Episode 274
8 Chemicals that Drive Overeating & Undereating (feat. Dr. Laurel Mellin)
Have you tried every diet under the sun to lose weight or stop overeating, and end up at the bottom of the ice cream pint before you realize what happened? You haven’t failed, our brains are literally wired this way. But we can rewire our brain’s “circuits” with a simple method called, Emotional Brain Training.
This week, Jenn is joined by Dr. Laurel Mellin to discuss Emotional Brain Training (EBT) and how it works to manage your under or over eating. Dr. Laurel starts the episode by sharing her experience with obesity, and how she overcame it with her EBT technique. She explains the science behind our tendency to over or under eat, the science behind EBT, the 4 circuits of the brain, and how someone can use EBT to change their life. Dr. Laurel gives a great deep dive into how we can be in control of our food, body, love and protection circuits so that we can live a life filled with more joy! Tune in to learn more!
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:
- [2:57] Jenn shares what members are getting this week!
- [5:45] Dr. Laurel shares her story about turning to food for comfort.
- [8:54] What are the chemicals in the body that drive over and under eating?
- [11:06] How do these chemicals work together in a state of stress?
- [17:19] Dr. Mellin discusses the three different stress responses and how we get stuck.
- [21:43] What is Emotional Brain Training (EBT) and where do we start?
- [27:11] How to rewire your eating habits.
- [29:18] What happens to the eight chemicals after EBT?
- [32:06] Why it can be hard to lose weight after you have healed your food circuit.
- [38:15] Dr. Mellin shares about the one year program people tend to stick to for rewiring their brain circuits.
- [40:05] What does the process look like throughout the year?
- [41:00] Dr. Mellin answers rapid-fire off topic questions.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- There are four circuits in our brain: the food circuit, love circuit, body circuit, and protection circuit. Each circuit plays an important role in our bodies and how they impact us is dependent on how they are ‘wired’.
- The circuits in our emotional brain are what can make or break our lives. They get encoded there through no fault of your own. If you want freedom, you must rewire these circuits.
- When you rewire your brain, you are more likely to experience, love, joy, and be able to face life head on.
QUOTES:
[3:52] “We have to stop focusing on the food. The food is the tail end of a fight or flight circuit that’s spewing chemicals that make you want to eat. Turn off that circuit and those chemicals won’t arrive, but as long as you’re focusing yourself and evaluating yourself and punishing yourself for what you ate, you’re not going to have the intentional control in your brain to focus on rewiring that circuit so you get lasting freedom.” - Dr. Mellin
[14:59] “What happens is all eight of those chemicals collude to make it virtually impossible for you not to overeat, feel bad inside, and gain weight. It’s all biochemical, and it’s all affected by one thing, the stress chemicals in your body.” - Dr. Mellin
[32:37] “I thought, I’ve got to go on a diet, and I said no, I’m not going to. I’m going to find my own natural weight. I’m not going to judge my body no matter what size it is. I’m going to eat when I’m hungry, stop when I’m dissatisfied, and use the EBT tool so I can do that. And what happened is food became a non-issue.” - Dr. Mellin
"You can rewire your brain for health, health in mind and in body." - Jenn Trepeck
RESOURCES:
Become A Member of Salad with a Side of Fries
A Salad With A Side Of Fries Merch
A Salad With a Side of Fries Instagram
GUEST RESOURCES:
The EBT website for the program
BIO:
Dr. Mellin is a health psychologist, New York Times Bestselling author, and founder of emotional brain training, a neuroscientific program for rewiring the brain out of stress overload and into states of joy and optimal health. She developed EBT during her 40 years as a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Mellin is the executive director of the Solution Foundation, which conducts EBT research and trains health professionals and coaches to deliver EBT in their practices and online.
