Are GLP-1s the Only Solution to Food Noise?

Do you feel like you're constantly thinking about food? Maybe you've heard people describe GLP-1 medications as a way to finally silence food noise and you're wondering if that's the only solution.

In today's episode, we're exploring the relationship between food noise and GLP-1 medications. While these medications can be incredibly helpful for some people, they're not the only path to experiencing less mental chatter around food.

I break down some of the most common root causes of food noise that I see in my coaching practice, including undereating, not getting enough protein and fiber, and experiencing blood sugar highs and lows throughout the day. When your body isn't getting what it needs, it's natural for your brain to keep asking for food.

You'll learn how simple nutrition and lifestyle shifts can help reduce cravings, improve satiety, and create a greater sense of peace around food, whether you're taking a GLP-1 medication or not.

If you've been struggling with constant thoughts about food and wondering if there's another way, this episode is for you.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• What food noise actually is
• How GLP-1 medications impact appetite and food thoughts
• Why undereating can increase food noise
• The role protein plays in satiety and cravings
• How fiber helps reduce hunger and improve fullness
• The connection between blood sugar balance and food noise
• Practical habit shifts to help reduce food noise naturally

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Topics covered in this episode: food noise, GLP-1 medications, appetite control, cravings, hunger cues, protein intake, fiber intake, blood sugar balance, satiety, healthy habits, weight loss, nutrition education, mindful eating, sustainable weight loss, reducing cravings, food thoughts, women's health, healthy lifestyle

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Isn't She Powerful podcast. In this episode, I want to talk to you about GLP 1s and are GLP ones the only solution to food noise? Before I get into that, I want to be clear about what I mean when I say food noise because unfortunately, the terms food noise is being used in place of hunger a lot. I'm seeing this so much more on social media now. We're talking about, oh, I have food noise, I have food noise. And what we're referring to, unfortunately, is the desire to eat. You need to eat. You need to be eating enough food each day. You need to be eating enough calories to maintain your energy levels, your body mass. Like you need to be eating. And so if what you are desiring is a desire to not eat, then that is a problem. It's something that we need to work on. That could be diagnosed for some people as an eating disorder. You need to be eating food. So I want to be clear right off the bat in saying that that food noise and hunger are two completely separate things. Food noise is this incessant desire to eat, but not just to eat, but to you're like obsessed with certain foods. You can't stop thinking about, let's say, take Oreos, for example, because that was one of my triggers, especially during college. I have a really strong memory of being in college. My mom gave me a pack of Oreos when I was at home visiting one weekend. I went back and the entire next day, all I could do was think about Oreos. It was like no matter what I was doing, I could be sitting in class, I could be talking to my friends, I could be in the library working on something. No matter what I was doing, I was thinking about how I wanted to go eat those Oreos. And in my head, I was thinking, don't eat the Oreos, you're not allowed to eat the Oreos, the Oreos are bad for you, no Oreos, you're not allowed to have the Oreos, no to the Oreos. And it was like I couldn't make the thoughts of the Oreos stop. That is food noise. When you are hyper-focused on a food and you can't make thoughts about this food stop, you're telling yourself you shouldn't eat this. This food's bad for you. No, no, no, no, no. But more and more times that food is coming up. It feels like you wake up in the middle of the night and you need to go eat something. You're laying down in bed at night, getting ready for bed. The first thing you think about when you wake up in the mornings is this food that you want to have, but you're not allowed to have. That is food noise. It's not a, oh, it's noon right now and I should be eating lunch, but I can't eat lunch because I don't have enough calories to eat lunch, or I'm trying to lose weight, and the less I eat, the more I'm able to lose weight. So it's not that. Okay, there's a big difference between those two things, and I just need to make that clear before we get started. In this episode, I'm gonna help you understand that while GLP1 is a solution to this, and I'm gonna help you understand how and why that works, it is not the only solution. There are a few things that you can begin doing that will really dramatically decrease the amount of food noise that you have throughout the day. And I'm gonna share those with you. They are short and sweet and simple, and things that you can begin to implement right now. So, with all of this being said, let's get into this episode. 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 help everyone in your life say, Isn't she powerful? So GLP1s mimic a natural hormone that you already produce. This is something that your body naturally creates. And GLP1s, when you inject these, they mimic that natural hormone to help decrease your sensitivity to foods being around you. So, like you see, you're at a barbecue and you see all of these foods, and now suddenly you're thinking about eating all of these foods. Being on a GLP 1 helps to reduce the severity of that need to eat these foods. It's almost like it dampens the response that your body has to seeing photos of certain foods. Like you're scrolling through social media and all you see is this food that you shouldn't eat, this dessert, ooh, that cake, ooh, that ice cream, you're just seeing so many of them, and now suddenly you're craving those things. That's part of the problem, first of all, is that we surround ourselves with this type of media. So of course we think about that stuff more because it's in our face more, but I digress. It also dampens your response to, like I said, seeing the food in photos, seeing the food in real life, hearing about the food, someone talking about the food around you, seeing it listed out on a menu. So whenever you see these foods and then you suddenly start thinking about them, the GLP1 helps to reduce your desire to eat that food. But because your body naturally produces this hormone, GLP1s, because it naturally produces that, you can get rid of the food noise without being on this medication. This is not me telling you not to get on the medication. This is me letting you know that there's an option for you if that intuitively doesn't feel right for you. Because I've talked with a lot of people, I've coached people that have been on the medications and they're happy and they like being on the medications. And I've coached other people who've said that really just doesn't feel right for me. I feel like I don't want to do this. My doctor told me I should. My friends are all on it, my family members are on it, but I just don't really want to. And if that is you, heard, understood. You don't have to do anything that you don't want to do. The only person that has to live with you being on that medication is you. So if you don't intuitively want to be on it, you don't have to get on it. And if you intuitively do want to be on it, then be on it, right? Like you make that decision for you. If you are choosing not to get on the medication, or if you are on the medication and still want to help your body do some of its natural processes even while on the medication, I'm gonna share with you a few things that will make a big difference. One of my clients in our last live call for seismic shift, she got on and she was like, I have to tell you that my food noise is gone. And she said, I can tell you exactly why. She started eating enough food and she started eating enough protein and fiber. And those are the main things that I want to talk about in this episode. Eating enough food. During one of the lessons that I did during seismic shift recently, I helped my clients understand that their body, whatever size, weight, height it is right now, we all have a certain amount of calories that we need to bring in each day to maintain the amount of body weight that we have. To maintain this body composition, we need to eat a certain amount of calories each day. That's how weight loss works, or at least that's how it should work, is that we have a certain amount that our body needs to maintain this weight. We eat about two to four hundred calories less than that, and we start to see that our body weight goes down. Unfortunately, we have been trained for so long to not eat enough food, to underat, to skip meals, to skip out on certain food groups that eventually our bodies have gotten used to eating just a few too many calories. So you let's say that your body needs 1900 calories to maintain its current weight, but for years you've been eating 1500 calories because that you didn't realize that you were, or because you've been trying to eat less and less so that you can be skinny. Your body has gotten used to that. So what happens is your body slows down its metabolism, it slows down the rate at which it turns the food that you eat into energy, which means that you losing weight becomes very challenging because your metabolism has slowed down so much. And so you need to be eating enough food. If you are not eating enough food, all of your hormones, your body's functions, your body's systems, nothing is going to be working as it should. Weight loss is going to be impossible, and you might even start to see that you are gaining weight despite eating less and less food because your metabolism has slowed down so much. So, the number one thing that you have to prioritize is eating enough food. You need to understand how much calories it takes to maintain the current body weight that you have. And if you are not eating that already, that needs to be the first thing that you do. You need to get your body to understand that, oh, this is what it feels like to get enough food. Within two weeks of you upping your calories and eating enough food to maintain your current body weight, your body's gonna be functioning so much better, you're gonna be clearer-minded, you're not gonna have all that brain fog, you are going to have so much more energy, you're gonna start to feel changes in your body composition. It's going to feel dramatically better to be in your body when you actually give it the nutrients that it needs. So, number one thing, you need to make sure you are eating enough calories for your body. If you are not doing that, the food noise is going to be wild because your body is constantly underfed. It's constantly saying, wait, we don't have what we need. Wait, we need more food. Wait, wait, wait. So the number one thing you need to do is eat enough food. I need to pause and interrupt this episode for just a second to talk directly to the teachers and homeschool moms who are in this audience. If you are a pre-K through 12th grade teacher, educator in any way, it can go beyond that. If you educate your own students at your own home, then this event is for you. It is a completely free event that I am speaking at June 30th and July 1st called Educate and Rejuvenate. I've been a part of this event for three years, and I'm telling you, it is so good. The first day of this event this year is called Educate. You are going to be learning about classroom strategies, math strategies, English strategies, things that you can do to get your students motivated, things that you can do to get them to pay attention to you. You're going to be learning about classroom things during the first day of this event. The second day of the event is called Rejuvenate. And this is when we focus on you as a human. We'll be talking about rest and relaxation. You'll be talking about health and wellness. That's where I come in. We're gonna be talking about taking care of you so that you can show up more fully, not only for your job, but for your family and your life outside of your job as well. There is so much that you get out of this event. And again, it's all completely free. So if you are a teacher or an educator in any way, head on down to the link in the show notes of this episode. Check out the link for educate and rejuvenate. Get registered to come to the event on June 30th and July 1st. I look forward to seeing you there. Number two, if now if you check and you're like, yeah, I'm eating enough calories, I'm eating more calories than I should be, or I'm eating right on that target. If that is the thing that you're already doing, then the number two thing is you need to make sure that you're eating the right portions of these foods. You need to make sure you're eating enough protein and enough fiber. You should be eating about 30 grams of protein with every single one of your meals. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and yes, you should be eating those three meals every single day. It's not going to make you fat, it's not going to be too much food. You need to eat three meals a day. So, and each of those meals should have about 30 grams of protein, and you should be getting, on average, for most women, you should be getting about 30 grams of fiber per day as well. So 30 grams of protein per meal, 30 grams of fiber per day. This is the thing that my client was like, I feel like this is making the biggest difference for me. She's made sure that she's eating so much protein during the day, and she's like, I don't feel the desire to eat all day long. I don't feel like I'm constantly thinking about food. Like, she was like, My brain feels free. I have freedom. And that is possible for you too without you being on a medication, if you don't want to get on that medication, by eating enough protein and enough fiber per day. Protein is what helps make us feel full and satisfied. If you're not eating enough protein, then your body's always going to feel like it needs a little something more, right? Like, have you ever finished a meal and you're like, now I need a little sweet treat. I need a little something else. That is a clear signal that your meal did not have enough protein to it, or that even if that meal had enough protein to it, you have not been getting enough protein in as a whole recently. Because our health is not just a little single snapshot of one meal, it is accumulation of all of the meals that we've been eating. So if you have that feeling all the time of like, I need something after every single meal, I need that little sweet treat, it is time to analyze how much protein you're eating. Because protein is the macronutrient that makes us feel satisfied. So that should be one of the first things that you look at. And then fiber is what helps make us feel full. So protein is about making us feel satisfied. Fiber makes us feel full. Fiber is challenging for our body to break down. And while that sounds like a bad thing, like something that we wouldn't want to happen, it's actually a really good thing because the longer that it takes your body to break down that food, the fibrous food, the longer that your body's going to be full off of that food. So we want our meals to be keeping us full for about four hours, somewhere between three and a half to four and a half hours. That's a normal time frame for you to be getting hungry for your next meal or snag. If you're getting hungry sooner than that, then that's something that we want to take a look at. Now, the last thing that I want to mention here is your blood sugar. Keeping your blood sugar stable is super important. One of the biggest reasons why food noise exists is because we spike our blood sugar up. And when we spike our blood sugar up, whether that be from eating a meal that was imbalanced, it didn't have enough protein and fiber to it, or eating something like a dessert on an empty stomach, however, we get our blood sugar spiked up. When that happens, and it happens to all of us, not just people who have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, like it happens across the board for every person. When you eat a meal, your blood sugar rises. It should. That's a normal response that your body has. We want it to have that. What we don't want it to have is a spike through the roof and then a drop shortly after, which is what happens if we eat, like I said, a dessert on an empty stomach, or we eat a meal that doesn't have enough protein and fiber to it. It's just like a pasta without any fiber or protein to it. And when that happens, that blood sugar spikes up, and then when it drops down, it drops below your body's baseline. And this is where the trouble comes in. This is when the food noise starts. You start to get whispers in your head. Hey, let's eat something sweet. Hey, let's have another bite of that. Hey, go get something out of the break room. That happens because your body is scared. It's down way beneath its baseline. Its blood sugar is dropped below where it feels comfortable. In this time, you might start to feel really tired, you're starting to feel groggy, you're starting to feel like you don't have much energy, you're starting to feel some brain fog. And during that time, your body's like, we don't feel good. We've got to do something about this. So it starts to send you signals to spike that blood sugar back up because all it knows is you will feel better if your blood sugar gets up. It doesn't realize that by spiking it back up again in half an hour, you're gonna be right back where you were. If you are having low blood sugar, look, let's back it up for a second. Let's say that you ate dessert on an empty stomach, you spiked your blood sugar up super high, and then it dropped. And now you're feeling tired, you need a nap, you're feeling lethargic, you're feeling all of those emotions, right? You might even start to feel cranky. Then your body's starting to send you those signals. Let's eat something, let's have something sweet. And that's whenever you you do that, you respond accordingly, you eat what your body's asking for, it spikes the blood sugar back up, and 30 minutes later, your blood sugar crashes again, and you're starting to get that food noise again. You're starting to get those little whispers in your ear, hey, eat this, hey, we want something sweet. And this is what we need to avoid. We need to go back to the very beginning and avoid that blood sugar spike from the start. If you avoid that blood sugar spike in the in general, not having sugar on an empty stomach, that solves the entire problem. But let's say it's a special occasion, you had a slice of cake at work on a special occasion and you spiked your blood sugar up in the afternoons. What now? Now you know that blood sugar is gonna crash. You are aware of what's gonna happen in about 30 minutes, you know how you're gonna feel, you know what's happening inside your body, so you make a decision accordingly. When your body starts to send you those signals and say, Hey, we want something sweet, let's get that blood sugar back up. That's what it's really saying. Let's get that blood sugar back up. You respond by saying, I will get my blood sugar back up by having something that has protein and fiber, not more sweets, not more sugar, not more candy, not a nap. What your body really needs is protein and fiber. So you're gonna eat something like a meat and cheese roll-up or like a yogurt bowl with some Catalina Crunch cereal in it, an apple with some peanut butter, simple snacks, easy things that you can eat to get that blood sugar back to its baseline. It doesn't spike it way high, it doesn't drop it way way low, it just gets it back to its baseline where it feels nice and comfortable and safe, and that stops the food noise in its tracks. So, with this being said, the best ways to avoid that blood sugar roller coaster and to help you not get in the situation of having this incessant food noise because of it is to number one, avoid sugar on an empty stomach when possible and have meals that are well balanced. They have protein and fiber in every single one of your meals. If that does happen, then you are going to have a snack that has protein and fiber to it when this food noise starts to occur that's asking you to get the blood sugar back up. And another thing that you could do is go on some sort of walk or get in some sort of movement after you eat. So many studies have proven that if you move your body after eating, it helps to regulate your blood sugar, and that spike and drop is far less substantial than it would be if you skipped that afternoon movement or after meal movement. So a really easy thing that you can do is just move your body for about 10 minutes after eating. It could be around your house, it could be around your work, it could be out on the street, like going for a walk, whatever. However, the movement looks, it doesn't matter. It matters that your body is doing something to use the food that you just ate rather than letting it sit in your bloodstream. Okay. So if you are somebody who's saying, I really want to get rid of my food noise, I really don't want to struggle with this anymore, but I also don't really want to get on a GLP one, there is a way to make that possible for you a hundred percent. I work with women every single day and I help them with exactly this getting rid of their food noise without going on some sort of extreme change to their life. It's just let's make some simple shifts. Let's make sure you're eating enough food, let's make sure you're eating enough protein and fiber as a part of that food, and let's keep your blood sugar stable. And if you do those things and you do them consistently, this isn't just a one-time fix. Remember, I said health is not about a one-mill thing. It's about accumulation of all of your habits and all of your actions. So if you do those things consistently, you are going to see a dramatic shift in the amount of food noise that you have. And if this is something that you really want to work on, but you feel lost and overwhelmed and confused, I would love so much to get to work with you and get to support you with this. I'll leave the information for my group coaching program, Seismic Shift, down in the show notes below. I'll also leave the information for my one-on-one coaching program, and you are welcome to apply to work with me that way as well if that feels more comfortable for you. I would love so much to get to support you through this, and it is such an honor every single time that I hear and see somebody who's coming to me saying, I don't have that food noise anymore. I want that for all of us. I know how freeing I felt whenever I finally got rid of my food noise, and I want that for all of you. So if it's something that you struggle with, don't hesitate to find me. Thank you so much for being a part of this episode. Thanks for listening all the way until the end. If you enjoyed this episode and there's somebody that you know that could benefit from this, please share the episode with that person just by clicking the little share button, send it to them, or share on your social media feeds if that feels more comfortable for you. I appreciate it so much, and I look forward to seeing you again in the next episode. 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.