Acceptance Isn’t Giving Up — Here’s the Difference
There’s a big difference between accepting your body and giving up on it. In this episode, Carmela unpacks the concept of acceptance as it applies to food, weight, and body image — and explains why true acceptance is actually the foundation for creating the results you want, not a resignation to staying where you are.
Why Eating Disorder Recovery Keeps You Stuck (And What’s Really Missing)
Eating disorder treatment addresses the psychology — the trauma, the family dynamics, the self-esteem issues — but it consistently misses the piece that actually creates lasting freedom: the relationship with food and the body itself. In this episode, Carmela draws on her own experience with anorexia and recovery to explain what conventional treatment gets wrong and what has to change for real healing to happen.
Why “Just Love Your Body” Isn’t Enough (And What Actually Works)
The body positivity movement tells you to just love yourself — but if you’re deep in body shame and diet drama, that advice lands somewhere between useless and infuriating. In this episode, Carmela breaks down why loving your body is the wrong starting point, what to do instead, and how the relationship-based model of Happy Calories Don’t Count® actually creates the transformation that slogans can’t.
Why the Diet and Exercise Model Is Keeping You Stuck (And What to Do Instead)
If you’ve tried every diet and exercise program out there and still feel stuck, it’s not your fault — it’s the model. In this first episode, Carmela introduces the core idea behind Happy Calories Don’t Count®: that the conventional diet and exercise model is the root of all food and body drama, and that there’s a completely different way to approach your body, your weight, and your life.
Can Shapewear Really Be Body Positive?
A shapewear ad called itself “body positive” while selling products designed to reshape women’s bodies. I’m not against shapewear. But I am against sleight of hand marketing that mistakes a product for a solution — and keeps women stuck in the underlying pain.
Is Body Positivity Actually Making Things Worse?
“Love your body” sounds beautiful. But you can’t compel yourself to love anything — least of all your body. Here’s why the Body Positivity movement, despite its good intentions, often leaves women with more pain than peace.
The Serenity Prayer and the Secret to Ending the Food Fight
The Serenity Prayer talks about accepting what you can’t change, changing what you can, and having the wisdom to know the difference. It turns out that’s also the perfect framework for understanding why diet culture fails, why body positivity falls short, and what Happy Calories Don’t Count® actually does differently.
What the Body Image Movement Gets Right — And Where It Falls Short
I finally saw Embrace by Taryn Brumfitt and left feeling grateful — grateful that I’m free. The film does important work. But it operates from within the same model that creates the pain in the first place. Here’s what the Body Image Movement gets right and what it’s still missing.
The Real Power You Have Over Diet Culture — And How to Use It
Three conversations in one week — all about feeling powerless against corporations, marketers and unrealistic beauty standards. But here’s what we keep forgetting: we are the ones with the real power. Here’s how to use it.
How to Stop Comparing Your Body to Other Women’s — And Actually Mean It
91% of women hate their bodies according to the film Embrace. And while body image movements do important work, lasting change requires something more — actual skills and tools to break the comparison habit. Here’s where to start.