No More Food Fear: Reclaiming the Joy of Eating with IBD
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Welcome to another episode of The Cheeky Podcast for Moms with IBD! Today, we are deep diving into a powerful topic that resonates with many of us who live with Crohn’s and colitis: food-induced fear—the anxiety, stress, confusion, and chaos that surrounds us when we try to figure out what to eat.
We’ve all experienced those moments where we literally freeze, instead of eating because we are scared of what the outcome will be. It happens at home, at restaurants, at social gatherings… basically anywhere you find food ~ and that’s a whole lot of places! In this episode, we’re dishing about how our fear of food has the power to rob us of the joy of eating, turning what should be a pleasurable experience into a source of stress.
Throughout this episode, we’re exploring the roots of food-induced fear, including the associations with past pain, the confusion stemming from misinformation, and the unrealistic expectations of quick fixes. Together, we’ll unpack these challenges and work towards breaking the cycle of food based fears.
Tune in As We Talk About:
✅ [00:08] Setting the scene for understanding food-induced fear in our lives.
✅ [01:52] The stark contrast of emotions at a holiday dinner table.
✅ [06:39] How past experiences with pain can shape our relationship with food.
✅ [09:29] The role of misinformation in creating dietary anxiety.
✅ [31:54] Practical mindful eating techniques to reduce anxiety.
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Mentioned in the Episode:
>> No More Food Fear: 10 Anxiety Busting Rockstar Mom Tips
>> The Ultimate IBD Diet Decoder Quiz
>> Join The Gut Love Community for Moms with IBD
>> Book Your FREE IBD Consultation with Karyn Today
Connect With Karyn:
Episode Transcript:
Karyn Haley [00:00:08]:
Hey there, mama. Welcome to season two of the Cheeky podcast for moms with IBD. I’m Karyn Haley, functional IBD nutrition and wellness coach and Crohn’s warrior. This podcast is all about us moms because our IBD plays by different rules. Season two is juicy, full of unconventional wisdom, real talk, new ways to tackle our illness, and a whole lot of community empowerment, and all of us advocating the hell out of our illness. We’re in this together, and I’m here to help you find healing on your terms. Let’s do this. Oh, hello, my friend Karyn Haley with you again in our little IBD corner of the universe.
Karyn Haley [00:00:55]:
I’m really looking forward to diving into our topic for today’s episode because it’s one that impacts all of us with IBD at one point or even at several points throughout our lives. And I think the best way to start this conversation today is with just a little bit of imagery. Let me set the scene for you. It’s a big holiday dinner, lots of family and friends sitting down at the table. Everyone is oohing and eyeing over how good the food looks. You can practically see their mouths watering in anticipation of eating this fabulous cooked with love meal. Now, let’s go ahead and cut to your part of the table and what’s going on inside your brain and what’s manifesting in your mind. You’re not going to be surprised that it’s very different from your dinner companions.
Karyn Haley [00:01:52]:
You’re thinking things like Aunt Jan. She said that stuffing was gluten free, but do I trust her? And those brussels sprouts over there that my brother made? They look pretty al dente. Should I risk eating something that’s so raw and so fibrous and oh my God, get those yeast rolls away from me. I know I can’t have them, but if I sniff them one more time, I’m going to lose all self control. Everyone around you is laughing and enjoying the feast before them. And you, by contrast, you end up taking tiny bites of a plethora of mystery foods, hoping, fingers crossed, hoping upon hope that it will be okay, while simultaneously feeling afraid. Afraid about what the next 24 hours or more of your life is going to look like after consuming just one meal. Sound familiar? It’s meals like this that are anxiety provoking and stressful, frustrating, overwhelming, even confusing.
Karyn Haley [00:03:01]:
And unless someone else at your holiday table has IBD, you’re all alone. You’re all alone with your thoughts, because others just will never truly feel the same way as you. They’re never going to get what it feels like. Are they in all these negative feelings that this one meal causes? It often leads to emotions of helplessness, feeling out of control in your own body. It’s food induced fear. And if gold medals were given for these kinds of emotions, you’d have as many medals as Simone Biles. And of course, feeling like this, it doesn’t just come up in those big family holiday occasions when you’ve got Crohn’s or colitis, food induced fear. It follows you around.
Karyn Haley [00:03:57]:
It follows you around like a little lost puppy, never leaving your side. It lurks, it pleads with you. And most importantly, it’s the stops you from doing what should be one of the most pleasurable activities on the planet, experiencing the joy of eating. Now, my goal for us today is to break this cycle together, because the Lord knows that I have had my share of food induced fear in my years with Crohn’s, I’ve had it, too. But it’s time. It is time for a little insight. It’s time for a big pep talk and a whole lot of support as we gain the tools to put food induced fear where it belongs, in the rear-view mirror. Now, let’s start here.
Karyn Haley [00:04:45]:
When I have a problem, when I have a problem I’m trying to solve, I always try my best. I don’t always succeed. But I have to say, I always try my best to lose any judgment that’s attached to it, any positive or negative judgment, because it helps me look impartially at an issue from all angles. And seeing problems in this manner, it’s very valuable. It’s a great skill to cultivate because it helps you gain the insight and the perspective that you need to tackle issues head on without that baggage. You know what I’m talking about? That baggage that often comes with it when you have all that emotion attached to it. So instead of feeling those negative emotions like guilt, shame, helplessness, and hopelessness over your fears surrounding eating, you can just skip the judgment and you can think to yourself, what would I tell my best friend? What would I tell my best friend who was in the midst of this challenge? Would I berate her? Would I shame her? Would I tell her to just get over it already? Of course you wouldn’t. Of course you wouldn’t.
Karyn Haley [00:05:53]:
So let’s just start today by promising ourselves that when it comes to our food induced fears, we’re going to check that negative baggage at the door. Just keep it there just for now. And instead, we are going to adopt a stance of just pure curiosity instead. Pure curiosity. Curiosity about what’s behind this food fear. A genuine, just thought provoking stance that can help us get to the bottom of this deeply challenging issue. And the best place to start with challenges like this is always to dive in to get to the root of the problem. You know, like dive in really deep and get to that root cause.
Karyn Haley [00:06:39]:
So then the question becomes, what are some of the most common roots behind our eating being so disordered that we are literally afraid to eat? Let’s talk about the most common reasons, and we’re going to take them one by one because I want you to see if you can relate. I want you to see if you can relate to any of these reasons behind your fears that come up surrounding eating. So let’s go ahead and start with the first one. The first route is an association with pain. I bet you can relate to this. 199 percent of us with IBD, we have experienced pain or discomfort after eating. And oftentimes it’s hard to know what the culprit is. It’s not uncommon in my coaching practice to have a client say to me, I have no idea what foods bother me.
Karyn Haley [00:07:30]:
It seems like everything I eat. I just feel awful now as a result of these intense negative reactions after eating, there’s this natural tendency for us to associate all food with painful outcomes. This root cause of knowing the feeling of pain and discomfort after eating, it leads to anxiety and stress and avoidance of a certain food, or even all foods, even all foods that you could possibly eat, all eating together, just avoiding it. Does that root sound familiar to you? Okay. Something else that is at the heart of many of our food induced fears. It comes from these feelings of confusion and overwhelm. And we’re all too acquainted with those feelings, aren’t we? We’re in this state so often that we don’t even know how to not feel these negative emotions. So with so much conflicting information out there about IBD diets, it’s everywhere you look.
Karyn Haley [00:08:39]:
It’s really challenging to know which is the diet for you. It’s really challenging to avoid the confusion and the overwhelm, uncertainties about what actually works and what’s worth trying. It can contribute to a generalized fear of food and eating. And these feelings can be quite debilitating. So much so that it can begin to impact the quality of your daily life. So confusion and overwhelm of what your best food choices are. That’s a really big root cause for food induced fear. We also can’t have a root cause conversation about food induced fear without discussing the role of misinformation.
Karyn Haley [00:09:29]:
Misinformation is a big issue and a lot of us get this issue from the Internet, from social media. Our feeds are just filled with these self-proclaimed experts promoting their own dietary approaches as the best solution for IBD. So as an example, in just one scroll, you might click on a person’s post touting an IBD healing diet that’s vegan or vegetarian. And they swear. They swear that going meat free is what cured them. And then a few posts later, you will see someone else talking about an IBD cure that they found by eating lots and lots of meat. The carnivore diet, the paleo diet, you name it, it’s meat. It’s a meat-based diet that cured them.
Karyn Haley [00:10:20]:
It’s absolutely conflicting advice, and this can leave us feeling confused and afraid to deviate from what we perceive as the correct way to eat. And it all stems from that word misinformation. Misinformation that there is a one size fits all diet approach to healing Crohn’s and colitis. There isn’t, by the way, which is another thing that contributes to our fear of eating. Now, sometimes, sometimes at the root of our food induced fear are thoughts and emotions that we ourselves, that we self-impose. One of those is expectations of a quick fix in our society. So often we are conditioned to seek quick solutions to our problems. Give me a pill.
Karyn Haley [00:11:13]:
Give me a band aid, cover up so I can just get on with my life. Sound familiar? It’s no wonder that we then internalize this message to include IBD as well. Give me that quick IBD fix. Are you guilty of this? We all are to a certain extent, aren’t we? When we put all our efforts into researching and then we put efforts into gearing up for treating our IBD. But then when we actually get started and we don’t see immediate positive results from maybe that new diet or that new treatment approach, we tend to become discouraged. And that often leads to us giving up too soon, which then perpetuates the cycle of fear and frustration. Because nothing you try seems to work. Your actual problem may lie in not giving your new plan enough time to make a difference in your life, but we move on.
Karyn Haley [00:12:12]:
We move on to the supposed next big quick fix, only to have the same response over and over. And the one thing I can say, the one thing that I want to say about this is obviously squirrel syndrome, right? It’s like, what? Shiny object? Shiny object. Squirrel. Squirrel. The one thing that I can say about that is that I absolutely get it because I’ve been there myself. It took a really long time for your illness to bring you to this place, this place where you’re in right now. This place where you have to make a change because things are so bad. So the potential is there for it to take a long time to heal as well.
Karyn Haley [00:12:53]:
And although I know it’s so much easier said than done, those key words, patience and time, they are our friends. And the sooner that we embrace that mindset, the better our healing journey will be. Nonetheless, this is a big root cause of food induced fear. That self-imposed belief that if it doesn’t work right away, it’s never going to work. It’s squirrel syndrome, right? Is that a factor in your life? Does this root cause sound familiar to you? Let me talk about the last root cause that I see over and over. The last root cause of food induced fear. And that is a lack of a clear action plan. And the way that this tends to show up for us is when we hear about the latest, greatest gut healing diet fad out there, the one that people are raving about.
Karyn Haley [00:13:51]:
Instead of doing our due diligence, instead of taking the time to plan for a successful endeavor, we leap. We leap without thinking it through. We leap without thinking it through to decide if this is the best option for our individual needs and we have no step-by-step path forward. We’ve got determination. Oh, yeah, we have determination because all IBD gals have that in spades. But without a plan, right? Without pairing determination with a sustainable action plan, we set ourselves up for failure. And most of the time, this lack of direction, it then inflates the way that food related anxiety and uncertainty shows up in our lives. So what do you think? Where do your root causes to food induced fear lie? Did you relate to these as I was going through them? It might be one of these root causes.
Karyn Haley [00:14:52]:
It might be two that I mentioned, or it might be all of them you’ve just taken. Though I have to say, the first, most significant step, dear one, you set aside putting those negative labels on these roots and you just objectively, you let them wash over you. I like to say you let them marinate. That’s kind of my thing. You let them marinate over you to help you decide which ones fit for you. So your biggest hurdle, insight, you’ve tackled that today. You tackled that right now. You tackled it head on.
Karyn Haley [00:15:29]:
So I have to say, way to go, because that’s absolutely awesome. So once we’ve gotten to the root of what’s really at play, causing these fears, these fears of eating in your life. It’s time to take these thoughts one step further. So we just talked about insight, and insight is key, but it’s only going to get you so far. If the goal of getting over food induced fear is to break the cycle of fear, and can we agree on that premise, that the goal is to break the cycle of fear, then the next logical step is to figure out, in what ways is this challenge showing up in my life? How does it show up in my everyday life? And as you already know, food induced fear, it can have a profound impact on the quality of your daily life, and it will then extend beyond. It extends beyond mealtime, beyond other parts of your life. It affects everything from grocery shopping to social interactions with people, to how comfortable you are traveling away from home, as well as how much you are able to then participate in everyday activities, those everyday activities that so many people take for granted. So here are some common ways where food induced fear might manifest in your life.
Karyn Haley [00:16:50]:
And again, I want you to just let it marinate, let it wash over you. Think about which of these fits best for you. Food fears that show up at the grocery store. Let’s talk about that first. For those with Crohn’s and colitis. Grocery shopping. Oh my goodness. It can be a whole different experience than anything that our friends or our family go through at the market going up and down the aisles.
Karyn Haley [00:17:18]:
We might start to feel overwhelmed. We might start to feel anxious, maybe even just unsure about what products are safe to buy and which products will ultimately be for us. You know, which products do we actually ultimately end up putting in our shopping cart? And this can lead to longer trips than normal at the grocery store, which is, of course, not something that moms with littles have any time for. Or it might even lead to avoidance of a certain food or even categories of food altogether. Even though this is really interesting, even though you’re not even sure if they bother you, you might be avoiding them when you don’t even know if they bother you. Our food induced fears, they also show up when we try to plan our meals, don’t they? Both planning meals and then even just meal prep itself, it can become a source of stress as you then worry about finding dishes that won’t trigger your symptoms. It’s really common for my clients to say that they end up resorting to repetitive or even overly restrictive meal plans in an attempt to just minimize the risk of a bad reaction. It’s totally, completely understandable.
Karyn Haley [00:18:39]:
I totally get why this would happen. And if you are the meal planner in your household, this way of reacting to food, it can impact your whole family as well, because you’re cooking for them too. Now, so far, we have talked about food fears showing up while we are at the grocery store shopping for groceries. We’ve talked about food fears showing up while we try to plan and prepare our meals with food. And we don’t even know if we tolerate or not. We’re not sure if they’re even a problem. And if you stop and you think about it, I bet you’ll agree that tasks like these, they take up a really big part of our day. Shopping for food, making food, prepping food.
Karyn Haley [00:19:20]:
So we are living in a state of constant anxiety and emotional strain. Okay, let’s continue on this path of figuring out how food induced fears show up in our lives. What other situations come up that bring up food fears? Well, how about social events? This is a big one. Remember that holiday dinner that I mentioned at the beginning? That’s one type of social event that can cause us to stress out about food. But also, what about dining out or attending a casual gathering? Both can be fraught with anxiety. For those of us with food induced fears in a social setting, you might feel self-conscious about your dietary restrictions. And I have to say that I can absolutely relate to this one, because when I first made major changes to my diet, let’s just say gluten free, it was not a well-known phrase. This is a long time ago, early two thousands.
Karyn Haley [00:20:18]:
And I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed to eat my different food around anyone other than my family. And so I always would get red in the face during social situations. When anybody asked me anything about my diet, I would just get really, really embarrassed. So social anxieties related to food, it’s a big factor in anyone’s life. With IBD, we fear of being judged by others from our eating habits, the way that we eat. And thank goodness, I have to say, in my case, I finally overcame this fear and I gradually became proud of my food choices. But it took a lot of time.
Karyn Haley [00:20:58]:
It took a lot of time, it took a lot of effort. And while I was living in this fearful world, I did. I lived in a constant state of anxiety and panic. And that’s not good. That’s not good for anybody. That’s not good for your mind. It’s definitely not good for your gut. Our food related anxiety, it can also impact the dynamics of our families, particularly for those of us that are moms with IBD.
Karyn Haley [00:21:27]:
And you might be struggling as a mom with IBD, you might be struggling to balance your own dietary needs with the needs of your children or the needs of your spouse. If you’ve ever made separate meals for everyone in the house, you’ve certainly felt the stress and overwhelm of what that’s like. When we can’t keep up with these demands, and let’s face it, who could possibly keep up with that? Nobody can. We tend to then take on the guilt. We take that guilt on, we get a guilty conscience. We feel inadequate as a mom, and we all want to be the best mom that we can be to our kids. When our IBD diet, when it affects our ability to then properly feed everyone in our family, or it affects how we feel after we eat, that really threatens our ability to be a good mother. And for us, that is emotionally crushing, because that just means everything to us.
Karyn Haley [00:22:26]:
And then over time, over periods of time, these kinds of situations, they will come up over and over in our everyday lives. And what happens is they begin to take a toll. They take a longer term, more chronic toll on our emotional well-being. This constant fear of food related symptoms that can creep up at any given moment, it takes a toll on our mental health. It leads to feelings of isolation, frustration, and depression. And when this happens, it’s really common for us to then withdraw. We do. Right? We withdraw from those social activities, or we even find it a struggle to find joy in our everyday life.
Karyn Haley [00:23:12]:
Sucks for us when this happens, doesn’t it? It really sucks that there’s just no easier way to put it. It sucks. It’s this downward spiral. And I know what it’s like because I’ve been there myself. I have been there many times over. I know that you get it, too, because I know this is an issue. This is an issue that comes up over and over in my coaching practice. So I know you can relate, and I hope that it helps to know that you’re not alone in this.
Karyn Haley [00:23:42]:
We all go through some form of food induced fears along the way, and no matter how it manifests for you, I do know. And if you’re multitasking, come back to me, because this is the really important part. I do know. I know without a shadow of a doubt, I know that it’s possible to overcome these fears. I know that it’s possible to develop a better relationship with food. I know this to be true. And I am here. I’m here today to help you begin to just thaw that icy exterior, that wall that you’ve built up around yourself for self-protection.
Karyn Haley [00:24:22]:
It’s understandable that you built that wall, but it’s just not serving you anymore. And while we can’t fix every fear in this one episode, with insight though, into your root causes, with knowledge about your food, fear triggers. With a powerful resource I’m going to tell you about, one that’s going to be coming your way. I’ll tell you about that in just a moment. And the next part that we’re going to talk about, that next part is basically, where do we go from here, right, with this information now, what do we do with all of that? It is my hope that slowly you will find the peace that you deserve. So, yes, yes, I do have a resource. I’ve got a wonderful resource for you that is going to help you take this conversation to the next level, if that’s what you want. It’s called no more food induced fear.
Karyn Haley [00:25:19]:
Ten anxiety busting rock star mom tips, and I’m going to show you how you can get your hands on it absolutely for free. I’m going to tell you that in just a moment. But first, let’s go ahead and talk about where to go from here. What are your next steps? With everything we’ve talked about so far, what do you do now? Okay. Everything that you’ve learned today, let’s go ahead and move on so that you can go from fearful eater to fearless eater, because that’s what I want for you. So the first step. The first step that we should all do, all of us, it doesn’t matter who you are, this is the first step when we’re feeling lost and we’re feeling hopeless, the first step that’s going to bring some centeredness, that’s going to bring some balance back to your life. That first step is to educate yourself, because the more you know, the better positioned you are to gain control and to gain power over a situation that makes you feel powerless.
Karyn Haley [00:26:20]:
And when we take the time to educate ourselves about IBD, about our personal dietary triggers, about how this disease shows up in our body, we put the power back in our hands. Educating yourself, it can mean several things. So it could mean going to books, it could mean doing research. But in this particular case, in this particular case, I’m talking more about educating yourself about you, the big y o u. Because the more you understand about how your specific Crohn’s or colitis affects you, the better equipped you’ll be to make informed decisions about your diet and about your lifestyle, not through fear, but through clarity and confidence. And this is one of the main tenets in my coaching practice, helping clients educate themselves on how IBD shows up for them. Because there is no more important step in your healing transformation. Trust me on that, my friend.
Karyn Haley [00:27:27]:
Okay, so that’s your first step. You begin with the education of you. It’s never wasted time to get to know yourself, what makes you tick inside and out. Now, the next step in tackling food induced fear is to start the process of experimenting. Experimenting in a safe environment, and that’s key there. Experimenting, yes, but experimenting in a safe environment. So instead of avoiding all foods out of fear because you’re afraid of what might happen, you can try experimenting. Experimenting with different ingredients and cooking methods in a controlled manner.
Karyn Haley [00:28:06]:
Now, I want to say that one more time, because this step, it’s a part of, it’s a part of this step that I see. Well, I was trying to think of a nice way to say it, but it’s just done wrong. It’s done wrong so often. So I’m going to say it again. Experiment with different ingredients and different cooking methods. Food feeders, they are not just based on what you are eating. It’s also about how we prepare our foods. Remember, if you are reacting poorly to a food you’re eating, always think about how you are making that food, not just the food itself that you might think you’re reacting to.
Karyn Haley [00:28:49]:
Because how you make it matters just as much. Getting a different reaction to the food you eat. It might be as simple as pureeing it into a soup with the same ingredients you thought you couldn’t eat, because pureeing it might make it easier for your body to digest. Or maybe you think raw greens are something that give you terrible gas and bloating, but if you put those greens into a smoothie now, they’re already broken down before they enter your body and you can actually tolerate them. Now, these are just a couple examples just to get your gears turning. They may not be the best ones for you in your life, but I just wanted to give you an idea of what I’m talking about here. When I say it’s not always about the food itself that makes it intolerable, sometimes it’s about the way you prepare it. Now, the best way to implement this trial and error step, it’s figuring out what foods and cooking methods work best for you with slow, deliberate changes.
Karyn Haley [00:29:53]:
And I want you to always keep moving forward. I do. I want you to keep moving forward with your gut healing transformation. But if you want it to work, if you want to really learn about you going at a slow pace. It’s crucial channel that inner tortoise when you are committing to figuring out these important decisions. And you’re going to do that by keeping a food diary, like a food mood poop journal, to track your symptoms and identify patterns in the food you’re eating and also how you’re making it. Now, this, this is big. If you’re multitasking, come back to me, because this is massive.
Karyn Haley [00:30:35]:
This is a massive way to get rid of food induced fear. I cannot stress this enough. To help you figure out the food your body loves and the cooking methods you thrive on. We slowly and steadily make progress by tracking it all. And when you do this, you will slowly but surely diminish the fear around those questionable foods because you’re going to know without a shadow of a doubt what works and what doesn’t work for you. Now, like I said, it’s slow. So this is not a quick fix, but it’s a worthwhile endeavor, and it has the potential to provide you with lifelong. Really, if you do this right from the start, it will give you the potential to have a lifelong food peace.
Karyn Haley [00:31:24]:
Not like peace like a piece of food, but peace. Like peace, man. Right? Like peace. P e a c e. So can I get an amen for food peace? Because that’s what it brings to your life. Now, next up, in unpacking your food fears, we practice mindful eating techniques. Okay? So this is another thing that you can do. And I promise you, for all of you practical IBD gals out there, and I’m practical myself, this is not as woo woo as it sounds.
Karyn Haley [00:31:54]:
This is actually scientific mindful eating techniques. They can help you tune in to your body’s hunger, to its pain cues, and it can help allow you to eat more intuitively and with less fear. So, mindful eating, it includes eating in a way that is in a very calm environment, away from the tv, away from driving in the car, to then maximize. And I say that kind of funny because I’ve been there, I can just relate. But in a way that maximizes your ability to tune in with yourself while you eat. And we all know that we should hold to this rule, but as a mom, we just don’t take the time for it, do we? We don’t take the time to put this mindful eating into practice. Like I said, I can. Absolutely.
Karyn Haley [00:32:45]:
I’m raising my hand over here because I can relate to this one. I constantly ate while I was driving to school to pick up my kids, and I didn’t make time to sit down for that midday meal for the longest time. And along with those distracted, very rushed meals came heartburn and came my upset belly. And it took me a long time to realize just how connected my pain was to eating while I was driving, right? You would think I would put that together first and right away. But no, it took me a while. But when I finally, then stopped, when I stopped that behavior, I realized it and I stopped that behavior. My health challenges, they calmed down. And trust me, when you tune inward to what’s going on when you eat, when you slow down your eating and chewing thoroughly before you’re swallowing, it helps you tune into what’s happening inside your body.
Karyn Haley [00:33:46]:
And that’s a powerful, powerful tool to help you negate food fear. It seems simple, but it’s really powerful. And it’s a tool that’s right here. It’s right at your fingertips. Mindful eating. Okay, so what else can we do? What else can we do to combat our all too common food induced fears? We can consciously enact a mindset shift. A mindset shift. Instead of focusing on the negative, what we are not able to eat, we can celebrate.
Karyn Haley [00:34:19]:
We can celebrate what we are able to eat. This again, this is a small, but a very mighty mental shift, and it can make a big difference in how you see the world around you. When you shift your focus from the foods that you’re avoiding to those ones that you can eat, you’re able to focus on the foods that support your health, the foods that support your well being, foods that fill you up and make your belly say thank you, not just in that moment, but 30 minutes later, 24 hours later. And then when we focus on those positive foods, we can then celebrate our victories. We can celebrate the foods that work for our body. We can pat ourselves on the back, and we can tell our family and friends about this so that they can celebrate with us. It’s a small mindset shift, but it can go a long way to alleviating some of your fears surrounding food in general. Now, lastly, but definitely not least, I want to say that if you are in the midst of this, if you are experiencing a struggle with fear around food, it’s really important to find support.
Karyn Haley [00:35:41]:
Find support when you need it. Don’t hesitate to reach out to someone like a health psychologist, a dietitian, a health coach like me, someone who specializes in disordered eating, someone who has experience with IBD and digestive disorders. They are best positioned to serve you. They can provide you with the personalized guidance and support that you need. To help navigate your food related fears. And seriously, if this episode, if you’re saying to yourself, you’re listening in, you’re listening along, resonates with you, you feel like, oh, wow, this was tailor made for me. It’s time to seek out support from somebody who can help you get past these struggles. The tips and the strategies that I’ve given you today, it’s going to help you get started.
Karyn Haley [00:36:32]:
But if food induced fears and anxieties are disrupting your life, and that’s really the key here, if these thoughts about eating are disruptive your life, then it’s time to get some help. Now, as we wrap up today, as we wrap this up in a nice, neat little bow, I just want to quickly recap all of the ideas that we’ve batted around today. If you’ve got a pen and paper, if you’ve got the notes app on your phone, it’s time to get that out because here’s the cliff notes version that I’ve got for you. So you, you’ll want to go ahead and jot this down. If this all resonates with you, despite the challenges that can be put upon you by food induced fear, it’s possible to regain control. It’s possible to move forward with confidence and clarity. So let’s go ahead and sum up everything that we have discussed today. Number one.
Karyn Haley [00:37:27]:
Number one, put education first. That’s the education of you. That’s what I’m talking about. The education of you. Put that first. Take the time to learn what makes you tick. How does IBD show up in your individual body? It’s different for everyone. And knowing what I call your food-gasms.
Karyn Haley [00:37:46]:
And those are the foods that make your body sing and your food enemies, the foods that your body hates. Plus how to make those foods in a way that supports your digestive health. That’s going to earn you a PhD in. And that is the best darn degree that you are ever going to earn. Okay, point number two today that I want you to take away from this conversation. Eat mindfully. Eat mindfully. Put yourself in a state of peace and joy when you eat.
Karyn Haley [00:38:19]:
Can you imagine that? This starts with focus on savoring each bite, paying attention to how different foods make you feel, and then most importantly, honoring what your body tells you in that moment and in the later moments as well. The 30 minutes later, the 24 hours later. And to do that, to help you with this mindful eating, use a food mood poop journal. It’s going to help you track how the food you’re eating is impacting you both in positive and negative ways. I have to say, I feel like I have the best, the best food mood poop journal because it’s specifically tailored for those with IBD. So if you’re looking for a little bit of direction here, if you are watching this on YouTube, I want you to leave the letters FMP in the comments, FMP in the comments and I will be in touch to give you my free food mood poop Journal resource. FMP is food mood poop journal. So FMP food mood poop.
Karyn Haley [00:39:26]:
If you are listening to this on any podcast platform, you can dm me. On Instagram. You can dm me. @IBDhealthcoach. I will be happy to send it your way. It’s one of my free resources. I’ll be happy to send it your way. Just dm me.
Karyn Haley [00:39:44]:
We all really need to do this from time to time. We really do. Does it take a few minutes to journal every day? Yes. I’m not going to lie, it does. But it is so worth it. It is so much more worth it than you can even imagine. Okay, the third takeaway from today is don’t forget to embrace the tortoise goddess in you. Tortoises are actually beautiful.
Karyn Haley [00:40:10]:
And so are you. When disordered eating takes the shape of being afraid to eat, your best approach is the slow, gradual approach, that slow, gradual exposure to new foods. You don’t want to break free of food fear. Those shackles of that are keeping you bound into food fear. You don’t want to do that at a holiday dinner or at like, an office celebratory gathering that’s just going to put you ten steps behind where you are right now. Instead, you want to go day by day. You want to go meal by meal. Sometimes it’s ingredient by ingredient.
Karyn Haley [00:40:50]:
And watch yourself slowly. Watch yourself as you slowly begin, as you gather this information to blossom and to grow, as that knowledge that you gain, it melts those fears away. Okay, number four, the fourth takeaway from today. I didn’t specifically mention this earlier, but it is so important. It is so important here to give yourself grace. Self-compassion, my friend. Self-compassion is the key to gentle, kind healing. Remember, it’s normal, of course it’s normal to experience setbacks or moments of self-doubt.
Karyn Haley [00:41:27]:
But you’re not alone. We’ve all been there. We have been there. What matters isn’t the negative experience you’re having, it’s how you respond to it. So practice self-compassion and celebrate your progress. No matter how small those steps forward are remember those small steps, they lead to big leaps, and big leaps leads to big, life affirming transformation. And lastly, lastly, definitely not least-ly, if that’s a word. It’s not, but I just made it up.
Karyn Haley [00:42:02]:
Number five. Number five takeaway. Reach out for support if your fears about eating are disrupting your daily life, it’s time. It’s time to reach out and get some help with this. Reach out to me. Reach out to another healthcare professional. Join a support group, maybe a positive online community. And I have to preface it with positive because they’re not all positive.
Karyn Haley [00:42:24]:
But join one that lifts you up, not one that makes you feel like crap or judges you for your actions, connecting with others who share similar experiences, or even a trained professional who knows what it’s like or is at least trained in that type of challenge, it can give you the support that you need to finally tackle this issue head on. Now, if you’ve made it this far if you’ve made it this far in today’s episode, I am so stinking proud of you. I know this is a tough topic. I know it’s tough to sit there and assess yourself without judgment, guilt or shame. And you are a rock star. You’re a rock star, my friend. You are committed. You’re committed to beating this.
Karyn Haley [00:43:12]:
And I hope this information. I hope that it’s just the catalyst, the catalyst to get you thinking differently about your food induced fears. If you’re ready to take action on this conversation, if you’re ready to take this information to the next level, I highly recommend you check out my free resource. That’s really your next best step here. No more food induced fear. Ten anxiety busting rockstar mom tips. It’s a great place to start to move the needle forward. After this conversation, you can get your free resource by going to karynhaley.com/foodfear.
Karyn Haley [00:43:54]:
That’s karynhaley.com/foodfear. So karynhaley.com/ foodfear. And again, this information today and my free resource, no more food induced fear. Ten anxiety busting rockstar mom tips. Those are really your best starting points. But to truly step into your power and move beyond your fears, your stress, your anxiety over this, you may want to then get more individualized support. I’m here to help you find the best team to embrace and help you with your challenges. So don’t hesitate.
Karyn Haley [00:44:36]:
If you’re looking for help on where to go from here, reach out. You can reach out. If you’re watching this on YouTube, you can reach out in the comments. @IBDhealthcoachformoms that’s on YouTube. Or you can get in touch with me on Instagram. You can dm me @ibdhealthcoach and together we’re going to figure this out. I promise you. We’re going to figure out where the best resources for you to go next.
Karyn Haley [00:45:01]:
Remember, my friend, I’ve been there. I have been there too. I have been a friend of to put anything in my body out of fear, how it was going to make me feel. It’s an absolutely normal reaction to food induced pain that IBD causes, it causes in our life. And I have so much compassion and hugs for that younger me who went through all of that emotional turmoil. With some solid support I was able to overcome. And I know that you can too. Until we meet again, I’m wishing you a cheeky and healthy gut healing journey.
Karyn Haley [00:45:40]:
Stay cheeky, my friend. Chat soon. If this podcast is meaningful for you, if it’s been helpful in your IBD bomb life, I’d love it if you would do a couple things. First, follow the pod. You’ll never miss an episode. And those moms who are searching for podcasts about Crohn’s and colitis, they’ll find us easier. There’s probably a plus sign or a follow sign where you’re listening in right now. It’s at the top of your screen.
Karyn Haley [00:46:16]:
Go ahead and give that a tap. And then also give the cheeky podcast a five star rating and review and share it with your friends who are also struggling with IBD. The more we are open about talking about our illness and bringing awareness around it, the more we’re able to connect and build a safe community around each other. I love being in community with you and I appreciate you, my friend. One last thing before we wrap up today. You know, I think you’re a rock star for taking time out of your busy life to listen in and invest in your healing. It is capital h huge. And the reason I know how huge this is for you is because I am right there with you in all of this, working my wheel of wellness, keeping my crohn’s at bay.
Karyn Haley [00:47:03]:
It’s something that I invest in every day, and I’d love it if we could continue our gut healing journey together. If you’re like me and you’re ready to soak up even more amazing gut healing information, it’s time to join the gut love community@karenheathy.com. community the GLC is my free and fabulous space, dedicated to dishing out even more IBD resources, recipes, healing hacks, lots of bts, secrets on how I manage my life with IBD, all wrapped up in a weekly newsletter to help you keep your momentum going strong. This IBD dish is gut healing insights that I only share within our tight knit community. Basically, it’s your one stop shop for a more diversified approach to true and lasting gut healing. Amen to that, my friend. Let’s walk this gut healing journey together. Join me in the GLC at karynhaley.com/community.
Karyn Haley [00:48:02]:
That’s k-a-r-y-n-h-a-l-e-y.com community I can’t wait to meet you.