Elise and I pick up our conversation from part one of her instant New York Times bestseller On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good.

In this episode, we take our conversation further and deeper, unpacking the sins of Envy and Sloth and their effect on women.

It’s rare I can talk to someone who understands the various perspectives on body image (including the ones where it has nothing to do with one’s body size) so it was a real treat to go to the depths. This includes why body positivity often misses the mark in supporting women’s relationship with their body. 

In our interview today, we discuss:

• The changing nature of what defines enough food “restriction” (Kate Moss’ 90’s heroine chic wasn’t the end!)
• The unconscious yearnings in feeling light and “high” from restricting food to feeling heavy and “low” from binging
• Why it’s important to pay attention to your envy and judgment of other women, including their bodies
• How scarcity and the sin of Sloth drive women to rush, overwork, and overdo
• The two sins no one has asked about in all her interviews and what’s the one thing she wishes would happen with her book that hasn’t.

About Elise

Elise Loehnen is a writer, editor, and podcast host who lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Rob, and their two sons, Max and Sam. She is the host of Pulling the Thread, a podcast focused on pulling apart the stories we tell about who we are—and then putting those threads back together. 

She’s also the author of the instant New York Times bestseller On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good (Dial Press/PRH). The book weaves together history, memoir, and cultural criticism to explore the ways patriarchy lands in the bodies of women and embeds itself in our consciousness—and what we then police in ourselves and in each other. 

Regardless of our religious provenance, the self-denial implicit in each of the Seven Deadly Sins—Sloth, Envy, Pride, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Anger—reads like a checklist of what it means to be a “good” woman. With awareness, we can begin to recognize these patterns of self-restriction, break the story, and move ourselves and each other toward freedom and balance.

Elise is a frequent contributor to Oprah, and has written for The New York Times, Elle Decor, Stylist, and more.

Mentioned in this Episode

Truce Coaching Certification (TCC)
Free TCC Sneak Peak

Why Am I Eating This Now Live?

A Cookie Isn’t Just a Cookie: Stop Stress Eating (free workshop on September 13, 2023)

Annually, Elise Loehnen’s parents would weigh themselves in a vigilant effort to stay within five to ten pounds of their marriage weight. When Elise went away to boarding school, this culture further normalized eating vigilance and restriction as necessary. 

Then in her early career at Lucky Magazine, where she was often photographed, restricting her food in attempts to be a sample size at 5 ‘10 seemed like the obvious choice to stay on the path of acceptance and “goodness”. 

Then came a stint as goop’s content manager where she was immersed in the wellness industry’s gospel of “clean eating”, today’s socially acceptable term for restriction. 

And now, in her instant New York Times’ best seller book, On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good (Dial Press/PRH), Elise brilliantly connects how the sin of gluttony - not science - forms a tapestry of misguided restriction norms that have serious consequences for our food, bodies, and health. 

In our interview today, we dive deep into Elise’s Gluttony chapter to discuss:

• The meta-physical invitation in Elise’s breathlessness
• The placebo and nocebo influence of the BMI, exercise that counts, and thinking about your weight
• The difference between hunger instincts and intuition to more clearly hear your appetite
• How the cultural “good” body story creates blindspots and accompanying health risks no matter what your body size (and how to think differently to see these blindspots)
• What’s up with wanting to look disciplined yet effortless with your food and physique (asking for myself after not effortlessly losing my pregnancy weight)?
• About Elise

Elise Loehnen is a writer, editor, and podcast host who lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Rob, and their two sons, Max and Sam. She is the host of Pulling the Thread, a podcast focused on pulling apart the stories we tell about who we are—and then putting those threads back together. 

She’s also the author of the instant New York Times bestseller On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good (Dial Press/PRH). The book weaves together history, memoir, and cultural criticism to explore the ways patriarchy lands in the bodies of women and embeds itself in our consciousness—and what we then police in ourselves and in each other. 

Regardless of our religious provenance, the self-denial implicit in each of the Seven Deadly Sins—Sloth, Envy, Pride, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Anger—reads like a checklist of what it means to be a “good” woman. With awareness, we can begin to recognize these patterns of self-restriction, break the story, and move ourselves and each other toward freedom and balance.

Elise is a frequent contributor to Oprah, and has written for The New York Times, Elle Decor, Stylist, and more.

Mentioned in this Episode

Truce Coaching Certification (TCC)
Free TCC Sneak Peak

Why Am I Eating This Now Live?

A Cookie Isn’t Just a Cookie: Stop Stress Eating (free workshop on September 13, 2023)

Part of what’s been hard for me the last three years was I didn’t understand how drastically the hormonal shifts that start for women around 35 and accelerate in our mid-40s affects ALL THE THINGS.

And I’m someone who knows that our physiology and psychology are in a constant feedback loop. 

Yet because perimenopause and menopause are women\'s health issues, they don’t get the attention they deserve. Nor do doctor’s really understand them all that well (the horror stories I hear from clients ‍).

I’m doing my part to change that with this special Insatiable episode. I’m sharing the major nutrition and exercise realities I wish I knew about perimenopause and menopause. 

I had to learn about them through a lot of suffering with plantar fasciitis, insomnia, irritation/anger/rage, and grappling with significant weight gain that felt like it came out of nowhere.
​
While some menopause symptoms are inevitable, there\'s also a lot you can do to reduce and better manage symptoms through this profound threshold and beyond.

In this podcast, I discuss:

• How decreases in estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone affect your nutrition and exercise needs and why what worked before 40 often backfires now (and what I did to lose 20 pounds).

• The 2 key nutrition shifts I needed to make and why adding more of these foods in is more important than ever for your health and weight

• Why women need carbs at this stage (especially at night), a starting point of how many carbs you need, and the best time to eats something sweet if you’re struggling with sleep

• Why Intermittent Fasting (IF) often backfires and things to consider if you want to experiment with IF (and how eating a snack before bed actually helped my insomnia for a year!)

• The biggest exercise shift I made to support my health, weight, and peace of mind

• The simple lifestyle shift I didn’t know I needed to support my insomnia

Episode Links

Free Health Coaching Disruption Hour for Rebel Practitioners

Free Truce with Food community gatherings

Truce Coaching Certification

On Our Best Behavior by Elise Loehnen