Life, Health & The Universe - A Podcast For The Midlife Rebel

If Hunger Isn’t the Problem, What Are You Really Feeding? | Juniper Devicis on Emotional Eating & Self-Trust

• Host - Nadine Shaw - Midlife Rebel; Natural Wellness Advocate, Astrologer, Gene Keys Guide,Human Design Enthusiast • Season 15 • Episode 11

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When food stops being your main comfort, life gets louder—in the best way. In this episode I sit down with nutritionist and nutritional biochemist Juniper Devicis to unpack the real drivers of emotional eating and the exact steps she used to quiet food chatter, stabilise mood, and rebuild self-trust. Her story moves from teenage body image and burnout to a rock-bottom photo, hypnosis, and the surprising relief of finally feeling feelings rather than feeding them.

We dig into the signals that separate genuine hunger from urgent compulsion, why self-worth must come before meal plans, and how chronic stress hijacks metabolism, spikes cravings, and pushes fat storage to the midsection. Juniper explains how hypnosis and NLP dial down the emotional charge around food so a snack becomes a choice, not a reflex. She shares her approach to ketosis cycling—structured, calm, and sustainable without obsessive tracking—plus the simple movement rituals and journalling that make cravings quieter and evenings easier.

We also explore food quality in the modern world and how to patch nutrient gaps with the right supplement forms, and for those considering GLP-1 medications, Juniper outlines how to protect muscle, strengthen habits, and plan an exit so progress sticks. By the end, “vibrant, juicy life” stops sounding like a slogan and starts feeling like a practical, humane path—less noise, more choice, and a body and mind that finally feel on your side.

If this resonates, tap follow, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave a review—what’s one habit you’ll rewrite this week?

You can find Juniper's full profile in our Guest Directory 

https://lifehealththeuniverse.beam.ly/person/juniper-devecis

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Life, Health, and the Universe. Bringing you stories that connect us, preventative and holistic health practices to empower us, and esoteric wisdom to enlighten us. We invite you to visit our website where you can access the podcast, watch on YouTube, and find all of our guests in the guest directory. Visit lifehealth the universe.io. Now let's get stuck into this week's episode. My guest today is Juniper Devisis. Passionate, outside the box nutritionist, a dietitian, nutritional biochemist, and author of Vibrant, Juicy Life. After years of battling food cravings, weight struggles, and burnout, Juniper transformed her life through hypnosis, EFT, NLP, and yoga. In her book, she combines her expertise in biochemistry, nutrition, psychology, and energy work with her personal story to share an empowering step-by-step path to quiet food chatter, heal emotional eating, and create a more authentic life. Juniper, welcome to the podcast. I'm really looking forward to this conversation. Yeah, how's it going?

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you for having me. I can't wait either.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't think we're going to be short of things to talk about. This is a massive topic. And I've actually had a guest recently on the podcast, but talking from about this topic from a different lens. Emotional eating and body image and you know purging and that sort of thing. Whereas this one is really about emotional eating and your you talk about your um weight gain and that kind of kind of struggle that a lot of people experience. Do you want to start by kicking us off with a bit or a lot if you want, about your um personal story and how you came to be in the work you're doing today?

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. So I struggled with weight most of my life. Somewhere in my teens, it started. Um and just, you know, really it shaped my self-worth in my teens because so much, you know, high school is kind of a brutal time. And so it shaped this like, okay, I am never gonna be good enough. So I'm checking out of my body, and I will just focus on my brain. And then also this huge shaping in, I mean, I'm kind of getting ahead of myself, right? So, like, like I just had to prove myself everywhere. I worked really, really hard. And then um, later when I got married, you know, I took care of everyone, I took care of him, I took care of the kids, and like just really to the point of exhaustion. Um, and then in hindsight, of course, I didn't really, it just felt normal, but it was a lot. You know, I had a pretty intense job and it's pretty intense home life. Everybody had ADHD, so there was a lot of like, you know, holding every piece in place, and I would collapse at night from exhaustion, and then I would just start eating. I'd have a little snack. Oh, okay, another snack, another snack. And I I was a high-level dietitian. Like this whole my whole journey um led me to become a dietitian to get a master's degree in nutritional biochemistry because I was looking for, okay, there must be some sort of key, you know, some special way of eating, some special food. 20 years of work in dietary supplement research, there must be some magic pill, like searching for answers, tried every diet that came my way. Um, and still, you know, was was like a hundred pounds overweight. Uh, and no, I I mean, I would try to do intuitive eating, I would try diets, I'd be able to do them for, you know, some period of time, a month, a couple months, and then life would start feeling really bad. And I'd be like, why am I even trying? I think this isn't is like whatever, I give up. And so then in 2018, this was I there I went to my cousin's wedding and I saw a picture of myself, and it was like my rock bottom. I'm like, wow, okay, this is this is pretty bad. I don't know what I'm gonna do. And someone had told me about this hypnotist. So I'm like, fine, one more thing, I'll try it. I'm finally ready. Okay. Um, so I was hypnotized, and then a couple of months later, my marriage fell apart. And so it was like this perfect storm. I really think all three pieces of the hypnosis, the fact that I knew like so much about nutrition, and because I'll explain why all those pieces were so important, and the divorce. So the divorce led me to do all this personal development work while I was hypnotized. So she was like, if you if you break your hypnosis, you will no longer be hypnotized. So I couldn't I couldn't stop the like this the she kind of put me on a strict diet, like a fairly limited kit diet, and I'll tell you that because I actually think that's a key piece of it too. Um so I actually had to feel my feelings for the first time, which I had not realized, but I hadn't no ability to do that. It wasn't part of my, you know, it wasn't really taught in my family. And I think most of us, right? I feel like this generation is the first generation that we're like supposed to feel our feelings, but we don't really know how. We didn't get a we didn't, we weren't taught how, we're just allowed to feel them now. And and so, and also I really knew how to get enough nutrients because I think you know, our our food supply is pretty low in like it's getting worse all the time, and it's almost impossible. It actually is impossible to get enough nutrients just from food. And then when you put someone on a lower calorie diet, it becomes even more impossible. So, because all the people I was hypnotized with ended up gaining their weight back, and somehow I didn't. So, I actually think it's the it's the nutrition piece, which I had nailed, I just didn't nail the ability to feel feelings and give myself comfort in outside of food and and the hypnosis, which works sort of at a at a subconscious level on on fear and and like the protection, like you are eating for a reason, right? Well, what what is that? What does it bring to you on a subconscious level? And so unraveling all of those pieces, it it was the the win for me, and I'm I'm finding it really uh an amazing sort of piece together for my clients too.

SPEAKER_00:

It's pretty full-on, isn't it? I um have my own teen experience, and I have talked about this in well in my podcast, I've talked about the fact that I um was a drinker, alcohol. And you know, and I think for food and alcohol, they're both very socially acceptable. So it doesn't seem unrealistic to you know enjoy food or enjoy a drink. And um about three and a half years ago, I stopped drinking alcohol, and very similar to your story, I realized I had a whole bunch of shit going on that I'm still unraveling. Um and it's like, oh my god, and it's this post um, I didn't ever have a drink and think I need to cover up all of these feelings. Yeah. It was just my normal life, that's who I am, that's what I do. I just have a drink at night, and it wasn't until I stopped that I started feeling all of this discomfort and realized that at those teenage years, you know, where you want to get on with people and it's acceptable to have a drink and you feel better when you're in those environments, when you're, you know, a bit tipsy or completely drunk, whatever it is. Oh my god, sorry, I'm going on. But it's like these, you know, these stories are really similar. And on the outside, you know, you have you've got a successful career that you've um yeah, you've got the family, you've got the home, you've got the good job.

SPEAKER_02:

Um and I never would have thought I was unhappy. I laughed all the time. I still, it's like part of my personality, but in hindsight, like, and now that I'm so aware, like that first, so in the evening, like I have kind of a habit spot. So I like to like watch a little bit of TV at the end of the night. And I if I when I sit on the couch and I I can let like I the second snack, I'm like, oh, I have a feeling, I still don't actually have a feeling. I the second snack is like you have a feeling that you need to go and figure out what this is, and then I have to get up off of that and go and like what is this feeling and journal it out, right? I just so it's crazy, like how I I still even now with so many tools, have to like, what is this feeling that I am having? Because I I never would have known, even though I ended up in in the end of my marriage, was on Lexapro, I still didn't piece that together that oh, I wasn't feeling, or I was trying to avoid my feelings, right? There's two things we can do with food we can either eat to feel better, or we can eat to stop feeling bad. And I do more of the second one, so I don't necessarily know. And what it feels like is this like urgent compulsion to eat.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, right.

SPEAKER_02:

So that is because hunger comes on kind of slowly. You can ignore hunger, you know. All right, I'll get to that a few hours from now, whatever. But the like I must eat right now, that is you trying to run away from a feeling. Um, and yeah, and I and and I I I actually I'm not sure, but I I don't actually have the comfort where like, oh, I want to feel happy. For me, it is like I wanna my subconscious is like, let's stop feeling anything. So it it is still a very like conscious, like, oh, I want a snack. Oh, interesting. I think I must be feeling something.

SPEAKER_00:

It's yeah, I I noticed it now because I don't drink anymore. That you know, it's around that time where I'm making dinner for the kids. I'll now pick up my phone. Yeah. Whereas I would have had a glass of wine. So it's like I've I've replaced it and I can and I kind of witness myself going, oh, I'm doing it again. What is yeah, what is it? Am I I'm trying to fill a space, yeah, in but because those habit grooves are so deep.

SPEAKER_02:

So like having the aha moment is one piece, but then you have to like actively like almost like I think of it like you know, this huge river, it's carved in stone. Like you have to make all these new little rivers so there's more choices there, right? Okay, what else will make me feel good? What else could I do to process the emotions? So for me, I I now do a lot of exercise, like getting outside. It doesn't have to be, you know, intense exercise, but getting out of the house and going for a walk in nature, I find really soothing. Or I do a lot of journaling too, not but like moving my body in any way, like all these different things. Like I have a whole, you know, many, many things that I can do that will help me feel better, not just eating.

SPEAKER_00:

For a long time, that's really what I had eating, and uh I think it's really interesting and also kind of reassuring for people to know that you still have these experiences, but that you've learned how to navigate them and to bring your awareness to to the experience rather than to be kind of like um just blindly just following the the process. Yeah, I think that's a a really um reassuring thing to know that it's not necessarily uh yeah, it's bring it's bringing your awareness to it, isn't it? It's not exactly um.

SPEAKER_02:

Right, instead of second stack instead of me going, all right, what can I eat as a second snack that like you know will have no calories and you know volumetrics will fill my belly because that did not work at all. Like my belly somehow never now it's better years later, but for most of my life I could never feel really even hunger or fullness. Um, you know, because you become dissociated from those types of feelings when you're especially when you're using food for something that isn't hunger or fullness related. But now it's like, oh, I have a feeling, right? So it triggers a whole different cascade of habits. Yeah, sure. Yeah, and finding new things. So I mean, one of the right, what you want to do is say, okay, how have how what is how have I self-sabotaged myself in the past? So when I when I look at it, right? So okay, I would stick to a diet for a couple months, and then every time I would be like, wow, life feels really, really bad. Why am I even trying to do to to stick to a healthy eating plan? So it was always like this fit of depression that would trigger me to fall off track. So in hot now that with my older and wiser self, I can I can recognize, okay, so what could I do instead that would make me feel better? Do you know what I mean? Because for me it was it was I was trying to avoid those feelings. But so look at why you have fallen off track and then say, okay, is there something else that I could help that could help me with my mood? You know, if you if you that was your issue. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I wonder when you um when you were in your teens and you said that you kind of kind of ate emotionally and you have quite a lot of insight about this. Is it in hindsight? Is it in reflection that you see those patterns, or were you consciously at the time? Not at all. I feel bad about myself.

SPEAKER_02:

I didn't I was only only after you took it away that I had that I even saw saw that I had this struggle. Like, right, it was not at all like I then and I mean that's sort of I've struggled a lot. How do I communicate this to people? Because I thought I had a weight problem. I thought I had a genetic issue that I like everyone in my family was overweight. Obviously, I must be. I know everything there is to know about nutrition because I was really high level. I have a lot, I know a lot about nutrition, and that was not the answer. You know what I mean? So I'm like, well, then I must just be genetically like this is it. I'm I'm stuck. And it was only sort of in hindsight, I realized no, I was actually sabotaging myself over and over and over again, and you know, instead of finding comfort, instead of and and another huge piece. So for me, like really finding um, I do like uh ketosis cycling, so using ketosis, which um which is really a low-carb diet, and and our bodies have been have evolved to do this sort of cyclical pan. That's what our fat is saved for to get us through the famine, but we don't have famine anymore. So it just keeps storing. So, so you know, and when so that's what the hypnosis put me on, is more of a ketosis um type plan, a low carb plan. And when you take away those foods, all the things that kind of like your brain just becomes much calmer, at least minded. Like ketosis has been associated with a lot less inflammation and brain inflammation, like inflammation in your body, your brain is also inflamed, which is depression and anxiety and that kind of like volatility in your emotions. So all that calmed down, right? And all those kind of like now I didn't eat a lot of processed food, but I did eat some. And so without those, which also sort of sabotage you, right? That dopamine hit that you get from like some sort of you know, little treat. So when those were gone, everything just became a lot easier. Like it it became I I was no longer sort of having my brain be hijacked in all these different ways, it just settled.

SPEAKER_00:

Um so it was a combination of of the yeah, yeah. Um can you tell us a little bit about what your um food habits were like? Because you've you've mentioned that you, you know, you've worked in nutrition, you knew you knew all of the the right things, the healthy things to be doing, and yet you were um struggling with um overeating. And we've I think that we've been we've we've been led to understand that it's eating crap that is what makes us put on weight. Um, and that if you eat healthily, you can eat as much as you want, maybe.

SPEAKER_02:

Or I am proof positive, but that is not true. Okay, because I really did only eat healthy food. I mean, I grew up, I grew up kind of off the grid. My dad rate grew all our food. We were vegetarian. So I was like, I really never and then in college. I remember I was so excited. I got like a like a hostess cupcake out of the vending machine, and I was like, oh, this is gonna be so good. And it was horrible, actually. Like I had a sore throat for days. Like it did not, it was now it's my one and only, like, kind of like I'm gonna have like, you know, how the other kids eat. No, it was not good. So I mean, was my diet perfect before? No, but it certainly had very, very little junk. I I mean, I think most people who struggle with weight are really actually eating pretty healthy. My my issue was was portions because I couldn't feel fullness, right? So I was uh I was eating until I was stuffed because that felt satisfying to me. So I would just I was eating all healthy food. I mean not all healthy food, but mostly healthy food, just way too much of it.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Um how much do you think your experience was to do with overeating versus emotional um stuff?

SPEAKER_02:

That's an interesting question. Um I I mean I think it's a little bit of both, but I think probably the reason that I didn't feel fullness was because a lifetime of emotional eating, you know what I mean, kind of taught me that I to disconnect my my hunger and fullness. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm really curious about that. Um like I remember being at college about when I was uh it was probably 20 years ago, and I said to someone, um, do you think that um people emotionally uh or you know, and they it's to create a layer around them, like as a protection, like um, like and like how that emotional and physical thing kind of intersects. And they were like, what are you talking about? I was weird.

SPEAKER_02:

No, but that's the subconscious part, right? So I mean when I when I uh because I've spent a lot of time wondering, and this was something I looked looked at myself a long time ago, but uh now that I have a lot of healing and I've done a lot of subconscious work, like absolutely my body was like, oh, you know, if you if you gain weight, no one will look at you, and now you are safer, right? So I see like my daughter kind of covers herself up in a flannel shirt. I did that with food. Do you know what I mean? But like, right, these are ways to protect ourselves from various things, right? I was protecting myself from feeling, yes, but also right, that's that's that's just one that there's all these pieces that you have to unravel. Just not and I saw as I as I lost weight, there was a lot more interest from men, and that was actually like and and liking me for what I looked like, which had really never happened. Like I they used to people the the men who liked me liked me for my personality, which actually was I don't know, that was more I like that's better. So that was that was shocking. I thought the whole world got so easy when you were thin. Now you're just being harassed by men. I just have different problems. Come on, I thought this would solve everything. Classic.

SPEAKER_00:

Um what was I gonna ask? Oh, okay I was curious about um when you uh were at the wedding. You I'm just kind of going back a little bit. When you were talking about being at the wedding and you saw a photo of yourself, and someone suggests and and you were like, okay, it's time. How did that make you feel? Because I think I feel like when we're in these um positions of change, we could it can bring up some real kind of uncomfortable feelings, and this is something that anyone who might want to come and work with you could be at like what is that transformation moment?

SPEAKER_02:

Like this is your rock bottom, right? Okay, wow to change. I mean, when I saw the picture, I was like, wow, and I have it now. It's it's it's a few places because like I'm like, here it was. This is the picture, because because oh I'm getting hijacked. Um I I'm trying to think, do I I just remember thinking, wow, that picture is really, really awful. That I but I don't have I wish that I had like some it was embarrassing, certainly, and especially as a nutrition professional, right? How can I how can I be a nutrition professional? But but I mean I'd been dealing with that my whole life. And it wasn't so that I'll let me I'll talk to you about that and I'll see if I if anything else comes up about your question. So when I counseled people early in my career, and they would look at me and see that I was heavy, and they'd be like, Well, uh, you know, you don't have anything of value to tell me. But then when I got thin, people will be like, Well, you can't understand. So there's no winning. So you just have to be like, hey, I have, I have, you know, whatever, like my wisdom and I know how to help people. So that was another that's a huge piece. Like the whole first chunk of my book is about stepping into our self-worth, right? Because we have to, we have to recognize that we have the value and we're worth prioritizing, not just to all the the things we do and the the people we take care of, but that we get to go on that list of people we take care of. Definitely.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's it the um when we do make those decisions to change, like you going into that hypnosis process and knowing that this is it, were you scared? Like, I'm gonna have to give up.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I remember so I remember because when I drove there and I had like this bowl of cherries, and I was like, this is gonna be like this is it forever. Because I knew she put them on like a ketosis program, and I'm like, this is it forever. Like, all right, we're ready. And yeah, but I was ready, you know what I mean? I think that is that is what it happens. You there is some moment and you're like, okay, enough messing around. I'm ready now.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, I think that's a an important thing for people to realize as well if they are on the on on that point at that point of change, is that that it's okay to feel that discomfort. And and that's probably actually a really good sign that you're on the right track, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02:

Right, because it won't feel easy. It won't feel like, hey, I'm gonna keep doing the same thing, because you're actually right, you're making this, you're like, I am ready to change, and so something is going to change. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Can you tell us some of the things, some of the signs that um people might be experiencing when they have a difficult relationship with food? What are some of the things that you see come up? What some of the th uh you've kind of talked about some of the things you did or experienced.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, certainly that that compulsion to eat is is not about food, right? And that's sort of what my my message, but I I honestly think all of us who struggle with food, it's not about food. I I can't imagine and anyone that I've client, it's it's never about food. We sort of know what we're supposed to eat, so why aren't we? Right? It's not almost nobody needs more food knowledge. Um yeah, so that urgency to eat is absolutely a signifier, like there's something, there's something deeper. Um, you know, I mean, there's all kinds of of different ways of resisting. Like I've I've worked with people, you know, who are like they have a lot of rebellion about it, like, oh, society wants me to look a certain way and I'm going to rebel against that. Okay, but like when we look deeper, you know, who are you really, who are you really getting here? So yeah. Right. And then right. So I mean, there's all kinds of layers of protection that we we put on ourselves.

SPEAKER_00:

And you kind of mentioned um as well that if we're tired, if we're stressed out, if we're um right.

SPEAKER_02:

So for me, like that's a good one. I can talk about how I felt. Like so I and I end up having a lot of food intolerances, I think, from living in chronic stress for so long. So I had a lot of weight around my midsection, which is a sign that you have elevated cortisol that you're like sort of living in that chronic stress. And what that does is it shuts it like shuts down your metabolism, really, because you're preparing for fight or flight. Um, I would wake up in the morning and my ankles were really stiff, like I'd almost have to wiggle them back and forth for a few a few minutes before I could walk. Um, because I my my weak point, like I end up I have a lot of inflammation. And even now, when I like as I've discovered that there's foods that I can't tolerate, it always shows up as like my my wrists and ankles get uh inflamed. And I think way I was pretty, I was moody because I think I had a lot of brain inflammation too. So I would snap um at my husband, at my kids. And I think that was part of the the what led to the end of my marriage is I was just I was in a pretty unhappy place with a lot of irritability. Let me think what else. I mean, I didn't I I would keep myself really busy, so I didn't um have time for exercise because I think exercise is also about prioritizing yourself. Do you know what I mean? And and but in hindsight, when I look, I'm like, all right, so you know, you've I've I did find time for lots of other things, and now I find time without a lot of effort, right? So I think I that was a little bit like, all right, let me deliberately stay busy because I don't want to actually deal with this. Yeah, but that's some learnings too, yeah. Learning to prioritize and let go of things. That's a huge one for women. Like we, I don't know, we wanna it's hard to let go of control, it's hard to delegate, it's hard to say some things aren't a priority, right? Because we feel like everything we're supposed to have do everything perfectly, but you can't.

SPEAKER_00:

Totally. Yeah, it's it's quite an unpicking, isn't it? Because like there's not one thing that you can kind of set, there's not one specific thing that you can kind of say this was the reason for my experience, um, or this might be your reason for the experience. Experience, but you could even say that that stress piece or do the overdoing is a distraction from yourself.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Well, I mean, and so my book is organized in four parts.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

So it's it's the first part of self-worth, because like as I was sort of unraveling my journey, okay, how am I going to teach this to people? And I like teased apart. Okay, what did what exactly were the pieces of my journey? And the very first thing was having to learn that I'm worth it. And and I wouldn't, I didn't even realize that that was something I didn't think because I accomplished a lot. I have a good career, you know what I mean? And and right, I uh so why? But I was sort of always kind of overachieving, and that is because I was trying to prove look, I am worthy, but it it shows up in some really, you know, and then that leads to burnout. And then the second part of the book is okay, how do we let go? How do we handle overwhelm? And so a lot once you've got a little more self-worth, then you can start looking at prioritizing, okay, what really matters, and you should be on that list. So I allow five things. That's it. If you like, we can handle the five things, you get to redraw your list every twice a week. So, but right, we cannot do everything. And I just recently was working with someone and she was like, But I can't give that up. And I said, But you're not giving it up. What you're doing is making space for the things that you actually want to do, right? Because that's what we're doing with this. Like, why hold 20 things if 15 of them like are miserable? Like, let's see how we can do a little bit less on those. Um, so dealing with overwhelm, and and that by but you have to have the self-worth before you can make yourself a priority, and then nourishing yourself. So that's that's the food piece. And and I think that's right in the whole flow, right? So self-worth and dealing with overwhelm is before food. Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, let's go there then. Let's talk about self-worth. I mean, you've we've been touching on it, uh, but like what where does that come from?

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, I yeah, I know I wish I I don't I don't know where it comes from.

SPEAKER_00:

Is it child, is it something that we've picked up in our childhood? Um and I mean that's some of the work I do is timeline, timeline healing.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, right. So and we'll go back to like a lot of those subconscious beliefs were shaped in like all of them are before seven. That's when you get your whole sort of subconscious shaping, but sometimes that'll be timeline or generational, like so, even before that, right? What was our grandmother's self-worth? And because she shaped us, right? She shaped our mothers and our mother shaped us, so it can be a long way back, but yeah, I mean I think, right, we um we would love to imagine that our parents were perfect and taking care of us perfectly, but they also were probably trying to work at jobs and put food on the table. And so you who you know what I mean? We can we can we we have like these these little child lenses that are not understanding the big picture. And so that's a lot of the subconscious work, right? Okay, using your current self, let's go back and see what did that what did that little child take away and what actually let's look, let's pull out a little what what are the learnings?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So we kind of understand in stories, don't we? So we have an experience and then we create a a story around that, and that story sort of shapes our reality.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. And like my parents were busy, and they were busy growing our food and working jobs, and I think that I took away, oh, then I better be extraordinary for them to love me, really. Yeah, I better work really hard, I better show how dazzling I was, and I just did that then going forward in every scenario.

SPEAKER_00:

How do we practice rewriting those stories? Is it a physical practice? Is it just a witnessing and an understanding and an acceptance of? Uh, do we use some of the tools that that you mentioned?

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, so I and I I mean I can see if I can teach your listener. So I can now that I've done the subconscious work, but I can go go up, you imagine your timeline, you put yourself back there in your little child self, and just say, okay, let's let's look. Am I really, you know, what is this belief I'm dealing with? Okay, am I not enough? I have to prove my I have to prove my worth to people. This would say that's what I would say with the belief. So then I'll go and I'm like, okay, when did that belief like let's look at myself in my childhood and see, like, where did that belief come from? And is it really true? Right? Is it was it is there another way to look at this? So you could do that like closing your eyes and kind of speaking with your subconscious, you could do that maybe in journaling and and ask some questions. So I would think both of those you could get there.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And so that's stage one is like really starting to um understand what was going on and why if you if you aren't feeling worthy or or you yeah, you've got feelings of inadequacy, that that self-reflection is step one.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I think maybe you could even say, can am I can I prioritize myself? How do I feel about taking like putting my health on that list of five things, right? And if you are like, oh wow, really? I'm only give and I don't, I don't, I think I've gotta go. Like, oh, maybe there's some work to do there. Because I've had people like that. Wait, I I've got five. I if I've got five, I can't. That's not I don't fit on that list.

SPEAKER_00:

Um interestingly, I've just um recently um had a guest on, and she talks about um how important it is to contemplate our own death. Because um, and she tells she sort of teaches us how to write our to-dy list, like rather than our to do list, and how so much of our lives is kind of tied up with you know, all of these things we've got to do that are important, and then we get to our the end of our lives and realize that actually connection, relationships, yeah, right, you know, self-worth.

SPEAKER_02:

None of those things were actually important. I love that, right? And that will help you figure out what should those five items be exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Um, what are some of the uh I mean we've we've got the book, so um, but you do this in your practice as well. So what are some of the things that you can do? You talked about journaling, but you've you've done hypnosis, you had hypnosis um to help you. Do you now use hypnosis with your clients?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so it was so transformational. Like I now I do a lot of um sort of meditating and trying that like following intuition, and that's how like the whole the whole journey has been guided that way. And and again, that comes from prioritizing, like making space, not having that food chatter. That's like that makes space for list listening to your intuition. But um, oh my gosh, I totally lost my chain of thought. I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_00:

No, I was asking you about hypnosis.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, oh, so so it wasn't part of the first, you know, couple of years of working with clients, but then I was like, you know, the hypnosis was so transformational, and it and it was and then it became time. And so yeah, then then that came um and both NLP, which is neurolinguistic programming, which is a little bit different modality, but but they work really well together.

SPEAKER_00:

Can you talk to us a little bit about NLP? Please.

SPEAKER_02:

So it's it's basically um it's neurolinguistic programming. So using language to to shape our our view of the world and our behaviors. And I'm just trying to think if I can do it in a way that's really understandable because it's it's a little, it's it's kind of surprising. But like, you know, so looking at your behavior and and chunking up or chunking down, like, okay, let's um let's look at the sort of comfort eating, right? And and go up, okay, what uh that's not really a good example. I'm sorry. I'm I'm having well, here's something. So when we imagine a food craving, right, and we paint a picture of it in our mind, so we close your eyes and you imagine this picture, okay. What is this like what is this craving for potato chips look like? And you know, it's big and bright and like saturated with color, and then moving that picture in your mind further away and draining the color out, and what you will realize is that after you come out, your your craving has diminished. So I mean it's like really surprising work like that. Okay. Well, you can turn up someone's like motivation for you know their for health behaviors and things things like that in that same way.

SPEAKER_00:

And how important is language when we're talking about food? Um in how we experience it. So I think of things like I've been bad. Oh, this is a little bit naughty.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, right, I mean, the whole work of hypnosis and NLP is really to take away that emotional charge, right? We can do these things, but that that those words like there have such an emotional charge around them. So turning down the dial on that emotional charge, right? Because it's not like I'm trying to erase a behavior, I'm just trying to make it like this, the way that we I might have felt about food, right? Very exciting. It was what brought me joy. Like, well, let's let's turn that down. It's just food is just food, right? Look at that, it becomes a whole different thing once food is not like my main joy and it's just food.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's not, yeah, it's not linked to an emotion or a feeling, it's just like I need food to survive, kind of thing. Right. And you can still enjoy it, you can still really enjoy it. It's fine, it's good, but like meah, and there's so many good things about eating, like and and connection. So, you know, people who eat together, it's a real sort of ritualistic thing, but it's a real, it's a really important part of human nature as well, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02:

So um absolutely, but it but it wouldn't, but you could get that same connection without eating, right? Like, so again, I don't want to have the emotional trial. You could like so I I really don't eat desserts now, but I will get a latte in a restaurant if I'm you know at a in an event, yeah. And I that's delicious, right? I don't need to have something sugary to end my meal, like yeah. So just turning down that that sort of the must-have with food. Like, yes, you can do the social connection, but you don't need the food for social connection either.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you feel that um so I've I've read some books on habit change, and um one of the the books I read talks about um being able to um moderate. She talks about people being abstainers or moderators, and some people just have to abstain. That's me. Um I think that's me too. But some people don't moderate.

SPEAKER_02:

Do you do you notice that kind of thing? I have not, I think people think they can moderate, but I have I see what it looks to me like a slippery slope. I'd like to imagine that there are people who are better with moderate, but I'm not one of them. No, you're not and that's why that's why the ketosis works so well. So I do cycling, right? So I will like my pants will be tight. Okay, it's time for a little bit of self-induced, like lean times, right? So then it's more of a restricted diet. So protein, unlimited protein vegetables, um, and healthy fat, really. I mean, within reason, I don't need all the cream cheese that people talk about, but like right, Doc Caveman answers.

SPEAKER_00:

Stuck into the dairy.

SPEAKER_02:

So then I'll just have a lean time for a few weeks, right? Everything slims down. My body's like, okay, we went through a lean time and now I can have a little bit more moderation, and I'll be there for a while until I feel like I'm slipping again, right? So back and forth. Like that's right. Our bodies, we're not actually meant to have abundance all the time. That's why it kind of hijacks our brain, right? We only in the in caveman times, we only had like all those treats, and by treats I mean fruit. Really, like a few months, then they were used up and gone. So, like our body is is primed to like look for calories, right? We love sweet and and fat. Like, ooh, that'll that's perfect for surviving the lean times. Um, so maybe there, there maybe there are magical people who are better at controlling themselves, but maybe not.

SPEAKER_00:

What about um how does that differ that experience that practice that you have for you know where you have some lean time to yo-yo dieting?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I think yo-yo dieting is pretty extreme. Okay, right? So they're doing like this extreme restriction at no point in my so I don't love food tracking because I think it makes you very obsessed with what you're eating. So I don't want any food tracking, like maybe for a couple weeks so you can learn like what foods are higher in carbohydrate and what foods are lower, so you can understand better. But after that, no tracking because I the whole goal of this is to make you never think about food again. So, but I also like restricting, I think just backfires, right? When you are like deliberately restricting, you're going to fall off of that, and that's then you'll have binging, and now you're trapped in a cycle. How does mine differ? Um, I mean, that's an excellent question, but it it doesn't. My mind calms down in ketosis because I've really gotten rid of any of those sort of triggers and inflammatory foods, and I'm not restricting, right? So I am allowed unlimited amounts and when I'm hungry, I eat. So there's that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I've I I think um, because I work in the fitness industry, um, you know, we see that kind of we had we back in the day, we we would have these four-week challenges, and what we recognized was that um a lot of people would go real, you know, hardcore, you know, give up all of the things, but then four week and they'd get really great results, you know, their body fat percentage reduced, they looked amazing, they had loads of energy, but it wasn't sustainable. And so then they would go back, you know, gradually go back to their old habits, they'd start drinking alcohol again, you know, going out for dinner, not exercising as often, all of these things. So they would just fall back into that old ways. And then they'd go, Well, I'll just do the four-week challenge again when it comes up.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, well, it'd be great. No, if you feel like that, right? Oh, I'm so excited this is gonna end, and I'm like gonna eat all of this, like all the things that I then like, yeah, that's the wrong. Like, you want to find a way that all all phases are totally sustainable and just feel like this is what I do, right? I'm in a little bit of a lean time right now, I'm fine now. Like it, yeah. So you just have to find a place that's that doesn't feel like oh, I'm excited when this ends because then I'm going to. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And then I guess the rules as well, like having rules around it, like can be a sign.

SPEAKER_02:

It needs to become a lifestyle as opposed to a a food challenge, or you know what I mean, like a uh uh what here's what I'm gonna do now. Instead, it becomes a lifestyle. And and that comes with time, right? That's building these habits um rather than this one intense challenge. Like you'll build these habits over a lifetime, like making sure you really do enjoy the food that you're eating and feel like you could do that for a period of time. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And I guess with this particular work and um uh what we've been discussing up until this point is really those first two stages uh that you work with your clients on, it's not about food, it's about all of the emotional stuff that's attached to that um overeating.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, which right, because I couldn't do intuitive eating. I remember learning it, and I was like, you know, I could do it once or twice, and then I'd be like, no, because it was all it was right. I had to learn to hold emotions and and not be working so hard so that my cortisol came down and I was metabolizing things, right? All of that comes before you even get to the food.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, can you you touched on previously that you your um about the cortisol and um belly fat. Can you give us a little bit more about that? I know it's kind of jumping back a bit, but I think this is like can you know, possibly for someone who is experiencing or you know, does feel overweight or heavier heavier than they that they than they would like, if where they're carrying the fat can be an indicator of what is going on. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. So when we're in so a little bit of stress is a good thing, right? Your body is designed, like a little bit of stress sort of keeps you motivated and you know gets you to, you know, deal with a little challenge. In fact, that's like a the research behind all the longevity challenges, like the cold plunge and things like that. But when we stay trapped in a state of stress, your body's not actually designed for that. We never had that in caveman times. In fact, the only long-term stress we had was starvation. So, what your body does is um it it shuts down metabolism because it's like, oh, we better, we have to deal with this crisis. The crisis will be short-lived. So stop metabolizing food. That's a waste of time. We need to mobilize all energy so that we can fight this tiger. So it shuts down your metabolism and and starts churning out glucose so that you can have that quick energy to fight a tiger. But when we stay in that state for months or years with our metabolism shut down, right? Like that means that we're constantly craving sugar because our our our body has said, hey, we're not gonna deal with metabolism right now. That's a waste, like we need to mobilize to fight this tiger. So you crave sugar kind of very frequently because that's telling that's where those quick acting carbohydrates are coming from. And you're hungrier because that's part of like it does all kinds of things, it constricts your blood vessels, so so your blood pressure goes higher, and you know, like it has more inflammation, so that because that's your immune system on like hyper alert. Like we're gonna, we've got to deal with this crisis. So there's like all of these health um downstream effects from staying in that chronic stress for a long period of time. And one of those things is you start to gain weight around the middle. Okay, yeah, yeah, that's so right. So easing the stress so that we're metabolizing our food so that we can access our fat stores is is a huge piece of that. So, how can we bring that stress coping down? How can we both change life so that's a little bit less stressful and give more stress coping skills?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Perfect, thank you. Food quality. You talked about how when um well you basically said that our food doesn't have enough goodness in it anymore. This is a real um, this is a real kind of problem in today's society, isn't it? Because we can think that we're doing the right thing, and I think this with our kids as well, like making sure they eat their veggies, but quite frankly, the veggies ain't got much in them.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, do that too, right? They need the fiber, but the most nutritious diet you can eat, definitely keep doing that, but also right, our food is just getting less and less nutritious. And and I actually wrote my very my first book. So, this book that I actually published is number three. The first book was so boring and dry that no one would want to read it. But I went into like all the I did a ton of research on all the many reasons that our food supply just doesn't provide enough. And it's a whole lot of reasons. We fertilize the soil differently than we did. Um, you know, we're using things like pesticides, which destroys the microbiome so the cell, so the plants don't take up as much nutrients. Um, we're choosing different varieties because the varieties we're choosing are more global. They used to be all these little farms with different varieties, but also to be shipped long distances. Like I could bore you to tears on all of that's a million reasons our food has declined. Um what do we do? What do we do? What it means is that right, that I mean pretty dramatic decreases. The environment has changed. So that actually, because there's more carbon dioxide, it means the plants are higher in carbohydrate and lower in protein, and then they draw up less minerals. It's it's a whole thing. So what do we do? Well, we eat the most nutritious diet that we possibly can. So lots and lots of plant variety and and protein and healthy fats. So that's that's I mean, those are these are the most nutritious foods we can. Um, and we also really do have to supplement. That's where I have been in um for years is supplement research. So I think everybody does need to be on a multivitamin.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, no way around it.

SPEAKER_00:

Just like rabbit hole, because you know about these things. Supplements, are they good and bad?

SPEAKER_02:

Are there some that kind of say that they're the multivitamin, but actually they're synthetic and and like they don't have as much as we require, or like so I mean so so I there's not I I know there's not that like I don't have a thing about synthetic versus like food-derived nutrients, but the forms that they are in, particularly the mineral forms, right? So if you see um, for example, magnesium oxide, a lot of multivitamins will use that, but it's the absorption is only four percent. So it's you're not absorbing it at all. So that's what you want to look for. You want to look for um, you know, citrates or um glycinates. So right, I could I could again fall down a wormhole on this, but right, the quality and particularly of the minerals, um, folate is another one. So what we've learned is that there's a lot of genetic SNPs that means folic acid is not well utilized, and actually, like a buildup of folic acid could be could be detrimental. So you want to look for folate, five, five methyl tetrahydrofolate. So I think if you avoid mineral oxides and look for folate, you will end up with a good multivitamin.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, good, good to know. This is kind of a random question, but I was having this conversation with my husband last night, and um you you may or may not have an opinion on it, but I'm uh wondering whether, you know, we've got some weight loss drugs on the market at the moment that a lot of people, a Zempic is is the there's another one I think I don't know. And I was sort of saying uh, you know, and and Darren, my husband said that he heard an interview with someone who was taking this and had some really great results, lost a lot of weight, but then couldn't afford it anymore, or the doctor refused to re subscribe represcribe it, and they put the weight back on. And and I said, Well, is this is this, you know, is it a result of the drug? Is it is it because they've it's not about the food? Like what's what's your what's your take on this?

SPEAKER_02:

And I mean the drugs are are very effective, so I'm not I'm not against them. I feel like what I'm starting to see very recently is that there may be some some more adverse effects that we that we didn't know of. But up until and I've not seen that corroborated, so I'm still pretty pro the medications if people are on them. What you need to be aware of is that you're losing equal parts fat and muscle. Yes, and right, muscle has all to do about our functionality as we age, so really do everything you can to maintain that muscle, eat lots of protein and get lots of strength training so that you are emphasizing as much muscle as you absolutely can. And what happens, big right, because they're expensive, and so people do eventually likely have to get off. And because they've been having um, you know, in they've been providing the GLP, their body doesn't make it anymore.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02:

What so they have a lot of hunger when they get off. So you just want you want to make sure that you've dealt with all the things that we've been talking about, right? So are you making sure that you you've got you're feeling feelings and you know how to give yourself comfort and you've got you know some sort of movement habits in place because movement for me, not so much about my body, although strength training is important for that, but movement has been a huge piece of how I handle my mood now, like it it's all right, it it takes away that sort of anxiety and and fear as long as I get daily movement. I it it just keeps me sort of just feeling so much better that I don't need food as a crutch. So, but like having all of that in place, and so then because right, I I just did a five-day fast and I was so amazed with myself. Well, I used prolong, so it wasn't like still like and I was like, I never could have done that years ago, right? Because like the hunger would come, it was a little bit more boredom than hunger. I like would finish a project and be like, how about a some food now? No, like you're not eating right now. Like I but like hunger was almost hunger, did not really play a role in it. So, like once you have so many tools in place, like hunger is pretty mild, to be honest. And yeah, so I just feel like the tools, if you have the tools in place, you you could get off of it and and be okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, good. Thank you. That's great to um hear your perspective on that. We're coming to a close. We have obviously everything that we've talked about is in your book, but we haven't talked that much about your book specifically. But I think that we've got a pretty good picture of what what we can expect um and the guidance that and support that you provide people to to um have a better relationship with food. The book's called Vibrant Juicy Life. What does that mean for you?

SPEAKER_02:

No, I love that question because people are like when I had like a booth, they were like, What is that? Is it juice? No, it's because I was leaning on food. And when I like and I remember sitting in my friend's kitchen and she's like, But you know what, what like what is your resistance? And I'm like, Well, food is kind of my main joy. If you took that away, I'd have nothing left. And what like after going through this journey, like life is so good now, so much better. Like, I look at that that woman, and I was like, Oh, you thought life was like you thought food was like so good, but like life just got so much better when I didn't when food was not kind of part of it. So Yeah, it's about how much better life is when we're not leaning on food as our main comfort.

SPEAKER_00:

Beautiful. Juniper, I think we could probably keep going, but we might have to save it for another time. Um, thank you so much for joining us. It's been really insightful conversation, really important work that you're doing, um, and yeah, just such a positive impact that you're having. So thank you for sharing your your wisdom and insights with us. Thank you so much. Before you go, can I ask you a small favor? If you've enjoyed this show or any of the other episodes that you've listened to, then I'd really appreciate it if you took a couple of moments to hit subscribe. This is a great way to increase our listeners and get the word out there about all of the wonderful guests that we've had on the podcast. If you'd like to further support the show, you can buy me a coffee by going to buymeacoffee.com forward slash Life Health the Universe. You can find that link in the show notes. Thanks for listening.