The Livy Method Podcast - How Dieting History Shapes Your Journey with Dr. Beverley David - Winter 2025

Episode Date: January 16, 2025

In this episode, Gina and Dr. Beverley focus on the mental and emotional challenges of weight loss, starting with why making change feels so hard and how to tackle beliefs that keep us stuck in old habits. Dr. Beverley breaks down the role of negative automatic thoughts and how honouring your feelings can help you show up for yourself. They discuss the ups and downs of the scale—not as a measure of self-worth, but as a tool for long-term progress—and explore why it can be hard to trust the weight loss process, especially if you’re holding onto past dieting trauma. Using learning theory, they uncover why certain behaviours feel impossible to change and highlight the power of small, consistent actions to create sustainable results. Dr. Beverley also shares insights for members without a diet history and tips to identify patterns that might be holding you back.Dr. Beverley is a Clinical Psychologist registered with the College of Psychologists of Ontario. She also holds a Ph.D. in Sleep Research (Insomnia) and a Master's in Health Psychology.Find Dr. Beverley:https://www.yourpsychologycentre.ca/@drdrbeverleyYou can find the full video hosted at:https://www.facebook.com/groups/livymethodwinter2025To learn more about The Livy Method, visit www.ginalivy.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Gina Livi and welcome to the Livi Method Podcast. This is where you'll have access to all of the live streams from 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 relisten 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. I wanna stop right here and take a minute to hear from our new sponsor. It's a good one, and they are offering a promo code, so you're gonna wanna listen up.

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for more intense workouts, a fabric that helps you power through every rep. However you choose to move, Joe Fresh has you covered. And here is the promo code. It is LivyMethod25. Just use the code when you check out online at joefresh.com or through the Joe Fresh app. This is an opportunity to become curious. To learn some things. How do we help you feel less overwhelmed so you can continue on your journey? Keep believing in yourself and keep trusting the process.

Just be patient. Why is it so hard for us to do the things we need to do to make the change we need to make and sustain the changes that we make, even though we are intentionally trying to make the change? Dr. Beverly David, clinical psychologist, is back and joining us today to talk about how your past and your history, especially probably your diet history, is affecting your current journey. How do you keep showing up even when you doubt? How do you not fall back into old habits? How do you not count and weigh and measure? And how do you make real change

and then be able to sustain? I mean, that's all we wanna know from you today, Dr. Beverly, hello. I mean, those are the, that's all we want to know from you today, Dr. Beverly. Hello. Hello, Gina. I have palpitations with that introduction of what we need to cover. Do you, do you feel the weight of that? I mean, you obviously you are, you know what we're trying to do in this program and this

process. It's a feel good program. We actually want to help people make change. You know how hard people are working. You know how badly they want it. Do you feel the weight of that, of what people are trying to do and how we're trying to help them?

That's a very generous question. Yes, I do. I do because I wish I could talk about everything and it's very hard to talk about everything because everybody is different and so my conversations with individuals will be always different. You know, it's a unique story but very similar patterns and very human responses because psychology covers those things that make us a human where we know we develop scripts, we know that we develop habits and conditioning and we know that when we come to somewhere where we want to change it's because of probably a lot of

things that have been put into this suitcase that it's going to be hard just to change it overnight. But it is hard to think which bit to teach, which bit to share, given that we don't have lots and lots of time. And there's so many different people with different stories. So do you generalize the key ingredients to help people change? I mean, I get this. This is why the Living Method Program Guide is 46,000 pages long. It's trying to help everybody. But there are things that are universal and can help everybody. And that's what we're doing. For example, I've created an algorithm

for sustainable weight loss. And people who are just A-type people show up, do exactly what I say. They tend to get the results that they want. Easy peasy, one and done. Although they also tend to struggle when it comes to maintenance because they really just focus on that physical part

and not necessarily that mental part, working through those issues and associations and beliefs and habits. So while you are watching today or while you are listening, this is about bringing awareness to the types of things that you might be dealing with. Maybe not now, maybe a few weeks or a month from now, but just really highlighting the conversation

in and around the psychology behind weight loss or the psychology behind dieting or the psychology behind making change in general. So, where do we start with this conversation? You know what? I actually have a question from someone that Kim sent to me. And it says, I'm my fourth round, and I'm down 20 pounds, I have moved my goal to continue to the last 10. I was down 24 at the end of program three,

so last fall, then Christmas hit. And I enjoyed and I indulged and was up five to seven pounds. I was shocked at how after so many rounds, loving the living method and seeing results that I could fall back into old habits so easily. This is where it does feel like set point or mindset won't change. That is a big belief. I mean, set point, set point

theory is real. It's science and you absolutely can, but it takes work. But good for you. This is exactly the kind of work that you need to do. And when it comes to the brain, and I know I shared this before, I was at the Canadian obesity summit a few years back and the brightest minds and obesity research, we're talking about how your body gets wired at a certain set point. And it's so difficult to change that because of what's happening in your brain and the way your brain is wired and your habits and whatnot. And I went up afterwards and I asked the guy giving the

talk and I said, I get this, but it's depressing. Like we can change this. And he said, oh, absolutely. You can change. Your brain is designed to change. That's what neuroplasticity is all about. He says, but do you know what it would take to change? And he's like, I can help my clients one-on-one. I can help maybe 500 people a year, but how do you help people en masse?

And that's what we're doing here. And this is why we are so grateful to have Dr. Beverly with us. She knows what you are doing. She knows the program. She understands the conversations that you need to have. So what do we do with that belief that I just, it's not going to work for me. I can't make change. I keep falling back into old habits. This is just how it's always going to be. Because I think a lot of people feel like that. And because they feel like that, they tend to sabotage, they tend to quit before they even really get started. I know that's a lot. Well, it's a really, really beautifully written account. And hopefully a lot of people do resonate with that feeling. And then I hope a lot of people also spot perhaps the bits

that we would want to soften for her to think, OK, this is great. This is coming to the fourth round. She's lost weight. She's lost 20 pounds. Carefully and healthy, because that's how long it can take. You know, it can take time, like you've said, to move that set point, to allow our body to trust us, to know what we're doing, to know that we're not depriving,

we're not disciplining ourselves with like, if I've done that, I'm not allowed that. There's not punishment. And then along comes Christmas. And Christmas came along for a lot of us that celebrate Christmas. And was it four to five pounds? She noticed that had increased on the weighing scales.

Why is that such a big thing? And then there was the feeling and the word she was shocked. I was shocked. So what's that shock mean? Because does shock mean I was disappointed? I was angry, I was sad. And then what did you think?

She thought I've fallen back into old habits. Now have you or did Christmas just come? Can we just normalize this? And then can we look at the data and look at the evidence that you have lost weight? You have, and if I broaden it out, have you also changed your ways? It's not all about the things that we see,

like you teach, the numbers gonna go up and down, but have we changed on the inside? Do we know, oh, I didn't drink enough water yesterday, maybe I'm getting my period, maybe I ate too much salt, maybe I didn't move around as much during the Christmas week. But to go straight to that is detrimental, but it's really great that we can see that so that we can all

be more gentle with ourselves. I think actually, I haven't unlearned these new things I'm learning with Gina. I haven't necessarily gone back to old patterns. Christmas has come. We're allowed to enjoy Christmas with our family. We do change our habit, we might not be going to work, we might not be in those same patterns that are normal. It's so strange, isn't it? When suddenly we're not going to work or we're not going to the normal things we would be going at. So I would attribute it to that, not straight away. That's it. I

fallen back into my old whatever we might call that. Because she also noticed it. But now I want her to go a little bit further and think, but I still know what I've learned with Gina. And I'm going to trust that of course the scale is going to go up and down. And I'm going to believe that the last three rounds are not made up. I have seen progress. I have seen change and I am different from when I first started the program. This is very similar. I mean, whether it's Christmas or it is Valentine's Day

or you're going away on a holiday. I mean, these- Or if you get poorly, if you get unwell and things change, this is life, but we wanna catch that automatic, sneaky, automatic negative thought, okay, or negative automatic thoughts. We often call them gnats, like think of a little bzz, and they come in and they, and they give you this seed and then you have to hopefully catch it, write it down and think how accurate is this thought? And how's this thought making me feel? Is it making me feel like I'm losing

instead of actually winning? Because when we get in our head, we know what's going to happen. If we don't answer that internal critic back, we're going to believe what it's saying. And then you're right, we might step away and think, you know what, I'm out this session because look, I've gone back to my old ways. Yeah. So I love that example of a returning member. Let's talk about new members because

as much as I talk and try to normalize that it's normal for your weight not to move in the beginning, it still might not move for weeks. It doesn't mean that it's not working. It doesn't mean that you're not doing the things. We show the scale graphs, the ups and downs are normal. How do you get someone to embrace or how do our members just be okay with that? How do they honor the feels and then keep showing up even though they are frustrated with what's happening on the scale? It's being realistic, which can be really hard sometimes to think, okay, learning something new, there's going to be a learning curve. We're going to sometimes believe it and sometimes not.

So if we're studying for an exam, we can have some good days and some days that we're just a wash. Or we're working on a relationship and we're doing well with it and then up we've gone back to our old habits and we're shouting at each other again. But it's about do you still want to move forward? And that's when you invite people to think about their why. Think about why are they here now? How is it that they have got here? And where do they want to be? And that's part of digging in and thinking I am going to right my ship even when it when it tips we're going to get back out there. You know if you're learning to surf you're not going to be

able to do it that first first wave and you are going to have it crash on you and crash on you and that tumble is part of you learning. And we learn a lot about those times where we do fall and we get back up again. Rocky's quote is that quote, isn't it? It doesn't matter how many times you fall, but how do you get back up again? And so it being realistic about that happening and then noticing those old scripts, old patterns

that we do suddenly think, you know, what does this mean? That is, and you are so good at reminding us, it's not the doughnut that's gonna work down that, it's something else, you know, and don't let our thought get it wrong. Don't let our thoughts see a number and then give a judge us with you know, because that's where it gets very dangerous. When we then personalize it, I am losing, I'll never do this, I am this, I am that you have to remember your

value, regardless of the weighing scale, regardless of what genes you do or don't fit into, regardless of how fast you can run a mile. You are worthy regardless. And that's the bit that's often gone wrong a long time ago, that you have started to decide your value as a person on external things like what we look like? Well this is the scale too, right? People as much as we say the scale is a tool. You're gathering data.

What is the number? How are you feeling at that number? Is it reflective of the choices that you're making? To really understand what weight loss looks like and feels like to you. So you know when your weight is about to drop and how to support your body in that and you understand why you're on a plateau. But man, some people get on that scale and if it doesn't say the number that they want to see

and even though it is normal for your weight to go up before it goes down, I hear this all the time, I'm doing everything right, I'm so upset the scale is up today. And I'm like, okay, but if you're doing everything, it's normal for the skill to go up before it goes down. This is a sign that you guess you are doing everything right and chances are your weight is about to move. But man, it can really

do a number on your head. I know there are people who get on that scale. They want to see the number down obviously and when they don't it ruins their whole day. They berate themselves, they get on themselves. What is your advice? Because I do believe it's a very good tool, and you will prove to yourself that if you keep showing up, the scale is going to move.

You sign up for the weight loss program, you are going to lose weight, but how do we navigate that? And is that a sign that there is more for us to work through mentally? The time in the saddle matters, so we need to keep turning up because you're right, we will start gathering the evidence. We'll also be able to actually find out that we can accept the null hypothesis. The null hypothesis is to say, Wow, I felt that I was going to be heavier this morning. I felt sluggish. I felt tired. I may get on the wave scale and I know it's going

to be up. And then lo and behold, it's gone down. Or it hasn't changed. Now that's new evidence that we have to not forget, okay, because often we only, our brain is very wired to negative things and pessimistic things and threat, okay, because it's what's keeping us alive, we're looking for threat. That number can be very threatening to somebody when they have come to start considering that that's their value looking at them on the weighing scale. But when you see, wow, I was wrong, actually, that subjective feeling was inaccurate. That's lovely data. Then there's going to be these days when we're like, yeah, done it, done it all, feel so good. You know, sun is shining, we hop on and we're like, it's up three. But then I want you to remember how you felt before anyway, because that is how you felt. And now this information has crushed you. And we know that to be the case, you know, with many, many things, if we, if we get an exam result back, if we get a sleep study back, if we get things like that, if I secretly tell you a score that is not even true,

I can change how you enter into your day that you're just gonna be devastated. And because you also, Dr. Beverly, David is gonna be back in the next couple of weeks to talk about the psychology of sleep because she's also a sleep researcher. And you've shared with us, if you take someone who had a good night's sleep

and you tell them their sleep was crap, they feel like they had a crappy sleep all day long. So we really all everything on that. That's the extra piece that we're like oh it's because of that and it's because of that and so we often do that with that disappointment if we're on you know getting the scale and we don't see the number. So keep on going because you've got to give yourself a long enough to see the change, like stocks and shares in the stocks and shares market, it's gonna go up and down, but the trend is gonna start showing itself.

And you're gonna reveal things, you're gonna reveal that you're not always right, that that connection between our subjective feeling and objective data isn't always correct and that's really insightful because just like Dr. Paul in our introduction week was saying this program is really about connecting to ourselves again really getting to know how do I feel what does that feel like when I feel like that what do feel like when I feel like that? What do I do when I feel like that?

Am I hungry? Am I not? Am I full? Am I not? Am I sad and I'm eating? Like we're starting to put the pieces back together and it's absolutely okay to feel hungry and need to eat. That's okay because I definitely don't want

how you were given an example last week about that lovely person that had the donut and then minimized, started to become in a deficit for the next day to pay for it. But great. What a great example. And again, a good example of how the community helps people go, whoa, I would have done that too.

I don't feel alone now because she did it and okay, let's learn that's not what we want to do now because our body's going to go hold up. Why are we now in deprivation? I better store, store, store, you know, because it's going to panic. Our body's job is to keep homeostasis, keep us centered. Well, we've learned what we've learned, we know what we know, and this is what's so hard about not just making change in general, but making change when it comes to doing the things we need to do to lose weight, because we use food for so many things. We use food to celebrate, to show love, to bond over, to cope. Some

people utilize food to cope and straight up enjoy. And so it's about reconnecting, not only with food, but reconnecting with yourself. Why is it, I'm going to get into how, I don't know if it's a concept of letting it go, but I have a question here I want to read. What would you suggest is the best way forward for someone to abandon and let go of, and I don't know if I want to know your opinion on letting things go if that's actually helpful, let go of unhelpful ideas about weight loss from the past. I know how good I feel when I follow the living method and yet there was always a little voice in the back of my head reminding me that if I just did the drastic things I did before, starving, depriving, over exercising,

that I would see so much more rapid weight loss, which I totally get is not the point of the program. Right? Like that, and I get that, right? It's so hard for people to let go counting and weighing measuring, so hard for people to trust. and I get that, right? It's so hard for people to let go counting and weighing measuring. So hard for people to trust. And I get people might not know me. What we talk about in the program, I just saw someone saying, why don't we want to use our fat stores? And the program is about giving the body what it needs so it can trust it no longer needs to store this fat, which is why your set point is so high. Right? Understanding what your body needs and, and helping it specifically focus on fat loss, which is what we do with the tweaks

each week, and then supporting the body in its needs. And this is where with the living method, almost physically, it gets easier as you go because you just really get a better handle on the food plan every time you do another round. But mentally, mentally it can get harder. I think because as you perfect, for lack of a better word, the things you need to eat and the physical part of it, it really allows you more space to deal with the mental part of it. But how do we, do we just let go? What is your thoughts on letting go? Does that even, let it go, let it go.

Like, does that shit work or no? Let it go, let it go, let it free your mind. Like does that shit work or no? Is it just bullshit? I'm not sure it looked like it Elsa, but that was wonderful. I think, okay, there was so much good things in there and then you know, my brain, it starts going do, do, do, do, do, do, do. So let me try and think about what I was going to say. Okay.

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You know, if you have been a studier and you've learned to do the all-nighter, or if you are a runner and you have never, you know, signed up for the rest day, it's very hard to be convinced to take the rest day because you think you have the advantage. to take the rest day because you think you have the advantage. Okay, and that's because something has worked or something has been reinforced. Now we've talked about this before, but reinforcement, I always do this because I'm talking about a left side of a picture I draw. Reinforcement basically in psychology, in the learning theories, means we're going to see that behaviour again because it's being reinforced. Positive reinforcement, I want you to think about as the plus sign of a battery.

It's an additional sign, adding something in. So positive reinforcement means you get something, something is added to your life that then leads to seeing that thing again. Okay, so if you get a good grade, you've gotten a good grade and your body, classical condition is gonna go, wow, I was rewarded for that and I got something good, I'm gonna keep doing that thing.

Okay, so if you get a salary, if you get a promotion, if you get kissed on the lips for the first time, you're going to think I'm going to do that, I'm going to keep doing that. Now negative reinforcement still has the word reinforcement, you're still going to see that behavior again. Negative is the subtraction sign. This time, something's being removed, that's going to make that behavior turn up again. That could be that you have removed time off your personal best and you're going to say that way of training worked.

I saw a decrease in my mile or I saw inches off my waist. I'm going to keep doing that. I saw a decline in the weighing scales. That works. Okay, if we have coffee, and we decrease our fatigue, or somebody's having too much Red Bull while they're studying, they're going to think this works. So negative reinforcement is very hard to break. It's actually where anxiety, and often a lot of our OCD tendencies lie because our anxiety goes down. That's a little bit like eating because we're anxious, our anxiety goes down a little bit. So that behavior is called negative reinforcement. We're gonna keep doing it because something, it was good,

something benefited us. So now we've got to change that. We've got to think, hang on, old patterns. Okay, where have they led her to? If I, if say I, I absolutely used to do the study, study, study, study, and it was very hard for me to, I'm stubborn and I think I know best, okay? And I would not listen to anybody that said,

oh, you've got to take breaks. Okay, and then along came a little baby, my little boy was born, and I had to take breaks, because now I had to do life differently. And lo and behold, this balanced life was better. It could exist. So I didn't always have to be work, work, work. So it's also about, you said trust,

how can they trust this? How can they trust the program? It's hard to, but I want you to also remember that it's not as easy as just that. Just before we started, I worked out how many days would be in 40 years. I was thinking, okay, let's pick 40 year old. So it's 14,610 days.

We might have been doing it differently. Okay, we might have been thinking in certain ways and doing it. So that's a lot of days to have classically conditioned patterns. Okay, so if I've let my dog chase squirrels for day after day after day after day, he's going to see see squirrel, chase squirrel. Okay, so extinguishing it, which is a different word,

but you've talked about abandoning different thoughts, but extinguishing means trying to train that out gently with positive reinforcement. So every time Elvis does not go for the squirrel, because Elvis is my dog, so if I say, Elvis, let's play. So I do playing games with him because that's fun. So he's having to give up this thing he wants for some fun, which is appealing. And every time he does it, we play or he has a treat.

So I'm going to be doing that every day. Every time I'm out there I'm going to try and extinguish that classical conditioning, that absolute impulse that he wants to go for the squirrel. However, given the situation if we're out in the park or there's more dogs around, that's going to burden him. It's going to burden his resources and his instinct is likely going to go for the squirrel. Now, am I going to berate him or am I going to understand it's learning? We're progressing. I'm going to think, right, we're not ready for busy places just yet. Okay. And it's the for busy places just yet. Okay, and it's the animal psychology and human psychology.

We've learned it so much from animal studies. We are just the same. When we come home, that classical condition will tell us we're hungry, we're going to the fridge. When we see the service station or the en route on the motorway, we're gonna need a wee, we're gonna need to bathroom break. So our body does it

without just even thinking about it. So I don't want people to think they failed just because that's happened. That's really hard to extinguish. It's slow and it's steady and it's repetitive. We've got to start repeating the new pattern so the neuroplasticity starts happening. repeating the new pattern so the neuroplasticity starts happening. Well, I love that you said repeating because I've been sharing with our members. We're going to hear a lot about the importance of routine and repeating. And I loved how you use the example of your dog chasing squirrels because it gave us an opportunity to kind of sit back and not internalize and really listen to him because what you're talking about is someone who's done

diets and you did those starvation deprivation diets and what you got was weight loss and you got everyone saying, wow, look at you and you felt like you were accomplished and then, you know, this is where, you know, Christmas happens. You're at the dog park and all of a sudden you fall back into old habits or whatever this so you were reinforced that behavior of starving and depriving was reinforced because your result was your weight loss. Now we remember that and then when we gained all of our weight back, because that's how those diets were designed, if you force your body to burn fat, you give it no other choice,

it will, but then that's where set point comes in. When you force your body to burn fat and you give it no choice, it thinks, oh my goodness, I need this fat. So the first chance it gets, it's going to store it all back, which is why you gain it all back plus more every single time. But we don't remember that or we blame ourselves for that. We praise the diet, starving, depriving, whatever diet worked, and then it's my fault because I didn't have enough willpower or I, whatever it's my fault because I didn't have enough willpower or I whatever it's

my fault I gained it back when in reality it's just the diet. It hurts our body, it hurts us. You know if we take it down to the nitty-gritty as well it's like letting a Porsche run on empty. Like it we treat our cars better than we treat our bodies. You know, it's just devastating to think why would we be doing that to our bone health and our organs? And we have been, you know, we're learning better now. Thank goodness. Skinny is not good. We want to be strong. We want to be agile. I want to be flexible. We want to be able to get to our 90s and not be frail. So we want to learn and like we've all been talking about and learn those things that were okay look at us we're going to be in this leotard doing this like it like no I

want you to really think about how do you want to turn up where food isn't the enemy, where Christmas is something to look forward to, where you're allowed to go out with your friends, like it's, it's about a balanced life, which then is a sustainable life. Instead of I must do this, and I've got to then go without all of these things, which isn't going to last. You know, if we don't allow ourselves to do something, we just want it more. Yeah, and what we don't want to do is carry around this weight any longer than we need to. For a lot of people, it's really been consuming in their lives. I want to talk to everyone watching or listening right now because as Dr. Beverly is explaining this,

you may be thinking, oh my God, I'm never gonna make the change. There's so much I need to do. And this is where little and often that we talk to Dr. Dina Kara Schaeffer, it's about making the change in a very repetitive systematic way. And so with the Livy Method, and I talk about the algorithm of weight loss,

you're showing up every day, some days are better than others and the little things that you are doing are going to add up and the systematic nature of the Libby method, yes, you're making changes physically to the food plan, but we're also approaching weight loss mentally from a variety of different angles. So there's things you're gonna work through.

Right now, you're like trying to figure out the scale, right now you're trying to recognize what's going on in your life that's making it difficult for you to do the things that you need to do. What's going on mentally and the thoughts and the feels that you have. As we move forward in the program, you're going to deal with eating because you're bored. You're going to deal with things like sabotage and life getting in the way. And we're going to approach weight loss from a variety of different angles. This is why the routine is really important. So at the very least, the more consistent you can be with just following the food plan, that will allow you to really go deeper with your thoughts

and your feels. And Dr. Beverly is going to be back. So this is not a one and done conversation where you just gotta figure it all out today. Okay, so what do we do with our thoughts in our fields? How do we, when people are struggling, they're having a hard time, again, and hopefully people are not struggling and having a hard time right now, but I like to be proactive about our conversations. So what do we do in those moments that we are struggling?

Maybe it's that we're falling back into habits or it's getting on the scale, or we're doubting our ability to follow through or life is making it hard. How do we, what do we do with that? We have to slow down, which is nice because that's why we have 91 days. It's a nice slower journey.

And slowing down will be about noticing that. And it's not a bad thing for these things to come up. Okay, we want them to come up. We want to start noticing, wow, I just noticed this thing. I noticed that when everybody leaves the house, I'm like, oh, covered. Okay, because we might not have noticed that before, that we don't publicly maybe eating.

But when everybody leaves, I want to. So then we want to notice that instead of what is wrong with me, or whipping ourselves in our brain, or doing it and then berating ourselves. We want to slow it down. I think isn't that interesting? Because the compassionate part of our brain has been missing for many of us.

And when we are mean in that way, we're going to put ourselves into a threat situation. It's like someone shouting at us. Now we're shouting at us. And when we do that, we go into fight, flight, or faint. We aren't able to make more wise decisions because we're an emotional brain. We'll talk about this in coming weeks. But basically imagine you're talking to a little person.

You wouldn't want to shame them. Some of us have because we believe things, you know, don't eat that. You know, that's going to make you fat. And then we're repeating our own stories. But we want to now slow that down and notice if we're doing it and to think, wow, look at that. And then write it down. Use a journal or use your phone or think about it. Because a lot of us are not doing that. We're not allowing ourselves time to think. And when we put words to things, we can help tame it.

So Daniel Seagal will say, we can help tame it. So, Daniel Seagal will say, name it to tame it. It'll calm the brain down if we talk about it. If we say, oh, I just found myself in the cupboard. I wonder why, you know, how am I feeling? What happened there? You know, how will I feel in two hours time? Talk about that and start noticing these patterns. We can do it in many different ways. We can catch the feeling first, you know, whether it's excitement or dread or guilt or shock, like the person that wrote in, doubt,

what does that feel like? Then we can ask ourselves, what's going on in your head? What story are you telling yourself? Just like your second letter said, I'm telling myself, I could do this quicker, and then I'll join back in. So is that true? Because we want to talk to that thought like it would be a friend.

Like you could say, I could cheat. I could take a cheat sheet in and get a better mark in the exam. Well, what would could say, I could cheat, I could take a cheat sheet in and get a better mark in the exam. Well, what would you say to that? You'd say, well, let's see if we can do this differently. And then we want to see what are the behaviors that come out of us. Most of the time, we're in the short term trying to self soothe because we're humans, we seek comfort, we seek safety. We want that.

And yet often it then leads us to a later feeling of something, disappointment in ourselves. And that's the loop we're going to be addressing every time probably we talk. The thoughts, the feelings, our behaviors, and what is our body up to. And you can interfere with that at any point, just even that split second of,

huh, I noticed I eat every time people leave. That's all you need to do. That's the start of the work is noticing it. Just like me noticing that Elvis is less good when we're in a busy place. I'm noticing something that I can think about later. How can I help him succeed? Not gonna hit him on the nose, am I? But I'm gonna go, ah, so that's we want to bring compassion, we want to bring

calmness, so that we can cultivate that wise brain that's like, okay, let me remember where I'm at. I'm hoping to learn about myself and I'm hoping to learn how I react and respond to food. Yeah, it is all about awareness and you're going to walk us through that cognitive behavioral therapy model. Is it your thoughts? Is it your feelings? Is it behavior? We're going to get more into that. Again, this conversation was just about awareness. And hopefully something resonated while you were listening.

Also, I just want to just highlight to people that Elvis is the name of her dog. Before we go, there was a comment here from someone who has never had a diet before. And now all of a sudden their weight is going up. There was a comment here from someone who has never had to diet before. And now all of a sudden their weight is going up and these feelings of not being happy with their body, that's new. Is it any easier or harder for someone who is new to the weight loss journey? Like what do you have to say to people who like, maybe it's menopause, your weight's going up, maybe it's been stressed, maybe it's age. Maybe it's whatever that is. Is it any

harder, any easier for someone who doesn't have a history of dieting? I'd say different. It might just be different because when that thing is a predictable thing, when we're really, when we're able to predict when I do this, this happens, then it's really like unnerving when we're like, it's not working. The key is not working. This key that normally opens this door isn't okay. So it might be a different set of feelings confusion, uncertainty, frustration, like why is why is it not working? Normally I do this and everything's fine. And so then we've got to think,

well, what do we end up doing? Do we end up, are we proactive? And we think, okay, let's look, is something changing? Have I had a change in my life or circumstance or my family? Because a lot of us are at that age where we're looking after our parents and we're looking after our children and we're this somewhat like what's going on? Has work changed? Are we possibly impairing menopause? Menopause? What could be contributing? Is our stress levels

up? All of those things. We want to look at everything, even environmental, to think, okay, what could be contributing? And then we want to try not to panic, because once we do that, our wise mind goes out the window again and our emotional mind starts to do something. And that might then be where we get a bit wonky. So we want to think, okay, how can we address this systematically? Because at least we now know that a lot more. We know that we're going to be changing and that there's going to be ebb and flow so that we don't have to suddenly think, you know, we're all alone with this. Go and see your doctor if you're worried about something. Have a blood panel done. Find a naturopathic doctor that is an expert in things like this. And keep coming to Gina because you'll likely learn a lot around this. Yeah, and we're going to be having those conversations. Conversations still to be had, how your expectations affect your journey, changing your relationship with food, understanding what it takes to lose your weight, really in a

healthy, sustainable way. We're going to get into self-sabotage, all these things in the weeks to come. But you're going to be back in the next couple of weeks, January 28th, and you're going to be talking about the psychology of sleep. What is happening with your brain when you are not getting sleep? How does that affect how you are feeling, the choices that you are making? Already looking forward to that conversation. But I do want to highlight that you do run sleep clinics. And so I know you're going to be back on the 28th, but what else do you have going on? So you have a sleep clinic coming up. If people are interested, if they're interested in reaching out to you, working with you or your team, how do they reach you? Okay. So you can reach me through my email,

reach you. Okay, so you can reach me through my email, hello at yourpsychologycenter.ca or go to my website. If you want to be included in the next, it's called cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. So it's the gold standard treatment for insomnia. If you feel like you are presenting with symptoms and a diagnosis of insomnia, that's the treatment you need. It's six weeks. It will start on February the 3rd. It's an evening session and it runs from seven o'clock to eight thirty. I keep the group very small.

If you do want to be in it, go do it. Just get on board. It's great. But you'll learn more about that in a couple of weeks as well. But yes, it's CBTI for insomnia. And then my calming your anxious brain group, I will think on the, I'll think of when to do that. I'm wondering whether to do a Saturday morning group. I don't know how many people would do it. Oh, sign me up. Sign me up.

Yeah. Let me know. Let me know. A 9 a.m. Saturday morning group. Would that work for human beings? I love that. Final words. Final words. We are on week one of the program. People have a lot of thoughts, a lot of feels, and people are excited and they're hopeful. And I love that. Your thoughts about the program and some of the things that people would need to think about as they embark or to follow through and be successful. I realize this is like a very intense question.

Final words, leave us with some final words, Dr. Beverly. Stay, stay for the journey. Honestly, stay and enjoy it. Learn what you're going to learn. Watch, listen, um, and try not to give up because when you, when we give up, we don't see the possibility, you know, you've got to be in it to win it. So stay and ride out the storm. I've said it before, smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.

Okay. So just. If this is an opportunity to really dig in and have a little look. I'll do it with some lovely company around you. The community is so wonderful. Our community is the best. It really is an opportunity for people to make change and move on from their weight,

whether you are new to your weight journey or you've been struggling for years. Really, we are doing everything we can to help people as much as possible. And this is why I'm so grateful for you taking the time today to join us. I'm already looking forward to our next conversation. Dr. Beverly David, everyone, again, you can reach out to her at yourpsychologycenter.ca. You can also follow her and her great tips and get to meet her dog, Elvis, at Dr. Dr. Beverly on Instagram.

Thank you everyone. Yes please, I'm excited, it's going up. Thanks everyone, joining us live, listening after the fact, and of course, thank you Dr. Beverly. Thank you. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything

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