254. Food, Stress, and Healing Your Nervous System with Stacey Ramsower

Insatiable with Ali Shapiro, MSOD, CHHC

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A Truce with Food foundational focus is learning how to effectively respond to the stress that makes you eat. Because we are often reacting to the past when our sense of safety was compromised, which fuels our current stress.
For example, I used to binge on sugar during my cancer “scanxiety” season even though it was 15 years later. Because in the past, MRIs did find cancer (and I didn’t know I could ever not turn to food!). Logically I knew I was probably fine. But emotionally I was a wreck.
To effectively respond to your stress in the present, in Truce with Food, we tend to your body's physiology. Specifically, cultivating safety in your nervous system; your nervous system physiology under threat often leads to “Chuck it, F@#$ it” Ubereats, fantasy thoughts like “Diet starts tomorrow”, and binging.

Because your body’s physiology informs your “mindset”. Anyone who knows how crashing blood sugar fuels their anxiety knows this on one level.
To better understand your own nervous system reactions and accompanying food habits, I’ve brought back Stacey Ramsower from Episode 1 of this season.

We discuss how our nervous system picks up on stress, often before our brain, and that leads to out of control eating. Stacey is one of the few people I know who understands how the most powerful change involves your physiology and psychology.

In today’s episode, we discuss:

• The difference between your body, brain, and mind when trying to change your relationship to food (hint: most mindset work doesn’t address this and yet, your body communicates to your brain at 4x the speed!)
  
• How “Diet starts tomorrow” is a fantasy thought and often a sign you’re in a “Flight” nervous system reaction
  
• What the Flight and Freeze nervous system reactions feel like inside your body
  
• The connection between Binging and the Freeze nervous system reaction
  
• Two powerful practices to try and regulate your nervous system to better deal with your present stress and change your eating habits

Mentioned in this Episode

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