The Hidden Link Between Self-Worth, Hormones, and Emotional Eating

Why do so many women struggle with emotional eating, body image, and feeling disconnected from themselves—especially during times of stress, heartbreak, or hormonal change?

In this powerful conversation, Sara Davison is joined by emotional eating expert and body freedom coach Amber Romaniuk to uncover the deeper roots of food struggles, self-worth, and hormonal health.

Amber shares her personal journey from childhood bullying, binge eating, and food addiction to healing her relationship with food and helping thousands of women reclaim their confidence and well-being. Together, they explore how unresolved emotional pain, low self-worth, stress hormones, and hormonal imbalances can fuel emotional eating and self-sabotaging behaviours.

You'll discover:

•  The difference between emotional eating, overeating, and binge eating 
•  How childhood experiences can shape your relationship with food 
•  Why self-worth is at the core of lasting healing 
•  The surprising role cortisol, progesterone, and other hormones play in cravings and mood 
•  How hormonal changes can impact relationships, emotions, and decision-making 
•  Practical tools to break emotional eating patterns and build healthier coping strategies 
•  What "Body Freedom" really means and how to achieve it 

If you've ever found yourself reaching for food to cope with stress, heartbreak, anxiety, or overwhelm, this episode offers valuable insights and hope for lasting change.

Connect with Amber Romaniuk:
Website: amberapproved.ca
Podcast: The No Sugarcoating Podcast
Instagram: @amberromaniuk

Transcript

0:03

Welcome to the Heartbreak to Happiness Show with Sarah Davison. If you're struggling with a breakup and you feel shocked, angry, betrayed, devastated, or sad and alone, then this podcast is for you. Best-selling author and award-winning host, Sarah Davison, shares how you too can get on with your life to heal, grow, and move from heartbreak to happiness. It's literally you're just thinking about food and trying to control food or losing control with food and losing control with your body and fighting with the number on the scale. Um Is this something that you I mean it can affect anyone, right? It's not it can affect absolutely anybody, but it's something that has like a lot of people keep secret because it's not something that you hear a lot of people talking about. So yeah, I mean there's still quite a lot of stigma around it, I imagine. Unfortunately, yeah. And no one should feel shame or guilt if they're doing it or embarrassed because you're not alone and it's not your fault, and we haven't been properly educated or taught about these kinds of behaviors and why we have them. It's not a willpower issue. It's not a do better on your diet issue. It's got nothing to do with any of that. This is so complex and multi-layered physically, mentally, emotionally, energetically, hormonally, spiritually, behaviorally, chemically in the brain. Here's your host, Sarah Davison. Welcome back to the show. Now, today I have a really exciting guest. Her name is Amber Romanwick, and she is an emotional eating, digestive, and hormone expert with 12 years of experience helping high-achieving women heal their relationships with food, their bodies, and themselves. Now, Amber herself has gained and lost over a thousand pounds, spending more than $50,000 on binge foods and dedicated five years of her life to balancing her hormones and digestion. And she transformed her own emotional eating patterns at the root. She is also the host of the No Sugar Coating podcast with over two million downloads and listeners in 90 plus countries. And today she helps women achieve profound healing and body freedom so they can live confident, healthy, and deeply fulfilled lives. So I am super excited to welcome Amber to the show. Welcome, Amber. Thank you, Sarah, for having me. I'm so excited to be with you. Oh my goodness. I love it. I'm here all the way from Canada. Tell us a little bit about you and your story because it's really interesting. Yeah, thank you for having me. And it it was a journey that I was not expecting to go on. So what's really interesting about my story is of course we have things that shape our, you know, identity as children. And a couple of just key defining moments that then really hit the real defining moment that pushed me into binge eating and and beyond was when I was five, it was my first day taking the bus. And I got on the bus and the older boys called me fat and ugly, and then the whole bus made fun of me. And that was a very like hurtful, traumatizing moment. And I took on the identity of fat and ugly for the next 20 years of my life, was very insecure, right? Because if I thought, well, if strangers are telling me it must be true, right? So you just believe it. And at five, I didn't know how to just brush that off or like talk to my parents about it. You just like, okay, well, this must be true, and I'm gonna just, you know, be insecure. And then um my mom, so you got on the bus when you were five, yeah. And then all the kids called you fat and ugly. And then I mean, at five, you have no coping strategies to really deal with that. And I mean, how many kids are on a bus? I mean, in the UK we don't really have those sort of school buses like we're gonna do like 30 or 40 kids. Oh my goodness. Did anyone stick up for you at that point? No, everyone's just laughing and yelling and yeah. Oh my goodness. I mean, I feel like upset for you right now just hearing that and just imagine if that was my son getting on a bus, how awful that would have been. And the fact that you didn't have, you know, you you weren't able to talk to your parents. Were you able to talk to anyone about it? No, because I didn't really understand the significance of it at the time and how deep in my nervous system and in my body it stayed for a long time. And I think one of the reasons that I didn't talk to my parents about it, and this is kind of the next piece, is my mom was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis before I was born. And so they were, and I'm the only child, so they were dealing with all of that. And I just felt like I don't want to be a burden, I don't want to like add any more stress to them. So I feel like for me, like one of my coping survival mechanisms was to hold things in. I don't want to be a bother, I don't want to add to anyone's stress. And so that was part of the dialogue. And then unconsciously using food, I didn't realize I was using food as a coping mechanism from such a young age, but I definitely was. And my mom and I shared a very intimate relationship with food because there's a lot of things we couldn't do together pertaining to her symptoms. And I think she felt a lot of guilt around that. And so food was always in every interaction, everything we did together. And so you just kind of start shaping this relationship with food. And she would eat whatever she wanted whenever she wanted. And I just thought that that was normal. Um, and so I kind of did the same and eat a lot of sugar, processed food, fast food, etc. So you just think it's normal when that's your upbringing. Um, and then, you know, I start dieting in my teens and tweens. I start observing like media and the Hollywood and all this stuff that conditions you that you're not good enough if you don't look a certain way. Even a celebrity culture, right? Where you see what's going on and you think, oh well, you know, that's that's normal, right? Yeah. So okay. Yeah. And then there's a lot of photoshopping and editing of photo and video that we're not told and there's no disclaimers, and therefore we're being sold a lie that makes you not feel good enough. And then they sell you the fake solution, which is the diet, which also doesn't work. But of course, when you're 12, 13, 14, you're very usually very gullible and easy to like condition and like convinced that this is what you should do. Um and also we see on television, don't we? The diet culture, we see like people losing weight. We think, oh, well, if they've done it, but we don't know what else they're doing, or if it's a healthy weight to lose weight, even. Yeah, and nine times out of ten, unfortunately, it's not healthy, and that's the problem, and it's not sustainable, and it's having a negative impact on everything going on internally. And so, yeah, the whole diet thing. And then what really kicked me into binge eating was a breakup. So it was my first real breakup, and I was so hurt I could barely eat, and he broke up with me, so it was very, like, very upsetting because I had an attachment um relationship style, so I was very attached and like very much kind of almost like took on his personality because I didn't love myself. I didn't have my own sense of self-worth, so there was all of that. And so yeah, I could I could do that. Tell us a bit more about that because a lot of my listeners might resonate with that. Tell us a little bit more about what you mean by attachment relationship there. Yeah, so I personally from my experience, I feel like because I didn't love myself, I hated my body, I was very insecure in my body and my looks and everything. Um, and because I didn't love myself when I got love from him, I very much attached to him and like almost like gave my power away to that. Like, oh, well, if he loves me, then I must be good enough. And so that kind of circumstantial worth where it's like if other people give me love and validation, then okay, I I guess I'm kind of good enough. Um, but I need constant validation. I need you to constantly like be reassuring me that you love me and that I'm good enough and that I'm pretty enough and all of these things. And so it was very much being attached to that. And then if um we fought or like he had some friends that were girls, and I was very jealous and very like I'd be very triggered if we were spending time together and he wasn't spending a lot of time with me. It was very much like, oh my gosh, like I'm not as pretty as them. So lots of comparison, negative self-talk. And ultimately at the end, what really I think completed the relationship obviously wasn't meant to be, which was fine, but I did not have any form of like coping skills. Like I didn't know how to cope with stress in healthy ways. I I constantly like thrived off of drama and like arguing. I think at 19, 20, though, like a lot like if you've watched reality TV growing up, like you kind of think that that's normal when it's not. Um yeah, it's very true, actually. Yeah. So you're expecting that that drama. Did you have that in your relationship then? A lot of arguments and disguises. Yeah, I would say, and a lot of that I think came from like the content that I was consuming, thinking, thinking this is what a relationship like what you should do in a relationship. And also I'd gone through some health issues that I couldn't figure out what was going on, which was very nerve-wracking at the time, and that was very stressful, and that just made everything worse. And it essentially like made it to the point where I was very controlling at the time. Like, I don't want you to really go anywhere in case something happens to me. What if I die and no one's here? And like it was just so extreme because I was having a lot of neurological symptoms, and that made me even more insecure and like pleased because he did a lot of mountain climbing and stuff, and so he would go away and I would just be like, I don't want to be alone and like all this stuff. And of course, the other block was as I got into the relationship, I started I stopped hanging out with my friends, and so it was like there was nobody really left, right? So um, and I wasn't befriending myself either, so it's like the breakup like really felt like I literally was just like by myself and I didn't even have myself, but you know, it was the biggest blessing because it wasn't meant to be and it wasn't actually a very good relationship. It's like when you haven't had a really a relationship and someone gives you love and attention, like you think, oh my gosh, this is amazing, and like I finally I have this, right? When when when you're secure limpet mode when clients and they like sucker themselves to this poor person, like, oh I found somebody who's gonna love me, I'm not gonna be on my own anymore. And that it's all consuming, and it's really normal to do that when you're vulnerable, or maybe you just come out of a marriage and you're trying to date together and God forbid, like that's like a yeah, a big mind feel to navigate, isn't it? So, but I think we yeah, number love and connection is our number one human need. So we often see that, and there's nothing wrong with that, it's quite normal. But actually, when you look at how healthy that is as an attachment form, often you're missing things. It may not be a good match. It's just that you've hooked in someone because they gave you some love. Yeah, and you're you're tolerant to things that you wouldn't be if you loved yourself and respected yourself and you don't know how to set boundaries or communicate properly. It's it's like I was 20, so it's like I had a lot of growth and evolution to go through. But after the breakup, I was so hurt I could barely eat and I lost weight really quickly. I thought I thought reaching my goal weight would fix everything and that he'd want me back, right? It's this whole like revenge body thing. Um, and so I lost the weight and then he didn't want me back, and then it was kind of this whole screw up mentality of like, well, if he doesn't want me, like what's the point, right? So um then it kind of like this switch flipped where I thought losing the weight would fix everything and I'd be happy because that's the lie the diet industry tells you you lose weight and you'll be happy. Like it's literally what they ingrain into your subconscious mind, and it doesn't actually fix anything because as we need to remember, weight is external and nothing external is gonna teach you how to love yourself or build your self-worth. And and that's the lesson that I had to learn going on this journey. And so when I realized it didn't fix anything, it's like this switch flipped, and now I'm binge eating six days a week, five days a week, and I'm eating until I'm so full I'm sick. I'm eating tables full of food. I gained 80 pounds in four months, and I was the heaviest that I had ever been. So can you explain? Because binge eating for people that don't aren't familiar with it, don't know. That means eating a lot. Like, is that in like continuously throughout the day, or is it like if you're working, you come in and you eat, and then you go out and then you come back and you just eat more than you normally would? How does that work? Yeah, so there's different levels of what I'll call emotional eating. So I was emotionally eating, I was binge eating. I was into food addiction, I had bulimia. So essentially, emotional eating is eating for any reason other than physical nourishment, but you may not eat until you're really full. It may be like, I'm stressed, I'm upset, I have to have an uncomfortable conversation. I'm gonna eat half a chocolate bar, or I'm gonna eat that bag of little bag of chips that I don't really need. And then we go to overeating, and so you're eating again for different emotional reasons because stress, you're trying to fill a void that you're never gonna fill with food. But it's it becomes a coping mechanism essentially because your nervous system is dysregulated and you're not able to feel safe. And so you think food is safe. Um, and so overeating, you might feel a little bloating, discomfort, you're like, uh, overdid a little bit. Binge eating is the full loss of control. So you eat until you're so full, you're you feel sick. You're so incredibly uncomfortable, you're so bloated, you're in so much pain. And the amount of volume of food that you you can eat is is can be quite shocking. And often what will trigger the binge is a few different things. So you start and then it triggers all or nothing. Oh, I've I've had something I shouldn't have. Screw it, I'm gonna eat whatever I want for the rest of the day, or I'm gonna eat this whole thing of cookies or eat all these donuts, right? So it can really trigger that all or nothing. And that's one of the things that triggers you to go until it's either gone or until you're so full you feel sick. Um, and then there's the whole mentality around, well, really, some foods are very addictive. And so we start eating them, we get a huge dopamine high. Dopamine is your reward pleasure neurotransmitter, and you start and then it just feels like you completely lose control and you can't stop until you feel so full you're sick, or until the food is gone. Um, so that's another reason why binge eating can be very just feel very out of control because there is that component, and there's many potential things in the body: your blood sugar, your hormones, your gut, your neurotransmitters that can significantly increase your appetite and make you eat so much more than you ever think you could. Um, so that's binge eating, and then like food addiction is just this asphyxiation, like you're obsessed with food and chasing numbers, the scale, you're constantly thinking about food and planning your next diet, planning your next meal, your next eating style, trying to gain control, or you're planning your next binge or your next emotional eating. I'm gonna go to the store and get this, and I've got this at home and I'm gonna eat that. And it's literally you're just thinking about food and trying to control food or losing control with food and losing control with your body and fighting with the number on the scale. Um Is this something that you I mean it can affect anyone, right? It's not it can affect absolutely anybody, but it's something that has like a lot of people keep secret because it's not something that you hear a lot of people talking about. So yeah, I mean, there's still quite a lot of stigma around it, I imagine. Unfortunately, yeah. And no one should feel shame or guilt if they're doing it or embarrassed because you're not alone and it's not your fault. And we haven't been properly educated or taught about these kinds of behaviors and why we have them. It's not a willpower issue. It's not a do better on your diet issue. It's got nothing to do with any of that. This is so complex and multi-layered physically, mentally, emotionally, energetically, hormonally, spiritually, behaviorally, chemically in the brain. Like I had no idea. And until you really start digging in and learning about it and healing it, like, how are you possibly supposed to know how to address? And especially like when I healed, I realized like, oh, also my mom had a food addiction and I inherited a lot of my behaviors around food from her, not blaming her, but just like the observation of wow, like this was a lineage thing too. It got passed down. And for a lot of people, especially women, weight and body image issues, dieting, emotional eating, ways you using unhealthy ways to cope, unworthiness, a lot of that is passed down from our families, our parents, things like that, or things that happen to us that create these coping mechanisms. Yeah. So it's actually one of the most common like sabotaging behaviors, like health issues deemed in North America. Um, that in my opinion is not being treated properly. Um but I guess it's not helped by social media and you know, filters and all the other things that people put on their profiles. Zempic now, I guess that's Oh yeah. Oh, Zempic's the worst. I don't, I don't agree with it at all because it doesn't the problem with all this like diet weight loss stuff is it doesn't actually help you address the roots of why you're in the behaviors in the first place. And until we address the roots and do root-cause healing, the thing is, is you can suppress it, you can numb it, you can try to avoid doing it, but at some point it's going to come back and you're going to have to deal with it. Um, if you're dealing with that shame of doing it, you're keeping it secret. I guess that shame then actually keeps the cycle going. Yeah. It it becomes a trigger because shame is a very dense, heavy emotion to feel. And it's one of the lowest frequency emotions we can feel. And so if we're in shame, it's very uncomfortable. I don't want to feel shame anymore. So I'm going to go numb out with food so that I can avoid feeling it for a little while. I'm going to break from feeling shame and guilt and embarrassment and the anger and the frustration and the hopelessness of I did that again. I promised myself I wasn't going to do it again, right? Like I went back and forth for a few years doing this. And finally I started to build awareness that I was binge eating. I went through bulimia for six months where I was binging and purging, thinking that if I purge I won't gain weight and I can just relieve myself. But purging is really the full owner, the lack of taking ownership and responsibility for what you've just done with the the consumption of the food. And so we need to take ownership if we do it and start figuring out why we're behaving that way. Um, but it it is very deep. And I think the biggest piece is why we're in it and what really prompted me onto the healing journey was where I was to the point where I was like binge eating and throwing the food away and eating out of my garbage can, binge eating and throwing the food in the dumpster in the back alley and going and digging through and like pulling it out and eating it. Like I had such a severe food addiction that I'm like, holy moly, like this is serious. And I think a lot of people with their self-sabotaging behaviors, whether it's eating or online shopping or drinking or mindless scrolling or people pleasing, they think we kind of get into this denial, like it's not really a big deal. This is what I do. It's what feels safe and familiar. It's it's comfortable, it's my safety blanket. But what we don't realize is the significance of how the behavior is actually hurting us and our health on all levels and could be impacting our relationships, our bank account, like everything in our world is impacted if we're fighting with our body and fighting with food or whatever we're fighting with. And so I needed that low point moment to happen because I was in denial that what I was doing to myself wasn't a big deal. And it was a very big deal, and it was having a very significant impact. Um, and it's what prompted me onto the healing journey. How did that awareness happen for you? Well, I think essentially I I had to get really honest with myself that I was letting denial inhibit me from like looking at why I was behaving the way that I was because I was like, oh, it's not a big deal. Food's my friend, I like it. I don't, I don't know who I'd be without it. And it'd be sad if I didn't use food as a coping mechanism. But the reality was like I was hurting my body, right? So so understanding I was in denial and the garbage can dumpster moment really crushed the denial and made me be authentic with myself of like this is an issue and I need to deal with it because I don't want it to actually like end my life eventually. Because I was being so destructive with my body. I think the other thing was realizing that I had a lot of fear around change, fear of the unknown. What if I try to deal with this? What if I fail? The intimidation of I have so many things to deal with. I've I have like 80 pounds to lose, let alone all the health issues I've caused myself through doing this. Like I'm overwhelmed and I just don't even know where to start or what to do. Because I had zero knowledge of anything I know now. Like I was going to school to become an entertainment reporter, let alone like get into health and wellness, right? So yeah, and I'm really glad that that didn't happen because this is way more fulfilling. So um, but yeah, what did you learn from that? That you know, my listeners, if someone's resonating with this right now and saying, Yeah, I'm I'm there, what what did you learn that could help them? Hey, it's Sarah here. Just to remind you that we have free online support groups where you can find your tribe and get coaching support from my elite team coaches to help you with any kind of breakup, divorce, separation, toxic relationship breakdown. Get your questions answered and get the boost you need. Also, if you'd like to join our coaching community and turn your pain into your superpower and become a breakup and divorce coach with us, then you can also find the details on my website, saradavison.com. We look forward to seeing what did you learn that could help them? Yeah, so I think that one of the biggest things was you're gonna have to get uncomfortable to deal with this. You cannot stay in a numbing, because because I realized, oh, I'm using food to numb, to cope, to check out of my reality, to avoid feeling my feelings. And so I learned like I have to stop numbing out and checking out. I've got to start feeling my emotions. And even if I just put a timer on for 30 seconds and just give myself 30 seconds and show myself that I am safe, it's uncomfortable to feel, but it's I'm safe, then I'm gonna take a step to do that. And I did, and I I built confidence because I'm like, wow, I felt and nothing bad happened. Okay, I can do it. It's safe. I had to get honest with myself that I didn't have any healthy ways to cope with stress. I didn't love myself. I felt very unworthy. And so starting to understand that I had to deal with these pieces and not go on another diet and eating cell wasn't going to fix this, but actually like learn over time how to love myself and build my worth and understand what was triggering me because your triggers are teachers and they're trying to show you where you're out of alignment, whether you're emotionally eating, you're people pleasing, you're a perfectionist, you're drinking, whatever it is, whatever's triggering you to go into those behaviors. Is some level of unworthiness, some lack of self-love, some avoidance or fear of feeling or getting uncomfortable. And there are things that are triggering you that you haven't yet uncovered that are fueling these behaviors. And in order to stop them, we have to be willing to actually dedicate some time. So opening time for self-care, opening time for reflection, opening time for you to take care of yourself and start prioritizing your needs is incredibly important. So many people are running around last on their list, burnt out, overwhelmed, dysregulated, and exhausted. And you wonder why you're reaching for food at the end of the day or numbing out, or or that you often feel overwhelmed and chaotic. Well, it's because you need to take time for yourself. So those are some of the biggest things I think that we have to start stepping toward. And a question I started asking myself before I go to food is is this physical hunger? Am I actually hungry? Or is this emotional? Because nine times out of ten, I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm not even hungry. This is emotional. Okay, what's going on that I need to give some attention to? Absolutely. And also I think, you know, a lot of people that follow this might be going through hormonal changes as well. And sometimes that can drive you to do things that maybe you wouldn't normally do or you wouldn't do if you weren't hormonal. What do you think about that? Do hormones play a part in this as well? Oh yeah, 100%. And you don't so w when I was in the depth of this at 23 to 24, like I caused so much stress on my body that I put myself post-menopausal. My hormones were like so out of whack. I had a thyroid issue, my cortisol stress hormone was way too high. I had no progesterone, it's one of your sex hormones. And like I did all that through restriction and binge eating over several years. And so I just bring that up because you don't have to be in perimenopause or menopause to have a hormone issue. I see a lot of women in their 20s and early 30s with significant hormone issues. If they've been last, if they've been in these kinds of behaviors, if they're fighting with their body and food, or they've gone through stress or trauma or a breakup or something that's really had an impact on them, like it really impacts your stress hormones. So um, so that's the first thing is regardless of your age and where you are in your life cycle, we need to look at your hormone function because it definitely is playing a role. And a lot of women, you know, perimenopause starts between 35 and 37 and goes until usually 50 between 50 and 52. Once your period fully stops for 12 months, we deem that as a first sign of menopause. Um, but anywhere in this time, the pattern that I see with most women is high cortisol, and that's your stress hormone. And once your cortisol gets high, the first two symptoms of that are exhaustion and fatigue and weight gain, especially in the abdomen. What do women not like? Weight gain in the abdomen. And then they panic and go and restrict more and exercise more, which spikes your cortisol more and makes it easier to hang on to weight more easily because weight is a protective mechanism. Your body's hanging onto weight because she doesn't feel safe. And so what we have to understand is the more unsafe your body feels, probably the higher your cortisol levels are. Now, also with high cortisol comes increased appetite because high cortisol increases a hormone called ghrelin. And ghrelin is your hunger hormone. Leptin is your fullness hormone, and high cortisol dulls your ability to feel full. So it feels easier to graze and overeat and like you don't feel satiated. Anxiety, brain fog, afternoon energy lulls, shaky blood sugar, the hangry, feeling hangry if you wait too long to eat, irregular cycles, fertility issues, PMS and PMDD symptoms. These are all potential signs of higher low cortisol, more sensitive digestion. And then what happens for women is if your cortisol is high long enough, it can really start to suppress your metabolism and your thyroid. And your thyroid is a big part of your metabolism. And so I see cortisol too high, and then I see the thyroid become inhibited, and then the hair loss, the eyebrow thinning, the cold hands and feet, anxiety. You don't feel like yourself. You have pronounced fatigue in the morning, you're constipated, you, your face feels really swollen and puffy, and it feels next to impossible to lose weight when you have a hypothyroid, sluggish thyroid issue. And so then you're feeling even more resentful of your body. You feel undesirable, you don't feel good enough if you've tied your worth up to the way that you look or the number on the scale. And we don't think to look at hormones. We think eat less exercise more, restrict, right? Like, which is the worst thing we can do, regardless of again where you are in your life cycle. And once you get into perimenopause, the eat less exercise, more fasting thing does not work. It's just gonna stress out your hormones and make them worse. I don't suggest anyone pass that time or really, if ever, you know, um, do things like that because the more extreme it is, the more it's gonna stress your body out. And so then our progesterone gets impacted. Okay, progesterone, in my opinion, so progesterone and estrogen are your sex hormones, but they're also impact your mood and all kinds of other things. But I see this epidemic of low progesterone among women through their 20s post into postmenopause. Um, everyone has a sweet spot where it should be for a woman. However, progesterone's the calming hormone. And if you don't have enough progesterone and your cortisol's high, you're gonna feel like it's really difficult to process through stress. You're gonna be way more reactive to small things. You're gonna yell at your partner more, you're gonna be more reactive, you're gonna be more critical of yourself and others. You could pick more fights because you literally don't have capacity to cope. Progesterone is incredibly important, not only because it's the calming hormone, but we need enough of it to help circulate and produce different neurotransmitters in the body, which help us feel. Okay, so progesterone helps us produce GABA, which helps us fall asleep, but it also helps us feel calm. And if we have low progesterone and low GABA, we crave more sugar. We want to eat more. So that becomes an easy trigger. Also with low progesterone become comes low serotonin. Serotonin is like one of your moods, feeling stable, content, happy, feel good, neurotransmitter. So if progesterone is low, that's low. And I'm telling you, you may hit ovulation or certain phases of your cycle and you feel like a completely different person. You all of a sudden feel very negative, you have very dark thoughts. That's part of that PMDD that we can fully resolve. Um, andor again, all of a sudden you're very negative, very reactive, you're very getting very argumentative. And this is the biggest one. Low progesterone can inhibit oxytocin circulation in the body. Oxytocin is the connection neurotransmitter. So oxytocin helps you feel connected to yourself and others. And if your progesterone is low, you may feel completely disconnected from your loved ones, including your spouse. And you may love your spouse very much, and there'd be maybe no issues in the relationship, but all of a sudden, you literally feel disconnect. You feel apathetic, you feel flatlined, you just feel like meh, even if there's a lot of good things going on in your life, you're just like, I literally don't feel anything right now. It's not depression necessarily, it's literally flatlined. And so the concern and what I see why a lot of people break up with partners going through menopause when actually they've had great relationships, their partner doesn't know what's going on. I mean, they're unlikely to understand this. So again, it just makes it even worse. Yes. And this is the point, right? So, like instead of just deciding on a whim you're gonna like completely upheaval your life, like I would highly suggest first to get your hormones tested because like it's a very real feeling and it feels very it's unexpected, and you're just like, I have no idea what that it is, and it's very unsettling. And to then just assume, oh yeah, I I just don't feel anything for this person anymore when it could be low progesterone, like it's incredibly important to do labs and to look at this because progesterone declines as you go into your mid-30s and beyond. So so there is a higher likelihood, unless you properly support your hormones, which you can, that this kind of stuff can come up, right? And if you're low and all of a sudden you're feeling all these, you don't feel right, and you feel disconnected and you're more critical of yourself, you're craving more sugar, it's so much easier to go and emotionally eat or binge. Um, also getting into other compulsive behaviors as well. And you need enough progesterone to love yourself and to actually feel connected to yourself and feel worthy. Um, with low levels, we're more up to people please to become attached to other people, especially our partners, and to feel very insecure. So this progesterone and estrogen is it does some of the same stuff with mood, but progesterone is more pronounced with it. So if you have both low estrogen and progesterone, you're gonna have a double whammy here. And again, like it's incredibly important that we investigate this. I do hormone testing with all of my clients because we need to see what's going on in correlation with your symptoms and how you're feeling. And nine times out of 10, there's low progesterone or low progesterone and low estrogen. So yeah, it has a huge impact on relationships if you don't know what the symptoms are and like what to address. And I see it completely resolve. I mean, it's good news that you can resolve it. Yeah, and it's really good to sort of link emotional eating as well to hormones. It might be hormone-driven. I mean, for for I mean, I think we all go through emotional eating at certain times when anxiety's high and you yeah, but it may not be a problem, right? It might just be, oh well, you know, I'm feeling a bit low, so I'm gonna have this. But normally I'm sort of very healthy and what I do is is healthy eating. So there is a sort of a balance, isn't there, when it becomes a problem versus when it's just a way of coping with something in that moment, which isn't like an everyday thing, maybe. Yeah. And so, I mean, everyone has their different perception of like what a balanced approach is with food. And in my opinion, like, I don't think we should be using food as a coping mechanism ever. Because in, and that's just my personal opinion, because I'm like, well, what is it that I am too nervous or afraid to feel that I can't that I need a crutch for? And why can't I replace emotional eating with a healthier tool like journaling or talking about it or breath or getting outside or just being able to even have a conversation with myself and see why I have such a hard time feeling through a stressful time or feeling through a certain emotion? So my goal is to help my clients and and I fully overcame these behaviors. Um, I want to help them fully break free. Do you mean that you would never eat anything unhealthy then? No, so it means I would never use food as a coping mechanism. So I would never have anxiety and go, I need to go and eat to deal with this. Like I don't believe in that, and that's what I teach to my clients. So I'm all about having a mindful relationship with food, which means I am eating in a way that is supportive to my health and longevity most of the time. And sometimes I'm going to enjoy a dessert. I'm going to enjoy a mindful indulgence. When we travel, I'm going to go try that thing that I can only get in this place. And the key is eating it slowly and mindfully and really enjoying it. And you know you're in that mindful place with food when you enjoy it and there's no guilt or shame to follow. There's no like, oh, well, I better compensate and go work out for three hours. It's just enjoying the moment like you would enjoy any other moment and moving on to the next part of your day. And that to me is really where freedom lies. And when you build your worth and you really love yourself and you, you heal this part of you, you get to have that and you don't lose control. And there's not all this old chatter in your mind because you've cleared it out. And as you heal and you really love yourself also, you don't want to punish yourself with food. And you're like, I feel courageous and I know I believe in myself. I know I can get through anything that comes my way, and that I don't have to numb out. And I think that's such an empowering place to be. Um because when you have the tools and you learn how to cope in other more mindful ways, you really gain a lot of confidence and belief in yourself that you can like handle anything, not that you invite in anything that you don't want, but it's just like you believe in yourself. And I think that's the biggest thing that we can all gift ourselves is to love ourselves and believe in ourselves and know no matter what, I've got my back and I've got ways to cope in healthier ways. And is that well, because you talk a lot about body freedom. What do you mean by that? And is that that about taking your power back and being more conscious in your decisions? Yeah. 100%. So body freedom is about everything we've just been talking about. So it's like that mindful balance with food. It's the being slow and intentional with food. It's giving yourself permission to have a mindful indulgence and knowing kind of what that balance is. It's getting to the roots of your hormone and gut and blood sugar issues and regulating them. It's building the self-love and the self-worth so that you feel so empowered and confident living in your body. And that helps you create everything in your life that you want, really. It improves your relationships because you're fulfilled and whole. And that's going to have a positive ripple on everyone else. Body freedom is also about really like trusting your body and learning how to listen to your body and and being aware is the biggest superpower you can give yourself. Because when you're aware of your thoughts and emotions, your body, etc., and something feels off, you can you can kind of tune into it and you can go, oh, this feels off. Let me investigate why. Okay, this is what it is, and then I can deal with it and shift. And it's it's your body's such a great teacher, she's always trying to teach you. You've got any tips because I think what you're saying is amazing. And I think I think a lot of people will benefit from everything you're saying. But in the moment, until you've trained yourself to kind of question and then go, oh yeah, I'm gonna follow through. Because in the moment it can be very easy to go, yeah, but I just need that now, and that chocolate bar is just there, or totally you know, is there something in that moment that we can do almost as a pattern interrupt? So until it becomes more of a deeper rooted practice for us. Yeah, definitely. There's a few little things. So the first thing is like the question I said earlier, you ask yourself, is this physical or emotional hunger? But now the bigger part is are you gonna go, yeah, it's emotional hunger, but I don't care, I'm gonna do it anyway. And the question to start challenging yourself with is what does it cost me to not care, to continue to not care and to continue to hurt my body with food? What does it cost me? Because it's pretty eye-opening when you start to reflect on the ways it's impacting you and your mental health and your bank account and your relationships and all these other things. And so it's like, what does it cost me to not care? And what if I actually did care and I didn't go to the chocolate right now and I dealt with whatever this is instead? So I think that that's incredibly helpful. And then having starting to build awareness awareness of your triggers. So what is triggering you to go to food? Understanding that is incredibly powerful and helpful because that's what's gonna help you actually start to catch your triggers and work through them. And then I think the last piece is starting to dedicate time to that self-care practice. Open up 10 minutes a day. You can make it longer as you get more, you know, progressing on your journey, but we need to be willing to take time to start building awareness, understanding why we're doing what we're doing and time to like relax and tend to our needs. We're tending to everyone else. You need to have time to tend to your needs, you deserve it. And so starting to dedicate that time is incredibly important because it's gonna help you not only start building awareness, but it's gonna help you start regulating your nervous system. You're gonna feel more calm and you're gonna feel less likely to go to food when you learn what's gonna help you like process through your emotions. So I think those things are really helpful. And then honestly, if you've been struggling for years and decades, consider getting some help. Getting some support, I think, is important because it's very multi-c it's so complex. Well, talking about that, how can people find you, Amber? Where can they go to find you in your work? Yeah, so the website is amberapproved.ca. I have a free emotional eating quiz if you're wondering. If you are struggling, you can take that and you'll get some podcasts. Um, I do also offer a complimentary 30-minute body freedom consultation so we can connect on Zoom and talk about whatever's going on for you and see if it's a fit to work together. The podcast is called the No Sugar Coating Podcast, and it's available everywhere, including the website. And then I'm on social media, Instagram, primarily. It's my name at Amber Romaniac, R-O-M-A-N-I-U-K. Brilliant. Wow. I mean, I think you've given so much information there. I mean, so much in the short space of time. There's a lot to digest and like excuse the pardon the pun, but it's just to work through and think about carefully. Because I think there's, you know, just so many layers to this, and it it's it's about starting to question and ask those questions that you've been asking, which are great. Happiness is honestly being present in the moment and being in awe and gratitude of everything. Like my body gave me a second chance to roll the hell that I put her through, and I'm so so beyond grateful. And healing helped me create the life I have today, which also included attracting my soulmate, who I've been who I've I've been with with over 10 years, and he's amazing. We have the most amazing, beautiful relationship, but because I learned to love myself first, and I think self-love is what's helped me become the happiest because I feel in my power, and that gives me my peace and my fun and everything that I've created in my life. Um, and health. I think health is a huge part of happiness as well. I think it's such an inspiring story for people listening that you you came from just being on the bus, school bus, and having that awful incident where kids were laughing at you for being fat. Oh, that's just just harrowing. But then taking that pain and then learning to control what's going on for you and understanding in deep diving rather than just constantly pushing it away and then turning it on its head and and moving forward and actually now helping others with it is really inspiring. Just one thing you mentioned during the interview that I'd love just to pick up on quickly because I know we're almost out of time. But you said you didn't like a Zempic. Obviously, a Zempic is great if in some people's eyes. I'm just in the middle of watching some new documentaries come out on Netflix at the moment about it, but people are talking about how obviously it helps you shift the weight. And if you are, you know, if you've got diabetes, you're struggling with type two, it can help, you know, with blood sugar and can be, I guess, in some ways life-saving from that perspective. What are your thoughts on it? Um, so I'm I'm a no. I maybe for somewhat for blood sugar. However, the problem is with all this stuff from Big Pharma, why are they not helping you understand why you got type two in the first place, which you fully get from eating processed food, okay, having a sugar addiction, having high cortisol, having chronic inflammation in the body. Why are we not being educated about those things and supported to shift that? All of a sudden it's like slap a medication on because it makes big pharma a lot of money. And I don't like that. Quick fixes, you know how many lawsuits are coming out about Ozemping now? Thousands of people are dying because they're having like gastric emptying that their paralysis of the digestive system, turbo cancer and the thyroid. People are going blind. I just was reading comments on a post the other day where someone was using it for type two and they died because they had digestive paralysis. Wow. So, I mean, that's not happening to everyone, but I think I'm concerned with the amount of epidemic cases we're going to be seeing in the next two to three years. I just don't trust big pharma and you can't mess with nature. And and and in for blood sugar, in some cases, along with improving the way that you eat, reducing inflammation, hormone support, maybe, but not for weight loss, not for trying to deal with binge eating. You cannot quick fix your way out of these issues because weight is a protective mechanism. It's an emotional hormonal issue as well, it's a metabolic issue. And same with binge and emotional eating, you cannot quick fix your way out of it. And the side effects are like someone is dealing with that, and they will you help them with that? So if someone contacts you, will you go through that with them and help them create a plan for moving forward? Oh, 100%. Yeah. And if you've are if you're on Ozempic and or you've realized that you do not want to be doing it anymore, get support with coming off of it and the course correction because it does impact your hormones and your gut and your mood and all of these things that then we have to work on healing. So yeah, I'm I'm very stern on my opinion about it because I've not seen it be a benefit. I love it. I'm with you on that too. I think you know, we've got to consciously take control back over everything in our lives and break up divorce, domestic abuse is something that will put you through a lot of emotional roller coaster and there will be, you know, addictions and food issues, maybe alcohol partying, all sorts of issues and anxieties and problems that come from that, but we don't solve that with a with an injection or a tablet or alcohol or food. Brings us back to everything you do. So if you're listening and you do need that extra bit of help, I'm sure some of this has resonated very strongly with a lot of my audience. So if you do, do reach out to Amber, check her out, find her on Instagram, find her on the internet, and we um you know, we look forward to seeing how your work progresses, Amber, because I think you're doing amazing work out there. And thank you for being a fabulous guest. Thank you for having me, and thank you for the work you're doing as well. It's so needed, and I am so grateful that we could connect today. Me too. That's it for today's episode, everyone. Do like, follow, subscribe, and all that good stuff. And I very much look forward to you joining us on my next episode. That's it for today's episode of Heartbreak to Happiness. Don't forget to subscribe and leave her a view to win a free ticket to Sarah's virtual Heartbreak to Happiness retreat. This is a transformative combination of live webinars with Sara herself, coupled with her empowering online video program designed to help you cope better with your breakup and start feeling happy again. Thank you and join us again on the next episode for another dose of Heartbreak to Happiness.