The Livy Method Podcast - Maintenance: Week 4, Day 31 with Jenna Jones

Episode Date: October 14, 2026

You lost the weight. You’re eating well. So why is the food noise still so loud at 9 PM?Guest Jenna Jones, a social worker and psychotherapist turned coach who specializes in food noise, joins Gina Livy and Odette to unpack what’s really going on. Her take: food noise is information. Sometimes it’s hunger. Sometimes it’s a food rule that doesn’t fit your life. And sometimes it’s grief. When food has been your comfort for decades, losing it as a coping tool can feel like losing a friend.Where to Find Jenna:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/findyourfoodpeace/Facebook: Coach Jenna JonesThis podcast aligns with Day 24 of our Fall Maintenance Program, members can find video in our Livy Method app or Maintenance and Mindfulness Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ginalivymaintenanceandmindfulness Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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We have the most incredible community and it works. head over to living method.com to sign out today. Well, welcome midweek motivation, a special midweek motivation because we have Jenna Jones joining us, say that three times fast. Jenna Jones, Jenner Jones, Jenna Jones, let's go. Social workers, psychotherapist turned coach, food noise expert. I mean, if that doesn't sound like the perfect fit, I don't know what is. So Jenna, welcome.

We're so happy to drink. Thanks. So happy to be here. I've got my notes. I got my note pad. I know we want to get ready to this conversation. You know, what's interesting about where we're having this conversation right now, Jenna, is this is our maintenance program. So people have lost the weight in a healthy way, physically, mentally. There's no counting, weighing, measuring, trying to get over that restrictive mindset. They've worked through the issues and associations. They worked hard to be in tune with their body's needs, but yet that food noise remains. So maybe we can start there.

I know because it's on your notes. But like what, what is, what is food noise? Like if you were to describe it, how would someone know if the thoughts going on in their brain is food noise? Okay. So I've been trying to conceptualize this. And what I came around to is basically it's information. It is our bodies calling our bullshit.

Okay? It's our bodies calling us out. basically our bodies are kind of like toddlers right so if we sit it down and we're going to say okay listen you're going to have this quarter of sandwich and it's going to make you feel really really really good and you're not going to bother me for the rest of the day and you're going to leave me alone our bodies are going to be like mom mom mommy I'm still hungry that's the hunger part if every time our toddler is sad we don't know how to deal with sadness we're not comfortable around it. So we're like, here's a donut. Mommy's going to make you feel better.

Let's go to the mall. Let's go to the restaurant. And all of a sudden, you take that away. What is the toddler going to do? Excuse me? I'm sad right now. Mom, mom, mommy, food noise. Right? So there's different reasons for food noise. The most obvious one being hunger. The second one being cravings, cognitive rules around food. and the third one being emotions. But in all categories, it's basically just our body saying, stop gaslating me. Something's going on right now in our relationship.

And you're trying to make me think that I can overcome this or I can do this, but I need your help. There's like miswiring in the communication going on. So you talked about the hunger. So there's the hunger part. Right. And then there is that other emotional part. Why does that show up for some people and not for others? I mean, you know, I can feel like I'm not hungry, but I have the emotional part where others are fine. They're just going through their day. They don't think about it twice. Why does it seem to be stronger for some and not for others?

Okay. Why does the emotional part or the hungry? Yeah, like that food noise, that food noise part, that part where we are constantly thinking about it. you know, that next snack, that next meal, that food that's in the kitchen that we just want to get to, why does that seem so much stronger for some people and other people don't have it? Or maybe it's late at night and they find it's louder at that point. You know, where does that come from? Yeah, where does it come from? Yeah. So if we're assuming, okay, if we're assuming that the person is well fit, okay, and that they're not in a caloric deficit, that they're at a stable weight and that they're feeding themselves appropriately. Yes.

The next reason is cognitive restriction. You could be physically fed and still very cognitively restricting. So for example, if all of a sudden you say to yourself, well, I don't care what you want and who you are and where you live. You can live in America, but as of today, you're not having dessert. Why? Because I don't want you to anymore. But yet there's a dessert at a birthday party, Thanksgiving, around.

the corner, Christmas around the corner, then what you're doing is you're creating rigid cognitive rules that's not necessarily matched with your cravings, your interest in food, your cultural reality. And so there's a very big disconnect. It's, you know, we talk about working with the person and there's individual profiles in helping them navigate how they relate to food. And so basically the food noise is saying, I'm not happy with this decision. We got to make this work because I know who you are authentically and this is a mismatch. I don't know if that makes sense. No, no, it does. So this week in the program, we're doing this technique. So members have been showing up and eating a really super healthy, balanced meal, nutrient rich, all of that, feeding themselves, being in tune

to their hunger levels. And yet we're going from eating enough to feel satisfied in the moment to purposely leaving ourselves feeling slightly unsatisfied, which if you can imagine, Yeah. Brings up food waste issues, food scarcity issues, fear of not, fear of being hungry. And what you said is really important because there is this restrictive mindset that a lot of us have adopted through dieting. I mean, it could go back into childhood, obviously, but especially through dieting, we're just the concept of, I have access to all of this food. I'm eating chances are more than enough, but just the concept of a restricted mindset is freaking me out. And we can't undermine the fact that we live in a society where we want results really quickly.

You know, if something took you 40 years, you know, if you've been eating, dieting, yo-you dieting for 20, 30, 40 years, and, okay, you've been on this good, stable journey for, I don't know, six months, 12 months, it's still going to take time. for your psychology to catch up with the behavior. Creating and committing to a habit is very different from having your body used to that habit. So both has its own individual journey. Like, it's okay. Excellent. Look, you've been like six months where you've been able to consistently start eating less. It's going to take, it's a desensitization process that you need to go through.

You've got a distorted thought that, you know, restriction is bad. It means scarcity. It means the possibility of, you know, getting hungry. We've got to help your body learn that through multiple exposures. So it takes time. I don't know if that makes sense. No, I don't know, Odette, if you watch the conversation with Melissa Grello today where she said something really profound. She kind of skipped over it, but she was like, change is slow. Change can be slow. And I think that what you're saying here is like there's a couple of different parts. Like, you could have lost your way, been able to maintain, but that doesn't mean that the food noise goes away. Like, I think that's that permission to be like, oh, okay. So there's not something

wrong with me because I haven't conquered this food noise yet. And I think it surprises a lot of our members, too. They think that conquering that food noise should come from physical results as well. They know they've made change. They know that they are in this place where they've, you know, lowered their set point. They know more. They understand more. And then that food noise hangs around. They think that they're, you know, they're going along. Everything is great. And all of a sudden, it's one day or one evening, they sit down and that food noise just comes flooding back. So why doesn't it go away? Is it just because it does take time? Your body just needs practice. It needs repetition. What is that? Why doesn't it go away? And what is the purpose behind it anyway?

Yeah. And why should, why do we expect it to go away? We have lots of questions, Jenna. Yeah. Okay. I mean, the one thing that comes to mind when you say that is just this idea that, how do I say this? Food has provided, food has played a lot of roles in your life up to this point. It has provided you with illusion of being in control. It has provided you with a defestation of being out of control, it has provided you with a sense of comfort and soothing if you choose to eat it, if you choose to indulge. And so now that we're taking away how you relate to food in a good and a bad way and helping you become neutral around it, there's a lot of roles.

It's not playing anymore that is now open for discussion, right? So at 9 o'clock at night, when you're sitting down and you're like, oh my God, I want a donut, I just want a donut. Well, there's multiple reasons for that. First of all, did you feed yourself enough? You got to be honest, right? Second of all, well, maybe you still need to work with your dietitian around incorporating some kind of version of a donut in your life because you like donuts and not having donuts as part of what's keeping you thinking about donuts.

And the third part is, look, at the end of the day, food was the friend. that bag of chips didn't talk back. It didn't judge you. It didn't say anything to you. It was the source of comfort that in five minutes could help you feel good. And so all of a sudden, basically you're like, I want a donut, I want a donut, I want chocolate. What you're really wanting is, I want to decompress, I want to not feel anxious, I want to not feel empty, I want to not feel discomfort. So when I say food noise is information, And that, yes, the physiological work is done. Excellent.

Awesome. Go shop till you drop. But there's a whole other emotional component that we need to help this new body and identity grow into. New body and identity to grow into. I love that. And no. And what you said there to, Jenna, about the role. It's played a role.

It's almost like when it doesn't fill that role. I think of it like as a relationship. You had this relationship, this relationship. doesn't exist anymore. What fills that? I mean, I think we've all had that relationship that has gone away or whether it was a friend or a boyfriend or a girlfriend or whatever it was. That relationship's gone. You feel a little bit lost and empty in the beginning. And you want to come back to that. Oh, maybe we'll just give it one more try. Maybe I'll give it one more shot. So if that role in a relationship is not there, how do we get used to that or what do we use to fill

that? I just want to point out, Sue, I was a bit sad this weekend and really missed my old binge eating days. Is that weird like a loss of a friend? My God, that's what soup. Welcome to my world. Think about it. Think about what food, it's like, it's like a bottle of beer, right? Like, you're feeling sad and food is disinhibiting your ability to connect with your emotion. So you're feeling really, really sad. You eat a bag of chip and you feel better. Why wouldn't you miss that? That, recovering or not sorry recovering when you're changing your weight if you choose to lose weight and you get to this new weight and new identity you're also grieving the option to use food you're also grieving all of that rapid soothing mechanisms that is no longer accessible to you

and you know you said something interesting oh that you're like you know well how do i how do i get past you know losing a friend absolutely we got not only do we need to learn how to get past it, but we need to learn how to exist in a different way with pain and sadness. And, you know, even somebody says, a lot of people say, I don't even know what I'm feeling at night. I don't know. Like, am I anxious? Am I sad? All I know is I want brownies. But I would argue that that's part of the emotional work you need to do, right? Maybe it's time to ask those questions, not at 9 o'clock at night. It's too late. It's time to start deconstructing that. as a separate phase in recovery.

I love the grieving the option to use food because what I think there are people who are legitimate foodies. They love to just smell food, taste food, indulge, if you will, that like indulgence. Is that indulgence? And it seems like when you don't have, and it almost feels like it's something for you. We do very little things in our lives that are for us. And when you no longer have that, I'm going to eat this because I deserve. it or I'm going to eat this because I I love it and then overeating because it's so good.

Do we replace that? So I get the grieving of it because it's no longer there. It's like the friendship. If a friendship goes away, you don't longer have it. Do you go looking for a new friend or is that just more distraction? Okay. So one example that comes to mind is a woman that told me after she learned to incorporate variety into her meals, adequate portions, and, you know, craving foods, she didn't even look forward to

binging anymore because all of the binge food had been reincorporated into her life. And she felt really sad about that. Like, okay, I can't even look forward to the one thing that made me happy. Yeah. And so, sorry, what was the question with that? Oh, we're in menopause, Jenna. We don't know, hun. What are we circling around there? Oh my God. Do we go looking for a new friend? Yes.

We're looking for a new friend. Thanks, so, dad. Oh, my gosh. Sorry. Thank you. Holy shit. I'm just starting menopause, so I'm just starting. I'm in the beginning stages, guys.

We just go with that. We just change subjects and we just keep going. You're good. You're good. Yeah. Basically, what I wanted to say. say to that is, you know, often, and isn't that going to be good news, but it's important news. Often you realize, oh, shit, okay, maybe I'm much more sad than I've realized.

That's what I fucking like. I like the juicy emotional shit. I like, I think our society has been conditioned to think if we're not happy, something's wrong. But a lot of times, we are overworked, tired, you know, over-perfectionist, over-expecting people. So at night, maybe there's a lot of really good reasons to be exhausted and annoyed and frustrated and bad. And I don't even think we need to distract. We just need to fucking channel and decompress and also allow it to exist. I don't know if that makes sense. Oh, you're speaking our language.

Yeah. Yeah, I wish we could replay that again because that was absolutely brilliant. And it's not what's, it's not what's wrong with me. It's what going, what's going on with me. And I know this is a sidetrack here, but one of my kids and their dad passed away three years ago. His way of dealing is keeping himself busy. Like you can tell when he's kind of feeling down, the busier he gets. He goes looking for something, anything, anything else other than to sit with himself and feel this sadness. And, Obviously, that's an extreme example. But I think in so many ways, it's uncomfortable. It's uncomfortable to take that information and be like, what is going on here? And we are not use. Sorry, just one little metaphor to that. Recovery or like, you know, becoming this new person is also learning to become

uncomfortable. Food was a way to escape. and this new identity means humanity. That sounded corny, but you know what I was saying? No, no. A big part of people, a hard thing for people is learning to trust who they are now and adopt that new identity, which means changing, which means change, which is uncomfortable, not just for them, but also people around them and their lives. So, yeah, you're speaking our language. We go, here's Judy.

Wow, just a major moment since losing my way to have noticed more anxiety and sadness related to the loss of my husband many years ago. Maybe it's because I haven't had the food to turn to as a coping strategy. Our members go deep. We don't mess around here. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, Judy. Yes.

And you know what? Don't even, don't scare away from that. What an important development in your life to have access to these salient emotions. that was there. That's, that's helping you navigate life anyway in some undercurrent level. So hard emotions are not bad. Hard does not mean bad. It sucks. But it also is just, it's human, man. It's just necessary. Yeah. And this is our in this conversation around weight loss and maintaining our way. I love that you just said that this is how you're showing up, like this is how you're showing up and doing everything in life. This is not just. making your weight. Right. And then so you got it you got to double down. When you lose that weight and you don't have binging, you better get your boundaries straight, right? You better know how to say no.

You better know how to get your needs met better in relationships because that pack of chips is not there as an option anymore. So when you're not, no one's wrong in thinking, okay, I lost the weight, but this is still hard. It's not supposed to be easy, but it doesn't mean it's bad. It actually means, growing into a much more connected version, but that is painful in an emotional way. And uncomfortable. And we see this from our members to our community. They say that it's, it is that, just to go back to that nighttime example, it's more uncomfortable at night. It's quieter than that's when those emotions come up. That's when those feelings come up. And yeah, and it's uncomfortable. And we want to avoid discomfort. We don't want to feel uncomfortable.

I'm, Gina was just talking about her son and when their dad died. When my sister passed away earlier this year and I couldn't walk my dog for about three months and my dog is my whole world. I couldn't walk my dog because I wasn't busy enough in that moment and all my thoughts would come back and it was uncomfortable and it was emotions. I'm like, I can't deal with this. I need to find a way to keep myself busy, keep my mind going. I don't like that discomfort.

And when you said there, it doesn't have to be easy. Like it's hard. It doesn't have to be easy for you to do it. But if you can recognize that discomfort, understand what's going on. Is that kind of that first step and doing something about it? Like, so it is nighttime. Those feelings are coming up. The discomfort is there.

What do we do? Yeah. The thoughts are going to come, right? You're going to sit down. You know, the chippies are in the kitchen. You know, even, you know, it can even just be food that we think is, it doesn't have to be food that we deem as, you know, bad for us. Would it be anything?

Just wanting to go for more comfort. Yeah. What do we do? Okay, so this is super fun. What do we do? As emotional and like psychological as I am as a person. Sorry, sorry. Like I can intellectualize this, but basically I'm like at night, this is not the time to think about what kind of feelings you're feeling.

Okay. So I took the time to go through a bit of a list. Number one, I want you to be realistic. You got to, if food noise comes in, you got to be like, oh, shit, really? again, yes, really, okay? And we got to think of it like a migraine. It sucks. It's not fair. Not everybody has it, but yes, you are stuck with it. However, a migraine doesn't go away in five minutes. You cannot eat this away like you used to or you cannot starve this away like you used to. So you can expect a typical, you know, if we think about a craving urge, so a food noise flare up can

last anywhere between 15 to 30 minutes, right? And again, everything I'm going to say here is going to County. Why? Because there's no cocaine relief to this. Learning to ride out food noise is hard work because we're trying to do it naturally. Nothing's going to feel as good as food did to help you feel better and get rid of the food noise. So we talk about 15 to 30 minutes and then I want you, I like the idea of matching the intensity of the distraction or the riding the urge with the intensity of the food noise. Okay, it's at a three, it kind of feels like a mosquito or it's at an eight and I can't, and I'm basically in the, in front of the cupboard feigning, that is a very aggressive behavior. What do you do with an aggressive behavior? It's not a time to put on a mindfulness podcast and sniff

lavender. You got to match that behavior. You got to match that urge with a very, with a very aggressive. Binging is very aggressive. And like I just said it on my, when I met my stories, it's, shoving food down your throat, not for physical reasons, for no other reasons than to shut up whatever is going on internally. And so we got to find a natural way to ground yourself. So you got to, it sounds fucking corny even when I say it all these years later, but you got to take a really hot shower and not hurt yourself. Try to be super hot and sweaty and be anxious. You got to take a really cold shower and not hurt yourself and then try to be very cold and very anxious. And again, it's not the thermometer, if it's at an eight, it's not going down to a two like food would do.

It might go down to a 7.7 and then you're going to be annoyed and insulted because it didn't work very much, but this is the migraine you need to ride out. So after the shower, you got to get your little butt and do some little mini-behavior activations. And I'm not talking about like cleaning the dishes. I'm talking about emptying out your fucking purse. I'm talking about putting, you know, taking the two glasses of water off your bed night stand. I'm talking about, I don't know, doing something to. help this kid that's in a tantrum and you're annoyed and you're just like, I just want you to stop but you got to love it unconditionally. So you're like, okay, 10 minutes left. What else can we do

to help you ride this through behavioral activations? I don't know if that helps. Oh yeah. You can be intentional and hate it at the same time, but recognize you got to do it. Right. And I love the matching part. You know, it's true. Like when you are in the throes of it or you're having a really intense moment. I mean, we're talking food noise, but this intense moment could really be anything. And you're trying to just, you know, have a, have a meditative moment. That's not going to match that level. You've got to really good luck. Yeah, you've got to own where you are with those thoughts. And, you know, we can say close the cupboard and walk away. But if that's not doing it for you, how can you match that level of where you're at? Maybe you've got to slam the cupboard and walk away. I love them matching the

uncomfortable with the more uncomfortable, right? Like, You said, like, clean the purse out. I'm thinking my junk door. Like the things I don't want to do. And I've got at least four glasses of water on my nightstand right now. So that's very relatable. For the sake of time, I want to pivot to GLPU once because we obviously have had members utilized weight loss medications in our weight loss program.

Our program is more lifestyle changes. So people are doing that work. But even in maintenance, one of the things that they're finding is that they're able to maintain and sustain their weight, just like everybody else. but that food noise pops up, especially coming close to their next dose. Where's the opportunity for them? And in your experience, how would it differ from anyone taking weight loss medications that can help quiet that food noise versus someone who isn't?

I don't think so. I've been working with GLP1 patients, and what I found is the problem is the same. The GLP1 quiets the appetite. Doesn't do anything to the emotions. Yes. Right? Or to the food rules, right? If you're just as scared of a brownie when you're on GLP-1s versus when you're not,

you got to deal with why you're scared of a brownie and how to have some kind of version of a brownie. If you're angry and you want to binge because you're angry, you got to deal with that. GLP-1 is doing nothing to that. So I actually think it's very complimentary to really take a good look at how to incorporate. You can call it food noise work. You can call it emotional work. you can call it foundational work around identity and authenticity, you know, just to help mesh those two worlds of weight loss and sustainability in terms of, you know, how you've used food to navigate life and how you need to use food now moving forward. No, that's very validating because, I mean, we've had members who said, like, it's great.

you know, GLP1's help with my appetite, but that's not why I ate in the first place. So it's not really doing anything to help me. That's not my problem. Before we go, I know Odette put on our notes here, and you've given us already so many great tips and lots of things to think about. But for someone who is tired of food taking up so much space in the brain, what is one useful thing they can start with today? Just one thing that they can start with, or an inn or.

This is going to sound so therapeutic, but I'm going with it. Be curious about what is that food noise telling you? What is that? What is the saying? It's that the I want a brownie is duck fluff. I want to hug. I want to cry. I want to fucking punch someone.

I'm sorry. I drop f-bombs. I really want a brownie and I fucking hate that I can't have a brownie. more. Yeah. Right? You got to under, you got to be on, or I'm really hungry. I'm not eating enough. You, there's something you're not being honest with yourself about. That's all it's saying to you. I don't know if that makes sense. Oh, you've made so much sense to us, Jenna. Like an insane amount of sense. Yay. An insane amount of sense. Like I said, just you're speaking our language. Before we go, always in the segment, I, I ask Odette, what is her, what's her, what's her takeaway? What's her homework for people this week? If you could assign homework, what would it be?

So if I could assign homework, I would say all of these members that we know are struggling with this food noise, we know it's there. I think, just like Jenna said, be curious about it. What is it trying to tell you? Because it's not that you can't have the brownie. You can have it if you want to. But why do you want it? Like you said, are you sad? Are you associating? it with a comfortable action? Are you trying to forget about something else and that brownie is just allowing you to forget for a few minutes? So get real curious because we know that food noise is still hanging around. We know that we can't wish it away. We're going to have to maybe work it away a little bit. So what is it trying to tell you? Yeah. What is that food noise trying to tell you? Get curious about it.

And maybe it is match the, match the level of the energy that that food noise is giving you. If you're in the kitchen, you're like, I'm sad. Okay, match it with something that, you know, is at that same level. What else is there? I think it's not just about trying to make it go away. I think it's about, like you said, Jenna, getting curious and understanding what it's trying to tell you. And maybe you are just hungry because you didn't feed your enough. Yeah. Let's not forget the basics. Best live ever. Thank you. Love this. What a great live. We're going to bring up Jenna. Do we have Jenna's contact information? People can reach out and find her. I know we have Find Your Food Piece over on Instagram where she gives some great tips.

Give her a follow. Or you can find her on Facebook, Coach Jenna Jones, and we'll provide those links. Jenna, thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me, ladies. Such a lovely vibe here. Yeah, we do. And I have to say, Jenna's Instagram is very entertaining as well. So it's informative and you're going to have tickets, but it's really entertaining and fun to watch.

little newfey side of me yeah you're a newfoundlander are you yes i'm a bit of a i'm a bit of a i'm a bit of a mutt oh i that's so great that's why we like you that's why we like you uh thanks everyone joined us live or watching after the fact and downloading listening because this is also available as a podcast we appreciate you jenn jones thank you so much i'll please come back my pleasure i will hopefully if you have me absolutely thanks odette bye everyone