Done with Dieting Episode #1: Introduction

Ever feel like the wellness world is all about dieting and weight loss, but there’s so much more to health than just the number on the scale? Welcome to the done with dieting podcast, where we are turning that old narrative on its head.

Today, we are embracing a transformation, a shift from solely focusing on weight loss to focusing on a healthier relationship with food, exercise, our bodies, and ourselves. We’re empowering women in midlife to view health from a holistic perspective. Because it’s not just about what you eat or how much you exercise. It’s also about how you see and treat yourself.

Are you ready to rewrite the rules of health and wellness? Ready to embrace a journey that nourishes your body, mind, and soul? Tune into this episode as we start a new chapter in the journey of the done with dieting podcast. Leaving behind societal pressures of dieting and stepping into a world of self-acceptance, self-care, and self-understanding.

Welcome to the new era of done with dieting, your guide to creating a fulfilling, well rounded life that’s about so much more than just losing weight.

You are listening to the done with dieting podcast. The podcast for women who are experiencing perimenopause and menopause symptoms and want to feel better – like they did before their body started changing.

I am your host, Elizabeth Sherman, Master Certified health, and life coach for women in menopause and peri menopause. I’ve helped thousands of women manage their symptoms, get off the diet roller coaster, and change their relationship with food, exercise, and stop fighting with their bodies. And I do it through a feminist lens – which means exploring how we are socialized as young women has a huge impact on our current relationship with food & exercise, our bodies, health, and ourselves.

What’s different about this podcast is that we’re exploring your health from all sides, not just food and exercise. We also address the mindset shifts that will make you happier and lead to better health.

My goal in this podcast is to illustrate that the reason diets don’t work long term is because your health doesn’t exist in a silo. Your health and your weight are a symptom of the OTHER parts of your life and how you show up. I want to help you to feel good and live the life you desire from a 360 degree approach: body, mind, and soul.

Welcome. Let’s get started.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the podcast. I am your host, Elizabeth Sherman. And if you’ve been with me before, thank you for coming back. If you’re new here, I would love to extend a very warm welcome to you. Just to give you a little bit of information about myself, I am a life and health coach for women in midlife with over 17 years of experience currently living and working in Mexico.

This podcast has been a platform where I have been sharing my insights about diets, exercise, and maintaining an ideal body shape. But as we grow, so does our understanding of health and wellness.

I have come to realize that our journey to health Is so much more than about just losing weight or the number on the scale and our appearance or getting into a certain size. It’s how we live our lives and how we view our bodies and how we treat ourselves.

So, as we start this new season, I am thrilled to announce a new direction for our conversations here. We will move beyond the classic diet and exercise dialogue and venture into the realms of overall health and wellness for women, especially for those of us in our midlife years.

We’ll explore how health habits, aging and ageism, societal pressures, and living authentically impact our well-being. But why this change, you might be asking. Over the years, as I’ve coached so many women, I’ve seen firsthand that achieving health is about so much more than just counting calories or getting those 10000 steps in. It’s about understanding how different aspects of our lives and our mindset contribute to our overall health.

And you’ve probably noticed, if you have been a loyal listener, that the trajectory of the podcast has changed. So, join me on this renewed journey where we will look at health through a holistic lens. Understanding that our wellbeing is about much more than just what we eat or how much we exercise.

Let’s dive in and discover the joy of health, not as a chore or a punishment, but as a lifelong journey towards feeling our best and living our most authentic lives.

If you’ve ever looked at my photos online, you might think that I’ve always been slender. And quite honestly, I do have thin privilege, white privilege as well. And so, you might believe that I’ve always been health conscious. But let me assure you, it hasn’t always been this way.

In my earlier years, I used to be a size 18 or 20. It was a constant battle to try to control my weight. I went through the gamut of diets and exercises, you name it, I’ve tried it. The cabbage soup diet, South Beach, Atkins, vegetarian, paleo, gluten free.

As for exercise, I tried running, I’ve done CrossFit, spinning, high intensity interval workouts, you name it. I even did roller derby. And I even earned five different certifications in personal training, nutrition, health coaching, and life coaching with the idea that if I knew more, that I would be able to control my own weight.

But what happened is that there was no magic pill. Knowledge does not equal action. And so, my weight struggle continued. Knowledge was not the magic bullet that I thought it would be.

My journey had a few more twists and turns in store for me. I grew up in Chicago and I worked as a vice president for sales executives in a software company. It was a high stress job with lots of traveling and eating on the go. And this lifestyle didn’t lend itself well to a healthy way of living.

And as I was navigating these challenges, my mother was battling breast cancer. Her struggle with the disease deeply affected me and my outlook on my health. Everything changed in March of 2001 when I moved from Chicago to Austin, Texas.

During this transition, I experienced two significant life events. One is my mom passed away from breast cancer. And two, I was laid off from my corporate job. These events gave me time to reflect on my life and to deeply feel the pain that my mother had endured.

I started to research the risk factors for cancer and became determined to take charge of my own health. I was determined to not follow in my mother’s unfortunate path because I could see that what I was doing was going to lead me there.

And so, it was a profound time of transition for me. I began to question, how am I contributing to the world? And the answer came in the form of a life changing decision. I decided to start a journey to help other people to become healthier.

It was my new passion. And I figured that if I can help just one person avoid the fate that my mother took, avoid breast cancer. I knew that I would have served my purpose.

The concept of health coaching though, in 2005 was completely new at the time. People knew what personal trainers and nutritionists did, but the term coach was completely unfamiliar.

And so, to bridge this gap, I combined my personal training and nutrition certifications with my coaching practice. But it was still always a struggle knowing that I could offer more than just counting someone’s repetitions in the gym.

Fast forward to today, I now live in Mexico and the market has a completely different understanding of what a coach does. Thanks to technology, I now can reach more people than ever through virtual coaching and this podcast. A concept that seemed like a pipe dream back in 2005.

Today, my life looks quite different from those early days in Chicago. I’ve traded the corporate hustle for the vibrant culture and serene beaches of Mexico. And this change in my environment has significantly shaped my coaching approach, enriching it with new found perspectives and experiences.

My clients, primarily women, come to me wanting to be healthier. But more than that, they’re looking to reclaim control of their bodies and their lives. We live in a society that often puts undue emphasis on a woman’s appearance. And as a result, many women find themselves not just dieting to be thinner, but also battling against the aging process.

Our culture reveres youth, making it a struggle for many of my clients as they begin to age, as we begin to age. My aim is to help you navigate this difficult path. In my coaching practice, I’ve integrated my advanced certification for feminist coaching to address these unique challenges.

I help them, and I’m going through the same process to realize that health and wellness go way beyond societal norms and unrealistic beauty standards. I’ve realized that the journey to health isn’t just about nutrition and physical activity. Yes, they’re totally essential components, but they’re just parts of the whole.

True health encompasses so much more. It includes stress management, sleep management, and how we perceive our bodies and ourselves. It requires an exploration of our lifestyle, our relationships, and our mindset.

Even after becoming a health and fitness coach, I continued to struggle with my eating habits and exercise routines. I wish I could tell you that once my mom passed away and being overweight was a huge risk factor for getting cancer, that I immediately changed my eating habits and started exercising regularly.

But that would be far from the truth. Instead, it took me years to genuinely understand and integrate the knowledge that I was getting.

What I discovered along the way is that the traditional information that we’ve been fed about dieting and exercise doesn’t necessarily apply to women. Especially, as we age. We often believe that the secret to weight loss lies in drastic diets or intense exercise routines.

But from my experience, and what science supports is that there’s no magic pill for weight loss or health. We need to listen to our bodies. Understand our unique needs and follow a holistic approach to our health.

In the next part of our journey together, we’ll address some prevalent myths and realities about dieting and weight loss that I’ve learned over the years.

One of the most striking realizations for me has been the fallacy of traditional dietary information. Especially, the ones that we women have been raised with. We’ve grown up with images and messages that have dictated what we should eat, how we should exercise, and what we should look like.

From celebrity diet plans to calorie restrictive diets advertised in teen magazines, we’ve been swamped with misinformation. We’ve been told to consume 1200 calories regardless of our size or our lifestyle. Which honestly, doesn’t make any sense.

These dated and overly simplistic rules aren’t just irrelevant for women today. They can be outright harmful. They don’t take into account our unique bodies, our lifestyles, or what’s required for optimal health.

Our society has a fascination with magic pill solutions, especially when it comes to weight loss. We’re sold on the idea that there’s a one size fits all answer to our health woes. But the reality is quite the opposite. Our bodies are unique, and our lifestyles are diverse. Therefore, our approach to health must be personalized.

Many of us resort to extreme measures like high intensity interval training, keto diets, fasting, or excessive running. But the truth is these methods might not be the best approach for everyone, especially as we age.

Moreover, these extreme methods can lead to a vicious cycle. We put our bodies through rigorous regimens only to quit when the results don’t match our expectations. This is followed by tons of self-loathing and beating ourselves up.

And then, the inevitable giving up and the false belief that we’re just not meant to be thin, right? But the reality is weight loss isn’t just about diet and exercise. Our self-image and thought patterns play a crucial role in our health journey. We tend to crave brownies over broccoli and not because of lack of knowledge about their nutritional value, but due to the emotional and psychological factors associated with these foods.

Understanding this critical aspect of our health journey can help us create sustainable habits and maintain long term health. There are no shortcuts or magic solutions to creating optimal health. It’s a process, a journey that we need to embark on with patience, understanding, and a healthy dose of self-compassion.

Reflecting on the journey of my coaching career and the evolution of this podcast, I’ve seen a profound shift in my philosophy. And as a listener, you probably saw everything that happened, right? This wasn’t a sudden change, it gradually unfolded as I explored more of the concepts into my work, interacted with many of my clients, and observed the real time impact of societal pressures on our health and our self-perception.

Now, I want to share what this podcast has become and the path I envisioned for the future. Done With Dieting has grown beyond a mere podcast. It’s a beacon of empowerment, guiding women to live robust, well-rounded lives, free from societal expectations and judgments. We’ve evolved from just another voice in the health and fitness world to a safe space for women seeking genuine, lasting health and fulfillment.

Weight loss, often seen as the epitome of health is just one piece of the puzzle. And I might add, it’s not required. Over time, I’ve found myself working more with women who just want to be healthy. Women who want to break free from the relentless societal pressure and expectations that shape their lives in a way that truly reflects who they are.

My overarching aim is to help you navigate the noise and find what truly works for you. We’ve moved beyond the narrative that being thin equals being healthy. Instead, I want to guide you to a lifestyle that aligns with your unique needs, desires, and circumstances.

An essential truth that I’ve embraced is that traditional diets don’t guarantee long term health. Yes, you might lose weight quickly with a strict regimen. But is it really sustainable? Is it healthy or even enjoyable? Deprivation isn’t a way to live. So, we’ve shifted from dictating quote unquote, what you should do to exploring what could work for you.

I encourage curiosity, self-compassion, and a deeper understanding of your body’s unique needs. This isn’t about quick fixes, or one size fits all solutions. It’s about crafting a life that you love. In a body that you feel good in no matter your age, your size, or your circumstance. It’s about embracing the journey with all its ups and downs, finding joy, strength, and confidence along the way.

Done with dieting has ditched the dieting mindset and replaced it with self-compassion, self-care, and self-understanding. I’m here to challenge the status quo, break free from societal expectations and redefine what it means to be a healthy woman in midlife today.

This is the heart and soul of Done With Dieting. It’s about living fully, embracing authenticity, and making peace with our bodies. I’m on a journey of growth, discovery, and empowerment, and I’m thrilled to have you with me.

Together, we will prioritize health over numbers, value inner peace over external validation, and strive for personal growth over societal expectations. That’s the message I’m eager to share with you, my listeners. I’m here to guide you as you tune into your body’s signals, discover what makes you feel your best, and design a lifestyle that supports your overall wellbeing.

In this journey of life, we often come across forks in the road, moments of choice that lead us down new paths. Today’s episode marks such a transition for the done with dieting podcast. In this episode, we’ve covered a lot of ground. We’ve reflected on the transformational journey of this podcast, shifting from a narrow focus of weight loss to a holistic approach towards health and wellbeing for midlife women.

We’ve debunked some of the myths about dieting and weight loss, emphasizing the importance of individualized approaches and self-compassion. And most importantly, I’ve unveiled the new direction of this podcast. It’s a shift towards empowering women in midlife to embrace authenticity, resist societal pressure, and build a joyful, balanced life.

Future episodes will focus on health habits, aging and ageism, societal pressures, and everything else that we need as women in midlife to live a life that is truly authentic.

This is Done With Dieting, a beacon of empowerment, guiding women to live robust, well rounded lives, free from societal expectations and judgments. This platform is your best friend when you need support. Your cheerleader, when you need someone who believes in you, and your coach guiding you towards a healthier, happier life.

In future episodes, expect a blend of solo casts and interview style episodes with experts from across various fields. We’ll dive deeper into the topics that matter most to you, and you’ll hear from dietitians, fitness folks, psychologists, health experts, and other coaches.

But you’ll also hear from my clients, real women who experienced transformation, sharing their journeys and insights. In the Done With Dieting podcast, every woman’s story is worth telling and every story is worth listening to. Your experiences, your transformation, they matter because they inspire. And it’s time we share them with the world.

If you’re a woman in midlife, grappling with the changes and seeking to live a healthy, fulfilling life, this podcast is for you. And I am here to guide you, share evidence based knowledge, personal stories, and practical tools that work. Together, we will navigate this exciting stage of life, empowered and in control.

Now, if you’ve enjoyed this episode and believe in what we’re about to embark on, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast, share your feedback, and tell your friends about it so that other women just like you can find it.

Let’s build a community of strong, empowered women, supporting each other, and growing together. And remember, the best years of our life aren’t behind us. They’re right here, right now, and they’re waiting for us to seize them.

Thank you for joining me today. I am so excited to see what the next phase of this podcast brings. Have a great day, everyone. Talk to you next time. Bye-bye.

Hey, Thanks for listening. If the show resonates with you, and you have a friend, mother, sister or who you think would benefit, I’d love for you to share the podcast with them.

You can leave me a rating and review in Apple Podcasts, which helps me create an amazing experience for you,

AND it helps other women who are done with dieting and want to get off of the diet roller coaster to find it as well. See you next week.