Cassandra Parrish - Nutritionist

04/03/2026

Training lesson from this week’s run.

Everything was identical to my usual weekly run.

Same track.
Same fuel.
Same time.
Same training around the run.

Yet I could only run half the distance.

The difference?

I was two days before my period.

I actually knew I was feeling exhausted beforehand. But because I’m training for HYROX in April, I had the mindset of “I have to do the run.”

Instead of adjusting my training to suit what my body clearly needed that day.

The outcome?

Completely and utterly exhausted.

Research is increasingly showing that women may benefit from adjusting training and nutrition across the menstrual cycle.

In the first half of the cycle, rising oestrogen often supports higher intensity training and better recovery.

In the second half of the cycle, progesterone rises, which can increase metabolic stress and make endurance work feel harder.

In the days leading into your period, fatigue and reduced exercise tolerance are common.

This run was a reminder for me that even when we’re motivated and committed to a goal, it still pays to listen to your body!

Sometimes the smartest thing you can do for your training is adjust, not push harder.

And yes… there’s research to back this up! But I didn’t need it, my body was telling me all I needed, I was choosing to ignore it 😉

27/02/2026

True Story! Just after I posted a video about the need to Deload in our peri-menopause phase! The need is real!

Maybe if I wasn’t trying to do other things whilst I reset it, I would have remembered!

I’m pretty sure the bank is about to call me & say “someone is trying to hack your account”! Me: “Oh no sorry that’s just me over here forgetting what I’m doing”.

What the actual f*** is happening here!

I can tell you about complex health & nutritional ideas & what could be happening within your body, but please don’t ask me to remember a password I created 30 minutes ago 🤪😳.

Don’t panic I’m aware it’s Friday Feb 27 2025 😉

27/02/2026

Another Peri video I hear you say!

But hear me out because this is a little gold nugget taken from an amazing conversation about perimenopause earlier in the week.

How can women in this period support themselves with things other than diet, supplements, exercise etc?

The answer - DELOAD!

What’s one thing you could take off your plate? The mental & physical load is real! But how could you lessen it by just one thing? How could you deload!

With this we will also need to let go of perfection & having it all done “our way”. If we lean in a little Peri can be the nudge to say “that’s it, I can’t do it all” and that’s ok.

I am early in my peri journey but this is certainly the first thing I have noticed, I cannot do all the things anymore, I get stressed earlier. So my “to do list” is way shorter & I accept it rather than solider on & burn out!

I hope this helps!

Thanks for the gem and for hosting

26/02/2026

I promise that one day, self-care stops feeling like another thing on your to-do list……and starts feeling like love. 🧡

If you’re in the “it feels hard right now” season, you’re not failing you’re just learning a new way.

Save this for the days you’re tempted to start over (again).

Real change doesn’t come from going harder.
It comes from going kinder and staying consistent with the small things.

What would it look like to support yourself the way you support everyone else? ❤️

25/02/2026

If you’re:
• 35+
• Feeling stuck despite eating well
• Exhausted by 3pm
• Gaining weight around your middle
• Tired of starting over every Monday

This is likely a metabolic, stress eating and hormonal issue, not a willpower issue.

I’m opening 5 spaces this month for women ready for a structured, personalised reset.

If you’d like details, DM me & I’ll send you them!

No pressure. No obligation.

Just a conversation to see if it’s the right fit. 💛

25/02/2026

Looking for dinner in a flash!

If you have some basics in your fridge/freezer & cupboard you can easily make a poke bowl!

Literally takes 10-15mins!

The basics
Rice noodles/cooked rice/quinoa
I used rice noodles as they are super fast for the others you will need them pre-cooked
Vegetables
Anything you have in the fridge! I used carrot, capsicum, cucumber!
Freezer
Edamame beans
Protein
I did haloumi & I had pre-cooked chicken breast.
Dressing
Have some home-made in the fridge or use a bought sesame dressing (I don’t love these because of the oil used in them but occasionally they are fine, we aren’t looking for perfection)
Add ons - sushi ginger, Kim chi

Chuck it all in a bowl & boom! Nutritious meal faster than ordering Uber Eats!

The key here is HAVING the basics in the cupboard & cooking some proteins ahead of time so you can easily grab them.

Homemade sesame dressing - google it 🤪

Enjoy! 😋

I know, I know! I should have filmed the making of it! I totally forget to get my phone out all the time!!

20/02/2026

The bigger the swing, the harder it is to sustain results.
The brain hates restriction.
When you push too hard, it pushes back.
Sustainable change lives in the middle.
Instead of:
“I ate badly today, I may as well keep going.”
Try:
“My next meal will be more balanced.”
It’s not about the next Monday.
It’s about the next meal.
The women I work with aren’t failing.
They’re exhausted from extremes.
Extreme diets.
Extreme workouts.
Extreme restriction.
Then extreme rebellion.
We don’t need more discipline.
We need smaller swings.
If you’re tired of starting over every Monday, this is for you.

19/02/2026

If weight loss feels like:
“I’m doing so well…” → “I’ve blown it again…”

This is why.

Emotional eating isn’t a lack of discipline. It’s a nervous system strategy.

Highly palatable food gives a dopamine hit. It soothes stress. It gives quick relief.

But the relief is short-lived. And the guilt keeps the cycle going.

When you understand your pattern
Trigger → Emotion → Behaviour → Choice
you stop fighting yourself and start responding differently.

You don’t just remove food.
You build other coping tools.

Freedom isn’t about restriction.
It’s about having more choices.

If this resonated, tell me below, what’s your most common trigger? 💛

14/02/2026

Let’s have a little chat about cortisol & stress!

If you’re:
Constantly rushing
Not addressing your emotional wellbeing or past trauma
Sleeping poorly
Wired but tired
Craving sugar at 3pm
Falling off track at night

It’s not weakness.
It’s physiology.

Chronic stress elevates cortisol.
Cortisol increases cravings & contributes to poor sleep. Poor sleep increases hunger hormones.
And impulse control drops when you’re exhausted.

You cannot white-knuckle your way through a dysregulated nervous system with more will power & discipline.

Try this before meals:
Sit down.
Feet on the floor.
5 slow breaths. Longer exhale.
Drop your shoulders.

Weight loss is not just about “eat less, move more.”
It’s about safety in the body.

13/02/2026

We get so focused on the end result.

The number.
The dress size.
The before and after.

But the real gold?

It’s in the process.

It’s in the daily micro-changes that don’t look dramatic… but quietly change everything.

The morning walk you didn’t used to take.
The protein breakfast you now default to.
Going to bed earlier instead of scrolling.
Pausing before emotional eating.

These small shifts compound.

They become habits.
Habits become identity.
This Identity becomes your new normal.

You might have once said,
“I’m just not someone who exercises.”

And now you are.

You didn’t just lose weight.
You became someone who moves her body.

That’s gold.

Because when habits become second nature, there’s no “starting again Monday.”

That’s sustainable change.

And that is always more powerful than the number on the scale. 💛

31/01/2026

This is so true! We need to move away from black & whites & all or nothings. There are always many differing paths to & from health & what works for one may not work for another. 🙌🏻

I wrote this caption and post after looking at my social media feed this morning, so it might be raw. I’ve come repeatedly across people saying that there is one cause of some symptom or something is the #1 thing to do above all else because of a health condition, and I’ve seen it across the spectrum of topics, from HRT, the gut, the nervous system, stress. Bottom line is that the body is too complex for ONE cause. When we reduce everything to saying it’s one thing, it’s like medical dogma. This type of siloed thinking translates to cultural thinking and gets us collectively in a rut of thinking there is only one path and everything else is wrong. It creates confusion and chaos. This is where duality, polarity, and righteousness set in.

Maybe the pathology perpetuates in thinking there is just one rather than in oneness. If you start studying the human body, you can clearly see there are many paths. There is biochemical redundancy. Multiple causes. Complexity reigns supreme.

Let’s help people by cultivating the diversity and personalization of approaches rather than it’s just “this one”...when this mentality pervades our thinking, it ripples through everything else and we begin seeing the resilience present in multiple, many, and more rather than in one, fewer, and less…

21/01/2026

I’m still on holidays.
My year tends to begin closer to February as I take most of January off.

But around this time, I notice it…
That subtle anxiety.
The quiet whisper of you should be doing more.
Hustling more. Posting more. Trying harder.
All the “new year, new you” noise flooding my feed.

So I pause.
I breathe.
I look back at the year that was, what I’m grateful for, what helped me, what stretched me, what I want to carry forward.
Then I jot down a few intentions for the year ahead. Nothing extreme. Nothing to prove.

One of my biggest intentions this year is to stay in my lane.
To stay grounded in my own experience and offer from that place, not from urgency, comparison, or trends.

And then I remind myself… most of this is just noise.
So I lean back into my hammock, open my book, and choose this moment instead of the shoulds.

This might be my best year yet and it may not be.
But it won’t be built on hustle or fads.
It’ll be built on space, presence, and authenticity.
And that feels like exactly the season I’m in.

Whatever season you’re in, my hope is you feel permission to be exactly there, without comparison or shoulds.