The Midlife Feast

Most of us can still remember the diet ads from our youth. We can't remember why we walked into the kitchen, but we can remember the jingle.
My guest this week is Lu Chekowsky, an Emmy Award winning creative director who spent her career inside the industry, spending time at MTV and Facebook, all while quietly struggling with her own body. Her memoir, Don't Buy What I'm Selling, traces the origin of how those messages shaped her, and how she found her way back out.
We talk about the ads that shaped Gen X, what really happens in the room when a campaign gets built, and why Lu says we are outnumbered. She means that as a kindness.
If you have ever wondered why the food noise is so loud, and why diet culture is everwhere, this one will explain a lot.
Learn more about Lu and where to buy her book at https://www.lchekowsky.com/
Related episodes:
Menopause and Body Image: How to Accept Your Changing Body with Alli Spotts-De-Lazzer
Why You Don't Trust Yourself Around Food (and How to Rebuild It) with Fiona Sutherland
Day 1: How to Un-Diet in Midlife and Menopause
Need help un-dieting your way out from diet culture? 
Book a 20-minute Midlife & Strategy Session Call: https://p.bttr.to/3DQX9SF
Exlore the Feaster community and find food freedom and body confidence: https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/themidlifefeastcommunity
What did you think of this episode? Click here and let me know!
📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now!  Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.

Welcome to a new season of The Midlife Feast! I'm kicking off this season by naming the mindset that might be making things harder: treating your body, midlife, and menopause like an ongoing project to manage. 
I walk through what that costs, how it shows up in real life, and how we can shift from obsessive optimization to a steadier partnership with our bodies, including:
• the core question that changes everything: what if your body wasn’t a project to solve?
• the moving finish line and why “enough” never arrives
• the audit mode where meals and movement become performance metrics
• how tracking, wearables, and nonstop data can disrupt body attunement
• the betrayal narrative  and my own reminder that these thoughts can show up even after years of intuitive eating
• shifting from project manager to partner and the questions that create ease
 
Related Episodes
The One Thing Menopause Dietitians Want You to Know About Nutrition with Laura Clark, RD
Why You Don't Trust Yourself Around Food (and How to Rebuild It) with Fiona Sutherland
How to Appreciate Your Changing Menopause Body with Dr. Charlotte Ord
Want more support?
Free Un-Diet Your Mindset Guide→ https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/undietyourmindset
Join my Group Coaching Community free for 7 days → https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/7daytrial
Book a no-strings connection call (virtual coffee with me) → https://p.bttr.to/3DQX9SF
And if you've loved today's conversation and found it helpful, please share it with a friend who needs to hear this and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. 

What did you think of this episode? Click here and let me know!
📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now!  Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.

Welcome to Day 5, the final episode of the Midlife & Menopause Un-Dieting Mini-Series!
Over the last four days, we've explored four pillars that can help you build a more trusting, flexible relationship with food: understanding, self-compassion, attunement, and gentle nutrition.
But what happens when you put them all together?
In this episode, we're looking at the fear that stops many people from letting go of food rules: If I stop dieting, does that mean I stop caring about my health?
The answer is no!
You'll learn how to use nutrition knowledge without turning it into another set of rules, and how to care for your health without making food a full-time job.
Because the alternative to dieting isn't giving up. It's finding a way of eating that actually works for real life.
Free support to get you started:
Un-Diet Your Mindset → https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/undietyourmindset
Food Guilt Decoder → https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/FoodGuiltDecoder
Want more support?
Try the Midlife Feast Community free for 7 days → https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/7daytrial
Book a no-strings connection call (virtual coffee with me) → https://p.bttr.to/3DQX9SF
Related episodes:
Day 1 → https://www.buzzsprout.com/1851576/episodes/19715276
Day 2 → https://www.buzzsprout.com/1851576/episodes/19720938
Day 3 →https://www.buzzsprout.com/1851576/episodes/19721372
Day 4 →https://www.buzzsprout.com/1851576/episodes/19728345
What did you think of this episode? Click here and let me know!
📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now!  Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.

Welcome back to Day 4 of my Midlife and Menopause Un-Dieting series. Yesterday I asked you to sit with one question: what do I want?  It's sometimes easier to outsource "what should I eat?" than to honestly ask what you want. Today we add the other half: what do I need? And that's where gentle nutrition comes in.
Un-dieting doesn't mean throwing nutrition out the window. It means bringing it in as information, not another set of rules. The trap is that diet culture has made weight loss a proxy for everything, and I firmly believe that your health should not become a full-time job!
So we come back to the question of this series: what would taking care of myself look like if I didn't require my body to get smaller in return? That widens the lens.  That's what I love about gentle nutrition: instead of asking what to cut out, you get to ask what you can add. 
Your practice for today: ask what do I want, then add what do I need, and see what happens when you let both into the conversation.
Tomorrow is Day 5, where we bring all four pillars together so food and eating  feel easier. Because menopause is hard enough. Food shouldn't be!
Free support to get you started:
Un-Diet Your Mindset → https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/undietyourmindset
Food Guilt Decoder → https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/FoodGuiltDecoder
Want more support?
Try the Midlife Feast Community free for 7 days → https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/7daytrial
Book a no-strings connection call (virtual coffee with me) → https://p.bttr.to/3DQX9SF
Related episodes:
Day 1 → https://www.buzzsprout.com/1851576/episodes/19715276
Day 2 → https://www.buzzsprout.com/1851576/episodes/19720938
Day 3 →https://www.buzzsprout.com/1851576/episodes/19721372
What did you think of this episode? Click here and let me know!
📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now!  Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.

Welcome to day 3 of the Midlife & Menopause Un-Dieting Series. If you’ve spent years following food rules, tracking what you eat, or being told you can’t trust yourself around food, “just listen to your body” can feel like a foreign language.
In today’s episode, we’re talking about attunement - what it actually means, why your hunger and satisfaction cues may feel hard to hear, and how to start reconnecting with them.
I also share a very real-life reminder that capability and capacity are not the same thing, plus a simple 10-second practice to try before your next meal.
Free support to get you started:
Un-Diet Your Mindset → https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/undietyourmindset
Food Guilt Decoder → https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/FoodGuiltDecoder
Want more support?
Try the Midlife Feast Community free for 7 days → https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/7daytrial
Book a no-strings connection call (virtual coffee with me) → https://p.bttr.to/3DQX9SF
Related episodes:
Day 1 — How to Un-Diet in Midlife and Menopause → https://www.buzzsprout.com/1851576/episodes/19715276
Day 2 → https://www.buzzsprout.com/1851576/episodes/19720938
What did you think of this episode? Click here and let me know!
📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now!  Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.