Fat Pride, Body Positivity, and Why Celebrating Fatness Isn’t the Same as Healing It
Bill Maher, Abercrombie, and a cultural moment that has everyone talking — but from a Happy Calories® perspective, both sides are missing the point. In this episode, Carmela untangles why rejecting shame is not the same as rejecting the diet and exercise model, why celebrating fat pride still leaves the real problem in place, and what actually creates healing at both the individual and cultural level.
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.
What Nobody Knows About the Happiest Person in the Room
Everyone describes me the same way — happy, energetic, vivacious. What they don’t know is that I live with depression. Not the situational kind. The kind that just is. Here’s what I’ve learned about living with it — and how the same principles behind Happy Calories Don’t Count® changed my relationship with that too.
Photoshop Isn’t Causing Your Body Image Issues — This Is
Everyone blames Photoshop for unrealistic beauty standards. But here’s a question nobody asks — what if those images were real and achievable? Would the body image problem disappear? Here’s why the answer is no, and what’s actually causing the pain.