In today’s episode, Dal Sekhon joins us to unpack the decades-long journey she’s taken from yo-yo dieting and extreme restriction to sustainable fat loss, cultural food freedom, strength training, and self-trust. Dal shares how losing 120 pounds was just one part of the transformation, and how much more meaningful the internal shifts were.

A major shift came when she gave herself permission to include her cultural Indian food in a way that supported both satisfaction and her goals. In this episode, she opens up about how she let go of timelines, made peace with food, and redefined success far beyond the number on the scale. We dive into the mindset work, the cultural expectations, the diet myths she had to unlearn, and how she finally reclaimed her own voice and agency in the process.

We talk about the guilt, the pressure, the milestones missed due to obsession with the scale, and how she's redefined what success actually looks like.

“So many of my memories aren’t of the event… I just remember the number on the scale. That’s not how life should be.”

- Dal Sekhon

“Work within the parameters of your life.”

- Dal Sekhon

This week on Here’s the Deal: Fitness, Nutrition and Mindset for People Who Don’t Want Life to Suck:

• How Dal transitioned from Weight Watchers and extreme restriction to a more sustainable, nutrient-rich way of eating
• Why “satisfaction is a strategy” became a game-changing mindset shift—and what that looks like in daily life
• The meaning behind the mantra: “Work within the parameters of your life”
• The emotional and physical costs of following diet rules that ignore cultural food preferences and personal satisfaction
• How Dal dealt with intense cultural pressure around body image, food, and the infamous “what will people think?”
• Why true behavior change means letting go of timelines and learning how to be patient with yourself
• How learning to say “no” at family gatherings was actually a form of deep self-respect and progress
• The real power of doing it for you—not your kids, not the scale, not external validation

Connect with Dal Sekhon, Nutrition Coaching by Dal:

• Nutrition Coaching by Dal on Instagram

Thanks for tuning in to this week’s episode of Here’s the Deal: Fitness, Nutrition, and Mindset for People Who Don’t Want Life to Suck, where we challenge the common understanding of what it means and what it takes to be fit and healthy! If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

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