Meet Jessie. When Jessie first started working on her health a few years ago, she had a weight loss goal for her wedding. She started going to the gym and working with a macro-based nutrition coach.

With great diligence, she did see amazing weight loss results. She felt great and she felt really strong. However, she reached a point where she needed a different nutritional solution that better supported her social and on-the-go lifestyle.

Feeling burned out on tracking her food intake, she took a pause on it. In that time period, she had a hard time striking a balance between healthy eating habits and still being social (which was/is a priority to her). She came to me because she was feeling lost as to how to accomplish this without the parameters of counting macros/calories.

We started working on the habit of eating and journaling one mindful meal daily. I asked her to not just journal what she ate, but to answer some other questions that required her to tune in to her body.We practiced this habit for several weeks until it became reflexive to her.

Another thing we worked on, was cooking at home more often….and not having so many rules about what she could/couldn’t cook. If it was made from whole, unprocessed foods, she made it! Regardless of the macro count or how “clean” the recipe was. She ate mindfully and moved on.

For Jessie the habit of mindful eating and releasing the “food rules” that had previously dictated her life, changed everything. Now when she attends social functions, she eat what she wants to without stressing over calories or overeating. She still uses her knowledge of macros with her nutritional choices, but the difference is that she listens to her body and stops when she’s had enough. She also cooks at home with less stress and finds more joy in the process of cooking.

It’s been such an honor to partner with Jessie on this journey. I love helping people build healthy relationships with food. Are you struggling to find a nutritional approach that supports both your goals and your lifestyle?

You are not alone. I have worked with so many people who are struggling with this. In fact, I used to have a terrible relationship with food. That’s why I created my nutrition membership program, EatWell.

I wanted to share the things I’ve learned both on my personal journey and through my Precision Nutrition certification. I wanted to create a community that would educate women on all things nutrition. Not just what to eat, but to address their mindset and beliefs around food. My goal for each community member is to empower them to change their habits so that they can create lasting changes to their health.

Are you ready to make lasting changes to your health and get connected to others who are on the same journey? Click the button below and let’s do this friend!

With Love,
Liv

**I’m sharing a portion of a post that I wrote last year on another blog of mine. I want to share it here because the message is still so relevant. Postpartum was a difficult adjustment for me. But I found hope and I’m here to share it!**

Loving the Skin You’re In- March 2021

About 8 weeks post Nora’s birth, I told my husband that it was hard to adjust to my post- baby body. Everything felt different. Everything looked different. I would look at pictures and remember what it felt like to be in that old body. “If I could just get back to that, I would be happy.”

One day while looking at one of those pictures, I had a revelation. I remembered how I actually felt when I had the body I “wanted”. At my lowest percent body fat, I still. wasn’t. happy… My arms were too bulky. My cheeks were round. My waist wasn’t tiny enough. What about that bulge on the side of my butt? It may sound absurd to read these things. It feels weird typing them but I’m telling you these are real thoughts that I have and do struggle with. 

On this journey of learning to love my body, my personal highs and lows have shared two things in common: the constant nitpicking of my appearance and a hyperfixation on food. The what, when, how often. And while the name of what I was doing nutritionally changed, all of my highs consisted of obsessions with eating the right things and avoiding the bad things.

I did a nutrition plan with a company that put it together for me. I counted macros. I cut sugar out for 30 days (off and on). My lows would come when I had gained weight, been eating all the wrong foods, or just decided one day I wasn’t good enough. It was a vicious cycle, where one would feed the other.  I have since found so much freedom in my relationship with food and I have so much more to share on this topic, but it’s another post for another time. I still struggle with the nitpicking.

So now that I’m 4 months postpartum, there’s a whole new layer of complexity to add to this. I’m so uncomfortable in this new body. Even if you take the aesthetics out of it, I’m still uncomfortable.

I miss doing the activities that I love and being pain free and strong. Sometimes I want to pretend that I didn’t go through birthing a child. I want to detach from everything in the mid-region of my body including my C-section scar.

I want to pretend that it doesn’t feel like something is literally falling out of my vagina. (Yes, I said vagina on the internet. I have zero shame about it.)

I keep feeling like something is wrong with my body. That’s why it feels like it does. I feel angry toward my body for “letting me down”. My head knows that my body has done this INCREDIBLE thing called carrying, birthing and breastfeeding a baby….but instead of being in awe and filled with gratitude over what it has accomplished, I feel angry. Angry that I’m not “bouncing back” like I wanted. Angry that I’m not in control. I just want to do what I want to do!

May 2022

So here we are, a little over a year later from my original post.

And while I’m still working through this stuff, I’m in a much better place. Such a big part of progressing on this journey to healing was processing my anger, hurt, and disappointment. And also building trust with my body and facing toxic beliefs about my body’s ability to heal.

This is where connecting with my pelvic floor physical therapist, Dr. Aimee Bailey (aka the pelvic yogi) and my personal trainer, Kate Johnson, helped tremendously! Both Aimee and Kate helped me to realize that those feelings were/are very normal and validated them. They also brought hope into the picture. They’ve helped so many women on this journey to get back to doing things they love, and doing those activities symptom free. I’m no exception. Finding the right team of people to support me on my health journey was critical.

That’s why I’m on a mission to educate and empower all of the mamas that I can on their journeys! As Coach Kate tells me often, “You are strong, capable, adaptable, and resilient.” You are all of those things mama!

There’s no doubt about it. When you’re on the journey to improving your health, the snacks that you choose are important. But often overlooked, is how you’re snacking. When you shift your focus away from the what you’re eating and tune into the how, you’ll find the what actually starts to follow anyway.

The tips I’m sharing in today’s post are ones that helped me move into a healthier relationship with food and actually tune in to my body’s hunger cues.

1. Portion it out.

Get a portion size that looks and sounds good to you and put the bag away. (Not on the counter, left open…but AWAY.) If you decide you want more, you have more conscious steps to go through to make it happen.

I used to stand in the pantry or at the kitchen counter eating straight from the bag. That was a recipe for disaster! I always ended up eating too much and feeling bad about it (both mentally and physically) afterwards. The strategy of portioning out my snack, putting the container away, and leaving the kitchen to eat it were tremendously helpful in my mindful eating journey.

2. Remove distractions.

Put your phone away. Turn the TV off. Enjoy the flavor. The crunch. Or whatever it is you love about that particular snack.

There was a time when my phone was only feeding my mindless snacking habit. No pun intended! Getting rid of as many distractions as possible and being present with myself at snack times helped me tune into my hunger cues. Over time as I put this into practice, I discovered that I ended up eating the right amount to satisfy my hunger and/or craving with no regrets afterwards.

3. WAIT.

Before you go back for more, wait 5 minutes. If you wait 5 minutes and you still want more, get more- still following tips 1 and 2 (portioning it out and removing distractions). You might notice after waiting, that your snack hit the spot.

When I first started to practice this strategy, waiting to go back for more was so difficult. Honestly, removing distractions and waiting five minutes brought to light how much of my snacking was actually emotional eating. These are practices that I have to continually revisit knowing that I have a tendency to lean toward emotional eating in times of higher stress.

Give these tips a try and tell me how it’s working for you! Putting any one of these ideas into practice will help you enjoy your snack without overdoing it. Bonus points if you do all three!

P.S. If you want more help creating healthy nutritional habits that produce lasting results, check out my nutrition membership program: EatWell. You can learn more about it here!

I can’t believe it’s been one week since the launch of EatWell! We currently have 8 members in our community and today I want to give a special shout out to community member: Alicia Vallarta.

Alicia jumped right into this program whole heartedly and has been engaging in the community from the start. When she first started the program, her goal was to “make better choices”. Read her full testimonial below!

Through conversation within the community and our weekly live calls, she’s made that goal more specific and is actively working on creating new habits to support them.

Alicia’s story could be yours too, friend. Joining EatWell means you have a coach to help guide you, a community to support you, and a program to educate and empower you.

Can I sign up anytime?

Yes!! After the relaunch, on February 28th, you’ll be able to sign up any time. This self-paced program allows you to take it at your own pace. You can start whenever you want.

What is the investment?

You can do either a one time payment of $495 or split it into 3 monthly payments of $165. Once you become a member, you have lifetime access to the program, community calls, weekly office hours and me as your coach!

Is there a meal plan?

While EatWell does have recipes and a few different meal guides to help you get started, there is not a meal plan and here’s why. In my experience people need help making informed nutrition decisions. And if I just tell them what to eat, then I’m bypassing the learning process. I want you to complete the EatWell program and feel empowered in your nutritional choices and established in new habits.

How do I know this is for me?

This program is for you if you:

• Have struggled with your relationship with food
• Feel overwhelmed by all the of the nutritional information out there
• Need some help knowing where to start
• Have trouble forming habits that stick
• Want to make lasting changes to your health and your life
• Need accountability, support, and encouragement on your health journey

What topics are covered in the content portion?

We will cover topics like diet mindset, setting attainable goals, habit change, how to eat in a way that supports your goals and more. Take a peek at the program guide featured here for more details!

Take a peek at EatWell. See what it looks like!

Where Do I Sign Up?

Sign up here! There’s an option to do three monthly payments as well as another link to do a one time payment. Hope to see you there!

A few days ago, I shared a short lesson on my social media about goal setting. This lesson is such an important part in actually achieving the goals that you set that I wanted to post it here as well.

As a personal trainer and nutrition coach, people come to me with goals like:

I want to eat healthier.

I want to lose weight.

I want to be stronger.

These are great starting points, but in order to achieve a goal, you need to be more specific.

In this 5 minute lesson, I share how to get specific when you set goals AND how to set a plan of action to start working toward them. This video is also a fun glimpse into the format of my EatWell program.

I recently did a drawing in my Facebook group, LivWell Coaching for two people to win the opportunity to become beta testers for my new nutrition membership program & community: EatWell.

One of the winners, Ashley, is a homeschooling mama of three. Needless to say she’s juggling quite a lot. It would be easy for her to say she doesn’t have the time or capacity to do this right now. In fact she did.

However, she still took a step of faith. She showed up for herself. She was surprised to find that EatWell is not some major life overhaul that will require all of her time and effort. It’s designed to help community members realize that improving your health one small habit at a time will get you moving in the right direction.

Within a few days of starting the program, here’s what she had to say.

“I’ve just finished the introduction and it already has me mentally more focused on making better decisions this week. I’ve got clear, measureable goals written down in my daily planner now which will help a lot to keep that focus.”

-Ashley M.

See the full review below!

Learn more about EatWell here.
Want to join the community??? Click the button below to sign up!

Hey there, friend. I’m really excited to share with you a project that I have been working on for the last seven months: EatWell.

But first, if you don’t know me, allow me to introduce myself. I’m Olivia Dykes and I am the creator and owner of LivWell Coaching. As a certified personal trainer and Precision Nutrition-certified coach, I have been working in the health and wellness space for almost 6 years.

So before I tell you about EatWell, I think it’s important that you know why I created it. Over the last three years I have been on my own journey of building better relationships with food, movement, and my body. I created EatWell for two reasons: one, because there’s a lot of information out there when it comes to nutrition and it can be difficult to navigate. Two, because I’ve learned some really helpful things on my journey and I want to share them with people who are ready to take ownership of their health…because they are life-changing.

What is EatWell?

I’m so glad you asked. EatWell is a beautiful combination of a nutrition program AND a community. When you join, you’ll be able to access to my self-paced nutrition program AND you’re also instantly part of a community of like-minded people who are on the same journey with you. Think of a much quieter version of Facebook …sounds like a dream right?

We will talk about what to eat, but even more importantly, how to change both your mindset and habits surrounding nutrition. It is designed to help you realize that improving your health one small habit at a time will get you moving in the right direction. You don’t have to do something drastic! Let’s find manageable solutions that work for YOU, based on your preferences, goals, and lifestyle. 

One big thing that differentiates this program from a generic online program, is the fact that we will have weekly LIVE calls where you can bring your questions and we can troubleshoot together the areas that you need help in.

What is the investment?

Normally, in a one on one coaching setting, this would be valued at $375/month. I wanted to give people the ability to access this without breaking the bank. At only $99 per month, and with the ability to cancel at any time, this is an incredible opportunity to get the coaching and support that you need to make lasting changes. Being the healthiest you is truly priceless.

How do I sign up?

You can sign up by clicking the button below. I look forward to connecting with you! Let’s do this thing!

I love helping clients realize that lifestyle changes don’t have to happen all at once, and instead helping them see where they can start right now in a way that feels manageable. If it’s not manageable, it’s not sustainable.

Here are three things that I love doing for my clients:

1) Removing the Stress

Often, people either don’t even know where to begin or are tired of struggling with knowing what to do but failing to actually do it. Either situation is stressful. It weighs on someone mentally when they are constantly spinning their wheels to solve a problem and getting nowhere.

When you work with LivWell, you aren’t just receiving the benefit of results, you are literally taking the mental heavy lifting out of movement and nutrition. Let me take that for you.

2) Building Confidence

Confidence is such a huge part of how we show up in the world! I love helping clients to build confidence in how they feel, how they look, and arguably most important: confidence in their ability to own their health.

I want my clients to get comfortable in the gym, eat without second guessing if they’re “doing it right”, and ultimately help them to take responsibility for each facet of their health. One piece at a time. One habit at a time. As they are ready.

When you take full ownership in something, you are confident! Sometimes people just need a coach to guide them and help them do just that.

3) Changing Mindset

This is THE biggest piece of being a human who wants to live their best life. It’s a weighty thing to say, I know, but with all of my heart I believe it’s true. Perception is everything.

When you remember that health is a journey (not a destination), you change the way you approach things. You’re not just doing a,b,c until you reach x. You embrace the process of making lasting changes. You learn to disregard the voice in your head that says ” you’re not doing enough,” because you realize that each time you consistently follow through on a habit you’re changing the way you do life.