Step off the Scale: Break Free From Dieting
Are you tired of feeling like your worth is defined by the number on the scale?
Step Off the Scale is the podcast that helps you break free from diet culture and food guilt—for good. Hosted by Ashlee Wright, a registered dietitian and nutrition coach with over 14 years of experience, this show empowers women to build a healthier, more joyful relationship with food.
If you’re ready to stop obsessing over food and start living freely, you’re in the right place.
This podcast will deliver practical tips and mindset shifts to help you ditch dieting, heal your relationship with food, and embrace intuitive eating. Ashlee challenges toxic wellness trends, busts nutrition myths, and shares strategies you can actually use in your busy, real-life routine.
This show will answer common questions like:
How can I stop emotional eating?
What does food freedom mean, and how do I achieve it?
How do I overcome diet culture and its effects?
How can I improve my body image and self-esteem?
Is intuitive eating suitable for everyone?
What are the principles of intuitive eating?
How does stress affect my eating habits?
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, content creator, coach, or busy woman trying to balance it all—this podcast provides valuable insights to help you build lasting healthy habits without restriction or shame.
Subscribe now to step off the scale and into the life you were meant to live - free, nourished, and empowered.
Step off the Scale: Break Free From Dieting
5. Stress Eating Meditation: 3 Minutes to Calm Your Cravings
The three-minute meditation for stress and emotional eating shared in this episode provides a powerful tool to break free from the diet cycle and develop a healthier relationship with food. This guided practice helps create space between emotions and eating behaviors through mindful breathing and self-compassion.
• Finding a comfortable position and relaxing your forehead to reduce tension
• Taking deep breaths to center yourself and return to the present moment
• Observing your feelings without judgment to understand emotional triggers
• Using affirmations like "I am in control of my choices"
• Placing a hand on your heart to practice self-compassion
• Repeating the mantra "I am calm, capable and in control"
• Returning to this meditation whenever you need to pause and reset
Connect with Ashlee:
Resources:
Download the Top 10 Dieting Mistakes Keeping You Stuck
Welcome to Step Off the Scale, the podcast where we are redefining health and happiness beyond the numbers. I am your host, ashley Wright, a dietician for over a decade, mom of two and craft beer lover. Together, we'll say goodbye to restrictive diets and learn simple strategies to help you actually enjoy your food again without guilt. Now let's dive in together without guilt. Now let's dive in together. Hello and welcome to another episode of Step Off the Scale. I am so excited to be here with you today and if you're new here, I want to welcome you and tell you that you are freaking awesome, and if you love this episode that I'm about to share with you today, send it to a friend. I am on a mission to help as many women as I can get off of the dieting cycle that they are so incredibly tired of and have a healthier relationship with food, so if you would share it with somebody, I would be ever so grateful, and you are sending a blessing to them. One cool thing that I want to share with you before we get into today's episode is that you can actually text me. In the show notes that you see below, you'll see this little link that says send Ashley a text. It comes right to me and I read them all and it's so exciting. I got my first text from a listener that read this is fabulous, love what you're doing, keep it up. The first three are fire, emojis and claps. If you are the person out there listening right now who sent this to me, you are wonderful and you made my whole week. So if you're listening and you want to go ahead and send me a text, I would love to hear from you.
Speaker 1:Today I have something special I wanted to share with you. I recorded this meditation for stress eating and emotional eating quite a while back. It's part of my stress eating survival kit that I put together, which you can get more info on that in the show notes, and meditation has been something that has been so incredibly helpful to me and, quite frankly, has changed my life, and I wanted to share this with you today. So you have a meditation to go to when you're having those days where you're just super frustrated with food. You're having those moments where you're stress eating or emotional eating is kicking in more than you'd like it to. So just know that there's always a way to come back to center, and I wanted to share this meditation with you today, so that way, you can always have something to go back to whenever you need it. So give it a listen. I hope you enjoy the meditation. Go back to whenever you need it. So give it a listen. I hope you enjoy the meditation.
Speaker 1:Welcome to your stress eating guided meditation. Today we're going to do a three minute meditation together and I'm going to walk you through everything. So no worries. But all you need to do is just listen to my prompts, and I promise you it'll be much easier than you think it is going to be. So here's what we need to do is just listen to my prompts, and I promise you it'll be much easier than you think it is going to be. So here's what we need to do.
Speaker 1:Begin by finding a comfortable position. You can sit in a chair, on the floor or even lie down Whatever feels best for you. Once you're settled, gently close your eyes. One trick that I have found works really well for me is if I think about relaxing my forehead. So whenever you start to feel those moments of stress, focus on relaxing your forehead, and I promise you it will definitely help.
Speaker 1:So what we want to do next is take a deep breath in through your nose, hold it for a moment and then slowly exhale through your mouth. Let's do that two more times. Breathe in deeply and slowly exhale One more time, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Now allow your breath to return to a natural rhythm. Just notice how it feels as the air moves just in and out of your body. Feel the gentle rise and fall of your chest and the sensation of your breath calming you as you breathe, begin to relax your forehead. Notice any tension there and, as you exhale, release it. Let the muscles around your eyes soften, relax your jaw. Drop your shoulders away from your ears and just let your body settle.
Speaker 1:Now bring your attention on how you're feeling right now, without judgment. We just are observing. We just are observing. Are you feeling stressed, anxious? Are you craving something? Did something crazy happen at work today? Whatever it is, it's okay. All we're doing right now is just noticing it. If thoughts arise, gently acknowledge them and let them pass by, just like the clouds in the sky pass by.
Speaker 1:Now come back to your breath. Each breath is an opportunity to ground yourself and return to this moment. Now silently repeat to yourself I am in control of my choices. I release the need to turn to food for comfort, the need to turn to food for comfort. I am capable of managing my stress. With each inhale, breathe in calmness and, with each exhale, release the stress or tension that you're holding in your body. Imagine that that stress is leaving you with every out breath and it's just dissolving up into the air. Now place a hand on your heart, feel the warmth of your hand. This is a moment to show yourself compassion. Say to yourself I am human and it's okay to experience cravings and emotions. I release the guilt around food and emotional eating. Take another deep breath in, hold it for a second and exhale, letting go of any remaining tension, and know that in this moment, you are calm, capable and in control. Say it again I am calm, capable and in control. Slowly begin to wiggle your fingers, wiggle your toes and, when you're ready, open your eyes, take one last deep breath. One last deep breath, feeling lighter, calmer and more centered. You can return to this meditation any time you need to pause, reset and manage your stress eating. This meditation is meant to help you reduce your stress and help you with emotional eating in just a few minutes, and it helps you with more mindfulness and self-compassion, so return to it whenever you need to.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for spending your time with me today on Step Off the Scale. I know that life can be crazy busy and I truly appreciate you taking the time to be here with me today. And just a quick reminder that your worth is not defined by a number on the scale and you don't need to follow restrictive diet rules to feel good in your body. You deserve to feel freedom, confidence and a life where eating feels easy again. If today's episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to subscribe, leave a review or share it with a friend who needs to hear it. Your support means the world to me and it helps this message reach more women who are ready to break free from diet culture and live a happier life in their own body. Take good care of yourself and I'll see you next time.