🔄 When budget culture meets diet culture w/ anti-diet dietician Lean Kern

EPISODE SUMMARY

Rachel Duncan, Financial Therapist, and Leah Kern, RD, an anti-diet dietician from the Shoulders Down Podcast explore the striking parallels between budget culture and diet culture.

How do these two systems use similar tactics of restriction, shame, and unrealistic standards to keep us trapped in destructive cycles?

The conversation explores:

1. How both diet and budget culture are rooted in white patriarchy and privilege

2. The binge-restrict cycle that happens with both food and money

3. How understanding the "want beneath the want" can help break these cycles

4. Why shame is never an effective motivator for lasting change

💬 "It's not the money, it's the restriction."

Key takeaways from the episode:

1. Both budget culture and diet culture promise simple solutions but fail to address deeper emotional needs

2. The "f- it" moment happens in both cycles when restriction becomes unbearable

3. Progress isn't linear - healing your relationship with money or food means the magnitude and frequency of binges decreases over time

4. Often our spending or eating addresses an unmet need - identifying that "want beneath the want" is crucial

5. Creating micro-moments of pleasure throughout the day helps prevent end-of-day binges

6. Social media normalizes and even celebrates disordered relationships with both food and money

7. True healing often means rebelling against cultural norms and expectations

GUEST INFO

Leah Kern is an anti-diet dietician, certified intuitive eating counselor, and host of the "Shoulders Down" podcast. She helps people heal their relationship with food and body through intuitive eating principles and challenging diet culture.

 

⏰ EPISODE BREAKDOWN

1. [00:15:08] The binge-restrict cycle and how it applies to both money and food

2. [00:23:00] The "want beneath the want" - identifying deeper needs behind impulse spending

3. [00:42:16] Discussion about addiction - parallels and differences with food and money

4. [00:53:46] The impact of social media and "hauls" on our relationship with money

📚 RESOURCES MENTIONED

1. Leah Kern RD - Intuitive Eating Starter Pack

2. The Year of Less - Memoir about overcoming shopping addiction

3. Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy approach

4. Burnout by Emily and Amelia Nagoski - Discussion of the stress cycle

💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Send us your stories of consumer culture, diet culture, and budget culture showing up in ads, marketing or other messaging! We'll collect stories for an upcoming episode of the pod. Click on the big orange button on our site right from your phone or browser and leave a voicemail sharing your experience.