Thrive Beyond Size

Today’s episode is a little shorter than usual, but it dives deep—literally—into the body. Michelle shares what she’s been learning about two often-overlooked players in our physical and emotional well-being: the fascia and the psoas muscle.

Though rarely discussed in traditional medical training, these structures play a crucial role in how our bodies hold onto stress and trauma, and why safety in the body is so essential for healin...

We’ve all heard the statistic: 95% of diets fail.
But what about the 5% that don’t?
What’s really going on when someone does lose weight and keep it off?

In this episode, I share a personal conversation with my husband, Rob, that sparked a deeper dive into what “success” in diet culture actually looks like—and whether the elusive 5% is something we should be striving for at all. From relentless control and genetic privilege to disorde...

We all have days (or weeks… or seasons) where everything feels like it’s falling apart—when you’re exhausted, overwhelmed, and have nothing left to give. So what do you do on those days? In this episode, Michelle shares a deeply personal story about a tough Friday night and the small, nourishing decision that changed everything. It’s a story about tuning in, honoring your needs, and reconnecting with your body in the simplest of wa...

Summer is often seen as the season of joy—sunshine, connection, spontaneity, and play. But for many, it also brings body image triggers, food anxiety, and pressure to do summer "right." In this reflective solo episode, Michelle unpacks the paradox of summer: how it can be both a healing balm and a battleground.

You'll hear:

• Why summer can feel more intuitive and nourishing—but also more vulnerable
• How body image struggles and food...

This week on Thrive Beyond Size, Michelle shares a powerful story of envisioning her future self—a vibrant, joyful, fat elder woman—and the unexpected emotional release that followed. But what started as a profound moment of body acceptance was quickly disrupted by a trip to TikTok that served up a harsh reminder of the world we’re still living in.

What Michelle saw was a spectrum of extremes:
🔹 Reel after reel celebrating weight lo...

This week on Thrive Beyond Size, we’re lightening things up with a more personal, vulnerable episode. Michelle shares how her intuitive eating journey unexpectedly led her into the world of tarot cards, moon rituals, crystals, and meditation—and why she now embraces practices she once would’ve rolled her eyes at.

Far from being flighty or irrational, these “woo woo” practices helped her anchor into her body, slow down, and reconnect...

In this follow-up to last week’s conversation about trauma and weight, Dr. Michelle Tubman explores a crucial truth that doesn’t get talked about enough: you can’t listen to a body you don’t feel safe in.

While intuitive eating is often positioned as the antidote to food struggles, it’s not always the right starting point—especially for those navigating trauma, chronic stress, or deep disconnection from their bodies. If you've ever ...

This week on Thrive Beyond Size, Michelle dives into a growing narrative in the trauma-informed wellness world: that if you heal your trauma, you’ll lose weight.

While well-meaning, this belief is not only overly simplistic—it’s harmful.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why trauma can influence weight—but doesn’t always
• What the ACEs study really tells us about trauma and health outcomes
• How intergenerational trauma  may shape body si...

In this urgent and deeply moving episode, Michelle sits down with Emma Cloney and Diana Dimmock—two powerful advocates from Lipedema Canada—to talk about the medical condition most clinicians have never even heard of, despite its potential to affect 1 in 9 women.

Together, they dive into:

• What lipedema actually is—and how it differs from lymphedema and obesity
• Why lipedema is painful, progressive, and devastating when left untreat...

What happens when you ask your husband for his unfiltered opinions on diet culture, fitness myths, and wellness fads? You get Hot Takes with Rob—a lighthearted, totally unscripted episode where Rob and I riff on everything from gym selfies and cheat days to dad bods, fat jokes in movies, and whether "no pain, no gain" still has a place in our lives.

Expect laughter, surprising insights, and some real talk about body image, food rule...

What happens when you want to move your body more—but it always feels like a “should”? In this episode, I’m sharing a personal story from a recent camping trip with my husband, Rob, that sparked a meaningful conversation about movement, motivation, and mindset.

Together, we unpacked what’s really getting in the way of consistent, joyful movement—even when we know it’s good for us. Spoiler: it’s not laziness. It’s the pressure, the l...

What if your eating habits could teach you more about how you move through the world than you ever imagined?

In this deeply personal episode, I share insights sparked by a recent labyrinth walk—one that cracked open an uncomfortable (but necessary) realization about how I navigate discomfort in all areas of life, not just around food.

You’ll hear:

• Why I’ve been rushing through everything—and how that mirrors my relationship with f...

Healthism is everywhere—but most of us don’t even know it has a name. In this powerful episode of Thrive Beyond Size, Dr. Michelle Tubman unpacks the hidden force that turns health into a moral responsibility and worth into a measurement of discipline. From the praise of weight loss at any cost to the judgment we place on food, movement, and rest, Michelle explores how healthism intersects with fatphobia, ableism, diet culture, and...

This week, I’m joined by award-winning author Paulette Stout for a powerful conversation about her latest novel, What We Give Away—a book that absolutely blew me away.

We explore how fiction can illuminate truths in ways facts and figures can’t, and why Paulette’s story of a woman navigating disordered eating, body image, and diet culture feels so real, so needed, and so affirming.

We talk about:

• Why she chose to tackle diet cultu...
  

Welcome to Episode 200 of Thrive Beyond Size! 🎉

This milestone episode is deeply personal. I'm pulling back the curtain on my full journey—from launching this podcast in my bedroom closet under the name Mindful Weight Loss… to becoming a fierce advocate for body trust, intuitive eating, and weight-inclusive care.

In this episode, I share:

The truth behind why I kept my early weight-loss episodes online

My painful turning points—from b...

In this episode of Thrive Beyond Size, I'm diving into something that's been showing up in my own intuitive eating journey lately—something sneaky that might be tripping you up too: the difference between pleasure and familiarity.

Sometimes we reach for certain foods, habits, or even thought patterns not because they truly bring us joy or nourishment—but because they’re familiar. They’re predictable. And in a world that feels overwh...

Hello there, and welcome back to the podcast. In last week’s episode, I used the phrase ‘food freedom’ in the context of food being a mirror to show the relationship you have with yourself. But upon reflection, it doesn’t make sense. Food freedom is a phrase that is used a lot in diet culture and weight loss circles. But what is food freedom? It sounds catchy, but it’s an illusion. We don’t actually need freedom from food because f...

Welcome, everyone. I’m excited to have you back here this week because I want to talk to you about something truly life-changing. I call it the mirror effect. It has to do with diet culture telling us to fix our eating and fix our bodies when really those are not the issues. There’s nothing wrong with our bodies. I want to make the point that true freedom is releasing ourselves from the belief that we have to change our bodies to c...

Hello everyone and welcome back to Thrive Beyond Size. This episode was partly inspired by my husband returning to school and watching how meticulous he is about his assignments. The effort he puts into things is admirable but not sustainable and I realized that striving for perfection is about the illusion of control. It correlates to healing relationships with food in a very real way. If you’ve spent years trying to control food,...