When to Expect the Lower Brain to Show Up [Ep. 112]

0:00 This is the Eat Well, Think Well, Live Well podcast. I'm Lisa Saulsbury, and this is episode 112 when to expect the lower brain to show up. Welcome to Eat Well, Think Well, Live Well; the podcast for women who want to lose weight, but are tired of counting and calculating all the food. I'm your host, Lisa Salsbury. I'm a certified health and weight loss coach and life coach, and most importantly a recovered chronic dieter. I'll teach you to figure out why you are eating when you aren't hungry, instead of worrying so much about what you are eating Hey friends. Hope your school year is in full swing and that you're getting into a good routine.

0:42 I think I will forever feel a sense of renewal at this time of year, even when I don't have kids in school. Which is actually coming very soon for me. Our youngest is a junior this year, so not too much longer. And I won't have any at home in school, just the college aids kiddos. Anyway, I have renewed a few health goals of mine that I've noticed have been slipping lately. One that I mentioned before comes from Dr. Mary Claire Haber. She's a menopause expert, and I think she's a great follow on Instagram. She promotes her Galveston diet, which I don't follow. Not because I have an aversion to diets with names because they all seem like fads to me. Okay. That's actually kind of the reason, but. Just because I don't think we need to name our diets.

1:23 You know, much much, like I talked about two weeks ago on the episode about finding your, for whatever way of eating. I like to pull ideas, I think are valuable and health promoting from different diet plans and incorporate them into my own way of eating. So those two things that I like from her plan are getting 25 grams of fiber every day. And limiting added sugars to 25 grams per day. So easy to remember, both are 25 grams. Although with fiber, it would be great to be over. And was sugar. That would be the top limit. So as I've been thinking about this again, I just like you have cravings to deal with and thoughts that seem to want to self sabotage me. Uh, client last week had made a list that she shared with me and it was called when I can expect the lower brain to show up.

2:10 I thought it was a brilliant way to say it. And that's exactly what I'm going to talk about here, your cravings, those self-sabotaging thoughts. And just generally thinking that you're never going to get all this come from the lower brain. When I was pregnant with my last baby. I was trying desperately to potty train my toddler. So this is like a random story that I will relate. Don't worry. But I lived in Reno, Nevada at the time, and we just went to a private practice pediatrician. And when I would call with questions, he would call me back at the end of the day or lunch break or whatever. It was like way before the doctors were emailing and stuff like that. So. I got so fed up with. Trying to potty train this child.

2:51 And I was feeling so panicky that I wouldn't succeed before the new baby came that I called for advice. So one of the primary problems was that she would have accidents as soon as I would lay her down for an app. Like she would be totally fine all day and then I'd lay her down for an app and the app would be ruined because she was wet. And I will never forget what he said. He said when you expect the bad thing to happen. And you're prepared for it. It's not nearly as bad. So go get yourself a dozen Crip sheets and put them right by the Crip. And when she's wet, you just go in there quietly whip off the wet sheet. Put a new one down. And lay her back down. There were several more parts to this conversation and advice and other other strategies and things to do, but just the idea of expecting her to have accidents and have problems with potty training and just being prepared for it.

3:45 Made it so much easier to deal with. And I think this is so true, just generally speaking in life, when we expect the lower brain to show up and cause problems. It's so much easier to deal with because you can just start with, oh right. Of course, this is happening right now. I was expecting you lower brain. And here you are when we're shocked by it, when we're like, what, where is this coming from? When we're surprised by the cravings or the sabotaging thoughts. We are less likely to have great strategies to overcome those. So let's talk about a few places. We can expect the lower brain to show up.

4:26 Actually wait before we do that, let me just define what I mean by the lower brain. In case you are new around here for simplicity. For simplicity sake, I divide the brain into two portions, the higher part and the lower part. Your higher brain is the human part that makes all the good decisions based on your future self. This is the part that can plan ahead. And has your best interest in mind? This is the part we want to make our food decisions from. Your lower brain. Is your animal brain or your toddler brain. This is the part that functions on habit. We delegate a lot of tasks to the lower brain for efficiency, and that is great. We don't want to not do that. It's actually good.

5:07 We don't. Actually want to have to think through with our higher brains, all the intricacies of say, getting ready in the morning, you want to brush your teeth and Blow dry your hair on autopilot. So that you can actually be thinking about other things. But this is sort of a bad part of the brain to be in charge of eating because not only does this part function on habit a lot, but also it wants to be satisfied immediately. Remember how I said, I also call this part of the brain, the toddler brain. Yeah, it wants what it wants right now. This is where the cravings are really loud. And they want to be calmed by that dopamine that indulging in the food will provide. When the lower brain is in charge of eating.

5:48 We eat whatever looks good at the moment. Instead of thinking about how our future self will feel, whether that's five years in the future or just five hours. And sometimes even just five minutes. Okay. So when does this lower brain show up? Here are seven places I noticed the lower brain is going to show up. Some of these are directly from my awesome client and some are mine. Number one when I'm feeding the kids. This is a big one for us moms, because a lot of times you are fixing breakfast and lunches for them that are different than what you are fixing for yourself. I also remember when I had littles that I wouldn't always be hungry at the same time they wanted to eat.

6:29 So you've got food out and it's often highly snackable and highly palatable because you're feeding kids after all and you want them to eat it. And so your lower brain will just suggest you to grab one chicken nugget or to snack along with whatever they are having. Regardless of your hunger level. Number two. Cleaning up a meal. This is a big one. If you have an aversion to wasting food. Your lower brain is going to remind you not to be wasteful. Just crap. Those last few bites of Mac and cheese or that half a roll, the one kid left. Or maybe while you're putting away leftovers from the pan, your lower brain reminds you, this was so good. Have a few more bites right out of the pan. It won't even count.

7:09 number three is transitions. This is a big one for me. I've talked about transitions a little bit on the podcast before, but it's been like a year. It was my episode with Jody Moore. But transitions are just subtle changes of scenery or roles. So this would be like, if you're transitioning from being at work to coming home. Or having kids home and then having them leave. So you're transitioning from being like mom. Two women at home or working woman to mom or work to spouse. Like any time we have that kind of transition. Anytime there's a change like that. It's a transition for the brain and can be a little bit uncomfortable.

7:52 And a little snack will ease that little discomfort. Have you ever noticed that the first place you go to when you come home is the kitchen. Even if you're not hungry and, or it's not mealtime. So watch for this. I also notice that when I go to get in the car, my lower brain thinks I need a little snack to take along. And I think it's because of the transitioning happening there. Okay. Number four is social events. This depends on how introvert or extrovert you are. Social events can really trigger that lower brain to kick in. You may feel inclined to have something in your hand all the time, or maybe you feel pressured to eat because everyone else is, maybe you think you need to try everything on the table.

8:35 And, you know, have a bite of everything because of. Who ordered it or who made it, you know, there's all kinds of different things. Social, the social events can encompass a lot of different situations. So just watch for that at your social events. This can be, this can totally be the lower brain encouraging you, not to feel uncomfortable by your surroundings, but also with whoever is involved. So it might be social events with certain people and not with others. So this one's a little bit vague because it will depend, like I said, on a lot on how introvert or extrovert you are. Okay. Number five is when something unexpected happens like a teenager or a spouse brings home candy or decides to make popcorn or brownies.

9:23 This is an interesting one because I've definitely had this experience where one of my kids will want to make cookies and I am not hungry, or I just know that I don't need that today. And I still eat one because I don't want them to feel bad. Mom, do you like it? Did I do a good job? Right? So of course I want to eat that. My lower brain convinces me that I should. Another unexpected one is if somebody drops off a tree, if you have any neighbors or just friends that are like, oh, I made cookies and drop them off. I'm sure you've had that. Or, um, somebody brings food into work that you weren't expecting. Those kinds of things can feel really awkward because you're like, oh, well, I wasn't expecting to eat that.

10:06 And now I've already eaten my lunch and now you're presenting me with a whole nother lunch. It can really be triggering for that lower brain to be like, just eat it. So watch for that. Number six is when you have strong negative emotions. So this can happen anytime during the day, really. But it's probably honestly the biggest one because my lower brain is really loud here when I'm uncomfortable because of sadness or frustration, anxiety, discontent. As Shonda Rhimes says, food works. You just spackle a little chocolate cake on that. And it smooths in all the cracks and it does. I work to make you feel better.

10:46 So of course the lower brain is going to suggest a snack. When you have these strong feelings, it diverts away the attention from that strong emotion. And it does create a little bit of dopamine and helps you. Feel better. Uh, one of the issues with this one in particular is if you have a really tough six months, Or you have a situation where, you know, you have a really stressful project at work when you have these like a long-term stressors, long-term negative emotions, not just a singular bad day or a singular bad event, but longterm stress. This is where this one can really be a challenge, because then we're constantly solving For that stress day in and day out with food and the lower brain is constantly going to be suggesting that.

11:32 Okay. Number seven, lastly is when you're hungry. Okay. So all of the previous examples are more about emotional hunger, your lower brain showing up to encourage eating, to solve for a, another problem. But one of the main times we see the lower brain enter. The picture is actually when you are hungry and especially if you're very hungry without a plan. When you are hungry, it's kind of the worst time to decide what in the world you want to eat. If you allow the lower brain to be in charge here, you may not be making the best decisions regarding your future self. Like I said at the beginning, I have kind of been slipping on some of my health goals and just reasoning out that I'm mostly eating healthy and I'm fine.

12:18 Everything's fine. But when I was journaling about this recently and really deciding what I wanted to work on, I realized that neglecting my fiber intake was not being true to my ultimate future self goals. You've probably heard one of my why statements, if you've been around here for a minute, and that is, I want to be an influence for good on my grandchildren. This statement encompasses not just living long enough. But having my health span, both physically and mentally match my lifespan. So that I'm able to communicate with whatever technology the grandchildren want to, as well as being able to physically travel to wherever they live. So it seems dumb.

12:58 Like what does fiber today have to do? With this long-term goal. But really focusing on fiber as well as protein content for brain health and then muscle health. Are really a few of the keys that are going to make this goal a reality. So when my lower brain steps in, when I'm deciding what to eat, when I'm hungry, And I don't have that future self in mind. I may not be making the best choices. For what I actually truly want in my life. Where do you notice your lower brain showing up? You have a different schedule and a different family life than I do. So I know you'll have different times. Maybe after dinner is a particularly tough time or maybe mid-afternoon is when that lower brain shows up.

13:41 So it might be a time of day that you're going to watch for just keep an eye out and expect it. Remember to expect it and then have a strategy just like having a dozen crib sheets at the ready. The main strategy honestly, is just this, the expecting it. When you expect the lower brain to suggest a food that's not in your best interest, it's much easier to say no. And then other strategies are going to be situationally dependent. So for my client that created this list, we created strategies for each different situation. For example, for cleaning up a meal, she decided that she would have each kid dump any extra food on their plate themselves instead of her clearing all the plates and then wanting to nibble on those last few bites of pasta.

14:29 Just changing up the way the cleanup is done can be enough. Maybe you assign putting away leftovers to someone else in the family. If you know that you're likely to eat another half serving when you're putting the food away. If transitions are tough, perhaps switching to flavored water at those times will ease the desire for a sugary snack, but you weren't fully ready to have nothing at that time. Just get curious about how you can change things up and be prepared for that lower brain to show up. As always A great strategy is to have a plan in place. This is especially important for the last one on the list, which of course is the, when you're hungry one. The best way to keep your higher brain in charge of your eating is to either use the 24 hour practical plan that I've taught you in several episodes.

15:15 I'll drop some links in the show notes. If you need a refresher. Or you can utilize go-to meals. This is a way to preplan, several meals, or even meal structures, and then just choose from one of them when it's meal time. When you create your go-to meals with your future self and your goals in mind. Then they will always be on plan. For the other times, the lower brain shows up and you are emotionally hungry. You'll need different strategies. If you need help creating some strategies or you're just feeling stuck in your weight loss, and can't figure out why your emotional hunger and your lower brain is so dominant. It's time to have a chat with me, schedule your free coaching call and I'll help you figure it out.

15:59 Link is in the show notes. As always Have a great week. And thanks for listening and sharing. The eat well think, well live well podcast.