In this episode, I interview Registered Dietitian, Author of the book Once Upon a Diet, and business owner of Tips with Toni, Toni Marinucci. She teaches people how NOT to diet through online nutrition coaching, encouraging balance and ending restrictive diet culture. In this conversation, we discuss the similarities between diets and relationships, emotional eating and the mindset behind nutrition.
Show Notes:
02:26 Learning Weight was Tied to Worth from a Young Age
From a very young age, Toni was teased about her weight. The messaging she received taught her to associate her weight with her worth. Even after losing weight, she always had this feeling that she wasn’t enough. That feeling translated to her actions in other areas of her life.
05:00 Diet and Relationships
Toni explains the idea that women link diets to relationships. She realized that in her own life, she was in a repetitive cycle of dating the same type of guy over and over again. She realized there was a part of herself, related to weight, that needed healing. Women often get so excited in the initial phases of a relationship/ diet but the honeymoon phase is not sustainable in the long term.
08:06 Breaking Out of the Diet Cycle
If you want to break out of the diet cycle and find something that truly works for you, Toni shares three questions that you should ask yourself. You’ll want to be dialed into your middle ground so that you aren’t going to the extremes in an all-or-nothing mentality.
14:41 Training for Life
Toni tells us about how we can make the mindset shift to think about training for life versus having specific expectations around reaching numbers on a scale or a pants size. It’s okay to have milestones to motivate your progress, but you don’t want to rush the process, and you also have to love the process. The goal is to make it sustainable.
17:58 What is Diet Culture?
The root of diet culture is a way to keep women smaller and focused on their looks instead of focusing on what they can bring to the world. The idea that womens’ bodies can be trending and in style is a distraction from our deeper purpose. Toni talks about the commonality in the storylines of the Disney princess movies and how that speaks to the ideology around women’s appearances and womens’ bodies.
20:04 Disconnecting from Diet Culture
We need to remind ourselves that our bodies are the least interesting things about us. At the same time, our bodies are amazing and we should be grateful for them. It’s about finding a balance and nurturing and taking care of our bodies. Toni invites us to question the messaging of diet culture when feeling like we need to change ourselves in a drastic way.
24:48 Replace Criticism with Compassion
If you feel like you don’t love your body, Toni recommends faking it until you do. Just accept it for what it is. Having a negative motivation to your goals is not going to help you. Get curious and replace criticism with compassion.
29:17 Struggling with Binging and Emotional Eating
Toni recommends avoiding labeling foods as good or bad, and changing the way that we look at food, meaning that you are not a good or bad person based on the way that you eat. One moment of indulgence isn’t going to ruin your progress. But how you respond to it will. Toni talks about physical hunger and psychological hunger and the overlap between the two. When we pay attention to our hunger cues, we can start to recognize when the reason for eating is emotional.
35:20 The P.A.U.S.E. Method
Practicing the P.A.U.S.E. method can help with emotional eating. P-pay attention, A-asses how you feel, U-understand why you feel that way, S-set up a plan, E-execute that plan. This method is intended to bring awareness and mindfulness to the patterns that may be hindering your progress.
38:52 Your Inner Voice is the Foundation
We talk about how it’s important to give yourself grace while breaking patterns and creating new habits. How you talk to yourself matters.
Connecting with Toni
Here’s Toni’s Website: tipswithtoni.com
Here’s Toni’s Instagram: @tips_with_toni
Get Toni’s Book: www.amazon.com/Once-Upon-Diet-Dieting-Dating/dp/1737837005
Here’s My Website: micahfolsomfit.com
Follow Me on Instagram: @micahfolsomfit
Join my Podcast List: micahfolsomfit.com/dyc
