Why do we reach for that exact brand of chips—or the sleeve of Oreos—when stress hits? In this candid, part 1 episode of PCOS Unfiltered, I sit down with Kerri, the self-proclaimed “Sugar Knockout” health coach, to unpack the science and psychology of emotional eating. Kerri reveals how gut imbalances, nutrient deficiencies, and dopamine spikes keep us locked in a habit loop, while I share relatable stories from my ER nursing days and my own late-night Oreo rituals.
Together we explore:
Ready to reclaim control? My three-day Hunger Boss Mindful Eating Challenge kicks off June 23rd—for more details click HERE. Tune in for empowering and realistic steps to heal your relationship with food, all in a matter of 20 minutes per day, done at a convenient time for you.
📚 Connect with Kerri:
🔗Kerri’s digital and print COOKBOOK full of gluten-free, low-glycemic recipes with real ingredients
🔗JOIN her community on SKOOL: The Mind & Body Reset Hub 👉
🔗Connect with Kerri: empower-wellnesscoaching.com or on Instagram @sugar_ko_coach
(0:01 - 3:43) Hey there and welcome back to PCOS Unfiltered, where we ditch the fads and get real about healing with PCOS. I'm your host, Lindsay, and today's episode is extra special because I'm joined by Carrie, a certified health coach specializing in sugar addiction. We're diving into emotional eating and how to start healing your relationship with food. You're going to walk away with real world insights, a few laughs and lots of empowerment. So let's jump in. Hello, hello. Welcome. I am super, super excited to have Carrie here today. She's a fellow health coach and very dear friend of mine. So let's just kind of jump right in. And Carrie, I want to hear, you know, hear you tell everybody more about what you do and what's just kind of led you on your own health journey and brought you to this point in health coaching. Awesome. First of all, thank you so much for having me. Lindsay knows me well, so she's heard this spiel a bunch of times, but basically my health was like, I was just kind of falling apart, like in my early 20s, like falling apart, right? So I had migraines, I had gas and bloating, right? All the embarrassing stuff. I had hormonal issues, which ended up with, I had ovarian cysts, which I was told a lot of things. I was told I was just the kind of person that this happens to. And until I ended up in the hospital needing surgery. And that's when I was like, though, this, there's something's happening here. And I started researching, I started working with a health coach, changed my diet, changed my lifestyle. So the things that they tell you that are just happening to you, no, you have so much more control, which I think is amazing. You have so much more control than you realize. If you just worry about what you're putting in your body, on your body, worrying about stress, like I said, all the diet, lifestyle, all the things. And it's truly amazing that you can really take care of yourself and not just let things happen to you. Because I felt like things were happening to me. And that sucks. I'm not the kind of person that just wanted to deal with that. So yeah, that's a little bit about that. I was like, if the health coach can help me, I want to go help people. So I went into that. Good. Yeah. And now she calls herself the sugar knockout coach. But it's true. I mean, I feel like there's been like, just even in my talks with people, and I think you'll see even more throughout the podcast episodes, there's just this like underlying theme of empowerment and just being able to take control and being able to advocate for yourself. That's huge. Because, yes, like, I feel like I don't want to bash traditional medicine all the time, because it is needed. But you have to understand that they don't know everything. And so just because they tell you something, especially like they don't know everything, I feel like when it comes to nutrition and exercise and that type of thing, they're just not taught like that, then you have to be the one to go out and discover some of that on your own and find what works for you and, you know, know what other resources are out there. And so that's where Carrie plays a huge role, for sure. I'm so glad that you said that, just like if I could say one thing, because then like, right, there is there is a time and a place for traditional medicine. But you can have more of an actual intelligent conversation with your doctor when you know what's going on with your body and what works for you and what doesn't. So then it really becomes the partnership, I think it should be, if you can find a doctor that's listening to you. If one isn't, then, you know, that partnership's over. Yeah, they definitely have to be open to it, for sure. And if they're not, then maybe that one's not right for you. (3:43 - 6:44) So, yeah, definitely. So let's just kind of, yeah, keep going here. So have you ever found yourself knee-deep in sweets after a stressful day? And what was that like? I know I have them in the past. I'm sure a lot of people listening are probably right there with you. So yeah, this is such a great question. One, because I am the sugar knockout coach. Like, hey, everyone, I still go through all this too. Like, I'm not perfect. I think what happens a lot is it becomes a mindless thing, right? Like, all of a sudden, I'm in my kitchen. I'm eating the chocolate chips or cookies or potato chips, and I'm just kind of shoveling them in and no mindfulness at all, right? And then the crash happens. And then there's the emotional crash. So tell me if you can relate to this, Lindsay and anyone listening, right? Then I feel shame. Then I feel guilt, right? Because I'm like, oh my gosh, I have no control. What is wrong with me? I should be better. I know I shouldn't eat that. Like, we all know sugar is not good for us. I know I shouldn't be eating that. And I think that's the real damage. So we start beating ourselves up. And then because I don't have a coping mechanism to deal with my emotions or I've been using sugar as the coping mechanism, I go right back into eating sugar and then feeling shame and guilt and beating myself up and eating more sugar. I mean, it just becomes a vicious cycle. Yeah, for sure. I mean, yeah, there's such a huge emotional component. Yeah. I remember as a nurse, like, oh my gosh, I mean, you know, I was single and I'd be like after 12, sometimes 14 hour day, you know, I'd come home and I would eat like maybe a decent dinner. But then immediately I'd go to Oreos. That was my big Yeah. And then you just yeah. And then you feel like drunk after and I still kept doing it every single time. But it was it was just kind of like the habit of like, OK, I had dinner and now I can have this treat, you know, and then I'd limit myself to four or something and then you end up eating four more. Yeah. And they're done. It's interesting because we just had someone who graduated my program who hadn't eaten Oreos and she loved Oreos. I'm like, wait till you taste an Oreo now after your taste buds have changed, after you know what you know, like it's your chemicals. I'm like, oh, yeah, I loved Oreos, too. I love there's no sugar I don't love that I haven't loved in the past. Yeah. Well, yeah, that kind of that's a it's a great segue into the next question is what was your relationship with sugar like growing up, you know, even at a younger age? And how do you feel that that impacted you later on? Oh, yeah, that's such a great question, because I feel like especially like with my generation, everybody ate sugar like it was just the thing. Everybody ate a bunch of sugar. Like my parents had zero problem. And actually, my mom still to this day, my mom loves junk food. She loves candy. So we had a ton of it around. And I ate a lot of it. And then as a teenager, got a job and bought all the things with my money. (6:44 - 7:15) Right. I bought candy and chips and fast food. Gummy candy was my absolute weakness. I've eaten so much gummy candy, like enough to last 10 lifetimes. Right. But when you're young, your body can process that a little bit quicker. Now, I had migraines in elementary school, so my body wasn't doing so hot. Like I was getting signs then and they were few and far between. But in my late 20s, like early 30s is when it really caught up with me. And I really started noticing the signs. But when you think about it, it really was starting in my late teens, early 20s. Right. (7:15 - 9:36) So and I was listening to someone the other day. They're like, heart disease doesn't start in your 50s. Started in like your 40s and 30s. And so my body was giving me all these signs. Right. I was having the migraines. I was having all the things. But until it like was more severe and more frequent is when I actually noticed where my body was like, OK, like we we have to stop here. So there's a lot of signs, I think, along the way that we all just avoid because we think it's we're the kind of person that gets migraines. Yep, exactly. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. And I was actually just having this conversation with somebody yesterday. Stay tuned for that podcast as well. But yeah, these things that we do to our bodies that we don't listen to, first of all, we're just not listening until we have to listen because something is really going on. But you also just don't realize that what you're doing now and we all think we're invincible when we're at that age. Oh, yeah. Plus, yes, I feel like the trend has also been us waking up. I mean, in general, more people waking up to what's actually in our food now because it definitely wasn't like that before. And yeah, you learn later on like that all the stuff you did 10 plus years ago is now affecting you for sure. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's it's interesting. But yeah, you do feel invincible in your teens. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Yep. So how would you define emotional eating versus the sugar addiction and how are they different? How are they connected? Interesting. So can I say they're different yet connected? I think so. Yeah. I think when I think of sugar addiction, I think of more like physical stuff. So gut imbalance, right? If your gut bacteria is off the bad bacteria, if you have too much, it's going to crave sugar. Studies have shown that. So you're just feeding that and it gets worse. So that's like physical or a nutrient deficiency. Like you're going to crave sugar when you need some other things. So when your gut's out of whack, which I find really interesting, is that so like 80 percent of our serotonin is made in the gut, our happy hormone. So we have these like physical needs, our guts out of out of whack. We have a nutrient deficiency. Now we're not making the serotonin that we need. And so we're seeking pleasure and we start using sugar for pleasure. And that's when I think it starts turning into emotional eating because we're not we're not happy the way that we should be. (9:36 - 10:55) And so, yeah, we just start we get these like little hits of dopamine from sugar. And so we feel really good. And our brains are like so amazing. They're like, OK, so like where are we going to get this next hit? Where is this coming from? Right. And so then I think the opposite is true of like someone, you know, then it can go the other way. Like people have just started using sugar to manage emotions and then the cascade effect of gut issues, hormone issues, nutrient deficiency. And so you can be like they're like a yin and yang is how I picture it. Yeah. Yeah. I've said this before, but I'll say it again. We're overfed and undernourished, right? Because because we keep getting that hit, you know, from from all these nutrient lacking foods where if we can just increase and improve the nutrients, you know, that we're putting into our bodies that will help balance some of that stuff out without even removing it, without even thinking about removing some of that stuff first, because then your body's like, oh, I feel good from this now. And so they're going to want, you know, your body's going to want more of that instead of the the nutrient lacking foods. Yeah, absolutely. And I love that you said you don't like when people see me coming. Oh, my God. Like I go to networking. It's like, oh, I don't usually eat like this. And I'm like they people think I'm sitting there like judging what they're eating. (10:55 - 12:16) It's really funny. And also, like, I'm like, just add more nutrients to that plate. It's not really about removing. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So what are some subtle signs that someone might be emotionally eating without realizing it? So I would say two. So the two big ones to me and what I see the most is late night snacking ready without being hungry. Like you just feel like you talk about the Oreos. And so really, it's just it's a habit. And I think because I work with a lot of moms and a lot of like busy women, I think it's the only time like that they get to actually sit and relax. And so they associate whatever they're eating with relaxation. Right. So it's just it's like late night snacking that's become a habit because they're getting that little hit, right, where they're like finally doing something for themselves. And the next ... I think is a craving for one specific thing. So it's not the lasagna your mom only makes once a Christmas. OK, I will eat lasagna one time a year because she makes it and it's amazing. So it's like I need potato chips right now. I need salt and vinegar potato chips and I will get in my car and drive for that. That's emotional eating. I don't need potato chips. There's no nutritional value in them. And I mean, salt and vinegar potato chips. I have eaten those until my tongue has peeled like back in the day. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. That should be a real like if you're eating until that. Yeah. (12:17 - 14:49) Tongue is numb. And yeah. Yeah. What's happening here? Yeah. That. So yeah. I'm being gigantic back to that. So it's something really specific like that's emotional. It's not like, hey, I need some protein or I'm craving this. It's like I need that right now. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think that's a good point, too, because I feel like for some people it might be more of the sweet stuff. And then others, yes, it might be more of the salty. But some people might associate more the emotional eating with like sweets where it could be, you know, it could even be the salty things as well. So that's a good. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. What kind of piggybacking off of that to what are some other things? I know I have some things I usually recommend. What are some other things like coping wise that could help kind of break that cycle that you would recommend for them to do instead of going to the sweets or the salty snacks or whatever it is? Are there any other things to recommend? Yeah. My favorite one is really pausing. Right. And just taking a breath for I don't care. Five seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds. And like really just tuning into your body. Like what am I feeling right now? Like and like for me, it's anxiety. Like that was the thing. Like I'm super anxious and I use food to manage my emotions again because it gives you that dopamine hit. And I'm like, oh, so one, what do I really need? Like what's what's the feeling? And then to what do I really need? Like if it's anxiety, is it something I can deal with in that moment? Right. Is it having some tea? Is it taking five minutes away from my computer? Is it going to meditate for five minutes? Is it getting in my car and going for a drive? Because the people I live with are driving. Right. Like what do you need in that moment? Because sometimes it's a hug. Sometimes it's a call with a friend. Like it's connection. It's not it's not salt and vinegar potato chips. Yeah, we think it is. And why do you think I mean, I kind of touched on this a little bit, but I feel like sugar is the go to a lot of the time. Yeah. Why do you think that is that? I think it's because, yeah, I think it's the dopamine hit. I think it just it lights up pleasure centers in the brain. And Lindsay, if I've had this conversation, people have told me cannot be addicted to sugar. Studies have shown that you can be because it lights up the same pleasure centers in the brain as other addictive substances. Of course, with sugar, it's very temporary, right? It's a little temporary hit. And so your subconscious like it makes you feel safe, right? It starts to feel like it feels good. It starts to feel safe and it gets comfortable. (14:50 - 15:19) And so the subconscious is always going to be like, oh, let's do that. Like, you know, I have a feeling I don't like what makes me feel better. And it could be Oreos. It could be it could be salt, vinegar, potato chips that break down into sugar. But like for me, it was gummy candy. Like that was my thing. So we get this feeling. We feel really good. We get this temporary hit. And then we create a habit loop, right? I'm sad. I eat gummy candy. I feel better temporarily when I and then when that goes away, I need more candy. (15:19 - 15:23) Yeah. Yeah. And I know you and I have both had clients that have experienced it. (15:23 - 16:37) But when you remove those sugars, they get the same symptoms, the same withdrawal symptoms as somebody would from drugs and alcohol. So I think that right there says a lot about about how addictive sugar can be for sure. Yeah. And it's. Yeah. And I'm like, how are you going to tell me that you can't be addicted to sugar when I'm always like I'm recovering sugar addict. Like that makes me happy. And I like I said, I mean, my mom is still doing it like you can still do it your entire life. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So how does sugar I mean, we kind of again kind of talked on some of this because some of these questions are kind of, you know, overlapping. But yeah, how does sugar affect mood? We've talked about but also hormones and energy levels. I think that's huge to. Yeah. Yeah. So I know we talked a little bit about mood when we were talking about like not making enough serotonin when we're eating too much sugar, messing with our gut or getting that little dopamine hit. And then like we have a little crash and that sucks. But that's exactly what happens with energy. It's just happening with our blood sugar instead. And so when we're eating copious amounts of sugar, no judgment because I've done it, our blood sugar spikes. (16:37 - 16:45) And I know you talked a lot about this with your insulin resistance. And so insulin comes in just as quickly and brings it into our cells. But then our blood sugar drops. (16:46 - 19:35) And usually when our blood sugar is pretty low, our bodies send out signal like our blood sugar is really low. We don't like this. We need to go get something that has a lot of sugar to bring our to bring like our energy and everything back up. And so we get on this roller coaster because it's like eat sugar, blood sugar rises and it drops each sugar. And so like all day long and you have these energy dips and you're exhausted or like how many people go to sleep and then you're still waking up exhausted. And this was me forever. You're still exhausted. And so then you need all this caffeine. And then like at three o'clock, I needed more caffeine. And then I was doing that. Yeah. Or energy drinks. And so it starts like this, like what's happening with your mood and energy. It's like so interconnected. And yeah. And like I said a little bit about with the estrogen, it just throws off everything like estrogen levels, cortisone levels, like my I mean, my hormones were an absolute disaster when I was eating all of that sugar. But when you cut it out and you start feeling your body like we talked about, it's things start to come back into balance. I met somebody the other day. I was like and she's like 20 years behind me in her journey with ovarian cysts. And I was like, if I could tell you one thing, sugar, like cut the sugar. So yeah, yeah. Because even and even when you cut like for me, it was gluten. But still, it's pretty much a sugar or, you know, a gluten is attached to, you know, these things that contain sugars, too. So even just by removing all of that, you're basically removing sugar. There's just this overlying, you know, thing. And there's more sugar in so many more things, I think, than there was, you know, even back then. Back then. Yeah. Back then. Yeah, I know. Right. Well, what's so funny, too, is people like, oh, I don't have a sugar problem, but I do drink a couple glasses of wine at night. Yeah. Like that's my vice. And I'm like, oh, but that's still sugar. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. So can emotional eating ever be a healthy coping mechanism or is it something to just fix? I kind of I mean, I like this question. Yeah. I'm like, this is a good one, right? Because let's be real. Like so everyone thinks of emotional eating. Oh, it's so bad. But we're human and food is emotional. Right. Like it's tied to so many things like celebration, culture, memories. Like I have so many great childhood memories of holidays. Like it's all kind of mixed in together. And so, yes, comfort sometimes. Right. Which in that in itself, I don't think is bad. I think the problem becomes when it's our only coping tool. Right. So food is how I deal with stress, how I deal with sadness, how I deal with boredom, how I deal with overwhelm. So then that's not really that's not helping. That's not right. It's just numbing out. (19:35 - 25:52) And that's why I talk to my ladies about being curious. Right. Like not really judgmental. So again, like what's happening here? Like what do I need right now? And then so it's not always something to fix. But I think if you understand like why you're eating certain things. So we talk a lot about tuning in and our programs. And I know we have we have a lot of similar things with that, like understanding why you're doing the things you're doing around food. And then you can see because I mean, life is really short without a piece of chocolate cake. But if I'm using it to manage all my emotions, I mean, I could eat that chocolate cake in a day if I'm having a bad day. Yeah. Yeah. There's like I know for me, like I had to really kind of think about this. I mean, it didn't take me long, but like just to make that connection. And it was it was the connection to my mom because we used to bake together all the time. Yeah. And so I just get like if I if I didn't cook dinner, I still always was like baking something, whether it's from a box or whatever. Now I do have like healthier options. Yeah. But yeah, sometimes you have to do some some self-reflecting. And, you know, is there some type of tie there that's that's connecting you to something or someone deeper, kind of pulling you into that? And there's nothing wrong with that, because like you said, you know, yeah, whether it's a holiday or a celebration of some sort that you're tied to a certain food, that's great. But when it becomes an everyday occurrence. Yeah. Yeah. I love that you brought up like the deeper stuff. So we have have someone who's just graduating one of my programs also. And she was obsessed with Diet Coke. And so we dug a little bit deeper. And it was that growing up they didn't they didn't have a lot of money. And when they started having some kind of like a little extra money, her mom would get a Diet Coke and she would sit there with her mom and have a Diet Coke. I'm like, that is hugely emotional. Yeah. But you just think like, I just need a Diet Coke and I just need it and I just can't stop. But then you take a step back. You're like, oh, well, that was something I like to do with my mom. And that means something to me. Yeah. Yeah. And now she's now her and her mom don't drink Diet Coke. She got her mom off Diet Coke. But, you know, there's so many reasons for food. That's why we need to, you know, just take a look at it. Exactly. Yeah. So we talked a little bit, but you're your go to strategies for identifying emotional triggers before the craving hits. What are some that maybe of your own or and or that you recommend? Sure. So, yeah, for emotional triggers, it's funny, right? Because like these things just don't come out of nowhere. Right. Like there's usually a pattern and a trigger or like a feeling that starts before you're like, I want potato chips. Like I said earlier, let's use that example. Right. Like if I'm stressed, I'm like, I need to have like potato chips. But like what like what happened like before that? Right. So we're not like tracking calories, but we're tracking like I call them craving windows. Right. So like we said, like a lot of women at night, they're like, I, I crave a lot of sweets at night. It's the only time I get for themselves, the only time it's quiet or like right after lunch. Or so we want to like start like what are like what's happening before that? Right. If it's a three o'clock slump, what did you eat? But you know, or you're at work, you'd like a stressful meeting that happens every day. So we want to just kind of look at those to get some kind of clue because it's not really random and see what is like. And again, without judgment, we just want we're just looking and examining and being curious. We don't need to be judging what's happening. And we do that a lot. And then I feel like then it compounds and then it's like double emotional because we're beating ourselves up about wanting to eat something that we think is bad for us instead of understanding why we want to eat it. I do have a food timeline tracking tool that I put in the show notes. And you can do that a couple different ways. You could do it both ways, even. And so some of it is like the physical side of it. How am I feeling, you know, before, during, after and long after my meal physically, you know, stomach upset, headache, whatever. But then you can also use it for the emotional side of things, too. You know, before I ate whatever it was, how was I feeling in that moment, you know, during, you know, maybe a couple bites in, you're still feeling great. But then like halfway in, you're like, oh, I shouldn't be eating this. But yeah, you keep eating it, you know, you know, even after had you feel how are you like feeling emotionally right after and then even long after. How can someone start creating distance between an emotional trigger and a sugary response? Awareness is the first thing without judgment. OK, like that could be your absolute superpower. And I know it's so hard, right, because we judge everything. We judge ourselves like, you know, I was raised by people to judge everybody. Right. So I agree learning that. So when a craving hits again, like we're just we're creating a little bit of space and it's taking a few seconds to be like there's something going on here like, oh, what is this? And it kind of interrupts that autopilot where you're just reaching for the snacks. And then the next right again is be like then you just with curiosity, what is happening? What do I really like? What's really happening right now? Again, am I anxious? I mean, like bored, right? I can eat so much when I'm bored. It doesn't even have to be like feeling overwhelmed. A lot of times it is. But there's like boredom in there, too. So I think if you just be aware, don't judge and just get curious, your body will be telling you what's happening and then you can decide what you actually need. And you know what? Maybe sometimes it is actual hunger and that's OK, too. Right. We're just actually really hungry. Like it versus us always just beating ourselves up because we should be doing this and should be doing that. So let that go. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if I've ever asked you. Did you ever watch Ted Lasso? Yes. Oh, my God. I love him. I'd be curious. Yeah, I know. It's so funny. I was like, I just don't know. True. Yeah. But it is true. I mean, when it comes to this and life and other stuff, because especially when you are logging stuff like I mentioned, like with, you know, with the food timeline and stuff, if you choose to do something like that. Yeah. You can't feel guilty about it. Sure. It might help you, you know, prevent you from having something super like, oh, my gosh, I got to write that down. I hope in that way. (25:52 - 27:09) But either way, like I wouldn't want somebody to use it for that necessarily. Like I want you to just do whatever you normally do and write it down and not judge yourself for it, because you are being curious about all of these triggers and that's how you're going to you know how you're going to get there. If today's episode really spoke to you and you're ready to stop letting food control your life, I've got something just for you. My Hunger Boss Mindful Eating Challenge. It is kicking off again on June 23rd. This is a three day challenge requiring no more than 20 minutes per day that you can do at a time convenient for you. And in just a few days, you learn how to tune into your body, calm the chaos around food, and finally feel confident in your choices without counting a single calorie. Spots are limited. So head to the link in the show notes and grab your seat now. I'll see you in there. Wow. Another amazing conversation. Big thanks to Carrie for sharing her time, her wisdom, and her heart with us today. I hope you're feeling as inspired and empowered as I am. If you'd like to connect with Carrie, you can find all the info in the show notes. And if you love today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, share it with a friend who needs to hear it and leave a quick review. It helps us reach even more amazing women just like you. Until next time, keep nourishing your body, healing your heart and thriving unfiltered and unstoppable.