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Showing Up Anyway is a podcast about unlearning diet culture, redefining health, and making peace with food, movement, and your body -- without needing to have it all together. Hosted by Coach Adam Wright, an anti diet-culture personal trainer and body-trust educator, each episode dives into the imperfect side of wellness and how to navigate motivation burnout, body image struggles, emotional eating and the pressure to be "healthy". This is your reminder that progress doesn't need to be perfect, and you'll still see progress as long as you show up anyway.
Welcome to Showing Up Anyway,
the podcast for people
who are not perfect.
On this show,
we talk about intuitive eating,
fitness without obsession,
and healing your relationship
with food and your body.
Hi, everybody, welcome back to the
show. I'm super happy to have you.
I know, I took last week off,
I was on a little vacation,
I appreciate your patience.
As we approach the end of the year,
I might, you know,
miss a week from time to time,
but if you stick around and make
sure you're subscribed,
I promise we'll always
keep coming back.
And, today, I wanted to
talk about something
that really doesn't get
nearly enough attention
when it comes to food -
and that includes for me,
I don't talk about it as much
as I do maybe hunger and fullness -
we're gonna be
talking about satisfaction.
I'm always asking you about
hunger and fullness, right?
It seems like every video I
make, hunger and fullness
and honoring those
and listening to them,
which is incredibly important,
but there's more to it.
We can go a step further
because you can be completely
full and not satisfied.
And I know you've
experienced that before,
maybe you've finished a meal and
you decide you want dessert after.
Or, this happens a lot,
maybe you feel physically full,
but you still find yourself, like,
roaming the pantry or the kitchen
for something a little bit more.
It's because what you ate
wasn't satisfying.
It wasn't what you were looking for.
So what we're gonna talk about today
is why satisfaction matters
just as much as hunger and fullness,
how diet culture has taught us
to ignore it,
and how bringing it back
into your relationship with food
can completely change
the way that you eat.
Something that I hear said
all the time,
when it comes to food and nutrition,
is that food is fuel.
While that's true,
food is a lot more than that too.
Yeah, food gives you energy
for sure,
but it's also a social thing,
it's a cultural thing.
In a lot of traditions and cultures,
pleasure is considered a
key part of healthy eating.
For example, Japanese
culture promotes enjoyment
as one of the goals
of healthy living.
They understand that food is not
just about nutrients,
it's about the experience.
But in our pursuit of health
or weight loss,
we forget one of the simplest
joys of being human -
the satisfaction that
comes from eating.
Now, the reason that this
is so important is that
if you regularly settle for food
that does not satisfy you,
you're really never gonna
feel fulfilled.
You can fill up your stomach
and still feel like
you're missing something.
That something,
though, is satisfaction.
Let me give you an example that
I'm sure has happened to you, okay?
You tell yourself, "You know
what sounds really good right now?
"An ice cream sandwich." But then,
you think, "Well, no, you know what?
"I shouldn't have
that ice cream sandwich
"because it's got so much sugar.
"Yeah, I'm just gonna have something
a little healthier instead,
"I'm gonna go grab a protein bar."
So, you finish that protein bar
but - you know what? -
that did not quite do it for you.
And so you still want
a little something.
So, you go grab a handful
of chocolate chips, okay?
And that doesn't do it either.
You're like, "Oh, my God, what now?
"Like, you know what? Screw it.
I'm gonna go and eat what I wanted."
And now you've eaten
the protein bar,
a handful of chocolate chips,
and the ice cream sandwich too,
and it's not
because you lack willpower,
it's because you were not satisfied.
So, if satisfaction is so important,
then why do a lot of us ignore it?
Well, not surprisingly, a lot
of it comes from diet culture
and the way you were raised.
Diet culture tells us
that pleasure is a problem,
that enjoying food is indulgent
or it's cheating.
You know, if you think
about the clean eating rules,
if anybody's ever tried
to eat clean,
or if you've done a strict diet,
you're good if you eat
the salad and, you know,
with no dressing, but you're bad
if you have the burger, right?
You should have fruit for dessert
instead of the ice cream,
and you should definitely not
have dessert twice in a day.
Over time, rules like those
train us to forget about
satisfaction, to dismiss that.
We start believing that what we
want is wrong, it's weakness,
and only what's on the
approved list of whatever
we deem to be healthy is acceptable.
And so eating becomes a chore
or a test of willpower
rather than a source of joy.
When I meet with new,
potential clients,
one of the questions
that I almost always ask is,
do you feel guilty or
ashamed when you eat?
And a large percentage
of people say yes because
diet culture has made shame and
guilt a part of eating, you know?
We're taught to follow the rules
and eat the right things
and prioritize thinness
or clean eating
instead of enjoyment
or satisfaction.
Nothing tastes as good as skinny
feels, right? Remember that?
So, as a result, we force ourselves
to eat boring salads and rice cakes
when what we really wanted was
something else, something more.
And that guilt is a
really big problem
because if you do eat
something that you enjoy,
but you're consumed with guilt
while you're eating it,
you rob yourself
of the satisfaction.
You might even think you need
to keep eating more
to get that enjoyment,
that guilt chased away.
Evelyn Tribole, who's one
of the founders of intuitive eating,
described it this way,
and I'm paraphrasing,
but she said that diet culture
diminishes our quality of life
by sucking the
satisfaction out of eating.
It makes it so that food
is not just food anymore,
it just becomes this
minefield of anxieties
and shoulds and should-nots
and, in that environment,
who the hell is going to be able to
be relaxed enough to feel satisfied?
But here's the beautiful irony.
When you start honoring
satisfaction,
it actually becomes easier
to stop eating
when you are starting
to get comfortably full.
It might sound a little
counterintuitive,
some people think that if they start
enjoying food too much,
they're just never going to stop,
but the opposite tends to happen.
When you eat something
that's really, really delicious
and you do it mindfully,
you're going to notice
that as you continue to eat it,
and as you become more full,
the enjoyment starts
to become less and less.
The meal doesn't taste as good
as it did when you started.
The peaks of pleasure
start to drop off
and that's a clear sign
that you've had enough.
Now, this is a real
physiological phenomenon, okay?
You can look it up. It's called
sensory specific satiety, okay?
That's a mouthful.
Sensory specific satiety.
And I want to get into it
a little bit more later,
but, basically,
the more of a food that you eat,
the less pleasurable each
additional bite becomes.
Studies have proven this,
they've shown that the greatest
pleasure from a particular food
that you're eating, comes
within the first few bites
or the first few minutes
that you're eating
and as you continue, your taste
buds literally become less sensitive
to that flavor and the food
just isn't hitting the same.
It's your body's clever little way
of saying, "Hey, you know what?
"We're good.
We have had what we needed."
And if you really start to
pay attention to your senses,
which I'm going to go over with
you in this episode,
you're going to notice when
that wow factor starts to fade.
Maybe that creamy pasta
that you were eating
is not quite as mind-blowing
on bite number ten
as it was on the first bite.
That's a cue.
Or maybe halfway through that
pizza slice, you realize,
"Hey, you know what?
This is getting a little cold,
"and I'm just kind of going
through the motions.
"It's not lighting
anything up like it once was."
If you find yourself pushing
the food around the plate
with your fork, that's another.
When you tune into those signals,
stopping eating doesn't feel like a
punishment, it feels natural,
it feels like the right decision,
because you're not stopping
because you're not allowed
to have more,
you're not stopping because the diet
says you have to stop then,
you're stopping because
you are genuinely content.
You've gotten what you came
for, so to speak.
This is why satisfaction is such a
powerful tool for self-regulation.
It helps you trust that
you don't have to micromanage
every single portion
if you're truly listening.
Your body and your taste buds will
guide you if you are listening.
The TLDR here, if I had to boil
it down into a few words,
is quality over quantity.
Now, I'm pretty sure I did touch on
my next point a little bit earlier,
I just glanced over it,
so I want to make this clear.
It's entirely possible to be
full without being satisfied
and that happens because
being physically full
is a biological feeling,
but satisfaction is a
psychological one, okay?
Your body can be fed, but your
taste buds and your mind might
still be looking for something
that's a little more enjoyable.
Now, for those of you
who are visual learners,
well, I guess this
isn't visual learning,
because one, for a lot of you,
this is just audio and for...
(ADAM LAUGHS)
And for the rest of you
who are watching the video, I don't
have, like, a little graphic,
I don't have a display board.
So, let me just
describe it for you, okay?
Satisfaction is, like,
that big sigh at the end of a meal.
The one that goes, "Ohhh, my God,
yeah, that hit the spot."
Okay? If you don't get that,
you MIGHT, not always,
but you MIGHT experience
something a little later,
something I call the
"now what?" effect.
You're full,
but something's missing.
So, you rummage around the pantry or
the fridge and think, "Now what?"
This is the biggest reason why you
need to consider your satisfaction
just as much as your
hunger and fullness.
It's not just something extra,
it is a core signal from your
body that your eating...
your eating experience is complete.
So, what actually makes a
meal satisfying?
Because it's more than just
the calories or the macros, okay?
Eating really is a full
sensory experience.
So, I'm going to guide you through
what that looks like
cos a lot of you are not paying
attention to these things at all.
And that includes myself
five, ten years ago.
There are at least six sensory
things that come with every food
that we're going
to talk about today.
There might be more, but we're
going to talk about six of them.
Taste, texture, aroma,
temperature, appearance,
and then the volume and
sustaining capacity of a food.
Now, I will warn you in advance,
this might feel a
little ASMR-like, okay?
Erm...
(ADAM LAUGHS)
I promise I'm not going to be
crumbling any foods
on the microphone,
but I'll also do my best
to not use my book talk voice,
but I don't know,
we're gonna see how that goes.
I want you to think...
(ADAM LAUGHS)
This might feel a little romantic,
okay? Food is sensual,
what can I say?
Think about a food that you really
love. What does it taste like?
Is it sweet,
like a brownie or an orange?
Is it savory, like a pasta
with a rich tomato sauce?
Is it salty, like a pickle?
Maybe it's spicy or buttery
or bitter, smoky, tart?
Maybe it's bland,
like a cottage cheese.
What's the texture like?
Is it creamy, smooth,
silky, like a yogurt?
Is it crunchy, like tortilla chips
or crisp lettuce?
Chewy, like a bagel?
Is it crumbly?
Flaky? Sticky? Soft? Gooey?
What about the temperature?
Do you like a hot,
hearty soup on a cold day,
or a cold smoothie
on a hot afternoon?
How about a cold bowl of fresh
fruit? Iced tea? Hot coffee?
Do you drink water chilled or
do you drink it at room temperature?
What's the aroma like?
Do you like the smell
of fresh baked bread,
or a sizzling garlic or onions?
Do you like buttered popcorn,
or a smelly cheese,
or fresh coffee
with cinnamon or vanilla?
And obviously the appearance matters
too, what your meals look like.
Are they all beige, or do you like
having some color on the plate?
Maybe some purple beets
or some green asparagus.
Is your meal tall, or is
it flat, like a quesadilla?
What's the arrangement on
the table or the plating,
what does that look like?
And, lastly, we look at the volume
and the sustaining capacity of food.
And this is what you're going to
feel in your stomach, okay?
Are you eating something light,
like popcorn,
or hearty, like a bean chili?
Are you eating something heavy
that's going to keep you
full for a while,
like a mac and cheese?
Or is it something like a yogurt
that's not going to
keep you full very long?
All right, ASMR over.
When was the last time
that you thought about
these things during your meal?
And how do you think your meals
and your eating experience
would change if you were to
think about these things more often?
And so now that you know about them,
the question that you need to
start to ask yourself is,
what do I want to eat right now?
Would I be satisfied
with something warm or cold?
Crunchy or creamy?
At first, this is going to
feel a little bit unusual.
Maybe a little bit scary, okay?
What if I only want pizza
and cookies forever?
But I think what you're going
to find is the opposite.
When all foods are on the table,
pun intended,
and you pair that with the knowledge
that all foods can
fit in a healthy diet,
and this is what I mean
when I talk about giving yourself
unconditional permission
to eat all foods.
You're going to start
to crave balance.
Sometimes it is going
to be the burger,
but sometimes it will
be the salad.
Both can be satisfying in different
ways when you're allowed to choose.
If you're used to food rules
and guilt trips about food,
asking yourself
what sounds good right now
is going to feel really strange.
Because a lot of people are so used
to being told what they should have
that they're completely out of
touch with what they want to have.
Let's change that, yeah?
Think about your own upbringing
and history with food.
Growing up, did you have a
say in how much or what you ate?
Or was there a diet
mentality in your house?
Were you always told you had
to finish your vegetables
before you could have dessert?
Or that some foods were bad?
Think about the unspoken rules
or even the spoken rules
that you internalized.
Like, don't eat between meals.
Or always choose the low-fat option,
or no second helpings,
or dessert is only
for special occasions.
And with those childhood
messages in mind,
I want you to ask yourself, gently,
what do I want to eat right now?
If no foods were off-limits
and if no-one was judging you,
what would you choose right now?
Now, I want to jump back
because I did mention
sensory specific satiety
and we're going to talk about the
role of variety in your life.
Have you ever told yourself,
"Oh, my God, I'm so full,
"but I could really
go for something sweet"?
Well, I hope so because now
I've used that example twice!
But it's because that is a perfect
example of how satisfaction works
on a sensory level.
You might be totally satisfied
with what you're looking for
on, you know, a salty
or a savory level,
but those sweet taste buds
haven't yet been engaged.
So the idea of ice cream
still sounds pretty appealing.
Now, variety can be a bit
of a double-edged sword.
On one hand, including a
lot of different flavors
and textures in a meal can make
that meal more satisfying overall
because you're hitting
a lot of sensory buttons.
You can include a lot in one meal.
You might have something savory,
something fresh,
something acidic, something
crunchy, something creamy
and that might leave you feeling
really content
because, you know, all your
senses got a little bit of play.
But on the other hand,
endless variety in one sitting,
like going to an all-you-can-eat
buffet or something
with dozens and dozens of options
can lead us to eat past our fullness
because every new taste
rekindles that interest.
And if we keep switching
those new flavors,
we postpone that "I'm done" feeling.
So, how do we use all this
knowledge to our advantage?
Well, the first thing is
you've got to notice it.
The next time you're eating a meal,
pay attention to
the first few bites.
Savor them. Really notice
how delicious they are, okay?
And then also notice as
the intensity starts to decline.
You can use it in tandem with
some of your fullness cues
and you might realize,
"Hey, you know what?
"I'm not thinking about food
as much anymore
"and also what I'm eating doesn't
taste as good anymore,
"I think maybe I've reached a place
where I can comfortably stop."
But if you decide to have
a second course or a dessert,
I want you to notice how your
enthusiasm might perk up again
for that new flavor.
None of this is good or bad,
it's just information
about how your body works.
So just be aware of it
so that you can recognize
when one particular craving
has been satisfied
and also recognize when you're
actually craving something else
versus just eating out of habit.
If you can recognize when
the pleasure from each bite
is starting to drop, you can
pause and check in with yourself.
Am I getting full? Would I
actually like another serving?
Or am I just eating
because it's there?
This is something called
the last bite threshold.
You're asking yourself, is the
next bite going to be my last bite?
And you're answering that question
using all the tools
we've accumulated so far
and making a judgment
based on that to either continue
and have another bite and then
ask yourself that same question -
is the next bite going to
be my last bite? -
or, if you decide,
"Yes, this is my last bite,"
you can comfortably stop there.
Congratulations. You've done it.
Now, thinking about satisfaction
and how to use it as a tool,
as information about
how to eat better,
might sound a little bit weird,
okay, but it really is.
It's learning to trust yourself
to take care of your body.
When you make satisfaction
a priority,
you are essentially
telling yourself,
"My needs and desires matter.
I trust that I know what I want,
"that I'm feeding myself something
good and something enjoyable."
What's a better form of self-care
and self-trust than that?
Instead of viewing your love
for tasty food as the enemy,
you're starting
to see it as an ally,
as a signal that can guide
you towards what your body wants
and what your mind really needs.
Now, I know that trusting yourself
around food feels scary at first.
Okay? I get it,
especially if you've spent years
and years feeling out
of control and ashamed,
but it's like strengthening a muscle
or developing a new skill, okay?
You need to start with one
meal or one snack at a time.
Nobody was born buff. Nobody was
born speaking three languages.
Nobody was born with the ability
to play ten different instruments.
You've got to start somewhere.
All those things take practice.
You might have to experiment
a little bit to kind of
figure out what you really like
and what you really want,
that's okay.
Don't treat it like a test.
Treat it like a
curious adventure, okay?
And if you feel ready,
maybe you want to try
and reintroduce some of the foods
that you've made off-limits before.
I know people who have never had
pasta in the last ten years, okay?
If you've avoided that food,
make a small bowl of it,
of your favorite kind,
and pay attention to all the senses
that we talked about earlier, okay?
You can do the same thing for
your favorite chocolate chip cookie.
When you allow yourself to
eat foods you actually like,
you're going to feel a lot more
satisfied and content afterwards.
Imagine that.
And then you can move on with
your day instead of having this
nagging feeling of
deprivation all the time.
Each time that you listen to
your body's wants and it ends well,
you are rebuilding
trust in yourself.
You're proving to yourself,
I can enjoy this food
without going off the rails.
I can stop when I'm satisfied.
I can be healthy
and I can be happy too.
But keep in mind that making
satisfaction a priority
does not mean that you're always
going to have the perfect meal
or that you're never going
to overeat again, okay?
You're human, it's going to happen.
And sometimes you're going to eat
past your fullness and sometimes
you're going to
grab something quick
that's not your top choice,
that's okay.
What it means is that you are
approaching eating
from a place of self-respect and
not a place of self-punishment.
I want you to notice that
when I tell you to introduce
a variety of foods and maybe
reintroduce some foods back into
your life, I'm not telling you to do
it in a way that's reckless, okay?
I'm not telling you to eat
the whole box of Oreos at once.
We're doing this responsibly. We're
doing it mindfully, very demure.
Oh, man, that reference
is a little outdated!
A healthy relationship with food
is about nourishing all of you,
body and mind.
Pleasure and nutrition can
absolutely sit at the same table.
In fact, the more you allow
yourself to find pleasure
in balanced meals, the more
sustainable healthy eating becomes.
Who do you think is going to be
more consistent in their diet -
the person that is choking
down dry chicken and raw kale
cos they think
that's the healthy thing,
or the person who finds delicious
ways to prepare their veggies
with sauces and spices they love
and who savors the small dessert
each night without guilt?
Now, if you're still feeling
a little bit unsure or skeptical
or a little bit afraid, that's okay.
I want you to start just by
noticing your eating experiences
without immediately
judging them, okay?
Maybe over the next few days,
ask yourself occasionally,
"Am I enjoying this?
"What would make this meal
more satisfying for me?"
It might be as simple
as heating up your lunch
instead of eating it cold, or adding
a little bit of salt or pepper,
or sitting down at a table instead
of standing over the counter.
Little acts of honoring
satisfaction
can slowly rebuild
your trust in yourself.
And remember, there's no
perfect way to do this, okay?
Some days you're going to
nail it and feel like,
"Wow, I really, really listened
"and that meal was
exactly what I needed."
And other days you're going to
feel like, "You know what?
"That did not actually satisfy me
and I just kept looking for snacks
"and now I realize why."
Rather than scolding yourself
if that happens,
I want you to get curious.
Ask yourself,
"What was I really wanting there
"and how could I give
that to myself next time?"
Every experience, even the
ones that you label as mistakes,
is useful information
for guiding yourself
towards what works for you.
And this is why during my group
coaching calls with my clients,
I don't ask them
about wins and losses,
I ask them about wins
and lessons learned.
What did you learn this week
and how can we use that
to our advantage next week?
And since we're on that topic,
if you like what I'm talking about
and you want a little bit of help
incorporating it into your life,
I do offer one-on-one coaching
and the link to apply for
that is in my show notes.
I would love to help you.
If you apply, I will
reach back out to you
once you submit that application
and we'll find a time either
this week or next week
where we can meet one-on-one
and we'll talk about that.
No pressure, no obligation,
totally free,
but if you've ever been curious
about what training might look like,
I'll talk to you about it.
All right, now here
is my challenge for all of you,
for everybody that's listening -
I want you, at your very next meal,
maybe that's breakfast,
maybe that's lunch,
maybe that's dinner
because those are the
only three options, okay?
I want you to pause
and I want you to ask yourself,
before you choose your meal,
"What would actually
satisfy me right now?"
And then I want you to give yourself
permission to honor it, okay?
Because the goal is
not to eat perfectly.
The goal is to live fully
and satisfaction is what
makes that possible.
Thank you for tuning into this
episode of Showing Up Anyway,
you can find it for free on Spotify
or wherever you get your podcasts
and wherever you're listening,
if you like the show,
I'd love it if you gave me
a five-star review
because that does help other
people find the show
and hopefully it'll help
change their life
just like you're
looking to change yours.
If you're listening on Spotify,
though, you can follow me
and tap the bell icon
so you get notifications
when new episodes come out.
I'm Coach Adam,
remember - when things get
challenging, keep showing up anyway.