Michelle Segar on The Joy Choice

Intentional Performers with Brian Levenson

Dr. Michelle Segar is an award-winning lifestyle coach and sustainable behavioral change researcher at the University of Michigan. For nearly three decades, she has pioneered methods to create sustainable healthy behavior change that are being used to boost patient health, employee well-being, and gym membership retention. She’s an advisor to leading global organizations and frequently interviewed in major media outlets like The New York Times, NPR, and The Wall Street Journal.

Michelle had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“When you’re in a culture where food is valued and you’re allowed to eat it, there isn’t a need to rebel and overeat because it’s part of the culture and how you take care of yourself and how you enjoy life” (9:00).

“When you tell people they can’t eat something, all they want to do is eat it” (9:20).

“The art of living is knowing how to appreciate living in the moment, but also having a respect that your choices are going to have long term implications too (10:30).

“The more we help people notice how they feel from their food choices and when they can escape those rebellion-like ‘should’s’ that are embedded in their belief system, more people will find a more natural way to eat things that are better for them” (16:45).

“If you’re [eating unhealthily] every once in a while, it’s not a big deal. But we’ve been trained, we’ve been brainwashed, to think that it’s a big deal” (19:05).

“When you help people feel their cravings, they actually are more successful quitting long term” (22:00).

“Our unconscious belief system impedes us from really embracing a mindfulness approach” (25:00).

“Our motivations and decisions are greatly impacted by the people around us, the choices around us” (25:45).

“Weight loss poisons people’s motivation” (28:50).

“We want to be thinking in terms of what are the tradeoffs we need to make with regards to eating, exercise, and sleep” (37:30).

“We need to give ourselves grace” (41:00).

“We have to figure out what we want to do and what we like. Following an eating or exercise plan is no different” (42:10).

“We can’t follow someone else’s formula. We have to know what our own formula is” (44:25).

“I don’t keep potato chips in the house because I know I would never stop eating them” (49:15).

“We’ve been indoctrinated with dogmas and ‘should’s’ that human nature and research shows that we want to rebel against” (1:01:15).

“When you rebel, you’re still being controlled” (1:01:45).

“The joy choice, the perfect imperfect option that lets us do something instead of nothing” (1:05:10).

“We feel joy when the moment in time reflects who we are at our core” (1:06:00).

“When we take better care of ourselves… we have the energy and the wherewithal to be kind” (1:11:15).

Additionally, make sure to find everything you need to know about Michelle at michellesegar.com and to follow her on Twitter @MichelleSegar and on LinkedIn!

Thank you so much to Michelle for coming on the podcast!

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.