Internal Instinct

Make sure you read all the slides! 😎
I do recommend eating animal sources of protein BUT just eating the muscle can be inflammatory.

This is an example of eating food as nature intended - by eating the whole animal.

So yeh, there is some truth to the whole “meat is inflammatory” messaging.

Eating bone broths and organs can help complete the amino acid picture.

And if you were raised vegetarian like me, this may be hard to stomach sometimes.

I like to use collagen and gelatin a lot!
This is why I make marshmallows and add collagen to my coffee and cooking! This is a modern girls guide to higher glycine!

And I am grateful for the supplements from
And I can let you use my code: WELLFED for 10% discount.

Green Gully Trail was the perfect reset.
65km over 4 days of walking. And it was the adventure my busy mind has been asking for.

Recently we have had a lot of wonderful chaos in our life. Chaos non the less!

This hike through stunning environments with great people and no phone reception was so refreshing!

It may not seem like a big deal from the outside, but completing this hike was a really big deal for me.

Most of you may see me being able to lift heavy stuff in the gym. But that hasn’t always been my journey. I can now say that I am hiking fit! I was able to carry my heavy backpack over 6-8 hours of hiking on tough terrain per day. Many people will say that it is my youth, and how good it is to be young again. And yes, I am still young.

But 10 years ago, I couldn’t have completed this hike without total exhaustion and excruciating body pain. I have had chronic pain my whole life, ever since I had growing pains as a kid. Mostly the pain was my hip, knee and ankle. I remember hiking up a volcano in Nicaragua 7-8 years ago and having the most intense stabbing pain in my hip that took weeks to recover and that made me fear aging.

This hike was proof that I have been doing the work required to take really good care of myself. Feeding myself enough food, (taking enough food on this hike), strengthening my body and resolving stuck emotions.

I’m not “there”, I’m not “healed”. That is not the goal. Instead I am strengthening the trust in my body and trust that I can take care of it.

I am deeply listening to what my body needs. I am overcoming cultural norms to be able to feed myself to restore my metabolism/optimise energy production.

My recovery from this hike has been awesome. And I know that it’s not just luck and age! My body is far more resilient than it was 10 years ago 😇

This is what I mean when I say eating to restore your metabolism. It’s to get you out of a fragile body and restore innate resilience ❤️

Hey Im Lydia Irving a qualified clinical nutritionist and dynamic eating psychology coach. And i am here to say: Your diet is important. But demonising foods and believing sugar to be poison and “like cocaine” will not help you heal.

Learning to trust your body, lean into your cravings and focus on nourishment are the right ingredients to helping you heal ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

I can’t wait to see all you powerful women wearing these. They’re live! Limited stock and for a limited time. These will be available for sale until the 20th December then not again until next year. Sizes are S-XL. However the size MEDIUM comes in BONE colour. Whereas the rest are ECRU. Here is the link https://www.internal-instinct.com/merch

Everyone who buys these t-shirts will have early discounted access to my Online Community/Course space launching 2024.

A Well Fed Woman is learning to trust her body’s innate wisdom. She knows how to feed herself in a nourishing way that helps restore energy and vitality. She knows calories can be converted into experiences.

Thank you for your support ❤️ I will be posting these all out to you. This is my first time selling these, so fingers crossed for no hiccups with shipping etc 🤩🤩🤩🤩

SWIPE—> Carbs and Crying workshop was intended to be a place for women to be able to connect deeper with their body. To learn to lean into trust. To learn how to feed body while being awake to the stressors that surround us all.

Thank you to the women who came along. Im so grateful that I got to share a little bit of my knowledge from working with so many clients over the years.

I got these two lovely messages and they warm my heart. I appreciate it when people are able to hear what I am saying.

Watch this space for the next workshop ❤️

Taking the time to be deeply honest with where you are currently at can be the hardest part of the journey.

There is no set diet or way of eating. It’s taking the time to learn what your body is asking for ❤️

Womens Wellness Workshop this coming Sunday! It will be an in person workshop and the first one in years!

This workshop is to help you understand how stress influences your health and how to minimise the harm of stress with food!

Carbs and Crying workshop will be a great support for any women any age who is struggling with knowing how to best feed themselves while being under a whole lotta stress.

In this time women are being encouraged to cut out carbs, to intermittent fat and to give up dairy to heal. And I’m here to tell you the opposite. Not because I’m contrary but because I’ve made all the mistakes and for you to feel good in your skin it doesn’t have to be that complicated!

You can have your cake and eat it to. Tickets available via my bio link!

If you want to have healthy hormones it is so important to make sure you’re eating enough protein! Even people who eat meat and animal products aren’t eating ENOUGH PROTEIN CONSISTENTLY.

Most people don’t understand how much protein they are eating.

Here I compared Lentils to Prawns. I think that lentils are yummy and if you can digest them you can access some protein. But if you’re wanting to manage your weight, it is important to be mindful of the whole picture. I’m a huge fan of eating lots of calories but I’m not a fan of overeating calories to try to hit your protein goal.
I loved prawns!! I never used to … it’s a love that is evolving over time. They are super high in protein! As you can see you only need to eat 84g of cooked prawns and you get the same amount of protein that is in 222g of cooked lentils.

Maybe you can make a prawn and lentil curry! Why not have both!? 😬

If you are a woman who wants to make a baby one day or you’re recovering from giving birth (this can take a life time) - YOU NEED MORE PROTEIN!!!

I personally eat 150-160g of protein per day which means my meals have 40g of protein roughly.

You would want a minimum of around 100g of protein per day to help support healthy hormones like increased thyroid hormone and progesterone

HAPPY EATING. make sure you save this for later.

I look forward to seeing you in clinic for a chat x

Testimonial from Ariana 🧡“Working with Lydia has honestly changed my life. I came to her because at 29 years old I was tired of trying to figure out how to feed and fuel myself properly, and to say I made the right choice is an understatement.

Lydia surpassed all my expectations in our 6 month container. She is a gentle but firm space holder. She explained the science behind all my cravings that had made me feel for YEARS like I was failing and not ‘strong enough’.

She held me accountable without instilling guilt. She taught me things about how to feed myself that I’d honestly thought were myths and would never apply to me. I’m eating more, sleeping better, my period, moods and energy are more consistent, I’m enjoying foods I’d previously assigned as ‘bad for me’ without eating in a rush from pre-programmed food shame and I’m planning meals that I actually want to eat and I’m enjoying cooking again!

Grocery shopping is completely different and I’m buying things I never thought I’d be able to buy.

Lydia helps you heal the parts of you that don’t believe it’s going to get better, and when you start to believe it she’s already sent you a recipe for the best dinner you’ve had in a while.

Lydia saw what was possible for me has helped make it happen.

With all my heart, Thankyou Lydia”

Eating enough food allows me to be present for a variety of experiences in this body.

I don’t see meal planning, eating regularly and tracking my meals as restrictive. I see these as tools to allow my body to have enough energy to participate fully in what brings me meaning.

My reminder to many of you is that running on stress can feel like energy. But once you taste true grounded energy you will know the difference 🤩

I consume a diet high in carbs and protein and moderate fat. And I’m so grateful to be able to eat carbs and get energy from those foods.

The story that sugar is bad is a narrow minded view. Prolonged High blood sugar is poor sugar tolerance NOT just the consequence of eating sugar. Don’t forget, a lot of the glucose that shows up in your blood can be from your own glucose factory - in the presence of stress hormones your body can break down protein and convert this into glucose. This process keeps you alive is and running without food but putting your body in this state frequently is mostly likely the root cause of your health concerns

This is a photo from Norway. this is where we camped one night. How cool I got to experience this!

Health isn’t just about the ingredients you do and don’t eat

Food is a powerful medicine when respected in the context of you life

I never thought I would be passionate about helping people with weight loss

But I see so many people totally disembodied and trying to lose weight.

People spend 30+ years trying to lose weight. Constantly feeling like a failure!!

Weight loss is easy, you just send them into the bush with no food or water (like the show Alone) and see how long they can survive. That’s what most weight loss has programs are doing - glorified starvation!

This is why most people gain back the weight they have lost back.

Anyone can starve weight off.

What I have learned through being a nutritionist, a human being and studying eating psychology is that healing the relationship with self is the most important place to start.

It’s not about avoiding “bad” food and having “willpower”.

It’s about learning to live with yourself. And that’s my favourite part of my job - teaching people how to get energy from food to help metabolise the emotional blockages.

Weight doesn’t have to be a struggle. There is very clear science that helps you learn YOU!!! Not compare yourself to others or follow another’s journey.

I look forward to working with you 🤍🤍

Hello 👋 let me introduce myself, to get to know me better here is some info about me
I'm Lydia

I think a defining feature is that I'm 6ft2 and the tallest in my family (I was my dads height when I was 16) I've always been taller than most people and I really like being tall, it's fun and I still find it fascinating

My favourite TV shows at the moment are Alone and Taskmaster, I really struggle watching most fictional shows (but that's a story for another time)

I'm deeply passionate about true holistic medicine, really helping people identify root causes and not getting caught up on the BS that's out there

I reckon you could describe me as pretty wacky and have a wicked sense of humour (60% of the time other people laugh)

I used to have huge mood swings and this would make it hard for me to like myself. I'm so grateful for learning how to balance my mood through nutrition and emotional work! It's nice learning how to like myself and super nice not having such intense highs and lows

I'm a very open person and truly feel that through openness and sharing I feel Connection and learn so much!

Hmm what's my favourite food? I love food!! I think anything with dairy is pretty delicious! I love all of it for different occasions and moments

Why am I in a bath in this photo? I don't know haha

I used to get SUPER anxious and foggy in the brain when I would attempt to skip meals! This is a sign of hypoglycaemia, low blood sugar. Some people have a greater tendency toward this than others. But I see this more to be a product of their nutritional status than just bad luck.

I didn’t really know that the tightness in my chest, my inability to focus, the racing in my heart and heightened fearful thoughts were because I hadn’t eaten

I used to think, I’m such an anxious person who gets really bad brain fog!! Then I realised that is not my identity, that is a consequence of my eating habits and nutritional status

Low blood sugar increases stress hormones like adrenalin to find an alternative source of glucose to prevent the further dropping. Because if it drops too low, you die!! So instead of dying the body will increase stress hormones to harvest glucose from the body. If you are a type 1 diabetic you know the serious danger of hypoglycaemia. But people who don’t have diabetes can still get really low blood sugar readings that cause a stress response.

Something I love about the information Dr Ray Peat shared was the more systemic and prolonged side effects on all our hormones when we experience hypoglycaemia regularly. The main influence being that the low blood sugar, increasing stress hormones which lowers thyroid hormone (T3).

T3 is our metabolic state and if T3 levels are reduced our metabolism slow down. This results in all sorts of symptoms long term. And this is the kind of stuff I see in clinic that have been improved my eating regularly (balanced meals)
☀️more energy
☀️better sleep
☀️exercise recovery
☀️less anxious
☀️less angry
☀️FIXED IBS
☀️Comfortable cycles
☀️Balanced hormones (fertility)
☀️weight loss
☀️NO binge eating

Sometimes I think we over complicate things! Learning how often you need to eat, learning what hungry actually feels like for you, understanding what a balanced meal looks like for you - all these are skills that you learn through data collection and working with someone who can guide you to know what to look for and what to focus on. Like me 👋🏼
I am still amazed at what happens when people apply this

FRUIT IS A CARBOHYDRATE! Alert the media!!

Some of you already know this but most of my clients just think rice, bread, pasta, pastry etc when I suggest more carbs to come in. And when I say “fruit is carb” many say they didn’t know this or they say “but fruits a sugar”.

So let’s clear some things up about Carbohydrates.
There are 3 main macronutrients
☀️Proteins - break down into amino acids
☀️Fats - break down into fatty acids
☀️Carbohydrates - break down into sugars

So yes fruit does contain sugar which means it a carbohydrate.
There are complex carbs (longer sugar chains - Polysaccharides) like fibre and starch found in grains, legumes, vegetables and fruits
and simple carbs (shorter sugar chains disaccharides, monosaccharides) table sugar, honey, fruit juice and milk

Both simple and complex carbs break down into glucose, which is an essential ingredient in our blood stream to be transported to cells to make energy (hopefully).

So this means carbs impact blood sugar levels. Complex carbs can cause a slower blood glucose spike and simple carbs can cause a faster blood glucose spike. THIS DOES NOT MEAN COMPLEX are better. For people with gut issues, simple carbs may be better. And ripe fruits are often much more digestible and can help your cells make energy from the glucose you’re eating. This is because of a variety of reasons I won’t go into here.

If, like myself, you have a history of prediabetes and PCOS - it may be a good idea to learn how to BALANCE your carbs with proteins and saturated Fats to ensure you have more balanced blood sugars throughout the day. I do not agree with having low carb diet but some people need to be really mindful of the balance of macros per meal. For some people for every 1 gram of protein they need 1g of carbs and for others they need 3g of carbs !

FRUIT has so many benefits and I think it’s one of my favourite carbs I just always combine fruit with sufficient protein source to ensure it gives me energy. That’s why I love yoghurt and fruit!

What’s your favourite way to get fruit in?

Your food intolerances are caused by poor digestion, your poor digestion is caused by your poor metabolic state, your poor metabolic state is caused by impaired production of energy from calories.

Your food intolerances are aggravating health systemically however just cutting out the foods that cause harm will never help you heal your metabolism

Eating to restore metabolic health is not just about eating *prometabolic* foods. It is a holistic approach that needs to be individualised to you and your needs

It’s about understanding where you are currently at and learning that your perception of where you are at is heavily influenced by an unreliable voice in your head. This voice needs to (with love and kindness) grow up and take some compassionate responsibility. We all struggle with learning how to feed ourselves and take care of ourselves. It can be so much harder on our own and working with a good practitioner can save you a lot of time, misery, money and suffering ❤️‍🩹

When I transitioned my practice from putting people on restrictive diets to teaching people how to eat enough - many people were resistant, especially the ones referred to me from Dr. Many people are stuck in a diet or wellness culture way of thinking that insists you need to eat less, stick to low calorie foods and you can’t be trusted around food! And the clients I now work with that embrace learning how to feed themselves enough consistently are having the most profound results!!! TRUE HEALTH!!

Weight loss does not mean HEALTH!! There are plenty of ways to lose weight that are super unhealthy and can be super harmful!

I have never met an overweight person that doesn’t also have a myriad of health issues. So does that mean the fat on their body is causing health issues or are the health issues encouraging the fat on the body?

Often people gain excess fat as a consequence of low energy state. To try to remedy this low energy feeling there can be an overconsumption of calorie dense foods. Another symptom of low energy state is lack of movement.

Most people think “if I can just lose this weight, then I’ll be healthy” and this is encouraged by our medical system!

Losing fat can help people feel healthier! Losing weight can help some people to have the energy to feel like taking better care of themselves and moving more!! But I have seen loads of clients that have lost and gained weight and every time they lose the weight, nothing is *healed*

when I was heavier it was a lot harder to move around the world. I definitely feel better being a little lighter! And I think that you should be able to want to lose weight if you want to!!

But often people struggle to drop kgs because they’re in such a poor metabolic place that energy is so low on a cellular level.

And so it’s best to first increase metabolic rate, improve health, learn how to take care of yourself consistently and learn how to move for you (consistently) AND THEN you can do a fat loss phase and it will be easier by then

🤍🤍

I see this all the time!! People will say I need to get healthy and then they will do a juice cleanse for a week or decide to run a half marathon in a months time! Or do some other unsustainable, supposedly “healthy” thing.

HEALTH is not obtained from cleanses, detoxes and extreme physical activities!!

HEALTH is the practice of taking care of yourself daily! This means ensuring you’re eating enough, prioritising sustainable movement, showing up for yourself every day in the way your body needs and understanding it is your responsibility and no one else’s.

Taking care of a home to ensure that it stays in the best shape possible as it ages means you’re going to be implementing daily maintenance. It’s much easier to maintain than it is to fix.

Don’t just do a “health kick fad thing” instead invest in learning how to take care of yourself FOREVER!!! If you abandon your body, it will start to fall apart. And the current renovators and builders we are employing aren’t able to put you back together *good as new*.