Why Diets Keep Failing Us: Body Trust, GLP-1s & Making Peace with FoodWhy Diets Keep Failing Us: Body Trust, GLP-1s & Making Peace with Food
Busy Living Sober with Host Elizabeth Chance
Host Elizabeth Chance talks with coach and author Regina Oswald about diet burnout, GLP-1 medications, body trust and emotional eating. Their conversation focuses on moving away from control and shame toward a calmer, more respectful relationship with food and the body.
38:10•20 Aug 2026
Why Diets Keep Failing and How to Build Body Trust Instead
Episode Overview
- Early comments about weight and appearance can shape decades of body shame and restrictive dieting.
- Regina argues that “diets fail you” because they keep the body in stress, triggering bingeing and health issues rather than lasting change.
- Hunger is described as a helpful signal, like a fuel gauge, and shutting it down completely (including with GLP-1s) can lead to malnourishment and muscle loss.
- Moving from body control to body trust involves kinder self-talk, questioning whether you’re hungry for food or emotional comfort, and building mind–body harmony.
- Practical changes like starting meals with fibre and balancing plates with protein and complex carbs are suggested as gentler, sustainable habits.
“You don’t fail the diets. Diets fail you.”
Curious about why every shiny new diet seems to work once, then falls apart spectacularly? This conversation between host Elizabeth “Bizzy” Chance and coach, author, and fashion designer Regina Oswald digs into exactly that pattern, and why so many women are exhausted by it. Regina shares how she started restrictive dieting at 12, growing up in a family where weight and body comments were constant. She recalls hearing things like, “Your hips are too big.
Stop eating,” and explains how those early messages taught her to fight her body instead of listen to it. Decades of dieting left her with binge eating, hair loss, iron deficiency anaemia and early menopause, until she realised, “You don’t fail the diets. Diets fail you.” You’ll hear Regina talk about shifting from body control to body trust, treating the body as a “temple for my soul” rather than a project to fix.
She breaks down why chronic dieting keeps the body in stress, why the same diet rarely works twice, and how hunger is more like a fuel warning light than a character flaw. The chat also tackles GLP-1 medications, with Regina comparing them to a sharp sword: useful for quieting constant “food noise” when used wisely, but risky when used to obliterate hunger entirely.
She stresses the danger of malnourishment, muscle loss and disconnection from emotional needs when food is stripped down to a number on a scale. For anyone in sobriety or broader recovery who swapped alcohol for rigid food rules, this episode offers a relatable look at control, shame and self-worth.
Regina and Elizabeth keep things practical too, from simple plate-building (fibre, protein, complex carbs) to tiny mindset shifts like asking, “Am I hungry for food, or for a hug, a nap, or some quiet?” If you’re tired of feeling like your worth hangs on a number, this chat might have you asking a braver question: what would it look like to actually make peace with food and your body?
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