Thrive Beyond Size

In this episode of Thrive Beyond Size, Michelle gets refreshingly real about the things that drive her absolutely crazy in the diet culture and wellness industry — and yes, that includes some corners of the anti-diet world too.

Topics covered:

The Diet Industry's Sacred Cows

Problems in the Anti-Diet & Intuitive Eating Space Too

Michelle closes with a call to relax the conversations, welcome people with their whole selves (including the part still thinking about weight loss), and keep doing the work to dismantle these systems — inside and out.

Connect with Michelle: Social media: @WayzaHealth  Email: [email protected]

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If intuitive eating has ever felt frustrating, overwhelming, or strangely out of reach, this episode explains why.

In this conversation, I share more of my personal evolution — from weight loss coaching and obesity medicine training to binge eating recovery and body trust work. There was a moment during my binge eating certification when everything clicked: intentional weight loss wasn’t just ineffective long term — it was often contributing to the very behaviors I was trying to help people heal. But even then, intuitive eating didn’t immediately “work” for me. And that realization led me to the deeper missing piece.

Today we talk about nervous system safety — and why feeling safe enough in your body is the true prerequisite to intuitive eating. If your body doesn’t feel like a safe place to land, tuning in will always feel difficult.

In this episode, you will learn:

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In this episode of Thrive Beyond Size, Michelle dives into the psychological process of transition and why healing your relationship with food and body is far more than a surface-level change.

Drawing from Transitions by William Bridges, she explores the difference between change (external events) and transition (internal transformation), and why the “neutral zone” — the messy middle — is both unavoidable and necessary.

You’ll learn:

• Why leaving diet culture requires real grief
• What the “neutral zone” actually is — and why it feels so uncomfortable
• Why new beginnings in intuitive eating don’t arrive with fanfare
• How diet culture encourages us to skip the emotional work
• Why unsustainable weight loss isn’t just biological — it’s psychological
• How to create your own rite of passage to mark your transition
• What subtle signs signal that you’ve stepped into a new beginning

Michelle also shares personal reflections on navigating her own professional transition and how the lessons from intuitive eating are shaping how she moves through change today.

If you are:

• No longer dieting but not yet at peace
• Feeling disoriented in your healing journey
• Tempted to go back to what’s familiar
• Wondering if you’re “doing it wrong”

This episode will remind you that the messy middle isn’t failure — it’s transformation.

If you’re navigating your own transition — whether in your relationship with food, your body, or your identity — Michelle offers 1:1 coaching and programs designed to support you through the in-between.

Connect at:
🌿 wayzahealth.com
📩 [email protected]
📱 @wayzahealth on social

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In this episode of Thrive Beyond Size, I’m talking about a moment many people experience on the intuitive eating and body trust journey, but rarely name out loud: the experience of doing all the “right” things and still finding it hard.

Inspired by a recent personal experience and a reminder of how deeply diet culture still shows up around us, I explore why food struggles can resurface even when you’re committed to healing, why the word stuck is often misleading, and how our nervous systems respond to both personal growth and collective stress.

This episode offers reassurance, reframing, and permission to slow down, especially in a world that feels heavy, uncertain, and emotionally demanding.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why healing isn’t linear—and why effort doesn’t always equal ease
• How diet culture conditions us to expect constant progress
• The difference between being “stuck” and being in a season of integration
• How collective stress and uncertainty affect your relationship with food
• Why control feels tempting when life feels unsafe
• How intuitive eating can quietly turn into another checklist
• What actually helps when trying harder isn’t working
• Why rest, support, and gentleness are not signs of failure

If this episode resonates and you’re feeling unsteady or overwhelmed in your relationship with food or body, you don’t have to navigate it alone.

You can connect with me on social media @wayzahealth or reach out directly at [email protected].

Let this be enough for today.

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This episode was inspired by a quiet morning that quickly became emotionally charged after Michelle encountered a long-time friend’s post about yet another weight-loss attempt. What once would have felt familiar or even inviting now landed as unsettling and activating, prompting reflection on why seeing others engage in diet culture can feel so destabilizing when you’re doing healing work around food and body.

Michelle explores the idea that there is a particular phase of healing where diet culture becomes louder—not because it has intensified in the world, but because your awareness has changed. Using the familiar “fishbowl” metaphor, she explains how stepping even one toe outside of diet culture can feel disorienting and lonely, especially when everyone around you still seems fully immersed. From a neuroscience perspective, she discusses how the brain constantly scans for cues of safety and familiarity, and how patterns that once felt “normal” can begin to register as unsafe once your internal operating system has shifted.

The conversation then moves into what’s often underneath these triggers: grief. Grief for years spent trapped in the same patterns, grief for the ways diet culture eroded joy and self-trust, grief for the loss of shared language with people you care about, and grief for the fact that once you see the harm, you can’t unsee it. Michelle also names the anger that arises when a harmful system is still praised as health and wellness, and why that anger is a healthy, human response rather than a personal failing.

Michelle outlines a few common traps people fall into when encountering diet culture in others, including the urge to educate or rescue, slipping into comparison, and self-abandonment in the name of being “able to handle it.” She explains why these responses make sense, but often leave us more dysregulated and disconnected from ourselves.

Finally, the episode offers a compassionate way forward—one rooted in nervous system safety rather than endurance. Michelle talks about the importance of curating your environment without guilt, differentiating someone else’s choices from your own truth, grounding back into the body when activated, and creating at least one space where diet culture doesn’t dominate. She closes with a powerful reframe: being triggered isn’t a failure—it’s attunement. Your body now knows what safety feels like, and it notices when it’s missing.

In this episode, Michelle covers:

• Why being triggered by diet culture is often a sign of growth, not weakness
• How the nervous system and brain respond to familiar but harmful patterns
• The grief and anger that often sit beneath food and body triggers
• Common traps like rescuing, comparison, and self-abandonment
• Practical ways to protect your nervous system while staying compassionate

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In this episode, Michelle takes a deep and compassionate look at self-betrayal—a word that often carries shame, but deserves far more nuance.

Rather than framing self-betrayal as weakness, lack of integrity, or poor follow-through, this conversation explores how self-betrayal often develops as a protective response—a way the nervous system learns to prioritize safety, connection, and acceptance over authenticity.

You’ll hear how self-betrayal shows up in everyday life, especially in our relationships with food, rest, boundaries, and decision-making, and how diet culture in particular trains us to distrust our bodies and override our internal signals. Michelle weaves together personal stories, intuitive eating insights, and accessible neuroscience to explain why “just listening to your body” can feel impossible—or even unsafe—when safety hasn’t yet been established.

This episode also explores the grief that can surface as we begin repairing self-betrayal, and why that grief is not a setback, but a sign of integration and growth. Instead of striving for perfection or resolution, Michelle emphasizes the power of repair—small, compassionate moments of listening, pausing, and responding with kindness.

If you’ve ever felt stuck in patterns you judge as self-sabotage, or wondered why trusting yourself feels so hard, this episode offers a reframing that is both relieving and deeply human.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why self-betrayal is often about safety, not failure
• How the nervous system learns to override internal signals
• The role diet culture plays in training self-distrust
• The difference between self-abandonment and self-betrayal
• Why awareness doesn’t mean you’re ready to change—and why that’s okay
• How grief fits into healing and integration
• What repair actually looks like in rebuilding body trust

A reflection to take with you:
The next time you notice the urge to override yourself, ask: “What would help my body feel just a little safer right now?”

If this episode resonated with you, Michelle would love to hear your story. You can reach out at [email protected] or connect on social media.

Thanks for listening—and as always, be gentle with yourself as you continue finding your way home. 💛

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In this episode of Thrive Beyond Size, I share a very personal story about a rough week that ended with severe food poisoning—and the unexpected clarity it gave me about body trust, intuitive eating, and how our bodies communicate with us.

• Why intuitive eating feels “easy” when your body is screaming—and harder when it’s whispering
• How illness stripped away food rules, self-doubt, and overthinking
• The difference between loud body signals (like food poisoning or burnout) and subtle daily cues
• Why diet culture teaches us to ignore hunger, fullness, satisfaction, and discomfort
• How burnout, anxiety, panic, injury, grief, and stress often represent the body escalating its message
• Why loud body signals aren’t punishments, but protective responses
• How ignoring whispers often leads to screams
• What loud moments can teach us about clarity, trust, and embodiment
• Why intuitive eating lives in everyday attunement—not dramatic crises

• When has your body spoken very loudly to you in the past?
• What was it trying to tell you in those moments?
• What do you think your body needed that you may not have been ready to hear?
• What might your body be whispering to you right now about food, rest, pace, or care?
• What would it feel like to take those whispers seriously?

Your body doesn’t need to scream to deserve your attention.
Intuitive eating is the practice of listening—again and again—before it has to.

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What if the most valuable part isn’t the most obvious one?

In this episode of Thrive Beyond Size, Michelle shares a series of small synchronicities that led her to reflect on Earl Grey tea—and the surprising fact that its signature flavour comes not from the fruit itself, but from the oil in the peel of bergamot.

From there, she explores how this metaphor applies to so many areas of our lives.

Michelle unpacks how diet culture and dominant wellness narratives train us to focus on what’s visible, measurable, and socially rewarded—while ignoring the quieter, subtler layers that actually make nourishment possible.

In this episode, you’ll hear reflections on:

• Why we’re conditioned to value outcomes, control, and appearance
• How diet culture strips eating down to function while discarding pleasure, satisfaction, and safety
• The “peel” of eating: sensory experience, connection, comfort, and meaning
• How body distress often comes from focusing only on appearance rather than body wisdom
• Why the nervous system may be the most overlooked layer of all
• How safety and regulation create the foundation for sustainable change
• A gentle invitation to get curious about what you may have been taught to ignore

This is not an episode about fixing yourself or doing more. It’s an invitation to widen the lens, soften your focus, and explore what becomes possible when you stop discarding the peel.

As always, take what resonates, leave what doesn’t, and approach yourself with curiosity and compassion.

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In this episode, Michelle explores what happens when you don’t know the next step—and why that experience is far more human (and helpful) than we’ve been taught to believe.

She discusses:

• Why not knowing feels so uncomfortable—and where that discomfort comes from
• How diet culture and hustle culture both promise certainty and control
• The nervous system’s role in urgency, overthinking, and premature decisions
• Why uncertainty is often information, not danger
• How the urge for clarity can show up with food, body image, relationships, and work
• The difference between aligned action and action driven by discomfort
• Why some seasons are meant for pausing, integration, and listening—not fixing
• How body trust requires slowing down and tuning into subtle signals
• What it really means to “stay present” instead of forcing answers

Michelle also shares a powerful reflection prompt to help you notice where you might be pressuring yourself to know more than you do right now—and what might shift if you allowed yourself to simply not know, just for today.

Reflection prompt from the episode:

Where in your life are you pressuring yourself to know more than you actually do right now?
And what might shift if you allowed yourself to not know—just for today?

As always, thank you for being here and for allowing this to be a space where certainty isn’t required and being human is enough.

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This New Year’s episode is both a moment of accountability and an invitation—to myself, and to you—to approach 2026 with more patience, presence, and trust.

Rather than setting resolutions or performance-based goals, I share the principles guiding me forward, shaped by the lessons of 2025, my changing relationship with energy, and a deepening awareness of what it truly means to feel at home in my body.

We begin with an overview of A Year of Coming Home, my year-long container designed to support intuitive eating from the inside out. I explain why nervous system regulation and embodiment must come before intuitive eating can truly work, and how chronic stress, overwhelm, and disconnection from the body make it nearly impossible to hear—or trust—our inner signals. You’ll hear how somatic practices, gentle movement, and creating safety in the body are foundational to this work.

I also share how yoga—especially yin and restorative practices—has profoundly supported my own relationship with food, body, and presence, and why I’m pursuing yoga certification to bring these practices into my work. Alongside this, I talk about asynchronous coaching inside A Year of Coming Home and why this model of support feels so aligned and nourishing.

Looking ahead to the podcast, I share plans to include more guest stories and a powerful upcoming project amplifying real experiences of weight stigma in healthcare. I also introduce a year-long personal experiment: offering daily tarot reflections as a free practice rooted in intuition, reflection, and nervous system awareness.

On a personal level, I reflect on turning 50, committing to a full year of yoga and strength training, spending more intentional time alone in nature, and continuing to explore spirituality through practice rather than just theory. I also share my curiosity around traditional Chinese medicine as I navigate perimenopausal digestive changes.

One of the most tender parts of this episode explores how my work in medical assistance in dying has reshaped my understanding of surrender and transitions—and how the wisdom of the dying process might teach us how to move through life’s many endings with more grace and less resistance. This reflection has sparked a deeply personal writing project I’ll be carrying with me through 2026.

Finally, I share my word for the year—patience—and why learning to slow down, sit with ideas, trust timing, and allow things to unfold feels like the most important practice of all.

If you’re craving a gentler, more embodied way of moving into the year ahead, this episode is for you.

www.wayzahealth.com

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