Food Noise. Tell your brain to shut up.

I have tinnitus.

I did not wear hearing protection when I was an automotive technician and now all I hear is this:

(If you have headphones on, turn it down before you hit play)

I hear this 24/7, 365.

It interrupts my work flow, my conversations, and it makes it difficult to concentrate. It gets worse when I am stressed or tired.

It’s the worst at night. I can’t sleep without noise in the background. The TV, a white noise generator, or just music.

Silence is quite literally deafening for me. Being alone with my thoughts or in a quiet room is an almost impossible task at times.

Sometimes, it gets quieter. I don’t even notice it’s there, especially if I am “in the zone” with work or a hobby.

But.

It's there.

Creeping in the background waiting to rear its ugly head. I can't just tell my brain to shut up or shut off the ringing.

I'm sure you can imagine just how difficult that is to live with.

Food noise is the exact same for me, and many others that I have talked to who experience 'food noise'. It's a constant and underlying nag in the back of my brain at all times that I "need" food. I might not even be hungry, I might have just eaten a full meal, but it's in the background telling me that I could still eat more.

It's an interesting experience that many of you might have experienced, and many of you might not have the faintest idea what I am talking about. And that's OK. It's OK not to understand what someone else might be going through, but it's not OK to diminish that experience because you have never lived it.

And much like tinnitus, the constant never-ending ringing in my ears, people with food noise cannot just tell their brains to shut up.

Is there a way to beat it?

I don't know that I have the answer to that.

But I do know that the more I set myself up for success by managing my food environment, the more I lean into other healthy habits such as exercise, working on a hobby, or just plain old staying out of the kitchen, the less my food noise rears it's ugly head.

When my food noise is the worst, I often have to lean into tracking my food and being diligent about my meal selections so that I don't go into 'robot mode' and eat just because there is food around. Tracking helps ground my decision making process around food, it allows me to check in with myself to see if I am actually hungry or if I am just dealing with food noise. I also utilize my support network when I am struggling. I talk to my coach, my wife, and I have a few good friends who support me in my health journey that I can turn to.

Food noise, much like my life-long battle with obesity, is something I will always have to 'deal with'. It's something that I will always have to put an effort into managing if I want to avoid being 320+ pounds again.

If you are somebody who struggles with food noise and the constant thoughts around food, the constant nag to eat when you're not hungry, the never-ending-background noise surrounding food, just know you're not alone.

If I could give you any advice around food noise, it's this:

Don't beat yourself up for struggling with something that others have never experienced. Your experience around it is real.

Acknolwegde it, and start to build a food environment that helps support your goals and helps diminish the food noise.

More on the food environment thing later :-)

-Derek