Are Women Working Themselves into an Early Grave?

Over the last few decades we’ve seen female employment and self-employment double. At the same time, there’s been a dramatic increase in lifestyle-related disease. Is this a coincidence? Stress Management Expert and Performance Coach, Laura Piccardi, thinks not. “We’re in the midst of a busyness epidemic.

Although the world has evolved at an amazing rate, our bodies have not, and they simply can’t cope with all the stress and pressure we’re putting them under.” Laura says she’s sick of seeing women struggle with their health, and indeed their lives, so she’s written a unique style of book, Unfaked, to show them how to make life easier and get to the heart of their true health and happiness once and for all.

The health and wellness industry is now estimated to be worth $400 billion globally. Women have never had more information and solutions available to them, but their health is continuing to decline. 60% of Australian women are overweight or obese, almost 50% have high cholesterol, 1 in 3 experience anxiety, type 2 diabetes has tripled and every hour one Australian woman dies from heart disease - shocking statistics that become even more shocking when you understand that these diseases are highly preventable.

According to Laura we’re still not getting to the source of the problem. “We’re continuing to invest our time and money into external solutions like diet and exercise, but that’s simply putting a Band-Aid on the situation – and in many cases making it worse. Until we truly accept and focus on the fact that our minds drive our bodies, both physiologically and behaviourally, this epidemic is only going to get worse.”

Laura has an intimate understanding of this after she experienced first-hand the effects that a driven mindset and lifestyle can have on the body. “I’d worked my butt off for years to reach my career and business goals, thinking I’d be happy when I achieved them, but in reality, I was exhausted, unhealthy and extremely unhappy.”

It wasn’t until a fire took down Laura’s entire business, a gym, that she got the wake-up call she needed to learn how to operate differently, and since then she’s never looked back. Once she’d restored her body, and life, by changing her mindset and calming her body down from within, she started her coaching business, Uppy, to help others do the same.

“I quickly realised after coaching my first few clients that we’re all going through the same stuff, but no-one is talking about it. We’re simply “keeping calm and carrying on”, and going round in circles as a result.”

“This is why Unfaked was born – to show women they’re not alone, and empower them to speak up and seek the right support.” Laura draws on her years of coaching, studies, research and experiences to deliver a story that will be all too familiar to most women. Through the fictional character of Deb’s, an executive woman who’s reached the peak of her career and is burning out, the reader gets to experience very real issues like impostor syndrome, perfectionism, weight loss struggles, bloating, anxiety, fatigue and relationship challenges.

The title, Unfaked, represents the guiding principle Laura teaches in everything she does – that the key to having the body and life you want, is to simply be yourself without restrictions. Throughout the story, Laura cleverly interweaves the strategies and tools that she has been using for years with her clients to help them achieve this and get life-changing results over and over again. So the reader can use the book as a guide to apply the same strategies and get the same results in their own lives too. “I didn’t want to write another book that just tells the reader what to do. I wanted to make it entertaining and relatable, and allow the reader to transport themselves into the story so they can make their own decisions about what they need at any given time. I don’t want women to read this book and simply learn something; I want them to be something.”

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Unfaked launched online, in paperback and audiobook, on Monday 28th January 2019. For more information visit www.uppy.com.au/unfaked