If you’ve ever felt obsessed with writing down your food, tracking calories, workouts, water, or anything, this one’s for you! And if you’ve ever tried to track but struggled and felt like a failure, we got you! Listen in to learn how to unsubscribe from diet culture and tangible tips to empower yourself on your health journey.This week, Jenn is joined by Nutrition Coach, Nicole Hagen. Nicole talks about her struggles with tracking food and unhealthy diet habits which led her to some serious medical issues. She discusses how she took control of her habits and a decade later helps clients create a healthy, balanced relationship with food and exercise. Nicole provides some great alternative metrics to measure your success. She also talks about how to ditch food tracking apps if you have found yourself in an unhealthy relationship with them. Jenn and Nicole touch on toxic diet culture, where it came from, and why we get too wrapped up in trying the next thing. Tune in to learn how to lose weight without getting involved in diet culture. The Salad With a Side of Fries podcast is hosted by Jenn Trepeck, discussing wellness and weight loss for real life, clearing up the myths, misinformation, bad science & marketing surrounding our nutrition knowledge and the food industry. Let’s dive into wellness and weight loss for real life, including drinking, eating out, and skipping the grocery store. IN THIS EPISODE: ● [4:51] Nicole provides her background and how she got into the health and wellness space.● [11:10] Why do people not see the behaviors that they are currently doing?● [12:36] Nicole talks about how tracking may contribute to disordered behavior around eating and exercise.● [16:36] What are some alternative metrics to measure your success?● [21:10] Are there any apps that Nicole recommends for tracking?● [26:45] Nicole talks about diet culture.● [31:23] How does Nicole recommend her clients navigate all the information out there around diet culture? ● [36:05] How can you want to lose weight and avoid diet culture? KEY TAKEAWAYS: ● [29:04] Many doctors have subscribed to the main idea that health is a size. Recognize that you have to be your own best advocate in every situation, including with your health care practitioners.● [31:48] Next time you hear information about a diet or exercise and you are wondering if it’s something you should implement into your routine or life - ask yourself who benefits from you thinking or believing the information is true? The diet industry wants to keep you sick and unhappy so you are constantly seeking the next fad diet/workout that will “fix” all of your problems. So if you are holding on to information that diet culture wants you to believe, you are holding on to the wrong information. ● [37:39] If the way that you are using tracking apps or any type of tool is supporting your goals, that’s fantastic, if it’s not supporting you in a way that feels good or is pulling you further away from a healthful life, that’s when you need to revisit what tools are in your toolbox and how you are using them. QUOTES: [11:23] “I do believe that when we look at the stages of change, sometimes we are not at all ready to create the change that we need to create in order to live a healthy, happy life. Like I said, we’re just too attached to the coping mechanisms that we have, even if they’re harming us.” - Nicole Hagen[14:49] “I like to think of tracking a little bit like a blood panel. I believe that it can reveal super helpful data that we can then take action on to improve our health and body, make body composition change if we choose to, but when we become dependent on it, we have then taken a potentially helpful tool and turned it into a harmful one.” - Nicole Hagen[28:46] “If we don’t work to deconstruct these limiting beliefs, they can start to impact how we feel in our own bodies, how we see and value other people in different bodies, and of course, how we value ourselves.” - Nicole Hagen[32:54] “I also