Part 1: Michelle Petties on Rewiring Your Brain for Food Freedom and Emotional Healing

Michelle Petties joins G-Rex and Dirty Skittles for Part 1 of a powerful two-part conversation about food addiction, emotional eating, and the stories we carry around hunger. Michelle gets real about why “food noise” may actually be emotion noise — and why healing starts when we stop blaming ourselves and start getting curious.

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Mental Health Quote

“It’s not food noise. It’s emotion noise — and once you understand the story behind it, you can start taking your power back.” — Inspired by Michelle Petties

Episode Description

In Part 1 of this two-part episode, Michelle Petties brings truth, compassion, and a whole lot of “damn, I needed to hear that” energy to the conversation. Michelle is a TEDx speaker, Food Story coach, and author of Leaving Large – The Stories of a Food Addict. After gaining and losing more than 700 pounds over four decades, she learned that food addiction was never just about food.

G-Rex and Dirty Skittles talk with Michelle about emotional eating, shame, diet culture, and the sneaky ways food becomes tied to sadness, boredom, stress, celebration, and comfort. Michelle explains why what many people call “food noise” may actually be emotion noise — thoughts, feelings, and old beliefs begging for attention.

She also breaks down her “Brand New” framework and how belief, writing, rest, nourishment, alignment, and community can help people rewire their brains and change their relationship with food. This is not another conversation about willpower, restriction, or beating yourself up for eating the thing. This is about pausing, listening, and learning what you are really hungry for.

Michelle’s message is hopeful as hell: you are not broken, and you are not weak. You may just be carrying stories that need to be unpacked, rewritten, and released with compassion.

Keywords: Michelle Petties, food addiction, emotional eating, food freedom, diet culture recovery, body image healing, food story, emotional wellness, mindful eating, trauma healing, self-compassion, obesity recovery, mental health healing, brain rewiring, shame recovery

Meet Our Guest — Michelle Petties

Michelle Petties is a TEDx speaker, author, Food Story coach, and the award-winning, Amazon best-selling author of Leaving Large – The Stories of a Food Addict. After gaining and losing more than 700 pounds over four decades, Michelle created her Food Story method to help people uncover the beliefs, memories, and emotional patterns driving their relationship with food.

Website: https://LeavingLarge.com
Website: https://MichellePetties.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iambrandnewnow/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Iambrandnewnow
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@iambrandnewnow
X: https://x.com/iambrandnewnow
Email: [email protected]
Media/Booking Email: [email protected]

Key Takeaways

• Food noise may actually be emotion noise, asking for your attention.
• Emotional eating is not a personal failure. It is often tied to old stories, old wounds, and learned survival tools.
• Shame keeps people stuck, but awareness creates space for change.
• Food companies and diet culture can keep us blaming ourselves instead of understanding the system around us.
• Michelle’s “Brand New” framework helps people rethink food, hunger, belief, and healing.
• Writing, rest, hydration, and community can become powerful tools for food freedom.

Actionable Items

• Before eating, pause and ask yourself: “Am I hungry, or am I feeling something else?”
• Start an emotion log. Write down what you feel before and after eating without judging yourself.
• Pick one old food story you have carried for years and rewrite it with compassion instead of shame.

References Mentioned

Leaving Large – The Stories of a Food Addict by Michelle Petties
https://LeavingLarge.com

Michelle Petties’ Food Story work
https://MichellePetties.com

Brand New Now 52-Week Program
https://go.michellepetties.com/brand-new-now-program

Important Chapters

• 00:00:00 — Welcome to Part 1
  G-Rex and Dirty Skittles introduce Michelle Petties and open the door to a two-part conversation about food, mental health, shame, and healing.
• 00:03:25 — Dirty Skittles Opens Up About Food Noise
  Dirty Skittles shares her experience with weight loss, GLP-1 medication, and the frustration of food noise returning.
• 00:04:22 — Michelle Reframes Food Noise as Emotion Noise
  Michelle explains why cravings and overeating often come from emotion, memory, and belief rather than physical hunger.
• 00:08:38 — How Culture Teaches Emotional Eating
  The group talks about how movies, shows, and social conditioning normalize turning to food when life gets heavy.
• 00:13:13 — Michelle’s Story and Leaving Large
  Michelle shares how writing her book helped her understand that food addiction was never just about the food.
• 00:17:29 — Gaining and Losing Over 700 Pounds
  Michelle talks about four decades of yo-yo dieting and what finally helped her stop fearing weight regain.
• 00:18:53 — The “Brand New” Framework
  Michelle introduces the principles behind becoming brand new, including belief, reinvention, alignment, nourishment, writing, and celebration.
• 00:22:31 — Drink, Sleep, and Write
  Michelle explains why water, sleep, and prescriptive writing can support emotional regulation and lasting change.
• 00:26:05 — Question Everything You Eat
  Michelle shares the questions she asks before eating and how that pause helps her stay connected to her body and her choices.

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#MentalHealthPodcast #MentalHealthAwareness #Grex #DirtySkittles #Podmatch #MichellePetties #FoodAddictionRecovery #EmotionalEating #FoodFreedom #DietCultureRecovery #BodyImageHealing #FoodStory #EmotionalWellness #MindfulEating #TraumaHealing #SelfCompassion #ObesityRecovery #MentalHealthHealing #LeavingLarge #BrainRewiring

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