The Psychology of Eating Podcast

When it comes to weight loss, so many of us feel that we need to restrict our food, punish the body with exercise, and be in a constant state of worry. We expect our weight loss journey to be an ongoing battle where we can never truly relax and live. But there's a much better way. In this episode, Marc David works with guest podcast client David, and challenges the belief that weight and health go...

So many of us are trying to lose weight.  We can put all of our energy, our heart and soul, into fulfilling what seems like a simple desire - just lose a bunch of body fat. When our efforts aren't working though, things can get complicated. We can become a bit anxious, and adopt the kind of beliefs that are intended to motivate us, but actually hold us back. These beliefs can include:   I'm not go...

When it comes to weight, many people can identify with the concept of "weight extremism" – otherwise known as yo-yo dieting.  We're "all in" with our health commitments, whether that's daily exercise, a healthy diet, getting to bed early every night. We analyze, assess – and maybe even obsess about – every little morsel of food we put into our mouth. And then, well – life happens. Tragedy happens....

Food is so much more than just fuel for our bodies. It's also a powerful connector.  Food brings us together with family and friends, and allows us to express and receive love and appreciation, spark new relationships, create memories, discover and care for the world around us, and even navigate and explore our inner emotional and spiritual landscape. Because food helps us feel connected, we may a...

Our culture is quick to praise dramatic weight loss. But it rarely acknowledges the heaviness that so often lingers afterward – the fear of gaining it all back. When we're afraid of being overweight, it's easy to see food as the enemy. We'll often try to skip meals and deny our appetite. And it seems to make sense … After all, it's food that makes us gain weight, right?  The challenge is, when we...

When we're facing a chronic health challenge, one of the great ways to help ourselves is to turn to food and diet. So many of us have had great success when using the "food as medicine" approach. But what happens when our healing diet routine feels too restrictive?  And how do we reconcile our need to avoid certain foods with our natural desire for freedom and exploration? These are just some of t...

When it comes to food and weight, many of us have learned to treat our bodies as a kind of machine.  We know what our Body Mass Index (BMI) "should" be, and we strive to stay within it. We may severely restrict our caloric intake, increase our weekly exercise to the point of exhaustion, or take other extreme measures to lose weight. And here's the thing: these efforts often work, but the cost can...

For so many of us, numbers hold power. Whether it's our bank account, the calories on our plate, or our final exam score, we give tremendous meaning to numbers. But there's one number we often give the greatest meaning of all – and that's our weight. Most of us have a "number" in mind for what we "should" weigh, and we tend to believe in it wholeheartedly. We can place almost mystical significance...

One thing we learn very early in our journey with food and body is that everyone's got an opinion. We find no shortage of health and nutrition experts offering a variety of strong, and often conflicting, perspectives too. About healthy eating. About the ideal weight and body shape. About what we're doing wrong. "But who is right? Will it work for me? What if it doesn't?" And so we try everything –...

Regrets. They're something all of us have experienced over the years.  Whether it's not following a dream career, missing out on the trip of a lifetime, or wishing you had been able to say that final goodbye, regrets can be truly hard to move on from.  As we explore in this episode, our regrets and disappointments in life can not only be difficult to get over, they can end up massively influencing...

When it comes to weight, most of us are focused on improving our physical metabolism. We've been taught to think that weight loss is largely about reducing our caloric intake and increasing our daily exercise.  But what's often not talked about are the role of hidden negative emotions in our weight journey. We may acknowledge the importance of processing and integrating emotions like anger and dep...

In this episode, we explore how, for some people, the lifelong desire to lose weight can reflect an unconscious attempt to "fix" parts of ourselves that we think are broken or somehow wrong – something that is common for those of us who have endured childhood trauma or abuse.  As we know, childhood abuse and trauma can take many forms. And for too many, the effects of that abuse linger on well int...

Many of us have had the thought, "I just want to feel comfortable in my own skin."  But have you ever stopped and truly considered this phrase? When we talk about feeling comfortable in our skin, we're usually thinking about our weight. We want to be thinner, have a flatter belly, or trimmer thighs. We're eager to feel good in our clothes, and want to like what we see in the mirror. And it seems l...

Ask anyone who has diabetes what it's like living with this disease, and you'll probably hear a lot. … About the hundreds of decisions that have to be made on a daily basis to manage their condition. … About how scary it often is knowing that blood sugar dysregulation can be life-threatening. … About how depressing it can be knowing this is a lifelong condition. … And about how exhausting it is to...

In this episode, we explore some of the gifts and hidden messages our health challenges are here to teach us. For 56-year old Lynn, there's been a lot of adjustment to her previously active lifestyle since sustaining a knee injury. Previously, Lynn was very active and has always enjoyed helping others. But since her injury, she's been in such pain that she isn't moving her body like she did before...

In this week's episode, Marc works with 52-year old Hulya on the important topic of how we learn to manage stress and regulate our emotions, so that we can experience the most optimal conditions for health. And Marc takes a special look at anxiety, constipation, and midsection weight gain, including some of the hidden wisdom these conditions have for us.  As researchers have discovered, there's a...

Let's be honest: trying to figure out what's best to eat for our unique body – and stick to it – can be really hard. So can trying to lose weight. If we're not careful, our whole life can become dominated by food, what to eat – and what not to eat, trying to be "good," and constant thoughts about our diet.  Diet anxiety can happen to all of us, and it often drives us to what Marc David, founder of...

If you've ever tried to lose weight, you know it's not so easy. In fact, it can be incredibly challenging (just look at all the billions of dollars we collectively spend on weight loss every year).  So that begs the question: why is losing weight so hard? While challenges with weight loss are multifactorial, today we look at one of the hidden psychological obstacles that often gets in the way. And...

Do you love going against the rules? If so, you might have a strong "inner rebel" – an archetype that lives inside us, and can unwittingly make us go against our own best interests, especially when it comes to our health. As Marc David explores in this episode, our inner rebel is often behind the scenes unconsciously making choices for us about things like diet, exercise, sleep hygiene, and so muc...

When it comes to emotional eating, so many of us focus on the habit itself -- the mindless munching on potato chips or the quick relief from a piece of chocolate -- without considering the emotions that drive the behavior in the first place. In this episode, we explore the true root cause of emotional eating (our emotions) -- and the role of the criminal mind in driving us to engage in this unwant...

In this episode, we explore stress eating – a type of emotional eating – from the perspective of eating psychology. But first, for those unfamiliar with the term 'eating psychology,' a quick definition: eating psychology is the study of our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about food and body. It's a positive and transformational approach that views our eating challenges as an opportunity to learn...

In the weight loss world, the concept of a weight "set point" is pretty common. Meaning, our bodies seem to have an intrinsic natural weight that can be different for each of us. For many of us, that natural "set point" isn't what we think it should be. We want a lower set point weight than we have, so we'll often fight the body and make Herculean efforts to lose weight. And while you'll find lots...

In this episode, we meet 53-year old Lydia, who has been dieting for 40 years. As an adolescent, Lydia developed anxiety about how her body was developing, as is often common for girls and boys at that age. Aerobics was becoming hugely popular at that time in the 1980s, diet culture was booming, and Lydia embraced it all with the hopes that she could shapeshift into the lean, long-legged body type...

Ahvanya, 27, from Goa, India, has one wish when it comes to food and body: to never engage in negative self-talk again. Meaning, she would always trust herself with food, and she would never again judge her appearance. She would simply feel good about herself and feel confident all the time.  But is it realistic to think we can somehow stop the negative internal chatter, all those voices that tell...

Good health is the foundation for every other wonderful thing we could want in life: relationships, career, wealth, happiness, and so much more.  But striving for good health, like anything else, can be taken to its extreme.  One of the manifestations of this is orthorexia, a type of eating challenge hyper-focused on making only the very healthiest of food choices. On paper that can seem like a go...