Step off the Scale: Break Free From Dieting

7. Raw & Unedited: How I Finally Started My Podcast After a Year

• Ashlee Wright

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In today’s episode, I’m sharing something special with you - this is the first episode I recorded over a year ago, and I’ve finally decided to share it with you.

As a dietitian for over a decade, my mission is to help women break free from diet culture and stop letting the scale control their self-worth. This episode is all about shifting how we think about food, our bodies, and what really matters.

In this episode, we dive into:

  • Why the scale doesn’t define your worth
  • How to focus on what makes you feel good (instead of obsessing over weight)
  • The truth about why perfection is never required
  • Why society’s “weight loss = happiness” myth is hurting you
  • Your inherent worth has nothing to do with your size
  • Building habits that stick - without guilt, shame, or restriction

If this episode resonated with you, please share it with a friend, leave a review, and subscribe.

Your support means the world to me. Let’s keep the conversation going over at whyeatwise.com.

Resources:

The Emotional Eating Reset

Speaker 1:

Well, hello there and welcome to another episode of Step Off the Scale. Today I wanted to share something with you that I created a little over a year ago. You see, this podcast has been on my mind for a long time and last year I recorded the first episode and I called it just like raw and unedited. It was just me riffing and I did not really put it out into the world. I kind of kept it and I sat on this podcast idea for a year before actually doing it. So I wanted to share it with you today. And if anybody is out there feeling like you know you've been thinking about doing something, you've been thinking of forming a new habit or creating something new, whatever it may be, and you haven't done it yet, just know that you're not alone and there's always going to be a time where you can do it and you can make it happen, and it's going to be the right time, and I truly believe that now is the right time for my podcast to be here and be in your ears. So, without further ado, here is the very first episode, raw and unedited.

Speaker 1:

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. Now, let's dive in together. Hi, my name is Ashley Wright. I am a dietitian, nutrition coach, mom of two, wife of Taylor and a mom to a little fur baby named Porter. And this is the very first episode of Step Off the Scale.

Speaker 1:

This podcast is meant to help women all over the world step away from the scale rather than on it. Over my years as a dietitian, I have seen so many women mentally worn down from years of dieting. And that's exactly what it is You're mentally worn down over it. Just so tired of hearing, you know, advice after advice on oh do this, oh do that, or this worked for this person, this worked for this person. What the heck should I do? And you know? Or putting foods on the good and the bad list and making us feel guilty or shameful for the things that we choose to eat in our lives, and I am a firm believer that you know we have to eat for the rest of our lives right. So we don't want it to be a miserable process whatsoever. And I'm on a mission to get women away from diet culture and to embrace their bodies, to embrace their self-worth, to know that they are worth more than that number on the scale. That is the most important thing to me in my lifetime to make sure that I'm getting out into the world.

Speaker 1:

So I am recording this first podcast episode very rough and tumble, I guess, would be the word for it Um, kind of just like all right. So give you a visual. I'm sitting in my office right now. My hair is a bit of a wreck, I'm in an older t-shirt with some kind of stain on it and there's currently a unmade bed behind me. It's like a day bed we have in my office and I can see like the pillows and the sheets bunched up behind me and I was sitting down at my desk to do some writing.

Speaker 1:

I'm working on a blog post that I want to put out for my business and I kept feeling this like pull, like don't write this right now, don't do this right now, this is not what you're supposed to do right now. And I was listening to a talk from one of my, uh, I guess I would call her one of my spiritual idols. Her name is Gabby Bernstein. If you haven't heard of her, read her books, listen to her podcast. She's awesome, and she was talking about when you're a business owner. It's not about we tend to make it too much about ourselves, you know, instead of making it about the people that we serve, and I want it to be about you, the people that I'm serving and so I had this feeling in my gut that said, ashley, just go into your podcast recording software you bought what, like five months ago at this point, that you haven't used and record a dang podcast episode as you are. So that is what I'm doing, and I'm here talking to you right now.

Speaker 1:

Whoever is listening to this, I am talking to you, so I wanted to share just kind of a little bit about my story with you, and I also wanted to share something about a book that I am reading called Worthy. So I want to share a little bit about that book and about a couple of things that I think would be helpful for you if you are on the journey to rebuilding a healthy, positive relationship with food, which is really the most important thing that we all need to be doing, not jumping on diet after diet. Trust me, it never lasts in the long run. It doesn't. I've been doing this for almost 15 years and I have seen countless people just jump from thing to thing and wonder why it never works. Well, it doesn't work because it's not something you can keep up with for the rest of your life.

Speaker 1:

You still need to enjoy your food. You still need to be able to go on vacations and enjoy your holidays and go out to eat and do all the things that you love to do and not feel guilty or shameful about it in the least. And there's a way to do that. I promise you and I have helped my clients to do that, and that is what I'm so passionate about. I want you to be a real human being and live your life, enjoy your food and still be a healthy version of yourself. That is the most important thing.

Speaker 1:

Focus on supporting your body, focused on being a healthier version of you. Focus on the things that make you feel good. That is the bottom line. What makes you feel good? What makes you feel better, instead of being like, oh, got to lose weight, got to lose weight, got to lose weight over time. That just like berates our brain and it makes us feel like shit, basically. So instead of being like, oh, I got to get to this certain weight, or oh, oh gosh, the scale went up half a pound this morning, well, no, you didn't gain half a pound of fat overnight. First of all, it doesn't happen. You probably had more sodium yesterday or you drank a half a bottle of water or something. Don't fuss over that at all.

Speaker 1:

But I think so many of us think we kind of let our weight define us. I've had several people over the years who have come to see me and I'm like oh, how's your day going? How are you doing today? You know making the small talk in the beginning of a conversation, right, and they're like well, I'll tell you after I get on the scale. Please don't be one of those people. Do not do that. Don't let that number on the scale define you at all. That has nothing to do with who you are as a person. It has nothing to do with your soul and your energy and your beauty. It has nothing to do with it, and I know that societal norms and things that we see make us think that. But the people that really love you and that really care about you. They don't give a shit what your weight is. They don't. They truly, truly don't. You know, we have to see people for who they are and focusing so much on weight is just it's mentally freaking, draining, and I'm tired of it mentally draining you.

Speaker 1:

So that's why I'm here recording this podcast episode right now, just hanging out by my unfolded you know sheets and hanging out in my office, and I was letting my little bit of perfectionistism I know don't really want to say the word I was letting it hold me back from starting this podcast. I was thinking I have to get the right intro music and have the right script written out to introduce the podcast to you, and I needed to have all these things just so before I put it out into the world. And, honestly, that's a bunch of bullshit. I don't need to do any of that. Yes, I will work on that and those are things I want to do, but at the end of the day, I don't need to do that in order to tell you the things that are on my heart, to tell you to help you improve your life. So I just want to share a little bit about myself with you. So, like I said, I'm Ashley Wright, if you didn't hear me in the very beginning, and I am currently 38 years old.

Speaker 1:

I have two daughters, hope and Charlie, and they are the light of my life, and this is they're a big reason why I'm doing this work, because I want the next generation of women to have so much more empowerment over their bodies and their food choices. Um, I have a wonderful husband, taylor, who supports me so much in this business, and I have a wonderful family and an older brother who I love dearly. Um, and a mom who's my best friend and, uh, they all have just shown me so much love in this process of putting myself out into the world to share my message with you all, so I got to give a shout out to them too. And I've been working as a dietitian for 13 years. I have a master's in dietetics administration and I am a certified specialist in obesity and weight management. I know right, you hear that and you're like, but you're talking about not focusing on my weight. You're a specialist in it. Yes, I am.

Speaker 1:

That was something that I did in my day job that I felt would be beneficial for me to help my patients who did want to lose weight, and I know that's the goal for a lot of people, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that goal to lose weight at all. And if you're starting to implement some of the, the belief systems and the mindset shifts that go along with building that better relationship with food, weight loss often follows with that, and that is of course that makes you feel better, right? I'm not saying that with that, and that is of course that makes you feel better, right? I'm not saying that. You know, don't ever, you know, think about your weight at all, but I don't want that to be the thing that drives us, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1:

So I have the background, I know the knowledge, I know all the things, but on my heart, it's really just telling you that you don't have to be living your life to where it just revolves around every single food decision all the time. The food decisions can get easier and we can make habits that last for a lot longer than, like, a couple months. So there's things that we can do that aren't so weight focused, that are going to serve you so much better in the long run, and that's really what I'm talking about. So, um, I've just seen, over my time as a dietitian, that I've seen women so emotional, you know, about their weight and so emotional about this yo-yo dieting, fricking rollercoaster that doesn't seem to effing end. And that's really why, in my own business, why Eat Wise I want women to feel empowered and I want them to feel like they are more than that number on the scale and that they can live their life how they want to, on their own terms, and feel really powerful and energetic and feel good about themselves. That's really what it boils down to.

Speaker 1:

So one thing that I just wanted to chat about is there's this book that I'm reading right now and it's called Worthy. It's by Jamie Kern Lima reading right now, and it's called Worthy. It's by Jamie Kern Lima. She is the founder of it Cosmetics, which she sold to L'Oreal for $1.2 billion, which is flipping crazy. She is like entrepreneurial role model, for short, but she's an amazing person and she is all about uplifting women and showing them their worth. And I'm going to talk more about other topics from her book and other podcast episodes too, but the one that I just listened to I have it on print and I have it on audio book, so I can kind of hybrid read the book, but she was talking about not waiting on your weight, and I think that that is so important. I think the statement that comes up in my mind is I'll be happy when I'm at this weight, or I'll do the thing I've always wanted to do when I'm at this weight, or I'll go after the job I want when I'm at this weight, and sometimes what happens is you get to that weight and you don't feel any better about doing the thing than you did before.

Speaker 1:

So it's really about building our self-worth and being strong within ourselves more than anything else, so believing that you are worthy. Just because you are worthy, you don't have to earn it. Nobody's got to give it to you. It's already there, it's already innate, it's within each and every one of us, and I've always said that if I had a superpower, it would be to show somebody how somebody else views them, like somebody that truly loves you. If you could see yourself through their eyes, I think that would be a really cool thing, because we always see the beauty in other people and we try to bring that out Right, but we're so quick to dim our own lights and to take away our own beauty that is there from ourselves, Right. So I think it's just truly important to think about. You know how you talk to yourself on a daily basis. You know we are the people we spend the most time with right Ourselves, so we have to be thinking a little more about how we're treating ourselves so well.

Speaker 1:

This is kind of my short and sweet introduction to the Step Off the Scale podcast, but I knew it was something that I needed to share with you all today. So serve your soul, be a force of light in the world, don't be afraid to shine your light and go after your big dreams. And I will see you on the very next episode of Step Off the Scale. And if you want to get in contact with me, go ahead and visit whyeatwisecom. It's W-H-Y. Eatwisecom. You can send me an email. I would love to hear from you. I love you. Thank you for listening and take care of yourself, and I'll talk to you very soon.

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.