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Jan. 31, 2026

Think About Food All Day, This Is Why - 57

Show Notes
Transcript

In Episode 57 of Driven For Health, Coach Brian breaks down food noise and why it keeps driven men stuck, even when they’re trying to eat better.

This is for business owners, entrepreneurs, and high-performing men over 40 who want fat loss, better energy, sharper focus, and more control over their habits, but feel like food is taking up too much space in their head.

If you’re dealing with late-night snacking, stress eating, cravings that hit after dinner, or that daily loop of “I’ll be good tomorrow,” this episode will hit home.

Coach Brian explains the difference between real hunger and food noise, walks through the six most common types of food noise, and shows how these patterns quietly impact men’s health, from weight gain and low energy to rising A1C, high triglycerides, cholesterol concerns, and blood pressure that won’t come down.

You’ll also hear a real-world story about Tim, a busy man whose food noise was starting to affect his health and business performance, and the system he used to get control back without living on willpower.

If you want practical nutrition and mindset tools that fit a demanding schedule, improve productivity, protect work-life balance, and help you become consistent with fitness and health, this episode gives you a clear way forward.

Grab the Improve Your Blood Panels Scorecard in the show notes.

This breaks down blood work in plain language: A1C, cholesterol, blood pressure, and what affects them.

https://thecalltorise.com/improveyourbloodpanels

There’s also a 3-day The Metabolic Reset Protocol that helps kickstart a more sustainable nutrition approach that will start to improve blood markers

Just click the website and red button to get Instant access sent to your best email

Want help applying this to your own health, weight, energy, or lab numbers?

Coach Brian Parana offers Health Hot Seat coaching segments for men who want a clear next step with nutrition, fitness, weight loss, blood pressure, cholesterol, A1C, or daily consistency.

Learn more about The Call To Rise, a 100-day coaching program for driven men over 40 who want to lose weight, improve their health, and rebuild confidence:

www.thecalltorise.com

To connect with Coach Brian:
brian@brianparana.com

Disclaimer: This podcast is for education and coaching support only. It is not medical advice. Always work with your physician before changing medication, treatment, or medical care.

Let me describe something that happens to a lot of guys. You get home, you sit in the car for a second. You feel that tightness in your stomach, your waist. You want to unbutton your pants and just sit there and try and relax. The day has been a whirlwind, and you just don't want to walk inside just yet. Your brain is firing trying to already start problem solving, troubleshooting the next part of your day, but you start thinking about food.
What's the easiest way, the fastest way that I can get some food in my mouth to start to feel better? You have associated food with pleasure and coping and managing this. The day is hard. Your head is just full of all the activities that just happened in the last eight hours and food ends up being that fastest reset button.
But you already ate, say after dinner, and you're sitting there and your stomach's not empty, but you're still thinking, "What else is there? What else can I grab? What would hit the spot?" If you're trying to lose weight, like 20 pounds, even 10, 30, 50 pounds, your your doctor might be on you about your blood panels, A1C, triglycerides, cholesterol, things like that.
It's food noise. That's one of the main reasons why guys get stuck now, especially in their 40s, because they have so much going on their life. Now, I'm going to break down what food noise is, six most common ways it shows up, and what real hunger actually feels like, because we think we're hungry, but we definitely don't know what hunger is and how you can manage it better tonight.
Welcome back to Driven for Health. I'm Coach Brian Piranha and I've been working with people for the last 23 years. have a lot of food noise conversations day in and day out to help people manage how [snorts] they put food in mouth, what their relationship to food is. Episode 57 is exactly that, food noise. If you think about food all day, then this episode is definitely going to be you.
It is all going to give you a lot more context and help you better understand the hows, the wise, what you're doing. Once you understand it in a different light, then it helps manage it so much better. You're able to actually be successful with a better relationship with food, not just putting more food in your mouth. There's patterns that happen.
I just want to throw out a shout out. If you are looking for more help, you have your blood panels are higher than you want them to be, maybe you just got back from a recent checkup being the first of the year and you have this new motivation to get your health in order, your A1C, cholesterol, blood pressure.
I have an improve your blood panel scorecard that has a threeday simple to follow, easy meal plan that you can have. It'll be in the show notes and it'll break down what your blood markers are in simple plain language so you understand it and then also what to do about it and that's where the 3-day reset comes in.
All right, back to what food noise actually is. If you are just sitting thinking about food all day long, regardless of how much food you have put in your mouth or calories, that is food [snorts] noise. It's just this constant undertone in your head. There's a mental back and forth going on. Should I have this? Should I not? I want this.
I don't want this. I It's calling my name from the breakroom or I need to stay away from the break room. That's what it is. It can really feel like food is just sitting in front of you in your brain all day long. Now, food noise shows up a number of different ways. Think of these questions. What am I eating later? I'll just have a little something.
I've been good. I can have this now. I'll clean it up tomorrow. I'll start Monday. Right? Those are phrases that people will say to justify the challenges that they are experiencing. And here's what you want to understand. Food noise is more than just annoying. And it's more than just stealing your attention.
It makes you less present in your current situation where you're at. Whether you're at work trying to be productive and actually get something done, but you keep thinking about food or putting something in your mouth. When you're at home and you should be spending time with your kids, but you're staying in the pantry instead for the sixth time.
Uh when you're out and about, maybe a date night and the it is around food, but you just end up spending more time eating food rather than enjoying the experience with her. It drives the behaviors that ultimately can mess up your health from an expanding waistline. Guys, if you have an inch a waistline inch of 40 or more, you're in some pretty serious health issues. That's not a good place to be.
If you are overweight by 20 pounds, if you have family history of chronic health diseases, if your doctor's been on you, these are things that are causing you. Other behaviors that start to show up are just extra snacking, grabbing a seconds on something, or maybe even thirds, having bigger portions, especially in the night time.
A lot a lot a lot of people that I've worked with end up over consuming at night time, and that becomes a huge challenge for them when alcohol gets paired with food. and you it's not necessarily just the alcohol but it's the lack of concern around the alcohol around what you are eating and everything sounds good that becomes a big big big problem for a lot of people it's the guilt by association.
So you have that two to 300 calorie alcohol but then you eat the thousand calorie meal because it sounded good. you end up not getting a lot of sleep because of food or hunger or just gird acid reflux. If you're si if you lay down at night after you eat and you lay down and you have the fire breathing dragon showing up that's acid reflux.
That is a food issue that you need to solve and can solve not with Tom's or Pepto-Bismol but with actual real nutritional approach. Okay. Now, when you aren't focused on just the food noise being a craving, it often ends up being an entry point to weight gain. A little bit here and there. Think of this. A quarter pound a week. That's nothing.
One pound a month, 12 pounds in a year, 25 or so in two years. That's left uncheck at a quarter pound of weight gain per year. So, just want to throw in some some uh context to the impact that just grabbing a little bit more than you should has on your day-to-day life and body. Now, when you do those extra snacking, then the weight goes up, but then it's probably junk food because not too many people are overeating salads and sweet potato or chicken breast [laughter] and broccoli.
They're not doing a lot of that. They are overdoing it with the things that come after dinner. the dessert, the treats, the snacks, drive by, hand in a dish, a candy dish at the office. Those are what challenges your overall health issues of insulin resistance, which is your body's lack of ability to process blood sugar levels when they go up and your body has to keep releasing more insulin to get to the same outcome where you were.
or high triglycerides or your blood pressure isn't 120 over 80, it's more like 130 over 90. And your doctor will get on you and probably start encourage you to take blood pressure medication, which anyone I ever work with doesn't want to do that. Now, if you tell yourself that you eat pretty decent, that could be a trap. This is where you can get a little bit worse for wear because you're like, "Oh, I did so healthy today.
I can allow myself this extra little treat." And then you compound that with stress. And your brain is looking for quick relief. It's looking for a say release of the the kettle, the steam that's coming out. It needs an exit. and food will fill that for quick relief. Now, if you're tired, your appetite hormones will start to go.
I talked about leptin and grein in the seven, look here, the seven the seven weight hunger, the weight loss hunger hormones in episode 47. So, that was a couple ago. This is 57. So 10 episodes ago, it talked about leptin and grein. So you can go back to that one and you'll be able to understand ghrelin when you it grumbles and it's like the gremlin and it says that you need more food.
Whereas leptin is you are fooled. You don't need food in a sense and that's a good hormone that we want to promote more. So when you have your hormones are out of whack, then you end up craving more and you want to eat a lot more and you're ultimately less satisfied. If you don't eat enough protein earlier in the day, that also causes a lot of problem.
You feel like a bottomless pit or enough fiber. That's the other one. I have a simple two question, two-step, two question process of picking out what you're going to eat. And that is where's your protein? Where's your fiber? These two power questions really help you understand how to start your day with food and be able to fill up what your needs are so that you aren't just a bottomless pit.
Now, if you're living on ultrarocessed foods, then your brain is going on a dopamine ride. It's it's there's going to be a lot of neurons firing in your brain. a lot of release of serotonin and a lot of enjoyment around the food that you are eating. This is what our food marketers know tons about, have studied and create so many uh so many products and that definitely leverage you to want to eat.
I mean, just going to the grocery store and everything's fancy colors and shiny and sparkly and it crinkles and it it has this really nice design to it and it calls your name. But they're full of sugar, carbs, fats, and a lot of calories that you can easily overeat. Think of most a a Reesei cup is about 73 calories, I believe, off the top of my head.
And you usually will want to eat both of them because it comes in two. So there's 150 calories there. And that's not a billing. 150 calories is just 150 calories. So when guys come to me and they say, "Hey, I just have no willpower around food." I I just don't buy it. It's it's because there's a lot of lack of nutritional knowledge and application to the food that they're eating.
that causes them to want to eat a lot of this food. Now, most of the time, if you have a system that works for you, you can really cut out a lot of a lot of distraction around the food noise and quiet it. But if you don't and you're just winging, you really have no idea what you're eating any given time of the day, that's when it's going to work against you.
Le let's jump in with a story about Tim. I think you'll relate to Tim. He's relatable. He's 44. He works very hard. He's pushing in the career. He's successful there. He actually does a higher level management position and he has a team of over 60 people that he manages and he spends a lot of time at his desk and on phone calls managing all those people and the process and the things.
uh he does enjoy working out or he did back in the day and but with his two kids and his day-to-day life that becomes a challenge. This pressure builds up over time and it causes challenges in his decision makingaking abilities. Decision fatigue is a real thing when you are constantly under a thousand different choices and even more subconscious choices.
Like right now I have a two friendly feline in my mix and someone decided to put dishes away. We have six people in the house and someone said, "Hey, when Brian's recording his podcast, let's do the dishes and be distracted." So, there's so many subconscious things that are going on around you and it wears on your ability to make good decisions. Think of it like Mario.
You're running down the board and you have your power bar above your head. That power bar wears out every time a decision needs made or a challenging stressful situation pops up. That is how this occurs in the course of your day. You will wear down. You will end up being tired. You will end up fatiguing. Okay? You will not make good decisions.
I myself falter, but I'm hungry. I'm tired and I haven't eaten a long time. any systems go to waste and I eat whatever's easiest and most convenient because that's human behavior. Now Tim was also about 25 pounds up to 30 and he definitely didn't feel like himself. He's tired. He's running around on caffeine to push him through and is yeah that typical 3M crash is there by 5:00 pm he's want to take a nap before he walks in his house just playing board what I opened up this conversation with that's Tim and that could be you too now
with Tim as he's getting evaluated with his bloods his labs his blood markers his overall health and coming to this middle stage of life he needed a change But he didn't know why he was so challenged with this. He thought he was a healthy guy or he actually he thought that he made healthier decisions.
That's where the rubber meets the road or doesn't actually. He wasn't doing the choices that he needed to. And so in terms of these micro decisions in the day, he cut out the basics of say soda. He didn't eat donuts. He didn't really eat the things in the break room, but he was stuck in this pattern of he'd skip breakfast.
He'd grab something small, maybe a little bit later or just say coffee, then he'd grab a quick lunch. He'd push the afternoon and then the biggest meal was at dinner. And he'd always say, because he was trying to lose weight all the time, I am not going to eat that much at dinner or when I'm I'm done with dinner. I'm gonna eat dinner and then I'm going to be done.
When we talked because see we work together in the call to rise program 100 day fat loss challenge. We we come up with some patterns of behaviors of where these situations started breaking down. This is where a lot of people just fall off track is at the evening, the nighttime eating.
And he never had enough calories to allow himself to even be able to eat at 9:00 p.m. or later. Okay, this is a challenge for a lot of people. And the brain was looking to problem solve and troubleshoot that with food. All right. So, that's what it looks like for Tim is that's who Tim is and how he evolved from that is going into what I call the six common food noises.
There's six types. You can pause and write these down, especially if you constantly think about food all the time. Let's go through them. Number one, the first culprit is the negotiator. Okay? the negotiator comes in and this is the voice or the the little little guy on your shoulder that's trying to make deals with you.
If I eat this tonight, I'll make up for it tomorrow. I'll skip breakfast. I'll work out extra. I'll be good for the rest of the week. Not start over on Monday, but I'll start over again right away tomorrow. Tim did this a lot. He he would negotiate with himself with food as a reward or pleasure. And he'd end up what the cycle was.
He'd always end up eating at night and then he'd want to start over again. He would negotiate, okay, tomorrow I'm just going to skip lunch and then I will be all good there. But tomorrow came, the same stresses came, the same fatigue, the same pattern showed up because he didn't know how to deal with it. That's where the negotiator keeps coming back is your brain is always going to justify whatever it can to get to the outcome, the solutions that you want in your life.
Especially when it comes around food and say survival because that's what food is. It's survival beyond just happiness, sadness, coping, excitement, joy, depression. That food has a lot a lot a lot of emotions attached to it. Now, the real cost of these negotiations is that it makes you feel like you're managing your problems right in the moment, and it makes it okay to then do the action that that you probably shouldn't be doing.
You said, "Hey, I I should not be doing this." And this just keeps the loop alive. So, you will be constantly running into this if the negotiator is there. Number two, the second one is the rule follower. Okay, this is the strict rule guy. He tries to win with the phrase never again. I'm never going to have overeat. I'm not going to do carbs.
Not doing sugar, no alcohol, no eating after seven. Sometimes it works for a week or two, but then life gets in the way. Whether it's the stress at work or the family or traveling or just one night's sleep, for whatever reason, I woke up earlier than I wanted to. I had I could have slept an extra two plus hours and that just didn't happen.
I started working on these podcast episodes. I'll have another one coming shortly after I'm done here. But all these things can trigger this rebel voice inside that shows up and says, "Forget about it." Then when you you wake up and you're you're mad at yourself and then you just try again again.
This is another loop that people gets into or they follow the rules all week long and staying on top of their approach, but the weekend comes and it causes you to end up falling off track again and not being successful. So again, it's this loop that constantly goes on and on and on. Now number three is the comfort seeker. This is your emotional medicine, your emotional comfort blanket, your emotional We have a dog named Huga.
Huga is this calm, comfy, cozy environment. It's a Danish term. Think of a fireplace with a warm cup of tea or coffee or a beverage and food and a snuggly blanket and and you're just reading something. That's huga. And that's what this voice is. This is what this common challenge is. Stress equals a snack. Anxiety equals sugar.
Overwhelm equals takeout. Loneliness is met with a dessert to fill you up. Tim's comfort window was late at night. This was evident from our very first conversation is where he always derailed. He had he was full from his food. He was full from just everything that was happening in the day and he was just looking for relief of some sort that was causing him a lot of problems in the big picture.
Now food works in a lot of shortterm ways. So, sleep can improve when you put carbs and sugars in, but it also can wreck your sleep later in the day if you're not careful. We have your morning appetite can go up if your sleep is down and you want more food and and you want to get energy that way or you end up hitting caffeine with some sugar in it.
Your energy drops throughout the day because your blood sugar levels are going up and down. Your cravings keep getting louder and they speak to you. They call your name. They say, "Hi, Levi. I want you. You need to eat something because your belly is crumbling, but you just got done with a giant mound of food and you need to not eat more. You can just be fine.
Just wait 20 minutes and you'll be okay." Uh, then the workouts skip. Okay, this is the comfort. This is that voice that you feel like you have no control and you just fail every single time because you are seeking out that comfort and your nervous system is actually behind the wheel.
Number four is the scarcity brain. The voice that screams urgency. I need it now. I had this challenging situation. This thing showed up. This this is my only chance. It's I'm going to start on Monday, so I might as well be the last supper. So many people when they sign up for my programs, they do the last supper.
I'm just going to eat everything that I'm not allowed to eat. And and never once is that my approach with anyone I've ever worked with. We don't want that type of an outlet or an outcome because it doesn't work. It doesn't solve the challenges that we need for you to be successful. Okay. So, going to scarcity, there's a lack.
Now, if you think about this in your life, it's unlikely that you have ever been without food. That you've ever been without your needs being met. In our route, in our world, there is built around convenience. I've bring this up on different podcasts, but you can drive within five minutes of your house and probably get a number of different convenience stores that you could buy 100,000 calories.
There's no scarcity around food, but it's old behavior patterns that are showing up or even maybe something from your childhood that's showing up and challenging you. Now, when we are have these scarcity and we have to eat this stuff now, that's where we can really do a number on our body and our health. We consume lots of calories.
Uh we usually consume the wrong types of calories. This is where some of uh my clients have challenges with diabetes, cholesterol issues, blood pressure because they over consume quickly which then gains belly fat quickly. Now the reward system is built around this is the fifth one is the reward system. Now with the reward system, it's I earn this thing.
I food becomes the prize. You're allowed to have it because you did this thing. Sometimes the food is okay to be a system a a a reward for what it is. I remember for a while I'd reward myself with sushi and that was an enjoyable experience. So when I would do things, I would have sushi and I felt excited about that, but I wasn't abusing it.
I was having a roll or two and then having as part of a meal. But going back to the reward, the stress is usually the reward or I overcame this thing or I accomplished this thing, so let's eat. Tim rewarded himself quite a bit because he survived the day. He would often drive home and swing through the gas station to pick up a candy bar.
He would sometimes go to a fast food joint because it was calling the golden archers would call in his name. He get a large fry even if he was on his way to go home to eat. It happened a lot more. It happens a lot of people and they don't want to admit it that they actually stop off for food on their way home before they actually eat.
So you're eating a couple hundred calories before you go eat even more and it gets into this cyclical loop that challenge you and food is reward and it becomes habit. The identity attachment. This is the last one. This is the one. I'm a sweet guy. I'm a nighttime snacker. I'm a Snickers guy. I like Reese's.
I am a CocaCola drinker. We create these identities and brands have done an amazing job with marketing and creating this identity and attachment around food. It's something that you can get stuck in as too. Or even think of this. Grandpa was always a meat and potatoes. That's why he had he was big boned or whatever.
And that ends up being this this persona that you have to live up to and constantly keep up with. It's who you are at your core if you don't decide to change it and it will control you. Now when we look at all these six factors, think about which one you are. So let's quickly go through them. We have the negotiator.
We have the rule follower. We have the comfort seeker, the scarcity brain, the reward system and identity attachment. Which one are you? We all are one of these. I would say out of all these on the reward, that's the one that's that's I did this thing. I get this as a result and I will definitely do that.
I want to talk about what hunger actually looks like because people always say that they're hungry. Even if you have randomly you'll catch it on my Facebook. There's a reoccurring memory of Everett back when he was three. And I made this short video of him and he just kept saying I'm hungry. That's what the video is called. I'm hungry.
And it goes on for about a minute 15 of various forms of ever being happy to being really sad and upset about being hungry. And then all you said, I'm hungry. I'm hungry. I'm hungry. Well, he was two or three. But that's how we feel. That's how guys feel when they talk about hunger. It's just this craving [snorts] that's called hunger.
But people don't actually know what hunger is. hunger. Your energy plummets. You feel weak. Your blood sugar levels down in the basement. You can't think. There's no productivity. Massive amounts of brain fog. You literally move slower. You sit and you don't want to. You're naturally more sedentary. Your stomach has pains in it because it's so empty and hasn't had food in it.
Now, these are part of that's really hunger. You haven't eaten for over 24 hours, not two hours or three. That's hunger. That's something that we don't experience. Not there isn't one client. Now, we do have hunger in the US and in the world, anyone I've ever worked with, it's not a lack of food that's their biggest problem.
It's that they have too much access. and it's to focus on the the the ultrarocessed foods. So most of us going back are dealing with stress and the habit loops that we are stuck in from old identity and behaviors from years long ago. We can't get out of them and that's food noise. What changed for Tim? Let's wrap up with Tim here. >> [clears throat] >> One night after dinner, he was stood up and he was autopilot going to the the the pantry. All right.
We tried a number of different things. We actually literally put tape up like I have I've once had this guy put caution tape across his his uh doorway to the kitchen because it was a pattern interrupt. That's what we did. We found a variety of different pattern or interrupts from placing a chair in front of his doorway to to the kitchen, putting the food that he absolutely loves in that cupboard above his refrigerator.
So, it was out of sight, out of mind, and hard to reach. There's little tricks and and we obviously we stopped buying it, so it wasn't readily available. We deleted the Door Dash app on his phone and anytime that he would have to want to use it, he would have to manually log in on a browser itself. All these things wear out the the desire [clears throat] for you to have that instant gratification. That's the point.
How do we throw things into the mix to get you out of old behavior patterns and into new ones that will help you create a high level of success? Pattern interrupts. Comment below in in the the podcast that if if you are identified with one of those six, I'd love to hear it and have an ongoing conversation or just email me brianbrianprana.com.
Moving on from food noise. Hopefully this was helpful and it gave you some identity around why you are always hungry and what to do about it. Fast five, let's shift into my fast five questions. Number one is the simplest way to tell you're hungry versus food noise. Ask yourself, would you eat things like eggs, chicken, yogurt, real food? If so, then you actually are hungry.
If not, then you're not. My kids do this all the time. I'm hungry. Well, there's some fruit or there's a cucumber and oh, I'm I don't want that. Well, you're you're not hungry then. [laughter] You just want something to eat and it's not food time. Two, food noise gets louder when you're tired. Yes, absolutely.
Food, sleep are synonymous together. Cravings go up like crazy the longer you are up and the more tire tied you are because your resilience, your willpower, your motivation, your ability to push through those cravings or that donut sitting in front of you is not there. Number three, protein earlier reduces the nighttime battles around food. This is so true.
Studies have shown that you if you have a strong start your day with protein, you will be more satiated throughout the day. Going back to my two-step question, where's the protein? Where's the fiber? Those are the things that allow you to be able to fill up with less calories. Number four, most latent night eating is decompression.
This is true. If you don't have a good nighttime routine, you will put food in your mouth. Netflix and chill. It's a slogan. It's a banner. It's people's way of living. Especially as the night gets dark, the day gets dark. That's what happens. People put tasty food in their mouth.
Then we have to find a different pattern of behavior to avoid that. Last of the fast five. what to do when it hits tonight. Tonight, guys, literally tonight is I want you to pause for 60 seconds. Literally, wait a whole minute and just sit with it. Sit with it like a tantruming 2-year-old that you are just putting time out and it's just crying and it's whining and it just wants food.
It just need food. After those 60 seconds, you just let it do the biggest tantrum that you can. Then ask yourself, are you actually hungry or are you trying to change the way you feel? That's how you can start identify if it is food noise and start coming up with a winning strategy around it. In closing, if you are running around with food noise and it's ruining your day, your life, then we don't need to focus on say food shame or guilt or blame or any of those things.
We need to find better systems, processes, and ways to go about managing it. I hope that the six identity names for food noise help you understand how it best fits and works in your everyday. If you are wanting to lose weight, you have blood blood panels that are not working in your favor and you need some help with that, then grab my improve your blood panel scorecard inside the show notes.
It's a simple, easy to understand plain language. It breaks down what those those blood markers are, how to understand them in easiest terms, A1C, cholesterol, blood pressure, and a couple others, and how it affects your life. And then there's a active three-day reset on a simple nutrition and meal plan approach that helps you do this.
And you'll get some emails as well that have recipes and simple day-to-day actions for you to implement in your day-to-day. Well, thank you so much. Coach Brian signing out for Dreaming for Health. talking next episode.