Talking with Emma: Stop fighting food & weight

Emma Wright

Talking with Emma is the podcast for women who are tired of obsessive food thinking, struggling with body image and feeling like food and weight is the one thing they can’t get sorted. I’m Emma Wright — feminist health coach, author, and someone who knows exactly how exhausting it is to live like not matter how much you try, your health is never quite “good enough.” After years of controlling my weight, focusing on food, exercising harder, and constantly feeling like a failure, I discovered something different — and more powerful:  Coaching tools that help you trust yourself again - and take charge of your health the way you want to. Each episode, I’ll share the tools I use with clients who want relief health feeling so confusing — and who are ready end emotional eating, stop thinking about food all the time and improve their body image.  If you’re ready for those things, this podcast is for you. 📥 Want to go deeper?  Download the Self-Assessment — a free tool to evaluate what’s really going on beneath the food and body thinking. Curious about working together?I’m currently welcoming new 1:1 clients. Book a no-cost consultation where we’ll talk about how to achieve the health goals you have and what kind of support you need to do that, and of course, whether coaching with me feels like the right fit.

  1. 2d ago

    54: The Yo-Yo Solution That Isn't Wellness Hogwash — Why The Weight Comes Back

    If you've yo-yo'd down and up more than once, this episode is for you. Emma Wright shares what she learned after 65 (or more) weight loss cycles and what you can do to address it. She introduces her free upcoming workshop — THE YO-YO SOLUTION THAT ISN'T WELLNESS HOGWASH — where she walks you through the steps to solve yo-yo cycle in way that's specific to your own dieting history. This episode covers: — Why weight loss is the most reliable predictor of weight gain (and what the research actually says about long-term dieting outcomes) — The question nobody in the diet or wellness industry ever asks — and why it's the one that changes things — A three-step method to end the cycle without giving up on your health --- REGISTER FOR THE FREE WORKSHOP emmawright.co.nz/yoyo The Yo-Yo Solution That Isn't Wellness Hogwash 12 June | Noon | Replay available MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Before You Take Ozempic, Listen to This — with Louise Adams --- ABOUT EMMA Emma Wright is a certified Health and Body Image Coach with training in Trauma-Informed Cognitive Behavioural Coaching and Intuitive Eating. She holds a Master's degree grounded in feminist theory and is the author of Body Confident (HarperCollins).   Find Emma at: https://emmawright.co.nz/ Subscribe to the Wait, What? newsletter: https://emmawright.co.nz/waitwhat/

    14 min

  2. May 20

    53: Before you take Ozempic, listen to this. With Guest Louise Adams

    The marketing around Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound is relentless — and is only telling you one very small part of the story. Louise Adams is a clinical psychologist, author, podcaster and founder of Untrapped. She has spent more than 20 years in the non-diet and Health at Every Size field. She recently co-authored a peer-reviewed paper — GLP-1 Medication for Weight Loss: A Triumph of Marketing Over Patient Care — which cut through the noise to look at what the clinical trials actually show, what the drug companies are not highlighting, and why informed consent is so critical before taking a weight loss medication. This episode is not about telling you whether to take a GLP-1 medication or not. It is about making sure that whatever you decide, you have the full picture. In this episode we cover Why almost everyone talking about GLP-1s in a positive light has a financial relationship with at least one drug company — and what that means for the information you are receivingWhat the clinical trials actually show about weight loss outcomes — including the significant variation in results, the plateau at around 12 months, and what happens when you stopWhy GLP-1 medications are weight suppression drugs, not a cure — and why your body's response to that is not a personal failureThe side effects that are not getting the spotlight they deserve, including gastric paralysis, pancreatitis, and the growing number of lawsuits citing lack of informed consentHow the framing of larger body size as a disease was built — and why the comparison to how other conditions have been pathologised throughout history mattersThe difference between weight-dependent and weight-independent health outcomes — including why cardiovascular benefits from GLP-1s appear to occur regardless of whether you lose weightHow to ask better questions of your health provider, and which weight-inclusive resources can help you do thatA practical framework for making a genuinely informed decision: what do you actually want from this, what are the short and long-term pros and cons, and which of your goals are truly weight-dependent Resources mentioned in this episode Louise Adams' paper: GLP-1 medication for weight loss, a triumph of marketing over patient care -- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21604851.2026.2646492 Louise Adams -- meet Louise and her work: https://untrapped.com.au/meet-louise/ Louise Adams untrapped academy, newsletter and podcast All Fired Up:  https://untrapped.com.au Ragen Chastain's Weight and Healthcare Substack: https://weightandhealthcare.substack.com/ AWIM GLP-1 Informed Consent document: https://sizeinclusivemedicine.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/MSSI-GLP1-Informed-Consent-10.pdf HAES Health Sheets: https://haeshealthsheets.com/ Association for Size Inclusive Medicine: https://weightinclusivemedicine.org If this episode resonated with you Share it with a woman in your life who is being targeted by the GLP-1 marketing machine — and who deserves the full story before she decides. Learn more about feminist health coaching and a completely different approach to your health and your body. The Wait.What? newsletter is a good place to start. https://emmawright.co.nz/waitwhat/

    56 min

  3. May 13

    52: Your Midlife Body Isn't a Problem To Fix (RERELEASE)

    In this rerelease I dive into one of the most pervasive and exhausting beliefs I see in my coaching practice: the idea that your body is a problem that needs to be fixed.  Even for those of us who reject diet culture or adopt intuitive eating, this belief often runs deep and unconsciously influences how we perceive ourselves.  I explore the systems of belief that reinforce the "fix-it" mentality—from diet culture and patriarchy to wellness culture and emotional avoidance. Plus, I share a client story that beautifully illustrates what it looks like to break free from this cycle. If you're ready to get relief from feeling like you're always falling short and start approaching your health and wellbeing in a more productive way, this one's for you. Subscribe to the Wait.What? newsletter: https://emmawright.co.nz/waitwhat-ama/ Links & Resources: 🎧 Download the Midlife Body Image Assessment + audio guide. It helps you see what’s really driving your food and body noise — and what to do to get relief.  Curious about working together? I’m currently taking private clients. Book a consultation where we'll create an individualised plan to stop fixing your body and start feeling good enough. Whether we work together or not, you'll know your next steps. Let’s stay connected: 🌐 Emma's Website 📱 Follow on Instagram, and LinkedIn

    21 min

  4. May 6

    51: When Good Girl Conditioning Makes You Stay Too Long In Marriage and Diet Culture with SallyAnne Hartnell

    Why do women stay in bad relationships — even when they know, in their heart of hearts, that the situation doesn't suit them? This week I'm joined by Sallyanne Hartnell, a divorce coach who helps women navigate every stage of relationship breakdown — from the first quiet question to coming home to themselves on the other side. We talk about good girl conditioning: the deeply ingrained belief that belonging depends on acting like a girl. Being good. Looking good. Not asking for too much. And what happens when your own values start to whisper that something needs to change — but following that whisper means risking everything you've been trained to protect. What struck me most was how closely this mirrors what I see with diet culture. The same conditioning that keeps women in relationships that don't fit them keeps them trying to fix their bodies — long after the evidence tells them it isn't working. In this episode we cover: - Why women stay in bad relationships — and what good girl conditioning has to do with it - The "quiet questioning" phase: what it means when you lie awake wondering "is this all there is?" - How worthiness and self-trust are built — and why they matter more than willpower - The real cost of staying in situations that no longer serve you - What the journey from quiet questioning to coming home to yourself actually looks like - Why leaving diet culture and leaving a relationship that doesn't fit follow a surprisingly similar path - The one question Sallyanne asks clients that reframes everything: how much of you is it costing you to stay? - Laura McKowen (links below) and her work on leaving behind the things that no longer serve us  If you've ever felt like you should be okay with something you're not okay with — in a relationship, in your body, or anywhere else — this episode is for you.   ABOUT SALLYANNE HARTNELL: Sallyanne Hartnell is a multi-award-nominated divorce coach, podcaster, and blogger who supports women at every stage of relationship breakdown — from the first quiet questioning through to life on the other side. Her work helps women move from performing for belonging to coming home to themselves. Website: www.reflectcoaching.com.au Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reflectcoaching/ Podcast: Reflect, Reclaim & Liberate: https://reflectreclaimliberatewithsallyannehartnell.buzzsprout.com ALSO MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Laura McKowen — author and writer on recovery, belonging, and leaving behind what no longer serves you. Substack: https://lauramckowen.substack.com/ ABOUT EMMA WRIGHT: Emma Wright is a certified cognitive behavioural coach and Intuitive Eating coach, author of Body Confident, and host of the Talking with Emma podcast. She helps high-achieving, resourceful women stop fighting their bodies and start living the way they want to. Subscribe to Wait, What? — Emma's free Sunday newsletter: https://emmawright.co.nz/waitwhat/ Work with Emma: https://emmawright.co.nz/

    1h 17m

  5. Apr 29

    50: Why Your Habit Isn't Happening

    Have you ever set a goal, genuinely wanted it, done all the right things and still found yourself not following through? You're not lazy. You're not lacking willpower. And you are not the problem. >> Subscribe to Wait, What? In this episode of Talking with Emma, cognitive behavioural coach and Intuitive Eating coach Emma Wright shares the real reason most women struggle to stick to health and wellness goals, and why the usual advice of habit stacking, accountability, and pushing harder almost always makes it worse. Emma opens with a personal story: years of trying to get to the gym regularly, despite truly wanting to go. She tried every productivity trick in the book. Nothing worked until she stopped trying to force herself and got curious instead. What she found surprised her. She wasn't avoiding the gym because of laziness or lack of discipline. She was avoiding it because it felt lonely. That insight made going to the gym straightforward. This episode introduces a simple four-question framework rooted in cognitive behavioural coaching that helps you understand what is actually driving your behaviour around health goals. No willpower required. No shame involved. Just a genuinely different way of looking at why you do what you do. Emma walks through each question slowly and in depth, with real examples, so you can follow along and apply it to your own life before the episode is even over. This episode is for you if you have ever felt cynical about your ability to change. If you have tried the plans, the apps, the challenges, and the habit trackers — and you are starting to wonder whether the problem is you. It is not. But understanding what is actually going on is where real change begins. What you will learn in this episode: why health and wellness goals fail even when you genuinely want them, how diet culture has trained us to treat ourselves like productivity problems rather than human beings, what cognitive behavioural coaching reveals about avoidance and behaviour, the four-question framework for understanding what is really driving your actions, and how to stop fighting yourself and start working with yourself instead. Topics covered include: goal setting, behaviour change, diet culture, intuitive eating, cognitive behavioural coaching, body image, health and wellness, women's health, motivation, habit formation, and food noise. If this episode resonated with you, share it with a woman you know who has been hard on herself for not following through on her health goals. She needs to hear this. Subscribe to Wait, What? — Emma's free Sunday newsletter for the woman who has become cynical about health trends because she has tried so many things. Every week Emma takes you down the diet culture off-ramp with personal stories that will make you think: wait, what — I've been lied to? Subscribe here.

    20 min

  6. Apr 20

    49: Body Image and Mental Health (Specifically Bi-Polar) with Katie Rickson

    What happens when life-saving medication changes your weight, but the medical system keeps focusing on it? Katie Rickson lives with bipolar. She has been hospitalised. She has been through the years of misdiagnosis - depression, anxiety, ADHD - before finally getting an answer that made sense of her life.  And having been to the doctor, seriously unwell, a psychiatrist noted in a report that she was a "slim young woman." So we talk about it.  Katie is now, by her own account, the heaviest she has ever been. She is also the most mentally well. In this episode, we talk about what it actually takes to get there — and what the medical system, and diet culture, gets wrong along the way. In this episode we cover What bipolar disorder actually is — and why it takes an average of 9.5 years to diagnoseWhy Katie's mental health is better now in a bigger body than it ever was when she was slimThe real reason bipolar medications cause weight gain — and why that is not a side effect to simply fixBeing offered weight loss injections by a doctor who was not asking the right questionsHow Katie learned to separate nutrition from body size — and what she asked her dietician to focus on insteadThe Spoon Theory — a practical tool for understanding your energy capacity on any given dayThe "grand bargain" Katie has with the people close to her, and why it mattersEmotional literacy — what it is, why most of us were never taught it, and how to startHow changes in appetite can be an early signal that something needs attentionWhy food belongs in the coping toolkit — and how to use it consciously rather than shamefullyPractical ways to protect yourself in medical appointments when you know weight will come upThe self-compassion practice Katie credits with changing her relationship with food and her body — including the work of Dr Kristin NeffFind Katie Katie's websiteBusiness in the BathLinkedInInstagram: @katie.writes.edits / @businessinthebath Find Emma Emma's website  ·  Follow on LinkedIn If this episode resonated with you, please share it with a woman you love. The more we talk about leaving diet culture, the more women get to stop fighting themselves and start living the way they want to.

    57 min

  7. Apr 13

    48: How to leave diet culture with Lotta Dann

    What does it look like to leave diet culture behind — to truly walk away from it? Lotta Dann did it with alcohol. Then, a few years into sobriety, she found herself deep in a diet hole — losing weight, receiving praise, feeling like she was "floating on a cloud of thin." Inevitably, it all fell apart. In this conversation, Lotta and I talk about what happened next: how she found anti-diet content, what helped her see the lies diet culture has her believe, and what it actually took — emotionally, practically, and culturally — to leave. This is a conversation I have wanted to have for a long time.  In this episode we cover How Lotta went from sobriety to a strict diet — and why the language of addiction made it seem like the answerWhat "floating on a cloud of thin" was so compelling, and what it costThe moment she stumbled across anti-diet content and why it clicked so fastThe biggest lies diet culture tells us — and the one Lotta found most heartbreakingHow leaving dieting compares to leaving alcohol — and where it is much harderWhy weight gain is almost always part of the process, and how to navigate itThe behaviours to stop immediately, and the practical steps that actually help "Thinness is highly valued in our culture — you're deemed a success regardless of your mental health or how you're actually functioning day to day." "I refuse to feel bad about my body size. I've built a fierce defence against it — and it took time, mantras, and a lot of practice to get there." — Lotta Dann Mentioned in this episode Mrs D is Not on a Diet — Lotta Dann's book on leaving diet cultureLiving Sober — Lotta's free online community for people quitting drinking@mrs_d_alcoholfree — Lotta on InstagramMidlife Body Image Guide — Emma's free guide for women ready to stop fighting their bodies Emma's website  ·  Follow on LinkedIn If this episode resonated with you, please share it with a woman you love. The more we talk about leaving diet culture, the more women get to stop fighting themselves and start living the way they want to.

    1h 7m

  8. Apr 6

    47: How The Fear Of Weight Gain Leads To Food Noise In Your Brain

    You have done everything right. You have been eating well, making good choices, feeling in control. And then something happens — a birthday dinner, a celebration, a moment of genuine pleasure around food — and suddenly the noise is back. Loud, familiar, exhausting. Register for the End Food Noise Without Weight Loss Jabs Here. In this episode, I talk about the emotion that almost nobody names in the wellness space — and why it is one of the most powerful drivers of food noise there is.  What you will learn in this episode: Why the fear of gaining weight is a completely rational response to the culture we live in, and why knowing that intellectually is not enough to make it go away What fatphobia actually means — and why it is less about individual cruelty and more about a belief system so deeply internalised it feels like reality How the fear of a bigger body keeps the restriction cycle going even when you know restriction is not working A two-step compassion practice you can use the next time fear shows up after eating — one that works at the nervous system level, not just the thinking level Mentioned in the episode: Free masterclass, End Food Noise Without Weight Loss Jabs (or giving up on health).  I walk you through an exercise that shows you exactly which type of hunger is driving your food thoughts. The masterclass will give you a completely different way of understanding what has been happening. Register here. Curious about working together? I’m currently taking private clients. Book a consultation to discuss what you want to achieve, and you’ll leave with a clear, step-by-step, individualised plan to achieve it. Whether I can help you achieve your goal or not, you’ll leave knowing what the next steps are. 🌐 Emma's Website 📱 Follow on LinkedIn If you enjoyed this episode, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review. Let’s help more women stop fixing their bodies and start trusting them.  Keywords: food noise, fear of weight gain, fatphobia, emotional eating, intuitive eating, body image, why can't I stop thinking about food, diet culture, women's relationship with food, how to stop food noise, feminist health coaching, Emma Wright, Talking with Emma

    15 min
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About

Talking with Emma is the podcast for women who are tired of obsessive food thinking, struggling with body image and feeling like food and weight is the one thing they can’t get sorted. I’m Emma Wright — feminist health coach, author, and someone who knows exactly how exhausting it is to live like not matter how much you try, your health is never quite “good enough.” After years of controlling my weight, focusing on food, exercising harder, and constantly feeling like a failure, I discovered something different — and more powerful:  Coaching tools that help you trust yourself again - and take charge of your health the way you want to. Each episode, I’ll share the tools I use with clients who want relief health feeling so confusing — and who are ready end emotional eating, stop thinking about food all the time and improve their body image.  If you’re ready for those things, this podcast is for you. 📥 Want to go deeper?  Download the Self-Assessment — a free tool to evaluate what’s really going on beneath the food and body thinking. Curious about working together?I’m currently welcoming new 1:1 clients. Book a no-cost consultation where we’ll talk about how to achieve the health goals you have and what kind of support you need to do that, and of course, whether coaching with me feels like the right fit.

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