episode 232: this is how you change your behavior around food
What If You’ve Been Solving The Wrong Problem with your eating?
What if it’s not about eating less. Or cutting sugar. Or banning snacks.
The reason you keep struggling with food might not be what you think — and that’s exactly why your “fixes” haven’t worked long-term.
Today I’m breaking down:
Why you might be chasing after the wrong problem
The simple questions that reveal what’s really driving your habits
How my free Food Behavior Blueprint walks you step-by-step through figuring it out
You don’t need more rules. You need better information — about you.
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232
[00:00:00] Well, hello. Hello friends. Welcome back. The Diet Diaries. Today's episode is gonna air, is it Monday, June 16th? Um, we're like in summer. Summer officially starts this week, and as I'm recording this, I've just gotten undressed in white. Uh, linen shorts and have been chatting on Instagram about the fact that my legs are not tan and I don't care.
And I tried using one of those self tanner lotions, the Jergens, uh, before Ben's bar Mitzvah, and I did not like it, and I don't think those things are for me. And I wore a white dress. She was bar mitzvah, and I'm in a thousand photos with UNT Tan white. Non-sex exposed legs and I think I look pretty damn good.
And this is not to say that like I have a problem with using self tanner or any of this stuff, but, um, all the, it's just to say like, why are you doing these things? Do you really wanna be doing them? Do they make you feel good? Do you like how they look? Or is it just 'cause you feel like it's what you should do?
That's not [00:01:00] what this episode is about today, but it's just like, I literally was just posting about it. So it's kind of in my brain. So what I wanted to talk about today. It is a new free bi created, and I'm not just gonna talk about like why you should do it. I'm actually gonna give you some kind of suggestions and things to take away from this episode, right?
Every time I publish an episode, which is pretty much every week, um, my goal. Always to give you one or two things to do, to think about, to work on, to take action on. And that is gonna be no different today. And perhaps one of those action items will be to sign up for your food behavior blueprint. Uh, 'cause it's free, so why not?
Um, but also because it is, I think, gonna be really transformational and it's really unlike anything free I've done before. And because a lot of times I've done free stuff, it's sort of like information. And this is, this is work, right? This is guiding you through a process so that you can uncover information about yourself and then get support on [00:02:00] how to take action on it.
To be honest, it's like a little mini coaching experience is what it is, um, including one-to-one support for me, and the reason I wanted to create this is because I feel like so many people are walking around making changes to how they're eating. Kind of in like a very broad, general, generic way, like, I'm cutting out carbs, I'm not gonna eat sugar.
I am, you know, cutting out soda, or like I'm eating more protein, or I'm gonna focus on not having an afternoon snack. Right? These really general things, which are well-intentioned and could be beneficial, but they are in some ways very generic and it's a generic solution for a very specific problem, and.
Very often generic solutions don't work for specific problems, and so why I wanted to create this is to help you uncover what your specific challenges are, right? The language I've used is pinpoint the exact causes of your mindless snacking of cravings and [00:03:00] overeating that are making. Weight loss feel really, really hard, right?
You're going out there, you're trying to do these different things, and maybe it's working for a short time, but it's not working long term, and you're finding that the same old habits and behaviors and struggles keep resurfacing, right? And that is because you have not identified, you've not pinpointed the, the exact causes.
Sometimes it's one, sometimes it's more than one of. What is most challenging for you, and that is what Food Behavior Blueprint Blueprint is designed to do, so that then you can take action in a very specific way and you have a specific solution, a specific action for a specific problem, and it matches up perfectly.
The puzzle pieces fit together, right? You've got a puzzle piece of a problem, and you're taking a generic puzzle piece that's like much bigger, right? If you think about a puzzle piece, it has like its little, um. It's a little peninsula piece and when you snap it into the one that fits, it just clicks and it fits.
That is what we are going for here, right? The problem puzzle [00:04:00] piece and the solution puzzle piece fit and they are customized. And if you try and shove a bigger puzzle piece, right? The one that has an opening that's bigger, it'll sometimes fit on top of that little peninsula piece, but you know, it doesn't quite click.
There's like a little bit of space, something's off and you're like, no, this isn't the right piece. Right? That's what you're doing right now. That's kind of your generic. Solution, and I get why we're doing that, right? Because it worked for a friend. This is what I'm seeing all over TikTok. This is what my doctor recommended, right?
This is what I'm hearing, and yet these things keep resurfacing or I'm getting results for a short period of time and not over a long period of time. So what I want you to do is I want you to be able to start taking action on the things that are feeling challenging in a productive, effective way, right?
So that's what we're gonna do here, and it's kind of, uh, like a three step process, right? Where you will sign up, that's not even a first step. Um, and then you're gonna get a form. With a few questions. And you know what, I'm actually gonna walk you through these questions right now so you know [00:05:00] exactly what is going to happen.
So hang on while I pull this up on my computer. Um, blah, blah, blah. Here we go. You're gonna get a short Google form, and these questions are gonna be just for you. You'll receive a copy of your answers. And here's the questions you're gonna get asked. What are you hoping to learn from the Five Day Food Journal?
I haven't quite explained that part yet, but we're gonna get there. Why do you think the strategies you've tried in the past to make changes to your eating haven't worked long term? What do you currently believe is your biggest struggle when it comes to food and meeting your goals? And how do you currently feel about your ability to make effective changes to what, why, and how you are eating now?
Really kind of your takeaway for today's episode is to think about these questions, right? Start kind of doing your pre-work for this and really start to think about why haven't the things that I've tried worked? Why do these problems, these challenges, these issues keep resurfacing for me. You may have some hypotheses and you may not.
That's okay, because that is what the five Day Food Journal is actually going to uncover. Alright, so [00:06:00] this kind of gets you primed, it gets you thinking, it gets you really sort of focused on what you've done, what's worked, what hasn't worked, so that as you go into this five day process, you're kind of, um, really focused on paying attention to more of the qualitative nature of what you're eating.
And by qualitative I mean like your plot line. So what you're gonna be journaling is what? When, where, why, and how. Literally the plot line of your eating to uncover why some of these things are happening, and you're gonna do that for five days. For some of you, five days might seem like a lot. For some of you, five days might seem like nothing.
It is, generally speaking, a small amount of time. If you've never journaled or tracked before, it might feel like a lot. If you have journaled or tracked before, it might also feel like a lot. But again, you're not tracking calories, you're not tracking macros. You are tracking what you eat. When you ate it, meaning what time where you ate it?
Meaning was I in my car? Was I at a table? Was it at my kid's soccer game? Was I sitting at the pool? Was I on an airplane? Whatever it is. [00:07:00] So what went where, why? Meaning, what was the reason I ate? Was I hungry? Was I bored? Was I stressed out? Was my kid eating? Was it time to eat? Did someone order a takeout?
And so the food was just sitting there. And then how did I feel? And that is gonna be in terms of hunger and fullness. And what's cool about the, um, the journaling is this isn't a template that I've created for you. So you literally just filling it out. It's like plug and play. There's dropdowns for the why and the how for the kind of those more like subjective reasons.
And there's a tab for each day. It's really clearly mapped out. And so the idea behind this is to collect a lot of data. It's like doing a little science experiment on yourself and actually collecting information, really taking note and paying attention to what you're doing so that then we can analyze it.
And a big thing with this, which I talk about when you sign up, is. This is baseline, right? I don't want you to change anything. I want you to do what you've been doing, right? So if you've been eating literally like a muffin for breakfast and having snacks every two hours and having pizza for dinner every night, cool.
That's what you want to journal, right? There is zero judgment. If you [00:08:00] change things, you're actually really not gonna get an outcome from this. That's gonna be helpful because we're not gonna know what's actually going on. It's really gonna be like you're kind of doing what you've already been doing, and then after the five days you're gonna answer.
Some insight questions, they're gonna help you or they're gonna answer some questions. They're gonna help you draw out insights from that data, right? Again, little science experiment you're playing detective, you're going to try and analyze and understand and put together some of the data points and see what is the story, right?
Going back to our plot line theme, what, when, where, why, how, how are these things interconnected and how is what's happening at one meal or in one situation or in one, um, piece of data connected to another? And so the questions, um, in the reflection form are gonna lead you through that. And then you're gonna submit those questions and your journal to me, and I'm gonna take a look at it.
And within one week, I'm gonna get back to you with a video with one to two, [00:09:00] maybe three, but probably not specific actions or skills that you can work on based on your insights, your takeaways, and sort of my kind of input and my insights. Of your insights and also what I see from your journal, right? So I'm gonna review your journal and I'm also gonna review your takeaways, see what your, what, what you're learning from it, and then kind of provide feedback on that.
So, and what's cool about that is I feel like there was for such a long period of my life where I would be tracking or doing things and I'd be like, well, I don't know, like. What should am I doing? And, and is this the right thing or is this the wrong thing? And, and not that there is necessarily a right or wrong, but wanting to have someone else's eyes on it to get someone else's support, someone else's feedback, and not feel like I was just trying to figure it all out on my own.
And so that's why I wanna offer that support, um, so that you, it gives a little bit of extra boost of confidence, right? When there's someone who has expertise in this, is reviewing this for you and giving you feedback, um, and really helping you pinpoint. What are [00:10:00] your specific causes? What are your specific, um, behaviors that are happening that are leading you to an outcome where you are really struggling with certain aspects of food, which might then be playing a role in gaining weight or struggling to lose weight?
Um, and this is really, it's very action oriented. This is really an experience that we do. Um. It's part of coaching, right? And so part of this also is if you are someone who has been curious about coaching or wanting to try it, but not sure, or really not even understanding, I don't really get what coaching is.
This gives you a flavor for that, right? This starts to introduce you to what is the process of coaching? What do we do? What kinds of things are we looking at? What are we learning? What are we talking about? This does that for you, right? So if you are someone who's been interested, curious, but unsure, I don't really get it.
This does that for you. And on top of that, and probably potentially even definitely more importantly, gives you [00:11:00] insight and information into your own behaviors and then what to do about it, right? Action steps and specific takeaways for how to start making changes that are actually going to meet you where you are at, right?
So this is like a win-win, win all around and it's free. Um. So, yeah, you have to put in some work to this, right? Like, and it is designed as such. It's very structured. I've given you kind of a specific timeline. There are scheduled follow ups, e follow up emails along the way to kind of check in, in case like you forget or things get crazy, right?
Um. But coaching and doing the work of coaching is work. It's not passive. It is active and it is very active on your part. And so this gives you a flavor of that. And even aside from the coaching piece, if you want to make the changes, if you are sick of how you have been feeling, right, and you've been trying different things and you've been putting in effort, and you're like, why isn't this working?
Right. It is going to require some work to identify why it's not working and figure out what is going to work and then start to do that. Right? And that's what [00:12:00] this process is really about. Um, so that's really what I wanted to kind of talk through today, right? So again, your takeaway from today is to go back to those intake questions that I mentioned and start thinking about those.
Right. Um, what are you hoping to learn from journaling from this, this process? Why do you think the strategies you've tried so far haven't worked long term? What do you believe is your biggest struggle when it comes to food and meeting your goals? And how do you feel about your ability to make effective changes?
Right? Really start thinking about that stuff and giving us some consideration. Um, and whether you feel, whether you have answers or not, whether you feel great about these things or not. There's no right or wrong there. Um, it doesn't mean if you have answers and feel good that you should do this, and if you don't, that you shouldn't.
That's not the idea. Um. Both. This is going to support both, right? I have a little thing on the webpage, um, that actually says sometimes [00:13:00] we know what our big issues around food are, but we aren't addressing them in a way that actually works, right? That's kinda like that puzzle piece analogy I talked about.
And sometimes we think our issue is one thing, but it's actually something else entirely, right? Where we think like, oh my God, like I am. Um, overeating at night. Um, and so I need to, I'm, I'm snacking too much at night, so I just need to like stop keeping snacks in the house. Well, actually what your issue is, is you're not eating enough of something during the day and then that's causing you to be more hungry and you're not eating enough of the foods that you enjoy during the day, so you're feeling really unsatisfied and it's catching up at night, right?
So you're solving that problem by getting rid of snacks, but not making any other changes. So then you just end up white knuckling it through those cravings, and as soon as something enters your house. That is like a snack food. You're all over it. So that's what I mean. Like sometimes we think our issue's one thing and we try to solve it or fix it in a way that like is very surface level and is very generic and I get why we do that, right?
That's totally normal. Um, but then that issue keeps coming back and it [00:14:00] keeps resurfacing and this is going to help you go underneath the surface and actually figure out what's going on. I'm super excited about it, as you can tell. Um, so there's gonna be a link in the show notes. You sign up, you get started.
Very simple, and if you've got questions, of course you can always reach out. Um, and that's really it. Uh, I will be back of course next week and um, thanks for listening. Thanks for being here.