In 2021, I started hearing about a weight loss program patients were doing via Facebook. Patients are always telling me about weight loss programs. However, these patients were motivated, losing weight, regularly eating, enjoying protein for breakfast and hydrating. They were engaging in better self-care. They were also following our work together with more inspiration and motivation and noticed many healthy changes and better metabolic health. I hate treating weight loss, and I'm happy when patients find something I can't offer them: daily support, motivation, and a community. So, I joined the Livy Method myself to see what all the fuss was about.
Gina Livy is the founder and CEO of Weight Loss by Gina Inc. and the creator of the Livy Method. She started her process as a personal trainer, going through her own interesting weight loss journey (following the old calories in, calories out) model resulting in more weight gain. It wasn't until she started dating a chef and eating more that she saw her body composition shift. Inspired by this, Gina turned to the research and started implementing what she was learning with clients 1 to 1.
In December 2020, she took this method to a few hundred customers via Facebook, offering her program for free. Her program now has 28,000 members in this Spring/summer of 2023 (its 19th iteration), with 165,000 members in total, she has a bestselling book on Amazon, and her company grosses almost 8 figures in revenue. Researchers at the University of Ottawa are currently studying her work. In total, her program has resulted in over 250,000 pounds lost.
Weight loss can be a sensitive topic. We talk about the Healthy At Any Size and Body Positivity Movement with the conclusion that you can be healthy and love yourself at any size, and weight shouldn't factor into whether or not you are worthy or loveable. However, as my hero Carl Rogers says, “The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”
Perhaps when we embrace the totality of ourselves as we are, weight, warts and all, we are inspired to care for ourselves in a new way, free of the hangups we have accumulated about our bodies, diet and food, and we're ready to feel more energy, experience less pain and learn how to rewrite the old narratives around nourishing ourselves.
Find Gina at:
https://www.ginalivy.com/
Buy her latest book: https://a.co/d/1FllRaO