The advice and informational content does not necessarily represent the views of mother's market and kitchen mother's recommends consulting your health professional for your personal medical condition, likable King and welcome to the mother's market radio show, a show dedicated to the Truth, Beauty and Goodness of the human condition. On today's show, have you ever thought about why you eat and what you eat and when you eat it? Well, today we dive into the psychology of eating, including those sugar binge, so listen close and learn how you can be a more mindful either.

Plus later will tell you what's going on around town and what's new at mother's market, but first up, Heather shorts is a Licensed Psychotherapist with an MS in Clinical Psychology, and is a certified eating disorder specialist.

Heather comes from an education and private practice background where she is specialized in distorted eating, anxiety and trauma, Heather currently works as a clinician at St. Jude Medical Center and cardiac rehabilitation and Dr. Dan or Nishi Lifestyle Medicine Program, as well as St. Jude's wellness center, where she's designed and currently teaches a course entitled Psychology of Eating. And this is so fascinating.

We welcome her to the mother's market radio show. Heather, how are you?

I'm great, Kim, thank you.

Thank you for being here. You're a busy lady. Why don't you fill our audience in a little bit on your mission and where you work... Yeah, so I work at St. Jude Medical Center, and we also work at a wellness clinic out in Imperial Highway, and I have just an absolute passion to see people at a happy, healthy weight and comfortable in their skin. Today we're talking about the psychology of eating, and so the... What is the definition of distorted eating?

Great question. So distorted eating is any abnormal eating patterns, so that's gonna be your compulsive binging, chaotic eating, restrictive eating, a secret, eating anything that's outside the norm when it comes to eating falls under distorted and the distinction is an eating disorder is going to be more severe where a lot of people struggle with distorted eating, which can be just as difficult as an actual eating disorder, I really haven't ever heard of it as distorted, but I think that's so key in today's environment.

Tell me a little bit about the class that you teach at St. Jude's Wellness Center, and what is the psychology of eating all about, right?

So there's quite a few weight loss programs that any individual can be involved in, but one of the key components in maintaining a happy, healthy weight is understanding your behavioral patterns, the psychology of why you do what you do, and unpacking those uniquely to you.

So for example, if we're looking at a pyramid change, the bottom levels are gonna be behaviors and information, the top tiers are gonna be your identity, you're kind of your self-worth, your purpose, and unless those things really get shifted and altered, people tend to gain weight back so that's what we're trying to mitigate... Yeah, you gotta believe it in your head, first it... Right, you make those... What are the psychological consequences of being overweight or obese, right?

So what we're finding out is being obese or even overweight for a chronic period of time, creates these neuro pathways in your brain that mimic being in constant pain, so the neuro-pathways signal those same kind of isolation aspects towards depression pieces, which therapeutically is very, very important.

Right, and again, it's really how you wrap your head around it, I'm just curious, how long do these classes last or what... What is at that time, right?

These modules are six weeks, and it's really just about an hour for six weeks, but you do have considerable amount of homework... Okay, so you're doing a lot of introspective work. As you can imagine, I can imagine that, yeah.

We know stress is a hot topic, and when looking at weight loss and maintenance, and can you talk a little bit about the biochemical burden of stress, right. So we all know the importance of stress, we've read a lot about it, but if someone's in constant distress that fight or flight, those cortisol, that adrenaline, it really gets trapped in your body and it has consequences in your actual adipose tissue, which is your fat cells.

So at times people can be weight-resistant when they're trying to lose because the amount of cortisol still in their bodies making it much, much more difficult to lose the weight, so if you are in that constant pattern, we have to look at breaking you out of that, so that it can be much easier for you to lose the weight that you really need to, and then I didn't even think about that, but if people can't just seem to re-release that burden of stress, then there's no way of going forward or backward.

Right.

What does cultivating self-compassion have to do with weight loss and maintenance?

Great question, there's been a lot of research studies done on your posture when looking at a life change, and those participants that really engage in a self-compassionate, graceful way of dealing with your eating patterns lose far more weight and are able to keep it off than those that have this regimented, shame-based way of thinking about themselves and others, that is really a key component, I think about... Yeah, just the way people carry themselves at... And all of a sudden, you just see them maybe sitting up or standing up strain and just really in the way that people carry themselves... Yeah, and their self-talk to examining that and what that looks like, and maybe the support around them to... Absolutely, so can you expand a little bit on that inner voice in that self-talk... Sure, in fact, I have an illustration of this. There was a patient I was seeing that had lost a considerable amount of way... I mean, it was close to, I was close to 130-130 pounds. And she still walked through my door sideways as if she did not lose the weight, and so one day I really wasn't sure I asked her, Would you walk out and walk in again just for a minute, and so she did, and she did the same thing, and I said, You realize you're still walking through the door as if you are this larger person, and what we unpack from that was that she really lacked this self-compassion, self-love, she still saw herself as that person, and that really started a factor... We had a conversation that ensued, that said, it's my belief that this week we'll come right back on, if we don't start walking in this kind of identity, self-compassion of who you are now versus who you used to be... And that is so true, I think people... And that's great that you work with them and you really recognize that that she was walking in their sideways to meet this generation of teenagers, of young girls, they all come around and he... And so it's the opposite, so you see you're working with large, you're working with small, but they almost make themselves anorexic or in this generation, just so they have to appease the boys or something, which is so sad.

Well, a large part of my work is with restrictive eaters that maybe don't meet the qualifications for anorexia bulimia, but they really struggle with that restriction, that strict rule-based shame-based, I have to shrink and make myself smaller and it's really sad, but at least you're in a healing area, and you're helping these women and men see themselves differently and help with that inner talk.

Yeah, so thank you, this is very interesting information, right now we need to take a quick break, but so much more in just a moment with Heather, don't go away, we'll be right back.

And welcome back to the mother's market radio show. And we wanna remind you that if you've missed any portion of today's show, you can find us on iTunes by searching mother's market, or download the show from our website, mother's market dot com, click the link for radio and listen to the past shows, plus download our Healthy Recipes and money savings coupons, all available at mother's market dot com. And now, back to our interview with licensed psychotherapist, Heather shorts, and we're talking about the psychology of eating, and this is so interesting, and again, in today's environment is you have job security, unfortunately, unfortunately, I suppose, right.

Heather, can you unpack emotional eating for us? And what exactly does that mean?

Right.

Well, that term gets thrown around a ton, and everybody's saying it, a lot of times, people aren't sure exactly what that looks like, so for us as clinicians, emotional eating is basically trying to solve your daily or chronic problems with food and emotions aren't bad. We wanna honor them. We're emotional creatures, that's how we're made, that's how we're designed, but when we attempt to self-soothe with food items, specifically ones that are maladaptive, that's when we start to get into trouble, and one of the issues with emotional eating that we've discovered and that people tend to see, especially when you go through the course, is that sometimes they're stuck in rituals and traditions, and what that looks like is I was working with a patient that every night, she had said to me, I'm not giving up these specific cookies on this tea time because that is a part of me... That's my world. That's my ritual.

Okay. Well, can you impact that? For me, what do you mean by that?

Well, what we discovered after we distilled it all down was it really wasn't those cookies in that calories, it was... She missed her mom who had passed, so that ritual and tradition that she loved, it's really not that she even liked those cookies very much, but she loved her mom and that symbolized her mom, that symbolized connection, that symbolized an absence of isolation. And that's what she wanted.

So all we had to do then was create a more non-maladaptive pattern, so keep the TE... Absolutely, either create a different snack or just do the T alone and then journal about your mother, you know, journal a letter to her, journal and note to her and see if that doesn't make you feel even better than that snack would. And so when we talk about it, it's definitely not a one-size-fits-all when you look at emotional eating, emotional eating for one person looks totally different than the next, but what we wanna do is How Can We soothe ourselves that isn't maladaptive, that is healthy and healing for us instead of going towards food, how did her outcome... How would happen with her as? She did amazing. She really kind of had that a-ha moment that we want in a session. And just ran with it, and I sangha moment, by the way, I see said that. Sorry, I was like, I got the chills when you said that that's really a... We do, we just don't even realize. We think it's just a part of us and who we are, and yet sometimes it just takes that little mindfulness kind of centering and figuring out what's really going on to break that pattern, and then that can actually end up healing us.

That's nice, that's great. And again, that you really did explain how emotional eating and the difference and how it can be different for some people too. Sure, so thank you. So now another question, What is mindful eating? And what does that matter? Or, why does that matter? Just say, week loss and maintenance, right?

So I do this, this exercise with people, and it's with a reason, and I have them look at what just one single reason and smell the reason, tastes The reason, Look at the reason, allow it to sit on your tongue, allow your Salvator glands to kind of explore it... And at first, it's very comical, 'cause what is happening... Who eats one reason. Very, very slowly, nobody... And that's the whole point, is that we are in this world it, myself included, as a mom of two young boys, were busy, we are busy and we are staffing down food, so we have at least some energy, and that's working against us in so many ways. I was recently with a colleague and we were asking people that had regained weight to come and talk to us about we know why and what that looked like for them, and they said when I was on a specific program, I knew what I was eating and man, did I take my time with every bite, with every more... So I cut out all distractions and I focused on that food, and I thought that was so interesting that she would say that, and she was so successful, but once life got busy and she stopped doing that, that's when things started to change for her, so we live in this very fast-paced world, and when we stop and create a mindful eating experience where we're tasting the food and we're honoring the people that made the food, and we're in that kind of mindful grateful place, we eat less. Our metabolism spikes up, we know how to metabolize this food, and we just get this overall nourishing healthy experiment experience versus the fast... I don't even know what I ate. Did I even eat that whole look down on your plate and some at my whole pie, that's what we wanna move away from in our society.

So on that note, how can we have a better relationship with food? Great question. I always start with, look at your timeline, so if it takes you 10 minutes to eat breakfast, stretch it to 20, it's not as easy as it sounds, it's actually quite difficult to really break up that time, if it really takes 15 minutes for lunch, then shred it out to 30 and see if you can get it to an hour where you're really taking your time, put your fork down between meals, really don't use electronics, really create a mindful eating environment and space, and see how you feel afterwards and actually Heather, you bring up a really good point, and that is the electronics, because that is such a distraction, so I think that's the first thing, and that's just common, just, I think put their electronics down at the table anyway... Right, but really be in that place, and my Mom has Alzheimer's, and so we're doing that practice anyway, just to say, Do you remember what you had... Anyway, did you remember what you ate? And so we kind of do that practice anyway with her, but I'm getting older anyway, so sometimes I don't remember what I had, but just to remember. And so I think that relationship with food, I think you bring up a really good point, but just put your fork down and think about it and take your time and being out with people really help, so enjoy the conversation and the social environment and the people, and enjoy that space and let food just nurse you.

Good, thank you. And sometimes we just need to talk about it then, yeah. Yeah, let's talk about sleep, and this is one of my favorite subject, but is it really that important to weight loss or maintenance, and why it really, really is an... Arguably, it is one of the most important... There's been multiple studies done, one out of the University of Chicago, which I love, that took participants doing the very same thing, eating the very same things, exercising the same way in the group that got seven plus hours was far, far above the group that did not, and we were looking at why that is, and they coined a phrase called metabolic grains, and they looked at... And they likened it to those days where think about when your kid is sick and they're up all night, or when they're little and they're up all night, and you wake up and you are not well, you are groggy, you just feel not... Right. sluggish, and that actually happens to your adipose tissue, that happens to your fat cells, they get groggy, they get tired, and they don't come off as easy as the ones that are ready to go...

I'm gonna use that from now on. That is what it is. My fat cells are correct, they're grandstand furthermore, and we know this is that when you have a sleep deficit, your body starts to confuse insulin and not know how to use it properly, we know how all of that affects your hormones and it just really creates a cycle that is not optimum for your metabolism, so when we look at... In the class, we talk about different metabolizes, there's pleasure, there's time, there's mindfulness, all these different things, and sleep is definitely a big factor when it comes to a restful night's sleep and metabolism, and you said in the very beginning, seven hours is kind of like the key if we could do, and again, in everybody's unique and different, but we wanna shoot for a seven plus... Okay, okay, I love it.

What are the stats on individuals gaining weight back and what is that theme with the small population that doesn't... What's that magic? Yeah, this is kind of a big deal for me in my practice, and we can walk anywhere and there's weight loss clinics everywhere you go, you through a rock, you can hit one, and they're valuable, they have value, and yet I would love to see weight maintenance clinics everywhere, because for me, and what I've discovered is really the work doesn't start until you hit your goal... That's a good point. That's your right. There's your headline. That's it. That's when the real work starts. Weight loss, it can be difficult, there's no question about it, it's not easy, but weight maintenance, staying at a happy, healthy weight, that's very difficult, and that has many, many factors included, right.

So we want to look at how to make it a happy, healthy weight possible, because it really is possible for people, and we wanna make sure people know it's possible for you.

So the stats we have is, unless people really identify with their new self with that fit, thriving, happy, satisfactory weight person, unless they really, really identify and walk in who they're becoming and who they are, they will gain that way back... And again, that goes back to your mind, you have to own it right between a... After you put your goal between 18 and 36 months, unless those higher tiers of identity are addressed, people start getting the weight back, and that's what we've discovered. And so in your practice, what is your percentage of... Well, I mainly work with people on reminding them that they can keep this off because believe it or not, people, even if they hit their goal weight, they don't believe they can stay there because they ever have... So if they never have... What makes them believe now is different, even if they've met their goal, so there's something still inside them that the doubts themselves.

So we really, really work with a treatment plan, and everybody's is different, so... For one person, it's okay, Melissa, this is what this looks like for you. Every day you read these three affirmations, I will remain at a happy healthy weight keeping weight loss is effortless and easy for me, some people really respond well, the affirmations until the neuro-pathways in their brain say, Yes, this is the right thing, and I believe it. Other people, it's more of of a checklist, today, I will keep my weight off by doing this, and you just check off your three things and that gives you that piece for other... To people you know, depending on their make-up, maybe they pull on their social support, it just depends, but every person really needs to know that it's possible. And then we need to work together on how to make this reality... You just answered what I was just gonna ask you on that was... So I've heard you talk about a tough day in that tool kit. What is that? So a lot of people, when they have tough days, they do what they always did, so I have a neighbor that when she has a difficult day, I know because she comes in the house, I can see her from across the way with Emory calendars, pie.

I know, and I know that there's a key lime pie in that box, 'cause I talk multiple times, and she's like spider rough week, it's time for clip, which everybody has a slice, Aquaman moats, fine. But when that's your go-to strategy on times where you're having a tough time week after week, that's not adaptive, that's something that is not going to help you, that's gonna steer you towards diabetes, not towards happy healthy, and then there's the slice or there's the whole pie right is right.

So we want to create, okay, you got a flat tire. You were stuck at work, you kid got sick, I called to the principal's office. I mean, this was a day in... This was a day.

And what do you do?

So everybody needs that time to sit down, realize what really, really nourishes you. What makes you happy? And you create a tool kit. Sometimes participants, when I work with them, it's an actual kit, it's a box that you open, some people use a bag, some people use just a list on their phone, and it's different for everyone, but that you have to be prepared because if you have a goal and your goal is, I wanna lose 40 pounds by October. Then when life happens, you need a plan... Yeah, so you need a bad day tool kit, what are you gonna do if I love... Maybe you used to get that key lime pie, but what is it gonna be now? And it still can be pleasurable and give you a Serotonin uptake, but it needs to shift. So what is that gonna look like for you? I love that then, you know what, not everybody has a... Nobody really has is like having like a heritage.

I was just gonna say that Earthquake kit. If you could give people one piece of advice besides that, I love that piece of advice, but what else would that be besides that tool kit? That's such a good question. We're so unique, I would say, please be kind to yourself. Now, life is really hard on so many levels, so be kind to yourself. I like that too. This has been great and I love... You can come back any time, Heather, kind to us. Thank you so much for your time, but some great advice on that, and again, you're really relevant as well, unfortunately, but fortunately, because being kind but talking about our weight and tackling it, but we really appreciate your knowledge and look forward to having you on again, but in the meantime, you can get more information on Heather and on her website, St. Joe dot org, and we look forward to your next visit. Thank you so much.

Thanks for listening to the mother's market radio show, and for shopping at mother's market, the advice and informational content does not necessarily represent the views of mother's market and kitchen, mother's recommends consulting your health professional for your personal medical condition, E.