Nourished & Free: The Podcast

Michelle Yates, MS, RD, LMNT
  • 4.8 (84)
  • Nutrition
  • Updated Biweekly

Nobody likes talking about their relationship with food... so let's talk about it.  Welcome to Nourished & Free®: The Podcast, where mental health meets physical health, food guilt gets ghosted, and toxic wellness advice gets roasted. 🔥 Hosted by Michelle Yates, MS, RD, LMNT, a Registered Dietitian with a master’s in Health Psychology and Certified Health Mindset Coach. Here, science finds self-compassion. Michelle breaks down the why behind food struggles, from binge eating and emotional eating to body image, perfectionism, and “food noise” that won’t quit. Expect honest conversations, expert insights, and mindset shifts that go far beyond meal plans and macros.  Because true food freedom isn’t found in another detox plan, it’s built from the inside out.  ⚠️ Fair warning: logical, realistic, reasonable, and evidence-based methods ahead. 

  1. 2d ago

    Are your food thoughts normal?

    You just ate. You're not even hungry. And your brain is already on to the next meal. Counting. Negotiating. Planning tomorrow's fresh start before today is even over. Is that just how everyone thinks about food? Or is it something more? In this episode, I'm digging into food noise, the term that took off in the GLP-1 era when people on Ozempic and Wegovy suddenly noticed the constant chatter about food went quiet. But for those of us who work in eating disorders, this isn't new at all. I'm walking you through how researchers are actually defining food noise, then putting normal food thoughts and food noise side by side so you can hear the difference for yourself. And I'm tackling the question so many women ask before they work with us: "What if I'm just addicted to food?" If you've ever wondered whether you think about food "too much," or whether your struggle is "bad enough" to deserve help, this episode is for you. JUMP TO: [00:00] Are your food thoughts normal, or a sign of something more? [00:58] Where "food noise" came from, and why it's not new [02:07] The two defining words to tell if it's food noise or not [04:00] Avoid the "it's not that bad" trap [06:36] Normal vs. not normal: side-by-side comparisons [09:50] Food addiction vs food noise [13:12] Sugar, dopamine, rats, and my cat [16:56] The hidden sources turning up the volume [20:12] Where's the line between food noise and disordered eating? [21:32] Your food noise exit plan Ready to quiet the food noise for good? Nourished & Free is my group coaching program for women who want their brain back from food, so it can go to what really matters. More Resources: 🎙️ FREE MASTERCLASS: The Food Noise Exit Plan Thursday, October 8 at 6 PM CT / 4 PM PT / 7 PM ET I'll walk you through where food noise really comes from, the mistakes that make it louder, and your next steps to get out of the cycle. Can't make it live? Register anyway and I'll send you the replay. Register here! 🎧 Mentioned in this episode: my full episode on food addiction Send an anonymous love note, or suggest a future episode! LEARN MORE 🔥 Work with me in Nourished & Free® 👀 Stalk me on Instagram 💻 Watch my FREE training, "Why Can't I Stop Thinking About Food?" SHOW SOME LOVE ⭐️ Loved this episode? Leave a rating on Apple podcasts or Spotify (thank you!) 🏷️ Show me you're listening by tagging me on socials! @yatesnutrition

  2. Sep 29

    "I do great all day, but the evenings are like a free-for-all" Here's why.

    You hold it together all day. Then the night falls, and it all comes undone. The pantry. The drive-thru. The kitchen's secrets after everyone's in bed. You swore today would be different. It wasn't. And you can't explain why it keeps happening. In this episode, I'm breaking down the two biggest culprits I see behind nighttime eating spirals (one of them has absolutely nothing to do with food). I'm painting the picture through the two women I see struggling with this most: the woman working full time who lives, and the stay-at-home mom. Their days look nothing alike, but happens at night looks exactly the same. Then I'm walking you through a typical day of eating that might feel a little TOO familiar, and sharing the thing I tell clients that has them breathing a huge sigh of relief because it's so simple to fix. If you've ever wondered why you can be so disciplined all day and completely lose it at night, this one's for you. JUMP TO: [00:00] Why you hold it together all day and unravel at night [01:30] The woman who's "on" from the moment she gets to work [03:49] The mom who hasn't had a thought to herself since sunrise [04:30] What these two very different days have in common [05:13] If it's not a willpower problem, what is it? [07:24] The cookie vs. the massage (and why the cookie always wins) [08:26] Let me guess what your day of eating looks like [09:55] The siren song in the break room [11:55] How tonight's spiral is already setting up tomorrow's [15:53] Your food noise exit plan RESOURCES 🎟️ Register for my FREE workshop, Your Food Noise Exit Plan 🌿 Learn more about Nourished & Free Send an anonymous love note, or suggest a future episode! LEARN MORE 🔥 Work with me in Nourished & Free® 👀 Stalk me on Instagram 💻 Watch my FREE training, "Why Can't I Stop Thinking About Food?" SHOW SOME LOVE ⭐️ Loved this episode? Leave a rating on Apple podcasts or Spotify (thank you!) 🏷️ Show me you're listening by tagging me on socials! @yatesnutrition

  3. Sep 22

    How to Stop Getting Triggered by Your Weight

    You step on the scale. You see the number. And just like that, the whole day is decided. Maybe it's relief. Or? It's a spiral. Either way, that number has been running the show for years. Maybe decades. You're so tired of it. 🫩 In this episode, I'm walking through the toxic relationship so many of us have with the scale. We talk about how it got this way, why your brain is actually doing exactly what it was built to do, and the six steps (plus a bonus seventh) I take clients through to get out of it. If you've ever wondered why one number can ruin your morning, or whether you can care about your health without the scale signing off on it, this one's for you. JUMP TO: [00:00] The woman who's done being her own bully [04:45] The moment my client almost gave up [06:16] How we got here: three things stacking up over the years [10:00] The report in your bathroom [11:46] The data your brain has been ignoring [12:59] Health without the permission slip to pursue it from the scale [14:34] The thing you might want to skip doing from now on [16:01] The bonus step [18:25] Where to go from here Send an anonymous love note, or suggest a future episode! LEARN MORE 🔥 Work with me in Nourished & Free® 👀 Stalk me on Instagram 💻 Watch my FREE training, "Why Can't I Stop Thinking About Food?" SHOW SOME LOVE ⭐️ Loved this episode? Leave a rating on Apple podcasts or Spotify (thank you!) 🏷️ Show me you're listening by tagging me on socials! @yatesnutrition

  4. Sep 15

    Hunger and Fullness Cues: Explained

    Don't feel hungry until it's slapping you in the face? Fullness doesn't exist unless you're to the point of feeling sick? Did intuitive eating totally flop for you?  In this episode I'm diving into the science behind hunger and fullness, why it's so hard for some people to experience those signals, and how to get to a place of consistent, regular signals that are gentle + helpful rather than loud + obnoxious (or just nonexistent). JUMP TO: [00:00] Why hunger and fullness feel like a mystery for some people [02:38] What your body wants you to know [06:40] The many influences that make these hard to hear [08:41] Meet: The hormones responsible [15:28] Why your environment might be working against you [23:20] How to rebuild trust with your body [26:43] Where to go from here Send an anonymous love note, or suggest a future episode! LEARN MORE 🔥 Work with me in Nourished & Free® 👀 Stalk me on Instagram 💻 Watch my FREE training, "Why Can't I Stop Thinking About Food?" SHOW SOME LOVE ⭐️ Loved this episode? Leave a rating on Apple podcasts or Spotify (thank you!) 🏷️ Show me you're listening by tagging me on socials! @yatesnutrition

  5. Sep 8

    Tracking Food Might Be the Reason Behind Your Binges.

    You've done the math a hundred times: log breakfast, log the snack, subtract lunch, figure out what's "left" for dinner. And somehow you still end up going over. Every. Single. Time. The thing I've noticed over my 6+ years of working with women struggling with their relationship with food is that the more you try to control food with numbers, the more out of control you actually feel around it. In this episode, I'm breaking down: -What's happening psychologically when you turn eating into a math equation. -Why you start wanting the foods you "can't" have. -Why constant tracking stress messes with your ability to think clearly. -Why it's always that "one more thing" on top of everything else that sends it all sideways. I also get real about my own MyFitnessPal addiction (yes, the barcode-scanning, pre-portioning, know-it-before-I-eat-it kind), and I walk you through a simple body-awareness practice you can try right now—plus three questions to ask yourself the next time you open a tracking app out of habit instead of hunger. Your calorie tracking app is NOT going to be happy you listened to this 🤣 JUMP TO: [00:00] The calorie math spiral [01:48] When food becomes a budget instead of just... food [03:15] The stress-food connection [06:22] Why "one more thing" is always what breaks the system [12:59] A simple practice to reconnect with your body, starting today [14:10] My MyFitnessPal confession [15:12] The 3 questions to ask before you open that app again Ready for support that actually gets you off the numbers for good? Nourished & Free, my group coaching program, is building our waitlist for the fall cohort now — and spots are already filling up. Details are linked below. Send an anonymous love note, or suggest a future episode! LEARN MORE 🔥 Work with me in Nourished & Free® 👀 Stalk me on Instagram 💻 Watch my FREE training, "Why Can't I Stop Thinking About Food?" SHOW SOME LOVE ⭐️ Loved this episode? Leave a rating on Apple podcasts or Spotify (thank you!) 🏷️ Show me you're listening by tagging me on socials! @yatesnutrition

  6. Sep 1

    When Reaching Your Goal Weight Lets You Down.

    You've lost the same 20 pounds more times than you can count. You get there, you feel the thrill... and then it's gone. And you're already onto the next thing you want to fix about yourself. In this episode, I'm asking a question most of us never let ourselves sit with: why did you actually WANT to lose weight in the first place? Not the surface answer — the real one. I'm sharing a story about a client whose secret binge eating had nothing to do with willpower, and everything to do with something she believed about herself that she'd never said out loud. And I'm making a case for why losing weight might not even be the right vehicle for what you're actually after. If you've ever gotten to a smaller body and wondered why it didn't fix the thing you thought it would, this one's going to hit different. JUMP TO: (3:57) Rewind to the first time you ever lost weight (7:32) What we conveniently forget once we're "successful" (10:30) The client story that shows how binge eating has very little to do with the food (12:13) A question that can start to peel back your deeper layers (12:39) Evidence your brain needs to believe body peace is possible (15:47) Where body acceptance actually starts More resources: Get on the Nourished & Free waitlist! Send an anonymous love note, or suggest a future episode! LEARN MORE 🔥 Work with me in Nourished & Free® 👀 Stalk me on Instagram 💻 Watch my FREE training, "Why Can't I Stop Thinking About Food?" SHOW SOME LOVE ⭐️ Loved this episode? Leave a rating on Apple podcasts or Spotify (thank you!) 🏷️ Show me you're listening by tagging me on socials! @yatesnutrition

  7. Aug 25

    Why Do Sweets Call to You So Loudly From the Other Room?

    The cookies call to you from the pantry every. freaking. day. You told yourself you'd stick to one cookie. Then the whole day felt "ruined" anyway. So why not just keep going? Sound familiar? That's the all-or-nothing loop... and we're going to talk about it. In this episode, I'm breaking down why cookies (or chips, or cake, or whatever your "off-limits" food is) ends up feeling so much more powerful than it actually is. I'm walking through the three real reasons we hand certain foods that kind of power: fear-based diet messaging, emotional weight we've quietly attached to them, and a psychological need for autonomy that backfires the second we feel restricted. If sweets have a way of taking over the second you let yourself have one, this episode is for you. JUMP TO: [00:00] The cake spiral [04:34] Reason #1: What we were taught [07:09] Reason #2: What food is doing for us [08:50] Reason #3: The psychology of being told what you can't have [12:46] The environment that built your food fears [15:11] How to actually start changing the pattern More resources: Episode with Dan: Debunking insulin spikes leading to fat storage Curious about the Mute Button, the AI tool I built to help you practice thinking differently around food? Check it out here Get on the Nourished & Free waitlist! Send an anonymous love note, or suggest a future episode! LEARN MORE 🔥 Work with me in Nourished & Free® 👀 Stalk me on Instagram 💻 Watch my FREE training, "Why Can't I Stop Thinking About Food?" SHOW SOME LOVE ⭐️ Loved this episode? Leave a rating on Apple podcasts or Spotify (thank you!) 🏷️ Show me you're listening by tagging me on socials! @yatesnutrition

  8. Aug 18

    Why Meal Plans Backfire 🔥

    What if the meal plan is making things worse? I get it… you ask yourself, “Why is eating an ice cream just... eating an ice cream for some people?” No spiral. No math. No mental war. For you, it’s a whole event. And that’s exhausting.  That’s why you feel like you NEED someone to tell you exactly what to eat, right? A meal plan. A calorie limit. A macro split. But do you? This week I'm breaking down the real reason food feels so loud in your head, and how these “plans” actually make things 1,000x worse. I'm digging into why every diet, every points system, every macro plan you've ever tried keeps pulling you back in, even when you know it's not working. Btw, your willpower and discipline have nothing to do with it. If you've ever hidden a wrapper, weighed your worth by what the scale said that morning, or felt totally fine eating "on plan" in front of people but fallen apart the second you were alone, this episode is for you. JUMP TO: [00:00] The question you've probably never said out loud [01:42] The Weight Watchers vacation problem (and why it never feels the same after) [03:17] How every diet quietly erodes your trust in yourself [05:00] The autonomy trap — why being told what to eat backfires [06:15] Good day, bad day: how the scale becomes a pass/fail test [07:45] Why you white-knuckle it in public and unravel alone [08:38] The two types of people who'll teach you how to eat [09:16] The 30-year litmus test for any plan you're considering [09:59] The uncomfortable truth about why diets are built to keep you coming back [11:48] What it actually looks like to coach yourself instead of needing a coach [14:16] If this hit home, here's your next step with Nourished & Free If you're ready to stop needing a plan to tell you what to eat and start trusting yourself again, Nourished & Free might be exactly what you're looking for. I'm building my fall waitlist right now. Click the link below to check it out and save your spot! Join the waitlist to work with me! Send an anonymous love note, or suggest a future episode! LEARN MORE 🔥 Work with me in Nourished & Free® 👀 Stalk me on Instagram 💻 Watch my FREE training, "Why Can't I Stop Thinking About Food?" SHOW SOME LOVE ⭐️ Loved this episode? Leave a rating on Apple podcasts or Spotify (thank you!) 🏷️ Show me you're listening by tagging me on socials! @yatesnutrition

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4.8
out of 5
84 Ratings

About

Nobody likes talking about their relationship with food... so let's talk about it.  Welcome to Nourished & Free®: The Podcast, where mental health meets physical health, food guilt gets ghosted, and toxic wellness advice gets roasted. 🔥 Hosted by Michelle Yates, MS, RD, LMNT, a Registered Dietitian with a master’s in Health Psychology and Certified Health Mindset Coach. Here, science finds self-compassion. Michelle breaks down the why behind food struggles, from binge eating and emotional eating to body image, perfectionism, and “food noise” that won’t quit. Expect honest conversations, expert insights, and mindset shifts that go far beyond meal plans and macros.  Because true food freedom isn’t found in another detox plan, it’s built from the inside out.  ⚠️ Fair warning: logical, realistic, reasonable, and evidence-based methods ahead. 

Information

  • Creator
    Michelle Yates, MS, RD, LMNT
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    111
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Yates Nutrition
  • Show Website
    Nourished & Free: The Podcast

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