Tough Cookie Talks

Giving up the pursuit of shrinking yourself does NOT mean letting yourself go. It does mean letting go of some habits that weren’t as healthy as you might have thought. So how the heck do you measure your progress if you're not using things like your weight, measurements, or before/after photos? Or maybe the more important question: Do you even need to be tracking your fitness progress at all? I'm...

Are personal trainers a waste of $$$? My answer: Maybe. And also maybe not. Depending on where you're coming from, it could either be the best investment you ever make or the most expensive/unnecessary way to do fitness. Truly. But yanno what's worse than spending an astronomical of money on fitness related products and services? Spending a small amount of money on fitness related things that...

My brand of "tough love" is not the fitspo-gym-bro kind of tough love. But sometimes these words get a bad rap. Especially in the anti-diet/body positive/HAES community. I’ll never forget the time I was listening to a podcast episode with a non-diet dietitian I respect, who proceeded to bash the very words that were plastered all over my website. Ooops. Guess she won’t be interviewing me on her po...

I'm pretty vocal about the fact that I don't coach intentional fat loss. And yet, not a day goes by in my work work that I don’t hear someone make mention of: 1. Their “goal weight”. 2. Trying to get “toned”. 3. Wanting to get rid of “this” (insert “problem” body part). 4. The fact that they feel like they can’t wear a bikini, sports bra, tank top, or some other article of clothing. 5. How “bad” t...

Some of us are in a baaaaddddd relationship with exercise, except it can be hard to see it that way in the moment. Working out is often seen as a virtue and many of us can take something that's supposed to be good for us and take it to a really unhealthy place. That’s just what fitness is right? It’s #noexcuses, before/after photos, and meal plans that always find a way to blame you if you don’t l...

Strength training can be a HUGE game changer for comes to changing your relationship with exercise. This might come as a surprise, but for me, it was less about the movement itself, all about the change in mindset it brought about. Strength training changed the way I looked at working out and helped me see that it was ok to be more rather than less. Plus a whole lot of other things I didn't expect...

Navigating fitness when you’ve just started to realize why diet culture is harmful is HARD. Many of us spent so much of our past lives drinking the wellness kool-aid (green juice? bulletproof coffee??) without question that when we finally came around to something different, we went all in with it. Failing to realize that we were falling into the same trap that got us into trouble the first time....

Introducing the concept of the "strength savings account" as a way to approach the idea of consistency when it comes to working out.  In this episode we talk about: How to not "lose all your fitness" when you take time off.  How lowering your expectations of yourself in some circumstances may actually lead to exceeding your expectations at other times. Why approaching strength train...

So life is a shitshow right now. Can we all just agree on that? It’s easy to lose motivation to work out when everything feels hard. If you’re feeling like this thing that “used to be easy” or you “should be able to do” is now a struggle, you’re not alone. I have some ideas as to why this might be the case, and what you can do about it. In this episode we talk about: Some of the common roadblocks...

So. . .I have a podcast! This episode will set the stage and manage your expectations for all future episodes to come.  On this episode we'll talk about:  My origin story. How I came to be doing the work I do as an anti-diet culture fitness professional.  What you can expect from this show moving forward. The big takeaways:  I want this podcast to feel like I'm hanging out drin...

What is diet culture and how is it harmful? I often talk about “diet culture” and how much I hate it. At the same time I don’t think a lot of people truly understand what I mean when I use this term. "Diet culture" is about more than just being on a diet. . . In this episode we talk about:  All the sneaky ways diet culture shows up in the world and in our lives. Why does this even matter?? Ho...

Most people don't know what to make of my philosophy on fitness. One minute I’m posting a video of me s winging kettlebells. The next minute I’m telling you to take a rest day. First I’m calling BS on all the ways the fitness industry is making you feel like crap. Then I’m talking about the mental health benefits of working out. But just like everything I do, there’s a method to my madness. My fit...

Elimination diets are not for everyone and definitely NOT for me. It took me awhile to even share my “elimination diet failure” story with anyone. I was embarrassed. I thought it was my fault that it didn’t work. I think that’s probably the reason that most people don’t share their diet failure stories more often. Today, I’m sharing the WHOLE TRUTH. My very ugly experience with a popular eliminati...

“Why do I work out all the time, feel like I’m running in circles and running myself into the ground but seemingly getting nowhere?” I get this question often. Maybe you can relate? I have a few ideas as to why this may be the case for you. So let’s break it down. In this episode we talk about: Why the answer to getting stronger might actually be to work out less.  Why group fitness classes c...

Welcome to Tough Cookie Talks. Your new favorite podcast when it comes to exploring all the gray areas between fitness and anti-diet culture and everything in between. I'm your host, Jenna Jozefowski (but you can call me Jenna J), a semi-retired professional dancer, dance teacher, and yoga teacher, turned certified personal trainer & kettlebell instructor. After years of living and w...