How to Retrain Your Brain to Eat Well Under Stress

Anyone who’s worked with me will tell you that my coaching style is about as far from a Navy SEAL as you can get.

No bootcamps at dawn.

No “drop and give me 20.”

No barking orders or strict rules.

But…there is one quote, often attributed to an anonymous Navy SEAL, that I think is brilliant:

“Under pressure, you don’t rise to the occasion.

You sink to the level of your training.”

Now, I'm not talking about the pressure of actual combat here.

I'm talking about the "battlefield" that is your kitchen at 7pm on a Tuesday after a day of back-to-back meetings, endless emails, and taking care of everyone else's needs but your own.

When you’re tired, hungry, and stressed...

And you feel the pull toward the glass of wine or the quickest comfort food you can find...

You don’t magically rise to the level of your best intentions.

You sink to the level of your mental training.

And for most women, years of dieting has trained them to be mentally rigid.

To think in absolutes.

All OR nothing.

On OR off.

Good OR bad.

Those default patterns are the kind that backfire when life gets messy.

They're what lead to thoughts like:

"If I can’t do the plan perfectly, I may as well abandon it completely."

And

"I shouldn't eat this...well, now I’ve blown it."

And just like you wouldn't throw someone onto the battlefield with zero preparation and expect them to channel the heroics of a Hollywood war movie…

You can't expect yourself to rise above the pressure of daily life without mentally training yourself for those moments.

So if you struggle with staying consistent when the pressure is high, here’s a little reflection exercise for you:

• What has your history with dieting trained you to believe about food or “staying on track”?

• When you’re under pressure, what’s the default script your brain runs?

• Where might you need to retrain yourself to think differently?

This is where my Capsule Cooking method can help.

Because part of what it does is retrain your brain to think flexibly about food.

👉 To see options where you used to see dead-ends.

👉 To default to “what can I pull together quickly” instead of “guess I’ll order takeout.”

👉 To make your new baseline creative problem solving, not all-or-nothing panic.

The goal isn’t to eat perfectly.

It’s to retrain the way you think about food so that even under pressure, you’ve got a flexible mindset, supportive habits, and solid systems to fall back on.

Because Navy SEAL or not…we all need to be prepared for when life gets messy.

P.S.

Inside my new Capsule Cooking mini course, I teach you my 5-step method to prepare smarter and eat healthier without the rigid all-or-nothing thinking about food. Waitlist members get first dibs, a discount, and a bonus call where I’ll help you refine your personal system.

👉 CLICK HERE to Join the Capsule Cooking Waitlist