115. Trauma, Dopamine, and the Drive to Numb: How to Stop Emotional Eating from the Inside Out with Amber Romaniuk
Release Date: 07/14/2025
141. Menopause Symptoms No One Warns You About: Hormones, ADHD, Weight Gain, Food Sensitivities, and HRT with Jen Brown
Emotional Eats Podcast: What Women Over 40 Really Need to Know About Food, Hormones, and Their Bodies Without the Diet Culture Spin
Join the Cool Girl Collective This is your safe space to ask questions, share your story, and find practical tools for your health and happiness. 👉 Click Here to Join: This episode is one of those conversations that feels easy, natural, and surprisingly comforting. I’m joined by Jen, the creator behind the popular TikTok and Instagram account @jenopause_midlife, and what happens is an honest, fun, and deeply relatable conversation about midlife, hormones, and everything women were never really taught about this stage of life. We talk about what it’s like to start...
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140. A Simple Meal Prep System That Actually Works in Midlife and Stops the Takeout and Snacking
Emotional Eats Podcast: What Women Over 40 Really Need to Know About Food, Hormones, and Their Bodies Without the Diet Culture Spin
Join the Cool Girl Collective We created the Cool Girl Collective for women over 40 who are ready to feel supported, seen, and understood. Inside, you’ll find real conversations about menopause, hormones, emotional eating, chronic illness, relationships, and everything midlife brings along with humor, heart, and community. This is your safe space to ask questions, share your story, and find practical tools for your health and happiness. 👉 Click Here to Join: Meal Prep Made Simple In Episode 140 of the Emotional Eats podcast, Kim breaks down the simple system she uses to...
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139. Alcohol and Midlife Women: To Drink or Not to Drink
Emotional Eats Podcast: What Women Over 40 Really Need to Know About Food, Hormones, and Their Bodies Without the Diet Culture Spin
Join the Cool Girl Collective We created the Cool Girl Collective for women over 40 who are ready to feel supported, seen, and understood. Inside, you’ll find real conversations about menopause, hormones, emotional eating, chronic illness, relationships, and everything midlife brings along with humor, heart, and community. This is your safe space to ask questions, share your story, and find practical tools for your health and happiness. 👉 Click Here to Join: To Drink or Not to Drink in Midlife In today’s episode, we’re talking about alcohol in midlife through a...
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138. Why Anxiety Increases During Menopause and What To Do About It
Emotional Eats Podcast: What Women Over 40 Really Need to Know About Food, Hormones, and Their Bodies Without the Diet Culture Spin
Join the Cool Girl Collective We created the Cool Girl Collective for women over 40 who are ready to feel supported, seen, and understood. Inside, you’ll find real conversations about menopause, hormones, emotional eating, chronic illness, relationships, and everything midlife brings along with humor, heart, and community. This is your safe space to ask questions, share your story, and find practical tools for your health and happiness. 👉 Click Here to Join: If you are a woman in perimenopause or post-menopause and you’ve noticed more anxiety, restlessness, looping...
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137. The Episodes That Sparked the Biggest Conversations with Women Over 40 in 2025 Around Gut Health, Menopause, Menopause Weight Loss, Vaginal Health, Hormones and Emotional Eating.
Emotional Eats Podcast: What Women Over 40 Really Need to Know About Food, Hormones, and Their Bodies Without the Diet Culture Spin
Join the Cool Girl Collective We created the Cool Girl Collective for women over 40 who are ready to feel supported, seen, and understood. Inside, you’ll find real conversations about menopause, hormones, emotional eating, chronic illness, relationships, and everything midlife brings along with with humor, heart, and community. This is your safe space to ask questions, share your story, and find practical tools for your health and happiness. 👉 Click Here to Join: This special Best of 2025 episode brings together the most listened to, most shared, and most talked about...
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136. How to Set Real Boundaries with Dysfunctional Parents Without Turning to Food
Emotional Eats Podcast: What Women Over 40 Really Need to Know About Food, Hormones, and Their Bodies Without the Diet Culture Spin
Join the Cool Girl Collective We created the Cool Girl Collective for women over 40 who are ready to feel supported, seen, and understood. Inside, you’ll find real conversations about menopause, hormones, emotional eating, chronic illness, relationships, and everything midlife brings along with with humor, heart, and community. This is your safe space to ask questions, share your story, and find practical tools for your health and happiness. 👉 Click Here to Join: This episode is a reminder that you are not “too sensitive” for needing boundaries and that healing does...
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135. Why Midlife Women Can’t Lose the Last Five Pounds with Kim Hynes
Emotional Eats Podcast: What Women Over 40 Really Need to Know About Food, Hormones, and Their Bodies Without the Diet Culture Spin
Join the Cool Girl Collective We created the Cool Girl Collective for women over 40 who are ready to feel supported, seen, and understood. Inside, you’ll find real conversations about menopause, hormones, emotional eating, chronic illness, relationships, and everything midlife brings along with with humor, heart, and community. This is your safe space to ask questions, share your story, and find practical tools for your health and happiness. 👉 Click Here to Join: If you’ve ever felt frustrated, stuck, or conflicted about that last bit of weight, this episode offers...
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134. Why starting in January Backfires for Your Midlife Midsection and Metabolism
Emotional Eats Podcast: What Women Over 40 Really Need to Know About Food, Hormones, and Their Bodies Without the Diet Culture Spin
Join the Cool Girl Collective We created the Cool Girl Collective for women over 40 who are ready to feel supported, seen, and understood. Inside, you’ll find real conversations about menopause, hormones, emotional eating, chronic illness, relationships, and everything midlife brings along with with humor, heart, and community. This is your safe space to ask questions, share your story, and find practical tools for your health and happiness. 👉 Click Here to Join: If you are a woman in your 40s, 50s, or 60s who keeps promising yourself you will “start fresh” on Monday,...
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133. Your Over 40 Guide to Saying No to Nonsense
Emotional Eats Podcast: What Women Over 40 Really Need to Know About Food, Hormones, and Their Bodies Without the Diet Culture Spin
Join the Cool Girl Collective We created the Cool Girl Collective for women over 40 who are ready to feel supported, seen, and understood. Inside, you’ll find real conversations about menopause, hormones, emotional eating, chronic illness, relationships, and everything midlife brings along with with humor, heart, and community. This is your safe space to ask questions, share your story, and find practical tools for your health and happiness. 👉 Click Here to Join: This fun, lighthearted episode has a big dose of truth underneath it. Kim is 59 and officially in her “not...
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132. Post-Menopause Belly Fat? These 5 Fixes Feel Like Cheating Part 2
Emotional Eats Podcast: What Women Over 40 Really Need to Know About Food, Hormones, and Their Bodies Without the Diet Culture Spin
Join the Cool Girl Collective We created the Cool Girl Collective for women over 40 who are ready to feel supported, seen, and understood. Inside, you’ll find real conversations about menopause, hormones, emotional eating, chronic illness, relationships, and everything midlife brings along with with humor, heart, and community. This is your safe space to ask questions, share your story, and find practical tools for your health and happiness. 👉 Click Here to Join: Feeling better in post-menopause isn’t just about food and workouts. In this second half of the series, we...
info_outlineGet the FREE Tapping Video to Stop the Late Day Emotional Eating.
Click here: https://kimhynes.com/late-day-emotional-eating-tapping-video
What if the cravings, binges, and late-night shame spirals weren’t your fault—but a mix of trauma, hormones, and unmet emotional needs?
In this episode, I’m joined by Emotional Eating, Digestive, and Hormone Expert Amber Romaniuk to explore the hormonal root causes of emotional eating. From dopamine highs to hunger hormones like ghrelin and leptin, Amber breaks down how imbalances, especially during perimenopause and menopause, can make cravings stronger, sabotage your hunger cues, and heighten emotional overwhelm. These are all root causes to emotional eating.
Whether you’ve struggled with binge eating, sugar addiction, or simply feel like food has control over you, this conversation explains how your hormones, gut, and energy systems are quietly working behind the scenes.
If you're a midlife woman wondering why your eating habits feel harder to manage than ever, you are not alone and it's not all in your head.
Amber also brings us into the emotional and energetic side of eating: the role of the ego mind, empathic energy, people-pleasing, and how early life experiences and trauma shape our food behaviors decades later.
Episode Highlights & Timestamps
01:18 Amber’s personal story: childhood trauma, food addiction, and her wake-up call moment
12:30 The dopamine connection: why food gives you a high—and then drags you down
18:53 Ghrelin and leptin: what your hunger hormones are doing behind the scenes
22:00 Thyroid dysfunction and perimenopause: what your doctor may be missing
27:00 Gut bugs, cravings, and the impact of candida and parasites on emotional eating
33:27 The ego mind vs. your true self—and how it sabotages food freedom
39:14 What it really means to be an empath—and how that impacts emotional eating
45:36 Amber’s top 3 tips if you’re just starting to face your emotional eating
47:00 Final words of hope: you can heal, and you are not alone
About Amber Romaniuk
Amber Romaniuk is an Emotional Eating, Digestive, and Hormone Expert who has helped thousands of high-achieving women heal from self-sabotage with food. After overcoming her own food addiction—gaining and losing 1,000 lbs and spending over $50,000 on binge foods—she now empowers women to reclaim their health, body confidence, and self-worth through deep emotional and hormonal healing. Amber hosts The No Sugarcoating Podcast, with over 2 million downloads across 88 countries.
Connect with Amber
Website: https://amberapproved.ca
Emotional Eating Quiz: https://amberapproved.ca/emotional-eating-quiz/
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-no-sugarcoating-podcast/id1158699464 https://amberapproved.ca/podcast/
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@amberromaniuk
Instagram: https://instagram.com/amberromaniuk
If this episode resonated with you:
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Join the Conversation, Coaching and Community:
Continue learning, talking, and getting coaching and support around emotional eating, midlife women’s health, and menopause by joining the Emotional Eats Community.
Click here to join: https://kimhynes.com/emotional-eats-community-sign-up
CLICK here for a FREE tapping video to STOP EMOTIONAL EATING
Use this short, powerful 7-minute tapping (EFT) session to help stop emotional eating after work, before dinner, or whenever the cravings hit hard.
https://kimhynes.com/late-day-emotional-eating-tapping-video
Connect with Kim:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimhyneshealth
Website: https://www.kimhynes.com
Podcast: https://kimhynes.com/podcast
If you like the Emotional Eats podcast, please subscribe, follow, and leave a 5-star rating and review. Tag us on social media—I would be so grateful.
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Disclaimer: The information in this podcast is not intended to replace working with your doctor, medical provider, or mental health professional. It is for conversation, information, and entertainment only.
Note: Some links may be affiliate links, and I may receive a small commission or sponsorship support at no extra cost to you. These partnerships help me keep the Emotional Eats Podcast going and allow me to continue creating free content to support you on your journey.