This is Chelsey with the Slay Squad fitness and nutrition coaching and Phoenix personal training. Today I want to discuss food noise which is the struggle of constantly thinking about food and being bombarded with thoughts of things like what you’re gonna eat, when you’re gonna eat it, how much you’re gonna eat, what other people eat. In the Slay Squad fitness and nutrition coaching and Phoenix personal training we help women work through food noise because if you struggle with excessive food noise, it’s going to be very difficult for you to lose weight and to eat in a calorie deficit.
Today I want to give you some practical strategies for how to address food noise and start to really free yourself to think about other things, to not be constantly distracted with thoughts of food. How are you practically going to do this? One of the best things you can do to eliminate food noise is make sure that your meals are balanced. This means a meal that has a protein source, a carb source and a fat source. Make sure your meals also include lots of fiber sources. Women need about 25 grams of fiber a day. Men need closer to 30 to 35 grams of fiber a day. Have enough fiber is going to keep you full, satiated, and help stabilize your blood sugar, which when your blood sugar is up and down, it leads to cravings, which is going to make food noise all that much worse. So that one is to make sure that you are simply giving your body what it needs nutrition wise, and this should help eliminate some of the food noise.
Another thing we do with Slay Squad Fitness and Nutrition Coaching and Phoenix personal training is really help our clients to understand mindset shifts that need to happen in order to change how we think and our thought processes. So, one of the things you can do to help reduce or eliminate food noise, is stop eating quite as much junk food. And I know that sounds hard at first, but foods like cereals, sugary cereals, cheeze-its, chips- those foods are designed to be addictive and to keep you snacking, to keep you craving and to keep you wanting more. They’re literally designed to do that. So the more you eat of them, the more you want. You’re not going to eat it and be satisfied, like when you eat a meal that has protein, carbs, fats, that’s well balanced, you’ll eat and feel satiated and satisfied. Instead, you’re just going to be left wanting more, and the more you eat of this, the harder that is going to get for you. The 1st couple weeks of this is going to feel really hard. If you have foods that you can’t control yourself around, let’s say it’s chips or Oreos, whatever that may be, you may have to reduce how often you eat it or even eliminate it altogether. Usually I’m not a big fan of elimination where you cut out foods, but if there is a food in particular that you really struggle thinking about or overconsuming, you might have to cut it out for the time being and just trust. This is the mindset shift I want you to have. Trust that your taste will change. It usually takes a few weeks, but your taste and what you want to eat does change. I’ll give you an example. I used to love white mochas from Starbucks. I stopped drinking such sugary drinks and went more things like iced coffee with light cream and maybe one to 2 pumps of a sugar-free syrup. I did that just to be healthier and for weight loss to reduce the amount of calories and sugar in my drinks. And after a little bit of time, if I were to have white mocha, I actually find it kind of gross. You will be amazed how sweet, how much added sugar is in stuff when you cut it out for even just a period of time. Your taste will change, where now I don’t even want that. My stomach will feel sick and my taste, my taste preference isn’t even for that anymore. So you have to trust if you have been eating so much junk food and high sugar for a long time and that’s contributing to your food noise, it will get better. Your taste will change. Those 1st few weeks are gonna feel like you’re really fighting your cravings or like you’re tapping into discipline, but eventually it’ll just be how you eat. what you do. So just trust that’s what’s going to happen and stay the course. Do it for a little bit, and watch how what you think about, and what you create changes. It’s really hard to have food noise around well balanced meals, really easy to have a lot of food noise around junk food.
Another thing that you can do to help produce food noise is called a pattern interrupt. A lot of what we do, the way we eat, the way we think about food, is not always based on a physical need or hunger or anything like that. Sometimes it’s simply just what we’ve done for years. And most of the decisions we make throughout the day, including how much we eat and drink or what we eat and drink, we don’t really think about it. There are decisions we make almost subconsciously just based on habits. So for example, if every time you sit down to watch a movie on the couch, you are used to grabbing popcorn or chips, and you’ve done this for years. Next time you go to watch a movie on the couch, you’re gonna be grabbing popcorns or chips. Maybe you don’t even really want them? Maybe you’re not even hungry, but this is just your pattern. This is your habit. This is what your body has done. Maybe before work, you always go through McDonald’s drive-through and you order the same thing. You don’t ask yourself in the morning like, oh, is this something that I want to eat? Am I really hungry for this? Is this good for my body? It’s just your pattern, it’s just your habit. So, you need a pattern interrupt. So this means planning out something that you are gonna do instead of reaching for that typical food. This could be having a pre-planned snack that’s already made and ready to go. That’s a better alternative that’s prepped and ready. Or this could be… something to eliminate the eating altogether. Maybe this is a snacky excessive thing that you don’t actually need to do at night while watching TV and you want to eliminate it altogether. You may need a pattern interrupt. This could be something physical. There’s a lot of psychology behind actually getting up and moving your body. And so maybe you need to get up and walk around the house. Maybe you need to do 20 jumping jacks. Maybe you need to have a book that you pull out and read. Maybe you need to have someone you text to distract you. But have a go to action or a few things to try and just figure out what works for you. But sometimes breaking that pattern, and saying instead of sitting on the couch and needing chips, while I watch a movie, I’m gonna sit on the couch, and I will text this person. I’m going to eat my pre-sliced apples, whatever it is, have a pattern interrupt. Try that, see if it works. A lot of this is going to be trial and error with our one on one coaches, with the Slay Squad fitness and nutrition coaching and Phoenix personal training, we explain that these are all strategies. You don’t have to use them all, but take a few, take what you want, take what you feel will help you the most, and you can apply and just try things. Eventually, you’ll find things where you’ll be like, wow, that really worked for me. Another thing we do with Slay Squad fitness and nutrition coaching and Phoenix personal training, is biweekly zoom calls, where we help our clients attack these things and have a little bit more customized approach, because some clients do need to eliminate food and do need to eliminate snacking. And others need to learn how to simply make healthy swaps. So, it is a case by case basis on what we would recommend or help a client do. Getting on top of food noise will change your life with the Slay Squad fitness and nutrition coaching and Phoenix personal training, we have helped so many women lose weight and keep it off. And one of the ways we’re able to do that is by helping them tackle things like this. If you’re in a program that simply gives you workout and meal plan, which doesn’t give you any practical tips, guidance, customized strategies for you to handle food noise, cravings, eating out. Things that are specific to you. It’s gonna be very hard to stick with it. And we want things to be customized. Not a one size fits all when it comes to any kind of fitness and nutrition plan, and that is so important to realize. And that’s where a one on one coaching can come in. Food noise is something that really can affect your whole life, because when you’re sitting around thinking about food, thinking about your body, thinking about how this food will affect your body, it pulls away from what you can do. And the way you can live, and other things that should be occupied in your brain space. Like your family, like your work, like your faith, like being productive, all these things that require your time and attention. And so we want you to take that back, take your life back, and really get on top of it. Another thing that we love to help with with Slay Squad fitness and nutrition coaching and Phoenix personal training is really helping you to have realistic expectations of your progress, and how long things should take. Because oftentimes, when you think that you should just have immediate results, it’s really easy to get obsessed with what you’re eating. versus having a little bit more freedom. And understanding that this is gonna take time, and then just making a couple healthy swaps is going to take you a long way, a long ways. Something you can stick with is always better than what will get you the results as fast as possible. So I hope some of these tips and tricks and strategies help you with food noise. And if you need more support, fill out a form on our website, and one of the coaches from Slay Squad fitness and nutrition coaching and Phoenix personal training we’ll get in touch with you the same day to chat about your goals and struggles and see how we can help.