Tough Cookie Talks

It's the second week in February and I know why your New Year's goals (or resolutions or intentions or whatever) didn't stick. It's the same reason they usually don't, and if you're more of a "New Year Same Me" kind of person, maybe you've known this all along.

On this episode we talk about:

• The mind blowing realization I had when I realized that my goals for the New Year have been the same (and largely unachieved) for a few years now.
• The harsh reality of trying to work towards health, fitness, wellness, relationship, and even leisure related goals in a world that wasn't designed for us to be well or relax.
• How we've lost the plot (and perhaps been misled?)
• What needs to happen if we want next year to be different.
• So many other good things!

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Today my good friend and former podcast guest Liz Brinkmoeller is back from her year off the internet! Or rather her year off Instagram and most other forms of social media. This is something that I and many other people I know have contemplated in the past few years, so I'm excited for her to share her experience with all of us.

Liz Brinkmoeller has been a trainer/fitness instructor since 2014. She to be very diet culture and hustle culture focused but she slowly realized that it was getting her deeply burned out and depressed. Now she is a personal trainer with a full schedule of (mostly) ideal clients and much better work boundaries. She loves teaching people to get strong enough to smash the patriarchy. She has also recently started scull rowing and loves it!

On this episode we talk about:

• ​What brought Liz to quit the internet (ok mostly just Instagram) for a whole year and what that looked like logistically.
• ​How being online too much was contributing to her burnout as a trainer.
• ​Our hot takes on what the best and worst parts of the internet right now.
• ​What brought her back and how she's doing things differently this time.
• ​How to reconcile staying informed with the news without burying your head in the sand or getting consumed by it.
• ​Our predictions for the future of all things internet, social media, and tech.
• ​What's bringing Liz joy + small actions we can take to make the world a better place AND keep ourselves more sane.

⁠

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We are officially BACK for season 4 and I am feeling ever emboldened to keep running my mouth while I still can.

On this episode we talk about:

• My origin story and how we got here.
• How some people still don't know what diet culture is but need to.

• Bringing things full circle for the new people who are already "political" but need to upgrade their approach to fitness to reflect those values.
• What you can expect for Season 4!

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I am so thrilled to be able to share this conversation with Tia Levings with you today because if you don't know her and her work, you need to!

Tia Levings is the New York Times Bestselling author of A Well-Trained Wife, her memoir of escape from Christian Patriarchy. She writes about the realities of religious trauma and the Trad wife life, decoding the fundamentalist influences in our news and culture. Her work and quotes have appeared in Teen Vogue, Salon, the Huffington Post, and Newsweek. She also appeared in the hit Amazon docu-series, Shiny Happy People. Based in North Carolina, she is mom to four incredible adults and likes to travel, hike, paint, and daydream. Find her on social media @TiaLevingsWriter and Substack at DeconstructingFundamentalism.com. Her second book releases with St. Martin’s Essentials May 5, 2026.

On this episode we talk about:

• Tia's incredible life story that led her to be doing the work she does today.
• How we see it playing out in religion, in our homes, in our own lives, in our country as a whole.

• What could cause a person to gravitate to fundamentalist thinking and things we can do in our lives to push back against and avoid that.
• Parallels between what she experienced in her religion and home and what we sometimes get sucked into in fitness and wellness spaces.
• The pipeline from wellness to getting red pilled and how it happens.
• How to embrace more both/and thinking when our own experiences (a religion, dieting, our identity, life in general) have impacted us so profoundly that we just want to scream "NO YOU'RE WRONG!".
• How to reconcile doing that when some people are just terrible people with harmful ideas.
• Simple daily practices to keep ourselves grounded in a both/and sort of reality in a world that is increasingly polarized.
• How to we show up in our relationships when our loved ones see things so differently than we do.

• Insider info she wants to share with people as someone who was in a high control religion and marriage and got out.
• What to do if you see yourself in her story.

• So many other important things!

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This week we are diving deep into the world of eating disorders and recovery, and much like all of the work I do here, Mallary Tenore Tarpley is here to help us embrace the gray area between being sick and fully recovered. She's here to normalize living in the in between place when you're trying to heal, and share some things that you may not have known about eating disorders. This topic is hard to talk about without dipping into some potentially triggering topics, so honor yourself and your own journey as you listen, especially if you are in early eating disorder recovery.

Mallary Tenore is an assistant professor of practice at The University of Texas at Austin's School of Journalism and Media and McCombs School of Business, where she teaches writing and reporting courses for undergraduate and graduate students. Mallary specializes in a variety of topics, including longform feature writing, creative nonfiction, solutions journalism and nonprofit journalism.A longtime journalist, Mallary's articles and essays have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Tampa Bay Times, Harvard University’s Nieman Storyboard and more. She also maintains a weekly newsletter, Write at the Edge, where she shares writing tips and best practices. Mallary’s debut nonfiction book, “SLIP: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery,” will be published by Simon & Schuster's Simon Element imprint and is now available for pre-order. The book blends immersive reporting, emerging science and social history around eating disorders alongside Mallary’s own harrowing journey from a childhood with anorexia to her present-day reality as a mother in recovery. While working on the book, Mallary received a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to support her reporting and writing.

On this episode we talk about:

• Mallary's experience developing an eating disorder as a child that led her to write this book.
•  The most surprising discoveries she made about eating disorders while researching for her book?
• The social history of eating disorders. (And the wild parallels to what's happening today.)
• How anorexia can reduce your brain size, specifically gray matter.
• Things is life that can cause "slips" in recovery.
• How she hopes to redefine how we see slips and eating disorder recovery as a whole.
• The biggest things that are perpetuating eating disorders today.
• Getting treatment for your eating disorder when you don't fit the traditional mold of what we think an eating disorder looks like.
• What she wishes society knew and did differently when it comes to eating disorders.
• So many other important things!

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I can't seem to let go of the need to talk about the current social and political climate, the rise of fascism and authoritarianism, and how it relates to fitness, wellness, diet culture, and everything I do here. I wanted to approach this topic from a historical lens, so I knew that Jen Borruso was the person I needed to talk to. We've known each other for years professionally, but as a friend she has always be my go-to person when I want to learn more about the historical context behind something. I'm so excited for you to learn from her today!

Jen Borruso is a personal trainer and nutrition coach who helps people build a healthier, more compassionate relationship with their bodies. Before entering the fitness world, Jen studied history and literature at the University of Central Florida, earning a Bachelor’s degree in History (with a focus on post-Civil War U.S. history) and a minor in English, with an emphasis on American Literature. Originally planning to become a high school teacher and possibly pursue law school, Jen developed a strong foundation in critical thinking, analysis, and understanding how historical and cultural forces shape the present. Reading Fearing the Black Body by Dr. Sabrina Strings was a pivotal moment in Jen’s learning journey, deepening her understanding of how diet culture is rooted in systems of control and oppression, including racism and the policing of bodies.Today, Jen works at the intersection of fitness and social justice, exploring how we can resist harmful narratives about health, worth, and perfection; and build a more inclusive, body-positive world.

On this episode we talk about:

• Jen's origin story as a history major turned fitness professional.
• Ways that diet culture and fascism are two flavors of the same shit sandwich.
• What fascism is, why we need to be concerned, and whether or not we're being too dramatic.
• Historical examples of fascist regimes as a cautionary tale for what we're slipping into today.
• How purity culture, whiteness and national identity play into this and how it's showing up right now.
• The dangers of seemingly innocent things like hyperfemininity, tradwife content, and skinnytok.
• How things like fat liberation, body neutrality, and feminism, are a way to reject both diet culture and fascist ideals and participate in political resistance.
• How capitalism plays into all of this.
• Attempts to whitewash history and demonize intellectualism, and books we can read to further our knowledge.
• So many other important things!

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Lunges. Probably one of the most hated exercises, second only to burpees. I have solutions for you!

On this episode we talk about:

• Common reasons people hate lunges.
• Solutions, workarounds, and swaps based on each.
• Why there is no one right way to lunge.
• The importance of understanding why you are doing certain exercises.
• What I teach my clients so that they can make swaps without me.
• How to apply this knowledge to any exercise you aren't a fan of.
• So many other good things!

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This episode is a bit of a crossover episode--a sneak peek at something I shared with my clients on my private podcast (yes I have one of those for my clients!) the other day. Today I'm letting you in on the habits and qualities of my most successful clients.

On this episode we talk about:

• Defining "success". What does this even mean for each of us?
• The value of being resourceful and scrappy.
• Why the way we view and bounce back from failure is more important than how often we fail.
• Passively consuming content vs. actively implementing it.
• Why I want you to reach out when you're struggling.
• The ever important reminder that progress isn't linear.
• Why small actions over a long period of time matter.
• The importance of self-awareness.
• Being more curious than judgmental.
• Scope of practice for trainers!
• The value of being coachable.
• Changing your opinion when presented with new information.
• Problems (and good things!) about program hopping.
• Why I want my clients to befriend each other.
• Advocating for yourself and asking for what you need.
• Why I LOVE when my clients question my choices for their workouts.
• Going DEEP into this work.
• So many other good things!

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Today's podcast is brought to you by listeners like you! Or at least the conversations I've had with you in response to last weeks episode with Vinny Welsby. Apparently weight loss drugs are a popular topic and you all have a lot of your own thoughts and opinions about them. After dedicating a whole episode to talking about the research behind medications like Ozempic and Wegovy, I'm back to talk about feelings. Like the complicated ones you have around whether or not to try these drugs. Or the fact that you want to lose weight in general.

On this episode we talk about:

• Some of the conversations I've had recently with clients, family, and friends around weight loss medication and intentional weight loss in general.
• Why there is no shade or shame to anyone who chooses to try this.
• AND why you need to have alll the information before you go all in with it--including the failure stories we don't usually hear about.
• The reasons you might be feeling the pull to lose weight at this point in time.
• The questions you need to be asking yourself and your medical provider before going down this path.

• So many other good things!

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Vinny Welsby is here today, and I could not think of anyone better to talk to about weight loss drugs with. They have done a really deep dive into research and know these GLP-1 meds inside and out. We all deserve to go into big medical decisions armed with all the information and we're so glad to be able to share what we know with you today!

Vinny Welsby (they/them) is a fat activist and diversity, equity and inclusion leader. They are a world-leading expert on dismantling anti-fat bias and diet culture, a TEDx speaker, podcast host and best-selling author. Vinny is trans-non-binary and is dedicated to shifting how society views fat and queer bodies through education and compassion.

When Vinny isn’t talking about DEI stuff they love snuggling with their dog, cross-stitching swear words and singing in a pop choir.

On this episode we talk about:

• All the different names & varieties that weight loss drugs go by these days.
• Why they may not be the "miracle" drug we think they are.
• The latest research surrounding them and why it may not be showing is the full picture.
• How much weight you can expect to lose on a GLP-1.
• What happens when you go off it.
• Side effects you may experience that nobody talks about.
• How to talk to your doctor about it.

• Why you might be feeling the pull to try one and why we don't fault you for that.
• Diets and weight loss drugs throughout history--is this just another flavor of the same shit sandwich??

• So many other good things!



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⁠Get Vinny's Size Diversity Resource Guide ⁠

⁠Get Vinny's Fat At Work Report⁠

⁠Get Vinny's Fat In Healthcare Report⁠

⁠Diets Through the Decades Post⁠

⁠Wegovy/Ozempic Research Post⁠



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