Closing the Gap Between Good Intentions and Healthy Habits

April 17, 2025

“I would so much rather help someone cut their added sugar intake by 20% forever than see them cut it out entirely for 30 days and then go back to where they were before.”

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Show Notes: Monica Reinagel is a distinguished nutritionist, author, and creator of the popular “Nutrition Diva” podcast. She addresses common nutrition misconceptions, offers practical tips for healthier eating habits, and discusses the creation of her app. Monica also explores accommodating diverse dietary needs, the psychological drivers of dietary behaviors, and how nutrition science continues to evolve and impact her current work. Stay tuned to learn more about her work!

Guest Bio: Monica Reinagel is a nationally-known nutritionist, speaker, and health coach, who specializes in behavioral health. As the host of two top-rated podcasts, Monica also works with individuals and groups through a variety of online programs that focus on healthy eating habits, sustainable weight management, emotional eating, healthy aging, and more.

Transcript:

00:00:00: Shireen
In today’s episode, we are in conversation with Monica Reinagel, a distinguished nutritionist, author, and creator of the popular Nutrition Diva podcast.

She addresses common nutrition misconceptions, offers practical tips for healthier eating habits, and discusses the creation of her app.

Monica also explores accommodating diverse dietary needs, the psychological drivers of dietary behaviors, and how nutrition science continues to evolve and impact her current work.

Stay tuned.

Monica Reinagel is a nationally known nutritionist, speaker, and health coach who specializes in behavioral health.

As the host of two top-rated podcasts, Monica also works with individuals and groups through a variety of online programs that focus on healthy eating habits, such as Sustainable Weight Management, Emotional Eating, Healthy Aging, and much, much more.

00:01:04: Shireen
Welcome, Monica.

00:01:06: Monica Reinagel
Thank you so much, Shireen.

00:01:07: Shireen
Great to be here and great to have you on.

So, Monica, tell us a little bit more about your journey into becoming a nutritionist.

You started out as an opera singer.

I am so curious to learn what that journey looked like and what really inspired this significant career change.

00:01:23: Monica Reinagel
Yeah, it was an unconventional path.

I originally went to school as an opera singer.

I always imagined I would be a musician.

And I did do that professionally for about 10 years in my early adulthood.

And I became aware of the fact that I was looking for a career shift—something else to spend my professional life doing, or something in addition to singing.

But I was lucky enough to have this other area that was also really interesting to me.

I think these days we call that multi-passionate, right?

So I was passionate about music and performing, but I was also really into health and wellness and nutrition.

And I saw an opportunity there to develop another career that would be just as motivating, just as satisfying.

So I did go back to school to earn a master’s degree in nutrition and become credentialed in that field.

So I could make sure that I was sharing really scientifically based, evidence-based advice and, yes, launched my career as the Nutrition Diva—kind of having a little bit of each.

00:02:30: Shireen
I absolutely love that.

Help us understand.

Was there like this intersection coming from the music world?

Were you able to use some of those skills that you learned in that career over in nutrition and wellness?

Was there an intersection there?

00:02:46: Monica Reinagel
I think there might be, because one of my primary ways to share information with the world is through my podcasts, and that is obviously another vocal medium.

I get to use my voice, and it’s also, in its own way, a form of performance.

So I think that love of performing carried over into the way that I leverage my expertise about nutrition, which is largely through the podcast, through teaching programs, through speaking engagements.

So I didn’t really leave the stage—I just started using it to talk about different things.

00:03:22: Shireen
One of the chief things, and now diving into nutrition specifically, one of the things for this episode we want to address is really closing this gap between having good intentions to eat healthy and actually developing habits that support healthier eating.

There’s a delta there, right? Clearly.

And just help us understand—what are some common misconceptions around nutrition that people tend to carry with them?

And then, what are some things that you tell them to really help them create some of those healthy habits for themselves?

00:03:56: Monica Reinagel
Shireen, I think you’ve put your finger exactly on the problem, which is that most of us do have good intentions about wanting to have healthier habits.

And to a certain extent, most of us already have some information about what that might look like.

We know we’d be better off if we were eating more vegetables or maybe cutting back on our sugar intake or moving more frequently.

We know all of those things.

We want to do them.

And yet we do struggle to convert, as you said, those intentions into good habits.

And for me, that was a real aha moment.

As I was moving through my career, I realized that’s where people needed support.

Yes, we need good, solid nutrition information to base our intentions on.

But people actually seem to need more support in understanding the mechanics and nuances of creating sustainable behavior change, which is a whole different thing, really.

So this focus on behavior change has really dominated the second half of my career in this field—really helping people bridge that gap, as you said.

And I think step one is just acknowledging that knowing does not always equal doing.

That we need to do more than just educate ourselves.

Or if, like you and I, we are in the business of trying to support people, we need to do more than just educate them.

We need to do more than just provide information about what they should do.

We need to help them.

And people need to help themselves understand what’s actually driving their behaviors—what is underneath the choices that they are making every day.

When we understand those better, we can get a much better handle on them.

And what that often ends up looking like is…

We’re not aware of how much our schedule or our other obligations may be working against these intentions that we have.

00:06:04: Monica Reinagel
And so we need to do some problem-solving around that.

How do I make a little bit more time in my week to do food shopping or healthy meal prep or meal planning so that I can carry out those intentions as just one example?

So helping people identify what’s actually getting in the way—whether it is logistical, environmental, or sometimes even emotional reasons that we depart from our good intentions.

When we start to understand what those are, then we can start to problem solve.

Okay, how could I help myself around or across this barrier?

Or who could help me solve this problem?

And then I feel like we can get a lot more traction.

00:06:52: Shireen
Speaking of which, then, what are some practical tips that you can offer to our listeners?

Just really looking to create those healthy habits.

And one of the concepts around this is—it doesn’t have to be all or none, right?

There is a lot of gray in the middle.

You can do small, easy steps today while listening to this podcast.

Can you help walk us through some of those practical tips?

00:07:15: Monica Reinagel
That’s exactly it.

We tend to stumble over our own ambition or our own perfectionism.

We want to get it really right.

And when we can’t do that, then we stop trying.

And so really, the big insight here is to look around at small changes that we could make consistently—changes that we could do on an ongoing basis.

Because those ultimately are going to have a much bigger impact on our results, on our outcomes, than some really big, dramatic gesture that we make but can’t keep up for more than a day or two.

And then we revert.

So an example—sometimes people focus on sugar.

“I’m just eating too much added sugar. I know it’s not good for me. I don’t maybe even feel well after I’ve overindulged with sugar. I may actually feel like, ugh, now I feel gross. I really need to get a handle on this.”

What they will often be attracted to is a 30-day sugar detox, where they commit to eliminating all sugar from their diet.

And somehow, the extremity of it almost—first of all, it makes them more confident that it’s going to work (and I’ll put ‘work’ in air quotes).

And it gets them excited and on board, and so they commit to this all-or-nothing, no-sugar detox.

And then, of course, five days in, a coworker has a birthday, and some cupcakes come into the office, and they have one.

And then they feel like, Well, I blew my detox. I’m back at square one.

Instead, if we could look around and say, Okay, how could I reduce my typical sugar intake by 10 or 20%?

What could I just adjust or tweak?

One substitute—maybe it’s simply replacing an afternoon soda or sweet tea with an unsweetened beverage.

Just that one shift to start with and to start trying to make that more of a habit.

Or maybe it’s shifting to a different breakfast cereal.

You pick one thing and look for a substitute, try it out, see if you can make it work.

See if you can make it pleasurable so that it’s something that you want to continue doing.

And then we can build on that.

But I would so much rather help someone cut their added sugar intake by 20% forever than see them cut it out entirely for 30 days and then go back to where they were before.

00:09:43: Shireen
And that’s really it, right?

It’s a lot around—when we think, Oh, the answer is in this short-term gain, like this 30-day cleanse or detox, and it can backfire.

00:09:53: Monica Reinagel
Right.

00:09:53: Shireen
Which is so unfortunate.

00:09:55: Monica Reinagel
Yeah.

Can I add something to that point?

I do a lot of work on weight management with people who are trying to get a handle on their weight.

And the way we have all been trained to approach weight loss is, Let’s get it off as quickly as we can. Obviously, we’ll be healthier when we weigh less. So let’s just get there by whatever means necessary as fast as possible, and then we’ll worry about how we’re going to maintain that.

That’ll be easy by comparison, we think—we tell ourselves.

And so that kind of rapid weight loss is not very fun, it’s not very comfortable, it’s really difficult to do.

So, of course, we want to get it over with as quickly as possible.

But as you say, this backfires.

So maybe we do get ourselves all motivated, and we diet off 10 pounds or something like that, and we high-five ourselves.

We declare victory.

But then… we aren’t able to maintain it.

We haven’t really thought about what the habits will be that will help us sustain our bodies at that lower weight.

We haven’t made any of those shifts or even identified where the adjustments might need to be made.

And so inexorably, we drift back up to the weight that we started at.

So much like my example with the sugar reduction, I would rather help people find adjustments in their behaviors that are not geared toward weight loss, but geared toward sustaining a lower weight and just start at the end.

How would I—what would my choices and my lifestyle and my behaviors look like if I were somebody who weighed 10 pounds less than I do today?

Not, What do I have to do to lose 10 pounds?

And I know that almost sounds like the exact same thing said in a different order, but in application and practice, it makes all the difference.

It goes to the mindset that we’re using when we are implementing those behaviors.

It goes to the way we are forming new habits and behaviors.

And it goes to actually the physical process of adjusting body weight in a way that is much more sustainable.

00:12:04: Shireen
And what I’m hearing you say—there’s a perception, or we have to change our perception in the way we view weight loss itself.

And speaking of perception, actually, you have this great smartphone app.

Help us understand—what are the types of things that you’re hoping to achieve with Nutrition GPA, this app that you have?

So, yeah, tell us more.

00:12:23: Monica Reinagel
Yes, this app is almost 10 years old now, and it is called the Nutrition GPA.

And it is a free app available in the App Store, so anybody can go check it out.

And it’s not free with purchase or anything—it’s free forever.

And this app I developed actually to help the people I was working with on eating habits, specifically to address what we were talking about a few minutes ago—about that all-or-nothing mentality and feeling like something had to be really intense in order to do any good.

And also as an alternative to diet tracking apps that I see people picking up as an effort to try to control what they’re eating.

They will download an app onto their phone and start logging every single thing they eat, which—that’s an interesting exercise.

You can learn a lot from that.

But then it becomes a real burden, where people feel like, Oh my gosh, this is really difficult to keep up.

So the Nutrition GPA was intended to be an antidote to that—where it would provide some of the same benefits:

That awareness we get when we start to monitor what we eat.

A little bit of accountability—some feedback as to how our choices are adding up over time.

An ability to assess long-term trends, not just our best or worst day.

So, in this app, you just answer 10 yes-or-no questions about what you ate that day.

It includes:

Five habits we want to do more often (like eating more vegetables, incorporating beans or legumes, occasionally eating fish).

Five habits we don’t want to overdo (like added sugar, alcohol).

You answer your 10 yes-or-no questions, you get a grade for the day, and then we keep track of your GPA over time.

My goal for the people that I work with is—see if you can just maintain a B average.

That’s good enough.

It gives you a little flexibility—a little leeway for the cupcake when the coworker has a birthday, or for that day when you were on the fly and just really couldn’t get the vegetables in.

But it keeps you on track with an overall approach that supports your health and nutrition.

So, it’s a lot of fun, and I encourage everyone to check it out.

00:15:20: Shireen
And I like the idea that because it’s not about, like, you have to log everything under the sun that you are eating or even sharing in a dinner plate.

How do you then strive to accommodate people with different dietary needs and preferences?

How do you incorporate that through your work on the podcast and within the app itself?

What does that perspective look like?

00:15:45: Monica Reinagel
Whenever I’m developing programming or tools—or even just content—I’m very mindful of the fact that our diets don’t all look the same way.

And there are a lot of reasons for that.

We don’t all come from the same cultural heritages, so we may have grown up in families that eat:

A lot of beans and tortillas

A lot of tofu and rice

A lot of fish and vegetables

Or a lot of meat and potatoes

And I want people to feel that no matter what their traditional cuisine is, it can fit.

We don’t all have to eat exactly the same way.

So that flexibility and diversity is really important.

I’ll give you an example.

We hear so much about the Mediterranean diet because there’s been a lot of research around it.

And it is a great way to eat!

But some people look at that and think, what does that have to do with the foods that I grew up eating? That doesn’t look like my diet. Is mine not as good as that diet?

And my answer is—absolutely not!

The Mediterranean diet is one way to do it.

But we can apply those same principles to a very wide variety of dietary patterns from around the globe that are all equally capable of sustaining us—physically, socially, culturally, and emotionally.

So, yeah, that’s a real priority.

The other thing is not just cultural, but medical—we can’t all tolerate the same foods.

For example, one of the dietary habits that I really encourage people to experiment with is incorporating more beans and legumes into their diet.

There are so many benefits—we hear a lot about the microbiome, it’s a way to reduce the amount of meat we’re eating, and they’re delicious!

So it’s good advice… unless you’re someone with irritable bowel syndrome, for whom legumes are a disaster.

So does that mean you don’t get to eat healthy?

Of course not.

We need to figure out the healthy patterns that fit your body, your medical needs, your preferences, and your lifestyle.

If you’re someone who loves to cook, then let’s really find ways for you to experiment with new, healthy recipes.

If you’re someone who hates to cook, that doesn’t exclude you from the healthy eating community!

We can make that work as well.

00:18:04: Shireen
I love how inclusive your approach is.

One of the other questions I want to touch on is really just understanding this behavior component a little bit more.

What drives our behaviors in relation to our diet?

And then, how can we really create sustainable, long-lasting change—the ideal, the pinnacle that we’re all trying to achieve?

00:18:42: Monica Reinagel
First, I’ll just say—we don’t have to reach the pinnacle.

If we can get 80% of the way up the hill, that’s good enough for me.

But there are a lot of things that drive behavior.

And part of my task—and the task of the people that I work with—is developing awareness around what those things are.

I’ll give you one factor that tends to be an influence for all of us—our physical environment.

How our homes and offices are arranged has a big impact on the kinds of food choices we make and how active or sedentary we are.

So one thing we can do to support our efforts to create healthier habits is something we refer to as “hacking your habitat.”

That means looking around where you spend your time—whether it’s:

Your TV room

Your kitchen

Your office

Your home office

And asking yourself:

What can I do to make healthy choices more accessible, appealing, and convenient?

And what can I do to make less-healthy choices a little less convenient?

Right now, we’re recording, and some people might be watching on video, so you’ll be able to see this.

My recording equipment, which I use several times a day as a podcaster and media spokesperson, is set up at a standing workstation.

So if I’m recording, I’m standing.

If I’m writing, I’m sitting at my desk.

So I’ve built into my environment opportunities to be more active throughout the day—to not be sitting for eight hours a day, which I otherwise would be.

Downstairs, in the kitchen, we can do similar things.

I have snacks—I have the treats, trust me!

But they are not in the cupboard right next to the refrigerator, where I’m going to see them every single time I open it.

They are tucked away where I don’t see them unless I make an effort.

And actually, they’re a hassle to get at!

Meanwhile, the raw vegetables I want to snack on, or the salad I want to have for lunch, or the fresh fruit I bought—those are front and center in the fridge.

The fruit is out on the counter, so when I walk into the kitchen, that’s what I see first, instead of seeing last night’s leftover pie.

Because whatever I see first when I walk into the kitchen—there’s a good shot that’s what I’m going to eat.

There are so many ways to do this kind of habitat hacking—to create environments that support the habits we want to reinforce.

And to make the habits we’re trying to move away from just a little less convenient.

And I think people often underestimate just how impactful that kind of hacking can be.

00:21:32: Shireen
Oh, I love that!

So when you build it in, it doesn’t even seem like something you have to consciously think about.

It’s already part of the environment you’re in.

I absolutely love that hack.

With that, I’m going to try to sneak in one more quick question.

Monica, tell us about the types of things that are happening in nutrition science today.

What are some of the things that are changing or evolving within nutrition that we should be aware of?

And how does that influence the way that you approach providing nutrition education?

00:21:54: Monica Reinagel
It is a quickly developing field, and it is a complex field.

Nutrition research is very complex, which means I’ve got built-in job security, right? Because I’ll never run out of things to talk about, to help explain, and to help unpack for people.

Two of the things that I think have had the biggest impact over my career on how we look at nutrition—and have caused us to, in some ways, go back and re-examine what we thought we knew—are the influence of the microbiome and the rise of new anti-obesity medications.

The first is the microbiome—the healthy bacteria, the good bacteria that live in our guts. This is about five or ten years underway, but it continues to be a massive shift in our understanding of health and nutrition.

We’ve now come to realize that this extra organ that we’re all carrying around in our gut is massively impactful on everything from our mood to how we process sugar, to our tolerance for exercise, to our immune function. There is very little that it is not involved with.

But this wasn’t even on our radar 20 or 30 years ago. So now we’re scrambling to reassess all the research on how food affects our bodies, incorporating this question:

“Oh, and also—how does it affect the microbiome?”

Because their health affects our health so profoundly.

So in a way, we’ve had to add an entirely new field to our scope of expertise. It used to be that nutritionists didn’t have to be microbiologists—but now, suddenly, we must understand this complicated interaction between all these little bacteria and how they influence us.

The second major development is the rise of these new-generation anti-obesity medications. These have been game-changing, but also controversial and confusing. And while they are powerful tools, they are not the solution to every aspect of this challenge.

They affect the behavioral side of things, which is what I spend so much time focusing on. Because the influences on weight are not just physiological—they are also psychological and emotional.

So this is another one of those moments where we have to step back and reassess what we thought we knew about food and diet, appetite and hunger, energy and metabolism, and long-term weight management. These medications are changing the landscape.

And I think even the people who developed them didn’t fully anticipate just how profound their impact would be. So now, we’re all trying to sort that out.

These are the two big questions that I find myself investing a lot of energy in—staying up to date on a field that is evolving rapidly.

And for those who enjoy following nutrition science, my advice is: Make sure you are choosing sources that are keeping up with the latest research—because things are changing fast.

00:25:12: Shireen
Yep.

And if you are a source that we want to keep up with—coming to the end of the podcast here—how can our listeners connect with you and just learn more about your work?

00:25:22: Monica Reinagel
Probably the easiest place to find everything in one place is my website: nutritionovereasy.com.

There, you’ll find links to both of my podcasts:

The one that’s about nutrition

The one that’s about behavior change

As well as some of the programs and tools that I’ve developed over the years.

And if you do stop by the website, please say hi and tell me that you learned about me from the Yumlish Podcast so that I can say hi back!

00:25:39: Shireen
Lovely.

Thank you so very much, Monica, for your time.

00:25:47: Shireen
To our listeners, thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Yumlish Podcast.

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