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Episode 10 : How to manage your weight with Emily De Luzy
38 Plays10 months ago
In this episode we talk to the fabulous and highly experienced women’s weight loss coach, Emily De Luzy. She’s been there and done that and wears the t-shirt so knows the reality of how tough weight management can be. She started out 80lbs overweight, battling PCOS, addicted to food and at war with her body image. After 10 years of battling her weight she managed a forever change maintaining a healthy weight and sustaining a healthier lifestyle.
Her mission is to create a coaching experience giving personal care and attention in all area’s of holistic health so women can lose weight but most importantly become the healthier women they want to be long term. The FitQueen Coaching Experience is a hyper personalised, mentor led nutrition and exercise programme that will guide you to drop dress size, regain control over food and create healthy habits that seamlessly slot into your life. Through a holistic approach, you will re-establish harmony between your mind and your body. By focussing on both your physical & psychological needs, you'll achieve a transformation that you can sustain for life.
Find more information about Emily and her coaching offering and free resources visit her website at
Follow her on instagram @emilydeluzy
Emily also shares a lot of content on LinkedIn under her name Emily De Luzy
As always stay in touch with me via email info@pressing-desires.com or DM via the social media channels Instagram, Facebook or Threads @pressingdesires
Remember to let me know the results of your Red/Amber/Green light act from this show - this week it was cunnilingus!
You can see my website https://pressingdesires.mykajabi.com/ or www.pressing-desires.com and sign up to my emails and get your free ebook there.
Let me know your thoughts on this show, I’m always keen to hear your views.
Love and light
Dr Liza
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Transcript
Introduction to Pressing Desires Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to Pressing Desires, the podcast exclusively for women wanting to improve their health by unlocking their mind, body, spirit and sexual wellness.
Transformative Journey of Health and Wellness
00:00:19
Speaker
Join us on this transformative journey as we explore topics that touch your soul, invigorate your body, and reignite your passions. From cultivating a resilient mindset, nourishing your physical health, awakening your spirit, and embracing your deepest desires, nothing is off limits.
Resources and Empowerment for Women
00:00:45
Speaker
Pressing desires is your go-to resource, featuring expert interviews, inspiring stories of triumph, and practical tips to help you unlock your true potential. Subscribe now, and together, let's embrace our pressing desires and create a life that exceeds all expectations.
00:01:07
Speaker
Get ready to ignite your passions and live a life with more pleasure. Yes, please. This is Pressing Desires, the podcast that empowers women to improve their health and go on a journey towards mind, body, spirit and don't forget sexual wellness. Hmm, I'm really looking forward to that last bit.
Guest Introduction: Emily DeLuze's Journey
00:01:35
Speaker
Welcome to episode 10 of the Pressing Desires podcast. I can't believe I'm on 10 already. Woo hoo. Today's episode is with Emily DeLuze, who is fabulous. She's a highly, highly experienced women's weight loss coach. And she's been there, done that, and still wears the t-shirt. So she knows exactly the reality of how tough weight management can be for some of us.
00:01:58
Speaker
She started out 80 pounds overweight herself, battling PCOS, addicted to food and at war with her own body image. But after 10 years of battling her weight, she's managed a forever change and maintains a healthy weight and sustains a healthier lifestyle. So through that, her mission is to create a coaching experience that gives personal care and attention in all areas of holistic health so women can lose weight, but most importantly, become the healthier women that they want to be long term.
00:02:26
Speaker
She is the founder of the Fit Queen coaching experience, which is a hyper-personalised, mentor-led nutrition and exercise programme that guides you to drop dress size, regain control over food and create healthy habits that seamlessly slot into our busy lives. She has a holistic approach to re-establish the harmony between the mind and the body, which is obviously what we're all interested
Holistic Weight Loss with Emily
00:02:49
Speaker
in.
00:02:49
Speaker
here. And she focuses on both the physical and the psychological needs in order to be able to help you to achieve a transformation that can be sustained for life. So find more about her on her website where she also has lots of free resources, which is thefitqueen.co.uk. The link is in the show notes. She's on Instagram at Emily De Luzzi, and she's also on LinkedIn where she also posts lots of content as well under her name Emily De Luzzi.
00:03:17
Speaker
But before we start on today's episode, let's do our red, amber, green light game.
Discussing Sexual Preferences and Wellness
00:03:23
Speaker
So as always, red means that definitely not for you. Amber means you're interested depending on boundaries and knowing more about it. And green is yes, yes, yes. So today's sex act is cannilingus, which means oral sex to the vulva area. So that's stimulation.
00:03:45
Speaker
with your partner or partner's mouth to the whole of the vulva and particularly focusing on the clitoral area as well. So let me know what your thoughts on this is something that you include regularly, is this something that you always start with or
00:04:03
Speaker
do throughout your sexual intercourse experience and how do you like it so discuss that with your partner because there might be elements of this that is red for you but elements that are green for you you might prefer it harder or softer or different
00:04:22
Speaker
different tension of your partner's tongue. You might prefer it with finger stimulation as well or definitely without it. So there's lots of nuances and lots of people like it in different ways and in different positions. So it's worthwhile having an in-depth conversation and trying different ways of
00:04:44
Speaker
doing this sex act so not just in the same way each time but yeah let me know because I'm always really interested in your answers because they're so varied which shows that everyone has different tastes and depends on their moods etc and depends on the circumstances so is this a red amber or green for you let me know
00:05:08
Speaker
But let's get on with today's show.
Challenges in Weight Loss and Sustainable Change
00:05:10
Speaker
And as always, you can find me on at pressing desires or email me at info at pressing dash desires.com. But let's move on and have a brilliant chat with Emily. Okay, Emily, thank you very much for joining me this afternoon. Oh, it's an absolute pleasure to be here. I've been very much looking forward to connecting with you and just speaking together today all about this subject.
00:05:35
Speaker
I'm so excited to talk to you as well because weight loss is a subject that I'm very passionate about inside the NHS. I've done some extra training in that and the evidence is massively evolving in that field to show really how complicated it is and why people struggle so much with it. I don't feel we've got this issue right in the NHS yet and we're not serving people the way we should.
00:06:02
Speaker
I'm really keen to hear how you approach it because I know you've had a lot of success in your in your coaching and that your ethos is about sustainable healthy weight loss which is obviously the key and sustainable. This is the bit I like not yo-yoing or successful and then piling it all back on so I'm sure a lot of
00:06:22
Speaker
ladies are going to be really interested to hear what you've got to say but why don't you start first and introduce yourself and tell us what you do and why you do it. Oh yeah absolutely so yeah so I've been working in the weight loss industry for seven years now and I'm very fortunate to run a company called Fit Queen which specialises in supporting women with their weight loss goals
00:06:45
Speaker
And for us, it's about really getting to the root issues of why people are stuck and also giving them the tools and the support human to human to be able to get unstuck and get to where they want to be. Most importantly, yes, to achieve a weight loss goal, but to look in the mirror and feel good and to have the energy to live a fulfilling life. And
00:07:06
Speaker
clients tend to come to us and they say, you're my last hope, I've tried everything. And I need to solve this because they recognise how much it's interfering in their everyday life. And yeah, Fit Queen very much supports women with both the physical and visual changes that they want to create, but also being able to really delve into the mindset piece. And
00:07:29
Speaker
to really support them to evolve and transform and create new identity.
Emily's Personal Struggles and Insights
00:07:34
Speaker
Because that's what a weight loss journey is, where we let go of old habits and we also create a healthier version of ourselves. And we just really specialise on being able to wing women.
00:07:47
Speaker
wing woman through creating that version of themselves. Why I started Fit Queen seven years ago, because I went through my own weight loss journey and I had a really turbulent relationship with my body and food through my teens. I was obese through my teenage years.
00:08:07
Speaker
And I was working a fast paced career, I was doing fairly well in my career. But it was long hours, it's six day weeks, and I was finding myself pushing really hard in my career, leaving my work, going to try and socialize, but ending up like
00:08:24
Speaker
crying over getting dressed and you know always being the person that would be taking the picture not being in it always being fearful of dating because I was worried that you know what if I connected with someone online and then he thought I was bigger in person like all those things actually come up for for women when they're struggling in their weight you know that was all going on for me
00:08:46
Speaker
So I decided, you know what, I'm just going to eat less and move more. I'm going to really pull back the calories and I took it to an absolute extreme. And I did lose quite a bit of weight. But because of being so extreme and under fueling my body, I ended up post-menopausal, post-menopausal levels at the age of 22 on HRT and inflicting hyperthyroid, so underactive thyroid too.
00:09:13
Speaker
And when it was explored and I seeked medical support, it was all down to my choices around food and exercise. And I had coaches and followed programs that led me to being in that position. And I had to ask myself that big, juicy question of, how have I ended up like this? How have I ended up with really, in my eyes at that point, severe health
Understanding Female Physiology in Weight Management
00:09:38
Speaker
implications? Because being postmenopausal at 22,
00:09:42
Speaker
having no libido, trying to explain to your partner why you don't want to do those sorts of things with them because your mind just isn't there, having sore joints, feeling exhausted. And why wasn't there anybody there saying, hang on a minute, Emily, like, no, this is going to be the consequence of you doing this.
00:10:02
Speaker
And I guess for me, I'd spent a lot of years feeling stuck in my body. And then I was still stuck in my body. Yes, I was much thinner, but I was still miserable. You know, and I had to ask myself like,
00:10:15
Speaker
What needs to change in the industry? What do women actually truly need to be able to create great success? And for my own health, I then had to go away and do a lot of research in regards to female physiology and understanding female health and hormones. And it grew a real in depth deep passion inside of me when I started learning how the female body works.
00:10:35
Speaker
And how, what I was doing to my body, how I could see how destructive it was once I'd learned what was going on inside of me. And then I was like, do you know what? I really want to support women. And it naturally happened because people reached out to me. They'd seen that I'd lost quite a lot of weight and said, how have you done?
00:10:52
Speaker
So I took some time to go away and study and I did my personal training qualification as an entry point. But I really identified that there was this missing piece in the sense of, you know, I did go and see an endocrinologist in the NHS.
00:11:08
Speaker
but her knowledge in regards to how to regulate my cycles again, I had to go and outsource some additional testing, I did loads of further research and I learnt so much more about what I should be doing.
00:11:23
Speaker
And I think, yeah, I just felt like, do you know what, this is my calling. And I'm not going to go and be a doctor. But what I am going to do is really focus in on studying the areas that I feel women need to know and for me to be educated on to be able to really help people with their weight loss journey. And as you know, it's a complex journey. Therefore, there's loads of bits that you have to learn and loads of niche areas to be able to really support somebody mindset.
00:11:50
Speaker
their physiology, exercise, nutrition, sleep, digestion. It's a huge array of areas. So yeah, I just decided to niche down and be an expert in those areas and started coaching and then grew up my team.
00:12:04
Speaker
have a beautiful team that support our clients. We work with everyone on a one-to-one. We don't actually have a group container because I personally believe that no two women are the same. So working with everybody on a one-to-one is really important. And I have a group of experts that also work inside the programme to just bring that additional support so we can really take someone through a holistic journey when they're working with us. But it was born from my failures, basically. I get deeply wrong.
00:12:32
Speaker
deeply wrong. So yeah, that's very much what I do, who I am, and yeah, everything about fit queen really. And do you find that there are fundamentals that applies to all women? So even though you said, you know, every woman is an individual, which of course is true, but are there fundamentals that applies to all of us when it comes to when it comes to weight management?
00:12:57
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I think that we know so much more today in regards to how our bodies work. But you know, actually, we don't always have that knowledge of how the body works. And I would say that that's, that's a continuation across all women that we connect with, you know, there's some really in depth beliefs about how they feel they should lose weight, they might often say, I know how to do this, but I just can't do it. Yeah, that's, that's a common phrase. But I would say just... But is that where they think
00:13:27
Speaker
I know how to lose weight. I just need to eat less. Is that just there? Like a like a belief, a core belief that they've had. And then they just think, well, I just can't seem to the lower calories just don't seem to work for me anymore. Absolutely. But it's a really strong belief around energy balance. It's just, you know, it's a simple belief around energy balance always. And I'm there going, no, no, no, no, no. So much more to this.
00:13:54
Speaker
But with that said, like, everyone's journey is, is different, dependent on, you know, their past dieting history, their body composition, what they want to achieve their hormonal status. Yeah, but I would say the common trait is this, this really in depth belief that, you know, is the simplistic advice of Eat, Let's Move More, and that will really work for me. And, you know, and sadly, like, it doesn't tend to work. No.
00:14:20
Speaker
And that's what a lot of the latest evidence is showing, actually, that weight loss is much more complex than calories in versus calories out. A lot of the studies are disproving that old myth. Of course, you can eat way too many calories and not move enough, and that's not going to help the situation. But actually, the vast majority of people who are trying to lose weight
00:14:42
Speaker
they are trying to cut the calories and increase the calorie burn and they're still not moving that
Impact of Stress and Energy Balance on Health
00:14:49
Speaker
scale to the direction they want to go, which I think where people just get really disheartened and get really overwhelmed.
00:14:58
Speaker
You know, I've certainly been there before, you know, after I had my emergency oophorectomy where I lost my ovary out with a blue, I was like, what, what is happening with my weight? All of a sudden I can't control it at all. And it was really frustrating because I was working with personal trainers, multiple personal trainers, and they couldn't explain it at all. They were like, you must be secretly eating and just not tracking it. And I was like, no, I am literally weighing spinach leaves.
00:15:24
Speaker
And it was so disheartening, weighing green stuff, thinking, I shouldn't be weighing my green stuff. This green stuff is good for me. But it still wasn't working. So I definitely can relate if women are out there saying, I'm trying my best and nothing is working.
00:15:42
Speaker
And you must hear that all the time. Totally. 100%. And because there's so many variables that affect whether your body is going to lose weight within a seven day period. And I believe, you know, we should be able, we should be evaluating all of it. We should be able to look at all of it and go, actually, what's going to be the right structure for this person. You know, if we just were to focus on stress hormones, as an example, you know,
00:16:04
Speaker
weakening curse stress through mental or physical stresses and if you've got someone that's highly stressed out and perhaps they've been restrictive eating, you know, the worst thing you would then do is run them on a really aggressive deficit because it's just going to be causing more stress on the body. If someone came into our world and they had those symptoms,
00:16:25
Speaker
we would firstly focus on a maintenance phase. So we'd focus on giving their body a good old reboot with sufficient food. And as a by-product for that, what's going to happen? It's going to improve their sleep. It's going to improve their digestion. They're going to have more energy, which naturally will increase their output anyway.
00:16:42
Speaker
they're going to have better mental buy-in, they're going to have improved libido, all of these things that create a happy lady that are really excited and enthusiastic about her weight loss journey. But if we've had clients that come on board that perhaps they've been doing shakes and meal replacements and you look at the calories that are going in, it's less than a toddler eats,
00:17:05
Speaker
And they have a highly stressful job. They're not sleeping, which is a byproduct of under fueling too. And then you put them on a really restrictive diet.
00:17:14
Speaker
your body just isn't there working with you, your body's likely to just be working against you. And the likelihood of adhering to that is very, very slim. Yeah, it's very hard to do anything successfully if you've got really low energy. If you feel terrible, you can't really sleep, everything is really sluggish. It's going to be a real mission to succeed at anything, isn't it?
00:17:39
Speaker
let alone like something new and something that has so much emotion behind it and something that means so much to someone. Yeah, absolutely. And I suppose from my perspective, like I am a firm believer through and through that
00:17:54
Speaker
energy, the amount of energy you're putting into your body has such an incredible impact on your mental well-being. And if you looked at, I don't know if you heard of the Minnesota study, really interesting study. And if you look at how people's mental health really changes, you know, anxiety levels, progressing through a diet,
00:18:14
Speaker
we have to be able to make sure that you're feeling good up here because no amount of weight is worth being lost if you're incurring a lot of mindset issues. So I believe that what's fantastic about health and weight loss and really giving yourself support through your nutrition is it doesn't take long to start feeling good.
00:18:35
Speaker
And that's what I love about this because you can start feeling the body and you can start to reap the reward and feel different within yourself. So when would people start feeling that, do you think? Like how soon? So once they start their program, they follow the nutrition advice. How soon do women tend, you know, on average tend to start feeling a bit better? Five to seven days, definitely. Yeah. So faster than most medicines that would work really.
00:19:05
Speaker
Yeah, which is so incredible. Like it's so cool and so interesting and also in our control. And I just, I just think that's incredibly powerful. It just shows how powerful it is. Yeah. But I think like that's the shame these days is people want the instant gratification of pills. And I hear that time and time when they come and see me in my general practice role is they want a quick fix. And I try and explain that very rarely does a medicine work
00:19:33
Speaker
instantly, there are some medicines, but they don't treat these kind of problems, you know, they might be in, we use in the life saving fields, for example, or certain antibiotics can work within 24 hours, but that, you know, a weight loss injection, a depression tablet, they take a while to have an effect.
Debunking Myths: Restrictive Diets vs. Holistic Health
00:19:50
Speaker
And the lifestyle stuff tends to work so much faster that I'm like, well, the quick fix is actually this route, if you want the quick fix.
00:19:59
Speaker
you know, but what you're actually wanting is an easy fix. And, you know, even the pills, they're not easy, you know, if they've got a lot of side effects, that's not easy to live with either. Yeah, absolutely. And I think it always boils down to this belief piece of, so if you like, if you're listening today, and you're thinking about your weight loss journey, you're thinking about, you know, doing it the holistic way through nutrition, exercise, and
00:20:24
Speaker
well-being and self-care tools. What comes up for you? Is it this belief, oh, it's going to be, it's going to be hard work. The food's going to be horrible. You know, it's going to be horrible doing it. Like, what are those deep beliefs that are sitting with you right now? Yeah, because there's restrictive beliefs, isn't it? Like, that's what people think, isn't it? Is that it's going to be a lot of restriction on your life rather than this is going to add in a lot of nourishment to your life.
00:20:51
Speaker
yeah totally and i think also it's because we um you know i grew up do you remember the special k diet yeah yeah now i look back and think i can't believe that was okay messaging to be like yeah you just eat two bowls of cereal a day and then you lose the gene size it was something like that wasn't it he's just saying that's so not okay
00:21:13
Speaker
No one even thinks cereal is healthy, let alone eat two lots of it a day. I know, so, so bad. But that's what comes up for us when we think about doing this holistically. It's all of those things.
00:21:27
Speaker
you know, I make it a responsibility of mine to share my life and show people how fun it is and how toasty it is and how flexible it is and how it's actually such an incredible way to do this. And I believe if more of us can showcase, you know, what healthy actually looks like, then we can come away from
00:21:51
Speaker
when we think about health, we can come away from thinking about weight loss, we can come away from thinking about special care, but instead of thinking about it in another way, in a really fun, exciting, you know, way, absolutely. The food piece is a huge one. There's a lot of limitations that come up for people in regards to I don't, you know, I don't have a huge amount of time, or, you know, I don't really like many things. Or, you know, I'm very attached to eating in a certain way, because it enables me to feel safe. But
00:22:21
Speaker
there is a way in which to be able to reset that relationship with food and absolutely create a new one that you do deeply enjoy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think like the nutrition side is.
00:22:31
Speaker
is always perceived to be the most complex, isn't it? And the most thought about or people worry about and stress about the most because food is complex and the messaging around food has been really overwhelming. And I think it hasn't helped the latest craze of which is better, the vegan diet, the keto diet, the low carb diet, the carnivore diet. There's so much different messaging and all those groups
00:23:00
Speaker
invariably, if they follow it strictly, they do look fabulous. They tend to do they tend to have Instagrammable bodies. So how do you know who's right? But you know, the key is that, you know, all the evidence shows that the diet that works is the diet that people actually stick to long term and works for them and doesn't feel like a restrictive diet. And nothing is ever going to beat that kind of everything in moderation. You know, the Mediterranean diet where you're having lots of variation and focusing on
00:23:29
Speaker
more whole foods, isn't it? But it has to be a way of life and that food becomes an enjoyable part, not something you're worried about or stressed about or dreading or or confining yourself to a different diet to everyone else around you.
00:23:45
Speaker
Yeah, I think also to add to that, we never ever know what's going on behind the scenes. So we might see in instagrammable bodies and things like that, where we just never truly know what sacrifices have been taken to create that, that, that the body that this person lives in.
00:24:03
Speaker
and i think that's the struggle social media you don't ever get full context and second to that i can absolutely wholeheartedly share that in the weight loss industry it is very it's much easier to market your program if you just focus on being a genius in one thing
00:24:23
Speaker
So if you just focus on talking about intermittent fasting is amazing, or the keto diets and you just focus on that, it is much easier to market absolutely, but it doesn't mean it's right. But I've seen it. I've been in big mentorships with lots of fellow business owners that are working in the weight loss industry. And their focus is what's going to sell. And
00:24:48
Speaker
We have to, as consumers, try and put our later focused glasses on and go, actually, well, do you know what? Not one thing works for everybody. And I personally believe supporting people with weight loss, it's about being able to really study them as a unique person.
00:25:07
Speaker
We don't like, for instance, for us, we don't have like a set, we don't have like a set framework, we don't believe in keto, or, you know, we don't believe in intimate, we collectively understand all of the methods. Yeah. And then we welcome somebody into the program, we get to know them, we do a really in depth audit. And then we program based on what we think method wise is going to work the best for them as a unique person.
00:25:30
Speaker
So
Integrating Healthy Habits into Busy Lives
00:25:31
Speaker
if you are, you know, looking for a solution, don't be afraid to ask the person questions about whether their method is right for you. And they should be doing their due diligence to get to know you. So if you're inquiring with someone about intermittent fasting, they should be asking you key questions to understand whether intermittent fasting is the right fit for you. Yeah. And if they're not, and just telling you it's going to be great and solve your problems, then that's a red flag. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:25:56
Speaker
So what kind of advice do you give them to women who need to adjust their diet, their relationship with food, but they also feed the whole family and they're busy and they've got very limited time and
00:26:15
Speaker
less time to convince the rest of the family. Yes. Oh, I wrote a piece on this today. Okay. Yeah, great timing. So maybe you have this itch that you feel you want to improve your health. Maybe, you know, you'd love to be able to support your family too. Now, trust me, just by you taking action and making some positive, healthy changes in your life, trust me, husband or partner's family will start to mirror on you and you will see, you will see how it will
00:26:44
Speaker
positively impact your family. We tend to see hubbies losing all, you know, a lot of weight through the, through the journey and they're not even on the program. But what I would say is we never ever strive for perfection and we have to have an open mind to
00:27:02
Speaker
really making our lives easier when it comes to living a healthier lifestyle. Now, if you're a busy person, you're juggling a career, a family, and the reality is you don't have time to spend hours into the kitchen, you know, that's okay. But we have to be creative with ways in which to get you healthier. So it might be listening to this and then jumping off and exploring, is there any
00:27:23
Speaker
meal preparation companies that you can use where you can order in food sources. Is there any grab and go foods that you can utilize? For instance, an example for us is we will do a scout of a mile radius of a client's office, we'll list out all the eateries, we'll pick off the menu what she can have, and all we need her to do is walk in and pick it up.
00:27:43
Speaker
Now, you can do this today, right? You can Google where your office is, look at the eateries and have a little look around the menus and it'll take a few minutes. And it's always about thinking about when you're busy and you're back to back in meetings and
00:27:59
Speaker
you're giving a lot of your brain to your work or your family. It's then a huge ask to not only go and find the food but also think about what food you need. So we want to try and reduce the steps because those steps are acting as roadblocks and actually maybe it leads you to just picking up the
00:28:15
Speaker
the chocolate bar and not necessarily fueling yourself properly. So we are a firm believer of removing anything that's getting in the way, make it super easy for yourself in moments where maybe you are really hungry or maybe you haven't got a huge amount of energy because you've had a long day. We always try and look at how can we make this as simple and easy as possible whilst being as effective as possible with tiny amounts of time. And then to pair that with exercise,
00:28:44
Speaker
We absolutely have the research to know that we don't need to be doing hours and hours of exercise to be effective with these sessions. You know, we can utilize exercise within a 20 to 30 minute window and still reap the reward. So, you know, if we can put aside 60 minutes in the week, and maybe you get a 20 minute gap in between meetings, but you physically, you only have 20 minutes, you don't have 40 to get to the gym and back.
00:29:08
Speaker
well, we need to have something accessible for you at home so we can get you moving. And it's just being very, very realistic and also being very practical with the time that you do have, but opening your mind to know that being healthier and moving more is so available to you, no matter how busy you are. And once you start actually, you go to that eatery and you pick up that food and you take that food back to you and you eat it, you're like,
00:29:35
Speaker
oh yeah i can do this right and then suddenly the belief piece really starts to build and you're like oh i can entertain more okay what else am i going to tell you it's all about really building those beliefs um and then before you know it you're busier than ever but you're healthier than ever and that's the best feeling ever i think there's just this long-term belief that
00:29:57
Speaker
that there are plenty of women who look fabulous, who are really thin and they're really busy, but the reason why they're thin and fabulous is because they barely eat or they live on diet coke. But actually there are plenty of people who are really, really busy and really successful and juggle a lot of responsibilities, but can still fit in that healthy diet. So there must be a way of doing it. And I guess once you get into the swing of it,
00:30:27
Speaker
You don't spend so much time thinking, which does take up time. You know, if you're thinking about how are you going to eat, what are you going to eat, how are you possibly going to do it, or how you're not going to be able to do it, that is a lot of thinking time.
Inspiring Health Transformation Stories
00:30:41
Speaker
That's a lot of minutes in your 24 hours, isn't it?
00:30:46
Speaker
totally ruminating over what diet shall I do next or I'm not happy or I feel guilty because I haven't made a change or, you know, yeah, absolutely. And the impact that has on the working day is substantial. It really is. When you feel good in your body and at peace with your body and feel like you've nurtured your body,
00:31:07
Speaker
you're working as a team and then you're really powerful. You're a powerful team at this point. Absolutely. Yeah, definitely. I totally agree. And then through your work, do you have any like particular transformation stories that you can share without necessarily sharing obviously confidential information? But have you got cases that come to mind that we could relate to?
00:31:34
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So depending on what cyclical change you're going through in your life right now, I just wanted to share the impact of nutrition and exercise really in relation to our bodies. So we've worked with a few clients now that have had difficulty with fertility, one being that she was trying to conceive over a 10-year period.
00:31:57
Speaker
and wasn't able to conceive. We started working with her and she was a busy director, had a lot of responsibility and over the course of a year we focused on very steady gradual change and she lost two stone.
00:32:13
Speaker
And as a journey for her, it was about being able to replenish her body, look after her body. We focused on giving her frequent fueling, making time and creating a healthier balance between being a director and looking after her health.
00:32:30
Speaker
And I'll never forget this. So I was on my honeymoon and she contacted me and said, I know I'm not allowed, I shouldn't really be contacting you because you're on your honeymoon, but I'm five weeks pregnant. Brilliant. Wow. After 10 years of trying. After 10 years. And also,
00:32:50
Speaker
On a BMI perspective, she would be in the obese category and she conceived a baby and she didn't lose 10 stone to conceive that baby. But for her, it was about being able to support her to really regulate certain hormones in her body which do contribute to
00:33:12
Speaker
And I just wanted to share that because that is the power of what happens when you look after yourself and you and you work as a team. And I can assure you that, you know, it was very gradual for her, you know, you can't start this journey and just put your job on hold like she was a busy director with a
00:33:30
Speaker
running a company with, you know, big contracts clients and things like that. And it was about how do we do this gradually? And how do we make this fun and exciting and not overwhelming? And yeah, so the baby's here. Yeah, she's beautiful. And she obviously had a very healthy pregnancy as well, which obviously that's the thing is that whatever you learn in your weight loss journey, it carries on having benefits,
Body Awareness and Life Transitions
00:33:55
Speaker
isn't it? It still applies
00:33:57
Speaker
moving forward in life. Definitely. And also, it really enables you to understand what your personal baseline is. So one thing I always say, when speaking to clients that are transitioning, you know, they're in the perimenopause, and they're not feeling 100% in their body, I always say to them, I want to congratulate you, because this is such an incredible time to do this. Because we get to learn your body, and we get to really get you to a place where you're comfortable and you're happy.
00:34:23
Speaker
And as you progress through the menopause, you'll know what levers to push and pull because you'll understand your body and what you need to fuel it with and how you need to move it to create and sustain the body that you really love.
00:34:35
Speaker
And being able to learn that education, you know, we work with women of all ages, but just being able to teach women what's to come in the perimenopause and what to expect and how that affects your body internally and maybe some tweaks we want to make around nutrition and exercise to accommodate for that. It empowers you to just step into that next phase of your life and not be fearful about it, right?
00:34:56
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Because we don't do enough of that at all at the minute. We barely get a lesson on period and a tampon in high school, which is obviously not the time where you want to hear it anyway. Never the best environment to be able to learn about that topic. But it never comes up after that. You just kind of learn through being thrown in the deep end, invariably after years of suffering and not realizing
00:35:20
Speaker
what's gone on so that you know that's my experience of the perimenopause and menopause is women come to me after years of suffering and I'm like why didn't you come sooner like this is an absolute disaster like you feel like all of your life is falling to pieces and now you've come right when the bit when you kind of think you can't carry on
00:35:40
Speaker
like come sooner. There's ways around this. So it's such a shame that just women aren't taught about the body and how it works and I'm convinced that if this is what men were going through it would never happen. We would never have a society where men would know so little about
00:36:03
Speaker
the effects of every stage of life. Yeah, absolutely. And only recently I was having a conversation with my husband about about hair removal for women. And, you know, just about and he said, Why, you know, I think it's
00:36:19
Speaker
I think it's, you know, yeah, you should, you should do it and all of this. And I'm like, but actually, like, I want to be, I want to be at peace with who I am. And I always, when I'm thinking about, you know, optimizing the body, I always think about, right, I'm going back to my ancestors, I'm thinking pretty historically here, like, what does my body, what does my body need? And
00:36:37
Speaker
Yeah, I think the difficulty comes. And for some women, they don't, they don't struggle with symptoms around their monthly cycle. And they don't feel any different leading up to their bleed. And from an energy perspective, sleep quality, food cravings. But for some women, they do and it makes perfect sense if you do.
00:36:55
Speaker
feel probably throughout the day. And that can change. Like that's the key is that you could spend your teens, your 20s having no problems, no symptoms whatsoever. And then it can start creeping up, but not be that obvious. And I think because it's cyclical, that we're so busy, and if you don't track it, you wouldn't notice the pattern. So I think that's where women miss out on
00:37:20
Speaker
it's really obvious in hindsight once you start going, oh, every time I suddenly start feeling like this or I suddenly start getting really unproductive or really struggle with cravings at this point. But you have to know to track it, don't you? And to actually think ahead and be really aware of I'm feeling like this, but where am I in my cycles? And that can change, you know, you can develop these
00:37:47
Speaker
premenstrual syndrome at any point but that's I think the common misconception was oh you either are a girl with PMS or you're not and that won't change but it can change. Yeah absolutely and then we're still expected to push at the same degree as you know
00:38:05
Speaker
as all, especially in like a working environment, you know, we're still expected to push just as hard when actually chemically we might, we might not necessarily have that much to push. And that's where you can hit a bit of a bit of a wall and where, you know, from my perspective, I definitely do feel those symptoms leading up to my bleed and I protect, I've learned that I have to protect those five days.
00:38:29
Speaker
I say no to social things, because I just know for me that I need more space to nest in at home. And that's something you learned about myself, absolutely. But it's all a learning experience of learning your body. To add to that, I just feel that through societal pressures, through what we believe to be a good looking body, over time, we've just become incredibly detached from our bodies.
00:38:59
Speaker
And it's so hard sometimes, especially if you've had a turbulent relationship with your weight or with food, to actually be intuitive with your body. So we end up overdoing it, detached, not listening, and then you're not working as a team.
00:39:15
Speaker
you know, we want to be able to be intuitive. But with that said, if you have had difficulties with food and your relationship with your body, sometimes having a structure and a routine initially is really important because we have to teach you to implement something that is healthy and balanced so we can give your body what it needs. And then we can move over to, right, let's go intuitive, especially around food and things, let's trust into those instincts.
Gut Health and Long-term Wellness
00:39:39
Speaker
But, you know, if you're, for instance, you might be insulin resistant, as an example,
00:39:44
Speaker
So if we were to go right, go full intuitive with food, eat whatever you like, whatever comes up at any point, then we end up overeating, eating calorie-dense foods because our body isn't able to just guide us accurately at this point. Yeah, because your craving hormones are all over the place. And then you are going to be craving those instant calorie hits and the, you know, there's
00:40:02
Speaker
less nutritious stuff. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think we don't spend near enough time really to be grounded in our in our body and to feel that connection. Because there is such a connection between our gut and our mind on how we feel, isn't it? So is gut health a big thing in your in your program as well? Yeah. So
00:40:23
Speaker
Oh, I love talking about this. So permission to poo is one of our favorite things because so many clients wake up, their life is so busy that they actually don't have space to poo. They don't have a minute to sit and just listen and feel. And then they end up going through the morning, going through the day and not going to the toilet.
00:40:45
Speaker
And we know that's a really important process for detoxification and we want to make sure that clients are regular. So yes, absolutely. Gut health is a huge focus. It's something that, you know, if clients are suffering with bloating, discomfort,
00:41:01
Speaker
we tend to see improvements in that area fairly quickly, again from, you know, fueling the body correctly, balancing their stresses and things like that. And we also have Camilla, our gut health specialist in the program too, who's an absolute genius when it comes to gut health. But normally it's not complex in the sense of it doesn't need to be any pills or potions or anything like that. It's normally just focusing on the fundamentals of
00:41:24
Speaker
great nutrition and then we start to see really fantastic improvements with digestion. So how long do women tend to work with you then or does that completely vary depending obviously on what someone's individual goals are and their journey? Yeah definitely so
00:41:42
Speaker
It depends on how much they want to lose because it's a very practical reality of it. It takes a certain amount of time to lose a certain amount of weight. But also we tend to work with clients over a 12-month period, sometimes six depending on goal, but normally 12.
00:42:01
Speaker
With 12 we get to focus on the four seasons, which is really powerful with Christmas, holidays, Easter, things that sometimes are triggers for a lot of us women or perhaps we start a journey, then we don't continue it because of these key milestones. Yeah, you feel like you've fallen off the bandwagon. Well, I'm off now, I'll just restart at some point rather than just going, no, it's not a failure. You haven't left the track.
00:42:27
Speaker
So don't worry about it. Absolutely. And Christmas is a great example of when we work with clients and we go, right, this Christmas, we are creating a new identity. So if I was like, OK, Sophie, we're creating a new Christmas for Sophie, what does that look like? What does a balanced Christmas look like for Sophie? And then we build that out and we support them to implement it.
00:42:54
Speaker
because there's all these behaviors, there's all these habits that we tend to have. You know, someone might wake, I used to wake up and eat a whole Terry's chocolate orange by 9 a.m. on Christmas day. So I had to rewrite that story for myself. And yeah, so working through the seasons is really powerful, but also being able to work with a client long enough to get through the weight loss and then get them onto their own, you know, standing on their own feet, feeling really empowered and in control of their weight and with food to fly the nest and know what they're doing.
00:43:24
Speaker
And no program is going, in my opinion, no program is going to do that in eight to 12 weeks. I think it's about being able to have enough time to really go through that shift and really make a forever change. And actually, I think these short-term programs are part of the problem because we don't actually get to do the length and amount of work that some people need. Yeah, you need the real life, don't you? If you want to lose weight and then maintain it,
00:43:51
Speaker
you need to make sure it works in your real life, not just because otherwise you are going to have still have the mindset of, well, I'm just in a diet for now. Totally. Yeah, yeah. Definitely. It's got to be enough time to actually embed that new identity. And we all know that it steps forward and it steps back and it's about being able to have that coach there when when
00:44:15
Speaker
We do naturally take a step back or something feels challenging because we need to get you over that roadblock and then onto that next phase. So one thing we always like to share is I want you to feel excited about this 12 months because it's going to be a really enjoyable process. And it doesn't take 12 months to see your body change. Your body changed fairly imminently.
00:44:38
Speaker
But it's about being able to give yourself the time. I think, you know, people think that they're in this sort of race and you're absolutely not, you're in no race. And what happens if we don't give ourselves enough time with the right coaching support is we end up just program hopping. We just go from one program. Yeah, or ultimately, you lose time.
00:44:57
Speaker
you know, if you keep gaining weight and it impacts your, you know, your long term lifespan, you know, that's the key to it really, isn't it? It's like if your weight spirals and then other health conditions spiral, the risk is that you die much sooner than you were planning. Whereas actually, if you spend the time investing in making that long term change and developing a new way of living, that buys you more time.
00:45:23
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I don't know how front of mind that is for us though. I mean, if you were to sit in a hotel in America and turn the telly on, the adverts are
00:45:35
Speaker
in your face, you know, they are pointing out the complete obvious of, you know, if you don't look after your health, this is what's going to happen. Or, you know, really, they're fairly outspoken, it's fairly outspoken advertising in a Brit size, really. I don't know if we do it enough. I don't know if we bring to the surface the reality of what does happen if you don't look after yourself. No, I don't think we're blatant enough about it. No, I don't. I don't.
00:46:01
Speaker
like, other than on smoking packets, you know, but it's confined to smoking packets. And I think, why is it confined to smoking packets? Because, you know, that's not fair. You're only discriminating against one lot of people then. But actually, you know, we, everyone needs to know about this. And actually, everyone needs to know that
00:46:19
Speaker
actually, we all should be aiming to live well until we're 100 or the vast majority of us unless you have a specific genetic condition that makes that less likely.
Societal Pressures and Personal Health Choices
00:46:27
Speaker
But you know, the vast majority of us have got the ability to play these lifestyle factors to our advantage. Do you think that maybe people feel like eating healthy and exercising won't actually be enough?
00:46:46
Speaker
I think the biggest barrier to it that I hear because I do work in a very deprived area of the world in my NHS work is cost of living and access and access to the information. So a lot of people will think everyone knows how to eat healthy.
00:47:04
Speaker
how to exercise and how to do it everyone knows they just choose not to and actually from my experience that's not true not everyone does know like you think it's really obvious but not everyone does know and actually people's perception of what's normal has changed massively so if you're in a community where
00:47:24
Speaker
everyone around you is not of good health and everyone has got that higher BMI and they don't feel well, they don't move much because everything hurts, then that becomes your norm. If you grow up with that and you think, oh, well, by the time I'm 30, I just, everything hurts, that's the expectation. And like I do have patients who say, now that I'm in my 30s, I don't expect to be able to get out of bed easy.
00:47:52
Speaker
And I spend my time going, well, actually, when you're in your 30s, you absolutely should have that expectation. And because you don't, that there is a massive problem here. And that's, you know, where I feel the NHS is failing is we do have young people who think it's normal to feel unwell, without any like specific pathology or specific disease.
00:48:13
Speaker
they just feel unwell you know and that that is all the stuff that can be transformed if you take this holistic approach. Definitely and I think also the power of technology and the internet enables us to you know accumulate um education and valuable workshops and things like that to be able to support people to go through you know to be able to sit and to be able to learn and and it's incredibly difficult when you have to
00:48:43
Speaker
stand out from the crowd and do things differently. I mean, one thing I've learned is that's actually something that I had to agree to do really in the sense of when I walk in the supermarket, I have to have a plan of action, an Emily plan of action rather than following what they want me to buy on the end of aisles. I know that I'm walking in and they're trying to make me buy the things that I shouldn't buy. Or when I go to a pub, I know
00:49:08
Speaker
that certain things on the menu are not Emily friendly in the sense of it's too much for one one meal time. So I've learned that, you know, I have to come away from a crowd or I might be around a table with eight people that all order
00:49:23
Speaker
very simply I want this with this and then I'm the one the eighth person that goes I want this but can have this on the side and I want to swap this for this and I and I feel the energy of the other people around the table going oh god there's a person there's a person yeah I don't mind because they're not going to be there helping me when I'm you know 80 and
00:49:42
Speaker
got an issue, you know, but it's difficult and it takes time to be able to build that courage to, you know, step aside and do things differently if you are, you know, surrounded by people that are living in a certain way. Just to think ahead, isn't it?
Inclusive Eating Habits and Family Dynamics
00:49:56
Speaker
Like, you might not think, well, actually, you can make some adjustments, you can order it, but you could order it without certain things. And that you won't, that then is not restricting you from actually being out in a crowd and meeting sociably.
00:50:09
Speaker
like i think that's the fear isn't it that oh you're going to go on a diet and then you're stuck eating out of a top tip way by yourself yeah i mean we i had a client that said that she was watching her husband eat a lovely dinner and she was there chewing on this horrible little bar and i said that is a red flag um
00:50:27
Speaker
Yeah, this is always about inclusive eating. So, you know, when we're thinking about eating healthier as a family, we're thinking about, okay, well, what do the fat, what does the family enjoy eating? This is actually the what we did in in fit queen. At the very beginning, we took
00:50:44
Speaker
trusted family favorites and found what we've got in the kitchen me and my husband he absolutely loves to cook and we got really creative with how to recreate some of these really good dishes that we all love but in a way that is balanced that still tastes really good and aren't really faffy and don't involve loads of ingredients or hours to cook and it is absolutely totally possible 100% and
00:51:09
Speaker
It's a red flag if it isn't inclusive because it just simply won't be sustainable. Yeah, I don't think you want to be the mum who looks like they're on a diet in front of the kids, otherwise that still perpetuates the same old special K messaging, isn't it? Mum's on the special K diet. You don't want to keep putting that kind of restrictive message out. You want to be like, we can all sit around the table and we can all nourish ourselves with all of this variety that makes a big difference to our health.
00:51:38
Speaker
Like that's like really important to me in front of the kids is I want them to see variety and see eating as not something that is restrictive or difficult in any way. I just want them to think, yeah, this stuff is fuel.
00:51:56
Speaker
Definitely, definitely. And we should be able to make something that everyone can enjoy. And that's totally possible. I mean, I had a lady that did something that was something specific for gut health. But the dinner was tomatoes and green beans. And a 16 year old was like, I don't want to eat this.
00:52:13
Speaker
You know, just tomatoes and green beans. Yeah, I know. I was like, I would have been mad if that was me. I'm like, oh, my tummy would be rumbling within like two minutes. Yeah. So yeah, it's it's about being able to really build something out that is family friendly. And look, I have a lot of family friendly recipes and I will share them till the cows come home. So if anyone needs any of those, please let me know. Oh, that's an idea. Let me ask you a quick question about protein shakes. What are your thoughts on protein shakes?
00:52:43
Speaker
What are my thoughts on protein shakes? I think that they are beneficial alongside a healthy balanced diet. I think they can support women to be able to increase their protein intakes easily. It's accessible, but it becomes a problem when we're supplementing with them too much.
00:53:06
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's been the key for a lot of women that I've spoken to is you're mixing it with replacement meals, whereas actually what you're trying to do is build up your protein intake and you're not having enough protein intake because you haven't had time to think about it, you don't know how to get enough protein into your diet.
00:53:26
Speaker
So don't look, and it's that old messaging, isn't it, of, oh, these meal milkshakes, meal replacement will be the fastest way to lose weight. No, this is horrible. And full of sugar, full of sugar.
00:53:41
Speaker
And actually you can get some fantastic protein powders that have, you know, great ingredients in that taste real good. And you can use it as an opportunity to top up on your nutrients. You know, you can buy frozen spinach blocks, you just pop one of those in.
00:53:58
Speaker
Um, you know, and you can add some real great goodness into that shake. And it's incredibly popular with, uh, women that, you know, are rushing out the door. They, they make a pretty smoothie. Um, but also they're adding this singular ingredients in themselves and not putting a meal replacement sachet
Personal Wellness Tools and Stress Relief
00:54:13
Speaker
in. Like we're, we're being strategic. Yeah. Adding whole foods into it. Yeah. So the protein powder acts as your protein. Then we might put some peanut butter in that acts as your fat. Then we might be in half a banana, which acts as your carbs and some spinach as well.
00:54:28
Speaker
give it a good old blend and off they go. You might hear me say half a banana because actually they may not need a whole banana because bananas are pretty sugary right so it's about being able to to balance it out.
00:54:40
Speaker
Oh, I could literally just talk to you all day about this. So we won't have time. We'll have to talk again. But before we close, can you share one wellness tip that either is the most important for you in your life, for your own wellness, or the tip that you share the most with women when they first come to you?
00:55:01
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So I believe, you know, if you're feeling overwhelmed, or, you know, maybe you've got a lot of stress in your life, you have to find the one thing that really helps you to release that tension and stress and overwhelm. And we all find release in different ways. So some people find release by grounding in doing, you know, maybe some mindset, maybe some breathing techniques. Now, I find release through somatic work, so moving my body. So when I do an exercise,
00:55:30
Speaker
I might cry, I might have an incredible idea that comes through. It's just everything comes together and everything connects when I move my body and I can get a lot of relief from doing that. So I think a great tip is to learn what really works in your unique toolkit for release and for bringing you back into Western recovery and feeling at peace with yourself.
00:55:55
Speaker
And you need to do a bit of investigation of trying different things out to find out what really works for you. For instance, me going for a back massage is pointless because I just ruminate the whole way through it. Me going for reflexology, I'm snoring and I'm having a great time. So it's finding those things that you respond best to and having those in your toolkit because we never know what's going to come.
00:56:21
Speaker
be thrown at us in life right you know so it's about being able to know that you can ground yourself and once we've got that we can then really control our relationship with food you know we can
00:56:33
Speaker
go out and get that exercise and movement in whatever it might look like but I think learning that forever toolkit learning how to manage your stresses I mean stress hormones are a big focus for us in the program that's the area we focus on first because that naturally impacts a lot of variables when it comes to weight loss practically also you know people's relationship with food and body image and and and mindset so
00:56:58
Speaker
Yeah, just take some time to think about, like, what's my well-being toolkit? What does it look like? What's included in it? What can I go to? What do I trust? What do I know that works? And maybe spend a bit of time, you know, with an open mind testing things out. That would be my tip. Yeah, such a good tip, because it's true, you have to work out what is it that is going to take you out of that stress state, so out of your fight and flight and into your rest, your digest, your heal and breath state, I call it.
00:57:28
Speaker
So yeah. Yeah. I think just add to that as well, thinking of things in your toolkit that are really easily accessible as well. You know, I shared the reflexology, but that isn't easily accessible. You know, I've got to book it. I've also got to pay for it. You know, so it's, it's also thinking about, you know, things that are free.
00:57:44
Speaker
that you can access at any moment in your life as well. Yeah that's why I like meditation because I feel like that's something that I can do anywhere anytime and for any duration so I could do it for like a minute if I've just had a really difficult consultation with a patient for example or I could do a longer one in the morning or a longer one before bed depending on
00:58:05
Speaker
how much time I've got, but I could do it anywhere.
Emily's Personalized Health Strategies
00:58:09
Speaker
So it's certainly something that I kind of recommend to people as a free thing. Yeah. And I think it's interesting how you can tune into that and that provides you release. Whereas for me, when I tune into that, I find it hard to find that release. Whereas if I were to stand up at my desk and move my body like this, shake it out, then I really feel great release. So it's just so interesting to learn what
00:58:32
Speaker
what works for you and once you've got that it's like a secret weapon really. It is yeah you do feel like you've got a secret weapon that is so true but anyway tell everyone where they can find you because your sustainable healthy weight loss program sounds absolutely fantastic so yeah a definite recommendation but yeah where can people find you and connect with you?
00:58:55
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So you can find me on Instagram. I'm at Emily Deluzzi. That's D-E-L-U-Z-Y. I'm also over on LinkedIn. I do a lot on LinkedIn. So you can find me there under the same name. And if you wanted to go directly and just read a little bit more about what we do inside the Fit Queen program, then head on over to www.fitqueen.co.uk.
00:59:17
Speaker
I will add that we are going through a complete name relaunch. So won't be Fit Queen for very long. And that's because we launched as Fit Queen in 2017. Hey, and we're all these years on, and we really feel the program's evolved. So I'm not going to tell you what the new name is. How exciting under the URL. Absolutely.
00:59:39
Speaker
But if you land there, and it's a different name to fit queen, that is why. But yes, always one thing I would say is my inbox is always open. It's absolutely me in there. And I love a voice note. So more than welcome to there's no such thing as a silly question. So to ask me anything at any point. Brilliant. Well, thank you, Emily. And thank you for your time this afternoon. And yeah, really appreciate all the insights that you've shared today. It's been brilliant. Thank you so much for having me. No problem.