Shohreh Davoodi
[CW: Discussion of weight loss and dieting behaviors] Today is my four-year wedding anniversary. In September of 2015, my partner and I got married on a sweltering day in the Texas Hill Country surrounded by towering oak trees and the people we loved most. I was (and am) so proud of our wedding because we read more
Approximately 2-3 times per year I get strong cravings for Dr. Pepper. Normally I’m not much of a soda drinker (kombucha gives me my fizzy fix). But when that soda desire strikes, instead of telling myself that it’s “bad” for me or trying to ignore it, I know I need to get myself a Dr. read more
It used to be the case that whenever I would sit down for a meal, I would run through a series of food rules in my head before choosing what to eat. I scanned nutrition labels, mining for information that would let me know if I was “allowed” to eat that particular food, refused to read more
Diet culture is all around us. It influences how we speak and exercise, what we eat and wear, and even how we feel about and talk to ourselves. We are living and breathing diet culture every day, yet most people don’t even know it exists. That’s because it is so deeply embedded into our lives read more
Due to intuitive eating’s rise in popularity over the last few years, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of it before. Perhaps you’ve seen a personal trainer dismiss intuitive eating as an excuse to gorge on junk food and never exercise. Or maybe you’ve read a blog post from a nutrition coach heralding intuitive eating read more
It’s the moooooost wonderful tiiiiime of the yeeeeear! Or at least it can be. I, for one, love the holidays. This is the time of year I watch the movie, The Holiday, multiple times, fill my house with decorations (I have a light-up unicorn, dinosaur, narwhal, and penguins that hang out in my front yard), read more
When a potential client first comes to me, their mindset around exercise has been formed from a lifetime of opinions from others. Most of us have not had much opportunity to discover how we feel about moving our bodies on our own. Instead, we’ve developed our reasons to exercise from our parents, our gym teachers, read more
As a wellness coach, I get asked a lot of questions about exercise, nutrition, and health. It comes with the territory of my job, and for the most part, I enjoy helping people sort through the noise so they can get reliable information. What I love a little less is how often I get asked read more
I’m a wellness coach who works with clients both in person and online, and I’m also a graduate of the Online Trainer Academy. I decided to write an Online Trainer Academy review for other trainers and coaches who are thinking about taking the course. Through the material taught in the OTA, I have been able read more
When I describe myself as a weight-inclusive coach who doesn’t focus on weight loss, I get a lot of confused looks and questions. This makes sense in a culture that insists that: What we put in our mouths is a moral issue and will either cure us or kill us. Exercise exists for us to read more
My one-year trapeze anniversary recently passed, and celebrating it made me reflect on how much embracing joyful movement has changed my view of exercise over the course of my life. As a child, I was very active and participated in karate, soccer, and basketball. But after I left organized sports behind and went through puberty, read more
“Body positivity” has become a buzzword concept of late. Even though the idea may be new to many, the movement grew out of the fat-acceptance movement of the late 60s. Today, influencers and brands are jumping on the body-positive bandwagon in hopes of capitalizing on the trend. The core message of body positivity is that read more
I have a laundry list of foods that I know I’m “supposed to” eat because they’re “good for me” but that I just can’t bring myself to actually eat. Many of these are so-called “superfoods,” a clever marketing term for foods rich in nutrients that are supposed to be beneficial for our health and wellbeing, read more
There’s a good chance you’ve been on at least one diet in your lifetime, and you may even be dieting right now. While keto is the current heavyweight champ of the dieting world, past popular diets have included such gems as the grapefruit diet, WeightWatchers, SlimFast, Atkins, Paleo, and Keto. But diet marketers are also read more
Earlier this week I bought, opened, and finished a full-size bag of Zapp’s Voodoo flavor potato chips all on the same day. While I didn’t eat the chips in one fell swoop (it was two fell swoops, actually), I would definitely classify that volume of chips in a regular day as overeating for me. The chips read more
Recently I was chatting with my friend, Ally, and she told me a story about an exchange she had with a guy at the gym where she works out. She was doing squats in the squat rack, getting ready to do a warm-up set with 90 lbs on the bar. While she had the barbell read more
Is it just me, or does it feel like with every year the holidays come around faster and faster? Not that I’m complaining. The period of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is my favorite time of year. I love decorating the house with merry and shiny things, cooking and eating holiday specialties (pie, please!), and read more
Like many people, I enjoy perusing Pinterest and looking at the array of tasty recipes, DIY Halloween costumes, home décor, craft ideas, and other fun stuff. When I need ideas for anything involving making or decorating, it’s the first website I go to. I mean, who doesn’t want to make a planter out of an old read more
