#185: PCOS and Managing Your Health Without Dieting with Julie Duffy Dillon
Rebuilding Trust With Your Body
Release Date: 05/20/2025
Rebuilding Trust With Your Body
Do you feel like dieting is where you shine? Where you can follow the plan, feel in control, and you feel like you’re doing something positive for yourself?...But when you’re not dieting everything falls to pieces and suddenly you’re stuffing your face with cookies and feeling like crap? Dieting offers a sense of structure, security, and the hope that if you just “stick with it” and “do it right” that you’ll have the body (and life) of your dreams. My guest today is a client of mine who grew up in a home shaped by diet culture where her mother was...
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Losing weight would make you happier, healthier and more confident, right? In this episode we’re going to look at what happens when weight loss doesn’t deliver on its promises. I know that this might be hard to hear, but the grass truly isn’t always greener, and even if you don’t believe me (yet) I want you to listen to this episode and hear me out. I’m sharing some facts that might surprise you, and several real life stories and examples that will blow your mind and help you look at your weight differently. This isn’t about giving up on yourself or weight...
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Let’s lay it all out on the table. What feels hard about letting go of dieting? What is holding you back from going all-in with intuitive eating? If we were sitting down on the couch, cozy under blankets with a cup of coffee or tea, what would you tell me about where you feel stuck, scared or uncertain right now? In this episode, we’re digging into the costs of what you lose when you step away from dieting, and stop chasing weight loss. (Because the truth is, it ain’t all sunshine and rainbows.) We’re also going to talk through how to navigate this “messy...
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I used to think that in order to be healthy I had to avoid things like carbs, and fat...and basically anything that tasted good. Even as a dietitian, I got sucked into thinking of food as good/bad, and I approached my eating with restriction being my strategy for health. It wasn't until I flipped things around and started practicing "nutrition by addition" and embracing ALL foods as part of 1) listening to my body, and 2) overall balanced eating, that I saw how it's totally possible to get healthier while eating bagels, pasta, ice cream, and Oreos. That's because the all-or-none...
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Find yourself doing well with your eating during the week, only to end up bingeing on the weekends? Here’s the fix. Let’s face it, whether you’re on a diet, or you’ve been doing intuitive eating (or you’re somewhere in between), weekends are harder with food. There are social events, dinners out, cocktails, tailgates, bridal showers, your kids’ sporting events, and so many things that can throw you off your normal eating routine…and lead to a binge…on the weekends. In this episode, I’m giving you real, simple, and doable ways to stop the weekend binges, so that...
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Let’s be real: the info online about health, wellness and nutrition can be confusing and overwhelming. What’s legit? What’s true? What does it mean for YOU and your body? In today’s episode I’m walking you through the current trends that I’m seeing in the industry as a dietitian, the new diets on the horizon, hot topics in pop culture and healthcare, and what’s worth paying attention to right now for your health. We’re going to cut through the noise, make sense of the science, and call out the BS nonsense that’s out there. Trust me, I’m not holding...
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Around here, no food is off limits. ALL foods can fit (unless you’re straight up allergic to them, obviously). And just like nothing’s off limits with food - nothing’s off limits with your questions. In this Ask Me Anything episode, I’m answering YOUR burning questions that members of my submitted, and grab the fire extinguisher because they’re comin’ in H-O-T-T. Questions Answered: ❓ If I still want to lose weight, does that mean I’m not fully integrating intuitive eating into my life? ❓ Does anyone lose weight with intuitive eating? ❓...
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If you’re wondering how the heck my clients are eliminating overeating and judgmental thoughts, without going on another restrictive diet or giving up their 10pm ice cream…it’s because they’re rewiring all the sneaky ways diet culture still lives rent-free in their heads. >> It’s about learning how to respond when the old patterns come roaring back. >> It’s about WHAT TO DO when it’s 9pm and you’re standing in front of the pantry with zero hunger AND… It’s about rebuilding trust with your hunger cues, ditching the food guilt, and...
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Curious what I say to my clients who want to do intuitive eating AND they still want to lose weight? (Spoiler: This is most of my clients when we first get started.) I am embarrassed to say this, but earlier in my career, I used to tell people, “I don’t do weight loss” and would send them on their way. I wasn’t even willing to help them. Now I meet my clients where they are at. I’m still not going to put them on a diet, but I absolutely will help them explore their relationship with food, their concerns about their weight, what they’re hoping weight loss...
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Whenever someone asks me how they’re supposed to ditch dieting if they have high cholesterol, I love opening their eyes with the wide array of strategies that can help lower their numbers - without cutting out things like butter or eggs, and meticulously logging everything in MyFitnessPal. In this episode, I’m taking you behind-the-scenes on how I discovered I have high cholesterol at 22 years old, and the multitude of things I’ve done to manage it (some strategies more effective than others). I share the things that help, the things that were too extreme, and what I’m...
info_outlinePCOS and managing any health condition that calls for dietary changes can be really challenging when you’re also trying to stay off diets and heal your relationship with food.
My guest today is a fellow non-diet dietitian. Julie Duffy Dillon is a Registered Dietitian and Host of Find Your Food Voice®, a popular long running nutrition podcast. Through speaking and writing, she helps people with a complicated relationship with food strategize how to remove the shame and blame dumped on them from the diet industry. Her work has been featured on TLC and in the New York Times, Outside Magazine, Shape and other outlets. She is the author of the book, Find Your Food Voice.
We cover a lot of ground in this conversation - including what it’s like coming up as a dietitian in the medical field that very much subscribes to a weight-centric model of care, and we both spilled some tea about the inner reckonings we had that shook us and caused us to change the path we were on in our careers.
We also talked about emotional eating - Julie has a hot take on this that you don’t want to miss.
Julie shares some great strategies for how to navigate health conditions like PCOS, HTN, diabetes, IBS, high chol, and things like that without getting sucked back into dieting.
Make sure you listen towards the end for the part where Julie talks about the concept of “finding your food voice” which is such a cool concept that is going to help you to silence diet culture and your inner critic as you are learning to trust yourself with food.
As you can tell, this is an incredible conversation, so pop in your ear buds, push play and get ready to be inspired!
Episode Highlights
-Why Julie bailed on the nutrition class she was teaching 5 minutes into it and almost got fired.
-How chronic illnesses like PCOS, diabetes, high blood pressure, IBS, and high cholesterol impact our relationship with food.
-PCOS and what mainstream medical culture gets wrong about it.
-Finding your “food voice” and how this will help you make peace with food.
Resources Mentioned
- Connect with Julie Duffy Dillon on social media @FoodVoiceRD
- Grab a copy of Julie’s book Find Your Food Voice
- Julie Duffy Dillon’s website
Read the full episode show notes here.
Resources for Your Intuitive Eating Journey
- Intuitive eating education on the blog
- Work with Katy
- Explore the self-paced mini-course Stepping Off The Dieting Rollercoaster
Connect with Katy Harvey
Website: KatyHarvey.net
Instagram: @katyharvey.rd
Facebook: KatyHarveyRD
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