Field Notes

This week on Field Notes, we enter the land of: Ultra-Processed Food.

According to certain very serious doctors on the internet, UPFs are now:

“The leading cause of early death on planet earth. Ahead of tobacco.”

Cool.

Not dramatic at all.

So naturally, I’ve decided to test whether cutting them out for a week will:

Improve my migraines
Reduce my exhaustion
Fix my yo-yo weight history
Or simply make me feral and resentful

Because unfortunately… most of the things listed as “ultra-processed” are the things I actually eat.

🥪 In This Episode We Discuss:

What actually counts as Ultra-Processed Food (and how inconsistent the definitions are)
The claim that UPFs are worse than tobacco
The inflammation / microbiome argument
The counter-argument from registered dietitians
Whether the research is observational or causal
Food anxiety vs legitimate health concern
My chaotic personal diet
Growing up on enforced raw spinach
Cheese-based GCSE breakdowns
Yo-yo weight cycles and hyper-palatable food
Ozempic changing the household food dynamic
Whether non-UPF eating is realistic with children
Why I eat like a 19-year-old boy with a student loan
And whether “whole foods” are actually practical in real life

🍽 Personal Context (Aka Why This Is a Problem)

My current diet includes:

Fistfuls of turkey
Salt & vinegar crisps
Tuna pasta
Mushroom coffee
Minimal fruit
Suspiciously little fibre

Meanwhile the internet is telling me my gut lining is dissolving and my liver is weeping.

So this week I attempt to go:

👉 UPF-Free (or as close as I can manage)

And we’ll see whether:

My energy changes
My migraines shift
My mood improves
Or whether I simply miss crisps

🧠 Bigger Questions

Are we pathologising modern food?
Is this another wellness panic?
Or is the hyper-palatable environment genuinely wrecking us?
Can a busy parent realistically cook everything from scratch?
And why does cutting processed food feel so emotionally loaded?

👵 Guru & Granny Returns

This week’s dilemma:

“I’ve narrowed it down to three husband contenders. How do I choose?”

Featuring:

The Strong Stomach Theory™
The Chap Olympiad
Escape room testing
Vomit resilience
And a brief detour into secret families

You’re welcome.

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This month:
👉 Atomic Habits by James Clear

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Share this episode with someone who:

Owns at least three types of oat milk
Is suspicious of emulsifiers
Or eats crisps in the car and calls it “lunch”

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This week’s Field Report is the follow-up on vagus nerve regulation, still-face parenting, and trying to soothe our fried nervous systems.

I tested the homework:

Ice water dunk.
Breath work.
Humming (unfortunately, in public).

Links Mentioned

Vagus nerve stimulation device - https://shorturl.at/Q0YQQ
Breath work app - https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/breathwrk-breathing-exercises/id1481804500
Gospel Sunday Service Choir track - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qre8LJVd3o (wait for SIA to come out and sing with them, it gets me every time. Also look up 'sunday service choir' on youtube or spotify and enjoy the full album. I love 'rain' and 'father stretch' the most.

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Private podcast episodes, book breakdowns, and practical self-improvement without becoming unbearable.
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@rosehoneymorgan
@field.notes.pod

New episodes every Monday (deep dive) and Friday (Field Report).

In this episode we discuss:

Full head ice dunk attempts (and whether they calm you down or just make you feel mildly feral)
Why breath work felt surprisingly effective
The school gate humming incident
The still-face experiment and why scrolling in front of your kids hits differently
Why regulation starts in the body, not the brain
Whether overthinking (and over-ChatGPT-ing) makes stress worse
The new vagus nerve stimulation device you can clip to your ear
The gospel choir soundtrack that fuelled my public “moment”
Why humans used to regulate naturally (and now need calendar reminders to breathe)

💀 Fail of the Week

Public humming.
Misread eye contact.
A minor wellbeing check from one of the two hot dads.

We move.

💡 Find of the Week

Regulation is physical.

You cannot reason your way out of stress when your heart is racing.

Long exhales > spiralling thoughts.
Unclench your jaw > rewrite your narrative.
Body first. Brain second.

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Vagus Nerve Tips, Stress & Still Face Parenting

This week I force you to join in with whatever the mad reels tell us to do - so concentrate.

My algorithm is obsessed with vagus nerve regulation: calm your nervous system, soothe your vagal tone, stop being on edge, stop snapping, stop doom-scrolling and just… relax.

So naturally, I decided to look into it.

In this episode I unpack why modern life feels so dysregulating, why scrolling feels calming but actually isn’t, and whether humming, cold water, jaw unclenching and breathing like an ancient human might help — or whether we’ve officially lost the plot.

You may need to unclench your teeth while listening.

🧠 What We Cover

• Why “just calm down” doesn’t work
• The Still Face experiment — and why blank-facing kids backfires
• What the vagus nerve actually does (without wellness nonsense)
• Why your body has to feel safe before your brain can think
• The most common vagus nerve tips from Instagram
• Which ones felt useful, which felt weird, and which I’ll actually keep

🧪 The Internet Advice I Tested

Including:
• Humming & singing
• Breathing out longer than in
• Jaw and tongue relaxation
• Cold water on the face
• Slow movement instead of checking out

No ice baths. No candles. No pretending we live in a monastery.

🏺 Have We Lost the Plot?

Probably not.

Humans have always regulated themselves through:
• movement
• rhythm
• cold exposure
• shared calm

We just used to do it naturally — now we have to remember.

🔁 Field Report Coming Friday

I’ll report back on whether any of this helped in real life, or whether it joined the long list of things that sounded promising and didn’t survive a weekday.

📚 JOIN “ACTUALLY TRYING”

If you want help actually applying this stuff (without becoming insufferable):

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This month’s book:
Atomic Habits – James Clear

You’ll get:
• Weekly breakdowns you can actually use
• Private podcast episodes
• Cheat sheets & summaries
• Anti-brain-rot knowledge topics

You can also join free for the notes via email.

📲 STAY IN THE GROUP CHAT

Follow along on Instagram:
• @rosehoneymorgan
• @field.notes.pod

And come back Friday for the field report.
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📚 JOIN “ACTUALLY TRYING” at https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/subscribe

This month’s book:
👉 Atomic Habits by James Clear

You’ll get:
• Weekly breakdowns you can actually implement
• Private podcast episodes
• Cheat sheets & summaries
• Anti-brain-rot knowledge topics

Or sign up free for the notes part in your email.

Field Report: Psychic Signs, Spirit Messages & When “Woo-Woo” Gets a Bit Much

This week’s Field Report is the follow-up to Monday’s episode on signs from the universe, mediumship, and whether humans secretly need meaning to function.

I promised to test it myself.

So naturally, I:

✔ Went to a celebrity psychic
✔ Asked the universe (and possibly my dead dad) for a very specific sign
✔ Emotionally spiralled slightly
✔ Learned an unexpectedly useful life lesson

This episode contains psychic predictions, Ocado logistics, grief anthropology, and the first ever Guru & Granny agony aunt segment — which immediately descends into curtain-related chaos.

You’ve been warned.

🔮 PART 1 — The Psychic Visit

I revisit the psychic reading I had while pregnant and unpack:

• The eerily accurate pregnancy and birth prediction
• The very weird pocket watch story
• The food/content creation prediction that aged… suspiciously well
• The possibility my mum believes psychics just hire private investigators
• The big question: coincidence, cold reading, or something stranger?

👻 PART 2 — Asking the Universe (and My Dad) for a Sign

I tested the theory properly by requesting one specific sign:

👉 The name “Tim”
👉 Offline only
👉 Within three days

The results include:

• Stick-based desperation
• Ocado driver Timothy (plum van edition)
• The Reticular Activating System explained in real life
• Why looking for signs made grief feel… louder, not lighter

💔 FAIL OF THE WEEK

Why deliberately searching for spiritual reassurance actually made my mental state worse — including:

• Emotional dwelling
• Grief resurfacing
• Incense-fuelled crying sessions

Not exactly the influencer wellness journey promised.

💡 FIND OF THE WEEK

Turns out:

👉 Asking actual living humans for support works surprisingly well

Featuring:
• Asking Old Ma for help
• Adult children still wanting their mum to tidy their room
• The emotional science of support vs isolation

👵 NEW SEGMENT — Guru & Granny

Our first listener dilemma arrives:

“How do I persuade my husband to fund bespoke home renovations without murdering him?”

Expect:
• Alarmingly traditional advice
• Weaponised porridge window insulation
• Manipulation strategies that should absolutely not be peer reviewed

🧠 Bigger Takeaway

Looking for signs might comfort some people.

But this experiment raised bigger questions about:

• Grief processing
• Pattern-seeking human brains
• Why meaning matters psychologically
• And when “self-help spirituality” quietly becomes avoidance

✉️ WRITE INTO GURU & GRANNY

Send your dilemmas, chaos, or questionable life decisions via DM or to my instagram @rosehoneymorgan or @field.notes.pod

You can remain anonymous. Highly encouraged after this episode.

🎙 ABOUT FIELD NOTES

A self-improvement podcast for people who are:
• Chronically online
• Mildly overwhelmed
• Trying to improve their lives without becoming insufferable

Each week I test internet advice so you don’t have to.

⭐ If You Enjoyed This Episode

Please follow, rate, and share with someone who has either:

• Googled angel numbers at 2am
• Booked a psychic once “just for fun”
• Or owns at least three types of incense
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Want to actually try this year? Join me at - https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/subscribe

I’ve started Actually Trying - a private Substack podcast + newsletter for people who are sick of collecting advice and never applying it.

Each month includes:

A realistic book club (starting with Atomic Habits by James Clear — no perfection required)
An Anti-Brain-Rot Club to relearn things we probably should already know
Weekly private podcast episodes
Cheat sheets, summaries, and notes delivered straight to your inbox

New private episodes drop every Wednesday.
You can listen in your normal podcast app.

What if asking for signs from the universe isn’t unhinged… just very human?

In this episode of Field Notes, I go somewhere my family would deeply prefer I didn’t: signs from the universe, communicating with the dead, near-death experiences, and whether any of this is actually real — or just a very effective placebo.

This all started after I listened to neuroscientist and psychiatrist Dr Tara Swart on Diary of a CEO, where she calmly (and alarmingly confidently) explained that she believes it is possible to communicate with people who have died — not as a spiritual guru, but as an Oxford-educated medical doctor with a PhD in neuroscience.

So naturally, I had to investigate.

In this episode, we cover:

Why humans have always searched for signs, meaning, and messages from “elsewhere”
Dr Tara Swart’s experiences after losing her husband — and the science she believes supports them
Near-death experiences that are genuinely difficult to explain (including the red MG story)
Whether consciousness might exist beyond the brain
The placebo effect — and why “even if it’s not real” doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t work
Famous placebo studies (fake knee surgery, antidepressants, pain relief)
The reticular activating system (RAS) and why asking for “signs” might simply train your brain to notice more
Manifestation, meaning-making, and why modern life feels spiritually hollow
Whether looking for signs can help with grief, loneliness, and uncertainty — even if you remain deeply sceptical

My own experiment (starts now):

I’m going to ask for a specific, offline sign — not from Instagram, not from scrolling — and I’ll report back on Fridaywith what happened.

If you’re not into the idea of signs from the dead, I also talk through an alternative:
connecting with future you — the older, calmer version of yourself who already survived whatever you’re panicking about now.

Have we lost the plot?

Probably not.

For most of human history, we’ve consulted gods, oracles, ancestors, rituals, astrology, omens, and stories to make sense of the world. When societies lose shared meaning systems, anxiety and loneliness tend to rise — which might explain why manifestation, astrology, and “signs from the universe” are having such a moment.

This episode isn’t about convincing you to believe anything.
It’s about asking whether meaning itself might be useful — even if it’s a little bit made up.

Coming up next:

Friday: Field Report — what happened when I asked for a sign (plus a story involving a psychic)
Next week: Ask Guru & Granny — the new listener Q&A segment with:
a chronically online take (me)
a chronically offline take (Old Ma)

Send your questions to: [email protected]
Or DM me on Instagram: @rosehoneymorgan
(Anonymous is absolutely fine.)

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