Hi, I’m Darcy - a former Occupational Therapist, recovering overachiever, and someone who spent two decades genuinely believing discipline was the answer to every weight-related problem I had.

It wasn’t. It never was.

I started dieting at thirteen.
In the years that followed, my weight moved everywhere from 139lbs to 196lbs, depending on which plan I was following, abandoning, or trying to recover from. I didn’t know it then, but constant dieting is linked with increased stress, disrupted hunger signals, and a kind of mental noise that makes long-term change almost impossible - and I felt all of it.

In 2022, my dad had a stroke and in 2023, my mum became seriously ill with sepsis and a pulmonary embolism. I had already started to gain weight prior to 2022, but during that horrendous time, I went on to gain a further 30lbs.

Chronic stress from my parents ill health, work stress and my husband being made redundant, made my eating erratic, my energy unpredictable, and my migraines relentless. I was convinced something metabolically serious was happening, but bloodwork showed I wasn’t even pre-diabetic - my body was simply overwhelmed.

Once I understood that restriction and stress can disrupt appetite hormones, heighten cravings, and shift the body into “threat mode,” a lot of things suddenly make sense.
It wasn’t a willpower issue. It was my body struggling to cope with what I was making it do.

In August 2024, I damaged a tendon in my foot from walking too much on holiday in the heat weighing 196lbs. Being a healthy weight was one of the recommendations, so as soon as I flew home, I started a GLP-1 medication. I knew I couldn’t lose the weight by myself. I’d tried and failed too many times before.

Since using Wegovy initially, and Mounjaro since May 2025, I’ve lost 45lbs in 13 months - but the weight loss isn’t the thing that changed my life.
It’s the quiet.

GLP-1 medications are known to reduce appetite, slow gastric emptying, and lessen reward-drive around food. For me, that translated into the first sustained mental quiet I’d felt around food and dieting since childhood. No food noise. No spirals. No constant fear that all my hard work in losing weight would unravel.

Just calm - and with calm comes capacity.

Capacity to plan meals instead of react to hunger.
Capacity to build routines without feeling overwhelmed.
Capacity to focus on long-term health rather than short-term damage control.

Once the biological chaos settled, I finally realised:
Diets didn’t fail because I lacked discipline - they failed because they dysregulated me.

Now my goal isn’t rapid transformation or punishment-based “health.”
It’s building a body that feels:

steady
strong
well-fuelled
and genuinely healthy in the long run.

GLP-1 medication gave me the quiet.
Behaviour change gives me direction.
Habits give me stability and provides my body with a sense of safety.

The GLP-1 Lifestyle is the space where I share what actually supports long-term consistency - appetite friendly routines, evidence informed habits, and realistic behaviour-change tools that work with your biology, not against it.

No diet culture.
No shame.
No pressure to perform health like a full-time job.

Just calmer bodies making better choices - one steady habit at a time.

Disclaimer: I hold an MSc in Psychology and Occupational Therapy, a Postgraduate Diploma in Sensory Integration and a Diploma in Nutrition and Weight Management. Everything I share is based on research and personal experience - not medical advice. Please speak with your healthcare team for individual support.