Truce with Food: The Psychology of Emotional Eating and Your Relationship with Food

I was six or seven, standing at the end of a diving board with my knees shaking, when my dad made me an offer: “Ali, I will take you to Dunkin’ Donuts if you jump.” I cannonballed in, and the munchkins afterward were pure celebration, with my dad right there in my corner. A few years later, after being bullied in fifth grade, I rode the bus home counting the stops until I could get to the cinnamon raisin bagels in the fridge. Food showed up in both stories, but it was doing very different jobs. One was a celebration with support. The other was a way to feel safe when I felt completely alone.
Sugar cravings can be physical, especially when your blood sugar is out of balance. And after 40, the same foods and habits can affect you differently as your hormones and stress response change. But what happens when you're eating well, you're not hungry, and you still can't stop thinking about sugar? As Dr. Gordon Neufeld says, nothing is more addictive than something that almost works. Sometimes sugar is almost working as the support, agency, or belonging you're missing elsewhere in your life. That's why knowing what to eat doesn't always change the craving.
In this episode of Truce with Food, I'm bringing together conversations with Laura McKowen, Dr. Ellen Vora, Amber Romaniuk, and former Truce with Food participant Isis to explore what your sugar cravings are actually responding to. We'll look at the physical side of cravings, the four emotional triggers I call TAIL (tired, anxious, inadequate, and lonely), and what it looks like to get curious about a craving instead of fighting it. Whether you start with what your body needs or what your cravings are doing for you emotionally, you don't have to tackle everything at once or follow another set of food rules.
This episode is part of the Why You Crave Sugar Path in the Truce with Food Podcast Library, a collection of conversations exploring the physical and emotional sides of sugar cravings and why knowing what to eat isn't always enough. Explore the path here: Why You Crave Sugar Path.
4:28 - When food is a celebration and when it becomes a substitute for support
10:13 - The physical causes of sugar cravings
16:00 - Why exhaustion isn't always solved by more rest
21:37 - How sugar cravings help us cope with uncertainty
24:37 - How inadequate information and support can make us feel inadequate
26:33 - Why loneliness can trigger cravings even when you're not hungry
29:28 - How Isis learned to investigate her ice cream cravings
34:26 - What progress looks like when you stop fighting cravings
36:16 - What happened when Laura McKowen stopped following food rules
Mentioned In Why You Crave Sugar Even When You Know What to Eat
Truce with Food Podcast Library: Why You Crave Sugar Path
Food Stage Assessment
Quitting Alcohol and Managing Sugar Cravings with Laura McKowen (233) | Books by Laura McKowen
How to Stop the Sugar- Anxiety Feedback Loop with Dr. Ellen Vora (230)
Your Sugar Cravings Make Sense When You Understand Your Hormones with Amber Romaniuk (324)
How Self-Awareness and Community Can Heal Your Eating Triggers with Ginny and Isis (283)
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Find your Food Stage with Ali’s free assessment: Take the Food Stages assessment

Struggling with cravings, emotional eating, or feeling stuck with food? Find a conversation that meets you where you are. Explore the free Truce with Food Podcast Library by topic, or follow a curated listening Path: Explore the Podcast Library

GLP-1s are everywhere right now, and so are the opinions about them. One reaction I keep hearing is that using them for weight loss feels like cheating. There's frustration with people seemingly getting results without having to work as hard, alongside real concern about the cost of pursuing thinness at any price. Those feelings can be strong, especially if you've taken extreme measures to lose weight yourself. The question is, what might those reactions be protecting?
There's often some truth in our reactions, and our concerns can tell us a lot about what we value. Yet our judgments are also the tip of the iceberg. Underneath may be a story about success and the identity we've built around working hard and following the rules. Until we can recognize those stories in ourselves, they can create blind spots in how we see other people, including the clients we're trying to help.
In this episode of Truce with Food, I'm answering a coach's honest question about her anger and frustration toward GLP-1s, using the same approach I'd take mentoring her inside my Truce Coaching Certification. Her question opens up a larger conversation about the judgments we bring into coaching and the role our own personal development plays in helping clients change. I'll also share experiences from Christen Conly and Kinsie Tate, two practitioners who've completed the certification, to illustrate what becomes possible when coaches can recognize their own blind spots.
This episode is part of the For Coaches Path in the Truce with Food Podcast Library, a collection of conversations for practitioners who want to deepen their coaching skills. Explore the path here: For Coaches Path.
5:46 – When it's time to invest in more coaching training
12:48 – A coach's GLP-1 judgment and the beliefs about success underneath it
18:53 – What strong judgments reveal about your story and identity
22:25 – Coach entanglement and learning to bend the rules
26:58 – Finding more ease and support by letting go of rigid rules
32:15 – The role of safety and trust in a successful coaching relationship
35:30 – How Truce Coaching Certification changed two practitioners' work

Mentioned In Feeling Like GLP-1s Are Cheating Can Reveal Something About Your Own Story
Truce with Food Certification Program
Truce with Food: Consistency Program
Truce with Food Podcast Library - For Coaches Path
Find Your Food Stage Quiz
What Makes a Good Health Coach with Precision Nutrition’s Kate Solovieva
Stress Leadership vs. Stress Management with Rev. Kinsie M. Tate
When Tips and Tools Aren’t Enough to Create Lasting Change with Christen Conly
Find your Food Stage with Ali’s free assessment: Take the Food Stages assessment

Struggling with cravings, emotional eating, or feeling stuck with food? Find a conversation that meets you where you are. Explore the free Truce with Food Podcast Library by topic, or follow a curated listening Path: Explore the Podcast Library

You can know what to eat, understand what would support your health, and still find yourself stress eating at night, skipping meals and then overeating, or falling back into old patterns. That’s frustrating when you’re the person living it, especially when you’ve already gotten plenty of information about what you “should” be doing. It can also be frustrating for the health coach sitting across from you, because caring deeply about helping someone can make it really tempting to rush in with another suggestion, another tool, or something from the latest training.
That’s where the difference between knowing a lot and actually being able to coach starts to matter. Some health problems are technical and have a relatively clear answer. Others are adaptive challenges, where the person already knows what to do and the harder question is why they aren’t doing it. Those situations require slowing down enough to get specific about what’s happening, asking why the behavior makes sense, and looking at what feels hard about changing it instead of immediately assuming the answer is more information. For coaches, that can also mean noticing what a stuck client brings up in you and whether your own urge to fix is helping or adding more pressure.
In this episode of Truce with Food, I sit down with Kate Solovieva, a master coach and Director of Community Engagement at Precision Nutrition, to talk about what makes a good health coach from both sides of the coaching relationship. We talk about what to do when another tip or tool isn’t helping, why coaching real people is different from studying case examples, and how to tell when more training is actually needed versus when it’s time to stop collecting information and practice the craft. We also get into what to look for when you’re hiring a coach, how scope of practice comes into play with questions about GLP-1s, and what AI may change about coaching without changing the human part of the work.
This episode is the third stop on the For Coaches Path in the Truce with Food Podcast Library, a set of conversations meant to be heard in order. Start the Path here: For Coaches Path.
1:53 – Who this episode is for and how to recognize a good health coach
2:10 – What happens when a client knows what to do but still isn’t doing it
4:21 – Why coaches need to notice their own urge to rush in and fix
6:59 – Why the health and wellness industry still feels like the Wild West
8:31 – Where health coaching has matured, from strength training to a more holistic view of health
14:37 – Where the industry still falls short on fatphobia, morality, and personal autonomy
16:43 – The gap between being good at coaching and being good at selling
20:32 – The difference between technical problems and adaptive challenges in behavior change
25:58 – Why coaches have to manage their own discomfort when a client is stuck
29:26 – How compassion and support help when old food patterns keep repeating
34:14 – How to know when more training will actually make you a better coach
36:35 – When learning becomes anxiety instead of professional growth
40:11 – Why you can’t become a great coach without actually coaching
44:30 – What separates a great coach from a really good student
45:57 – What to look for when choosing a health coach
50:51 – How to identify the specific skill gap you actually need to train
54:10 – GLP-1 questions, scope of practice, and the role of a health coach
58:53 – What AI, GLP-1s, and industry changes may mean for the future of coaching

Mentioned In What Makes a Good Health Coach with Precision Nutrition’s Kate Solovieva
Kate Solovieva | Instagram
Super Coach Diaries
Precision Nutrition | Coaches Connect
Truce Coaching Certification
For Coaches Path
Pros and Cons of Health Coaching with Courtney Townley
Hailey Rowe on Building a Sustainable Coaching Business
When Tips and Tools Aren’t Enough to Create Lasting Change with Christen Conly
How to Close the Knowing-Doing Gap with Food
Find your Food Stage with Ali’s free assessment: Take the Food Stages assessment

Struggling with cravings, emotional eating, or feeling stuck with food? Find a conversation that meets you where you are. Explore the free Truce with Food Podcast Library by topic, or follow a curated listening Path: Explore the Podcast Library

A GLP-1 can quiet the food noise and give you hope again. Then you hit a plateau, the food noise starts creeping back in, or you see someone else having a completely different experience. That’s when the old thoughts can show up fast. Here we go again. I’m failing. What’s wrong? Why isn’t this working for me like everyone else?
We’ve put GLP-1s into the same magic bullet fantasy we tend to put everything else into. We want the straight line forward and the happily ever after. When that isn’t what happens, it can be easy to make the plateau mean something about you instead of separating what’s happening from what you’re making it mean about yourself.
In this episode of Truce with Food, I sit down with clinical nutritionist Jessica Brown, author of Beyond the Shot, to talk about what happens emotionally when GLP-1 progress stalls or the food noise comes back. Jessica is also a certified compassion teacher, and she has used a GLP-1 herself for more than two years, mostly for reasons beyond weight loss. We talk about the difference between feelings and beliefs, how comparison and self-judgment can shape the way you see yourself, and why self-compassion matters when the old story says you’re the problem. She also shares NICE, her practice for meeting that moment with kindness, especially if part of you worries that going easier on yourself means you’ll just give up.
This episode is the fourth stop on the GLP-1 Path in the Truce with Food Podcast Library, a set of conversations meant to be heard in order. Start the Path here: GLP-1 Path
7:47 – Why GLP-1 plateaus can feel so unexpected and what happens when progress stops being linear
9:05 – Jessica Brown’s reasons for using a GLP-1 beyond weight loss
15:35 – What can come up emotionally when food noise returns on a GLP-1
18:08 – The difference between feelings and beliefs and why it matters when you start blaming yourself
24:35 – How comparing your GLP-1 experience to other people can make you feel worse
28:52 – What makes support actually supportive when judgment is everywhere
34:40 – How to know when returning food noise needs emotional support, a medical conversation, or both
45:35 – Why the old story that you’re failing can come back so quickly during a plateau
50:56 – Jessica’s NICE practice for responding to old beliefs with self-compassion
52:38 – Jessica’s personal story of using NICE to change a belief she’d carried since infancy
59:19 – What emotional plateaus can reveal when food is no longer doing the same job
1:02:13 – Redefining progress when success is no longer just about weight or avoiding regain
1:11:00 – When to seek more support and what to know about GLP-1 microdosing claims

Mentioned In Your GLP-1 Plateau Doesn’t Mean You’re Failing with Jessica Brown
The Loving Diet | Instagram | YouTube
Beyond the Shot
Truce with Food Consistency
Truce with Food Podcast Library
Truce with Food Podcast Library: GLP-1 Path
A Holistic Approach to GLP-1s with Mayo Clinic Dietician Tara Schmidt
How to Use GLP-1s Without Losing the Muscle You Need with Ashley Fillmore
The Body You Were Always Meant to Have with Sas Petherick [Body Stories Series #6]
Episode 77: Your Green Juice Doesn’t Make You Worthy
Find Your Food Stage Quiz
Find your Food Stage with Ali’s free assessment: Take the Food Stages assessment

Struggling with cravings, emotional eating, or feeling stuck with food? Find a conversation that meets you where you are. Explore the free Truce with Food Podcast Library by topic, or follow a curated listening Path: Explore the Podcast Library

You finally understand what’s been driving your food struggles. You change how you eat, you feel better, maybe you even think, okay, I’ve got this now. Then months or years later, the cravings come back, your body changes, or you find yourself eating when you’re not hungry again. It can feel like all that progress disappeared and you’re somehow back at the beginning.
After more than 10 years of this podcast and 330 episodes, what I keep seeing is that you may not need another answer. You may already have the right information, just at the wrong point in your own change process. The blood sugar episode that feels life-changing when you’re first realizing your cravings aren’t a willpower problem may not help two years later when you already understand the physiology and what you’re wrestling with is why you still want cookies when you’re alone on a Thursday night. Same information, completely different need.
In this episode of Truce with Food, I explain why timing and sequencing matter so much when you’re changing your relationship with food, and why feeling like you’re starting over doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve lost your progress. I’m also introducing the new free Truce with Food podcast library, built from more than a decade of episodes and organized around the problem you’re actually trying to solve now, so you can find the right next conversation for where you are.
2:42 – Reflections on the good and bad of what happened during the summer season 
8:06 – Disillusionment with what’s currently happening in the wellness world
11:19 – The pitfalls of relying heavily on AI for written content
19:28 – The inferior-superior cycle that keeps you ping-ponging between all-or-nothing thinking
23:09 – What I mean by “right information, wrong timing” and why the order of things really matters
31:00 – A newly organized, decade-in-the-making tool designed to guide you toward solutions based on your situation
35:20 – Demonstration of how the new podcast library works using three people as examples
45:54 – How to use the library (including curated paths, how to search, and how it links with your food quiz) 
50:38 – Asking for two favors when you use the beta version of the podcast library

Mentioned In Why You Keep Feeling Like You’re Starting Over With Food
Truce with Food Podcast Library
Email: Ali@alishapiro.com
Find Your Food Stage Quiz
Content with Carlos
Episode 233: Quitting Alcohol and Managing Sugar Cravings with Laura McKowen | Books by Laura McKowen
Episode 330: How to Make Habits Stick When Your Life Is Unpredictable with Monica Packer
Episode 321: Why Intuitive Functional Medicine Works When Protocols Don’t with Erin Holt
Episode 267: Esther Blum Demystifies Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) for Perimenopause and Menopause Relief
Episode 266: Dr. Stacy Sims on How “Women Are Not Small Men” (especially at midlife & with exercise)
Episode 188: The 4 Weight Loss Willpower Myths Sabotaging Your Results
Body Story Series with Sas Petherick: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6
Find your Food Stage with Ali’s free assessment: Take the Food Stages assessment

Struggling with cravings, emotional eating, or feeling stuck with food? Find a conversation that meets you where you are. Explore the free Truce with Food Podcast Library by topic, or follow a curated listening Path: Explore the Podcast Library