Field Notes

If your screen time is creeping up…
If your phone feels impossible to put down…
If the real world is starting to look a bit dull by comparison…

This week I’m testing a free, surprisingly simple method that claims to reduce doomscrolling fast.

No apps.
No discipline hacks.
No expensive “digital detox” retreats.

Just one setting change.

In this episode we discuss:

How color and contrast hijack your dopamine system
Why overstimulation can make the real world feel flat
The “gray scale” method and how to set it up
And why I realised I needed to fix this — urgently

I’m committing to a full week of gray scale to see if it genuinely reduces screen time.

If you try it too, let me know what happens.

The Instructions
To enable grayscale on an iPhone, navigate to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Color Filters, then toggle "Color Filters" on and select "Grayscale"
To turn on grayscale on Android, go to Settings > Digital Wellbeing & parental controls > Bedtime mode and enable "Grayscale"

📲 DM me on Instagram:
@rosehoneymorgan
@field.notes.pod

I’ll report back with the results.

⭐ If this episode helps:

Follow the show, leave a review, or send it to the friend who says “I don’t go on my phone that much” but somehow knows every trend
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📚 Book Club Free Trial : https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/freetrial
Next month’s book: Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway
Link in show notes.
Join us so I can reject brands with confidence.

ANYWAY
I’m back from the front lines.

Four whole days.
Zero processed food.
Planned, chopped, cooked, washed up.
Repeated.
Never again.

In this episode we discuss:

The emotional toll of planning three meals a day like a Victorian housewife
Whether chopping board dinners are secretly genius
Why cheeseboard dinner is an elite parenting hack
The M&S “non-UPF” range (sausages, buns, ketchup — full review)
Migraines, morale, and missing Biscoff
Being dropped by my first big brand deal and spiralling publicly
Whether I should sell my soul for a podcast editor
And if early death from crisps is simply a trade-off I’m willing to make

The experiment verdict?

Did I feel superhuman?
No.

Did I feel morally superior?
Briefly.

Did I miss ready meals with my entire being?
Yes.

🧀 FIND OF THE WEEK

Cheeseboard dinner.
Elevated picky bits.
Zero guilt.
Highly recommend.

❌ FAIL OF THE WEEK

Everything else.

If you’ve cracked the code on eating well without turning it into a full-time job, tell me.

📲 DM me on Instagram:
@rosehoneymorgan
@field.notes.pod

⭐ If you enjoyed this episode:
Follow the show.
Leave a review.
Send it to a friend but pre warn them about which episodes are shite.
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Last week I tried going ultra-processed-food-free.

I lasted one day.

Then I got violently ill.

Was it the chicken?
Was it soft play?
Was it karma for mocking chopping-board influencers?

Unclear.

This week is Take 2.

Because the real question isn’t “Is processed food bad?”

It’s:

How on earth are we supposed to avoid it if we can’t cook and don’t have a private chef?

In this episode we discuss:

My catastrophic attempt at roasting a chicken
Why I owe chopping-board people an apology
Cottage cheese and berries (I’m still not convinced)
The alarming bacteria situation on cutting boards
The new M&S “UPF-free” range
Why modern health advice quietly assumes unlimited time
Whether there’s a realistic middle ground between crisps and grinding your own flour

I’m trialling:

The single-ingredient chopping board approach
The M&S UPF-free range
And whatever I can manage without poisoning myself again

I’ll report back properly in Friday’s Field Report.

If you have:

Healthy ready meal recommendations
Low-effort meal hacks
Or thoughts on whether I’ve lost the plot

Tell me.

📲 DM me on Instagram:
@rosehoneymorgan
@field.notes.pod

I read them. I respond. I occasionally take your advice.

Private chef reel link : https://www.instagram.com/reel/CteX-QfMvkD/?igsh=cjR4bzNlOHM2eGU3

⭐ If you enjoyed this episode:

Follow the show, leave a review, or send it to a friend who owns a chopping board but still eats waffles daily.
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This week’s update is… brief.

After confidently declaring I would attempt a week of ultra-processed-food-free living, I made it:

👉 One day.

And now I am recording this hunched over a sick bowl in what can only be described as the pink fluffy gown of shame.

Is it norovirus?
Is it food poisoning?
Is it my body rebelling against actual vegetables?

We do not yet know.

What we do know:
• Cooking is dangerous
• My stomach muscles are shot
• The commitment to this podcast remains intact

Full debrief on Monday — assuming I survive.

—

📚 Join “Actually Trying” for the proper breakdowns (when I’m upright again): https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/freetrial

📲 Follow along for live chaos:
@rosehoneymorgan
@field.notes.pod

Like. Subscribe. Send electrolytes.
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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.

📚 JOIN “ACTUALLY TRYING”

If you’d like to improve your life without becoming insufferable:

Join the book club / self-improvement group chat over on Substack.

This month:
👉 Atomic Habits by James Clear

You’ll get:

Weekly practical breakdowns
Private podcast episodes
Cheat sheets
Knowledge topics
And a place to collectively sort ourselves out

Join here:
https://rosehoneymorgan.substack.com/subscribe

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📲 Follow & Share

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

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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