The Food Noise Trap Door

I’ve been stress-eating for years and calling it wellness

You know what sipping a calorie-free hot drink really is?

Shoving down a feeling you didn’t want to have.

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I’m on day 12 of a 30-day alternate-day fasting challenge. The protocol: stop eating at 7 PM, don’t start again until 11 AM, 40 hours later. Every other day. May 11 to June 11.

Six fasts in. Six pounds down.

Also: approximately one lifetime’s worth of uncomfortable realizations.

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I thought I ate pretty well. My habits were pretty good.

But.

I had no idea how often I was reaching for something – food, tea, a snack, whatever – not because I was hungry but because something felt bad and I wanted it to feel less bad.

We all do this. We’ve just gotten very good at making it look reasonable. The tea is healthy. The snack is a “reset.” The walk to the fridge is just a way to stretch your legs. Nothing to see here. Just a person taking excellent care of themselves by putting something in their mouth every time a hard feeling shows up.

Stressed at work? Put the kettle on and make tea. Bad phone call? Fridge open. Vaguely anxious for no reason you can name? That’s what the biscuits are for.

We’ve built an entire culture of self-soothing, just like a bunch of big, sad babies with sookies and blankies. Bad day at work? You poor baby! Here, let me stuff your face with delicious food so you can ignore the painful stress. You don’t have to deal with those feelings. Let’s just store them as adipose tissue. So what if you get fat!

Most of us have been running this play so long we can’t even feel ourselves doing it.

Sitting around. Something uncomfortable taps you on the shoulder, and before you’ve even consciously registered it, you’re in the kitchen or ordering DoorDash.

It’s a way out of the feeling, a trap door.

Fasting nails the trap door shut.

That move doesn’t work when you’re fasting. There’s nothing to reach for. The feeling just... stands there in the room with you, arms crossed, waiting.

And the first few times, it is rough. The stress won’t evaporate. I had to actually sit across from it and let it do what it was going to do.

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I was on a roll. My fasting days were getting pretty easy.

Then, around day eight, something harder showed up.

My phone rang. My mom had fallen, and an ambulance was taking her to the hospital. I was 400 km away and couldn’t get there.

There was nothing to do with that. No burger to swallow. No fridge to open. Nowhere to put the feeling except right in the middle of my chest, where it sat for the rest of the night. I just lay there in the dark with it, completely unable to do the one thing I would normally do, stuff my face. Eat junk food, which is absolutely nothing useful disguised as something comforting.

That one didn’t just peak and fade like the work stress did. It was heavier than that. But it did pass. Eventually. Without me doing anything except staying in it and not running away.

It peaks, then it fades. On its own. Without you stuffing anything in your face.

57 years, that’s how long it took me to learn this.

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Eighteen days left in my 30 days of alternate fasting. I’ll give you the final scale number on June 11.

I’ve noticed I care less about that number than I did on day one. The weight loss is real, and I’m not going to pretend it doesn’t matter. It matters. But it’s become the least interesting thing happening. I didn’t start this challenge to lose weight; my goal is a better relationship with food. Understanding my cravings.

Beating the food noise. Slapping it in the face so hard it loses its hold on me.

What I actually want to know is how uncomfortable I can get without reaching for the trap door. How much can I just sit in it? How bad does it have to get before I bail?

So far, more than I thought. Which is something big.

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I’m looking for 5 people who are tired of feeling stuck with their health.

If you want to:

• lose weight

• control cravings

• build better habits

• improve energy

• feel stronger and more confident

…I’d like to help.

No extreme diets. No “detox tea wizardry.” No punishment workouts from the fitness underworld.

Just practical coaching, accountability, and sustainable changes that actually fit real life.

If you’re serious about making a change, hit the button below!

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