My Top 5 Tiny Non-Negotiable Daily Habits to Avoid Food Noise and Sugar Cravings

If you constantly think about food, struggle with sugar cravings, or feel like your eating habits are running on autopilot, this episode is for you.

In today’s episode, I’m sharing the 5 small daily habits that have made the biggest difference in reducing food noise, balancing blood sugar, and helping my clients feel more in control around food (without relying on more willpower).

These are the simple, realistic habits that can help you:

• stop obsessing over food all day
• reduce intense sugar cravings
• prevent mindless snacking
• feel satisfied after meals
• make healthier choices without feeling restricted

The best part? These habits are tiny, but when practiced consistently, they can completely change your relationship with food.

In this episode, we cover:

• What to eat at every meal to reduce cravings
• How to avoid blood sugar spikes and constant hunger
• How to avoid boredom eating
• Why hydration plays a bigger role in cravings than most women realize
• The most powerful habit tiny habits to mindless eating

If you've been searching for:

• how to stop sugar cravings
• how to reduce food noise
• how to stop thinking about food all day
• blood sugar and cravings
• mindful eating habits
• healthy habits to lose weight sustainably

this episode will give you practical steps you can start using today.

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WORK WITH ME: 

• Seismic Shift: Group Health Coaching (code POWERFUL for 10% off)
• 1:1 Coaching

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💌 Connect With Laura:

1. Website: Health Coach for Teachers & Busy, Working Women
2. Instagram: LAURA B. | Teacher turned Health Coach | Podcaster🎙️ (@laura.b.healthy) • Instagram photos and videos
3. TikTok: Laura B. | Health Coach (@laura.b.healthy) | TikTok

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Isn't You Powerful Podcast. I am so excited to have you here with me today because we are going to be talking about five things that I do every single day to avoid the feeling of binge eating, the feeling of having sugar cravings, food noise constantly in my head, not overeating. I want to avoid all of those things altogether. I lived in a world where that was my constant. It was pretty much every single day I was feeling voices in my head telling me what I should and shouldn't be eating. I'm good if I eat this, I'm bad if I eat that, how how I needed to stay away from certain foods, and then I would eventually give in to all of that noise that told me I needed to just eat it, screw it, who cares that much, eat it all, and then I would feel guilty for hours. And it was constant that I lived with those voices in my head. And so now I have five daily habits that I do every single day that avoid me feeling that way. I no longer feel any of that noise or any of that feeling of having sugar cravings, the intense desire to eat all the time is gone. If you're new around here, my name is Laura Banks. I am an integrative nutrition health coach. I've been doing this work for quite a few years now, and I've been hosting this podcast for also quite a few years now. This is coming up on episode 200 of the podcast. And if you're watching on YouTube, this is not my normal location that I film. I'm actually at my sister's house right now because I've been traveling this week, spending some time with my family and helping my grandparents. My grandpa went through a pretty major surgery just a few days ago, and I needed to come up here and spend some time with my grandparents, helping take care of my grandmother, and just spending time soaking up some wonderful time with family. So, with that being said, my entire mission as a coach and as a person who lives my own healthy lifestyle, but hasn't always lived my own healthy lifestyle. I have an entire mission out there to show you how simple it is to eat healthy, to do this in a sustainable way. That is my entire mission. And what I do for other women is help you build healthy habits that you can actually stick to when it comes to food and exercise and drinking water and all of the things that are required of you in order to feel good all the time. That's ultimately what it's about. There are two ways that you can currently work with me. The first way is through my group coaching program, Seismic Shift. This is a group coaching program that takes you from point A, which is where you are right now, not doing very much for your health, overwhelmed, confused, always saying, screw it, you know what? You're all in and then you're all out. It goes, it takes you from that to being that person to the other end of the spectrum where you're living a healthy lifestyle and you're doing it in a way that doesn't feel restrictive. It's something that you can stick to. We build these habits for you together so that there's something that actually aligns with the life that you have, not the dream life that you wish that you had, the life that you want to be building. We are making healthy fit you and your lifestyle. So there's my group coaching program, and then there's also one-on-one coaching program. If this is for you, especially if you're somebody who already has healthy habits, like you've already lost some weight, you've already started exercising consistently, like you're doing some of the things, but you need help making sure that you stay consistent with them, making sure that you have a proper mindset so that these things can last forever, or taking you to the next level. Maybe you've lost some weight, but you want to lose a little bit more, or you've made some changes, but you need to help getting to the next level of change. These are the things that I help you with inside of my one-on-one coaching program. So, with that being said, I'm gonna leave all of the information for working with me down in the show notes below so that you can check that out. And for now, let's dig into this episode. Welcome to the Isn't You Powerful Podcast. I'm your host, Laura B, health coach, educator, and founder of the Be Healthy Lifestyle. I'm here to bring you all of the health education and motivation so that you can sign off each week feeling equipped and empowered to tackle all of your health goals. Come along with me as I teach you the basics of healthy living so that you can help everyone in your lifestyle. Isn't she powerful? Alright, five daily habits for you to start implementing right now. They are so simple that you can start doing them right now. And these habits are gonna help make sure that the food noise and the sugar cravings and the binge eating and the overeating and all of those nasty habits that you no longer want to have, they're gonna go away if you start doing these things. The first one is protein and fiber at every single meal. Breakfast is something you should be having. Breakfast should have protein and fiber with it. Your lunch, your dinner, any snacks that you have, you should be having at least protein or fiber, ideally both. Protein, you know what that comes from, but remember that it doesn't just come from meat. There are so many plant options where protein is found. So include those things in your meals. And then also fiber. Fiber comes from whole grains, it comes from vegetables, it comes from your fruits, it comes from legumes such as beans or or things like that. So make sure that you are including those two things with your meals. And let me tell you why. Protein is the macronutrient that our body needs in order to get satisfied. If you're not eating enough protein, you are always going to feel like you're still hungry, like you're not satisfied. You need that little something sweet after the meal every single time. You're always looking for a little something to nibble on. That is because you're not eating enough protein. So protein helps you to feel satisfied during the meal. And then fiber is what you eat in order to make sure that you stay full between your meals. This is what happens if you are somebody who eats, and then within 30 minutes, an hour, two hours later, you're still feeling like, oh gosh, I need more food, I'm hungry again. How did this happen so quickly? That's because you're not eating enough fiber. Fiber is very challenging for your body to break down, and that is a good thing. It sounds like, oh no, we don't want our body to struggle to do anything. I'm not saying it's struggling. I'm saying that it takes time for your body to break down that fiber, and so your body is working for longer versus if you eat something that doesn't have very much fiber to it, your body's able to digest it within 30 minutes to an hour, and then you need more food. Your body wants to digest something else. So eating fiber allows you to stay full for longer between meals versus feeling like you're always hungry, you need to nibble on something and having those cravings all day long. The number two daily non-negotiable thing that I do is no sugar on an empty stomach. If I want a little sweet treat, I want to grab something, I want to nibble on a little sweet snack or something like that, I always have something that has protein and fiber first. I'm gonna have something that's gonna have something that's gonna keep my blood sugar stable. If you eat sugar on an empty stomach, it spikes your blood sugar straight up in the air, and then that's gonna lead to a blood sugar crash. And those blood sugar crashes are the real problem because if you spike your blood sugar up, it's gonna crash below the normal baseline for you. And this scares your body. Your body's like, whoa, we don't wanna be way down here. We were just feeling good, we were flying high, and now we're crashed really low really quickly. Your body freaks out. It's like, uh-uh, we need to be back up there. We want to get back up, and so it starts to send you these little signals, and that is cravings, that is food noise. Those are that's your body speaking to you saying, we want to get back up there, and that's why you start to feel like you need to eat more sugar because your body is literally sending you signals to eat more sugar to get that blood sugar to go back up. So no sugar on an empty stomach. If I'm gonna have a piece of cake, it's after a meal. If I'm gonna have some chocolate, it's gonna be alongside something, or after I have something that has some protein and fiber to it. So protein and fiber, and then no sugar on an empty stomach. And the third one is to get up and move multiple times during the day. So many of us have very sedentary jobs. We sit around all day, you sit around all weekend on the couch watching TV, whatever, and that leads to a lot of what? A lot of boredom snacking. You're sitting there and you're like, you know what? I could really go for a snack right now. And instead of doing that, set some parameters for yourself. I'm gonna get up, I'm gonna move around, I'm gonna go do something to get my body active, to get my mind active, and that will really help you to avoid the boredom eating. Because so many times you are having these cravings, not because you actually need something or not because you actually want it, but because you're bored and your body is tired of sitting, your brain is tired of doing nothing, you need some stimulation. So get yourself up, go do something. Number four is to stay hydrated. So often, you've probably even heard it before, your body doesn't recognize the difference between hunger and thirst. And so that is that is actually true. Our bodies do have a have a hard time distinguishing, and actually that's not true. Our bodies know the difference, our brain has a hard time distinguishing between the feeling of hunger and the feeling of thirst. And so, until you can get really good at distinguishing, am I actually hungry? Am I actually just thirsty? Something that helped me was recognizing the feeling of hunger. So, like, if I it's been a while since I've eaten something, I know what my stomach feels like whenever I'm actually hungry. So anytime I'm feeling like, oh, I really want to eat something, I pause and check in with my stomach and ask myself, are you actually hungry? Does my is my stomach actually telling me I need food? Or is this boredom? Is this thirst? What is what actually do I need? But by staying hydrated, your body is less likely to feel that desire to eat all the time. So many times our body really just needs some water, it needs some fuel in some way, and giving it that water is what it needs. Now, what I want to say here is that I am not under any circumstances telling you to replace your meals or replace snacks with water. You need to be eating food. A huge, huge, huge reason why we have sugar cravings and food noise and all of this all day long is because our bodies are actually hungry. We under-eat so much. We we do not eat enough food generally. As a population, we don't eat enough food because diet culture has told us that we need to eat as little as possible. So you're already not eating enough food. So, with that being said, I am not under any circumstances telling you to skip meals and have water, but I am saying that water is a crucial part of our dietary needs. And if you're not drinking enough water, your body is going to ask for more things, it's gonna ask you for more food, more fuel, more water, whatever it may be. And drinking enough water helps to avoid all of that altogether. So staying hydrated. I literally fill my cup up with me and I bring it everywhere I go, all day, every single day. It comes with me, it's always beside me. I always have it in my hand because that ensures that I am going to be drinking more water and fueling my body for success in every possible way throughout the day. Now the last one, and I really do think that this is probably the most important one. Pause before you eat. Before you go into the kitchen and grab a little snacky snack, before you go into the kitchen and pick out something from the pantry or just start mindlessly chewing on something. Pause for a second. Allow yourself to do a little check-in, a little mental check-in, and ask myself, am I actually hungry for this? Is this in alignment with my goals? How am I going to feel 15 minutes after eating it? That is a sentence that I've shared with my clients and that it's been life-changing for them. So many of them have started applying that. In 15 minutes, how will I feel? And it has made such a difference for them. I actually got it from a previous episode that I did with Heidi Camanera, where she was talking with us about some things that we can do to avoid this feeling of boredom eating and all the things that we're talking about here. She's a mindset coach, and so she really helps with a lot of the all-or-nothing mindset, the relationship with food and all that type of stuff in that episode specifically. But regardless, pausing and checking in and asking yourself in 15 minutes, how will I feel? If I go into the kitchen right now and I just start randomly eating something out of the pantry, am I gonna feel good in 15 minutes after that? Am I gonna feel like I'm proud of that choice? Is it aligned with my goals? Or is it gonna make me feel really bad about who I am and the choices that I made? And make a choice accordingly. If it's gonna make you feel bad, girl, you probably didn't need it in the first place. Okay, so pause before you eat. Check in with yourself. Am I actually hungry? Do I actually want this? Is this going to really truly get me where I want to go? Sometimes if you're pausing and and and you're checking in and you're like, well, this this I am actually hungry. I noticed that my stomach is telling me I'm actually hungry. I really do have something on my plate that has some protein and some fiber to it and a little bit of a sweet something to it if you really wanted it. I have I have a well-balanced plate here, something that's gonna help me get to where I want to go. Yeah, I'm gonna feel good about this choice after I eat this snack. Then eat the snack. But if it's something that you're just mindlessly grabbing and eating, it's not in alignment with your goals, it's not something that's gonna help you get where you want to go any faster, then I would invite you to do a little check-in and say, nope, this is not in alignment with my goals and go do something else. Like I said, number three, go do something else, go find something else to do to distract your brain, distract your body because you're probably not actually hungry, anyways. Okay, so I invite you to pick one of these things, just one of them. Either protein and fiber at every single meal, no sugar on an empty stomach. Get up and move, do something to get out of your bored state, stay hydrated, or pause and check in with yourself before you start eating. Pick one of those things that you're gonna start focusing on. You're gonna start doing these couple of things. Every time that you get in this situation where you have the cravings, you have the desire to eat, you're gonna do this one thing. Start doing that just one thing and watch how it changes you. Over time, you can start to add in some of these other things. But this is a big way that I coach my clients is we're just gonna do one thing this week. We're just focusing on one thing because so many of you have tried every diet, everything out there, and all of those have a laundry list of things that you are and aren't allowed to do, and it's overwhelming and it becomes too much to handle, your brain can't wrap your head around it, you've got too much else going on to be worried about all of these rules, and so you give up. And so the way that I approach it with my clients is we're just gonna focus on one thing this week, and I tell you exactly what to focus on. I'm giving you the goals. The thing I say, if you do this in this order, in this time frame, you are going to get from point A to point B even faster than you expected. And so that's what it's like working with me, and that's what I invite you to do. I invite you to just choose one of these things, start implementing that one thing, and then watch how you change and you can add in more over time. Thank you so much for being a part of another episode of the Isn't she powerful podcast? Make sure if you have not shared this show with anybody else, I would love for you to do that. We just recently hit 50,000 downloads all time, which is such an exciting moment, and I would love so much to get even more people listening to the show. So if you haven't shared this episode with a friend or a coworker or a family member or somebody that you know could benefit from this information, I invite you to do that because it would mean a lot to me, and I know that it would mean a lot to the friend who is receiving this as well. If you're in a place where you are ready to work with somebody, ready to get somebody's help in your health and wellness journey, I invite you to go down into the show notes, check out the information for my group coaching program or one-on-one coaching. I have available space in both of those at this current time, and I would love so much to get to work with you. And until then, ladies, I will see you in the next episode of Isn't She Powerful. Thank you so much. I can't wait to see you again next week. And always remember the more you know, the more you grow.