VDA Nutrition

We have the amazing ability to be aware of our body’s signals to help us make decisions for our health, wellness ... which includes what we eat.⁠
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These principles may guide you to that comfortable and healthy place of intuitive eating:⁠
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✔ Eat with your permission, don’t deprive yourself as that can lead to uncontrollable eating, or cravings following by guilt.⁠
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✔ Forget fad diets and weight loss plans for losing weight quickly. This again sets you up for failure and limits freedom to discover intuitive eating. Food restriction can trigger a feeling of loss of control, which can lead to emotional eating. Rather, find other ways to resolve those issues. Seek comfort and distraction elsewhere.⁠
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✔ Feed your body when it biologically tells you to do so, the signals are there. Excessive hunger may cause excessive unhealthy eating. Rather, build trust in your relationship with yourself and food.⁠
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✔ Challenge those thoughts in your head that declare good eating equals minimal calories, and bad eating is when you indulge in a treat. They are unreasonable, affect your psyche, and close the space for intuitive eating.⁠
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✔ Find pleasure in the feeling of satisfaction and contentment when eating healthily. The experience will be inviting.⁠
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✔ Honour your fullness. Trust that you will give yourself the foods that you need to be comfortably satisfied and no longer hungry.⁠
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✔ Make food choices that honour your health and make you feel good. What you eat consistently over time matters, it is the progress to support a healthy you.⁠
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✔ Learn to love movement and how you feel when you do move. Not militant style, just active.⁠
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✔ Love your body. Criticism of your size and shape creates unrealistic expectations. We are all genetically different. Treat your body with respect and dignity.⁠
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Use your instinct cleverly and wisely!⁠⁠⁠

In your 20s, you could eat carbs and barely think about it.

Now, in your 40s, especially in perimenopause, it is the same food but a different body.

When you eat carbs now, you feel:

● Energy crashes and sleepiness
● Weight gain around the middle that feels “new”
● Stronger cravings, incl. sugar
● Afternoon fatigue
● Harder weight loss than before

It's not your imagination, and it's not failure, it's feedback.

Your body isn’t becoming harder to manage, it’s becoming more honest.

Midlife health isn’t about tightening control, it's about learning new rhythm, new awareness, and new respect for what your body actually needs now, as your physiology shifts.

I look forward to my next IG Live guest, Caroline Labouchere of .

I met Caroline last year at the Health Optimisation Summit in London, and was inspired by her outlook and philosophy to health, wellbeing and ageing, and wanted to share them with you.

Together we will discuss her nutrition, how she trains, hair and skin care, most importantly her e-book, Aging Without Apology. (A Myth-Busting Guide).
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DATE: Wednesday, 3 June 📅⁠
TIME: 12pm (SAST)⁠
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Look forward to seeing you there.⁠⁠

EAT

Eat the meal, even if it’s not “perfectly balanced.”
Have the fries if it’s part of the moment.
Enjoy the glass of wine without turning it into a story.
Eat sugar when you truly want it, not as a rule, not as rebellion.
Stop overcorrecting every choice with restriction.
Have the late-night snack if your body is asking for it.
Say yes to food that feels like life, not just fuel.

MOVE

Miss a workout without making it mean anything about you.
Walk because it feels good, not because you “should.”
Let rest days be actual rest days, guilt-free.
Count a night of dancing as movement that matters (because it does).
Skip training when you’re tired, not because you failed.
Trust that consistency is built over time, not in a single week.
Let your body lead more often than your plan does.

MIND

Get lost in something you love without “productivity guilt.”
Have lazy days where thinking is optional.
Avoid hard conversations when your nervous system is full.
Watch something comforting before bed if it helps you unwind.
Stay up a little later for joy, not just discipline.
Let your brain rest instead of constantly optimising.
If something helps you create, feel, or connect, then allow it.

Sometimes the body does better when it’s not being controlled all the time. Healing isn’t only structure, it’s also safety, softness, and trust.

Health includes your life, not competes with it.

Ageing well isn’t just about adding years to your life, it’s about extending the years where you feel strong, clear, energised, and resilient.

Peakspan gives us a new term for this.

It helps us notice the difference between simply getting through the years and truly thriving in them.

It also reminds us that the small, everyday choices we make, like how we eat, how we move, how we rest, how we manage stress, aren’t just about helping prevent disease down the line, it's about protecting the years where life feels most full.

In the end, it's maybe the most valuable kind of longevity there is.

Read my latest blog - Meet “Peakspan”. The Real Measure Of Ageing Well - for more on this topic.

https://vdanutrition.com/meet-peakspan-the-real-measure-of-ageing-well/

We’re often taught that if we can just control enough, our schedule, our food, and our environment, we'll finally feel calm.

But the mind doesn’t work that way.

Research on emotional regulation is clear: stability doesn’t come from eliminating uncertainty,�it comes from how you process it.

You cannot control enough to feel safe. Because safety isn’t created externally, it’s built internally.

What actually changes things is developing the capacity to stay grounded when life feels unpredictable, and your nonconscious mind is always learning from what you practice.

So when you practice steadiness in small, everyday disruptions, your system begins to manage the response. This is how regulation is built, not through perfect conditions but through repetition.

Real growth doesn’t look like a perfectly calm life, it looks like a body and mind that can hold steady even when things aren’t.

How to best regulate your state?

It’s all in the roots you build daily, taking full responsibility for your life at all times, less judgement and more compassion, being more gentle with yourself and others, and having a deep knowing and comfort within yourself that all is well.

I’m seeing this more and more lately.

Women in their late 30s to early 40s struggling with hormone imbalances, unstable blood sugar, low mood, stubborn belly fat, hair loss, and intense anxiety.

Then we check their labs—and their 3-month fasting insulin is above 5.5, pointing to insulin resistance or a prediabetic state.

Years of yo-yo dieting, overtraining, fasting–binge cycles, undereating, and chronic stress are finally catching up.

Blood sugar control is one of the most powerful levers for optimising health and slowing down ageing.

These are my recommendations. Try for 60-90 days as a reset and let me know if you feel the difference.

● Remove sugar and starch, including honey and sweeteners—all of it. Whole fresh fruit in season is fine, removing it altogether will cause insulin sensitivity. After a 90-day reset, ease back into eating starchy veggies, fruits, beans, and whole grains.
● Eat 3 meals a day, 5 hrs apart, with no snacking between. Some people prefer to have two meals a day; that is fine IF it doesn’t cause your to binge or drink excess coffee just to do get through the fasting periods
● Cook from scratch, sit down with the family/friends & slow down. Get your body into a parasympathetic state to optimise digestion
● Eat protein, fat & fibre with each meal. A slice of sourdough with avocado is not a meal, add an egg
● Stop using caffeine to suppress hunger or as a snack. Have it after a meal. Caffeine raises insulin in a stressed person. Rather hydrate with water or herbal tea
● Eat with your Circadian Rhythm, so more food earlier in the day & less in the evening. Insulin blocks melatonin for sleep
● Take berberine 30 min before each meal for blood sugar control
● Sleep is everything! Remove blue light screens before bed and if supplementing, try ashwagandha & magnesium
● I like trace minerals in the morning to assist with my adrenals, you can also use some good sea salt in water
● Ease down on the cardio. Rather walk 3 times a week and lift weights. Insulin resistance drives muscle loss as we age, so building muscle strength is NB. They are your glucose disposal organ.