Why the Way You've Been Taught to Build Habits Isn't Working for You w/ Monica Packer

How many times have you started a habit, felt good about it, and then watched it fall apart the second life got in the way? And then blamed yourself for it?My guest today has spent 20 years studying exactly WHY that happens, and her answer is going to reframe the whole thing for you.Monica Packer is a certified habits and identity coach, host of the top-rated podcast About Progress, and author of the upcoming book Sticky Habits: A Woman's Guide to Reclaim Happiness, Ditch Perfectionism, and Create Habits That Last. She's also a 20-year eating disorder recovery warrior, which made this conversation feel SO real and grounded.The big idea: the habit advice we've all been handed was built by and for people whose lives look nothing like ours. And because of invisible labor, women have less time, less energy, more interruptions, and less predictability than the system assumes. It was never going to work.In this episode, you'll learn:What the "underachieving perfectionist" actually looks like (and if you're one without knowing it)Why standard consistency advice fails women, and how to redefine itThe ideal vs. baseline habit framework that makes you stop breaking habits for goodHow every tiny baseline action rewires your identityThe one belief Monica wants every woman to walk away holdingConnect With MonicaPre-order Monica's book: Sticky Habits at stickyhabitsbook.com Monica's podcast: About Progress — search it wherever you're listening right nowMonica's Instagram: @aboutprogress🎥 Get Instant Access to my FREE workshop : How To Stop Feeling Obsessed With Food📲 Follow me for daily tips & resources on instagram! @sabrina.magnan.health💌 Get on my Food Freedom Weekly Newsletter here: https://site.sabrinamagnan.com/newsletter/🤝 Ready to get support in healing your relationship with food and your body? Join my signature program, Food Freedom Academy, to have step-by-step guidance, accountability and support. DISCLAIMER: Live Unrestricted and all content shared by Sabrina are for general informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Everything you hear is meant to support your relationship with food, not replace professional advice. This podcast is not therapy and Sabrina is not a licensed therapist. Any decisions you make based on this content are your responsibility. For any medical or mental health concerns, always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

You know you’re full. Your body it’s had enough. And yet something takes over and you finish the plate anyway.That's not a willpower problem. It's a pattern that got wired into your nervous system long before you were old enough to question it, so willpower was never going to be enough to touch it.In this episode, I'm walking you through 3 specific steps to actually rewire the "clean your plate" mentality for good — not just override it occasionally, but unlearn it at the level where it actually lives.We cover:Where this pattern comes from The specific mindsets driving the behavior now, including "getting my money's worth" and the scarcity belief that shows up even when food is plentifulWhy trying to change this in the moment almost never works, and what to do insteadHow to rehearse your way out of old patterns before you're in themIncluding the mindset shift that makes a big difference: your body is not a garbage can.This pattern can be unlearned. Even if it's been with you for decades.🎥 Get Instant Access to my FREE workshop : How To Stop Feeling Obsessed With Food📲 Follow me for daily tips & resources on instagram! @sabrina.magnan.health💌 Get on my Food Freedom Weekly Newsletter here: https://site.sabrinamagnan.com/newsletter/🤝 Ready to get support in healing your relationship with food and your body? Join my signature program, Food Freedom Academy, to have step-by-step guidance, accountability and support. DISCLAIMER: Live Unrestricted and all content shared by Sabrina are for general informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Everything you hear is meant to support your relationship with food, not replace professional advice. This podcast is not therapy and Sabrina is not a licensed therapist. Any decisions you make based on this content are your responsibility. For any medical or mental health concerns, always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

You can want something with your WHOLE heart and still have a part of you working against it.I got back from my Sedona retreat a couple of days ago and I have been DYING to record this episode. Because what came out of that trip, I did not see coming.I thought I'd released all the resistance around my goal. I'd been doing the work every single day for months. And then I sat around a fire with my two business girlfriends and completely fell apart, because I realized that part of me had attached achieving this goal to losing everyone I love, ending up alone, and somehow having to go into hiding after a Reddit thread. I am not kidding. That is where my subconscious had taken me.And if that sounds familiar, even a little? This episode is for you.In this episode, you'll learn:Why wanting a goal with everything you have doesn't mean all parts of you are on boardHow your subconscious quietly attaches your goals to worst-case scenariosThe "follow the thread" exercise for finding the hidden fear driving your food patternsWhy your nervous system finds failure more comfortable than successHow to do a "software update" so your goal finally feels safe to achieveIf you've been stuck longer than makes sense, this one's going to make things click for you.🎥 Get Instant Access to my FREE workshop : How To Stop Feeling Obsessed With Food📲 Follow me for daily tips & resources on instagram! @sabrina.magnan.health💌 Get on my Food Freedom Weekly Newsletter here: https://site.sabrinamagnan.com/newsletter/🤝 Ready to get support in healing your relationship with food and your body? Join my signature program, Food Freedom Academy, to have step-by-step guidance, accountability and support. DISCLAIMER: Live Unrestricted and all content shared by Sabrina are for general informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Everything you hear is meant to support your relationship with food, not replace professional advice. This podcast is not therapy and Sabrina is not a licensed therapist. Any decisions you make based on this content are your responsibility. For any medical or mental health concerns, always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

Eating disorders don't often look like what you might picture in your mind. We often dismiss what we're going through or experiencing because we're not "too thin" or needing to be hospitalized. But as you’ll hear in today’s episode, you don’t have to look sick to be struggling.I’m joined by Foster Wilson, a poet, postpartum doula, and podcast host whose work bridges creativity, care, and connection. After living with an undiagnosed eating disorder for over 20 years, Foster shares what it was really like to exist in the exhausting, all-consuming cycle of food noise, body shame, and perfectionism - all while appearing “fine” on the outside.Foster’s journey toward recovery began when she finally realized that her so-called “healthy habits” were actually keeping her trapped. Through intuitive eating, nervous system healing, and radical self-compassion, she learned to rebuild trust with her body and redefine what nourishment truly means. In this episode, you'll learn:What it’s really like to live with a “hidden” eating disorderHow perfectionism and people-pleasing fuel food anxiety and controlWhy letting go of food rules feels terrifying — and why that’s a good thingHow nervous system safety and self-compassion support food freedomThe healing power of vulnerability, creativity, and communityIf you’ve ever wondered whether what you’re experiencing “counts” as disordered eating, or you’ve struggled to quiet the mental noise around food, this episode will remind you: you’re not broken, and it’s never too late to heal your relationship with food and your body.Connect with Foster:🎙️ Beauty in the Break podcast 📖 Afternoon Abundance 🌐 www.fosterwilson.com 📸 Instagram🎥 Get Instant Access to my FREE workshop : How To Stop Feeling Obsessed With Food📲 Follow me for daily tips & resources on instagram! @sabrina.magnan.health💌 Get on my Food Freedom Weekly Newsletter here: https://site.sabrinamagnan.com/newsletter/🤝 Ready to get support in healing your relationship with food and your body? Join my signature program, Food Freedom Academy, to have step-by-step guidance, accountability and support. DISCLAIMER: Live Unrestricted and all content shared by Sabrina are for general informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Everything you hear is meant to support your relationship with food, not replace professional advice. This podcast is not therapy and Sabrina is not a licensed therapist. Any decisions you make based on this content are your responsibility. For any medical or mental health concerns, always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

If you've ever spent the weeks before a trip restricting, overexercising, and trying to "clean up" your eating — only to arrive and feel completely out of control around food — this episode is for you.I know what it's like when a vacation creates more food anxiety than genuine excitement. When you're stressing about it WEEKS before you leave, eat in a way that feels chaotic once you're there, and come home already planning how to compensate. The trip is supposed to be the good part. And it's just... exhausting.In this episode, I'm walking you through exactly how I eat while traveling now — as someone who has genuinely healed her relationship with food. From travel days and nervous system regulation, to eating out without anxiety, to eating more than everyone at the table without making it mean anything.I also talk about how I handle coming home — and why "getting back on track" now looks a lot more like slowing down than compensating.This isn't a set of travel eating rules. It's a window into what's possible when food stops being the thing you have to manage, and just becomes… food.🎥 Get Instant Access to my FREE workshop : How To Stop Feeling Obsessed With Food📲 Follow me for daily tips & resources on instagram! @sabrina.magnan.health💌 Get on my Food Freedom Weekly Newsletter here: https://site.sabrinamagnan.com/newsletter/🤝 Ready to get support in healing your relationship with food and your body? Join my signature program, Food Freedom Academy, to have step-by-step guidance, accountability and support. DISCLAIMER: Live Unrestricted and all content shared by Sabrina are for general informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Everything you hear is meant to support your relationship with food, not replace professional advice. This podcast is not therapy and Sabrina is not a licensed therapist. Any decisions you make based on this content are your responsibility. For any medical or mental health concerns, always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

Stephanie had been navigating a complicated relationship with food and her body since she was 15. On the outside, she had it “all together”. She was a teacher, a marathoner, an Ironman athlete - someone who got called disciplined and in control her whole life. For decades, she mostly convinced herself she was okay. But she wasn’t. In this episode, Stephanie shares what four decades of disordered eating and compulsive exercise actually looked like - how it shifted shapes over the years, what finally pushed her to do something different, and what life is like now.She talks about the messy middle of healing: letting go of the habits that kept you safe before anything replaces them. About going out for pizza and wings with friends and just... eating. Focused on the conversation, not the food.And she talks about what she'd say to the woman who's been struggling so long she's quietly stopped believing it gets better."I thought I was going to die with this," she says.She didn't. This one's for the woman who's starting to wonder if she will too.🎥 Get Instant Access to my FREE workshop : How To Stop Feeling Obsessed With Food📲 Follow me for daily tips & resources on instagram! @sabrina.magnan.health💌 Get on my Food Freedom Weekly Newsletter here: https://site.sabrinamagnan.com/newsletter/🤝 Ready to get support in healing your relationship with food and your body? Join my signature program, Food Freedom Academy, to have step-by-step guidance, accountability and support. DISCLAIMER: Live Unrestricted and all content shared by Sabrina are for general informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Everything you hear is meant to support your relationship with food, not replace professional advice. This podcast is not therapy and Sabrina is not a licensed therapist. Any decisions you make based on this content are your responsibility. For any medical or mental health concerns, always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to approach food with flexibility, ease and peace of mind?To just…listen to your body, eat what sounds good, and move on with your day?Well, this episode is going to show you! I'm taking you inside my internal world to share how I eat as a recovered disordered eater. Not WHAT I eat, exactly -  but how I think about it. The filters behind my decisions. The difference between choosing from fear and choosing from self-knowledge.I walk through a few days of eating, but the real takeaway isn't the food. It's the mindset behind it. One that took years to build, and that you can build too.In this episode: why the same food choice can come from two completely different places, why "just listen to your body" advice falls flat for so many women, and what it looks like when eating decisions finally become effortless.🎥 Get Instant Access to my FREE workshop : How To Stop Feeling Obsessed With Food📲 Follow me for daily tips & resources on instagram! @sabrina.magnan.health💌 Get on my Food Freedom Weekly Newsletter here: https://site.sabrinamagnan.com/newsletter/🤝 Ready to get support in healing your relationship with food and your body? Join my signature program, Food Freedom Academy, to have step-by-step guidance, accountability and support. DISCLAIMER: Live Unrestricted and all content shared by Sabrina are for general informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Everything you hear is meant to support your relationship with food, not replace professional advice. This podcast is not therapy and Sabrina is not a licensed therapist. Any decisions you make based on this content are your responsibility. For any medical or mental health concerns, always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

Most of us have been there. A hard day, a stressful afternoon, a moment where you're just…done. And before you've made any kind of conscious decision, you're in the kitchen. Eating something you didn't really plan to eat. Sometimes it feels chaotic and out of control.And it helps! For about two minutes. And then it doesn't. And then the guilt shows up, the emotions you were trying to escape come back, and you feel worse than before.If that loop sounds familiar, this episode is going to give you a completely different way to understand it.Because this isn't about willpower. It isn't really about food either. There's actual neuroscience behind why emotional eating feels so impossible to break. And once you understand this, things will start to make a lot more sense.In this episode, we cover:Why you're not actually "addicted to food" and what you're ACTUALLY craving insteadThe trigger–behavior–relief loop that makes emotional eating feel automatic and beyond your controlHow this pattern forms, often starting in childhood, and why it has nothing to do with weaknessWhy food takes up SO much space when it becomes your main source of comfort or reliefWhat the real goal is (hint: it's not better food control)Two journal questions to help you start seeing your own pattern more clearlyIf emotional eating has felt like something that just takes over no matter how hard you try, this episode is going to help you understand why. And that understanding is the beginning of actually changing it.🎥 Get Instant Access to my FREE workshop : How To Stop Feeling Obsessed With Food📲 Follow me for daily tips & resources on instagram! @sabrina.magnan.health💌 Get on my Food Freedom Weekly Newsletter here: https://site.sabrinamagnan.com/newsletter/🤝 Ready to get support in healing your relationship with food and your body? Join my signature program, Food Freedom Academy, to have step-by-step guidance, accountability and support. DISCLAIMER: Live Unrestricted and all content shared by Sabrina are for general informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Everything you hear is meant to support your relationship with food, not replace professional advice. This podcast is not therapy and Sabrina is not a licensed therapist. Any decisions you make based on this content are your responsibility. For any medical or mental health concerns, always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

You know when you’ve had a good stretch? You feel like you’re making progress. Things are quieter around food. You're not thinking about it as much. You’re actually noticing…change. But instead of relaxing into it, you find yourself waiting for it to fall apart. Waiting for the next shoe to drop. One of our Food Freedom Academy members asked me about this recently. She'd been making real progress less than a month in and she said: I keep noticing I'm braced for failure. Is that normal?Yes. And there's a specific reason it happens.In this episode, I'm breaking down why you get pulled back into old patterns right when things start to shift. Your body isn't working against you - it's responding to something unfamiliar. And to your nervous system, unfamiliar and dangerous feel identical, even when one of them is healing.You'll walk away understanding why the discomfort of progress is actually a sign the work is happening, what to do when your old identity starts making noise, and how to stay in the new without retreating to the old.If you've ever had a good stretch and found yourself just waiting for it to end, this one's for you.Follow the show so you never miss an episode, and come find me on Instagram @sabrina.magnan.healthxo, Sabrina🎥 Get Instant Access to my FREE workshop : How To Stop Feeling Obsessed With Food📲 Follow me for daily tips & resources on instagram! @sabrina.magnan.health💌 Get on my Food Freedom Weekly Newsletter here: https://site.sabrinamagnan.com/newsletter/🤝 Ready to get support in healing your relationship with food and your body? Join my signature program, Food Freedom Academy, to have step-by-step guidance, accountability and support. DISCLAIMER: Live Unrestricted and all content shared by Sabrina are for general informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Everything you hear is meant to support your relationship with food, not replace professional advice. This podcast is not therapy and Sabrina is not a licensed therapist. Any decisions you make based on this content are your responsibility. For any medical or mental health concerns, always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

We hear it all the time… “Just be consistent.” “Just stick to the plan.” “Just try harder.”But what if the reason you feel inconsistent, stuck, or like nothing is really clicking… has nothing to do with your effort?In this episode, I'm joined by Courtney Townley, women's health coach, host of the Grace & Grit podcast, and author of The Consistency Code - and we go way deeper than food, workouts, or routines.We talk about what it actually means to be physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy… and why so many women feel like they’re doing everything “right” but still don’t feel good in their lives.We live in a world of "info-besity." There's no shortage of protocols, plans, and programs telling you exactly what to eat, how to move, and who to be. And yet… you're still stuck. Still starting over. Still wondering why it feels so hard. Because real health isn’t about following a perfect plan. It’s about learning how to lead yourself through a life that is constantly changing.And if you’ve been stuck in cycles of starting over, feeling off track, or questioning yourself… this episode is going to completely transform your perspective.In This Episode, We Talk About:Why outsourcing your health keeps pulling you further from yourself — and what to do insteadThe concept of "info-besity" and why more information is not the solutionThe 4-part Consistency Code frameworkWhat self-trust actually is (hint: it's a practice, not a personality trait)Why busyness is often a hiding habit — and what you might really be avoidingThe campfire analogy that will completely reframe how you think about falling off trackWhy you cannot criticize yourself healthy — and what the science says about itThe one small shift you can make today to start unburdening your nervous systemAbout Courtney TownleyCourtney has been helping women take better care of themselves with more consistency and ease for over 20 years. She teaches women how to rebuild their relationship with themselves so they can experience deep health, purpose, and impact. She’s the host of the Grace & Grit podcast and the author of The Consistency Code.Connect With CourtneyWebsite: GraceandgritGrace & Grit with Courtney TownleyInstagram: Instagraminstagram.com/gracegritBook: TheconsistencycodeThe Consistency Code: A Midlife Woman’s Guide to Deep🎥 Get Instant Access to my FREE workshop : How To Stop Feeling Obsessed With Food📲 Follow me for daily tips & resources on instagram! @sabrina.magnan.health💌 Get on my Food Freedom Weekly Newsletter here: https://site.sabrinamagnan.com/newsletter/🤝 Ready to get support in healing your relationship with food and your body? Join my signature program, Food Freedom Academy, to have step-by-step guidance, accountability and support. DISCLAIMER: Live Unrestricted and all content shared by Sabrina are for general informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Everything you hear is meant to support your relationship with food, not replace professional advice. This podcast is not therapy and Sabrina is not a licensed therapist. Any decisions you make based on this content are your responsibility. For any medical or mental health concerns, always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.