I'll get right to it and be honest. Part of this week's podcast topic--GLP-1 medication--is not something I've really wanted to talk about. These are the medications that we're all hearing about nonstop--the ones that Oprah talked about in her recent special. I haven't wanted to give them much air time, because we hear about them so much everywhere else, and also because I don't really think my opinion on them matters. Although it's true that I have significant concerns about these medications and wish that we could move past weight loss as a goal, I also truly believe in bodily autonomy. If these medications seem right to you, what does it matter what I think of them?

So, I do mention them on this week's podcast, but it's only briefly and it's only to say two things:

1. If you're looking into taking them, please do your own independent research. Hopefully, you have a trustworthy physician who's looking out for your best interests. But if you don't, you might have someone who's not giving you all of the information. So please please please research the heck of them.
2. If you do take them/are taking them, please listen to what your body is telling you. If you're having any type of negative side effects, please take that seriously. All medications can have serious consequences, so you definitely want to listen to your body.

Moving on...

What I really wanted to focus on this week is food noise. This is a term you've probably heard about because they tend to talk a lot about it when they talk about GLP-1s. And since it seems like people are always talking about GLP-1s, they're also talking a lot about food noise.

Food noise isn't an official term or diagnosis--I don't know who coined it, but someone did and now that's how we refer to the constant internal chatter about food. This might be your experience: constantly thinking about food. That's food noise. It seems as though medication and even bariatric surgery have been found to quiet or at least decrease food noise in some people. But why is that?

No one really knows (one of my many sarcastic parts just rolled her eyes and said "Of course not..."). Sure, it may be due to some physiological change that the medication or surgery causes, such as a change in hormones related to hunger. But I don't think for one second that it's entirely physical. I think it makes total sense that it's at least a little bit psychological. And of course, that relates to parts.

In this episode, we're talking about the psychological factors that might be at play here in the quieting of food noise. I give you four reasons why I think food noise quiets with medications/surgery (spoiler alert: it's not because of the medication or surgery itself), which leads into a discussion on why you don't need medication or surgery to get food noise to soften.

If you're someone who experiences loud levels of food noise, my heart goes out to you. I know that can be at the very least irritating and at times even debilitating. I can absolutely understand wanting to do whatever it takes to make it stop. Hopefully, this week's podcast can shed some light on how to do that without medication/surgery, or in tandem with them.

I have a question for you. What do you know about your early years? Like from birth to age two? And what do you know about your mom's pregnancy with you?

If you're like me, not a whole lot.

Turns out, though, this is really good information to have. According to this week's podcast guest, Colleen West, these early years and your experiences within have an incredible influence on the development of your relationship with food.

Especially when it comes to the nurturance and attunement given to you by your caretakers. I'll let Colleen explain it herself:

"For babies that don’t get tended to reliably, they end up with more need to autoregulate, to soothe from the outside. And that often gets linked with food. And it begins a whole lot of other behaviors and deep burdens that last long into your life, unless those young parts get cared for."

Did that just resonate with a lot of your parts? I know it did with mine.

Preverbal parts are Colleen's specialty, and I'm thrilled to have her back on the show to take a much deeper dive than we did in our first conversation (catch that episode here). Colleen is all about creating connection: between you and your parts, between you and your loved ones, between you, your community, and the wider world. She is unabashedly optimistic about the human capacity to heal, to tap into the wellspring of compassion that is Self. Her professional focus is healing preverbal attachment trauma.

As a Marriage and Family Therapist and IFS Consultant, she devotes herself to training and mentoring psychotherapists, and writing. Thanks to Zoom, she is training therapists all over the world. She is author of We All Have Parts: An Illustrated Guide to Healing Trauma with Internal Family Systems (2021) and The IFS Flip Chart (2023). She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and the fabulous dog Sky. In her leisure, she likes spending time in nature and preparing feasts for family and friends. More at www.colleenwest.com and www.smarttherapytools.com.

On this week's podcast, Colleen and I talk about how those early years are so important, and how a lack of nurturance and attunement by parents (with even the best of intentions) can lead to the use of food--or the restriction of food--as a soothing mechanism. In the episode, we discuss:

• Why hunger can lead to feelings of panic
• How a lack of nurturance in infancy leads to feelings of loneliness, isolation, and fear, and how all of that can impact our relationship with food
• How our early experiences can lead us to disconnect from our bodies and their experiences of hunger
• The behavioral cues that indicate a lack of nurturance in infancy
• How IFS can help to heal the exiles that weren't cared for

Colleen also leaves us with three important points:

1. If you're currently a parent of young children, do your best to be present with them;
2. If you're in therapy, slow down and notice your parts and your bodily sensations, and focus on your preverbal years; and
3. Your own Self-Energy can heal your parts.

This was truly a wonderful, aha-inducing episode that I know will resonate with your parts. Take a listen!

You can find Colleen at:

www.colleenwest.com

www.smarttherapytools.com

Where to find me:

drkimdaniels.com

Instagram

TikTok

And if you'd like to take a deep dive into your own relationship with food, considering joining one of my Food and Body Freedom groups for therapists/practitioners and for non-therapists.