345 // Why Guilt Isn’t Helping Your Health Goals (and What to Do Instead)

Written By Nicole Hagen

In this Health, Wellth & Wisdom Podcast episode, host and Nutrition Coach Nicole Hagen explores why guilt and shame don’t drive behavior change and can’t be the default response to missteps if we want to successfully reach health goals. 

This episode explains how guilt/shame actually shut down behavior change rather than supporting it and what a more productive, compassionate response actually looks like.

Throughout this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Why guilt and shame are learned responses when it comes to food and exercise

  • How self-criticism undermines consistency, motivation, and trust with your body

  • Why “holding yourself accountable” doesn’t require punishment

  • How to reframe missed goals as information instead of failure

  • Practical tools for positive self-talk that support growth instead of shutdown

If you find yourself spiraling after an “off” day, feeling discouraged when you don’t meet your goals, or believing you need to be harder on yourself to see results, this episode will help you understand why that approach backfires and why responding with curiosity, compassion, and strategy creates more sustainable progress.

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