At Peace with Food
with Angela Tam
Behavior Bites Podcast - Ep83October 21, 2026Do you find yourself restricting or speaking negatively about food?
How often do you give up on a skill if you aren’t immediately perfect?
During today’s meal— I speak with a Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach about our hang ups around food, using behavior analysis for wellness coaching, the differences between BCBA clients and everyday health and wellness clients, and her favorite sourdough preparation.
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Amuse-Bouche
What do you mean by “helping clients make peace with food”?
Appetizer
How did you get into Behavior Analysis?
Why did you transition to health and wellness coaching?
How do you use your experience as a behavior analyst to help with health and wellness coaching?
Palate Cleanser
As a “Sourdough enthusiast,” do you bake your own? Describe your favorite preparation.
Entree
When was a time you failed, and what did you learn from that experience?
What does a typical day look like for you?
Dessert
What are people surprised to find out about you?
How would you build psychological flexibility for someone who is very rigid?
What is your favorite thing about what you do?
Excerpts from the Episode
(*Paraphrased highlights)-
When I first got into behavior analysis, I was very single-mindedly focusing on things like, "I want to go to grad school for ABA. I want to become a BCBA." So I did that for quite a few years.
Once I got my board certification, and worked in the field for another couple of years, that's when I started to realize I can use this for any behavior really. I don't know why I thought of health and fitness because I was not into health and fitness at all.
At the time I had a very fixed mindset. I remember sitting in supervision with my supervisor at the time and she was like, "Where do you want to be in five years?" I was like, "Well, I have this vision of using behavior analysis in other applications, including potentially health and fitness." I remember vividly telling her, "But I can't even do a pushup, so I probably can't do it."
I did not think about it again until many years later. I was on maternity leave with my first child, and I started considering other potential options to expand my horizon. Even at that time, it was a very uncomfortable thought exercise. I wasn't even thinking about application yet, but it was always there in the back of my mind.
It wasn't until early 2020 I started focusing on my own health and fitness. Did that for a couple of months, then COVID hit. There was lockdown and I was like, "I have all this time on my hands. Why don't I give this a try?" I guess the rest is history.
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A typical day, at least in the last two years, would be something like I get up early around six. I either go to the gym or I go run, come home, do all the kids stuff, send them off to school, and usually I jump into some client calls or client work for a couple of hours.
I try really hard to schedule a lunch break for myself. Otherwise, I would just sit through the day and by three o'clock I'm like, "Well, I haven't eaten anything since breakfast." I try to give myself a break for lunch and I usually do another hour of client work, sometimes content creation (which I don't always love doing). Then I try to squeeze in a little bit of clarinet practice before I go pick up my kids.
Once the kids come home, it's a bit of everything. It's getting dinner on the table, getting them to activities. My kids are at an age they can go into the activities on their own. I don't have to sit in or anything. During that time, I can catch up on some client work as well, send responses to a client. If they need resources, I can find them or whip them up and send them their way.
That's kind of an average day for me. It's just a bit of everything and trying to squeeze in things in there for myself.
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I think people are generally surprised to find out that I was not always a healthy person. Being active was not part of my life. I was not athletic or fit as a child.
I think people are surprised that I didn't start exercising regularly until five, six years ago. I didn't have a good grasp of nutrition. I did not have a good relationship with food and with my body until fairly recently.
Now that I am quite invested in my own health and wellness, and I am doing this for a living— I am also not overly rigid about what I do, how I do it, how often I do it, what I eat and all those little details. I'm quite flexible.
If you look at my chart, you might say I’m not always consistent with my workouts. Some weeks I go to the gym twice a week. Sometimes it's once a week, sometimes it's zero times, and I think people are generally quite surprised when they find that out about me.
ABOUT Angela
Angela Tam, Board Certified Behavior Analyst, Registered Behaviour Analyst (Ont.), National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certified
Angela is a Board Certified Health and Wellness coach, behaviour analyst, and founder of Flourish Onward. After over a decade in Autism services and navigating her own struggles with emotional eating, familial health crisis, busy motherhood, and an "all-or-nothing" mindset, she shifted her focus to help others transform their health.
Angela helps clients break free from the "starting over" cycle, make peace with food, build eating skills, and cultivate a healthy body image - no cauliflower rice or “just love every part of your body” required.
Outside of work, she is a proud mom of three, an amateur clarinetist, and a sourdough enthusiast. She trains in martial arts with her kids, proving daily that real health and fitness comes from eating enough for your life and roundhouse kicking diet culture out the door.
CONNECT with Angela
Instagram: @itscoachangelaWebsite: flourishonward.comFor those who are struggling with the logistics of feeding themselves: The Meal FormulaFor those who'd like to take a pulse check on their eating skills and identify potential areas of improvement:The Eating Skills ReflectionPlease support our podcast by leaving a rating or review!
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Visit my Podcast page to learn more about Behavior Bites!
