Episode 222
Gina Worful, MS, RD:Why Most Health Professionals Miss the Real Reason You Can't Stick to Your Diet
Gina Worful, MS, RD:
Why Most Health Professionals Miss the Real Reason You Can't Stick to Your Diet
Registered dietitian Gina Worful explains why willpower fails and how your nervous system drives food cravings. She shares her 3-step method (awareness, regulation, integration) to stop self-sabotaging and start working with your body's natural responses instead of against them.
Learn why stress shifts your brain from logical decision-making to survival mode, causing food to taste better and fullness cues to disappear.
Learn why stress shifts your brain from logical decision-making to survival mode, causing food to taste better and fullness cues to disappear.
First Aired on: Dec 15, 2025
Episode 222
Gina Worful, MS, RD:Why Most Health Professionals Miss the Real Reason You Can't Stick to Your Diet
Gina Worful, MS, RD:
Why Most Health Professionals Miss the Real Reason You Can't Stick to Your Diet
Registered dietitian Gina Worful explains why willpower fails and how your nervous system drives food cravings. She shares her 3-step method (awareness, regulation, integration) to stop self-sabotaging and start working with your body's natural responses instead of against them.
Learn why stress shifts your brain from logical decision-making to survival mode, causing food to taste better and fullness cues to disappear.
Learn why stress shifts your brain from logical decision-making to survival mode, causing food to taste better and fullness cues to disappear.
First Aired on: Dec 15, 2025
Table of Contents:
Table of Contents:
In this episode:
In this episode:
Introduction
Gina Worful is a registered dietitian and founder of the Mastering Mindfulness Institute. After seeing countless clients struggle with traditional diet approaches despite having all the right information, she discovered the missing piece: our nervous system's role in food choices. In this episode, she joins me to explain why most health professionals focus on willpower when the real issue is understanding how stress affects our brain chemistry and drives self-sabotaging behaviors.
Episode Highlights
Why Traditional Diet Advice Fails Most People
Gina explains how she discovered that providing nutrition information wasn't enough when her motivated clients kept struggling to stick with their plans.
- Clients would start excited and motivated but struggle when stress hit
- Even as a health professional, Gina found herself sabotaging her own goals
- The problem isn't weakness or lack of discipline - it's missing the nervous system piece
- Traditional approaches focus on willpower when the real issue is physiological
The Science Behind Self-Sabotage
When you're feeling good and regulated, your prefrontal cortex helps with logical decisions like choosing a salad. But when stress hits, your brain shifts into survival mode.
- Stress signals shift brain activity from prefrontal cortex to amygdala
- Your body prioritizes survival over healthy choices
- Taste bud receptors actually change shape to make food taste better
- Fullness signals stop working as effectively, making you feel ravenous
- This isn't willpower failure - it's your body's natural protection mechanism
Learning to Read Your Body's Whispers
Your body gives you early warning signs before full-blown cravings take over, but most of us have learned to ignore these signals.
- Physical cues include neck tension, shallow breathing, or feeling contracted
- Mental cues like gentle prowling for snacks even when not hungry
- The goal is catching stress responses early rather than waiting for the "yell"
- Reconnecting with body sensations is a gradual process that requires patience
The Three-Step Method: Awareness, Regulation, Integration
Gina's practical framework helps you work with your nervous system instead of against it.
- Awareness: Pause and check in with thoughts, emotions, and body sensations
- Regulation: Use simple techniques like hand-to-heart breathing to calm your nervous system
- Integration: From this regulated state, ask what you really need and make conscious choices
- This method helps you move from unconscious reactions to conscious responses
Shifting from Judgment to Curiosity
Instead of viewing cravings and self-sabotage as character flaws, Gina teaches us to see them as valuable information about our unmet needs.
- Self-sabotage is actually self-protection in disguise
- Food relationships often start in infancy and carry deep emotional associations
- Cravings can signal needs for comfort, safety, connection, or self-care
- Curiosity allows you to learn from patterns rather than judge them
- The goal isn't perfection but conscious choice and connection with your body
Notable Quotes from this Episode
When you understand what is happening in your body, you can start to be in partnership with it instead of feel like you're battling your body, battling your cravings, battling willpower.
Gina Worful
What if we looked at every self-sabotaging moment, not as the bad thing that I have to control and something wrong with me, but actually is my mirror pointing me back home to myself?
Gina Worful
Willpower is the weakest form of change because we're overpowering what our body is like, 'Hey, I need your attention. This is what I'm actually asking for.'
Gina Worful
Other Resources:
Other Resources:
Connect with Gina Worful, MS, RD
Connect with Gina Worful, MS, RD
Watch this interview:
Watch this interview:
Episode Transcript
Gina Worful: we actually don't need willpower. We don't even need to set goals to not eat a food. It's like we're providing what we're really looking for. And that craving kind of just like gently softens.
Julie Howton: Welcome back to The Inspired Living with Autoimmunity podcast. I'm your host, Julie Howton, and today we're joined by Gina Worful, a dietician who discovered that health isn't created through control, but through self-trust. She founded the Mastering Mindfulness Institute where she teaches a mindfulness based approach to healing our relationship with food and the body.
So that change becomes natural, not forced. In today's conversation, we discuss the physiological reasons why willpower isn't the solution to staying on plan, and how stepping out of judgment and into curiosity can lead to truly mindful choices and even improved health all around.
Gina, welcome to the podcast.
Gina Worful: Thanks, Julie.
Julie Howton: I'm so excited for this conversation. I was just telling you that the work you're doing is beyond needed. Um, and at literally every, everybody I work with. Needs to, needs to focus on the, the mindset piece. Um, and this is probably too much information. Sometimes when I see RD I'm like, ah, um, I understand.
I, I know you get it. And I don't mean it. I do. I just like with love to everybody and their training and their perspective and, um, but I know that you've always been interested in nutrition and, and that. That's kind of been a lifelong love for you. Mm-hmm. But how did you shift to a degree that you decided you needed to create the Mastering Mindfulness Institute?
Gina Worful: Yeah, things have changed for me so much because when I became a dietician, I opened up a private practice, you know, working with people on their health and what I saw was really disheartening and I think what a lot of people go through, which is I had so many people who were excited and they're like, I am motivated.
I'm changing my life. And I would give them these nutrition plans and then they would. They would do it for a little while, but then sometimes the struggles would hit whether their lives got stressful or they struggled to implement the habits. And it would come back to me like it was confession. And they're like, you know, I, I tried for a while and then this happened and I struggled and I tried to be their cheerleader, but they really had a hard time and.
I started to wonder why do all of my clients have such a hard time implementing this, and am I just like a scam, like the diet industry? And I had other, I called other dieticians and I was like, what are you guys doing to help your clients be successful? Are you having any life changing transformations?
And they said. Gina, your job is to provide the information. It's their job to follow through. And I was like, you know, I, I hear that I can't force someone to change, but there's something else that's going on here that we're not addressing. And it got me very curious. And at the same time, while my clients were struggling, I was definitely a health nut, but I started to struggle too.
And even though I had all this information about nutrition, I started doing the things I was taught, like tracking my food and trying to really focus on eating healthy, as good as I possibly could, setting goals. And I started sabotaging my goals and I was like, oh my gosh, what is wrong with me? I'm the health professional.
Julie Howton: Oh, and that question right there, uh, that's why we need you. Um, 'cause there's nothing wrong with you, but it's, it's surround this, it's, it's, I see it literally in everybody I work with in some degree or another. Um, and there's so much shame or we feel like we're weak or like there's something wrong with us.
Yes. And there's not, we're human. We're, we're actually designed this way.
Gina Worful: Yeah, it, I think that that is one of the biggest questions that a lot of people aren't asking is why does the path to being healthier feel like such a struggle? And I think we put this blanket. Blanket thing on it that we just need more willpower or we need more discipline.
And I think it's such a big misunderstanding about what's happening in our bodies, in our nervous system when we start to make these changes. And so if anybody's feeling that. Feeling of guilt of why do I motivate myself and then I sabotage it When I know how to eat healthy, I know what I should be doing.
It is so much more than just knowing how to eat healthy, and I'm right there with you because I was struggling with it probably more than anybody, and also had a lot of information. What I realized and what's funny, what's actually funny about that too, is I really thought maybe there was something around health that I was missing.
And so I went back to school and I got another degree in nutrition, and then I started learning even about like functional medicine and I was fascinated with things with functional medicine, and I think all of that is so, so, so important. But it didn't explain why I kept sabotaging myself too. Right?
Yeah. So I realized there was something that I was missing.
Julie Howton: So, so brilliant and, and I don't know you well, but I feel like I can comfortably probably presume that because of your education, because of what your, your career, right, that judgment is even worse, right? Because there's this little piece of like, oh my gosh, I know what to do.
I tell, you know, I'm telling people what to do and I'm not. I am not even a hundred percent. Um, yep. And, and so I, I think, and even that did that functional, I know it's still the missing piece even in kind of functional medicine training. Um, but nervous system is, is so important to, especially for our audience, the autoimmune audience.
I mean, nervous system dysregulation is, is. Just across the board. It may show up differently in different people, but it's such a big component of autoimmune drivers. Mm-hmm. Um, that, you know, but yet that piece that's missing that you're, you're helping us with is that, you know, this I, I call, you know, my, especially my.
My adult, very adult ladies, you know, with the yo-yo dieting and the Yeah. You know, they, they have these patterns and so I wanna get into, if, if you don't mind mm-hmm. Like a little bit about, like, some of this is just physiological response. Yes. It's not weakness, it's not lack of, you know, determination.
It's, it's not anything that we should be judging in a negative way. It's actually how we're made.
Gina Worful: Yes, absolutely. So I wanna break down exactly what's happening, because if I would've known this a long time ago, if someone would've explained this to me when I went to school to be a dietician, number one, I would've had so much more compassion for myself, but I would've actually approached things with so much more confidence and working with my body.
Yes. When you understand what is happening in your body, you can start to be in partnership with it instead of feel like you're. Battling your body, battling your cravings, battling willpower. And so just this one reframe can help you move into that place of partnership. And so like the first step that I needed to take for to step forward was actually something that you brought up, which was.
Moving out of a place of judgment. That judgment was so intense and so heavy for me, and I know a lot of us have it and a lot, and it's not our fault, but the health industry tells us that your cravings are bad. Self-sabotage is bad, so hold on with everything that you've got and don't self-sabotage.
White, white knuckle. Yeah. So we start to think. Oh no, this situation is bad, so I should probably avoid it. But what we avoid is what actually keeps it holds a power over us and it keeps coming back. So the first thing to move forward is to move out of a place of judgment, into a place of curiosity with those moments of why we self-sabotage, because our, our bodies are always doing everything.
To support us. So we think of self-sabotage as a bad thing, but I think of it as actually self-protection. Sure. Our, when we go to self-sabotage, our bodies are protecting us. So here's, I'm gonna break down a little bit of the science. What's happening. Uh, I, I would imagine that your audience likes a, or your listeners really enjoy a little bit of science here.
I think so, and I'm such a geek that they're gonna just have
Julie Howton: to deal.
Gina Worful: Okay. So let's say it's a day when you're like feeling really happy and you feel really good and the sun is out and a maybe a good song comes on. Usually it's that day that you're like, oh, I'm going to eat salad. I'm never gonna eat.
Gluten, never again. I'm never gonna eat sugar. Right? Like you really think that this is like your new step forward and you're changing your life forever, and you really deeply feel that like in your heart and in your bones. Mm-hmm. And when you're in that state, when you feel good, when your nervous system is regulated in that state, your body feels safe.
Yes. And that's the prefrontal cortex in your brain that works and that is responsible for having good willpower. For rational decision making, it's very logical. So when you're feeling good and your body feels safe, your prefrontal cortex helps you with logical thinking. So you might think, I'm going to eat the salad today because it's good for me.
And the decision is that simple. It's logical, it's very easy. So that's the day that you're like, I'm never looking back. But then if you ever have a moment where suddenly it's like you have these thoughts coming in, well, you know, one, one cookie wouldn't hurt, or you start hearing those thoughts, voice that voice, and then it could be like a flip of a switch.
Where all of a sudden you watch yourself going towards those things. It is not really aligned with, with your goals or what you want to eat, and it's almost feels like something is controlling you and you're just like, you could almost go into like a tunnel vision or a hypnosis. It almost has like a hypnosis type feeling or like you just watch yourself, you know, self-sabotage when you know that it's not really aligned with what you really want and your desires.
Usually that happens when your nervous system gets the information of We're not safe, or There's a stress present, and that stress could be anything. It just could be that. It could be that you didn't eat enough food and you really were trying to cut back your calories and your body received that. As we're not eating enough food, there's a stress.
It could be an emotional stress, it could be your financial stress, your relationship stress, something that. Sense assigned to your nervous system of like a lack of safety. And I know we might think, well, I am safe. You know, I, I'm totally safe. It doesn't matter. But it doesn't matter. That's that stress is a signal in our bodies.
And so when that stress starts to accumulate, it shifts the brain to activity. And so that prefrontal cortex that gave you really good willpower. It kind of deactivates, for a better lack of a better word, it's not the primary center that's working. And what does come online is your amygdala. Your amygdala is your brain's survival area, and it does, it drives you to do everything for survival, and that's your body's number one priority.
If you're under a stress, your body's priority isn't. To make the logical, healthy choice like the salad, it's to protect you, and things like glucose and sugar and carbs and things that taste good. Taste sweet. Those give the body fuel for energy, like if you had to run from a wild animal. So when you're under that stress, you'll notice everything.
Your whole body's chemistry shifts. So you'll start notice noticing. Your attention will go from like in your body to up here and you'll start thinking about food. You'll start thinking about the flavors. And I almost think of it as like a tiger that's like tunnel vision on like, I need this one food.
Those are our primal instincts. Yes. It's the way our body is designed for protection. And what's so interesting is there's some research that shows that our taste, bud receptors will change their shape in this state so that food actually tastes better and you want more of it, and now you'll start feeling more hungry.
And what else is interesting is when you do start eating the area of your brain, that that gets the information that you ate so that you feel full. Mm-hmm. It stops working as well, so you can keep eating. And it feels like, man, why can't I stop? Why don't I feel full from this?
Julie Howton: Ravenous? Yeah, I'm
Gina Worful: ravenous.
And so we see that as willpower. But it's really our body and our nervous system going into self-protection. And if we all knew that we would work with our bodies in such a different way, which is why it's hard when we take away the food. That feeling inside of our body and our nervous system is still there.
And
Julie Howton: it's real. Like it's real. This is not, it is real. It's a physiological response. Like it is not, you know? Um, and, and even just thinking of, I talk so much on the podcast about getting back to. How we are physiologically designed, right? How we lived in caveman times, and it makes perfect sense. Not, and we've talked about, you know, parasympathetic and sympathetic a lot, and we know you don't, you know, you don't need to digest when you need to run from the tiger, but you do need glucose, you do need calories.
Um, but even just thinking about back then, forgetting the, the stress response piece. Food wasn't always readily available. So we probably did eat literally our, our fill when we had food because we didn't know when we would have food next. Yeah. You know, and so it just makes sense, like all of those things.
Yeah. Make sense, right. Because way back then, even the taste bud changes because you needed the food. So you didn't, it, it wasn't like, you know, we can be like, oh, this, this doesn't taste good. I'm not gonna eat it. No. When there was food, yeah. Back then we ate it. So it, it makes perfect sense if we can. I love that you say step into curiosity.
Um, because, and that's that moment like noticing and really paying attention to. Oh my gosh. You know, a minute ago I was singing my song and going to eat my salad and now, you know, I just, you know, something is telling me I am not gonna survive if I don't eat that. Fill in the blank of whatever you're sabotaging.
Yep. Food choices. Um, that's, that's the perfect time to pause and, and get I love that. Get curious because yeah. Curiosity doesn't carry judgment. And so if, if you can focus on that and your body
Gina Worful: will, your body will tell you when you're going into that shift it. I didn't pay attention early enough, but now that I understood what was happening in my body, I was like, okay, I'm gonna start paying attention to what my body is telling me.
So let's say your nervous system slightly feels a little bit of a shift. Your body might start telling you by having a little bit of a contraction. You might feel your neck tense up. You might kind of start breathing shallow, maybe even holding your breath a little bit. And you'll notice that you kind of have this feeling that you just wanna like snack and you're, you're kind of like gently on the p prowl.
You're like, Hmm, I just ate, but I kind of want something sweet. And you're kind of like a little bit on the prowl and not really realizing that your nervous system's a little bit revved up. Mm-hmm. To all the way, if that stress accumulates more and more and more, it could feel like the stress is so high that the warning system is so big that it com, that amygdala completely takes over, and that's where you feel like you are completely powerless and you end up just eating whatever is there.
And then once you end up eating the food, your body gets a signal of safety again. And then that's when your rational thinking comes back and you're like. Wait, what just happened? You just had goals. Why would I do that? And now the logical thinking comes back online. So your body will actually start telling you from anywhere from really subtle.
You can kind of feel that stress response. I, I'm so sensitive to it now that I can feel, oh, if my neck is starting to contract, that's kind of a protective state. Or I, you know, you might see a lot of people with like bloating or constipation and like you said, how the body is kind of going into more fight or flight versus that rest and digest state.
Mm-hmm. It's amazing how our bodies will give us this little clues of like, I need something. And the more that we can listen to like the whispers that the body is sending us, the more we can say, oh, I feel like going into this stress response. How can I care for it? How can I provide it? The safety and nurturing.
But when I didn't understand and I didn't listen to those whispers, it turned into a yell.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Gina Worful: It's the, she completely took over.
Julie Howton: The same with. You know, all of our physical symptoms and that, you know, people will say like, oh, all of a sudden I got, you know, an autoimmune condition. It's like, no. And, and that's a survival, you know, those are adaptations.
Um, and I think that, that at almost every woman I know that's grown. You know, that those, we've been. Just conditioned to ignore. Be polite. Like you said. Try to outthink it. Outsmart it, judge it. Um, all the things. I remember when my daughter was, was a teenager. I was like, listen, when those hairs on the back of your neck, stand up.
Gina Worful: Mm.
Julie Howton: That do not be polite. I don't care where you are, what's going on? Get out, leave. You know? But like, nobody told me that, like I was told be polite. Mm-hmm. Right. So it's the same with the listening. And I love that you shared 'cause people think you know, oh Gina, you, you know, you must be perfect. Right? So.
For even those of us that weren't just still in touch and listening and receiving those messages, um, we can reconnect. Mm-hmm. All healing happens, reconnected with our bodies. Mm-hmm. And so we, we can learn to, to receive those messages and get those screams to, you know, like you said, to catch it at the whisper phase.
Yeah. Is, is the key.
Gina Worful: Yeah. And if it feels hard, I know a lot of people are in a place of like, oh, I feel so disconnected from my body. I don't even know what my body's telling me. I feel so numb to my body, and I, I completely understand. I was right there with you. For me, it has been a journey of moving my attention into my body and feel what it's feeling.
And I know like this is a, this is a journey that we all have to be on our own time because not only does our body hold. The truth of what we're needing, when we're feeling stressed, when we're feeling lonely, when we're feeling overwhelmed, or the sensations of being hungry or actually being full. This is where really all of life is our true sensations.
And when we live with our attention up in our minds all the time, that's when it gets distorted and confusing. Like, wait, am I hungry? Right. Am I full? Which voice do I believe? Why am I craving stuff all the time? And because if we live with our attention up here, we can't feel those sensations in the body.
So the practice of moving our attention into our body is how we start to pick up the sensations and those signals again. But we have to be so patient and really on our own time, because sometimes when we bring our attention down into our bodies, we start to feel more emotions that we weren't feeling before.
Absolutely right. It opens up our emotions, but that's also where we start to build trust with our emotions. And yes, what are they telling us? And we have a deeper intimacy with our feelings, with our emotions, with ourselves. So I noticed it for myself when I was living with my attention up here. In my mind, I felt so numb and so disconnected to my body and like, what am I missing?
But that's also why I was like, why don't I have control over my food? Why do I always feel hungry? Why do I think about food all the time? And I was just in that survival state and bringing my attention down. Here is where I learned to trust myself. Yeah. And feel what my body's needing
Julie Howton: that you say it is a process.
Yeah. Because at least, especially for, for, I think for all of us, yeah. Um, we all have wounds. We all have, you know, emotional scrapes and scratches. If not, you know, scars and slashes or, and, and I know that by the time people show up on my doorstep. Uh, that disconnect has been going on for a long time, and it always comes from a place of protection.
And so, yeah, this isn't a, listen to what Gina and Julie are talking about and then do a 180 change to it is a process. Mm-hmm. And, and, um, sometimes you need to go slowly and gently because feeling those feelings, it, you know, there's a reason you stuffed them to begin with. Hmm. Um, but the, the work is, is worth it.
'cause the reward is on the other side of that. And I, I would say, just like you said, trust yourself. Hard to, hard to do in the beginning. Learn, but just keep practicing.
Gina Worful: Yeah. And you know, one of my, one of my students, she was really nervous about doing this kind of exploration and I recently had a call with her.
I interviewed her. And she said, this is amazing. This is so beautiful. Because before I felt so confused and felt so lost, but now, like I, I know myself. I'm in, I feel at home in my body and it's enlightening. And so it's really beautiful. It is. I love looking at this exploration with our relationship with food, which is how do my feelings influence my food choices, and how do my food choices influence how I feel?
This relationship that we have with our food, we get to learn about ourselves because we have history with food. And what's so interesting is a lot of people. Think that, oh, I'm eating this food choice because of something that I'm feeling today. But really, we have a relationship with food that gets established from the day that we're born.
You know, when we're born and we start eating, that's our first, when we start breastfeeding and you're, you're crying and you're frantic and you start breastfeeding. That's the first signal, one of the first relationships we ever develop. Oh, food makes me safe. Yeah. I'm okay. I'm safe. And so all throughout our lives it's like we get to build these associations that food is our, our partner, it's our ally.
It helps us. You know, if you didn't have parents that knew how to express love, but they set you in front of the TV and they gave you food, and you're like, oh, this is what love feels like. Mm-hmm. That's not a bad thing. It's, it's beautiful. That food is like your ally. To give you love, to give you comfort if you were alone.
A lot food can feel like our, our friend, our, our comfort throughout our lives. And so we still keep those associations. So what's amazing about that is if I'm willing to have the courage to look inward and say. How is this food making me feel right now? Okay. It's providing me a sense of love. It's providing me a sense of comfort.
One, I can have a lot of appreciation for what it's doing for me. And then my next step for growth might not be how do I get rid of the food? It might be how do I cultivate a deeper feeling of love inside of my body? Yes. What would provide me that feeling of comfort? And I start practicing that in here.
And to me that's. That's the power of like mindfulness. Yes. When we can sit with ourselves and start feeling, how do I feel, this sense of love that I'm looking for, that maybe I didn't receive from my parents or. The comfort and security that I was really always needing and start to feel that from the inside.
And then we actually don't need willpower. We don't even need to set goals to not eat a food. It's like we're providing what we're really looking for. And that craving kind of just like gently softens. It's like, okay, I'm not needed anymore. You know what I mean? Does that make sense?
Julie Howton: It totally makes sense.
Absolutely. And I love that you, you highlighted these patterns. Start. At birth, like the, I mean, it, it's, it is the why it is a relationship, right? And everybody, I, I always giggle because. You know, we all think our relationship with, with our foods, our whatever, you know, um, is, is special. And I, I say like, you know, people say, well, you don't understand I'm Italian.
And I'm like, well, you don't understand I'm Jewish. Like everybody has. They're their, you know, familial relationship. Oh yeah. Their cultural relationship, their social re there's all these different levels of connections with food. But I joke because like when we get down to like the, the childhood patterns and that feeling of love.
I've yet to have one client and be like, oh, this, you know, this giant salad reminds me of my mother. Like, nobody has ever said that.
Gina Worful: Yeah. It, it's, it's enlightening when we see that relationship, you know? Yeah. I had a. One of my students, she, she shared this on my podcast, so I, I feel okay with sharing this.
Yeah. Because she shared this publicly, but, um, you know, she could like, could not stop eating ketchup. And she was like, I put ketchup on everything. And she said, man, this ketchup is probably kind of a thing. I should probably not eat so much of this. But it was really hard for her. And when she got a little bit curious, she was like, oh my gosh.
When I was a kid, I would eat. Fries and ketchup with my dad, and my dad passed away, and I feel like this ketchup is my connection to him. Yeah. And just that, that awareness and that realization alone allowed her to be like, wow, this struggle I've been having was actually how I felt connected to my dad.
And I wonder if I can feel that connection with him while also honoring this next chapter for my body.
Julie Howton: Yes, absolutely. And I, I love my, my dad passed over 30 years ago. And I have foods that they're, they're literally, but, and again, sometimes the awareness doesn't mean like then you never do the thing either.
Right? Right. But you're, you're making a conscious choice. And even just the awareness of, oh, I must be missing my dad today 'cause I am thinking about that dish and it's not a dish I normally have. You know? And, and so. The, and that also allows you to, I don't have to eat it. I can choose to or not to.
Gina Worful: The goal isn't necessarily to try to eat perfect all the time. Yes.
And reach that place of perfection. But the goal is to feel in choice of, so that when we're around food, I can say, is this a choice that would best serve me? Is this a choice that I wanna make? And sometimes that might be an indulgence. Or it might be an indulgence that I'm like, you know what? I wanna indulge, but I might indulge in a way that feels more honoring.
And for me, that might be like the gluten-free dessert or something that, right. It's kinda honoring of the goals that I want, but. To work with my body's chemistry, so I don't go into that survival state where I lose my sense of power with food. So it's not really about eating perfect, it's about being in connection with my body and feel when my body and my nervous system is starting to go into that stress response and feel what it is that I'm really deeply needing.
And see if I can work with my body's chemistry so that if I do wanna indulge or I want to eat something, I'm doing it pla from a place of like connection with myself. Yes. And I really feel in choice. Yeah. And that's when we don't really, that's when we don't need willpower anymore. Willpower just becomes irrelevant.
Right? 'cause I'm always in tune with my body saying, does this choice honor me? And I feel really good about it.
Julie Howton: Yeah, I love that. And being in that place, judgment is out the window. Yeah. It's not because the, all the judgment does is make it all worse. It just keeps that spiral going because when you're in judgment of yourself, then you're going to be in that.
That stress plays. A and it becomes this, this snowball. And so, yeah. Um, but just saying like, I'm not gonna judge myself and No, it's the, the connection and the, and like you said, that understanding of the physiology, I think is the, is the key because we're designed this way. How can this be my fault?
Gina Worful: Yeah.
Like, yeah. This is actually a really great, this is a great example. One of my past struggles used to be snacking while I was working kind of towards the end of the day around like mm-hmm. That three or four o'clock time when stress is built up. And so before I knew all of this, I would get up from my desk, go grab a snack circle background, get up, snack, circle back around, and I would tell myself, no, don't do it.
Don't, don't do it. But it was like. It. My body was literally like a magnet to the kitchen. There was like no stopping me, even though my brain was like, no, don't do it. And I would keep repeating that pattern and I couldn't figure out what was happening. Now about about a month ago I was sitting here working and unfortunately my kitchen is not too far from my workspace, and I found myself getting up right around that same time.
And I go over to the kitchen and I open the cupboard, and my experience was so different because. I've practiced this so many times that I was like, oh, wait a second. I paused and I was like, oh, let me use my curiosity here. What's happening? Am I hungry? And so I paused for a moment and took a few breaths and I felt inside my body and I was like, Hmm, is that hunger?
And I'm like. Mm. No, I don't think I'm hungry. No, I know I'm not hungry. Okay. What am I feeling? And I'm like, well, I feel like my neck is a little tight. My jaw's a little tight. I'm feeling a little, little tension, a little bit of stress. I feel like I've been in the zone on the computer doing things for everybody else in the world.
I haven't. I actually just really wanna feel good. I wanna feel something that feels good inside of my body right now. And I was like, okay. So now from that place. Mm-hmm. What do I want to do? What do I choose? And when I've repeated this process, there were some days that I was like, I'm actually gonna have a piece of chocolate.
But doing it from that place of I know I wanna feel good, I was able to eat some chocolate and receive the pleasure from it that I was looking for. Mm-hmm. Where in the past I would be like, no, don't do it. This is bad. And I would check out and disassociate from the experience and I never. Received the pleasure from it that I was looking for, and then there would be another day where I was like, Hmm, okay, I'm actually just wanting to feel good.
You know, I can actually just go for a walk right now. That would feel really good. I just need a break.
Julie Howton: Put on a, put on a song, dance. Something, you know, dance. Yeah, yeah.
Gina Worful: Do something for me. I haven't done anything for me all day today. And we're such a culture that is based on productivity, getting the most done, taking care of everyone else.
And I, I'm not a mom, but I have so much compassion for my moms out there who are just. Pouring their energy into kids all day long that sometimes we forget to say, have I done anything for me that makes me feel good and beyond that search. So it was so interesting to see the contrast from. In the past, it was such a self-sabotaging moment of losing control.
And now my experience is so different that I felt my nervous system shift. But I was like, oh, let me get curious. Let me slow down and pause, feel what my body is telling me that I'm really needing, and then make a decision from that place of conscious choice and awareness. And it, it did take me a long time to get here, of course, but the difference between being at such a war with myself and my food to just feeling so.
In partnership and from a place of connection of, let me feel what I'm really needing. Yeah. And it felt like total such a different experience.
Julie Howton: Well, and what I love about that is a, it highlights this is an ongoing process. Like these are lifelong patterns, but the, the even like even better positive from.
You having that pattern and being able to identify that pattern is it actually signaled you to pause, check in, and, and really feel like, oh, you know what? That I've been ignoring Gina, or I've just been fo, you know, focused elsewhere. Gina needs a little love right now. Instead of just, so it's actually a gift to me, like from where I sit, that's so much better than you just pushing right through that last couple hours of work.
Right, for sure. And just keeping yourself on the back burner. So yes, we have to remember like when those signals pop up and those patterns are there. Again, they can be for us in a completely different way. And actually, like you said, I, I really think that that the work you're doing will just helps people shift to actually nourishing themselves.
Gina Worful: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Julie Howton: Like, and that's, that's, that's the goal, that's the ideal, is we wanna be nourishing our bodies, but we need to be like, connected to our bodies and integrated and understand. And then make those choices that way. Um,
Gina Worful: yeah. Yeah. You said something, you said something so important that I don't want it to let, to slip away, that some people may not have caught you.
Said something so important about it, you know, showing me about where I was needing to like, feel good or putting myself on the back burner. So what if we looked at every self-sabotaging moment, not as the bad thing that I have to control and something wrong with me, but actually is my mirror pointing me back home to myself?
Yeah. When am I feeling lonely and I need connection? When am I putting, been putting myself on my back, on the back burner and I'm needing to feel good. Yeah. And so this food can really be, or our food or our relationship with food or these self-sabotaging moments are not the enemy. They're not the bad thing.
They're a mirror showing us. For what our unmet needs are and where we need to feel more love, more pleasure, more joy. And if we look at it as that, we see the beauty in all of it, the perfection in all of it, that like we can, we can trust ourselves more than what we think. It's just because we've been taught that these are bad.
We're cutting off this really important message and information. Yes. From a really deep place, call it maybe your heart or your soul or whatever you believe in, something really deep within you that's like, I need something, I need to feel good right now, or I need safety, or I need comfort.
Julie Howton: Ah, amen. I love that.
Mm-hmm. And it is, it's so true. Again, it's part of that, you know, even if there's somebody who's delusional enough to think they don't have food relationship issues, who's listening and maybe needs to listen again, like so they can identify. Um, 'cause we all do there. They, it may not be, you know, I love, it's, it's not always about weight, right?
Mm-hmm. Like, so are whatever the issue, it, it may be not eating like when you're hungry Mm. Because of the store. Like whatever it is. Um, but I, I just think it, it is so, so important for healing, you know, for us to realize that, that we need to work on that mindfulness piece in order to actually nourish our bodies with food.
You know, we have to feel the feelings. We have to get curious. Um, yeah. And so I just think I'm so grateful that you're doing what you're doing. Um, and, and really I was soci. I was like, oh my gosh. You know, a dietician who's like,
Gina Worful: now I, it's been, but it's been a journey for me for sure. I've learned a lot.
I, I definitely have. Very different perspectives from when I first started. Ive been humbled many times. We all evolve. I've been humbled many times about my belief systems and the best way to be healthy and bads and trends and you know, I've been humbled many times and I'm sure that I will continue to be.
But you know, you said something also that like we, we do all have this relationship with food and I think. We perceive this as, if I look at my relationship with food, that's a weakness or it means that I have a problem. But what I've realized is we all have a relationship with food, and it's one of the most fascinating and empowering things that we could study because even if you're not losing control with your food.
You can, if you lift up, lift, take off the glasses of like really look and see. Lift the veil. Yeah, lift the veil and see what is the relationship that I have. I can learn so much about myself and how food makes me feel and what drives my food choices sometimes that I don't really realize. And I really think that mindfulness is.
It's awareness. It's like paying attention. The opposite is like mindless. It's like when you check out and you don't pay attention. And I think that we are a culture that focuses on willpower, and willpower is more like closer to mindless. It's. It's overpowering your experience. It's like, don't eat that.
Don't eat that. And you try to use your strength to overpower what you're craving, what you're feeling, what you're desiring. And mindfulness is about turning up your attention inward and saying, what am I thinking? What am I feeling? What am I experiencing? Am I hungry? Am I craving something? And you're developing like an intimacy.
With your body, with your sensations, with your emotions, what you're needing, and this is where like deep, deep self-trust is built. With your body. So when people say, gosh, I just need more willpower, or What is wrong with me? We can start to see that willpower is the weakest form of change because we're overpowering what our body is like, Hey, I need your attention.
This is what I'm actually asking for. So mindfulness and connection, I think. The most powerful thing for all of us to practice is we are on our health journey and making changes.
Julie Howton: Well, and it leads to, I mean, back to the, the curiosity piece, whether it's, you know, this specifically or, you know, chronic illness in general, if we're not asking why mm-hmm.
We, we really aren't gonna create lasting change and so. You can have the most willpower in the world, but if you're, if you're white knuckling it, that's not, then you know, you're set up to be in that cycle. At some point you're gonna fall off the horse like it's just gonna happen. Yeah. Um, and so I, I love the, the taking the curiosity, and again, it's, it's like you can't be in joy and stress at the same time.
You can't be in, in shame and blame and curiosity at the same time. Mm. Mm-hmm. And that is, is the key, like you have really tapped into the magic
Gina Worful: and the magic. And the magic is so simple too, that if we can bring together this childlike curiosity of, instead of saying, why do I always do that instead, it's like.
Oh, I wonder what I'm feeling. I wonder, I wonder what I'm experiencing and like bringing in this childlike wonder. And also what really helped me take the first step forward. One of my mentors had said this to me when, when I was really struggling, he said, I want you to check in with yourself like you're a child.
And I started making that my practice throughout the day. Mm-hmm. Hey, how are we doing? Do we need anything? Do we need some water? Mm-hmm. Do we need food? Are we. Is there stress building up? And I started to build that relationship with myself almost as if just like I was a child, and it made things so easy, and I got into the practice of checking in with my body and what my body was really needing all throughout the day.
Julie Howton: I love that because I, I think it's such a, like a gentle way to start to shift that awareness
Gina Worful: Uhhuh, um,
Julie Howton: you know, and then you don't get stuck in that. Like, oh, I can't feel what's going on in my body, you know? Yeah, like that's a, like one is is just a, a nice like segue into getting reintegrated with what's going on in your body.
Gina Worful: I'll also share the the actual three step process that I do for myself that I do with my students. That kind of brings everything full circle. You'll probably see it like in the examples I shared with myself or, or with other people. But so the first step is to develop awareness, so I just make it a practice of pausing and checking in with all the things of myself.
What are my thoughts? Am I saying things like, Ooh, you deserve a treat right now. And not that that's bad, but I'm just kind of checking in. I'm, what are my thoughts telling me what's going on? I'm, I'm using my awareness to feel, what emotions am I feeling? What's really ha and what are the sensations? Am my body, am I, is that hunger?
Is that a craving? Am I full? I'm like, I'm using my awareness to check in on what's happening with my body. And then the second step after awareness is regulation. Mm-hmm. This is the part that most people miss because Yeah. People will say, well, I tried listening to my body and my hunger, my fullness, and I couldn't, or I tried intuitive eating and I just can't do that.
And that's because they're missing this piece. When your nervous system is in that yes sympathetic state, your attention is up here and you feel numb to your body. You can't tell if you're hungry or full or if you're having a craving or what's going on. You can't pick up those signals on a, on a physiological level.
Your brain activity is not working to be able to pick up those signals. So this step is so important, which is regulation. There's so many different ways to bring your body into a more regulated state, but what I think is the easiest and the most simple is like bringing your hand to your heart so you can feel that connection with your body and just taking a few slow breaths in and out through your nose.
And if you try that right now, you'll feel how your body, just within a few breaths, it will start to soften. Your attention will start to move more. Here, you kind of, your breath wakes up the sensations of your body. Now it's like, oh, not only does it feel better, but you're shifting your brain activity back to that prefrontal cortex.
It's helping you think a little more clearly, feel the sensations in your body. And so first is awareness of like, what am I thinking, feeling, experiencing. Then we practice, uh, regulation regulating my nervous system. And then the integration part is now that I'm feeling and sensing everything in my body, I can ask myself, what do I need right now?
Or what am I experiencing? And we can start to understand what am I feeling? What am I really needing? And, and make food choices from that place of connection.
Julie Howton: Ah, that is gold right there. Everybody needs, everybody can benefit from doing that practice. Um, and, and I love how I thank you for sharing that. I, I, yeah.
Did, I had seen it on the website and, and, um, but, and I, I still want people, there's so much on the website, so, oh. For, for, for people that are listening on the go, uh, I'll flip. I usually ask a different question first, but for people that aren't gonna check out the show notes, where is the best place to, to find you to, to find the institute?
Gina Worful: Yeah, so if you wanna keep learning, I do have a free training on Mastering Mindfulness Institute, and it's called Reclaiming Your Power with Food, and it breaks down that three step methodology and gives you a lot of examples and ways of practice and kind of looking at what does that progression look like as you keep practicing, what might you be thinking and feeling and experiencing?
So you can check that out. It's totally free on Mastering Mindfulness. Do Institute. Um, I also love to share things on Instagram. Gina do wfl on YouTube. I do different videos and yeah, so there's plenty of ways to keep, there's a lot of content to keep learning
Julie Howton: out there for sure. Tons to learn
Gina Worful: from.
Julie Howton: And, and so, and, and again, we all need to keep learning like we're, we're never done.
Mm-hmm. And so, um, there's always more that we can do and, and not in an overwhelming way, just as we're ready to, to go deeper. Um, yes, I, listeners know, I always ask and I know you just really gave us, uh, I know I like, I, this is the first time in 200 and something episodes where I wanna tell them the one step, but it's not what I'm here to do.
What is one step that listeners can take starting today to improve their health? You know, in just in general.
Gina Worful: Yeah. I would say instead of thinking about your health journey as doing more practicing to slowing, to slow down a little bit more and move from a place of judgment if you have been in that place of judgment to curiosity, and that could just be as simple as throughout the day, bringing your hand to heart, checking in and.
Thinking of this connection and relationship with your body as like a language. And at first you might not be good at that language and it might be like, I don't know what I'm feeling. I don't know what my body is needing. But the more you practice, the more you start to feel the different sensations of.
Hunger, fullness, emotions, cravings, you start to feel them and become more intimate with them. So just be so patient. Try not to let your mind go into that place of, this won't work for me. Yeah. Judgment.
Julie Howton: Yeah, right.
Gina Worful: Don't go back into judgment. Just start treating yourself like that little kid, and remember that your body is so perfectly designed.
That when we crave things or we self-sabotage, it's, it's self protection. And just stay curious with what you're, what you're really needing, and you can really trust yourself more than what you know and realize. I love that. And
Julie Howton: I was gonna say, the one step is to do the three step practice. Three step practice.
Practice, yeah. Practice, practice, practice to practice, exactly, yes.
Gina Worful: Practice journal about it. Like what? What was really helpful for me was pen to paper, to actually write down what did I learn about my patterns, what was I needing? And then it becomes enlightening and like, wow, I'm learning so much about my, this isn't about controlling food, this is about learning about myself.
Julie Howton: Right? Yes. Amazing. Ah, Gina, thank you so much. Not only for the work that you're doing, but but for sharing so much with us today, um, and, and truly inspiring us all to take that next step.
Gina Worful: Thank you. Thanks so much for having me, Julie.
Julie Howton: For everyone listening, remember, you can get the transcripts and show notes by Visiting Inspired Living Show.
I hope you had a great time and enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I'll see you next week.
Julie Howton: Welcome back to The Inspired Living with Autoimmunity podcast. I'm your host, Julie Howton, and today we're joined by Gina Worful, a dietician who discovered that health isn't created through control, but through self-trust. She founded the Mastering Mindfulness Institute where she teaches a mindfulness based approach to healing our relationship with food and the body.
So that change becomes natural, not forced. In today's conversation, we discuss the physiological reasons why willpower isn't the solution to staying on plan, and how stepping out of judgment and into curiosity can lead to truly mindful choices and even improved health all around.
Gina, welcome to the podcast.
Gina Worful: Thanks, Julie.
Julie Howton: I'm so excited for this conversation. I was just telling you that the work you're doing is beyond needed. Um, and at literally every, everybody I work with. Needs to, needs to focus on the, the mindset piece. Um, and this is probably too much information. Sometimes when I see RD I'm like, ah, um, I understand.
I, I know you get it. And I don't mean it. I do. I just like with love to everybody and their training and their perspective and, um, but I know that you've always been interested in nutrition and, and that. That's kind of been a lifelong love for you. Mm-hmm. But how did you shift to a degree that you decided you needed to create the Mastering Mindfulness Institute?
Gina Worful: Yeah, things have changed for me so much because when I became a dietician, I opened up a private practice, you know, working with people on their health and what I saw was really disheartening and I think what a lot of people go through, which is I had so many people who were excited and they're like, I am motivated.
I'm changing my life. And I would give them these nutrition plans and then they would. They would do it for a little while, but then sometimes the struggles would hit whether their lives got stressful or they struggled to implement the habits. And it would come back to me like it was confession. And they're like, you know, I, I tried for a while and then this happened and I struggled and I tried to be their cheerleader, but they really had a hard time and.
I started to wonder why do all of my clients have such a hard time implementing this, and am I just like a scam, like the diet industry? And I had other, I called other dieticians and I was like, what are you guys doing to help your clients be successful? Are you having any life changing transformations?
And they said. Gina, your job is to provide the information. It's their job to follow through. And I was like, you know, I, I hear that I can't force someone to change, but there's something else that's going on here that we're not addressing. And it got me very curious. And at the same time, while my clients were struggling, I was definitely a health nut, but I started to struggle too.
And even though I had all this information about nutrition, I started doing the things I was taught, like tracking my food and trying to really focus on eating healthy, as good as I possibly could, setting goals. And I started sabotaging my goals and I was like, oh my gosh, what is wrong with me? I'm the health professional.
Julie Howton: Oh, and that question right there, uh, that's why we need you. Um, 'cause there's nothing wrong with you, but it's, it's surround this, it's, it's, I see it literally in everybody I work with in some degree or another. Um, and there's so much shame or we feel like we're weak or like there's something wrong with us.
Yes. And there's not, we're human. We're, we're actually designed this way.
Gina Worful: Yeah, it, I think that that is one of the biggest questions that a lot of people aren't asking is why does the path to being healthier feel like such a struggle? And I think we put this blanket. Blanket thing on it that we just need more willpower or we need more discipline.
And I think it's such a big misunderstanding about what's happening in our bodies, in our nervous system when we start to make these changes. And so if anybody's feeling that. Feeling of guilt of why do I motivate myself and then I sabotage it When I know how to eat healthy, I know what I should be doing.
It is so much more than just knowing how to eat healthy, and I'm right there with you because I was struggling with it probably more than anybody, and also had a lot of information. What I realized and what's funny, what's actually funny about that too, is I really thought maybe there was something around health that I was missing.
And so I went back to school and I got another degree in nutrition, and then I started learning even about like functional medicine and I was fascinated with things with functional medicine, and I think all of that is so, so, so important. But it didn't explain why I kept sabotaging myself too. Right?
Yeah. So I realized there was something that I was missing.
Julie Howton: So, so brilliant and, and I don't know you well, but I feel like I can comfortably probably presume that because of your education, because of what your, your career, right, that judgment is even worse, right? Because there's this little piece of like, oh my gosh, I know what to do.
I tell, you know, I'm telling people what to do and I'm not. I am not even a hundred percent. Um, yep. And, and so I, I think, and even that did that functional, I know it's still the missing piece even in kind of functional medicine training. Um, but nervous system is, is so important to, especially for our audience, the autoimmune audience.
I mean, nervous system dysregulation is, is. Just across the board. It may show up differently in different people, but it's such a big component of autoimmune drivers. Mm-hmm. Um, that, you know, but yet that piece that's missing that you're, you're helping us with is that, you know, this I, I call, you know, my, especially my.
My adult, very adult ladies, you know, with the yo-yo dieting and the Yeah. You know, they, they have these patterns and so I wanna get into, if, if you don't mind mm-hmm. Like a little bit about, like, some of this is just physiological response. Yes. It's not weakness, it's not lack of, you know, determination.
It's, it's not anything that we should be judging in a negative way. It's actually how we're made.
Gina Worful: Yes, absolutely. So I wanna break down exactly what's happening, because if I would've known this a long time ago, if someone would've explained this to me when I went to school to be a dietician, number one, I would've had so much more compassion for myself, but I would've actually approached things with so much more confidence and working with my body.
Yes. When you understand what is happening in your body, you can start to be in partnership with it instead of feel like you're. Battling your body, battling your cravings, battling willpower. And so just this one reframe can help you move into that place of partnership. And so like the first step that I needed to take for to step forward was actually something that you brought up, which was.
Moving out of a place of judgment. That judgment was so intense and so heavy for me, and I know a lot of us have it and a lot, and it's not our fault, but the health industry tells us that your cravings are bad. Self-sabotage is bad, so hold on with everything that you've got and don't self-sabotage.
White, white knuckle. Yeah. So we start to think. Oh no, this situation is bad, so I should probably avoid it. But what we avoid is what actually keeps it holds a power over us and it keeps coming back. So the first thing to move forward is to move out of a place of judgment, into a place of curiosity with those moments of why we self-sabotage, because our, our bodies are always doing everything.
To support us. So we think of self-sabotage as a bad thing, but I think of it as actually self-protection. Sure. Our, when we go to self-sabotage, our bodies are protecting us. So here's, I'm gonna break down a little bit of the science. What's happening. Uh, I, I would imagine that your audience likes a, or your listeners really enjoy a little bit of science here.
I think so, and I'm such a geek that they're gonna just have
Julie Howton: to deal.
Gina Worful: Okay. So let's say it's a day when you're like feeling really happy and you feel really good and the sun is out and a maybe a good song comes on. Usually it's that day that you're like, oh, I'm going to eat salad. I'm never gonna eat.
Gluten, never again. I'm never gonna eat sugar. Right? Like you really think that this is like your new step forward and you're changing your life forever, and you really deeply feel that like in your heart and in your bones. Mm-hmm. And when you're in that state, when you feel good, when your nervous system is regulated in that state, your body feels safe.
Yes. And that's the prefrontal cortex in your brain that works and that is responsible for having good willpower. For rational decision making, it's very logical. So when you're feeling good and your body feels safe, your prefrontal cortex helps you with logical thinking. So you might think, I'm going to eat the salad today because it's good for me.
And the decision is that simple. It's logical, it's very easy. So that's the day that you're like, I'm never looking back. But then if you ever have a moment where suddenly it's like you have these thoughts coming in, well, you know, one, one cookie wouldn't hurt, or you start hearing those thoughts, voice that voice, and then it could be like a flip of a switch.
Where all of a sudden you watch yourself going towards those things. It is not really aligned with, with your goals or what you want to eat, and it's almost feels like something is controlling you and you're just like, you could almost go into like a tunnel vision or a hypnosis. It almost has like a hypnosis type feeling or like you just watch yourself, you know, self-sabotage when you know that it's not really aligned with what you really want and your desires.
Usually that happens when your nervous system gets the information of We're not safe, or There's a stress present, and that stress could be anything. It just could be that. It could be that you didn't eat enough food and you really were trying to cut back your calories and your body received that. As we're not eating enough food, there's a stress.
It could be an emotional stress, it could be your financial stress, your relationship stress, something that. Sense assigned to your nervous system of like a lack of safety. And I know we might think, well, I am safe. You know, I, I'm totally safe. It doesn't matter. But it doesn't matter. That's that stress is a signal in our bodies.
And so when that stress starts to accumulate, it shifts the brain to activity. And so that prefrontal cortex that gave you really good willpower. It kind of deactivates, for a better lack of a better word, it's not the primary center that's working. And what does come online is your amygdala. Your amygdala is your brain's survival area, and it does, it drives you to do everything for survival, and that's your body's number one priority.
If you're under a stress, your body's priority isn't. To make the logical, healthy choice like the salad, it's to protect you, and things like glucose and sugar and carbs and things that taste good. Taste sweet. Those give the body fuel for energy, like if you had to run from a wild animal. So when you're under that stress, you'll notice everything.
Your whole body's chemistry shifts. So you'll start notice noticing. Your attention will go from like in your body to up here and you'll start thinking about food. You'll start thinking about the flavors. And I almost think of it as like a tiger that's like tunnel vision on like, I need this one food.
Those are our primal instincts. Yes. It's the way our body is designed for protection. And what's so interesting is there's some research that shows that our taste, bud receptors will change their shape in this state so that food actually tastes better and you want more of it, and now you'll start feeling more hungry.
And what else is interesting is when you do start eating the area of your brain, that that gets the information that you ate so that you feel full. Mm-hmm. It stops working as well, so you can keep eating. And it feels like, man, why can't I stop? Why don't I feel full from this?
Julie Howton: Ravenous? Yeah, I'm
Gina Worful: ravenous.
And so we see that as willpower. But it's really our body and our nervous system going into self-protection. And if we all knew that we would work with our bodies in such a different way, which is why it's hard when we take away the food. That feeling inside of our body and our nervous system is still there.
And
Julie Howton: it's real. Like it's real. This is not, it is real. It's a physiological response. Like it is not, you know? Um, and, and even just thinking of, I talk so much on the podcast about getting back to. How we are physiologically designed, right? How we lived in caveman times, and it makes perfect sense. Not, and we've talked about, you know, parasympathetic and sympathetic a lot, and we know you don't, you know, you don't need to digest when you need to run from the tiger, but you do need glucose, you do need calories.
Um, but even just thinking about back then, forgetting the, the stress response piece. Food wasn't always readily available. So we probably did eat literally our, our fill when we had food because we didn't know when we would have food next. Yeah. You know, and so it just makes sense, like all of those things.
Yeah. Make sense, right. Because way back then, even the taste bud changes because you needed the food. So you didn't, it, it wasn't like, you know, we can be like, oh, this, this doesn't taste good. I'm not gonna eat it. No. When there was food, yeah. Back then we ate it. So it, it makes perfect sense if we can. I love that you say step into curiosity.
Um, because, and that's that moment like noticing and really paying attention to. Oh my gosh. You know, a minute ago I was singing my song and going to eat my salad and now, you know, I just, you know, something is telling me I am not gonna survive if I don't eat that. Fill in the blank of whatever you're sabotaging.
Yep. Food choices. Um, that's, that's the perfect time to pause and, and get I love that. Get curious because yeah. Curiosity doesn't carry judgment. And so if, if you can focus on that and your body
Gina Worful: will, your body will tell you when you're going into that shift it. I didn't pay attention early enough, but now that I understood what was happening in my body, I was like, okay, I'm gonna start paying attention to what my body is telling me.
So let's say your nervous system slightly feels a little bit of a shift. Your body might start telling you by having a little bit of a contraction. You might feel your neck tense up. You might kind of start breathing shallow, maybe even holding your breath a little bit. And you'll notice that you kind of have this feeling that you just wanna like snack and you're, you're kind of like gently on the p prowl.
You're like, Hmm, I just ate, but I kind of want something sweet. And you're kind of like a little bit on the prowl and not really realizing that your nervous system's a little bit revved up. Mm-hmm. To all the way, if that stress accumulates more and more and more, it could feel like the stress is so high that the warning system is so big that it com, that amygdala completely takes over, and that's where you feel like you are completely powerless and you end up just eating whatever is there.
And then once you end up eating the food, your body gets a signal of safety again. And then that's when your rational thinking comes back and you're like. Wait, what just happened? You just had goals. Why would I do that? And now the logical thinking comes back online. So your body will actually start telling you from anywhere from really subtle.
You can kind of feel that stress response. I, I'm so sensitive to it now that I can feel, oh, if my neck is starting to contract, that's kind of a protective state. Or I, you know, you might see a lot of people with like bloating or constipation and like you said, how the body is kind of going into more fight or flight versus that rest and digest state.
Mm-hmm. It's amazing how our bodies will give us this little clues of like, I need something. And the more that we can listen to like the whispers that the body is sending us, the more we can say, oh, I feel like going into this stress response. How can I care for it? How can I provide it? The safety and nurturing.
But when I didn't understand and I didn't listen to those whispers, it turned into a yell.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Gina Worful: It's the, she completely took over.
Julie Howton: The same with. You know, all of our physical symptoms and that, you know, people will say like, oh, all of a sudden I got, you know, an autoimmune condition. It's like, no. And, and that's a survival, you know, those are adaptations.
Um, and I think that, that at almost every woman I know that's grown. You know, that those, we've been. Just conditioned to ignore. Be polite. Like you said. Try to outthink it. Outsmart it, judge it. Um, all the things. I remember when my daughter was, was a teenager. I was like, listen, when those hairs on the back of your neck, stand up.
Gina Worful: Mm.
Julie Howton: That do not be polite. I don't care where you are, what's going on? Get out, leave. You know? But like, nobody told me that, like I was told be polite. Mm-hmm. Right. So it's the same with the listening. And I love that you shared 'cause people think you know, oh Gina, you, you know, you must be perfect. Right? So.
For even those of us that weren't just still in touch and listening and receiving those messages, um, we can reconnect. Mm-hmm. All healing happens, reconnected with our bodies. Mm-hmm. And so we, we can learn to, to receive those messages and get those screams to, you know, like you said, to catch it at the whisper phase.
Yeah. Is, is the key.
Gina Worful: Yeah. And if it feels hard, I know a lot of people are in a place of like, oh, I feel so disconnected from my body. I don't even know what my body's telling me. I feel so numb to my body, and I, I completely understand. I was right there with you. For me, it has been a journey of moving my attention into my body and feel what it's feeling.
And I know like this is a, this is a journey that we all have to be on our own time because not only does our body hold. The truth of what we're needing, when we're feeling stressed, when we're feeling lonely, when we're feeling overwhelmed, or the sensations of being hungry or actually being full. This is where really all of life is our true sensations.
And when we live with our attention up in our minds all the time, that's when it gets distorted and confusing. Like, wait, am I hungry? Right. Am I full? Which voice do I believe? Why am I craving stuff all the time? And because if we live with our attention up here, we can't feel those sensations in the body.
So the practice of moving our attention into our body is how we start to pick up the sensations and those signals again. But we have to be so patient and really on our own time, because sometimes when we bring our attention down into our bodies, we start to feel more emotions that we weren't feeling before.
Absolutely right. It opens up our emotions, but that's also where we start to build trust with our emotions. And yes, what are they telling us? And we have a deeper intimacy with our feelings, with our emotions, with ourselves. So I noticed it for myself when I was living with my attention up here. In my mind, I felt so numb and so disconnected to my body and like, what am I missing?
But that's also why I was like, why don't I have control over my food? Why do I always feel hungry? Why do I think about food all the time? And I was just in that survival state and bringing my attention down. Here is where I learned to trust myself. Yeah. And feel what my body's needing
Julie Howton: that you say it is a process.
Yeah. Because at least, especially for, for, I think for all of us, yeah. Um, we all have wounds. We all have, you know, emotional scrapes and scratches. If not, you know, scars and slashes or, and, and I know that by the time people show up on my doorstep. Uh, that disconnect has been going on for a long time, and it always comes from a place of protection.
And so, yeah, this isn't a, listen to what Gina and Julie are talking about and then do a 180 change to it is a process. Mm-hmm. And, and, um, sometimes you need to go slowly and gently because feeling those feelings, it, you know, there's a reason you stuffed them to begin with. Hmm. Um, but the, the work is, is worth it.
'cause the reward is on the other side of that. And I, I would say, just like you said, trust yourself. Hard to, hard to do in the beginning. Learn, but just keep practicing.
Gina Worful: Yeah. And you know, one of my, one of my students, she was really nervous about doing this kind of exploration and I recently had a call with her.
I interviewed her. And she said, this is amazing. This is so beautiful. Because before I felt so confused and felt so lost, but now, like I, I know myself. I'm in, I feel at home in my body and it's enlightening. And so it's really beautiful. It is. I love looking at this exploration with our relationship with food, which is how do my feelings influence my food choices, and how do my food choices influence how I feel?
This relationship that we have with our food, we get to learn about ourselves because we have history with food. And what's so interesting is a lot of people. Think that, oh, I'm eating this food choice because of something that I'm feeling today. But really, we have a relationship with food that gets established from the day that we're born.
You know, when we're born and we start eating, that's our first, when we start breastfeeding and you're, you're crying and you're frantic and you start breastfeeding. That's the first signal, one of the first relationships we ever develop. Oh, food makes me safe. Yeah. I'm okay. I'm safe. And so all throughout our lives it's like we get to build these associations that food is our, our partner, it's our ally.
It helps us. You know, if you didn't have parents that knew how to express love, but they set you in front of the TV and they gave you food, and you're like, oh, this is what love feels like. Mm-hmm. That's not a bad thing. It's, it's beautiful. That food is like your ally. To give you love, to give you comfort if you were alone.
A lot food can feel like our, our friend, our, our comfort throughout our lives. And so we still keep those associations. So what's amazing about that is if I'm willing to have the courage to look inward and say. How is this food making me feel right now? Okay. It's providing me a sense of love. It's providing me a sense of comfort.
One, I can have a lot of appreciation for what it's doing for me. And then my next step for growth might not be how do I get rid of the food? It might be how do I cultivate a deeper feeling of love inside of my body? Yes. What would provide me that feeling of comfort? And I start practicing that in here.
And to me that's. That's the power of like mindfulness. Yes. When we can sit with ourselves and start feeling, how do I feel, this sense of love that I'm looking for, that maybe I didn't receive from my parents or. The comfort and security that I was really always needing and start to feel that from the inside.
And then we actually don't need willpower. We don't even need to set goals to not eat a food. It's like we're providing what we're really looking for. And that craving kind of just like gently softens. It's like, okay, I'm not needed anymore. You know what I mean? Does that make sense?
Julie Howton: It totally makes sense.
Absolutely. And I love that you, you highlighted these patterns. Start. At birth, like the, I mean, it, it's, it is the why it is a relationship, right? And everybody, I, I always giggle because. You know, we all think our relationship with, with our foods, our whatever, you know, um, is, is special. And I, I say like, you know, people say, well, you don't understand I'm Italian.
And I'm like, well, you don't understand I'm Jewish. Like everybody has. They're their, you know, familial relationship. Oh yeah. Their cultural relationship, their social re there's all these different levels of connections with food. But I joke because like when we get down to like the, the childhood patterns and that feeling of love.
I've yet to have one client and be like, oh, this, you know, this giant salad reminds me of my mother. Like, nobody has ever said that.
Gina Worful: Yeah. It, it's, it's enlightening when we see that relationship, you know? Yeah. I had a. One of my students, she, she shared this on my podcast, so I, I feel okay with sharing this.
Yeah. Because she shared this publicly, but, um, you know, she could like, could not stop eating ketchup. And she was like, I put ketchup on everything. And she said, man, this ketchup is probably kind of a thing. I should probably not eat so much of this. But it was really hard for her. And when she got a little bit curious, she was like, oh my gosh.
When I was a kid, I would eat. Fries and ketchup with my dad, and my dad passed away, and I feel like this ketchup is my connection to him. Yeah. And just that, that awareness and that realization alone allowed her to be like, wow, this struggle I've been having was actually how I felt connected to my dad.
And I wonder if I can feel that connection with him while also honoring this next chapter for my body.
Julie Howton: Yes, absolutely. And I, I love my, my dad passed over 30 years ago. And I have foods that they're, they're literally, but, and again, sometimes the awareness doesn't mean like then you never do the thing either.
Right? Right. But you're, you're making a conscious choice. And even just the awareness of, oh, I must be missing my dad today 'cause I am thinking about that dish and it's not a dish I normally have. You know? And, and so. The, and that also allows you to, I don't have to eat it. I can choose to or not to.
Gina Worful: The goal isn't necessarily to try to eat perfect all the time. Yes.
And reach that place of perfection. But the goal is to feel in choice of, so that when we're around food, I can say, is this a choice that would best serve me? Is this a choice that I wanna make? And sometimes that might be an indulgence. Or it might be an indulgence that I'm like, you know what? I wanna indulge, but I might indulge in a way that feels more honoring.
And for me, that might be like the gluten-free dessert or something that, right. It's kinda honoring of the goals that I want, but. To work with my body's chemistry, so I don't go into that survival state where I lose my sense of power with food. So it's not really about eating perfect, it's about being in connection with my body and feel when my body and my nervous system is starting to go into that stress response and feel what it is that I'm really deeply needing.
And see if I can work with my body's chemistry so that if I do wanna indulge or I want to eat something, I'm doing it pla from a place of like connection with myself. Yes. And I really feel in choice. Yeah. And that's when we don't really, that's when we don't need willpower anymore. Willpower just becomes irrelevant.
Right? 'cause I'm always in tune with my body saying, does this choice honor me? And I feel really good about it.
Julie Howton: Yeah, I love that. And being in that place, judgment is out the window. Yeah. It's not because the, all the judgment does is make it all worse. It just keeps that spiral going because when you're in judgment of yourself, then you're going to be in that.
That stress plays. A and it becomes this, this snowball. And so, yeah. Um, but just saying like, I'm not gonna judge myself and No, it's the, the connection and the, and like you said, that understanding of the physiology, I think is the, is the key because we're designed this way. How can this be my fault?
Gina Worful: Yeah.
Like, yeah. This is actually a really great, this is a great example. One of my past struggles used to be snacking while I was working kind of towards the end of the day around like mm-hmm. That three or four o'clock time when stress is built up. And so before I knew all of this, I would get up from my desk, go grab a snack circle background, get up, snack, circle back around, and I would tell myself, no, don't do it.
Don't, don't do it. But it was like. It. My body was literally like a magnet to the kitchen. There was like no stopping me, even though my brain was like, no, don't do it. And I would keep repeating that pattern and I couldn't figure out what was happening. Now about about a month ago I was sitting here working and unfortunately my kitchen is not too far from my workspace, and I found myself getting up right around that same time.
And I go over to the kitchen and I open the cupboard, and my experience was so different because. I've practiced this so many times that I was like, oh, wait a second. I paused and I was like, oh, let me use my curiosity here. What's happening? Am I hungry? And so I paused for a moment and took a few breaths and I felt inside my body and I was like, Hmm, is that hunger?
And I'm like. Mm. No, I don't think I'm hungry. No, I know I'm not hungry. Okay. What am I feeling? And I'm like, well, I feel like my neck is a little tight. My jaw's a little tight. I'm feeling a little, little tension, a little bit of stress. I feel like I've been in the zone on the computer doing things for everybody else in the world.
I haven't. I actually just really wanna feel good. I wanna feel something that feels good inside of my body right now. And I was like, okay. So now from that place. Mm-hmm. What do I want to do? What do I choose? And when I've repeated this process, there were some days that I was like, I'm actually gonna have a piece of chocolate.
But doing it from that place of I know I wanna feel good, I was able to eat some chocolate and receive the pleasure from it that I was looking for. Mm-hmm. Where in the past I would be like, no, don't do it. This is bad. And I would check out and disassociate from the experience and I never. Received the pleasure from it that I was looking for, and then there would be another day where I was like, Hmm, okay, I'm actually just wanting to feel good.
You know, I can actually just go for a walk right now. That would feel really good. I just need a break.
Julie Howton: Put on a, put on a song, dance. Something, you know, dance. Yeah, yeah.
Gina Worful: Do something for me. I haven't done anything for me all day today. And we're such a culture that is based on productivity, getting the most done, taking care of everyone else.
And I, I'm not a mom, but I have so much compassion for my moms out there who are just. Pouring their energy into kids all day long that sometimes we forget to say, have I done anything for me that makes me feel good and beyond that search. So it was so interesting to see the contrast from. In the past, it was such a self-sabotaging moment of losing control.
And now my experience is so different that I felt my nervous system shift. But I was like, oh, let me get curious. Let me slow down and pause, feel what my body is telling me that I'm really needing, and then make a decision from that place of conscious choice and awareness. And it, it did take me a long time to get here, of course, but the difference between being at such a war with myself and my food to just feeling so.
In partnership and from a place of connection of, let me feel what I'm really needing. Yeah. And it felt like total such a different experience.
Julie Howton: Well, and what I love about that is a, it highlights this is an ongoing process. Like these are lifelong patterns, but the, the even like even better positive from.
You having that pattern and being able to identify that pattern is it actually signaled you to pause, check in, and, and really feel like, oh, you know what? That I've been ignoring Gina, or I've just been fo, you know, focused elsewhere. Gina needs a little love right now. Instead of just, so it's actually a gift to me, like from where I sit, that's so much better than you just pushing right through that last couple hours of work.
Right, for sure. And just keeping yourself on the back burner. So yes, we have to remember like when those signals pop up and those patterns are there. Again, they can be for us in a completely different way. And actually, like you said, I, I really think that that the work you're doing will just helps people shift to actually nourishing themselves.
Gina Worful: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Julie Howton: Like, and that's, that's, that's the goal, that's the ideal, is we wanna be nourishing our bodies, but we need to be like, connected to our bodies and integrated and understand. And then make those choices that way. Um,
Gina Worful: yeah. Yeah. You said something, you said something so important that I don't want it to let, to slip away, that some people may not have caught you.
Said something so important about it, you know, showing me about where I was needing to like, feel good or putting myself on the back burner. So what if we looked at every self-sabotaging moment, not as the bad thing that I have to control and something wrong with me, but actually is my mirror pointing me back home to myself?
Yeah. When am I feeling lonely and I need connection? When am I putting, been putting myself on my back, on the back burner and I'm needing to feel good. Yeah. And so this food can really be, or our food or our relationship with food or these self-sabotaging moments are not the enemy. They're not the bad thing.
They're a mirror showing us. For what our unmet needs are and where we need to feel more love, more pleasure, more joy. And if we look at it as that, we see the beauty in all of it, the perfection in all of it, that like we can, we can trust ourselves more than what we think. It's just because we've been taught that these are bad.
We're cutting off this really important message and information. Yes. From a really deep place, call it maybe your heart or your soul or whatever you believe in, something really deep within you that's like, I need something, I need to feel good right now, or I need safety, or I need comfort.
Julie Howton: Ah, amen. I love that.
Mm-hmm. And it is, it's so true. Again, it's part of that, you know, even if there's somebody who's delusional enough to think they don't have food relationship issues, who's listening and maybe needs to listen again, like so they can identify. Um, 'cause we all do there. They, it may not be, you know, I love, it's, it's not always about weight, right?
Mm-hmm. Like, so are whatever the issue, it, it may be not eating like when you're hungry Mm. Because of the store. Like whatever it is. Um, but I, I just think it, it is so, so important for healing, you know, for us to realize that, that we need to work on that mindfulness piece in order to actually nourish our bodies with food.
You know, we have to feel the feelings. We have to get curious. Um, yeah. And so I just think I'm so grateful that you're doing what you're doing. Um, and, and really I was soci. I was like, oh my gosh. You know, a dietician who's like,
Gina Worful: now I, it's been, but it's been a journey for me for sure. I've learned a lot.
I, I definitely have. Very different perspectives from when I first started. Ive been humbled many times. We all evolve. I've been humbled many times about my belief systems and the best way to be healthy and bads and trends and you know, I've been humbled many times and I'm sure that I will continue to be.
But you know, you said something also that like we, we do all have this relationship with food and I think. We perceive this as, if I look at my relationship with food, that's a weakness or it means that I have a problem. But what I've realized is we all have a relationship with food, and it's one of the most fascinating and empowering things that we could study because even if you're not losing control with your food.
You can, if you lift up, lift, take off the glasses of like really look and see. Lift the veil. Yeah, lift the veil and see what is the relationship that I have. I can learn so much about myself and how food makes me feel and what drives my food choices sometimes that I don't really realize. And I really think that mindfulness is.
It's awareness. It's like paying attention. The opposite is like mindless. It's like when you check out and you don't pay attention. And I think that we are a culture that focuses on willpower, and willpower is more like closer to mindless. It's. It's overpowering your experience. It's like, don't eat that.
Don't eat that. And you try to use your strength to overpower what you're craving, what you're feeling, what you're desiring. And mindfulness is about turning up your attention inward and saying, what am I thinking? What am I feeling? What am I experiencing? Am I hungry? Am I craving something? And you're developing like an intimacy.
With your body, with your sensations, with your emotions, what you're needing, and this is where like deep, deep self-trust is built. With your body. So when people say, gosh, I just need more willpower, or What is wrong with me? We can start to see that willpower is the weakest form of change because we're overpowering what our body is like, Hey, I need your attention.
This is what I'm actually asking for. So mindfulness and connection, I think. The most powerful thing for all of us to practice is we are on our health journey and making changes.
Julie Howton: Well, and it leads to, I mean, back to the, the curiosity piece, whether it's, you know, this specifically or, you know, chronic illness in general, if we're not asking why mm-hmm.
We, we really aren't gonna create lasting change and so. You can have the most willpower in the world, but if you're, if you're white knuckling it, that's not, then you know, you're set up to be in that cycle. At some point you're gonna fall off the horse like it's just gonna happen. Yeah. Um, and so I, I love the, the taking the curiosity, and again, it's, it's like you can't be in joy and stress at the same time.
You can't be in, in shame and blame and curiosity at the same time. Mm. Mm-hmm. And that is, is the key, like you have really tapped into the magic
Gina Worful: and the magic. And the magic is so simple too, that if we can bring together this childlike curiosity of, instead of saying, why do I always do that instead, it's like.
Oh, I wonder what I'm feeling. I wonder, I wonder what I'm experiencing and like bringing in this childlike wonder. And also what really helped me take the first step forward. One of my mentors had said this to me when, when I was really struggling, he said, I want you to check in with yourself like you're a child.
And I started making that my practice throughout the day. Mm-hmm. Hey, how are we doing? Do we need anything? Do we need some water? Mm-hmm. Do we need food? Are we. Is there stress building up? And I started to build that relationship with myself almost as if just like I was a child, and it made things so easy, and I got into the practice of checking in with my body and what my body was really needing all throughout the day.
Julie Howton: I love that because I, I think it's such a, like a gentle way to start to shift that awareness
Gina Worful: Uhhuh, um,
Julie Howton: you know, and then you don't get stuck in that. Like, oh, I can't feel what's going on in my body, you know? Yeah, like that's a, like one is is just a, a nice like segue into getting reintegrated with what's going on in your body.
Gina Worful: I'll also share the the actual three step process that I do for myself that I do with my students. That kind of brings everything full circle. You'll probably see it like in the examples I shared with myself or, or with other people. But so the first step is to develop awareness, so I just make it a practice of pausing and checking in with all the things of myself.
What are my thoughts? Am I saying things like, Ooh, you deserve a treat right now. And not that that's bad, but I'm just kind of checking in. I'm, what are my thoughts telling me what's going on? I'm, I'm using my awareness to feel, what emotions am I feeling? What's really ha and what are the sensations? Am my body, am I, is that hunger?
Is that a craving? Am I full? I'm like, I'm using my awareness to check in on what's happening with my body. And then the second step after awareness is regulation. Mm-hmm. This is the part that most people miss because Yeah. People will say, well, I tried listening to my body and my hunger, my fullness, and I couldn't, or I tried intuitive eating and I just can't do that.
And that's because they're missing this piece. When your nervous system is in that yes sympathetic state, your attention is up here and you feel numb to your body. You can't tell if you're hungry or full or if you're having a craving or what's going on. You can't pick up those signals on a, on a physiological level.
Your brain activity is not working to be able to pick up those signals. So this step is so important, which is regulation. There's so many different ways to bring your body into a more regulated state, but what I think is the easiest and the most simple is like bringing your hand to your heart so you can feel that connection with your body and just taking a few slow breaths in and out through your nose.
And if you try that right now, you'll feel how your body, just within a few breaths, it will start to soften. Your attention will start to move more. Here, you kind of, your breath wakes up the sensations of your body. Now it's like, oh, not only does it feel better, but you're shifting your brain activity back to that prefrontal cortex.
It's helping you think a little more clearly, feel the sensations in your body. And so first is awareness of like, what am I thinking, feeling, experiencing. Then we practice, uh, regulation regulating my nervous system. And then the integration part is now that I'm feeling and sensing everything in my body, I can ask myself, what do I need right now?
Or what am I experiencing? And we can start to understand what am I feeling? What am I really needing? And, and make food choices from that place of connection.
Julie Howton: Ah, that is gold right there. Everybody needs, everybody can benefit from doing that practice. Um, and, and I love how I thank you for sharing that. I, I, yeah.
Did, I had seen it on the website and, and, um, but, and I, I still want people, there's so much on the website, so, oh. For, for, for people that are listening on the go, uh, I'll flip. I usually ask a different question first, but for people that aren't gonna check out the show notes, where is the best place to, to find you to, to find the institute?
Gina Worful: Yeah, so if you wanna keep learning, I do have a free training on Mastering Mindfulness Institute, and it's called Reclaiming Your Power with Food, and it breaks down that three step methodology and gives you a lot of examples and ways of practice and kind of looking at what does that progression look like as you keep practicing, what might you be thinking and feeling and experiencing?
So you can check that out. It's totally free on Mastering Mindfulness. Do Institute. Um, I also love to share things on Instagram. Gina do wfl on YouTube. I do different videos and yeah, so there's plenty of ways to keep, there's a lot of content to keep learning
Julie Howton: out there for sure. Tons to learn
Gina Worful: from.
Julie Howton: And, and so, and, and again, we all need to keep learning like we're, we're never done.
Mm-hmm. And so, um, there's always more that we can do and, and not in an overwhelming way, just as we're ready to, to go deeper. Um, yes, I, listeners know, I always ask and I know you just really gave us, uh, I know I like, I, this is the first time in 200 and something episodes where I wanna tell them the one step, but it's not what I'm here to do.
What is one step that listeners can take starting today to improve their health? You know, in just in general.
Gina Worful: Yeah. I would say instead of thinking about your health journey as doing more practicing to slowing, to slow down a little bit more and move from a place of judgment if you have been in that place of judgment to curiosity, and that could just be as simple as throughout the day, bringing your hand to heart, checking in and.
Thinking of this connection and relationship with your body as like a language. And at first you might not be good at that language and it might be like, I don't know what I'm feeling. I don't know what my body is needing. But the more you practice, the more you start to feel the different sensations of.
Hunger, fullness, emotions, cravings, you start to feel them and become more intimate with them. So just be so patient. Try not to let your mind go into that place of, this won't work for me. Yeah. Judgment.
Julie Howton: Yeah, right.
Gina Worful: Don't go back into judgment. Just start treating yourself like that little kid, and remember that your body is so perfectly designed.
That when we crave things or we self-sabotage, it's, it's self protection. And just stay curious with what you're, what you're really needing, and you can really trust yourself more than what you know and realize. I love that. And
Julie Howton: I was gonna say, the one step is to do the three step practice. Three step practice.
Practice, yeah. Practice, practice, practice to practice, exactly, yes.
Gina Worful: Practice journal about it. Like what? What was really helpful for me was pen to paper, to actually write down what did I learn about my patterns, what was I needing? And then it becomes enlightening and like, wow, I'm learning so much about my, this isn't about controlling food, this is about learning about myself.
Julie Howton: Right? Yes. Amazing. Ah, Gina, thank you so much. Not only for the work that you're doing, but but for sharing so much with us today, um, and, and truly inspiring us all to take that next step.
Gina Worful: Thank you. Thanks so much for having me, Julie.
Julie Howton: For everyone listening, remember, you can get the transcripts and show notes by Visiting Inspired Living Show.
I hope you had a great time and enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I'll see you next week.
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My Guest For This Episode
My Guest For This Episode
Connect with Gina Worful, MS, RD
Gina Worful, MS, RD
Gina Worful, MS, RD is the founder of the Mastering Mindfulness™ Institute. Originally trained as a registered dietitian, Gina saw that traditional diet approaches failed to create lasting change. She developed a mindfulness-based methodology that helps people build self-trust and transform their health from the inside out. Today, the Mastering Mindfulness™ Institute supports individuals, health professionals, and universities in applying this transformational approach.
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