Understanding Food Fears (Including All That Candy!) Part 2/2 [Podcast Transcript]

Title: Understanding Food Fears (Including All That Candy!) Part 2/2

Podcast Date: November 1, 2024

Listen Here: 

Description

This is the second part of an interview between host Heather Creekmore and guest Amy Carlson, a dietitian and eating disorder expert. Today's conversation centers around fostering a healthy and balanced relationship with food. Amy critiques the current educational approach to nutrition, advocating for an understanding and enjoyment of cooking rather than rigid adherence to nutritional guidelines. 

Today's conversation continues looking at the topic of agency around food choices and our health. Heather talks about how she and many clients she works with have fear around being free with food and Amy offers some helpful wisdom there. Listen until the end for this expert dietitian's best advice on what you should do with all that candy that seems to arrive around Halloween and keep multiplying through Christmas!

Learn more about Compared to Who? here: https://www.improvebodyimage.com

Learn more about Amy's Peace with Food App here: https://www.hellopeacewithfood.com/

Listen to Heather's other interviews with Amy Carlson:

Have We Christianized Disordered Eating? https://omny.fm/shows/compared-to-who/have-we-christianized-disordered-eating-featuring

A With God Approach to Food and Eating: https://omny.fm/shows/compared-to-who/a-with-god-approach-to-food-and-eating-featuring-a

Do I Need More Self Control Around Food? https://omny.fm/shows/compared-to-who/do-i-need-more-self-control-to-stop-eating-feat-am

Letting Go of Good and Bad Food Labels: https://omny.fm/shows/compared-to-who/letting-go-of-good-and-bad-food-labels-featuring-a

How to Really Feel Better in Your Body: https://omny.fm/shows/compared-to-who/how-to-really-feel-better-in-your-body-featuring-a

Transcript

Disclaimer: This transcript is AI-generated and has not been edited for accuracy or clarity.

Heather Creekmore [00:00:05]:

When I was disordered, the way my eating looked was well, try not to eat until, like, 11:30. Have my super healthy smoothie, right, with collagen and spinach and all the things. Right? And then try not to eat, and then eat, like, a lot of handfuls of chocolate things or whatever I could get my hand on because I was so, like, ravenously hungry and then eat, like, super healthy dinner, gluten free, dairy free, all the things. Right? But then again, irrationally, like, hungry in the evening and so handfuls of chocolate things. And then, you know, the the dilemma of don't buy the chocolate things anymore, and then you won't eat handfuls of chocolate things. But then eating handfuls of all the other things because there weren't chocolate things. And then, you know, like, maybe I can find some chocolate things in the kid's room or, like, I can pick them out of the trail mix or something. I don't like, desperation for the chocolate thing.

Heather Creekmore [00:01:04]:

Right? And so Yes. It's strange because I feel like in my disordered life I think I actually consumed more sugar.

Amy Carlson [00:01:14]:

Yeah.

Heather Creekmore [00:01:14]:

And, and stuff that wasn't as good for me. And yet I'm more afraid now because I'm not on a plan.

Amy Carlson [00:01:23]:

Oh, friend.

Heather Creekmore [00:01:25]:

Did I just tell your story? Okay. That's mine. Are you scared without a plan? Is that hard for you to believe you can be healthy without being on a plan? If so, I get it. And that's the conversation I'm continuing today with my good friend, Amy Carlson, who is a dietitian. She is an eating disorder expert. She's been practicing for, I think, 27 ish years. She knows her stuff. And today, she's gonna help us sort through food issues.

Heather Creekmore [00:01:57]:

If you didn't listen to the first part, go back, listen to that, and we're talking about agency around our food choices. Today, we continue that conversation, but at the end, oh, friend, at the end, we answer the question that comes up mostly the end of October, which is, what do I do about all the candy? How do I relate to the candy in a healthy way? Stick around because you're gonna wanna hear that. Hey. We're glad you're here. Go to improve body misha com and learn more if this is your first time in the show. Welcome to Compare To Who, the podcast to help you make peace with your body so you can savor God's rest and feel his love. If you're tired of fighting body image the world's way, Compare to Who is the show for you. You've likely heard lots of talk about loving your body, but my goal is different.

Heather Creekmore [00:02:42]:

Striving to fall in love with stretch marks and cellulite is a little silly to me. Instead, I want to encourage you and remind you with the truth of scripture that you are seen, you are known, and you are loved no matter what your size or shape. Here, the pressure is off. If you're looking for real talk, biblical encouragement, and regular reminders that God loves you and you're not alone, you've come to the right place. I hope you enjoy today's show, and, hey, tell a friend about it. But I know, Amy, when someone's listening to you, they are thinking. But and they wouldn't maybe articulate it this way. So I'm I'm summarizing, but food is scary.

Heather Creekmore [00:03:22]:

Food is dangerous. Right? If you don't watch it. So I I shared this with you earlier this week. So my son's a freshman. And one of my sons is a freshman, and he's in biology. And I love his biology teacher so much. I don't think she listens to my podcast either, so I hope I'm safe here. Yeah.

Heather Creekmore [00:03:38]:

But, she told them about, like, good foods and bad foods and Mhmm. How important it is to eat clean and how if you don't eat clean, you are gunking up your system. And she explained the biology behind that. And so it was presented as, like, scientific fact. And so my 14 year old son comes home and he's like, I have to eat clean. Otherwise, I'm gunking up my system. I'm like, I'm like, that's it's a little bit more complicated than that. And, oh, by the way, you're 14.

Heather Creekmore [00:04:18]:

Yeah. And, you know, like, of course we want you to eat fruits and vegetables and meat and, you know, we want you to eat good things. And he, he does. He's never fought us on that, but you do not have to be afraid of cheese. Yeah. Right? Like, they're not they're not gunking up your system in a way where it's like, he's essentially like, I eat this and then I'm gonna turn 40 and I'm gonna have all these diseases because I got cut up my system. Right? And then similarly, I've noticed with my my athletes

Amy Carlson [00:04:53]:

Mhmm.

Heather Creekmore [00:04:53]:

Right? It used to be when they were younger. Like, I we really made sure that they had Gatorade or some sorts of sports drink. I know there's much fancier, you know, maybe better balanced drinks than Gatorade now. Like, I know coke the coconut juice ones are better. But back in the day, before we had prime and all the things, you know, we had to get him, especially Gatorade, at halftime because he could not play a soccer game for an hour without running out of steam. And the second half of the game, we would just watch him fall and get tripped and cry and do all of these things where it was like, oh, this is a blood sugar problem. Mhmm. Like, he's out of steam.

Heather Creekmore [00:05:37]:

So we get him something he can take at halftime and, you know, and then he Yeah. Then he do just fine. Right? And it was a forced issue. But now I'm watching, like, these athletes, they are getting their nutrition information maybe from teachers, but also from influencers.

Amy Carlson [00:05:54]:

Mhmm.

Heather Creekmore [00:05:55]:

And so sugar is bad. You don't wanna drink sugar. Like, why would I want sugar? Sugar is gonna make me fat. And so even though they are I mean, I've got I've got a kid that plays football. Right? He eats so many calories. Eats a meal at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Right. And doesn't, I does not do what a professional player does in like eating a huge, you know, 2,000 calorie dinner the night before.

Heather Creekmore [00:06:20]:

You know, they're not, they're not pros. And so I know that he's had not sufficient calories by the time he's at 4 o'clock meal. And then he goes and plays that 3 hour game. And, and I'm watching the team fade and I'm saying, it's because they do not. Yes. They're hungry guys.

Amy Carlson [00:06:38]:

They're hungry

Heather Creekmore [00:06:39]:

guys. And so it it is it's so I guess my my my question is, I think there's a lot of fear that if if you're mongering, right? But like, there's a lot of fear around food, like to have to have that kind of like attitude where it's like, oh, I can just save our food and food as a cultural treat. It's like, but no food is scary. And like, and if you don't think that food is scary, I mean, here here's the brass tacks, Amy. If you don't think food is scary, it's because you're dumb and you don't know better. Right? Like, I mean, that's, that's the, that's the attitude. Right? You just oh, mom. You just don't know that if I eat clean, it's better.

Heather Creekmore [00:07:21]:

Like, I can't understand what it's up. That's not what I'm saying. Like so how do you how do you respond to that?

Amy Carlson [00:07:29]:

Yeah. No. I've got a teenager that I love and adore that is smarter than me too. I have a I think they're all smarter than me. All 4 of my kids are smarter than me, but, and in this area often. And he is smart, actually. He really probably is smarter than me in all the things, but, but here's here's here's part of it. 1, I used to say to those little baseball players when they were little, I feel like somebody go get them bag of Skittles.

Heather Creekmore [00:07:56]:

Mhmm. I was

Amy Carlson [00:07:57]:

supposed to get a bag of Skittles, and then they'll hit 1 out of the park, and they would. I literally would go to the concession stand and be like, here, eat this Sour Patch stream, whatever, because what you needed is sugar right now. You're you're tanking and you need sugar. I'm sure I would get looked at with funny. Right? But I'm like, those kids in a bag of Skittles. What's interesting to me, I I I have a very, very I've got, you know, several careers in my head going. And one of one of my passions is to get into the school system and curriculum and, to say, hey. We're just, like, we just got it all wrong.

Amy Carlson [00:08:30]:

We have it backwards. Right? We're working our way backwards from disease state. So we're we're working our way backwards from a disease state, and then now we're we're telling our children, hey. This is how you need to eat rather than teaching them how to love food and cook. Mhmm. And that that these foods aren't weird and and so that, you know, the Skittles are whenever okay. That's great. I would eat those because I'm tanking, but I'm not those aren't, like, part of my lunch every day because I wouldn't even think of that.

Amy Carlson [00:09:01]:

Right? Because I know how to cook and make food, and so we're we're we're just going at it wrong. Part of why it's scary is because at this nutrition conference, there's just brilliant researchers, from the University of Minnesota, my alma mater. And she was she gave an example. She pulled a study up of microbiome study, and that is her life's work. The the 3 of them that were speaking, that's their life work, PhDs, smarty in the lab, everything. And she took this art and went back to the reg summary and and one line. And she said, how many of you have actually used this line in your career? Right? Like, as advice. And she said it came from this one line, and I know this is true.

Amy Carlson [00:09:53]:

I've said it before in in podcast. That research is combed for a tagline, basically. And if then we can create sort of a nutrition sort of, philosophy around that and then build out sort of like, oh my goodness. Right? And it's not that, you know, this one particular thing was bad. It's like, you know, obvious an end result, eat more fruits and vegetables. Great. But it's to say that so much of what we're saying is built off of momentum. So even that idea of eating clean, it's like, okay, biology teacher.

Amy Carlson [00:10:33]:

Can you unpack that for me? Just unpack that for me what that means. It means eating like you and I ate as kids. Right? I mean, just a bunch of normal food and throw some, right, potato chips in there, Dutch baby, whatever Dutch, you know, potato chips and I'm

Heather Creekmore [00:10:50]:

from the East Coast. We had. Oh, Yeah.

Amy Carlson [00:10:54]:

I'm from the north. I think we had that big can.

Heather Creekmore [00:10:57]:

You know? Well, it's came in a can too. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I bet

Amy Carlson [00:11:00]:

it was probably the same. Right? Just like the big, big can. They were so good, by the way. I feel like my mom used those cans to store toys in.

Heather Creekmore [00:11:08]:

Right? Oh, yeah. Well, like, well, yeah, you couldn't throw the can away. You saved the can. So and then and then whatever is in it smelled like chips forever. For

Amy Carlson [00:11:16]:

a very long time. Yes. Right? So if you ask the biology or, hey, just unpack what that means for me, for you. Like, what does that mean? Well, did we have to give a label to eating how which is just natural eating. Right? It is natural to eat fruits and vegetables. It's natural to have protein and carbohydrate. It's, yes, the the the idea of there was sort of a window of time where we ate a lot of what we would call processed foods, foods that came off of a factory conveyor belt. That's diminished substantially.

Amy Carlson [00:11:53]:

But that is again the idea of yeah. Okay. We need to eat more real foods. Let's just say that. All real foods. But she was explaining and did a great job, and and she was talking with the big buzzwords, microbiome, as you know. And she was saying, I I this is my life's work. I like, I've dedicated my whole life to this, and I'm barely beginning to understand.

Amy Carlson [00:12:21]:

Yeah. What does that tell us? Right? Yeah. That that when it gets distilled down, it's kinda like fashion. Right? Like, the the big fashion show, and then eventually, it makes it into the target line. Uh-huh. Like, was that the version that was the original? Like, what is that? By the time we're repeating things Yeah. Wow. It's a distilled version of I mean and it was such a humble approach.

Amy Carlson [00:12:45]:

I was so grateful for the language she used to say, I'm barely beginning to understand it. Yeah.

Heather Creekmore [00:12:50]:

It's

Amy Carlson [00:12:50]:

so complex. She said, do you understand all the different things that go into what affects our microbiome? Yeah. The environment, where we live, geography, history, hereditary.

Heather Creekmore [00:13:01]:

Right.

Amy Carlson [00:13:01]:

You know,

Heather Creekmore [00:13:01]:

where we epigenetics. Yeah.

Amy Carlson [00:13:03]:

Yes. Vaginal delivery, c section, like, and so

Heather Creekmore [00:13:07]:

just say did learn that. He did learn that because he's a c section baby.

Amy Carlson [00:13:11]:

Okay. There you go.

Heather Creekmore [00:13:12]:

He got That was part of the parallel she left.

Amy Carlson [00:13:14]:

That was okay. That's interesting.

Heather Creekmore [00:13:15]:

You had to be more careful. Mhmm. Mhmm.

Amy Carlson [00:13:18]:

No. So it's interesting. Right? So her point was be careful the language that you use. Right? Be careful what you're distilling down and have a have a good understanding. Not only that, I want you to think in this, oh, this is so important for us as just as having going back to the idea of agency. I wonder the last time and and I would love for people to just flood your email box with praise reports about really great doctors because I know that they're they are there. Absolutely. A 100%.

Amy Carlson [00:13:48]:

I know they're there. But when is the last time a doctor asked you the question before he gave you the advice? For example, your lipids are a little bit elevated. Can you tell me what just like a regular day looks like for you? Tell me a little bit about the history of your eating. Mhmm. Is the question come before the advice? So for example, again, that idea of teaching, elementary school kid how to make how to that a 300 calorie meal, right, is ridiculous, and there is a wrong assumption to begin with. So to say to kids, you tell me what your tell me what a typical day looks like for you. What parts of the day do you love to eat? What's your favorite meal of the day? When does your family gather around the table? Do they gather around the table? How do you find much more important to encourage kids? If you guys are eating together, I wonder if you could ask your parents. Could we eat it, you know, at the table? That could be a fun adventure to do together.

Amy Carlson [00:14:48]:

These are the things. So it's like, does a doctor ask a question before he gives advice? Is there a, right, a a understanding of what's happening? And that's true for dietitians. I mean, we can give advice based on disease state without even having an understanding of economics. What's the what are the economics at home? What's the food access? Right? What what do people have access to? What's their cultural history? We could take away foods that are are, like, common for the whatever their family but we can say, oh, that's not healthy. We're not gonna eat that. Healthy for who? Right?

Heather Creekmore [00:15:26]:

Right.

Amy Carlson [00:15:26]:

Their their family line has been eating that for generations, and they live to 95. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. What an assumption. What an assumption.

Heather Creekmore [00:15:35]:

It's like those the blue zone documentary. I don't know if you saw that. But, you know, the the place in in Central America, which I can never remember which country it is in Central America where the blue zone is, they live on corn, squash, and beans. I think we're the 3 staples. And I just couldn't get over this reality that, like, I feel shamed if I don't have something green every day. Right? And corn oh goodness. You know about corn. Right, Amy? Yeah.

Heather Creekmore [00:16:05]:

Right? Like, corn. You know? No corn. Right? Like and so it's like but they live to a 100. And and then there's my grandfather

Amy Carlson [00:16:13]:

Mhmm.

Heather Creekmore [00:16:13]:

Who died at I think he was 98. That man had wonder bread and chocolate milk every day for the, you know, 40 or so years that I was alive during his life. Now I, you know, of course, like food quality was different. I like, I know all of the things. But those youhoos that's Right. Natural causes. Right. Like, he did have some he had some health issues for sure, but he he didn't you know, it it's so it it's fascinating that we are so afraid.

Heather Creekmore [00:16:52]:

And then and then I think the other part of that is, Amy, maybe you can kinda speak to this. I'm afraid of the food, but and you alluded to this earlier. But I'm just really afraid of doing something wrong.

Amy Carlson [00:17:06]:

Yeah.

Heather Creekmore [00:17:07]:

And if I don't have a plan, isn't it all my fault? Didn't I cause this? Didn't I bring I mean, I had gestational diabetes.

Amy Carlson [00:17:16]:

Mhmm.

Heather Creekmore [00:17:17]:

And so I and I have a strong family history of diabetes.

Amy Carlson [00:17:20]:

Yeah.

Heather Creekmore [00:17:21]:

I mean, everyone. Like, my people die of diabetes, not cancer. I mean, well, they don't really die of it, but that's that's what's going on at the end of life. Yeah. Yeah. And and it, you know, and I doing the gestational diabetes thing, you know, is a scary thing. Right? Because you're taking your blood sugar all the time. Like, it it's scary thing for someone with an eating disorder, I think.

Heather Creekmore [00:17:41]:

Because it it hyper fixates you on Yes. Food and what it does to your body. And and so I think as I think about my fear going into that blood work, like that that that was the it's a big d word.

Amy Carlson [00:17:53]:

Yeah.

Heather Creekmore [00:17:53]:

It's uh-oh. You know, have I crapped into the prediabetes range? And what does that mean? And and did I cause that? Because I knew better. Right? And then pragmatically, I do understand that diabetes isn't just about, like, eating sugar or and let you know. And and really don't have the fear. It's it's so strange. I mean, this is a total aside. This is like Heather Heather's therapy time here. Come in.

Heather Creekmore [00:18:23]:

When I was disordered, right, the way my eating looked was well, try not to eat until, like, 11:30, have my super healthy smoothie, right, with collagen and spinach and all the things. Right? And then try not to eat, and then eat, like, a lot of handfuls of chocolate things or whatever I could get my hand on because I was so, like, ravenously hungry, and then eat, like, super healthy dinner, gluten free, dairy free, all the things. Right? Mhmm. But then, again, irrationally, like, hungry in the evening, and so handfuls of chocolate things. And then, you know, the the dilemma of don't buy the chocolate things anymore, and then you won't eat handfuls of chocolate things. But then eating handfuls of all the other things because there weren't chocolate things. And then, you know, like, maybe I can find some chocolate things in the kids' room, or like, I can pick them out of the trail mix or something. I don't like desperation for the chocolate thing.

Heather Creekmore [00:19:23]:

Right? And so it's strange because I feel like in my disordered life Mhmm. I think I actually consumed more sugar.

Amy Carlson [00:19:33]:

Yeah.

Heather Creekmore [00:19:34]:

And and stuff that wasn't as good for me. And yet I'm more afraid now because I'm not on a plan. Because I'm not constantly fearful of food. Because I'm not thinking about food like that anymore. Right? And I know part of that's just eating disorder, like, brain. Right? Right. But I don't know. That was just a lot of just blood.

Heather Creekmore [00:19:58]:

But

Amy Carlson [00:19:58]:

Yeah. No. It's so interesting. You know, obviously, it's the scarcity mindset, which we've talked about many times on here. And often, our, just the idea of being on a plan gives us a feeling of safety and that we're doing something. Right? And, again, we just sort of laid out a little bit of the framework of why we've been taught from a very early age that you need to know what you're doing. Like, you need to know what you're doing. And let me just say, Ellen Satter, who's, you know, got a brilliant model of, right, just division of responsibility and natural you know, kids with a wide variety of food will naturally gravitate towards a wide variety of food and a really moderate amount.

Amy Carlson [00:20:42]:

Right? So we're taking them away from that. That's what what what PE teachers need to learn. Right? That model. But what we're doing is we're we're teaching that idea, that concept. So even if I'm eating more of the thing I don't wanna eat, but I'm on that plan, I have the feeling of, for example, being on a prescription. Like, at least I've got this prescription that's helping me with this thing I'm afraid of. So but now without a quote unquote prescription, my inclination is that I'm always making the wrong choice because I don't have this thing I'm following to make the right choice.

Heather Creekmore [00:21:20]:

Now I

Amy Carlson [00:21:20]:

know that kinda felt like a maze that I just went down, but I think that you totally were tracking me. Yeah. I was. In other words, my connection is, well, I have this plan. Because I've told you, I've bajillions of clients have come into my office. That's a real number. That their their first thing is, so you're going to give me a plan. Right? And, you know, I'll gently say, well, not exactly.

Amy Carlson [00:21:45]:

No. We're gonna just kinda look at where you're you are today and we're gonna kinda see, hey, what let's talk about your, you know, his and they're just like, woah, wait. And my favorite was the one that wrote, you know, used a curse word and, said, ah, blank. You're not gonna give me the meal plan. And I was like, I could see where right. And and all the time and meal planning is different than a meal plan. Right? You and I have talked about that. Like, being able I I have to make a list.

Amy Carlson [00:22:12]:

I make a grocery list. I say, hey. What what do I already have in the freezer? What sounds good this week? I open a cookbook. I look at things. Gosh, I've been gravitating for the same, you know, recipes and that's meal planning. That's not the same as having a meal plan per se or a prescriptive meal plan, but that's just using our wisdom and using our, like, everyday resources to to make sure that when it's 5 o'clock, I know what I'm making for dinner or my husband's gonna grill or so that one of the things that we do so often is to say, well, I can't in order to if I'm gonna let go of it all, I'm gonna it's like, yeah, it's okay. But we would work with, hey. This is this is all part of sort of normal eating that you lost your trust, and we're gonna work those things back in.

Amy Carlson [00:23:00]:

So the idea of being on a prescriptive meal plan gives me a false sense of security for sure, because I will tell you, and I've told you this story before. So I used to when I first started practicing, you know, I had gestational diabetes patients. I had a full day of just gestational diabetes patients. So I had to go into Houston Medical Center, which I was where I'd practiced, but I had one day in this huge tower just funnel in, high risk pregnancy, all the things. Teaching was so triggering for my eating disorder. Teaching gestational diabetes patients. I would go home ruminating on numbers and carb counting and all of those things, and I would think I'm going crazy. I'm going crazy.

Amy Carlson [00:23:40]:

I'm going crazy. Like, just teaching the principles Mhmm. Was triggering for my eating disorder. And and I had so much compassion, not really making the connection then that what if these women also had an eating disorder? I was so young. You know, I was just ruminating on the numbers myself. And but what I found was, which is true for me, I had a doctor hand me a gestational diabetes meal plan because I was having headaches. And he said, I just want you to eat like this. Okay.

Amy Carlson [00:24:08]:

No rhyme or reason. Right? Just I wanna eat like this because I was having headaches. And I went home and binged on Oreo cookies. Mhmm. Right? I mean, that was the the here's your prescription. Yeah. Oh, darn. Yeah.

Amy Carlson [00:24:23]:

So I put it in the trash and was like, no. I'm eating normal. This has nothing to do. Like Yeah. Right? Yeah. And and let me just say, I would never make fun of mock, say, how could that be anyone who feels afraid of food? When you said people feel afraid, there's a lot of reasons why they do. And I have a lot of empathy for that. Yeah.

Amy Carlson [00:24:48]:

I don't think, well, that's silly. You shouldn't feel afraid of food. I don't feel that at all. I feel so much compassion and a place of saying, let's just meet you where you are. Write out the things that make you feel afraid. What is it that you think that you're doing wrong? Who told you that? Mhmm. I've asked a client recently to just just ask that one question when she has a thought. Who told me that? And oh my goodness.

Amy Carlson [00:25:12]:

She's been coming back with the most interesting right?

Heather Creekmore [00:25:16]:

Who told you that?

Amy Carlson [00:25:17]:

Who told you that? Mhmm.

Heather Creekmore [00:25:18]:

Yeah. That's good. Okay, Amy. As we close-up, I wanna ask you the $1,000,000 question for the day that it is because the second part of this episode is coming out on November 1st.

Amy Carlson [00:25:29]:

Okay.

Heather Creekmore [00:25:30]:

So the morning after Halloween. Yeah. And, I mean, I know, you know, we don't have to get into the celebration or non celebration of Halloween. Like, there's obviously issues there. But no matter whether you do the trick or treating thing or the fall festival or the trunk or treat, there's a good chance that candy has found its way into your home. If it's November 1st and you have children of of a certain age. Yes. What do we do with the candy?

Amy Carlson [00:25:59]:

Yeah. Well, that actually is a little bit nuanced in that if somebody right? Depending upon where somebody was in their journey, I would probably give them different advice. Yeah. Honestly. And I say that because there isn't a one size fits all for this. But I've told this story before. Many, many, many of us, when our kids were little or if your kids are little now, the idea of we kind of make a plan in our head. I'm not gonna have any, you know, and I'm gonna throw it away on day 3.

Amy Carlson [00:26:33]:

My kid's having it or whatever.

Heather Creekmore [00:26:35]:

Sell it back to the dentist. Sell it back to that 1 year. Oh.

Amy Carlson [00:26:40]:

Oh, that's making a little dilute. I we always gave ours to, like, the military. Like, they would send it to military

Heather Creekmore [00:26:47]:

Okay. Like, the regulation,

Amy Carlson [00:26:49]:

I think, at school. But one is normalizing it for our children. I mean, it's not normal to have tons and tons of bags of candy in our house. That's that's actually not normal. Like, to be like, normalize that there is £5 of candy in

Heather Creekmore [00:27:03]:

our house.

Amy Carlson [00:27:04]:

It it isn't normal to have all

Heather Creekmore [00:27:06]:

candy in our house. 4 children. That is how much you have.

Amy Carlson [00:27:09]:

How much you have. I mean, you think I'm gonna get rid of my candy because I'm giving it away, and then you forget, oh my goodness. My children came back with 5 times as much. So when people say just normalize it, it's like, well, it's not normal. Right? We don't we don't normally have that much candy. And it's one of the things that I do though is I try to tell people, look at that bag of candy and say, hey. I always say to the kiddos, hey. I am gonna have your banana lava, so just get used to that.

Amy Carlson [00:27:35]:

And, I'm probably gonna your dad's gonna have your Reese's peanut butter Pepsi. So and we had we had a nut allergy, so that was good. We could take those out. But eating candy is the family and sitting down and talking and sitting and playing a game and having some candy and just normalizing. And what's your favorite candy and why do you like that? And, normalizing that is a very helpful experience and eating it in the light of day. So if somebody is struggling with the overwhelmed feelings of the candy, you don't as part of your journey, it's not like I have to have all of this candy out for the next 5 weeks until it's gone. Mhmm. I don't I don't think that's a realistic thing for anyone, but choosing to have some of that candy in a way that is really just normalizing and just fun as a family, we we definitely in fact, I would just pull it out when my kids got home from school, you know, for several days after, and pretty soon they would just have to ask you for it.

Amy Carlson [00:28:38]:

They didn't want it anymore. It would, I would serve it with apples and peanut butter and, you know, I would make chocolate chip cookies and even serve and often it was like, oh, that was way more fun the first night. Yeah. And again, not because they they just were like, I'm done with it. I you know? Right. I don't really want it. So I one is that many, many people have a a a history that that's a little bit triggering for them around that. And it's okay to take it slow and to to ask advice if if you're working with somebody.

Amy Carlson [00:29:09]:

Hey. How can I how can I work back into this slowly? But my encouragement to you is if you were like, I'm not gonna have any Reese's peanut butter cup, I would take that Reese's, and I would sit at the table and put it on a plate and sit in front of everyone and just eat that Reese. And just Yeah.

Heather Creekmore [00:29:24]:

What does

Amy Carlson [00:29:25]:

it taste like? Most of the time when we taste candy slowly, we recognize not as big a fan as I thought it was.

Heather Creekmore [00:29:30]:

Yeah. That's so good. That's so good. And they're eating it in the light of day. I mean, because I because I think that is it's the game. Right? I'm not gonna eat it. I'm not gonna eat it. I'm not gonna eat it.

Heather Creekmore [00:29:38]:

Okay. Everyone's gone. It's dark. I'm gonna eat it. I'm gonna eat all of them. Yes. Right. Eat it

Amy Carlson [00:29:44]:

eat it with the family. Play a game of cards, and have the candy on the I would just eat it on the light of day. Yeah. For sure.

Heather Creekmore [00:29:51]:

That's good. Thanks, Amy. Thanks so much for being here and all your wisdom.

Amy Carlson [00:29:56]:

I'm so happy to be here, and I'm so grateful for the conversations you have.

Heather Creekmore [00:30:01]:

And you still have the Piece of Food app. Right?

Amy Carlson [00:30:04]:

That's available

Heather Creekmore [00:30:04]:

for download. So we'll put a link to that in the show notes if anyone wants to, check that out. But thanks again, Amy.

Amy Carlson [00:30:12]:

Appreciate it. Welcome.

Heather Creekmore [00:30:14]:

And thank thank you for watching or listening today. I hope something today has helped you stop comparing and start living. Bye bye. Are you looking for real body image freedom? Hey. Grab a copy of my book, The 40 Day Body Image Workbook, and plan right now to join us for the 40 day journey. Friend, it's only $49 for 6 weeks of group coaching. You can't do better than that. This is the way to start your freedom journey.

Heather Creekmore [00:30:35]:

I've got a 100 spots available only. So sign up today, improve body image.com. Compare to show us proudly part of the Life Audio podcast network. For more great Christian podcasts, go to life audio.com.