The Livy Method Podcast - It Was Never About the Food

Episode Date: June 9, 2026

Gina Livy gets to the root of why weight loss has felt so hard for so many people for so long. It was never really about the food. It was about years of oversimplified advice, disconnection from your body, and trying to show up through all of life's complexity with no real support.In this episode, Gina unpacks why "eat less, exercise more" misses the point entirely, how stress, sleep and emotional history can affect what the scale does, and what it actually means to become an expert on your own body. She also gets into navigating plateaus with honesty, not judgment, and why pulling in the right healthcare team is part of the process, not a sign something's wrong with you.This episode aligns with day 51 of our Spring 2026 weight loss program. You can find the full video hosted at: www.facebook.com/groups/livymethodspring2026To learn more about The Livy Method, visit livymethod.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm going to be honest with you, this podcast is unapologetically a hot mess because that is what midlife feels like sometimes. Why, though? And how do we make it better? Do we all just need facelifts and g-lp-1s? I mean, let's talk about it. No bullshit, no wellness wankery here because we're trying to make real change and change is hard. But we're in this together. Welcome to the Living Method podcast.

Ask me anything. We had the best ask me anything last night. There's something about evening. lives, I think, where I don't know, my guard is down, you know, the pressure of like trying to rally everybody to like, come on. I think it's like just more conversational. And, you know, I think people are reflecting on their day and that that makes for really great conversation. I see comments in the check-in this morning of also people reflecting. So I want to remind you of setting intentions and end-a-day reflections. And setting intentions are, it's not a to-do list.

It's not a to-do list. It's like I'm going to intentionally try to be more in the moment today. And I'm going to do that by maybe taking a minute before I speak, taking a deep breath before I eat. I'm going to take time out in my day to be in tune with my body, my heart over my chest, my hands over my eyes, to just kind of ground myself and be in the moment, right? end of day reflections are a little different in that you are reflecting on your day. How was your day? Did you do the things that you set out to do? And if not, why? And what can you do to better set yourself up for success tomorrow? And this is really great for keeping things going. It's really great if you are sabotaging as well because it kind of book ends your day. Also, when you get something out of your mind and you type it in the app or you write it. write it out on a piece of paper, you are more likely to follow through on those things because it brings it to the forefront of your mind. So doing this in the check-in, and you'll notice if you're not popping into the Facebook support group, that's really our, it's where our community hangs out. It's great to read them over, to realize that you're not alone, to look for that kind of community support. You can pop into the Facebook support group and add your intention for the

day on the check-in video itself. It doesn't have to be for asking questions. The app is really great for asking any questions about the program. You ask a question, you get one within seconds. But the group is great for popping in and connecting and reflecting and setting your intentions. So if you're not doing that, it's a great idea to use that space. So you are intentional about where you are going, where you are putting that, and how you are using that space. It can be hugely beneficial. It's not fun to be able to hold yourself accountable and when we talk about meeting yourself where you are at. Sometimes we just like, we're fine, we're fine, we're fine, and we don't want to deal with where we're at. So it's about being intentional about that. So if you're

not doing that, I highly suggest you do. There's a couple of comments in here when I want to read. Good morning. This morning I seem to have a clearer head. After listening to Gina's lives twice, I thought long and hard about my journey. I reassess my why and realized it has changed. The weight loss is just a byproduct of cleaning out the mess inside. This morning I've woken up with a calm. I'm taking back the control and putting food back in its place. I love this. It's not, you know, people talk about the living method. Let's say the naceaers. Oh, it's not rocket science. No, it's really not. There's a lot of science behind what we talk about, but it's not the food part. It's not the food part. It's never been the food part. It's been the lack of food part,

for sure. The oversimplification of just eat less, exercise more, that's how you lose weight. One, we know that exercising more doesn't really help. Like, it's not a great fat burner, calorie burner, depending on the exercise. Like walking at a brisk walk can be more effective than a hardcore hit class, for example. Both have their benefits, like cardiovascular health, working on, you know, stress, like your, like bone density, building muscle. Like the exercise has its place. Don't get me wrong. Your body is meant to move.

But it's just kind of a really shitty weight loss tool. And then the food part has always just been eat less. It's never been about what kinds of foods. And yes, now we're talking about protein. But all we're talking about is protein. Right. What about healthy carbs? What about making sure you're getting enough fiber in your diet, right?

Like, what about making sure you're getting enough fats? When it comes to fats where all anyone talks about is how bad seed oils are for you. And seed oils actually aren't all that bad for you. It's just that the problem is that it's so easy to have the majority of your diet come by omega-6s and you need omega-3s in order to decrease inflammation and balance that out. So too much omega-6 can cause inflammation in your body. Not that it's bad. So that's the kind of information that we're getting about the food.

And so it was always just eat less of whatever, or try to eat the least amount of calories. That's when we had all this low fat, no fat, low carb, you know, artificial sugar garbage processed foods that we were told to eat. And it was never about good nutrient-rich foods, right? So it was never really about the food. In my experience, if you ask me what makes me a weight loss expert, it's never been about the food for people.

It's been about trying to show up long enough, try to figure out what you specifically need to work on a need, try to figure out why your body is feeling a need to store fat, trying to work through the issues and associations tied into food, right? I'm using food to cope, needing to eat everything on your plate, food scarcity issues. Some people have to go deeper and it's, you know, more like food allergies and sensitivities. Some people have to go deeper mentally in terms of. like trauma associated with food. Like my ex-husband was abused when he was younger and food was

used as a form of control. And so he would get up late at night and then sneak into the fridge and eat. Even as a grown man, he would do this. I'm like, what are you doing? You buy the food. You can eat whatever food that you want. But that's like a learned behavior and a comforting coping behavior, right? So so that's why this is so difficult. And then you add life on top of it. The shit we got to deal with. And so that's what's all about. So it's just trying to like, like keep going with all of that. And so what makes me a weight loss expert is that I have spent time with real people working through this with them. Right. It's, it's, it's not that I went, you know, it's, you know, got my degrees in university. It's not that I've been sitting in labs.

It's just I really got really good at understanding what people need to do in order to make change. And that's what you're, that's what you're here to do. That's what you're here to do. I have this comment here. And if you got questions, load them up. I'm going to get the go through them in a second. Still working a week behind after vacation, feeling a bit frustrated with the long plateau. And you're allowed, right?

Follow, honor your, honor your mood, but follow the plan. Right. Like this is, you're frustrated. What you don't want to do is festering in your funk, right? But frustration is part of it. And what are you frustrated with? frustrated that life is making it hard, frustrated that you're having a hard time getting back, just frustrated that the scale wouldn't move, and then what can you do to be as proactive as

possible about getting that scale to move? But on our, like the frustration usually, when people are frustrated, is usually that it is taking this long, right? The frustration you're unpacking is probably years worth of frustration in the diet industry, you know, or frustration that you're getting older. Like, there's probably something a little bit more to that frustration. So it's great to kind of like, what is that frustration about what is the feeling behind it and really feel that the same time though do the things that you need to do because we can do both right um just got back just got back my blood work good news is I'm healthy and nothing major found the troubleshooting will continue love this sometimes it's just

time sometimes your body just needs so you got to look at your like if I if I'm going to work with someone on their plateau okay tell me what you've been doing exactly for how long How have you been feeling, taking any, like if you could, if you had a cold two weeks ago, you might not be associating with the fact that it's kind of impacted what's going on the scale, for example, right? If you had a lot of stress or, you know, a couple late nights, we're not really understanding of the impact of that because we're just looking at what I did yesterday, what I did today, and not really sort of like the bigger picture. And that's where you want to step back and look at the big picture. Has your body had enough time to focus on fat loss?

with everything. So give your body what it needs is the consistency of letting the body know it doesn't need this fat. Right? You're giving it all this good, healthy, nutrient foods. You're doing that consistently. You're relying on that food plan and routine. Your body is relying on that. It comes to, expect that. That's going to make your body. That routine is going to make you feel, your body feel really calm, right? And then so you've done that. And if you haven't, that's where you want to be more consistent about that. Like if you've been away, you want to come back and reestablish that routine. Like if you've come back, is everything kind of chaos, right? Or is like your body settled and been like, okay, I can now do what you want me to do? You know, that's what

you want to do. And then has it had the environment in order to release that fat, right? So have you been sick? Have you this? What's been going on? How's your sleep? Like what has been going on in your life? Now, everything that you're doing every day is going to help get that scale to move. It's just that it does, has the body had the time and been able to focus on specifically that? So everything that you're doing in the meantime when the scale isn't moving is leading to that your weight dropping, right? So that's why it all adds up, which is great. It's not like other diets where you're just starving yourself and depriving yourself and then and then you lose your weight, right? There's another one here.

I had posted a message last week in the comments under the live with Sandra Alia. but after the live was over. So maybe these comments are not read. So I just want to just be clear about the live. So our take on the live because the way Facebook does the lives is that the comments get all over the place and it's more conversational. And we might take something out of context. Like you might just be responding to something I've said today or responding to another member. And then, you know, we don't understand the context of that.

So the lives are the one place where we don't come in usually. answer any question. So if ever you have a question on the live that you ask and you want a response to, just simply put it on the check-in post at the top of the page or any of the other written post, and we come back around. Sandra Alia, however, is really great. She loves coming in after her segments and going through the comments and leaving responses. I want to make sure to thank Gina and Sandra. Well, thank you so much, Gina and Sandra, for addressing my specific question about body image, even though I wasn't able to listen to the live. I did listen later. What a valuable conversation. Well, you are welcome. This is where we, what we do actually do, though, is that we

read the questions like on the posters. And you don't have to be there for us to answer it, right? So if you do have any question that you want us to ask. And we try to get through as many as possible, but we do read that. So that is where the conversations are coming from. What we did for a long time was try to get ahead of the questions that you had. Try to try to kind of plan what the conversation was going to be about. And I mean, that's fine. But I just think it's not kind of meeting people where they are at. So I think we've had these incredible conversations with our guest access.

If you haven't been listening because you think you've heard them all before, honestly, you haven't because we're having the conversations in a way we never did before. And it's really just like what comes up in the moment. What do our members want to talk about? we did a great post on social media asking you, what are some of the conversations we want to have? And that's where I want this space to be. You will notice that we work on, we're working on new content, new conversations for you, beyond the weight loss program that works, beyond the maintenance program that works. There's also life. And I think a big part of showing up is like navigating your

way through that. And we want to have the conversations that you are trying to have, right? What's the deal with peptides? How do you do something like this when you're taking care of your aging parents? Like, what about this, what about that? And so you'll notice that we were adding new conversations. Not new work, not new to-do list, not new guidelines, none of that, just conversations that we hope resonate with yourself. Um, so yeah, so in, and we're open to discussions and stuff that you want to have to. I'm a 49 year old woman and I've been doing your program on and off since 2020, struggling to lose the weight, put on 10 pounds last spring, working out three to four times a week and eating on plan for the most part. I feel like.

like I'm doing all the things, but not seeing success. I'm trying to get out of my head and not focus on the scale this round and focus on the changes in my body. It's not easy. Okay. So you, through menopause, right? Like through perimenopause. And I was just talking about this in the check-in this morning. So you might not know this, but you can ask questions in the app specific about menopause, perimenopause, post-menopause. And there's a ton of content in that AI that you can draw from. And so this would be my guess. Of course, Julie, like I'm going to, I would go through and I would ask you, you know, so sort of like where your weight journey started, trying to understand what you've been through, how you got here.

I would go through health issues. I would go through sleep. I would go through your energy. I would go through your day and what that looks like. I would ask you all those questions. So I did that troubleshooting session. You've been with me for a while. I've done troubleshooting sessions before where we took people through the maximizing

checklist. The last one that I posted, I did not do that. The last one that I posted, I took people through what I would take them through if I was sitting with you trying to figure out what you need to do. So that might be a good one if you haven't seen it yet. The other one is going through hormones. And so, you know, I'm hearing more and more women who did my program before, they lost weight. And then all of a sudden they kind of like gained it back what feels like, you know, like just, oh my God, what's going on? And I'm, I'm doing the things that I'm supposed to do. And things are, are, are, my weight is going up. And so I've shared the story of how I've been able to maintain my weight. And then going through perimenopause, I had a whole

bunch of shit. Like, it started younger when I was dating my husband. So he would have been like he was young. And I was probably around 42. 42. And I remember I would, I wouldn't, I've never had a hot flash in my life. had a hot flash, but I would have night sweats where I would like just soak the sheets. And when I was like newly dating after my 20 year marriage, I was just like didn't want to like wake up soaking wet and soak the whole bed beside this new guy than I'm dating. And I thought it was wine. My mom saying it could be the change. And I'm like, fuck off, mom. No, it's not. Not really knowing a lot about it. full transparency, I didn't really know a lot, didn't care because I was healthy and I was, you know, fit and I was fine. And I thought it was wine because every time I had wine,

it seemed like it was detoxing. And it probably also was detoxing, but also what happens as your estrogen starts to decline because you're no longer producing eggs, estrogen is very anti-inflammatory. So my wine, I'm more sensitive to wine, more sensitive. to processed foods, more sensitive to stress, more sensitive to things. So I don't have that anti-inflammatory kind of juicy juices hormones going through my body helping me. And so, and then as you get older as well, and if you're not as active and, you know, you've done years of dieting, your muscle mass decreases. And when you don't have your muscle, your body stores your glycogen, your energy from your foods in your liver, in your muscle and in your

or fat. So when you no longer have that muscle and maintaining that, that it starts to go to your fat. And so later on in life, I had a situation where I got quite sick. I had this allergic reaction to something. I was in the hospital for a couple of weeks. Lost a whole bunch of weight. And I like, my muscle just disappeared. Anyway, that's fast-forwarding. But I had everything. I had frozen shoulder heart palpitations, like, you know, I was just like edgy, not sleeping. And this is what, this is what a hormone therapy does or menopause therapy does, is it's not like a magic thing where you take it and you lose weight. It just, it helps you sleep. When you're not sleeping, right, your body can't repair, rebuild, regenerate and detox. And when your body sleeps is when

really the majority of that, your body utilizing your fat, so that fat burning, there's a different between fat burning and your body releasing fat happens when you sleep. And so if you're not sleeping, that's not happening. You wake up the next day and you got a, didn't get a good sleep. And you're craving like 30% more carbohydrates and your body is 30% less sensitive to insulin. So it really affects what's going on. But it really affects your, so it's the lack of sleep and the lack of estrogen and it's anti-inflammatoryness that's really getting you. So back to menopause. We're also creating a guide in the app that's going to have all of the menopause content and information. I'm actually thinking about doing a menopause specific

version of the program. So same tweaks, same everything, but just adding in that menopause content. So I'm thinking about working on that. But you'll have it. It's all going to be there for you. It could very well be menopause of what's going on. You can go and get test done. And then usually they'll test your thyroid or you get test done or whatever, but you can't really test for hormones. It's just a matter of what's your age and how are you feeling. So you can basically change nothing. So that's my whole point. I changed nothing. Able to easily maintain my weight for 30 years. Then I started going through perimenopause. I had a lot of stress with my kids and my, um, their dad and and work. And it just my weight went up and up and up and up and up. Right.

like I gained almost like 20 pounds and in my midsection. And I didn't change anything. And I was so stubborn about I know what I need to do in order to lose this weight or not gain weight. But the thing is, I just doubled down on the things that I was doing. What I needed to do for me was to stop the harder workouts and go for walks. So I made a non-negotiable to go for a walk. Every day, I walked, I walked, I walked.

And I just, that not only helped me with my body, helping to calm down. from the stress, it helped me with my mind. So it was less about a workout and more about just like my stress and managing that. And then it helped with sleep as well. I did do some resistance training to help build muscle as well, but I would I would attribute it more to walks more than anything rather than actual like muscle building. That was like few and far between a couple times a week, maybe for a half an hour. I stopped drinking. That was something that I needed to do for a while. For a while, it was self-imposed. I just found drinking messed with my sleep even more. And and just really did not help with the inflammation.

And I stopped drinking wine, I should say. I still would have like an old-fashioned every now and then. But I also knew wine was like my vice for coping. And the other thing and probably the most important thing that I did was I said no. For a whole year, I said no to things that I had committed to. And I pissed off a lot of people, pissed off a lot of people. you know, ruin my reputation in some circles because I couldn't follow through on things that I committed. Now, those people, you know, they didn't know my situation or whatever, but I just couldn't.

I was so overextended and I just couldn't. And the minute I did that, I felt one horrible, but I also felt instant relief and just didn't, didn't overextend myself. Like it was, it was bad. That also was a game changer. And so this is where, you know, looking at the foods and stuff, we can be looking at. at that and looking at the exercise and looking at whatever, but is that really what is going to help you? So if it is from a menopause perspective, and I'm not, I'm not saying it is, but it seems like, based on your age and what's going on, definitely looking into hormone replacement theory,

there's also non-hormonal options as well. But I then also for my sleep, oh gosh, I took all the sleep tips so seriously. Like I left, you know, I would keep my phone like downstairs, not even in my room. Absolutely no eating before bed. Like I did the baths. I did the skit got into the creamies and the skincare. Like I doubled down on the sleep part of it because I still didn't get great sleep, but I got the best sleep.

So sometimes we look to the food and it's other things that you have going on. So I also want to add to that. During this time, if you are not like your weight went up 10 pounds, put on 10 pounds last spring, working at three to four times eating on plan for the most part. I feel like I'm doing all the things, but not seeing success. So all the things is not the same as the right things. So just kind of take a look at that. I would just say if you want to reevaluate what is going on, what are some of the things that

that might be, that might not be the obvious things that I need to focus on here. And then yeah, during this change, right, it could just be not gaining weight. Not gaining weight is a good thing for you right now, right? And that's, that's kind of how it is. I know that's not what you want to hear. And so the Libby method has always worked for hormones and menopause. And I didn't really realize this because I'm being transparent and being like, I didn't really know the conversation. I knew hormone conversation. I've been having the hormone conversations like insulin and leptin and grelin and cortisol and all of your, all of the hormones in your body. But I wasn't having the menopause conversation on hormones because nobody was. Nobody was. I had for years had

women say, does your program work for hormones? I'm like, yeah, it's such a loaded question. Yes, of course. So the living method has always worked for losing weight in menopause without actually saying it out lap. This is really interesting, and I shared this last name. When I was younger and I was helping people lose weight, I would have been in my 30s, early 30s, actually. I was working at this club called Timberlay and Ethel of the club in Aurora. And it was a tennis club. It was a country club. And so, you know, the majority of women who went there were older. They had money. They, you know, playing tennis. They were, you know, whatever. And I remember they just had the same situation as me as when I was younger, where they were eating less, exercising more and just

couldn't lose weight. And not only did they not lose weight, they were actually gaining weight. And so this is where that long periods of time without eating, high stress, lack of sleep, like all of those things just kind of like added to that. And so this is where I figured out what women needed in order to have their body focus on fat loss, give the body everything that it needs so it doesn't feel the need to store fat and then help it focus on fat loss, right? And so I didn't really realize this until a couple years ago when, you know, just doing this, the research behind menopause and then all the things that you need to do, like our supplement list, right? If you go, what are the top supplements to take in menopause? What are they? Omega-3.

vitamin D, magnesium, B complex, right? Like that, or aletheanine, you want to add in, like any of the supplements that we have on our basic supplement list and secondary supplement list, all the top supplements to take when you're going through menopause. And so I was helping these women. Like, I basically learned how to help women lose weight when they were eating less and exercising more and that wasn't working for them or they were not changing anything and gaining weight.

And long and behold, obviously, because the living method is all about retains. reducing insulin, helping your body get healthier, you know, all the things that it does. And so you're doing everything that you can with the program. You're doing everything you can. This is where, though, I would look at that menopause conversation with your doctor, because that could be just a bit of a game-changing conversation or look into that and see what's going on and approach it from that lens, from that lens, because you are that age. Now, I could be completely off here, Julie. And you're like, that, you know, maybe you went through, you know, maybe you had a medically induced menopause years ago or maybe you're already been in post

for years. I don't know. But that's the point is, is that if it's not the food stuff, then then what is it? What's going on? And that's where you want to get investigated. But I would check out that troubleshooting post that I did. That could really help you. So glad I trusted the process. Non-skilled victories kept me going, finally dropping on the scale. There is a calm over me. Oh my gosh. I love that this word keeps coming up today. I can't explain it, but I feel really in tune with myself, sleep, energy, and skin are amazing. All the change was increasing, all light change was increasing leafy grains. Okay, leafy grains, they support detox and GLP1. Like, um, it's, it's interesting because no one

talks, everyone looks like leafy greens as a roughage and not truly understanding the nutrient value and its role in the body. And, and they, they, they, they, really, truly support the natural detox process of the body. And that's what you're trying to do. You're trying to give the body what it needs. So address why it's feeling you need to start. I'm holding on to this fat because I need it because, you know, I go through starvation periods. Right. I'm holding on to this. I keep adding more fat because I got nowhere else to put all this glycogen from this food that you were eating. Right. And then it's helping your body focus on fat loss. So creating that environment for your body to be conducive to your body naturally releasing

the fat. If you have not, right, right? read it yet. Read over the post that I did on the difference between fat burning and your body releasing fat. We are after your body releasing fat. Your body is always burning fat. So it burns fat for fuel and it burns glycogen for fuel, right? So that's why you need those carbs. That's why in the morning you want to replenish with that fruit snack. If you didn't have breakfast or you went higher protein, you do want to make sure you replenish those glycogen, that glycogen because that is an energy source. And that's low glycogen is when your body's telling you that you're hungry. No one's actually ever hungry because in a sense, carrying excess fat, that's an emergency energy

reserve. The problem is that your body doesn't really dip in to that energy reserve. It's utilizing, right, the fat from your foods, the carbohydrates from your foods, that breaks down into glycogen. That's what it's using. And so getting the body to release that fat that no longer serves a purpose is that's your body feeling safe. That's a hormone. That's a hormone thing that you're doing, right? So yeah, there's a rhyme and a reason to all of the things, especially on the food plan and the order that they are in. So adding in those leafy greens, game to them. But more than that, but more than the leafy grains, I do want to say it's probably an accumulation of all the things that you're doing, not just the physical things, but the mental, that's the goal. The goal is

calm around, yes, lose your weight in a way that makes you healthier. Yes. Yes, lose your weight in a way that you are in tune with your body. You can trust when to eat, what to eat and how much to eat bigger than that. And the ultimate goal is to be calm around food. Physically, if you have a craving, you know what that's about. Mentally, just calm around food, that food noise. You know, I want you to be in a room full of your favorite foods and be like, yeah, yeah, I'm good. I don't need it. Or, oh, yum. I'm going to have. I'm going to have. have it. And then maybe you grab a donut and you take a bite or two and then you realize, okay, that's enough. And you don't feel like I have to eat the whole thing. Or if you eat the

whole thing, you don't have to feel like, oh my God, I've ruined everything. You're just like, that was good. Hashtag worth it. That calm is the goal. That calm is you with a backpack or, you know, a Louis Vuitton bag, whatever it is, full of your tools that you just like, you know you like that that that's the feeling that people have when you can achieve that in in weight loss that's like the goal is to achieve that in maintenance and so because some of my I'm playing oh my God I'm so far from that in weight loss I'm failing no you're not you're not we know that people who do more rounds live sessions or spend more time following the living method weight loss program actually have an easier time in maintenance because you're continuing to work through those issues

and associations while you are doing the program um what Once you get into maintenance, that's the people who do the maintenance program who are amassing those tools specifically to maintenance. It's by 98% of people who go through our maintenance program feel confident in their ability to be able to maintain and sustain their weight because that's the goal to get them to that calm place. That's the ultimate goal is being calm, being able to trust when, what, eat, what, eat, and being calm around food, you know.

We are going through, hi, Dawn, a family medical crisis that is surreal. It has proven to me that the living method has changed by life. Not once have I thought a bag of chips would help. It would make it worse. Eating well, moving my body, getting good sleep means I can face this with strength. I can't control the crisis, but there is safety in the basic food plan. Yeah. You know, I shared when my son was in the hospital there for a while and they said he was going to be in there for six months.

It was like a month and I would go every day and this was during the pandemic and I had to stay strong. I just wanted to drink so many mornings I got up and thought I'm just going to fill this thermos full of wine. a legit. And then I would get to the hospital and I'd be like, I just don't want to eat anything. I just, I don't want to do anything. I wanted to feel as bad as I felt about the situation. And I think sometimes we do that. We want to physically, like we, I think sometimes we don't take time to own our actual feelings about the situation that we want to validate it by physically feeling as crappy as we do mentally, you know, and represent that. It feels like, okay, this is real. It's like that surrealness It's so surreal sometimes the things that happen in our life that we try to make it real by physically making it feel real.

And in that moment, I had to take care of myself. If I didn't take care of myself and I got sick, it meant that I couldn't be there for myself. And that was easier for me to do because it was for someone else. But this is what we need to do. This is that saying that no one's going to come and do the work for you, no one's going to come and take care of you. There is a certain responsibility that we have for ourselves to help us, to help us. to help us help ourselves. Like if my friend was struggling with something, right,

you would be like, what can I do? Or you would be like, I'm going to help you. I'm going to this. I'm going to whatever. But we tend not to do that for our, we tend not to do that for ourselves. And this is the awareness is understanding, okay, sometimes you need the bag of chips in the wine.

Like no one is faulting you for that. Sometimes you do that. Like I just went through a situation like that, right? Like I had a couple weeks of stress. I'm like, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to help. Not going to help.

to help, not going to help, not going to. Two weeks, I finally like, oh good, I'm drinking the wine and I'm having the chips. I had it. I felt better the next day. Right? But doing it one day than the next, then the next, then the next, I just knew when I drink wine at night, for example, it just makes me feel depressed the next day. That is not helping my situation, right? When I drink, when I eat chips late at night, which is also a coping mechanism in mine, also just a general love of chips, I don't sleep well, and then I just, I feel tired the next day, and that doesn't help with my mental mindset. And so yeah, it's real, but you, it's practicing being in tune with yourself. That's, that's what got you there is the practicing. That's what like this then,

there's people like be like, oh, the living method. It's so obsessive about your foods. No, it's got you constantly thinking about them in a different way that's rewiring how your brain is, is associating to foods. That's what it's doing, right? It's got you thinking about yourself so much. You don't have time for other people's shit because you're focused on yourself. And it's focused on good things. We don't use diet dialogue and you know, you're not counting count. Think of the fucking time people spend counting calories all day. You're sitting here trying to get in tune with. Am I actually hungry? You know, how did I know I had enough? Did that food properly fuel me? And all of that is practice for being, not only just being

in tune, but being able to trust that intunedness. Being able to trust your gut. Trust that you, know what you need, right? And this is what you're doing. You're practicing this. And every day that you do something, you are continuing to show up for yourself, you know? I'm so sorry that you're going through that. It's like life is so shit at some at sometimes. But yeah, that is like you have to just be like, okay, what do I have to do here to take care of myself? What is going to be the best choice for myself? Right? What's going to get me through this moment? You know? I have a consult with a natural path locally on Thursday, anticipating it, but also mildly anxious. Will they understand and appreciate the living method?

Will they be able to help me? A decade post-menopause? I want to discuss whether HRT is right for me and why my weight seems to have stalled. The scale has moved up and down, but not much has changed in months. Yeah, you know, listen, just like there's some doctors that are better than others, there are some doctors that are now up to speed on menopause. My doctor wasn't. I went to speak to my doctor and she's like, here's some antidepressants, which I absolutely appreciated.

She sat there. She talked to me. She ran some tests, whatever. Of course, the tests aren't going to tell you necessarily if you're, it's hard to measure hormones because they're always in flux. And then, you know, I went to go see her two years later and she's like, oh, my gosh, I've learned so much about menopause. What do you want?

I got all the therapies. What do you want? Right? Let's figure this out. And by the time I got in there, I'm like, no, I think I'm good. You know, Dr. Jennifer Zelavitskyy who will have on, she's an MD menopause specialist. She'll tell you, doctors were not trained in menopause. Doctors are also not trained in nutrition,

in supplements, and all those things, right? Some are better trained and looked into it and want to know. And that's what my doctor did. She went to courses. She learned. She got herself up to speed. Not all doctors are like that. It's getting better since the conversation started. The same goes with naturalopathic doctors, right? The same goes with natural apathic doctors. They're not all great. They're not all great. And mad respect for their school. and what they've gone through. And this is where I think you will have realized that you've learned so much through this conversation, right? Like you are already, it's not about any naturopathic doctor who doesn't agree with the living method doesn't fucking know what they're talking about when it

comes to nutrition. Because the living method has been studied. It is safe. It is sound. There's no downside to following the living method. It's not crazy wackadoo shit. It's really giving the body what it needs. What's hard to explain about the living method is that if you just took, like you could have a, for example, you could be like, oh, I'm eating six times a day. And they'll be like, well, that's not great for insulin. Like, yes, if you're eating ultra-processed foods, right? But we're not eating foods that spike your insulin. So what we're actually doing is taking what would have been much larger portions, eaten in few, far between, and spreading that, spreading that out. We are giving your body portions that are actually digestible. So smaller portions, your body's

actually able to digest better and get more nutrients from. And so if you took anyone sort of week of the Libby Method and tried to talk about it, they might have something to say about that. But you know what you have done on the program. Like this is why, this is why more and more doctors are suggesting the living method. Sean Wharton, who we have that post on today, like, he's the top obesity medicine and specialist. He helped write the Canadian food guide. Like, this is the guy at the top, right, who comes into the Livy Method and shares. Right? Like, that's the kind of stuff that we're doing. That's the kind of stuff. Ruth has presented at the Canadian obesity conference. She presented her findings on maintenance in the world at the world obesity conference in Malaga,

Spain. The living method is fucking legit, right? There's all the science behind it. So you, and I'm not saying that to say that your natural path, if they're naysay or don't know what they're talking about. You know what you've done. You know what you are doing, right? So that that's in you. So you go there knowing you are the fucking shit because you are doing the things. You are doing the things, right? That's where I want to go with that. Whether or not HRT, MRT, it's like, there are so many options hormonal versus non-hormonal that you can do. You know, you might want to go and see like a menopause specialist if that's something that you're interested in doing. I mean, this is about you working with your health care provider and being an advocate for yourself.

The conversation is, I am doing all of these things to make real change. right what am i missing here and that that's the part that they're going to go through with you right maybe there are some underlying issues that you're dealing with maybe you have some food sensitivities that you really don't know that's causing inflammation in your body so so yeah so i i might that's what i would say to you is you have learned a lot you have learned a lot by going through the program what you are doing is legit and you are like a naturopathic doctor's dream because you're already doing the things that they would have suggest on the surface level for you. Right. And this is the conversation. A lot of times of the conversation with health care providers, well, you just need to lose weight.

Just need to lose weight. Like obviously, you just need to lose weight. Hence, like my anger at that BMI conversation, right? Just because you are carrying excess weight doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with you. You can be completely healthy. But that doesn't mean there isn't something deeper going on with you. So yeah, I would get excited, Marilyn. Like you, you've worked really hard, right? And just go be open to what the conversation is and finding out what's going on with you. And like, you'll get a good sense of your gut, right? Like, you know, I would be mindful of anyone over prescribing any crazy supplements, doing any like, like, you know, I'm not a big fan of like the Candida test and stuff like that. Like you're creating a good, you're doing everything you can already to create this great environment

in your body. I would just listen to what they say, then go home and kind of, you know, maybe investigate some of the things that they've said. suggested to you and just make sure you're you understand what they are asking you to do right that's that's where i would go you're you can make it through the living method trust me uh you know meeting with your it's really just pulling in your team it's really just pulling in the team that you have and so for all of our guest experts i just want to make it very clear we do not pay them right so we don't pay our guest experts i don't pay anyone to come on i don't pay anyone to share the living method because we want that organic authentic share and so we don't pay our guest experts and so we don't pay our guest

And so all of our guest experts, I love them because they kind of speak the same language. They're open to telling it how it is. They're open to sharing as much as they can possibly share within the limitations, obviously, of their practice. And, and, you know, so you've heard so many conversations from them. They, like, you've actually had, listened to so many conversations of a natural pathic doctor, of obesity specialists, of, like, a psychologist, share their knowledge with you. I think you're going to be really surprised how informed you actually are.

So I love this for you. The scale has moved up and down, but not much has changed a month. So this is where I would reassess sort of what's going on. Sometimes we get stuck on what we did before. And what is new? What is change in our environment? You know, you've heard this. What is changed in your environment?

What's changed in your routine? Sometimes we get stuck on drinking the same water, having the same breakfast, doing the same things when that needs to change. Change slightly. Sometimes we get stuck into psychology of effort. like I'm doing the best that I can, you know, like, I'll say to people like, okay, on a scale of one to 10, what's your movement? Oh, it's a 10. Okay, what are you doing? I'm walking my dog three times a week. I'm like, okay, are you getting your heart rate up? Well, no, my dog is old. Okay. Are you doing any resistance

training? Well, no, I don't really have time for that. And so they're giving themselves a 10. I'm not saying you're doing this, but this is where you can do that critical through that critical lens of yourself. And not critical and like, you know, critical in like, let's break it down and see what's going on. So, you know, is that, is, is that, if that's the limitation you have, then you can't, you can give yourself a 10 for effort, A for effort, but not actually for the action itself. Right. Same thing for water. People will be like, well, how much water do you?

I'm drinking two and a half. I, so hard for me, that's all I can get in. That's not the same as how much you need, right? Same thing with sleep, right? Well, I, you know, my sleep is whatever. I, you know, it's maxed out. I can't whatever. So that is sometimes you have to, depending on what's going on in your life.

life, what are the things that you can do and be really open and honest with that? So I would look through both of those sort of lenses. And because then you can go to your healthcare provider and kind of know the areas that you need to work on and they might have some suggestions and help for that. I have been going really late on these lives lately. I don't know why. I have two NDs. One is a menopause specialist, the other one I go to for blood work and food sensitivities. Yeah, right? I know I'm coming in with a lot of knowledge. Yeah, you are. Yeah, you are. Right? And just really hold on to that. Okay. I got a chance to see Dr. Paul yesterday. He mentioned that I'm not actually a complicated case with that with my autoimmune inflammation, food sensitivities, joint issues I thought I would be.

Like that's sort of the thing, right? Like we, this is why like we're empowering you to understand what's going on in your own body. If you do this, your body should respond like that. And if it's not, why? Like that's the thing about science, like kind of is like, like, it's so great is like, all right, so this should be happening to you. Why isn't it? And what can you do to get your body to respond like that? That's what we're doing. We're basically just problem solving. You're trying to understand your body's needs, where you, where you came from, how you got here, where you're at, what you need in order to move forward and help your body release this fat that no longer serves a purpose. That's what this is all about. It's all problem solving.

If I'm not doing something that I know I need to do, why am I not doing it? Right? If I'm not sleeping, why? If I feel like garbage, why? Right? Like that's what this is about. So this is where we're, if you're new to the program, I'm trying to share everything I've, that's my whole goal. She'll share everything I've learned with you.

Not just about weight loss, not just about maintaining your weight, but making change. And then we add all of these guest experts that are sharing what they've learned with you. So you really essentially become an expert on your own. And then each time you do another round of the program, the program is the same because it works, just like any of the diet. You keep following it until you reach your goal. But you will have changed. You've changed physically.

You've made changes. Mentally, you've made changes. And you just keep building on that, right? It's so cool. It's so cool. Okay, I got to go. Thanks for joining me today. I love these conversations.

Sorry about going a bit late. And who knew this morning when I sat down in here, I wasn't feeling well. And I thought, oh, my God, what am I going to talk about? And here we are. Here we are. How's super awesome day. everyone and I will see you later. I'm trying to think who's coming to see me tomorrow. Nobody. I'm on my own tomorrow, but we have Andrew Blakey. He's going to join us on Thursday. He's always so great.

Have a fantastic. Oh, Kim's joining me tomorrow. We're going to talk about the tweak this week. So we're going to talk about the splitting up the meals and snacks part tomorrow. We'll also have a post for you tomorrow. We're going to start that Thursday. Don't freak out. It's fun. Have fun with it. Have a great day, everyone. I'll see you then. Bye.