One Body to Love with Dr. Meredith MacKenzie

You know you're not hungry. You eats anyway. And the shame that follows feels heavier every time.
In this episode, Dr. Meredith MacKenzie offers the most compassionate reframe in the series: emotional eating is not weakness, and it's not a bad habit. It's a coping mechanism that developed for real reasons — and understanding what it's actually doing is the only way to build a genuinely different relationship with it. This episode names the specific emotions that most commonly drive emotional eating, challenges the "just find other coping strategies" advice that never quite lands, and introduces a practical tool for beginning to create space between the urge and the response.

Key takeaways:
Why emotional eating is a coping mechanism, not a character flaw
What emotional eating is actually doing neurologically and emotionally
The specific emotions most commonly underneath the pattern: boredom, loneliness, stress, anxiety, overwhelm
Why "go for a walk instead" misses the point — and what real alternative coping looks like
The shame loop: how shame about emotional eating drives more emotional eating
The 10-15 minute pause: what it is, what it isn't, and how it creates space without restriction

This week's reflection prompt:
The next time you notice the urge to eat when you're not physically hungry — what if you got curious? What emotion is present? What need is underneath it?

Final reminder: Code SUMMER10 at meredithmackenzie.ca/summer — $10 off Food Freedom in a Weekend. Last week of the series next week.

Ready to go deeper? Food Freedom in a Weekend is Dr. Meredith MacKenzie's self-paced mini-course — two hours of video, a workbook, and a personalised food freedom plan built around your patterns. Use code SUMMER10 at www.meredithmackenzie.ca/summer for $10 off. Available for the full six weeks of this series.

One Body to Love 10-Week Intuitive Eating Program
💻 Book a Connection Call

Website - www.meredithmackenzie.ca
Instagram - @Dr.MeredithMackenzie
Facebook - Meredith MacKenzie Coaching
Pinterest - pinterest.com/drmeredithmackenzie
Youtube - @Dr.MeredithMackenzie

You start every week with resolve. And end most of them in the same place you started.
In this episode, Dr. Meredith MacKenzie names the "I was so good all week" spiral — one of the most common, most demoralising patterns in her clinical work — and explains exactly why it keeps happening. This isn't a discipline problem. It's a structural one. The controlled week and the chaotic weekend are two sides of the same coin, and understanding why the control creates the blowout is the shift that makes a different approach possible.

Key takeaways:
Why the "good week / bad weekend" rhythm is a cycle, not a failure pattern
How describing eating as "good" creates the conditions for the Diet Rebel
What the meal prep week that slides is actually telling you — and why it's not a food problem
The all-or-nothing thinking pattern: how one "off" choice becomes a lost week
What flexible structure actually looks like: planning easy meals and fun meals with equal legitimacy

This week's reflection prompt:
What does the beginning of your week look like with food? What does the end look like? And what does the gap between them tell you — not about your discipline, but about the approach itself?
Ready to go deeper? Food Freedom in a Weekend is Dr. Meredith MacKenzie's self-paced mini-course — two hours of video, a workbook, and a personalised food freedom plan built around your patterns. Use code SUMMER10 at www.meredithmackenzie.ca/summer for $10 off. Available for the full six weeks of this series.

One Body to Love 10-Week Intuitive Eating Program
💻 Book a Connection Call

Website - www.meredithmackenzie.ca
Instagram - @Dr.MeredithMackenzie
Facebook - Meredith MacKenzie Coaching
Pinterest - pinterest.com/drmeredithmackenzie
Youtube - @Dr.MeredithMackenzie

You've tried everything. You keep trying. And the cycle is still running.
In this episode, Dr. Meredith MacKenzie goes into the biology and psychology of why — and why "trying harder" was never going to be the answer. Drawing on the foundational work of Tribole and Resch, this episode explains what restriction actually does to the body at a hormonal and neurological level, names the three phases of the restrict-binge cycle in specific, recognisable terms, and addresses the woman who says "I don't diet" — because mental restriction is enough to keep the cycle going.

Key takeaways:
The three phases of the restrict-binge cycle: restriction, binge, aftermath — named and normalised
The biology of restriction: what your body is doing and why it's not a character flaw
The breathing analogy: why the binge is a predictable outcome, not a personal failure
Mental restriction: the quiet, internal version of dieting that keeps the cycle running without a formal plan
Why both biology and emotion drive the cycle — and why both need to be addressed
This week's reflection prompt:
Where in the cycle do you tend to find yourself most often? What does your version of restriction look like — formal or informal?

Use code SUMMER10 at meredithmackenzie.ca/summer for $10 off Food Freedom in a Weekend.
Ready to go deeper? Food Freedom in a Weekend is Dr. Meredith MacKenzie's self-paced mini-course — two hours of video, a workbook, and a personalised food freedom plan built around your patterns. Use code SUMMER10 at www.meredithmackenzie.ca/summer for $10 off. Available for the full six weeks of this series.

One Body to Love 10-Week Intuitive Eating Program
💻 Book a Connection Call

Website - www.meredithmackenzie.ca
Instagram - @Dr.MeredithMackenzie
Facebook - Meredith MacKenzie Coaching
Pinterest - pinterest.com/drmeredithmackenzie
Youtube - @Dr.MeredithMackenzie

You understand the cycle. You've done the reading. You might even agree, in theory, with intuitive eating. And you're still stuck.
In this episode, Dr. Meredith MacKenzie names the three internal voices that keep the restrict-binge cycle running — even in women who know better. The Food Police, the Nutrition Informant, and the Diet Rebel aren't random thoughts. They're patterns, installed over years of living inside diet culture. And naming them as distinct from your own voice is one of the most disarming things you can do.
Key takeaways:
Why the "knowing-doing gap" isn't a willpower problem — something is operating underneath
The Food Police: what it is, where it came from, and why it gets louder with every diet
The Nutrition Informant: the sneakier voice that sounds like wellness but functions like restriction
The Diet Rebel: why she exists, why she's not the problem, and what she's responding to
The Intuitive Eater: the voice that was there before all of it — and how to start hearing her again
Ready to go deeper? Food Freedom in a Weekend is Dr. Meredith MacKenzie's self-paced mini-course — two hours of video, a workbook, and a personalised food freedom plan built around your patterns. Use code SUMMER10 at www.meredithmackenzie.ca/summer for $10 off. Available for the full six weeks of this series.

One Body to Love 10-Week Intuitive Eating Program
💻 Book a Connection Call

Website - www.meredithmackenzie.ca
Instagram - @Dr.MeredithMackenzie
Facebook - Meredith MacKenzie Coaching
Pinterest - pinterest.com/drmeredithmackenzie
Youtube - @Dr.MeredithMackenzie

You've started over more times than you can count. Not because you lack discipline — but because every fresh start has been aimed at the surface of the problem, not the root of it.
In this episode, Dr. Meredith MacKenzie opens The Food Freedom Files — a six-episode summer series on what's really going on underneath your relationship with food. Episode 1 introduces the iceberg: the history, the emotional patterns, and the deeply personal chapters that shaped the way you eat today. Because understanding where you came from is the only place any of this actually begins.
Key takeaways:
Why the restrict-binge cycle isn't a willpower problem — and what it actually is
The iceberg concept: what's above the surface vs. what's really driving the pattern
The "I don't have an eating disorder, but..." moment and why it matters
The food journey map: how tracing your food history creates the compassion the cycle has been blocking
Why "of course you're here" is the reframe that changes everything

This week's reflection prompt:
What is the most challenging part of your relationship with food right now? And if things could magically be different — what would be different?
Ready to go deeper? Food Freedom in a Weekend is Dr. Meredith MacKenzie's self-paced mini-course — two hours of video, a workbook, and a personalised food freedom plan built around your patterns. Use code SUMMER10 at www.meredithmackenzie.ca/summer for $10 off. Available for the full six weeks of this series.

One Body to Love 10-Week Intuitive Eating Program
💻 Book a Connection Call

Website - www.meredithmackenzie.ca
Instagram - @Dr.MeredithMackenzie
Facebook - Meredith MacKenzie Coaching
Pinterest - pinterest.com/drmeredithmackenzie
Youtube - @Dr.MeredithMackenzie