The Diet Diaries

On episode 125 of the The Diet Diaries I'm talking about a recent experience I had in a yoga class and why movement is one of the most powerful, transformative tools when it comes to improving your relationship with food. 

My newer listeners may not know that I taught yoga and movement for nearly 9 years before transitioning into coaching. So the power of movement is very close to my heart both personally and professionally. 

In today’s episode I introduce the concept of our thinking mind and our observing mind and how these 2 minds work together or against each other to shape our responses and reactions to our thoughts. 

Here's what you'll hear in episode 125:

• The difference between the observing mind and the thinking mind
• The type of exercise I do and why I do it
• The role of the observing mind in movement
• What it. means to get out of your head and into your body
• How being in your body connects to what, why and how you eat
• What we're really good at feeling and what we need to get better at feeling
• How movement becomes a tool to cope with negative body image, negative self talk and disordered eating behavior
• Why movement is not just about exercise
• How to think about exercise outside of calories burned/weight loss

May 1 is the last day to sign up for the Spring Weekend Retreat May 19-21 in Hunter, NY. You will go home well rested, well fed, well moved and with a crystal clear personal action plan to start making the changes you want to make but haven't been able to around food, exercise, self care and body image.

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This is the protein episode. Why you need it, how much you need and how to get it. 

Protein is the foundation of a nourishing, satisfying, satiating diet and is essential if you are working on fat loss. If you’ve ever wondered about your protein goal for weight loss, you’ll get the answer here.

In today’s episode I’m covering all of the specifics you need to know without getting over complex or too science-y.

Here’s what I’m talking about:

• Why protein matters in terms of muscle gain and loss and complex cellular processes that you take for granted cellular functioning your body, 
• Why women need to be even more focused on protein 
• Why and how protein plays a significant role in fat loss
• Why protein is the most satiating of the 3 macros
• A realistic protein goal for weight loss
• How much protein you need per day
• How to make slow, sustainable changes to your protein intake
• Some key differences between plant and animal protein and how to choose what works best for you
• How protein impacts cravings
• Why the RDA guidelines on food labels aren’t enough

Protein is a game changer if you have struggled to lose weight and keep it off, if you are constantly snacking late at night and between meals and/or if you deal with intense cravings. 

Eating more protein can often feel scary and overwhelming for people and my goal with this episode is to address those concerns and offer simple, usable tips to make changes that will last.

(Note: In this episode I reference edamame as not having all the essential amino acids. That is incorrect--edamame happens to be one of the few plant based proteins that DOES have all 9 essential amino acids).  This article gives a helpful list of nearly complete plant based proteins.


At the Spring Weekend Retreat we will be talking all about how to add more protein to your diet so you can stop white knuckling through cravings. May 19-21 in Hunter, NY, $675 all inclusive.  Click here for all the details. 

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On episode 123 of The Diet Diaries I’m talking with plus size model, digital creator and founder of the Properly Fitting Bra Club, Caralyn Mirand Koch.

I’ve been inspired by and learning from Caralyn for several years on Instagram  and am thrilled to have her on the podcast as a resource for our community. 

Caralyn shows up in a way that is real, relatable and authentically herself and that’s why I have followed along on her journey for so long. I have tried and loved not just bras, makeup and clothes she’s suggested, but also learned so much from her about living confidently in a fuller body.

This conversation is packed with so many incredible insights and tools including:

• How Caralyn separated using her body for her work as a model from her own self worth
• The core values of the community she has created
• Caralyn’s perspective on evolving her business and how she connects with women at all life stages
• How Caralyn navigated the constant feedback about her plus size body as a model
• What the definition of plus size is and the meaning that’s been assigned to the term
• Why Caralyn is proud to represent the “in betweener” sizes (and what that means)
• The idealized plus size shape and how that’s evolving over time
• The important of representing all types of plus size bodies
• The power of simply witnessing someone existing and living their life in their body as a way to normalize different body shapes and sizes
• How Caralyn became an expert in undergarments and why they’ve been such an integral part of feeling good in her skin
• Caralyn’s perspective on hair and makeup and how it impacts body image
• Caralyn’s number one skill for creating body confidence and how she works through body insecurities 

I hope you feel seen and connected by listening to this conversation and know that you are never alone in navigating how to find your own body confidence and feel at ease in your own skin.

You can find Caralyn on Instagram, her website where she shares so much useful and helpful fashion, beauty, lifestyle and mindset content on her blog and on Facebook in the Properly Fitting Bra Club.

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What would happen if you took care of yourself the way you took care of everyone else in your life?

That’s the question I’m asking in Episode 122 of The Diet Diaries around self care.

We tend to think of self care as getting a massage or a facial, binge watching Netflix, going out for dinner with friends.

And that all counts and has value. 

But what about learning how to change eating habits? Improving negative body image? 

Isn’t that self care too? 

To me, self care is about the quality of our attention and whether how we’re spending our time is taking us closer to our values or farther away.

Here’s what you’ll hear in today’s episode:

• How this connects back to the practice of tender and fierce self compassion
• What we think self care is and what it actually is
• Why there is more than one form of self care
• How do we find the time and space for self care when we’re already so overwhelmed with life
• Why is self care so hard
• A different framework for thinking about self care 

I created the Spring Weekend Retreat so you can give yourself undivided attention. So you can pay attention to yourself the way you pay attention to everyone else in your life. Because if you want to make real, lasting changes in your life around changing eating habits, exercise and shifting negative body image, having the space and time to pay attention to yourself is the foundation. 

Go home well rested, well fed, well moved and crystal clear on the actions you need to be taking to feel at ease around food and in your body.

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On Episode 121 of The Diet Diaries I’m diving into the myth of happiness and the connection to emotional eating.

Inspired by a quote I read on my beloved Cup of Jo blog by author Hugh McKay, I’m talking about the idea of wholeness and how that is a much more accurate way to describe what need to want for ourselves as humans. If you’ve ever struggled with the hard thoughts and feelings because you’re always feeling hungry even after eating and you constantly wonder why do I hate my body, this one is for you.

We’ve gotten to a place in our society where happiness has been put on a pedestal and the only feeling we want to experience…and so by default we’ve been taught to push away and feel bad about the harder emotions. 

“Good vibes only” was seemingly everywhere on Instagram for a long time and I think it’s had a such a detrimental impact on our expectations and is a total misrepresentation of what the human experience truly is. 

Here’s what you’ll hear in episode 121:

• Why its normal and ok to not feel happy all of the time
• Why chasing the goal of happiness is a big driver of emotional eating
• Why food never actually makes us feel better
• What we’re chasing when we use food to cope with feelings
• Some of my favorite resources for learning more about emotions including Atlas of the Heart by Brene Brown
• How to use an emotion wheel to identify and cope with your emotions
• A go to skill to help you shift your thoughts
• How emotions actually coexist
• If happiness isn’t the goal, then what is? 
• How emotional eating connects to fat loss

I’ll be doing an episode soon on some somatic tools for how to tolerate and move through the hard emotions and this will be a great companion to the tools from episode 119.

Get all the details for the Spring Weekend Retreat

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Today is a special milestone on The Diet Diaries because for the first time ever, I’m talking with a client.

Lindsay and I have been working together since August 2022 and like all of us that are here, Lindsay was a life long yo yo dieter, relying on her size and shape as a main source of happiness in her life, constantly battling negative body image.

Every diet was always about getting smaller, believing that a thinner body was better.

Here’s what Lindsay shares with us:

• Haw she has started to make progress with negative body image after constantly trying to lose weight for 20 years
• Lindsay’s relationship with exercise and how that intertwined with her food choices
• Her extreme mindset around food and how and why Lindsay would swing from one to the other
• How Lindsay used urgency and deadlines to lose weight and what the ultimate outcome was
• The way Weight Watchers distorted Lindsay’s eating
• How Lindsay is trying to break the generational patterns around food, weight and body image with her daughter
• How Lindsay’s yo yo dieting mindset and history impacted the medical guidance to go gluten and dairy free AND do intermittent fasting as part of the IVF process
• Why food is about joy, love and agency over your body, not just fuel and nutrition
• Why these extreme food restrictions inspired Lindsay to reach out for support
• The big mental shifts around food Lindsay made as a result of our work together
• The number one thing we prioritized to help Lindsay make her diet sustainable
• How Lindsay reconciled the weight loss she experienced from the gluten free/dairy free diet with her history of negative body image and disordered eating
• The ways in which coaching positively changed Lindsay’s life after decades of struggling with dieting and negative body image

Lindsay wrote this moving op ed detailing her pregnancy losses, IVF experience and her support for abortion as healthcare for women.

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Today’s episode is a really important one because its about how you learn to respond to and deal with your negative thoughts around food and your body. 

You know the thoughts telling you things like:

• Your stomach is fat and disgusting
• That cellulite looks gross in those leggings
• You’re out of control around these cookies

You can do every diet in the world and they will NEVER change the way you think about food and your body. Which is why a diet doesn’t fix what you want it to fix. 

Having skills to learn how to respond to your negative thoughts is where true, lasting change happens.

And skills don’t include ignoring them, wishing they weren’t there or being verbally abusive to ourselves for thinking them. 

There are lots of wonderful influencers and creators out there sharing content to remind you that its ok to have fat on your stomach, to have cellulite on your thighs, to eat carbs after 7pm. 

But it isn’t enough just to follow those people and see that—you need actual skills to learn how to respond to the negative thoughts that your brain is producing seemingly every moment of every day.

So I am talking through 4 specific, usable skills you can start practicing to help deal with the thoughts so you can start making progress towards feeling at ease around food and in your body. 

(Note: The poem I mentioned is The Guest House by Rumi, not Hafiz. Brain fart.)

We’ll be working on these skills at the Spring Weekend Retreat. Find all the details here to join us May 19-21 in the Catskill mountains of New York. 

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Today is episode 118 of The Diet Diaries and I’m talking about how fat loss happens without dieting.

I’ve talked about the skills that are part of this many times before, but today I’m getting more specific around exactly how those skills impact what, why and how you’re eating and how that connects to fat loss. 

We’ve always been told that there is one way to lose weight. A diet.

But as is often the case, there is always more than one way to get to a goal. And that’s what this is all about.

Here’s what I’m covering in episode 118:

—The basic science behind fat loss

—How skills are different than rules

—The time frame you need be thinking about when it comes to long term fat loss

—Two detailed examples of how fat loss happens as a result of practicing skills

—The impact of our environment and the food available to us on fat loss

—How bigger meals and fewer snacks can naturally reduce your overall intake 

—How slowing down when you eat can reduce your overall intake


The Spring Weekend Retreat is May 19-21 in Hunter, NY.  Two nights and 3 days all inclusive.  A peaceful weekend to connect and reflect around eating, body image and self care so you can return home grounded and clear on what truly matters to you. Click here for all the details and to sign up.

Connect with Jordana
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Today is a very special episode of The Diet Diaries because I’m talking with one of my very best friends in the world who is also a brilliant movement coach, Alia Bisat.

The overlap between the work Alia does as a movement coach and the work I do around nutrition and body image is truly incredible and that’s what we’re diving into today. 

Here are some of the big topics Alia and I discuss:

• Why there is no quick fix solution for figuring out how to eat,  how to move and how to improve body image
• The instant gratification trap and how to avoid it
• Why avoiding the foods were afraid of and the movements that cause pain actually make everything worse
• The value of learning to be uncomfortable
• The intersection of body image and chronic pain and how you learn to change your beliefs around yourself
• Exactly why making changes around your body is so hard and what to do about it
• How your self perception around your body changes how you move and interact with the world

Here is a link to the magic video Alia talks about, definitely worth a watch!

Click here to learn more about Alia and find out how to work with her.

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Today on episode 116 of The Diet Diaries I’m talking about the difference between skills and rules and while rules may get you short term fat loss results, they will keep you stuck in the yo yo diet cycle forever. Skills are how you change eating habits

Eat with Ease is starting March 8 so I’m spending time today walking through the week by week breakdown the program, the skills you will learn and exactly how and why they will finally be the thing to change your relationship with food AND help you lose weight, for good (if you need or want to). 

Here’s what I’m covering in episode 116:

• The core skills you need to learn to stop feeling obsessed with food and change eating habits for good
• A different way of tracking food intake that will show you exactly what you need to focus on
• Exactly how rules are different than skills
• The amount of time you can expect to see changes
• How skills develop over time
• Why this approach sounds amazing but also feels hard and scary at the same time

Registration opens to the waitlist on Wednesday, 2/22 so today and tomorrow are the last days to join the waitlist and get 20% off. Click here to add your name!

The group starts March 8 and meets every Wednesday night at 730pm EST. 

If you listened to this episode and feel like I’m talking to you, I am and I would love to have you join us. 

Connect with Jordana
Find me on Instagram
Sign up for my weekly letter with personal stories and nutrition, body image and mindset tips
Schedule a free discovery call to talk more about working together
Listen to more episodes of The Diet Diaries