The Livy Method Podcast - The Research Behind The Livy Method with Ruth Kane - Winter 2025

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

What makes someone successful in their weight loss journey? In this episode, Gina is joined by University of Ottawa Professor Dr. Ruth Kane to unpack the research behind The Livy Method and what the evidence actually shows. From the role of expectations to the real reasons people struggle with maintenance, they explore the biological, psychological, and behavioural factors that impact weight loss. We also get into the power of treating this like a course—not a diet—and why sustainability is everything. They even touch on how your relationships can influence your journey and what it really means to live in tune with your body’s needs.You can find the full video hosted at:https://www.facebook.com/groups/livymethodwinter2025To learn more about The Livy Method or to sign up for the Spring 2025 Program, 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. It is time to take a minute out to hear from our podcast sponsor today, which is another podcast actually, the new wellness podcast from Audible.

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Keep believing in yourself and keep trusting the process. Just be patient. My guest today is someone I absolutely adore and so enjoy talking to. I honestly can't get enough. It is Professor Ruth Kane. She has been studying the Libby Method for the past few years. Does it work? Are people maintaining their weight? If so, why, how? And that's what we're here to talk about today. What I love about Ruth is she's very frank and real. And although I try to bribe her,

it's practically impossible. She fell in love with the Libby Method and on her own accord wanted to do the research behind it and she received government funding to do so and she has been doing ever since with her team. Ruth Cain everyone. Hi Gina, hi everyone. Pleased to be here. So many people, I'm reading the comments. I'm so excited. I'm looking forward to this. I think people want to validate what they're doing Yeah, yeah, yeah and and people need The reassurance that the research or the data shows that what they're doing will lead to the the outcomes

They hope and you cause I think yeah. Yeah, and we are We have a lot of new people in the group. So maybe just a little quick introduction, Ruth, on yourself. Yep. Hi, everyone. I'm Ruth, Ruth Kane. I'm a professor at UOttawa for the last 20 years. The longest I've ever stayed in one place, I swear, since I was an adult. one place, I swear, since I was an adult. I'm a New Zealander, hence my different accent. And I discovered or I stumbled across through a friend, the Livy Method in 2019, had real success myself with it, but was also as a researcher, and I'm in

education, I'm not in health, although I research this now. My real interest to start with, because I don't have a medical background, was more the way Gina built community online and enlisted an almost inexhaustible resource, which is people, to support people. And I was really fascinated the way Gina managed to do that online. And of course, we went through COVID then and people were lonely, people were isolated. And I approached Gina

and asked her whether I could do this research. And then we got funding through SSHRC, Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada. And here we are some years later. So, and generating a lot of data. Okay, so, you know, behind the scenes today, I was like, let's start with the maintenance piece, because we know the program works, but we'll backtrack and we'll talk about the science behind the program, what you've learned. But you recently submitted some of your findings to the European summit that you're going to be going to in Malaga, Spain in the next couple of weeks, I think. On the 8th of May, yeah, on the 8th of May. And so you've been studying maintenance for a while. And I guess

this is this came out of our, our, our visit to the Canadian obesity summit a few years back, where you presented the Libby Method. And so maybe start from there. Okay. So we did, we do surveys at the end of every program. Now, I did them by myself before I got funding. But since we got funding, we've been doing them far more systematically. And the evidence is overwhelming. For those of you who are new to the program, if you're in the program, if you follow the weight loss program,

95% who stick around, it's in between 95% and 98% every single survey, do experience weight loss. So we have absolutely no doubt that if you follow the LIVI method consistently, if you show up, you will experience weight loss. Now of course there are people who don't experience weight loss but from the data that we get they're not that engaged with the program so they don't check in they don't follow the basic principles but we do have evidence and I

did synthesize it all just recently or go back because I was asked I was interviewed by somebody else and we have data from over 36,000 members who have experienced weight loss successfully. Now of course we don't always hear from those who don't experience weight loss so these are the people that were consistent right through to the 12 weeks and those and what we do with every survey is we pull out the people who this was their first living method session and we compare them from survey to survey across. So we're comparing people's experiences of weight loss, of the living methods through their first session,

and then we pull out all the second session members and compare those across. And so consistently people lose weight. We do need to be realistic for those of you, and this came up in the obesity clinic highlights last week that we attended, Gina, that we do need to be realistic about our expectations of weight loss. And so consistently across every weight loss session since 2020, the average weight loss across, all those 36,000 people plus averages out

every single session between 11 and 12 pounds. So steady one pound a week loss. Some of you are experiencing a lot more than that, some of you less, but if you stayed on the program through three sessions for a whole year, I would predict that your weight loss would even out at about a pound a week. You'll have your toes, you'll lose a lot,

you'll go up a little bit, but consistently it's a pound a week, which is considered an incredibly healthy way to lose weight. Yeah, I love that you said that it looks a little different. So you might have someone lose 30 pounds in the first program and then it feels a lot slower in a second program. And again, it will all average out to one to two pounds. So I always say equal and opposite reaction. There are some people who lose that one to two each. So I always say equal and opposite reaction. There are some

people who lose that one to two each week. And then there's some people who lose in larger chunks and then they have longer plateaus. So everyone is a little different. I do want to say this is why it's so important that we ask at the end of the program to fill out the survey, even if it's your 25th group. And we don't just want to hear the good stuff. We want to hear the good, the bad, the ugly, everything that you want to tell us. Ruth has done focus groups and Ruth has spoken to people who haven't been successful.

Why is that? Like what's the commonalities between people who are successful at weight loss and people who maybe aren't? I know that's a loaded question. No, no, it's not. People who are successful in the weight loss program are typically people who engage with the program, who feel comfortable in the community. Most of the people who I've spoken with who have done very well in the weight loss program are

people who have reached out to the community once they felt safe, if they're having a crappy day, if they've eaten non-stop all weekend, I don't know, had chocolate for breakfast, I've got no idea, they'll reach out and they'll be propped up by the community. The one thing, well there's lots of things that are different about this program but one of the things that is is exceedingly different or exceptional is the community. Because as a person living with obesity or living with overweight, it is very rare that you'll find a community that doesn't judge you. And so being within the Living Method community, this is what

the people have said in the focus group, what comes back in the survey data is they feel safe. They can be vulnerable, they can say I've messed up, but they have the inexhaustible resource it feels like of the community. He'll say you've got this of the team, the livy staff, but really it's the people who show up, who have a successful weight loss journey, without a doubt, who consistently show up. And I've interviewed people and people have filled in the survey, and I'm guilty of it myself and I know the weight loss manager, not guilty, that's a terrible world. I had this experience myself and I know Kim the weight loss manager also did all of us have done

Registered for programs that we didn't show up for yeah We only did six weeks off that we only did four weeks of whatever was going on in our life. We We did walk away or we did drop the ball or something. So the evidence is there of those people, myself included, for one or two of my sessions and other people who have been just rock stars and just turned up for every session every time. But the consistency of turning up and applying the principles to your life, learning what you can learn from the program has paid off in people reaching their goals or losing weight in a consistent way. Yeah, I mean that there's a lot of research behind if you do something with somebody else, if you do something with somebody else,

if you do something in the community, if you show up, if you journal, if you put pen to paper, set intentions, send a day of reflections. We know the people who consistently use their app and track the things that they need to track in the app are more successful than people who don't. Everyone is a little different. I love that you're normalizing that because some people are like A type people. They just follow the, you know, the guidelines, do the thing. But then at some point they have to deal with all the rest. And so I do want to talk about before I move on to to maintenance, that as you've been studying the science out there, I know you, you obviously,

you know, you've learned a lot over the last few years and you always say there's no downside to the Libby method. Let's talk about the science. Let's talk about what's happening out there in the diet industry and then where you see the Libby method fitting into that. Well, I don't know when it happened, but in Canada, obesity has been recognized or living living with obesity has been recognized as a chronic disease and that is the case in Alberta. It's not the case in every province at the moment, but that's the way living with overweight or obesity is being framed in the research now. And one of the things about any chronic disease or any health condition is the medical profession or the health

researchers are coming to understand that any condition has a psychological, a biological, a social, and what's the other one I wrote it down, and behavioural element to it. And so no longer is the research treating overweight as something that is just biological. No longer are they treating it as something just psychological. You've got no willpower. Everybody agrees that it's not the way to treat and to maintain your weight. That it is nothing to do with willpower.

It's got biological elements. It's got psychological elements. It's got social elements and physical behavioral elements. And so if we're going to address the obesity or living with overweight in our communities, we have to use all those elements. We have to understand how all those elements and as an individual member, I recall Gina I don't know whether it was Dr. Beverly or yourself have spoken about mapping your

your weight for want of a better word your weight journey like when did you start thinking you were overweight when When, what happened then? What was it that made you think, oh I've got to go on a diet when you're only 13 and probably quite a normal physical young lady or young man? So mapping that journey. At the obesity clinical update last week in Montreal, it was like a light bulb went on amongst the community when one of the presenters said, one of the tools I use is to ask patients, in their case, because they're all doctors, patients to map their weight loss journey. And I sat there thinking, yes, we've been talking or Gina and Dr. Beverly have been talking about this for some time. So understand

your own journey and what has gone on in the last 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years, where it started, why it started, what were these critical moments in your life? Because it's way more complex. And the researchers finally caught up with the understanding that it's way more complex than eating less and moving more. Yeah. Well, it was nice to hear them say that out loud. And, you know, one of the takeaways is like, when we go to these things, I'm like, I always used to sit when I watched Oprah, mind you, and I'd be like, why doesn't Oprah get all the, like, brightest minds together in a room and figure it out for people? And it seemed like everyone was just trying to figure it on their own.

And essentially, that's still kind of happening. And I find that in Montreal the other weekend, it was like people are understanding the components, these things that people need to really lose their weight in a healthy way and get to a place where they can maintain it. But it's like bits and pieces with different types of doctors. And maybe you're on a waiting list for the psychologist, or you go see the doctor, you talk about one thing, and they're like, let's try this. And then you wait a few weeks, a month, go back again, let's try this.

Then, oh, maybe you need to see this person. And it's just, it's bits and pieces that really don't consistently amount to, it's the consistency of the things that you're doing. And I think this is why it seems to take forever or it's confusing to people because they're just doing bits and pieces where it's really about having everything come together. And I think that's what the living method,

you have that basic food plan, you have the tweaks each week and the guest experts that come in that know exactly where you are members are at in their journey, they they they know what they're trying to do, they understand the you know, some of the challenges that they're under. So you have these experts having these very focused conversations for members based on where they're

at. And I think that's a big part of the success of the Libby Method is pulling it all together for people in a way they can understand. It's a wraparound program, I think. And one of the things like, it is a wee bit frustrating sometimes going to these obesity conferences because there's things that you know that presenters say that sort of trigger or annoy me but I learned so much of them because they are

super smart people and what have you but they're only just now coming to understand that it's the person living with overweight or living with obesity who is the expert on their own body. We don't often have the confidence to be the expert on our own body because nobody's in the health profession has really encouraged us to be. We've always looked at them for answers or the diet profession. But really, if I could encourage, and that, there are things that have changed as I relook at the data, the more I learn. And I always looked at the living method

as a learning process. It's what you learn. But what is important, the outcome of the Livi method switches for people who have been able to, and I'm sort of morphing into sustainability of weight loss. Like those of you in the weight loss program, this is your focus at the moment and it's very important and I would encourage you to do multiple programs even if you reach your goal weight. Do a whole year at the very least. Give your body time, give your mind and yourself time to get into the rhythm of a new way of being, a new way

of eating. Those who are successful at maintaining their weight loss and not everybody is, the evidence suggests even from the living method that some people put their weight back on but many do not. Many maintain their weight loss and there are characteristics they have and it's like they've shifted who they are as people. So they're healthy eating behaviors. Let's call them that for want of the better word. That's an outcome of the Livy Method. So your time in the Livy Method Weightloss Group is a period where you've got all

the support, all these experts that you can draw on, the Doctor Paul, Doctor Beverly, the learning strategists, all these people you can draw on, the members, so that when you graduate from this program after a year or more, the outcome is healthy eating behaviors. That's an outcome of the program. It's not weight loss. You won't worry about the weight loss so much at that point. So the outcome is the healthy eating behaviors that suit your body. Moving your body in a way that you enjoy, that you'll go to, you'll participate in. It's not a chore. It's not struggling to get to the gym.

It's going for a walk because you love going for a walk. It's something that you enjoy. That's an outcome of all of this. And sleeping well. All these things. So take the time from what I understand from members who I've spoken to one-on-one with interviews, those who sustain their weight loss, which goes against all the research on diets, by the way, the research will say you can't sustain it, but those who do, and this is what I'm presenting in Spain, have changed their behaviours. These learning outcomes are that now this is the way I eat. Now this is the way I choose to do activity or move my body, whether it's a walk, whether it's Pilates, whether it's pickleball, whether it's whatever, this is who I am and this is what I do.

And so there's a real opportunity while you're in the living method, I think, to not treat it as a diet, to treat it as, OK, this is a course I'm taking for a year. Some of you for more than a year. I was in the program for 18 months before I reached my goal weight. It's treated as a course so you will have the outcomes you need. And the outcome isn't weight loss.

The outcome is new behaviors and new. Yeah, so the people who I talk to, who we've interviewed one on one, who've sustained their weight loss, seldom talk about their weight. They talk about how good they feel. That they choose to eat in this particular way because it makes them feel good. Because when they ate in that particular way, they felt like crap.

So there's a huge, I think for many of us, going through the weight loss program, there's a huge learning curve in connecting with our bodies and being present in our bodies. And we don't get that necessarily from other diets we've done. So you've said this before, where it seems like the So you've said this before, where it seems like the the more rounds of a program someone does, the easier it is for them to maintain. And we're, it's because of the behaviors, because the tools and the skills and practicing to reinforce the habits, you're designing or creating the lifestyle that

supports, you know, the supports the new you, for example. But this also in maintenance, this is where people have a hard time trusting that. Maintenance is about getting to know the new you. Like there's weight, when you're losing weight with the living method, you're losing it in a way, you're getting the tools and the skills

that you need to be able to maintain. Then once you're in the maintenance program, and this is where we took the pillars that you shared with us, incorporated in the maintenance program, you're learning the skills and the tools that you need to live your life. And, um, so it's really about making that change. I said the analogy the other day, I was talking to someone.

It's like, if I, if I offer a cleaning service and I come into your house and I clean it, that's like a quick fix diet. I clean your house and then sure, you can keep your house clean for you know a few days couple weeks and all of a sudden when you're stressed out you go back to Leaving your socks on the floor your laundry piles up your dishes are doing whatever Like that's you haven't changed anything You've just come in you've lost the weight you cleaned your house and you just go right back to the way you were living before come in, you've lost the way you cleaned your house, then you just go right back to the way you were living

before, whereas you're going to have to create new habits. I walk in the door, I put my shoes in the closet, I throw my socks in the laundry bin, I do my dishes right after I'm done my dinner. Like there's an upkeep here. You have to make changes because the way you were living before supported the outcome of how you looked and how you felt. We have people also in the maintenance program who are maintaining their weight just fine,

but then they realize they're not feeling as good as they felt as when they were trying to lose weight because when they were trying to lose weight, they were managing their stress, trying to get better sleep, eating a little bit better. And they're like, it's great I'm maintaining, but I don't feel as good as I felt because the living method really, although yes, it's a diet, it's doing all the things you need to do just to feel your best and be your healthiest. Let's take a minute out to hear from our podcast sponsor today. I mean, listen, we're always talking about how important it is to take care of your skin. Your skin is your body's largest organ. We also talk about the importance of creating routines, especially a nighttime routine that can help us sleep. But this one here is for the new moms because Aveeno has a product for newborn babies. Skin is the first line of defense and baby skin is about 30% thinner than our mature skin making it even more important to take

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Our bodies are not separated from our minds, they're not separated from our sleep, they're not separated from the way we live our life, that it's all one system and it has psychological factors, biological and behavioral factors. So you really have to shift that. You really have to shift. I mean, one of the things that the research suggests for people who want to make real behavior change in the way they eat and the lifestyle they lead is to get rid of some of their friends because they hang out with their friends and they engage in these unhealthy behaviors.

I mean you could take it to a very extreme situation if you were into recreational drugs or alcohol in a big way. And you know, it's hard to stop those things if you keep hanging out with the same friends. It takes an enormous amount of courage on your part and an enormous amount of self-efficacy that I'm worth this. I need to be able to stop. And then once, I'm not suggesting everybody gets rid of their friends. Friends are terribly important, but it is okay to reflect on, okay,

when I do engage in really unhealthy behaviors, where am I? What's the situation? What's my environment? Who am I with? How am I feeling? Why am I feeling like that? And I think this is what the doctor was getting at. The the young doctor from Alberta who I went up and spoke to after his presentation. He said as a doctor he didn't realize he had to understand, he didn't realize until recently that he had to understand the whole story of his patient to understand. I mean I found the clinical update in Montreal incredibly focused on pharmacology, on drugs, but he said none

of that will work unless I understand the patient's real history, not just a medical history, but real history that got them to where they are. So he said he asked them to write those stories about themselves. So. I just I'm just thinking of you know what makes Gina an expert? What's her? Is she a dietitian? Is she this? Is she whatever? Is that? So I would work with people and the first thing I do is sit down for the couple of hours. Tell me about you. When did it start?

How old were you? What's your first memory of feeling overweight? What was your family dynamic? What happened when you gained your weight? Did you have food issues at the time? Were you active in school? I had a lot of people who were extremely active when they were younger, which would mean they go all day long without eating when they were young. And you know, it's their upbringing, it's their childhood, it's traumatic events. And people

would be like, oh, well, when I gave my weight, someone passed away, or I was going through this, and then I lost weight because of stress and then gained it back because like everyone's story and that's what makes me an expert is that I understand what people need in order to make change and to lose their weight in a way that they're going to be able to maintain and sustain because it's it's so much more than what you eat and when this is what we're learning in maintenance. I mean, you know me, and when this is what we're learning in maintenance.

I mean, you know, I didn't even think we needed a maintenance program, Ruth. I was just like, oh, you're gonna be fine. Do another round of the program. And it turns out, wow, maintenance is a whole other can of worms. It's a whole other beast. It's absolutely fascinating

because people work so hard to lose their weight and they just think, okay, I'm good. And for some, the work is in the maintenance part. Like that's where the real work is gonna be for them. You've spoken to people who haven't been successful and why do you think they have? Why haven't they? What was the takeaway there?

Let's talk about that. You know, what would it take to come on Mime and Pain? Yeah, people who haven't been successful. Yeah, people have been successful. I think it's right that maintenance is the challenge. And I don't want to discourage all of the members in weight loss at the moment by saying that you're working so hard to lose your weight. And now Ruth's saying, well, this is the easy bit. When you get to maintenance, that bit when you get to maintenance you're

that's when you have to crack into it. We we got to be real Ruth we want people to be successful this is why we have to you absolutely can lose your weight and you will lose your weight as long as you don't give up you keep showing up we're going to do our best to provide all the support resources but we've got to have these real conversations. I just wanted to say before you go into that, because Ruth said to me at the conference, it's these people, it's the members who are the experts. And really at this point in the program, if you're having a hard time, lose weight, you tell me why. Like why do you think you're having a hard time? How are you feeling? What's going on in your mind? What's going on with your habits, your environment, all of those things. And I think it's because we have real conversations

that people are successful. Sorry, I just had to say that. Yeah, no, and it, maintenance is challenging. And if you think about it, if you think of the diet industry writ large, every single diet, you will lose weight if you stick to it. Some of them are incredibly bad for your body and your psychology and your mind, everything.

However, so while you're in the Livi program losing weight, pay attention, treat it as a learning, as a university course, because when you're in maintenance, that will serve you. You will draw on what you've learned about how food interacts with your body, what are your triggers for not making healthy decisions, etc. What are your triggers for not moving your body? You will learn that during your time in the living method the challenge of maintenance is That has to carry you through that learning Has to carry through for the rest of your life Because it's not a quick fix diet like all the others you've been on or we've all tried

Where you lose your weight and then you go back to living your life. It's not like that. You have to take advantage of what you've learned and the people who struggle to maintain their weight. I guess they take their eyes off the ball for a minute or they stress is a big one. They go through stressful situations. So when you're in the weight loss program, learn about stress, learn about sleep, learn about these behaviors from Dr. Beverly and others that might help you. You know, the things Dr Beverly talks about, I'm more convinced now that sure,

they'll help you during weight loss, but they're critical during maintenance because you've got to make those part of your life. Getting a good sleep is part of a healthy lifestyle. And the whole world stacked against us in that respect because there's Netflix because there's children there's new babies waking up in the night there's all these things but getting a good sleep like in Montreal was the first time I've heard a

doctor actually acknowledge that that was important. In Gina's program is the first time I've ever thought about sleep. And I'm in my 60s. Like, I used to think it was virtuous to, and I think part of this is my Catholic upbringing and my mother, to be able to get up and survive on very little sleep and it wasn't because we were partying or anything. It was you know as children we got up very very early and we had

chores to do and it like these things will carry you through maintenance. You can't just and you have to make a decision to do that. And maintenance, like maintenance is challenging. This, the research will say that you will not maintain your weight, that it's only very exceptional people who can. But though we must learn from those exceptions. Yes, the reason why they say that is because it's based on every shitty quick fix diet out there and

people don't understand that the living method exists. That's why they say that, because their data is based on those crappy, shitty diets where you just eat less, exercise more. You have to be healthy in order to lose weight. I'm not actually in this weight loss program trying to help you lose weight right now. I'm already way ahead of you. I am thinking about what are the skills

and the tools that you need to not just lose your weight, to not just maintain your weight, but to live your life in a way that you understand what you need to be able to lose your weight so that when stress happens, you get triggered when your your situation changes, you have the skills and the tools that you need to be able to adapt to that. Like that's, that's what this is about. So but there is zero science to suggest you can't physically lose weight.

But there's a lot out there to say why it's really hard and practically impossible. After weight loss, I have been maintaining my weight for over 30 years, my weight goes up, it goes down, I go through a very stressful period of my life, my weight goes up, I'm like, oh, shit, I'm, my weight is going up, I'm not feeling good. I gotta get a handle on this. And this is where I have the skills and the tools

that I need to say, okay, Gina, you're not feeling well. This is not a great way to manage. What are you gonna do here? Get back on drinking your water, even if you're not hungry, make yourself eat these good nutritious foods, manage your freaking stress, get to bed early, like let's go. And then that then it then it comes down. And so that's the skills and the tools. You're never going to lose your weight and

stay at the one number people are always surprised by that. Oh, I've lost my weight, I hit 140. This is where I'm going to stay. No, your weight, your weight is going to fluctuate probably within a 10 pound range. But here's what I can tell you, you don't gain 20 pounds back without noticing. You don't gain 30, 40, 50 without noticing. And then a lot of people fall back as well. It was willpower, because I've had people say, oh, I've gained the weight back and I just, I don't know.

And I'm like, what was happening in your life? And always, always, always, if someone passed away, I lost my job, there was some major stress going on. And then sometimes when the stress is so big, we just fall back into old habits because that's what we did for twenty, thirty, forty years of our lives. So, it takes work. It takes work. Takes work. And the old habits that people who don't maintain their weight fall back into is not eating. The most

serious bad habit that you fall back into and look, this is understandable. It's not you shouldn't beat yourself up over it. If you're listening to this and you've put your weight back on. Yes, you're in your 50s or 60s like the majority of Gina's members, you've had a lifetime of thinking that not eating equals weight loss. And so that is so deeply ingrained in us

that when we start putting weight back on, the first thing we do is eat less. And yet, if you can be honest with yourself and think back to when you lost your weight on Gina's program. One of the things people I think the first time Gina ever interviewed me about my own weight loss on her program, she said, what was the takeaway for you? And I said that you had to eat to lose weight.

It's counterintuitive to those of us who've been on diets all our lives. And so the one thing that people do who struggle to maintain their weight is they start eating less. They start not eating. eating less. They start not eating. Whereas if you took a deep breath, gave yourself a moment to think back, okay but I did two sessions or three sessions of Gina's program and

I lost weight. What was I doing then? I was eating more. I was eating good food but I was eating regularly. So it's the challenge of maintenance is bringing all the knowledge you've learned during your weight loss program into being part of your normal life. And part of that is eating every few hours, eating highly nutritious food and all the other things, sleeping, drinking water. God, it's hard to drink water when you're in maintenance because you're not focused on it. Like you go all day and you think I didn't even drink a liter of water. So it's taking a moment for yourself to think okay what am I doing? I've gone back into skipping meals again. I've gone back into not eating for six hours. That never served me before I started Gina. What was I doing on Gina? So think back to the basic program. The basic principles. And I think people the people

who struggle in maintenance, they get discouraged. Like, it goes above ten pounds gain and they get discouraged and think, oh I've blown it. They go through all the same things that you talk about with your guest experts. I'm a loser, I'm a failure. I I'll start next round. Gina's got another round coming up in September. I'll start them or I'll start and so you get on the roller coaster again but you've got the ones that maintain their way. Maybe they've jiggled up and down a bit. they they know what their body needs now

and they've learned that through you know two three four sessions of the living method and they've paid attention. They haven't just done a diet. They've paid attention especially like I think it's week 11 and 12 now you must be getting on to personalizing the plan. That's your training. Maybe you're not at your goal weight but try it, see how it feels because when you go on for the rest of your life you're personalizing the plan. You're living according to what your body needs, not what my body needs. You're moving your body the way you love to move your body, not the way I like doing it. So you

have to take all the learning and personalize it. And that's, it has to be purposeful. It doesn't just happen. Yeah, it has to be purposeful. And it doesn't just happen. And we talk a lot in the weight loss program about being intentional. And we understand people are scared, you finally lost your weight, and what you what you know is a different way. But that doesn't stop the feeling of the fear of it coming back. And there is a lot, there's a lot you know, and this I'm not trying to sell our weight loss pro our maintenance program, but you want to do the work. Because you work so hard to lose the weight. And it's not it's not beyond it's not just the weight loss. It's not the maintenance. It's the skills and the tools you need to live your life you in order to make change, you have to change. And really, it's it's I mean, it's different for everybody. But that's the big takeaway. At the end of the day. Man, I just adore you, Ruth. I absolutely adore you and your passion for

the program. And really, I think you want what I want. Well, I want to help the people you want to understand how people get there. How do we really help people especially with these GLP one medications or weight loss surgeries? It's that there's a sure that can help but it's it's really understanding yourself and what you need and envisioning a life What is the life of you maintaining your weight? Was that look like what's that feel like? What kind of choices are you making? You know mentally physically who are the people you're hanging around? What's the lifestyle that you're living? Like that's, this is what we're doing here.

And be realistic. One of the things I said in Montreal the other day is that doctors are having these, there's been studies done of people who wanna lose weight. In a three month program, actually, the studies, this is quite an old study, but people said that their weight loss expectation, they'd be super duper happy if they'd lost 35% of their weight. That's huge by the way in three months and very unhealthy. They'd be sort of happy if they lost 25% of their weight. They'd be dissatisfied if they lost 17% of their weight. So people had

unrealistic expectations. 17% of your weight, that's if you're a hundred pounds you're down to 83 pounds. Like that's a lot of weight to lose. Yet people, so people were very unrealistic about what they wanted. So if you're in the weight loss program, just imagine you may be discouraged when I say the average weight loss is one pound, 12 pounds in a session. It's always consistently between 11 and 12. So say one pound a week. But what say you were sitting here on, I don't even know the date, the 28th of March, 29th of March, 2026, and you were 52 pounds lighter. We're going to healthier storeways. And you'd be super healthy because it would have been, sure it would have been up and down, you would have lost more one week and nothing for four weeks but that's a huge outcome. That's a huge outcome to lose that.

outcome. That's a huge outcome to lose that. So be realistic and think I'm in here and I'm gonna learn every single tool I can and when you listen to the experts or you read the posts, one thing I've learned from people who've lost and maintained their weight. Don't be too hard on yourself if say Dr. Beverly or Dr. Paul or one of the posts that came out that it doesn't connect with you. It might connect with you next time you do the program or the third time you do the program it'll suddenly resonate with you and you'll think okay. I'm ready for that New strategy or that new box of information now. I can see where it fits in my life So I'll take that on board now and I can

Carry it through to my life. So Be kind to yourself in that way with your expectations with how the information speaks to you in the moment you're in because you're in a different moment than I am and just take on board new information, new strategies, new tools as they fit the step you're in. And by the time you're ready to leave the weight loss group and perhaps go into the maintenance group, which is a different vibe, a different level of support,

you'll be carrying all that learning and those tools with you. And I think, like often Gina asked me what's the secret sauce and I find a different one every time from the Livvy method, but I think it's that learning that you carry with you. That if I sat down and documented all the diets I've done in my life, which I don't think I could, there's so many of them, I'm not sure I learned anything useful to living my life in a healthy way from any of them. So that is one of the differences. And that is how you maintain your weight, is what I'm finding from the members

who have maintained their weight. Yeah, I mean, you say a year, let's say, we had a, I talked to a member recently, done 100 pounds over a year. That seems like a lot, but with three programs in the time in between, that's a whole year. That's two pounds a week. And there were programs where she didn't lose a lot. And you're right. So it adds up and you think a year is a long period of time, but how long

you've been doing those quick fixes for? Yeah. Right? Three, five, 10, 20 plus years, quick fixes that you're right. You're not learning anything. I wanna just read this before we go. This is Valerie, who's one of our more vocal members in our maintenance program. Without spending the time I needed in maintenance, I would never be where I am today, finally understanding my own body and maintaining. My work is the mental piece and I'm still working on me.

I don't care how much time it's taking, I'm making fantastic progress and know how I can now live my life without all that weight worry. Please do not fear maintenance. Please take the time you need and embrace it. Yeah, that's it. It's about getting to a calm place,

physically, mentally, living your life where you're no longer losing weight or maintaining. It's just living and living with these new tools and skills and everything that you've learned. Um final words before we go Ruth. I don't wanna let you go but I've gone way past my time. No, I think the key takeaways for me is you're giving this time if you're in the weight loss

program you've made this decision you're giving this time so learn as much as you can understand while you've got this huge body of support around you understand how your body's responding each week. Now if somebody had told me that my first program and I remember Gina introduced sort of asking those four questions in my first program and I thought she had been smoking sort of some sort of weed expecting me to talk to my bodies and I thought it was a bit sort of weird but it took me a few programs to have the courage to think or to understand that I had to listen to my body and that I didn't just follow instructions so while you're in

the program learn as much as you can about your body and how your body's responding each week and how it feels and Then carry that into maintenance and take the time like you're worth it is the bottom line you're worth it if if you want to live a long and healthy life have a Healthy lifespan not live a long and healthy life, have a healthy lifespan, not just a long lifespan, you've got to take care of the one vessel that you live in, which is your body, and make friends with it, which is also very difficult for somebody who struggles with their weight, to make friends with their body and realize you're a team. That so just take the time and

be kind to yourself. Learn. That's it. Um Ruth thank you for giving to us straight. Thank you for taking the time to share. I again I think I knew this conversation would be validating for people and we do want to give it to you straight. Ruth doesn't mess around. She doesn't sugarcoat nothing with Again, I think I knew this conversation would be validating for people. And we do want to give it to you straight. Ruth doesn't mess around. She doesn't sugarcoat nothing with me. When we have conversations, I'm always like, oh my God, what does she learn?

What does she need to tell me? What do I do? What do I need to do better? How can I this? How can I that? I like to be told straight because this is how we make change. And I feel like with the Livvy Method, as great as this is, we're just getting started around here.

And we've made so many changes based on the feedback from Ruth, that she's making her feedback based on the feedback she gets from you guys. So whether it's your first program or 24th program, if you can fill out that survey, like we want to help everybody lose their weight in a healthy, sustainable way. And what we're learning from you, it helps us here. It helps us helps Ruth and her research. It helps us make changes to the program. The good, the bad, the ugly. If you weren't successful and you happen to be hearing it, tell us why. Tell us what we can do, what you would need in order to be successful at the end of the day. The fabulous Ruth Cain, everyone. Thanks, everyone who joined us live or listening after the fact. We appreciate you. Thanks, Ruth. Bye! Thanks everyone who joined us live or listening after the fact. We appreciate you. Thanks Ruth. Bye.

Bye.