Busy Woman's Guide to Wellbeing

I used to introduce myself as a perfectionist. Like I deserved some sort of medal for it.

Turns out it created mostly stress, self-doubt and a lot of half-finished projects I never let see daylight.

In this episode I’m getting into why so many of us (especially women, especially the capable ones) hold on to perfectionism so tightly, and why it’s the very thing killing your consistency with food, movement and pretty much everything else.

In this episode:

• How perfectionism showed up for me — from abandoned business ideas to apologising profusely for cancelling a client because my kid was ill
• Why women are more likely to wait until they’re “perfectly qualified” before having a go
• The good girl conditioning that taught us approval = being perfect (oldest child, only girl… you can guess how that went)
• How diet culture keeps moving the finish line so you’re never quite done
• The all-or-nothing trap: waiting for the perfect time to start, then binning the whole thing after one “bad” meal
• What postnatal breathing taught me about trying less hard — and why 80% often works better than 100%
• A live example of me letting go (this episode is coming out on a Tuesday. Old me would’ve needed a lie down.)

Try this: pick ONE area of your life where you’re demanding 100% from yourself and it’s not working. Drop it to 80%. See what happens.

Struggling with consistency and still calling yourself a perfectionist? Grab my free workshop, Consistency Codes. It’ll show you the patterns that keep resetting your progress — and why more effort isn’t the answer.

👉 lifeeditcoaching.com/consistency-codes

Come and tell me where you’re going to 80% - I’m over on Instagram.

You said you weren’t going to today. And yet here you are, on the sofa with a cup of tea, three biscuits down and no real memory of deciding to open the packet.

Or it’s Thursday, you’ve had a rubbish week, and the first glass of wine has somehow become the third.

This isn’t a willpower problem. It’s reaction mode: the state where stress, busyness and the pressure you put on yourself push your brain onto its well-worn shortcuts. When you’re there, everything becomes about feeling better right now, and your bigger goals don’t get a look in.

In this episode I share:

• What reaction mode actually is, and why pretty much every busy woman is living in it more than she realises
• Why your brain reaches for the same “solution” (wine, chocolate, the fridge raid) every single time
• The hidden layer: it’s rarely about what happened that day, and usually about what you made it mean about yourself
• Why awareness feels woolly in a world obsessed with quick fixes, and why it’s still the first thing I work on with every client
• One simple exercise to try this week: pick one moment and work your way backwards

If you keep getting a certain distance with your goals before ricocheting back to the start, this one’s for you.

Let me know what moment you’re going to work on over on Instagram @lifeeditwithalix, and send this to the friend who texts you “why do I always do this” every Thursday.

What happens when someone who gave up dieting six years ago drops her calories by just 300 a day?

Apparently, a full-blown flashback. Within days the food noise was back. So was the bargaining (“if I skip this at lunch, I can still have that dinner”), along with the 5pm “sod it, I’ll eat anything that isn’t nailed down” moment I’d honestly forgotten used to be my normal.

I lasted less than a week. And it turned out to be one of the most useful weeks I’ve had in ages.

In this episode I share:

• Why I decided to try building muscle and losing fat this year, without scales or photos
• The surprisingly big difference between 2,000 and 1,700 calories (spoiler: it wasn’t the hunger that got me)
• How the same “failure” that used to send me spiralling became simple information
• What it means to put peace at the centre of your decisions, and why that doesn’t mean giving up on results
• The third option between rigid dieting and total chaos, which nobody tells you exists

If you’ve ever promised yourself “this time will be the one,” this episode is for you. That includes the version of you who’s already planning next Monday’s fresh start.

Come and say hi on Instagram @lifeeditwithalix, and if this one landed, send it to a friend who’s still on the Monday-reset merry-go-round.

Ready to join me inside Ditch the Diets? Find out more and claim your space here.

If you want to know what happens inside, you can also listen to THIS bonus episode.

In today's episode:

You've already tried stopping diets, eating more mindfully, or intuitive eating. But when it tipped you into just feeling completely out of control you decided it didn't work and you're "just one of those people" who needs a plan.

But I believe everyone can eat more mindfully (and cut out the food noise at the same time). There's just one step that's missing to help you finally nail it. Today we'll talk about:

• The real difference between intuitive and mindful eating, and why our expectations make us feel like we're failing at it.
• Why "one slice of cake and then stop" isn't mindful eating. It's another diet rule in a nicer outfit.
• How years of dieting have trained you to override your body's signals, so "just listen to your body" feels like being handed instructions in a language you don't speak
• The missing foundation: rebuilding trust and communication with your body before you try to eat mindfully
• An introduction to the React to Respond method: going from "oh shit, I need to fix this" to noticing what's actually going on, with curiosity instead of judgement

Ditch the Diets doors close Friday 2nd October. If you're done dieting but don't trust yourself without it yet, this is where we build that trust together, with individual coaching on your own patterns. [JOIN HERE]

Find me on Instagram: @lifeeditwithalix

If you've been listening to the last couple of episodes (or seeing my posts and emails) about Ditch the Diets and thinking "sounds great, but how does this actually work for me" - this one's for you.

I'll walk you through what's inside, how the 3 days of live coaching works, and answering the two questions I get asked every single time.

This is for you if you're sick of the time, effort and brain space diets take up - but you're worried that dropping them means giving yourself permission to lose control completely.

What we cover:

• Who Ditch the Diets is actually for (and the exact patterns we're working to interrupt)
• How the 3 days of live coaching actually works
• The Prep Weekend and what it sets you up for
• The Zoom Wrap Up Party
• Why it's only 10 spots
• Your time commitment — 10-15 minutes a day, entirely flexible
• Price (£47, split pay available)

Key dates:

• Doors close: 2nd October
• Coaching starts: 6th October

Mentioned in this episode:

• Join Ditch the Diets HERE
• Any questions? DM over on Instagram

You've decided you're done. Done with the tracking, the rules, the constant second-guessing around food. So the obvious next move is to just... stop, right?

Not so fast.

In this episode I'm breaking down why "just stop dieting" is some of the worst advice you can give someone who's spent years - maybe decades - relying on diets to keep them on the straight and narrow.

I share what happened when I gave up dieting for good six years ago (it wasn't pretty), why the fear of letting go isn't irrational, and why your body might genuinely be unable to "just listen to it's hunger" right now.

Plus: the one thing I coach every client to build before they ditch a single rule, and why that's exactly what we're doing inside Ditch the Diets, starting 6th October.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Ditch the Diets - doors open now, starts 6th October → book your space here
• 🎧 Bonus mini-episode: exactly what happens inside Ditch the Diets → listen here

September hits and suddenly you're "recommitting" — new plan, four workouts a week, 100g of protein, daily meditation, all of it, all at once. By November you're the person who's cold, tired, buried in Christmas admin, and quietly furious at the version of you who made these plans in the first place.

This week I'm breaking down why autumn fitness resets fail on a schedule (roughly: about the time it gets dark at 4pm) and three shifts that actually make it stick past half term.

In this episode:

• Why outcome goals ("lose a stone by Christmas") set you up to feel like a failure the second life gets in the way — and what to measure instead
• Plan from your lowest energy self, not your optimistic September self — why one honest workout a week beats four ambitious ones that don't survive October
• Pick one lever, not five — why stacking every habit at once overwhelms your nervous system into doing nothing at all
• A real example from my 1:1 PT clients getting stronger on one session a week, consistently, for months

My free Consistency Codes workshop digs into this properly — helps you spot your own self-sabotage/protection style so you can build consistency that actually survives autumn.

Get instant access here.

You've had a good week. Sleep's sorted, workouts are happening, dinner's planned. Then Thursday rolls round and you blow the whole thing up for no reason you can actually point to.

This week I'm unpacking why self-sabotage doesn't show up when things are falling apart but actually when they're finally going right. Turns out your brain isn't broken...

In this episode:

• Why "unfamiliar" gets read by your brain as "unsafe" — even when unfamiliar is calm, in control, and exactly what you say you want
• Why this hits harder if you're high-functioning and used to holding it all together
• The 3-step process I use with clients to break the pattern: notice the reaction, reconnect with the emotion underneath, become the observer
• The one question to ask yourself next time you feel the sabotage coming: what am I actually trying to protect myself from right now?

A few spaces are open this autumn for The Body You'll Love Living In — 1:1 coaching if you're ready to actually rewire this pattern rather than just understand it.

Grab the details here.

After five years and 250+ episodes, I'm taking a short break from the podcast to focus on my biggest goal right now: working with more women and building the next chapter of Life Edit.

This isn't goodbye - it's a strategic pause. The plan is to be back in the autumn, and in the meantime, all 250+ episodes are still there waiting for you to explore.

Stay connected while I'm away:

• 📸 Instagram: @lifeeditwithalix — I'll actually be showing up more here
• 📧 Work with me - explore my offers at lifeeditcoaching.com
• 🎓 Free Masterclass: Consistency Codes - when you know what to do with food and fitness but can't quite seem to make it stick.

Thank you for five years of listening, downloading, and sharing your feedback. It truly means everything.

See you in the autumn. 🧡

If you've tried intuitive eating, nervous system work, or mindful eating to fix your relationship with food and found it just didn't stick — this episode is for you. This week we're getting into why these approaches, as brilliant as they are, so often fall flat for women who've spent years in diet culture, dealing with emotional eating, and cycling through the stop dieting / start again loop.

In this episode:

• Why intuitive eating feels chaotic rather than liberating for most women
• The real reason nervous system work and mindfulness don't always translate into day-to-day change around food
• Why regulation tools work on the symptom but often miss what's underneath it
• The difference between React mode and Respond mode - and why that distinction changes everything
• How to start building body trust and making more mindful eating choices without throwing away the rules overnight

Intuitive eating and nervous system work aren't wrong - they’re just missing a foundation. React to Respond builds that foundation first, so that food freedom becomes something you move towards gradually and safely, rather than something you fall into and hope for the best.

Join me for Ditch the Diets — the 3-day Telegram coaching experience where I’ll walk you through the full React to Respond method, with personalised daily coaching to help you move out of the on/off diet cycle and into a calmer, more consistent relationship with food.

Starting 23rd June.

£33.

Find out more and secure your space at lifeeditcoaching.com/ditchthediets