As this episode drops on New Year’s Day, I’m sharing a reflective vision for 2026—rooted not in resolutions or goals, but in patience, presence, and trust. I talk about how my work and personal life are evolving, including A Year of Coming Home, my growing focus on nervous system regulation, embodiment, yoga, and intuitive eating, and the personal practices shaping this next chapter. This episode is an invitation to move into the new year with more gentleness, curiosity, and alignment—both in your body and in your life.

In this Christmas Day episode, Michelle reflects on the past year through the lens of her word for 2025: rhythm. Rather than measuring success by productivity or transformation, she explores what it meant to honor her body’s pace—especially through perimenopause—by healing her relationship with movement, prioritizing nervous system regulation, and letting her lived experience shape both her life and her work. This episode is an invitation to soften self-judgment, rethink “follow-through,” and consider what real progress can look like when we choose rhythm over rigidity.

Boredom is an emotion many of us quietly struggle with—and one we often buffer with food, scrolling, or staying busy. In this episode, Michelle shares an insight from a yin yoga class where boredom showed up loud and clear, and uses it as a doorway into emotional awareness, nervous system wisdom, and body trust. You’ll explore what boredom may be trying to teach you, how to pause before you automatically escape it, and why learning to sit with “empty space” can change the way you respond to urges.

In this episode, Michelle shares a surprising, soul-stirring experience at a fine dining restaurant that reawakened her senses and her relationship with food. She explores what happens when we bring sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste back into eating—not as a diet trick, but as an act of reclamation, nervous system regulation, and deep nourishment.

In this episode, Michelle talks honestly about hitting a wall in early December—bone-deep exhaustion, endless cravings for warm, cozy foods, and a brain that just feels slower. She explores why this isn’t a personal failing, but a normal response to winter and end-of-year burnout, and how diet culture tries to turn a seasonal shift into a reason to “fix” your body. Instead of pushing harder, Michelle invites you to soften, listen, and work with your winter body, not against it.

In this episode, Michelle unpacks what she calls “chaotic eating” — those seasons when life gets busy, hormones are shifting, food feels confusing, and meals become irregular, reactive, and accidental. She shares honestly about her own recent struggles with perimenopause, overwork, and decision fatigue, and explores why chaotic eating is not a moral failure, but a reflection of a chaotic life. You’ll hear practical, compassionate ideas for creating gentle rhythms with food again, without turning it into another perfection project.

In this episode, Michelle pulls back the curtain on a word we’ve all been taught to accept as “neutral” and “medical”: ob*sity. She explores the racist roots of anti-fatness, how BMI became a proxy for health, and why this language does real harm in exam rooms, research, and everyday conversations. If you’ve ever felt labeled, shamed, or confused by the word “ob*se,” this episode will give you context, language, and a new way to think about bodies and health.

Michelle unpacks the loaded term “food porn” and how diet culture turned food imagery into something to fear. She contrasts her past—hiding cookbooks and avoiding cooking shows—with her present: peacefully thumbing through soup recipes and savoring food as art, memory, and comfort. This episode explores how permission, pleasure, and neutrality transform our relationship with food.

Listening to your body sounds simple… until your brain gets loud. In this episode, I share how I’m navigating movement and rest across yoga, walking, and strength training — teasing apart true body cues from fear, perfectionism, and old conditioning. You’ll hear practical questions to discern “care vs. fear,” how to trust the middle between effort and ease, and why rest is part of the rhythm, not an interruption.

After a listener kindly called me out for using the phrase “junk food,” I was reminded how powerful our words really are. In this episode, I share what that moment taught me about language, self-judgment, and how the way we talk about food and our bodies can either reinforce shame or deepen trust.

Fresh home from Morocco, Michelle unpacks the real lessons a three-week adventure can teach about body trust, joyful movement, food satisfaction, sleep, water, and the power of routine. This honest debrief explores the messy middle of growth—how far you’ve come, where you still get hooked, and what it looks like to re-enter real life with compassion and gentle structure.

“If I could just control my eating, my body, my schedule…then I’d finally feel at peace.” Sound familiar? In the final episode of Michelle’s myth-busting series, we take on the seductive promise of control—and why it always backfires. From diet rules and boot camps to productivity hacks and perfect morning routines, control offers the illusion of safety but delivers pressure, rebellion, and shame. Michelle unpacks the control paradox—the harder you grip, the more out of control you feel—and shows why real peace comes not from micromanaging but from trust. You’ll hear both the science (autonomy, survival responses, stress physiology) and personal stories of letting go, plus practical ways to experiment with trust in your own life.

“Thin equals healthy” is one of the most stubborn stories in modern medicine and culture—and it’s costing people care, dignity, and health. In part three of our myth-busting series, Michelle traces how BMI became medical shorthand, why correlation isn’t causation, and how well-designed studies (and a mountain of confounders like fitness, nutrition, access to care, stigma, and weight cycling) upend the simple “smaller is better” narrative. You’ll hear how weight stigma harms outcomes for people in all body sizes, why intentional weight loss doesn’t translate to long-term health, and what a weight-inclusive approach looks like in real life—behaviour-first, shame-free, and actually sustainable.

Is sugar really “like cocaine”? In part two of our myth-busting series, Michelle unpacks the popular claim that certain foods—especially sugar and carbs—are addictive in the same way as drugs and alcohol. Drawing on neuroscience, animal studies, and clinical addiction criteria, she explains why those dramatic headlines miss the mark and how restriction, deprivation, nervous-system overwhelm, and learned urgency can create the feeling of addiction without food being addictive. You’ll hear personal stories (hello, Tuesday night chocolate cake), plain-language science (what dopamine actually does), and a practical path out of the binge-restrict cycle—built on permission, satisfaction, nervous-system care, and self-trust.

n this first instalment of Michelle’s myth-busting mini-series, we take a hard look at the cultural story that “more discipline” is the magic key to success—in food, movement, work, and life. From ER shifts that drain every last decision-making drop to summer rhythms that suddenly collide with September hustle, Michelle traces how the willpower narrative sneaks in, why it backfires, and what actually helps. You’ll hear a clear, compassionate walkthrough of the science (think: willpower as a finite battery and your nervous system’s survival wiring), real-life examples, and five practical shifts you can use right away: compassionate curiosity, nervous-system support, flexible rhythms, environment and systems that do the heavy lifting, and—most importantly—self-trust. This episode sets the arc for the coming weeks: food addiction (next), thin ≠ healthy, and the myth of control.

September can feel like a clean slate—but that “reset” energy often sneaks in as diet culture in disguise. In this episode, Michelle shares how she personally got pulled into back-to-school mode, why resets backfire, and how to choose gentle recalibrations and nourishing rhythms instead.

In this week’s quick check-in, Michelle shares what’s on the horizon for Thrive Beyond Size and Wayza Health. From a massive giveaway and a brand-new free course to upcoming trauma training, workshops, and future programs, this episode gives you a sneak peek at what’s coming for the rest of 2025 and beyond.

In this episode of Thrive Beyond Size, Michelle shares a summer adventure in a corn maze that quickly turned from fun to frustrating—and how it became the perfect metaphor for navigating obstacles in life. From knowing when to persevere to recognizing when it’s time to pivot, Michelle explores how challenges shape our growth, and why trusting your limits is an act of wisdom, not failure.

When I read the headlines that Serena Williams is taking a GLP-1 medication — and that her husband is an investor in the very company producing it — it felt like a punch in the gut. This episode isn’t about one celebrity’s choices. It’s about what this represents in the bigger picture: the ways GLP-1 drugs are being marketed, the role of celebrity endorsements, and how diet culture continues to capitalize on our pain and shame. Together, we’ll look at what’s really being sold here, why it stings so much when even icons like Serena get pulled in, and how we can resist a system determined to shrink us.

When we think about growth—whether in health, life, or work—we usually focus on what we need to add: new skills, better habits, more productivity. But sometimes, real transformation comes not from piling on more, but from letting go. In this episode, I share a story from my backyard maples that taught me about the power of pruning, and explore how releasing old beliefs, habits, and expectations can create space for the quieter wisdom of our bodies and spirits to shine through.