice. But I would challenge you to change your schedule a little bit and give yourself.

[00:21:02] A moment, even 15 minutes, you know, stop work at five 15, give yourself 15 minutes to just like, mommy’s gotta go, you know, take a time out, you know, and go to your bedroom and light a candle and. Like, listen to some music for 10 minutes. I mean, just do something again to bookend your day with some relaxation.

[00:21:30] ’cause that’s, you know, it’s, we’re, we’re in the rev from work, you know, and we wanna come down. And foods like the snacking throughout the, you know, preparation of the meal is your way of coming down from the stress. And so be more intentional about coming down in a healthier way that isn’t. Adding food to your plate.

[00:21:52] Brilliant because I’m really bad at that. Tricia. I go race from last time, time the day, you know, last class of the day, and I race downstairs. My daughter’s getting home from school. She’s ravenous and she always, she always wants an afterschool snack. And then the snack. ’cause right before dinner. Um, and I, that’s, that’s a trap I gotta get her out of first.

[00:22:15] I get myself out of it and then I gotta get her out of it. Yeah. So she gets home and we just go straight to dinner. Um, yeah. On the, on the days that, that she, she has aftercare three days a week. And so those are the days that she kind of gets home around five. And then it’s like. She’s that in that ravenous because she hasn’t had her 15 minutes.

[00:22:35] Yep. So I love the idea of the spiritual practice in the morning, which Mo I have most of my listeners I’m sure will have variations of it. But you really using that as an opportunity to. Fill yourself up from perspective of making good food choices throughout the day. Nourishing food choices that really serve you.

[00:22:54] Yeah. And then having that when you wrap up your day, that 15 minutes to come down, transition from work mode to family dinner, evening mode. And I think that is really. Really, really gonna help people stay on track. And I am a firm believer and I can tell you from experience, I always feel my best when I myself do the three meal magic.

[00:23:17] So you have Yeah, totally. Um, inspired me to reinforce all my habits around that. So Tricia, I would love for you to leave our listeners with an invitation. Yeah. So I mean, my invitation is, look at your schedule. Where can you delegate something? Uh, where can you discard something, um, you know, so that you can.

[00:23:46] Start to have a little bit more spaciousness in your schedule, especially first thing in the morning, but also at the end of the day, the workday as well. ’cause I know it’s not easy being an entrepreneur and having the pressures and the stress around that. Also when you’re, you know, helping other people, guiding other people, you’re taking on their stuff, you know, so self care is more important than, than anything for us, um, when we’re giving so much.

[00:24:17] So my challenge is look at your schedule. How can you, um, sort of get some things. Off, uh, and, and delegated so that you can have a little bit more space to care for yourself. ’cause we can’t come last. We actually have to come first. And it’s not selfish. It’s called self-care, you know, and when we do fill our cup, we, you know, other people get the spillover.

[00:24:42] They get the spillover of our full cup. And that’s, that’s a better bet. Beautiful invitation. Thank you so much. And I know that there are gonna be some listeners who will want to find out more about you and connect. How can they do that? Yeah, I’d say, uh, go to my website. Definitely. It’s called, it’s Heal Your hunger.com, HEAL, heal your hunger.com.

[00:25:03] Take the quiz. It’s right there, front and center. It’s a free quiz, takes three minutes, but it will tell you where you are on the emotional eating spectrum, you know, and that’s really based on. The amount of control that you have and the consequences, um, that’s gonna help you, uh, determine where you are there.

[00:25:21] And then you’ll get next steps after that. Um, but I think that’s a great place to start. My TEDx talk called Emotional Eating. What if weight Loss isn’t about The food is there on the homepage and my podcast as well, which you’re gonna be a guest on, so you can get it all@healyourhunger.com. Brilliant. We will leave those links in the show notes.

[00:25:41] I really invite listeners to check that out. I’m gonna check it out myself. Thank you, Tricia, so much for sharing your delightful wisdom today on Soul Guide Radio. Thanks so much for having me.

[00:25:56] And I wanna thank you so much, dear listener, for tuning in each and every week. I hope you receive something magical from today’s session. And I just wanna kind of wrap up with also sharing a story from my own experience whereby I remember like, mm, let’s say four, five years. Now, let me think about this.

[00:26:17] I had my near-death experience when I was 32. Yeah, so I would say around starting about 27, there was about five years where I really struggled with my weight. I had probably put on about 20 pounds of extra weight, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t take it off. No amount of diet, no amount of exercise.

[00:26:39] I wasn’t binge eating. I was certainly. Comfort food, eating, but I definitely wasn’t binge eating. I was actually living a pretty healthy kind of lifestyle with regards to at least food and exercise. But the problem was I was carrying so much heavy locked energy inside in terms of trauma in the body.

[00:27:09] That took the form of super heavy energy blocks that was weighing me down so much energetically that it just translated into this extra weight that was not gonna leave my body until I released the blocks first, and my near death experience was. My mechanism, if you will, that I got guided to as that sort of initial huge release of all that trauma energy.

[00:27:40] And then it kind of put me on a new path of healing. So it wasn’t like I healed everything as part of my NDE, but it was like the initial sort of deep release that paved the way for the future healing to occur. And I would say about. Eight months less than that. Let’s see, I had my NDE around February, March, and let’s say by October of that same year, I had lost all of that weight.

[00:28:17] I was 20 to 25 pounds thinner, and I didn’t really change my diet or exercise that much. Maybe a little bit because I was reaching for comfort food a little bit less ’cause I didn’t have so much stored, blocked energy inside of me. So truly a such a huge part of this conversation is how it’s you feel.

[00:28:47] Like you are doing the diet, you’re doing the exercise. It’s all. Prioritized in your life, but you just can’t seem to take the weight off. It is highly likely, yes, there could be some hormones, it could be some other stuff, but I’m gonna say it’s highly likely that you’ve got some energy blocks in there that just need to be released and releasing those energy blocks will pave the way for that weight to also come off of your physical body.

[00:29:21] So if you’d like my help in exploring that, you can DM me on Facebook or Instagram or send me a message atAllison@allisonscammel.com or just head to the show notes and book a time to chat and we can explore how I can help you release some of those really heavy energy blocks just to pave the way for your own health and wellbeing going forward.

[00:29:46] And I would love to help hold the space for you to do that. All right. I wanna thank you so much again for tuning in this week and each and every week if you receive something special from this episode, head on over to wherever it is you listen, hit subscribe. Leave us a rating and review and I will read your amazing words on the air.

[00:30:08] And as always, until next time, may your soul guide the way.

[00:30:16] Hi, dear ones. Listen here. The Soul Blueprint certification program is a roadmap to becoming a more powerful coach, healer, writer, artist, or entrepreneur, and then earning more money. It’s the only certification program that reveals how to activate your five unique spiritual gifts. So you can create Massive Soul Alliance success in Life and Business Learn more and enroll@ allysonscammell.com/soulblueprint

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00:29 Welcome Tricia Nelson

03:43 The Complexity of Diet and Health

07:33 Understanding Emotional Eating

16:39 Three Meal Magic and Practical Tips

23:24 Invitation