Gentle Weight Loss for Women Over 45 with Qi Gong, Acupressure & Intermittent Fasting

“I Just Want to Feel Like Myself Again…”

One woman wrote to Ask Me Anything and said:

“How can I lose weight that’s been increasing for years? I’ve never come back to centre post-birth, I have an underactive thyroid, went straight into menopause, and I feel I’ve given up on myself.”

Her story touches so many of us. After years of holding everything together—children, relationships, work—our bodies hold on too.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), this “holding” shows up as Liver stagnation and Spleen dampness, the perfect storm for midlife weight gain.

Midlife Weight has a Cause (and a Cure!)

Why Weight Gain After 40 Isn’t Just About Calories

When stress, grief, or over-care stretches and overwhelms us, the Liver can’t move energy smoothly.

Emotions get stuck; digestion slows.

The Spleen, our digestive powerhouse, tires from worry and irregular meals, creating an internal climate known as “dampness” in Chinese Medicine, that heavy, foggy feeling, bloating, fatigue, and belly weight.

When we give the Liver time to rest by not eating in the evening, the body can finally process and drain excess dampness, the sticky, heavy internal moisture that leads to puffiness, bloating, joint pain, brain fog, and fatigue.

Instead of constantly digesting food, the Liver can detoxify and mobilise stored fat, while eating at the correct Spleen time can strengthen and transform fluids properly.

Within weeks of gentle intermittent fasting, people notice less swelling in the belly, clearer thinking, better sleep, reduced joint pain, and improved energy.

As dampness clears, inflammation subsides, the metabolism rekindles, and weight begins to drop naturally, without force or punishment.

This is the beauty of fasting with Chi Flow: we rest to restore, not restrict.

Acupressure Point – Liver 13 (Zhang Men)

Find the soft point under your right ribs—where the ribcage ends before the waist begins.

This is Liver 13, the “Camphorwood Gate.”

Massage or tap gently here using loose fists

It connects the Liver and Spleen, clears stagnation, boosts metabolism, and soothes emotional tension.

If it’s tender, that’s a sign the Liver is stagnant; go gently and breathe warmth into the area.

Repeat daily and feel digestion and mood begin to flow again.

Intermittent Fasting the Chi Flow with Jo Way

Every January, hundreds join the Chi Flow with Jo Intermittent Fasting programme, a six-week reset rooted in TCM, not restriction.
We follow nature’s rhythm:

♥ Eat during daylight, rest digestion at night.

♥ 7–9 am Stomach Time / 9–11 am Spleen Time: best window for breakfast and nourishment.

♥ 1–3 am Liver Time: when the body detoxes, so avoid eating after dinner especially the late-night snacks.

Start simply: no food after 8 pm, breakfast after 8 am.
Each week we lengthen the fasting window gently, giving the organs time to cleanse and reset. It’s a lifestyle of rhythm, not willpower, perfect for sensitive thyroids and tired nervous systems.

👉 Find out more and Join the January 2026 Chi Flow with Jo: Intermittent Fasting Programme

It’s easier when you do it together.

Food That Helps Your Body Release Dampness

Food as Medicine: Drain Dampness, Fuel Your Fire

Choose foods that support the Liver and Spleen:

For the Liver (flow & fat metabolism):

Sour foods: lemon, lime, apple cider vinegar, sauerkraut, kimchi.
Green & bitter vegetables: kale, watercress, rocket, radish, turnip.

For the Spleen (digestion & sweet cravings):

Warm, cooked meals; porridge, soups, stews.

Avoid cold salads and sugary snacks, especially when stressed.

Traditional TCM Remedy; Adzuki Bean Tea:

Bring soaked Adzuki beans to the boil for 5 minutes and then simmer for 30 minutes, strain, and sip the liquid through the day.
It gently drains dampness, balances blood sugar, and steadies emotions.

👉 Read more on food as medicine and how to make this tea https://joannefaulkner.ie/2022/04/18/clear-cold-damp-fat/

WATCH THE PODCAST

Emotional Healing & Community Support

The weight we carry isn’t just on our hips, it’s in our hearts.
Feeling like you “want to be minded” is your body’s cry for nurture, not discipline.

When you join Chi Flow with Jo, you don’t walk alone.
We move, fast, cook and heal together. That shared energy keeps you accountable and loved through change.

You don’t need to fight your bodyjust listen to her again.
Start with small rhythms: stop eating after 8 pm, massage Liver 13, sip lemon water in the morning, and join our January program to be supported every step of the way.

💗 Ready to Join?

Click here to become a member of Chi Flow with Jo → CLICK HERE

Or drop in for a class and feel it for yourself (sign up below). Join the Chi Flow with Jo community for live sessions, practice, and support.

Self-administered acupressure or Chinese Medicine is not a substitute for visits to qualified healthcare practitioners.

Knowing how to treat yourself and your loved ones with complimentary therapies like acupressure can be greatly beneficial and convenient. However, for serious and chronic conditions, you’ll want to visit an Shiatsu therapist / Acupuncturist or other qualified healthcare practitioner who can develop a treatment plan based on your unique medical history and combination of symptoms. The information provided should not be considered medical advice.

Danger, Danger – sugar for the over 40’s

HEALTH & WELLNESS

In women, the risk of heart disease increases after age 55. In men, the risk increases after age 45. People who have diabetes, the risk increases after age 40. * US Department of Health and Human Services

This shows the more refined sugar we eat over the age of 40 the more likely we are to develop heart disease, high blood pressure and a greater risk of stroke. So how do we keep the sugars in check and still enjoy all the wonderful food that life has to offer? For thousands of years Chinese Medicine has had solutions. Here I share a few tips.

In Chinese Medicine, each of the organs links to an element, a season, a time of day, an emotion, a flavour and much more. The 5 element system is a great way to understand the body as a whole, to address symptoms and stop sweet cravings.

The flavour for a healthy Stomach/Spleen in Traditional Chinese Medicine is sweet, BUT too much of a good thing can weaken these organs.

The matches Western Medicine as it is the spleen (pancreas) that is responsible for insulin production which enables the absorption of glucose (sugars) into the cells of the body.

Too much sugar means either the spleen cannot produce enough insulin or insulin that works (diabetes type 1) or the body becomes insulin resistant (diabetes type 2) Glucose that is unprocessed by insulin remains in the bloodstream damaging arteries causing high blood pressure and heart disease.

High glucose levels also inhibit the digestion of fats and triglyceride levels within the blood rise. Triglycerides don’t dissolve in the blood they move around the arteries where they can cause hardening, increasing the risk factor for stroke and heart disease.

Refined carbohydrates such as cakes, biscuits, white bread and pasta give quick sugar hits but they are missing the fiber and minerals of whole-grains, which slow down the breakdown of foods into sugars. Eating low fiber carbohydrates will cause blood sugars to spike, flooding the body with insulin and beginning an addictive cycle of sugar highs and lows.

So what can you do?

In Chinese Medicine to keep the Stomach/Spleen and Sugar levels healthy we would use whole grains such as brown rice, millet and quinoa and starchy vegetables such as carrots, butternut squash, sweet potato, parsnips. Perhaps you think these foods are boring, that they won’t meet the needs of your sweet tooth? but healthy food doesn’t mean boring food – with my recipes it means the opposite – it means delicious, sexy scrumptiousness – if you consciously love your food, you love yourself.

Tip 1. from Chinese Medicine is to CHEW CHEW CHEW your food. By chewing the sugars are released into the mouth, broken down by the teeth and saliva, sending signals to the brain that this is sweet, tasty food. I will be sharing liquorice sticks with you, at my retreat in September, which are fantastic for chewing on, whilst at the same time, triggering hormones from the stomach to say “we are eating and we are full.”

Tip 2. If there is too much insulin in the blood stream it will be more difficult for Vitamin C to enter cells and help with repair. This will also impair the immune system and make us more vulnerable to viruses.

If you comfort eat or find it hard to feel satisfied try including more orange brown foods in your diet like carrots, butternut squash, sweet potato, turmeric, brown rice, millet and quinoa. Orange foods tend to be packed with Vitamin C thereby helping the body repair and repel incoming virus’s.

In Chinese Medicine these orange foods supports the Spleen and help regulate blood sugars in the 5element system of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Tip 3. Emotionally the Spleen and Stomach respond to touch. Make sure to massage and touch your own body. Use oil when you come out of the shower, give yourself a foot massage. Learn an acupressure routine to soothe the body and mind reducing your cravings for the sweet stuff.

Tip 4. Practice Qigong; Exercise is essential to keep the spleen healthy which in turn helps clear anxiety, nervousness and general stress. When both your spleen and stomach are balanced, the calmer your heart, mind and spirit. Qi Gong is a fantastic, gentle, effective exercise to maintain muscle mass, transforming sugar cravings and bad moods. Free class sign up below or find lots of routines on my YouTube channel.

If you want more ways to lower your sugars, your risk of diabetes and your blood pressure, come and learn with me at my in-person retreat and watch me prepare delicious dishes full of healthy ingredients that help to tone and heal the Spleen, balancing blood sugars and stopping the addictive cravings that refined sugars bring. We will learn an acupressure routine full of nourishing, soothing, energising acupressure points plus Qi Gong movements to move and flow a body that might feel stuck and painful.

Here’s some of the dishes I will be teaching. The rest of the food will be prepared by the super talented Chef Claire from the Happy Pear and Cornucopia (Dublins leading Vegetarian/Vegan Restaurants) Full Schedule

Red Date and Cinnamon Tea (building blood and energy levels)
Sugar free millet muffins ( a sweet no sugar treat)
Roasted Chickpeas (relieving swelling and pain)
Sweet orange and tarragon dressing (adding sweetness to your bitter green veg)
Raw Chocolate, date and seed bombs (guilt free sweet treat)

By finding healthy alternatives, to refined sweet foods such as pasta, bread and chocolate, that taste REALLY GOOD we are more likely to make a change to a nourishing, wholesome, healthy life.

As we progress through life and our bodies repair system takes a little longer it is especially important to make sure we are helping ourselves and receiving nourishing support, physically and emotionally. So join me on this fabulous, unique retreat to be sugar smart, keep your blood sugars healthy, blood pressure down and your heart pumping strongly, loving life.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE RETREAT HERE: I keep numbers small so I can give individual connection and guidance or sign up for the free class at the end of the month.

Join Us and Try a Free Class

We offer a free class at the end of the month so you can try Chi Flow before you join.
Membership is only €39 per month, with over 20 classes included each month.
After three months, your subscription halves to €20, making it the most affordable Parkinson’s-friendly Qi Gong programme available online.

You are warmly welcome to practise with us and discover your own flow.

💗 Ready to Join?

Click here to become a member of Chi Flow with Jo → CLICK HERE

Or drop in for a class and feel it for yourself (sign up below). Join the Chi Flow with Jo community for live sessions, practice, and support.

Self-administered acupressure or Chinese Medicine is not a substitute for visits to qualified healthcare practitioners.

Knowing how to treat yourself and your loved ones with complimentary therapies like acupressure can be greatly beneficial and convenient. However, for serious and chronic conditions, you’ll want to visit an Shiatsu therapist / Acupuncturist or other qualified healthcare practitioner who can develop a treatment plan based on your unique medical history and combination of symptoms.

The information provided should not be considered medical advice.

Stop Sweet Cravings

Energy of Food Blog, Home

The average person in the UK is, on average, 3 stone heavier than they were in the mid-60’s. But people haven’t become especially greedy and contrary to popular belief, our physical activity has not changed drastically to that of 50 years ago.

So what has changed? It’s our diet and more especially the high levels of sugar within it.

Sugar, according to David Kessler former head of the US food agency FDA, is highly addictive; it is “highly pleasurable. It gives you this momentary bliss. When you’re eating food that is highly hedonic, it sort of takes over your brain.” A 2008 study showed that sugar affects dopamine levels in the brain and creates behaviours such as bingeing, withdrawal and cravings. Through these neurochemical changes, just like cigarettes or alcohol, we can become addicted to sugar.

So why doesn’t our highly sugared food such as fizzy drinks, come with a health warning? Amazingly today as I type this I see New York has banned the sale of sugary drinks over 16oz. Well not to get too political about it but I believe only when the cost of caring for obese people outweighs the revenue that governments receive from large food lobby groups, we will see change. Until then it’s our own responsibility which really it always has been, to nuture our own sweet selves and those around us.

In Chinese medicine the sweet flavour is linked to cravings and addictions, also to the stomach/spleen and this time of year which is abundant harvest of mother earth. From the Chinese perspective there is nothing wrong with sweet food, however if we over indulge, as with any area of life it will cause problems.

If you have found yourself in a habitual eating pattern or caught up in a cycle of addiction. Here are a few simple tips from Traditional Chinese Medicine to eat more consciously, break the habits and feel satisfied.

Firstly CHEW CHEW CHEW. This is an integral part of our digestion often missed out in our busy lives when food is eaten rushing down the street or inhaled in the car running from one appointment to the next. When we chew the saliva transforms the carbohydrates into sugars and our taste buds will pick up on that releasing chemicals in the brain to promote a feeling of satisfaction.

Chinese Medicine would recommend eating foods that are naturally sweet such as sweet potato, carrots, parsnips, and butternut squash. Take time to roast them so all the natural sugars are slowly released into your blood stream. Sprinkle them with sesame seeds and eat with a bowl of brown rice for a perfectly balanced nourishing sweet soul dish.

Many diets and slimming groups would steer you away from these foods because of their natural sugar content. But from a Chinese Medicine point of view that doesn’t help you to love your body in the long run.

With cravings listen to them – it’s your body trying to tell you what it needs. That doesn’t mean to say that you have to exactly what it asks for. Remember the saying “Follow your heart but take your brain with you”.

After giving birth to my twins, my body asked for a magnum ice cream everyday but I was already 14stone (I’m only 5ft tall) it wasn’t what it needed. But my body was crying out for extra energy and support. I ate carrots, wholegrains and butternut squash, all recipes from my book but really what helped was making sure I had time for me, especially to receive shiatsu body work. This helps to nourish the flesh, the stomach/spleen and bring us back into connection with our body.

Any type of physical touch will help the body and alleviate cravings so go get a hug or give yourself a foot massage. Use the acupressure points I share and try the Qi Gong move in my free mini ebook to Stop Sweet Cravings.

Our focus for the month for May in Chi Flow with Jo will be all about Stopping Sweet Cravings. (Doors open last week of April) It’s not about never eating chocolate again, it’s about balance in the body mind and soul . It’s about connection with the body, loving yourself and knowing when to stop.

Emotional Healing & Community Support

The weight we carry isn’t just on our hips, it’s in our hearts.
Feeling like you “want to be minded” is your body’s cry for nurture, not discipline.

When you join Chi Flow with Jo, you don’t walk alone.
We move, fast, cook and heal together. That shared energy keeps you accountable and loved through change.

You don’t need to fight your bodyjust listen to her again.
Start with small rhythms: stop eating after 8 pm, massage Liver 13, sip lemon water in the morning, and join our January program to be supported every step of the way.

💗 Ready to Join?

Click here to become a member of Chi Flow with Jo → CLICK HERE

Or drop in for a class and feel it for yourself (sign up below). Join the Chi Flow with Jo community for live sessions, practice, and support.

Self-administered acupressure or Chinese Medicine is not a substitute for visits to qualified healthcare practitioners.

Knowing how to treat yourself and your loved ones with complimentary therapies like acupressure can be greatly beneficial and convenient. However, for serious and chronic conditions, you’ll want to visit an Shiatsu therapist / Acupuncturist or other qualified healthcare practitioner who can develop a treatment plan based on your unique medical history and combination of symptoms. The information provided should not be considered medical advice.