You were not failing at your diet. Your nervous system was doing exactly what it learned to do to survive. In this episode, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof go deep on one of the most personal and most pervasive patterns they have both lived through: the disordered relationship with food and the body. Building on their recent conversation with Luis Mojica, this is the episode where they go further, bringing the neuroscience, the lived experience, and the practical path forward into a single, honest conversation. Both hosts have a long history with binge eating disorder. For decades, food was the primary regulation strategy, the way the nervous system found relief from stress it had no other tools to process, the way the body found pleasure when pleasure felt dangerous, and the way a dysregulated system managed to keep functioning. They are not talking about this from the outside. They are talking about it from the other side. The conversation moves through several layers. First, why food behaviors are regulation strategies, not character flaws, and why disordered eating works, at least until it doesn't. Then into interoception, the brain's ability to sense internal body signals, and how disrupted interoceptive awareness drives everything from not knowing you're full to being unable to feel your own emotional states. They trace how visual processing deficits can distort body image and increase stress load, how the default mode network gets locked into self-referential rumination and body obsession, and how the salience network learns to flag the body itself as a threat. Elisabeth breaks down what is actually happening neurologically when the obsessive loop runs, why insight alone does not stop it, and what actually interrupts it: sensory anchoring, movement, proprioceptive tools, and the slow building of emotional processing capacity over time. Jennifer brings it back to the body and the breath, to shame, to the secret eating and the shame spirals that followed, and to what it actually felt like to slowly, gradually come out of that. The episode closes with one of the most important reframes in the whole conversation: healing your relationship with food and your body is not about getting the food right. It is a portal into self-attunement, emotional processing, and relational capacity that ripples into every area of life. It is post-traumatic growth. In This Episode, You Will Learn: Why food behaviors are nervous system regulation strategies, not willpower failures How the absence of early co-regulation leads to using food as a modulation tool Why diets fail without somatic and nervous system support in place How interoceptive deficits drive disordered eating, emotional disconnection, and body image distortion How visual processing issues can compound stress load and body dysmorphia What the default mode network and salience network have to do with food obsession and body rumination Why psychedelics can soften rigid thought loops temporarily but cannot rewire them without nervous system preparation and integration How to interrupt the rumination loop using sensory anchoring, orienting, movement, and proprioception Why shame is harder to metabolize than any food behavior and how to begin working with it somatically How uncoupling pleasure from shame is a critical and often overlooked part of healing the relationship with food and body Why healing the food relationship is one of the deepest portals to relational health and post-traumatic growth Chapter Markers 0:00 - Food as Energy, Rest, and the High Performer Trap 01:08 - Welcome: Moving From Control to Self-Attunement 03:20 - Six Years of Conversations About Food and How Far We Have Come 06:24 - Every Diet Failed. Here Is Why. 08:31 - Food Behaviors Are Regulation Strategies, Not Character Flaws 11:29 - Safety Has to Come Before Pattern Change 14:19 - Perfectionism, the Inner Critic, and Controlling Appearance as a Stress Response 15:43 - How Vision Training Changed Body Image 19:50 - Interoception: The Missing Piece in Food and Body Healing 23:56 - Physical Hunger vs Emotional Need: Learning to Tell the Difference 28:13 - Interrupting the Pattern in Real Time 30:28 - Building Emotional Processing as a Skill 36:56 - The Default Mode Network and Why the Obsessive Loop Runs 40:05 - The Salience Network: When Your Brain Learns Your Body Is a Threat 41:58 - How to Interrupt the Loop: Sensory Anchoring, Movement, and Proprioception 53:14 - Shame, Secret Eating, and How They Get Woven Together 56:12 - Uncoupling Pleasure From Shame: A Portal Back to the Body 1:01:32 - Food as One of the Deepest Portals to Post-Traumatic Growth Ways to Engage with Neurosomatics Join us inside Rewire: This is where you actually experience the practices Jennifer and Elisabeth talk about on the podcast that brought us freedom, self-attunement, a new relationship with food and our body. rewiretrial.com Explore the neurosomatics of boundaries: boundaryrewire.com Introduction to neurosomatics for practitioners, coaches and therapists - The NSI foundations Bundle: https://neurosomaticintelligence.com/workshops/ Wayfinder Journal: Track nervous system patterns and support preparation and integration through Neurosomatic Intelligence: https://stan.store/illuminated Join Jennifer on Sacred Synapse to explore the intersection of neurosomatics and Psychedelic neuroscience: https://www.youtube.com/@sacredsynapse-23 Support the podcast by supporting our sponsors: FREE 1 Year Supply of Vitamin D + 5 Travel Packs from Athletic Greens when you use my exclusive offer: https://www.drinkag1.com/rewired Resources and Research Feusner, Jamie D., et al. "Abnormalities of Object Visual Processing in Body Dysmorphic Disorder." Psychological Medicine, vol. 41, no. 11, 2011, pp. 2385–2397. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21557897/ Feusner, Jamie D., et al. "Abnormalities of Visual Processing and Frontostriatal Systems in Body Dysmorphic Disorder." Archives of General Psychiatry, 2010. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2853756/ Madsen, Sarah K., et al. "Visual Processing in Anorexia Nervosa and Body Dysmorphic Disorder: A Review." Journal of Psychiatric Research, 2013. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3786585/ Dhir, S., et al. "Parameters of Visual Processing Abnormalities in Adults with Body Dysmorphic Disorder." PLOS ONE, 2018. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6261110/ Khalsa, Sahib S., et al. "Interoceptive Awareness in Anorexia Nervosa: Disturbances in Body Awareness." Biological Psychiatry, vol. 75, no. 4, 2014, pp. 275–281. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24090776/ Pollatos, Olga, et al. "Reduced Perception of Bodily Signals in Anorexia Nervosa." Eating Behaviors, vol. 9, no. 4, 2008, pp. 381–388. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18928907/ Jenkinson, Paul M., et al. "Interoceptive Sensitivity and Eating Disorder Psychopathology: A Meta-Analysis." Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, vol. 92, 2018, pp. 387–397. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29935263/ Trauma Rewired podcast is intended to educate and inform but does not constitute medical, psychological or other professional advice or services. Always consult a qualified medical professional about your specific circumstances before making any decisions based on what you hear. We share our experiences, explore trauma, physical reactions, mental health and disease. If you become distressed by our content, please stop listening and seek professional support when needed. Do not continue to listen if the conversations are having a negative impact on your health and well-being. If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, or in mental health crisis and you are in the United States you can 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. If someone's life is in danger, immediately call 911. We do our best to stay current in research, but older episodes are always available. We don't warrant or guarantee that this podcast contains complete, accurate or up-to-date information. It's very important to talk to a medical professional about your individual needs, as we aren't responsible for any actions you take based on the information you hear in this podcast. We invite guests onto the podcast. Please note that we don't verify the accuracy of their statements. Our organization does not endorse third-party content and the views of our guests do not necessarily represent the views of our organization. We talk about general neuro-science and nervous system health, but you are unique. These are conversations for a wide audience. They are general recommendations and you are always advised to seek personal care for your unique outputs, trauma and needs. We are not doctors or licensed medical professionals. We are certified neuro-somatic practitioners and nervous system health/embodiment coaches. We are not your doctor or medical professional and do not know you and your unique nervous system. This podcast is not a replacement for working with a professional. The BrainBased.com site and Rewiretrail.com is a membership site for general nervous system health, somatic processing and stress processing. It is not a substitute for medical care or the appropriate solution for anyone in mental health crisis. Any examples mentioned in this podcast are for illustration purposes only. If they are based on real events, names have been changed to protect the identities of those involved. 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