The End of Dieting and Starting to Live with Caitlin BallThe End of Dieting and Starting to Live with Caitlin Ball
Katherine Arati Maas
Katherine talks with holistic health coach Caitlin Ball about moving away from restrictive dieting toward intuitive eating and a more relaxed relationship with food. Their conversation connects emotional wellbeing, everyday life pressures and mindful eating, particularly for women in recovery who feel stuck on the diet rollercoaster.
0:00•3 May 2016
Quitting Diets and Learning to Trust Your Body with Caitlin Ball
Episode Overview
- Intuitive eating focuses on listening to hunger cues and cravings, which can reduce overeating and even support weight loss without strict rules.
- Highly restrictive diets often lead to cycles of deprivation, bingeing, guilt, and a slowed metabolism rather than lasting change.
- Guilt around food tends to lessen when choices are made for the “right reasons”, such as genuine enjoyment, rather than to push down emotions.
- Non-food factors like clutter, stress, relationships, and work can heavily influence eating habits, so addressing these areas can ease food struggles.
- Small, steady changes and mindful meals are more sustainable than short-term challenges or all-or-nothing sugar and diet cleanses.
“If you let go of all those restrictions and start eating what you want, whenever you want, you're actually going to be better off.”
Curious about how others manage their relationship with food while staying sober and sane? This conversation between host Katherine and holistic health coach, yoga instructor, and food blogger Caitlin Ball speaks directly to women who feel stuck on the diet rollercoaster and are tired of counting every calorie.
Caitlin shares how her love of food started early, how she spent around 15 years bouncing between Weight Watchers, juice cleanses, Whole30, paleo and even “weird soup diets,” and what finally shifted when she moved to Zurich and started travelling more.
Fed up with swinging between holiday binges and strict diets, she tried intuitive eating and was surprised to find that, “I started doing that, and the first couple weeks I ate so much bread and cheese and ice cream… and I didn’t gain any weight. I actually started losing weight.” You’ll hear her explain intuitive eating in simple terms: learning hunger cues, noticing what your body actually wants, and dropping the guilt so you can genuinely enjoy food.
Katherine and Caitlin talk frankly about using food like alcohol – to numb feelings, to control life when everything else feels chaotic, or to cope with boredom. The chat also highlights how much “non-food” stuff affects eating. Caitlin shares a client story where the real issue behind constant overwhelm at mealtimes was… a messy closet. Once that was sorted, cooking felt far less daunting.
From sugar cravings and dark chocolate habits to comfort food, mindfulness at mealtimes, and the emotional pull of labels like paleo, vegan or gluten-free, the pair keep things honest, practical and compassionate. If you’re in recovery, or simply exhausted by dieting and ready to feel normal around food again, this episode might get you asking: what does my body actually need right now?
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