Mental effort, physical effort, and routine. When you hear that a podcast episode is about those three things, it makes it extra tempting to listen. But what if we threw in “The Ability Chain”, invented by Stanford Professor and bestselling author, BJ Fogg, PhD? And what if we let you know that Catherine and Donald take three links in the ability c…

If you’re the band Erasure, you probably want to Break These Chains of Love. If you’re BJ Fogg, PhD, you want to make your ability chain stronger. It’s sort of a Yin and Yang thing. This week, Catherine and Donald look at the first two links in the ability chain, Time, and Money, and walk you through how you troubleshoot them to get more movement i…

You’ve heard of necklace chains and bicycle chains and probably even the “Chain of Fools”, but have you heard of the Ability Chain? BJ Fogg, author of “Tiny Habits”, encourages people to make behavior change easier to do. Make it more convenient to do the habits that you want to put in place. This week, Catherine and Donald talk about using the fiv…

If you’re a character from Game of Thrones, you might be known as the “Breaker of Chains”, but if you aren’t a character from Game of Thrones, you probably aren’t. However, even if it’s not a literal chain, there may be links in a metaphorical chain holding you back from achieving your weight loss goals. This week, Catherine and Donald talk about B…

If Schoolhouse Rock taught me anything, it’s that three is the magic number. And if that’s true then Episode 333 must be triple magic! AND, it’s part three of our series on Logic Loopholes. Is that too many threes in one episode? Have Catherine and Donald gone too far this time? Listen and find out! This week, the couple explore the final three (an…

The middle episode of a trilogy is often considered filler. Just a bridge to get from the set up in part one to the final payoff in part three. But this middle part is more of a hole and filler. Loophole that is. In the second part of their Logic Loophole series, Catherine and Donald talk about 4 more of Gretchen Rubin’s “barriers to habit formatio…

Loopholes. Sometimes we work so hard to jump through them, we should call them “hoopholes”. Because people make themselves jump through hoops. Get it? This week, the couple go through first three of Gretchen Rubin’s “Logic Loopholes”; excuses we tell ourselves to get out of doing what we promised ourselves we’d do. Then the couple add a few of thei…

When we name an episode of this show after DC Comics’ wackiest super team, it might be easy to assume that Donald came up with the title, but in fact, Catherine did. Maybe she’s more of a nerd than you thought. Anyhoodle, Catherine found an article from timeular.com about the importance of setting realistic goals in your work life and the gang here…

What has dinosaurs, talking mice, street teams, and 3 cats in a trench coat? This episode of course! Have you ever said to yourself, “I’ll never do that again” only to find yourself right back there at some point? Saying things like “never” and “always” sets us up for disappointment, shame, and an all or nothing attitude. The key to long-term weigh…

Those loveable scoundrels at the AARP tricked us into reading an article by Katie Smith about ten habits that could change your life forever. Wouldn’t you know it, the article turned out to be great! Now, we run down the second half of the ten habits: that’s nearly 5! Catherine and Donald take you through the weight loss, fitness, and mental health…

What if we told you that there were ten habits that could change your life forever? What if we further told you that the habits came from the AARP? Then, ...By we-only-look-thin

This is it! The final level! The boss battle! But wait, is that a mirror over there? It IS a mirror over there. Look at it. It turns out that ...By we-only-look-thin

If weight loss and fitness were a video game, you’d complete a level and move on to the next. It isn’t, but in this episode, we’re pretending that it is. ...By we-only-look-thin

In part 4 of our series on navigating the different levels of your health and fitness jourventure, we ask you to do some detectivating. Your first mission; figure out if ...By we-only-look-thin

This week, take a cue from Q*Bert! In the third part of the We Only Look Thin series on building habits from the ground up, we’re about half-way up the ...By we-only-look-thin

As that song from Stranger Things says, “Be running up that hill. Be running up that building”. Only in this case, that “hill” or “building” is a pyramid. And here’s ...By we-only-look-thin

When you hear the word “pyramid”, you might think about how King Tut got so funky or that food chart they taught us about in school or maybe those schemes ...By we-only-look-thin

Wait, what? You’re telling me that there are even more ways that I sabotage myself? We sure are. You didn’t think you were getting off that easy did you? In ...By we-only-look-thin

Is taking weight loss and fitness advice from Johnny Cash song lyrics irresponsible or the key to overnight success? Probably. Alice Boyes, in her book “The Healthy Mind Toolkit”, talks ...By we-only-look-thin

What’s that? You’re offering me a treat? You don’t have to know that I just ate, so I don’t mind if I do! If you’ve ever struggled with your weight, ...By we-only-look-thin

Leave it to We Only Look Thin to take perfectly good concepts like “Revenge” and “Secret” and make them about eating. New listener Dave wrote in to ask the couple ...By we-only-look-thin

Merry Soup Swap Day to you! If you’re like most people, you love math and hate surprises. Well, we’ve got the episode for you! It can be easy to use ...By we-only-look-thin

The wait is finally over! It’s time for part 2 of the origin story of We Only Look Thin. Listener Susan wrote in to ask about the early days of ...By we-only-look-thin

If you know anything about comic books, you know that all heroes and villains have origin stories. Catherine and Donald are no exception. Listener Susan wrote in to ask the ...By we-only-look-thin

When it comes to losing weight, most people ask “how?”. How did you do it? How did you eat? How did you exercise? How does watching Star Wars cartoons fit ...By we-only-look-thin

It’s 2024 and this is the year you change everything. Starting today, you’re going to give up all of your unwanted habits and only do the healthy thing from now ...By we-only-look-thin

Reflection; vampires can’t do it, but most others can. And yet, many choose not to. As 2023 comes to a close, Catherine and Donald ask you to reflect upon the ...By we-only-look-thin

At this time of year you can’t turn around without having to dodge a fruit cake or some kind of nog. Whether you’re doing great with your health and fitness ...By we-only-look-thin

Your expectation of this show is probably that it’s the greatest podcast recorded by humans. The reality is that you are correct. But oftentimes our expectations and reality don’t sync ...By we-only-look-thin

Whelp, it’s December. How’d that happen? Seems like only 11 months ago it was January. You may be saying to yourself, “How do I manage my holiday food expectations?” The ...By we-only-look-thin

This is the episode that some are calling the greatest event in the history of recorded media. Hopefully that’s enough hype. You’ve probably just gone through Thanksgiving weekend and may ...By we-only-look-thin

For some, Thanksgiving brings up warm memories of family and friends, or of Snoopy making popcorn for the Peanuts gang, or of your drunk uncle, drunkle if you will, embarrassing ...By we-only-look-thin

We’ve all at one time or another wished that the Power of Greyskull was real. That we could call upon it and instantly transform into She-Ra or He-Man (plus, who ...By we-only-look-thin

Some things just naturally go together. A lock and a key. Salt and Pepper. Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg. But what about business strategies and weight loss? This week, Catherine ...By we-only-look-thin

It’s Halloween time again and this part of the year can be all about dread. Dread of ghosts and ghouls and friends inviting you to parties. But dread can also ...By we-only-look-thin

If you’re a person who watches things, chances are you’ve seen an infomercial. This type of program combines “information” with a “commercial”; get it? A lot of these infomercials promise ...By we-only-look-thin

If you’ve ever watched a horror movie series, you know that even when the bad guy appears to be dead, he manages to return in the sequel. Just like Jason ...By we-only-look-thin

It’s the tricentennial episode of We Only Look Thin! Three Hundred episodes; wow, that’s a lot. But what should we talk about? There’s a lot of pressure to come through ...By we-only-look-thin

Some debates may never be resolved. Did the egg come first or the chicken? Tastes great or less filling? Should I focus on importing or exporting? Is it more important ...By we-only-look-thin

Learning can come from surprising places. For example, the late 1970’s country music crossover hit, “The Gambler”. If you listen to that song enough, you can start to believe that ...By we-only-look-thin

In the previous episode, Catherine and Donald held a metaphorical mirror up to themselves to reflect upon what they’ve leaned since they hit their goal weights and started this podcast. ...By we-only-look-thin

If you’re The Fonz, you only use your mirror to check your hair, realize it’s perfect, and move on. If you’re not The Fonz, you probably use your mirror to ...By we-only-look-thin

When you think about consuming things and weight-loss, you probably think about food. However, we also consume ideas. We get these ideas from the people in our lives, the books ...By we-only-look-thin

You’ve probably never put “derail my diet and fitness plan” on your to do list, but if you’re anything like the hosts of this podcast, you’ve turned your well-intentioned chores ...By we-only-look-thin

If you’re like most people, you sometimes think of yourself as a spy agency and you sometimes think of your health and fitness plans as top secret documents. Every time ...By we-only-look-thin

If you’re anything like Bruce the Shark from Finding Nemo, or the hosts of this podcast, you probably have to remind yourself that you’re not a mindless eating machine. Does ...By we-only-look-thin

If you’re only going to listen to one episode of this show this week, this is THE, with a capital “T”, “H”, and “E”, episode it should be. In part ...By we-only-look-thin

It’s the episode that’s almost as good as a late-night infomercial! Sometimes we just want to open the box on a new piece of fitness equipment and open our new ...By we-only-look-thin

Now you’re getting the doggy bag episode! Inspired by an article by Rachel Ann Tee-Melegrito, Catherine and Donald present part 2 on how setting personal boundaries can help you get ...By we-only-look-thin

We’ve all heard the old expression that “good fences make good neighbors”, but could good fences also help you reach your goal weight? They can if they are metaphorical fences, ...By we-only-look-thin