Unconventional Opinions About Food Noise (That Shouldn’t Be Unconventional)

What if everything you've been told about food noise is missing the bigger picture?

If you constantly think about food, battle cravings throughout the day, or feel like you're relying on willpower to stay on track, you've probably been told that food noise is simply something you need to manage or silence. But what if that's not actually true?

In this episode, I'm sharing two unconventional opinions about food noise that challenge the way most people think about hunger, cravings, and appetite. These ideas have transformed the way I coach women who feel stuck in the cycle of obsessing over food, and they may completely change the way you understand your own body.

We'll explore why food noise might be trying to tell you something important, how to distinguish between true hunger and mental cravings, and what your body may actually need when those constant thoughts about food show up. You'll also learn how factors like protein, fiber, blood sugar, sleep, and stress influence your appetite and why addressing the root cause is often far more effective than relying on willpower alone.

If you're tired of feeling like food controls your thoughts, this episode will give you a new perspective that replaces frustration with understanding and helps you work with your body instead of against it.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Why the conversation around food noise may be missing the bigger picture
• How to tell the difference between food noise and true hunger
• Common root causes of constant thoughts about food
• The role of protein, fiber, blood sugar, sleep, and stress in appetite regulation
• Why willpower isn't the answer to reducing cravings
• How understanding your body's signals can help you build trust around food
• Practical mindset shifts that make healthy habits feel easier

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RELATED EPISODE: 

• Mentioned in this episode is an episode on sleep and cravings. Listen to that episode here: 
  • Why You’re Craving Junk Food: … - Isn't She Powerful | Stop Food Noise & Sugar Cravings - Apple Podcasts 

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WORK WITH LAURA:

• 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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Topics Covered in this episode: food noise, hunger cues, cravings, emotional eating, weight loss, nutrition, protein, fiber, blood sugar, stress, sleep, women's health, healthy habits, mindset, appetite regulation, intuitive eating, health coaching, metabolism

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Isn't You Powerful Podcast. I'm going to be talking today about food noise, which is a common conversation on the show. But today I'm going to be sharing with you two unconventional opinions that I have when it comes to food noise, which one, I don't believe should be unconventional, and two, I don't believe our opinions. I believe that these things are the truth. And I believe that once we can start accepting these things as truth, then it becomes so much easier to get through this journey with food noise. Unfortunately for so many of us, the path to getting to the other side of food noise, to getting rid of it and feeling like you're free from it feels like this like convoluted, confusing path. I just had a previous client reach out to me and she worked with me about a year ago. She's been going through this journey when it comes to her health, even after being in my program. And she shared that during the program her food noise went away. She felt great. She was like, no sugar cravings, no noise. She just felt at peace with food. And then over time, some of it had begun to get confusing. She attended this training about food noise, and they were using these big terms, and she felt confused and she was like, why does this feel hard? So she went back to the notes from when she and I worked together and she was like, immediately it all made sense. Because it can be simple when we break it down in simple ways, when you just understand the truth of it, when we're not trying to make it hard, when we're not trying to make it complicated, because it feels really overwhelming and really hard and complicated in our bodies. But the science of it is that it's simple. There are a few things to do to get rid of the food noise. And when you do those things, it really does get rid of the food noise. And it's not these big elaborate things. It's very simple, tiny things. But nonetheless, I want to share with you two unconventional opinions today about food noise so that you can take these opinions, let them fester a little bit, let them become something that you start to mull over for a little while. You start to think, do I believe that's true? Could I believe that that's true? And then once you start believing that it's true, watch how your relationship with food shifts and therefore how your food noise starts to dissipate. So, anyways, let's get into the episode.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

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.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

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 unconventional opinion that I have about food noise is that it is not a problem to be solved, but instead it is a clue that our bodies are trying to communicate with us. Your body is simply trying to tell you, hey, there's something going on here. Maybe it is that you're not eating enough food. If you are chronically under-eating, maybe you're skipping breakfast, maybe you skip lunch because you're too busy, maybe you're eating really tiny portions at these meals because you're trying to track your calories and you've been told that to be skinny, you need to eat less. I'm telling you right now that those things are causing your food noise. So maybe that's one of the things that's going on for you. Maybe your meals aren't well balanced. Maybe they don't have enough protein, maybe they don't have enough fiber in them. And when you don't have all of the parts of a healthy meal, when you don't have the protein, the fiber, the color, and the healthy fats on your plate, then your body is going to start sending you signals. It's going to start saying, hey, we want this thing. So maybe you are constantly craving cheese. Maybe your body's like sending you these signals all the time. Eat cheese, eat cheese, eat cheese. That is a simple communication from your body that you aren't eating enough healthy fats. So pay attention to what these signals are. Your body is not trying to fight against you. It's not listening to you say, we want to be thin, we want to feel good in our bodies, we don't want to be running to the bathroom all the time. It's not listening to you share all of these wants and desires and then saying, let's sabotage her. Let's make sure this doesn't happen. Your body doesn't want that. Your body wants to feel good just like you do. But if it's not getting its fundamental needs being met, it is going to ask for those needs to be met. So I've already talked about you're not eating enough, I've already talked about you're not eating well-balanced meals. Sleep also plays a big role. If you're not getting enough sleep, your body is going to send signals for food. I have an entire episode all about this. I'll make sure it's linked down in the show notes for you. But if you aren't giving your body enough sleep, then your body is trying to compensate for the energy that it's not getting from sleep by getting that energy from food. Our energy only comes from two places, our food and our sleep. And if it's not getting it from one area, it's going to ask for it from the other. That's another reason why sometimes maybe if you're not eating enough food during the day, you feel dead tired at night because your body doesn't have enough energy. So it's asking for the energy that it needs. The simple bottom line truth of it is that your body is just trying to yell at you. It's trying to say, please, we are begging you for this missing thing. So once you can understand, okay, this is what my body's yelling at me. This is what I'm constantly hearing. I already gave the cheese example. Let's say that it's sugar. Maybe your body's like, let's all we want sugar all the time, all the time, all the time. Then we can start making the appropriate adjustments throughout your day to make sure that your body doesn't have to rely on sugar anymore. This could be a sign that your blood sugar isn't balanced. Maybe you're eating sugar on an empty stomach way too often. Maybe you're not eating healthy, well-balanced meals. Maybe you need to be getting up and moving after your meal. Do you understand that there are a million things that your body could be telling you, which feels overwhelming, but also once you understand what those things are, it's not that overwhelming. You can just say, okay, I understand that this is the list of things that my body could be asking for, and I can start ticking it off. Was it were my meals well balanced? Yeah, that's probably not it. Did I eat sugar in an empty stomach? No, then that's probably not it. Did I get only four hours of sleep last night? Oof, yes, I didn't get enough sleep last night. That's definitely it. Now I know I can prioritize either getting better sleep this upcoming night or during the day when I'm struggling with those sugar cravings and I can't go back to sleep right now. I can prioritize giving my body really good quality food sources so that it can get really good energy from the food. It's asking you for sugar in that situation because it that's the easiest thing for it to convert into energy. It just wants energy really quickly. And sugar can be turned into energy so fast. So your body asks for sugar because it's not thinking ahead. It doesn't know all of the things that you are learning and that you know. And that's again, that's why people work with me because I'm able to say, okay, let's take it, let's dig into this, let's understand where this noise is coming from, and then we can target that particular area of your life. We can start to make adjustments there, and that will make the food noise go away. So the number one unpopular opinion, controversial opinion, whatever I said, the number one thing is that food noise is not this problem to be solved. There's nothing wrong with you. The thing that you need to understand is that food noise is a clue from your body that something deeper is going on. Now, the second thing that I want to share with you, the second unpopular opinion, is that if you are feeling a physical sensation, it's not food noise. We are very, very confused about what food noise is and what hunger is. We have gotten those two things so intertwined that we don't understand the difference. We don't know that, oh, this is not my body saying, hey, we need sugar, we want this. It's my body saying, Babe, I'm hungry. Can you give us some food? It's been six hours since we've eaten. We need a little something to keep us going over here. So if you are feeling any sort of physical sensation, you're feeling a little bit nauseous in your tummy, maybe you're feeling a little bit tired, you're feeling that grumbling sensation that we all know is your body telling you that you're hungry. You know what it feels like to be hungry. You know what it feels like when you need food. And yet we have told ourselves for so long that being hungry is a bad thing. We've told ourselves that if I'm hungry, then that means that I'm doing something wrong because I need to not eat so that I can be skinny. That is not the solution. That's not going to help your problem at all by ignoring those hunger cues and telling yourself, no, no, no, we're not going to feed our body because that's gonna add calories, that's gonna make me fat. It's not going to make you fat. In fact, feeding your body, feeding it well-balanced meals, healthy meals that have all of those things that I mentioned earlier, that is giving your body what it needs to keep the metabolism running. If you are undereating, you are underfueling your metabolism. And your metabolism is like the engine of your car. If it runs out of gas, then it's not doing anything. It's just gonna sit in the driveway. And that's what's happening to our bodies when we constantly undereat. Our metabolism has completely stopped. And now, no matter what you do, you're not gonna see any weight loss because you don't have a healthy metabolism. You must eat to feed that metabolism. So, once again, if your body is giving you some sort of physical sensation, that's not food noise. Food noise is whenever you can't stop thinking about food. You've just eaten, you are completely full, and yet your brain won't shut up about sugar, about dessert, about this thing and that thing that you have in the pantry and in the refrigerator, and oh, we could go get ice cream and ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh. Your brain is constantly thinking about that. You're telling yourself the entire day, no, we're not doing it, we're not having it, I don't want that. And yet, still, all you're doing is thinking about the food. That is food noise. It is not hunger, and we must not confuse those things if we want to heal our relationship with food and actually get rid of the food noise because undereating is only making the food noise worse. So every time that you get confused about what's hunger and what's food noise, and you tell yourself this is probably hunger, I'm not going to eat right now. But really, it was food noise, you are further tarnishing your relationship with food. You're further tarnishing your relationship with your body and with your hunger cues, and you are making your body believe that even if it sends you these signals about hunger, you are going to ignore them. And that is not something we want to be occurring within our bodies. So, what I want you to hear from this episode, I know that it's rather short, but what I need you to take away from this is number one, food noise is not a problem that you need to be solving. Food noise is a clue from your body. It is your body trying to communicate with you, trying to tell you something is not right. There's an imbalance here. It could be your relationship with food, it could be in your diet, it could be with your exercise, it could be sleep, it could be stress. All of these things are contributing factors, and you must understand the root and you must attack the root. I want you to think about if you right now the weeds are growing for all of us. It's summer. So weeds are popping up all over your flower beds, all over your garden. There's weeds everywhere. If you go out and you just pull the top of those weeds, then you're never going to actually get rid of the weed. It's just gonna keep growing. You have to pull it from the root. You have to get that root out of the ground and toss it so that it can stop growing completely. That is what we have to do when it comes to the food noise. You can't just put a band-aid on it. You can't just say, oh, I'm gonna ignore it today. I'm gonna will power through, I'm gonna white knuckle my way through this one. You can't put a band-aid on it. You have to get to the root of it. You have to solve the root of the problem, and from there, that is when you can actually get rid of the food noise entirely. The second thing that you need to hear today is that if there is any physical sensation within your body when you are feeling this food noise, then that is not food noise. It is hunger. And you need to respond by either eating a meal or a snack, something that has protein and fiber and color and fats. You need something that is well balanced when you are feeling that sensation of hunger. If you start applying those two things, if you adopt those two beliefs as truth for you and you start applying those things into your everyday life, your food noise is going to go away very quickly. Now, if as you were listening to this, you were thinking, I would love her help in understanding what's happening with me, why my food noise exists, because it's different for every single one of us. So if you would like my help looking into this, I'm going to put the links in the show notes below for both my group coaching program and my one-on-one coaching program. Seismic Shift is where a bunch of ladies get together and we all say, I'm struggling with my relationship with food, with my food noise. It just won't stop. And I help you understand what's going on within your body to make it go away. One-on-one coaching is where you and I sit down together and we say, What do you have going on? And then I dig into your life piece by piece and I uncover exactly what you have going on to make sure that you live a life of true freedom. I would be honored to get to work with you in either of those capacities. So head on down to the show notes and check both of them out. If you have any questions, you can contact me via email at Laura at Vhealthyhabits.com, or you can head over to social media and find me at Laura BeHealthy and send me a DM. Thank you so much for being here for another episode of the Isn't She Powerful Podcast. It would mean the absolute world to me if you would share this episode with a friend, with a family member, or go down below and leave a rating and review if you are listening on Apple Podcasts. I can't wait to see you in the next episode.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

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.