371: From Emotional Eating to Eating for Nutrition: A Journey of Self-Discovery
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Guest
Michelle Petties is a TEDx speaker, Food Story coach, and author of the award-winning memoir Leaving Large: The Stories of a Food Addict. She reveals how emotional wounds, cultural expectations, and personal history—not hunger—often shape our relationship with food. After battling emotional overeating for decades and gaining and losing over 700 pounds, Michelle discovered that the key to lasting weight loss wasn’t another diet—it was rewriting the stories behind her eating.
With a background in media sales and leadership at companies like Radio One, Disney/ABC, and NPR/PBS member stations, Michelle now uses storytelling as a tool for transformation. Through workshops, retreats, and her ebook Mind Over Meals, she helps others uncover their food truths, rewire their thinking, and create lasting change from the inside out.
Summary
Michelle’s pivotal "watershed moment" occurred when she realized, after decades of struggling, that food's true purpose is nourishment, not fulfilling emotional needs. This insight, coupled with a powerful family story about inherited food memories, profoundly transformed her relationship with eating. Michelle emphasizes that sustainable weight loss stems from deep internal, mental work—unpacking thoughts, emotions, and beliefs—rather than focusing solely on diet or exercise.
Three Important Takeaways
Processed Food Addiction: Processed foods are deliberately designed to be addictive, making it extremely challenging for individuals to exert willpower against their engineered palatability and leading to cycles of overeating and weight gain.
Beyond Emotional Eating: Eating can be driven by a wide array of emotions beyond stress or comfort, including curiosity, jealousy, the desire for status, or people-pleasing, which often go unrecognized as triggers for unhealthy food choices.
Mental Work for Lasting Change: True and sustainable transformation in one's relationship with food and weight loss comes from addressing underlying thoughts, emotions, and beliefs, and viewing food as a source of nutrition.
Social Media/Referenced
Website: https://michellepetties.com/
TEDx Talk, A Food Addict's Lesson: Confusion. Clarity. Recovery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJLr53XlIV4
Portfolio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bwxhm8KbbjtfsjEc1w8qD7Qqe8LJ4EEj/view
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIbMxXOSCNH--MCNru4WuLw
Instagram: https://instagram.com/iambrandnewnow
Facebook: https://facebook.com/iambrandnewnow
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-petties/
About Jeff
Jeff Ikler is the Director of Quetico Leadership and Career Coaching. “Quetico” (KWEH-teh-co). He works with leaders in all aspects of life to identify and overcome obstacles in their desired future. He came to the field of coaching after a 35-year career in educational publishing. Prior to his career in educational publishing, Jeff taught high school U.S. history and government.
Jeff has hosted the “Getting Unstuck—Cultivating Curiosity” podcast for 5 years. The guests and topics he explores are designed to help listeners think differently about the familiar and welcome the new as something to consider. He is also the co-host of the Cultivating Resilience – A Whole Community Approach to Alleviating Trauma in Schools, which promotes mental health and overall wellness.
Jeff co-authored Shifting: How School Leaders Can Create a Culture of Change. Shifting integrates leadership development and change mechanics in a three-part change framework to help guide school leaders and their teams toward productive change.
Show Credits
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