You can know exactly what to do and still find yourself repeating the same behavior. You make the plan, feel motivated, and get going, only to hit that point where the novelty wears off and the old pattern comes right back. Then the question becomes whether you need more discipline, a better tool, or someone else to finally tell you what you’re missing.

That confusion is the messy middle of change, and it’s where both clients and coaches can start to lose the plot. What gets you started isn’t always what gets you through this part, especially when shame, identity, and old protective patterns get involved. It’s also where coaches can start wondering if they don’t know enough, if the client isn’t ready, or if they should be doing more to fix what’s happening.

In this episode of Truce with Food, I sit down with Christen Conly, a yoga teacher, holistic health and embodiment coach, and graduate of my Truce Coaching Certification, to talk about what changed when she stopped relying on more tips and tools. We get into why falling off track can make sense, how the urge to fix clients creates its own problems, and what becomes possible when change is treated as a process to navigate rather than something to eradicate.

6:34 – What led Christen Conly to Truce Coaching Certification

12:48 – Why starting and stopping behaviors require different coaching skills

16:17 – The client Christen wishes she could support with what she knows now

17:58 – When helping clients becomes entangled with approval

20:20 – Reframing self-sabotage as a protective response

23:10 – Shame-based motivation versus sustainable motivation

27:12 – Letting go of the responsibility to fix clients

32:21 – How Truce Coaching Certification helped Christen coach with more confidence

37:04 – The difference between mindset, identity, and story

39:26 – Technical versus adaptive change and creating safety to experiment

41:41 – How Christen’s coaching changed after certification

44:45 – Using the emotional immune system with clients

Mentioned In When Tips and Tools Aren’t Enough to Create Lasting Change with Christen Conly

Christen Conly | Instagram

Get Clients Unstuck and Why Another Tool Isn’t the Answer

Truce Coaching Certification

Find Your Food Stage Quiz

Get Clients Unstuck, Another Tool Isn’t the Answer is a free training for health coaches, nutritional therapy practitioners, fitness instructors, and other change agents.

Learn why clients fall back into old patterns, where traditional coaching can fall short, and what supports lasting change.

Available through August 31st at trucewithfood.com/certification.

You find yourself standing in front of the kitchen counter, not knowing why you’re there. Or you’re out at a work event already thinking about when you’ll be able to get home and be alone with food. You’re not actually hungry, but you feel pulled there anyway. It’s urgent, buzzy, and hard to talk yourself out of, even when some part of you knows this isn’t really about the food.

What we often call emotional eating is usually a message from your nervous system. Food can soothe. It can give you the almost-feeling of being comforted, supported, and cared for. But as Dr. Deborah MacNamara says, “There’s nothing as addictive as something that almost works.” When the deeper need is safety or belonging, managing the behavior without understanding what it’s protecting only keeps you stuck in the same loop.

In this episode of the Truce with Food podcast, I’m sharing my conversation with dietitian Tara Schmidt from Mayo Clinic’s On Nutrition podcast to walk through the first step of my Truce with Food framework and what it reveals about emotional eating. We talk about why food noise can feel so urgent, the patterns that keep people from getting their needs met, what our food memories reveal about belonging, and how to begin breaking the cycle without turning it into another perfectionist project.

4:00 – How Ali’s interview on Tara’s podcast came together, and why I wanted to re-air it on Truce with Food

10:07 – The next best step you can take after listening to this episode

14:03 – What inspired Ali to specialize in helping people heal their relationship with food

17:15 – Four main triggers (and the unmet needs within) behind emotional eating

22:11 – How your physiology and psychology can influence each other due to the tiredness trigger

23:41 – The types of food emotional eaters go to, and the relationship between food noise and emotional eating

30:02 – Three behavioral patterns of comfort eating and how they serve as protection strategies

35:25 – Those who don’t eat based on their emotions, and why some people mindlessly overeat

37:36 – How to support someone who you think struggles with emotional eating without making them feel uncomfortable

39:28 – How to pause the reflex of emotional eating (and the one time you shouldn’t)

42:37 – How one client went from decades on medication to selling her business and feeling at home in her own body by ending her emotional eating cycle

Mentioned In Mayo Clinic on Nutrition: The Four Triggers Behind Emotional Eating

A Holistic Approach to GLP-1s with Mayo Clinic Dietitian Tara Schmidt

Mayo Clinic on Nutrition Podcast with Tara Schmidt, RDN

Institute for Integrative Nutrition | Dr. Mark Hyman

Dr. Deborah MacNamara | Nourished: Connection, Food, and Caring for Our Kids (And Everyone Else We Love) by Dr. Deborah MacNamara

Find Your Food Stage Quiz

Get Clients Unstuck, Another Tool Isn’t the Answer is a free training for health coaches, nutritional therapy practitioners, fitness instructors, and other change agents.

Learn why clients fall back into old patterns, where traditional coaching can fall short, and what supports lasting change.

Available through August 31st at trucewithfood.com/certification.

Women are hearing a lot right now about eating more, building muscle, healing their metabolism, and using GLP-1s for weight loss. But so much of the conversation still skips over what actually matters for women’s bodies, especially in perimenopause and menopause. If you’ve ever tried to nourish yourself more and immediately watched the scale go up, it can feel like your body is broken. It’s not, but your metabolism may need repair before it’s ready for fat loss.

That’s why I wanted to talk with Ashley Fillmore, founder and president of Metabolic Fix. Ashley is a leading expert in sustainable weight and fat loss with over 20 years of experience helping women heal their metabolism, balance their hormones, and change their body composition without staying stuck in chronic dieting. She also brings something I always appreciate, real client data, real lived experience, and a clear-eyed take on the online muscle-building and GLP-1 claims that don’t match what actually happens in women’s bodies.

In this episode of the Truce with Food podcast, I sit down with Ashley to talk about how to use GLP-1s without losing the muscle you need, and why they can support weight loss but can’t replace metabolic repair. We get into her Repair, Rebuild, Results framework, why eating more can feel so scary when your body has adapted to under-eating, and what sustainable fat loss actually requires if you want results that last.

6:27 – Defining metabolism, what the repair phase does, and the impact of hormones on your metabolic health

12:57 – Why you might be stuck even if you’re doing many of the right things

17:25 – How the reverse diet in the repair phase helps your metabolism safely adapt to more calories

25:28 – How long the repair phase lasts, and why Ashley’s took longer than average

32:03 – What happens during the rebuild stage, and why it’s crucial before entering fat loss

36:19 – Debunking media claims and setting realistic expectations about muscle gain

47:02 – Why lean muscle is the body’s currency for longevity, not just an aesthetic bodily upgrade

50:06 – Why GLP-1s should be a supplement, not your primary weight loss strategy

53:22 – The importance of careful GLP-1 microdosing usage and greater metabolic health knowledge among doctors

1:03:19 – Why not all weight loss is a good thing, and the problem with overfocusing on protein alone in your diet

1:06:25 – Ashley’s free tool for estimating a healthy calorie target based on your weight loss goals

Mentioned In How to Use GLP-1s Without Losing the Muscle You Need with Ashley Fillmore

Dr. Stacy Sims

Dr. Gabrielle Lyon

Metabolic Fix | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter/X | YouTube

Metabolic Fix Weight Loss Calculator

Cheers to Your Success Podcast

Find Your Food Stage Quiz

Get Clients Unstuck, Another Tool Isn’t the Answer is a free training for health coaches, nutritional therapy practitioners, fitness instructors, and other change agents.

Learn why clients fall back into old patterns, where traditional coaching can fall short, and what supports lasting change.

Available through August 31st at trucewithfood.com/certification.