#002: Create Your Own Unique Vision of Food Freedom

So everything you hear in this podcast is based around the combined principles I’ve learned as an Internal Family Systems Practitioner and a certified Life Coach. It’s an approach that freed me from a nearly-30-year obsession with food, my body and binge eating, and is continuing to do the same for the people I work with.

Welcome to the YoYo Freedom Podcast.

This is the place to learn actionable, step-by-step tools and strategies to help you stop bingeing or overeating and start feeling relaxed and confident around food, 

so that you can show up for your life on your terms.

I’m Gemma Keys and I know first hand what it’s like to feel out-of-control around food and trapped in the pain of binge eating and body-shame.

There is a way out. 

Keep listening to discover your path to food freedom.

Welcome to the very first episode of the YoYo Freedom Podcast!

I’m delighted you’re here.

As you keep listening, you’ll discover short episodes that each offer a fresh insight into what might be going on with you and food, and that may well reframe the role eating plays in your life so that it makes more sense to you. 

There’s such power in understanding why you’re eating in a way that you so very much want to change, but that’s not all you need.

You’ll also come away from each episode with a practical tool that you can start using right away. Because it’s by finding ways to apply what you’ve learned—so that you can begin to incorporate change into your everyday life—that real and lasting shifts to your eating happen.

Another really important note as we get started is that this podcast offers an approach that combines the evidence-based Internal Family Systems model with more cognitive based life-coaching strategies. Some of the ideas will land with you and feel right. Some won’t and, if they don’t, I encourage you to simply drop them. 

In fact, it’s the process of tuning into your inner compass and finding both what’s right for you AND what’s not right for you that will be key to stopping bingeing and overeating.

I think Rick Rubin sums it up beautifully when he says:

Some ideas may resonate,

Others may not

A few may awaken an inner knowing

You forgot you had.

Use what’s helpful.

Let go of the rest.

So again, welcome. And my wish for you is that the YoYo Freedom Podcast will help you find your way to freedom around food in the very unique way that’s right for you.

In this episode, we’ll consider what’s brought you here and I’ll guide you to create a compelling, authentic and unique vision for your life, lived from a place of freedom around food.

But let’s start with why you might be here and how the YoYo Freedom approach can help you.

If you’re listening to this podcast, you’re probably struggling with food in some way.

Maybe you’re eating certain types of foods in quantities that don’t feel good in your body. 

They might even take you out completely, for example

• by sending you to sleep, 
• or by causing really uncomfortably physical symptoms like bloating, reflux, stomach pain or headaches,
• or by leading to rock-bottom energy, brain fog, or a collection of emotions that make just getting through your day feel like dragging your feet through treacle.

Maybe thoughts about exactly what or when you’re going to eat, or how your body looks are taking up way too much of your head space

Maybe you’re already planning the next diet or fitness regime that you’ll for sure follow perfectly this time and this one is going to be—all capitals here—The Answer.

Maybe (and I really identify with this one) you’re absolutely stuck and miserable because, no matter what you try, the overeating or bingeing always come back.

My guess is that you probably know a heck of a lot already too Your brain is likely packed with knowledge about eating that you’ve gathered from research, books, courses, and experts. Knowledge about nutrition and psychology and physiology. 

But there’s still a part of the puzzle missing—the part that translates to eating in a way that feels nourishing and energizing and supportive for your body and mind, and that’s sustainable in the long term.

Well, that part of the puzzle was missing for me too—even after a nutrition degree and a psychology degree, even after trying everything I could think of to fix my eating and my weight.

When I eventually found that missing puzzle piece, it enabled me to move from accumulating yet more knowledge into actually applying what I’d learned to change the way I ate and to stop my cycle of bingeing and dieting, weight gain and weight loss, and the emotional rollercoaster that came with it. 

And, once I’d found it, I had to share it!

So everything you hear in this podcast is based around the combined principles I’ve learned as an Internal Family Systems Practitioner and a certified Life Coach. It’s an approach that freed me from a nearly-30-year obsession with food, my body and binge eating, and is continuing to do the same for so many people I work with.

As you listen to this and future episodes, you’ll discover a framework to: 

• Get to the bottom of why you feel stuck in a pattern of overeating, bingeing or yoyo-dieting  that you desperately want to move away from
• To understand what’s holding you back from achieving your goals
• And to Guide you through simple and actionable steps to
  • create change in your eating
  • find the exact new habits, behaviours and tools that are supportive for you,
  • And show you how to move toward a sense of freedom around food that perhaps you’ve never experienced before.

So, in today’s episode, let’s start by getting really clear on what you want.

What you want your life to look like. How you want to feel as you live it.

That dream that you’ve always carried with you—even if it’s been a secret from every other living person.

The experiences you know-deep-down are waiting for you when you’ve freed up the space that’s currently taken up with the food.

Your dream can be fluid—it doesn’t have to be carved in stone

It can be experimental and adaptable—after all, we can never be sure of what’s around the next corner

And it’ll describe a way of being that reflects your true essence and your genuine yearnings.

Now, I love a notebook for this type of thing, but feel free to note down your answer to these questions however feels right for you. In a voice memo, on a document on your laptop, a note on your phone—whatever works.

And, at the end, I’ll also give you access to a worksheet with all the questions laid out  so you can jot down your answers on that too.

But I do encourage you to keep a record of this somewhere, so that you can come back to it and remind yourself of all the reasons you want to keep going, keep moving forward and experimenting until you feel free from the grip that food currently has on you.

So, the dream … Your Dream!

If you have a moment and you’re in a safe space, you might like to start with a couple of slow breaths and gently shift your focus inside. Let your mind take you to your very best life.

Complete the following 10 sentences, listening closely for any words or phrases that bubble up from within:

Now I have freedom around food, …

1. My level of physical energy feels like:  

• You might include a sense of strength, vitality or lightness of being.

Now I have freedom around food, …

2. My brain and mind work for me by: 

• You might include an ability to think clearly, focus, maintain concentration or think clearly.

Now I have freedom around food, …

3. My emotional experience is: 

• You might include the emotions you’d welcome and others that offer the full spectrum of life experience. Notice the emotions you would let go

Now I have freedom around food, …

4. I experience my body—my earth-suit—as: 

• You might include physical sensations, rest and fatigue, how you feel in clothes, what’s it like to walk down a street, or the messages your body is communicating to you.

Now I have freedom around food, …

5. My friendships are:

Now I have freedom around food, …

6. My close personal relationship or relationships are:

Now I have freedom around food, …

7. My work or career is:

Now I have freedom around food, …

8. In my free time, I:

Now I have freedom around food, …

9. The opportunities I have are:

Now I have freedom around food, …

10. The other things I’ve welcomed into my life include:

Give yourself a little time to let these sentences percolate in your mind as you formulate a detailed picture or description.

See if you can really step into it and feel what it’ll be like.

• when you feel a genuine sense of freedom around food, 
• when you eat in a way that’s nourishing and sustaining—whatever that means to you
• when your mind is free to focus on something new or different

Make it real and vivid in your imagination.

It’s your deep sense of inner-knowing speaking to you.

As I mentioned, I’ve created worksheet with all these questions on it and space to fill in your answers. You can download a copy if you go to the show notes for this episode at https://yoyofreedom.com/2

And, If you’d like to share your dream with me, I’d love to hear it! Send me a message at https://yoyofreedom.com/contact

That’s it for today’s episode. Thank you for listening.

I hope you’ve found this episode helpful. Subscribe to The YoYo Freedom Podcast for more insight, tools and support as you pull back from bingeing, overeating or yoyo-dieting and step into your most authentic, vibrant life.

And, if you liked what you heard, it would be wonderful if you’d take a moment to rate this podcast on whichever platform you listen on.

Thank you so much! And Bye-bye for now