344 // How to Make Behavior Change Easier When You’re Depressed + Motivation is MIA

Written By Nicole Hagen

In this Health, Wellth & Wisdom Podcast episode, host and Nutrition Coach Nicole Hagen explores why making healthy behavior change feels especially hard when motivation is low - and why conventional dieting is rarely the solution.

From low energy and emotional exhaustion to the frustration of “knowing what to do but not doing it,” this episode breaks down how depression, chronic stress, and restriction directly impact motivation, follow-through, and our relationship with food. Nicole explains why pushing harder, relying on willpower, or starting another diet often backfires, and what actually helps create sustainable change during low-motivation seasons.

Throughout this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Why low motivation is not a personal failure or lack of discipline

  • How depression and under-eating can amplify food noise and mental fatigue

  • Why conventional dieting often worsens motivation instead of improving it

  • Practical, compassionate strategies to make behavior change feel easier

  • How to support eating habits and self-care without relying on motivation

If you’ve been feeling stuck, unmotivated, or discouraged by repeated attempts to “get back on track,” this episode will help you understand what’s really happening beneath the surface, remove shame from the process, and offer a more realistic, supportive path forward.

Nicole Hagen

A Nutrition Coach, adoptive mom, dog mom, and mint chocolate chip ice cream lover.

I didn’t always have this business: the Masters degree in Nutrition Science and Public Health, the passion, the clients... in fact, years ago you could have found me endlessly counting calories and trying to find my worth on the scale and at spin class, exhausted in my pursuit of (what I thought was) health and happiness.

In my early twenties, I struggled with crash dieting and disordered eating. Little did I know, those circumstances would be my one-way ticket out of my restrictive relationship with food & fitness. Those experiences led me here: to the life-giving, sustainable, habit-based nutrition philosophy I embody today. Today you can find me living life without a calorie counting app and spending time with my husband, one year old son, and our two crazy golden retriever pups.

I enjoy spending my free time reading, sipping on matcha lattes, and dreaming of ways I can help other women create healthy, confident relationships with food without selling their souls to food rules and calorie counting apps.

Because nothing lights me up more than helping women live full and vibrant lives without food fear, rules, or restriction. I want to be that permission granter in your life that whispers: “you really can do this” while the rest of the world continues to settle for short-term satisfaction.

https://nutritioncoachingwithnicole.com/
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343 // 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines Explained: What’s Evidence-Based and What’s Not