Triumphs in the Quest to Overcome Sugar's Embrace - S1E2

As Coach Mikki, I often reflect on the comforting sweetness of my great-grandmother's pies amidst my childhood's rough patches. It's these moments of vulnerability that unknowingly tethered my heart to sugar, a bond that many of us unknowingly carry into our adult years. This episode peels back the emotional layers of our relationship with sugar, exploring how these connections can shape our eating habits and become our go-to coping strategy in times of distress. I share my personal journey, not just to reveal my battles with sugar's siren call but to illuminate the paths we all might tread when comfort food becomes our emotional armor.

Sugar's allure is no secret; it's a whirlwind romance of highs and lows, leaving us craving more despite the aftermath. This conversation isn't just about the pitfalls of sugar addiction though; it's about celebrating the victories we achieve in our ongoing battle with binge eating. With each small triumph, we move closer to freedom from the empty calories that once held us captive. I'm here to reassure you that it's okay to savor life's sweetness without surrendering to the sugar bowl. Together, we unpack the science behind sugar's grip on us, highlight healthier alternatives, and most importantly, we celebrate your courageous steps towards a life where indulgence means joy, not just another slice of cheesecake. Join me on this heartfelt journey; it's one where every listener is a cherished guest, and every story shared is a step towards healing.

https://pixabay.com/users/sergepavkinmusic-6130722/ Thank You Serge Pavkin for the preroll!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:17

Hey, I'm Coach Mickey and I'm so glad that you've joined us here on Binge, on Life, not a cheesecake, and this is your first time joining us. Come on in and make yourself comfortable and, if you join me on a regular basis, thank you so much. I'm so glad that you're here. Good for you for making a choice to come in and make your life better, to help get over binge eating, and also allow me to share my stories and my insight to help you get through this journey and also to know that you are not alone. Binge eating oh my gosh, there are so many facets to it and for many, many years I've been a binge eater and if you've listened to my first podcast, I kind of shared with you one of my shameful stories in regard to my binge on a cheesecake in the parking lot. Well, I'm going to talk about sugar today. Sugar seems to be the main culprit to us as binge eaters, and for us, that seems to be our go to. Whether we're dealing with stress, whether we're dealing with anxiety, whatever the reason is or the emotion that's attached to it, sugar seems to always be the first thing that we go to. Now I'm also a bingeer on salt, so I will tell you that popcorn and pretzels were also my other drug of choice when it came to coping with different situations and different emotions. But today we're just going to focus on sugar, because I've done a lot of research on this and just the reasoning that our body's crave sugar is really has a strong attachment also to the emotional attachment that we use sugar as a coping mechanism. Well before we get into that, I want to share a story with you that made me realize why some of my emotional strongholds to sugar transpired the way they did for me now as an adult.

Speaker 1: 2:08

Back in the seventh and eighth grade, I was transferred from public school into a Catholic school and unfortunately, going from that location into that, going from my public school into a private school, was very difficult, not only for me but also for my siblings, and unfortunately, I was bullied a lot, pretty much every day, and you would think that that wouldn't have occurred. However, these people had grown up with each other since kindergarten, so they all knew each other. They were popular because of the basketball team and the cheerleaders, and I don't want to peg and say those are the people that always do that. Unfortunately, that just happened to be the group of people that always constantly bullied me. It made it very difficult every day. So I would walk home After school. I would walk home and I just could not wait to get out of there.

Speaker 1: 3:00

But on my way home, what would always brighten and enlighten my day was I would stop by my great-grandmother's house. So as I would walk, I'd have to pass her house and every day I'd make a point of stopping by to see her. Now I don't remember her age, but I can tell you she had her gray, curly hair with the blue tint. For those of you that have got to have had a great-grandmother or a grandmother, you can remember who had the blue tint before, blue hair was kind of cool. They were doing, they were rocking that back. They were doing it more than when we were doing it now, and she had really thick glasses and it would magnify her eyes and she was the sweetest, sweetest person and I can remember knocking on her door and every day she would greet me with a big hug and just as she opened the door I could just be overwhelmed with this fragrance, this smell, this inviting aroma of a baked pie.

Speaker 1: 3:59

My great-grandmother, every day after school, would bake me a pie. So I would bake me a pie before I got there for after school. So when I arrived, she'd greet me at the door and the first thing she would say was I baked a fresh pie for you today, dear. Well, that was every single day and I'd go upstairs and she'd asked me about my day. Now, I didn't really go into too much about what was going on at school because at that point in time I just wanted to just leave it alone and not talk about it and, plus, being with her, she was older I just really just wanted to enjoy my time with her. She would slice, you know, cut me a slice of pie, and sometimes it'd be apples, and as we bury pumpkin, whatever she felt like making that day or what she had, she would bake this pie and then we'd sit and watch TV and I'd be there for, oh, probably a little bit less than an hour, but within that hour, with every taste of that pie, with every bite of that pie, I could just feel the stress just melting away.

Speaker 1: 5:03

And then, being with her and talking with her and just being in that environment of being accepted and loved and feeling safe, it just really left such a positive feeling and impression on my life, but looking back at it as an adult and thinking about all the different times where I didn't feel that way, where I didn't feel safe and I didn't feel accepted, and I was going through a lot of stressful times, my go-to, as you guys know, was the cheesecake. So what happened here? So let's break this down a little bit, because it really was an epiphany for me to understand where this emotional attachment was. So here I had the pie and then feeling the way I did and then, moving on to my adult life, using other sugar-related things to co-as a coping mechanism to alleviate those feelings. Now there's a couple of things going on here. One is I tried to look back and said what if my grandmother had only played cards with me? What if, every day after school, I met her and we played a game of cards? Would I still feel sorry for staying on my new tongue? Would I still feel the same way? Well, I would probably always have that amazing memory. However, I wouldn't be pinching and eating anything because I didn't associate that moment with food, with the feelings that I had, but I probably would always have that great memory and feeling good about having a bad day and then doing something fun with my great grandmother. So there'd be still that attachment, but there wouldn't be the food attachment.

Speaker 1: 6:47

So sugar is kind of tricky. There's a lot that I have found out about sugar, and I want to share this with you. So, when we eat sugar, it does release dopamine within our brain, and it's the so-called feel-good transmitter that makes us feel good. It has like a natural reward system, so by eating sugar, it's always going to make us feel happy, and it makes a lot of sense because, you think about it, our taste buds are sugar and salt.

Speaker 1: 7:22

What happens, though, is that when we eat sugar and we eat too much of it we almost create a tolerance to it. So when I went on my cheesecake binge, what if I had just had a couple of cookies instead of eating a whole cheesecake? Well, I had a big problem. I had a big issue, and it was going to take a lot more sugar to be able to alleviate that problem, which led me to binging on that whole cheesecake, whereas a couple cookies wouldn't have mattered. So finding that attachment and understanding it has given me the ability to take that information and back away from sugar.

Speaker 1: 8:02

What happens is when we're eating that much sugar, you create that tolerance. So I want to feel good and I eat sugar, but I don't feel good enough, so I have to eat more, and now it's a vicious cycle you have to eat more to feel good, you don't feel good and then you go back to eating more and more and more. So how can we replace this? And what really happens with sugar? Why would a cheesecake and cookies and a cupcake and everything, even though it's those sweet treats, are filled with sugar? Why do we not get the same feeling when we eat other items that are sugar? Well, let's delve into that a little bit.

Speaker 1: 8:44

First of all, when we do eat sugar, there is a huge difference based on eating sugar from fruit and sugar that is processed, sugar from cupcakes and cookies and other things. Just looking at and breaking it down as a whole. If I decide to make a bowl of blueberries, raspberries and, let's say, blackberries, because I love berries and I have that, and then next to me I've got a couple of cupcakes, so let's look at the difference. So sugar is a source of calories. However, when we consume those excess calories from sugar and other sources, it can lead to weight gain in the body and we have a difficult time just burning it off. But why is that? Because if you look at a cupcake, what are the other ingredients that are within that cupcake? You've got eggs, you've got butter, you've got flour, you've got a lot of other ingredients that really can have a more fat type of base, along with the sugar.

Speaker 1: 9:42

So the sugar is like the vehicle that says, hey, you want to feel good, you need to eat this, but, by the way, jumping in the car with us is I'm going to be. The driver says the sugar, and jumping in the car with us is going to be the fat, with the butter and the flour and all the other ingredients that go with it. So where do you think that's going to go in your body? You have the sugar and then everything else has got to go somewhere else. It's got to be stored right. That's where a lot of your weight gain comes in, because it's all the other ingredients that are attached. I mean, think about that cheesecake that I ate. That cheesecake was what? Cream cheese and sugar and all these other ingredients that we know are that are fat and not good fats. Now, good fats are a whole different thing when you're looking at good fats that your body needs, but when you're looking at excessive fats like that are attached to pastries and other things and you're consuming a lot of those and an abundance of those, of course you're going to gain weight.

Speaker 1: 10:44

So let's talk about the insulin. I know we always talk about diabetes when it comes to sugar. So when we consume refined sugars, it rapidly increases our blood sugar level and you guys know what it's like to get that increase of your blood sugar that you know. Of a sudden you crash. However, when you're taking in all that sugar, your pancreas releases insulin to help regulate your blood sugar, and then insulin promotes the storage of excess glucose in your liver and muscles. However, once it's that glucose is full and you don't have any more storage, it has to be converted into fat and then stored into your tissue.

Speaker 1: 11:23

Okay, so that's going to also lead to gaining weight. It also increases our appetite. Sugary foods lead to that rapid spike, just like we talked about, and then we get that crash. But the fluctuation can trigger hunger and cravings and then leading us to overeating and then having more higher caloric foods, such as eating a whole sleeve of Oreos or eating the whole cheesecake because we're craving it and it doesn't fill us up. This leads me to my next thing Foods that are very high in sugar, like the drinks, like like different sodas, or the juices, you know, your your uh fancy coffees that you have in the morning that are topped with whipped cream and chocolate they're going to also do the same thing. They're going to fluctuate and make you crave more sugar, without ever giving you the feeling of being full, and because this is all empty type of calories that you're consuming, so you're never going to feel full and just going to lead you to wanting more and more.

Speaker 1: 12:31

So let's take a look at the opposite of this. If we need sugar, we want to feel good about having sugar. First of all, let's identify the actual attachment, which is why am I feeling the way I do and what's leading me to it, and where the attachments. Just like I told you the story from my past to kind of figure out why I've always had this attachment to the sugar foods when I felt a certain way, but I've also learned to go. If I'm going to have something that's sugar based and I want to enjoy, we can actually go ahead and and make the change. So what's the difference here let's, let's, let's cupcake versus a banana.

Speaker 1: 13:12

Well, when you take natural sugars okay, so the fruit when fruit has got the sugar which is a natural let me start over again, you guys, because I've got all this information to tell you and sometimes I just want to tell you so fast it doesn't come out right. The sugar that's in fruit is basically natural and while that sugar is easy to consume into your body, the other thing that you have got with fruits is you're going to get the fiber, you're going to get vitamins and you're going to get minerals, where, on the other hand, when you have the refined sugar, like in the cupcake and you have all those other ingredients, it's not filled. You have more nutritional value in the container they came in than the actual cupcake itself, whereas having, like a banana or berries or an apple, you're going to have the fiber. The fruits that are very high in fiber will also help slow down the absorption of sugar into your bloodstream. This can help regulate your blood levels, your blood sugar levels, and then also gives you the feeling of fullness, whereas a cupcake on the hand, again, is low in fiber. So what's going to happen? You're going to absorb it really fast, your blood sugar is going to spike and you're not going to feel very good. So also the nutritional value. Also the fact that you've got different things that are high in water, like if you have watermelon, or if you've got peaches or plums or some of those other fruits. There's nothing more satisfying than biting into a very ripe peach and it's really juicy and it's sweet. That has a lot of water in it too, so that's also very good for you. That's going to help with keeping you full. So there's a lot of other things that we can look at in regards to using something different compared to going for a cupcake. So knowing the health benefits of sugar is something we really need to understand and I think it's going to help us.

Speaker 1: 15:17

I know it should certainly help me to understand why does sugar affect us the way we do, why are we attached to it, how does it go off into our bodies, and it really makes sense. So I'm just going to kind of sum it up and I'll use my example of feeling unaccepted. That feeling of disappointment or not being accepted or worry led me to sugar. And why did it lead me to sugar? Because when I ate anything with sugar, I got that quick jolt that went into my bloodstream, that went straight to my brain, that released the dopamine that all of a sudden said, oh my gosh, this is great, and that gives me an artificial reward to make me feel good about myself. I needed to eat a lot more to constantly keep feeling good, which we know we don't, because we downward spiral as soon as the sugar starts to drop out of our body and we crash. Not only that, a lot of times I felt emotionally or physically sick. Yes, I was already emotionally unstable, but I was also feeling physically sick because I had consumed so much of that sugar and that item, such as a cheesecake, Whereas if you replace it with a natural sugar, such as fruits, you've got high in fiber, they've got water, they've got nutrition, they've got minerals, they've got vitamins, they've got other things that are going to help you within your body.

Speaker 1: 16:49

Not only that, it's going to regulate your blood sugar. You're not going to get that crash and you're going to have that feeling of fullness. Now, this is where the challenge comes in. It's recognizing when you have to feel the way you do, when you are feeling the way you do and when you're going to go after whatever food to help you with that, and maybe there won't be a food. You know you can also get the endorphins as such. You know you've heard of a runner's high where you could go for a walk. And if you've attended any of my seminars and if you've read my book uh, benj, on life, not a cheesecake you'll understand that you can also get those endorphins that can help you or help your body get the kind of the same feel good reward without using food as that coping mechanism. So I'm going to leave you with this again, just like we do Again.

Speaker 1: 17:39

If you, however, you're feeling or whatever you're going through, at that time where you feel the need, like you're going to go in and grab something to use as a coping mechanism to get you through that feeling, I would like you to stop, even for just two to three minutes. And if you've been on my binge on life YouTube channel, you will see that there is a couple of and probably many I keep adding them on things and videos that say binge on this. First, I have got pictures of the ocean, I've got walks, I have got just things to take you out of that mindset, and they're only two minutes. Turn on that and just watch them for two minutes. If not, turn on the radio, it's you know. Stare out the window, meditate, move, remove yourself from the situation and put a timer on your phone. You could do it for two minutes and then go back to your journal. That I would say put your time and date how you feel, who and where are you, because you're going to recognize the pattern.

Speaker 1: 18:38

Sometimes people can set off these triggers to make you feel the way you do and then rank it on a scale from one to 10. How do you feel? I mean, how strong is that emotion? How strong are you feeling, whatever you're feeling at that time? And then, what did you eat? You know what, if you did, if you did eat and if you didn't eat, you know. Write it down. And then also write down how you're feeling. Then you know how you're feeling about whatever action you took. And then comment and put down what maybe could you have done differently to help you through that.

Speaker 1: 19:12

And then I would like you to also write three things that you really like about yourself, just three things. It could be anything, it could be. You like the way you write. You like the way you look today. You like how your hair looks. You know you like the way that you chose to have a glass of water instead of opening up a soda.

Speaker 1: 19:31

Maybe one time today, but I want you to celebrate you regardless. If you had the binge, I still want you to celebrate you. So we learned a lot today about sugar. I've learned a lot and I love sharing this with you so you can identify some of the things that you are going through and maybe some of the connections that are happening with the foods that you choose to eat. So I hope this brings you to another step in your journey with binge eating and I hope that you keep going and doing what you're doing. You know I want you to binge on life, not the cheesecake, and I will look forward to seeing you again next week. Until next week, I'm so proud of you and I cannot wait to see you. Please keep doing one little step every day to get you closer to your non binge eating goal and I will look forward to seeing you in the next episode on binge on life, not a cheesecake, see ya.