Podcast: Food Is Not A "Four-Letter" Word

The Podcast

You’ve tried the diets. You’ve tracked the calories. You’ve done the work. And you’re still in the food fight.

This podcast is for women who are done trying harder — and ready to try something completely different.

Each episode is an honest, no-drama conversation about why the diet and exercise model keeps failing you, why you were never the problem, and what actually changes when you stop fighting your body and start connecting with it.

No meal plans. No macros. No guilt trips.

Just a different way of looking at food, your body, and why peace with both of them is actually possible.

What You'll Find Here

Solo episodes breaking down the Happy Calories Don’t Count® approach. Real talk about body image, emotional eating, and diet culture. Mindset and identity work that goes deeper than “just eat less and move more.” And the occasional moment where you think — wait, someone finally gets it.

Where to Start:

Anywhere that resonates. There’s no wrong entry point. Pick a title that speaks to where you are right now — and go from there.

PODCAST EPISODES BELOW

(Looking for the Book? Click Here.)

Time To Move & Shake with Zibby Owens

My guest episode for Zibby Owens’ podcast. In this podcast, I teach actionable strategies to create more time for busy moms who deal with food, exercise, and body-image issues. Sharing personal insights gleaned from my own painful and life-threatening struggles surrounding my body and my weight, I outline a path for optimizing health, vitality, well-being, joy — and time!

Your Weight Is Not Your Identity — And the Diet and Exercise Model Is Why This Hurts So Much

Lizzo's reality show, a fat pride academic conference, a comedian's elaborate prank, and the Oscars slap all landed in the same week — and they all point to the same thing. In this episode, Carmela unpacks why the body positivity and fat pride movements, however well-intentioned, are still pushing against the diet and exercise model rather than dismantling it. And why no label — fat, thin, neurodivergent, or anything else — is your actual identity.

The Real Reason the “Just Eat Less, Move More” Advice Doesn’t Work

Bill Maher, Ben Shapiro, pedometers, and the obesity conversation nobody seems to be having honestly. In this episode, Carmela takes on the cultural assumption that weight is simply a matter of willpower and caloric math — and makes the case that the real epidemic isn't obesity, it's disconnection. From yourself, from your body, from your source. And no Fitbit is going to fix that.

What That Eating Disorder Treatment Ad on the Side of a Bus Got Wrong

A bus ad stops Carmela in her tracks — and she takes it apart word by word. In this episode, she breaks down how marketing language manufactures problems, why the 'eating disorder voice' isn't a thing, and why eating disorder treatment centers keep missing the piece that actually creates healing. Knowledge is a rumor until it lives in the body — and this episode is about getting it there.

Your Body Is a System, Not an Equation — And That Changes Everything

Diet Drama Land is an equation. Happy Calories® World is a system. In this episode, Carmela borrows a concept from project management to explain why the diet and exercise model keeps failing you — and why a relationship-based approach that adapts to real life (broken legs, three kids, a crazy travel schedule) is the only thing that's actually sustainable. Plus: the important difference between feeling better right now and waiting until you lose the weight to feel better.

Good Orderly Direction — What Science and God Have in Common (And Why It Matters for Your Body)

What does the divide between science and religion have to do with healing your relationship with food and your body? More than you'd think. In this episode, Carmela traces how both camps are really wrestling with the same question — and how labeling people to dismiss them is the thing keeping us from actually hearing each other, whether that's a friend on the other side of a political argument or your own body trying to get your attention.

ready to go deeper?

If these conversations resonate with you, the best next step is to explore the Happy Calories Don’t Count® approach more directly.