47: Are you an emotional or binge eater? Psychologist Glenn Mackintosh says this could be your superpower.

00:00:00:05 - 00:00:24:09

Lyndi

Okay. I would like to tell you, your your weight is not the problem. It really isn't. I know you've been made to think your weight is a problem your entire life, but honestly, it's just been a red herring making you focus on diets that really suck and your weight is not. The problem is the title of my new book and I would really like you to read it if you've ever been made to feel like you need to worry about your weight that you're fixating on your weight is going to help you lose weight, which is nonsense.

00:00:24:16 - 00:00:47:12

Lyndi

This is the book you need to read. We tackle body image. We help you with practical strategies to feel normal, relaxed, and freedom around food, which are all fabulous things you also deserve. Please go to my website,  Cohen dot com and check out my new book. It's available from all great retailers. Please check it out. Hey everyone and welcome to today's episode of the new Wellness Wankery Podcast.

00:00:47:12 - 00:01:10:17

Lyndi

And today I'm just I'm very tough because I've got a very special guest with me. It's Mackintosh. You might know him. I hope you know him. And if he don't stay is going to be a great chance you get to get to know him. Glen Mackintosh is a psychologist and he is he's seriously passionate about healthy eating, about physical activity, about weight and body image and all this stuff that I also care about.

00:01:10:17 - 00:01:38:21

Lyndi

He's the author of the bestselling book The Insanity, which is Seven Steps to Transform Your Mindset and Say Goodbye to dieting Forever, which you know I'm all about. He's also the founder of the Weight Management Psychology Clinic and the creator of the Transformation Support Community, which is a seriously brilliant online program. You'll also find him on YouTube, and I do recommend that you check out his YouTube videos because they are seriously informative and helpful, just like everything that he does.

00:01:39:09 - 00:01:41:24

Lyndi

So Glynn, thanks for coming on today's show.

00:01:42:13 - 00:01:48:17

Glenn

Lyndi, what a wonderful intro and I'm always loving talking to you and I'm excited.

00:01:48:17 - 00:02:09:00

Lyndi

I'm excited too, because when you and I can go on and on about all this stuff, because we care about things, we care about the same things. Emotional eating is something that both you and I work in and we really want to help people overcome emotional eating. So I want to talk to you about it today. You and I did some filming recently and in one of the videos you taught me something you talked about.

00:02:09:00 - 00:02:17:13

Lyndi

This idea of emotional eating is kind of like double dipping on a bad mood. And I wonder if you could explain that to us.

00:02:17:13 - 00:02:41:16

Glenn

Yeah, absolutely. I do sometimes talk about emotional letting, being like double dipping on a bad mood. So, you know, emotional eating starts when my feeling, quote unquote, bad, not bad, but some type of uncomfortable feelings. And that might be like stress or sadness or loneliness or one of the zillion unpleasant emotions that are part of our contract. That was so startling.

00:02:41:16 - 00:03:07:05

Glenn

I was feeling uncomfortable. And then what we try to do is we try and use to food to soothe that discomfort, either to distracted or to numb it out or to push it down to escape from it, which makes a lot of sense. And it isn't normal and the natural thing to do, but there is no nutritional solution to an emotional problem.

00:03:07:05 - 00:03:19:19

Glenn

So, you know, if your body is hungry, if it's needing nutrition, then food is a really good answer. But if you're experiencing unpleasant emotions, then food is not necessarily a great answer in the long term.

00:03:19:22 - 00:03:27:03

Lyndi

It is kind of like putting a Band-Aid on. When you've got a headache, it's like it's just not the right solution for the problem.

00:03:27:21 - 00:03:50:04

Glenn

We're not we're not using the right tool for the job. But unfortunately and I know that you know about this and a lot of your your audience know about this, Lyndi, with the rules that we associate with having to eat a certain way and feeling guilty for overeating or, you know, eating certain foods or overeating might not be in line with our values of, you know, eating healthily or nourishing our bodies.

00:03:50:17 - 00:04:12:13

Glenn

But not only is it an ineffective strategy, like using a Band-Aid for a headache, but it actually often makes you feel worse. It's like now, you know, you might get say, if you're feeling stressed, you ate, you don't feel stressed for a short period of time. And the research shows us that we often and this is why we do it, of course, because it does relieve those feelings often, quite effectively in the short term.

00:04:13:05 - 00:04:31:08

Glenn

But then as soon as we stop eating, typically those feelings come back. So now I'm stressed again, but now I've got a side order of guilt or frustration with myself. So that's why I say it's like it's not only is it not very effective at solving the problem, you're actually eight times out of ten making yourself feel worse.

00:04:32:04 - 00:04:49:22

Lyndi

Oh, I love it is I was I was in like keep it real community. And we were having a chat about the idea that some people in the group talks about how they use food as a punishment for themselves. In a way, it's almost like, I don't know, almost like, well, you've messed up already. We're just going to double down and and then we'll have to get back on track.

00:04:49:22 - 00:05:03:24

Lyndi

So I think there's so many ways that we're using food as a, as an emotional crutch that doesn't really serve us. But I think one of the things you talk about is this idea of emotional eating actually being a gift. Can you talk to us about that?

00:05:03:24 - 00:05:27:00

Glenn

I can absolutely talk to you about that. But I think sometimes when I start to talk about that, people are like, is this God lost his mind? As you said, I'm a psychologist who specializes. I run a clinic full of psychologists and we all work in eating physical activity, weight and body image. And most of our clients don't at least initially think that their emotional eating is a great gift.

00:05:27:00 - 00:05:48:21

Glenn

They tend to feel a lot of other ways about it. But let me see if I can convince you straight. I don't know if you feel this vitality. I think a lot of us feel this way at times is that sometimes we just kind of just meander or crew is through life and we're not as in touch with our emotions as we could be.

00:05:49:07 - 00:06:13:00

Glenn

We're not as as maybe honoring of our deep desires and our wants and needs as we could be. We're maybe not as acknowledging of the changes that we could make in our lives to make them better. Now, the good news is because if you kind of establish that emotional eating is about mood, not about food, it's an emotional thing.

00:06:13:00 - 00:06:34:10

Glenn

It's not actually a food thing. If we can can accept that it's about mood, then what that really means is that whenever we have this emotional pull to food, so we're wanting to eat certain foods and we know that our body is not hungry, we might not even want to taste that food. It might be like, I'm just eating, I'm not even enjoying the food.

00:06:35:02 - 00:06:58:09

Glenn

Or sometimes if we're eating a whole variety of foods in the fridge and nothing is kind of cutting it, you know, if we're getting those urges and we feel like it might be an emotional eating pole, then all emotional eating boils down to one of three things or a combination of these three things. There are some unpleasant emotions that are in there that we want to resolve.

00:06:59:07 - 00:07:33:09

Glenn

There are some unmet wants and needs that we're trying probably unsuccessfully to meet with food, or there are some changes in our life that might be small changes or big changes that need to happen to kind of make us feel like we're back to to ourselves, back to our best selves, back to zero centered. And the cool thing is, as an emotional error, if any of this is happening, if there are some unpleasant feelings, you've got to resolve some of wants and needs that it need to be fulfilled or some changes that you need to make in your life.

00:07:33:22 - 00:07:54:16

Glenn

Then you get this really clear signal and the signal comes in the form of that non hungry desire to eat. I just want to emotionally aid that. So it's kind of like I think of it like a present that's wrapped up. It doesn't come. It comes in the form of a food craving. So you need to unwrap it and see what's going on underneath there.

00:07:54:18 - 00:08:12:21

Lyndi

It's so good because your body is constantly trying to give you clues about how to look after it in emotional eating is a very clear signal from your body to say, Hey, there's something else we've got to check out here. And rather than try to double down and try harder to beat the emotional eating, the emotional eating is a symptom.

00:08:13:02 - 00:08:17:02

Lyndi

It's not really the problem to be fixing. It's that what you're saying as well?

00:08:17:04 - 00:08:41:22

Glenn

100%. And so in that way and I think you're exactly right, because if you're just using your willpower to fight against these urges, that's going to take a lot of effort. And you're probably going to end up not being successful and then blaming yourself. But I think that's a wonderful way to put it. Linda, is it our bodies, our minds, our emotions are always giving us information.

00:08:42:11 - 00:09:09:09

Glenn

And if we can interpret that desire to emotionally aid not as a sign that we're lazy or that we're terrible people, or even that we have a poor relationship with food. But a sign that my, my, what's going on inside is trying to tell me something, then we can actually use our emotions as signposts. So if I'm feeling lonely, what?

00:09:09:09 - 00:09:29:06

Glenn

I probably don't need food. I need to find some way to connect in a meaningful way. If I'm feeling bored, I don't need to eat necessarily at that time. I need to find something inspiring or something that's going to absorb me, something that's going to occupy my mind.

00:09:29:06 - 00:09:48:03

Lyndi

So instead of like when you go when you like finish emotional eating, instead of being like, Have I really screwed up? Why did I do that again? It's rather Hey, thanks. That was actually cute. Cool. I know. I now need something. I need to work on something. And reframing that in your mind can help you eliminate that guilt and at least minimize it a little bit.

00:09:48:03 - 00:10:09:06

Lyndi

I always think about emotional eating and binge eating, particularly as a protective a protective response. It's like your body is trying to look after you. It's a very normal reaction to have after feelings of restriction or intense things happening in your life. So rather than seeing it as you saying it's like this awful thing that's happened, that's actually something that's that's here to serve you and help you.

00:10:09:12 - 00:10:12:21

Lyndi

And if we're reframing like that sounds like what you're saying is that's really helpful.

00:10:12:21 - 00:10:35:23

Glenn

Yeah, absolutely. And so then you can, you know, if you get good at unpacking these emotional urges, you actually get better at resolving your unpleasant emotions. You get better at meeting your wants and needs. You get better at making the important changes in your life so you can actually use this information because inside your emotions is this treasure trove of information telling you where to go in life.

00:10:35:23 - 00:10:47:01

Glenn

You can think of your emotions like signposts, and if you get really good at paying attention to the signposts, you actually create a better life than the one you would have if you weren't an emotional leader.

00:10:47:02 - 00:11:03:12

Lyndi

Oh, I'm learning a lot. I'm loving it. So one of the concepts you've talked about before is this idea that the cure for emotional eating is having a great life and on why working on our psychology and how we feel about ourselves and in ourselves is so important. What are your thoughts?

00:11:03:20 - 00:11:28:23

Glenn

Yeah, yeah. It's you know, sometimes we think that, you know, the a treatment for emotional eating might be something like practicing meditation or going for a walk instead or connecting with someone and deeper downloading your day and having a chat. And those things are all wonderful. That's for a lot of people. That's the start of transcending emotional eating.

00:11:28:23 - 00:11:50:08

Glenn

But we often say that the cure for emotional eating is having a great life, having a life that is so rich and full and meaningful that there just isn't a whole lot of space for emotional eating. And so this is where we you know, often because like I have a psychologist who specializes in eating physical activity, right. And body of it.

00:11:50:13 - 00:12:11:03

Glenn

And sometimes our clients will say, Oh, Glenn, I've got something going on with my relationship, or there's some big decision I've got to make at work. Or, Jeez, I've been feeling really in a funk slightly. I think I might be depressed and sometimes say to ourselves, I can I talk with you about that? Because you're really like the food psych?

00:12:11:07 - 00:12:40:03

Glenn

And we say, Yes, absolutely. You probably have to talk with us about that because if you've got all of this stuff going on in your life, like let's use, you know, this really terrible, chaotic example of someone who has problems in their relation and ship, who is not sure about their direction in life, who might have a like a chronically depressed mood going for a walk or having a glass of water instead is not going to tackle that.

00:12:41:18 - 00:12:44:07

Lyndi

With a ten minute meditation that includes things that.

00:12:44:10 - 00:12:45:04

Glenn

Are going to fix it.

00:12:45:06 - 00:13:04:17

Lyndi

And so the way I think about this as well, what you're saying is when we get preoccupied by food and trying to fix food and when we think it's the problem, we actually all we do is we we ruminate around food and how to fix it. Instead of actually living a big, juicy, amazing life. We actually pull back from social occasions.

00:13:04:23 - 00:13:25:11

Lyndi

We might, you know, avoid carbohydrates and then turn up as our, like, most angry, cranky selves. And it doesn't help our lives at all. But when our when our brain space is so occupied by what we're allowed to eat all the time, what we're do is we're doing the exact opposite of what we should be doing. We're limiting our lives.

00:13:25:11 - 00:13:42:17

Lyndi

We're living small. And what you're saying is actually the it that's kind of like the band aid on the headache thing but we need to be treating is is is mood instead of thinking about it it's a it's a food problem it's a it's a mood thing that we need to work on our mood and making a life is glorious and fulfilling as it can be.

00:13:42:20 - 00:14:15:10

Glenn

Absolutely. And something you really touched on there, Linda, is diet, culture and diet mentality. We know that dieting mindset is related to emotional eating. So to me, if we want to get nerdy about it, there's a 20 to 30. There's a point to to value, a point to to a correlation between emotional eating and dieting mindset, which means that if you're an emotional aid, are speaking in generalities, 22% of you are emotional eating.

00:14:15:10 - 00:14:32:00

Glenn

So about a fifth, almost a quarter can be explained by having a diet mindset. So that's why all that great stuff that you do in helping people cultivate a healthy relationship with food and see themselves as much more than their weight or shape is actually so important.

00:14:32:06 - 00:14:52:18

Lyndi

But it really sounds like you're saying is that working on removing diet culture from our lives is one part of the puzzle piece to helping us reduce emotional eating and eventually hopefully stop it. So it's not saying that controls us anymore. One of the things I've heard you talk talk about or I'd love to hear you talk about it more, is the two systems in our mind.

00:14:52:18 - 00:15:01:13

Lyndi

So talking about impulsive and reflective and the importance of emotional hygiene, what even is that? Well, tell us how this plays.

00:15:01:23 - 00:15:28:20

Glenn

Yeah. So this is where it it are changing a lot of habits, but something like emotional eating can be a bit tricky. So, you know, a lot of people will be thinking, okay, hopefully you're kind of to some degree, you pick it up what we're putting down. But then you're thinking, okay, well, I might have the best kind of laid plans to say if I, for example, say, if I get home and I feel a little bit lonely, I might live by myself.

00:15:29:03 - 00:15:54:06

Glenn

I'm going to make a plan to, rather than eat the food, take the dog out for a walk. And while I do that common, that's not like a perfectly good strategy. Right? But as we know, we don't always do those strategies. And sometimes some of my clients will feel like they're in two minds when it comes to making eating choices.

00:15:54:15 - 00:16:14:09

Glenn

You know, one mind will be saying very logically and rationally, why don't you do that strategy and get outside, get a bit of vitamin D, connect with the dog, connect with mom. And then the other part of the mind, it's like, yeah, go to the that but stuff it still want to eat the chocolate cake and sometimes my clients have been like, am I crazy?

00:16:14:09 - 00:16:48:11

Glenn

And so a lot of my clients get a bit crazy around food. And the good news is you're not crazy if you feel like you're in too mind because there are actually two parts of your mind that are making eating decisions at any given time and making actually any decisions. This is this holds true for any decisions. So we've got that what we call the reflective system, and that is the logical, slow thinking brain, the brain that realizes the consequences of our actions and will choose the best consequences for the situation.

00:16:49:17 - 00:17:18:18

Glenn

And then we have the impulse of brain, and that's the brain that happens very quickly. It happens instinctively, it's non logical by a system. It's an emotional based system and often that impulsive system is actually is actually running the show. So that's why sometimes we have these best plan stage intentions, but then say we get home, we've had a long day, we're stressed, we're feeling emotional.

00:17:18:18 - 00:17:30:00

Glenn

That impulsive brain is taking over. And then we're thinking like, I get there might be 50 strategies that I could do that are not emotion hating, but I just don't care. I want to just do the emotional eating thing.

00:17:30:17 - 00:17:47:07

Lyndi

I think so many people are sitting is going to be able to go. I know exactly what you're talking about. One prime example that comes up quite often for me and my clients is, is, you know, when you make yourself a healthy lunch ahead of the day, which is kind of like your reflective pot, and then you get to lunch time.

00:17:47:13 - 00:18:11:18

Lyndi

And the impulsive part of you is like, I don't really feel like eating. That's a really healthy salad. Yeah, I actually want to have a burger. And so we have this conflict. And what you're saying is like a conflict between your current self and future self and the aspirations. And then, you know, we might put out our workout clothes and then the alarm goes off in the morning and we just like, bugger it, I don't want to sleep in what is.

00:18:12:00 - 00:18:24:05

Lyndi

I mean, I know there's probably no quick, easy fix for any of this stuff, but is there a way that we bring those two selves closer together? Is there a way that we kind of find the midway point between the two selves? What are your thoughts?

00:18:24:12 - 00:18:40:04

Glenn

I think there's a really cool implication in there that you sort of said, is there a way that we can get those two parts sort of talking to each other more nicely? And I think that's a really great way to look at it. We don't want to think of these parts as warring parties. These parts are really healthy parts of our brain.

00:18:40:04 - 00:19:04:23

Glenn

The reflective system it helps us reflect and forward plan, make really conscious decisions and the impulsive decisions one helps us make instinct of decisions. It helps us make habitual decisions so we don't have to think so much. So they both are really, really good. And here is one of the real paradoxes and also within this is that the answers are a really good answer as to what can help us.

00:19:05:17 - 00:19:35:15

Glenn

Because one of the key things that that can help us is if we understand that when we're feeling lots of unpleasant emotions. So really intense, unpleasant emotions, ongoing unpleasant emotions, conditions with our mood, what that does is it affects the balance of the reflective system and the impulsive system. And what it does is probably not surprisingly, it makes the impulsive system more active and it turns down the reflective system.

00:19:35:15 - 00:19:51:13

Glenn

So if we're feeling a lot of persistent, intense, recurring, unpleasant emotions, our impulsive system, which is the part that will lead us to emotional eating, is actually going to be turned right up in our reflective system is to turn right down.

00:19:51:21 - 00:20:01:09

Lyndi

So it's almost like when we're in a really high stress situation or we're not sleeping enough, we're going to get a dial down on this reflective pot and.

00:20:01:17 - 00:20:02:06

Glenn

100%.

00:20:02:13 - 00:20:28:19

Lyndi

That some way prioritizing sleep is might feel like this crazy either unrelated to food but prioritizing sleep is going to help us with that feeling more settled, feeling more of peace, making those decisions that benefit us more in the future. And I think sometimes people are overlooking how great an impact stress in your mood and what you're saying and how much stress, sleep and quality sleep, how much it plays into mood regulation and therefore what you end up eating and how you end up exercising.

00:20:29:01 - 00:20:51:09

Glenn

100%. Absolutely. And I think that that's that's what I call emotional hygiene. It's we need to be looking at and I think about like if you think about like the hygiene of brushing your teeth, you know, you don't wait until your teeth are all like they're falling out to be like, Oh, I might brush my teeth. You brush them every day so you have less problems.

00:20:51:09 - 00:21:16:13

Glenn

And when you do, they're easier to deal with. So that's absolutely what it is. It's, it's looking at things like your sleep, managing medications, looking at regular practices that help your mood like physical activity or meditation or whatever you want to do. So you're creating the right brain environment, the right reflective, impulsive balance to be able to make good choices.

00:21:16:13 - 00:21:41:07

Glenn

Because if you don't do the emotional hygiene, I say it's like showing up to the game without having done any training. You know, it's like, Oh, now I'm at the fridge and I'm trying to make this choice to, I don't know, say cook something nutritious versus, you know, eat whatever is really, really delicious and make is going to make us feel like crap or whatever it is.

00:21:41:20 - 00:22:02:05

Glenn

And but we're tired because we haven't slept well last night, but overly stressed. We haven't moved our bodies. We haven't done any of that emotional hygiene. It's going to be super, super tough, super tough to do, but even tougher to do consistently. So you can form that into a new habit that will last forever.

00:22:02:08 - 00:22:36:18

Lyndi

I wish more people understood the importance of looking after their mental well-being proactively, preventatively, even seeing a psychologist as something that we just use to maintain that emotional hygiene. I know so many really impressive, high achieving humans. They will seek out a psychologist and have them as someone they're often speaking to. And I think we don't need to wait until we feel like we're drowning or feel like we're with, you know, our teeth are falling out before we go and seek a psychologist.

00:22:36:18 - 00:23:02:20

Lyndi

And I think the thing I'm always speaking to all my clients about this, this idea of what want to be seeing like a non diet dietitian like me and using the things, the programs and apps that I create for you. But seeing someone at the same time like Glenn, a psychologist who specializes in this area and not just someone like a, you know, a general psychologist, although that's also useful depending on what you're getting help with, but specifically of disordered eating, body image, weight struggles.

00:23:02:20 - 00:23:23:16

Lyndi

If this feels like something that you'd like to change, speaking to a psychologist and Glenn's team up, brilliant. I would I would highly recommend them is kind of something that you can do to change the game and to get back into that point where we're not just acting reactively, but you're proactively looking after your your mental your emotional hygiene.

00:23:23:19 - 00:23:41:06

Glenn

Absolutely. And that's something you speak a lot about. Lyndi. You speak openly about the importance of mental health and your mental health. And I think that's so important. You know, we say that psychology is like saying I'm a mechanic. You know, you can see a mechanic for when your car breaks down, you kind of need to see one.

00:23:41:18 - 00:24:03:23

Glenn

Or you can see one just for a tuna every now and then. Or you can see one for performance enhancement. So there's nothing necessarily wrong. You get to see them because you want to get better at something. And I agree with you completely. I think that so. And that's why I think, Linda, so many of our people are the same people because people know this and these challenges are psycho dietetic.

00:24:04:02 - 00:24:17:01

Glenn

There's so much of the psychology and the dietetics intertwine. And the combo of a non diet dietitian and a psychologist who has a real interest in this space can be absolutely game changing.

00:24:17:06 - 00:24:36:05

Lyndi

It is seriously. It seriously can be. And that would be my recommendation to everyone. I always think about you go to gym for your body, right? And then what do you actually do to look after your brain, which is the the organ dictating everything? It's the most important organ that you have to look after. And I think we should probably be doing that.

00:24:36:05 - 00:24:50:13

Lyndi

Glenn, before we finish up, I did want to get one more concept out of you, which is the importance of emotional regulation and emotional acceptance. So this is that idea of changing and accepting your emotions. But I want to hear from you. Please tell us about it. Yeah.

00:24:50:16 - 00:25:13:16

Glenn

Yep. Often, of course, like we said, emotional eating starts with some unpleasant emotions. And I even kind of use the term quite, quite on quite bad because I feel bad, but that doesn't mean they are bad. So often what we will do is, you know, if you're feeling some unpleasant emotions, a great strategy is to look to resolve or to reduce those emotions.

00:25:13:18 - 00:25:41:19

Glenn

So that's what we call emotion regulation. So, for example, if I'm stressed, how do I calm myself down without food? But even if we get really, really good at regulating our emotions, unpleasant emotions are natural, normal, healthy part of living life. So it's no normal for us to feel sad at times. It's normal for us to feel anxious and worried.

00:25:41:19 - 00:26:15:01

Glenn

It's normal for us to feel lonely or regretful or guilty. And these can actually be really helpful, healthy, positive emotions, even though they don't feel positive. So emotion regulation is often where we go first. It's like, I want to feel better, quote unquote. But if our only aim is to feel better, then when we inevitably feel some of those unpleasant emotions that we can't get rid of and we don't have any other strategies, we always go back to food.

00:26:15:01 - 00:26:39:09

Glenn

But if we develop the ability to make space for these emotions, to actually allow our bodies to process the emotions, because the good news is that all emotions last forever. Emotions will naturally process through our bodies. We don't actually have to do anything. We just have to make space for those emotions as they come and they go naturally.

00:26:39:18 - 00:27:05:20

Glenn

Then we get to the point where emotion or what we call emotional acceptance or sometimes emotional expansion, making space for the emotions that becomes the backstop. So then if I can say, if I'm really, really stressed and I can practice and meditation and some positive thinking and my stress goes down beautiful, but say I'm feeling really, really stressed and it's a problem that doesn't have an immediate solution.

00:27:06:03 - 00:27:28:22

Glenn

And I'm going to be stressed for the next couple of weeks until that solution comes eventuate. Then the backstop becomes, I can just make room for that stress. I don't have to judge myself for feeling stressed. I don't have to try and get rid of it with emotional eating or any other of the sometimes less effective ways that we can use to try and regulate our moods.

00:27:29:04 - 00:27:40:17

Glenn

I can just make room for this feeling. I don't have to like it necessarily, but I can just make room for it knowing that it will come and it will go of its own time. And it's not bad, it's just normal.

00:27:41:11 - 00:28:05:13

Lyndi

So it's like recognizing kind of to sometimes using emotional eating to recognize that there is actually something else at play or recognizing or I'm feeling angry right now rather than pushing against it and trying to fight it, you're accepting to acknowledge it and even just becoming mindful of it. That can already create a little bit more space for it, which is so much better than pushing against to try to fix it, blaming yourself for feeling these things and feeling awful.

00:28:05:13 - 00:28:09:04

Lyndi

And then it just becomes a whole a big beast that it didn't need to be.

00:28:09:09 - 00:28:35:03

Glenn

Absolutely. And and you're absolutely right, Linda, mindful this is the perfect first step to make some space with your feelings, because what is mindfulness? It's a non-judgmental observation of what's going on now. So you're already observing. Oh, geez. I'm feeling pretty stressed right now. I'm feeling quite lonely. I'm feeling very sad, but without the judgment. So and of course, there's the nonjudgmental part and then there's the observation.

00:28:35:10 - 00:28:40:04

Glenn

So this part of you observing your stress, you're no longer completely caught up in your stress.

00:28:40:09 - 00:29:02:09

Lyndi

Game changing stuff. That's step one is mindfulness. If you want to hit all the other steps, I do encourage you to check out Glenn Mackintosh. I really hope you do. I'm such a big fan and I would talk to you about this for hours. And we do often. I'm Glenn. Where can we all check you out? Find out more.

00:29:02:24 - 00:29:13:08

Lyndi

And I know you've got a whole bunch of free stuff as well that you create because you truly do care about helping people recover from emotional eating and all the good stuff that you do. Where can we find you?

00:29:13:09 - 00:29:23:00

Glenn

Yeah, I think, you know, speaking of seeing a psychologist, my team is great. You can find us at www Weight Management Psychology dot com. Okay you.

00:29:23:13 - 00:29:25:16

Lyndi

Check the show notes I'll pop that in the show notes equals.

00:29:26:19 - 00:29:48:01

Glenn

You know speaking of the important piece of mind set which I could talk about all that we get to wrap forever. We have a cool little free e-book called The Missing Piece because I think sometimes wants it is the missing piece of the puzzle. So maybe we can put that in the show notes. People could download that it's just seven hacks for eating movement, weight and body image.

00:29:48:01 - 00:29:52:13

Lyndi

Amazing. Yeah. Go to the show notes. I'll pop that in there as well because I want you to be able to tap that beautiful.

00:29:52:20 - 00:30:12:01

Glenn

And one other thing could be that we actually have a really cool mindset quiz. This one does take about 20 minutes, but you can actually measure your level of, say, for example, emotional eating as well as diet mindset and intuitive eating, body image, all the stuff that our people are interested in and and see where you're at with it.

00:30:12:07 - 00:30:22:00

Glenn

And then you can actually, you know, play around with some of these ideas. And then a couple of months, see, has my emotional eating reduced, has my intuitive eating increased? So that'll be a cool thing to check out too.

00:30:22:13 - 00:30:37:08

Lyndi

That'll be really cool. I've heard from people who listen to the podcast who said I didn't even know that I was emotional eating or binge eating. And since listening to you, I realized that this is something. So, especially if you're at that point, you can go, how you know, is this within the realm of normal? Where am I at?

00:30:37:08 - 00:30:43:04

Lyndi

What do I need to do next? That's a really great thing for you to do. I'll put that all in the show notes and also to follow you on Instagram.

00:30:43:04 - 00:30:52:03

Glenn

Your my handle is Glenn Mackintosh. I say that because both of my names are spelt wrong or different.

00:30:52:11 - 00:30:53:23

Lyndi

So it's like, yeah, yeah.

00:30:54:07 - 00:30:56:06

Glenn

Yeah. Take that on Instagram and say hello.

00:30:56:19 - 00:31:00:18

Lyndi

Go check out Glenn. Glen is brilliant. Glenn, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

00:31:00:18 - 00:31:01:15

Glenn

Thanks so much for having me.

00:31:01:15 - 00:31:08:13

Lyndi

Hey everyone.

00:31:08:13 - 00:31:26:15

Lyndi

And before we get started in the podcast episode, I just want to tell you a little bit about how I might be able to help you if you want to get a healthy relationship with food because oh my goodness, there's a whole lot of stuff that's working against us all the time. Hello, diet culture. So if you ever wanted a little bit more personalized support, check out my program.

00:31:26:15 - 00:31:43:02

Lyndi

Keep it real. Especially if you're struggling with binge eating. If you feel like every Monday you're starting from scratch. If you feel like you know what you should be eating, but you just can't stick to it if you feel like you want to eat healthier. But honestly, it just feels like you're out of control through your face planting into the fridge, all the pantry I can help.

00:31:43:02 - 00:31:59:13

Lyndi

I used to be binge eating and I really do. I do get it. So check out Keep It Real, use the code podcast to get 20% off if you if you get it via the the website. And also I've also got my app called Back to basics. Back to basics is an app to help you be healthy without dieting and will help you work on your body.

00:31:59:13 - 00:32:21:06

Lyndi

Image gives you a whole bunch of hundreds of recipes that are super quick and easy to make so you can just be healthy without having to get obsessed with that at all, without it taking over your life. Because that's the way it should be. Plus, you get mindset support for me inside the app. You also get a whole bunch of workouts that you can do at home, or you can still just do your normal workouts.

00:32:21:06 - 00:32:33:20

Lyndi

But check out back to basics. You can get it for free for seven days. Check out Back to Basics on my website, use the code again podcast, get 20% off and I'd love to see in there. I'd love to see in there. I'd love to see in there.