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#125: Allyson Lean: How to rewire your mindset and stop the emotional eating spiral
473 Plays6 days ago
Do you ever feel like you’re stuck in the binge-regret cycle - especially during the chaos of perimenopause? In this episode, I sit down with Allyson Lean from Mind Align Therapy, a clinical hypnotherapist and emotional eating specialist who helps midlife women take back control of their relationship with food.
We dive into how hypnotherapy supports women in navigating emotional eating, the subtle differences between physical hunger and emotional cravings, and why understanding the mind-body connection is essential during perimenopause. Allyson also opens up about her own transformation from nurse to therapist after facing burnout and health struggles. Plus, she shares super practical tools like journaling, slowing down, and tuning into your subconscious to break free from emotional eating - for good.
Whether you're feeling overwhelmed by cravings, juggling hormones, or just ready for a more empowered approach to food and body, this conversation is full of compassionate insights and actionable tips.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
[0:12] – Meet Allyson Lean from Mind Align Therapy and her mission to help women break the binge-regret cycle
[2:08] – From nursing to hypnotherapy: Allyson’s journey through burnout and self-healing
[5:13] – What hypnotherapy really is and why it’s so powerful for emotional eating
[12:36] – Common triggers behind emotional eating and how to start identifying them
[15:26] – The difference between emotional hunger and physical hunger (and why it matters)
[20:54] – How hypnotherapy helps rewire emotional eating patterns
[24:43] – Managing stress, cortisol, and food choices during perimenopause
[30:17] – Hormonal shifts, cravings, and how to bring balance back into your body
[39:17] – The building blocks of a healthy, sustainable lifestyle
Links & Resources:
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with friends who might benefit. For more health and fitness tips, follow me on Instagram and TikTok @katehamiltonhealth.
Music b LiQWYD Free download: hypeddit.com/link/xxtopb [http://hypeddit.com/link/xxtopb] Promoted by FreeMusicPromo [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbycji-eySnM3WD8mbxPUSQ] / @freemusicpromo
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Transcript
Introduction to Alison and Hypnotherapy Focus
00:00:08
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Kate Hamilton Health Podcast. So in today's episode, I chat with Alison from Mind Align Therapy. Alison is a clinical hypnotherapist and emotional eating specialist and is the founder of Mind Align
Empowerment Through Subconscious Programming
00:00:23
Speaker
Therapy. With a deep understanding of the mind body connection, she supports busy perimenopausal women in breaking free from the binge regret cycle and building a calm, confident relationship with food without ever having to resort to restrictive diets.
00:00:38
Speaker
Blending subconscious programming with compassionate coaching and practical tools, Alison helps her clients reconnect with their bodies, stabilize their energy and begin truly prioritizing themselves during one of the most transformative stages of life. Her approach is rooted in empowerment and self-trust, guiding women to stop outsourcing their worth and instead feel at home in their own skin.
00:01:00
Speaker
We have the most amazing conversation about all things that I enjoy to talk about. We talk about that rewiring, that binge regret loop. We talk about perimenopause and cravings. We talk about overeating. We talk about learning to eat mindfully and trust your body. We talk about hypnotherapy, the subconscious mind beliefs and how a lot of your beliefs aren't even your own. And we talk about hunger and the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger.
00:01:25
Speaker
And we talk about cortisol and hormones. power of journaling and reflecting and what we really need to put in place in our lifestyles to feel empowered. So I hope you enjoy this episode just as much as I enjoyed recording it. So without further ado, here is today's episode.
Alison's Journey to Hypnotherapy
00:01:45
Speaker
Alison, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. I'm really looking forward to this conversation. We a brief little chat off air about everything that you do and my interest in this area, which I think we'll we'll spend a little bit of time talking about. But I'm going to just let you introduce yourself, if that's OK, in your own words, who you are what you do and kind of what has brought you to this place.
00:02:07
Speaker
Great. Yeah. No, so as said, my name's Alison and my business is Mind to Learn Therapy. So I'm a hypnotherapist and also a training counsellor. So I've got about nine months left on my counselling training at the moment as well. So i work with mainly midlife women who are struggling with stress, overwhelm, hormones changing, perimenopausal, maybe they're menopausal now,
00:02:32
Speaker
And something that I realized was sort of key for so many women was emotional eating and how, you know, it's well recognized now that women in midlife struggle with weight gain, even if they haven't done in the past. But as soon as those hormones start playing up, that midriff starts expanding and it's so much harder to lose weight. Looking just a little bit closer at what maybe is causing that.
00:02:55
Speaker
what is causing the weight gain as well as those hormones. And what came out really was sort of like that emotional eating, that sort of like we're eating to feed our emotions.
00:03:06
Speaker
We're using it as a way of comforting ourselves, of soothing emotions that maybe we don't want to face. After qualifying, I sort of over time niche down into into that area of hypnotherapy, really. I also include coaching and sort of lots of mindset tools and things along the way in my clients.
00:03:25
Speaker
it's a big change from where I i started out I actually trained as a nurse back in the early 90s and then went from there when my children were young into working in an infant school which I did for many years and then about six years ago i had a problem with my back I had to have surgery on my back and didn't quite go to plan didn't go as well as I thought it would sort of long story short I've had sort of numerous operations since then because it's left me with a lot of long-term neuropathic pain and nerve damage so wow yeah it was kind of I could retrain I could do what I've always wanted to do I could do what really interests me what I've got a passion for so that's what I did I kind of decided the kids have grown up and I've got some time so I retrained and focused my energies on something that I enjoy but also has touched me as well you know I've been through these symptoms I've been through that perimenopausal stage I just really enjoy sort of giving back and supporting other women now
00:04:20
Speaker
That's amazing. And so like all your whole journey has been very much helping people though, isn't it Like that's clearly something that's really important to you. And it was when I kind of reached the stage where unfortunately and i I was off sick a long time from school and so it wasn't something that was going to work for me anymore. And it's what do I do? What do I actually want to do? And when I looked back at all the jobs I'd had in the past, that key element was actually helping other people in different formats, but it was always sort of helping other people.
00:04:49
Speaker
Yeah, that was definitely the route I wanted to take and stick with. And it was kind of my husband that gave me that nudge to say, go on, you've always wanted to do this. And originally it was counselling.
Exploring Hypnotherapy and Subconscious Beliefs
00:04:59
Speaker
That's what my interest was.
00:05:00
Speaker
And then in investigating that, I came across hypnotherapy and started looking a little bit more into that. And so this looks interesting. And before I knew it, I was doing my training and so enjoying every minute of it.
00:05:13
Speaker
I love that because I think as well, we'll talk a little bit about for anyone listening, wondering what what hypnotherapy is, you know, with hypnotherapy compared to like with counseling, a lot of it is really kind of treating the problems, isn't it? And kind of diving deep into the problem side of things.
00:05:29
Speaker
I know, correct me if I'm wrong, whereas I'm like, with I just feel with hypnotherapy, it's giving the power back. For anyone who doesn't know, is there a difference between clinical hypnotherapy and cognitive hypnotherapy? So they're both forms of clinical hypnotherapy. They're both hypnotherapy. So often when you say hypnotherapy to people, they imagine stage entertainment.
00:05:48
Speaker
yeah So they imagine that, you know, I'm going to get someone up on stage or I'm going to make you do something you're not comfortable with. You know, we've all seen them, particularly in the early, in sort of in the 90s, there was a big sort of thing you saw a lot of stage hypnotists.
00:06:00
Speaker
who are entertaining, but a clinical hypnotherapist is not going to make you pretend you're a chicken or do something silly. and think it's also important to know that hypnotherapist is not going to make you do anything you don't want to do. So we all have our own personal values.
00:06:19
Speaker
And if somebody said something to your subconscious that went against those personal values, you just wouldn't do it. Do you mind just explaining a little bit about what hypnotherapy effectively is and does? Like what what is the practice of hypnotherapy for anyone who doesn't know?
00:06:33
Speaker
So hypnotherapy is we are working with your subconscious mind. ah Okay. So if you think we've got our our conscious minds that we're using all the time, every day, we're using it to talk to each other now.
00:06:46
Speaker
And then we have our subconscious mind. It's a little bit like if you imagine an iceberg. Yeah, so you've got that that that top layer that we can all see, but most of the icebergs under the ocean. And that's our subconscious mind. Most of it's beneath the surface. And it's full of our habits and beliefs that we've learned as we've gone through life.
00:07:06
Speaker
Yeah, a lot of it stemming from childhood, what we learned in those early formative years. That's our kind of automatic pilot. We're not necessarily thinking about it. We are just naturally doing it.
00:07:18
Speaker
If I want to stand up and walk across the room, I don't have to think, okay, right, how do I stand up and how do I put one foot in front of the other? I just do it. I learned to do that when I was a baby. And that is something that is now a deep-rooted habit.
00:07:32
Speaker
And I know how to do it. Because of that, lots of things that we have learned and beliefs that we've got that, for instance, in this scenario would be around food, they're so dirt buried deep that we don't even know why we think the way we do.
00:07:46
Speaker
We don't know why we act the way we do. It's just ingrained in us. So when you go to see hypnotherapist, what they do is they get you into a very deeply relaxed state.
00:07:58
Speaker
So you're not asleep, you're awake, so much as you will hear people say, and sleep. When we use hypnotherapy in the sense you are awake, but you're just awake. Very relaxed and you're in a trance-like state.
00:08:11
Speaker
So being in a trance-like state is something we can all do and we all do all the time. The scenario I always use, which kind of most people can resonate with, is when you've got in the car and you're going somewhere you've been many, many times before and suddenly you arrive and you think, how on earth did I get here?
00:08:29
Speaker
yeah And it's quite scary, isn't it? Because you're like, oh, was I actually concentrating on what I was doing at all? You've kind of gone into a bit of a trance-like state. Your mind was on, what's for tea? When do I need to pick the kids up? Oh, have do I finished that that piece of work? Did I send that email?
00:08:42
Speaker
But your subconscious mind took over, knows how to drive the car, knows where you're going and just gets you there. It's perfectly safe and it's something that you can pull yourself out of as well.
00:08:53
Speaker
So if ever you felt uncomfortable and you're like, don't want to do this, just pull yourself straight out of it. I read somewhere as well that hypnotherapy is kind of like, you know, that we actually because we live from our subconscious mind a lot of the time, a lot we're on autopilot a lot.
00:09:08
Speaker
So we kind of go around in a translate state. We're like ants and we just go about our day and, you know, all our little problems. Absolutely. And what hypnotherapy can do can actually dehypnotize us from that hypnotic state of that automatic.
00:09:22
Speaker
And what I also think is really scary is that your beliefs, a lot of our beliefs are not our own. Like some of them are, but not all of them. A lot of them are not our own. Not all of them. And my background is in education. So I was a teacher in my teacher training. We did a module on early childhood education and learning that our sense of self and like our our subconscious, like we we take in all those beliefs up until the age of seven or eight children. Yes, you take it all in. So a lot of how we react to the world or how we show up in the world stems back to when where we were under the age of eight.
00:09:55
Speaker
It does. We were literally like a sponge at that age and we absorbed So much information, but we were solely reliant on watching others as well and, you know, taking on boards, those habits and beliefs. And, you know, there's probably times for all of us as adults where we've gone, why do I do that? Why do I think that?
00:10:15
Speaker
And when you actually sit down and think about it, you think, because that's always the way it's been. That's always the way i was brought up to believe. It's always the way i saw things done. And then suddenly you realise that you can re-script that, you can rewire your brain and put new beliefs and habits in if you choose to do so.
00:10:34
Speaker
Yeah. And create that space to actually think, what do I believe? Even if you don't know what would I like believe? And a real kind of eye opener for the fact that we, you know, we take on but our parents beliefs or, are you know, our caregivers beliefs or, but you know, as we're growing up is when you get to the stage of having kids yourself and you say something and you're like oh, dear God, I sound like my mother.
00:10:55
Speaker
You know, and it happens to a lot. always said, I'd never do it. And then you hear it and it's like, oh no. So like, obviously, you know, a certain amount of this subconscious is really important for us to navigate our way in the world. But there obviously comes a point, isn't it, that things are going to become problematic, perhaps
Understanding Emotional Eating
00:11:12
Speaker
in our lives. And it's when we reach a barrier that maybe our health is being affected due to emotional eating, which is what we're going to talk about, or anxieties or phobias or, you know, it can show up in your life in lots of different ways.
00:11:24
Speaker
And what I think is really important as well from someone who has experienced quite a lot of cognitive hypnotherapy, you don't have to have massive trauma in your life to have had things that have pushed you off course a bit. Like I don't have hugely traumatic know things in my past, but there's been stuff that we've brought up from my past that I was like, wow, I never knew I thought that about myself. Like it's just phenomenal. The stuff I have learned about myself from the these sessions.
00:11:50
Speaker
no I didn't know that that was the cause of my an anxiety. didn't know that I felt this way about the world or I thought this about myself. Something I thought about myself, being able to stem it back to something in primary school that I didn't remember.
00:12:04
Speaker
It's just been so powerful. Yes, it is amazingly powerful. And so certainly sort of, obviously, when you're when you're training, you then, you you practice and you learn with fellow students.
00:12:15
Speaker
Over the course of that training, you do, you learn an awful lot about yourself. And one of the things we were told right at the beginning was, you know, you'll you'll change, you'll see things differently, you'll understand things differently. And...
00:12:26
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's been an amazing journey. It really has. But yeah, no, it'd be amazing what comes up and you go, I never realised that was why I do that, why I think that.
00:12:37
Speaker
Let's talk a little bit around emotional eating, because that's obviously what what we kind of want to focus most of the conversation around. So I work with a lot of clients and have done over the past few years.
00:12:48
Speaker
It's the one area that I find most difficult to support clients. And I'm learning every day and, you know, qualifying in different areas as much as I can is around eating.
00:12:59
Speaker
the lack of control when it comes to emotional eating. What I've learned is it doesn't matter how much you know, it doesn't matter how many checklists you have. It doesn't matter how organized you are, how much you plan. All of these things help.
00:13:12
Speaker
For a lot of people, that's enough. You know, having the habits in place, having the organization in place, having the knowledge being able to enjoy the process and take it step by step so you're not too overwhelmed. That is enough for most people, but not all people. And for some people, the emotional attachment to food I have noticed is so deep.
00:13:31
Speaker
And what breaks my heart is that they feel so powerless about this. that it's like I have no control over food. I'm a failure. I've just failed another diet. I can't move past this.
00:13:42
Speaker
And that powerlessness is probably the most dehumanizing feeling ever. And like someone listening feel just a little over the top. It's not really when this is your everyday life and you're constantly that feeling of defeat is coming in. It's pretty huge.
00:13:56
Speaker
We need to dig deeper. So which is what you're going to talk to us about? Yeah, absolutely. On that subject, research has shown that 75% of our eating is emotional eating.
00:14:07
Speaker
On average, for most people, 75% of the food we eat is actually eaten emotionally, which is a lot. And I think it's really important to say to anyone listening to this, if they're recognizing this and thinking, I am an emotional eater.
00:14:22
Speaker
You know, we we call it so many different things. We call it emotional eating, binge eating, comfort eating, Whatever you want to call it, it's not your fault and you are most definitely not alone. And you don't have to accept it.
00:14:35
Speaker
I hear so many clients who work with me going, I just guess I've just got to accept that's who I am. absolutely Absolutely not. Once you reach that stage where you think, no, I want to change, that's when you can start making those changes.
00:14:50
Speaker
It has a real hold and people will, they'll keep going onto different diets and their weight yo-yos all the time. Often it's because it's a bit like ah a sticking plaster. It's like turning off your smoke alarm when you haven't bothered to put the fire out.
00:15:04
Speaker
What's causing you to eat? What's driving you to eat? that's what you have to get to that's what we have to acknowledge and work with some people know they're aware of it they just are struggling to control it and for other people yeah we are digging a little bit deeper and it can take a little while to uncover actually what it is that drives them to eat the way they do to understand that there's a difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger.
00:15:31
Speaker
So if you think of physical hunger, it kind of whispers, yeah? So you start thinking, oh, you know, starting to feel a bit peckish. And sort time goes on and then you sort of think, actually, no, I am getting quite hungry. I need to get something to eat soon.
00:15:44
Speaker
And then before you know it, your stomach's rumbling and you're feeling maybe a little bit lightheaded and you're like, actually, you know what? I'm starving. I need to get something to eat. Emotional eating often is very instant. It can come on very quickly. It's often for something specific.
00:15:59
Speaker
I want chocolate, I want crisps, I want biscuits, whatever it is. So I always sort of say physical hunger whispers and gradually gets louder. Emotional hunger screams at you.
00:16:10
Speaker
It's there straight away. I think for some clients, I find actually realizing that helps them to take a pause, take a breath and actually think about what am I really feeling at the moment?
00:16:24
Speaker
Am I truly physically hungry or am I emotionally hungry? And then depending on which it is, you can then deal with that. I have a question for you around that, OK, because that would be exactly how I would coach someone, you know, and I'd be like, create a gap.
00:16:39
Speaker
So you feel that hunger. Give yourself time to reflect. Go for a walk. Go for a shower. Put the clothes away from the hot press, whatever. Do just create a few minutes. Don't react immediately. Give yourself that space to be like, yeah, like that's a really good point. You know, physical hunger. Is it physical? Is it emotional?
00:16:55
Speaker
What am I feeling in this moment that's making me want to eat? You know, to giving yourself that. action So I had this conversation with another cognitive hypnotherapist and she made the point that when we're in that emotional state, we're like emotionally drunk.
00:17:09
Speaker
We can't think in that objective way in that moment, which I thought was an interesting point. Yeah, you're sort of like those cravings, it's taking hold of you. And again, as I said, it can often come on, the emotional hunger can come on really quickly as well. So it takes us by surprise a little bit.
00:17:26
Speaker
And we're busy, aren't we? You know, life is busy. We're running around trying to make sure that everything at work is done, the house is done, maybe the kids have got everything that they need.
00:17:37
Speaker
There's always something. So as soon as you get that sensation, emotion, whatever it might be, it's like, I just need to deal with it. I need to move on. and if you think the more stressed we are, the more cortisol we're going to produce.
00:17:50
Speaker
And particularly as midlife women, that cortisol, you know, a raising cortisol is a problem for us. That cortisol starts lifting. So we start craving the sugar, the fat, the salty foods. Yeah. The the foods that we associate with emotional overeating.
00:18:07
Speaker
yeah So if you think back to sort of ancient times, you know, sort of early man was out and having to hunt and and things. When they went into that fight flight state, for whatever reason it might be, their cortisol levels have gone up.
00:18:21
Speaker
Yeah. And that's the body's way of saying you need energy to do this. You need energy to get out of this situation, find food now. And that's exactly what the cortisol is doing. But unfortunately, we can then get into a cycle where the more sugar and the more salt and fat we eat, the more cortisol we start producing.
00:18:38
Speaker
So it really is about just taking, as you say, that break. Do something else. If you can, maybe just sit and do some mindful breathing. and take a shower or walk. put the washer on, just do something to try and distract yourself.
Rewiring Beliefs and Personal Stories
00:18:52
Speaker
And whilst you're doing that, be asking yourself, what am I feeling? How do I actually feel at the moment? And almost do maybe a body scan and so just go down your body sort of thinking, does anywhere feel tight?
00:19:05
Speaker
Does anywhere feel stressed? Are my shoulders tight? Am holding my jaw tight? Do I have a headache? All those things kind of give you that indication of maybe what you're really feeling.
00:19:16
Speaker
And it might be the first time that day or that week that you've actually given yourself any attention at all. Like even just to take that time when you feel that way, instead of automatically, oh my God, I have to fix this discomfort.
00:19:28
Speaker
Be like my body is talking to me. I haven't actually given myself anything. any focus today. That is where you can be like, am I physically hungry? When did I actually last eat? Because sometimes as mothers, it can be hours and you could actually just be physically hungry. So rather than grabbing other crisps, you need to make yourself a balanced meal or it could be emotional hunger. But what I think is really important here is that that can be a skill to catch yourself in that in that moment, can't it? Like, you know, that you're not always going to get it right.
00:19:53
Speaker
Sometimes you're going to give in Sometimes you're going to have the Doritos or you're going to have the bag of whatever. And I think approaching it with compassion and curiosity and then doing reflecting after the fact as well, right like rather than attaching shame and like, oh, here I go again.
00:20:07
Speaker
Being like, OK, curious that that happened. What did I do? What didn't I do? And like ah this is where journaling is just so important, isn't it? so Oh, I'm a huge fan of journaling. If you come and work with me, I'll get you journaling. And people go, oh, I don't know. it Just try because it's such a great way of just downloading what am I feeling? And it's great to look back on to see patterns and things as well. And interesting what you just said then as well. This book is about curiosity, not criticism.
00:20:34
Speaker
So yeah be kind to yourself. You know, I'm i'm not a fan of a restricted diet or cutting any foods out because as soon as you associate a food as a bad food, your body just wants it all the time.
00:20:46
Speaker
So it's saying we can have whatever we want. We just have to manage how much it is and how often and work out why we're eating it. That's the key to sort of getting a balance. And that's also where hypnotherapy can really help because you say in the moment, sometimes it's quite difficult to. So as the hypnotherapist, I would be giving positive suggestions.
00:21:07
Speaker
and sort of giving those positive suggestions to your subconscious mind that that's not how you want to feel anymore. That's not how you want to think. This is what you want to believe now. This is how you want to be. And you love that person. You like her. And it's that subconscious we're wiring.
00:21:24
Speaker
the impairment of knowing why you're doing learning why you're doing it, diving into your timeline, into your past and being like, I didn't know that stem from whatever it is. And like we think that, oh, we don't have trauma or whatever.
00:21:36
Speaker
There's so many things that passive comments that can have been said, so many incidences that happen in your life. And maybe there are big things that have happened as well. Like but there are a lot of people dealing with a lot of stuff. And, you know, then the stressful lives we live now on top of that is going to magnify it and make it worse. Like, you know, just I suppose for context, like so case people don't really understand what talking about. So with my hypnotherapy, it was much more kind of for mindset coaching, moving past limiting beliefs.
00:22:00
Speaker
So it wasn't for weight loss. So like what I discovered is like my default was fear. So like in my early 20s, I suffered a lot with panic attacks and chronic anxiety. I overcame that with CBT and a certain amount of time on medication at the time.
00:22:14
Speaker
and managed to kind of through CBT put like really good structure in my life. and I'll be 39 this weekend, but at the coming closer to 40, I still find when I'm really stressed, my default is fear. I catastrophize.
00:22:28
Speaker
And I never understood where that actually came from. When I started doing hypnotherapy and we went into my past, And I discovered it that as a very young child, I got the information that oh the world is not safe.
00:22:43
Speaker
The world is not safe. You need to be afraid. A lot of it would have come from my dad's anxiety trying to protect me. No, that he would have been like, you need to be careful of this. You need to be careful of that. And there's nothing that he did wrong. This was just his experience of the world and the stuff he had been through. And it's funny because my sister doesn't have the same like reaction to the world, which is really interesting. But it's what I took in as a little girl. And it made me really a really cautious child, really afraid. And all it was just different things that he would say to keep me safe.
00:23:09
Speaker
But it's the way that I took it up. I learned that about myself from doing these sessions. And my point in sharing that really is that and someone listening, if you can actually get to the bottom of why you act the way you do or why you feel that way about yourself.
00:23:26
Speaker
Everything can change because, yeah, sometimes I'll still default to fear. Someone listening, you like you might always default food, but you catch yourself. and And I don't judge myself. And i i'm I'm like, interesting because and a big opening for me was like, i didn't realize that other people don't experience the world as being a dangerous place.
00:23:42
Speaker
I thought everyone was like, oh yeah, we should be super careful of everything. I thought that. That's what everyone thought. So it's amazing when you start learning that about yourself and the approach of a curiosity, what you'll uncover and how much power you get back. It can.
00:23:55
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, thank you. except You know, it's it's really vulnerable sometimes sharing these stories. I find so often when clients come in and we really get down into what the problem is, you know, they're sharing vulnerable times in their life.
00:24:08
Speaker
And sometimes it can be quite a shock to them.
Building Healthier Eating Habits
00:24:11
Speaker
And as you say, your your father wanted to protect you. So in some ways, it is a form of trauma that you're carrying. The world is not safe.
00:24:19
Speaker
That trauma wasn't delivered to you in a negative way. It was love. He wanted to protect you. So I think when we think about trauma, we always think it has to be something really horrendous and bad, but it's not necessarily.
00:24:31
Speaker
It can be really quite minor, but if you held on to that belief and you use it as your go-to, your default is is fear, then that's what you're going to do. And if your default is food, it's not to say that you won't in moments of stress, maybe sometimes go back to that, but hopefully you would then have the skills to stop yourself in your tracks.
00:24:53
Speaker
Yeah. So I wouldn't say, you know, you're never going to eat a bag Doritos again. For me, sort of like my default would be give me a bag of minstrels. I'm not going to say I'm never going to eat them again because I like them too much. But if I did it all the time, it would be an issue.
00:25:06
Speaker
And learning to just slow down and actually taste your food. We eat so quickly. If you go to sort of more Mediterranean countries, we know that sort of lunch can take hours and they take their time over food. We don't, we eat on the run, we eat quickly.
00:25:21
Speaker
you know, if we're lucky we've had a 20 minute lunch break, we shovel the food down and off we go. and we wonder why we're constantly running on stress and those high emotions.
00:25:33
Speaker
And inherently then we're just grabbing the wrong food at the time anyway. So yeah, it's it's slow down, taste your food, actually acknowledge, how does this feel? And then by doing that, what often happens is you learn then to recognize when you're hungry, when you're full, when you've had enough, before you get to that stage where you're over full, you're feeling sick, bloated, and then you wake up the next day full of regret.
00:25:59
Speaker
I'm not going to do it again. I'm going to be good today. And then by the time you get to the evening, off we go again, straight back on that same cycle. I think a huge problem for a lot of us, it's a whole society issue of just being too busy, isn't it? Like we're overloaded, we're overworked, we've got too much going on and quite often like don't even have time to eat or prepare a meal or, you know, it really needs to be like and enough is enough.
00:26:25
Speaker
I am slowing down and I am prioritizing me by putting good food. We don't. I just wanted to interrupt the podcast for a moment to talk to you a little bit about Kate Hamilton Health online coaching.
00:26:39
Speaker
So we have two coaching options available. We have our elite coaching and we have our group coaching service. Our elite coaching service is bespoke individualized coaching, which will help you to finally break free from diet culture with one to one, anytime support from your coach and with access to a safe, supportive community.
00:27:01
Speaker
This is a higher ticket coaching option. And the coaching is by application only. If you go to my website, KateHamiltonHealth.com, you will be able to apply for elite coaching through there and we will be in touch to organize a call and to get you up and running.
00:27:16
Speaker
In relation to our group coaching, our group coaching starts on the first Monday of every month. When it's full each month, we do close the doors. With the group, coaching is about building the habits, body and energy of the healthiest version of yourself and finally make it stick.
00:27:34
Speaker
We include personalized calories and portions, food lists, recipes, meal plan ideas, step goals, home or gym based workouts, depending on what you want, changed every eight weeks.
00:27:47
Speaker
Mindset work, app access. So that's the Kate Hamilton Health app, which will be your hub for everything. Weekly yoga classes, WhatsApp group community, weekly group Q&A with myself, fun challenges, daily habits form, weekly self check in.
00:28:02
Speaker
fortnightly check-ins with your coach, a library full of lifestyle guides, a library full of lessons, seminars, and all of this is updated regularly. We have weekly group Zoom calls with myself and the team, regular guest seminars where we get experts on to talk more to you about different topics that we need experts on for.
00:28:23
Speaker
And then we have in-person events twice a year that you will get at a major discount as being a member of the Kate Hamilton Health community. As I said, this starts the first Monday of every month. If you go to my website, KateHamiltonHealth.com, you will see when the next group coaching intake is starting for you. So we close the doors as soon as that intake is full or the Monday before the group coaching starts. So usually that last Monday of the previous month.
00:28:52
Speaker
So if you head over to KateHamiltonHealth.com, all of that information that I've talked through is on the website. You'll be able to book your spot for the next intake there. And I will chat to you all then.
00:29:04
Speaker
Yeah, we're getting better, but we still don't prioritize ourselves. And being busy constantly all the time isn't a badge of honor.
00:29:15
Speaker
Yeah, because eventually your whole body and your mind go, whoa, and enough. I can't do this anymore. So, you know, that old cliche of self-care is not selfish.
00:29:26
Speaker
It's essential that we look after ourselves. We look after ourselves now to be fit and healthy when we get older. We work out now, don't we? We do our strength training now so that when we're older, we're more mobile and we can do things. And by addressing the stress, the overwhelm that we feel now, which is for those of us in that perimenopausal, menopausal stage of our life, is being aggravated by hormones. Mm-hmm.
00:29:53
Speaker
you know, our hormones are up and down all over the place. It's like living with a toddler inside you that's constantly having a tantrum sometimes. And we you sort of said that about not eating enough and not having time to eat.
00:30:05
Speaker
And a lot of people who binge in the evening, it's often due to the fact that they didn't actually eat enough during the day and they didn't eat the right food. They're not focusing on protein and fiber, et cetera. Yeah.
00:30:17
Speaker
and Speaking of perimenopause, I think, you know, that busy lifestyle that we lead in our 20s and our 30s, you know, we get away with a lot. We get away with a lot in our 20s. We get away with a little bit less in our 30s.
00:30:28
Speaker
I'm getting closer forward to 40. I'm getting away with even less. And I work with a lot of women in their 40s and 50s. And, you know, the one thing I hear so often is what you used to work doesn't work anymore. And like, I do think it's just like suddenly you hit perimenopause and everything that's imbalanced in your life just gets magnified.
00:30:46
Speaker
Yeah, and you're tired than you used to be. Your hormones are all over the place and you're exhausted most of the time. Your sleep may be being disrupted. And again, if you're not sleeping well, that's going to have an impact. So hypnotherapy can help with sleep routines and things as well.
00:31:03
Speaker
So although people
Perception of Food and Balanced Eating
00:31:04
Speaker
then come... For me, with that midlife, overeating, emotional eating, often what we end up working on might be something very different. So once we've uncovered what's causing it, we're then working on helping them to sleep more, helping them to manage their stress, maybe to work on messages and beliefs and things from the past or traumas from the past.
00:31:29
Speaker
And as a society as well, we we've been brought up to use food as a way of celebrating or using it to manage our emotions.
00:31:40
Speaker
Yeah. So if it's your birthday, we have cake. If we're celebrating something, if you think of all, if we're celebrating something or it's a holiday, it's Christmas, it's Easter, what do we do? We have special food that we eat.
00:31:53
Speaker
And it's usually really tasty, lovely food that then at the end of it we go, oh, I really overindulged over that weekend or over Christmas. yeah If we're feeling lonely and bored, what we do? We reach out and we give ourselves a treat.
00:32:06
Speaker
We have a cake, biscuits, chocolate. So we kind of grow up in a society where food is, we're just taught to use food as a way of dealing with how we feel at the time, as opposed to what it is, which is actually getting the nutrients we need into our body so that we can function and manage our emotions in healthy ways.
00:32:28
Speaker
I firmly believe that the way forward for lasting change is very much about viewing food as nourishment, viewing it as fuel and adding in rather than taking away. I think adding in is this is the first step.
00:32:43
Speaker
Are you getting enough lean protein? Are you actually getting enough fiber in your diet? Are you eating enough fruit and vegetables? Are you actually having any healthy fats? Because that's super important, especially in perimenopause. and It's important all the time, but it's especially in perimenopause.
00:32:55
Speaker
Are you actually getting enough fats? Because quite often we go low fat diets. Are you eating three meals a day? Are you eating enough in those three meals with cravings and a lot of evening time eating, snacking?
00:33:07
Speaker
It does come down to not being nourished properly throughout the day. So we can actually take control of a lot by just eating. adding in what we need, thinking about what your body needs. And actually, for some people listening, that might be the first time they really thought about what actually does my body need.
00:33:24
Speaker
ah So much noise out there and there's so much nonsense out there and all these different types of diets. It is the fundamentals. It is like, how did our grandparents eat? Like it is eating good quality, mostly whole foods and a little bit of what you enjoy as well.
00:33:39
Speaker
Bit of chocolate, bit of cake, whatever, you know, in We've got to have that, haven't we? Yeah. I mean, you know, yeah. it's all of There's no way I'm giving up any of those. Absolutely. Like, and I think when we start to view food differently, it helps them to detach the value we put around it to soothe our emotions, I think.
00:34:00
Speaker
Absolutely, it does. And the thing is, we know that you know foods like chocolate and things, they do give us that dopamine hit. They do soothe, they do make us feel better. you know There's no doubt about it. And that's why would say it's not banning it, it's learning to eat it in the right way and understanding why you eat it. I can sort of like say for instance, as if I was working with somebody who wanted to stop smoking, I would always use an aversion technique.
00:34:27
Speaker
So I would make the idea of smoking so absolutely horrendously disgusting that as soon as they pick a cigarette out, they feel terrible. And I had one lady who just said, ah get it. I'm going to sort of cut down on these things. But she said, I just need to stop eating crisps.
00:34:44
Speaker
I don't want eat crisps anymore. So we actually did some work like that. And, you know, sort of the way I talked to about crisps and described the crisps. brought up those sensations and those feelings that, you know, if she went near a packet of crisps now, she'd be like, oh God, no, can't do that.
00:34:59
Speaker
They'd actually taste wild when she put them in her mouth. So you can go that far if you really want to cut one food out. But on the whole, normally you're looking at, let's keep those foods in our diet because we like them, but let's work on it.
Sustainable Habits for Lasting Health Change
00:35:14
Speaker
the underlying cause and that's why my programs are always I always work with a blend of hypnotherapy and sort of you know coaching discussion we do breath work journaling all sorts of things like that just so that you've got an overall grounding and often then people find what suits them what works for them what feels comfortable And then you don't need to be the person who has to cut something out because you've no control over it You have that understanding of yourself, that balance over time, because like nobody enjoys the person at the party. That's like, ah like do you know how much sugar is in that? Do you know what that's processed? that's It's like, one one par yeah, yeah.
00:35:51
Speaker
right yeah but party And I think it's really important to note that we are what we do most of the time. What we do every now and again at a party is totally fine. It's your everyday habit. It's your week in, week out habits that are going to be the makings of you.
00:36:05
Speaker
But that's also your week in, week out thoughts about yourself. Thoughts about yourself, thoughts about the world, thoughts about like what's going on in your mind. Yeah. they You know, sometimes as well, I think sort of like there's a lot going on in the world at the moment.
00:36:17
Speaker
You know, some people, even just the stress of that is causing a problem for them. They feel as if every time they turn the television on, the news on something, it raises their stress. How do they deal with it?
00:36:28
Speaker
They eat. So it's not always even personal traumas. It could be just other things going on around you. And yeah, it's what you do all the time. We just had a bank holiday weekend, yeah? Did I have probably more gym than I should have done?
00:36:41
Speaker
Absolutely, and some chocolate and other foods and takeaway. But you know what? We had a fabulous family bank holiday weekend and we all had great fun. Do we do it every day? No, so it's fine.
00:36:52
Speaker
And I think again, then it's it's learning to that curiosity, not criticism. The next day, or when you've eaten it, it's done, move on. Don't drag it out, just move on. Accept it.
00:37:03
Speaker
Think about it. How did it make me feel? the next time you're tempted to do it, yeah, journal on it. And then when you come back next time and you feel that that binge regret cycle starting again, you can then go, hang on, I remember now. I can look back. I can read it. I can remember how horrendous I felt.
00:37:22
Speaker
So having that chocolate gives you a quick fix. Momentarily, it makes you feel great. But very quickly, if you continue, you feel horrendous. Was it worth it? No, probably not.
00:37:33
Speaker
Yeah. And like but you're not going to get any more from the 10th biscuit that you didn't get from the first or second. And when we're binging as well, when we're in that cycle, the that the hormones that tell us that we're full don't tend to sort of kick in as much.
00:37:48
Speaker
Whereas when we're eating because we're hungry in normal meal, because again, during perimenopause and that midlife stage, our hunger hormones are all over the place as well. We are naturally more hungry.
00:37:59
Speaker
yeah So the hormones that make us feel hungry are on the increase. But when we're in that binging cycle, the hormones that say, actually, your fault, that we're not hearing them, we're not seeing them. So it's tuning in again. It's rewiring your subconscious mind two to start listening to your body, start hearing the cues and know that when you're driven to emotional eating, it's your body's way of trying to tell you something that you need to listen to, you need to deal with.
00:38:26
Speaker
Yeah. And that it's not a weakness. It's a message. What is it telling you? Be kind to yourself. Let's talk a little bit around perimenopause. And because, you you know, you've mentioned cortisol, you've mentioned hunger hormones.
00:38:37
Speaker
We all know that once we start hitting perimenopause, our hormones are up and down. our mood is affected. Our sleep is affected. Our hunger is affected. Our, you know, cravings. Quite often, ah lot of women can be genuinely quite depressed and anxious, to be honest. And there's a place for going to your GP and and discussing what the best options are for you. But in general, if we we're talking lifestyle, what, in your opinion, are the fundamentals that are going to make the most difference generally to us?
00:39:07
Speaker
what What's important, first of all, I suppose, in relation to these hormone imbalances? What do we need to be looking at? What's important to try and fix, if you like? And how do we do that? yeah Yeah, I think that firstly, the thing to remember is that we are all individual.
00:39:20
Speaker
So what works for one person might not work for another. But in general, it's eating a balanced diet, getting some exercise and movement in every day, making sure you've got enough sleep. There's lots of other things and it depends. There's lots of supplements and things you can take for different symptoms.
00:39:36
Speaker
There's HRT and there's definitely a place to go to see your GP or the nurse specialist at your GP practice who deals with HRT and things.
Midlife Wellness and Lifestyle Adjustments
00:39:45
Speaker
Absolutely go and do that.
00:39:47
Speaker
But certainly for me, I actually sort of became a coach with an online health and wellness platform, which involved exercise, but also mindset work and nutritional work as well. So, you know, you looked at the whole thing.
00:40:01
Speaker
And as soon as I started addressing all of that in my life, I realized how much better I felt. So from the age of about 30, which you'll know as women, our musculoskeletal system, we start losing muscle and things. And it's really important for us to be strength training.
00:40:18
Speaker
And that doesn't mean we have to be lifting massive weights and bodybuilding, but we need to be incorporating some form of strength training into our week, into our workout routines. We need to make sure that we are actually moving our bodies and getting some fresh air.
00:40:33
Speaker
And maybe it's just walking. I've, you know, sort of been really into my fitness and I've also gone through phases where I've not done as much because for medical reasons, because of the surgeries I've had on my back, I've had to rein it in a little bit, keep walking, keep moving.
00:40:48
Speaker
And prioritize your sleep. Don't burn the candle at both ends. So working on those to me makes a massive difference. And it's certainly three areas that always incorporate with my plans with people.
00:41:01
Speaker
So that it's kind of a whole holistic look at life. exactly what I would say and what i would advise clients at as well and I think sometimes people are a little bit disappointed it's like what you're talking with the fundamentals is there not a menopause specific diet and I'm like no it's just the fundamentals and we just get away with less we just get away with yeah we don't get away with as much we do yeah I mean I grew up I could eat precisely what i wanted and i never put any weight on those days have gone it doesn't work that way anymore I have to be much more focused
00:41:31
Speaker
most people don't think about their health as much in their 20s. You know what i mean? Like it's not as for some people they do, but generally that, you know, it's like, know, you're busy socializing and you're, you know, climbing the ladder and you're, you know, figuring out who you are, all of that.
00:41:43
Speaker
ah But I think as you go towards your late 30s, mid to late 30s and into your 40s, you really do start to think about your health. What I would say to anyone listening is it's those simple habits. It's so bringing it back to basics, creating the space in your week. And I hate the word making time because we can't make more time, but we have to create space like our lives. You depend on it. We need to create the space in our week for it doesn't have to be massive. Like you said, you don't have to be a bodybuilder in the gym eight hours a week or anything like that.
00:42:12
Speaker
You know, you just need some way a good program. It can be done from home and it need only take 30 minutes. And if you got it done twice a week, you will be winning. and walking every day absolutely yeah and then just adding yeah it's a great thing about having a dog because you have to go out for a walk that's so funny that you say that yeah it's so funny that you say that because I literally say to everyone I'm like your dog needs to be walked every day so do you so like I'm like literally comparing us to dogs you know we we think about our dogs but we don't think about ourselves like no and you think about your dog if you if they haven't been out for a walk
00:42:46
Speaker
They're a pain in the neck, aren't they? They're cooked up and they need to get out. And we're the same. And sometimes that effort in doing these things is really hard. But once you're out, you're enjoying it and you're fine.
00:42:59
Speaker
It's just finding that strength. And it's it's not about willpower. it's It's more than willpower. It's actually addressing what's going on and dealing with it.
00:43:10
Speaker
And taking action. Just take messy action, yeah? Do something. Even if you're in a job where you sit down all day, every so often get up and just wander around the office or the house or, i don't know, do a little dance when no one's looking. Who cares? you know But just move.
00:43:28
Speaker
And that, again, just helps move, take some deep breaths, Slow everything down, maybe even a couple of minutes meditation every so often, just to sort of refocus, get that energy back up again. Oh, and also water, drink your water.
00:43:44
Speaker
Yeah, hydration. And if you don't like it, put some lemon in it, put something in it. Hydration as well is key. But I think with that you made a really good point about the just move, like with the walking, like what quite often, you know, what I will hear would be, but Kate, I'm really busy or I'm tired. I'm so exhausted from the day. I'm this, that, i you know, I have a headache. um I'm like, I don't feel great or, you know, like and we and these are genuine symptoms that we feel.
00:44:07
Speaker
If you can give yourself one rule that you take from this, anyone listening, that you are just going to move your body every day. regardless of your excuses because well, that's what they are. They are excuses and we need to like there are times when, you know, it's like, but I'm i'm listening to my body. It's like, no, you're listening to your mind.
00:44:23
Speaker
There's very, very few situations where you are not able for a walk. like ah an injury might be one, you know, an injury, like if you are medically injured or if you are yeah actually sick that you can't go to work, you are sick. Don't be pushing your walls when you're, you need to rest. And apart from that, even if we're, even if we're physically tired, just go for stroll.
00:44:44
Speaker
And what I use with my clients is a follow-up. Doesn't it have long? Just something. Yeah. Five minute action. Commit five minutes. Get out the door and be like, I will walk for five minutes. I can stop guilt free after five minutes if I want. I'll have done more than five minutes.
00:44:56
Speaker
We rarely stop after five minutes because that motivation does come after action. You've got going. eating Yeah. Yeah. So I think if you took one thing and we just said, I'm going to take action and I am going out my door for a five minute walk every single day, watch how your life will change.
00:45:12
Speaker
It's amazing. And it is, it's those little tiny habits. You know, you don't have to make these massive changes. We've all got 24 hours in our day. And I hate the saying, we all have the same 24 hours because we don't.
00:45:23
Speaker
Yeah. We all have very different 24 hours. You know, some of us are working full time. Some of us are parents, some are carers, you know, so we have a different 24 hours, but if we can just find a little bit of time and if you are busy and you haven't got time,
00:45:38
Speaker
take a really close look at the day and think, what really is important? What if I didn't do that in that half an hour? Would still be here tomorrow when nothing would have changed really. So I could let it
Identity and Lasting Change Through Hypnotherapy
00:45:49
Speaker
go. ah could prioritize me. And again, sometimes if that is, if this is something people struggle with, then we incorporate it into the hypnotherapy.
00:45:57
Speaker
So it comes up in the coaching and the skills and the mindset side of things. And then we'll drop it into the hypnotherapy so that we're also giving that subconscious reprogramming as well. we're talking to the subconscious all the time and saying all these new things that you want to do help embed those new habits Yeah. And those new beliefs like that yeah the belief.
00:46:16
Speaker
And it's about identity, isn't it? It's about creating your identity. Be someone who walks every day. be someone who fuels their body. That's not about being perfect. It's about just being someone who thinks about themselves a little bit every day.
00:46:31
Speaker
Yeah. It's changing the internal response rather than just your external behavior. yeah So the external behavior is we do we want to stop the eating, we want to get out and do some exercise, but we have to change the internal response as well for it to work long time.
00:46:47
Speaker
We have to want to do it. That's the thing. It has to be something positive that we are doing for us rather than something that we have to do.
Connect with Alison and Podcast Support
00:46:55
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. Alison, thank you so much for this most amazing conversation.
00:47:00
Speaker
So, so helpful. If any people want to reach out to you and find out a bit more about what you do, where is the best place for them to find you? So best place probably is Instagram. So on Instagram and Facebook. But if you go to Instagram, I am at MindAlignTherapy.
00:47:16
Speaker
perfect. And you can message me there or there's a link tree in my bio, which has got links to my calendars and my free sort of, I've got free overeating survival kit there that you can download as well. And just to say, if anyone is interested, you know, I do offer a free 30 minute online chat. So if if somebody's thinking, I don't know or I need a bit more hop on let's have a chat for 30 minutes and see whether it's something you want to continue with or whether in that 30 minutes you've got what you need it's absolutely fine that's amazing thank you so much it's been so lovely chatting
00:47:54
Speaker
I just want to say thank you so much for listening to the podcast. And I would just ask for one thing from you, if at all possible, could you make sure that you subscribe to the podcast? It really does make such a difference.
00:48:08
Speaker
If there's a particular episode that you've enjoyed, please do share it in your WhatsApp groups, share it on your stories, tag myself and the guest. in your stories. All of these things really do help to grow the podcast. And obviously, if there's anything you'd like to reflect on, please do leave a comment.
00:48:24
Speaker
It would mean the world to me and I will see you on the next one.