Episode 7: Fitness vs Fit This Whole Pizza in My Mouth

🎙️ Episode 7: Fitness vs. Fit This Whole Pizza

Badass Thriving Podcast with Caressa Dunphy, MS, RD

We’ve all been there — chasing perfection like a gym rat with macros taped to the fridge, or burning it all down with a “screw it, I’ll start Monday” pizza binge. Neither one is thriving.

This episode is about the messy middle — the gray space between rigid restriction and reckless rebellion. That’s where food freedom actually lives. Where joy and discipline can sit at the same damn table. Where pizza isn’t the villain, and balance isn’t lukewarm — it’s intentional.

We’ll laugh, we’ll get real, and we’ll break down how to build a badass life with crust (your non-negotiables), sauce (your structure), and toppings (your joy). Because thriving isn’t built on perfect weeks — it’s built on the real ones.

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🔥 Your Mantra This Week

“I can have my pizza and my progress too — because I’ve built my life with intention.”

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📝 Journal Prompts

1.Where in my life am I still living in the all-or-nothing trap?

2.What’s one way I can add flexibility without losing my foundation?

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🍕 Top 7 Takeaways

🍕 All-or-nothing thinking keeps you stuck in shame and inconsistency.

🍕 Pizza is not the enemy — restriction is.

🍕 A sustainable strategy includes the foods you love, not just the “healthy” ones.

🍕 Your health is like a pizza: crust = non-negotiables, sauce = structure, toppings = joy.

🍕 Micro-commitments > massive overhauls. Small actions create real momentum.

🍕 You can’t build food freedom if you still believe you have to “earn” your food.

🍕 Balance isn’t passive — it’s intentional. You get both the pizza and the progress.

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✨ Let’s Stay Connected

🌐 Website: aisforavocados.com — sign up for the Badass Avocados Newsletter — real talk, recipes, nutrition strategies, and badass motivation in your inbox weekly.

📲 Follow on IG: @caressardunphy | @aisforavocadosllc | @badassthrivingpodcast

🎙️ Podcast: Subscribe, rate, and share the show — every review helps this community grow.

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🚀 Coaching with Me

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I offer 1:1 Nutrition Coaching designed to help you dial in your diet, mindset, and systems — without restriction or burnout. Spots are limited, so apply now through aisforavocados.com or email me directly to learn more.

Transcript

Caressa Dunphy: 0:03

Hello, my little bad asses. Welcome back to the Badass Thriving Podcast, where we go beyond mind, body, and plate, and where the rules of diet culture don't get to live rent free in our heads. I am your host, Caressa Dunphy. I'm a registered dietitian. I am a gluten and dairy free coach. I struggle from lactose and celiac issues myself, so I'm happy to help other folks navigate those particular challenges if you have them. But I also really enjoy just talking about nutrition and fitness and all the other things that go into making. Badass life. So welcome to the podcast. We are going to get into something that I hope will make you laugh. You might even nod along and you might even say, yep, she's talking about me, or I've been there too. So we're gonna dive into a conversation that almost everybody wrestles with at some point. What I'm going to call fitness versus fit. This whole pizza. So we're gonna have a little humor. We're gonna have some analogies. We're gonna hopefully have a few laughs, but I hope that you walk away having some takeaways that you can apply to your life. I've been on both ends of this. I've been the gym rat who has turned down some dinner invitations because it didn't fit into my macros. I've also been the screw it. I'll start over on Monday. Person who's ordered a whole pizza and sat alone and ate it by myself on the couch, so neither one of these was actually thriving. I can speak from experience, and if you're noling along and going, yep, me too. Then you can also understand. So this is a really dangerous place to be. This all or nothing trap because before we ever fall off physically, it starts in our head. It starts with this mindset, the all or nothing mindset. It's a trap and it whispers. If I can't do it perfectly, then why even bother? If I missed my workout, I might as well eat whatever I want. If I had pizza last night, I've already ruined the whole week. Do any of these things sound familiar? I mean, we've all been there. So again, you're not alone.'cause here's the truth. This isn't discipline per se. This isn't the discipline that we have talked about in previous episodes. The discipline versus the motivation, right? Versus momentum. That's a different conversation. This is about this willpower, the diet cultures perfectionism that is disguised as these standards that we have to hold ourselves to with this sort of willpower. And if you don't stay perfect with your diet, you have failed. And so this all or nothing approach is a very dangerous place to live and it will keep you spinning your wheels forever and you will. Probably find yourself falling off of whatever diet that you have attempted because you can't do it, quote unquote perfectly. So the all or nothing thinkers avoid this very special gray area in between because it's messy, it's the messy middle, and nobody likes to talk about it. So we're gonna talk about it because this messy middle, this gray area between all or nothing approaches of I have to do it perfectly or I haven't done it perfectly, so I'm just gonna give it up. It requires. A level of self-trust. Now we have talked about this as well, about the trust that you can have with yourself, that you build with yourself. So we're gonna weave that back into this episode as well. And this topic also requires you to have some sort of an awareness and some presence and some intentionality behind what you are choosing. So all of this is gonna come together, I hope, in a really great way.'cause I have a few metaphors. Of course, they're pizza themed, so let's continue. It really does. Require making some real time decisions. You can plan out your week to the best of your ability, but you know, life happens or there's always something like holidays or birthdays or celebrations or something along those lines, some kind of event that comes up and we can't always. Plan for some of them. You know, funny enough, birthdays and anniversaries and holidays, they tend to come around pretty regularly. But it's some of the other spontaneous moments that I'm also speaking about because someone might call you up and say, Hey, let's go out for dinner tonight. Or, Hey, I'm on my way over. I'm bringing pizza. Let's have a movie night. You know, something like that. And so this is the part that I wanna talk about. This part right here. This is the messy middle, the part that didn't go exactly according to your plan. So the gray area, that is where food freedom lives because it is a choice to make a very conscious decision that both allows you to enjoy this indulgence, but also realize that what you're going to do is also going to set you self up to continue with your personal fitness and nutrition goals. So this is where the sanity part lives, because you have to make a decision. Based on a few things, right? How these things stack up according to your goals, but also finding room to live a little bit, because joy is going to come in a variety of different forms, and one of them is. Spending time with the people that you care about. And most of the time, food is somehow involved in this. We have different religious and cultural and social things that happen, and oftentimes there is a food component. Food is emotional. How many times have you walked into someone's kitchen and you're instantly transported back to a memory because it smells like grandma's cooking or a particular memory. Something there, right? Like food brings us back to some very special moments. And so the messy middle part is where we make room for it. So pizza is not the enemy, right? The foods that are special to us, they're not the enemy. They're just food. So we don't need to give them a good or a bad label because it's not, a binary thing like that. Food is just food. Food is just gonna sit there and be food. It is not going to, you know, give you some kind of ultimatum or, give you some kind of a religious component per se, of, I'm gonna give you some kind of internal damnation. If you don't eat meat, right, it is not good or bad. Food is just food. Food is nourishment, and so we need to remove this good or bad labeling instead, replacing it with. Calorie dense. So things that are higher in calories, things that are more high in saturated fats and you know, more, uh, sodium or anything like that. Just more calories versus nutrient dense where there's more vitamins and minerals and fiber and antioxidants. That is a very good way to differentiate between the two terms instead of good food versus bad food. So let's maybe just clear that up a little bit. But pizza is not bad. Pizza is just gonna sit there and be pizza. It's gonna live its best pizza life, and we're gonna sit there and we're going to make a decision about whether or not we are going to choose to make a decision to enjoy it or not enjoy it. Pizza is not the enemy here. It is the restriction or the rebellion that is underneath this, this particular meal in front of you of. Am I gonna restrict myself because diet culture has programmed me to think that way. Or am I gonna be rebellious and just chuck it all out the window and be like, whatever, F everything, fuck it all. I'm not gonna care. I don't care. Why should I care? Right. So like there is some underlying. Emotions here. There's some underlying issues that I think are really important to acknowledge and even address. So you can't tell yourself you can't have something because you actually light up a part of your brain that wants it even more we've all done that where we've said, I'm just gonna cut out this food forever and never gonna touch it again. And then you end up just craving it more. And then you end up binging it and eating the whole thing. Because the self-control and the willpower have gone out the window because you tried for so long to be quote unquote perfect. Right? And so when you don't give in and allow yourself an occasional indulgence, you do that. You go all in, you binge because you've already decided, well, I blew it. I might as well just eat the whole thing now. And so then you end up feeling even worse because you ate so much that now you're physically ill. And then mentally you just don't feel like you, you've, you've won right? you feel like a failure. And so then you just have this kind of double whammy that has, that has happened, and then you beat yourself up and then there's a cycle. And then we just kind of like spiral, right? Like, we all have done this at some point, I'm sure. Myself included. I mean, cheesecake may or may not have happened once or twice in my life, and then I felt physically ill after eating the whole thing. And so it is about this shift in understanding that it's not about willpower, it's about finding a strategy. So again, we need to figure out. How we can set ourselves up for success because our brain needs a plan. And so if you have some kind of a plan, even if it's not complete detail, all figured out. But if you have some kind of a plan that you can resort back to. Then your brain knows, okay, we've got this figured out. I don't need to panic. So pizza night can happen and you're gonna have a plan in place, and then you're gonna be like, okay, cool. This is gonna happen and I'm okay about it because I know tomorrow. This is the plan. And so then you set yourself up for success by having this really beautiful strategy in place so that you don't have to say it. Well, I blew it. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna give up. And so if your plan doesn't make room for some indulgences, then we need to shift into this all or nothing approach or chuck it all out the window to, I am going to figure out some kind of a. System A, a plan, I'm gonna have something in place so that when chocolate needs to happen, or chocos needs to happen or you know, whatever is happening, you can go, I am okay. I can stick to my plan. And then tomorrow I know that there is another plan in place. And then your body goes, okay, cool. We, we can trust that there is a plan and a strategy that is gonna keep us moving forward. So let's just go ahead and keep rolling with this, uh, pizza analogy. And go ahead and think of your health, like building a pizza, physically making and assembling a pizza. So you've gathered all the ingredients, you went to the store, you have all these. Different things sitting out on your counter and you're gonna build this pizza. So you know you have to start with a crust. You know that there's gotta be some kind of a foundation down there to build the rest of your beautiful pizza. And so, you know, you can do different kinds of crust, I'm sure there's all kinds of different stuff out there. But you think of your crust as your non-negotiables. It is literally the foundation of the pizza. It's the foundation here that we're gonna talk about. So those non-negotiables are like your sleep. Hydration, hitting enough protein, uh, getting movement in that you actually enjoy, right? The non-negotiable things that you have said, I am going to commit to these. I'm going to make them happen. So that is your crust. The sauce is your structure. You can have all different kinds of sauce. You could have a marinara, you could have a pesto, you could make something up, you could have a cheese sauce. I don't know the world's your oyster, right? Like maybe don't put oysters on there, but you have this structure. That is how you plan, how you shop, how you prep your food, how you make your meals work for your goals, right? That is your sauce. That is what goes on top of the crust. We know this. Okay, and then on top of that sauce is your variety of different toppings. The toppings in this scenario. Are your flexible components. They are the things that you can say, I'm going to choose to put this on there. I'm going to choose to change it up. I can put on all these different things, so those can be. Literally having a pizza night, having a date night with your partner going out on a girl's night, going out and doing something, you know,'cause it's your kid's birthday or grandma invited you over for dinner or what have you. Right? Like those are the things that you can choose to do different things. You can have whatever you want, right? Like, make it beautiful, make it tasty. Again, if you only have toppings but no crust, your pizza's gonna fall apart. If you have the crust and sauce without the toppings, it's boring as hell and you probably don't want to eat it. Like it's just gonna be this really bland, doey thing that you're just like, it's just missing something. Right? So you need all three. You need the crust. You need the sauce, and you need your toppings and a healthy, badass life needs and understands this. They understand that you've got the non-negotiables. You understand that there is the structure there, but you also understand that there is going to be some things that are just. They're gonna happen organically or you get to choose how they're gonna happen. And that is the beauty of living a beautiful, joyous life, is understanding that other things are gonna just spontaneously happen. You're gonna get invited over last minute to go do something, and all of a sudden you're gonna be like, all right, I'm gonna do that because that brings me joy. And to understand that that is where life happens. Life happens in a lot of that spontaneous. Completely randomness, and that is absolutely beautiful. So the pizza test that you can ask yourself is if someone brought over a pizza right now, like it could be your very favorite pizza from your favorite place, and all of a sudden someone is standing on your doorstep saying, I've got this, this pizza for you. Could you enjoy a couple of slices without spiraling? Could you sit and enjoy and eat this pizza without spiraling? Could you eat a couple of slices and pack away the rest for later? Could you do it without guilt? Could you do it without punishing yourself the next day or shaming yourself or any of these other, self-deprecating ways? If the answer is no, then there's some work to do around food, the neutrality of it and the self-trust part of it, and. It doesn't mean that you can never eat pizza. It means you can have the pizza and still hit your protein target tomorrow and still get your workouts in. And still feel good in your body. It is not an and or situation. It is an and both situation. So that is what balance really looks like. It's not about being perfect, it's about being consistent. And a couple of questions that I have found to be very useful. It is asking yourself. Whatever event or situation that you might be in, and all of a sudden there's a food there that you want to eat. It's asking yourself, do I really want it and is it worth it to me? And just having a moment to pause and ask yourself those two questions is really quite interesting because it's giving you just a minute to breathe. A minute to think. And if you say, yes, I really do want this food, and yes, it is worth it to me to eat it right now, then go enjoy it. Go enjoy the damn pizza. If you're like, no, I don't really want it, but yeah, like I, it's there. I'll eat it. Okay. Well that's again, like, that's a no. Then like don't, don't push yourself to have something, for those of us who are celiac and lactose intolerance or have other food issues. Obviously don't push yourself to eat anything that is something that doesn't align with what you need to do for your own safety. You know, you don't wanna go and say, yeah, I wanna go eat that thing, and I know it's gonna put me into anaphylactic shock. Obviously that's a no. Um, you know, I constantly have to ask myself. Is this food worth it? And is it celiac safe? Is it lactose safe? Because I, it's just not worth it to me to go and eat something that doesn't align with those things. But those are slightly different topics, but still slightly relevant of course. So, you know, it's, it's asking yourself when you're in the middle Of the social event, uh, we get caught up in chatting with other folks and being present and being in the moment that we are just maybe shoving food in our face and not realizing that you've just gone through like four bowls of chips and you can just pause enough to be like, okay, I need to check in with myself. Like, nobody else needs to know that's what you're doing. You can just say, I'm, I'm gonna take a second. And so I think that's just really helpful to ask yourself, is it worth it? And do I want it? So the micro commitments that keep you from abandoning yourself is really, again, those small little commitments that you have made. Intentionally that you have said, I'm going to show up for myself in this way, and so I wanna talk about this all or nothing, approach a little bit further that people often think like, oh my gosh, I just need you to tell me what I need to eat. You just need to come in and clear everything outta my pantry, overhaul everything. Just, you know, take everything out and, and I'll only eat chicken and broccoli from here on forward, and I'm going to immediately be like. That's not gonna work, and I'm not gonna do that for you because it's not sustainable. Nobody will ever die a happy life eating only chicken and broccoli there. I've said it, you know, because we have to remember that we have gotten to where we are today doing a lot of things up until this point. We cannot just go in and do this drastic overhaul and expect it to be sustainable. You have to go in and say, I'm gonna make one small change this week. I'm going to drink three less sodas. I'm only gonna have two sodas this week, and I'm gonna add in one 30 minute. You're not taking anything away, you're just cutting down on the portion size. That was number one. And number two was putting in a small micro commitment of I'm gonna add in an exercise component that's sustainable. Okay. And then the next week, maybe we'll say, all right, only one soda drink a week and I'm gonna increase my workout, uh, my walk or my workout by up to 45 minutes. So it's making small little changes that you can sustain, that you can say. Well, it was, it was actually not that big of a deal to cut down from however many sodas down to this many sodas and the next week down to the next, you know, small change. And it's one of those things that people often say, oh, that was just, I didn't even notice. That was just, it was so easy. I, I really just. It became second nature, and that's exactly what it needs to become, is that these small changes, you almost don't really notice them. Maybe at first you're like, oh, I just have to build an awareness to build it into my routine. And then from there, it's not a big thing to continue onward. It's just this is what I do now, you know? And so again, these small micro changes and remembering that you didn't get here today. All in one go. You got here by several small changes, and now if you want to move in a different way, it's the same where you have to make these small little changes, these little course corrections to get away from where you are now. And so. It's eating differently. It's eating mindfully. It's, I'm not gonna have pizza three times this week. I'm just gonna have it once and I'm going to put the leftovers in the freezer. So then next week when I want a slice of pizza, I can heat up one slice of pizza and I can carry on with my day. It's not just all of a sudden going full clean eating and I'm never going to eat pizza again. It is figuring out how you can make it work for your life. You don't wanna burn out from what you're doing. You don't wanna say, I did it for two weeks. I'm over it. Done. I'm going back to what I was doing. Oftentimes I see that, and it's sort of heartbreaking because someone wanted to change. But the change itself was too big of a leap that they didn't have little steps built in to get there. So again, it is just asking yourself, how can I set myself up for success so that I don't end up binging on everything and giving up on these goals that I really do deep down want to achieve? And so instead, we build in these little micro commitments of. Okay, I would like to work up to having a 60 minute workout session three times a week. I'm gonna start with 20 minutes two times a week, and then next week I'm gonna change it a little bit and I'm gonna continue to get myself onto the right trajectory to get there. I can't meal prep the whole week, okay? But I could meal prep for three days worth of dinners. I could figure out what three days worth of dinners look like. I can purchase the food, I can have it prepped, and then that way I know three days are already covered. And then I'm gonna figure out the next part of the week, you know, maybe end of day two and beginning of day three. I'm starting to think about the rest of those days. If you wanna have pizza. Think about how can I add a salad to this? How can I add some protein to this? How could I, you know, maybe just change it a little bit so it's a little bit more intentional. But again, it's, if you are in a moment where you are in a social setting and you're around the people that you care about and love, and you're just having the best time of your life, one meal is not gonna kill you. Right? Enjoy the damn pizza tomorrow. Get back on track, right? Like just know it doesn't have to be perfect. I don't want you to make it perfect. I want you to enjoy the damn pizza. I hope you're figuring this out. I hope you're understanding this. So again, it's also checking in with yourself. What do I have to give today? Can I align with as much as I can give right here, right now, knowing that maybe this afternoon or tonight things are gonna be different because maybe it's a Friday night and I do actually wanna go out and have dinner with friends, family, whatever. Whomever. So up until that point, until that happens tonight, I am gonna still be intentional with my walk, my workout, I packed my meals up until four o'clock, let's say, and I'm gonna make sure that up until four o'clock I have everything set up. And then dinner time is just gonna be dinner time and that's gonna be its own special moment. And so again, just sort of. Setting yourself up for success here. So this is just building the self-trust. It is building that connection with your body to know I am doing an and both. I am honoring my goals and I'm also enjoying my social life. I am enjoying being around my friends, my family. I'm gonna go have this special event and celebrate, you know, what have you. Birthday, holiday. You know, oftentimes we forget that. The culture and the social and the religious aspect of food is what brings us together. And so don't forget that there is a place for that and to honor that. You know, you have a cultural background or a social background or a religious background, and you have different food celebrations. Through there and to enjoy that because that brings in your community together. And I think that is a really beautiful thing that not many people really talk about. But food is emotional, it's social, it's all of these really beautiful things. So again, it's not a binary thing. It's not a good or a bad thing. So here's my rule of thumb for balance is 80% of the time eat those nutrient dense foods. Make sure you're fueling your body, getting protein in for your recovery after your weight training session. Make sure you're getting your hydration in all of those things. And 20% of the time, eat for the joy of it. Eat for the connection of the people in the community that you're with and enjoy it with a, I'm going to be here and be present mindset instead of a, I shouldn't be eating this. Oh my God, oh my God. Like the shaming of it, right? So again, just being mindful of what you are consuming and enjoying those bites of food. 0% of the time, shame not allowed, not welcome here. Okay. We're just gonna go ahead and put that 0% shame welcome. Um, balance is about just being there and being mindful. And it's not about being lukewarm, it's about being strategic. You're not cheating when you eat pizza. You're living and you're living with intention. you're being mindful. So you know that you're a badass. When you stop starting over. Every Monday, you have dessert without turning it into a binge. You don't earn your food with your workouts. You treat rest days as part of the plan, not as a weakness. You trust yourself enough to enjoy the pizza without burning the whole damn thing down. That is the badass energy and that is what we're building. Your healthiest, strongest self is not built in perfect weeks. It is built in the real ones. It is built on the days you pivot instead of quit. It is built in the moments you choose connection over control, and then you show up for yourself the next day. So the next time you're staring at a slice of pizza and wondering if you should know that you can. you will enjoy it because you've built the structure that allows you to have both. Your mantra for the week is, I can have my pizza and my progress too, because I built my life with intention and here are a few thoughtful journal prompts. Where in my life am I still living in the all or nothing trap? This could be food, it could be some other thing in your life. Sit with it for a moment. What's one way I can add flexibility without losing my foundation? Here are this episode's. Top takeaways. Number one, all or nothing thinking keeps you stuck in shame and inconsistency. Number two, pizza is not the enemy. Restriction is number three. A sustainable strategy includes the foods you love, not just the healthy ones. Number four, your health is like a pizza. You need the crust, which are your non-negotiables, the sauce, which is the structure and the toppings, which is the joy. Number five, micro-commitments are better than massive overhauls. Small actions create the real momentum. Number six, you can't build food freedom if you still believe you have to earn your food. Number seven, balance is not passive. It's intentional, and you can have both the pizza and the progress. Thanks so much for hanging out with me today. Whether you're walking, lifting, folding, laundry, and listening, or just taking a moment to reflect, I'm proud of you for showing up. This journey is not about being perfect. It's about being honest, being present, and learning how to lead yourself with clarity. If this episode hit home for you, please take a moment to share it with a friend. Leave a review and comment. It really does mean the world or subscribe to the Badass Avocado newsletter@asforavocados.com, where you get real talk, fitness tips, nutrition tips, and all around badass. Read delivered straight to your e mailbox every week. And if you're ready for real results that coaching, which starts September email me or fill out an application spots are limited and are filling up fast. Just remember, you're not broken. You're just building, and you're a hell of a lot closer than you think. See you next week, your little badass. Stay bold, stay nourished, and keep thriving.