Latest / Man In Your Corner with Shaun Tucker / Ep. 90 | The Binge Eating Trap: Why Willpower Is Failing You | The Reset
Transcript
- Shaun: Hello and welcome back to the reset. is me Sean Tucker episode 90. Please tell me I'm not the only one who struggles with binge eating in the fitness industry. Surely I'm not the only one. I haven't seen anyone in the fitness industry talk about the... I haven't seen anyone talk about overeating and binge eating within the fitness industry. Please tell me I'm not the only one who struggles with late night eating and overeating, especially after dinner. As a fitness professional. This is something that I've struggled on majority of my life. Yeah, I've competed in bodybuilding. Yeah, I've been in the octagon. Yeah, I've been really obese and quite overweight in the past. I am a health scientist. I know better. I know better. But why is it that nobody else talks about this? I'll tell you why. They're ashamed and embarrassed that they are still doing it. And the ones who don't do it, they're afraid that if they do, they won't be able to stop. That is, that's the truth. Cause I know that there are so many people who struggle with this because the foods that we are eating, these snack foods like chocolates, like chips, highly palatable foods, these things are so easy to consume. And I've stopped counting calories years ago. So it's not, it's not about counting calories here. It's more about understanding what it does to you psychologically when you have these foods, when you consume them, both before you reach out for it, when you actually have it, and then the after effect of having it. Cause when you reach for it, it's like your body just takes over and it reaches for it. It's not like it's controllable. Sure, if you put a really strong boundary you say, I'm not gonna have it and I'm really gonna work my willpower here to not have it. Yeah that works, most of the time. But if we rely on our willpower all the time to do that, we're not going to create an atmosphere or an environment that when we're tired, when we feel weighed down, it won't work. So that's a huge problem. The next thing is what happens when we actually have some? So if we say to ourselves, I'm just going to have one little bit of chocolate. Alright, so you reach for the Cadbury Dairy Milk, you know, your favorite chocolate. You reach for it and you're like, ⁓ I'm just going to have one, one little bit. Put it in your mouth. Straight away, the saliva, the amylase, the part of the digestive process starts happening even when you smell it, actually. Even when you smell it, it will start to activate all of these enzymes, all of these... excitatory hormones and neurotransmitters in your body and your mind. So having one bit of straight after if you're not conscious, which is why it's really important to know I guess what your goals are, if it fits your goals and if you can be flexible towards achieving your goals and actually having these, including these foods in your diet. because the next thing that will happen is your body gets excited or your mind gets excited because it's like it holds onto that experience it wants more of it right so you get a huge release of serotonin and dopamine and it's like I want to chase more of that comfort feeling which is hugely problematic because if you have had a really tough day and you're reaching for these things late at night. It's any wonder you feel like you're not making progress towards your goals. You feel like you're self-sabotaging because these products are not designed in a way that you can control them really easily. It's actually quite the opposite. They're designed in such a way that you can't put it down. They're designed in such a way that once you start, you can't stop. There's reasons why the little blocks of chocolate and the bigger blocks of chocolate are that size. It's really, really great marketing and it sells itself. Like the best part about their marketing is the product sells itself. You don't actually have to have someone there to try and convince you to have it. Cause once you have it, you can't stop. That's how good the product is. It just sells itself. And this is so interesting to talk about because it happens at a physical level, at a physiological level, and it also happens at a psychological level. Because the feelings of comfort, the feelings of pleasure, you you've had a tough day. So one really easy way to get out of that tough day is to reach for something that provides you comfort, reach for something that provides you pleasure. it's not that hard. All right, but the thing is when you reach for it, then there's an after effect as well because you've told yourself I'm not going to have it today or I'm only going to have one square. And what happens when you go more than that? If you are attached in some way, shape or form to that thought of I'm not going to have it today or I'm only going to have one piece. and now you've eaten half a block of chocolate. What happens to your mind psychologically and your physiology, your chemistry in your body? Well now you feel like a sleazebag. Now you feel like you're just self-sabotaged. Now you're guilty or you're feeling guilty because you've gone against your own word. And the weight of guilt, the weight of regret is huge. So many of us are carrying around this weight that doesn't belong to us. Because we as human beings only have so much control. Our cycles, our compulsions, yes we have a choice whether we put it in our mouth or not. But the thing is, If you have it in your house and you know that you can't stop yourself from eating it, it's a system problem, it's not a you problem. you actually need to create a better system so that you don't have it in your house or have it in a time locked safe. Right? That's probably the easiest way to get around it. But if you know yourself well enough, you'll probably know that you can, you can break the time safe. You can figure out a way to go get yourself more because when the, when the mind really wants control and it really tries to take control, move you away from that really nasty feeling of whatever's happened during the day, well you're going to find a way. Because addicts will always find a way to be resourceful enough to get what they need. This is just the truth. And that's the thing is cycles of addiction is just a cycle. It's just a cycle that needs to happen so that you get that feeling of pleasure or that feeling away from the pain. which is compounded obviously when you do it because psychologically you've just sabotaged yourself. You've gone against your own word and now you're living in a house, your body that doesn't feel safe. You're going against your own word which then has an on-flow compounding effect towards you abusing yourself. self abuse. Is that helpful? No, it's not. But this is the thing. I don't see anyone else in the fitness industry or the health industry talking about these issues that people face every single day. I still struggle. I've been on this health crisis. I had a health crisis 15 years ago. I've been on this health journey for the last 15 years and I'm still getting over it. I'm still recovering from the addiction of using food as a way to bring myself comfort and basic levels of pleasure. And I think anyone else who's not doing that, probably not human because Food is the thing that we use to celebrate, it's the thing that we use to restore comfort because rest and digest comes from us being relaxed. So food is a great way to to let ourselves regulate but when it's used as a way to get away from the pain and the suffering then it can actually turn into food abuse and cycles of addiction. So the thing is you got to work on this from from multi. multi-domains you gotta really Try to disassociate yourself as being the victim. Because yes, it's happened to you. The system is constructed in a way you've been probably conditioned that food was the thing that restored comfort when you were little. When you were just a young boy or a young girl. You used it, or your parents used it, as a way to kind of shut you up. As a way to kind of restore the balance in the environment, in the household. That's just one aspect. Now that it's so deep from that early childhood conditioning, well, that's the thing. You can't just work on it from a psychological point of view. It's also stored in your body. This is what is normal for your body to do every single day or every single week or every time you feel like crap. So you've got to work on it at a level of embodiment too, which means you've got to tap into your physiology and change your brain and really reconstruct your life and your identity around these cycles of addiction, especially when it comes to food, because food is one of the hardest things to break. try to control will ultimately be the thing that'll What am trying to say? The more we try to control it, the more we actually suppress it. And if we're really, really suppressing it for long enough, trying to force ourselves to change, doesn't, change doesn't come easy, it probably means it's gonna get bigger and it's gonna get harder and harder to change. And the fight back is gonna be even bigger. And this is why people go all or nothing. And this is why people go all or nothing, but end up. breaking themselves along the way. Find the path that is, yes it will be hard, but it's a path that will actually restore balance through your body. Focus on the path of balance and you'll find that your body and your mind will start working together to get what it is that you really want. So if you have found today helpful, I encourage you to share it with just one person. Thanks for tuning in and I look forward to seeing you in tomorrow's episode.