The Livy Method Podcast - Anxiety and Weight Loss with Kyle Buchanan - Winter 2026

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

In this guest expert episode, Gina sits down with Certified Nutritional Practitioner, public speaker, and host of the feelgoodery podcast, Kyle Buchanan, for an honest, timely conversation about how people are really feeling right now and why sustainable habits matter more than ever. They talk about the collective heaviness many experience this time of year, the impact of sleep and seasonal shifts on energy and mindset, and why curiosity, compassion, and consistency beat quick fixes every time. With warmth, humour, and real-life perspective, the discussion reinforces that health goals are built one choice at a time, meeting yourself where you are and continuing to show up.Where to find Kyle:Instagram: @itskylebwww.kylebuchanan.cafeelgoodery PodcastYou can find the full video hosted at:https://www.facebook.com/groups/livymethodwinter2026To learn more about The Livy Method, visit: www.livymethod.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Gina Livy and welcome to the Livy Method podcast. This is where you'll have access to all of the live streams for my 91 day weight loss program. With a combination of daily lives, guest expert interviews, and member stories, there is something new almost every day. Miss the morning live? Want to re-listen to one of our amazing guest experts? Well, this is the place. This podcast is hosted on ACAST, but it's available on all podcast platforms, including the one you're listening to right now, Spotify, Apple, and Amazon music. We're focusing on sustainable habits, not quick-fixed.

Is it an opportunity to get curious? We're here at how people get to their health goals. One piece of time. You build and build and build and build. Okay. Hi. I feel like this is, but everyone is feeling like this week. It's just like, you know, you get out of bed and you're like, okay, let's see what the day throws at us.

You know what? It's so interesting. I love you. It's so interesting you say that because I was actually. I'm actually going to ask you about that. I'm like, is it a thing? Like, I feel like it is. This time of year where we're all just like, it is. Like, we're all just kind of doing our best. We had, you know, we're coming off a full moon this past Sunday. So I feel like there's always like post full moon is always more intense than the day full moon. And I feel like, you know, for a lot of us,

especially who live in like the winter climates, we're feeling it. This is the month where it's just, it drags and it's an uphill climb. And I was actually thinking when I logged on here, like I'm lucky enough to join each one of your groups, you know, through, you know, the spring or the fall. And this is the time of year where I'm like, oh, it's, I am pale. I am like the winter, I am, and I think we're just all feeling it. So if, yeah, I don't think, I don't think it's just us. I want to go back. I want to talk to you about the moons in a minute, but at Calbuk, and everyone, I've been calling you our like health and wellness guru, which is so late 2000s, but I don't really care.

I mean, guru is a strong word for me. I don't accept that, but I'll like, thank you for the compliment. It's, you're my personal guru. I adore you. You really are well-versed on all things, wellness. You are a nutritionist. You are the host of Feel Goodery Podcast. You're the resident contributor on Global's the Morning Show.

You now have your, I don't, would you call it your new show on Series XM? Yeah, I mean, we're coming on a year, but it's the newest thing. So, you know, last year I launched. the exhale on SiriusXM. And it's been a really fun experience. So it airs live on Sundays at 4 p.m. on Sirius XM. But it lives as a podcast as well on the app. So all of the episodes, including yours, you were my first of 2026.

They all live on demand. And it's been really fun. It's been talking with some of the world's leading experts. So yeah, that's the newest thing. Oh, I love that. I'll actually, I'll repost. But yes, Carl invited me on. And I'm not sure I said much about it.

I don't know, New Year and whatever. Oh, yeah. But I'll repost for everyone so they can give it a listen. Let's go back to the moon thing. Yeah. You're into that? Like the... You know what?

It's funny. I'm not super like I don't like to live my life by it. My mom's very into it. And I do think there's weight to it. I try not to attach. But I know based on how I feel, especially like a new moon and a full moon. I know if I'm doubting my life choices and my career. And you know you have those days where you're just.

not feeling the best. Chances are it'll be a new moon. And then the full moon is when we, depending, can feel kind of just melancholic. It depends on where you're chart. Again, I'm not an astrologer, but it depends on where you lie.

But it is funny, the full moon does affect a lot of our sleep. And there's different reasons why they suspect. The most obvious reason is that it's brighter out, which is like, well, of course that makes sense, right? like the moon is bright and we have issue sleeping, but a lot of us struggle with deep sleep around the full moon. And maybe that alone is why we tend to feel a little more strange post full moon because we

didn't get as much deep sleep. So I think there's way to it. I like believing in anything and everything, if it's, you know, getting pieces of it. And I think to dismiss the moon is just, I don't know, it's like dismissing gravity. It's like, you know, we don't have to hold weight to it. But, and it's also nice to blame. It's also so nice to be like, oh, it's not me today. It's the moon.

See, with that mercury and retrograde, I don't know what that is, but I blame everything on that. I have no clue. Everything. Anytime your phone fails, you, mercury retrograde, you know? I mean, accountability and radical responsibility is nice, but once in a while, once in a while, it's nice. It'd be like, it's not me. I don't have control over this, so. They don't.

The moon thing, though, I mean, the world. cycles in seasons. Like the geese fly south and this is where fish swim upstream and they're just like so, you know, in tune to the world and the universe and the moon plays a big world. Tides based on. Menstru cycles. Like a whole bunch of different things, you know.

Okay. Why are you here today? I forget what we're talking about. I think we're talking anxiety. Oh, yes. What we're all in the depth of. And, you know, it's, yeah, a lot of us are feeling it. and I was going to say like it's nice that we're talking about it more now, anxiety.

And I was just talking about this on the morning show. A big trend this year that we're seeing is nervous system support being like mainstream. Yes. Which I'm really happy about. It ties into anxiety perfectly because you do nervous system support. You hopefully will lower your anxiety level. So a lot of things we're going to talk about has a lot of like crossover. Yeah.

Well, we have so many new members. Of course, we've had returning members who know who you are. And I've been here for some of the conversations. But Kyle was kind of the first person I ever talked to about anxiety and weight loss. Like there's stress, there's depression. There's all those things. How does anxiety fit into that? And it absolutely does. And especially like this is like, think about downsizing week. So this is the one week where we start to eat slightly less. It feels most like a diet. Now you're still eating all this good nutrient rich food throughout the day. But the last few weeks, people got used to. just eating enough to feel satisfied. And they're, you know, they're probably feeling really happy about that. And now we're like, okay, let's purposely leave yourself feeling unsatisfied. Yeah. They're dealing with hunger, food waste issues, food satiety issues, also the time of year that it is. And when you factor anxiety into that, that can be, that can give you like a lot of feels. Yeah. I mean, and it, it makes perfect sense why anxiety in like a weight loss journey are so interconnected because with any journey, with any weight loss journey, naturally there's going to be like uncertainty, right? There's going to be what if I can't? What if this is hard?

What if this feels gross? And anxiety feeds on uncertainty. Like anytime things are uncertain, anything new, anything outside of your comfort zone, anything outside of your familiar. Everything we're doing. Especially this week. Anytime you insert something new into your life, that you necessarily haven't done before that feels weird, anxiety is going to try to pull you back to comfort. Even if that comfort isn't serving you, it's still you're familiar. And anxiety will, it will flourish, right? So part of the anxiety like equation is just being aware that it's going to pop up and question it.

You know, what if this isn't working? Well, question that. Why am I thinking that is it just my body trying to get me back to that familiar? your zone. So, I mean, for me, anxiety has been, I mean, weight has been a part of my journey as well, but anxiety has been such a part of my life. I've spent the past 15 years kind of dissecting and decoding it. What is, what is, I mean, when you say that all out loud, I'm like, oh my goodness, I feel like I have a lot of anxiety, but I would never have thought that about myself. A lot of stress, that anxiety, no, but when you say it out loud, who, how do we know the difference? How do we

know the difference between the anxiety and stress. It's a really, really wonderful question. And I'll give my perspective based on why, you know, how I like to frame it. For me, and stress, stress does get a bad rap. You talked about it on the exhale. Like cortisol is getting a bad rap. Everyone like avoid stress. And it's not about that. So stress, I like to think of it as specific and hopefully within a very timeline. And it's present. Like you're dealing with a stressful event at work. Someone was rude to you and snapped at you and that was of a specific stress response. It's kind of present and specific. Anxiety is a little bit more vague. It's a little bit more fuzzy. It's future oriented. It doesn't really have an off switch. It's that feeling of something kind of feels off.

I might know what it is, but I might not. It's this kind of alarm, this inner alarm that goes off that doesn't really have that off switch because you can't necessarily pinpoint it. It's this, it's the steady kind of buzz that for whatever reason, tying back into nervous system support, like for whatever reason, I don't feel very safe right now. I don't feel in control and the brain starts to make stories as to why. Maybe it's this. What if I fail at that? What if, you know, it's a very, anxiety is fuzzy, stress is specific.

That's kind of the way I like to go down to it. I wasn't sure you if you froze. Well, no. I'm like, I'm frozen. Listen in like a holy shit. Like everyone's talking about their stress, manage your stress, manage your stress, manage your stress. Probably what they need to do is figure out how to manage their anxiety. Yeah.

We need to train our system, you know, back to the nervous system thing. Like our nervous systems like constantly kind of gauge whether we are like safe or under threat. And if we run anxious, our bodies are thinking we're under threat even when we're not. And when we're under threat, stress hormones stay elevated and they stay elevated long enough, our bodies begin to kind of break down. So the trick for all of us is really being able to like handle a stressful event and then go back to baseline and go back to rest and digest. And anxiety management stress, it has different names, but developing nervous system tools

that allow you to feel safe in your body to calm down between the stressful events. That's the key. And in today's world, with everything we all have to go through in a given day, our nervous systems are kind of more on alert than ever before because we don't allow them to rest. We don't do some of the things that allow our brains to be bored. And the result is that we're kind of chronically activated. And that chronic activation is that kind of buzz we all feel where we never feel, we never feel that. calm safety that, you know, we're entitled to in this life.

Which is why we're always trying to, we just want a day to do nothing. We want to retreat. We want to stay in bed. We want to like, I can't handle this. Gosh, you know, that is so, that is so, someone's like light bulb moment. I know. And for me, too, because we're constantly talking about stress. You got to manage your stress, right? Cortisol levels are high. The problem is not high cortisol is the inability for your cortisol levels to come down. So deep breathing exercises go forward. walks, yoga, whatever, but no one's talking about anxiety that's filling the gap. Yeah, because we don't know how, I'm going to tie this into like attention and there's a roundabout

way of doing this. And I talked with, I had actually, I talked it with Dr. Zelanomomani, who's like this renowned behavioral scientist. I talked about it on the exhale, but I actually released it on feel goodry as well. But we're in an attention crisis as a society. We're stretched very thin. We are always available to everyone, whether it's text, whether it's kind of social media, whether we don't allow our brains to be bored and rest anymore. And the cost of that, which I didn't associate, was we all have the sense of urgency. Yes. Like we're always kind of falling behind. We go through the entire day. We do work, but we're still behind. And that kind of like always being on, our attention being so fragmented, is really.

Really, I think one of the main reasons were more activated than we used to be, we're more anxious than ever before. So because we're not able to rest and train our focus as often as we'd like, a lot of us more than ever before are feeling anxious. And when it comes to like a health perspective, anxiety and chronic stress can really work against a lot of our goals, whether that is weight loss, whether that is energy, whether that is sleep, right? So becoming aware of this and why it's so critical, we get our attention back, we get our calm back, we get our boredom back. Being aware of that sometimes is enough to like give you the gumption to do the things that maybe are easy to kind of roll your eyes at because we hear them all the time like breathwork, like nature.

You know, when we hear things again and again, it's easy to kind of ironically not do them. Oh, well, that's people like, well, I already read that. I already saw that. I'm like, okay, but did you do anything about it? Like that's the thing. That seems to be a theme Dr. D came on and she's like, awareness is great. But then what's the next step? What's the plan for yourself? What's the fall? I mean, awareness is a huge step. It's so massive. Yes. Except you have to then then do something about it. Yeah. And that's, I mean, we have so much information. available to us. We have all the answers theoretically in front of us, right? You know, but most of us, especially all of us, depending on the day, we're either so worn down or so

tired that we just don't have the gumption to do those things consistently. And I think that's the biggest battle we're dealing with is that we know the things, even just the basic things. but for whatever reason we're not doing them and I think because we a lot of us are losing the spark a little bit because we're just tired. We're tired and it's almost kind of like I don't want to drink my water because I know it will feel better and I don't fucking care about feeling better right now. I just want to validate my feels and feel like shit. And so therefore, yeah, I know I should drink my water and go for a walk, but I also fuck it.

Yeah. It's it's, it's, I don't fucking want to do it. I'm not doing it. And I just want to wallow in my pity party of just like, me. And you know what? There is something to that. And this is the kind of like, sorry, this is, sorry for the swear, like the fuck it month a little bit. Where it's like I just, and I'm dealing with this right now a little bit where I just have so much to do.

And I'm like, I don't care. Like I'm getting it done, but it's like it's an uphill battle. So I think a lot of us are feeling this right now. The fuck it's. This, okay. So I want to talk about this because I want to talk about this. So my thing is do less. I'm just going to do less.

I'm doing less. Doesn't mean I actually am more productive. I'm just like, what is important? What isn't? I'm doing less. I just, I don't want, last year I went here,

there and everywhere and did all these things. And it didn't bring me joy. It was really lovely and I'm grateful and I'm not, you know, nothing bad to say about it. But I just want to like do less. And I have, and I don't know if it is just this where I'm mad in life or menopause,

but I have a massive case. of the fuckets. And I'm just like, I don't feel like, I don't feel like having to explain myself, right? And people want to come up with you about something, you know, this woman the other day, she thought I was angry or pissing in this group. I'm like, I wasn't, I'm not actually angry because I'm dealing with something else, which is, it's a passion. And it's not anger. And then she's trying to pull up receipts and tell me that I'm angry. And there was a point I was like, oh my God, what am I doing here? And she's like, well, you just keep saying, you know, fuck it, you don't actually care. And no, no, no, no, no. When I say,

like, I don't have any fucks to give. It doesn't mean I don't care about you. It doesn't mean I'm not grateful. It doesn't mean that all of those things. It just means that you get to some point where you're just like, I don't have the energy for that. And like, so what's the difference between fuck it? Like, and I think people need permission. Fuck it is not fuck you. Fuck it is not fuck everything. When I say don't have any fucks to give, I am so. tired. I just, I can't do that anymore. So I think fuck it. If you think about anxiety might be a good thing. Yeah. Your barrel is full. And I think that's the thing. We all have a barrel and we all have our tolerance. And the fuck it's happened when we're just, we're undersund, we're maybe a little

hungry. We have work stressors. Our microbiome maybe isn't happy with us. We have all these things. And once we get that overflow, that's when the fuck it's really happened. And I think we're complex, lovely little snowflake creatures. We can have space for multiple things. We can hold space for people and also at the same time not have it in us right now. And I think there is something that we have to remember during, especially this time of year. And I'm sure especially this week with a new addition. Yeah.

This is the time of year. You know, we work, we are, we have a circadian rhythm. and we work with the sun and the darkness, our body is wired like that. This is hibernation time for a lot of us, right? Like, we're naturally inclined to do less. And unfortunately, modern day just doesn't work that way. And I'm sure you have people from all over the world. So, like, people who live in California, I'll marry for a green card and get there.

Like, I know there's a bigger issue there. But I'm saying for a lot of us who, for a lot of us who live in the wintertime, like, this is the season where we're naturally inclined to draw back, right? We're naturally inclined to sleep, to support our nervous system, just to hibernate a bit. But we have the modern demands of our day-to-day lives that just doesn't stop. And eventually, our body will stand up for us. And sometimes that standing up for us is shutting down because we're like, I need to protect my energy. And that's actually, it's not about you not caring for other people.

it's your body saying I need a shutdown. I need time to rest because I can't give anymore. And back to the thing where we're constantly being stimulated, our bodies don't get the rest and the micro breaks and the micro-bordoms that it used to get even in the early 20s. We don't have those micro moments anymore because as soon as we have a break, we go to our phone to look at social media. And I'm, I was free for a minute before I joined the call and I looked at my, I opened up Instagram and then I was like, what am I doing?

And I shut it down. And not 30 seconds later, I was on the app again. So our brains are now wired just to create this kind of dopamine hit. And the cost is that we're just constantly on. So the fuck it's coming even faster this time of year because we're overstimulated and we're tired. So that's where micro breaks and doing things to support the nervous system, even though it takes effort is no longer optional in 2026. because everything is working against us a little bit.

So whenever I'm on with Gina, everyone, I tangent like a thousand different ways, so I forgive me. I tangent every day. I'm here for it. You just want everyone to understand and know and share and all of that. You know, this is why I want to get in some tips of the time that we have left. But, you know, I driving long distances these days is a lot because I'm not spending any time, really downtime, processing, feeling.

and thoughts about things. You never know this. This is when you're in your car. This is where you'll cry or your feel things or whatever because it's the only freaking quiet time that you have, unless you listen to a podcast while you're driving or whatever, you know. And that's the way we're trained, right? Like when you have downtime, especially if you run your own business or you're doing things for a health goal. It's like, you know, use a car ride to learn and learn something. And I have two audio programs that I'd love people listen to in the car, but I know it's not good. Like you need your time to rest. And just on, before I forget, on the like, I feel these, I feel gross right now. I feel not great. I think a lot of us want to deny how we're feeling

and then that creates resistance and then that resistance just exhaust us. So I think there is a time and a place to really, if you're feeling not great, if you're feeling angry for whatever reason, which sometimes pops up for me. Like when I'm tired, I get angry. It's great for everyone around me. But I think there is something to acknowledging how you're feeling. Yeah. And just taking like the 90 second rule where if you're feeling upset or you're about to cry, take 90 seconds and fully just do it. Like, immerse yourself. And what you'll find is that it's hard to hold on to that real intense emotion if you're

just focusing it for a long period of time. Eventually, when you do that, you feel like for me, if I'm angry or whatever, and I'm trying to distract myself, I'll sit for that 90 seconds. And eventually, even before the 90 second, I'll do something that I know is my body releasing something. like I'll yawn or I'll burp. And those are typically things where my body's kind of, you're actually metabolized. You're going through what you need to go through.

So I think the more we like, be aware, honor how you're feeling, and then move on. It's a lot easier to do that instead of carrying all these little denials with you throughout the day that eventually will show up when you like stub your toe and scream bloody murder. It's not really about the pain. It's because you actually have an outlet to get it all out. So I think honoring how you're feeling and metabolizing those emotions is a really solid way to support the nervousism and also reduce anxiety because you're not having it hum in the background unacknowledged for the entire day. Alanna, again. Yeah.

She comes on. You know, Atlanta. She talks about stress and sleep. She says you got to take time in your day to stress the fuck out. Yes. What other tips? I know anxiety can really affect your tummy. Yeah.

Isn't that great how you feel bad? and it'll wreck your gut microbiome. Isn't it so lovely how it just, you know, we get screwed twice? Yeah, I mean, we have the gut brain connection, you know, are the diverse, like one of the hallmarks of like a healthy microbiome and there's a lot of nuance here is diversity within your gut. So you want a whole bunch of different microbes in your gut. You want it to look like musly cereal and not like plain Cheerios.

And stress and anxiety can actually decrease the diversity in your gut. So that's why, like, if you're looking for stress management anxiety, like a reason to do it for the gut if you haven't found your way in because we all find our way in. But like, yeah, it does, it does take a toll on the gut. And then in turn, the microbes of our gut influence how we feel. So it's sort of like a vicious cycle that we just have to just be aware of and then take some action. But yeah, with things, sorry, with, go ahead. No, no, I'm just like thinking about your gut and your brain because that's all about how you, you're in, your intuition and listening to your hunger cues. And if your gut is off, that's going to,

that's going to affect that. It's just, it's just a brilliant how it affects so many things in so many ways. That's all. And you, you also, in terms of cravings, you know, speaking of weight loss, like, it can take some adjusting. But like, we, we train our gut microbes what to crave. So a lot of times, like, there are certain bacteria that love sweets that love ultra-processed food. So if, you know, there's been a pattern of that. When you take away their food, they're going to start screaming for you to crave them. So there is a transition, transition zone. But the, the gut microbiome really impacts everything from our brain to our mood, to anxiety,

to weight loss, to bone health, to heart health, to skin health. Like, it really is, it's cool in the sense that we're learning more and more. And it's overwhelming. But it is one reason to, like, focus on. anxiety and nervousness and support as a way into supporting your gut. Okay. I'm going to know Jody's going to give us a countdown soon. Dr. Paul is going to come and talk more about microbiome.

But what are the things you suggest for your microbiome and then that calming the body? You had about a minute to Jody give us two minutes. Okay. For anxiety, for like the short term thing, I always like, and I did a podcast on feel goody about this. I always, for short term anxiety, SSCC, when you're anxious, stop being aware of it. like be aware, slow down because if you're anxious, you tend to like fast is like the theme for anxiety. Slow down. This can be slowing the rate at which you speak. It can be slowing your breath.

I'm a big fan of breath work. So SSC is connect. Connect. Get out of your head and into your body. So this can be touch. This can be rubbing your hands together. This can be, uh, smell. Smell is a really powerful anti-anxiety tool. Like have some peppermint essential oil on hand or your favorite and then see as compassion. Just show yourself a little damn compassion because sometimes we think being hard on ourselves is working or we don't deserve to be compassionate towards herself, but it actually gets out of the stress loop faster. So compassionate key. And then long-term anxiety support really is balanced blood sugar, really, which you teach in this program. Incorporating daily calm rituals that really work for you. And I always say do it in the beginning

of the day to kind of set the tone. And this can be whatever works for you. It can be meditation. It can be just what I've been doing this year is just two minutes of scribbling, like just drawing to kind of get out of my head. And that's been really helpful. And then just make sure you're on top of your supplements and be more aware of yourself talk.

Like that's the long term stuff. But for the short term things, have things on hand. Adaptogens are also great, like short term things like, I, I like holy basil tea. I like althianine, which is not an adaptogen, but it's a really useful tool, especially if you have a lot of coffee having that shorthand. But like knowing your short-term solutions and building your toolbox, and then as you're building your toolbox of short-term stuff, what you're doing in this program, you're building

the long-term foundation of biological support that will have a positive side effect of a commerce system done the line. So it's kind of like a two-fold response. I love that. There's more about adaptogens and altheonine in our secondary supplements post in the book, also in the app. So you can search that and Dr. Paul's going to come on. We can talk about microbiome and whatnot. I love you.

I love you too. Oh, the music. The playout music. This is great. This is lovely. And I know it's a lot. And just this is the heart. We're all going through it.

You're not alone. And if your body's, if you're feeling the fuck, it's just give yourself more grace and allow yourself to be still and quiet. And that's, you know, that can be a huge thing. And I know it's hard. Yeah, we have to make ourselves do it. We don't do even when we go away on vacation. Everyone's all. It has to be intentional about taking that time.

Yeah. And even just like a minute. It doesn't have to be five. It doesn't have to be 10. Like a minute. Just a minute is better than no minutes. And the power of consistency is very underrated. And I know we hear like small steps all the time.

And we hear that a lot. But it really is, it really is the thing. You're probably where I'm at right now. I feel like everyone's heard everything a lot. I'm trying to be the opposite of that. Cut through that. How do I get it across in a way that people haven't heard it a million times? Right? Like do whatever you need to get gumption. Like I'm a huge fan of gumption. Do listen to someone you like. Put on your favorite playlist. Anchor yourself in the feeling of pride, whatever you need. And that's what feel good or he is. Like it's different ways in depending on what you need in the day. That's what I try to be. You know you. whatever you need to give you that little bit of a spark is you are deserving of that little spark. I love that. Can we put up Kyle's information? You can follow him over on Instagram. Great tip. It's Kyle B. It's K-Y-L-E-B. You can also check out his podcast. Kyle Bucaninand.ca. You can also listen to his podcast, feel goodery, or find his show every Sunday on serious. Except, you know that one with the SSCC? Can you find a link? I'll search it. And then we can

call it in for people and they can, they can listen to that. They would love that. Absolutely. Good luck, everyone. We got this. Spring is around the corner and we'll get the gumption back. But trust the flow of nature too. Like, don't deny how you're feeling right now. Don't deny how you're feeling. All right, I love that. Thanks everyone for joining us live. We're listening for The fact. Kyle, always a pleasure. Thank you. Thanks, Gina. Bye, everyone.