What Building a Business Taught Me About Health (And About Coming Home to Myself)

If you don’t know this about me — in a past life, I was a political and violent risk consultant.

In my 20s I went to the London School of Economics and I wanted to save the world.

I lived in policy papers, global affairs, strategy decks — advising companies investing in Latin America on risk, stability, and long-term positioning.

And then motherhood happened.

And burnout happened.

And somewhere in that transition, I left that world behind.

I reinvented myself after burnout and retrained in functional medicine. Built something new. Built something meaningful. But I distanced myself from that earlier version of me.

This weekend, I had the honour to reconnect with my LSE world after Wellness with Gaby was selected as one of only 10 businesses to join the Female Founders Retreat, hosted by LSE Generate — the hub of entrepreneurship at LSE.

LSE Female Founders 2026 Cohort

And what surprised me wasn’t just the nostalgia:

It was the realisation that building a business and working on your health have far more in common than I ever allowed myself to see.

Here’s what crystallised for me over this weekend:

1. Metrics Can Guide You — Or Control You

In political risk, it was data, forecasts, probability models.

In business, it’s revenue, engagement, growth rate.

In health, it’s calories, the scale, body fat percentage.

Metrics are useful. They’re tools.

But when they become your identity, you lose perspective.

Burnout taught me this the hard way. When your worth becomes tied to output — whether intellectual, financial, or physical — everything feels heavy.

Sustainable growth in business and in health happens when metrics inform you, not define you.

2. Momentum Matters More Than Mood

In consulting, deadlines didn’t care how you felt.

In business, the algorithm doesn’t care either.

And your body? It doesn’t magically transform because you feel motivated for three days straight.

Progress requires consistency.

One phrase from the weekend keeps echoing: momentum over mood.

You don’t wait to feel confident. You don’t wait to feel ready.

You move anyway.

But after burnout and motherhood, I’ve learned something important:

Momentum doesn’t mean overdrive.

It means steady, aligned action with your body and its rhythm.

The kind that builds resilience instead of depleting it.

3. Short-Term Intensity Doesn’t Beat Long-Term Vision

I used to operate in intensity.

Big ambitions. Big responsibility. Big pressure.

But intensity without recovery leads to burnout — in careers, in business, and in bodies too.

Crash diets don’t create health. Hustle sprints don’t create sustainable companies. Adrenaline doesn’t create legacy.

Longevity does.

And longevity requires pacing, strategy, perspective, and permission to rest.

Stepping back this weekend reminded me that sometimes the most strategic move is not pushing harder — but zooming out.

4. Self-Trust Is the Real Foundation

Rebuilding my body after burnout and my career after I recovered forced me to work on self-trust first.

And the same principle applies in both health and business:

You can follow every expert. Copy every blueprint. Execute every tactic.

But if you don’t trust yourself — your judgment, your timing, your capacity — you’ll always feel unstable.

Self-trust is the true growth strategy.

5. You Have to Become the Person Before You See the Results

In health, you don’t become disciplined after you see results. You become disciplined first — and then the results follow.

In business, you don’t wait until you “feel” like a leader. You start making decisions from that identity before the external validation arrives.

And in life?

You don’t become integrated after everything makes sense.

You choose integration first.

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Building a body or business are not separate journeys.

They’re all identity work.

And maybe growth isn’t about becoming someone new.

Maybe it’s about coming home to the parts of you that were always meant to coexist.

We win. Or we learn.

Either way — we grow.

Thank you to LSE Generate, the hub of entrepreneurship at LSE, for creating this space. And thank you to the Jessica Vollman Foundation for funding and championing women founders.

I’m deeply grateful to be part of this community.