The Wellness Scoop - The Reason Healthy Habits Fail, Food Guilt & Nervous Systems

Episode Date: June 4, 2026

This week we’re unpacking why knowing what’s healthy and actually doing it can feel like two completely different things. From all-or-nothing eating patterns to wellness overwhelm and habit burnout, we explore why sustainable health is often much more about nervous system support, flexibility and consistency than perfection. We also discuss food guilt, sugar cravings, breathwork for beginners, kefir versus yogurt, sustainable omega-3s and how to build habits that genuinely support your mood and energy without becoming restrictive or performative. Plus, we share thoughts on puzzles, bees, burnout, friendship and the surprisingly confronting “Four Burners Theory.” Recommendations: Listener Julia recommends The History of Bees by Maja Lunde, a beautiful work of fiction that weaves together three storylines across different time periods — all connected through bees and what their disappearance means for humanity. For more from Rhi and Ella:  Order your copy of Ella's new book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Quick Wins: Healthy Cooking for Busy Lives⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Order your copy of Rhi's new book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Fibre Formula⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up to ⁠⁠Rhitrition+⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. And as always, we are here as your host. I'm Ella Mills. And I'm Rihanna Lambert. And today we're delving into all of the wonderful questions that you've been sending us here on our extra scoop. So let's go. Rie, what have we got coming up in today's show for you guys? Okay, so today we have the Four Burners Theory and Weather Balance actually exists. why we know what's healthy but we still struggle to do it. I think that's something we can all relate to. Building wellness habits when friends prioritize aesthetics over health.

So that is another deep dive leading off the back of last week's discussion on Stacey, the all-or-nothing food trap and creating a more intuitive relationship with eating, breathwork for beginners and calming the nervous system, sustainable omega-3s and where the smoked mackerel still contains healthy. fats, sugar cravings, Crohn's disease and reducing food guilt, and then why wellness doesn't have to look perfect to be effective. It's a big episode today, Ella. Yes, there is so much to get into. Reefers, though, have you got any good wrecks for us, anything we need in our lives? Okay, foodie wreck, and I promise I will get around sharing the recipe as well on socials, but from my book,

I have these great fennel bars because when you run out of berries, berries are quite expensive per pannet. Grapes are significantly cheaper and actually you can get the similar amount of antioxidants. People don't realise it's from a red grape as you can from blueberries. So I've got the most incredible baked grape oat bars and then I add fennel seeds on top with sprinklings of brown sugar and honestly, that's a wreck that I will be sharing, I promise. It's in the fibre formula book if you check it out. And then I went to the cinema and I finally saw Devil Wes Prada. Oh my gosh, I haven't done it yet and I'm desperate to you.

Was it good? Do you know what? It was very hard to actually find a slot in the cinema. very last minute at a time that suits you because it was so full still and it's been going out for ages. I loved it. I really did. Miranda Priestley wasn't as Miranda as she was before but I think that's because you know we grow of age and what's so beautiful is that was really, the narrative was really like that. I don't want to give it away. It's very hard to discuss a film when you don't want to give it away but I've thoroughly enjoyed it and it's worth the hype I would say this one. It was really

lovely to watch. Well, I'm very excited to see it. I also like what you said on grapes. Sometimes I see people online being like grapes or sugar bombs and I want to be like, okay. Anyways. And I think we've kind of very important message. Obviously, you know, if you don't love veg or, you know, maybe children don't love veg like fruit, loads of loads of goodness in there.

So it's so nice hearing that. I think I admitted the other day, like I don't love like uncooked fruit. Yes. Or not in a smoothie. Anyway, roasted grapes, you know, you put them in your obel. Roasted grapes are so nice. Well, also in traditional French cooking and actually in space, They add a lot of black grapes and things too traditional.

If you're a meat eater to chicken dishes and casseroles and stews, I love adding grapes to my salads, as you know, I've mentioned before my chickpeas and things in. And I think just adding some fruit. I know it's something to get your head around, I think, in this country with heated up fruit that isn't a dessert and having it as part of a main. But honestly, some dishes, it really complements. Check us out, Ella. I mean, you're definitely more of a chef than I, but we're gourmet.

You know, these jesons. you adding a bit of Mediterranean. I love it. Okay, I'm very excited to try those. We also have a recommendation for you, Re, from Julia, one of our listeners. She's a re, your ongoing love for bees, and the documentary that you mentioned made me think you'd absolutely love the history of bees by Marja Lunday. It's a beautiful work of fiction that we've together three storylines across different time periods, all connected through bees and what their disappearance means for humanity.

It's moving, thought-provoking and honestly one of the most memorable reads I've had in years I highly recommend. Oh, Julia, thank you. A hundred percent will check that out. That's going to be my new bit of reading this week because I could go on and on about the bees. Ella, did you have any recommendations before we move on to the next?

I thought this would all worked out perfectly for me because I actually don't have any. They didn't have to say anything. So I was thinking the bees, I was like Ella didn't give us anything. But we've got the bee rec, so it's fine. Do you know what I've been making is, cherry tomato tart tata. Oh yes, you said you were going to make that.

So it went well. Yeah, so good. I'm really into balsamic at the moment. That's not a recommendation because everyone likes it. But you know when you like not forget about an ingredient, but you kind of like bring it back to front of mind. I've just been using on salads. Whereas now I'm like, all I'm really cooking with it front and center.

Like roasted balsamic, red onions, like really kind of jammy and juicy and stuff. I'm into feccacha with balsamic and olive oil because it's a heat wave and it's so hot. and I just love serving like a Facaccaca bread or something really delicious and just dipping it in, you know, that olive oil lashings. I just love it. It's like a whole bowl of it. Oh my gosh, Ficccia is a dream, isn't it? I'm obsessed. Julia had a second wreck.

I've just missed that off. I'm sorry, Julia. The Four Burners Theory. Yes. So thank you for flagging this one, Julia. Julia said your recent conversation about how doing it all just isn't realistic made me think of the Four Burners Theory. I don't know, Rie, if you're aware of this, I remember hearing about this a while ago and I loved it. So we thought it might be an interesting one just to delve in too quickly today.

I love it because to me it's almost like which cups are full in your life. And I mentioned when that, oh, the one listener said to us, what would you do if you didn't have kids and more time? And I said, I want to see friends more because that burner is empty. Is that what this is? Yeah, I think it's this idea. So it's generally attributed as a kind of origination to a man called David Sedaris and he populized this metaphor about these four burners, essentially like four stove tops in a piece in 2009 for the New Yorker. And it was been then really widely shared by James Clear. And basically the idea is that, as I said, it's like four stovetop kind of burners, hobbs. And you've got your four, I'm going to call them hobbs, because it's how I think about

them. Maybe it's a UK word. Okay, you got your four hobbs and you've got family, you've got friends, you've got health, and you've got work. And essentially the idea is that to be successful, really in any of these areas, you've got to turn one of the burners down. Like it's quite hard to put them all on 100% all of the time. But to be really successful, you might have to turn two down. And essentially the idea is like life is filled with trade-offs. Like the idea that you can have four stovetops on 100% is just not possible. There's not enough electricity or power to do it.

And so you basically have to choose what it is that's really important to you. if you want to divide yourself equally between the four, you've basically got to appreciate, recognize, except be okay with the idea that you can't maximize them. So they'd all be at 50% or whatever it is. And I think it's a really helpful analogy, I think, actually, which I'm sure is why it's so popular. You know, if you want to prioritize, say, health and your family, you probably have to dial back a little bit on ambition and career. Or if you really want to excel in your work, in your marriage, let's say some of your friendships or kind of time you can devote to your health may suffer because the time you might go to the gym, you're out with friends. And I find this

quite helpful. I mean, I'm a huge believer that you simply cannot have it all at any time in your life. And I think you have to make choices. I remember often upsetting people, but like really disappointing people when we were at the kind of max of building delicious sierra. And then people would be like, well, what's your work like balance? And I was like, my balance. I don't have a balance. I work 24-7, 365 days a year. If I'm on holiday, I'm just working in a different place. And then people... Holidays with your laptop. It used to just be the norm. That's all we did. And I'm not glamorizing it, but it was wildly successful. And it was a necessity. Do you know, it's very interesting because there's this notion that Ella and I have discussed before and I said to

Ella how I feel about it. Working hard, but hardly working is not true. It almost upsets me a bit because I look back at that grafting phase. I mean, I still consider, I think I am still grafting, but nowhere near, you know, what I used to do before children. I think having kids makes you stop doing that to a certain level. There's only so much you can do with childcare and XYZ. But it's unrealistic thing you can be as successful as deliciously Ella and not be running multa or fire shooting, what do you call it,

putting out fires every day, consistently, consistently grafting, showing up, being at X million places in one day. It's just impossible. And I do believe that society sometimes sells this notion to us that we can do it all. But I go back to the quote we use all the time with Rita Lobo, with the fact that, you know, women enter the workforce. There was nowhere to fill that gap in the home. And suddenly there was a burden upon all of us that is impossible to fill.

And we cannot have every burner burning. Thank you for the for burn of theory. It's a lovely reminder. I so agree. I mean, when my work burner was on 100%, I would say, you know, I tried to give as much as I could to my family. But my friends down, it was honestly at 2% if that. And I feel like my health dropped down to that same extent. And now I've flipped and my work burners down a lot. Anyway, I like I like it's helpful. And as I said, I've always felt like I disappointed people when I'd be like, no, I don't really do anything apart from work. They'd be like, no, no, you must have fun. I was like, no, no.

And like if I do go to a wedding, I'm the first person to leave. And, you know, and I don't drink or any of that because I can't be hung over because I've got to be responsible. And anyways, life is about choices. So I like that. Do you know what? We could spend a whole episode just discussing the Forbuner Fairies. So Julia, you've really contributed so much today.

Thank you. We have a question from Julia as well. Go for it. We are literally on fire today, burning. We are. Okay. So Julia, as well, let's give me a question. two fantastic Rex asked, okay, this is such a good question, knowing versus doing. I often find

myself in the frustrating position of knowing exactly what I should be doing for my health, more sleep, less stress, better habits, but consistently not doing those things. How do you bridge the gap between knowledge and action? Do you know what's so interesting is I feel like the more I know, the less I know, I've always said that, you know, my learning will never end because I have to stay up to date with what I do. But I think you're right when it comes to knowledge and action and implementing. I think you also have to have a level of how you speak with yourself internally of kindness and compassion with what is practical, what is actionable, and taking control of the things in your life that are doable and realistic and sustainable. And that can only come from you.

But if it's a small change that you can easily implement, then write them all down and then put them in a list of a hierarchy list of top to bottom and work on what you can do over a period of time. I even diarise in my diary a week where I know this is really geeky, but on the Replus platform, we do the sustainable food focused. This is so geeky. I can't believe I'm sharing this. This is so lame. It's a judgment free zone. It's a judgment free zone here on a podcast guys. We really do open up to you now. I will look at what fruits or veggies are in season and I'll make a note in my diary, my personal diary, that that's what I'm going to do for the kids that week, or I've seen a new bit of research that comes out.

And I think, do you know what, that's enough for me to make a decision to remove that food in the house or replace it with another one. And I implement it. I kind of go through this mini thought process. How do you feel about it, Ella, the more you know it. Because I do feel like knowledge is definitely power of making small changes. Obviously knowledge is power. And knowledge is a great thing. I don't want to knock that for a second.

I also think we know too much sometimes at some extent. But then we don't really know it. That's the issue. we're exposed to too much, but without the nuances and understanding and depth. Yeah, I think that's a really nice way of putting it. But I think for most of us who are just like, lucky enough to be living a normal life,

no kind of major concerns when it comes to our health, but we want to have more energy, you know, a bit more va-va-voom every day, whatever it is. I think there's something about the like unnecessary amount of information you're exposed to about your health and what you should be doing every day, just some extent. and actually just almost, I actually feel like,

I almost thought this yesterday when I was on the train. I was like, I almost not to be like too kind of clickbaity, but I'm like, kind of feel like I quit the wellness world, to be honest. I don't feel like I partake in any of it. Like I don't buy any of the supplements. I don't take any of the powders. I don't want any thing to do with that. Like I feel my wellness comes from walking my dogs,

being outside more. When I feel stressed, I like go gardening. She's a scoop her now. We're officially scooping it. Yeah. But I'm just like I feel like my actually where I derive wellness from is actually so, so, so, so much simpler. And it's like, what do I fancy eating? You know, and I'm not like, oh, I've got to make brown rice.

And it's like, no, because white rice is going to taste better with this, for example. And I just think actually like I almost want to just tune it all out. I think the whole space is so noisy. And actually the doing can be quite simple when you draw, when you really just get rid of all of that. We have very thought-provoking questions today. Yeah, thank you so much, Julia. I think there's just so much to dissect. We could really delve deeper into that. So let us know if there's anyone else with questions on that frame of thought, you know, knowledge versus action. What changes have you made and let go of in the past, you know, ways you used to do things versus how you do them now, perhaps, after listening to The Wellescape for a year, perhaps. Our next question is from Elizabeth in Cape Town. She said, hi, Ella and Rie. Your podcast has helped me build such a healthy relationship. with food and habits. I've developed a really consistent routine that supports my mood and energy, but my friends dismissed them as boring and focus more on aesthetics. How can I communicate the benefits of these habits in a way that resonates with them? It's such a lovely question.

I mean, with anything for me personally and my own experience with friends, family, I'm a big advocate of show, don't tell. Like, if it was me, I wouldn't be telling anyone anything. And that was kind of how I've always done it. Like I remember, so I changed the way I ate in 2000, spring 2012. So over 11 years ago, over 14 years ago now, I can't count. And, you know, my, especially at that point, obviously, like eating lots of lentils and carrots, it was quite weird in niche and going to this kind of very natural approach. And all my friends and family thought I was literally just like mad. They were like, what are you going to eat? You're going to be a bunny rabbit. I never said, you know, you shouldn't eat X or, you know, be worried about your saturated fat or whatever it was.

I just said, okay, look, I'm going to make this delicious and I'm going to make much more of it so that everyone can enjoy it. I'm just going to put it on the table with the other food. And, you know, remember when Christmas doing this really, really delicious kind of slow roasted mushroom with this kind of amazing like spinach and pineapple, not puree because that sounds like baby food, but you kind of bear with me. Anyway, this amazing crispy Wellington. It was so good, but I made it massive. It was just for me and my sister, but there was like 16 of us. And everyone just ate it up and ate loads and loads of it. And over the time, people started to be like, oh, I love this.

And all my family now cook more of that sort of thing. And I've just always took it as this really interesting example of like to show people that these habits are delicious, these habits that kind of feel sustainable. And I think you can show them that in a really gentle way. And I think almost just circling back to what I said a second ago, I do think for the most part, more aesthetic led trends come and go. And people don't really stick with them. And I think what's interesting is probably with what you're talking about, these are habits that you probably will, by and large, stick with or, you know, you'll gently oscillate around. And I think they'll see that.

It kind of leads back to it's when we were asked that question with the girlfriend and the boyfriend, how do I help my boyfriend? and that's different. You're in a relationship. You live and co-habit together, essentially, I can see. But obviously, there's also a level here of personal responsibility versus how much we should be imparting on other people. And I know that some of the feedback we had on that was, please don't say that we need to do everything for men again.

And that was not the purpose of that question a while ago. Obviously, we think men should, I've got two boys, should be able to cook for themselves and eat well. But again, I think when it comes to our friends, like you said, it is honestly from experience and clinical practice with relationships of food, you just cannot tell your friends how to eat or what to do or what to focus on. They have to figure out themselves. And all you can do to be a good friend is just be there if they ever want to discuss something or they're intrigued by what you do. You can't impart what you do on somebody else out of your household that is

within reason. Like if you house share, Again, it's kind of learning that skill of life, which is, I'm probably being a bit harshly, but really sucks. But it's really difficult because you just want someone to fill their best. And you know that it's damaging to be focusing on aesthetic trends, but you just can't control their environment and their world and their psychology that they're living in in that moment and that time. So I do think it's sometimes best to just focus on what you can do yourself. And like Ella said, just keep that going strong. It's so interesting. Yeah, and just gently share it.

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chapter of Canadian soccer history in the palm of your hands. Score the FIFA World Cup 2026 $1 coin today. Look forward in your change. Right, Inez is wondering. She said, thank you for bringing so much clarity to such a confusing space. I definitely agree with you. I think we're always confused by the space. I feel stuck in an all-on-a-thus-a-thus-thus. I feel stuck in an all-on-a-th cycle with food, I try to eat perfectly. Then overeat and feel guilt and frustration, how can I build a more balanced intuitive relationship with food? Do you know what, relationships of food take a long time because it depends at what stage you're in at your life, what the external factors are that are triggering the stresses in your life that perhaps are leading you to turn

to food as a coping mechanism or strategy, where this inbuilt depth of restriction or guilt or even punishment for food, you know, allowing yourself permission to eat is coming from. You know, I saw my friend last weekend, Helen, she's a psychotherapist and it's really interesting when, you know, we often have a chat sometimes about methods of work and what we're up to and how we deal with things. And we were saying how times have changed in a way that people are now more aware of wanting to heal their relationship with food, whereas, you know, 15 years ago when we started training in this particular space, looking at the psychological ways of disorder eating or behaviors.

We used to have to do methods like hot seating with clients and trying to really tap into that internal voice within your head, which is really difficult to do and not effective for everybody as an approach. I think one of the most helpful things that you can do right now is, first of all, you know, back in my book, Renourish 2017, I had a self-esteem scale, a body image scale and boxes you can tick through. You can probably find those on chat GPT. have a look at yourself how are you struggling how are you doing out of ten how do you feel within

yourself then in another box next to it you start collating the information on what are the certain foods like in a traffic light list i do in clinic with green as what i consider my safe foods amber what could be remotely triggering for me and red things that i just don't allow myself because i feel i get stuck in that cycle of restriction or guilt consistently and it's starting to pick apart all the cues and then working slowly to build it up. We're definitely going to do a relationship with food workshop on nutrition plus an eight week intensive. But for now, I think the best thing is definitely to start looking at yourself and noticing the enjoyable things and really trying to add in something that brings you joy every single day rather than focusing and fixating

on the negatives. You need to put the negatives on the paper, remove them from your head. It's really, really helpful and I think it's so important to food is so multifaceted like it's how we celebrate as we just said Christmas or Easter or birthdays or big moments weddings you know it's like it's such a kind of societal familial cultural anchor and also it's for so many people are also so linked to emotion to stress and as you said to self-esteem and self-worth and how we feel in ourselves and so it's like it is such a complicated thing this relationship and it shows up to so differently for everyone. I think one thing I would say, and, you know, I really want you to take this in the right way, but like the word perfect, really important word to reevaluate maybe, which is that like,

no one can do anything perfectly in life. And I think maybe you're putting a lot of pressure on yourself to eat perfectly. And Rhee and I have talked about this a lot, which is there, between ourselves, which is that this is a really difficult tension actually where, you know, and we're here every week telling you, you know, please eat those polyphenols, please eat that fiber. You know, we do need to eat less UPFs. And the reality is, all of that holds true. But it's easier said than done. And it doesn't have to be 100% at the time. And so it's this really tricky thing of like, yes, we need to collectively overhaul our diets. And yes, we need to shift to a more kind of natural, home coach, plant rich, Mediterranean, inspired type way of eating. But it doesn't have to be, quote,

unquote perfect and it can involve and as re-said I think having just sort of slightly easing that pressure to like do a good job but doesn't need to be perfect I think that's really important I think that was a lovely lovely way to summarize but just so you don't feel hard on yourself it takes a lot of time a lot of work inner compassion and for some people that can come quicker than others and and yeah perfection doesn't exist and I do think you know what the other thing I'd say. And this, you know, there's so many different ways to explore this and so many different people you can talk to. But it's probably worth as well just doing exercises and things to really support your self-esteem. Like it's interesting. On the weekend I did this on substack every

Sunday night. We have this kind of meditation and breathwork group that I teach, which I love. And we did this exercise on how we talk to ourselves. And so kind of inspired by this love and kindness meditation, which is like kind of comes from two and a hundred half thousand year old Buddhist tradition and, you know, interpretation of. But, you know, in it, you actually like really visualize yourself and you wish yourself, you know, may I be happy, may I be safe? And you say all these things to yourself. And it's so interesting. I started, I had very, very low self-esteem and I started doing these sorts of things about 10 years ago. And, you know, I remember doing these affirmation meditations being like, I love myself,

I'm being like, oh my God, that's most uncomfortable thing I've ever done. Anyway, I had all this feedback from people on Sunday, people were saying that that was so emotional for me. I'm so self-critical. And I think we are. We'd like, if our best friends said something to us, we'd say something so nice back, but the way that we generally speak to ourselves, oftentimes it's really harsh. It's really critical. The standards to which we hold ourselves can be so high. So I just think, kind of if you feel like you're holding yourself to these extraordinary standards, just also exploring that and kind of trying to be a little bit more compassionate and gentle with yourself. And there's so many different ways of looking at that. But I just do think that's worth holding in mind.

I think it's a beautiful thing to add. And it leads us actually, if you could expand on it, Ella, because the next question from an anonymous listener, but thank you. She's tuning in from Sweden. And they've said, hi, your podcast brings me so much comfort each week. I've heard that breathwork can help regulate the nervous system, but I don't know where to start. What would you recommend for beginners? And I think, Ella, with breathwork, is something we can all do for free at home. we can sit down, but it's finding your headspace to be in the right frame of mind to even embark upon that. Like I said, for me, it's through music. I find it really difficult. So I'm wondering if, yeah, you could give us some advice there. Yeah, of course. I mean, look, first of all,

I think this is so similar in lots of ways to that study we were talking about on Monday in terms of like, yes, coffee or olive oil or berries are really good for, not anti-aging, but healthy. the aging, but they are all within a context, right? And I think, you know, breathwork or meditation, all these things sit within it as well. Like five minutes of breathwork can only do so much. Like it sits with the rest of your lifestyle in terms of that nervous system support. There is so much, again, I feel like about the nervous system online. I think in a nutshell, you know, you've got your kind of two key branches of your autonomic nervous system. You've got your sympathetic and you've got your parasympathetic. Your sympathetic is your quote and quote,

stressed state, your parasympathetic is your rest and digest. The reality is, and you know, people always use that analogy of like, the modern mind, does I know the difference between being chased by a tiger and my boss emailing me late at night? That's true though. You know, that's, and the beating horn or an ambulance blaring. And the constant notifications on your phone and things like that, you know, our brain, you know, the migdala in our brain is always scanning for danger. Like we're looking for danger. Our nervous systems looking to see like, am I in danger? Do I need to respond. And the interesting thing is, and we know this, like chronic stress is so bad for us. And, you know, stress isn't bad. Stress is normal. It's like the stress hormone cortisol, as really

always says, like, that's what gets you out of bed in the morning. Like, it's kind of demonized. It doesn't need to be demonized. But the issue sets in when you become in this more chronic stressed state, that's what's not good for our health, too much of that sympathetic activation. And as really said, in the world we live in today, where the tube is busy, you know, the street is busy, there's loud noises and honking and then your phone's beeping all day and you're constantly stimulated and you're exhausted. It's actually so normal to basically be stuck feeling stressed all the time and kind of completely forget like how can I just sit and be? And so, you know, we do, and I do feel strongly that then introducing like specific tools to help you switch

into that more parasympathetic, that rest and digest stay are really important. And there's so many different things you can do. Singing is actually an amazing one. You know, and that's what obviously helps Ray. You don't have to be a singer to sing just so you know, do it in private. You know, you let it out like Ella on a dog walks. Oh yeah. Oh my God. Catch me on a dog walk. It's so how it tunes. Unbelievable. You know, and it might be coloring. It might be gentle baking as in like really like slow, lovely, mindful stuff. But breathwork, I personally believe is a really interesting entry point. Meditation can be very confronting to people because you are sitting. there with your own thoughts. And when you are not used to sitting still and you live a very

fast-paced life and you are in that slightly stuck, overstimulated state, sitting with your thoughts for 20 minutes is really confronting. For so many people that are in a high-pressured work office environment, disconnecting from that, I mean. Yeah, to just sit still. It's quite a contrast. And I think what I like about breathwork as an entry point is it's more focus. You know, if you were sitting there and you're constantly controlling and counting the breath, you're quite busy in your mind. So you don't have that same kind of confrontation of yourself. And that's why I think it's really interesting. And yeah, it's very well researched, various different, mostly just kind of slow breathing in terms of helping support your nervous system because it helps you get into

that parasympathetic, that restful state meditation and kind of mindful meditation as well. It's incredibly well researched. We said on Monday, like it's even, and looking research about how it's supporting aging. It's amazing. So where do you start? Well, come on Sunday nights with me. We do that. That's really fun.

Obviously, I'm actually going to start a beginner's course. I'm going to run those. I'm going to do really small groups, like 15 people or so. I'm thinking six to eight weeks will probably start that mid-June, I reckon. There's loads and loads of apps out there. The only app I personally feel is absolutely amazing, is one called The Way. I think it's the best app by a million miles. everything else is so self-directed. It's quite hard to know where to start. That's a clear path. You don't get to choose what you're doing, but that's meditation, not breathwork. Do what this raises in my head as you were discussing that? I brought me back to my uni dissertation where I looked at self-efficacy. I had a huge invested interest at the time in the psychological reasons of why we eat and what we eat. And it's the same with health behaviours, you know, how we initiate a new health behaviour change, how we even tell ourselves to sign up to that breathwork course, how we even

tell ourselves, I'm going to work on my relationship with food, like the previous question, come and do the course. But that level of onus of putting it on yourself, it does take a bit of time. So I really hope that by being here in the wellness scoop, that's helped some of you be able to embark upon something new and a different challenge. Now we have a different question from Jenny here. She said, hi ladies, thank you for being such a calm and reliable voice in wellness. I will say, LRFL you bring more calm than I, but hopefully I bring reliable as well. So there you've I'll do calm, you do reliable. Yeah, but you're also reliable.

You've hit both marks. Okay. When I've done my singing, I'm calm. I want to switch to more sustainable fish, and she said like mackerel, this is interesting, but prefer smoked. Does smoking affect the omega-3 content at all? Should we separate out almost the question? Should we take mackerel and then should we take smoking?

This is my research area back on the science plant-based nutrition book. Sadly, as of recently, we know now macral is actually no longer a sustainable fish. In fact, we've mentioned this several times on the podcast. No longer stocked at waitrose, is that right? No longer stocked at waitrose. And we imagine other supermarkets markets will follow suit because of the cost, the price and the quality of the fish decline.

So when it comes to amigas, your choices are just narrowed. This happened eight or nine years ago with tuna when tuna no longer became a source of omega-3. Tuna steak used to be considered a source of omega-3. But then, of course, being a very large fish, I think most people don't know that. When you see fish portioned out in a can, it's very hard to visualize the size of that fish before it's been portioned into individual cans. It's very large and mercury levels, all sorts of things are related here.

But first of all, macro isn't sustainable. So I just want to throw that out there. In fact, you're better off going for other fish today, but they don't contain Amiga 3. So we do have a bit of an omega 3 crisis. I would actually say now in the UK. So, Rhee, what are the most sustainable fish options? It doesn't exist if I'm being perfectly honest. And that's why it's so hard to classify.

But what you can do is go for less popular varieties. So initially, top of our heads, Ella, most popular fish in the UK, cod by mile, you know, every fish and chip shop. What's the most popular fish, not fish and chips? It is probably salmon. And then it's probably followed by sea bass or sea bream. And maybe, yeah, cod and hod and ham. had a camor fish and chip shop style.

Sardines, I've had a trending moment. They are a fantastic source of amiga three and bones, and I'm actually quite saddening because they were my little thing. I used to always put a can of sardines in my tomato pastas and bolognese for the children. But they're a wonderful source of amiga three. So we now need to start looking at the impact. Now, smoking fish doesn't significantly reduce amygic three. So I wouldn't worry about that.

However, you also don't want to have too much smoke fish. in general for health reasons. So I would have maybe one portion of smoke fish a week and another that's plain, if that makes sense, rather than having two smoked portions. And just give us the lowdown on the impact of smoking the fish on health? Overall, when it comes to smoking fish, it impacts sodium as well, because we're looking at it as a preservative measure. So smoking is something that's been used for many years again.

It enhances, of course, flavor to a degree. but it means that the processing method that's involved in this just means you're retaining more salt. So you've got to be mindful of salt intake. In fact, I think a lot of people don't realize you also add sugar to smoke, salmon and salt. So straight away, that can happen. Smoking also can affect the aquilomahide that's the level that we've discussed before in air friars. So I wouldn't worry about it too much without going into detail. I've got a whole page, if any of you have the encyclopedia, the science of nutrition,

on these different processing methods. It's the salt that I think most people need to be concerned about with the fish. So you just don't want smoked salmon every day? No, you really don't. I look at smoked salmon as kind of like treat item. You know, when you go to a posh hotel or you go, or the weekend brunch someone's coming over, or you're doing something with the family,

and you get out the smoked salmon, it's Christmas Day, it's all those sorts of occasions. I look at it as an occasion food rather than an everyday item. But then this Omega-3 crisis, sorry, I was about to let you go off. It's not in the press yet as an amygotech crisis. Yeah, it's interesting. I think it's a matter of time.

Maybe that's what I'll be writing in the press in a few weeks, Amiga three crisis in the UK, because we've never had a defining criteria more than the recommendation of oily fish consumption, which is poor. You know, other countries have guidelines. Australia is good at that, for instance. I pulled their data for the encyclopedia. And I'm predicting, this is us predicting a trend.

She's an oracle. I'm really not an Oracle. but I stay on top of what's going on. I think we have a problem. Well, we already do. Consumption's low. It's also linked in pregnancy now. DHA consumption is really crucial for brain development.

That's why they recommend supplementation in that time. But now there's all these headlines that the supplements aren't. Aren't what they said. So we're going to bring that to Monday's episode. We're going to do a deeper dive on Amiga 3s. Okay, right. Our final question today comes all the way from probably very sunny South Africa, Abby in Johannesburg.

Ree, Abby has said, I love your realistic, motivating approach to wellness. Thank you, Abby. I have a real sweet tooth and struggled to go even a few hours without sugar, even though I know it worsens my crone symptoms.

How do I reduce cravings? I'll just start, first of all, by saying a disease like Crohn's disease, it's very specific and very bespoke. I can't really give blanket health advice out with a condition like this. But what I can say is you're probably stuck in a bit of a blood sugar roller coaster. It sounds like from your question that you are in a bit of a cycle where you need that constant hit of insulin.

Everything's going up and down a little bit, which we want to try and avoid a little bit more. So scientifically speaking, cravings very hard to identify and pinpoint exactly why scientists are on the fence but could be influenced by that blood sugar roller coaster. stress, are you very stress, like Ella said with the breath work before. Are you getting enough sleep? I mean, gosh, don't we both know it, Ella? I mean, a bad night's sleep and you crave more sugar the next day, emotional associations. But Crohn's disease specifically, it's really important to know your triggers because of flare-ups, remission, absorption in the intestine area, all sorts of things with nutrients.

So rather than going cold turkey, I'd never recommend going cold turkey for anybody that's stuck in a blood sugar cycle. it's to start with regular meals and snacks. You need to actually put a less intuitive approach into your day. And this is what goes against intuitive eating, Ellie. You know, when people are very, you know, allow yourself whatever you need, well, that doesn't always serve some people. And some of us really thrive off the structure and routine of breakfasts at 8 o'clock every morning. And this is the meal I will have because it contains fiber and protein then.

I've got an apple in my bag that's ready for 11 o'clock because by 12 o'clock I'm famished and I really need to have a decent lunch ready. So I think a bit of organisation and structure into your routine and after three or four days of eating balanced meals, you should notice craving subsides. It depends how erratic life is at this stage. And also that will help your cranes. But remember, it's an individual condition

and you will know your flare-ups. You will know what you can and can't have with an IBD. And I do think for people just generally on these sugar cravings, I think what you said really is so helpful. Like I know that helps me. even sometimes, you know, if I'm getting an early train into London, I'm like, I'm not that hungry. I'm like, oh, I'm going to eat breakfast because otherwise I just know in two hours

I'll be starving and then I'll eat something like we don't particularly want to eat because I just like grab it randomly and it won't be that delicious or nutritious. It's probably quite sweet. Anyway, and you end up eating snacks all day. Completely fine to do, but you don't want to do that every day ultimately for like kind of feeling your best. And I just think that it's really helpful because often people, we keep saying we're going to cover this week you're not doing it, people say like, oh, you know, I'm just going to have a small meal.

And then actually, like, two hours a two, you're just starving. Lunch is the main culprit, Ella. Like, lunch is the fibre gap. Lunch is the meal gap. It's the reason people overeat at dinner time so often because we have a culture in the UK that does not embrace lunch breaks. And like, you need, you know, you need good carbs with your meals, you know. And I think we're often being like, oh, I'm going to have a skinny dinner kind of thing.

And you remove that. And then you're starving. And so then obviously you want sweet. stuff because your body's like, I'm hungry. So everyone, thank you so much. Do you know, I feel, I don't want to sound like I'm not trying to give nutrition information out. I want to just make it really clear that I'm just such a believer, we're all unique and I don't

know your individual health, your situation, your circumstances. But what Ella and I both know is that from a bit of motivation and a bit of support like this community that we can embrace some changes and I know that we can bring something positive, can't we, Ella? So keep the questions coming. Even if you feel, oh, there's no way they'll give me a proper answer to that. You just never know the discussion that can evolve from it and how other people can benefit from you raising that question.

100%. So hello at wellness-scoop.com. We love hearing from you. Otherwise, have a fantastic day, guys. As always, we will see you back here on Monday. Can't wait. Amazing. Thank you.

See you Monday.