Why You Still Think About Food Even After You’ve Eaten

If you feel like you’re constantly thinking about food, even after you’ve already eaten, this episode is for you!

Today we’re diving into the real reasons food noise happens and why feeling physically full doesn’t always mean you feel mentally satisfied. We’re talking about the difference between true hunger and mental cravings, how blood sugar impacts food thoughts, and the hidden habits that can keep you stuck in a cycle of obsessing over food.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why you still think about food after meals
• The difference between physical hunger and emotional cravings
• How restriction and “being good” all day can increase food noise
• The role blood sugar plays in cravings and constant snacking
• Small habit shifts that help reduce obsessive thoughts about food

If you’ve ever thought:

• “Why am I still hungry after eating?”
• “Why can’t I stop thinking about food?”
• “Why do my cravings feel so intense?”
• “Why do I feel out of control around snacks or sweets?”

…this episode will help you understand what’s actually going on in your body and mind (and what to do about it!).

My goal with this episode is to help you stop fighting yourself around food and start building habits that make healthy eating feel more peaceful and sustainable.

If this episode helped you, be sure to share it on Instagram and tag me so I can connect with you!

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WORK WITH ME: 

• Seismic Shift: Group Health Coaching (code POWERFUL for 10% off)
• 1:1 Coaching

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💌 Connect With Laura:

1. Website: Health Coach for Teachers & Busy, Working Women
2. Instagram: LAURA B. | Teacher turned Health Coach | Podcaster🎙️ (@laura.b.healthy) • Instagram photos and videos
3. TikTok: Laura B. | Health Coach (@laura.b.healthy) | TikTok

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If this episode resonates with you, share it with a friend who also struggles to stop herself from eating all day.

And if you haven’t already, be sure to follow the podcast so you never miss an episode designed to help you build a healthy lifestyle that actually fits your life.

Topics covered in this episode: Food noise, Cravings, Emotional eating, Blood sugar, Mental hunger, Physical hunger, Food obsession, Habit loops, Restriction, Overeating, Satisfaction, Mindset shifts, Healthy habits, Willpower, Sustainable weight loss

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey ladies and welcome back to another episode of the Isn't She Powerful podcast. I'm so excited to have you here with me today because I'm gonna be talking with you about why you still feel like you're hungry even after you've eaten. Because I know that so many of you were like, I just finished eating and I still want something. Whether that be you want something sweet, maybe you're still like, am I hungry? I shouldn't be hungry. I'm not hungry, am I? And you're a little bit confused on what signals is my body trying to send me right now? Should I eat something? Should I not be eating something? So I want to talk about four of the primary things that are causing that, whether that be a physical need to eat, or maybe it's just the illusion of that sensation that you need to eat. We're gonna talk through four root causes of that feeling today. I want to remind you that if you have not already sent in a text to me, you can send me a text to let me know topics that you want covered. What are the things that you are struggling with? What do you need a podcast episode about? And I will take that into consideration and make an entire podcast episode directly correlated to what you need me to talk about. So if you're listening to this on Apple, Spotify, wherever you listen to actual podcast audio at, you can go down into the show notes. The very top link says send us a text. It comes to me as an email, little spoiler alert there for you, but it comes to me as an email and you get to send me whatever you want to. I don't know your name, I don't know anything about you. I just know what it is that you tell me. So if you want me to know your name, you can let me know your name. If you want me to know anything else about you, you can let me know. Otherwise, I just know what it is you need help with and I can make an entire episode dedicated to you. So with that being said, send me a text down below. If you're listening on YouTube, then you can go down into the comments and you can just drop a little comment and say, hey, this is specifically what I'm struggling with. I would love a video about this and I will make the video the same way that I would for a text message. I would make that for you as well. So let me know what it is you need me to talk about. And in the meantime, buckle up because I'm gonna share with you four of the primary reasons why you still feel the need to eat even after you've already eaten. Welcome to the Isn't You Powerful Podcast. I'm your host, Laura B, health coach, educator, and founder of the Be Healthy Lifestyle. I'm here to bring you all of the health education and motivation so that you can sign off each week feeling equipped and empowered to tackle all of your health goals. Come along with me as I teach you the basics of healthy living so that you can have everyone in your life say. Isn't she powerful? The number one reason why you feel this physical sensation to eat, even if it's not a physical sensation to eat, is because you're not actually full. You probably didn't eat enough food at your meal. So we need to make sure that you are eating. And if you've listened to a podcast episode from me, then you already know what I'm gonna say, but you need to make sure that you are eating enough protein and fiber. You should be eating these two things every single day at every single meal. They should be a part of it. And I know that the protein is hard and the fiber comes from foods that you may not really like all that much, but we need to find a way to get you to your protein and fiber goals because protein is the macronutrient that makes us feel satisfied. So if you are not eating enough protein, it does not matter how much food you eat, you aren't going to feel satisfied, at least not for long. So we need to make sure that you are eating enough protein. If you're somebody who's like, I finish eating and then I immediately want something sweet, this is one of the big reasons why that happens, is because you're not eating enough protein at the meal. So protein should be on every plate that you eat, as well as fiber. Like I said, protein makes you feel satisfied and it fills you up during the meal. And then the fiber keeps you full until your next meal. So protein fills you up, fiber keeps you full at least for about three to five hours. Average four hours, you're gonna feel like you need to start eating again. That's normal, okay? But if you're feeling like you need to eat within one to two hours of you having just finished a meal, you're probably not eating enough protein and fiber. So that's your number one thing to pay attention to. Now, on that same note, if you are eating meals that aren't well balanced, don't have enough protein and don't have enough fiber to them, then you're going to spike your blood sugar up whenever you eat this meal. And when we spike our blood sugar up, this becomes really challenging for our body. We're also spiking up our dopamine levels. Dopamine is our happiness hormone. And so if we are spiking up that dopamine, spiking up our blood sugar, our body starts to feel really good at this elevated blood sugar level. However, what happens is about 30 minutes after that blood sugar spike, your blood sugar drops. Think of it like the first drop of a roller coaster. You're climb, climb, climb, climb, climbing, and then all of a sudden you plummet to the bottom. That's what your blood sugar is like. It drops really fast at the snap of a finger. And when this happens, your dopamine also drops, and that scares your body. Your body's like, what the heck? We were just feeling really good, and now we are dropped very low. And your blood sugar doesn't just drop to its baseline, it drops below the baseline. And this is a challenge for your body because your body does not want to be that low. That is scary, and your blood sugar shouldn't drop that low. So when your blood sugar is down in that deep area of below the baseline, your body starts to send you signals and it starts to say, hey, you know what? We need to eat more sugar. We want to get back up to where we were. So it starts to send you cravings for sugar or things like potato chips or pasta or potatoes. So you're gonna start to get these cravings for these foods that you're like, I'm not supposed to eat those foods, those are off-limited foods. I need to stay away from those things, but my body keeps telling me to eat them. Now you know why. Because you spiked your blood sugar up and then it dropped and that freaked your body out. So it started to send you signals and it was like, hey, eat some more sugar. We need sugar so we can feel good again. So that is the root cause of those cravings that you were experiencing. And the way to avoid that is by eating meals that are well-balanced. This is a huge piece of the program that I have seismic shift. I not only give you well-balanced recipes right there. You don't even have to figure out how to make a well-balanced recipe. I'm giving them to you. But I also do teach you how to make well-balanced meals that don't keep your blood sugar elevated all the time, that don't make you feel terrible about yourself, that give you good energy, and all of the things I teach you how to do that yourself so that all of those favorite meals that you currently make that aren't a part of the program can still be a part of your life if you know how to make them well-balanced meals. So protein fiber, keep those meals well balanced, and that is going to eliminate this blood sugar roller coaster that I was just talking about. Now, the next thing here is restriction. If you constantly tell yourself that you're not allowed to have this food, you're bad if you eat this, that food's off limits, then that is putting that food on a pedestal and it's putting it at the forefront of your mind. I want you to think about if I told you right now, don't think about a red minivan. The first thing that popped into your head was a red minivan, whether that be a picture of one, whether that be one that you're you know in real life, somebody used to drive and you're thinking of that one. No matter what, as soon as I said don't think about a red minivan, you started thinking about a red minivan. Your brain can't help it because your brain doesn't hear negatives, it doesn't recognize the don't. It just thinks red minivan. That's all that it hears is red minivan. So the same thing is true whenever we think about sugar. If you say don't eat the sugar, don't have the sugar, you're not allowed to have the sugar, the sugar's a no. All that you are doing is thinking about sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar all day long. And so you saying don't have it, you're not allowed to have it, keep it off limits, is putting it on a pedestal at the forefront of your mind, and all you're doing is thinking about it all day. So, what we need to do is number one, heal your relationship with food so that you can stop being in this diet cycle of constantly saying these foods are off limits, I'm not allowed to have these foods. We need to heal your relationship with food. And again, this is a large piece of the coaching that I do. There's some episodes of the podcast that you can go back and listen to. In December, I did an entire like series, heal your relationship with food series. It was like five episodes through the month of December that were all about healing your relationship with food. So if you're like, I know that I need to do that, go back and listen to some of those. I challenge you to do that and take the time to invest in yourself in that way. But no matter what, healing your relationship with food has to be done so that you can get out of this restriction diet cycle of saying that's off limits, I'm not allowed to have that. And as soon as you do have it, you start beating yourself up and you start blaming yourself for being a terrible person and being bad at dieting and you're never gonna be skinny and all of these stories that we make up and tell ourselves. The restriction has to end if you want to get to the point where you're not always thinking about the sugar. It just needs to become something that you know what? If I would if I really want the sugar, I'm allowed to have the sugar. If I really want to have a Snickers bar, I can have a Snickers bar. But right now, that Snickers bar really isn't gonna make me feel what I want to feel. Right now, I need to figure out what would. So that's whenever you start to explore, would it be better for me to get up and do something else? Would it be better for me if if you really did just finish eating and you know without a doubt that you are not still hungry, get up, go do something else, go clean your house, go do something at work, go get up and move and do something different than what you're currently doing. Because right now you're probably just feeling bored and you're in a habit loop. And I'm gonna talk about habit loops in just a second, but we have to get you out of that. If you recognize, I don't know, I kind of might still be hungry a little bit, then I challenge you to eat something that is well balanced, not something that is loaded with sugar. Because if you are hungry in any way, your body needs that sugar. It's okay to eat a snack in the afternoons, it's okay to continue eating until you feel full and satisfied. You know, like you can do that. And I talked a little bit before about the protein sources and the importance of eating enough protein and enough fiber. And when I talk about that, y'all, I'm talking about real protein sources. Like, I'm not talking about the protein chips that are made out of chicken guts or whatever those protein chips are made out of. I'm not talking about this fake stuff, I'm talking about real protein. Meat, if you're a meat eater, tofu, if you're not a meat eater, there you don't have to eat meat to get in enough protein. It could be things like lentils and beans because those have a lot of natural protein to them. Even last night, Shane and I were talking and he was asking about like protein goals and all this stuff. It's a really big effort for him and I right now to reach our protein goals every day. And I I was telling him that the Brussels sprouts that I had for lunch had three grams of protein in them. And that was just for one serving of them, and I had two servings of Brussels sprouts, so I had six grams of protein from my vegetable, even. That's a really good source of protein, right? And so I challenge you to eat real protein, not this processed junk that is packaged up and sold to us as protein. I want you to eat real foods. Those real foods are gonna do so much more for your body than the packaged stuff. Okay, my friends, I wanted to take a quick pause to let you know that down in the show notes, there is a button that says send us a text. It's at the top of the show notes, the very first thing that you see. And by clicking there, you can type out a message directly to me. I cannot see who is sending this message unless you tell me your name in the message. It's completely anonymous. But right now, I want you to go down there and click that button and ask me any questions that you have. They can be in follow-up to what we're talking about in this episode, or it can be something completely random that you need help with. Then be on the lookout for an upcoming episode that answers your questions and gives you the exact feedback that you need to make your health and wellness journey the best that it can be. I look forward to seeing your text. Okay, so to recap, number one thing you need to do is make sure you're eating enough protein and fiber. Number two is make sure you're eating healthy, well-balanced meals that are going to keep your blood sugar stable. Number three thing is to stop the restriction. Allow yourself to eat the foods. If you genuinely want the food and you know that you can eat the food without any guilt, you can say, I'm gonna eat this Snickers bar and then I'm gonna move on about my life. I'm gonna eat this Snickers bar, and if I take a bite and it's not satisfying me, it's not hitting where I wanted it to hit, I'm gonna put it back, put it down. I'm not gonna eat it, I'm not gonna finish it. We need to get you to that point in your relationship with food where you're not grabbing it every single day. It's not, it's not something that you do out of guilt or frustration or you you can't seem to make yourself stay away from it. We need to get you to the point where you can choose to eat it when you want to eat it, and you can choose to not eat it when you really don't want to eat it. You know yourself well enough to know the difference between those two things. That's the point that we are trying to get you to, okay? And that is possible. Now, the fourth thing that I want to talk about here is something called habit loops. If you are somebody who finishes your meal and after every single meal, you want to eat something sweet, you want to eat something that has some sugar to it, that is called a habit loop that you are currently in. And we need to get you out of that habit loop because what happens is is your body starts this loop. It has a it has a signal, right? And that signal is you just finished a meal. And so then it starts to send you some cravings. It starts to say, hey, let's eat some sugar. And your job right here is to break that habit loop because if you don't, then you're gonna grab that sugar, you're gonna eat it, and your body's gonna feel rewarded and it's gonna feel good. It's gonna have that blood sugar spike that I was talking about earlier, and then you're gonna feel, wow, that was wonderful. And next time you eat, your body's gonna say, We want to feel wonderful again. So we have to go through this habit loop to get us back to that place of feeling wonderful after this meal, just like we did after our last meal. If you want to break that habit loop, we have to stop it from the root of it. And that is when you finish that meal, you're going to, for a while, still get that craving to eat something sweet. Instead of reaching for something sweet, you need to do something to get yourself out of the routine that you are currently in. Maybe right now you finish your meal, you go to you go to put your plate away in the kitchen, and then you reach into the pantry, grab something sweet and go sit on the couch. Instead, you finish the meal, you go put your plate away in the kitchen, and you're like, you know what? Let's go on a 10-minute walk. You completely eliminate the routine that you are currently in of grabbing something sweet and sitting on the couch. That's the loop that your body is in, and we have to break that loop if we want to get you out of this cycle that you're in of eating something sweet after every single meal. So identify the root of your craving. It happens right after you eat. That's the situation we're talking about at least. There may be other times that you're experiencing cravings and you might be in a habit loop with those as well. Let's give another example of you're it's in the afternoon, you're at work, it's like 3 p.m., you're sitting at work, you've been typing on your computer all day, you've been kind of sitting still all day long, and you start to get the craving for something sweet. And if that happens every single day, you are in a habit loop. You start to get that craving for something sweet, you grab it, you now have something to entertain you, you're feeling good, now you're in a more positive mood because you have some sugar in your system, and your body recognizes that as long as it's 3 p.m. and it starts to send you that little craving, that little voice in your head to eat something sweet, you are going to respond by eating something sweet, and then it's gonna feel good. We have to stop that habit loop. So you need to say, okay, tomorrow at three o'clock, whenever I get that craving, I'm gonna choose to do something different. I'm gonna choose to instead of grabbing that something sweet and allowing that to make my body feel good, I'm gonna choose to get up and go visit with a coworker for a few minutes, or get up and go to the bathroom, or get up and go outside and get a breath of fresh air for five minutes. I'm gonna get up and do something to disrupt my current routine. That's what we have to do. Disrupt the current routine. And if you need help with any of this, I would be honored to get to support you in my seismic shift group coaching program. All of the information for the program is down in the show notes below. I would love so much to get to help you break these habit loops, learn how to build healthy, well-balanced meals, get rid of that restriction mindset and heal your relationship with food. Every bit of what I talked about in this episode is something that I can help you deeper with if that's what you need and want at this time. So check out Seismic Shift down below. And with that being said, I look forward to seeing you again in the next episode. Don't forget to send me a text or comment on this video and let me know what it is you need me to talk about on the podcast. I am so excited and honored to get to support you in your journey, and I can't wait to see you again next time. Thank you so much. I can't wait to see you again next week. And always remember the more you know, the more you grow.