Feeling trapped in a painful cycle of restriction, control, and weight regain—only to wonder why nothing ever truly sticks? In this episode, Leslie reveals why even the most disciplined approaches to food often backfire, leading to shame, food noise, and dramatic rebound weight gain. She shares her own experience of extreme restriction, long-term "success," and the devastating kickback that followed.

Leslie explains why strategies like strict dieting, food addiction labels, or external controls can feel logical—but often deepen distrust with food and yourself. She breaks down why 95% of people regain weight after restriction and why willpower, perfection, and cutting foods out are not the missing pieces. Instead, she points to what's really driving overeating beneath the surface.

The breakthrough comes from understanding and healing the three internal food drivers that actually run the show: the mind spiral, emotional coping, and self-abandonment. By shifting the focus inward—calming food noise, learning emotional regulation, and stopping self-betrayal—you can finally create a peaceful, sustainable relationship with food and your body without tracking, restriction, or fear.

"This is not a food problem or a self-control problem. It's an internal problem—and when you start there, everything on the outside begins to shift." — Leslie Thornton

01:48 – Why 95% of people regain weight after restriction and exercise
02:10 – The three internal food drivers that keep you stuck
07:28 – Why extreme food rules and perfection create massive rebound weight gain
10:42 – How restriction trains your brain not to trust you
11:02 – The "beach ball" effect: why pushing harder always leads to kickback
16:11 – Internal Driver #1: The mind spiral (food noise & all-or-nothing thinking)
17:49 – How hypnosis helps calm overthinking and obsessive food thoughts
18:11 – Internal Driver #2: Emotional eating as a stress-release valve
19:22 – Why high performers struggle most with emotional regulation
21:40 – How unresolved emotions fuel compulsive eating
23:07 – Internal Driver #3: Self-abandonment and people-pleasing
24:08 – Why feeling unseen, depleted, or resentful leads to overeating
26:14 – Why external solutions (even surgery) can't fix internal patterns

Connect With Leslie Thornton:

• Book A Clarity Call
• Website
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Email: Leslie@hpwl.co

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Feeling exhausted from constantly tracking your food, starting over every Monday, and still wondering why nothing sticks long-term? In this episode, Leslie breaks down why food tracking often becomes a false sense of control rather than a path to freedom. She explains how tracking can temporarily soothe anxiety around food while quietly reinforcing distrust, perfectionism, and the all-or-nothing cycle that keeps so many women stuck.

Leslie challenges the belief that more discipline, more data, or tighter control will finally fix food struggles. She shares her own story of extreme dieting, weight regain, and the emotional toll of trying to be "perfect," revealing why information and willpower alone never lead to permanent change. Instead, she highlights how tracking often acts as a band-aid masking deeper nervous system and emotional patterns that drive overeating.

The real solution, Leslie explains, is learning to regulate your internal world rather than micromanaging food. By shifting focus from control to self-trust, and from external rules to internal alignment, you can quiet food noise, feel calm around eating, and finally experience consistency without restriction. This episode offers clarity, relief, and a new way forward for anyone ready to stop managing food forever and start living freely.

"Tracking can feel like control, but when it's coming from panic or fear, it's actually teaching your body not to trust you. Real freedom comes when you no longer need to manage food to feel safe." — Leslie Thornton

01:01 – Why tracking food creates a dopamine-driven illusion of control
04:32 – How tracking becomes a security blanket instead of a long-term solution
05:16 – The real reason tracking fails: lack of trust with food and yourself
06:20 – How all-or-nothing eating patterns keep food drama alive
06:52 – What "normal eaters" do differently around food
07:28 – Leslie's personal journey through restriction, perfection, and rebound weight gain
09:25 – Why doing everything "right" still leads to weight regain
10:45 – The internal drivers that actually cause overeating
11:14 – What permanent weight loss looks like without tracking or dieting
12:46 – How focusing on internal regulation quiets food noise
14:21 – Staying calm, confident, and consistent around food even during stress

Connect With Leslie Thornton:

• Book A Clarity Call
• Website
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Email: Leslie@hpwl.co

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Feeling frustrated that no matter how strictly you follow your diet, the weight just isn't coming off? You eat the right foods, follow the rules, and even stick to strategies that worked in the past, but still, the scale doesn't budge. It's not your diet, your body, or your willpower that's holding you back; it's your energy.

When your energetic state is low, restriction and discipline alone won't work. Most of us were never taught how to master our daily energy, and without that, no plan sticks. This episode dives into why mastering your energetic state is the missing key to effortless weight loss, consistent healthy habits, and long-term transformation.

By shifting your focus to your state first, then your story, and finally your strategy, you can finally experience food freedom and sustainable results without obsession, restriction, or stress.

"All you have to do is identify whether you've ever learned how to master your energetic state, change your story, and have the tools to sustain it. Once you do that, the strategy becomes automatic." – Leslie M Thornton

What you will learn from this episode:

00:00 – The bold truth: It's not your diet, it's your energy problem
01:15 – Why low energy prevents sustainable weight loss
03:07 – How mastering your energetic state changes everything
05:05 – Tony Robbins' "Three S's" approach: Strategy, Story, and State
07:18 – Why starting with strategy alone doesn't work
09:49 – How your story and beliefs influence your results
11:00 – The connection between positive state and empowerment
13:23 – Client success story: Angela's 10-pound weight loss and clearing years of trauma
15:00 – How mastering your state makes food and exercise natural and effortless
16:05 – What happens on a Food Freedom call: Assessing state, story, and strategy
17:57 – The simple sequence for lasting weight loss: State → Story → Strategy

Valuable Resources:

• Join my next LIVE masterclass
• Join the 8-week Fastrack to Food Freedom Program -Guaranteed mental and emotional freedom from food

Connect With Leslie Thornton:

• Book A Clarity Call
• Website
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Email: Leslie@hpwl.co

If you enjoy the podcast, Would you please consider leaving a quick review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes in under 60 seconds? It brightens our day and helps us bring you incredible guests for top-notch content. Plus, I cherish reading every review! Click here to make a difference!

Why does comparison sneak in the moment you scroll, look around, or notice someone else's success? Why does jealousy feel uncomfortable, shameful, or like proof that you're behind? And why does it seem to hit hardest around food, body, confidence, and the life you wish you were living?
Most people try to shut the comparison down, telling themselves they should just be more grateful or confident already. But pushing it away only deepens the frustration, because comparison isn't the real problem—it's a signal you don't know how to read yet. Appearances lie, social media edits reality, and without a stable sense of identity, it's easy to believe everyone else has figured it out. That belief quietly keeps you stuck, chasing quick fixes instead of lasting change.
In this episode, you'll learn how to stop comparing yourself with others by understanding what jealousy is actually trying to show you. You'll discover how identity—not willpower or shortcuts—is the foundation of permanent freedom with food, body, and self-trust. Through coaching, Hypnosis, and the HEAL Method, you'll see how real transformation comes from rewiring who you believe yourself to be. When your identity shifts, comparison loses its grip—and you begin creating a life by your own design.

"The great news is that we can actually learn to build a new identity and live an entirely different life by your design, as the result of you embarking upon coaching and rewiring through Hypnosis." - Leslie Thornton

What you will learn from this episode:

02:15 - The importance of identity shifts for achieving permanent weight loss and that there is no quick fixes, just a long game

07:31 - The reality behind appearances [how they're indeed deceiving]

08:54 - Reframing jealousy and comparison as indicators of personal desires and potential for growth

10:15 - Coaching, Hypnosis, and becoming "Sally": Leslie's journey from food addiction to freedom

13:51 - The HEAL Method and the steps required for a complete identity shift

15:22 - Using Taylor Swift as an example of someone who has worked hard on herself to achieve freedom and happiness.

20:30 - The value of investing in coaching and education for personal growth

25:48 - How family upbringing shapes beliefs about food, body, and weight, and the need to question those beliefs

28:22 - How to create a new identity and life by your own design through coaching and Hypnosis and the importance of belief before results, consistent, positive choices and community support in achieving lasting change

32:34 - Freedom around food: Real-life example

35:03 - Taking action toward your goals and setting up for a transformative year

Valuable Resources:

• Join my next LIVE masterclass
• Join the 8-week Fastrack to Food Freedom Program -Guaranteed mental and emotional freedom from food

Connect With Leslie Thornton:

• Book A Clarity Call
• Website
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Email: Leslie@hpwl.co

If you enjoy the podcast, Would you please consider leaving a quick review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes in under 60 seconds? It brightens our day and helps us bring you incredible guests for top-notch content. Plus, I cherish reading every review! Click here to make a difference!

Food and weight quietly become the place where everything gets blamed—stress, loneliness, exhaustion, and disappointment. During the holidays especially, it can feel like if your body would just change, your life would finally feel lighter. The problem is, weight becomes the focus while happiness slowly disappears.

Obsession creates a loop of stress, shame, and control that keeps food noise alive and well. Dieting from anxiety, resentment, or self-judgment only fuels cortisol, making weight loss feel harder the more you try. Even "healthy" habits can mask deep self-criticism, turning wellness into another way to prove you're not enough. Over time, the pursuit of control replaces the real desire—to feel alive, free, and at peace in your own body.

This episode is a loving wake-up call to end food noise naturally by shifting the focus from weight to emotional and spiritual well-being. Leslie explains why happiness isn't the reward after weight loss—it's the requirement for it. Through personal stories, client experiences, and universal law perspectives, you'll see how acceptance, unconscious work, and repetition create lasting change. When you stop fighting yourself and start choosing joy, the noise fades, control loosens, and freedom becomes possible.

"Weight loss is easy when you're happy. Weight loss is impossible when you're miserable. If you're depressed, if you're anxious, if you're angry, if you're resentful. If you have other stress going on. If you have other things in your life that aren't being handled, stop trying to make that what's going to happen, it doesn't happen from that energy. Got to get yourself happy first." - Leslie Thornton

What you will learn from this episode:

01:26 - Emotional reflections on how everything is unconsciously blamed on weight, especially during the holidays

04:30 - Challenging the belief that weight is life's main problem and the impact of weight obsession

08:15 - Sharing personal experiences and client stories and making sense of the real cost of obsession

13:55 - The goal is to feel alive over control

22:56 - Stress, cortisol, the dieting loop, the shame and motivation myths

32:19 - Happiness and how it relates to weight loss

35:15 - Revealing how health-consciousness can mask underlying shame and self-judgment and the need for deeper questions

39:13 - Sharing of spiritual and universal law perspectives on acceptance, shame, and transformation

43:48 - Describes the fun and fulfillment that come after overcoming food and weight obsession

45:04 - Taking the leap of faith

46:16 - The importance of unconscious work and repetition, the true cost of obsession

48:38 - Spiritual awakening and the call for change

Valuable Resources:

• Join my next LIVE masterclass
• Join the 8-week Fastrack to Food Freedom Program -Guaranteed mental and emotional freedom from food

Connect With Leslie Thornton:

• Book A Clarity Call
• Website
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Email: Leslie@hpwl.co

If you enjoy the podcast, Would you please consider leaving a quick review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes in under 60 seconds? It brightens our day and helps us bring you incredible guests for top-notch content. Plus, I cherish reading every review! Click here to make a difference!