Coach Spotlight: Livia

Your relationship with food is a mirror of your relationship with life

Hi. I'm Lívia.

I always say that, before being a nutritionist, I am human -- and that guides my whole view of nutrition. For me, people don't just eat food. We eat meanings, memories, comfort, and love.

I work with a non-dietary approach, with an integral focus on self-knowledge, self-care, and autonomy.

\- But if you won't give me a diet, what the hell do you do?

This is a question that I have received dozens of times when I say that I do not work with diets or food or meal plans. As it is a rather curious approach, I will tell you what I give people who work with me.

I give them classes with content that is different from everything they've seen about why they behave as they behave with food.

I give them access to handouts from dense self-knowledge activities, which will drastically change their view of food and themselves.

I give them an active and welcoming listening in strategically elaborated sessions.

I give them my full availability, including my number so they can look for me when they want to eat compulsively (or in the middle of the second packet of chocolates), even if it's Saturday night.

I give them my nutritional knowledge by accompanying your food diary and suggesting changes that can help them to nourish themselves better, without ever judging them by what they ate.

I give them directions and advice on their challenges, based on all my professional and personal experience on issues with food and body.

I give them the way to a life without diets and without an obsession with their weight or food, and the confidence that it is possible for them too.

So no, I won't give you a diet.

I won't give you a miraculous promise of weight loss.

I won't give you a paper that will be greasing at the door of your refrigerator, reminding you that you are not following that perfect nutritionally plan (What a shame!).

I won't give you a fatphobic "motivational" speech that will only aggravate your self-loathing and your desire to get smaller at any cost.

I won't give you the fear of food, guilt about eating, nor the feeling that you have a character flaw because you like sweets.

And the reason I won't give you any of that is simply because it never worked for me. Never. And it was not a lack of trying, blaming me to invest all the strength, focus, and faith I had.

When someone tells me "I've tried everything to lose weight and nothing works for me!", I invariably reply:

"I bet there is something you didn't try!"

\- You didn't try to like yourself as you are today, looking at yourself with more affection, compassion, and understanding

\- You didn't try to prioritize yourself so much that you never let self-care for later (for when life calms down)

\- You have never tried to really get to know yourself, understanding the causes of so much dissatisfaction that you stuff with food

\- You didn't try to let go of control and give your body a chance to talk to you.

\- You have not tried to eat the things you like without guilt or without the feeling that you need to "make up" for something.

\- You didn't try to move your body for fun without thinking about the calories burned.

\- You did not try to embrace yourself (and not whip yourself) after an exaggeration.

So no, you haven't tried everything.

And that's exactly where I come in. I am someone who got tired of hating her own body and being a slave to diets, who decided to stop waiting for the perfect body to be happy, and chose the path of self-knowledge to Food Freedom.

Today I teach women who want to master their eating to overcome emotional hunger and create the ability to eat everything in moderation to lose weight sustainably and without madness, through programs that deliver everything I learned on my journey for a lighter body.

My mission is to give you the right tools and techniques so that you learn to make better choices for your well-being and create a light and happy relationship with your body, without ever starting a diet again.

In addition to being a nutritionist, I am a Ph.D. in Food Marketing, crazy about coffee, books, and a good chat. I also love to cook (and eat, of course).

I live in São Paulo (BR) with my husband and my two whippets and I dedicate most of my time to inspiring women to achieve a lighter and happier relationship with food and with their own bodies.

* I am a Brazilian girl (living in Sao Paulo with my fiancé -- and other 20 million people). I love coffee, books, and good food. I also really enjoy studying and learning new things that allow me to further develop myself both professionally and personally. I have a degree in Food Science and hold a Ph.D. in Agri-food Marketing. In addition, I am a Certified Nutrition Coach and an enthusiastic Nutrition student. After 15 years of living in war with my body and with food, I found freedom through mindfulness and intuitive eating, practices that allowed me to overcome yo-yo dieting and binge eating. I'm passionate about helping women rewrite their food and body histories so they feel free and confident to live their lives to the fullest. There is a power that comes alive when women free themselves from the food prison in which they have learned to live, when they realize that they are capable and deserving of feeling fantastic in their own bodies, and that confidence is a state of mind -- not a body lotion which you get the right to use when you reach a weight-loss goal. My work is dedicated to nurturing, celebrating and sharing this message.