Your Brain Is Designed to Regain Weight - Here’s How to Outsmart It | Susan Peirce Thompson (Bonus Episode)
Minimalist Moms Podcast | Purposeful Life & Parenting Tips
Diane Boden
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 May 2026
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What if lasting health has less to do with willpower - and more to do with identity, environment, and the systems we create around ourselves?
In today's episode, I’m joined by Susan Peirce Thompson to discuss her new book, Maintain: The Three Identity Shifts that Turn Temporary Weight Loss into Lasting Freedom, and the deeper realities behind lasting behavior change. Susan shares her personal history with addiction, obesity, and creating Bright Line Eating, while explaining why long-term weight struggles are often rooted more in brain chemistry and hormones than willpower alone.
Together, we explore food addiction, habit formation, emotional coping, the overstimulation of modern life, and the three identity shifts Susan believes are necessary for sustainable freedom. We also discuss the role of ultra-processed foods, leptin resistance, GLP-1 medications, and what it looks like to pursue health from a place of intention rather than obsession.
Links Discussed in This Episode |
- Checkout the podcast storefront for recommendations from Diane.
- Subscribe to the Minimalist Moms Youtube Channel
- Susan's Resource: FocusMate | Stickk Contract
- Connect with Susan:
- Website
- Bright Line Eating
- Book: Maintain: The Three Identity Shifts that Turn Temporary Weight Loss into Lasting Freedom
About Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson|
Susan Peirce Thompson, Ph.D. is an expert in the psychology of eating and a recovering addict herself, bringing personal insight and lived experience to the field of Food Addiction. Her own journey through addiction — first to drugs and alcohol, and later to food - has profoundly shaped her life’s work.
Dr. Thompson holds a Ph.D. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the University of Rochester, where she focuses her research on the neuroscience of self-regulation, weight loss, and Food Addiction. She also has a strong academic background in cognitive psychology, having taught at the university level for many years. Professionally, Susan is best known as the founder and CEO of Bright Line Eating®, a global movement that has helped hundreds of thousands of people achieve sustainable weight loss and food freedom.
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | For those of you that are new around here, I release bonus episodes that serve a niche part of my audience. |
| 0:04.8 | So if this content is something that doesn't fit what you're looking for, check out the other |
| 0:08.5 | episodes that drop this week or join me back here next week for episodes that you don't want to miss. |
| 0:14.2 | You can't actually outsmart the brain. If the brain has decided that you need to weigh 250 pounds, |
| 0:20.0 | you can't actually outsmart the brain. |
| 0:22.5 | So you've got to figure out how to get unhooked, essentially, to how to trick your brain |
| 0:31.5 | or to coax your brain into allowing you to lose that weight. |
| 0:35.8 | This is Diane Bowden, and you're listening to the minimalist moms podcast. |
| 0:39.5 | What if lasting health has less to do with willpower and more to do with identity, environment, |
| 0:44.9 | and the systems we create around ourselves? |
| 0:47.2 | In today's episode, I'm joined by Susan Pierce Thompson to discuss her new book, Maintain, |
| 0:52.5 | the three identity shifts that turn temporary weight loss into lasting freedom, and the deeper realities behind Black to discuss her new book, Maintain, The Three Identity Shifts that Turned Temporary Weight Lost |
| 0:55.0 | into Lasting Freedom, and the deeper realities behind blasting behavior change. |
| 0:59.9 | Susan shares her personal history with addiction, obesity, and creating bright line eating, |
| 1:04.7 | while explaining why long-term weight struggles are often rooted more in brain chemistry |
| 1:09.3 | and hormones than willpower alone. |
| 1:11.6 | Together we explore food addiction, habit formation, emotional coping, the over-stimulation |
| 1:16.5 | of modern life, and the three identity shifts that Susan believes are necessary for sustainable |
| 1:21.0 | freedom. |
| 1:21.9 | We also discuss the role of ultra-processed foods, leptin resistance, GLP1 medications, and what |
| 1:27.1 | it looks like to pursue health |
| 1:28.3 | from a place of intention rather than obsession. |
... |
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