Core You Hypnotherapy

Core You Hypnotherapy Jacquie Whur MSc Psychology
Clinical Hypnotherapist, specialising in weight loss, anxiety & self esteem. Habit - Behaviour & Mindset Change

Take back control, banish sugar cravings, build a new relationship with food. Core You Hypnotherapy is about helping you to become the person that you want to be. It’s about helping you to find peace, calm, acceptance, change, happiness at your very Core. Along with being a Hypnotherapist, I am a lowcarb/keto Nutritional Advisor with Nutrition Network and an Ambassador with the Public Health Colla

boration, working to change obesity, type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes with weight loss and diet changes. I have a full weight loss program. My aim is to help my clients not only lose weight but to change their relationship with food, change habits and behaviour and build self esteem.

Beliefs don’t just sit in the mind. They shape biology.Research shows that belief can alter the body’s ghrelin response,...
01/06/2026

Beliefs don’t just sit in the mind. They shape biology.

Research shows that belief can alter the body’s ghrelin response, this is the hormone associated with hunger and appetite regulation.

This was demonstrated in the famous Mind Over Milkshakes study.

Participants were given the exact same milkshake on two occasions. The only difference was what they were told about it.

When participants believed they were drinking an indulgent, high calorie shake, ghrelin levels fell much more sharply after consumption, indicating a greater feeling of satiety.

When they believed they were drinking a low-calorie, sensible shake, the ghrelin response was much flatter (lower satiety levels).

Same milkshake.
Different beliefs.
Different physiological responses.

Food noise isn’t just biological, it’s also psychological.

The expectations we have about food, hunger, and our ability to manage our weight can influence how we experience our appetite.

So if you’re coming off the jabs and constantly telling yourself, I’m going to be hungry all the time, that belief may become part of the problem.

The brain is not separate from the body.

What we expect can influence what we experience.

Before even considering antidepressants, 62% of people mistake hunger and thirst signals. So before you reach for the cr...
26/05/2026

Before even considering antidepressants, 62% of people mistake hunger and thirst signals. So before you reach for the crisps 🥵

We are currently in the midst of a heatwave, so If you suddenly find yourself craving snacks or feeling a hollow hunger, your brain might be playing a trick on you.

A landmark study in Physiology & Behavior found that 62% of the time, people mistake thirst for hunger, reaching for food when their body is actually begging for water.

This neurological mix-up can lead to heat exhaustion as the brains wires get crossed:

* Shared Brain Space: Both hunger and thirst are regulated by the exact same control center: your hypothalamus.

* Twin Symptoms: Mild dehydration mimics hunger perfectly. It causes low energy, brain fog, irritability, and a hollow stomach.

* The Food Trap: Your brain knows food contains water. When dehydrated, it triggers a food craving to desperately pull fluid from whatever you eat.

⚠️ The Antidepressant Zone

If you take antidepressants (like SSRIs, SNRIs, or TCAs), this heatwave requires extra caution. These medications create a double-whammy side effect:

1. They blunt your thirst: They disrupt your internal thermostat, and can blunt thirst even when your body is overheating.

1. They amp up hunger: They can block specific receptors, turning off your “I’m full” switch and triggering carbohydrate cravings.

When it is blazing hot outside, a food craving is very often hidden dehydration.

💧 The Heatwave Rule
Don’t trust your appetite right now. Next time you feel an unexpected craving, use the 20-Minute Rule:

* Drink a large glass of water or use an electrolyte.

* Wait 20 minutes for your hypothalamus to register the fluid.

* If you are still genuinely hungry, eat. If the craving vanished, your body was desperate for cooling hydration.

Can we just stop for a moment… it’s 9.55pm in the uk, it’s not completely dark, I’m taking the dog for a quick trot befo...
24/05/2026

Can we just stop for a moment… it’s 9.55pm in the uk, it’s not completely dark, I’m taking the dog for a quick trot before bed…and I’m just wearing a sun top…and it’s a bank holiday weekend ❤️thank you 🙏

24/05/2026

Neuroscience shows that positive experiences need sustained attention before the brain truly begins wiring them in.

The brain is hard wired for a negative bias, it’s your job to train it for joy and happiness.

Noticing beauty for 2 seconds changes very little.
Staying with it for 20 seconds can.

Savouring isn’t just mindfulness rebranded.
To savour requires the anchoring of attention.

A quick thought like:
“Nice sunset.”
isn’t usually enough.

But if you pause… breathe… and fully absorb the colours, sounds, sensations, and feeling for 20 seconds, things happens:

🧠 Repeated firing across the same neural pathways begins strengthening those circuits.

🧠 Positive emotion chemicals can naturally flow for up to 90 seconds if you don’t interrupt them.

🧠 Longer activation in the brain’s reward centres is linked to greater overall wellbeing later in the day.

This is why tiny moments matter.
The smell of fresh coffee.
The sound of the birds singing.
The warmth of the sun.
The taste of something delicious.


When you truly stay with those moments you are quite literally training your brain toward happiness.

Thank you JAMA 💪A brand new longitudinal study of 38,000 pre & post menopausal women, monitored over 12 years, found whe...
21/05/2026

Thank you JAMA 💪

A brand new longitudinal study of 38,000 pre & post menopausal women, monitored over 12 years, found when comparing diets, a low insulin diet significantly prevents obesity and weight gain. 💪💪

This compliments another new paper just released in PubMed that draws from the understanding of the role of insulin within diabetes. ‘Fat breakdown happens under conditions of low insulin’. They recommend this understanding when considering obesity.

This is weight loss & weight maintenance with the understanding of metabolic health, not calories.

What’s important to understand is that this isn’t just relevant to women or to those that are pre/post menopause.

Insulin resistance is the door not just to obesity but to disease.

When you learn how to close that door, you take control of your health.

20/05/2026

There’s nothing like a smoking cessation session to really grasp the power of the mind. 💪

In fact this power is evident on fMRI

Research shows that former smokers, when compared to current smokers and those that have never smoked, have ‘super-normal’ levels of activity in the areas of the brain that are involved in controlling behaviour.

When you stop smoking, you grow your brain. You’re not using up your will power your building it.

When I work with smoking cessation clients, I ask them to bring me their biggest cravings. We then use the power of the mind to get rid of it.

It’s like watching magic in real time.

Your mind is more powerful than you think.

🧠

Elsevier. “Brain imaging demonstrates that former smokers have greater willpower than smokers.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 27 April 2011

The next time a craving hits, have a glass of lemon water first.You’re not just distracting yourself,�you’re putting a b...
01/05/2026

The next time a craving hits, have a glass of lemon water first.

You’re not just distracting yourself,�you’re putting a brake on the habit loop.

The smell and sharp, sour taste pull you out of autopilot and brings your nervous system back into the present moment.

Then the physiology kicks in.

Lemon gently supports blood glucose stability, more stable blood sugar means fewer spikes and crashes, so fewer urgent sugar cravings.

It also contains vitamin C, which helps lower cortisol.
If you’re an emotional or stress eater, cortisol is often running high… and that’s when sugar cravings ramp up.
�This is a small but powerful way to calm that cycle.

Then there are the polyphenols, plant compounds that support metabolic health and improve insulin sensitivity over time.
Better insulin response = your body handles sugar more efficiently, instead of storing it or craving more of it.

And here’s the often overlooked part.
The sour taste actually helps retrain your palate.

When you regularly expose your taste buds to sour foods, your desire for overly sweet foods starts to decrease.

Your taste buds renew every 10–14 days, so this shift can happen faster than you think.

So instead of fighting cravings…
You’re shifting the biology and the brain behind them.

Small habit. Big ripple effect.

Biology 🧬
Your appetite is tightly regulated by hormones, blood sugar, and gut signalling. Insulin resistance plays a la...
30/04/2026

Biology 🧬
Your appetite is tightly regulated by hormones, blood sugar, and gut signalling. Insulin resistance plays a large part within this, but it’s just one of the aspects.

Hormones like GLP-1 are released in the gut after eating and help switch off hunger and increase satiety signals.

Your gut microbiome plays a role in this by producing compounds (short-chain fatty acids) that support GLP-1 release and metabolic health. Without a good microbiome, this becomes blunted, satiety isn’t signalled.

If this system is dysregulated, you’re more likely to:
* feel hungry soon after eating
* experience stronger cravings for high-energy foods
* struggle to feel fully satisfied

Epinutrition 🥦🧬
Food isn’t just calories, it sends instructions to your body that signal gene expression. This is the biological bridge of lifestyle and choices and metabolic health.

Psychology 🧠
Habits and learned patterns.
Repeating behaviours strengthens neural pathways in the brain (basal ganglia), making eating responses more automatic over time.

Stress, boredom, or certain environments become cues, which trigger learned eating behaviours, followed by reward (dopamine release).
That loop is what keeps patterns running.

Nervous System 🫀
Stress physiology has a direct impact on appetite and food choices.
Elevated cortisol can:

* increase hunger signals
* drive preference for calorie-dense foods
* impair prefrontal cortex function (decision-making and impulse control)
At the same time, a dysregulated nervous system increases the need for quick, reliable energy, often interpreted as cravings.

Most approaches focus on restricting food. That’s why they don’t work long term.

When you address all of these, you start to see real change:
* more stable appetite regulation
* reduced reward-driven eating
* fewer intrusive thoughts about food

This is the framework I use.

Yes calories matter, but you need to change the biology of the body, calm the nervous system, understand reward driven behaviour, and the power of food to change gene expression.
Otherwise your body will fight against the reduction.

We tend to think of vit c as immune system support. But its actually supporting the HPA axis (stress response) and helpi...
28/04/2026

We tend to think of vit c as immune system support.

But its actually supporting the HPA axis (stress response) and helping to regulate cortisol.

Research shows it can reduce the spike in cortisol during stress and support adrenal function when you’re under pressure.

One controlled study in women with chronic stress and elevated cortisol found that taking around 1,000 mg of vitamin C daily for 8 weeks significantly lowered both cortisol and DHEA-S compared to those who didn’t supplement.

So if you’re under ongoing physical or emotional stress, vitamin C can help bring those stress hormones back toward a more balanced, healthy range.

What else vitamin C is doing 🤩

* Histamine regulation
Vitamin C helps break down histamine in the body. When levels are low, histamine can build up, leading to things like headaches, skin flare-ups, anxiety, and poor sleep (all of which are often worse during stress).

* Nervous system support
It’s involved in making neurotransmitters like dopamine, so it can support mood, focus, and resilience when you’re feeling overwhelmed.

* Antioxidant protection
Stress increases oxidative stress in the body. Vitamin C helps buffer that, protecting your cells and supporting recovery.

* Energy + resilience
It also supports iron absorption, which impacts energy, this can take a hit when you’re run down or stressed.

* Collagen production 
Vitamin C is required for the enzymes that stabilise and build collagen fibres. Without enough vitamin C, your body literally can’t form strong, structured collagen properly.

* Skin, joints, and connective tissue
Because collagen is the main structural protein in skin, joints, ligaments, and blood vessels, vitamin C indirectly supports skin firmness, joint strength, and tissue integrity.

* Wound healing + repair
When your body is repairing itself, whether that’s skin, muscle, or internal tissue, collagen demand increases, and so does your need for vitamin C.

* Stress connection 
Chronic stress increases cortisol, which can break down collagen over time and slow repair. At the same time, stress burns through vitamin C faster, so you end up with less of what you need to rebuild.

Vit C 💪💪

Your mindset matters 🧠Most people begin weight loss with a goal and there is nothing wrong with that in principle.But of...
27/04/2026

Your mindset matters 🧠

Most people begin weight loss with a goal and there is nothing wrong with that in principle.
But often it is the goal itself that gets in the way.

A goal based mindset tends to become a performance mindset. Think about sports, you either win or you lose.

💪I have got to be good
💪I need to stay on plan
Behaviour becomes tightly monitored, usually paired with restriction.

The problem is life doesn’t work like that. life isn’t about winning or losing.

You can’t always stay on plan and you can’t always sustain restriction, and when you don’t it gets labelled as failure.

Weight loss is not a performance. It is a process.

It is about learning what actually works for you and what is sustainable long term.

It involves changing your relationship with food, stress, sleep, movement, circadian rhythm and hormones.

These are not rules to perfect. They are parts of you and your life to understand.

This is a process of relearning, of growth, of building trust with your choices and your body.

One that requires an iterative mindset.
One that reflects, learns and adapts.
One that stays curious about what can be repeated, what needs to change and what information the body is giving you.

This is why other markers matter, not just the scales, but energy levels, sleep quality, brain fog, emotional balance and physical pain.

These things offer feedback,

When we look beyond the number on the scales, we start to understand why certain choices matter. When we can see and feel improvements in health, we bring back a sense of agency.

That is where real progress comes from.
Not perfection.
Not failure.
Just information.

Don’t let the scales be a measure of performance, let them be a source of feedback.

💕

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