214. Where Food Meets Brain, the Psychology Behind Our Weight with Dr. Supatra Tovar

Did you know that our relationship with food is a mirror into our relationship with ourselves?

In this episode, Dr. Adrienne Youdim interviews Dr. Supatra Tovar, a clinical nutritionist and psychologist, to explore the intricate connection between nutrition, psychology, and emotional well-being.

They discuss Dr. Tovar's journey from being a dietitian to obtaining her clinical doctorate, emphasizing the importance of understanding the psychological aspects of eating behaviors. Dr. Tovar shares insights on attachment styles and how they influence our eating habits, as well as the pervasive impact of diet culture on our perceptions of food and body image.

Who is Dr. Supatra Tovar?

• Clinical nutritionist and psychologist specializing in the intersection of nutrition and psychology
• Author of "Deprogrammed Diet Culture"
• Advocate for understanding the psychological roots of disordered eating and emotional eating
• Experienced in counseling clients on healthy relationships with food

What You'll Discover:

• The connection between attachment styles and eating behaviors
• How diet culture perpetuates feelings of shame and inadequacy
• Practical strategies for developing a neutral relationship with food
• The significance of mindfulness and body awareness in making healthier choices

Why This Episode Matters:

In a society overwhelmed by diet culture and unrealistic body standards, Dr. Tovar's insights remind us of the importance of understanding our thoughts and feelings around food. Her experiences will equip you with the tools to:

• Challenge harmful beliefs about food and body image
• Foster a healthier, more compassionate relationship with yourself
• Embrace the idea that health is about more than just weight loss

🎧 Tune in now and take the first step towards enhancing your mental health and well-being through a deeper understanding of your relationship with food!

"Awareness is the key. You are not your thoughts; you can change them." - Dr. Supatra Tovar

Connect with Supatra Tovar

• Educational Website: anew-insight.com
• Personal Website: drsupatratovar.com

Ways that Dr. Adrienne Youdim Can Support You

1. Join the Monthly Free Mind-Body Workshops: Participate in engaging mind-body practices designed to help manage your stress response. Register here.
2. Sign Up for the Newsletter: Stay updated with valuable insights and resources by subscribing to the newsletter. Sign up here.
3. Freebie alert. Register for our monthly free MindBody Workshop and receive a downloadable guide on emotional labeling to help you manage your emotions effectively.

Connect with Dr. Adrienne Youdim

• Website :https://www.dradriennespeaks.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dradrienneyoudim/

Transcript

Adrienne Youdim

 Supatra, I am so happy to have you here on the Health Byte podcast.

Supatra Tovar

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited.

Adrienne Youdim

You literally embody exactly in everything that I care about and try and promote on this podcast. You are highly educated and you kind of live at the cross section of nutrition and psychology. Yes.

Supatra Tovar

Yes, and we are kindred spirits in that. And for me to have these designations, the reason why I pursue them is so that I would be able to counsel people on all aspects of their health, from their nutrition, to their fitness, to what's happening in their minds. And really that was the main reason why I went to get my clinical doctorate was that was like the missing piece for me as a nutritionist. that I wasn't able to really understand what was happening in people's minds. And once I got my doctorate, that's what opened up this whole new world for me. So it's the best thing I could have done with my time.

Adrienne Youdim

I love that. And we are kindred spirits because I very much care also about this intersection of food and mind-body Psychology and it's something that I stumbled upon to I guess you kind of you started in the dietitian world and then. and then saw the need or the you address the gap. And for me as a medical doctor, obesity medicine specialist, writing prescriptions, writing prescriptions, right, recognizing that there is a huge gap here between mind and body. And so I want to just dive in right there. And the first thing that I would love for you to comment on is how you kind of view these two things together and how you would or if you would kind of extrapolate it to the general population and what I mean by that is that I feel like my patients come into the office and a lot of times are like with shame or trepidation will share that they are emotional eaters. But from my perspective now, 20 years in the game and understanding the science behind it, emotional eating is like hardwired in our biology. Like we are all in some way emotional eaters, right? That connection between how we eat or how we nourish ourselves and what's going on in our heads. is like on a spectrum and we're all afflicted by that. Oh, yes. Would you agree? Yeah.

Supatra Tovar

Yes, that is certainly the psychology portion of addressing difficulties with eating. That's why I went to get my doctorate because I realized We all have ingrained habits, we have beliefs, we have things that were picked up from childhood. And so that's the main area that I will delve into first with my clients who are either struggling with disordered eating or have an official eating disorder because first I'll look at their attachments. That's like I think at the core at the heart of everything and from anyone who has anything other than secure attachments, there's usually eating behaviors. that are associated, say, with an anxious attachment, or an avoidant attachment, or even disorganized attachment. And so that is really important for me to look at. And if I could funnel it down for people, and you'll know if you have anything but secure attachment. You'll know.

Adrienne Youdim

Can you, just for the listeners who may not be familiar, can you just kind of summarize what each of those styles are so people have a better understanding?

Supatra Tovar

Yes, so secure attachment just means that you've had a really secure bond with your primary caregivers. They allowed you the freedom to grow and move and do the things that you needed to do, but they always provided you with safety and comfort. it's pretty rare to have secure attachment. Most people don't, especially those who are seeking out therapeutic services. Most people come from the other types of attachment and the three other main ones are anxious attachment, which just means that you had an anxious type of bond with your primary caregiver or your caregiver has an anxious attachment themselves, and you never were provided that kind of security or the comfort that you needed, especially during stressful times, then you have avoidant attachment. And usually that will come from a caregiver that either is just like a helicopter parent, too much on you, or completely detached and avoidant themselves. And that usually will, you know, ascribe you certain characteristics of avoidance. And so you'll see oftentimes like dissociation or, you know, mindless eating behaviors coming from an avoidant attachment. That's not to say that you won't get that with anxious attachment or disorganized But that's the attachment style itself. And then disorganized attachment, it usually stems from a more abusive type of relationship with your caregivers. And that's kind of like where you just never know what you're going to get from your caregiver. It could be you know, anger, it could be abuse, it could be, you know, kindness one day. So, you know, what I see most often coming from disorganized attachment are a lot of people-pleasing behaviors and a lot of emotional eating and sometimes even binge eating. So I look at those primarily. And then you also look at just what we pick up behaviorally along the way. You may have had parents that are like, eat everything on your plate, whether you're hungry or not. or you have to earn dessert by eating everything on your plate or, you know, they're starving children, you know, across the world and guilt tripping you into eating. All of those types of messages and the attachments will usually help to formulate the types of behaviors and more especially the thoughts that you have that drive those behaviors. And so becoming really aware of those thoughts by examining the past is sometimes just the key to unlocking the doorway to resolving those behaviors.

Adrienne Youdim

And before we get to some of those thought processes, I just want to step back a moment and just share, and this is not me being clinical because I'm not a psychiatrist or a psychologist, But just to say that I feel like a lot of these things are on a spectrum, right? So like I can imagine that maybe somebody hearing what you have to say right now might have a little bit of like a reaction, like, oh, my God, you know, I'm not an anxious attached type or I'm not. And so I want to move past like the labeling, although I think it's very helpful for people to understand that this is something that they could pursue in a clinical setting and get a lot of information and understanding. But like, I want to step back and just say, you know what, like, we all are a little bit of everything, right? Like there, we've all had experiences that we can relate to, that don't, um, that are not necessarily a hundred percent. And even if we have secure relationships with our caretakers, it's not, it was never a hundred percent of the time, you know? And I may just be saying this to appease myself because I have three children, right? Like we don't, we don't fire a hundred, we never bat at a hundred percent. So I think it's helpful to hear your words from a perspective of like, even if it like abuse doesn't necessarily make sense or fit for us, although trauma we know is a big part of, you know, disordered eating. But even if these labels don't fit, it's really helpful to just understand them, right? To know them.

Supatra Tovar

Yes, absolutely. And I think knowing that that we have those influences are really important. But the reason why I entitled my book and my course deprogrammed diet culture is because diet culture in and of itself is such a huge influence on everyone. I don't think that there's a person out there that doesn't have some form of disordered eating. And that I think primarily is driven by diet culture and these, you know, societal and familial influences that we've had when we're children. It definitely doesn't have to go nearly as deep as going into attachments. Although I think it's very valuable if you have, you know, a diagnosable eating disorder, because when it is as severe as that, it's usually rooted in your attachment to your caregiver. But if we look at the gamut of people, there's not a single person who isn't influenced, who isn't out there looking at all of these news articles and these ads for these GLPs right now, or hearing stories of celebrities losing massive amounts of weight and then feeling like, oh my gosh, I'm just not good enough. I have to do something to fit in. And when you look at that, I've kind of boiled it down to two biases that I think we're really you know, primarily driven by. And the first one is lookism, which is the unhealthy pursuit of the thin ideal. And if we're looking at the ideal of today, it's really like you know, extreme thinness or emaciation. And then the other bias that I think is even more insidious is weightism, which is essentially fat shaming and fat phobia. And if you look at this bias, it is way more widely accepted than, say, something like racism or sexism. It's okay in society right now to make fun of people who are overweight or to, you know, put them in a category or ascribe them certain characteristics. And so people are. Definitely afraid of being, you know, of having prejudice against them for being overweight. And so these two biases really drive our behaviors and that's what's kind of picked up upon in diet cultures. We know. that our deepest insecurities are being preyed upon to sell certain products, diets, or medications.

Adrienne Youdim

Yeah, you know, I just have to say this because we are on the heels of Super Bowl, right? And I was at a Super Bowl party. I didn't watch anything, including the commercials. I was just chit-chatting and eating the entire time. After the fact, there was all this hullabaloo about the hymns, you know, about one of the compounding pharmacies, right? And so I went back and looked at it and wow, the scene begins, and you obviously saw it, but the scene begins with like a belly that's like shaking, a headless belly that's shaking. And I thought to myself, this is just so, tone deaf like i could not believe that in this day and age but to your point like I, you know, and I think that we're doing better these days than we were when I was a child, where like every commercial was slim fast, right? But to your point, it is so insidious. And these images and it's not doesn't even have to be a message. It could just be subliminal. The shame that somebody feels from seeing like a headless belly jiggling on their TV screen. I mean, yes.

Supatra Tovar

During the Super Bowl, no doubt, when you look at the food that's offered at the Super Bowl, it's like anyone is going to struggle with feeling guilty eating the quote, bad foods. And yes, so absolutely, right now we're inundated with messaging. But we've always been inundated with messaging that we're not good enough, and that's what sells products. And that's why I think it's so important for people to just be aware of that. That, you know, they internalize so much guilt and shame that, oh, it's my fault that there's something wrong with me, why I can't lose weight. No, there's something wrong with diet culture, and that's why you can't lose weight. Because categorically, 100% diets fail. Every time.

Adrienne Youdim

Every single time. Can you get into that? You kind of spoke about this. You mentioned that I'm not good enough. But can you get into, because I did interrupt you before, a little bit more into what are the thoughts, right, that you've identified? And again, I want to broaden this because there may be people listening who are like, I don't have an issue with food. And really, my podcast is about you know, health and well-being, mind, body, and soul. However, I have noticed, as you have, that our relationship with food is really a mirror into our relationship with ourselves. So if we can identify some of the thoughts that we may have about food or we may have about our bodies, we may realize that, wow, we are using that same party line, that same thought process in our relationships, in our work, right? Um, so like, I'm not good enough. That's one of them, you may want to expand on that, or maybe you want to share some other common thought processes that you've identified.

Supatra Tovar

I think that that is the primary. thought that drives most people. And you can like go into a million offshoots of that thought. I'm too fat. I am too loud. I am too this. I am not enough of this. There are a million things that can come out of the thought, but when you funnel it down, it's I'm not good enough. And most people, most people think this, and it comes from years and years of conditioning.

Adrienne Youdim

I'm not rich enough. I'm not. I mean it doesn't have to be even anything. I'm not high enough up on the ladder. I mean, I feel like you're right. You can use this thought process to like the teenager at school, all the way up to the senior VP at your 500.

Supatra Tovar

Yes. It's either I'm not enough of this, or I'm too much of this. I think very rarely do I ever encounter anyone who really firmly believes that they're enough. and that is really valuable information. I really want to emphasize and I tell my clients this all the time that that's a thought. You are not your thoughts. That is a thought that you've been thinking or that is a thought that has been implanted in you or you had a traumatic experience or somebody made fun of you, that drives that thought, but it's a thought. It is not what makes you up as a person. So we have this primary thought, I'm not good enough, and there are millions of offshoots off of that. And then also coming from diet culture, you have a million different thoughts about food. Mostly we vilify or we glorify food. Right now, who's the villain? Or bad, right? What's bad? Who's the bad guy right now in terms of food?

Adrienne Youdim

Well, I mean, carbs always has that role to some degree, right? Yes.

Supatra Tovar

And it's categorically 100% false. That's what to me is really sad. Diet culture is so insidious about vilifying a macronutrient, right? So it was either fat, Now it's sugar and carbs, right, before it was fat. And it's really important to look at that as like reductionist thinking, okay? And also just completely false, right? So when clients come in to me and they've struggled and they said, I've tried everything, everything, and I can't lose weight. And I'm like, well, what's the everything? Well, I've tried this diet and I've cut carbs and it was really hard. And then I went on keto and I was on Atkins and I was on South Beach, all of these diets. ascribe very, very few carbs, lots and lots of protein, maybe a little bit of fat or a lot of fat, right? But mostly it's about vilifying carbohydrates. And that's where education is so important because our bodies run primarily on carbohydrates. That is our preferred fuel source. And so when we cut them, our body goes into this emergency mode, like, uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh. I'm not going to have enough to give this person energy, to help them move their muscles. People think that protein moves your muscles. No. Carbs move your muscles. I can't think. My brain is foggy. I'm feeling anxious and depressed. Well, your brain primarily runs on glucose. And so really helping to dispel a lot of these lies that come out of diet culture is so important in terms of reshaping your relationship. So what I like to propose to people is that they become neutral about food. That's very hard. When you grow up with like, oh, if I eat that brownie, I'm going to gain a pound for sure, right? You have all of these food rules. You have all of these things that are good or bad. But when you actually make food neutral and you're educated about what each macronutrient does for your body, Then you're able to make choices that are so much healthier for you. And so primarily, I think what's really important to know is that cutting carbs will always fail. Always fail. Also drastically cutting your calories, because we've heard right and left. you know, we have, uh, you know, calories in calories out. That's what really matters, which is true ish, but it's not really true because if you look at most diets, most diets will, you know, ascribe you like 1200 calories. It's not enough to fuel a toddler. Okay. So you, drastically cut your calories from before. 2,400 to 3,000 is what most people are ingesting in a day. If you cut that in half or even more, you signal to the body that you're in danger. That's what the body is interpreting. Oh my gosh, I'm getting half of what I got before? Let's just, okay, we're going to go into some, you know, emergency measures. And what happens is it ramps up your ghrelin, which is the hunger hormone, primary hunger hormone. And you're told your body is told I am hungry. I am hungry. You get these signals. I'm hungry. your belly's rumbling and you're all lightheaded and you're hangry and all of those things that come with hunger. Well, you're told in diet culture, well, just drink water, ignore your hunger. That's the sign of purity or whatever, right? So then the body's like, oh my gosh, she's not listening to Grelin. We are in massive trouble now and thinks that you're actually going into starvation. So then your body will conserve. And what does it conserve? It conserves fat because it got the juiciest amounts of calories in fat. And so what you will normally lose in terms of a diet is water first. That's what the body's like, okay, we'll just try to get rid of the water. And then you're thinking, yay, I'm losing weight, but it's just water. And then you'll lose muscle next because the body's like, uh-uh, we can't let go of these juicy fat calories. And then maybe if you're on it long enough, you start to lose fat, but the body is remembering the proportions of what you had before your diet. And so the moment you go off your diet, and the moment you start to allow yourself food, compensatory hyperphagia sets in, which just means to make up for what you lost before, I'm gonna eat a lot, hyperphagia. And you, it's almost like you can't help it. And a lot of people report this. It's like, oh my gosh. And I was just like, I couldn't, I couldn't stop myself. Well, that is a biological process in your body trying to replenish what was lost before. So you see how there's so many false beliefs coming from diet culture, so many thoughts that are incorrect. And that's what I help people, you know, just examine. For validity, this is classic cognitive behavioral therapy. You look at that thought, and you're like, OK, what's the evidence for it? What's the evidence against it? And you find, A, with I am worthless, it's categorically false. Everyone is inherently born worthwhile, and beautiful, and unique, and has a contribution to bring to this world that is their own. And that is so important for people to really examine. They can examine that one thought, So much, so much change comes about.

Adrienne Youdim

It really is at the core of this like distress, right? This psychological distress. And before we get into some of the other thought patterns, I would be interested briefly, you know, in terms of, I totally agree with you in terms of the calories. And, you know, I find sometimes it's so hard because after an hour consultation, I'll have a patient say, so how many calories do you want me to consume? And I'm like, ah, like we were like, we're not doing calories, right? Although at the core I do, yes, calories in, calories out. I don't think that's a total fallacy like you said, but that is not, that's not the approach. That's not an approach that is successful, is to think about food that way. How do you though address the issue that The reality is in our fast-paced culture that most of the carbs that we eat are highly processed carbohydrates, right? So while I don't vilify carbs, and actually there's data, you probably know about this, that the amount of carbohydrates you eat per day as a dose increases your longevity. So like the more high fiber carbs you eat, the longer you live. So it's actually like helping you live longer. But how do you get the message across that there's a difference in that nutrient, right? Or that some things are nutritious versus not? The way I like to talk about it is like, how does this food serve you, right? And if it doesn't serve you, if you're going to burn and crash 30 minutes after you eat it, not just because of your weight, but because you're trying to be focused at work, because you're trying to support your mental health, If it doesn't serve you, then think otherwise. How do you suggest your patients look at it?

Supatra Tovar

Well, I think that that's why it's so important to make food neutral, because then you can be your own judge. And I agree wholeheartedly with you and also I think it is so important for us to discern how food feels in our body. So I encourage people to really become aware of their body and what it's telling them. because there is not a person out there in the world that will sit in front of a bowl of potato chips if they are actually really mindful and they are paying attention to their body and they are listening for their body signal that there is a point. Usually for me, it's like 10 potato chips in when my body's like, okay, lady, that's enough. Like the salt on my tongue, nah, I don't like this and I don't like the way that the grease feels. coming down. I don't like how my tummy feels. When you allow every single food, but you're present with it. And most people are not present when they're eating. Most people are distracted or they're eating emotionally. They might be eating with a group of people and just kind of influenced by everyone else's consumption. They're not really thinking about their own. They might be driving, which please don't. There's so many ways that we're not connecting with ourselves. Our phones are especially, especially distracting. When you actually just sit with your food and you sit with your body and you ask it, what do you want right now? It could be potato chips. It could be. Or it could be you get this salad image in your head. Or it could be pasta in your head. Whatever it is, if you allow that, you're going to take away all of the psychological cravings for that thing. If you allow that, it no longer becomes this taboo thing that you have to binge and secret about and then go on a guilt and shame spiral and then go on a juice cleanse or something like that. If you allow it and you taste it, and you will use all of your senses, there's that moment where your body's like, that's good, that's enough. And especially when you think about it in terms of helpful versus less helpful, say the, you know, ultra processed food is over here and the food that's closer to the ground is over here. There is a distinct way that your body feels on either end of the spectrum. Right. You really can feel when you give your body food that's closer to the ground. That's what your body was designed to eat. Your body's like, woohoo. Yes. It gets energized, especially when the proportions are, you know, and I and I really think we just want to do a little side note on macronutrients for a second. We're like in this phase right now of diet culture where we're told to eat copious amounts of protein. which does not do the body good. That is really important for people to understand that the proportions that a lot of people are saying, especially in terms of animal protein as opposed to plant protein, we are not doing our bodies a service. And you can always tell, even when you eat, say, a copious amount of animal protein, Gauge how your body feels after having a huge portion of that. Gauge how your body feels when you've had whole grains, when you've had beans and legumes, when you've had fruits and vegetables. Find out what your body's telling you. How does your digestion change? How does your elimination change? Are you going from constipated? Do you have diarrhea? Are you got, you know, awesome, great poops, right? Your body is going to tell you. And so that's what I encourage people to do is cut out the rules, understand that there's less healthful and more healthful food and find out for yourself what your body thrives on. When people give themselves the permission to do that, it is so freeing. I've had all of my clients say, Oh, my gosh, I had so many foods that I wouldn't allow myself to eat and how I allow them. And I'm at my healthiest, like they there. It's like, mind blowing.

Adrienne Youdim

You know, it's like this idea of balance. It's so not sexy. You know, I mean, I wish I wish that what's sensible and tried and true could be repackaged and reformulated to be sexy because people would You know, they would buy it, but it, but it really is like those, the, it is the tried and true kind of sensible things that make sense. Right.

Supatra Tovar

Yeah. I mean, I think that there can be a way to make that sexy. It's just not prevalent right now because we are in a fear based society and economy. And that fear, like I said, waitism is such an insidious bias and it is so scary to us that we see manipulative advertising and we're hoping for just whatever can relieve that fear. But that doesn't mean that that's what we all have to ascribe to. I think it's so important for, yes, it is the old style of thinking and eating. Yes, it is going back to the basics. Yes, it is about listening to the body. But which is better? Which is healthier? Which is cheaper? Which is more sustainable? Which makes you live longer and helps you? To me, that's completely sexy. The other side is not sexy at all.

Adrienne Youdim

I do feel like this whole concept, and I want to kind of end with this, of mind, body, spirit. So you say mind, body, spirit. I say mind, body, soul. But I think, in essence, we're tapping at the same thing. This is something that is tried and true, grounded in ancient wisdom. But it is making a comeback. It is kind of sexy to be mindful, right? Explain briefly how you kind of see this mind-body-spirit. What does that mean to you?

Supatra Tovar

I think it is all about awareness. I really think that we become hypnotized, and we become hypnotized by media, commercials, advertisements, social media, and that's not true awareness. That hijacks the awareness. When you actually try to, you know, deprogram yourself from that, try to, you know, be aware that that influence is there, and be discerning about it and listen more carefully to what's going on inside of your body, that's the key. That's the way to sustainable long-term health, whether it is you wanna lose weight or you don't wanna lose weight. It's not about weight loss, it's about health. And so when you look at mind, body, spirit or soul connection, to me, there's no difference between the three. They're all connected. They're all the same. We even have a mind in our gut. It's not just about the mind up here. So the body is a part of the mind and the mind is a part of the body. And as soon as we can really tap into that and truly listen to what's going on in our bodies and listen to the intuitive voice that we hear inside the mind and inside the body, That's when you have synergy. And that's, I think, the key, the pathway to health, happiness, and longevity.

Adrienne Youdim

I wonder if you would share one tip in terms of how to navigate the fact that we all are flooded and inundated with thoughts, right? I love what you said earlier, that we are not our thoughts, right? But I think we know that. But then the next thought is, yeah, but, but, but, right? I'm thinking this. And even though we can cognitively say, just because I'm thinking this, it doesn't mean it's true, I think our autopilot is, because we're thinking this, then it must be true. So can you give some guidance, some support, some understanding of maybe the fact that this is kind of the human condition, the running of the mind, how we can be more patient with ourselves, and how we can catch ourselves in those moments to become more actionable about, I am not my thought.

Supatra Tovar

Absolutely. And this I cover in detail in my course and my book. I think it is, like I said just a second ago, awareness is the key. We have had thoughts going on autopilot for years, and so often so that they become just this running tape in the background, and we're not even aware of how they're driving us. So becoming aware is first. Then you go, OK, I have this thought. I am worthless. I am worthless. Is it true or not? and you gather all the evidence if it's true or if it's not, and you'll find that the not is like the longest running list. Okay, that thought is false. What do I need to replace that thought with? I am worthwhile, of course, or whatever it is. I'm good enough. Okay, so If we've had this thought going on in the background for forever, we have to just catch it in the moment. And you can do that through something like thought stopping, where you catch it and you literally tell yourself, stop. And then you bring in that new thought. Nope, nope, nope. I'm not going to go there today. Uh-uh. No. I am worthwhile. Now, I am a huge fan of mantras. Mantras are like everything, because they actually recondition a new thought and they're meditative and they're relaxing and they calm your nervous system and when our nervous system feels safe that's when a lot of the good stuff can really happen like the permanent changing of this thought so turn it into a mantra set a timer two minutes all i need i am worthwhile i am worthwhile or i am loved i am loved i am loved i am safe I am safe. I am safe. That is the creation of a new thought. You can even get systematic about it and decide, I am going to make this permanent. And you practice this new thought on a schedule.

Adrienne Youdim

Yeah, practicing. Because I also think that it should be said that this this doesn't happen overnight, and to people who may be rolling their eyes at the thought of saying, I am love to themselves, or I'm enough, I'm sure there are many out there, that it really is a practice of stopping the thought pattern and introducing the new thought pattern, the one that actually makes you feel good in your body. And eventually, you catch yourself faster, right?

Supatra Tovar

Yes. And eventually it becomes the thought.

Adrienne Youdim

New thought.

Supatra Tovar

You reject the old one, especially if you do this in the form of mantras. And if you want to make it a practice, think of it like, oh, you know, I want to start a meditation. Well, why not start a mantra meditation if you want to change this thought? You anchor it to a behavior that, or you attach it to an anchoring behavior. basically anything that you do at a regular time every single day. I love waking up because hopefully we wake up every day. The moment you wake up, set a timer. Don't go look at your phone and doing scroll. Don't do it. Set two minutes and practice that thought before you get up. And I will guarantee you, your day will look very, very different if you start your day with two minutes of I am loved, or I am safe, or I am worthwhile. Whatever it is that makes you feel good. Because if we look at this just straight out of cognitive behavioral therapy, if you have a thought that makes you feel good, you tend to do good things for yourself and others. And the opposite is true as well. So think about making this something that's sustainable. And it doesn't take long. Two minutes is a really short period of time. But if you think about how many times you say that, you are deconditioning this old, untrue thought by saying it maybe 120 times in two minutes. that actually gets you there so much faster than the you know 30 to 40 to 50 years that you thought that horrible thought over and over again until it became a running tape and started to hijack your life.

Adrienne Youdim

So simple And really it is effective and we don't have time to talk about it now, but there's science of neuroplasticity to support it. So a lot that we could dig into, but for people who love what you have to say, and I really enjoy this conversation, where can they get more information about you or can they learn more?

Supatra Tovar

So I have two websites. One is my educational website, which is anew-insight.com. They can find out about the book, they can find out about my podcast, the course. All of that is housed there. If they want to come and work with me, I am licensed in California, Colorado, Illinois, and soon to be New York. I also have a slew of associates who work with me, who are trained under me. And that's drsupatratovar.com. It's D-R-S-U-P-A-T-R-A-T-O-V-A-R.com.

Adrienne Youdim

We'll put all of those in the show notes. And this was so lovely. Supatra, thank you so much for joining me. I look forward to more conversations together.

Supatra Tovar

Yes. Thank you so much for having me.

Adrienne Youdim

My pleasure. And for all of our listeners, if you absolutely love this conversation as I did and feel like it would serve a friend, a family member, please share and head over to where you're listening, rate and review us so that we can get this wonderful message out to the world. Thanks again, Subhadra.

Supatra Tovar

Thank you.