Why Body Image Can Feel Harder After You Stop Dieting

Food Freedom Files Ep. 1 | The Relationship You Never Meant to Have with Food

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 [http://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 [https://meredithmackenzie.ca/intuitive-eating-program] 💻 Book a Connection Call [https://calendly.com/hello-meredithmackenzie/connection-call] Website [https://meredithmackenzie.ca/#hero] - www.meredithmackenzie.ca [http://www.meredithmackenzie.ca] Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/dr.meredithmackenzie/] - @Dr.MeredithMackenzie [https://www.instagram.com/dr.meredithmackenzie/] Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/meredithmackenziecoaching/] - Meredith MacKenzie Coaching [https://www.facebook.com/meredithmackenziecoaching/] Pinterest [https://ca.pinterest.com/parallelwellness/] - pinterest.com/drmeredithmackenzie [http://pinterest.com/drmeredithmackenzie] Youtube - @Dr.MeredithMackenzie [https://www.youtube.com/@dr.meredithmackenzie]

From the Scorecard to the Mat: Sky Corbett-Methot on Healing Through Movement

In this episode, Dr. Meredith MacKenzie sits down with Sky Corbett-Methot, a yoga teacher, holistic nutritionist, and community creator whose prenatal, baby and me, and mama-centric classes have shaped Dr. MacKenzie's own relationship with movement. Sky shares her history as a high-performance gymnast and competitive diver, the abuse and injury that ended her athletic career, and how motherhood became the catalyst for building movement spaces rooted in community rather than competition. This is a conversation about what happens when movement stops being something done to the body and becomes something done with it. Key takeaways * Sky's years as a high-performance gymnast involved 35+ hours of training a week, coaching abuse, and a culture where pain and bodily signals were routinely overridden — patterns she has spent years unlearning * A devastating injury, paired with the loss of her closest teammates, marked the breaking point that ended her gymnastics career at fifteen * The phrase "do what feels good" is an intentional invitation, not a vague platitude — it's permission to check in with the body rather than push through it * Sky describes her classes as "circular communities," spaces where women move through prenatal, baby and me, and mama-centric seasons together, supported the whole way Movement can be both healing and energizing, but the same movement pushed past its limit can become depleting — the difference lies in whether it's goal-oriented or attuned to the body Guest bio Sky Corbett-Methot is a yoga teacher, holistic nutritionist, and community creator based in the Vancouver area. She holds a 500-hour Tantric Hatha Yoga and Meditation certification and additional training in prenatal, baby and me, mobility, and children's yoga. Her academic background spans anthropology and psychology. Sky will be joining the One Body to Love Day Retreat as a panellist this year. www.skyyogawellness.ca / www.instagram.com/skyyogawellness 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 [http://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 [https://meredithmackenzie.ca/intuitive-eating-program] 💻 Book a Connection Call [https://calendly.com/hello-meredithmackenzie/connection-call] Website [https://meredithmackenzie.ca/#hero] - www.meredithmackenzie.ca [http://www.meredithmackenzie.ca] Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/dr.meredithmackenzie/] - @Dr.MeredithMackenzie [https://www.instagram.com/dr.meredithmackenzie/] Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/meredithmackenziecoaching/] - Meredith MacKenzie Coaching [https://www.facebook.com/meredithmackenziecoaching/] Pinterest [https://ca.pinterest.com/parallelwellness/] - pinterest.com/drmeredithmackenzie [http://pinterest.com/drmeredithmackenzie] Youtube - @Dr.MeredithMackenzie [https://www.youtube.com/@dr.meredithmackenzie]

What I've Learned From Watching Women Heal Together

In this episode, Dr. Meredith MacKenzie reflects on what 14 years of working with women in group settings and her first One Body to Love Day Retreat has taught her about how healing actually happens. This episode is for any woman who has tried to work through her relationship with food in private, and wondered why it felt so hard to get it to stick. * 00:00 — Why Meredith no longer sees herself as the magic ingredient to her clients' change * 02:16 — How early career group work shaped her understanding of relational healing * 03:30 — Recapping the first One Body to Love Day Retreat and what surprised her most * 06:59 — The clinical case for healing in community: attachment, trauma, and the nervous system * 09:17 — What attendees said, and what Meredith wants every woman to carry out of the room * 11:37 — About the upcoming June 21 retreat and who it's for 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 [http://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 [https://meredithmackenzie.ca/intuitive-eating-program] 💻 Book a Connection Call [https://calendly.com/hello-meredithmackenzie/connection-call] Website [https://meredithmackenzie.ca/#hero] - www.meredithmackenzie.ca [http://www.meredithmackenzie.ca] Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/dr.meredithmackenzie/] - @Dr.MeredithMackenzie [https://www.instagram.com/dr.meredithmackenzie/] Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/meredithmackenziecoaching/] - Meredith MacKenzie Coaching [https://www.facebook.com/meredithmackenziecoaching/] Pinterest [https://ca.pinterest.com/parallelwellness/] - pinterest.com/drmeredithmackenzie [http://pinterest.com/drmeredithmackenzie] Youtube - @Dr.MeredithMackenzie [https://www.youtube.com/@dr.meredithmackenzie]

When Being in a Room Full of Women Who Understand Changes Everything

Most women who are working on their relationship with food are doing it alone. Not because no one cares — but because the spaces around them weren't built to hold this kind of conversation. Friends are still deep inside diet culture. Therapy offers real support, but it's still just you and one other person. Social media communities exist, but the scroll is not the same as being in the room. In this episode, Dr. Meredith MacKenzie explores what changes when you finally find a space that was built differently. One where you don't have to manage what you share or scan someone's face to see if you've said too much. One where the acceptance is real and the nervous system — for the first time in a long time — can actually rest. Meredith walks through three things that happen in that kind of community that information on its own can't replicate: the moment of recognition that dissolves shame in a way no book can, witnessing a real person embody what you've only read about, and the nervous system experience of being genuinely safe. This episode is also a direct conversation for the woman who has done all the reading, understands the psychology, and still feels stuck — and what that actually means. In This Episode You'll Hear * Why the isolation around this struggle isn't random — and the real structural reasons it's so hard to talk about food and bodies [2:08] * Why being in a room with women who "get it" does something to shame that nothing else quite replicates [4:31] * The difference between reading a testimonial and witnessing a real woman embody change — and why one reaches the part of you that still doesn't believe it yet [6:55] * The nervous system piece: what it actually means to be in a genuinely safe space, and why that isn't just emotional comfort [7:30] * A direct message for the woman who knows it all intellectually and still feels stuck [8:30] * Why information changes what you think, and experience changes what you feel — and which one this kind of healing lives in [9:04] * Details about the One Body to Love Day Retreat and what past attendees have said about what shifted [11:00] 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 [http://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 [https://meredithmackenzie.ca/intuitive-eating-program] 💻 Book a Connection Call [https://calendly.com/hello-meredithmackenzie/connection-call] Website [https://meredithmackenzie.ca/#hero] - www.meredithmackenzie.ca [http://www.meredithmackenzie.ca] Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/dr.meredithmackenzie/] - @Dr.MeredithMackenzie [https://www.instagram.com/dr.meredithmackenzie/] Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/meredithmackenziecoaching/] - Meredith MacKenzie Coaching [https://www.facebook.com/meredithmackenziecoaching/] Pinterest [https://ca.pinterest.com/parallelwellness/] - pinterest.com/drmeredithmackenzie [http://pinterest.com/drmeredithmackenzie] Youtube - @Dr.MeredithMackenzie [https://www.youtube.com/@dr.meredithmackenzie]

ADHD, Dopamine, and Why Food Feels So Loud

If food has always felt louder for you than it seems to for everyone else — more urgent, harder to reason with, almost impossible to just leave alone — you have probably been given a lot of advice that doesn't actually work. Not because you weren't trying. Because the advice was never designed for the way your brain works.  In this episode, Dr. Meredith MacKenzie gets into the neurological explanation for why food feels the way it does for women with ADHD (or those who suspect they might have it). This isn't a willpower conversation. It's a dopamine conversation — and understanding the difference changes everything. In this episode you'll hear: •       [00:00] When food takes up the whole room •       [02:18] ADHD as a dopamine regulation issue — and what that has to do with food •       [03:50] Sensory hunger and why certain foods feel almost magnetic •       [05:20] The executive functioning gaps that make standard advice fall apart •       [05:30] Emotional dysregulation and why emotional eating makes sense in this context •       [07:30] Why mindful eating, meal planning, and trigger-tracking often miss the mark for ADHD •       [10:07] 'You are not failing the approach. The approach has been failing you.' •       [11:40] Five directions that actually work with an ADHD brain •       [14:29] Why naming the mechanism is often the thing that shifts the relationship with it   Resources Mentioned •       Food Freedom Rewind (free private podcast): meredithmackenzie.ca/rewind •       One Body to Love Retreat waitlist: meredithmackenzie.ca/retreat   If this episode was the first time food and ADHD were ever named in the same sentence for you — that matters. There is a framework that fits. You just haven't found it yet. 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 [http://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 [https://meredithmackenzie.ca/intuitive-eating-program] 💻 Book a Connection Call [https://calendly.com/hello-meredithmackenzie/connection-call] Website [https://meredithmackenzie.ca/#hero] - www.meredithmackenzie.ca [http://www.meredithmackenzie.ca] Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/dr.meredithmackenzie/] - @Dr.MeredithMackenzie [https://www.instagram.com/dr.meredithmackenzie/] Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/meredithmackenziecoaching/] - Meredith MacKenzie Coaching [https://www.facebook.com/meredithmackenziecoaching/] Pinterest [https://ca.pinterest.com/parallelwellness/] - pinterest.com/drmeredithmackenzie [http://pinterest.com/drmeredithmackenzie] Youtube - @Dr.MeredithMackenzie [https://www.youtube.com/@dr.meredithmackenzie]