THE CONFIDENT BODY PODCAST - Brain-based strategies and self-compassion practices to unlock your full potential

Have you ever looked at an old picture of yourself and thought, wow, I looked amazing? And then you remembered that back then, you didn't feel good about yourself at all. You were on a diet then too. You were sure something needed to change.

That gap between how you looked and how you felt is what this episode is about. So many of us have hit a goal weight, or gotten close to one, and found out the peace we were promised never showed up. We just kept going, chasing the same feeling, sure that the next ten pounds would finally deliver it.

This episode comes from a real conversation I had with a client who found an old journal from when she was in her twenties. She weighed less than she does now. And she felt exactly as not enough as she does today. Same feeling, decades apart.

We get into why that happens, and what it actually takes to feel different this time, not just look different.

What you'll learn in this episode:

Key takeaway:

You can hit a goal weight and still feel exactly the way you did before you started. That's not a willpower problem. It's a sign that the target you were chasing was never clearly defined in the first place. The steadiness you're looking for isn't waiting for you somewhere out there. It's something you already carry, and this episode is about learning to trust it instead of keep searching for it.

Listen if you've ever thought:

Want More?

If this episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to subscribe to The Confident Body Podcast. Every week we talk about the mental and emotional side of weight loss, the part that diets never cover.

We cover things like sustainable weight loss, emotional eating, self-trust around food, and how to break free from diet rules that have never worked long term. Because the goal isn't just to lose the weight. It's to become someone who knows how to keep it off and feel good while doing it.

Leave a review if this episode helped you. It only takes thirty seconds and it helps other women find the show.

Get the book my new book LIGHT: The New Psychology of Weight Loss

Check out my new Substack page! You’ll get bonus articles, inspiration, and wisdom. Plus some extra goodies I’ve got rolled up my sleeve.

Check it out at: https://substack.com/@coachlizziemerritt

PS: Ever had that moment when you just WANT it? 

Your brain doesn’t care if you’re hungry. It just tastes SO good and you just want it. 

If that’s you, then download the guide I JUST WANT IT. IT TASTES SO GOOD at:

confidentbody.coach/wantit

Also, check out my first book:

Why personality tests can explain a lot, but they are not your identity.

Have you ever known exactly what you were supposed to do and done the opposite thing anyway? You know the plan. You know you should rest instead of reaching for a snack. And somehow you end up in the pantry anyway.

In this episode, I sit down with life coach Kelly Tibbitts for a podcast swap. Kelly is an expert in the Enneagram and human design, and we talk about why knowing what to do and actually doing it are two completely different jobs.

Kelly used something as simple as a grocery cart in a parking lot to explain why two people can look at the same task and have a completely different, deeply held opinion about the right way to handle it. Once you hear it, you'll probably recognize yourself or someone you love immediately.

We also get into people pleasing, perfectionism, and a simple tool for feeling a feeling instead of eating over it.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

Key Takeaway

Your patterns make sense. The way you're wired explains why you reach for food, why you push through instead of resting, and why rest can feel impossible to give yourself. None of that means something is wrong with you. Once you understand your own wiring, you can trade judgment for grace. And underneath the wiring, underneath the patterns, the part of you that already knows who she is has been there the whole time.

Listen If You've Ever Thought…

Learn More About Kelly Tibbitts

Want More?

If this episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to subscribe to The Confident Body Podcast. Every week we talk about the mental and emotional side of weight loss, the part that diets never cover.

We cover things like sustainable weight loss, emotional eating, self-trust around food, and how to break free from diet rules that have never worked long term. Because the goal isn't just to lose the weight. It's to become someone who knows how to keep it off and feel good while doing it.

Leave a review if this episode helped you. It only takes thirty seconds and it helps other women find the show.

Get the book my new book LIGHT: The New Psychology of Weight Loss

Check out my new Substack page! You’ll get bonus articles, inspiration, and wisdom. Plus some extra goodies I’ve got rolled up my sleeve.

Check it out at: https://substack.com/@coachlizziemerritt

PS: Ever had that moment when you just WANT it? 

Your brain doesn’t care if you’re hungry. It just tastes SO good and you just want it. 

If that’s you, then download the guide I JUST WANT IT. IT TASTES SO GOOD at:

confidentbody.coach/wantit

Also, check out my first book:

Who Are You Really Hiding From? 

Have you ever eaten something completely alone? In your car, in a closet, with the door locked, just so nobody would see. And then made sure there was no evidence left behind.

If that's you, I want you to know you are so not alone. In this episode, I'm joined by Amber Abila, a binge eating coach and host of the Become a Confident Eater podcast. Amber spent years in her own cycle of restriction and bingeing before she found her way out, and now she helps women understand what their body has actually been trying to tell them this whole time.

We talk about why certain foods feel impossible to resist, why even "eating a little healthier" can backfire, and the real reason so many of us hide what we eat. This isn't about willpower. It's about understanding your own body again.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

Key Takeaway

Binge eating is not a character flaw and it is not a willpower problem. It's a habit your brain built to respond to restriction and to a food system that learned how to imitate nutrition without delivering it. The secrecy that comes with it doesn't protect you from judgment. It just means you're the only one judging. The work isn't punishing your body into behaving. It's learning to trust it again.

Listen If You've Ever Thought…

Learn More About Amber Abila

Want More?

If this episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to subscribe to The Confident Body Podcast. Every week we talk about the mental and emotional side of weight loss, the part that diets never cover.

We cover things like sustainable weight loss, emotional eating, self-trust around food, and how to break free from diet rules that have never worked long term. Because the goal isn't just to lose the weight. It's to become someone who knows how to keep it off and feel good while doing it.

Leave a review if this episode helped you. It only takes thirty seconds and it helps other women find the show.

Get the book my new book LIGHT: The New Psychology of Weight Loss

Check out my new Substack page! You’ll get bonus articles, inspiration, and wisdom. Plus some extra goodies I’ve got rolled up my sleeve.

Check it out at: https://substack.com/@coachlizziemerritt

PS: Ever had that moment when you just WANT it? 

Your brain doesn’t care if you’re hungry. It just tastes SO good and you just want it. 

If that’s you, then download the guide I JUST WANT IT. IT TASTES SO GOOD at:

confidentbody.coach/wantit

Also, check out my first book:

You get home from vacation. You step on the scale. The number is up, and just like that, your whole summer of hard work feels like it disappeared.

A little voice starts talking. What if you just stopped trying so hard? What if you let the healthy stuff slide and went back to how things used to be?

In this episode, I talk about that voice. Where it comes from, and why the "easy" life you remember might not have been as easy as you think. I also share some surprising brain science about memory, and why the past version of you that you keep comparing yourself to is not as accurate as it feels.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

Key Takeaway

You are not tired of healthy living. You are tired of the story you have wrapped around it. Once you stop putting your food choices on trial every single day, weight loss stops feeling like a performance and starts feeling like just another part of your normal life. The version of you that you think you miss was never as free as you remember. She was looking for exactly what you are building right now.

Listen If You've Ever Thought...

Want More?

If this episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to subscribe to The Confident Body Podcast. Every week we talk about the mental and emotional side of weight loss, the part that diets never cover.

We cover things like sustainable weight loss, emotional eating, self-trust around food, and how to break free from diet rules that have never worked long term. Because the goal isn't just to lose the weight. It's to become someone who knows how to keep it off and feel good while doing it.

Leave a review if this episode helped you. It only takes thirty seconds and it helps other women find the show.

Get the book my new book LIGHT: The New Psychology of Weight Loss

Check out my new Substack page! You’ll get bonus articles, inspiration, and wisdom. Plus some extra goodies I’ve got rolled up my sleeve.

Check it out at: https://substack.com/@coachlizziemerritt

PS: Ever had that moment when you just WANT it? 

Your brain doesn’t care if you’re hungry. It just tastes SO good and you just want it. 

If that’s you, then download the guide I JUST WANT IT. IT TASTES SO GOOD at:

confidentbody.coach/wantit

Also, check out my first book:

The answer to “When will I ever figure this out?”

Have you ever felt like you are one rule away from finally getting this right? Like the secret is out there somewhere, and you just have not found it yet.

I felt that way for eighteen years about a book called The Alchemist. I read it once and did not get it at all. Then I picked it up again on a long drive last week, and it hit me completely differently this time.

This episode is about that search. The one we are all doing every day, standing in the pantry, staring at the snack drawer, trying on jeans that feel a little tight. We keep asking, what am I missing? But there is a different question waiting right underneath that one.

I will also tell you what a shepherd boy, a desert, and a burning bush have to do with your nine fifteen trip to the kitchen. Stick with me. It gets a little weird, and then it makes a lot of sense.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

Key Takeaway

You are not missing some hidden formula. The secret you are looking for is not in the next book, the next plan, or the next expert. It has been with you the whole time. The work is learning to pause long enough to see it.

Listen If You've Ever Thought…

Want More?

If this episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to subscribe to The Confident Body Podcast. Every week we talk about the mental and emotional side of weight loss, the part that diets never cover.

We cover things like sustainable weight loss, emotional eating, self-trust around food, and how to break free from diet rules that have never worked long term. Because the goal isn't just to lose the weight. It's to become someone who knows how to keep it off and feel good while doing it.

Leave a review if this episode helped you. It only takes thirty seconds and it helps other women find the show.

Get the book my new book LIGHT: The New Psychology of Weight Loss

Check out my new Substack page! You’ll get bonus articles, inspiration, and wisdom. Plus some extra goodies I’ve got rolled up my sleeve.

Check it out at: https://substack.com/@coachlizziemerritt

PS: Ever had that moment when you just WANT it? 

Your brain doesn’t care if you’re hungry. It just tastes SO good and you just want it. 

If that’s you, then download the guide I JUST WANT IT. IT TASTES SO GOOD at:

confidentbody.coach/wantit

Also, check out my first book:

If you've ever done everything right and still couldn't silence the voice saying "This will never work"  this one's for you.

You're doing everything right. You're eating better, moving more, making choices you feel good about. And then out of nowhere, the old thoughts show up.

"This will never work." "I always mess this up." "I never make real progress."

And some part of you just lets them in.

If that sounds familiar, this episode is for you. Because the problem isn't your willpower, your plan, or your consistency. The problem is the mental playlist your brain keeps playing on repeat and the fact that nobody told you that you're the one holding the remote.

In this episode, I'm talking about one of the biggest things I see hold women back from sustainable weight loss: not the food, not the exercise, not even the stress. It's the old thought patterns that feel like truth but are really just habit. And habits can change.

This isn't about positive thinking or pretending things are better than they are. It's about something much simpler. You don't wait for your favorite song to come on before you change the station. You change it first. The music follows.

The thoughts you think are the material your life is built from. If you spend your days in a mind that's unkind to you, that is your life  regardless of what the scale says. You deserve to live in a better mind than that. Today. Not at goal weight. Today. Buddhists knew it, Shakespeare knew it, Paul writing in Romans knew it and this episode is about why it's time to stop forgetting it.

Want More?

If this episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to subscribe to The Confident Body Podcast. Every week we talk about the mental and emotional side of weight loss, the part that diets never cover.

We cover things like sustainable weight loss, emotional eating, self-trust around food, and how to break free from diet rules that have never worked long term. Because the goal isn't just to lose the weight. It's to become someone who knows how to keep it off and feel good while doing it.

Leave a review if this episode helped you. It only takes thirty seconds and it helps other women find the show.

Get the book my new book LIGHT: The New Psychology of Weight Loss

Check out my new Substack page! You’ll get bonus articles, inspiration, and wisdom. Plus some extra goodies I’ve got rolled up my sleeve.

Check it out at: https://substack.com/@coachlizziemerritt

PS: Ever had that moment when you just WANT it? 

Your brain doesn’t care if you’re hungry. It just tastes SO good and you just want it. 

If that’s you, then download the guide I JUST WANT IT. IT TASTES SO GOOD at:

confidentbody.coach/wantit

Also, check out my first book:

What Happens When You Always Say Yes

Have you ever set a boundary with someone, felt good about it for about five minutes, and then started feeling guilty like you did something wrong?

In this episode, I talk with Dr. Kelly Kessler, a physical therapist turned nervous system educator, about something called self-abandonment. It's the habit of putting everyone else first so often that you forget what you actually want or need.

We get into why your boundaries might get pushback, even from people who love you, why stress and old patterns can show up as actual pain in your body, and how to tell the difference between guilt that means something and guilt that's just noise.

If you've ever felt exhausted from holding everything together for everyone else, this one is for you.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

Key Takeaway

You don't have to earn the right to take care of yourself. Learning to notice your own needs, even in small moments, isn't selfish. It's the first real step toward trusting yourself again.

Listen If You've Ever Thought...

Learn More About Dr. Kelly Kessler

Want More?

If this episode hit home, hit follow so you don't miss what's next. The Confident Body Podcast covers the mental and emotional side of weight loss, things like emotional eating, self-trust with food, and learning to feel confident in your own body, every single week.

Leave a review if this episode helped you. It only takes thirty seconds and it helps other women find the show.

Get the book my new book LIGHT: The New Psychology of Weight Loss

Check out my new Substack page! You’ll get bonus articles, inspiration, and wisdom. Plus some extra goodies I’ve got rolled up my sleeve.

Check it out at: https://substack.com/@coachlizziemerritt

PS: Ever had that moment when you just WANT it? 

Your brain doesn’t care if you’re hungry. It just tastes SO good and you just want it. 

If that’s you, then download the guide I JUST WANT IT. IT TASTES SO GOOD at:

confidentbody.coach/wantit

Also, check out my first book:

You show up for everyone. Every time. Without question.

But when something good comes toward you, a compliment, a win, a moment of real progress with your weight, something in you flinches. You deflect. You minimize. You say, oh, it's nothing. And you go right back to the bottom of your own to-do list.

This episode is about why. Not as a character flaw to fix, but as a pattern that was handed to you before you were old enough to question it, and what it looks and feels like to finally start receiving what is already trying to find its way to you.

I share a real conversation with a client who has done everything right, built a business, raised a family, showed up for everyone she loves, and yet found herself saying: I'm not sure I deserve to lose this weight. That moment became the whole episode. Because if you've ever felt that, even a little, even quietly, this one is for you.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

Key Takeaway

The weight loss work most women skip is not the eating or the exercise. It's the receiving. Believing you were allowed to arrive. Your body has been practicing this since before you were born, and this episode is about learning to do the same.

Listen If You've Ever Thought...

Want More?

If this episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to subscribe to The Confident Body Podcast. Every week we talk about the mental and emotional side of weight loss, the part that diets never cover.

We cover things like sustainable weight loss, emotional eating, self-trust around food, and how to break free from diet rules that have never worked long term. Because the goal isn't just to lose the weight. It's to become someone who knows how to keep it off and feel good while doing it.

Leave a review if this episode helped you. It only takes thirty seconds and it helps other women find the show.

Check out my new Substack page! You’ll get bonus articles, inspiration, and wisdom. Plus some extra goodies I’ve got rolled up my sleeve.

Check it out at:

https://substack.com/@coachlizziemerritt

PS: Ever had that moment when you just WANT it? 

Your brain doesn’t care if you’re hungry. It just tastes SO good and you just want it. 

If that’s you, then download the guide I JUST WANT IT. IT TASTES SO GOOD at:

confidentbody.coach/wantit

Get the book my new book LIGHT: The New Psychology of Weight Loss

Also, check out my first book:

You know that moment. You had a plan. You felt good about it. And then one unplanned meal, one late night, one vacation evening and before you've even put the dish in the sink, the word shows up.

Failure.

And it doesn't feel like a word. It feels like a verdict. Your brain lines up the evidence. You're not trying hard enough. You never stick with anything. You're never going to change. And what started as one bowl of ice cream at 9pm has somehow become a statement about who you permanently are.

This episode is about that sequence. Where it comes from, why your brain does it, and four surprisingly quick tools to break it — including a Harry Potter spell, a Shakespearean ice cream monologue that made my client cry laughing, and a little something from psychology called cognitive defusion.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

Key Takeaway

The failure spiral isn't a character flaw. It's a brain pattern, and brain patterns can change. The four steps in this episode won't stop the thought from showing up. They will stop it from running the whole show.

Listen If You've Ever Thought...

Want More?

If this episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to subscribe to The Confident Body Podcast. Every week we talk about the mental and emotional side of weight loss, the part that diets never cover.

We cover things like sustainable weight loss, emotional eating, self-trust around food, and how to break free from diet rules that have never worked long term. Because the goal isn't just to lose the weight. It's to become someone who knows how to keep it off and feel good while doing it.

Leave a review if this episode helped you. It only takes thirty seconds and it helps other women find the show.

Check out my new Substack page! You’ll get bonus articles, inspiration, and wisdom. Plus some extra goodies I’ve got rolled up my sleeve.

Check it out at:

https://substack.com/@coachlizziemerritt

PS: Ever had that moment when you just WANT it? 

Your brain doesn’t care if you’re hungry. It just tastes SO good and you just want it. 

If that’s you, then download the guide I JUST WANT IT. IT TASTES SO GOOD at:

confidentbody.coach/wantit

Get the book my new book LIGHT: The New Psychology of Weight Loss

Also, check out my first book:

If you've ever gotten to a goal and still felt like something was missing, you're not doing it wrong. You're just only halfway there. And nobody told you that was coming.

In this episode, I talk about why reaching your goal weight is only the first half of the weight loss journey. The second half is just as important. And the good news? You don't have to wait until you get there to start.

This one is also for women on GLP-1 medications. The medication can change your body fast. But your brain needs a different kind of work to catch up. We're going to talk about that too.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

Key Takeaway

Getting to goal weight is the first half of the climb. Believing you're the person you've become is the second half. And you don't have to wait for the summit to start. Your brain can learn to tell a new story. But it won't do it on its own. You have to direct it on purpose, and this episode shows you how.

Listen If You've Ever Thought…

Want More?

If this episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to subscribe to The Confident Body Podcast. Every week we talk about the mental and emotional side of weight loss, the part that diets never cover.

We cover things like sustainable weight loss, emotional eating, self-trust around food, and how to break free from diet rules that have never worked long term. Because the goal isn't just to lose the weight. It's to become someone who knows how to keep it off and feel good while doing it.

Leave a review if this episode helped you. It only takes thirty seconds and it helps other women find the show.

Check out my new Substack page! You’ll get bonus articles, inspiration, and wisdom. Plus some extra goodies I’ve got rolled up my sleeve.

Check it out at:

https://substack.com/@coachlizziemerritt

PS: Ever had that moment when you just WANT it? 

Your brain doesn’t care if you’re hungry. It just tastes SO good and you just want it. 

If that’s you, then download the guide I JUST WANT IT. IT TASTES SO GOOD at:

confidentbody.coach/wantit

Get the book my new book LIGHT: The New Psychology of Weight Loss

Also, check out my first book: