Unsubscribe: Food Tracking Apps & Diet Culture (feat. Nicole Hagen)

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 like to encourage clients to look inward. So regardless of what this is telling me - carbs are bad, sugar is bad, fruit has terrible things in it, you should stop eating apples and bananas - what foods leave me feeling best? If I am the best person to collect feedback on my body, and I try to throw out all of the rules that I know to be “true”, because of what I’ve learned in the past, what does my body feel good eating, what gives me more energy, what leaves me feeling able to keep up with my kids or workout in the gym or have a clear head space? - Nicole Hagen

RESOURCES:

Health, Wellth & Wisdom Podcast: 239 // WHAT TO DO WHEN IT FEELS LIKE YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH WILLPOWER with Jenn Trepeck 

Perception vs. Reality Episode

Become A Member of Salad with a Side of Fries

Jenn’s Free Menu Plan

A Salad With a Side of Fries

A Salad With A Side Of Fries Merch

A Salad With a Side of Fries Instagram

Guest Resources

Nicole Hagen's Instagram

Nicole Hagen's Facebook

Nutrition Coaching with Nicole Website

Health, Wellth & Wisdom Podcast

BIO

Nicole Hagen is a Nutrition Coach, Host of The Health, Wellth & Wisdom Podcast & a New Mom. 

Driven by her own journey of recovering from a years-long eating disorder & healing her own relationship with food, Nicole has found her calling to help other women unsubscribe from the toxic diet culture, find food freedom & reach sustainable fat loss without deprivation, shame, or guilt. 

Today, 10+ years later, she has a Master's in Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Public Health alongside countless other degrees, various podcast & media features & a successful business where she has helped hundreds of women leave yo-yo dieting and toxic diet culture behind, so they can live the healthiest & happiest lives!