Do you struggle with binge eating, and no matter what you’ve tried, you just can’t stop? Or maybe you’ve tried to lose weight by eating less and then threw in the towel because it was just too hard? This week, Jenn is talking to therapist Heather Heynen about how to make progress for the long run, not just for a short period of time. Today, Jenn is joined by therapist Heather Heynen to discuss overcoming binge eating, restricting, and yo-yo dieting once and for all. She explains some common causes behind eating disorders for many people, and the steps that can be taken to heal our relationship with food. Heather breaks down some somatic practices that you can try, as well as how to name your feelings so you are able to lower the temperature on them and recover without leaning on something else, like food or substances, to numb those feelings. She shares the valuable difference between state and story, and why changing your story can change your habits...for good! Tune in to learn more about these wonderful tools! The Salad With a Side of Fries podcast is hosted by Jenn Trepeck, discussing wellness and weight loss for real life, clearing up the myths, misinformation, bad science & marketing surrounding our nutrition knowledge and the food industry. Let’s dive into wellness and weight loss for real life, including drinking, eating out, and skipping the grocery store. IN THIS EPISODE: [6:28] How does binge eating, restricting, yo-yo dieting and anxiety all play into Healther’s work today?[8:15] How often does Heather see these issues as a mental health therapist?[10:00] What are some of the biggest mistakes Heather sees people making when it comes to trying to change their behavior?[12:38] What are somatic practices and why are they so much more effective?[16:01] What is big T trauma vs. little t trauma?[20:05] Where do you start with healing your relationship with food?[24:49] How do these tools lead to long term behavior changes?[26:27] If you process your feelings more in your head, what can you do to work through it?[28:39] What is state vs. story?[32:02] How can we help children feel their feelings or tolerate distress better?[34:39] What lessons has Heather been able to learn through her solo bike packing trips?[38:24] How can you cultivate giving yourself grace?KEY TAKEAWAYS: When you learn how to feel and experience your emotions, you will no longer need other things, i.e. food or substances, to numb and avoid those feelings.Long term results come from consistency, being patient with yourself, giving yourself a lot of compassion and grace throughout the process.You either hold your emotions in your body (energy) or in your head (thoughts). Learning how to process both of them can lead to freedom from unwanted habits.QUOTES: [8:32] “The biggest disordered eating pattern is binge eating disorder, overeating, emotional eating, that sort of thing. In my practice, I do specialize in treating that, so I personally see it, but if we look at statistics, that is definitely the biggest type of disordered eating that we have going on.” - Heather Heynen“I think anybody can do anything for a finite period of time...then it becomes a function of how we can create the things we can do for an infinite amount of time." – Jenn Trepeck[13:03] “Our thoughts create our feelings, our feelings drive our behaviors, our behaviors give us our results, so you can understand why working with the thoughts and shifting to the more helpful ones is really important when we’re talking about sustainable behavior change.” - Heather Heynen[13:42] “Our feelings, our emotions really are energy within our bodies, and if we don’t learn how to process emotion, it gets stuck. It gets stuck within the body and it can lead to physical issues with the body, it does lead to weight gain, that’s another physical component. It can lead to a lot of anxiety and depression, so processing emotions is really important.” - Heather Heynen[24:58] “Binge eating is related to emotion, meaning we are eating to try to numb, we’re eating to try to change an emotion that we’re feeling. We don’t want to feel whatever it is that we’re feeling. So if that is one of the biggest reasons that we eat, we get triggered to binge all these things and we want to stop that long term, then learning the skill of feeling our feelings, even the horrible, awful feelings, just learning to feel them and experience them, it’s amazing.” - Heather Heynen[28:56] “Learning to have this more helpful narrative, helpful stories, can really help us create a state of being that’s a lot more peaceful. But the other side of the coin is that if we can create a more peaceful state, then our story happens to be more helpful as well.” - Heather HeynenRESOURCES:Tickets to Salad with a Side of Fries LIVE in NYC on July 25, 2024Jenn Trepeck's Episode on Weight Loss and Wellness For RealBecome A Member of Salad with a Side of FriesJenn’s Free Menu PlanA Salad With a Side of FriesA Salad With A Side Of Fries MerchA Salad With a Side of Fries InstagramGUEST RESOURCES:Heather Heynen's WebsiteHeather Heynen’s InstagramHeather Heynen's FacebookHeather Heynen Wellness YouTubeWeight Loss and Wellness For Real Podcast GUEST BIO:Heather Heynen is a Licensed Professional Counselor-Mental Health, Qualified Mental Health Professional, Life Coach, FMS Certified Exercise Professional, Health Coach, Podcaster & Writer. Heather has been working in private practice for over 20 years as a licensed mental health therapist, life coach & health coach. Along the way, she worked for some years as a part-time personal trainer, owned a Cross-Fit gym and created an online weight-loss & maintenance program. Heather is 50 years old and a mother to one child. She loves to travel and is an avid rock-climber, mountain biker and has taken on multiple solo multi-day bike-packing challenges over the past few years. She is a recovered binge-eater, restricter, yo-yo dieter and suffered with anxiety for years. This led her to creating and hosting the podcast Weight Loss & Wellness For Real and also creating online courses all with the purpose to help others find food and body freedom as well as purpose and joy in life. Her mission is to bring whole-person health (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual) to individuals so they can live their absolute best lives.