How do Italians eat pasta every day and not gain weight? Why do they have the lowest obesity rate in Western Europe? Why they don’t gain weight as easily as Americans do? In October, I was really fortunate to spend two weeks in northern Italy. I visited Venice, Verona, Florence, and Tuscany, specifically the medieval walled hill towns of San Gimignano, Siena and Volterra. They were each wonderful in their own way. I had a fantastic time, and really loved it there. While I was there, I talked to ...
Nov 22, 2022•19 min•Ep. 192
How many times have you heard this saying? “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” So many people get stuck and have difficulty reaching their weight goals (and any other goal for that matter) because they get caught in a repetitive pattern of doing the same thing that doesn’t work, or that makes things worse,, over and over again. Maybe you keep stopping at that bakery on your way to work, buying three pastries under the pretense that you’ll share...
Sep 06, 2022•14 min•Ep. 191
Do you eat foods you don’t like very much because they’re low in calories or carbs, then feel unsatisfied afterwards and still crave something tastier? There’s a scientific reason behind that! I have something exciting and NEW to share with you about mindset and eating. Surprising evidence supports the role of mindset in weight management in a totally unexpected way. How you think about what you’re eating affects your weight! What that means is what you think about your food affects how your bod...
Aug 23, 2022•15 min•Ep. 190
Do you have family members who make comments about your weight, other people’s weight, their own weight, or what you should and shouldn’t eat? Do you have friends or family who are always talking about their latest diet? It’s summer vacation, which for many of us means eating meals with family members we don’t see all the time. For some of us, that’s a blessing. For others, it can be very difficult and stressful. For many people, dealing with their extended family is wrought with all kinds of mi...
Aug 09, 2022•23 min•Ep. 189
When was the last time you felt physically hungry? Do you eat in response to your body’s hunger signals? Or do you eat for all kinds of other reasons that have nothing to do with your body’s need for food? One of the most important tenets of the Weight Loss for Foodies approach is to only eat when you’re physically hungry, and stop eating when you’re lightly full. The reason this is so important is that when you only feed your body when it’s hungry, and stop eating when you’re lightly full, you ...
Jul 26, 2022•16 min•Ep. 188
If you want to lose weight, how you THINK about food is even more important than what you eat. You see, your mindset about food and eating, especially if it’s a diet mindset, could be the single biggest thing standing between you and weight loss success. The good news is all you have to do to change that is change how you think! And that’s one of the few things in life we can actually control. The reason why diets don’t work for sustainable weight loss is because they teach you to think of food ...
Jul 05, 2022•18 min•Ep. 187
Do you have a lot of rules about what you can and can’t eat? Some people have lists of food rules that are almost as long as the United States tax code. No sugar. No carbs. No refined flour. Only eat fruit before noon. No fried foods. No dairy. No gluten. Eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day. Drink apple cider vinegar before every meal. Only eat during an eight-hour window. You get the idea. Well guess what? These rules are probably keeping you from losing weight. You can overeat he...
Jun 21, 2022•13 min•Ep. 186
Eat what you love and increase your metabolism? That’s entirely possible, and there’s even science to back it up. Eating mindfully and savoring food away from the distractions of your smartphone, the television or other distractions, can actually help you lose weight. I was surprised to learn this, too, but a study done a few years ago at North Carolina State University backs it up! I am not saying that simply eating what you love will help you lose weight. It’s more complicated than that. But t...
Jun 07, 2022•13 min•Ep. 185
You’ve decided you’re going to finally do what you need to do to lose those extra pounds. Starting today, you’ve resolved to eat better. You’re going to eat only when you’re hungry. You make a yummy salad and bring it to work for lunch. You vow to eat fewer sweets and exercise for an hour three times a week. Then you stop in the grocery store, and they are giving away free doughnuts to customers. You had oatmeal for breakfast and aren’t hungry, but you grab a chocolate glazed one and wolf it dow...
May 24, 2022•19 min•Season 1Ep. 184
Do you get derailed from your efforts to lose weight because you lose your inspiration? How do you stay on track long enough to get results? So often, people ask me how to stay inspired to eat right and lose weight. Many people believe that inspiration is what you need to be successful, but that’s a fallacy. Sure, inspiration is great! It feels good, and it makes doing certain things easier. For a little while. The problem is that you CAN’T stay inspired for very long, no matter how well things ...
May 10, 2022•15 min•Season 1Ep. 183
Is exercising easier for you than managing your eating, but it isn’t producing the results you want? Do you exercise like crazy to make up for overeating? Do you hate exercise and avoid it like the plague? Unless you’re training for a half-marathon or something else intense, exercise alone isn’t going to get you to your weight goals. Are you surprised to hear that? While you can lose some weight through exercise, it doesn’t make up for bad eating habits. It takes a lot less time to eat less than...
Apr 26, 2022•12 min•Season 1Ep. 182
I think women spend way too much time and energy trying to meet some societal standard for how we should look, and this confirms patriarchal ideas that what women look like is the most important thing about us. In this episode, I’m talking about how we unknowingly do things that perpetuate this problem and what you can do to change that. I’m not blaming you. I think many people are unaware of how their behavior on social media and elsewhere contributes to or exacerbates a problem we didn’t creat...
Apr 12, 2022•24 min•Season 1Ep. 181
Are you curious about whether those ads claiming you can miraculously lose weight effortlessly by boosting your metabolism are true? You’ve probably seen some of the ads that say things like this: Lose 30 pounds in 30 days (or fewer days). Boost your metabolism and lose weight while eating all the food you want! To lose weight permanently, all you have to do is take this pill. This amazing coffee diet will boost your metabolism & melt the fat off you effortlessly! Is this really true? Can yo...
Mar 29, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 180
Does your brain make lots of excuses for you to eat when you aren’t hungry, undermining your weight loss efforts? Excuses like: “I had a hard day and deserve this,” or, “I’ve been so good all day.” We talk about thoughts a lot in this podcast. Some thoughts are happy and some aren’t. Some are helpful, and some aren’t. But the fact is that they’re just thoughts. And there are two things that thoughts aren’t: Who we are. We aren’t our thoughts. We’re the observers of our thoughts. Always true. We ...
Mar 15, 2022•16 min•Season 1Ep. 179
Do you often get the urge to eat when you aren’t hungry? Do you find yourself regularly having cravings for certain foods? The inability to manage cravings can be the downfall of the best efforts of many who want to lose weight. But why is it such a problem? And what can you do about it so you don’t routinely overeat and gain weight? Before you judge yourself too harshly for having cravings, craving food and eating when you’re hungry is a normal human thing. The problem arises when you regularly...
Mar 01, 2022•20 min•Season 1Ep. 178
Does the idea of loving yourself and your body while you’re working to lose weight seem counterintuitive to you? Why would you want to change your body if you already loved it? Your body does so much for you. It allows you to experience life on earth! It carries you around, lets you feel and express love, hug people, and so many more things that it would be silly for me to attempt to list them all. Your body works hard for you, and always tries to support you. Even if you are struggling with hea...
Feb 15, 2022•16 min•Season 1Ep. 177
Do you eat to avoid feeling shame? Do you feel shame because your body doesn’t conform to societal ideas of what it should look like? Do you feel shame about your food choices or how much you eat? Were you ever told that you were somehow inadequate because of your body size? Or because you chose to wear certain clothing that revealed too much of a body that someone thought was not worthy of being revealed? As a child or adult, did people make comments about your weight, including your parents, s...
Jan 25, 2022•18 min•Ep. 176
How many times have you heard this saying? “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” That’s how I think about dieting. Even if you try different diets, you’re still restricting what foods you eat, not listening to your body, and trying to lose weight by doing something unsustainable. Diets are designed to be temporary, so even if you lose some weight on one, you ultimately go off it. Because you haven’t changed your eating habits, you’ve got at least...
Jan 18, 2022•16 min•Season 1Ep. 175
Do you have a voice in your head that says things like: “I shouldn’t eat that!” “Stay away from that food! It’s SINFUL!” “I can’t control myself around that food!” “I can’t keep that in the house, or I’d eat the whole thing in one sitting.” “I’m too fat to eat that,” or, “I’ll never lose weight if I eat that” Do you feel guilty because you ate an ice cream cone or a few cookies? Over the years that I’ve been coaching people, there’s one thing everyone seems to agree is the best part of the Weigh...
Jan 11, 2022•17 min•Season 1Ep. 174
Happy New Year! Ready to start AND end 2022 on the correct foot? Here are four positive things you can do to change your relationship with food, eating and your weight so you can lose the weight for good while enjoying your life, including the foods you love! It’s been a tough couple of years for many of us. In this episode I want to help you make this new year better. Listen below to learn the four most important changes to make in 2022 to change your relationship with food and eating, AND your...
Jan 04, 2022•19 min•Season 1Ep. 173
How many times a day, on average, do you think you make decisions about eating food and drinking beverages? Years ago, a Cornell University researcher asked that question to 139 people. They estimated 15 times a day. But the researcher concluded that it was more like 226! I’m not sure how he figured that, but if we have 60,000 thoughts every day, surely a mere 226 could be decisions to eat or drink, or not. The important question is how do you make those decisions? Are they semi-conscious? Do yo...
Dec 28, 2021•22 min•Season 1Ep. 172
Are you wondering why following all of those diet rules about what to eat, what not to eat, and how much to eat haven’t helped you lose weight and keep it off? Wouldn’t you love a simpler, more relaxed solution that actually does work? Today’s topic will sound familiar if you’re a regular listener, but it is so important that I thought I was overdue for revisiting it. If you’ve been dieting, or just living in our diet-oriented culture, you’ve probably followed a lot of rules about what and how m...
Dec 21, 2021•15 min•Season 1Ep. 171
Do you think it’s unfair that you keep gaining weight even though you think you don't eat more than your slimmer friends? When I was about 50 pounds heavier, that’s what I thought. But I was wrong, and you may be, too. When I was in weight-gaining mode, I didn’t realize it, but I overate often. That’s why my weight kept going up. That’s why most people’s weight goes up. Overeating. I know this might not be what you want to hear, but there’s a good chance that if you weigh more than is healthy or...
Dec 14, 2021•17 min•Season 1Ep. 170
How often does that voice in your head tell you you’re going to fail before you even start? Then when you prove yourself right, your inner mean girl tells you how much you suck, and why are you even trying to lose weight when you simply can’t do it? Here’s the problem with that negative thinking that you can’t do what you need to do to reach your goals. Instead of getting the results you want, you make failure a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you think or believe you can’t do something, you can’...
Dec 07, 2021•16 min•Season 1Ep. 169
Do you focus on what’s wrong with your body, rather than what’s right with it? Do you focus on what your body can’t do, rather than what it can and does do? Have you been critical of how your body looks throughout your life, even when you weren’t overweight? I’m revisiting one of the most popular Weight Loss for Foodies podcast episodes, updated and even better than before. It’s such an important topic because so many women are dissatisfied with their bodies. This is something so upsetting and d...
Nov 30, 2021•16 min•Season 1Ep. 168
Do you gain weight over the holidays every year? Do you eat your favorite holiday foods like it’s the last opportunity of your life? We’re now entering the holiday season. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus or whatever, you’re likely to celebrate with a wide array of delicious food. Maybe the holidays are the only time of year that you make some of these foods. Do you tend to overeat during the holidays and gain weight, then make a resolution for the New Year to go on a...
Nov 23, 2021•15 min•Season 1Ep. 167
How old were you when you went on your first diet? How did your upbringing influence your ideas about food, eating and how your body “should” look? In today’s episode, I talk with podcast listener Brooke Streufert. Brooke spent most of her life hopping from one diet to the next, until she started listening to the Weight Loss for Foodies podcast two years ago. Her story is an inspiring one of someone who was didn’t fit our culture’s idea of how our bodies are supposed to look from a young age, an...
Nov 16, 2021•39 min•Season 1Ep. 166
One of the reasons why so many people weigh more than they’d like, and keep gaining weight, is because they use food to meet needs that it can’t meet. You’re lonely and want connection, so you eat. You’re fearful, so you eat. You feel misunderstood, so you eat. But what’s wrong with those examples? Food can’t meet any of those needs. It can’t be your friend or lover, although Heaven knows some of us have tried. It can’t quell your fears. It doesn’t have the ability to understand you. All food ca...
Nov 09, 2021•16 min•Season 1Ep. 165
Do you find yourself constantly thinking about food? Are you stuck on a weight loss plateau? When you set certain reasonable limits on your eating, does it feel like restriction? I recently received these questions from listeners, and am excited to answer them on this week’s episode. If you believe you think about food too often, we’ll explore the reasons you may be doing that and come up with solutions for you. Is there a way to set reasonable limits on what you eat without feeling like it’s a ...
Nov 02, 2021•18 min•Season 1Ep. 164
Are you afraid of being hungry, even though there is no shortage of food in your life? Do you get anxious if you feel hunger pangs? Do you eat when you aren’t hungry because you’re afraid to feel hunger? Hunger is a natural feeling. You’re supposed to feel hungry. Just like how your brilliant body tells you when you have to urinate, it tells you when you need food for energy. When you feel hunger, that’s your body saying, “I need food now.” Unfortunately, most people pay no attention to their hu...
Oct 26, 2021•15 min•Season 1Ep. 163
