Episode #52 Make Peace with Food (Part 1) with Sam Blumenthal

Episode #57:

Finding Balance with Food with Sam Blumenthal, RDN

Back by popular demand, we have Sam Blumenthal on the show to continue our discussion about how to make peace with food. We left off last time talking about hunger, and we’re diving deeper into this topic today because hunger has many forms, and once you can start to understand each one, you can start to make real peace with food.

Sam Blumenthal RDN is an amazing chef and licensed Intuitive Eating Dietician. She believes there is value in what we choose to eat, and recommends we give equal attention to the behaviors surrounding how we choose to eat.

Tune in this week to find balance with your food by understanding hunger. We’re discussing how hunger is a part of our body’s innate wisdom, and you’ll learn how to listen to the cues your body is giving you, meet them without judgment, and start giving your body the balance it needs.

WHAT YOU’LL DISCOVER

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The 4 different kinds of hunger we all experience.

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How ignoring your hunger cues isn’t helping you have a healthy relationship with food.

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Why Sam thinks of her hunger cues as her best friends knocking on the door.

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How to hear the hunger cues your body is giving you.

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Why Sam doesn’t find the word “overeating” helpful.

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What real balance around food looks like.

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How to get curious and compassionate when you’re hungry but feel like food isn’t the answer.

FEATURED ON THE SHOW

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Sam Blumenthal: Instagram | TikTok

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EP 52: Make Peace with Food (Part 1) with Sam Blumenthal

TRANSCRIPT

Sam: Tapping into having an awareness of what hunger is speaking, and honoring that hunger non-judgmentally when we're feeling that gentle hunger whispering at us can start to rebuild that sense of body trust.

Welcome to Becoming Virtuosa the podcast with Dr. Susan Crockett. You are listening to episode number 57, make peace with food episode two. Back by popular demand is a continuation of our prior episode with licensed intuitive eating dietician Sam Blumenthal RDN.

Welcome to Becoming Virtuosa, the podcast that encourages you to become your best virtuosa self. Each week Dr. Susan Crockett goes where the scalpel can't reach, exploring conversations about how to be, heal, love, give, grow, pray, and attune. For the first time ever, she's bringing the personal one on one teaching that she shares with individual patients to you on this broader platform. A weekly source of inspiration and encouragement designed to empower you.

By evolving ourselves as individuals. We influence and transform the world around us. Please help me welcome board certified OB-GYN specializing in minimally invasive GYN surgery, internationally in the top 1% of all GYN robotic surgeons, a certified life coach, and US News top doctor, your host Susan A. Crockett, MD.

Dr. Crockett: We are talking about making peace with food.

Sam: Yes we are.

Dr. Crockett: You mentioned towards the end of the last conversation that we're having. You mentioned the word hunger. So I wanted to give you just a minute to talk about, that's such a topic.

Sam: Right? Kind of the quite profound, beautiful, interesting thing about hunger is there are many different voices and different kinds of hunger, all of which are valid. There is no wrong way.

Dr. Crockett: Are you talking about like hangry is one of them?

Sam: So that falls within a category. So we have four different kinds. The first is a physical or a biological hunger. This is our body's cue that it's in need of fuel. It's in need of energy or food. It's quite interesting because when we are relying on those external cues, right, that might even look like a clock, right? Is it time to eat yet? Or an app determining how much we should or should not be eating, which ties back into our conversation just previously.

We are overlooking our body's innate wisdom and cues. So because physical hunger is a biological cue, just like going to the bathroom, if either one of us or any of our listeners, if you felt the need to use the restroom.

Dr. Crockett: You wouldn’t go oh, it's not time. Yeah, we do in the operating room all the time. We're like no, it's not time yet.

Sam: Special circumstances, right? Special circumstances.

Dr. Crockett: No, but I get what you're saying because I don't trust myself to know my hunger cue and trust it that it's different from the just I want something to eat craving kind of thing, which I'm gonna let you get through the four kinds of hunger then we can get into that.

Sam: Not knowing each of these hungers at first is so valid, and it makes so much sense, especially when it comes to physical hunger. Because if we've spent years ignoring or not honoring our hunger cues, I almost like to imagine our hunger cues. Whether our stomachs growling, or we're feeling a gnawing in our throat or we're even thinking about food. We have headaches or feeling lightheaded. These are just a few examples.

Everybody experiences hunger a little bit differently. It's unique to every individual. It's also unique to us day to day and meal to meal. I like to think of those hunger cues as like my best friend knocking on the door and trying to hang out with me. Right?

Dr. Crockett: That’s so healthy. Sam, you're so stinking healthy.

Sam: I'm in the process of learning how to make peace with food and my body and viewing things in this way, viewing hunger in this way feels really non-judgmental.

Dr. Crockett: Yeah, it does.

Sam: So when my best friend is knocking on the door, years and years of restricting or tightly controlling what it is that I was or was not eating is almost like not answering the door for your best friend. Your friend just wants to hang out with you. Right? So okay, she goes home. She comes back the next day, and she starts knocking. But, again, it's not time to eat whatever the restriction is. Think about years and years of ignoring your best friend. She's gonna kind of get the message and stop coming around.

Dr. Crockett: Really? So it's like downregulating the signal?

Sam: Yeah. We are, I kind of like to call it that our hunger queues might be offline, so to speak. We're not irreparably broken. Just like if our WiFi was to cut out.

Dr. Crockett: That good news.

Sam: Yeah, isn't that great news? Tapping into having an awareness of what hunger is speaking, and honoring that hunger non-judgmentally when we're feeling that gentle hunger whispering at us can start to rebuild that sense of body trust.

Dr. Crockett: Wow. Okay.

Sam: So a way that I like to measure or look at a physical hunger is kind of taking a moment to rate my hunger from one to 10. A meter from one to 10. One is a ravenous, painful, empty hunger, which doesn't feel so physically pleasant, I would say. 10 is very painful, feeling of fullness, almost eating beyond a comfortable fullness.

Dr. Crockett: Okay.

Sam: Kind of just taking a moment to notice where you are on that meter. As human beings, we’ll be on every single number of that meter, right? Morally, there's no wrong or right place to be. The goal is just using a tool like this to flex the muscle of body attunement. To say hey, where am I right now? Because I like to envision that as almost like a bow and an arrow. The longer you pull back and wait until you're all the way at one, what's going to happen when you're finally around food, and you let go?

Dr. Crockett: You become ravenous.

Sam: Eating beyond that place of comfortable fullness. So noticing when we experience a gentle hunger can be a very helpful place to be. But all in all, practical hunger is just a biological physical hunger. Our bodies need for fuel.

Dr. Crockett: All right, so that's the first type of hunger.

Sam: That's the first type of hunger. The second type of hunger is a mouth hunger.

Dr. Crockett: Really? Like my mouth just wants a candy bar?

Sam: Yeah, it's like a mouth or a mental hunger. Something salty? Exactly. So it's a specific aspect of food that you're craving and desiring.

Dr. Crockett: All right.

Sam: So kind of tying in our previous conversation. Letting go of the should. Getting curious about the what do I want? What do I need? I have permission to eat this Snickers bar. Okay, well, if I have a taste for it, let me honor that. Let me practice honoring that while also having awareness over where am I at on my hunger and fullness meter.

Okay, if I arrive to that Snickers bar, and I start opening it, and I'm aware that this is coming from a place of mouth or mental hunger, I have permission to honor that. Then also say okay, maybe I'm a six from one to 10. Like, at a sweet spot, right now. My loving choice may probably be to have a few bites of this bar versus going on autopilot and saying.

Dr. Crockett: I'm eating the whole thing.

Sam: Maybe even a second or a third or a fourth. If that resonates with you, I want you to know that's valid that that's happening. Because if we're coming from a place of restriction, the other side of that is the I'll just go all out because we're not giving ourselves that permission.

Dr. Crockett: Yeah, I hadn't thought of it that way. That when you get to the F it, I'm going to do whatever thing, that's the opposite of the tight discipline, restriction. Balance means being in the space in between.

Sam: It's almost like a pendulum. So on one side if there's this tight control, the other side is out of control. We're almost taught and have more experience bouncing between these two extremes, which is very black and white, which is very all or nothing. What we have an opportunity to do is to live in the gray.

Dr. Crockett: Yep, that’s where it’s at.

Sam: So that's the second kind of hunger.

Dr. Crockett: Okay, what's the third?

Sam: The third kind is practical hunger.

Dr. Crockett: Like I'm gonna go run a marathon. I need some fuel.

Sam: Yeah, that's a wonderful example of what practical hunger can be. Another way that I like to think of practical hunger is like making yourself go to the bathroom before a long road trip just to prevent from future discomfort.

Dr. Crockett: Yep.

Sam: So a helpful guideline is to go no longer than five waking hours without eating something. So if I check in with my hunger and fullness meter, so to speak, at 9:00 a.m., and I'm at like a seven. I'm comfortable. I'm fine. Okay. Now, I'm also going to tap into my rational thinking and say okay, well, I know the next time food will be available is not going to be until after my meetings, after my drive. I'm not going to arrive home until five o'clock at night.

Dr. Crockett: Okay.

Sam: That is a long window of time without eating. So even if I'm not hungry, it might serve me to eat a little something so I don't essentially pull back on that bow and arrow and feel ravenous.

Dr. Crockett: That make sense.

Sam: And/or pack something with me and think ahead. I think we spend more time and attention charging our iPads and our phones than we do tending attending to ourselves.

Dr. Crockett: Yeah.

Sam: So that's practical hunger. Just kind of tying in that awareness from a rational point. Then the fourth is one of my favorites to talk about, which is emotional.

Dr. Crockett: Emotional eating or emotional hunger. We tend to think of it or hear it as emotional overeating, but it doesn't have to be. It’s just emotional hunger. I eat because it makes me feel better.

Sam: You'll notice in a lot of the language, you may or may not have noticed in the language that I use, I've actually worked on removing the phrase overeating.

Dr. Crockett: Yeah, you have. I haven't heard you say it at all.

Sam: I feel that that phrase overeating is describing that there's some arbitrary, perfect number or amount to stop.

Dr. Crockett: Then after that, it's all over.

Sam: The shame and the guilt. If we assess how we're feeling in that moment, maybe I ate beyond a comfortable fullness. Can start to unpack and remove that judgment. So emotional eating is not inherently bad. It's actually one of the beautiful parts of life.

Dr. Crockett: It's okay to emotionally eat.

Sam: 100%.

Dr. Crockett: Oh my gosh.

Sam: That's one of the many purposes of food. Food is meant to also help us soothe and comfort.

Dr. Crockett: I've never, ever heard anybody say that before my whole entire life.

Sam: Perhaps this will provide some reason to it. The two basic human needs that a baby needs is to be held and to be fed. Oftentimes, those two things happen at the exact same time.

Dr. Crockett: Exactly breastfeeding. Hello, even bottle feeding.

Sam: So from birth, we associate something sweet with that sense of comfort or eating for that matter with that sense of comfort. Fast forward to today, we are shaming and blaming and judging ourselves for doing that when that's one of the beauties and the joys of food is tying in that emotional.

Dr. Crockett: It really is. You hear people with long COVID talking about when they've lost their sense of smell and taste, and how that's impacted that part, the enjoyment from eating. It's really alarming and heartbreaking. It’s just Topher.

Sam: That’s Topher getting comfy. Here's the thing. When food becomes our primary and only coping mechanism when things are feeling uncomfortable, and we notice a pattern of eating past a place of comfortable fullness, then this perhaps is an opportunity to start getting curious rather than judgmental and saying okay. There's some unmet need going on here. How can I expand my emotional coping toolkit to say I always have permission to have the food? Is that serving me? Is that helping me? Is that filling that unmet need? Sometimes maybe. Sometimes maybe not.

Dr. Crockett: Yeah.

Sam: So the next question might be okay, how do I do that? So if we notice, we can recognize, oh this is emotional hunger talking right now. Like, maybe it's not the emotional hunger that's serving me in this moment. The first question I like to ask is what emotion am I feeling?

Dr. Crockett: Can you have an emotion wheel?

Sam: I have a feelings wheel.

Dr. Crockett: Oh neat. That’s awesome.

Sam: So yeah, if you're watching this, you'll see, I got this from Amazon. It was meant to be an art piece because I use this to communicate with others. I use this to communicate and better understand myself. I just find it to be a helpful tool. So sweet. Dr. Crockett, if you want to kind of explain for like any listeners, like what does a feelings will look like?

Dr. Crockett: Okay, so we've used this in life coaching also. So if you look at the very center of the wheel, it's got one, two, three, four, seven basic emotions. So often in our society, in our upbringing, we tend to just when we think about how we're feeling, we label it with one of these very seven, very general, I'm angry, I'm happy, I'm sad. The seven words are surprised, bad, fearful, angry, disgusted, sad, and happy.

One of the things we learn as we become the watcher of ourselves and more aware of our feelings and emotions and thoughts is that there are a whole lot of different nuances of those words. So this wheel goes out and further out. So if you're feeling fearful, are you anxious? Are you inadequate? Are you feeling worthless? Or if you're happy, are you accepted, valued, courageous, creative, loving? Are all of these more defining words that this gives us the vocabulary to really consider what we're doing.

As you start working with this listening to your body and feeling your feelings and being able to label them, you can feel how they are different vibrationally in your body. Then you have the ability to generate a new thought to change that vibration if you choose.

Sam: Yeah, yes. I love the language that you've used to describe that. When we can better identify the emotion that we're feeling, we can better understand what it is that we need. So, for example, if I were to use this, and I noticed that maybe I'm feeling sad, but if I dig deeper, maybe what I'm really feeling is lonely. Okay, so if I'm feeling lonely, then what do I need?

Maybe it's connection. Maybe I can use food as a form of connection if it's helping me feel connected with others, going and sharing a meal. Maybe it's preparing a family recipe and feeling connected within my family and feeling that nostalgic kind of ritual practice as well.

Maybe if I notice that maybe food might not be the thing that will serve me right now, what is something else that I can do beyond the realm of food that might provide that sense of connection? Is that going on a walk with Topher? Is that engaging in some kind of art project? Is that listening to music that matches my emotions?

So I feel heard, I feel seen. We have so many senses beyond just our taste. So what can we touch? What can we see? What can we hear? What can we smell, right? Starting to get curious about the other senses that can help us feel connected if we notice that food might not be the answer in this moment?

Dr. Crockett: Yep. I love that. I like that you're using the word curious instead of judgmental, having compassion and being curious. The interesting thing about that with food and what you're talking about in expanding our awareness and then using all of our other senses is that may be things other than food that like music or other activities that would suit us. But we were talking with as we were doing the prep for the show downstairs about actually tuning into what textures and smells of food we're really wanting. So it's not always just I needed Cheetos. Cheetos are kind of my like.

Sam: I love that.

Dr. Crockett: That's my go to cheat. Cheetos. I like the salty of Cheetos. So I was thinking about what are the textures of foods? Like, why are the Cheetos the thing that I like? Because I don't really love the way they taste. They're kind of corn based. When I really eat them, I'm like this doesn't taste that good. But the salty and the crunch are the sensations that I'm wanting. So one thought that I had is the next time I want a Cheeto, what else could I substitute for that? Where I would actually like the taste of it too. I do that already. Pistachios, I love them.

Sam: I love that you're exploring that question from a place of curiosity and a place of a sensory experience. I say this because a huge narrative in our society is how can I healthify this, right? It's oh, these are brownies? Well, here are protein pack brownies only made of avocado and black beans. Yeah, like if that's the taste and the experience that you want, wonderful.

Dr. Crockett: Go for it.

Sam: If there's a moment where you're like I want the brownies from the box because I love the richness. I love the aroma, the texture, the smell, the it reminds me of babysitting my younger sister when I was a kid, or whatever the case may be, then you have permission to make either choice that feels right for you.

I think we've grown, or at least in my experience, I've grown way too familiar with healthifying absolutely everything, to have protein, to have this, to have that, to not have this, not have that. It's like okay, if that's a choice coming from self-care and your intention and your desire to experience the full sensory experience of that specific thing, awesome.

Dr. Crockett: Lovely.

Sam: Go for it.

Dr. Crockett: If it's from restriction.

Sam: Then this is an opportunity for us to get curious about to say is that framework, is that thought pattern, is that serving you?

Dr. Crockett: That's really mindful eating is, isn't it?

Sam: It's bringing in that consciousness to the eating experience and that awareness. I'd love to leave our listeners with three different tips to implement.

Dr. Crockett: Awesome, I love tips.

Sam: A little bit more mindfulness. So the first one, Dr. Crockett, I love because you've already so beautifully mentioned this just a moment ago with Cheetos. While you are eating next time, can you get curious and identifying two to three characteristics of what you're eating that you enjoy?

Dr. Crockett: Yeah.

Sam: Do you like the flavor? Do you like the texture, the temperature, the aroma? Just notice that. The second is while you're eating, can you identify two to three characteristics you maybe don't love so much.

Dr. Crockett: That's so funny. We didn't even talk about that ahead of time. I just queued that right up.

Sam: Yeah. So we're putting language to behaviors that we're already doing and increasing our awareness to saying oh, doing this for the most part or trying to tie this in while I eat, I'm already doing it. The reason why it can be valuable to identify those two or three things that you maybe don't love is because if you're not enjoying the eating experience, and if you're not enjoying what it is that you're eating.

Dr. Crockett: You can change it.

Sam: You can change it for the most part way. There might be instances where maybe that's not a possibility, and that's okay. But if we start to give ourselves, or once we start to give ourselves permission to have the “off limits” foods, we might discover that there's actually like maybe a few things we're not, we don't really love about it. We've just held it on a pedestal.

Dr. Crockett: Yeah.

Sam: For all this time. So getting curious about how you feel about that food, how that food makes you feel, can be really valuable, and just being present in that eating experience. Because oftentimes, we are moving way too quickly while we're eating. That's setting us up to arrive to a place of feeling uncomfortably full, eating past that point of physical comfort.

The last tool is kind of tying in something we'd mentioned with our physical hunger, which is bringing awareness to your hunger and fullness meter. So I like to use this meter still to this day three times during a meal, for the most part. So at first when you sit down before you eat, just flexing that muscle of attunement, one to 10. Where am I right now? This is nobody else's business. You don't have to share this with anybody. You can do this and no one's going to know you're doing it.

Dr. Crockett: Like Kegels.

Sam: I've been doing them the whole time.

Dr. Crockett: Me too.

Sam: Where am I? One to 10. Great, okay. Now, as you're eating, can you notice the point where you're no longer hungry? You're no longer feeling hunger. That doesn't mean you have to stop. All that means is you're noticing that you no longer feel hungry. Okay, so take a few more bites. Take a moment to pause. If this was my last bite, would I feel both mentally and physically satisfied?

Dr. Crockett: That’s great.

Sam: If the answer's no.

Dr. Crockett: Take another bite.

Sam: Take a few more bites. Okay, come back to that question. All right, if this was my last bite, would I feel both mentally or even emotionally and physically satisfied? But if the answer's no.

Dr. Crockett: Take another bite.

Sam: Keep going.

Dr. Crockett: This is intuitive eating.

Sam: Now okay, this was my last bite. Would I feel both emotionally and physically satisfied?

Dr. Crockett: When the answer’s yes, then you stop.

Sam: Now you're in the driver's seat making that decision saying okay, from a place of self-care, my loving choice, I feel that I'm at a comfortable fullness right now. Versus self-control, and I shouldn't have any more.

Dr. Crockett: That's vastly different mindsets. So cool. Thank you for bringing this to our awareness today. It was a really rich conversation. I really appreciate you being on the show. Thank you for bringing your expertise and your knowledge. We’ll have to do some more of this.

Sam: We're just scratching the surface.

Dr. Crockett: Just scratching the surface.

Sam: This is course one. Thank you so much for having me. I truly appreciate it. It's been such a pleasure, and Topher thanks you too.

Dr. Crockett: It's been a fun day. You want to remind our listeners where they can find you?

Sam: On Instagram, Fulfilled and Full.RD, and on TikTok, Fulfilled and Full. You'll find different mindful and intuitive eating tips, skits, things to kind of bring in a little joy to this experience. Because if you're noticing a little discomfort throughout this conversation, I want to validate that. Also, if you welcome me into this journey, I want to invite in a little bit of kind of humor and positivity as well. Because.

Dr. Crockett: Life's too short.

Sam: Life's too short. We deserve to enjoy eating experiences and also the healing and growing process as well.

Dr. Crockett: Right?

Sam: Yeah.

Dr. Crockett: Love that. All right, you guys, that is all we have for today. Thank you so much, as always, for joining us. If you think this is valuable information and you've got friends that you think would like to listen to it or be healed in listening to it, feel free to share and like and subscribe and all the things. We will see you next week. Bye.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Becoming Virtuosa. To learn more, come visit us at DrCrockett.com, or find us on YouTube for the Dr. Crockett Show. If you found this episode helpful or think it might help someone else, please like, subscribe, and share. This is how we grow together. Thanks, and I'll see you next week. Love always, Sue.

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