Ep 84 - Food Cravings And Where They Come From

Hello hello hello!
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Welcome to episode number 84 of the Wellness 4 Women Show: Life, Weight Loss & Everything In Between.
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Today, we have an exciting topic to explore together, one that has captured my fascination since I began my journey as a Belief Coding®️ Facilitator – Where cravings come from and our inner child.
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If you have caught the show before or you are in the Wellness 4 Women Membership you will know I am not far off becoming an accredited Belief Coding®️ Facilitator, which is incredibly exciting, and I'm also pursuing my master's which will enable me to bring these transformative practices to even more people as I can then deliver it in a group which is going to be ace.
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I am the Food Freedom group expert in a friend of mine Sarah Reddens - Self Care Membership and this was the focus of this month.
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So as we are talking inner child let's pull up your beanbag and a carton of juice as we dive in.
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Today, the focus I want to help you look at your relationship with food, but first, let me clarify what I mean by that. When I talk about your relationship with food, I'm referring to the physical, emotional and psychological connection you have with what you eat. It encompasses how you view food, the emotions it stirs within you, and the thoughts and beliefs you hold about it.
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My mission is to help women find food and life freedom by shifting their relationship with food, one bite, and one belief at a time for sustainable weight loss.
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So, let's get started! And I mean us as I'd love to hear from you. No matter whether you are watching this live, catching the reply on Facebook or Podcast or YouTube or on the blog, let me know the following:
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How would you describe your relationship with food?
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Is it positive, neutral, negative, a mix, or maybe even complicated?
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If your relationship with food is already positive, that's fantastic!
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But I’d offer there is still room to explore even if it is celebrating that positivity further. However, if your relationship with food is less than ideal, mixed, or complicated, then there's potential for you to grow and healing as we work through this together. Either way keep listening of course.
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By delving into the root causes of your beliefs about food and working on healing them, you can transform your relationship with food. It doesn’t have to be some kind of drastic act like any diet you have probably ever done you can take it easy, one bite and one belief at a time.
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Part of this is about getting in touch with your inner mind and part of your inner mind is your inner child. I am not an official ‘inner child’ practitioner, but through my Belief Coding®️ word and parts of my Triple-A-Way™️ Food Freedom process, can connect you with your inner child at a conscious and subconscious level. The Belief Coding can allow you to access and heal memories, emotions, and desires from your early years that may be affecting your relationship with food today. Like wise cognitively I can coach you through your habits and patterns and where they come from.
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Our relationship with food often stems from the associations and attachments you developed during childhood. As a Belief Coding®️ Facilitator-in-training, I've witnessed how these deep-rooted beliefs can impact our relationship with food. The good news is that we can untangle these patterns and mindset issues to heal your relationship with food, weight loss, your body, eating etc whatever it is your personally need to work on and what comes up for you.
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Today, I want to guide you in exploring your inner child. The little you whose experiences have shaped your attitude towards food and self-image. This inner child who whispers in your ear and influences your cravings and food choices.
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Let's start by discussing food cravings and urges. These can occur for various reasons, both physiological and emotional. However, I'd argue that even physiological cravings are closely tied to our beliefs, emotions, and mindset. For example, our bodies are wired to crave sugary and fatty foods for quick energy, a survival mechanism from our history. But in today's world, these cravings can become overwhelming.
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Emotional factors, such as stress, boredom, loneliness, or seeking comfort, can trigger intense cravings for specific foods. These emotions often have deeper, sometimes unresolved, roots that we must address to change our relationship with food.
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In many cases, food cravings are not just about the food itself but about the emotions it provides. An urge, on the other hand, is when you'd eat anything, usually to escape a feeling. Even physiological cravings often involve an emotional component—desire.
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The good news is that we can break this cycle and change its trajectory at various levels: beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and actions, which ultimately leads to a different outcome.
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Connecting with your inner child can be a powerful tool in this journey. When you tap into that little you inside, the one who experienced joy or pain around food you begin to understand the root causes behind your relationship with eating and this will take you far deeper than any diet ever could and change your relationship at the core.
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Personally, I've uncovered many food stories from my childhood, some revolving around my nan and the associations of love and affection to certain food items. I've also used Belief Coding®️ to explore memories from when I was a baby and had tummy issues, which affected my relationship with food.
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But what I want you to explore is your memories of food?
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Maybe it's the joy of sharing ice cream with friends on sunny days, the excitement of birthday cake, or even the nostalgia of bad school dinners. These memories could hold a special place in your heart or, in some cases, contribute to discomfort. Either way, they play a significant role in your adult eating habits and emotional connections to food.
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For the members listening I will be popping some journal prompts into your portal to help you explore this further and you have the re-writing your stories exercise in the mind ninjary section. If you are not a member and want access to my Food Freedom Course and show resources check out the description
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If you are ready to take a deeper journey then get yourself on the list for Belief Coding®️ as programs will be starting soon. Either check out how to work with me or drop me a #belief on dm.
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First a little recap on food cravings and urges.
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Food cravings can occur for a number of reasons. Physiologically and emotionally. However, I would actually argue that even a physiological craving is still highly connected to our beliefs, emotions and mindset. For example, our bodies are designed to crave certain foods that are high in sugar and fat because historically, those types of food were rare and so our brains learnt that they provided a quick source of energy for survival. In today's world, where sugary and fatty foods are readily available at every corner, our cravings can easily go haywire.
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Emotional factors like stress, boredom, loneliness, or even just seeking comfort can trigger intense cravings for specific foods. These emotional triggers often stem from a deeper and sometimes unresolved issue that we need to address if we want/need to change our relationship with food.
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What we tend to find is that we have food cravings, a craving being for a certain type of food when we are actually craving the emotion that the food gives us. A food urge is when you could eat anything and usually is when you are trying to escape a feeling.
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However, even if you are having a physiological craving, you still need to have an emotion usually that of desire to go and get the thing. Ultimately, we can break into that cycle and change the trajectory in various places, at the belief level, thought level, feeling level and action level which will change the result.
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Connecting in with your inner child during this journey can help as when you tap into the little you inside – the one who experienced those original moments of joy or pain around food – you start understanding the root causes behind your relationship with eating going deeper than any diet should you follow one be able to take you.
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So what are your memories of food?
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Sunny day bbqs, birthday cake, picnics in the park, bad school dinners, being forced to drink milk by the milk monitor. These memories could be holding a special place in our heart or they could be causing discomfort, but either way they could be playing a significant role in your adult eating habits and emotional connections to food.
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Take a minute to brainstorm some examples about your experiences with food when we were little.
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Start with the positives if you need to or if you are comfortable doing so without support and only do so if you can hold a safe space for yourself, flip to the other side and look at any negative relationships you have around food. Just look to have a gentle explore of your cognitive memories with love and curiosity.
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What do you remember?
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For me it is time spent baking with my nan, picking fresh crusty roles from the Sunblest tub for my granddad, my grandad who didn't cook being the only one who chop my fries in the way I liked, sneaking monster munch as my mum said I couldn't have them due to mouth ulcers.
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I remember going for sweets from an old fashion sweet shop, my friend stealing money from her mum and buying food with it and us binging it in secret under the slide.
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What was your favourite food and why?
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I have attachments to certain foods due to the people I associate them with. Like penguins, hoola hoops, cheese sandwiches and cream eggs being associated with one grandparent and Turkish Delight, baking, sweets, and walnut whips with another. What are yours?
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I am of an age where ready meals and convenience food started to be available and so this has shaped my go to foods too.
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What didn't you like and why?
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For me the smell of jarred beetroot and whisky are a hell no. I object to peas not because of the taste but because they won't get on my fork, so I consider them hard to eat. I had a belief that vegetables are hard to prepare from somewhere.
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Let me know what comes up.
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Also have a look at what happened in and around food.
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Did you receive praise or attention when you finished all your food, you might have a story going in your head to clear your plate due to the people less fortunate in the world? Are there certain foods you associate with love, comfort, or approval? Was food scarce or a source of angst in your house. Did you have to eat quickly or sibling took it off your plate? Did you have to grab the good treats before the rest of the family ate it?
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Whatever your experiences with food your brain will have either interpreted these situations as positive, negative or neutral.
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These experiences may be why you turn to food or certain foods or have certain food behaviours now. But you can re-write these old stories.
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I am going to wrap it up now but I would encourage you to think about:

What awareness this brings you?
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Are you happy with your relationship with food? If so why? If not why not? What would you like to be different?
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Is there a small action step you can take today to change that?
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Be sure to check other episodes of the Wellness 4 Women Show podcast and YouTube Show to help you on your way and I openly invite you once more to join the membership so we can work together to identify all the moving parts in your relationship with life, weight loss and everything in between. Either check out the description or drop me a #freedom on DM.
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Right that’s it folks see you next week.
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