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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Sh!t That Goes On In Our Heads is a 2024 People’s Choice Podcast Award Winner (Best Health), 2024 Women in Podcasting Award Winner (Best Mental Health Podcast), 2026 Podcast Tonight Award Winner (Best Mental Health Podcast), and 2026 NYC Podcast Award Audience Choice Winner (Best Hosts), with over 4.5 million downloads and listened to in over 160 countries.
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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?”...