“People strive for diets because it gives them hope but at the end it makes them feel hopeless.”

-Reshaunda Thornton

Americans have a complicated relationship with food. We obsess over food television, recipes, and cookbooks, and simultaneously grapple with dietary problems like obesity, anorexia, diabetes, and heart-disease. There are seemingly more diets and diet books every year, yet it doesn’t feel or seem like we’re getting any healthier. Why is this?
To unpack our country’s unhealthy love-hate relationship to food we sat down with Reshaunda Thornton, the dietician against diets. In her book, TED Talk, and one-on-one work with her clients, Reshaunda has built a positive alternative to diet culture that is as effective as it is compassionate and adaptable. In our chat, we explore:

• Why so many people are drawn to diets even though most of them fail
• Why we the idea of motivation is overrated when it comes to diet and why habits and consistency matter more
• The key steps that she has her clients take to better understand their relationship to food and start making choices out of love instead of out of fear or obligation.
• Why she tells her client stop “stop counting calories and start making every calorie count.”
• How eating better starts with loving yourself and making time for yourself.

This is one of our most eye-opening episodes to date that will leave you re-thinking how you relate to food and yourself for better and for always.

Show Notes:

1. Learn more about Reshaunda on her website
2. Reshaunda’s TED Talk is a must watch.
3. Stay up to speed on her work by following her Instagram
4. You can learn more about Reshaunda’s philosophy by buying her book: “Play to Win the Food Fight.”
5. Reilly recommends reading “The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man’s Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America” by Tommy Tomlinson
6. What’s giving Reilly hope these days is the music video for “Grow Food” from the folks at Appetite for Change
7. Reshaunda’s favorite song is “I Was Here” by Beyoncé
8. Reilly’s favorite Beyoncé song is “Freedom” featuring Kendrick Lamar