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Dr Iya Goubareva, Athens (2026)

09/09/2026

What is Mindfulness?

I'm sure we've all heard it a hundred times: "Be more mindful." It's become one of those wellness words that everyone uses, but what is it, really?

When you search online for mindfulness, the idea you get is often of someone sitting cross-legged with their eyes closed, looking peaceful and trying to empty their mind. But mindfulness is actually much more about awareness than having an empty mind.

When you look into the idea in more detail, you find something much deeper. The word itself comes from the Buddhist practice of paying attention to what is happening in your body, your mind and your surroundings, and noticing your thoughts, emotions and reactions as they arise. But this idea isn't isolated to Buddhism.

Stoic philosophers also placed great importance on noticing our thoughts and judgments before acting on them. Daoist traditions explored presence and awareness in a similar way, while traditional systems such as Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda have long connected the state of the mind with the health and balance of the whole person. The language and philosophy are different, but there is a common thread: becoming aware of what is happening within us before we automatically act upon it.

And when you bring that idea into everyday life, mindfulness becomes much easier to understand.

I'll give you a very ordinary example from my own life. I came home one day to find my kitchen covered in pieces of fish because my cat had stolen a piece I had left defrosting in the sink. My first reaction was anger directed towards my cat and, before I opened my mouth, I stopped for a moment and thought about what had actually happened.

-"It's not the cat's fault. It's your fault because you forgot the fish in the sink. His animal instincts and his nose took him there. He didn't do anything wrong. It's your mistake, and now you're about to punish your cat for it."

That little moment changed my whole reaction. The mess (the stench) was still there and the fish still had to be cleaned up, but I wasn't angry at my cat anymore. I had given myself a moment to think about what was actually happening instead of simply acting on my first emotion.

And this happens in so many areas of our lives. You tell yourself before going out that you'll have one drink, and then you find yourself agreeing to a second and a third. That moment is an opportunity to notice what is happening and remember what you had actually decided for yourself. You might still choose to have another drink, but now you're making that choice consciously rather than simply following the impulse.

The same principle applies when you're trying to change something in your life, like starting to exercise. You decide you want to exercise regularly, but when the time comes, you suddenly feel tired, you don't feel like it, or your mind gives you all the reasons why you should do it tomorrow. Mindfulness allows you to notice that thought before automatically following it. Maybe you really are tired and need to rest, or maybe you're falling back into a familiar pattern that has stopped you before. That moment gives you the opportunity to choose.

And this is where mindfulness becomes much more interesting to me, because that moment doesn't just give you a choice; it puts you back in control of the situation. Most of the time, we do things without really thinking about them. Many of our reactions are influenced by our conditioning, our upbringing, our habits and the things we've learned throughout our lives.

Sometimes you hear yourself say something and think, "Oh my God, that's exactly what my mother used to say." And you suddenly realize that maybe that's not actually what you think about the situation at all. You're simply repeating something you've been taught.

The same thing can happen with our emotions. You can react with anger and, once you've stepped back from it, realize that what you thought had happened wasn't actually what happened at all. Just like with my cat, the first reaction told me one thing, but taking a moment to look at the situation allowed me to see it differently.

It's almost as if someone else is sitting in the driver's seat. Your emotions are driving, your habits are driving, your conditioning is driving, and you're simply following along without really being conscious of the choices being made.

What's interesting is that we actually teach children this from a very young age. A child says, "I'm hungry, I want food now," and we explain that we're half an hour from home, there's nowhere to get food, and we have to wait. We acknowledge that they're hungry, but we also teach them that feeling an urge doesn't mean they have to act on it immediately. We're teaching them that little pause between "I want this" and "I have to have this now." Somewhere along the way, as adults, we seem to forget this very basic lesson.

And once you start paying attention, you can see these moments everywhere: when you keep scrolling on your phone without noticing how much time has passed, when you automatically agree to something you don't actually want to do, when you buy something impulsively, when you eat without really being hungry, when you interrupt someone instead of listening, when you procrastinate because something feels uncomfortable, when you keep repeating a habit you've already decided you want to change, or when you spend your day thinking about what's next instead of noticing what you're doing right now.

This is why mindfulness can be the first step towards changing your life. Before you can change a behaviour, you have to become aware of it. Before you can make a different choice, you have to notice that you are making the choice in the first place.

Mindfulness gives you that moment between what happens and what you do about it. You still have your emotions, your habits, your cravings and all the conditioning you've collected throughout your life, but you're able to see them before automatically acting on them. And when you can see what's happening, you have a choice.

That choice puts you back in control. It gives you the freedom to decide how you want to respond, what you want to do, and ultimately, what kind of person you want to be.

Maybe that's why this ancient idea is still so relevant today.

Mindfulness isn't about living perfectly or being calm all the time. It's about becoming conscious of your own life, one small moment at a time, so that your actions start coming from choice rather than simply from habit, emotion or conditioning.

Of course, you can sit and meditate and notice how your body feels, but it can be much simpler than that. You can practice simply by becoming aware of your actions, your thoughts and your emotions in the moment, wherever you are and whatever you're doing.

So the next time you notice a strong emotion, a craving, an impulse or an automatic reaction, simply pause for a few seconds and notice what is happening. Give yourself that moment to become aware enough to make a conscious decision. 💚

02/09/2026

🏋🏼‍♀️The function of muscle in the body is beyond strength.

I'm sure you have heard that as you get older you lose muscle and therefore you need to do more strength training. But people often think of having muscle as simply being about strength, but especially as we get older, muscle does far more than help us lift things.

- It helps with insulin resistance. Muscle is one of the main places our body stores and uses glucose. The more healthy muscles we have, the greater our capacity to take up glucose and respond to insulin.

- It helps control blood sugar. When muscles contract, they can take up glucose even without relying entirely on insulin. That’s one reason resistance training is so useful for maintaining metabolic health as we age.

- It actually helps build and maintain bone. This is a big one especially for menopausal women. When muscles pull against bones during resistance and weight-bearing exercise, that mechanical stimulus tells the bones to adapt and become stronger. Muscle doesn't just protect the skeleton—it helps stimulate the process of maintaining it.

- It helps protect against osteoporosis and fractures. Stronger bones are important, but so are stronger muscles as having more muscle and better physical capacity means you're better able to catch yourself, stabilise yourself and recover if you lose your balance.

- Muscle is actually a metabolic organ. It isn't just tissue that produces movement, it releases signalling molecules called myokines, which communicate with other parts of the body and can influence things like metabolism, inflammation and bone health.

- It helps keep body fat under control. Maintaining muscle as we age makes it easier to maintain a healthier body composition and avoid the gradual shift toward more fat and less lean tissue that commonly happens with aging.

- It gives the body a reserve to draw from. Muscle stores energy and contains a large amount of protein. When you're sick, injured, recovering from surgery or simply not eating enough, having more muscle gives you a bigger physiological reserve.

- It helps you cope with illness. This becomes particularly important in older age. An infection or hospital stay can cause a surprisingly rapid loss of muscle. Starting with more muscle gives you more of a buffer before that loss becomes functionally significant.

- It helps prevent frailty. Frailty isn't simply "being weak", it's having very little physiological reserve, so a relatively minor illness, fall or injury can have a major impact. Maintaining muscle helps keep that reserve.

- It improves balance and stability. Muscle helps you control your posture, stabilise your joints.

- It supports your joints. Strong muscles around the hips, knees, back and shoulders help stabilise those joints and make everyday movement easier.

- It helps you stay independent. This is probably one of the biggest benefits. Muscle is what allows you to get out of a chair, climb stairs, carry shopping, get up from the floor, travel and generally do the things you want to do without needing someone else.

- It may also support brain health. Exercise involving muscle has effects on the nervous system and produces signalling factors that are involved in maintaining brain and cognitive health.

- It helps maintain a healthier inflammatory and metabolic environment. Regularly using your muscles is associated with better metabolic health and regulation of inflammation.

So when we talk about "maintaining muscle as we get older," we're not just talking about being able to lift heavier weights.

We're talking about better blood sugar control, healthier bones, better metabolic health, greater resilience when you get sick, fewer falls, more physical independence and more physiological reserve.

Strength is just one of the visible benefits. The deeper benefit is that muscle is one of the body's most important tissues for healthy aging.

And let's be honest, everyone wants to be mobile and independent when they are older, so let's start building those muscles 💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼

15/08/2026

Did You Know Texture of Food Shaped Your Face, Not Just Your Health?

A conference I visited years ago covered research originally done by Weston A. Price, a dentist who spent the 1930s traveling to remote communities around the world — Swiss mountain villages, Pacific islanders, Indigenous groups across North America — and photographing their teeth and faces while they were still eating the way their ancestors had for generations.

I found it really interesting because every single population he visited showed the same thing: wide jaws, straight teeth with room for every single one, including the wisdom teeth, and almost no decay, and they obviously don't have dental care or even toothbrushes.

And have you ever noticed that when you look at skulls of ancient people, they almost always have near to perfect teeth?

It's the same pattern, going back much further than any of us usually think about. Straight, well-formed teeth weren't rare or lucky. They were the default for most of human history.

Once these communities started eating Western food, the very next generation, not five generations down the line, one, started being born with narrower faces and crowded teeth, jaws that didn't have enough room anymore. That's not genetics changing that fast. That's development changing, and the reason comes down to something most people never think about: how much work the jaw actually does when we eat.

**Development**

Think about it like this: your jaw is a muscle, same as your bicep, same as your quads. And muscle grows the same way everywhere in the body — you put load on it, it adapts and gets stronger. When you eat something with some resistance in your mouth, raw vegetables, a proper piece of meat, your jaw is under load, and that load is the signal telling it to grow, wider, stronger, more forward. That's what built those broad jaws and straight teeth in every population Price studied. A diet of soft bread, pasta, mashed and pureed everything gives the jaw no load at all, so it never gets the workout, and it never develops the way it's supposed to.

I actually saw this play out in my own family. As a baby I was mostly eating mashed baby food, while my cousin was given more of an adult type of food early on and was chewing from a young age. We grew up looking almost like twins, but our jawlines turned out visibly different, and she was considered the more attractive one. That difference didn't come from genetics. It came from how much chewing our jaws were doing at the exact age they were forming.

A wide jaw with straight teeth and a chin that's actually there is a visible sign of optimal development. A narrower face with a more pushed-back jaw and teeth that are crowded, climbing on top of each other, simply means development didn't reach its full potential.

**Tooth decay**

There's something about our soft food that should be noticed too. Refined starches and sugars are exactly the kind of food bacteria love, and because that food is soft, it packs itself right into the gaps between our teeth and along the gumline, where it sits and feeds bacteria for hours. Crowded teeth make this worse, since teeth climbing on top of each other create even more of those tight gaps for food to get trapped in and bacteria to build up. Food with more resistance to it does the opposite. It's harder for it to wedge into those gaps in the first place, and even when it does get stuck, the texture and the extra saliva we produce chewing it tend to work it back out on their own. That's a big part of why the people Price studied had almost no cavities, and why decay became so common once refined food took over.

This is also where health and beauty actually connect, rather than being two separate ideas. Crowded teeth trap more bacteria, which means more decay, and decay itself, stained enamel, gum inflammation, actual damage to the teeth, is what most people register as unattractive. So the wide jaw and straight teeth we tend to find attractive aren't arbitrary. They're a sign of a mouth that's naturally more resistant to the exact things that make teeth look and function poorly.

**Digestion**

Chewing is essential for digestion. The more we chew, the more enzymes get released in our saliva, and the more the food is already broken down before it even reaches the stomach, which makes the stomach's job far easier. Chew properly and the body actually digests and absorbs more of what's in the food.

**Satiety**

Chewing slowly also gives the body the time it needs to register that we're full. That signal takes a while to reach the brain, and if we're eating soft food quickly, it's easy to overshoot it before we even feel satisfied. Chew properly, and we tend to naturally eat less without trying to.

So think of chewing as a workout for a muscle we never think to train. It's building the jaw the same way a squat builds the legs, and along the way it's protecting our teeth, helping us digest and absorb what we eat, and keeping us from overeating without even noticing.

My grandad always told me to chew my food properly. Turns out he was right. There's a lot riding on something as small as how many times you chew. Your next meal is a good place to start noticing.

09/08/2026

Fantastic explanation of food adiction
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Deji2zEAz/

02/08/2026

"So I Have to Be an As***le?" — No. Here's What Assertiveness Actually Means

A friend of mine is one of the nicest guys I know. And when he starts dating someone, that niceness quietly turns into a problem.

It goes something like this: early on, he's himself — funny, opinionated, easy to be around. Then, somewhere along the way, he starts trying so hard to please her that he stops showing up as a person. Where do you want to eat? "Wherever you want, babe." What should we do this weekend? "I don't care, whatever makes you happy." At first it reads as generous. Eventually it reads as absence. And more often than not, the relationship ends with her frustrated and pulling away — not because he was too kind, but because there was less and less *him* left to connect with.

When I told him he needed to be more assertive, his response was immediate: "So you're saying I should be an as***le?"

He's not wrong to worry about that — but he's missing a whole category in between. And it turns out psychology mapped this out decades ago.

Three styles, not two:

One of the foundational texts on this, Alberti and Emmons's *Your Perfect Right*, lays out three basic ways people handle their own needs against someone else's:

- Passive — your needs don't count. Only theirs do.
- Aggressive — your needs count. Theirs don't.
- Assertive— both count. Yours and theirs.

Aggression is what my friend was picturing: steamrolling someone, disregarding their feelings, using pressure or anger to get your way. That's not assertiveness — it's just a different way of erasing the other person, instead of yourself.

Assertiveness is the actual middle path. It means saying what you want clearly and respectfully, while still caring what the other person wants. It's not the absence of kindness. It's kindness *plus* a self.

"I don't care" isn't generosity

Here's the reframe that I think matters most: constantly deferring doesn't make you selfless. It usually makes you invisible. "Whatever you want" isn't a gift to the other person — it's a non-answer. It gives them nothing to respond to, nothing to know you by.

Compare:

"I don't care, wherever you want."

with:

"I'm in the mood for Thai — does that work for you?"

The second version is still considerate. He's asking, he's open to her answer. But he's also *there* — a person with a preference, someone she's actually getting to interact with. That's the piece that goes missing when "niceness" tips into disappearing.

Why we do this?

It's worth being honest about what's underneath the passive pattern, too. It often isn't pure selflessness — it's discomfort. Avoiding the risk of disagreement, disapproval, or conflict. In other words, constantly deferring can be a form of self-protection dressed up as generosity. Recognizing that isn't a criticism; it's just useful information if you want to change the pattern.

The takeaway

Assertiveness isn't the aggressive cousin of niceness. It's what's left when you stop confusing "having no needs" with "being kind." You can be warm, easy to be with, genuinely considerate of someone else — and still have opinions, preferences, and boundaries of your own. In fact, that combination is usually what people find more attractive, not less.

Being assertive doesn't mean becoming a jerk. It means finally showing up as yourself. 💛

31/07/2026

🥴🤕🫩Morning After Drinking: What to Drink & Eat to Reduce Water Retention

A night of drinking can leave you feeling bloated and puffy. While you can't "flush out" alcohol faster, you can support your body's natural recovery by rehydrating and restoring electrolyte balance.

What to Drink

🥥 Lemon & Coconut Water
Mix 400ml of water with the juice of half a lemon and 100ml of pure coconut water. Coconut water is naturally rich in potassium, which helps balance sodium levels.

🍵 Green Tea or Dandelion Tea
A cup in the morning may have a mild diuretic effect and can help support hydration.

💧 Water
The most important drink after alcohol. Start your morning with a large glass of water and continue sipping throughout the day.

☕ Coffee Can Wait
If you're dehydrated, hydrate with water first. Once you've had some fluids, moderate coffee is generally fine.

What to Eat

🥣 Greek Yogurt & Banana
A protein-rich breakfast with potassium from the banana can help replenish nutrients and reduce bloating.

🥬 Leafy Greens & Eggs
Greeks often enjoy horta (wild greens) with eggs after a heavy meal. If horta isn't available where you live, spinach, Swiss chard, or kale are excellent alternatives that provide potassium, magnesium, and other essential nutrients.

🥒 Fresh Cucumbers
With their high water content, cucumbers are a refreshing snack that can help you stay hydrated.

Extra Tips

Go easy on salty, ultra-processed foods, which can increase water retention.

Take a gentle walk to boost circulation.

Prioritize sleep—your body does most of its recovery while you rest.

Remember: No food or drink can speed up alcohol metabolism or "detox" your body. Hydration, nutritious food, and time are the most effective ways to recover and reduce puffiness.

29/07/2026

🥩 THE PROTEIN MYTH THAT'S SABOTAGING YOUR RESULTS

Quick question. If you eat 200 grams of chicken, how much protein do you think you're getting?

If you said 200 grams, you're not alone, and you're also not eating nearly enough protein.

This came up with a client recently, and it was a total lightbulb moment for her. She'd been tracking her meat by weight and assuming grams of meat equals grams of protein. They are not the same thing. Here's the real breakdown, using raw, boneless and skinless meat or fish.

200 grams of raw, boneless, skinless chicken breast is about 46 grams of protein.

200 grams of raw, lean beef, like sirloin or ribeye, is about 40 to 44 grams of protein.

200 grams of raw fish, like salmon, is about 41 grams of protein.

Of course, this will vary a little depending on the exact cut, the fat content, and the type of fish, but the goal here isn't to be perfectly precise, it's to give you a realistic ballpark so you stop underestimating your protein.

See the gap? She had been massively under-eating her protein without realizing it, and that gap was a huge piece of why the scale wasn't moving.

HOW MUCH DO YOU ACTUALLY NEED?

A good general target is 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of your bodyweight, per day. As a rough baseline minimum, most people should be aiming for at least 100-120 grams a day.

Here's the easy way to hit that, no scale needed.

Ideally, aim for
3 meals ➡️ 200g raw meat or fish each ➡️ ~40g protein per meal ➡️ ~120g for the day.
If you only manage two meals like I personally do, fill the gap with a protein shake, each scoop is usually about 25 grams, so you may need more than one scoop to properly cover a missing meal's worth.

For reference, the classic "palm-sized portion" works out to about 20 to 30 grams of protein, so we're really talking about roughly 1.5 palms per meal if you'd rather use your hand than a scale.

WHY DO YOU EVEN NEED THIS MUCH PROTEIN?

Protein builds and protects your muscle. It's also a fantastic source of steady energy, and it keeps you full for far longer than carbs do.

Here's a trick I give my clients: eat your protein first at every meal, then your vegetables, and only after that, if you're still hungry, your carbohydrates. Save the pasta, potatoes, or bread for last, and by the time you get there, you'll likely be satisfied with a lot less of it. It's a simple, effective trick for weight loss.

ONE MORE THING

If you're not used to eating this much protein, you might feel a little bloated at first. That's normal, your body just needs time to adjust. If you'd like some extra support, digestive enzymes can help some people, personally I find they help me, so it's worth trying if bloating continues.

THE TAKEAWAY

If you feel like you're eating enough protein but your results have stalled, it might be worth double-checking your math, not your willpower.

Fix the numbers, prioritize protein at every meal, and everything else, satiety, muscle retention, fat loss, tends to get a whole lot easier. 💪

Questions about your own protein targets? Drop them below, happy to help.

27/07/2026

✨The Secret✨

One of the most interesting things about the human brain is that we can know exactly what is good for us and still choose the opposite.

Why?

Because we're expecting our future self to win an argument with our present self.

When we're tired, stressed, grieving, in pain or emotionally drained, the part of the brain seeking comfort becomes louder than the part thinking about long-term goals. In those moments we're not making decisions from our most rational state; we're making them from our emotional state.

The mistake is believing we simply need more discipline.

We don't.

We need fewer negotiations.

The moment we ask ourselves, "Should I have the dessert?" or "Should I skip today's workout?" we've already entered a negotiation. Our brain immediately begins searching for reasons to justify the choice that brings immediate pleasure.

"I've had a difficult day."

"I'll start again tomorrow."

"One time won't matter."

The fascinating thing is that disciplined people hear exactly the same voice.

The difference isn't that they have more willpower.

The difference is that they expect the voice.

Instead of arguing with it, they recognise it.

"I knew you'd say that."

"That's the same excuse you always give me."

Then they carry on with what they had already decided to do.

But recognising the voice isn't enough.

You have to know how to answer it.

A disciplined person doesn't argue with the excuse. They acknowledge it, but they don't let it make the decision.

Voice: "You've had a hard day."

Answer: "Exactly. That's why I'm going for the walk. I'll feel better afterwards."

Voice: "You're tired."

Answer: "I know. I'll just do twenty minutes instead of an hour."

Notice something important.

There's no debate about whether to train.

The only negotiation is about how, not whether.

Voice: "Start on Monday."

Answer: "Tomorrow isn't a magical day. Today counts too."

Voice: "One dessert won't matter."

Answer: "Maybe not. But it's never just about this dessert. It's about practising being the person I want to become."

Voice: "You deserve it."

Answer: "I deserve to wake up proud of myself tomorrow."

That completely changes what the reward actually is.

Voice: "You've already ruined today."

Answer: "One decision doesn't define the day. The next decision is still mine."

Voice: "You don't feel like it."

Answer: "Feelings aren't instructions."

Short. Calm. No drama.

Voice: "It doesn't matter."

Answer: "Everything that changes my life starts by seeming insignificant."

Another powerful shift is to stop asking:

"What do I feel like doing today?"

Feelings are temporary. They change with stress, hormones, poor sleep, pain and emotions.

A much better question is:

"What would the person I want to become do next?"

Identity is far more powerful than motivation.

People who build lasting habits stop negotiating with themselves because the decision has already been made.

Not:

"Should I exercise today?"

But:

"I'm someone who doesn't miss my movement."

Not:

"Should I eat this?"

But:

"I'm someone who nourishes my body."

The emotional brain is incredibly persuasive because it speaks the language of now.

"I want this now."

"I'll feel better now."

"I don't want to exercise now."

The rational brain speaks the language of later.

"I'll be healthier."

"I'll be stronger."

"I'll be proud tomorrow."

The emotional brain will almost always sound more convincing because it's dealing with immediate certainty, while the rational brain is asking us to invest in a future we can't yet see.

Don't ask yourself what you want now.

Ask yourself what you want most.

Those are rarely the same thing.

The other trap is perfectionism.

Many people quietly change the rules from:

"Do what I can."

to

"If I can't do it perfectly, what's the point?"

That's where consistency begins to disappear.

The truth is that a twenty-minute workout is infinitely more valuable than the perfect one-hour workout that never happens.

A walk is better than waiting for the perfect training session.

One healthy meal is better than promising to start on Monday.

Progress isn't built by dramatic acts of motivation.

It's built by thousands of ordinary decisions that nobody sees.

Every time we keep a promise to ourselves, we strengthen trust in ourselves.

Every time we ignore our own wisdom, we weaken that trust.

But here's the biggest shift of all.

Imagine there's a wise version of yourself sitting next to you all day.

That voice never raises itself.

It simply says:

"Go for the walk."

"Eat the fish."

"Go to bed."

"You'll be glad tomorrow."

It doesn't explain.

It doesn't negotiate.

It just quietly points in the right direction.

Then there's another voice.

It's persuasive.

Emotional.

Charming.

It always has an excellent argument for doing the easier thing.

The mistake is believing we need to defeat that second voice.

We don't.

We simply need to stop treating it as our advisor.

A disciplined person doesn't have a stronger inner voice.

They simply know which voice deserves to be obeyed.

That's what discipline really is.

It's not the absence of temptation.

It's the habit of trusting the quiet voice over the convincing one.

That is the secret.
💛

Dr Iya Goubareva

09/09/2026

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