Bariatric Counseling & Understanding Overeating, Emotional Eating, and Binge Eating

But trying to control eating, overeating, emotional eating with sheer willpower can feel so defeating for people. Hey there and welcome to let's Talk about it with Laurie Streeter. A space to talk honestly and get real about mental health, therapy and all things wellness. I'm Lori, licensed therapist, speaker and your host, here to bring you insights to tools and information you can actually use, whether you're navigating anxiety, healing your relationship with food, or trying to figure out which techniques will work for your life. I'm so glad you're here. Let's dive in and let's talk about it. Welcome back to another episode of let's Talk about it with Laurie Streeter. I want to tackle something a little different today because not only do I specialize in anxiety, but I also specialize specialize in bariatric counseling. I have a board certification in bariatric counseling and it is a topic very near and dear to my heart and I love working with my clients in this realm. So I want to share more about what that is, what that looks like. And if you hear bits and pieces of yourself in some of these stories or in some of these topics, I want you to know that help is available because I think people struggle a lot with their relationship with food and there are so many emotions around it and there's nothing like watching the transformation of someone really healing their relationship with food. And I see it in terms of someone also struggling with their weight, body image, obesity and things like that. So that is something that we are going to dive into today pretty in depth and hopefully give a good overview of that whole aspect of what I do that isn't talked about a whole lot. So a common story that I hear a lot from my clients who are struggling with obesity is someone will tell me that they've been struggling with their weight and body image for years, sometimes decades. This is a long standing issue for my clients who come to me with this. This is not something that just started yesterday or last week. There's a cycle of dieting and frustration, emotional eating, sometimes binging, and they're often accompanied by these cyclical feelings of guilt, shame, anxiety around food, et cetera. So it's not something that feels good. And again, often comes with a lot of I feel bad about myself because I struggle with this thing. And again, I just want you to know that help is available and this is something that we can work through. There's often this sen of all or nothing thinking and difficulties with body image and self esteem and self worth all wrapped into my Clients who come to me with this stuff, and obviously everyone is different, but there are commonalities that I hear when my clients tell me their stories. So that's kind of an overview of what people come to me for, right? Emotional eating, overeating, binging. These cyclical, quote unquote negative feelings of guilt, shame and anx anxiety around food. An unhealthy relationship with food. It's. It's a very, very complex issue that often incorporates a lot of, of heavy stuff, heavy feelings and, you know, heavy experiences and whatnot. If someone is coming to me specifically for bariatric counseling, whether they're pursuing or have had bariatric surgery or not, we address a variety of those things. But we do work a lot through their struggles with weight, body image, and redefining their relations with not only food, but themselves. Because bariatric counseling helps with identifying and navigating a healthier relationship with food, improving self awareness, recognizing these all or nothing thinking patterns, and understanding how to work through that desire for immediate gratification versus long term goals. These cycles, very much like I've said, are long standing struggles for my clients. And they're not something that just cropped up yesterday. Like these things have been going on and causing a lot of frustration and, you know, maybe negative experiences in their life. So we want to tackle this from not only something that a dietitian might do, but the psychological aspect of what a relationship with food can do to our lives, how it can impact us. So we implement a lot of techniques to improve daily awareness and this sense of like getting back in touch with themselves. Because a lot of times there can be those binge eating behaviors, emotional eating, overeating, and that often leads to someone not being very in tune with their body and not being very in tune with hunger and satiety and fullness cues. So a huge part of what we do over time in counseling is to identify and re establish and work through these topics that have caused them pain and harm and discomfort for many years a lot of times. And because they just want to feel better, they just want to feel more confident in their own skin. They want food to not run their lives. They don't want this food noise to just dictate their daily habits and stuff. I mean, food is just such a complex part of our lives and when someone struggles with this, it can feel like it's all consuming and we want to give someone their power back, right? As fluffy as that sounds, I want someone to feel like, oh, I can live my life. I don't have to let food. I don't have to let my weight. I don't have to let my body image ruin things for me or hold me back or stop me from living life in a way that I dream of living it. I want to scratch the surface of this idea of willpower and overeating because a lot of people, when you don't struggle with your relationship with food or you haven't dealt with obesity or body image issues, we just think, well, just eat less, move more. And it's a sense of willpower, right? It's this thing that you just do, but it's not. And again, especially when someone has long standing struggles, this isn't just as easy as eat less, move more, and have more willpower. So I want to dive into that a little bit because if this is something you struggle with, you might find yourself in these explanations and feel understood. And that is important because the more you feel understood, the more you're going to believe that, hey, I'm not alone. And the more you're going to be able to figure out, how do I address this so that I can live my life and have a little more freedom and confidence and self esteem and self worth and all of these positive things that come with quote, unquote, feeling better. And that's what we want. So this idea of willpower and overeating, having a difficult relationship with food, overeating, binge eating, emotional eating, this isn't a result of lack of willpower. We have what I like to call a salary of willpower. It's like a paycheck, and it's issued to you daily, weekly, and as you spend it on things, the total original amount is depleted. So if I get a paycheck and I start paying my bills and I spend it on things, I'm gonna have less money to spend on more things. That original amount is gonna continue to go down the more I spend it. And the same thing that goes with willpower for a lot of people, some people have more, some people have less, but you kind of wake up with a desire or willpower, or you start your week gung ho. And then as the day goes and as the week goes and as time goes on, you make decisions and things happen and life occurs and your reserve of willpower starts to get depleted. And then you feel like, well, now I'm just back where I started and oh my God, I just need more willpower. If I had more willpower, I could do this. But trying to control eating, overeating, emotional eating, with sheer Willpower can feel so defeating for people. It can be like running up a muddy hill. It just feels so defeating. And that's not what we want, right? We want to develop the things that truly help. Because sheer willpower alone is not going to do this. It's not what's going to be. That's not going to be the thing that helps these deeper struggles or your relationship with food and stuff like that. Something I tell my clients is if they're just wanting more willpower, more motivation, it's like writing checks with no money in your account to cover them. It's not going to do it. It can get you going, but you're gonna feel depleted if you can't develop more discipline or have the structure and planning and address these underlying reasons for overeating or binge. And we find ourselves then losing this battle. And it is again, so defeating and frustrating and just continues to create these cycles. One of the main reasons my clients find themselves overeating is because they are in these cycles and they're undernourished or they're trying to restrict themselves by restricting and staying in all or nothing thinking patterns or diet cycles. You. You're trying to essentially starve off any cravings, but then that creates additional unproductive habits, and that causes more frustration and obsession with food and anxiety around food and going out and all of these things. So when we deny ourselves or we're not receiving proper nutrients, you're not fueling your body. It often leads to more cravings and more overeating or more binge eating or more emotional eating, more frustration, shame, guilt, anxiety, all these things, right? And so working with someone who understands this can help you understand how to eat a balanced diet, what that looks like, how to nourish your body, manage your blood sugar, eating nutritionally dense foods, right? They can teach you how to eat and also address the underlying things of maybe like stress and boredom and poor sleep. These things that also contribute to the overeating, the binge eating, and the psychological complexities of our relationship with food. So if you're hearing yourself in these explanations and you're thinking, yeah, this sounds like me. This sounds like something I struggle with. This gives me the language to identify what I've been dealing with for a while or whatnot. I'm going to touch on three areas. Structure, patterns, and emotions that contribute to a lot of this stuff. And they're overviews of some things that I address in bariatric counseling with my clients. So if we look at structure when we don't have a plan for the day and we're making decisions on the fly. I call this winging it. And when we are just winging it, we are going to make decisions based on what we want versus what we need. And what we want is based on how we feel. Our decisions are very emotion driven. So if you're not aware of what's going on, you don't have a plan, you don't have structure, and you're winging it. Things like decision fatigue, that willpower depletion, when there's a lack of structure, it can create a lot of frustration. And a lot of times we think structure is going to cause us to have to do more. But with structure can come a lot more freedom. And being able to help my clients understand that is often key. So think about what your structure looks like and if it supports your goals or if it's essentially working against you, or if you're someone who's winging it, how that's maybe having a negative impact. The second topic or area that we address is patterns. Much of what we do is based on our habits. It's very automatic being able to identify when you struggle, what your eating habits, what your struggles, what your relationship with food looks like in your life, because everybody's different. So even though there's going to be some commonalities, your story and needs and struggles are going to be individualized. So understanding how to identify what your patterns are is going to be helpful in figuring out how to help yourself. Right? Or how to address the things that you're dealing with. So keeping a thought journal or a log or a feeling log, things like this can help us identify patterns of what's going on internally so that we can help identify and create change that need to happen that will help you feel again, more freedom and less food noise, and be able to use pattern changes and habit changes to support a life you want to live versus a life that you feel like you're kind of stuck in because of these habits. And the third overall topic is our emotions, mental health. This is what we do. So just like managing stress, understanding your emotions, it's a key part of managing and overcoming struggles with food, overeating, binge eating. I know I keep repeating those terms, but a lot of people struggle with this stuff. It is way more common than you realize, I promise. So if this isn't something that you struggle with, I do hope this is giving you an understanding and an overview so that you can have some empathy and gain some knowledge in what this looks like. Because it is important and it is way more common than people realize. So a big thing that I do with clients is teach them to create this window of time where they can make intentional decisions going back to this emotional piece. We tend to operate based on the idea of what I want versus what I need. And I touched on this earlier a few minutes ago. Working with my clients to help them manage their emotions and think more logically ultimately can help them identify if it's truly food that they're needing or wanting, or if it's a stressor that they need to address, or if it's an underlying emotion that they're not truly addressing and that's what's driving behaviors. So often we are making decisions again from an emotional place and we're not really thinking about what we're doing, doing. And then later on it's like, oh, I can't believe I did that. I'm so mad at myself. I regret that. And those are those negative feelings that we feel that make us feel terrible. I'm not saying you should feel like that. I'm saying it's very common when people make decisions in the moment that they're not truly aware of and then later on have that regret or shame or guilt, I want to help get rid of that. That doesn't feel good. We want people to make conscious decisions and be intentional with their day. And not that things are going to be perfect and we're not robots, but if we can be intentional with figuring out what the underlying emotions are, we can help be more conscious and mindful and feel better. Right. If I'm making intentional decisions, I feel good and I'm doing what's. What's good for me in the long run versus what I just want in that moment based on how I'm feeling. So addressing those emotions and understanding it is a key part of managing and working to overcome some of these behaviors or struggles. I've mentioned emotional eating and whether or not you struggle with your weight. I would say most people could say, yeah, I've eaten when I'm stressed out, or I, you know, have a piece of cake to celebrate. Food is such a component of our lives, lives, and emotional eating is such a huge part of our relationship with food. So it's not a bad thing. I'm not going to classify something as bad or good or right or wrong. But when we feel like our emotions are out of control or like they're driving a behavior, especially when it comes to food, we want to get a handle on that. So three Things that I work on with clients in bariatric counseling, specifically if they're talking about emotional eating, but just in general are triggers. I use cognitive behavioral techniques and we use a lot of like awareness and mindfulness. So triggers helps us identify the reasons they turn to food. This helps begin raising their awareness around food. And not in a way that creates more obsessions with, but it increases their ability and willingness to identify how they're feeling and their patterns. Like we talked about earlier, CBT cognitive behavioral therapy is this connection between feelings and thoughts and behavior. So while I do take a very holistic approach and somewhat eclectic in terms of theory and psychological theory, I do work a lot with CBT techniques depending on the person. And it can help us reframe and restructure our thought patterns around food and our emotions and how we feel and this connection, this triangle of feeling thoughts and behaviors. Because this is the cycle that I do often see a lot with my clients. I feel a certain way, I behave a certain way, I have a thought or, or I have a thought and I feel a certain way, and then I behave a certain way and I feel bad about it. It's like this never ending cycle that will make someone feel really bad about themselves. So we want to start to kind of pick that apart and figure out what we can do to implement to start to raise that awareness and restructure those thought patterns and then awareness and mindfulness. We use a lot too, because emotional eating has a tendency to be such a habit in and of itself, and awareness is a major factor in this. So helping my clients understand what's happening before and during and after a binge eating episode or what they're identifying to be emotional eating ultimately can help them become more in tune with their mind and body and more appropriately deal with their feelings or their stressors or those things that are driving these behaviors. So it's not to create a sense of this food is good, this food is bad, that's healthy, that's unhealthy, that's a bad habit, you should do this instead of that. Bariatric counseling includes a lot. And when I work with clients like this, it is to help them identify these patterns and emotions and habits that have been causing them stress, and to help them start to restructure and identify and redefine what they want this to look like in order to live with more freedom, to live with more ease in their daily life, to live with more confidence, to live with this idea that I can live a life without feeling like food habits, eating decisions, my body image, my self esteem holds me back and that is something that I really love helping people with. When they say, I wore that outfit and I didn't let my body image get in the way or I went out and I did something social and I was able to not think about food the whole time and I was able to be really present. That is such a win and can be so powerful for people. I cannot explain the emotions that come into play in the sessions when people start to really address this stuff and feel better about themselves. And notice I mentioned weight loss? Not at all. Bariatric Counseling While bariatrics means obesity, it's the medical term for obesity. This is not about weight loss. Could it be a byproduct of different habits and changes and lifestyle or bariatric surgery? Sure. But the focus of bariatric counseling is not weight loss. It is about restructuring these internal systems that have created so much stress and discomfort for someone for so many years and allowing them to live a life that they've been wanting. And now they feel like, oh, I can do this. So that's really what I want to get across is the focus here. Someone might come in and talk about weight loss, but the focus and what they gain is beyond the number on the scale. So if you've been struggling with unhealthy relationship with food, obesity, binge eating, body image, self esteem, emotional eating, anything we've talked about today, I encourage you to address it. Help is available. There are people like myself who specialize in this because this is a very niche area and I'm highly trained and highly experienced to work with clients whether or not they're pursuing bariatric surgery. So that is a huge part of why people come to bariatric counseling. It's not a prerequisite. It's not a qualifier. Bariatrics, like I said, it, is the medical terminology for obesity. But everyone is different. And it doesn't mean that if you struggle with binge eating that you've also been diagnosed with obesity. I also don't want to focus this just on, like I said, the number on the scale or just on the size of someone's body. This is about your relationship with food. And the feeling you might have of food is just such a central part of your life and you feel like it's consuming everything and you would like something different. Because I work with a lot of clients who are pursuing bariatric surgery. Like I said, it is often the clientele that are seeking this. But again, you don't have to be pursuing surgery to address anything you're struggling with that relates to your relationship with with food. And this is not eating disorder counseling. So if you're struggling with bulimia, anorexia, that's a whole nother niche. There are specialists for that. We're talking about it being a resource for clients who have struggled with weight their whole lives, considering bariatric surgery or undergoing the procedure. Helping people physically and emotionally prepare to create changes in their life again with or without surgery, so that they can make desired progress toward their goals. That is what this is about, addressing those underlying things. I just want to remind you that this is all a journey. As with any struggle someone might be going through, this isn't an overnight quote unquote fix. This isn't a quick thing. If you've been struggling with something for a long time, it's going to take a little time to unravel things things, but it can be done. I will link a few blog posts related to what you hear today and I'll put them in the show notes so that you can read a little more and get a little more details on willpower and overeating and emotional eating and more of a breakdown of bariatric counseling. If you are someone who has a personal story, I would also love to hear that. If you would like to come on the podcast and share it with the audience, let me know. Reach out. You never know who you may inspire with your personal story. Reach out through Instagram lauristreeter that's the tough thing about what I do is I have so many amazing client journeys that I would love to share from start to where they are now. And I can't because of confidentiality and HIPAA and all of that. So I try to use bits and pieces and examples, but I can't have them on the podcast. It just doesn't work like that. So if you're someone and you want to share your story and you think that this might help, reach out, I would love to hear it and chat with you and see if we could do that. Because I just think there's so much inspiration in people hearing themselves in other people's stories. And don't forget to share this episode on Instagram and tag auristreeter I just love to see where you're listening, if they're on a walk or at the gym or when you're cooking. I'm just so grateful to be part of your day and that you're here and you're listening and you're getting something out of this. I just want to provide information and break topics down and talk about things that aren't talked about a lot or they're not talked about in the way that I would explain them. I just think everybody has their ways and perspectives of explaining things and you never know what you might hear that just hits you differently or inspires you differently. And I hope always that you take something away from these episodes. Until next time, take care. Thanks for hanging out with me today on let's Talk about it with Laurie Streeter. If this episode resonated with you, it would mean so much if you'd leave a five star review, share it with a friend or come say hi on Instagram loristreeter. Your support will help this podcast grow and I so appreciate you being here today. I want to help people just like you feel like they're not alone and gain the tools they need to grow. Until next time, take care.