Biochemistry, Emotions, Nutrition & Hypnosis
Updated: Jun 24
Many people are stuck in believing that their emotions, habits and biology are happening TO them. In this episode, we will explore ideas for what you CAN do to feel better physically and emotionally. What is the connection between biochemistry, emotions, nutrition, & hypnosis?
You will learn:
Ideas for how to improve your eating habits so you can influence your biochemistry and emotions in a positive direction.
How exercise can be your best ally in feeling better.
Suggestions for making it easy to develop healthier habits.
The ideas shared in this podcast are not medical advice. Please check with your medical doctor so you can make decisions that are right for you.
Hello everybody I'm Robbie Spier Miller your host for The Hypnosis Show Podcast and today we're welcoming someone who's a holistic health coach and has a special interest in emotions and how they're related to gut health and biochemistry. And that's a really interesting topic because we we want to understand that and know what we can do to help ourselves with that so that it can dovetail with subconscious changes. Welcome Rochelle.
Thank you, Thank you for having me.
Yeah, it's great to have you here. So what would be great is is if you can start with sharing with people what your personal journey was with all of this with emotions and your gut and your body and biochemistry like what got you interested in in doing this in the first place.
Yeah, so my history really starts in I was in a lot of toxic and I found myself in an abusive marriage and that's kind of really the start to all of my change. My personal growth. Um, but you know I grew up it I just always got the message that like I was wrong. You know I think a lot of us get that we get that toxic shame instilled like I just I had no self-worth no value in myself like I had no confidence all the things and so I found myself in this marriage and I had lost a job at the time so I was you know I had two kids just completely miserable in. My home life and I decided to join a gym just to literally get out of my house for like 2 hours a day just to get my kids and myself out of the house. Um, and it just like was this slow. It just kind of released a little bit of the fog right? I kind of was able to see a little bit clearer my situation and it just like gave me this slight boost of confidence enough that. Was able to just look at myself in the mirror one day and I was like I can't do this I'm miserable I don't want my kids to think that this is normal like I don't want my son to think that he should treat a woman like this or my daughter to think that this is how a man is supposed to treat her and so yeah, my ex went for a job interview and I packed up as much as I could and we left. And it was just like a really slow long journey from there of just really getting to know myself and because it started in fitness you know, gradually I began to try and eat better I was trying to drink less because at the time I was drinking a ton just to be able to get to bed at night just to be able to soothe myself. Um, and get to bed and so I started drinking less I started eating better and I just I felt better. Overall my emotions were I'll say they started going crazy at first because when you don't feel them for so long and then you allow them in right? But then I learn the tools to self-regulate and then with gut health and all of these. Tools like physical health. It was just kind of like this handinhand process and then I came across I don't know if if anyone's familiar with um, a system called human design and it's just a synthesis of like astrology the chinese e qing caalatry of life. Ah, the chakra system and quantum physics and so I just found it fascinating and it just kind of like showed me so much about who I was and it really added this self-acceptance piece. So within this I decided to go to school for gut health holistic health and further focus in gut health because I found the gut and emotions that tie so fascinating. Um, and so yeah I just spent eighteen months after that getting these certifications and started my podcast emotional mastery which is all about emotions and it really started as a space to just use my voice because that was the thing I felt was so stifled throughout my life I could never speak my truth I never I didn't even know my truth right? but.
That's kind of where that started and now I am also getting a certification are Ayerveda to become a practitioner and so it's just kind of flowed from there and I just you know in learning to self-regulate and learning all these mindfulness tools. You know, being able to create better health for myself and just really really tapping into my body and Understanding. What actually feels good. What my body needs when my body is out of sync. You know it's just it's very.. It's a slow process but it's just a beautiful unfolding and so that is basically my story and how I'm just really got into the gut health and emotions.
Okay, cool and so it's it's interesting because as you tell this story real change started to happen when you were physically making different choices and having physical activity or doing things differently and from there you were able to.
Your possibilities and change your mind and one of the things that we talk about in hypnosis is that you always want to change physiology first and when you do that. It's easier to change your mind right? which and what you did.
Yeah, and absolutely and I think you know when you're moving your body emotions are energy in motion right? So It's like when we actually get to move and shake things up it really really does move around that energy and shift it in such a physical way that yeah it does. Like I said it clears that fog a little bit and allows you to be more mentally clear right? Then you're sleeping Better. You're wanting to make better choices. So There's just yeah, there's so much that go along with it and I think it's just like it's the it's the cycle right? once you feel better then your emotions feel better. Your physically feel better and it's this circle so and in the reverse right? when we don't feel good. We don't make good. Eating choices. We don't sleep. Well so it's like something has to you have to like stop that pattern somehow and yeah for me, it was definitely definitely moving my body and feeling it physically made that change.
Yeah, because your state of mind is a combination of your experiences and all your senses plus your biochemistry and so when you influence biochemistry it changes your state of mind and you can also change your state of mind with hypnosis and other.
Experiences from that side of things.
Yeah, it's It's a powerful and beautiful process for sure.
Like yeah, Great. So um, what I'd love to know more about is what you've learned about how you know are there things wisdom or recommendations you can make around how people can influence their biochemistry and their gut health. So that they can feel healthier and as I ask this question I Want to make sure our audience knows that wherever you live you got to check with somebody who's a licensed person in your area about any nutrition or medical Advice. We're not doctors. We're not making any any medical recommendations here. Um, but it's really interesting just to hear about what's possible so that we have better questions to ask or people can research for themselves. What might help them.
Yeah, exactly I would. That's exactly how it's going to start, especially when I talk about probiotics and things like that. It's definitely make sure you're checking with your doctor going to get if you need to get blood work done lab work done get those levels checked before you implement any sort of you know, probiotic or just really and really. Tuning into your body and trusting your body because I also think I believe that our body does know best and so yeah, knowing the questions and having the tools like when you do go to the doctor knowing what to ask? but I always say like when it comes to gut Health You know we have this like standard of health that we feel and I think a lot of people think that like headaches floating gas All of these things are like a normal. Thing that we all feel right? and it's not like we don't have to feel these things We don't have to feel Blooded. We don't have to feel gas and we don't have to feel brain fog and headaches and it really comes down to your gut right? like there's so much that relates to your gut 90% of illnesses are stress related and stress massively affects the health of your gut. Um, and so really trying starting to get that in in sync and in that working well and I do recommend probiotics again Check with your doctor and check what your levels are but I personally I use Seed probiotics. There are so many brands out there. Um, I think there's a lot of promises on the labels and things like that. So just kind of doing a little bit of research in that. But you know when it comes to diet eliminating sugar is if you think about your gut as like ah like a universe or a town of its own. We have good probiotics. And then we have bad probiotics right? and they all work together and it's it's like you know, take care of your body and your body we'll take care of you. It's the symbiotic relationship. So when we're eating sugar specifically sugar feeds the bad bacteria and so when you think about it. You know our body needs sugar certain sugars right? like carbohydrates break break down to sugar. But when you're thinking like. Process Food is sugar. That's how it metabolizes in your stomach. So when you're eating processed food. It's feeding the bad bacteria when you're having you know like just regular refined sugar. It's feeding bad Bacteria. So. It's really being mindful of and it's not going to be an overnight change right? A lot of people. We are physically addicted to the food that we're putting into our body. So It's these slow manageable manageable changes if you drink Juice Ah, an easy change is just eliminating juice from your diet but really paying attention to the amount of sugar that you're having because it isn't everything right? I mean even just even.
As being aware of what I'm eating I will go through the day and I'll be like oh my gosh like I hate so much sugar today and you just don't because it's literally in everything but that is gonna be the biggest. Oh it's in everything. Yeah so I recommend you know the ideal diet is.
It's it's in like sliced bread which you would never expect more.
Ah, plant-based whole foods diet and plant-based I don't mean vegan, you can have like high quality meats in there but the base of our diet should be like whole grains, legumes vegetables fruits things like that when babies crave sugar. They're actually craving fruit just their body.. Naturally they want shoot fruit but. You know as a culture we'll give them you know Juice boxes so we give them the cereals and things like that. But if you do like if you give a child just fruit. They're completely happy like my my kids. Their favourite thing is just frozen strawberries I Buy a bag of frozen strawberries and they just snack on that throughout the day you know because that's that's what they actually Want. So I would say like starting out like really getting your gut healthy is yeah probiotics and just like paying attention to the amount of sugar that you put in because our gut creates and stores 90% of our serotonin and that's that's connected to our emotions right? So It's like when we're we have all these bad Bacterias. Our so of serotonin levels are out of whack and so naturally. Our emotions are going to be out of whack. We cannot self-regulate when our gut is creating a ah home that is is full of bad bacteria.
Yeah, so as you're describing this. It makes me think it's almost like if you had a garden and you were feeding all the weeds. Their favorite food and they're growing everywhere and you were starving all the the plants that are beautiful and and that you want in the garden.
Absolutely absolutely. Yeah, it's it's exactly what it is. Yeah so just yeah, being being mindful of that and starting slow. You know, just whether it's eliminating 1 thing. Um, you know an elimination diet is great to start with I don't recommend it long term because it can be.
That that's like kind of dynamic that's happening.
It can be a lot because you're taking out all of the like allergens like you're going to take out soy dairy meat eggs beans so that it essentially you take it away for three weeks and then you slowly add 1 thing back in a time and what it does is it really shows your body. What. What your body actually how it reacts to different foods I did it a couple years ago I am vegan so it was harder for me to be able to to eliminate all of that because it was leaving me with like like broccoli yeah to eat so I did keep in um when I was doing it I kept an organic tofu or Tempe things like that. But it really did show me that like.
Playing.
You know the process because you know when you're having soys in everything especially processed food. There's a lot of soy and processed food. There's a lot of sugar and processed food. There's all these like oils. There are certain things that you can look out for like on nutrition labels. But yeah I was really noticing when I started adding back things back in like the process soy was really irritating my stomach. So now you know when I do have things that I want to eat like I'm not saying to not enjoy food. You know, but within I think there's a lot of people go by the 8020 so 80% should be like a whole foods plant-based diet and 20% can be those like splurge days. But it's just really knowing how your body actually feels and actually reacts to things. So. Like now when I know and I have those things I might not my mood might not be the best the next day you know and it's with awareness because I think a lot of times we don't attribute our moods to what we eat and drink because alcohol is the same thing alcohol will affect your mood and it affects it like two days afterwards so a lot a lot of times we don't even realize that it's because of the.
Yeah, it's interesting. There's like this delayed reaction and then we can come up with all kinds of reasons why that could be totally unrelated. Yeah yeah, so if we were to do this in an easy way because not everybody might be willing to become vegan. Um.
What we drank a couple nights ago.
Yeah, absolutely.
The way that I look at it is that you want to eat food as close to the original forum as possible. So when you buy packaged foods who knows what they did to it or what they put in it if you can eat like basic foods and you you make your own food that would be a huge improvement.
Yeah, and like I said yeah with plant-based I'm not saying that you to do it vegan. That's just how I do. But yeah when you're looking at buying food like you want? Yeah, you want the food to be what it is So if you're buying chicken have it be chicken. Don't have a whole bunch of fillers. Don't have a whole bunch of like additives or chemicals or anything like that like just.
Just doing that.
So like when I look at if I'm buying something in a box or if I'm buying something I want the ingredients my rule of thumb my personal rule of thumb is 5 ingredients or less and I want to know every single one of them and if it starts with oil I put it down because the way that they list out ingredients on the nutrition or on the label is going to be from what's in there the most to what's in there the least. So when you think of like jelly a lot of times most of jelly is sugar but they break down sugar into like 4 different names. So it's almost trying to trick the consumer to think that sugar is not the first ingredient right? because they can put it in lesser amounts when they put different forms of sugar in there. So really like just paying attention to that. Um, of what's actually in our food. But yes, like when we're doing when we're whatever we're buying and cooking at home is extremely helpful because then not only do you know everything that you're putting into but like I love cooking because I don't do it as often as I would like to but cooking can also be a form of mindfulness and meditation right? because we're touching the things we're smelling the things we're putting it together. And so it just like almost connects us in a different way with our food and I will say to a big thing with gut health is like when you are eating stressed out our body only knows how to stress or digest. So if we're eating from a stressed out place or we're eating from an emotional place. Our digestion slows down so much that our body doesn't even note what to do with the food that it's. So I use the example of like a donut. We all know donuts probably aren't the best for us. But if we're eating a donut from a space of just enjoyment right? We're smelling it. We're tasting it. We're loving it. Our body is going to know from a very calm place what to get rid of and what to absorb. But if we're eating it and we're shaming ourself because we're eating it and our body's stressed out or maybe we're eating on the car on the way to work and we have meetings that we're thinking about and all the kids and we're just stressed our body literally know does not know what to do? So it's goingnna hold on the things that it shouldn't hold onto and maybe get rid of the things that it should. It's just it's confused right? and so having a like mindfully eating is really really. Helpful in allowing our gut and our body to do what? It's naturally beautifully built to do? Yeah, yeah yeah.
And it also helps you be honest with yourself to did I Really like that donut as much as I thought I would how did it meet feel for the hours afterwards and when we pay attention to that. It's. A lot easier to realize maybe I don't really like it as much as I thought a lot of people who eat for emotional reasons. They're not even tasting the food and they're nice. So It's which is kind of sad I mean if you're gonna eat a treat. You may as well enjoy every bite of it.
And hand it.
Yeah.
So and then they don't know how much they're eating because they're they're trying to eat their feelings instead of actually eat food and then the impact it has on their their gut and their biochemistry sends them more in that direction. So one of the things you're getting at is being able to learn how to be nice to yourself while you learn.
And yeah.
Yes, yes, yes.
Because a lot of people are in this whole guilt thing guilt and shame about eating the the quote unquote bad foods and instead of discovering whether they prefer.
Um, yeah and yeah I recommend like food journaling and that's part of it too is like you leaving the the judgment and the guilt and the shame aside because this is just you and you. You know what? I mean you don't have to share it with anybody It's just really being honest with yourself and really checking in with how you actually feel I just I really try and empower people and advocate to just like really trust yourself and know like like I you know there I don't know let's say like cookies there's these cookies that I love right? But I do know that after I don't feel great. So it's like when I eat them I know I'm not going to feel that way. But I also have the awareness to know that I don't really feel good so they're not really serving me right? So if I do want to fully enjoy the taste of them and and savour all of that then that's 1 thing right? and and enjoy it in the moment. But then you know, just. Taking that extra second before I consume something to really be like okay is this going to serve me is this going to feel good. Is it worth it and yeah, a lot of us. Do it for emotional reasons and we don't want to think about it right? That's why we're doing it. We're doing it just to like fill space or to numb out whether you're using alcohol or drugs or food or social media right? We all have these things. And so it's like what can we replace it with right like what can we do in those moments finding those small tools to be able to do that like a healthier replacing it with something that's healthier than than the thing.
Right? So people are trying to get another benefit that has nothing to do with the food. So maybe they're numbing out or they're eating their emotions or they're distracting in some way.
Where some people do it to bond with other people right? like they they bond over eating chips in front of the Tv at night with their partner or whatever. So acknowledging what you're getting out of it beyond the actual food can be really helpful because then you can find other ways to get it.
Yeah, yeah, and if you are using it to bond you can choose you know, better options or or yeah, find different find different tools to have that bonding and I I've recently I'm ah I am going through a process or breaking a relationship with alcohol I'll say that. Um, and it is like I found that? Yeah I love to go out to eat right? But when I go out to eat. It's always It's always been paired with a glass of wine. So it's like finding those things now that isn't that or just not putting myself in that situation because I believe it was James clear who wrote atomic habits in there. He said you know we look at people who. You know have broken addictions or who strive for certain things or reach goals and then we think like they're you know they have such strong willpower. They're so strong and all these things and the thing is they don't put themselves in situations where they will be weak right? Like they. Have the awareness know like hey if I go to this party or if I go to this bar this restaurant I'm gonna do the thing that I don't want to do so I'm just not going to put myself in that situation and I think that's really important because I think we look at people and we're like oh well, it's just because you're so strong right? and it's not even necessarily that they they do have this like massive inner strength right? like they do, but they just know better than to. Put themselves in those situations and it can be the same with food right? So if you're trying to feel better and do better and and you know if you go to you know whatever place because we run on habit right? Our mind likes to note that we like to do the same thing over and over because it's comfort in our mind nose right? So it's really, it's hard to break those patterns. So it's just. To finding something else to do in that. Yeah.
Yeah, or or you can use hypnosis and make it equal but those patterns is one one things that we teach people is how to realize that they actually prefer eating healthy or they prefer moving their body even people used to hate exercise.
Yes.
Can discover that they actually enjoy it but willpower is not very powerful if you have a fight between your subconscious and your willpower your subconscious will win every single time. So. It's not always practical to say Well I'm never going to eat at a restaurant again or I'm never going to go to a party again, right? or. Sometimes people need to be in these situations for work or with their family. So How can we use our subconscious minds to actually make the choices we prefer is something that we do. We help people with a lot here.
Yeah, yeah, I Love what you do I Love Hypnosis I I Love like you know we've talked before you I interviewed you from my podcast and I just I'm so fascinated with the science behind it and the subconscious and all those things. So yeah, that is absolutely a tool. To use in order to like reprogram that and rewire that. Yeah I Love that. So.
Movement is really helpful. Um. In meditation I'm I'm a huge fan of meditation just in the sense of having that piece that thing that in that moment when you want to do 1 thing. You can really just like tap in and clear out a little bit and it just really just brings you back to you I just I'm a I'm a huge I just. Really empower like I said I really empower people to like know themselves and get to know their bodies. So those are like big tools for me aside from the physical food that we're eating and you know the things that we're consuming and and probiotics and all of those things I just really think like getting to know yourself like so journaling meditation movement. Um, whether you have a spiritual practice community just all these things like really help you get into this like space that you can just yeah know how you're actually feeling right? and then we can just kind of it helps you regulate your emotions and like you said the start is like it's it's easier to do that when you're feeling better through physical movement. Through a better diet through you know, um and it you know it doesn't ever. It doesn't happen overnight and I think a lot of people even when you think about fitness people work out for like a week or 2 and then get really frustrated that there's no change and I think it's important to like redefine what movement means and what that means or looks like to each individual. Because not everybody's going to go out there and pick up £40 weights and hit the gym for an hour you know some people like to do yoga or walk or run or you know just some other gentle movement. So I think that's really important is to like really ask yourself like what that looks like for you and be intuitive with it right? like I think we get really structured on things. And when we can just like listen to what our body needs especially if you're a woman we go through cycles for menstrual phases and sometimes during the month like we are not meant to be like out there running five ks right? like we are supposed to be really gentle with our body and so I think that's really important. But yeah I think just really getting to know yourself and your body and how it feels. Um, it's just really helpful in in. Yeah, just tapping into that and really feeling and understanding what what your body needs whether that's more vegetables or you know less carbs then just kind of experimenting with it really finding what works for you.
Yeah, yeah, that's great and I'd like to add to that that another thing that's very helpful is being willing to start with a clear decision because sometimes when people want to make these changes. They debate themselves about it or they do it a little and then they judge it and. A great structure is to just make a realistic decision even choose something less than you think you can do and just follow through on it and and keep it added to your lifestyle and then you gradually add other things when you're ready so it can be done step by step. But having that long view of that. That's this is just becoming the way it is. It's becoming the way you live is very useful because a lot of people are looking for that immediate gratification or evidence right away that it makes a difference instead of sticking with that.
Yeah, yeah, and it's definitely just you know looking at one foot in front of the other right? like just kind of that like slow movement. Yes, like having that like big picture goal and like sticking to that but then just like showing up showing out for yourself in some way every day and whether it's movement like laying your clothes out the night before getting to the dinner some days where like I literally fight myself going to the gym like the entire day but then like I will put on I get up and I put on my gym clothes so that it's like almost. There's no excuse and then sometimes I show up and I just do something gentle like I'll just stretch or walk or something right? But I'm there I've showed up for myself and that in itself is a win right? so. Just implementing these like daily habits and really yeah, getting used to showing up for yourself and then that will trickle out and you'll feel empowered and the rest will kind of start to slowly like fall into place right.
Yeah, good. So is there anything else that you think would be helpful for people to know about this.
I just I just say start slow change. 1 thing you know that you can per day. Um, and again I'm I really am a fan of probiotics. But again I would urge you to check with your doctor like if you have any like major gut issues. Um, sometimes probiotics you know. Aren't necessarily the best thing probiotics to they depending on the state of your gut. Um, we sometimes have symptoms with pro probiotics like bloating and gas and it's really just the probiotic doing what it's it's trying to It's basically detoxing your gut and sometimes when we feel those symptoms. We just stop taking them because we don't feel good right in those moments. But. Caveat to that is if that lasts longer than a week maximum two weeks then that strain is not for you or maybe the the dose is not for you. But that's like a really good place to start it just kind of start getting that added help into your gut and then slowly it just like changing something every day or you know finding working with your doctor and finding out what.
Okay, so that's good to know because it's not. It's kind of like if you start working out and your muscles are sore at the beginning. You know it's not going to stay that way. It's just your body getting back into shape and so sometimes when you're making changes to your gut biome that kind of thing can happen too.
What works for you and what doesn't.
Yeah.
So it's good to know because as we're listening to our bodies if if something like that happens. You don't want to stop if it's doing what you need it to do.
Yeah, and it's kind of just bringing attention to the state of our gut right? It is kind of like showing us that hey something something is up here right? and then but as you like stick with it and in play with you know, brands or doses and things like that like it'll it'll definitely. You'll definitely notice a difference. You'll so it'll start regulating and you will feel better.
Okay, all right great. Well thanks so much Rochelle. It's great to have you on the show and share some of these tips. Of course check with your doctor and and you know do do your own personal due diligence before doing these things.
Quarters.
But I think there's some great ideas here for people and also knowing the background of why it matters. Sometimes we we're so stuck in a lifestyle that we can't imagine it any other way like years ago I used to eat a lot of carbs and a lot of gluten and then I was told to go gluten-free and sugar-free all at the same time which. Beginning felt overwhelming because I started to realize Wow There's like gluten and sugar in every single thing but you you get used to the the lifestyle and and that it can become the way it is for you but I look back on how I was eating then and I thought I was eating healthy. And if I ate that way now. Oh My God I would feel horrible right? But I would never have known if I hadn't made those changes. So I think being willing to experiment with this and and for long enough that you see what your body actually wants is an important thing.
Yeah, absolutely and that's why when I'm like taking something out or experimenting with something like that. Whether it's giving a gluten I just kind of start by telling myself like it's just for two weeks right like or it's just for three weeks and after that I can have it back. But then you notice your body like in that time frame your body does feel better and then you do realize like wow like I really didn't feel good when I was eating these things and so it just makes that like subtle conscious shift and then and then you naturally like don't want it anymore. So.
Ray. Right? Then you know why it's worth it. So it's not just like that your doctor or your naturopath told you to it's you're like oh wow okay I see why this matters for real. So I think that that helps people a lot. Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
Great. Okay, so share with people how they can reach you and how they can access your podcast.
Yeah, so the podcast is the Emotional Mastery Podcast you can find it on Spotify, ITunes, Google, Amazon it's on all the places that you can find it. On Instagram I am at Rochelle dot Christiane and that's Rochelle dot Christiane. I am on there and my website is Rochelle Christiane dot net so all of my information I'm most active on Instagram that's really where I hang out most of the time. So yeah, you can find everything over there that you need to know.
All right? great. Well thanks so much.
Thank you, Thank you so much for having me.
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