Becoming Fearless
Welcome to Becoming Fearless, the personal growth podcast for YOU if you are ready to overcome fear and step into your greatness.
Our purpose is to help you overcome your limits and have loads of fun along the way, unlocking your fullest potential in life, business, health and relationships every single day.
I'm your host Charlotte Carter, a high performance coach and entrepreneur, with over 20 years experience. I've supported many highly driven talented people like you who dream big and are ready to take action to overcome what’s holding them back.
Each week my guests and I will be sharing hacks and habits on how to build self belief, courage and confidence to master your mindset and navigate your emotions - so that you reach your human potential in a way that feels light, fun and easeful and help you become fearless.
Let’s go!
Becoming Fearless
32. Keys to Success in Life Long Healthy Weight Management with Claire Jones
Unlock the secrets to a healthier, happier life with our amazing guest, Claire Jones from Your One Life Healthy Weight Solutions. Join us as Claire shares her inspirational story of transforming her lifestyle to align with her core values, leading her to give up smoking and adopt sustainable weight management habits. Claire's journey is a poignant reminder of the urgent need to make positive changes now to avoid future regrets and live a more fulfilling life.
Dive deep into the complexities of weight gain and energy consumption with Claire, as she dispels common misconceptions and breaks down how factors like hormones, menopause, and medication can affect weight management. Claire emphasises that despite these challenges, understanding energy balance and focusing on health over appearance can lead to sustainable weight control. The conversation also touches on the societal pressures of constant food availability and the importance of making mindful, informed choices.
Discover how to transform your relationship with food and boost your overall well-being. Claire introduces the "law of diminishing taste," a mindful eating technique that helps you recognise fullness and stop eating before feeling overfull. Hear personal anecdotes about the freedom and energy that come with achieving a healthy weight, and learn about Claire's 12-month "Energise Your Life" program, designed to provide continuous, personalised support. Finally, we explore the power of fearlessness and actionable changes inspired by Susan Jeffers' "Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway," encouraging you to take courageous steps towards a healthier, more satisfying life.
CONNECT WITH CLAIRE
Website: www.youronelife.co.uk
Email: claire@youronelife.co.uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/youronelifeuk
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/youronelife
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youronelifeuk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-jones-cmgr-fcmi-youronelife
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@youronelifeuk
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@claireyouronelife
Claire's book recommendation: Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers
CONNECT WITH CHARLOTTE
Website: https://www.idaretoleap.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charlotte_highperformancecoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/idaretoleap
Join my Becoming Fearless Community on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thebecomingfearlesscommunity
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Welcome to Becoming Fearless, the personal growth podcast for you if you are ready to overcome fear and step into your greatness. Our purpose is to help you overcome your limits, have loads of fun along the way, unlocking your fullest potential in life, business, health and relationships every single day. I'm your host, charlotte Carter, a high performance coach and entrepreneur with over 20 years experience. I'm your host, charlotte Carter, a high-performance coach and entrepreneur with over 20 years experience. I've supported many highly driven, talented people like you who dream big and are ready to take action to overcome what's holding them back.
Speaker 1:Each week, my guests and I will be sharing hacks and habits on how to build self-belief, courage and confidence, to master your mindset and navigate your emotions so that you can reach your human potential in a way that feels light, fun and easeful and helps you become fearless. Let's go. Welcome to another episode of Becoming Fearless. I am so glad that you are here listening to this one. This is a guest episode and today I've got the wonderful Claire Jones, who's got a fabulous story and a brilliant service. Let people know a little bit about who you are and what you do.
Speaker 2:first, claire, Okay, well, hi, charlotte, thank you for having me on the show. So, as you said, my name is Claire Jones and my business is called your One Life Healthy Weight Solutions, and the reason that I called it your One Life initially was because I became very well aware on my own personal journey that by living a life that was not in alignment with my values and goals in life, which was to live a long and happy and healthy life, I needed to do something about it. And it was a few kind of things that happened along the way that kind of made me acutely aware that actually, you know, this is no practice run. This is the only shot. We've got to get it, to get it right, you know, in terms of being able to achieve those things that we want in life. You know it's not like we go oh well, that didn't work that time around. So you know, when I get to the end of my life, I'll just do it all over again. You know it doesn't happen like that. So we've got to keep trying. We've got to keep kind of going and making sure that what we're doing is in alignment with what we want. Otherwise we're not going to get to the end of our lives and feel like we're satisfied, you know, and that we've done everything that we want to do.
Speaker 2:And you know, you read, don't you? About people perhaps you know nurses who look after people at the end of their lives, and the biggest thing that people talk about is the things they wish they had done and they hadn't done. And, as I say, I became acutely aware through my own um sort of suffering and pain and seeing those around me, um, who had perhaps not made the best of their lives, that actually, you know, I wanted to do something about it for myself and then, once I was able to do that, it then led me on to seeing how I could help others to do the same. And I particularly focus on weight, because it is unfortunately in the world. We find ourselves living in a huge problem that's affecting two-thirds of the population and if we as individuals don't change how we're living our lives, we're going to live shorter lives than our parents, and that's scary that is scary.
Speaker 1:We have gone all in straight away. Are you ready? This is the um reality with weight loss, isn't it um in terms of any anybody's relationship with food? So anybody's relationship with food and their weight is a journey, whether it's that they've got it all, they understand it, they can navigate it, they feel great within it, or whether it's pulling at different parts of who they are and how they show up in various guises. And it's something that's just essential for us to live, to function.
Speaker 1:And, like Claire said, you know, we everybody, I believe, really truly wants a deeply satisfying life, a deeply satisfying life, whereas when they get to the end of it, if they're able to, they can reflect back and go do you know what? I did this? I tried this, I achieved this, this bit was really great and I've actually made what I wanted out of my life, rather than look back and think do you know what? I wish I'd have done this, that and the other. So let's go back to that moment for you then, that moment where you were like this big one of many big aha moments, where you're like I've got to really take a look at my life, I've got to look at what's going on today and just describe to the listeners where you were then. What was that situation?
Speaker 2:Well, it wasn't, I think, one particular moment. It was a series of things that happened and I don't want to sort of, you know, go into too much detail and take too much time because it's quite a long kind of story to it, which obviously you know. I'm happy to share it you know other times but just to try and sort of keep it in, keep it, keep it brief. It was about sort of about a five year period, from 2006 to 2011, where, as I say, I became acutely aware that my lifestyle was not in alignment with my desire to live a long, happy, healthy life and that I needed to make some changes. And the first change that I made was to stop smoking, and I tried and failed at that many times over the years. I'd started smoking in early teens and it quickly became a good appetite suppressant and one of the really helpful ways that I managed my weight Obviously not healthy way, but it was one of my crutches, one of the things that I could do. So, of course, giving up smoking, that was going to have a big impact on then how I managed my weight and my relationship with food and weight had also been a very bumpy ride over many years. I went to my first diet when I was in my early teens and my relationship with food was really not a good one. My relationship with myself was not a good one. So I found myself in 2006 having stopped smoking, and I was very, very determined at this time to actually stop smoking because I knew I'd really started to realize just how it was impacting on my health and my future health and wellbeing never mind my current health and wellbeing and all sorts of things I was experiencing. So it was the right thing to do and I decided that I needed to do things that would kind of help me to not want to smoke. So I thought what can I do that doesn't involve eating food and that is going to help me to stay stop smoking? It's not really compatible with smoking.
Speaker 2:So I decided to take up running because I thought that's going to be great, it's going to help me get really fit and healthy. So of course, I started running and I found that actually I really enjoyed it, even though growing up and what have you I never enjoyed running. I thought, well, I don't know if anyone wants to do that for fun. So, as you can see behind me, and behind you as well. I can see I've accumulated rather a lot of medals over the years, but there was a lot that happened before then.
Speaker 2:When I started running, I kind of had this misunderstanding that, oh, that meant, oh, I'm doing all this running because I started with running a 5k and achieved that and and and. That really did help me in terms of not wanting to smoke and it really did kind of put that to bed. But I had then in in my mind it's like right, okay, um, let's next next stop London Marathon. And took me 18 months to to to get there. But in that time, obviously, I was building up my distances and I was. I was, um, building up my fitness, but unfortunately, um, when I started doing that, I was building up my distances and I was building up my fitness, but unfortunately, when I started doing that, I was actually a healthy weight at one of the times of being a healthy weight through my history of yoga dieting. But because I had this misunderstanding that that meant I could eat as much as I like because I was running burning all these calories. Unfortunately for me, it didn't work like that. I ended up actually putting on most of the weight that I'd lost in 2006, before I stopped smoking.
Speaker 2:And then I found myself on the start line of the London Marathon, over-trained and really not feeling in a good place at all, thinking how the hell am I going to get around these next 26 miles? You know, I was absolutely terrified and sadly, I managed to get as far as Tower Bridge, which is 12 miles, and the pain in my hips was just horrendous. I had to walk the rest of the way. I ended up with hip bursitis in both hips and that meant I couldn't run long distances for at least six months whilst I was recovering. And it was that, I think, was a really defining moment of like okay, I've cracked the smoking.
Speaker 2:What was it that I did that enabled me to crack it? And I'm now. You know, I'm fit. I am fit, I'm, you know, my lung capacity and all of that through all the running, but I'm carrying more weight than is healthy for my body and if I want to be able to carry on running, I'm going to have to sort this out. So it was really that, that moment, which was the 26th of April 2009. And the medal that I earned on that day is here, and I don't think I'd done anything else quite so hard as that in my life. I don't know how I got through it, but what it did was it taught me what I was capable of. And from that day forward, I decided that I needed to start behaving in ways that were actually in support of my desire to live that long and happy and healthy life, but not just in the future, but starting now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there we are thank you for sharing that. There will be um people listening that have had that kind of same thought process of uh, actually I'm now moving my body and so it's okay for me to not necessarily take as much attention of what I'm eating or reward myself by eating way more, because I'm moving my body and I always think it's a typical. It's a typical pattern that I come across and it's a typical pattern in society. I think it's like I've I've worked out, so I've earned this, and it's that treat, status and all of those kind of things that go on for people listening. So, if you are in that space as you're listening, just take note of what we're going to talk about next, because you can make some decisions and make some choices that are going to get you that long, fulfilled, sustained, healthy life where you can have a bit of whatever it is that's going to bring you joy and happiness and be aligned with your values and your desires. So let's talk about stored energy and the whole concept of stored energy yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think we can get very distracted by the noise that's out there in the weight loss world and obviously, most people that I speak to either have had a weight problem or have got a weight problem, or know someone and worry about someone who has a weight problem, and there are a lot of misconceptions, I think, out there around what causes weight gain and I've been. Obviously, I have my own personal experience that started in my early teens. I'm now 51 um and I've managed to maintain a healthy weight now since 2011. Um, so that's what? 13 years now, but prior to that, obviously very bumpy ride. And, as I say, the misconception is that there's nothing we can do about it because it's due to hormones or the menopause or not being able to exercise or the medication that we might be on Now. Yes, all of those things do actually make it harder, but what it really boils down to is the reason why we gain weight is we consume more energy than we actually need on a continuous basis. That's how we gain energy, how we gain stored fat, because stored fat is simply stored energy from the food that we ate that we didn't need at the time. Now, obviously, there are various things that influence how much energy we use. But what we have to remember is that our bodies want us to conserve energy. They don't want us to use lots of energy. So, of course, when we try to restrict what we're doing, we're flying in the face of our biology. We're only designed to lose weight voluntarily. We're not designed to lose it Sorry, rewind we're only designed to lose weight when food is not available. We are not designed to lose it voluntarily. So, of course, when we decide that we want to lose weight, we are basically putting ourselves into direct conflict with everything about ourselves, which is why it becomes so hard.
Speaker 2:And, of course, there's only a very small window that we can find to actually eat the right amount of food where we get enough nutrition to be able to be healthy, whilst also starting to use up that stored energy.
Speaker 2:Because it's simply like you know, when we are perhaps you know buying logs to put on the fire in the winter, we might stockpile those logs and then in the winter, we will then use up those logs.
Speaker 2:But unfortunately, in the world we find ourselves living in, you know, reduce what we're consuming, both in terms of changing the amount and the quality of what we're eating.
Speaker 2:Trying to do that when we're surrounded by food all of the time and we are hardwired to overeat when food is available, because that's the reason why we store energy is to see us through times when food is scarce, but food is never scarce in the world that we find ourselves living in now. So there are so many influences and we are constantly being manipulated by the food industry and by the hospitality industry to consume more than we need. Now there's no problem with going out and going out to a restaurant or getting a takeaway or celebrating with food and drink, if we only do that every now and then. But the world we find ourselves living in, we're doing it all the time, and that is why we are continually storing up more and more energy, and the reality is that it only takes 120 calories a day more than what we need to put on a stone in a year. That's a kit kat.
Speaker 1:That's a banana that's just like mind-blowing on so many levels, isn't it that that's.
Speaker 2:It's the yeah mind-blowing on so many levels, isn't it? That that's, it's the yeah, exactly so there I was, yeah, and there I was doing all this running, thinking I was burning all these calories and I was, but then I was consuming more than I was burning yeah, yeah, and you won't be alone with that pattern, for certain.
Speaker 1:So we're here and we've got all these opportunities for food um all around us, and there's obviously habits that people get into um for various reasons. Isn't that? They're related to emotions, related to experiences? For various reasons, their relationship with food and themselves and the, the place that they're in um, affects how they're going to make the change. What are the things that you feel allowed you to make that change when you realised hang on a minute, I'm now this, I haven't got it quite right. I've got to check back in with myself. I've got to look at what, what, what are the changes that I need now to be able to get to this sustainable, healthy living?
Speaker 2:the first thing is understanding the problem, because I think, when it comes to managing our weight, when we decide that that's what we're going to do, we go straight for the solution. We don't actually take time to understand the problem with anything else. We will probably do a bit of homework and try and work out what's the problem, what all the possible options, and then go for the solution, whereas we just right okay, I've just got to eat less and move more. And, of course, as soon as we start eating less and moving more, we are in direct conflict with our biology and our psychology and our physiology, and so then we're asking the impossible of ourselves. So we've got to spend time understanding the problem, and the very first step of that is understand how much energy we're actually consuming. Before we start thinking how much less we need to consume, we need to understand how much we're actually consuming, and it was an exercise that I did for myself.
Speaker 2:Um, I think would have been back in, I know, sort of 2005, 2006, when I very first started to kind of think. You know, I started to change from the, my, my concern, from how I looked to actually how was, how was I feeling? You know, help from a health perspective. And and what did I you know, what did I want to be like in 10 years time did? Did I want to be struggling with mobility and being out of breath and potentially having diabetes, or did I want to be fit and healthy and be able to be mobile? So I actually just kept a food diary of what I was actually doing, without changing anything, and that really opened my eyes because I was like I don't eat that much, but actually the quantity may not have been that much, but the energy density of the foods that I was like I don't eat that much, but actually the quantity may not have been that much, but the energy density of the foods that I was eating.
Speaker 2:You know, cakes and crisps. And I would buy these great big baguettes for lunch and have it filled with all you know, the tuna and mayonnaise and all that. There's nothing wrong with tuna and mayonnaise, by the way, but it's just how much of it we have. That's the issue. So I was having you know, know, and that would be my lunch. And then, you know, I'd have had my breakfast and so I'd have this big baguette and cake and packet of crisps. And when I actually started to pay attention to how many calories I was actually consuming, bearing in mind that you know the the average and nobody's average, but what I find in my experience, most of my clients will maintain well, close to around 2,000 calories, which is actually what the government recommends for a woman daily, um, I was consuming in excess of three to three and a half thousand calories every day, so it was no wonder I was putting on um one to two pounds a week at that rate yeah and I think we're only only consuming 2000.
Speaker 2:If I'd been to 2120, for example, I wouldn't have perhaps noticed I was gaining weight, but by the end of the year I would have done, but obviously I was gaining much faster than that. You know when we're not paying attention.
Speaker 1:You know I think that's it, isn't it. I think there's a place where there's so many um subconscious habits that we go through life with and and and, like grabbing food. For a lot of people is part of a habit that they've had for a long time. Not necessarily looking, just thinking actually I'm really hungry and I'm just going to grab this and then I can carry on with what I'm doing, and I think this sort of being so mindful and being present and being aware of actually what you're putting in I know I've worked with people with the whole food and mood diaries and that kind of space because you've got to have a reality check with yourself first of all before you can go into any way of looking at how you're gonna. What's going to be the best method and way for you to approach it?
Speaker 2:yeah, absolutely and absolutely. And I often use an analogy of you know, we don't ignore our bank balance. We don't ignore the prices of things when we're thinking about how we spend our money. This is no different really. It's just we have an energy budget. We all have our own individual amount of energy we can consume, and if we spend more than that, then, in terms of what we're consuming, we're going to store energy. It's going to end up on our bodies as stored fat, whereas if we're underspending, then we're going to be creating that deficit that we need to use up the stored energy. Just like we save money, it's all right. Don't look at your bank balance, don't look at the prices. It'll go away, it'll sort itself out.
Speaker 2:And yet that's what we seem to say when it comes to managing our weight. It's like don't look at it, that'll just make you feel worse. But actually the long run is you'll feel far worse if you don't confront it, because the problem will continue to get worse because we are hardwired to overconsume. The desire for food sits within the primitive part of our brain that is very strong and is only interested in looking after us in the here and now and doesn't care about how we're going to fill in 10 years time, whereas our rational brain does, and that's the part of our brain we need to train to make the decisions about food, and that's what I help people to do and let people know a little bit about the old sweet spot, because I think this is a great part of your work, a great thing that you talk about, and I remember listening to this when you stood on stage recently and hearing the a few of your analogies and thinking, yeah, they definitely landed people.
Speaker 1:So do you want to share what that is for people? Yeah, so.
Speaker 2:So basically, obviously you know we are surrounded by food all of the time, and food is there to be enjoyed.
Speaker 2:If we didn't enjoy food, we wouldn't want to seek it out, we wouldn't want to eat it and therefore we wouldn't survive.
Speaker 2:So it's fine to people is, you know, don't waste a single calorie on food you don't like, because then you are going to feel like you're missing out and it's going to be miserable.
Speaker 2:We want to make sure that we're enjoying the journey as much as possible, so we've got to make sure that, when we are choosing what to eat, that we're kind of trying to hit three, the combination of three things, and this is what I call the sweet spot. So that is the amount of energy we're consuming, the quality of the nutrition of what we're consuming and also the enjoyment. So if you know that what you're eating is the right amount of energy, that it's nutritious perhaps at least 80% of your food or the energy you're consuming is from nutritious whole sources that have, you know, got fiber, vitamins and minerals and protein and are going to keep you sustained for for long enough, um, to last you till your next meal, so you don't kind of feel like you need to keep snacking all the time and that you enjoy every single mouthful. If you can hit all of those three things, you can't go too far wrong I love that.
Speaker 1:I love that. I think the enjoyment is such a big part of eating and your relationship and the whole socializing and everything like that. It's that, and it's also that emotional part, isn't it? It's that emotional part that that we have with everything that we do in life. That is emotions, whether you're aware of them or not. It's a big part of navigating, isn't it? So what's can you talk about? Another one of your um phrases that you use? That's about, uh, when people can notice when they're feeling full oh, yes, so I call it my law of diminishing taste.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so, um so, yeah. So, as I said, you know we are we are hardwired to over consume and if we have um excess weight, then we will have been used to perhaps eating quantities of food larger than what is healthy for us. And in order to manage this, we've got to try and learn how to eat less, which is really hard when you're used to eating more. So what I encourage my clients to do is pay attention to their body's signals of actually starting to notice when they're feeling like they're no longer hungry. So when we start eating food when we're hungry obviously when we're hungry we look at something very differently to when we're not hungry. We might look at the same plate of food when we're starving, hungry, and think, oh, my god, that's so delicious, I can't wait to eat it. When we're full up, we might look at it and go, oh, you know, I could take it or leave it. So of course, when we're hungry, the primitive drive takes over and the more hungry are, the more likely that is to happen. But if we can basically start to recognize that, if we eat more slowly, we can actually start to tune into how we're feeling much more easily, and what that enables us to do is bring forward the point at which we stop eating, so that we can stop when we feel satisfied, before we've got to the point where we feel over full. Because if we're really really, really hungry and we eat really fast, we might, you know, polish the plate off and go back for seconds and then go oh my god, I've eaten so much, I feel so full, why did I do that? And here we go again, and and you know, and then we berate ourselves for not having any control, whereas actually what we've been trying to do is fight our primitive brain, which is really, really strong, and so we kind of want to avoid getting that hungry in the first place.
Speaker 2:But of course, when we are hungry, you know, the first mouthful is the most delicious thing ever, you know, if it's our, especially if it's our favourite foods. But what we can notice if we slow that process of eating down is that actually each mouthful, little by little, becomes less enjoyable. So we, when we actually reach that point where we've, we've kind of no longer. It's no longer super tasty, but maybe it's just okay, but not to the point where it started getting sickly. That's the point where we need to stop.
Speaker 2:Obviously, it's not something that we're going to be able to just suddenly do overnight, but it takes time and practice, just like learning anything else. Learning how to eat differently takes time and practice, and we don't get better at something if we don't practice it. And yet we seem to think that, when it comes to managing our weight, we should know exactly what to do and be experts from day one. Yet in anything else that we would, we would be applying ourselves to, we would be accepting that we don't know how to do something very well and we might need a bit of help, and we might need a bit of support and we might need some encouragement, and we might have to kind of remind ourselves that we're new and we're learning and that we've just got to keep practicing and eventually everything will click.
Speaker 2:And that's the way that we need to approach this, rather than go oh well, I couldn't do that, I've ruined it. There must be something wrong with me if you overeat. There's nothing wrong with you if you overeat. You're behaving like a normal, natural, natural person. Who who is hardwired to eat when food is available and overeat when food is available so let's fast forward to uh people that you've worked with and yourself and their story.
Speaker 1:How's life different once they've got themselves and done the work and build their habits day by day to create this different relationship with food and different relationship where they've got way more energy? How's life for them? What are they able to do? What's like the biggest outcome or the biggest transformation?
Speaker 2:I think I can sum it all up in one word, and that is freedom. Freedom from worrying about health, freedom from worrying about what to wear, if it's going to fit, freedom from worrying about what other people are going to think, freedom to just be able to get up and do what you want to do, whatever that might be, knowing that your weight is never going to hold you back anymore. It's, it's just incredible, you know, I, I, you know, and it's, it's, it's that, that kind of that. That's what keeps me where I am is is I don't want to give that freedom up, you know, I, I, I just feel so much lighter in every way, not just in terms of how I move my body, but in terms of just having the freedom to choose to do what I want to be able to do. And you know, if someone says to me oh, do you want to go to Go Ape? Yeah, great, go Ape.
Speaker 2:That's a bit of a story behind that, because I went and did that in 2009 with my son for his birthday and I couldn't get around the whole course. I had to stop halfway and he had to stop as well, because I was his guardian, you know, and so he couldn't carry on on his own because he was too young. So of course, that was that was really gutting for him and me, because I couldn't do it. I didn't have the physical capability, I was too heavy, I couldn't. I couldn't move my body in the way that I needed to capability, I was too heavy, I couldn't. I couldn't move my body in the way that I needed to um, and so, yeah, I went back and did it a few years later and got wound all the whole way.
Speaker 2:But it's little things like that. You know. You just be able to show up and do whatever you need to be able to do. Or, you know, walk into a fitting room, um, with some clothes from the shop, and I mean you know food. You know clothes labels are a bit of a contentious issue but you know, when you get familiar with the different shops you might shop in and what you can choose, you know, just knowing that, you know it's going to fit and it's going to look all right, you're not going to be worrying about these. You know lumps and bumps and rolls and where it's going to chafe you and all of those sorts of things.
Speaker 2:You know it's just. You know I will never go back there because I appreciate so much the freedom of not having that experience anymore. And you know it's what my clients say as well. You know just how much energy. You know it's the energy thing they're like. I have so much more energy and this is why I call my kind of my signature program, energize your Life, because that is exactly what it is. We unlock that stored energy. It gives us so much more energy and it's so exciting yeah, and it's so liberating, isn't it?
Speaker 1:watching people's journey like that and they, they kind of like just transform and it's a ripple effect is huge, isn't it? It's ripple effect on the families that they show up their social life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's generational effect on the family, so they show up their social life. It's generational, generational, absolutely. And that's what one of the things that you know I, as a someone who worked in the nhs for well, 25 years nearly now um I, I I'm very passionate about health and I've seen what happens when people don't look after themselves. You know, I've seen the whole life cycle, from birth up to death and everything in between, and the. You know so much of what. What happens to us is preventable because of the. You know it's down to the lifestyle choices that we make. We may feel powerless to do anything about it, but once we recognize that actually we have a choice about everything we do, when we actually start tapping into that rational part of our brain, changes everything.
Speaker 1:It does. So if people have been listening, they go oh my goodness, I need to find out a little bit more about how Claire works and what she offers. Let people know a little bit about what your services are and how people can work with you. If this is something that they listened and they're like, actually I need to take action on this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So basically, just to be clear, I'm you know, I'm kind of like a coach, mentor, educator, that kind of role, rather than sort of like a therapist. And obviously if people want to work with me, they have to kind of be clear from sort of perhaps, you know, really active kind of trauma or eating disorders or anything like that. But if people are ready to kind of think, well, okay, I know what I want and I just need to know how to get there and I need some support to show the way and be by my side. That's basically what I do and I work one-to-one, intensely, intensely with people. So, um, I have like a 12-month transformational program, which is the energize your life, which you know we work together for a whole year and we literally, you know I'm there for my clients every day, through whatever is going on, and you know we work in the context of real life. You know we don't say, right, okay, for the next few weeks nothing else is going on, so we can concentrate on your weight loss, because life doesn't work like that. You know, this is about navigating real life as we go and learning and understanding the problem and then coming up with, together, with the right solution for that person.
Speaker 2:I'm very neutral when it comes to different diet approaches. You know some people you know very um keen to to do some of the well-known programs and and it's just getting in the right mindset to be able to, to stick to it um, whereas others you really don't know what to do and we will basically come up with a bespoke solution for them. But I take them through um quite a lot of education work as well, because this is very much it's like a training program. Really. It's a training to do things differently and and I'm, I'm, I'm the teacher, I'm the mentor, I'm and the coaching bit kind of comes a bit later, because that's when I start to kind of see my clients find their own power and then then I support them, to kind of embrace it.
Speaker 2:You know, then I have a four-month program which is kind of more like a kickstarter. It's quite fast-paced. So it's like a month of sessions with me, one-to-one sessions with me, and everything is on online. Uh, all my work is online, um, so we have like months to six weeks of sessions where where we kind of work intensively on understanding the problem, creating the solution and then following, followed that with like three months of accountability to kind of help them implement what, what they learned, and that's really kind of like the the lower budget option really than the 12 months, because obviously not everybody can invest in in the 12 month. And then I do have um self-study program as well, um, and basically it's the same stuff through all of it. It's just the only difference really is how much of my time goes into working with the individual. And then I have a membership for anyone who's completed any of those things. They can join my membership for that ongoing accountability and support.
Speaker 1:And then I have my book how to eat less and all of those details will be put at the bottom. Um, haven't you got two books?
Speaker 2:oh yes, so I also have a healthy habits handbook, which is really about supporting people with consistency, because when we're trying to change our behavior, it does require obviously some concerted effort and and having that visibility of what we're actually doing and um and. And it's also important to be able to prioritize our actions, because if we try and do everything all at once, we're going to do nothing very well, whereas if you say, okay, these are all the things I want to do, but this one thing is the one thing that is my non-negotiable and as long as I do that, then I'm okay and then everything else can follow in behind. And so it's a, it's a handbook to kind of help people to kind of get that visibility and be able to assess each week how they're doing against the things that are important to them, um.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and you have um such a great way with people and such a warmth and provide a safe space for people. I know that people that I personally have worked with in this field. It's not an easy topic to navigate and some people have had this journey for years and years and not been able to tell anyone or have a lot of shame or embarrassment and all of those kind of things. And I think one of the things that your service offers and what you offer uniquely is about this proven experience within yourself, proven journey, but also this safe environment where they get you you bespoke you to be able to answer their stuff. It's not like in a conveyor belt of stuff. They get your eyes on their situation to a greater or lesser intensity depending on what programme they come into, but they get you. And that's priceless when somebody's in that place, because part of the work initially is providing this safe space, isn't it? And that listening area for the first part of that journey.
Speaker 2:And then the support, absolutely that is. That is that is absolutely vital. Um, and and it's it's one of those, you know, it's obviously highly confidential because obviously what people bring is very, very sensitive and very emotional and obviously a lot of it is actually being able to admit to themselves that there's a problem or they're behaving in a certain way that they're not happy with, and and actually once we, once they start sharing that with me, it kind of releases the pressure, you know, and enables them to actually start looking okay, what's next, you know what do I need to do and how do I need to do it. And recognizing that making mistakes is a normal part of the journey for anything we learn to do. Yeah, and I'm there to hold them through that.
Speaker 1:For certain. So thank you so so much for coming on, like I say, all of the details of getting hold of Claire and following her and booking a call. If you want to have a chat about any of the offers, definitely do. Book a call to see what's where you are and Claire will totally guide you. I want to ask you the question that I've asked everybody, um, which is what's a book that has made a an impact in your life, in any of the spaces that you've talked about, any of the parts of your journey? What's a book that you have read where you're like?
Speaker 2:this has just shifted something in me to be able to overcome some fear and allow me to step into who I am yeah, it's probably one that you will be very familiar with, or perhaps other other people have also mentioned, is the feel the fear and do it anyway, by Susan Jeffers.
Speaker 2:I think I first read that about 20 years ago and, yeah, it just woke me up to the fact that, you know, fear is a normal part of life and and actually, you know, it's the same same emotion involved in fear as in excitement. And if we change our perception and actually what we find that actually when we start doing something, it's the action that moves us out of the fear. When we actually start doing it and we build the competence that shows actually we can do it, we can actually do it it then things then become much less fearful and and the more confident and competent we are, the the more um more capable we are and and the less we feel afraid, um, so, yeah, that had a massive impact on me all those years ago and I think I read it at the right time in my life as well, I think.
Speaker 1:And I think sometimes with some of these books, it's like you read it and it's made a big impact. Then, as you read it again, you're going to take something different. Some of these real powerful books like that one, you can read it again. You can either have a reflection of wow, it really did change this, this and this in my life, and now I read it and now I feel all different emotions. They're really powerful, aren't they?
Speaker 1:So thank you so much for sharing your story, sharing the kind of situation that people face themselves in life in terms of the things all around us, and you're always going to have to negotiate some relationship with it in all walks of life and wherever you are on your journey. And ultimately, having a healthy one and having a positive one and having one that's sustainable and one that you enjoy is so, so powerful, and I love this outcome of freedom and liberation and all of those possibilities for the true adventure that we call life that you can have once you've unlocked all of this stored energy. So you so so much for being on the podcast.
Speaker 2:I have loved chatting with you and anything else that you want to add before we round up, um yeah, I think I suppose, in summary, just to say, the key to success with weight management is changing our attitude to food, seeing it as something that is supporting our health, as opposed to feeling like we're we're sort of, you know, having to restrict ourselves and eating in a way that that supports all of that, and recognizing that the role that food currently takes up in in in our lives as a population is way, way, way bigger than is healthy for us, and we need to basically reduce the role that food plays and fill that gap with something more in line with our long-term health and well-being goals thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for summarizing that, um, and thank you for being on. I've loved having you on and go and follow claire. Go and see what she's about and ask yourself the question as you finish listening to the podcast, about whether you feel like you are living a healthy, fulfilling life full of freedom, and if the answer is yes, then I totally salute you. If the answer is I'm not really sure or no, then look closer about your relationship with food and your relationship with yourself, because there will be some key pointers there and things to look at there. And it takes bravery and it takes courage, but there's people around, like Claire, that have totally got your back to be able to move through that into this freedom type lifestyle. So thank you so much for listening and I will see you all on the next episode. And thank you so much, claire, for your time. Thank you, too, bye, bye, bye. Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode. I hope that you're feeling energised, fearless and inspired to take action today to stand in your greatness.
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