Love Yourself Thin Podcast

Latest Episodes:

231. Achieving Weight Loss Goals at the Holidays Dec 22, 2025

Show notes

You know exactly what you should eat. You know you need eight hours of sleep. You know you should move your body. Yet here you are at 10 PM with a pint of ice cream, wondering why you can follow through on work deadlines and family responsibilities but can't stick to your own health goals. The disconnect isn't about willpower—it's about how you talk to yourself when things don't go according to plan.

This week, I'm breaking down how to have actual peace during the holidays with your weight loss goals—not the fake "I'll start in January" peace that's really just procrastination wrapped in holiday lights. You'll discover why your approach to failure determines everything about whether you'll succeed, how the same encouragement you'd give a five-year-old learning to tie shoes is exactly what you need to give yourself, and why your battlefield-like inner self-talk is the real reason you sabotage your own goals. I'll share Brené Brown's marble jar concept and how I adapted it for building self-trust with urges, plus my own vulnerable story about catching myself in diet mentality last Friday even after years of doing this work.

Tune in as I walk you through the three pillars of peaceful goal-setting: making goals with possibility instead of fear, understanding the real science of how your brain and body connect, and implementing practical strategies that actually create change. You'll learn why 99% of diets fail (and why beating yourself up guarantees you'll be part of that statistic), discover the power of accountability partnerships inside my program, and understand why all the Pinterest boards and saved recipes in the world won't create permanent change without addressing your unique baggage.

Ready to stop saying "I'll start in January" and actually mean it? My January course starting January 9th teaches you how to make goals without the failure spiral, or join my lifetime membership program for ongoing support and accountability. Details are HERE!

What You'll Learn in this Episode:

How your experience with failure shapes your ability to make goals
The five-year-old shoe-tying analogy: when did you stop letting yourself learn?
Why your inner dialogue sounds like screaming at a child (and how to stop)
The connection between Christmas anticipation and post-holiday letdown
How negative self-talk creates procrastination, people-pleasing, and perfectionism
Brené Brown's marble jar concept adapted for building self-trust with urges
Why feelings only come from thoughts (even when circumstances feel urgent)
Peace-building thoughts: "I can do hard things" and "I haven't figured this out yet"
Dara's vulnerable Friday story: catching diet mentality after years of coaching
Why 99% of diets fail and how to be in the 1%
The power of accountability partners and real-time coaching
Why Pinterest boards and saved recipes won't create permanent change
How program connections help women through devastating losses

Stay in touch!

January goal-setting course (starts January 9th) - https://dara-tomasson-coaching.mykajabi.com/permanent-weight-loss-course
Love Yourself Thin lifetime membership -

https://daratomasson.com
Email us your questions - support@daratomasson.com
Watch this episode (and more!) on YouTube
Follow me on Instagram - @dara_tomasson

230. Enjoy Food Without Overdoing It! Dec 18, 2025

Show notes

You can quit alcohol. You can quit drugs. You can delete the apps and walk away. But you can't quit food—which is exactly why weight loss feels so impossibly hard. You need to eat multiple times a day, every single day, for the rest of your life. So how do you navigate holiday eating without gaining weight or feeling deprived when "just don't eat it" isn't an option?

This week, I'm tackling the biggest misconception about food and addiction. Unlike substances you can eliminate completely, food requires a completely different strategy because you can't go cold turkey.

You'll discover why your "it's go time" thoughts during the holidays trigger cortisol that makes you crave carbs, why 95% of your subconscious thoughts are sabotaging your best intentions, and how to redirect yourself when you can't just walk away from food forever. I'll share my German chocolate cake story—how I enjoyed my favorite birthday cake all week without guilt by planning 24 hours in advance, proving you can have your cake and lose weight too.

Tune in as I break down the five pillars to permanent weight loss (spoiler: it starts with understanding simple hormone science), reveal why sneaking food feels thrilling at first but destroys self-trust long-term, and explain the Santa's elves analogy that shows exactly what happens when you overload your body with flour and sugar. You'll learn why flour and sugar need a six-week break, how to become the traffic controller of your own holidays, and the critical difference between numbing negative thoughts with food versus actually feeling your feelings.

Ready to stop making false promises about January? My January course starting January 9th teaches you how to actually keep resolutions instead of breaking them by February. Details are HERE

What You'll Learn in this Episode:

✔️Why you can't go cold turkey with food (and what to do instead)

✔️How "it's go time" thoughts trigger cortisol and carb cravings

✔️Why 95% of your thoughts are subconscious and sabotaging you

✔️The traffic controller strategy: taking charge of your own holidays

✔️Why we turn to certain foods (numbing, stress, avoiding feelings)

✔️The six-week flour and sugar break strategy (and why it works)

✔️How to plan food 24 hours in advance and enjoy it guilt-free

✔️The German chocolate cake story: birthday cake all week without guilt

✔️Why sneaking food is like having an affair (thrilling but destructive)

✔️The Santa's elves analogy: what happens when you overload your body

✔️Five pillars to permanent weight loss (weight loss science, your eating plan, feeling feelings, taking responsibility, building confidence)

✔️How to stop blaming others and take your power back

For more support, jump into Dara's program where you will get weekly coaching calls and encouragements from her. Details HERE

If you haven't checked out Dara's free masterclass to help you create your peaceful, productive Christmas, get in on it HERE

229. Handling Grief While Honoring Loved Ones at the Holidays Dec 11, 2025

Show notes

The picture of your grandmother holding your baby. The lifesaver candies that remind you of Grandpa. The empty chair at Christmas dinner. The holidays magnify grief in ways that send you straight to the kitchen at midnight, eating to fill a void that food can never actually fill.

If you've lost someone close to you and the holidays feel impossible—caught between wanting to honor happy memories while drowning in sadness—you're navigating something most people won't talk about.

We've been conditioned like Pavlov's dogs to associate food with love, celebration, and connection. When someone dies, especially around the holidays, those associations become a tangled mess that feels impossible to unravel without abandoning the memories altogether.

This week, I'm breaking down what's really happening when grief and food become intertwined during the holidays. You'll discover why your brain defaults to emotional eating when you miss someone (hint: it's pure conditioning, not a character flaw), learn the difference between honoring someone's memory and using food to avoid feeling sad, and hear practical examples of how real families have transformed grief into meaningful traditions that don't require eating your feelings. I'll share the "Mike and Hazel Bowie" story from my own family and how one client processes her father's passing through daddy-daughter photo time instead of emotional eating.

Ready to stop letting grief sabotage your health goals? Join my Conquer Emotional Eating class where you'll get real tools to navigate the holidays without using food to fill emotional voids. Check it out HERE

Plus, my January class on making goals without beating yourself up starts January 9th—because this year can actually be different. Details are HERE

What You'll Learn in this Episode:

🎄Why food and family memories are enmeshed (and how to separate them)

🎄The Pavlov's dog effect: how we've been conditioned to associate food with love and celebration

🎄How to feel sadness appropriately without being afraid of the emotion

🎄The critical question: What do you actually miss about that person? (This reveals how to fill the void)

🎄Why filling emotional voids with food leads to devastating health consequences

🎄Real examples of honoring loved ones through meaningful traditions (not food)

🎄The "Mike and Hazel Bowie" golf and bowling tradition that keeps memories alive

🎄How one 65-year-old client handled job loss and hip replacement surgery completely differently than four years ago

🎄Why taking care of yourself isn't selfish—it's the legacy you're creating

If you are ready to take the next step in creating the life you want with Dara's help, join her lifetime membership program, Love Yourself Thin. Because loving yourself is the first step to lasting change. Details are HERE

Follow Dara on Instagram @dara_tomasson

228. Managing Holiday Triggers Like a Pro Dec 04, 2025

Show notes

The holidays arrive with the best intentions. You have a vision—homemade gifts, a beautifully decorated home, healthy eating habits maintained through January. Then your husband loses his job. You're told you need a new hip. The test results come back concerning. And suddenly it's 10 PM and you're eating ice cream straight from the container, wondering why you can't just stick to the plan like everyone else seems to.

This week, I'm breaking down why the holidays create the perfect storm for emotional eating, overspending, and complete overwhelm. But here's the twist: generic "holiday stress hacks" won't solve your problem because you don't know YOUR unique trigger pattern. Most women are following someone else's playbook instead of understanding what actually sends them into the kitchen at 3 PM or keeps them scrolling Pinterest until midnight.

Tune in as I walk you through identifying your personal coping strategies when life throws curveballs (because it will), introduce the game-changing concept of "bare minimum Christmas," and share how one of my clients catered an entire guild party—two days of cooking and serving—without stressing once.

You'll discover why the highs and lows of your holiday experience reveal everything about your emotional regulation, and learn the exact framework for building resiliency so December doesn't derail you every single year.

Want to cut your emotional eating in half this holiday season? Join my Conquer Holiday and Emotional Eating class starting now. You'll get all the modules, office hours to ask questions, and lifetime access for two years. Real tools, real help, real transformation—one Christmas cookie at a time. Check it out here - https://dara-tomasson-coaching.mykajabi.com/emotional-eating-course

What You'll Learn in this Episode:

🎄Why the holidays are a perfect storm for triggers (nostalgia, pressure to perform, family dynamics, and lack of self-trust)

🎄The "straight line vs. reality" of holiday planning and why your highs and lows reveal your emotional regulation

🎄How to identify YOUR unique coping strategies when life doesn't go according to plan

🎄The "bare minimum Christmas" exercise that diffuses overwhelm immediately

🎄Why spreading your joy across 9 life categories (not just relationships or food) creates resilience

🎄How one client transformed from holiday stress to catering a guilt party without any anxiety

🎄The real reason you can't follow through on your plans (spoiler: it's not willpower)

If this episode resonated with you, be sure to follow my YouTube channel for more. And keep up with me on Instagram @dara_tomasson

227. How to Break Free From Emotional Eating Patterns Nov 27, 2025

Show notes

Discover why the same thinking patterns that create relationship problems also drive emotional eating. Through the story of Tammy, a program member stuck in a cycle of resentment and people-pleasing, learn how to stop living in other people's imaginary thoughts and start expressing your own needs clearly and kindly.

What You'll Learn

✔️The Resentment-Food Connection: Why unexpressed relationship frustration drives emotional eating

✔️Creating "Cases" Against People: How we decide what others think without asking them

✔️The Exhausting Cycle: Resentment → Rebellion → Guilt → People-pleasing → More resentment

✔️Story vs. Reality: Why Tammy felt guilt about quilting but not about attending a funeral

✔️Breaking Free: Practical tools to distinguish your thoughts from others' thoughts

Key Teaching Points

1. Same Patterns, Different Areas: The thinking that creates relationship problems also drives emotional eating - we create stories instead of dealing with reality.

2. Living in Others' Heads: When we try to manage others' feelings and predict their reactions, we lose access to our own wisdom.

3. The Lawyer Analogy: We create "cases" against people, spending all our mental energy looking for evidence to support our predetermined story.

4. You're Not Responsible for Others' Emotions: Your job is to express your needs kindly and clearly, not to manage how others respond.

Remember: You're not responsible for managing other's emotions. Their reaction is information about their ability to self-soothe, stay in your own emotional lane while being loving and kind!

For more support on this, join my membership where you will get the tools you need to break your cycle of feeling obligated to please everyone around you at the expense of yourself! - https://daratomasson.com

Also, if you are interested in learning why you keep purchasing fabric (don't worry you aren't alone!) get this free course - https://dara-tomasson-coaching.mykajabi.com/why-you-keep-buying-fabric

Connect with Dara on Instagram - @dara_tomasson

226. Change Your Relationship With Eating and Watch Yourself Transform Nov 20, 2025

Show notes

Discover the fascinating science behind gratitude and how it can literally change your brain chemistry to help you make better food choices. In this episode, Dara explores research from Harvard, UCLA, and other major universities showing how gratitude releases the same feel-good chemicals as comfort food - without the calories.

Key Takeaways

🔑Willpower is Limited: Like a cell phone battery, willpower depletes throughout the day

🔑Gratitude Replenishes: Shifts you from depletion to abundance state Three Before Three: Practice gratitude 3 times daily before eating

🔑Savoring Matters: Notice and appreciate good moments as they happen

🔑Foundation Change: You're not just changing one behavior, but the foundation all behaviors spring from

Try This Week The "Three Before Three" Practice:

Three times a day, before you eat anything, take 30 seconds to think of three things you're genuinely grateful for. They can be tiny things:

That you have food That you have taste buds to enjoy it

That you have people to share it with (or peace to enjoy alone)

That you have electricity, a house, warmth

Get on the waitlist for the Black Friday Offer - Cut Your Emotional Eating in Half. Hurry, spots will fill up fast! - https://dara-tomasson-coaching.mykajabi.com/emotional-eating-course

Ready to join the lifetime membership with exclusive coaching access with Dara? Check it out here - www.daratomasson.com

Follow Dara on IG and Pinterest for more:

Instagram: @dara_tomasson

Pinterest: https://pin.it/6DkwKmfTp

225. How to Enjoy Holiday Meals Without Overeating or Guilt Nov 13, 2025

Show notes

Feeling that familiar knot in your stomach about Thanksgiving dinner (or any upcoming event)? Not just about family dynamics, but about the actual food?

This episode gives you practical tools to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner without the emotional food hangover - the shame, regret, and "I can't believe I did it again" feeling that can last for days. Dara walks you through her proven 4-step process to prepare for any eating event from a place of self-compassion instead of self-control.

Key Topics Covered

🗝️Why "Being Good" Before the Event Backfires

🗝️How restricting before dinner triggers scarcity mode in your brain

🗝️The "I've been good, now I can be bad" mentality trap

🗝️Why showing up hungry makes balanced eating nearly impossible

Practical Strategies Shared

Before the Event:

Eat normally - don't try to "save" calories Remember: this is one meal, not your last meal

During the Event:

Put food on a plate instead of grazing while standing

Check in with hunger and fullness during the meal

Give yourself permission to enjoy foods you want AND skip foods you don't

Have a plan for what to do with your hands during conversations

Connect with Dara

Website: https://daratomasson.com

Instagram: @dara_tomasson

224. What Your Fabric Purchases Are Telling You Nov 06, 2025

Show notes

Ever wonder why you keep buying fabric when you already have enough for three lifetimes? This isn't about budgeting or organizing your stash - it's about understanding what you're really shopping for.

In this episode, Dara explores the emotional drivers behind fabric shopping and how the same patterns that create overflowing fabric stashes also drive emotional eating and other distracting behaviors.

Key Topics Covered

The Real Problem: Thinking, Not Knowledge Why you don't have a knowledge problem - you have a thinking problem

How emotional distraction shows up as shopping, eating, scrolling, and staying busy

The connection between fabric shopping and emotional eating patterns

Four Emotions That Drive Fabric Shopping:

✔️Stress Relief - That gorgeous new collection feels like a promise of peace

✔️Excitement Management - Buying fabric feels like taking action on excitement ✔️Boredom/Emptiness - Shopping gives us something to focus on when feeling restless ✔️Connection Seeking - Buying what others have feels like joining the community

Are you ready to dive deeper into this? Then get in on Dara's FREE Mini Course: 12 Mini Lessons on Why We Have So Much Extra Fabric

Special November offering: Emotional Eating Course - https://dara-tomasson-coaching.mykajabi.com/holiday-sprint

Connect with Dara:

Website: daratomasson.com Instagram: @dara_tomasson

223. Feel Your Feelings Instead of Eating Them Oct 31, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Dara addresses the root cause of weight struggles: our inability to process emotions healthily due to childhood conditioning that taught us feelings were dangerous or weak.

Key Topics Covered:

• Childhood emotional suppression: How messages like "If you wanna cry, I'll give you something to cry about" create adults who lack healthy emotional coping strategies

• Unhealthy vs. healthy coping strategies: Recognition that we all developed coping mechanisms - they just weren't serving us

• Body wisdom and emotional storage: Where emotions land in the body according to ancient wisdom traditions (Ayurvedic, Chinese medicine)

• Personal breakthrough story: Dara's vulnerable sharing about discovering inherited fear of success through body awareness

• The feeling process: Understanding that emotions are just vibrations from thoughts that take 10-20 seconds to process when done correctly

The Coping Strategy Revelation:

🧠A successful client realized she didn't lack coping strategies - she had many unhealthy ones:

✔️Saying yes when wanting to say no

✔️Self-criticism after mistakes

✔️Food rewards and numbing

✔️Exhausting people-pleasing ✔️Late-night phone scrolling

✔️Overeating until uncomfortable

Main Takeaways:

Weight struggles aren't about food - they're about missing emotional life skills never taught in childhood

Feelings are safe - they're just temporary body vibrations that process quickly when allowed

Your emotional style is unique - don't compare your way of feeling to others

The body keeps score - unexpressed emotions can manifest as physical symptoms and weight retention

Action Step: Notice where you feel tension or discomfort in your body and get curious about what emotion or situation might be stored there, without judgment.

Join Dara for Cut Emotional Eating in Half Over the Holidays (and Beyond) — a 2-week live experience to calm your brain, stop stress-eating, and feel confident around food. Join here - https://dara-tomasson-coaching.mykajabi.com/holiday-sprint

222. Thought Downloads Are the Key to Your Transformation Oct 23, 2025

Show notes

In this deeply vulnerable episode, Dara explores why we resist the very tools that could transform our lives, using a client's confession about avoiding thought downloads as the starting point for understanding our patterns of self-sabotage.

Key Topics Covered:

🗝️The paradox of resistance: Why we rebel against ourselves by buying unnecessary fabric, saying yes when overwhelmed, or avoiding helpful practices

🗝️Family history revelation: Dara's discovery of her great-grandfather's traumatic childhood and how it illuminates our tendency to run from difficult emotions

🗝️The boogeyman effect: How avoidance makes problems seem bigger and more frightening than they actually are

🗝️Shame as a mushroom: Understanding how shame grows in darkness and secrecy, but loses power when brought into the light

🗝️The five pillars framework: Weight loss science, making your own eating plan, feeling feelings instead of eating them, taking 100% responsibility, and building self-confidence

Key Insights:

🔑Resistance is information - When we avoid something, it's usually because we're afraid of what we might discover

🔑Worth isn't tied to results - Your value remains 100% regardless of weight loss success or failure

🔑Vulnerability neutralizes shame - Speaking our fears aloud removes their power over us

🔑Avoidance amplifies problems - Whatever we resist grows bigger in our minds

Action Step: Identify one tool or practice you've been avoiding and ask yourself: "What am I afraid I might find?" Then gently explore that fear with curiosity rather than judgment.

Special Offer: 25-minute free coaching sessions (5 slots available in one session) to help identify sabotage patterns and create holiday success plans. Book Here

Check out my free webinars happening in October - Webinars

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