This is the Real Food Good Mood Podcast, where I'm helping you regain control of your mood through real food nutrition. Hi, I'm Amy, a therapist who has personally experienced the difference real food can make, and now I'm on a mission to help you do the same. You can get started today with my free 30 quick good mood breakfasts by clicking the link in the show notes.
Hello, and welcome to the brand spanking new Real Food Good Mood Podcast. This is episode one, and I'm so excited to be here talking to you about all things food and mood. I'm Amy, your food loving host, and my number one main goal here is to help you eat more real food from the perspective of joy and nourishment rather than restriction.
I know there are a lot of doubts and fears that can come up with the idea of shopping for and cooking and eating meals made from scratch, but we're going to squash those fears because it truly is doable and totally worth it because it's how you can take back control of your health. It's how you can intentionally be spending your time and money, and it's even how you can better connect with your family and your larger community in meaningful ways. I've been in the mental health field for 25 years, and for so long, so much of the focus has been on behavior and thoughts and emotions and coping skills, and while those things are important for living a full and balanced life, it's missing the fundamental foundation of cultivating a healthy nervous system by giving your body the nutrients it needs to function well.
Personally, I've always been kind of an anxious person, but in my 30s and 40s, I started to totally go off the rails with anxiety and panic attacks, and a lot of times feeling like I was just going crazy, to be real. I had a lot of health anxiety and fear of passing out or something bad happening, and it was really weird, like even to this day, I don't actually know what was going on underneath all of that. I hadn't had any major traumatic experiences or anything to set any of that off, so I was convinced that there really was just something truly physically or mentally wrong with me that was causing me to feel the way I did.
It could have been something environmental, who knows? Of course, the doctors found nothing, so it was me and Google trying to figure it all out, and well, this is kind of a side note, but I always get a little irritated when I hear practitioners say not to Google symptoms or roll their eyes when patients say they've been doing their own research. I mean, why shouldn't we be doing our own research? Doctors have like 15 minutes with you, which makes it impossible for them to get the full picture for both the problem and the solution. So we should be doing our own research if we want to take ownership of our health and our life, but the thing with Google or AI or even books is they can't tell you what specifically is going on with you, so you kind of have to piece things together and experiment to see what works.
You also have to be able to reel yourself in and take a proactive approach rather than just typing in symptoms and doom-scrolling worst-case scenarios and being convinced you're dying because I've been there and yeah, it's not fun. So anyway, throughout all the time I was dealing with that, I'd gotten my master's degree in social work and started working as a therapist, and let me tell you the imposter syndrome was strong because I couldn't even figure out my own anxiety. I will say my mindset work and my faith in God as a follower of Christ were a huge help in keeping me moving forward and living life even while dealing with crazy symptoms like my heart racing out of nowhere, breathing problems, feeling foggy-headed, irritability and mood swings, and like I said, fear of something being majorly wrong with me.
I was able to work through the fear and acceptance, so my symptoms didn't hold me back, but I still didn't want those symptoms around, you know, I wanted them gone, you know. So in all of my research, I started to learn more about the connection between what we eat and our mood and mental health. So I started experimenting.
Now I had always eaten pretty healthy and I've always been really interested in natural whole foods. I even had a home bakery for a while where my schtick was using as natural ingredients as close to their original form as possible. We're talking muscovado sugar and einkorn flour.
If you don't know what those are, I know I'll be talking about them more at some point, so make sure you hit subscribe and stick around. But even with my mostly healthy eating, I knew there was something in there I was missing. First, and it turns out most importantly, I begrudgingly gave up caffeine.
Now don't turn this off. Stick with me. I had gone back and forth with this because I'm pretty stubborn and I did not want to give up my coffee.
I wanted to be normal and being able to drink coffee seemed like something most normal people can do. But anxiety aside, the caffeine was giving me migraines to the point of nausea and puking when I didn't have exactly the right amount at the right time. So much for being normal.
So the caffeine had to go. And guess what? After a week or two, not only were the migraines and nausea gone, I realized I was no longer white knuckling it during sessions with clients when my heart would start racing out of nowhere and I felt like I forgot how to breathe correctly. The sad truth is that I haven't had a panic attack since I gave up the caffeine and I've been able to focus better without all the brain fog I was having before.
And even my breathing has been better, which all seems weird because the caffeine would initially give me energy that would help me focus and feel good at first. But as I came down off of it, everything seemed to go haywire in my brain and body. But I do want you to know that I'm not vilifying caffeine.
It just happened to be the first piece of the puzzle for my own personal food mood connection. As I became more and more interested in this connection, I completed a program and got certified in nutrition and integrative medicine for mental health. And because of what I was learning in the program and my own research, I was able to support my mind and body even better through noticing how I felt after eating certain things and experimenting with cooking whole foods.
There is a lot of scientific research and evidence around this with more coming out all the time with nutritional psychology becoming a fast-growing niche field in the mental health space. But it's most important to remember that every single one of us is unique with unique symptoms and experiences and food sensitivities. So there is no one cure-all diet or fix that we can hand out and say, do this and you'll all be better.
But with the research and knowledge of how our brains and bodies work does give us a starting point to begin experimenting with our own food habits to take back control of our mental, emotional, and physical healing. As much as I wanted to be normal by drinking coffee, I've realized we've gotten so far away from nourishing our bodies with real food in our society that normal really isn't the goal. Because normal is doing us no favors.
Feeling healthy and good and alive is the goal and that comes from eating real food the way God created it and intended for our bodies to be fed and nourished. As a side note, I am actually still drinking coffee, but it's decaf. Fortunately, decaf options have gotten way better lately so I don't miss the caffeine.
I always drink coffee more for the ritual and taste of it anyway, so this works for me. I've found that when I'm feeding my body well from the start of the day, I don't have those energy crashes that I used to get where I'd be grabbing for anything with sugar and caffeine to get me through the afternoon. If you're thinking, well, that's great, Amy, but I love my soda and sweets and don't have time to cook from scratch all the time.
Well, I get it. I used to eat cereal every day. It was my go-to comfort food and meal when I didn't want to cook.
I couldn't imagine ever not eating cereal. I was never one to cook eggs or make a real breakfast because I was just trying to get ready and get out the door for work or school or whatever I was doing. I liked carby breakfasts like pancakes, cinnamon rolls, pastries, cereal, all that good stuff, and eggs were okay but definitely not my first choice.
But what helped me make the change without feeling like I was giving up all this good stuff was focusing on what I was going to eat instead of what I quote unquote couldn't have. I'd started making sourdough bread years ago and I loved a good slice with butter and a little flaky salt sprinkled on top, so eggs gave me an opportunity to eat a slice of good homemade bread. And one thing I did love was dipping my buttery sourdough toast into the yolk.
So instead of thinking about not having cereal, I thought about that good salty buttery bread with the yolk dripping from it. Now I won't say I never eat cereal anymore but it's a rare occasion and I really don't even miss it. But if you would have told me to stop eating cereal and stop drinking coffee 10 years ago, I would have said that's not happening and went on with my life.
So I know I can sit here and tell you to stop buying all the processed foods and buy only whole foods and it's just not going to work. Because your path into eating real food is going to be different than mine and your reasons for it will be different and the things that help you continue experimenting and making changes, they will be different too. I will say that if you clicked on this episode to listen and have continued listening to this point, then there is something going on that has you interested in making changes to how you eat.
And there's probably a desire to feel better in some way and regain control of your anxiety and emotions throughout the day. So what I'm thinking for this podcast is to keep it really practical with sharing foods, habits, mindset, and ingredients that you can start incorporating into your life. There's a lot of research and scientific findings behind all this but I know you can find that information anywhere with a Google search or through books and knowledge doesn't create change.
Making changes creates change. So I can fill your head with knowledge or I can equip you to do things differently that might help you feel better. I will say that the knowledge can sometimes give you the reason why you want to eat a certain food or give up a certain food or make other changes.
So I will incorporate some of the research findings into these episodes because that gives us a place to start with what foods to try, when to eat what, and even how to eat and prepare foods. You can then take that information to experiment with how you feel when you try certain things. So that's my idea for this podcast but this is nothing without listeners so let me know what you want to hear.
What are you most struggling with around your food and emotions? What do you want to learn about with how to eat to support your mind and mood? What skills do you want to learn? What habits do you want to let go of? And what do you want to start doing that you struggle to stick with? I have a short survey that you can fill out if you'd like to help guide the direction of this podcast. So if you want you can click the link in the show notes and let me know your thoughts. If you are tired of the mood swings and anxiety ruling your day and want to make realistic changes that feel like you're moving towards something instead of being restrictive and taking away your favorite things, then stick around.
I'm here to help you fall in love with real food and take back control of your mood. So hit subscribe and tune in next time where I will be talking about faith, food, and simplicity and how that applies to your mental health. In the meantime grab your free 30 quick protein rich good mood breakfast ideas through the link in the show notes and see what starting your day with a good breakfast does for you.
I'll talk to you soon.