The Food Medic - S7 E3: Lucy Mountain on Diet culture and the highs and lows of being a person online

Episode Date: January 19, 2022

Dr Hazel is joined by influencer, Online Coach and Podcast host Lucy Mountain for a very honest and open conversation about being a person online, rejecting diet culture, her anti-diet fitness app NOBS, and embracing your best life as a single person. You can find more from Lucy over on Instagram: @nobsapp @lucymountain If you loved this episode make sure to give it a review, rating (hopefully 5 stars) and share it with your friends and family. @thefoodmedic/www.thefoodmedic.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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exclusions and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over deliver. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Food Medic Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Hazel. At the time this podcast is going out, we are halfway through January and so diet culture messages are at an all-time high and I know it can be overwhelming. That said if you're pursuing specific goals around health and fitness it can be hard to navigate that with clear non-judgmental advice so I called in Lucy Menton to add some nuance to the conversation. Lucy Menton is an influencer, online coach and podcast host. Through her Instagram she breaks down diet culture and dispels myths surrounding food and fitness.

Her app, Nobzap, is the first anti-diet fitness app designed to help her community get strong at home or in the gym without counting calories or toxic messaging. I love this episode because I don't think this type of conversation really happens on Instagram and messaging becomes very black and white, die camp versus non-die camp, with little room to expand and discuss. We also cover things like being a person online or an influencer, feeling disillusioned by social media and embracing your best life as a single person. So grab your tea, coffee or maybe it's time for wine wherever you are in the world and enjoy. This podcast is sponsored by Treedom. Treedom is a platform that allows anyone to plant trees in different countries of the world. The special part though, when you plant a tree with Treedom, it is planted, photographed and geolocated with its very own online diary bearing stories and facts about the species, the people involved and the country where it is planted.

You're also connecting with a farmer on the other side of the world, providing them with income, opportunity and food. Plant a tree with TREEDM by visiting www.tredem.net. I would love to just start by asking you to tell us more about you in your own words who you are and what you do. Yeah I guess I am a social media influencer content creator whatever you want to call it and basically use my page to dispel diet culture that's what I've been doing for about five years now and then off the back of that I have my knobs my knobs app um which is a an anti-diet fitness app so there's no diet culture

messaging um and I launched that in April so it's still a fairly new side of things and then in addition to that I also have my own podcast with two of my best friends what else do I do I feel like those three things summarize me well yeah I can't believe it's only been April since you launched knobs app I know it's one of those things where it's like it feels like ages but also it feels like it's flown by I just yeah it's a bit the thing with an app it's so different to selling my old plans because with an app it's like you are on every day because with the old plans you'd create one and sell it and with this it's like a live breathing thing that changes and things happen and you have to like be completely reactive but I love it it's

I love it that's so good but I can imagine it's stressful and also a side note I love your close friends podcast it's like my favorite thing to listen to when I'm like I need to switch off from work I'm going for a walk I just want to have a girls chat and that's what it is do you know what thank you for saying that. Cause like sometimes because we're literally like, we are actually like best ones in the world. We're having a chat and then sometimes I finish recording and I'm like, Oh God,

like what are we even saying? Like who wants to listen to this? But yeah, thankfully some people do. So we'll keep doing it until people get sick of it. Yeah, no, I'm sure they will get sick of it I definitely do recommend listen I do recommend it to all like all my mates as well even like my male mates because I feel like the stuff that you talk about is applicable to everyone um and yeah sometimes you just need that kind of chat in your life you don't need

something that's a really heavy informative podcast although I do learn from it and so the other thing that you mentioned is that you're like an influencer but you said like influencer content creator and I've heard you refer to yourself as a person online before and I thought this would be a really interesting chat to have with you because I am also a person online and I stumble across the word influencer quite a bit because it holds I guess negative connotations and you know like if you're at a dinner party and you turn around you're like I'm an influencer people automatically assume that that just means that you kind of earn money through showing what you're wearing every day or something along those lines and as we both know you can be an

influencer in various ways and do various things and so I was wondering what how you feel about that term and like you you know you're a business owner you're an entrepreneur like you didn't mention those things in your bio and I'm like you own your own app like what do you think that's a thing that we do as women do you think it's you know it doesn't matter what gender you are do you know what being completely honest I am at a point where I don't really care whatever anyone wants to label or call me or if people want to be derogatory towards whatever I choose to label myself as I'm kind of at the point now where I just I just don't care I think I very much used to reject the term influencer because of the reasoning that you just said because of the

the sort of like connotations of it being you just selling teeth whitening toothpaste every day on your page and whatever um which she doesn't do fyi i mean kage if you want to hit me up i'm done but um yeah so i think i rejected it and i kind of wanted to be like i'm different i am so different to all those other influencers like you know so I'd reject it and I would say content creator person online all those things and then I think that's about a year or so ago I was just like I just don't care like if you want to call me an influencer fine I'll accept it because none of it really matters but I will say calling myself an entrepreneur or you know CEO founder whatever I still don't lead with that which is something that I probably should work on I was talking to this girl um in the gym

the other day and she was asking me what I do and I said and then she's like oh so you're a business woman and I was like yeah I guess so and it felt a bit uncomfortable so I think as women we struggle to give ourselves titles like businesswoman or entrepreneur because it feels icky like we should always be playing ourselves down a little bit to seem softer and more approachable and unpretentious but that is only because of how we've been conditioned to see those things like it's a very masculine thing to be so yeah I mean I I don't know do you do you call yourself an entrepreneur not really for the same reasons in that like I feel like it holds like this weight that I don't feel like I I deserve or something like it but it's bizarre

because that's what I am at the end of the day and similar to you like when it comes to influencer like I toyed around with like oh maybe I'll put like a word in front of it like health influencer medical influencer and then I'm like this just sounds so dumb and so yeah like it's interesting because it's difficult when you also wear all these different hats and so people kind of want you to fit under one hat and identify as one thing and I'm like well I identify as various things I'm like a doctor I'm an influencer I'm a nutritionist I'm a woman so why can't I be all those things and also what if I just don't want to give myself any label you know like I run the food medic that's what I do and I am a doctor because you're right even you saying fitness influencer or health influencer that brings

connotations of someone who is wearing Gymshark every day and doing workouts which is obviously one certain kind of fitness influencer but that's not you so all like every label has those connotations and I think part of it is also you don't want to box yourself in yeah no it's interesting it's also interesting how things have evolved like you and I started influencing or we started online at a very similar time a long long time ago back in the OG days of IG and at the time you were fashion fitness foodie I got that right right yeah so tell us about your journey from when you started as fashion fitness foodie and now you've come back to your own name Lucyacy mountain but you also have knobs as a separate page which we'll talk more about because like for people who don't know what knobs

is they're probably like what are you talking about like eggplant emoji i am it's so funny when i meet someone or work with someone who's like an accountant and i have to like explain the business name and they're like what and i'm like n-o-b-s there's no k like I had one accountant that would like he would never say it he would go n-o-b-s and I'm like you can just say knobs and he just never would um yeah so so I yeah I started classic thing of started posting influencing wasn't really a thing didn't really know you could ever make money from it or whatever it was very much just me wanting to share stuff so but I didn't really I never actually really used my page that much for like I did share some

personal stuff and there would be pictures of me but it was never like this is my health journey I kind of started like my first ever posts were infographics funnily enough they are so pixelated when I go back because that's how long ago it was but I yeah I always kind of knew that I wanted to make it into some sort of like platform space rather than just me um and then I changed it to my name. I think it was two years ago because of knobs, because knobs was growing and I was like, the fashion fitness foodie felt like a brand name. And then I had knobs and it just felt a bit odd.

But also like, it felt like, you know what I mean? You use like an old like email address. I was reaching like my mid twenties and I'm like, yeah, I'm the fashion fitness foodie. And I would stop cringing every time I said it and I'm like yeah I'm the fashion fitness foodie and I just thought cringing every time I said it I was like I can't keep saying this um so yeah so eventually I was like I'm just gonna be me and and yeah I'm glad I did because saying the word foodie every time I introduced myself like just started to become very uncomfortable so that's basically the transition amazing and so tell us more about knobs and how it's different to other fitness apps well basically I saw a space where what I was noticing in the industry was there was the hardcore old school

fitness side where it was calorie counting weight loss and that was very much the norm and the standard and then we started to have more dialogue around anti-diet side of fitness and I realized there was no actual fitness element or like product within that space there were loads of diet plans and fitness apps and whatever for people who wanted to exercise for weight loss and calorie tracking whatever but there was no real fitness app for people that wanted to reject diet culture because I feel like there's this assumption of like oh if you're anti-diet you don't really care about fitness or if you're anti-diet you just want to focus on joyful movement. And it's all intuitive. And you just decide what you want to do on the day. And that's not true.

So what I wanted to do was basically bridge the gap of science based training programs that train the whole body, not just the glutesutes and combine that with the anti-diet culture messaging and put it together so then we started selling this was 2018 we started selling workout plans via like a third-party app and we literally associated with my old partner business partner and romantic partner we built these programs and we started selling them and we had no idea how many people would buy it and on the first day we launched the first knobs guide we got a thousand sales in that evening and we were like what we were like we couldn't believe it we just kept on refreshing the sales and we were just like this is like something

this could be something so that then evolved and then it got to the point where I'd taken on the business by myself so I'd separated with my old partner and I took it on myself and I was at this point where I was like either I leave the business and I just stopped doing it because I felt like I didn't have the confidence to do it I was very much reliant on him to like to guide and make me feel like I'm doing a good job but and I decided in that moment like as soon as we ended the partnership I was going to do the app and then worked for a year and a half and then eventually the app was here but it was like a long journey it wasn't just a case of oh I built an app like I had to save loads of money to be able to fund it and but it was always in the plan which was special when it

actually happened it's easy to kind of forget that you like when you do something or you reach a goal it's easy to forget that you had originally wanted really like were desperate for that goal but felt like it could never happen and then it happens and you're like oh okay it is possible yeah so that's kind of like the evolution of how it happened but yeah I just every day it's just the community we have and like I'd say that my favorite thing of the community is just everyone's sense of humor like when I go into our Facebook group like I die every day because they are just so funny and like witty and we all have like the same sense of humor which I think is really special yeah I feel like you can get that from the snippets that you share on your stories it just seems like a really nice space and also like

very empowering as well like the messages that you share on the app and things like that and I think for what you're achieving with knobs can be a really tricky balance because like online you know there exists people who are pro diet and anti-diet and it's a super polarizing topic and conversation and people want you to fit into one camp or the other and there's no space for nuance or conversation and I know that there's a lot of people who kind of fall into the middle where they don't want to be part of diet culture but they are afraid to reject it because they want to still look after their health and engage in physical activity but then they don't want to be seen as someone who they don't really know how that is

possible and I guess my question to you is like how can we navigate that how can we like encourage people that like yes it is okay to like want to eat fruits and vegetables and move your body and sleep and still reject diet culture not fall for those fads and gimmicks and things like that I think about this all the time like I really do think about this a lot because sometimes it can feel like like everything has to be opposite sometimes it feels like if you are not tracking calories you have to be fiercely anti-everyone doing that or if you are deciding that you're not going to focus on weight loss as a goal that you have to be anti-weight loss full stop and I remember when I first started learning

about diet culture one of the main messages was intentional weight loss is bad and that's wrong and I fundamentally disagree with that now but at the time I was like yeah yeah that's right it's like hang on a second who the who am I to also like speak on anyone else's experience who am I to say what's right or wrong what someone else decides to do with their body I can decide the message that I want to share but that should have no judgment against anyone else that has a totally different life experience to me and wants to lose weight so yeah there's there's loads of things which I now think about often and realize that it doesn't necessarily fit this like rule book it kind of felt like there was this rule book of what the anti-diet was but then I kind of sat back and I was

like who wrote this though who decided what was right and what was wrong it's hard because if I do a post for example on my Instagram talking about ways to get in more vegetables for example I would say that that would still be jarring to some people because it feels like the subtext to that is you shouldn't be having cookies you should be having more vegetables and that's better you know if you don't do that you're bad because that's the place we are in at with social media you see one post one caption and that has to completely summarize your thoughts and and speak to everyone's own individual context but it's just one post that could be one post talking about the importance of vegetables in a sea of posts

talking about also being flexible and also not being restrictive but people see that one post and they take that and internalize that and that's a huge problem so yeah I mean it's something that I navigate often but what I would say to anyone who's feeling stuck between wanting to do you know health promoting stuff that feel like they're kind of betraying the anti-diet community is number one you are always in control of whatever you decide to do no judgment number two not everything is diet culture I feel like now especially because I'm in this space more than anything but constantly it's like that's diet culture this is diet culture I feel like now especially because I'm in this space more than anything but constantly it's like that's diet culture this is diet culture you know diet

culture and not everything is diet culture eating protein is not diet culture going to the gym four times a week is not diet culture following a training plan is not diet culture so I think we need to be careful about how we band around those phrases but you know I always say like saying that it's okay to eat cookies doesn't mean that we shouldn't be eating vegetables and saying that you need to eat vegetables is not saying that you can't have cookies sometimes it's hard to completely relay every single message at one single time yeah I don't think it's possible so I would say to people just be careful when people are looking at single Instagram posts or um following a certain influencer that like

it is just Instagram and it's not intended to offer you bespoke nutrition advice or any kind of advice really that speaks directly to you yeah I've just basically gone on that I hope that makes no yeah I feel like the only way to kind of talk about that is going is really picking it apart like you have it's very difficult to kind of condense the right way to act in those situations or kind of you know how we can make that space more inclusive I I'm not really sure, but I think like apps like knobs obviously do. And also trying to not have so much black and white thinking, which is difficult, you know,

when you are online because people engage with your content. If you are either, they completely agree with you or they completely disagree with you. So there are either, you know, they're in your comments, like giving you loads of claps or they're in your comments going like, this bs like blah blah blah and so yeah that's that's what i feel like is missing from instagram but longer form content like this where we can like two people

that exist online that have you know substantial following no one really gets this kind of the meaty conversation you know like this is the meaty conversation that people need to be tapping into and also thinking about themselves like think for yourself what do you want to align with you know like what do you feel comfortable with what are your goals because they might be completely different to the people that you are following online you know what's important for your health at the end of the day and I think people just need to take some of that accountability on when they are scrolling through social media and speaking of Instagram you spoke on how you feel slightly like disillusioned maybe like not inspired by social media are you still feeling that way um I I felt better sharing

it that was like number one I was like oh I just feel like I've got something off my chest because I've been feeling it for months I think I just I feel very uninspired at the moment I feel like it's kind of like what I was saying around people just saying everything's diet culture or throwing phrases around and everyone's kind of sticking to this script of rules without free thinking and I kind of got to this point where I'm like I'm kind of bored of these phrases being thrown around all the time the classic one that I always see is you know it's okay to not be okay and that's true but that's it there's nothing else there's no other information on it there's no other further nuance or whatever or like explanation as to why it's like with social

media and trends and stuff these phrases kind of get created and people just say them but then they say them so often there's no meaning and then for me I sometimes feel like are we being helpful or are we just making content for the sake of making content like our content creators at a point where they're just they feel the need to post all the time so they're just putting out something just to post something rather than actually having substance and I think I got into a mindset of just becoming very bored I don't find Instagram that inspiring anymore it's I can't remember the last time I was like wow what an amazing creative post when I go on TikTok I do and I think it's very funny yeah I do because for me TikTok is the only social media platform

that I laugh out loud to when I'm scrolling Instagram I don't laugh really but when I'm on TikTok I'm laughing constantly so there's that too but then I think from my side as like a content creator I think I'm definitely struggling to like keep up with the new way that content is being shared which is reels and video format and I've always liked to have my own signature style and that's you know with my infographics and whatever and I feel like the trend now is to not have your own signature style it's more just copying trends and people remake your videos and that's like that's kind of like an acceptable thing to do like that's the culture we're in now so I know what I need to

do to get inspired to follow some different people and I probably just need to read some books and spend less time online um do you feel the same because you know a lot of people said they had yeah I do I feel there's so many things that you said there that's really interesting to me first of all just to go back on what you said with your signature style like I think you have maintained like a signature style and branding like all throughout the years even when you're like fashion fitness foodie with infographics and when you were on holidays recently I went onto your page and I was like do you know what it's so nice to see more of Lucy and her page because there was a lot of like reels which look like you're doing them in real time and you're not really as constructed as your other work, which is beautiful.

And so for me, I'm like loving that. But for you as a content creator, you're probably like, well, I'm not working hard to do that. That's me just sharing my life and people actually love that and I think that's almost the hardest things to share online because you're being vulnerable and you're like opening up like a little bit of you and I know for me I'm super cagey online and that like you know I've built a brand around myself but I don't share very much personal information because it's a protective mechanism and people can like target that and yeah I think that what's really difficult as well as like you know people who've been doing this a long time is Instagram has changed so much I mean all we used to be able to do in the beginning was post a photo and we could put borders on our photos like that was like oh my god those like what was that like vignette oh my god also what's so funny is I swear those filters are still there like I think

those settings are still there but who uses them I feel like my mother maybe uses them but um Instagram is changing all the time obviously we've got all these new like you know video formats and things like that but within the video, there's also different things. People engage with different things. Like even engagement and reels has gone down because so many people are using them. And I'm like, so are we going to scrap reels and do like even shorter videos? Like, what are we doing? And like, why can't we just create what we want to create?

And part of me is kind of being like, I don't really care what the algorithm wants me to do. I'm still posting like our educational infographics, which bomb in terms of engagement because they don't get the reach that they should get. But then I'm like, I'm not willing to play the game completely and lose sight of what my brand is about. Yeah, I fully agree. It's that horrible place of like, brand is about yeah I fully agree it's that horrible place

of like the thing is what I also hate is when content creators are like the algorithm's rubbish now you know it's working against me it's like no people have just changed the way they consume content yeah and when it's your job you kind of have to adapt slightly to it and I am a firm believer like if you do make a really good piece of content that's relatable like I always think it will do well and even if that first piece doesn't if you keep using that as your goal it something will happen and you will do well but yeah I'm like you and that like sometimes you have like a really niche thing that you want to share and you know the engagement might be rubbish but ultimately you might have I don't know really helped five people that were thinking about

signing up to my app or whatever and then they do and then it's like oh great I've got five new people that I can work with so yeah I think it's important to not get like hung up on the numbers but that's also because I have my knobs and I have the app now when I'm doing everything I love my job I love every aspect of it and I love my personal life so much I I can never be that person that's sharing every aspect no no I and I I mean I hugely respect that some people build like a business out of sharing their personal life like you know like Zoe Sagan good now a few days and now they've got a baby like and they're they're comfortable doing that like I know I get such anxiety when I share too much and that's just a personal thing you know it's like how I'm built but I also think regardless of like how many people follow you or whatever and how long they've been following you they do see you as like this product and

you know there's never any please or thank you in the dms it's just you know asking things or I just feel like that jades me a little bit because I'm like I'm working hard over here you want to know where I got my top you're talking about all sorts and it's like sorry by the way what lipstick shade are you wearing it's like oh how do you deal with like do you ever get like troll comments because I can't imagine you get that many to be fair I don't really I I do whenever I talk about anything COVID related or vaccine related I get so many of it that like I almost set myself into a spiral on one post like and then I turned off all the comments because I couldn't moderate them and there was like people putting in like loads of misinformation and then loads of people got really angry that I did that like even people

who are like quite level-minded and that they were like I just want to read the conversation I want to like make my own informed decision and so in the end I just let the comments rip wild and I just kind of like ghost posted and I dropped it and left like and that's what I do now I like ghost post post it goodbye sometimes I will like jump in into comments if people have like questions but like you you get to a level where like you're unable to comment on everything or reply to everything and I know big accounts do but like ultimately it's just me posting on Instagram so I don't have a team of people to respond and there's half a million people on there and if I'm talking about like COVID everyone wants to

know like individual medical advice like hey I lost my you know smell and taste six months ago what should I do or my hair is falling out and it's just like there's so many things that like need to be unpacked there that you need to see your doctor so I'm like go to your GP go to your GP and like people think I'm just being lazy and I'm like I just don't want to lose my medical license hun. Yeah I can't even imagine how stressful like the past year has been being online like as a doctor and having to deal with Covid. Yeah I think it's interesting how you just like learn to not care as much about people who are strangers and tell you what you should do and it's like you know what I find really interesting is when you do like question boxes and things because then you're like oh my god you would really ask a

person this question and there's so much like which is what I want to speak to you next about is like if you're a single woman online and you're like of a certain age, I'm saying of a certain age, like we're 60, like I'm mature women. Lady of an age. I mean, I'm 20.

I don't know how old you are. I'm 29. You're 29. Okay. So I'm almost 30. Almost there. But like, if you're in your late twenties,

early thirties and you're a single woman and you're enjoying your life like that is wild to people they're like oh my god you took yourself on holidays what is happening do you not feel weird like having dinner by yourself or by the pool by yourself and like for me I don't feel weird at all and I'm like does that make me weird that I don't find that weird but it's because we've created this culture where like, you shouldn't be living your best life unless you have a partner. And until you get that partner, work hard, play hard, date, find the person. And so how have you found like kind of just rejecting that idea and being like,

I'm going to take myself on a bougie holiday like you did. And you deserve that because why should you wait yeah well this is it this is my exact mentality and like when I so when I did book that solo trip a few weeks ago I was like there's no one that I would take with me here and I have some of this money and I'm just going to spend it on myself so I'm just going to go all out and it was like a week of like luxury I just I loved it and I'm like you Hazel I don't feel awkward being by myself I just don't and again like I remember when I was away loads of people like do you not feel uncomfortable and I'm like no part of me feels uncomfortable because when I'm by myself I'm not bored I'm not thinking what are people thinking of me

because I just don't really care I mean I've had like relate like little relationships and I've been seeing someone for a few months and on and off but I haven't had a long-term relationship in over two years now and I would say like half my I think like what your friends are doing matters because I think if you are the only single friend like I get dms from people saying they're the only single friend in their group and they feel like they are not being chosen or whatever and I'm like people just assume that people in relationships are happy people just assume if someone has had a child that they're actually really happy with that decision there are so many people that are making these life choices to have a family get married whatever and still

deeply unhappy so we need to remember that just because everyone else is doing this thing it doesn't mean that they're happy in their decision I don't know I find it I find I'm a little bit disillusioned with the way that we see marriage and meeting a partner and having to be with someone and half my friends are single but the other half are very much not single and it's so important that if you are feeling like if you don't have that single group, or, you know, you don't see any examples of women, older women, women of a certain age, women in their 30s living their best life, you know, when you don't see that it's really hard. You do just think, well, what else is there? But you have to, you have to shake that mindset,

because there are so many people out there who aren't even thinking about finding a partner couldn't care less it's so far down the priority list because they're so happy and fulfilled in all other aspects that's it so I yeah that's it that's it and like you know people who are coming out of relationships like I said you know at the start of this question that like whether it was a statement or question I can't even remember but I said like you know I feel super happy by myself but that wasn't always the case I've always been quite an independent person I was in a long distance relationship so it was like I had I was independent most of the time we didn't

live together but once we broke up I felt this huge gap in that like I was unable to make myself happy because that person is the source of my happiness or whatever and I feel that from a lot of people and that they're like now I'm alone I don't know how to be happy and I think doing things like taking yourself on holidays feeling the discomfort of being alone if you find that uncomfortable. Because like, if you can't be comfortable in your own company, then you're never going to find happiness like with other people.

And I just think you have to almost relearn that again, actually, ultimately, what is happiness? What makes you happy? What are the goals in your life? What do you want to do? Like, answer all these questions questions and it took me like time to get to this place where I'm like actually if I can make myself happy I've nailed it and then anyone else on top of that who brings

me additional happiness perfect this is it that's literally it and, I don't know about you, but one thing that I hear a lot is women who are say 33 and they say, if I break up with my partner now, say the relationship's not good. If I break up with my partner now, I'm going to have to start again. And that for me just feels quite sad because it's all rooted in women feeling like their main purpose should be meeting someone and that person fulfilling them yeah or there's something wrong with you if you're not with someone like you know the worst question is when people are like how are you still single why are you still single I'm like out of choice I find that so weird I had that on hinge the other day this guy was like how are you so I was like

what do you mean by that like what like I'm just waiting to be chosen it's like no it's almost like you're waiting in line and this man just thinks that women are just being picked and if you're not picked it means that there's something wrong with you there's something wrong with you yeah it's not there's nothing wrong with you it's something wrong with everyone else you've met like no it's just like yeah no I'm glad we had that conversation because I I get it a lot and I never really know how to tackle that on my platform because it's not really about that but then like again like we going back to the initial conversation we had, like, how do you identify? I'm a woman, I'm a single woman. It's important that we act as role models. I'm saying that and cringing a little bit inside. But like, yeah, so that other women are like, oh, well, there's two

successful women who are navigating life by themselves. And this is it, this is this is seeing those examples, being able to see women actually do it rather than just looking at your mates who are all engaged or whatever. Yeah. Okay. So I've got three questions to wrap the podcast. The first one is,

what would be your number one takeaway to people who are listening to the podcast? I would say that, I think we've talked a lot about like identity. I would say that I think we've talked a lot about like identity. I would say that it's really important to make sure that you are thinking for yourself. And just because you have joined a certain community, that doesn't mean that you now have to follow all the rules. I really encourage people to not just look at labels or like just label themselves constantly have a think about what you think because I think there's a lot of people out there who are losing their voice and are scared

to have opinions on things and you know we need women to be vocal we need women to be opinionated and share what they think so um I just just encourage everyone to just start asking yourself get into the habit of asking yourself, what do I think? And what's my opinion? And don't be afraid to share it. Yeah. And don't be afraid to upset someone if you disagree with what they are saying. Like, I'm saying that for myself as well, because I know I censor myself from things out of fear of upsetting people. So yes to that one. one the second question is if you could go back and give your 18 year old self one piece of advice what would it be see I was gonna when I saw

this I was gonna pick like a diet culture one which is you know don't fall into the trap because that was the age when I started but I would probably say don't ever lose your sense of fun and playfulness and sense of humor because I've always been really silly and my dad is like my dad's ridiculous and I've always father mountain father mountain yeah official father mountain so I've always like loved that and that's my favorite quality and all my friends and any of my partners just being like ridiculous and weird together and I think between the ages of like 21 and maybe like 25 26 I took myself very seriously in that I was working constantly and I I kind of missed that sense of play and I think that's so important

to just keep it and just because you're an adult doesn't mean that you can't like have fun so I prioritize fun all the time now and I very much feel like I've rediscovered that side of me again so I yeah I would say to her to just not let that side go I love that that is so good so good and also unique okay final question what is one book that you recommend people read and why well I have two books which I love and they're two books which I'd happily recommend to anyone the first one which really helped me a couple of years ago was what a time to be alone love it have you read it yeah I read it after my breakup and I was like this is good yeah so the sunflower she basically wrote this amazing book and it's just perfect if you are like we

were talking about earlier struggling to spend time alone or if you've had a breakup, just, I mean, I used to listen to her in like audio book and just like play it over and over again because it was just so powerful to me at that time. So I really recommend that book. And then my other book, so I do love a self-help book, but not like a cringy one. And I'm also not massively into like philosophy,

but there's this book called the four agreements and it's basically like these four principles that if you follow them they will help you live a happier life and it's the first book that I've read of that ilk where I was like oh this is so powerful and I think about it all the time. And again, that's another one which I have an audio book and I just listen to him and his like soothing voice. If I feel misaligned or a bit lost, I just take myself back to that audio book. Yeah.

And I just listen to it again. So there's two. Amazing. There's two recommendations. And I guess finally, even though it's three questions, to kind of round everything up, where can people find you if they want to like find more about what you're doing, access the knobs app?

Well, you can find me on Instagram at Lucy Mountain. Instagram person. Instagram person. And then, yeah, you can find knobs at knobs app. And then the link in our Instagram bio will take you to download the app. I think that's all my things. Amazing.

Well, thank you so much for coming on for the chat today. I found it like quite cathartic to have this conversation. Yeah. Amazing. Thank you so much for having me. Okay, so I found that a really fun episode. I loved speaking to Lucy and I hope you enjoyed it too a little reminder that if you are enjoying the show to please consider leaving a five-star rating and a review so that we can reach as many people as possible

and keep bringing new podcasts that's all from me see you again next time