I wanted to check in again—last time, we talked about making those 1-degree shifts and setting a powerful course for 2025.  

I know that small changes, made intentionally, can shape the life we want. So often, we feel the weight of balancing work, family, friendships, and self-care, wondering if there’s a way to truly have it all.  

The good news? You don’t need sweeping changes or life overhauls.  

With the right support, it’s about making those subtle, meaningful adjustments—one small step at a time. 

As we close out the year, it’s also a natural time to pause and reflect. What did you set out to achieve this year? How close have you come to those goals? And even if you’ve met them, are you feeling the satisfaction you hoped for? 

Often, even when we achieve what we set...

Last week, I shared the long journey it’s taken to create Women’s Personal Health Leadership™ and invited you to join as a Founding Member. It’s been a big step, sharing this vision that I’ve held close for so long. 

As I sat with my coffee again this morning, I found myself reflecting on the kinds of sacrifices we all make—sacrifices we often don’t notice in the day-to-day, but that add up over time.  

I was listening to a conversation between Simon Sinek and Trevor Noah, where they discussed how friendships can quietly slip away as we pour ourselves into work and family.  

It's not just friendships though; we often lose sight of our health, personal growth and our finances as they all take a back seat while we focus in on just one or two areas of life.  

Many women, even in high-powered careers,...

This morning, as I sipped my coffee and watched the sunrise, I found myself reflecting on a journey that has been both the most challenging and rewarding experience of my life. I want to share a personal story with you—one that I hope resonates and perhaps even inspires you on your own path. 

You’ve been following me a long time and you know my story by now, how I spent over $100,000 over 25 years battling chronic health issues and weight, all of which defied my every attempt to correct.  

But really that was just chapter 1 of the story!  

This week, I’ve been so very excited to finally share with you what I’ve been working on over the last six months but really, it’s what I’ve been working towards since 2012! 

I had the idea to begin this in 2012, and started creating my first website and writing blogs in 2015, then launched Dietless...

For years, I’ve struggled with a behaviour that still has the potential to blindside me, leaving me reeling as I deal with the inevitable fallout.  

Despite all the work and therapy, I’ve done over the past 25 years, this behaviour feels like an indelible stain on my nervous system.

Even in moments when I should feel safe and supported, it can still pop up like a jack-in-the-box, impacting my relationships and sense of self.

Having looked after many rescue dogs in the past, my behaviour often reminds me of theirs—animals, despite living in a loving home, can still react with fear when triggered, causing them to bite those they love. I know I’m not alone in feeling this way.

Even though I’ve made tremendous progress, I feel like a failure and a fraud when this behavior reappears.

Here I am espousing Personal Health Leadership™, yet struggling to lead myself in these moments....

I love the middle of the year. 

June and Dec are Reality Check time for me to see if my daily habits and behaviours are in alignment with the ambitions I've set for myself. 

DATA QUEEN 

For as long as I can remember I've been the kinda gal who loves to collect data. 

I've changed many things in my life and I've always collected some kind of data about the changes I was making. 

Unfortunately, I was tracking my results rather than my behaviours. 

BEHAVIOURS PRODUCE THE RESULTS 

Tracking results is a poor yardstick for creating change as it only shows success or failure. 

Results are either in favour or not in favour of a desired outcome. 

The easiest example I can give you is from my 25 years on the yo-yo dieting hamster wheel. 

I used to track my weight and measurements as well as keep food and...

It’s a great time to be alive!  

Thanks’ to the tough, strong, courageous, collaborative, determined, resilient and committed women who pioneered the Women’s Liberation Movement in the 60’s – 70’s, they significantly improved the status and opportunities available to women today. 

50+ years later, we are living lifestyles that our mothers and grandmothers may not have even dreamed about in regards to enjoying fulfilling careers, following personal interests, and rising to C Suite levels.  

And therein lies the conundrum that often leads to women in the 40’s and 50’s walking away from careers they’ve worked so very hard to build.  

We were raised in the best of times for opportunities and choice, by women with strong family values of domesticity, modesty, nurturing, caregiving, and homemaking.  

I read somewhere a perfect way to describe the women from...

 
Sometimes food is all we’ve got. That tasty takeaway lunch, that chocolate, cake, caramel latte, the wine and cheese after work….sometimes that’s the only thing we’ve got for pleasure, the only thing we’ve got to look forward to. And there’s nothing wrong with that.  

Things are challenging at the moment, cost of living is flying high and there’s never a good thing to read in the papers. We feel like there’s more pressures at work, in our relationships, with our kids, and not to mention long commutes and all of life’s admin that we need to attend to. It’s hard to find time for rest, let alone relaxation and genuine fun times isn’t it?  

Sometimes food and alcohol feel like they’re our greatest friend, bringing us that little bit of comfort throughout our day.  

But what if that friend is the kind of friend you’d be better off...

Why do we walk away from careers we’ve worked so hard to build?  

We’re tapped out, that’s why.  

By the time we’ve hit our 40’s, we feel like we’ve gone 20 rounds with Mohammed Ali, when we thought we’d feel like a woman who is succeeding at life. 

We’re mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, depleted.  

Our nervous system is shot and we feel more like an empty sack of potatoes than the happy, fulfilled woman, whose proud of her accomplishments, that we were striving for. 

How do we navigate the chaos, build our stamina, resilience and happiness in midlife when we: 

• Aren’t able to pull ourselves out of our slumps 
• Lead a sedentary life 
• Work flat out 
• Feel under constant pressure 
• Just drink caffeine for breakfast 
• Don’t have time to meal prep  
• Buy our lunch most days 
• Eat it...

Yesterday was ANZAC day and to my own shame, I didn’t go to the dawn service, even though getting up at 4am is the norm for me. Instead I allowed a headache and my own desire for sleep and comfort to override my desire to get up and go and honour not only both of my grandfathers, but all the men, women and animals who have given their lives to fight the wars that have afforded me the very luxury of that warm comfortable bed.   

I walk past ANZAC Square almost every day though, and every time I do, I look deep into that eternal flame that burns for all of them. 

This week, as they do every week before ANZAC day, they have big screen TV’s set up showing a rotation of images of soldiers and the desolate, charred landscapes and realities that they lived, day in day out, as they fought and died to change the course of not only history, but the world that I live in.  

I try to imagine, what would it be like to be the...

Joseph asked me on Linkedin “Have you found any surprising joys in your Dietless Living journey that you didn’t expect?” 

Yes, I have. 

When I found the way to overcome those desires to eat, it turned out I also found the way to overcome a lot of other issues, mostly anxiety and depression and when that happened I was able to live out some wild ideas I had but that I never thought I ever could or would.  

When I found the way to overcome those desires to eat, my life actually progressed. 

I thought I wanted freedom from my weight. Crikey, that had been my main objective for so damn long, I hadn’t thought of anything else, but it wasn’t losing the weight per se that changed my life, it was developing my Personal Health Leadership™:  

• System 
• Skills 
• Mindset 
• Strategies  

It was from developing the ability to overcome that...