And so I don’t have a podcast on it, but I talk about it a lot in our community. So I wanted to make a podcast so you could find that you could identify with this. And I could refer back to. And so today I’ll talk to you about why you’re doing that? ’cause it probably feels a little confusing when you see yourself do something that you think you don’t wanna do, and then what you can do to take steps to overcome this.

The three flavors of volume eating that I’ll talk about are you find that you could overeat any food, just large quantities of food you like to eat anything, and it could be overeating, healthy food, so it doesn’t really even matter what you’re eating. And that was me. I remember eating a whole two pound bag of baby carrots on my way to work during my commute.

The second flavor that we’ll look at are people who always have their mouth consumed with movement and chewing. That was me as well. I was a compulsive gum chewer for probably two years after I decided I wanted to stop eating the way that I was and turning to food for comfort.

Well, I just kept my mouth very busy by over chewing gum. I mean to the point where my kids would be like, mom, can I have a piece of gum? And I could feel so much anxiety like, no, that gum is mine. I was like a smoker. I would check how much gum I had before I went to bed, and I probably really couldn’t pass a gas station without going in to get a pack of gum.

And I didn’t like that I was doing this because I wouldn’t buy gum at cheaper prices by buying quantities, right? You know how you can buy like a 12 pack of gum and it’s way cheaper? I just wouldn’t admit that I could do that, I just knew I didn’t wanna be doing that, but I couldn’t stop myself.

So if you find that you’re eating gum and mints a lot, hey, you might be a volume meter. We’ll get into all of that. And then finally, is the person who continually eats beyond being full. You just get so overstuffed.

So let’s first start with the first one. Volume eating is when you eat large quantities of food or you just have your mouth moving often. And it has nothing obviously to do with hunger. I just always wanna say that it has nothing to do with hunger. If it did have to do with hunger, then we would not be talking about this. This would not be on a podcast of teaching you how to lose weight by identifying what the real problem is.

You’re eating because you want to feel something or you want to avoid something. It’s not about enjoying the actual food. It is simply about keeping your mouth busy, and when you keep your mouth busy, you have this escape from certain feelings or it feels very soothing to your brain.

And we know that when dogs chew on bones, they have neurochemicals released that make them feel soothed, that make them feel calm. And is the act of chewing that feels soothing and calming. Or it could be that sensation of being over full and overstuffed that on one hand feels soothing and calming and secure and safe.

But on the other is extreme amounts of discomfort physically, and then of course followed by lots of regret and remorse. This has nothing to do with willpower. This is literally your brain’s answer to trying to regulate your nervous system.

If you think about the times that you are continually chewing, whether it’s gum or food, or becoming over full, it is not while you’re in a calm state, it could be because you’re overstimulated, feeling stressed out, and that chewing helps to regulate your nervous system is giving you a distraction. It is helping you escape whatever you’re currently dealing with or creating that numbing, soothing sensation.

So you’re either searching for a soothing numbing sensation, or you could be running away trying to escape from certain feelings like pressure and stress. And I think they probably just go hand in hand.

And you may even find that you’re reaching for specific textures of food, like the crunching and the munching, and the more substantial foods that you can chew over and over and over. It’s not like you’re turning to softer foods like yogurt or applesauce, something that doesn’t create that sensation of chewing.

So I just want you to start looking at that. Oh my gosh, am I a grazer? Am I constantly seeking food? Then you might just be a volume eater. It’s just great information. All you get to do right now is to start to become more aware and aware and aware. Oh my gosh, that’s something that I’m doing.

The way that we would solve for this in our community is to create a safe eating plan. And one of the ways that you can be safe is you start to look at what feels chaos and then start to practice the opposite. A couple things that you can do is if you find that you are mindlessly reaching for something, being able to take a small pause.

In our 63 surrendered program, that’s what we teach you. We teach you of course how to meal plan, and just as important is we teach you how to surrender when you’re eating food that you didn’t plan for. There’s no judgment in it. It is simply a pause.

And I was writing the other day with the Lord and he told me a small pause is all that’s needed, and that is an opportunity for you to just. Take a breath. The small pause is certainly a spiritual pause, but honestly you guys, it is just a way to say “ah” for you to check in with you to say you are worth the pause. You are worth a moment. You are worth a check-in.

You could even decide to come up with a one line prayer where you say, “Lord, help me. What am I running from? Lord, I don’t need chewing. I need calm. Lord, help me calm down. What do I really need now?” And what’s so beautiful about that is you can ask a question or you can’t, but simply the pause allows you a moment to regulate your nervous system.

We use two tools in our community. The first one is a ten second pause where you breathe in for three seconds saying, think, feel, and then you exhale for seven seconds saying choose. So if I did that, it would be think. Feel, exhale, choose. And this has been proven by Dr. Caroline Leaf, who is a neuro-biologist.

That helps regulate your brainwaves, will help regulate your nervous system, and you can do that ten second pause, up to nine times, which is 90 seconds, or even just commit to doing it two to three times because remember your nervous system’s blown out and it’s just trying to regulate and it believes the answer is to chew. And so you’re just giving it something else that it can do.

Now the second thing that you can do is to create a different soothing activity. And you won’t do this in the moment, but you can think ahead. What else feels soothing to you? Wrapping yourself in a blanket. Putting on some soothing music. This is really helpful for me when I’m in the kitchen, because in the kitchen I can be really overstimulated.

Cooking takes a lot of attention from me and I tend to cook at the same time. My husband’s home and he always has the TV on, and I can just tell my nervous system is a little on edge, so I’ll put my AirPods in and some people like to listen to podcasts. Again. For me, that’s just another form of stimulation when I’m trying to think about cooking.

So I put on really soothing music to help regulate my nervous system. And one of my most favorite thoughts when I think in the kitchen, ’cause that used to be a place where I would overeat a lot standing in the kitchen. And you might find yourself there as well. As I say, I’m learning to be calm and focused in the kitchen.

Another way to soothe yourself is to sit down and say, right now I feel blah, blah, blah, and I want to chew to avoid it. Simply naming the feeling. But again, I just want you to see that your brain believes that chewing will regulate your nervous system. And I’m not saying it doesn’t because it’s worked for a really long time.

But what you’re saying is that you don’t want to use that as a tool anymore because it’s leading you to feel guilt and regret and carry extra weight, and you don’t have to do that. I hope this podcast shows you that it is now growing in awareness. And that it is optional and it will take some time to retrain your brain to have a different coping mechanism.

Now, another thing that we do in the community and in 63 surrendered is we create what’s called a safe eating plan. And I have podcasts about creating a safe eating plan. It’s essentially identifying chaos behaviors or behaviors where you’re eating fast and impulsively, and these are the behaviors that are creating chaos.

And the truth is, that they are the behaviors that are leading you to carry extra weight. And we create what’s called a safe eating plan. So we do the opposite and then no matter what we eat, ’cause it’s not about the food, I’ll say that a million times. It doesn’t matter what you eat, but you’re eating it in a safe way.

So if you find yourself to be a volume eater, a couple ways to eat safely is to make sure that you have some boundaries set and boundaries are things like, I’m going to eat the food that I have planned. My meal will start at this time, and my meal will end at this time, meaning that once I’ve consumed the food, it is done and my meal is over.

Also, if you find that you are a volume eater that likes to feel over full, then you might start to experiment and play around with portion size and actually writing down specific portions and you can experiment with what portion feels satisfying, but does not cross that line of feeling over full.

And those can be a range. So maybe you say, I’m going to have one to two of something, or I’m going to have, one to two bowls of something so you can just create a range. In your meal plan so that you can feel safe to follow it and know that you can just decide in the moment.

Do I want one sandwich or do I want one and a half sandwiches? Do I want one bowl of chips, or do I want two bowls of chips? Do I want one scoop of vegetables or do I want two scoops of vegetables?

And you can even look at your plate before you eat it and just say, does this look moderate to me? And just invite the Lord in on that one because the goal is for the people who like to chew a lot, you may find that you continue to take more and more so that you can continue the chewing.

So even preventatively not being jacked up and stressed out when you eat your food will help. I have one client who after she cooks dinner, really finds that a 20 minute pause, calm her nervous system, cool-off. She said she gets really hot in the kitchen, then allows her to come to dinner and enjoy her food with a calm brain.

And again, I hope you see that it’s just your brain trying to keep you safe and calm your nervous system. That’s why you want to keep chewing. That’s why you want to keep seconds. But if we can start your meal with a calm brain, if we can start your meal with some safe eating boundaries, you have a better chance of showing your brain, Hey, we can be safe without chewing. And you’ll also be preventing being overstuffed and overfull.

I want you to know this is a process. You are now introduced to this concept, so now you can just grow an awareness. And literally, if you only spend the next weeks growing an awareness of, oh I wanna start chewing again. Oh I’m grazing simply because I’m not hungry, but my mouth wants to be moving.

Oh, I’m finding that I am desiring to feel overstuffed. I am looking for that comfort in that sensation. You can just spend the next couple months doing this and then you can join our 63 surrendered in June when we’ll be actually practicing more of these things where you will actually be led through how to create that safe eating plan.

You will actually be asked to practice the pause because the other Catholic women who are doing that are doing it. But if you’re in 63 surrendered now, I hope this was really helpful for you. I hope you can see there’s absolutely nothing wrong with you.

You have developed a coping mechanism and it feels very comforting and familiar for your brain to feel full or to continue to chew. That is all, and you get to decide now, is this a pattern I want to continue, or would I like to learn the skill of retraining my brain?

And I’m just telling you, it’s a skill, which means you weren’t born this way. It’s a skill. To retrain your brain to learn new patterns. Some people like to call it habits, but I really don’t think it’s a habit. A habit we think we can just like turn on and turn off. It is a pattern. You are going to be creating a new pattern in your brain by creating some boundaries.

And even if all you do is create awareness around this, you are creating new patterns in your brain. So I hope this has been helpful and if you’d like to join our next 63 surrendered, please go over to weightlosswiththeholyspirit.com and you can get signed up for the next round.Alright, everybody, have a blessed day.