Food Noise, Emotional Eating & Mental Imagery Training: My Personal Story

Written in conversation with Living360

There was a season in my life when food noise became louder than usual.

I had a lot going on, a break-up, x2 postgraduate courses, and the emotional weight of trying to keep everything moving.
During that time, food became comfort. Late-night takeaways felt soothing, familiar, and reliable.

When I spoke with Living360, one moment stood out clearly to me.
I realised that I often wanted the food intensely, but when it arrived, I didn’t actually want it as much.

That realisation shifted everything.

The craving wasn’t really about hunger. It was about relief. About my mind searching for comfort at the end of a demanding day.

That curiosity led me to explore Functional Imagery Training (FIT), a neuroscience-backed form of mental imagery shown to support behaviour change by strengthening intrinsic motivation and reducing cravings (amongst many other things). I later went on to train and qualify as a certified Functional Imagery Training Advanced practitioner, and this work now sits at the heart of Inner Glow Clinic.

I often describe mental imagery training as daydreaming with purpose, intentionally using the imagination to engage all the senses as if something is happening in real time.

For me, this became a powerful anchor.

When the familiar craving urge crept in, especially late at night, I learnt to pause and gently ask myself:
Does this align with the healthy, alive version of me I’m becoming?

I would take a moment to really tap into her, not as a goal, but as a felt experience.

I pictured what she looked like, how she moved, how she felt in her body. I imagined the calm in her evenings, the steadiness in her choices, even the small sensory details, what the room felt like, the quiet, the sense of ease.

That pause mattered.

Not to stop the craving forcefully, but to reconnect. To anchor myself back to the version of me I wanted to feel aligned with.
Often, that moment of reconnection softened the urge far more than trying to override it ever did.

Alongside this, I began asking myself more compassionate questions:
Do I really want this, or am I feeling sad, stressed, or overwhelmed?

Much of the real work wasn’t about food at all.
It was about learning to meet myself with empathy instead of judgement, and creating enough inner safety for habits to shift naturally.

That season, and what it taught me, continues to shape the work we do inside Inner Glow Clinic: supporting sustainable habit change through identity, emotional safety, and mental imagery, especially during full, demanding seasons of life.