The Quiet Truth That Met Me in My Pantry (Jo Moment)

We notice how a holiday unexpectedly improves sleep and exposes how quickly we blame hormones and routines without questioning the story. We explore the hidden cost of self-editing and what changes when we put the nervous system first and start listening to the body again. 
• disrupted sleep reframed through an unexpected holiday contrast 
• shifting from quick fixes to nervous system first choices 
• noticing the quiet inner voice that restricts food, rest and desire 
• under-fueling and overtraining as a common pattern for women 
• perfectionism showing up as containment and constant self-control 
• the cognitive load of monitoring what is acceptable 
• early wins from fuelling more and letting body signals return 
• giving ourselves permission to stop editing so tightly

The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute

For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process.

We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself.

If something landed today, there's more where that came from.

And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way.

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🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com
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📷 @therealjostone

Transcript

Realising I Ignore Body Signals

Holiday Sleep Paradox

Nervous System First Approach

The Quiet Voice Of Restriction

Jo Stone (Host) 0:04

Welcome to Balance and Beyond Moments, your weekly dose of insight, wisdom, and mindset shifts, all in 10 minutes or less. Whether it's a powerful truth, a fresh perspective, or a spark of inspiration, this is your space to pause, reflect, and reset. Let's dive in. I realized recently that I'm not actually listening to my body. I'm editing myself before it ever gets a say. This year I've taken a completely different approach to my health because despite being active and otherwise generally healthy, my sleep has often suffered. And I'd quietly filed that disrupted sleep under perimenopause, hormones, all the things, without questioning it too much. But on the holiday, something disrupted that story. Over two weeks, I didn't take any of the vitamins I used to take that I was told was essential. I was drinking most nights, completely out of routine, sleeping in different beds. And yet, for two weeks, I didn't wake up. I didn't have any of the symptoms that I was having at home nightly. So that moment made me really curious and go, okay, well, if this was purely hormonal or purely psychological, then stopping taking the supplements or the things should have made it worse, not better. Now, instead of rushing back into a crazy detox or what other ridiculous protocol I might have found online, I decided to do something different based on what I've learned over the last few years. I'm putting my nervous system first and everything else second. I've started tracking gently, not hustling, using wonderful AI as a coach and really noticing what is shifting inside me rather than focusing on all the external outcomes. Now, this is where it got interesting. What I noticed or noticed immediately wasn't hunger or cravings or how I'm exercising, but a voice that came out of the quiet that said, you've already eaten enough. Or you shouldn't need anymore. All around food, exercise, movement, rest, sleep. The surprising part was realizing that that voice had been there for years. I've just never slowed down enough to actually hear it. Around the same time when I came home, I listened to a Mel Robbins podcast where an expert said that most women underfuel and over-train. And I went, huh?

unknown 2:38

Okay.

Perfectionism As Containment

The Hidden Cognitive Load

Fuel More And Signals Return

Permission To Stop Self-Editing

Jo Stone (Host) 2:39

As part of this underfueling, I am constantly managing and judging how much I eat, saying I don't need that or that was bad food. But as I started to pay attention to this dialogue that seemingly came out of nowhere, what landed far more deeply was that this wasn't just about food. How we do one thing is usually how we do everything. And I discovered a window into how I have historically self-edited and managed myself far more broadly than I'd probably like to admit. There's this familiar cocktail of old patterns that have become quieter over the years with all the work I've done on myself, but still show up at strange moments when I'm not expecting them. I've realized and seen at a such deeper level how much my mind can override any bodily desires. Whether that's, okay, well, I'm hungry, but my default reaction is often restriction, which is what turns out most of us are doing. Or with this judgment of you shouldn't be hungry yet. You only ate a few hours ago. Deciding what is acceptable with my head before I've even felt what I actually need. It's really interesting seeing this other quieter way my perfectionism is showing up now. It's not through being perfect or putting a bow on everything, but it's this really insidious, let's call it, containment, self-control, and staying reasonable. There's also a way I am squashing anything that my brain considers might be indulgent, tied to these beautiful long-heeled rules about me not wanting to be too much or not wanting too much or not asking for two months rather than something that's wrong with me. Now, these patterns aren't doing the same level of destruction that they used to, where they completely dominated my life. But I've discovered that these little suckers are still there, like an app that's running in the background that quietly drains all your power without you realizing that you haven't double swiped the damn thing closed. What I'm seeing light and day now is that these patterns have this huge cognitive load that comes with monitoring my tone, my timing, my appetite, and deciding what's acceptable before I've even felt what is true. This is my nervous system on overdrive. And it made me realize I wonder how much of my exhaustion is actually not coming from the tasks or the things that I'm doing physically, but from the constant effort of managing and editing myself. Of I can be this messy, but only this messy, and I can say this. And this isn't conscious because I have done so much work on finding my voice and stepping into my power and saying the thing and being messy, but damn, this stuff just continues to run. I don't have this resolved clearly, and I've made an intention to share this in the mess, in the middle. Don't know if this is going to work. But as I fuel my body more and appropriately and stop self-editing, at least with food, my hunger is starting to come back. Those signals that are biologically programmed are now getting through the layer or the tightly wound fence I had around it is dissolving. My sleep's improving, my energy levels are rising, and it feels like the dial has turned up on some signals that I thought I was already tapped into. But it turns out there's always more. What I do know now is that this awareness has already changed how I move, and that these tiny little incremental shifts are compounding when I stop overriding myself. So if you recognize this internal dialogue, this self-editing, this continual management of self-managing how you act instead of actually listening. Maybe you don't need another fix. Maybe you just need to start giving yourself permission to stop editing yourself so tightly.