intelligent weight loss

May 01, 2025

The power of the mind is as real as electricity. It can light up your life or burn it to the ground.

And sometimes, we’re the ones throwing the switch. We obsess over every meal like it’s a hostage negotiation, clutching our kale smoothies like talismans of purity. But here’s the thing: the angst about what we eat will kill us faster than the odd hamburger ever could and it's definitely not helping us with our Hailey Bieber or Bella Hadid body goals.

I’ve seen it time and time again. Clients with squeaky-clean diets and exercise routines that would make Kelly Slater blush, yet they’re more stressed than a cat at a dog show. Neurotic, rigid, obsessed. “I can’t eat blah blah, it makes me bloated.” Guess what? It probably will. And if you’re wrapping your kids in dietary bubble wrap - gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, fun-free - they’re going to have a rude shock if they ever touch a bread roll. Denying them early on only primes them for drama later.

You see, mind and body are like that annoying couple that insists on doing everything together. It’s why clichés like “As you think, so you are” and “Thoughts create your destiny” have stuck around longer than low-rise jeans. Stress out about food? Your body gets the memo loud and clear.

real food, real simple

The truth is your body knows what it needs - if you bother to listen. But that’s hard to do when you’re too busy slapping labels on yourself like it’s Coachella. Vegan. Paleo. Sugar-free. Breatharian. And then what? You waste even more energy explaining why you ‘broke the rules’ when you just wanted a damn slice of pizza. Maybe it’s time to take the pressure off and just say: “I eat everything.” Or say nothing at all. Then you’re not setting yourself up for failure because, let’s face it, humans love to want what we can’t have.

When you finally cut the restrictions, something magical happens - you stop obsessing over food and start tuning into your body’s actual needs. Turns out, you’ve had that intuitive wisdom all along, it’s just been buried under kale chips and Instagram nutritionists. Sometimes, you just need to clear out the gunk (alcohol, stress, bad habits and Ozempic) to actually hear it.

stress: the ultimate weight loss saboteur

Here’s the kicker: stress isn’t just a mood killer, it’s a weight-loss roadblock. When you’re living life like you’re permanently late for something, your body is in fight or flight mode. And guess what? Your body doesn’t care that you’re grinding at the gym or guzzling green juice. It only knows you’re stressed, and that means it’s holding on to every. single. pound.

Why? Cortisol, baby. The stress hormone that kicks into gear every time you feel overwhelmed, under pressure, or just a little too tightly wound. Cortisol’s job is to keep you alive, and it does that by conserving energy (aka fat) for when the lions come. Trouble is, the lions are now emails, traffic, deadlines, and your in-laws at Christmas.

Cortisol’s favorite hobby? Hoarding fat, especially around your belly. It’s like your body’s gone on a full doomsday prep, storing up for the imagined apocalypse that never arrives. And if you’re constantly wired, your body never gets the memo that it’s safe to relax, let go, and burn that stored energy.

your body needs to feel safe to let go

Here’s the wild part: your body is designed to let go of excess weight when it feels safe. Not when it’s panicking over deadlines or stressing about that ‘cheat meal’ you had last Thursday. Safety is the secret sauce. When you chill out, cortisol levels drop, digestion improves, and guess what? Your body actually releases fat.

But let’s be real, life is busy. It’s hard to feel safe when you’re juggling a hundred things and eating like you’re on the run from the cops. If you know you’re living life like a perpetual fire drill, do your body a solid: stick to easy-to-digest, liquid-heavy foods like smoothies, soups, kefir, stews. It’s like a VIP pass for your digestion, fast-tracking nutrients straight to where they need to go without the heavy lifting. Think of it as a blood transfusion, but for vitamins and minerals.

you’re not what you eat. you’re what you digest

At the end of the day, it’s not just what you eat, it’s what you digest. And you can’t do that properly when you’re wound up tighter than a drum. Chronic stress doesn’t just mess with your waistline; it’s got its grubby little hands in every part of your health. Your hormones? Out of whack. Cortisol spikes mess with oestrogen, testosterone, and thyroid levels leaving you tired, cranky, and craving carbs like it’s your full-time job. Your sleep? Forget about it. High stress means poor-quality rest, and poor-quality rest means your body isn’t healing, repairing, or resetting.

Your skin? It’s a walking billboard for your stress levels. Ever notice how breakouts, rashes, and flare-ups appear when life’s coming at you hard? That’s your body screaming for mercy. Even your immune system takes a hit because your body’s too busy fighting imaginary lions to worry about colds, infections, or that annoying cough that won’t quit.

And let’s not even start on digestion. Gas, bloating, heartburn, IBS—when you’re living life like it’s a never-ending sprint, your body can’t prioritise breaking down that organic, farm-to-table masterpiece you just ate. Instead, it hoards it, ferments it, and turns it into a toxic burden.

So, take a breath. Eat the damn burger if you want. And maybe, just maybe - stop letting food be the boss of you.

Because if you want your body to shed kilos healthily, you’ve got to let go, too. And when you finally do? That’s when your hormones balance out, your sleep restores, your skin clears, your digestion flows, and your body whispers, finally, I feel safe to be my skinnier self.