Weight Loss for Foodies podcast | Ditch the Diet and Lose Weight with Shari Broder

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 a few American expats. One American woman in Florence told me, “I’ve been living here for a year and have lost 10 pounds without doing anything. I eat pasta every day. Plus I can eat dairy and gluten here with no digestive problems. Back in the States, I couldn’t tolerate those foods.” I can’t tell you how many people have told me stories like this. Americans who visited Italy told me that they drank wine with one or two meals a day, ate pasta, desserts, not to mention those breakfast croissants, and did not get the indigestion they normally got back home, and did not gain weight. The Italians are known for their fantastic cuisine. Italy was the EAT in Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love. And for good reason. Have you ever wondered why Italian cuisine is so delicious? And how do they eat that carb-heavy diet filled with pasta, bread, croissants (see typical Italian breakfast to the right) and other delicious things, and not have the obesity problem that much of the rest of the world is experiencing? Italy has approximately half the obesity rate as the United States. Tune in below (or wherever you get your podcasts) and learn how you too can eat like an Italian. If you’re ready to learn to eat in a sustainable way that is in tune with your body’s hunger and fullness signals, to end emotional and drop down to your healthy weight, sign up for my online Weight Loss for Foodies program. In it, you’ll go beyond what I talk about in the podcast, and can download worksheets to practice what you’re learning and guided audio practices. The cost is less than half of the price of the coaching program. Learn more and sign up HERE.

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 them or save some for tomorrow, then eat them all. Maybe you binge on chips after dinner while watching TV every night. The Weight Loss for Foodies method is all about achieving permanent weight loss success by changing your habits and developing a peaceful relationship with food and eating. Some people can dive right in and do all of the things that I recommend. But that doesn’t work for everyone. For many people, what works the best is to take baby steps to break patterns of overeating or emotional eating that you keep repeating to your own detriment. Stay tuned to learn how you can get out of your rut and start making progress by taking baby steps to change your eating habits. And stay tuned for a very important announcement at the end–and it isn’t a sales pitch!

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 body responds to it physiologically. I mean how full or satisfied what you eat makes you feel. It’s totally consistent with the Weight Loss for Foodies approach to eat what you love when you’re hungry as a way to lose weight and experience a peaceful relationship with food and eating. It’s backed by the research of Alia Crum, a psychologist and researcher in the field of mindset at Stanford University. Dr. Crum discovered that what people believed about what they were eating affected both their satisfaction with the food AND the levels of the hunger hormone their body made, which affected their appetite. Listen below or wherever you get your podcasts to learn why this is so important and how you can make it work for you so you get to your comfortable weight. If you’re ready to learn to eat in a sustainable way that is in tune with your body’s hunger and fullness signals, to end emotional and drop down to your healthy weight, sign up for my online Weight Loss for Foodies program. In it, you’ll go beyond what I talk about in the podcast, and can download worksheets to practice what you’re learning and guided audio practices. The cost is less than half of the price of the coaching program. Learn more and sign up at my website, ShariBroder.com.

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 mixed emotions and potentially difficult interactions. As a weight coach, one thing I hear repeatedly from my clients is that they have family members who make comments about how they look, their weight, or their food choices. Some people come from families where the significance of appearance, and weight in particular, carries undue importance. Then there’s that person at the table, be it friend or family member, who has to tell everyone about their latest miracle diet. Tune in and learn why their comments are NOT OK, not well-meaning, and how to deal with them gracefully. I’ll give you some tips about how to deal with these situations. You can download a free copy of my PDF entitled “Managing Comments About Weight And Eating” HERE. If you’re ready to dive in and make peace with food and eating, sign up for my online Weight Loss for Foodies course. It will give you all the tools you need to make peace with food and eating, and lose the weight for good. Learn more and sign up HERE. Love Weight Loss for Foodies? Support it HERE.

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 give your body the amount of food it needs to be your healthy weight. Most people don’t pay attention to hunger and fullness, and eat for all kinds of other reasons, like you’re bored, tired, it’s noon, or whatever. When you eat but aren’t hungry, your body stores that energy as fat. That’s why obesity is in epidemic proportions nowadays. BUT once you start eating in tune with your hunger signals, miracles happen! You start dropping extra weight without giving up the foods you love! You feel lighter and have more energy. Food and eating become easier and less stressful. The tool I use to decide when to start and stop eating is the Hunger Scale, and that’s what I’m talking about in this episode. TUNE IN to this week’s episode below and learn how totally KEY eating only when you’re hungry is if you want to eat what you love, lose weight and keep it off. Download your free copy of the hunger scale HERE, and keep it near where you eat. Weight Loss for Foodies is now available as an online, self-paced course without coaching. In it, you’ll go beyond what I talk about in the podcast, and can download worksheets to practice what you’re learning and guided audio practices. The cost is less than half of the price of the coaching program. Learn more and sign up HERE.

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 as scarce. When you think of food as scarce, you set yourself up for a binge, or at least, to overeat. But when you have a mindset of abundance about food, you can be much more relaxed around it. You know you can eat what you really want when you’re hungry, so there’s no need to eat food just because it’s there. You can trust yourself around any food. Listen to learn the many advantages of having an abundance mindset, how it frees you to lose weight relatively easily, and how to change your mindset around food from one of scarcity and dieting to one of abundance so you can trust yourself around any food. To get all the tools you need to make peace with food and eating and lose the weight for good, sign up for my online course, Weight Loss for Foodies HERE

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 healthy food. I know. I did it for decades. And they’re stressful, right? I don’t like rules. Especially ones that are counterproductive. So I want you to forget all of these rules that tell you what to eat and what not to eat and when to eat. Toss ‘em all! Tune in to this week’s episode to learn the only four guidelines you need to be a healthy weight while enjoying the foods you love. Weight Loss for Foodies is now available as an online, self-paced course without coaching. In it, you’ll go beyond what I talk about in the podcast, and can download worksheets to practice what you’re learning and guided audio practices. The cost is less than half of the price of the coaching program. Learn more and sign up HERE. Thanks to our sponsor, Betterhelp. Sign up today with this link and save 10% off your first month. Support this podcast HERE

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 there are lots of ways you will benefit from eating what you love and enjoying it without distractions. Food is a source of pleasure in our lives that we have to experience every single day, so why not enjoy it? In this episode, I discuss the North Carolina State University research on the subject of eating foods we love, the benefits of listening to your body and eating without distractions. Stay tuned to learn why and how that works, and how to do it! Do you eat to avoid difficult emotions? If so, check out my free video masterclass, Kick the Emotional Eating Habit for Good. Available on demand! Click HERE. If you’re enjoying this podcast, I would love it if you would show me by supporting it. Click HERE and leave me a tip in any amount. Or leave a review wherever you listen. Share it with a friend. Thanks for sharing the love.

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 down while walking to the cash register. At lunch, your coworkers order some pizza, and you decide to join them. You put your salad in the fridge and think, “I’ll eat it tomorrow.” At the end of your work day, you decide you’re too tired to stop at the gym. So much for good intentions! Can you relate? Ever since the first humans evolved in Africa, people have done things that are against their better judgment. It’s not because you’re weak willed. No doubt you’ve delayed gratification many times in your life. Stay tuned and learn how you can consistently do it with food, too! If you’re enjoying this podcast, please consider supporting it in any amount. You can leave a tip to show your appreciation from the link on my website.

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 are going. Maybe you can stay inspired to do something for a week or a month, but if you want to lose weight and keep it off, that won’t get you there. That’s exactly why diets fail. Because when you start a new diet, you’re excited by the newness of it and the hope that this diet will be different. But when you start to get weary of the stress of food restriction, your inspiration leaves, and so does your adherence to the diet. Establishing positive, healthy eating habits is the secret to success. Because once you establish good habits, staying on track is effortless most of the time. Inspiration really is more of an emotion, and our emotions are fleeting. We simply can’t be inspired all the time. So when your inspiration tank runs out, how do you stay on track? How do you lose weight and keep it off? Tune in to learn why you can’t depend on inspiration to get you to your goals, but what really does work! If the habit you want to change is emotional eating, check out my free video masterclass, kick your emotional eating habit for good. You can find it on my website or in the show notes.

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 to exercise more! But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t exercise. To be truly healthy, exercise is essential, regardless of how much you weigh. But if you expect it to make you thin, you likely will be disappointed. Tune in and learn the role of exercise in weight loss, some benefits of exercise you may not know about, and how to fit it into a healthy lifestyle. Weight Loss for Foodies is now available as an online, self-paced course without coaching. You’ll learn even more than what I discuss in the podcast, and can download worksheets to practice what you’re learning and guided audio practices. Learn more and sign up at my website, sharibroder.com

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 create. The problem of viewing women as objects to admire for their appearance has persisted for a very long time. In 1792, Mary Wollestonecraft wrote, “Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman’s scepter, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.” The problem of focusing on our appearance is in some ways worse than ever, now that we spend so much time on social media and are constantly comparing ourselves with others. Not only is a lot of womens’ valuable time and energy spent trying to make our bodies look a certain way, it's hurting us psychologically AND physically. Think about the time you waste fretting about your appearance. Think of how you could put that time to good use! Listen to learn what self-objectification is, how it harms both the women who objectify themselves and the ones who see their self-objectifying photos, and what you can do to stop or reduce it. To learn how to have a peaceful relationship with food and eating, check out the free resources on my website.

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 you really lose 30 pounds in 30 days? Spoiler alert: Any promise of miraculous weight loss is not true. There is no magic way to lose weight. You cannot eat all the food you want whenever you want it and still lose weight. Any products promising unbelievably fast weight loss are a scam, and are very likely dangerous. Even if you did lose weight, you’d almost certainly gain it back after you stopped using the product. In this episode, we talk about: whether there are “fat burners” that cause your body to burn fat fasterwhy it’s hard to increase your metabolismwhether there is anything you can do to speed it up why dieting permanently slows down your metabolism If you want to try a system that will not only work, but it will help you make peace with food and eating, which I personally think is even more instrumental in your future happiness than losing weight, check out the free resources on my website, https://sharibroder.com/free-resources/ and keep listening to the Weight Loss for Foodies podcast.

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 tend to assume that our thoughts are true. Most of us fully buy into what our thoughts are telling us, and we let them run around our minds like a toddler with a knife. Do you let your thoughts direct your actions and choices without really questioning them? If you have thoughts that seem to sabotage your efforts, stay tuned to learn how you can “defuse” those unhelpful thoughts and make choices that help you achieve your weight goals! By the way, it’s the fourth anniversary of this podcast! If you’ve been enjoying it, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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 have cravings for certain foods when you aren’t hungry, and let the urges be in the driver’s seat. Tune in to learn the three main causes of cravings AND four things you can do to reduce, manage or eliminate those cravings. Using these four strategies when you have a craving will help you establish positive eating habits that will allow you to enjoy the foods you love without overeating them. Check out the free resources on my website to inspire you to make those positive changes.

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 health issues, your body is trying to do the best it can. So why are so many of us at war with our bodies? Why do we take them for granted? Have you ever wondered where you got the idea that your body isn’t okay in the first place? When you were a small child, you didn’t dislike your body, did you? Do you value thin and small in other things in your life? Do you like skinny cats or dogs or horses? You’d probably be worried about the health of your pet if it were as skinny as a fashion model. I can guess where you got the idea of how your body should look–from diet culture! And from a diet industry that makes money from convincing you that your body is not acceptable, while selling you ways to change it that don’t work long-term. Tune in to learn the importance of learning to appreciate your body right now for both your happiness and to facilitate your weight loss success, and learn seven things you can do to appreciate and accept the body you have.

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, siblings or friends? Were you bullied in school, in sports or on the playground because of your weight? Did your parents use shame to get you to behave the way they wanted you to? Any of these things can cause feelings of shame. What is shame anyway? How does it differ from guilt? That’s a lot of questions! Stay tuned to learn about shame and how it could be at the root of your issues with food and eating, and what you can do to manage or eliminate those feelings.

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 a 95% chance of gaining it back. So many people have difficulty reaching their weight goals (and any other goal for that matter) because they’re caught in a pattern of doing the same thing or a not-so-different version of it, that doesn’t work, over and over again. Maybe you snack after dinner while watching TV every night. Maybe you eat at your desk at work and don’t really pay attention to how much you’re eating or whether you’re hungry. Maybe you try to skip meals and then end up overeating. These are all habits that move you away from your goal of being a healthier, more comfortable weight. The thing is that every time you repeat a habit that moves you in the opposite direction from your goals, you’re reinforcing that pattern in your brain, and making it a little harder to break the habit. But you can turn that around. Stay tuned to learn a pretty simple technique to break those patterns and establish better habits that move you TOWARDS your weight and health goals.

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 Weight Loss for Foodies method. And believe it or not, it’s not the weight lost! It’s the liberation from that voice in your head! When you’re liberated from that voice, you can listen to your body and feed it what it wants and needs. Nothing is forbidden, as long as you’re hungry. You’re liberated from spending so much of your time and energy trying to decide what to eat, avoiding what you really want to eat but think you shouldn’t, and thinking about what foods you SHOULD be eating that you don’t really care for, but have been deemed healthy by the latest media. Liberated from researching the latest magic fad diet that will help you effortlessly lose the weight. The fact is that those voices are a distraction. They’re unproductive. They’re actually destructive and a waste of your time. AND they suck the life out of you, like a dementor. Stay tuned and learn why you should liberate yourself from this diet culture thinking and how to do it!

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 weight. These include: Stop dieting and cultivate an abundance mindset.Eat using the Hunger ScaleEat consciously and slowly, savoring every biteEat the foods you really enjoy--no forbidden foods! Learn why it’s so important to do these things, and how they can help you lose weight and keep it off without dieting. FOREVER!