Resonance – Episode 70
Verbatim Transcript
Speaker: Viktoria Levenberg
Guest Speaker: Lizeth Lanz
Lizeth Lanz: We’re so indoctrinated by—it’s like, it’s so ingrained in our culture that we just see it
as normal.
It’s tiring.
If they’re not restricted, they feel like it’s not gonna work.
Viktoria Levenberg: That’s a little signal to reevaluate your life, because if you need an exit
strategy for your life, we’ve got bigger problems here.
Lizeth Lanz: What they really want is what they think they’re going to get once they lose the
weight.
You are trying to fill a hole that is not physical.
I just want you to find you.
Viktoria Levenberg: Have you ever had a stressful day and, like, gone to the pantry or the freezer
where the ice cream is for just some soothing and relaxation, only to notice that that habit has
been slowly compounding and quietly began to eat away at your body, mind, and health?
If that’s you, you’re gonna love today’s episode, because you’re gonna hear from Lizeth Lanz
about the last diet that you will ever need, so that you can stop trying to hyper-control your body
and heal your relationship with food once and for all.
And the secret little benefit of this all is that you also get to uncover the core essence of who you
are and heal your relationship with yourself too.
So this is a deeply personal one. I am so excited to share it with you. Let’s begin.
Viktoria Levenberg: Welcome to Resonance, the podcast for high performers and entrepreneurs
who want to do life, work, and success differently. I am your host, Viktoria Levenberg, and I’m
obsessed with efficiency, productivity, and planning in a way that harnesses your energy and your
natural rhythms while keeping you in alignment and integrity. Because I have figured out that
lasting success is not about the hustle. It is about being in Resonance. Let’s begin.
Viktoria Levenberg: Alright, so as we go into the episode, I just wanted to introduce you to Lizeth.
So she is a friend of mine from our business community. I know I’ve been bringing a few of my
friends onto the podcast recently, and that’s just because they’ve all got, like, such incredible
stories and experience and insights to share with you. And Lizeth is no exception.
She is truly a firecracker. I mean, she’s got such a fun personality. We’ve been jamming together.
We’ve been supporting each other through our ups and downs. And if you are either a woman or
a man—I know we speak a lot to women in this episode, but honestly, this applies no matter
what gender you identify with—anyone who’s struggled with body image, diet culture, and you
have that achiever drive in you where it’s like, let me just effort harder and create a better
exercise plan and starve myself and just shame myself into losing these stubborn pounds or kilos
or whatever, then this episode’s definitely for you.
Because we’re gonna talk about old things, emotional eating, weight gain, stress eating, and how
that all ties into your life, your productivity, your work, how you show up at home and your
family. And so, in essence, by the end of this episode, you will know exactly how to fix your
relationship with food, fix your bad food habits so that you can feel fresh, youthful, and thrive
again.
Let’s begin.
Viktoria Levenberg: Well, welcome to Resonance, Lizeth. I’m pronouncing your name correctly. Is
that—did I?
Lizeth Lanz: You are pronouncing it perfectly. Yes, perfectly. You get 1,000 brownie points for that.
Viktoria Levenberg: I get 1,000 brownie points. Now, those of you listening, a little bit of context:
people mispronouncing Lizeth’s name is, like, a big thing in our business community. So I think
I’ve heard her correct our coach so many times that it’s, like, ingrained into my mind now.
Um, yay for brownie points. As an achiever, I’m super stoked about that. But welcome to the
show, most importantly. Thank you for being here. And I would just love to hear from you and
have you introduce yourself and—and tell me a little bit more about you and kind of what you do
in this industry.
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. Uh, my name is Lizeth Lanz, and I
am a food relationship coach. Um, and what I do is help women to improve the way they think
and relate to food, so they can basically stop trying to control it and just more of enjoy it.
And I have a program called The Last Diet Experience, uh, who—that helps women with weight
loss, but in a very different way than normal diets. Uh, because what we go through is more of a
holistic approach in a natural way of gaining a healthy weight—actually, gaining a healthy body
that naturally gives you a healthy weight.
Instead of focusing on the symptom of the overweight, we focus on everything that is causing the
stress of the body, that one of the symptoms is overweight.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah. I love that. It is so important. And I think, you know, as so many women
will be able to relate to that, especially, you know, with diet culture and all the body image stigma
that we’ve grown up with, kind of that doesn’t really lead to a very healthy relationship with food
or our bodies in general.
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It’s, it’s—it’s, um, and we’re so ingrained, we’re so
indoctrinated by the—it’s like it’s so ingrained in our culture that we just see it as normal and just
accept it because that’s the way it is.
And—and it was like, I don’t know, I guess I went through this whole journey to understand that
that was even a thing.
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm.
Lizeth Lanz: And I didn’t realize all the fears and trauma that I had developed, uh, in relation to
my body image and in relation to food, that—that now that I—now I see it everywhere, of
course.
And so it—it is, it is interesting how, um, we just—we’re just living, you know, and that we think
that this is how it is. And to change our minds and our beliefs, our reality, to something different,
that I think that’s the biggest part.
Because everyone—you can tell anyone, okay, you just have to do this, this other thing, and
they’ll do it. I work with, like, people who are high achievers. They want to do the good stuff.
They want to get the brownie points. You know, they want to get the brownie points.
And so it is really easy. Like, they’ll do the task, but they’re doing it from the same, uh, the same
energy, the same frequency—
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh-huh.
Lizeth Lanz: —that they do everything else. And it’s still the stress or pushing to be something
bigger, something else, something outside of you. Where, in reality, I just want you to find you,
the core you, you know?
And yeah, that was a big revelation for me. I was like, I’m not—like, I was tired of trying to follow
this idea of being this woman, this big woman, this beautiful woman, this great woman, until—
and, and—and it, it’s—it’s tiring, you know? Pushing yourself, striving. It becomes, uh—it’s
exhausting.
But when you’re—you’re getting to the same goal of embodying that ideal woman that you think
you’re not, um, but from a perspective of, I’m just peeling off the layers, I’m just removing the
things that have made me not me, it’s much easier, you know?
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm
Lizeth Lanz:. It’s kind of like loving yourself to, quote-unquote, change. Like, yeah.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah, I—I love that. And—and, you know, I love this metaphor of you saying,
like, peeling off the layers as well, because it happens on both the 3D and the 5D, where sort of,
you know, a lot of—you’ve just gone straight from, like, um, food to the core you, and we’ll dive
into that a little bit more as well, as I’m like, whoa. Like, it is going straight to—to the core, which
is kind of what I refer to as that inner 5D reality.
And peeling off those layers that no longer serve us, who we think we are, the stories we’ve told.
And the funny thing is—and I’m, like, really looking forward to hear about your experience with
your clients—is that then that’s what happens in the 3D with your body. You start to shed the
stubborn belly fat, or you start to lose that weight that you just couldn’t cut, no matter how hard
you worked at the gym and how much you starved yourself, because it’s—it goes beyond just
kind of the calories in, calories out principle, right? Especially when it comes to stress, right?
Lizeth Lanz: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Right there, yeah. No, I find that, uh—
haha—one of the—the things that, uh, freaks them out the most is that I don’t tell them to
restrict their food. Like, I don’t give them—
Viktoria Levenberg: To your clients?
Lizeth Lanz: Uh-huh. To my clients. You were asking that, right? Haha. Um, so that—that is, I
think, that the biggest thing, that they don’t believe it’s gonna work. Because if they’re not
restricted, they feel like they—it—it’s not gonna work.
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm.
Lizeth Lanz: Uh, but we’re working on very different little things that, uh, change—start to change
the perspective. And one of the things that they don’t—I don’t think they notice when they’re in
the program—is that they start to change their focus on the weight to the things that actually
really matter.
Because nobody actually wants to lose weight. Nobody cares. Nobody gives a—a brownie point
for—
Viktoria Levenberg: Tell that to the—as in the industry. Hahaha.
Lizeth Lanz: No. What they really want is what they think they’re going to get once they lose the
weight.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah. And what is that?
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah. Okay. That’s—I mean, everyone has their own idea. But one of the things is
that—well, one of the very first thing that comes to mind—they’re gonna be healthier. And that
is true, but it’s the other way around. You become healthy, and then you get a healthy weight.
So if you’re pushing to lose weight to get healthy—It gets convoluted there. Um, and then one of
the things is that, now I am going to be pretty, and I’m gonna get the partner that I want.
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm.
Lizeth Lanz: Uh, now—now I am going to be accepted. Now I am going to be, I don’t know, part
of some—something or some, uh, some, uh, group that I wanted to be. Now I can eat everything
I want. Now I can—I don’t know. I’m trying to, like, get away from the typical things that you
would think, which is clothes fit better. But if you lose weight, clothes are gonna fit better.
Viktoria Levenberg: Um-hmm. So more like, now I’m good enough.
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah.
Viktoria Levenberg: Deeper, yeah. Inner desires that we don’t realise are driving it, where the
weight gain, for example, has been masking it because it’s been a self-soothing mechanism.
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah, yeah. No, that—I guess you summarised some—summarised it perfectly.
Summarised it. That’s it. And that was it. It’s a new word. That’s what we’re doing now.
Summarized. You summarised it pretty well, I think. Yeah. Being good enough to take space, to
exist, to be accepted.
Viktoria Levenberg: That is—that is so, like, at the core of us as a human being. And I think, like,
we can go really deeply in this area. And before we do, I just want to kind of bring us back to you
and your story as well. Um, because I have a feeling we can go down a lot of rabbit holes. And
yeah, um, something that I love to ask, like, all of our expert guests when they come onto the
show, um, is, you know, you’ve shared a little bit about what you do, what you help people with,
and a lot of the struggles that they experience.
And with you specifically, like, what’s something that you wouldn’t find on your bio? So people
would only know this about you by listening to this podcast episode.
Lizeth Lanz: Oh, wow. Okay, that’s a good one. Um... like... there’s so many things.
Viktoria Levenberg: There you go. You can pick your favourite. You can also give me multiple. It’s
not—we’re not restricting ourselves here.
Lizeth Lanz: Okay.
Viktoria Levenberg: So we’re not on a—on a uniqueness diet.
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah. You know what it is? Like, I present myself as a very social person.
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh-huh.
Lizeth Lanz: And in reality, that is, like, droplets of me. I see—I’m usually a hermit. I am very
comfortable being by myself. Um, I live in a home with three rooms, and it’s just my husband and
I. We—we have our room, and we each have our own rooms. And I think that is one of the
biggest, um, tools of saving our marriage—or not saving it, because it wasn’t, like, crumbling—
but, like, like keeping it healthy and thriving.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah, exactly.
Lizeth Lanz: Because he’s actually—he’s more of a hermit than I am. But if that—I, I think that’s
what makes us work so well together, that we understand we need our time by ourselves.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yes.
Lizeth Lanz: We need space. So definitely that—that’s a, that’s a big one. When—what—if
someone gets to know me more deeply, I’m very much a hermit.
I also would say that I’m very, like, nice and outgoing and energetic, and people just think of it like
this sweet girl. But the people that know me best—I’m just—I feel like I’m just throwing my dirty
laundry here.
Viktoria Levenberg: I love it. This is—this is why this question is so juicy. Go on.
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah. People that know me know that—that they—if you want to take advantage or
things like, “Oh, she’s so sweet. She won’t even, like, blink an eye or, like, bite. She won’t bite
you,” uh, they know that I, instead of bite you, will, like, tear off your head if need be.
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh-huh.
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah. If—if need be.
Viktoria Levenberg: If need be. So it’s like, basically, don’t mess with—don’t—don’t
underestimate me, is effectively what you’re saying.
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah, basically. Yeah. And I—you know what the—the funniest thing is? That I know
that about me because the people that are closest to me told me. Not because I—I would have
the same exact image that most people have of me, like, “Oh, this is nice woman, girl, that is just
playful and—and just likes to have fun, and she’s, I don’t know, whatever, whatever, all the nice
things you can say about me.”
And then, no, no. I remember my best friend says, like, “No, Liz, uh, you—you, yeah, you can be
nice, but also you can cut heads.” That’s what she said.
Viktoria Levenberg: There we go. So the long story short is, don’t mess with Liz.
Lizeth Lanz: Um, and—oh, just, you know, just—just let’s be nice with each other, and nothing’s—
nothing should get out of wax. That’s it.
Viktoria Levenberg: Exactly, exactly. Oh my gosh, thank you for sharing that. And I think I—it’s so
funny that you mentioned the hermit piece because I resonate with that as well. I’m a big hermit
myself.
My partner and I used to live in a two-story, three-bedroom house as well, just because we
needed that space. We downsized. We now have an apartment that’s two bedrooms, but, like, I
have my office and we have our bedroom, but then he has, like, the downstairs living area where
he just lives and watches sports.
So we often joke that, like, he is in the downstairs club and I’m in the upstairs club, and we each
have our own space, and we all know where we belong. And it keeps us so in harmony because,
like, just like yourself, I need my space. And I think it’s so important, um, for those of us who are
more introverted, even if we’re, like, extroverted introverts, to protect that.
So to anyone listening as well, just know that it’s okay. Like, you don’t have to—it’s okay to be an
introvert in an extroverted world. I think that’s sort of what I’m—
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah.
Viktoria Levenberg: —trying to get to.
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah.
Viktoria Levenberg: Okay. And so tell me, like, how you got to teaching and sharing and coaching
people through the work that you get to today. I’m sure there is a bit of a story there.
Lizeth Lanz: Absolutely, absolutely. So, ah, God. So I grew up—I grew up in Mexico, and then my
whole life in Mexico, my career, I was—I was a psychologist, a psychotherapist.
Viktoria Levenberg: Oh, cool. I did not know that about you. So that was a past life.
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah. Psychotherapist. Yeah. I was a belly dancer, uh, so I would, uh, teach—
Viktoria Levenberg: A belly dancer? You should just use that for your thing. Like, can you find that
on your bio?
Lizeth Lanz: I guess no.
Viktoria Levenberg: Oh my God. I’m sorry. Sorry to interrupt, but that just, like—okay, keep going.
So you were a psychotherapist, a belly dancer. What else? That—you’re gonna say flamethrower
next or something.
Lizeth Lanz: You know what? No. No, I’m not. No.
I’m kidding. No, definitely not, but that would have been interesting. Yeah, no. I was the, as my
husband named me, the belly-dancing psychologist. And yeah, that was before we—before we
started dating.
Anyway, um, I met my husband, uh, because he was working down there. And when I married
him, I moved to the United States, and my life kind of got shook. It was like the ground got taken
from under me, and I did not know what to do.
Because to continue being a psychotherapist, I need to go three more years into school. Um, and
actually, I did not want to continue doing that.
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh-huh.
Lizeth Lanz: I would—I was—I was just done with that. Um, I couldn’t work, and me being the
type of person that likes to earn her own money was really tough.
My friends and family were across the border, and I—I just—I was just going cuckoo, cuckoo
bananas. I—in, in that interval, I—that happened. I also—well, I—I’ll tell you the bad things. It
wasn’t all bad, but that happened. Then my father passed away, which was—was big for me. Um,
and then my husband, after that, took a downhill on his health.
Viktoria Levenberg: Okay.
Lizeth Lanz: Uh, there was a lot of, uh, in and out of, uh, the emergency room.
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm.
Lizeth Lanz: And then he—I don’t know. After that, we decided to move again, get out of the city,
because the environment was not really, um, healthy for us anymore.
And we ended up in this little town where he grew up, which is in the middle of the woods. And
it’s just—I just kind of felt like my life was not finishing establishing. I did not finish establishing
my life in that whole—a series of events.
I—I’m an emotional eater.
Viktoria Levenberg: Me too.
Lizeth Lanz: I found a lot of comfort in food.
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh-huh.
Lizeth Lanz: I didn’t really realize what I was doing to myself and how much I was not addressing
my needs until I was, like, 20 pounds overweight, super depressed, uh, felt lost, confused. Like, I
don’t—I don’t even know what I’m doing.
I—and I don’t really know how long I—I went through this. Like, I—I mean, if I look at the
calendar, I can tell you how long it went through. Obviously gradual into it. But at some point, I
remember just being on the floor in my room—Listening to Jim Carrey’s commencement speech,
looking for some words of encouragement.
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh-huh.
Lizeth Lanz: And just crying and half-assing some, um—not sit-ups. I think sit-ups. I was trying to
move, you know?
And I remember my husband comes into my room looking at me like, “What the heck is going
on?”
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah.
Lizeth Lanz: And I’m like, “You know what? This is what I need to do. I’m just gonna listen to this
for a while, for every day, and I’m just gonna just repeat.”
I never did it again. I never did it again. But it—it got me into this role of, like, I need to do
something. There’s something that needs to change. I don’t know what it is.
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh-huh.
Lizeth Lanz: But there’s something that needs to change.
And my husband—I have this little tradition in New Year’s where we sit down and we do a little
list. And it’s a little list because this list contains our goals, like big goals that we want to do for
the next year. So something big that we need to accomplish.
And that year I wrote down, like, “I wanna feel fresh and youthful.”
Viktoria Levenberg: Oh, what a good goal. Hahaha.
Lizeth Lanz: The next puzzle was, how the heck was I gonna achieve that?
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah, yeah.
Lizeth Lanz: And so I just, uh, at—at some point I decided, well, I just—I’m just gonna move my
body for 20 minutes a day, whatever it was.
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm.
Lizeth Lanz: It took me some time to, uh, find my activity, but eventually I landed with yoga.
And—and I just feel like that act of kindness to myself led to the next. And as I was collecting kind
habits, I started to see a change in my mood, in my body, ’cause I was—my body was aching. It
wasn’t aching anymore. I was more flexible. I was stronger. I felt more in my body.
I was losing weight, and I wasn’t even aiming for that.
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm.
Lizeth Lanz: Um, I was happier. I was, again, doing things that I enjoy just because I enjoy them. I
had the energy to do that. Um, and so I, at some point, I’m like, “What the heck is going on?
Something’s working.”
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm.
Lizeth Lanz: And so I started to do research on what I was doing and learning a little more and
experimenting on myself. And that’s what I documented, packed up, and turned into what is The
Last Diet Experience.
Viktoria Levenberg: Wow. That’s—what a story. Um, and thank you for sharing it so openly and so
vulnerably here as well. Like, I was really there with you when you described that moment on the
floor and just the chain of events of one after another.
And it’s like you said, it wasn’t an overnight issue, and it also wasn’t an overnight solution. That’s
the thing with these kinds of things. It’s like these, as you say—you called it symptoms earlier—or
these, um, I guess, yeah, the surface-level things that we see, they’re an accumulation of little
decisions or little ways in which we disappoint ourselves or in which we go against the core
essence of who we truly are.
And, um, I—I really loved that you said yoga, for you, was an act of kindness. Um, that was very
much similar to my experience. Um, yoga played a huge role in my own healing journey as well.
And it was one of those things too, which is, like, I loved it and it felt too good. Like, I—it took me
years before I would give myself permission to practice yoga because it was such a big act of
kindness.
Like, there was so much self-punishment going on of, like, “No, I need to run this marathon and
go to the gym and do this boring stretching sequence. I can’t do an hour of yoga.” Um, that—it
really is, like, magical once you find the thing for you that is genuinely bringing you joy, and you
give yourself permission to be kind to yourself. It’s like the ripple effect opens up.
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Definitely. That’s what I—that’s what happened. Just
the ripple effect.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah. And like you said with the—the weight loss piece as well, like, um, you
know, you started losing weight without even trying to. And again, similarly in my experience, it
was sort of like, I feel better now in my body, like, that I practice yoga.
And yeah, I do, like—you know, I walk every day. I go to the gym for strength, etcetera. But since
practising that, I literally feel better in my body than when I was running marathons.
And the most crazy part about it is that when you’re embodied, you’re in your body, you can feel
what your body wants. You get to see the ripple effect of that everywhere in your life.
So, like, I don’t—are you big, like, snow person? Are you a snow bunny? Do you like to go to the
snow?
Lizeth Lanz: No. No. I enjoy the snow in the beginning. After that, I’m like, I’m just left out.
Viktoria Levenberg: Fair enough. Like, I’m a snow bunny. I love to snowboard. And I went—I—I
vividly remember the first time I got on a board after I had cultivated a regular yoga practice. Girl,
I felt better and more connected to the board and more agile after, like, years of not riding than I
did when I was, like, in what you would call my prime years.
It’s nuts. It’s so amazing. So, I mean, not that it’s just yoga, but just find your thing is, I think, what
I’m trying to get to. And—and it’s really interesting to see that we share that in common.
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, I—I really think—I—I don’t even know how else to explain it,
but I definitely do feel more inside my body. That’s the best way to explain it.
And—and through that is, I think—I think that’s what helped me a lot to, um, I will listen to my
body and to understand what my body really needed.
Viktoria Levenberg: If you’re enjoying this episode, you will love my free newsletter, Flourish
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Now, let’s get back to the episode.
Viktoria Levenberg: Speaking of understanding what your body really needed, let’s talk emotional
eating. Because that’s a big difference between what your body thinks it needs and what it
actually needs.
So you mentioned before that you’re an emotional eater. I also am an emotional eater. I know
that as soon as I start to overeat, I’m like, “I’m trying to plug something here.”
So can you tell me, um, and maybe our listeners, a little bit more about, you know, in your expert
view, like, what emotional eating is, how it showed up in your life, and then how you also help
your clients navigate that?
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah, absolutely. So emotional eating is just when you have an uncomfortable
emotion, be it sadness, stress, anger, uh, disappointment, boredom, whatever uncomfortable
emotion it is, the way to soothe yourself, you choose to do it through consuming food.
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm.
Lizeth Lanz: Uh, why? Well, there could be many explanations, but mainly is correlated to an
experience that you, uh, had or adopted. Um, how you—how you interpret an experience in your
childhood.
Usually, in the culture, it is very easy to adopt this emotional eating because if you’re celebrating,
you’re having cake, you’re having ice cream, you’re having a feast. If you’re sad, your friend brings
you a tub of ice cream and pizza, and you watch sad movies or just cry. I don’t know. If your—I
don’t know. If you won the game, they take you out for a pizza afterwards. I don’t know. It’s
always food-related. Any emotion, anything, it’s really easy to correlate to emotions.
So it is really easy to make it something pleasurable, and it is by itself pleasurable. You know, so
why would anyone give it up? I don’t know, but—hahaha.
No, I’m getting an attention. No, but—but the thing is that when we cross that threshold from
being pleasure to being a coping mechanism—
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm.
Lizeth Lanz: —that’s when the balance starts to fall.
Viktoria Levenberg: And tell me more about that. Like, when would you say it becomes less
pleasure and more coping mechanism, in your experience?
Lizeth Lanz: In my experience, like, in my personal experience, it becomes less pleasurable when
I’m eating without the pleasure. I am not even tasting the food. I’m not even enjoying it. I—it’s—
it’s more of a sensation of trying to fill this emptiness that is not—that is not—it’s not fillable.
Viktoria Levenberg: Tangible?
Lizeth Lanz: No. It’s not fillable like that.
Viktoria Levenberg: And—and I don’t know about you, but then it’s like you’re actually
uncomfortably full. At least that’s, like, my experience if I overeat. And it’s literally like, I’m
uncomfortable and I just can’t stop, because it’s like there’s a part of me that believes that there’s
a void that can be filled with it.
And then it’s like, it’s a double whammy because you feel like crap, and you still have the
uncomfortable emotions, and then you’re shaming yourself for feeling like crap, which gives you
even more uncomfortable emotions.
Lizeth Lanz: Exactly. That’s—that’s the whole loop. That’s the whole loop. And, um, yeah, it’s—
hahaha. That’s exactly what happened. So when—I don’t know. I—I’m just gonna repeat what
you said because that’s—that’s what it is.
You are trying to fill a hole that is not physical. You’re trying to feel—address an emotion with
something tangible when an emotion is not tangible.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah, and I think, you know, the conversation that we’re having here is so
important because a lot of what you help women with around, um, you know, developing a
better relationship with themselves and through food and through healthy habits, etcetera, it’s
often—I see it as, like, I see this occur as an issue with a lot of the people who I work with as well
because, you know, chances are, as you said earlier, they’re achievers, they’re super busy. It’s
coming from a place of, like, “I need to do this. I need to punish myself.”
And then, as we kind of spoke to a little bit earlier before we hit record, it’s also the first thing
that falls off the to-do list or the schedule. And so, how do you tackle that challenge with your
clients? Like, what nugget of wisdom can you share with our audience here who are busy? You
know, they’re probably listening to the podcast on the way to work or even while at work doing
some mundane, stretchy activity. Like, how would you help them create space?
Lizeth Lanz: Okay, so I’ll tell you this, and this is the best way I can summarize it, and we can go
dive deeper, but without you, nothing that you make happen can happen.
So if you don’t take care of you, everything that exists because you exist will not exist.
Viktoria Levenberg: So, yeah.
Lizeth Lanz: You know, if—and—and here’s the thing, is, like, especially as women, especially
moms, we are the ones that have adopted this rule that we need to be the protector of the
family, the nurturer of the family, the everything for the family, and the family comes first.
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm.
Lizeth Lanz: But when you’re depleted, whatever you’re giving to your family is the scraps of what
you can.
For me, I don’t actually have little children. I, uh—I haven’t, uh, copy-pasted myself.
Viktoria Levenberg: But you have a fur baby, I heard in the background.
Lizeth Lanz: I have, yeah. But I have two dogs, my—my cat, and my chickens.
Viktoria Levenberg: Oh my gosh. Okay, so you’ve got a lot of—a lot of kids.
Lizeth Lanz: I got my babies. And I do catch myself sometimes being, like, not taking care of me,
and I notice because my patience is so short. So something that they would ask, like, pay
attention to me just because I need attention, becomes something annoying when I have not
served myself.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah.
Lizeth Lanz: Whereas normally, when I have, um, taking time to do yoga, to have a little tea, to
look at the sun, to just breathe the outside air, and just little things, just to exist in my own body,
when I do that, then that attention actually becomes very pleasurable. It’s like, “Oh, she’s looking
for my attention. Of course, my baby, here. I will cuddle you until you fall asleep.”
But if I haven’t done those things for myself, then it’s like, “Oh my God, I really need to finish this.
What do you want?” You know, that’s my reaction. It’s very different to the same exact behaviour
of them just asking for a cuddle.
So I think that’s the biggest, um, warning sign. Like, this—you need to stop your world so you
can, you know, come back to your body.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah.
Lizeth Lanz: And then you can be here and do the work that you’re trying to do and be here for
your family. Because I—it’s not that I don’t want to pay attention to my family. It’s not that I don’t
want the best for them. It’s just that I don’t have the energy. I haven’t energy—I haven’t
recharged myself to have that so I can give them that.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah. And I love that you said, you know, you need to stop your world. And I
know our coach says this a lot as well, as, like, “You need to stop your world to change your
world.”
And that is probably, if—if you just lived by that one truth, it is so potent, especially for, you know,
high-achieving women who are super driven, super busy. It is so common to just run on that
adrenaline and run up that treadmill.
And, like, I don’t know about you, but, like, I still also have busy seasons sometimes, and I notice
that pattern, that old wiring reactivate of, like, you wake up and you’re instantly like, “Okay,
what’s on for the day?” And you go, go, go, go, go, and then boom, crash. And it’s like, whoa,
that’s not—that’s not how we’re designed to live.
And so, how do you navigate in your own life, you know, the delicate nature and the balance of
managing your energy, your well-being with, as a business owner and an entrepreneur, also
productivity and efficiency and sort of bringing your goals to life?
Lizeth Lanz: So I’ll—I’ll say two things. One is a—a lot of high-achieving women, it tend to feel like
if they’re not being productive constantly, their value goes down or they’re not valuable.
So it is important for them to stay productive constantly. They have a hard time understanding
the stopping your world concept because, like, “Well, how can I stop? If I stop, then I’m not doing
something.”
So it’s—it’s really bringing them to the, um, showing them the—the world where doing nothing is
actually beneficial to your productivity. It’s part of the process, right?
Viktoria Levenberg: That’s it.
Lizeth Lanz: And the—this balance, I kind of—I kind of see it like a pendulum.
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm.
Lizeth Lanz: Where it kind of swings to right and left, right and left. Just imagining this right-and-
left pendulum swinging. And in the middle, that would be the balance.
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm.
Lizeth Lanz: And you hit balance all the time as you’re swinging back and forth.
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh-huh.
Lizeth Lanz: But it’s not something that you stay in.
Viktoria Levenberg: Hmm.
Lizeth Lanz: So the goal is not to hit balance and stay there.
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh-huh.
Lizeth Lanz: The goal is to shorten the distance between your left and your right.
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh-huh.
Lizeth Lanz: So you’re hitting balance more often.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yes. I love that so much. I’ve never heard anyone use this metaphor. Um, I
mean, I’m just, like, writing it down frivolously because it’s really landing for me. Um, and here’s
why.
So, uh, I noticed as some of my clients, um, one in particular has a really strong propensity to
think in black and white. And it is really, like—like, you know how you do anything is how you do
everything. And they’re like, they’re either gonna work to the brink of exhaustion, and that’s, like,
what they call their work mode. You know, and they’re just—that’s it. There’s no human behind
the facade.
And then they have the opposite of, like, “Okay, now I’m in holiday mode. I forget about
everything. I’m just gonna relax and, like, do nothing.” And—and that’s a very extreme on those
two swings of the pendulum because they rarely ever experience that balance.
And it’s interesting because I had a conversation with that exact person not too long ago. I think
it was a few weeks ago. And from the, um, kindness of their heart, they were asking me, is like,
“Hey, like, when are you gonna have a holiday? Like, you’ve been doing so much,” and blah blah.
Because on the surface, to them, it looks like I’m on this extreme that is their reality, when in
reality, like, what’s actually happening behind the scenes is, like, “No, no, no. I’ve shortened the
distance between my pendulum so I can manage my energy, so I don’t crave a month-long
getaway from my life.”
Like, I genuinely believe, and I’m keen to hear your thoughts on this, is that, like, if the only thing
getting you through the day is looking forward to the next getaway, that’s a little signal to
reevaluate your life. Because if you need an exit strategy for your life, we’ve—we’ve got bigger
problems here.
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah. No, absolutely. Absolutely. Like, why aren’t you doing something that brings
you joy?
Viktoria Levenberg: Right.
Lizeth Lanz: Like, I mean, and—and I think a lot of us do get trapped in that because maybe the
belief that there’s no other option.
Viktoria Levenberg: Um.
Lizeth Lanz: I feel that, at least the way I address that with—with other people and myself, I have
to become aware of it first. But, like, when I address it is that if you can just have this, um, open
your mind to the possibility—
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh-huh.
Lizeth Lanz: —that your reality is not the only reality that exists. That things can be different for
everyone. Like, just the possibility that maybe, maybe could be that that can be different for
everyone.
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh-huh.
Lizeth Lanz: Then you can start to find evidence of that, that it could be different.
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm.
Lizeth Lanz: And we get stuck. We—we tend to just get stuck on—on what we know. And it’s
really easy because that’s all that we know, you know?
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm. Yes.
Lizeth Lanz: Know what you don’t know. Haha. You know, and—and so I—I—I think that’s the way
that I like to address it. Like, even with me, um, I—I—I try to just—why don’t try—I have this, um,
this open—this little door open that is like, “I might be wrong. I might—my—what I think is real
might not be exactly like that.”
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm.
Lizeth Lanz: What if—what if I’m wrong? I like to play that game. What if I’m wrong?
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah.
Lizeth Lanz: You know, what if—what if this is not all there is?
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah. And that is such an important question. You know, it’s like what you’ve
just spoken to is, um, one of my spiritual mentors refers to this as, like, embodied inquiry. Is just
being with a question of, like, “What would it be like to...” and then whatever. Finish the
sentence, right? Whether it’s a goal you’re chasing or a different way to live.
Or it’s like, if you have a story looping in your mind around, like, “I don’t have the time,” it’s like,
“Well, what would it be like to have all the time in the world?” Right? Just—just sitting into that
and I’d be like, “Wow, what would that be like?”
And, um, as our coach and mentor also says, I think it was what Kidlin’s Law is, that a question
well framed is already a question half answered, or a problem well framed is a problem half
solved.
And so it is truly—there is an art to opening your mind to the possibilities beyond your limited
view of reality. And I think that’s really where the value of coaching, community, you know, the
kind of offerings that we bring to the world, really has, because it’s hard to do this on your own.
Especially if you’re not, like, a personal development junkie or you’re not into this stuff. It all feels
a little bit, like, far removed. And it’s like it’s much easier and much more fun when you do it with
people, A, who are like-minded, who are going through the same struggles as you are, who speak
the same language, and who, you know, can show you the way.
Lizeth Lanz: Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.
Viktoria Levenberg: That’s kind of the intention of this podcast as well. It’s like I always say
Resonance is about kind of, you know, just hearing—hearing what you receive. And, like, if it’s
something resonates, great. If it doesn’t, throw it out the window. But just, like, be open to other
perspectives and worldviews of moving about and making your life more enjoyable, right?
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah. Yeah, I like—I like that. Um, like, for—for my podcast, I—I really enjoy listening
to people’s stories, where they come from, like, what landed them in this world. And it’s just
this—I don’t have all the answers, and I don’t even know, like, what—what else is there out
there.
So it’s really interesting to see someone else’s point of view, experience, knowledge, and expand
from there. That’s, I think, that’s what I love most about having the podcast.
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah, I love that. And speaking of, you know, sharing those with insights and
learning from one another, like, obviously our listeners here get to learn from you today.
And one of the questions that I love to ask every guest on the show as well is, if there was just
one thing that resonated for a long time after this episode ends, what do you wish that one thing
would be?
Lizeth Lanz: Oh, God. I asked that too, and I was thinking, “That’s such a good question.” Oh, put
on the spot. Um, so I think that one of the biggest things is just this—this idea that I—my reality
is not definitely the only reality. I think that’s a huge one, ’cause it opens you to the idea that
maybe it doesn’t have to be that way. Maybe there could be a way that I can enjoy more.
Because why are we here? Why are we here in this life, you know? Is it to work, or is it—or do we
work to have the things that we want? And by things, I don’t mean, like, physical things. I’m not
talking about the boat and the—the vacation. I’m talking about the experience that you’re going
to have with that boat or the experience that you’re gonna have in that vacation.
Because we don’t take anything else but those memories of how we felt in those moments, and
who we were with, and how we felt about them, and what we learned.
So just if—if there is something missing, if you, deep down inside of you, you feel like there’s
something missing, then there is. Just it—it—I don’t know. It’s maybe that’s where I’m at right
now. Like, I’m still trying to expand to something bigger, um, not that I’m trying to be something
bigger, but, like, in my—the search of ourselves, or in my search for myself, or—or trying to peel
those layers, I think there’s also—
There’s two images that come to my—like, the—the uncovering of—of some of the core, but
that chord in itself is expanding.
Viktoria Levenberg: Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm.
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah. It sounds weird. I—I say weird things sometimes.
Viktoria Levenberg: It does not sound weird. It’s—it’s more true than you realise, because a
powerful metaphor that I once heard, I think for the first time, was, like, a breathwork facilitator,
and they spoke about our—whatever you want to call it—healing, self-inquiry, self-realisation.
There are many words. They all point to the same thing.
This peeling of the layers, it’s like an onion with no core. You keep peeling, and the more layers
you uncover, the more layers there are to uncover. That’s just the journey.
And at the same time, I love this visual of the core expanding as well as sort of, like, this
thousand-petal lotus flower that’s so potent in—in Hindu culture, as an example.
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah.
Viktoria Levenberg: Of just—just, you know, just becoming. Just consciousness realising itself. And
I think I love that that’s part of your sort of big core reflection here, because it’s a testament to
the fact that the journey is infinite. Like, it just keeps on going.
And so how—the ability for you to collapse the timeline between what I want and what I have,
and actually enjoy more of the what you have right now, and feel the things you think the weight
or the career or the business or the ticked box or the accomplishment is gonna be—feel that
now. Like, that’s the trick.
Lizeth Lanz: Yes. Yes. And—and it—and it gets a little—that gets a little tricky too, because we are
so used to—kind of, not kind of—we’re used to, “I’m aiming for a goal.”
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm.
Lizeth Lanz: And once—and—and the whole—all the energy goes into getting there.
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm.
Lizeth Lanz: But when you realise that you—that goal, you’re—you’re searching for that goal
because it’s gonna make you feel this, and then you start to understand that you can feel this
right now—
Viktoria Levenberg: Yes.
Lizeth Lanz: —then where do you go?
Viktoria Levenberg: Yeah.
Lizeth Lanz: Where do you go? And that gets—gets a little tricky. But here’s the thing, and
someone told me this because I was recently in this spiral.
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm.
Lizeth Lanz: Um, there’s nowhere to go. You are exactly and perfectly where you need to be.
You’re just expanding.
Viktoria Levenberg: Who said that to you? Do you mind if I ask?
Lizeth Lanz: Oh my God. It was between two people, totally separate. Uh, Joey.
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh-huh.
Lizeth Lanz: And then, uh, Lennon.
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh-huh.
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah, I—I talked to both of them. It was so beautiful. It was so beautiful. Like, oh my
God, I wanna hug you from the distance.
Viktoria Levenberg: It is so funny that you say that as well, because I literally, um, just posted a—
my Q3 goal in our little community group, and the picture that I attached to that post—no
kidding, you can go and check it afterwards. This is wild. This is, like, quantum synchronicity.
The photo I attached to that post says, “You are exactly where you need to be.” So it is just so
funny that, like, it’s coming through. Is that—you—what is it? When you hear something once—
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah.
Viktoria Levenberg: —pay attention. When you hear something twice, take action.
Lizeth Lanz: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Viktoria Levenberg: Oh, wow. And speaking of being exactly where you need to be, um, if
someone wanted to get to know you a little bit better, work with you, hear your stories—you
mention you’ve got a podcast, etcetera—like, where can they find you?
Lizeth Lanz: Absolutely. So, uh, the podcast is called The Last Diet Experience.
Viktoria Levenberg: Mm-hmm.
Lizeth Lanz: And it’s on, um, Apple, Amazon, YouTube. YouTube’s a little lag, but, uh—and by lag, I
mean it has—It’s not up to date with the episode. So definitely, uh, Spotify, Apple, and Amazon.
Viktoria Levenberg: Uh-huh.
Lizeth Lanz: Um, and just if you wanna connect with me, um, on Instagram, @LizzieHabits.
Viktoria Levenberg: Amazing. Perfect. And I will make sure to link all of that up in the show notes
below so that people can connect with you, they can follow you, they can check out your work
and your programs and—and get at, like, closer into your world.
And with that in mind, I just wanted to say thank you, you know, so much for your presence and
for your energy and for the insights that you’ve shared, both from your personal experience, the
psychotherapist background of yours. I don’t know if you’re realising this, but it’s coming through
really strongly as well in a lot of what you do and how you express yourself through the world.
Um, so there’s probably a real golden nugget there for you. And just the change that you’re—
you’re helping cultivate in this world. I think we could all do with a bit of a better relationship
with ourselves, our bodies, and what better way to start that than through food? That is
something we all do every day. It is super easy, accessible, like super tangible, and, um, almost
like the ultimate starting point, um, to getting down into the core, as you framed earlier.
So thank you. Thank you for coming on.
Lizeth Lanz: You’re welcome. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me.
Viktoria Levenberg: Thank you for listening to this episode. I just want to acknowledge that I’m
super conscious, you know, food in itself is highly emotional. So the fact that you got to the end
of this episode is already, like, a big kudos to you and deserves a big nod of acknowledgement.
So well done. You, even just by listening to this episode, on a subconscious level, you are already
starting to transform your relationship with food and with yourself. So well done.
And, you know, I really love, ah, how Lizeth shared that her journey began with setting an
intention. And she shared the story of, like, her and her husband sitting down at New Year’s,
having their little tradition of setting goals for the year ahead.
And, you know, I think many of us do this. And the question is, though, and in the follow-through,
and, you know, the planning systems and frameworks that I teach really help bridge the gap
between that big life vision and the day-to-day reality.
But this really speaks to the power of a well-framed, aligned intention. And the goal of, “I wanna
feel fresh and youthful,” is so damn powerful. Like, that’s why I reacted so strongly to it when
Lizeth shared it.
Because, you know, “I wanna lose 10 kilos,” or, “I wanna have a six-pack,” like, that was on my
goal list for a long time. I still don’t have a six-pack. Um, I define a six-pack anyway. It doesn’t
matter. Anyways.
But, like, she got to the root of actually how she wanted to feel, and that’s when the
transformation started to happen. And this is, like, such a big hidden unlock that a lot of people
don’t understand in goal setting and—and achievement and success, is that it’s not actually
about the thing. It’s about what we think we’re gonna get inside when we get the thing.
And I felt inspired after this episode to record a little story for you that I think you’ll enjoy. So
anyways, you’ll—you’ll know what I mean. I’ll make sure to link it up to the show notes here
because I have a feeling in my air before this one.
And a few other nuggets that I wanted to, um, briefly speak to. So if you really felt inspired by
yoga being an act of kindness for Lizeth and kind of the conversation we had around movement
and feel like finding what works for you and your body, um, a while ago I recorded an episode
about movement and how to find the type of movement that truly aligns with the core essence
of who you are.
So I’m gonna link that up in the show notes for you as well. It’s a really great listen, and I think it’s
gonna help you reframe your perspective around what having a healthy body and a healthy
routine really means.
And speaking of, like, reframing what these things mean, balance. Oh my gosh. It is such an
overused word, both in the health and wellness and the work industry, in the business, in the
personal development space. Everyone’s like, “I want more balance,” and then it’s like people are
like, “No, I don’t want balance,” and you just—whatever side of the fence you’re on, um, it’s very
overused.
And so when Lizeth shared this perspective of balance being the swing of the pendulum in your
life, and the aim of the game being to navigate the extremity of the pendulum swing as gracefully
as possible so that you actually hit the middle more often, hit centre, hit balance more often, is
so damn powerful.
And so I would love for you to use that as your inspiration for this week’s little action step, which
is just journal on the possibility of another reality in your life, whether that pertains to your
relationship with food, with your body, movement, or anything else, like goals, business,
productivity, efficiency. Like, anything that’s really, um, permanent—permanent or pertinent, I
think is the word I’m looking for—in your life.
And so, you know, maybe if you’re like a lot of my clients, you have not enough time. Like, “I wish
I could have more hours in the day.” That’s something that I hear a lot.
Well, what would it be like to have all the time in the world to do everything you set out to do
and then have spare time left over? How would that person go about their day? What would they
choose to do? How would they move about the world? What would their life look like?
And I kid you not, just the power of asking those questions, of opening yourself up to the
alternative possibility, because there are people out there who live their life and like this. Like,
you don’t have to look very hard to find them.
And so I do encourage you to also kind of be like, “Oh, who in—in my life, whether it’s, you know,
in your inner circle or people you look up to or you follow, is like—who have already embodied
the lifestyle or this—they solve the problem that you’re looking to solve, effectively?”
And the reason this is so powerful as well, if you need, like, a little nerdy science background,
because that’s, like—I love me some nerdy science—is that that activates your reticular activating
system to filter your reality to find more of that in your life.
Because study after study after study has shown that we don’t form our beliefs as a result of our
life. In fact, it’s the other way around. We match the life, the reality we perceive, to be in
alignment with the beliefs that we already have, the preconceived ideas, conceptions, all the
things in our inner monkey mind that we think life is. That’s what then gets mirrored back to us.
Um, I recorded an episode on this a really long time ago. I’ll make sure to link that up as well, on
the reticular activating system. It is, like, so, so cool. So much more in that episode.
But really, this kind of plays into what I mentioned earlier around Kipling’s Law. If a problem well
framed is a problem half solved, a question well framed is a question half answered.
So start to play with this. I’m doing this myself right now. Every morning, I am journaling on,
“What would this person do today? What would they prioritise?” And the things that are coming
through and the polarity between what that person would do and what the old version of me
would do couldn’t be wilder and more illuminating.
So it’s a super powerful process. It is super simple. I highly encourage you to give it a try.
And so with that in mind, who would have thought that we would go straight from food all the
way down into the core of the essence of who you are? Well, that’s what Resonance is all about.
So thank you so much for tuning in.
The secret to fixing all of your weight, food, and body image issues isn’t in another fad diet, as
now you can clearly see. It is truly in aligning the core essence of who you are with the life that
you want to live right now.
So stay tuned because I really look forward to hopping on to Lizeth’s podcast and sharing some of
my stories about how I grew up being told that I was too skinny on one side of the family and I
was too big on the other, and diet culture and body image issues and stigma and stress eating,
emotional eating, living alone, and trying to figure this out on my own as a teenager.
There’s a lot of stories, actually, in this space that I actually have not shared publicly before. So,
um, you’ll get those on our little podcast episode with Lizeth.
So I’ll make sure to link that one up in the show notes as well once it’s aired. And in the
meantime, thank you for being here. Thank you for tuning in. And I look forward to seeing you
next week. Bye for now.
Viktoria Levenberg: If you’re a high performer or entrepreneur who’s got big dreams and you’ve
developed strategies to get you closer to those dreams, but you feel like there are also parts of
you self-sabotaging your success, I built something just for you.
It is my signature Achievement Archetypes quiz that is absolutely free, takes less than 2 minutes,
and it will give you instant feedback as to where your Achilles heel is. That is your natural self-
sabotaging behaviour when it comes to productivity, planning, efficiency, and organisation.
And it gives you your next right step and the solution you didn’t know you needed. You’ll find the
link in the show notes just below. Make sure you find your Achievement Archetype and let me
know what it is.
As a fellow achiever, I will be the first to put my hand up that I have now mastered my Achilles
heel, and I can’t wait for you to do the same.
Viktoria Levenberg: The views and opinions expressed by guest on Resonance are their own and
do not necessarily reflect the views of me, Viktoria Levenberg, LVNHealth, or anyone working
within the LVNHealth brand.
This space welcomes a diversity of ideas, experiences, and stories, and part of Resonance is
learning to take what aligns and gently leaving the rest.
Also, while I am a National Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coach and deeply passionate
about well-being, this podcast is intended for educational and inspirational purposes only.
Resonance does not substitute personalised medical, psychological, or therapeutic advice. Always
seek guidance from qualified professionals for any physical, emotional, or mental health
concerns.
