The Livy Method Podcast - Livy Method Day 46 - Winter 2025

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

Gina Livy's Facebook Lives from The Livy Method Winter 2025 Support Group hosted on Facebook. This is a recording of the Day 46, 9 AM live. You can find the full video hosted at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/livymethodwinter2025This episode is packed with real talk on what it takes to keep showing up for yourself. We’re looking at what happens when we indulge—no guilt, just learning, and why this week’s focus on downsizing (one more time) is more about mindset than meals. Those weekly tweaks? They’re there for a reason! Plus, the importance of sticking to the Food Plan, checking in on those non-scale victories, and embracing your set-point weight range as it shifts. Struggling with consistency? Let’s talk about what you can do. We’re also covering hydration habits, workplace food challenges, and making the best choices when options are limited. And if you’ve got questions about fasting or how natural sugars fit into the plan, Gina has got you covered. Let’s get into itTo 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. Good morning. It is day 46 of the program. It's also a Thursday. Man, this week is going by fast, probably because we had a long weekend here in Canada, just reading the comments and some people feeling ways about losing track or losing momentum on the weekend. You know a big part of this process obviously the focus is losing your weight but it's in

a way that you can maintain and sustain and how what you learn from how you choose to navigate your weekends and the choices that you're making honestly is of such value. So if you're looking at you indulge on the weekend and that has set you back, it's actually what you're learning from the choices that you're making is actually a massive benefit. You're either recognizing that you'll maybe in the moment you thought that those foods or those choices that you were making were going to be fun Or whatever in fact, that's what you want to do

You want to go back to those moments if you found yourself indulging and being like what was my mindset there? What was I thinking there? What why did I make that choice in the moment was I I was was I like life is way too short Or I'm with family and friends or I've had this reservation at this restaurant for six months and I'm just going to go and I'm just going to eat and I'm going to do whatever. Was it like, were you not thinking at all? Were you thinking, oh, I'll just deal with it later?

What was your thought process? Because if you've chosen the moment and you made a conscious choice and then now you're kind of regretting the choice that you're making, you wanna understand why you made that choice in the first place so you have a chance at not making that choice again. And then physically what was happening afterwards?

So what was your mindset like after you chose to make the choices that you made? Was it like regret? Why was it regret? Was it because of something physical, the way your body was responding to the choices that you made? Or is it mental, your mindset? Did you want to do better for yourself? Do you feel like what, how would you describe how you were feeling about the choices that you're making and why you made them in the

first place? So it's not, I'm not a fan of just letting things go. What I'm a fan of is understanding why I made the choices and then why I'm feeling ways about the choices that I've made and that will help me in the future make a different choice. So that's invaluable. Like that's like, that's, that's like really that is part of the program and the process because these long weekends, your vacations, your celebratory days, birthdays, whatever they're going to come around again and again and again and again. And one of the ways that you gain weight back is by falling back into old habits, right? You are, you are working through your habits and creating new ones that are going to support

your life. The other way is how you cope. And so someone can have lost their weight and lost a lot of weight and may have been maintaining just fine. And then something happens in their life that they've never encountered before or something really big. And they go back to old coping mechanisms. And so maybe your choices on the weekend aren't like the same as like if something major happened in your life, but all the little ways that you're learning to navigate and make choices that make you feel good,

they will pay off and make a big difference when those big times come. So if you're feeling ways, ask yourself, why am I feeling ways about the choices that I made? Why did I make those choices in the first place? So rather than letting it go, because if you just let it go, it's gonna come up again and again and again, right?

So it's a great opportunity to learn, great opportunity to learn. So we are downsizing again one last time. And so another few days and then we're done. And then we're going to implement a brand new tweak, which is really cool, because this week a lot of people are concerned I'm not eating enough food and I'm hungry and food waste.

There's a lot of issues and a lot of feels with this week because it most resembles like a diet. People are concerned. They're not eating enough. And so next week, what's really cool is we're going to bring it back to satisfaction for the first couple days of the week. So back to following up food plan, eating just enough.

So you walk away feeling satisfied. Then we're going to take the same portions that you were eating to satisfaction and split them in two. And then you're going to eat the first portion mindfully and assess how you feel at the end. Then you're going to wait 20 minutes half hour at most and then you're going to eat the second portion and if you're not hungry for it, which you probably won't be you're going to have just a token amount. So it's really amazing that when you take the portions and you split them in two and

you are you can for lack of a better word, you're allowed to have that second portion as opposed to downsizing where you need to leave some on the plate, how it completely messes with your mindset. And so you take people who've been trying not to eat and now you have to eat and it's really interesting because it's the same but different. So it's another way of getting

even more in tune to your portions. But when you-unquote allowed to have that second portion or you have to have that second portion You're gonna realize that even with your small portions. You're probably eating way too much food still anyway We I don't want to get into that tweak quite yet because we're not there But this is the last time we're gonna be downsizing We're gonna move on from it and always at the end of every week of downsizing, because we do too, people are always like, I could go back, I could do it again. So in this moment, just be all in for the next few days.

That's gonna be good enough, that's gonna be good enough. I dread the amount of time it will take. All the splitting up the meals. Yeah, people either love this tweak because they're like, this is such an effective tweak in what they learned, or they dread it. So this is constantly staying focused on all the things you need to do. It's very time consuming.

It's very inconvenient, but it's also really, really effective for a variety of reasons. So the splitting up the meals and snacks part just takes four days. And so one of the things that this this brings to light is the kind of lifestyle that you're living. If you're very restricted in your ability to eat, the amount of thought that goes into feeding yourself. I mean, there's a lot of thought that goes into feeding yourself because we don't know what the fuck to eat.

We don't even know how to eat to sustain our body size. We don't know how to eat to gain weight. We don't know how to eat to lose weight. We don't even know what to eat without counting and weighing and measuring. So this is a lot of effort put into paying attention to that and the way so that so put it this way, you could just do the basic tweaks and you'll lose your weight eventually. But the tweaks are designed to really fast track things. It's really, we're not fucking around. We're getting in there where, you know, we're bringing up the fields where we're seeing what you got going on in your life.

And so if you can't take this time, four lousy days to prioritize this, to reach a goal that is probably so important to you, that you've spent so much time and money and all those things on, if you can't do that for yourself, you might want to take a minute and say, okay, I want this so badly, but why can I not make the time?

Or why does it unnerve me to make the time to do something that is going to help me reach my goal? And so, but with that said, I know it's terribly inconvenient, but it's very effective. So you can just continue to follow the basic food plan if you don't want to do this tweak. But then you also have to be okay with the rate that the scale is moving at the end of the day.

Right? So we set the bar really high. If you just do half of the things, you're still going to be very successful. And so you don't have to split up all your meals and snacks. You can just split up some of your meals and snacks, but I don't want to get into that, but what I do want to do, do want to talk about is whenever you're reading over a tweak tweet like downsizing or splitting up emails and stacks or whatever we got coming down the pipeline, there's a

lot there in your thoughts and your feels. So what is it about that? That is like, what is it that is unnerving? I can't remember the word that you used. Um, thank you for sharing by the way, because a lot of people feel I've had people with this tweet be like, oh, you're trying to sabotage us and you're trying to whatever. I'm like, how would I try to sabotage someone signing up for my program? Makes no sense.

But it really causes a strong reaction in people. And this, this is because you take people who spend a lot of time dieting, trying not to eat, and now they have to eat. So if you have a very strong reaction mentally to it, chances are your boys can have a strong reaction physically to it, which is great, which is exactly what you want. But anyway, we're not there yet. We're not there yet. We're not there yet. This is round seven for me. Hi Ramona, dinner is usually at five in my house. If I miss a nut snack and I'm not hungry because I'm getting

dinner ready, is that okay? No, it's not. No, it's not. So everything is for a rhyme and a reason right? Everything is for and I don't care if it's your 25th program this is where it gets very hard to do just do the things that you need to do and so this is not about not being hungry this is about that routine and to scratch I know where you're going with this eventually when we're personalized the plan you have more flexibility to choose to not have meals and snacks not skip them choose not to have meals and snack because you're not hungry for them. But with there's a rhyme and a reason to the program and the process and it's all about routine routine is the foundation of change. And the reason I'm pretty strong on this because you're, because it's a slippery slope. It's a slippery slope.

Next thing you're missing this one, then you're missing that one. And it's all about your body comes to really love the routine. It loves that it's getting everything that it needs. And so you don't need a lot of if you're not hungry, just have a couple little nuts and seeds. So it's physically maintaining that routine so that when you do make changes to it, it's more effective. It's also mentally knowing that you're not quote unquote skipping, skipping.

You are literally just choosing not to have, um, uh, not to have a snack. This will also help you understand when you truly are not hungry or are hungry for something. And so let me read this again. Dinner is usually at five in my house. If I miss a snack and I'm not hungry because I'm getting dinner ready, is that, see that's the problem. If I miss my snack, so why?

So you're not prioritizing and taking time. And number two, if I'm not hungry. Well, if you're not hungry, you still wanna have a token amount, right? Because I'm getting dinner ready, is that okay? So never, ever, ever will I tell you it's okay to not follow the program because I'm not suggesting you do it to torture you.

I'm suggesting because if you are following the program, but I love that you asked, if you are following the program and I know what you are doing, then when things are happening to you, I can help advise you and my team on what is going on with you. And so this is,

and then what we're trying to teach you is how to figure it out on your own. And there might be a time every now and then where you just don't you just end up missing the snack because you just whatever you were out and about. You didn't have the snack, you know, the one off time that you did forget it is that obviously is not a big deal. But if you're asking because you're almost planning, I'm notry for my nutsack. Can I just skip it? And so with the rhyme the reason behind everything on the program

I've worked with so many people over the years that they're just like well, I just want to do this I just want to do that. I don't really need to do this I don't really need to do that and then it just it it's wishy-washy And this is not following and doing the things that you need to do and that never works out It's just never because what happens is people just end up kind of doing their own thing not understanding the the the rhyme and the reason and the layers To everything that they are doing at the end of the day And so I would what I would be mindful of this is like dinner Maybe if you if you have dinner at five o'clock

Maybe you might want to think about having dinner a little bit later if at five o'clock, maybe you might want to think about having dinner a little bit later. If that five o'clock, sometimes people just get stuck in their routine and eating dinner at five o'clock for whatever reason, maybe that's what you did as a kid. And maybe you might want to push that back a little bit and have dinner a little bit later. So if you skip a meal or snack every now and then is not a big deal, but you definitely wouldn't want to mess with the routine of that, if that makes sense.

Down four overall, I've added a lot of working out and my stress level is high, staying focused and taking all the little wins along the way. Six weeks in is a great opportunity to reflect on non-scale victories, like really taking the time and making it far beyond the scale. At this point, you should be racking up those non-scale victories. You should be seeing a lot going on, feeling a lot going on. Six weeks is enough time for your body to make change. 12 weeks is like full on change, but you should be feeling the things that you're

doing adding up and making a difference. Whether that's getting even more in tune. Whether is that you're dropping dress sizes, whatever those non-scale victories are. You should be keeping track. It's so important to recognize the things that you are doing and doing really well because you are more likely and inclined to continue to do those things. When you recognize there's a reward and a payoff

and then also when you take time to be proud of the things that you are doing, like consistency for example. I'm really proud that I've been really consistent in doing all the things I need to do for this long. Whether this is your first group or your like 10th group or whatever, you know. This is the worst week for me coming up. I love my work as a professor do for this long, whether this is your first group or your like 10th group or whatever, you know.

This is the worst week for me coming up. I love my work as a professor, but it means that I have no control over teaching and often teach over breakfast, lunch and snack times. I simply don't have time to do that. I think that we have to understand that sometimes this isn't a choice. I do the best I can and do it at the meals I can. Yeah, I love this. So this, some people are able to exercise every day

some people Can't even exercise at all because they have physical limitations some people can drink all their water and be hydrated every day some people have limitations and are only That can only drink a small amount of water some people can get a full night that can only drink a small amount of water. Some people can get a full night, glorious sleep, and somebody else is a shift worker who is, that's just not possible for them.

They just can't get any more sleep. They can work on getting better quality sleep. Thanks, Sonia. And so this is where everybody, this is where maximizing is really great. Maximizing is all those other things that you can do. And so maybe you can split up all your meals and snacks, but you can't exercise. Maybe you can split up all your meals and snacks, but you can't exercise.

Maybe you can split up all your meals and snacks, but you're a shift worker and you can't get that sleep. So maybe you're someone who can get the sleep, maybe you're someone who can move your body, but because of your job, you can only split up some meals and snacks. And so that's good enough. Even just splitting up a couple snacks per day

is good enough. And so this is why also following the food plan, and back to what I was just talking about, is so important because there are so many inconsistencies in our lives that we want to keep that routine as consistent as possible. Because then if your routine is off and then you're unable to exercise or workout, move your body, you're unable to get to sleep, you're unable to do this thing, you're unable to do that, then very quickly you're adding up more things. And this is all about making choices that fall in line with your goals.

And so every time you can't make those choices, the times that you can add up and make a big difference. So I love that mindset. Do the best you possibly can. Sometimes you're gonna feel like you're a rock star and you're crushing the program. Other times you're gonna feel like, oh my God, what am I even doing?

You just try to get that. I do wanna also,'ve noticed a couple of comments in this, in, uh, in the, in the question post today where people are saying they're having a hard time getting back on track. And so we use, obviously we use on track off track cause it's just, it's, you know, the, the, it's just a great way of summarizing where we're at. And if you feel like you are off, what I would suggest is just start with, start with the water and then start with breakfast. So get your breakfast in, get your water in. Next day, get your breakfast in your snack, get your water in.

Next day, get your breakfast in your snack and do whatever. Like try to kind of just kind of piece things together and be as consistent as possible. Um, cause sometimes if you're just, you're like I gotta get back at it and then you end up missing this or you can't do that. Just slowly pull the thing. Think of it as kind of pulling this, pulling this, pulling this, pulling this, pulling those things together.

And before you know it, you're gonna start feeling so much better. Because what happens at this point is you start to really notice how you're feeling and you start to feel pretty great and your body's loving what you're doing. So the downsides of feeling really great is that when you don't feel great you feel like really really off but it only takes a few days to get back to feeling how great you were feeling

because your body wants you to feel your best and so just think of it as pulling those things in. That's all. Trying to be as consistent. Each day you want to look better, feel better than you did the day before, and before you know it, you're gonna get right back on track. Because I know you can, but if you just focus on the things, try not to focus on the things that you can't do, try to focus on the things that you can do.

I might have asked this before, but if you stick with the basic food plan, will you still change your set point? Yeah, I mean your set point, that's just losing weight. Your body is not happy. So this goes back to the very first science, Saturday Post, where we outlined all the detriments to your body storing excess fat. Your body, no, can you be healthy at a larger size?

Yes, and skinny doesn't necessarily make you healthy either. However, with that said, every extra pound of fat causes inflammation and is problematic for your body. Uh, and then you can go back and read that science post. And I don't dwell on that. I don't dwell on how not like, it's just not good for you to, for your body to carry excess. But I don't, I don't like to go there because it is what it is, right? You're carrying the weight, whatever it is, whether it's 12 pounds or 220 pounds, it is what it is and there's no going back So we just got to move forward so I tend not to focus on that

But the reality is it's not healthy for you to carry excess fat And so the body doesn't want the fat any more than you do So why is it holding on to it? this is why routine is really important and it's holding on to it because For a variety of reasons it could be difficult for your body to focus on fat loss If you have on top of carrying excess weight inflammation right food sensitivities digestive you know gut issues like this is why probiotics is like there's a real there's a lot of research behind that and

you may think they're who we and you don't need them but if your weight isn't dropping right it could be what's going on with your microbiome because your your body's the way your body works is that there's messages. Your body's very smart. It communicates, figures out where to put what, what to do with what. And so if that communication is messed up because you've got a lot of inflammation, that's going to make things slower for you. And so this is where those four reasons why your weight might be slower to move, the inflammation, the food sensitivities, you keep consuming something that your body is sensitive to. It's going to cause inflammation, right?

Your microbiome, right? If your microbiome is off, it's going to dampen the messaging and cause inflammation and then hormones, right? And hormones is another big one. And so it's all about figuring out why is your body feeling you need to store fat and then, and then giving it in the big part of a lot of people's the reason why their body feels need to store fat is because they have been dieting and starving and depriving. And so your body adapts to its environment.

And if you're in an environment where you're constantly starving being starved, meaning your body just understands there's not enough food, your body's trying to keep you alive. And in order to continue to keep you alive, it learns that you constantly utilize fat reserves by way of starving and depriving. And so it stores first chance it gets, it takes all the food that you are consuming, no matter what calories, no matter how good it is for you,

and will store it all as fat. And the other thing that's happening is every time you, every time you have starved and deprived yourself, you've probably lost a lot of muscle mass, and where your body chooses to store that fat. And so your glycogen, so your body breaks your food down into glycogen, your glycogen gets stored in your liver, in your muscles, and then in your fat.

If you don't have that muscle mass anymore, it gets stored in your liver, in your muscles, and then in your fat. If you don't have that muscle mass anymore, it gets stored in your fat. And that's why as we get older, we tend to gain more weight. It's not because our metabolism slows. We know that our metabolism does not actually slow down as we get older. It's slowed down because you are inactive. It slows down because you don't have the same muscle mass.

It slows down because you are high stress because of the other reasons. And this is why this is about giving the body what it needs so it can repair and rebuild and regenerate and rejuvenate and increase your metabolism again. This is why doing resistance training is really important to build and maintain that muscle mass so your body when you do consume foods can allocate that glycogen elsewhere besides your fat. And so this is why, why is your body feeling

this need to store fat? Obviously things like inactivity, not getting enough sleep, stress, all those things. And so this is where the program works for everybody from when you're following the basic food plan and making the tweaks each week, but you have to figure out what is the thing that you are dealing with. And so your set point is just the weight that week, but you have to figure out what is the thing that you are dealing with.

And so your set point is just the weight that your body has come accustomed to or homeostasis has created a baseline. And so for people who have gained weight and gained weight and gained weight and gained weight, their baseline is really high. And that's not healthy for your body, but that's where your body feels like

it needs to keep you in order to keep you alive because you keep starving yourself every however often. And so this is where giving your body what it needs is so important. And for some people that takes their body a little bit longer to trust what consistency is so important. And so as you drop weight, you have a plateau. Your body adjusts your new set point as you lose weight. You have a plateau. Your body adjusts your new set point. As you lose weight, you have a plateau, your body adjusts your new set point. As you lose weight, right, you have a plateau, your body adjusts your new set point.

It's where you want and need plateaus. Then when you reach your goal weight, then when you reach your goal weight, you have to put yourself on a self-imposed plateau. And this is why you wanna do the maintenance program, because you want to allow your body to adjust to the weight that you've lost. And the more you can stay at that weight and allow your body to adjust to that weight before you fall back into old habits or start

at challenging it by doing this and doing that, you just want to allow the body time to adjust to your new weight. So there's three reasons why people gain weight back. They don't put time into solidifying their weight, helping their body adjust to that new plateau, that new set point. So you're sticking at that set point to allow your new weight to become your new norm, to become your new set point. And then it just, that's where your body is happy. That's where your body adjusts. So whether it's high or low, your set point is your set point. And then the other reason is situational change. So you don't adapt to things, don't adapt to things going on in your life. Your stress levels go up and you don't address that.

Right. And falling back and not being mindful and falling back into old habits. That's a big one as well. So, so your set point is just where your body's created homeostasis and it's really important to have this way. Everyone wants to lose weight, lose weight, lose weight, but it's really important to have those plateaus to give your body time why everyone wants to lose weight, lose weight, lose weight, but it's really important to have those plateaus to give your body time to adjust to your new weight,

adjust your blood flow, adjust your body temperature, adjust your hormones, adjust the size of your heart. If you've lost a lot of weight, it's as say you lose 60 pounds, 80 pounds, well your heart had originally grown to sustain the size of your body with 80 extra pounds on it.

So when you lose 80 pounds, guess what? Now your heart needs time to adjust to the size that you are now. So people, it's something that people don't think about when they want to lose weight quite quickly. And so, and so, um, your set point is basically your question anymore, but, um, I can't remember what the question was, but anyways, that's your sub point. Let's take a minute to hear from our podcast sponsor today because this new year, why not let audible expand your life by listening kind of like what you're doing right now.

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I bought a 10 pound weighted vest for walking yesterday. I was shocked at how heavy it feels. Right? Right. Oh my goodness. Yeah, huge realization about how much stress and exertion the weight I still have to lose. Yeah.

Yeah. And this is why at this point, you know, a couple things are happening. You're dropping weight and you're giving your body what it needs. So your body is giving you more energy. And so this is where you'll start to feel like you have more energy, which is a great time to start adding in exercise. Great time. Saw my doctor last week, blood tests revealed. I am no longer diabetic or pre-diabetic. He was pretty astounded. Let me read that again, because these are the

best on scale victories. Saw my doctor last last week and this is like where people don't realize the change that's happening internally. Saw my doctor last week. Blood tests revealed I am no longer diabetic or pre-diabetic. He was pretty astounded all thanks to Gina and my personal trainer and me showing up. Yeah, I see you. I tested at the high pre-diabetic or low diabetic level in August. My blood sugar dropped a whole point. Yeah. And so this is like another reason for us to get into into those portions is it's tied into the amounts of insulin your body is used to needing to use to figure out where to put all that excess. And so this is this is why yes yes, you wanna still follow

the food plan where you're eating often, but you're spreading that food out. So it's helping to lower your blood sugar levels and it's helping to minimize the amounts of insulin your body is used to having to use. Unfortunately, it's noisy on site and I miss hearing the reminders. I used to just plow through until the job is done and stopping and making an effort

this time to not feel guilty for taking two minutes to stop and take some water and have a late snack. I remind myself it's okay to stop and eat. The Libby program is helping me be okay with eating. I'm down silver pounds since the start of this round, so I guess I'm doing something right. I'm down silver pounds since the start of this round. So I guess I'm doing something right man, you know, and this is sort of where This is sort of where you might realize that the way you live your life is a little messed up the way we live our lives.

Sometimes it's a little messed up. So first of all, if you're someone who goes long periods of time without eating and your body helps you with that because if you are really focused on something your body's like, oh, she's really focused on something. Let's just let her like maybe she's trying to catch our food or something in the way our body works on a very primitive level. And so your body will support your focus. The problem is we're not supposed to be focused all day every day.

And if your body has told you in the past that it's hungry and you have ignored those cues, then that's just a recipe for waking gain going all day long without eating, which is probably why your body's felt to need to store fat. And so you have to continually give it what it needs. And a lot of people don't realize that because we've been taught just eat less and away you go. But this is something that, like I remember I've worked with some pretty high powered people and I remember having a couple clients that are like, well what am I going to sit there and eat my, I don't

know why I'm making that voice, but they were guys so I guess that's my man voice. No disrespect for any guys. I have a lot of voices. But they would be like, are you really expecting me to eat my carrots? In a boardroom meeting. And I like yeah I am well I can't just sit there and drink my water and eat my carrots I'm like why you're taking time to fuel your body like what is why wouldn't you do that I said you would not order like if it's you had a long meeting do you order food yeah we ordered sandwiches we order

whatever I said okay yeah and everyone sits there and eats or they eat the pizza whatever and then they're tired afterwards and everyone complains Oh, they eat too much and they're full. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like how productive is that? Right. He likes and so you're trying to have a meeting and people are just focused on the fact they've overeaten and they feel full Now they're tired and eat a nap. I said like that's not very productive and I've had companies change The way they the food that they provide for their, for their team in meetings, um, over this. And so this also a situation, it's like hospitals, hospitals have the shittiest food and why

like that hospitals where you need the most important food, people are stressed whether it's someone waiting for someone who's in the hospital, they're stressed, they need good nutrient rich foods. And what do we, and they have access to just, right? Same thing with being in the hospital, doesn't make a lot of sense. If you have a job, for example, like let's take teachers, for example, and child obesity rates are climbing, right? And so this is why snacks are really important for kids and healthy nutrient-rich foods and We are in a diet culture and what would be better than seeing your teacher eat an apple for fruit snack

See your teacher eat some vegetable snacks sticks like that classroom is their home. They're there all day. There should be more flexibility Finally, they're able to bring water like when I was a kid You couldn't bring a water bottle into class. Like crazy. And so, so things are changing. And so this, you might be recognizing your own, the way you are functioning in your job. It's like, this is fucked up. I don't even have time to eat. So now there are ways around it, right? Now if you're at work and you tell someone you have explosive diarrhea, you're gonna be able to go to the bathroom. And so maybe this is where every morning at fruit snack time, you have explosive

diarrhea and you take your, you go to the bathroom and take your fruit sack. Whether it's a Willis away. Now, obviously we have to learn how to adapt to our environment and make sure we're giving our body what it needs because the reality is for some people who have jobs are very restrictive in like being unable to. My one of my daughter's old boyfriends, for example, used to be a crane operator. And so when you're a crane operator, you're not coming up and down to go to the bathroom. So obviously drinking water, if you're a crane operator is problematic, but try to get in where you can. So this is what this is about. This this is the this this inconvenience, for example, are're not being able to do the things that you want to do

Why can't you do them? Is there any workarounds taking a look at your lifestyle and the choices that you can make because what you're doing your lifestyle that you were living Created what was going on with your weight? Let me say that again the lifestyle that you were living created what was going on with your weight It's more than just the fact that you were I haven't had a client in ever that just gained weight because of what they were eating. And so now this is a matter of working through those habits and that way of living and creating a new lifestyle

that's gonna support how you wanna look and how you wanna feel. And so if it's unnerving and feels like you need to make change, it's probably because you need to make change, right? probably because you need to make change. Right, so, but then this comes down to, sometimes you can't do all the things. But you can do all the things that you can do,

and that adds up, and that's gonna make enough. How important is it to sip and not guzzle water? I like to get 1.6 liters in before 6 a.m., and at 6.15, sipping doesn't seem to fit my lifestyle. I know sometimes it feels temporary bloated. Yeah, so you don't you absolutely don't. Although your body is very capable of consuming a lot of water, you really don't want to be drinking more than a liter per hour

because that can really mess with your electrolytes which in low sodium levels, which is very problematic. We have a whole post on low sodium. So it's pretty important. It's pretty important. You can let you can land yourself in the hospital. Not to be like fear-mongering or over dramatic, but there's obviously if you're a certain age group, if you take medications, if you have a job that you're exerting yourself,

it can be problematic if you're drinking too much water in a short period of time. And so that's also not hydration. That's not how your body's hydration works. I wish you could just I that's very similar. Drinking all your water in a short condensed period of time is like saying I'm just going to eat all my food this morning for breakfast for the whole day and then I'm going to go the whole day without and when your body is dehydrated,

it's really impacts your body's ability to focus on fat loss. So it is important to sip on it throughout the day and you don't have to like. And then 10 minutes later sip again. If you feel more thirsty at other times, then you can drink more water, but you definitely want to spread it out throughout the day. You definitely want to spread that out.

This is going to help with the moving the dial on the scale and and you can't drink all your water. It's just like you can't eat a big breakfast and have it last year longer. You can't drink all your water and It's just like you can't eat a big breakfast and have it last you longer. You can't drink all your water when sitting and have it last you longer. What to eat if you are at work and can't have dinner and you have eaten all your meals and snacks and you are very hungry. I don't know.

Like I don't know why you have accessible to you. This would be a great opportunity to pop into the group and ask one of our team members because't know why you have accessible to you. This would be a great opportunity to pop into the group and ask one of our team members, because depending on what you have available to you. And there are times maybe where it's just crap and you don't wanna have whatever it is, bag of chips and whatever, so you just choose not to have dinner.

Maybe when you get home later, you can have a small little snack if you're actually really hungry. And this is where you want the components. This is where you wanna look for some protein, some, if you can't always get leafy greens, right? So if this is where you go through a drive-through and you can pick up a salad, add some extra protein on it, whatever it is, or if they only have wraps, pick up, just ditch the wrap part and eat the inside part. So if you want to be

sort of specific and put in options, but you're looking for the components that you need. Protein, leafy greens, healthy fats, if you need any sort of vegetables in there. So that's the combination you're looking for. So try to incorporate that after. Facebook has been glitchy over the last couple of days, you guys, and how Facebook is every now and then. Usually it sorts itself out within a couple of days. Not sure food in hospitals are bad. Dietitians in Canada, food guide followed. Oh, well, here we go.

I'm going to have to go now because don't get me started on the Canada food guide. Are you for real? Okay. Let's go back. Now, listen, the Canada food guide has come a long way. Also dietitian. Okay. Yeah. Okay, I should

not even go there. Okay, also I don't know if you've spent a lot of time in hospitals. I have spent a lot of time in hospitals. My ex-husband, as you know, he died almost two years ago. And before that, spent an excessive amount of time in hospitals. He was on dialysis. He was quite sick, he almost died many years ago. And I once spent a month in the hospital with sick kids with my son. Where actually the food there for kids was pretty decent. And so, and I'm not just talking about people

in the hospital, I'm talking about, there's a Tim Hortons there, that's great. You can get bagels, you can get, you know, and maybe this depends on where you live and your money You got if you're going to private hospital or whatever Most hospitals the food is not great And I think there's many healthcare workers that would agree that your access to the food the food that's being made in the cafeterias The food that it's accessible to you on the go. There's a lot of vending machines and in my experience working with healthcare workers

They're probably the most unhealthiest of people because they live in a high stress, they do a high stress job. They are never take the time for themselves to eat. And I've seen it sitting in emergency rooms where literally if someone sits down for something to eat, someone immediately is like asking them for something. So even if they do find time to eat. They are not sitting in a calm place trying to be in tune to their needs and the food there is crap and so this is it's like almost saying like let's just also agree that the food in our cafeterias for our kids is also really is not that bad. Okay so if you're lucky enough to have a hospital that serves gourmet food, great.

But I think this is where you need to understand the reality of the situation. If you consider that food great, then probably you need to eat more vegetables in your diet. Also dietitians, and so I wanted to talk about the Canada Food Guide as well. So the Canada, and Canada Food Guide is one of the reasons why I actually didn't go to school to become a dietitian, because I realized the Canada Food Canada food guy is one of the reasons why I actually didn't go to school to become a dietitian because I realized the Canada food guide was shit. 12 servings of grains. 12. No fats.

No fats. No focus on proteins. That we now know science has told us that our Canada food guide was crap and problematic. And so 12 servings of grains. You know what I would love? I would love for you and everybody who wants to follow the Canada Food Guide to go and do that and then talk to me about your weight. It's gotten a lot better, but if you take it back 20 years, and the Canada Food Guide

is very political. So here's my issue with the Canada Food Guide if you guys want to know, or you probably don't, but it's very political to make changes in schools. It's very political to make changes in hospitals. It's very political to make changes with our Canada Food Guide as well. And for the life of me, I don't know what the fuck took them so long, because it's political. That's what took them so long to make changes in the food guide,

where it affected people. And so in Canada, if we have a surplus of grains, what are we doing? We're bumping up the amount of grains that we need to. And so for all the brightest minds in Canada, we can't decide on what the human body needs to eat in order to sustain and maintain our weight. And we don't. You want to know why? Because people who are creating the Canada food guide, the people really in charge of

that aren't the dieticians. they're not the dieticians. So anyways, welcome to my Ted talk. Welcome to my Ted talk. Welcome to my Ted talk, oh my goodness. I'm curious, Gina, what are my thoughts about fasting? Your thoughts about fasting, oh my God. Okay, so I gotta go after this. I'll talk about fasting. So I think fasting can be wonderful and it's a great tool.

It's got a lot of health benefits for a variety of reasons. What happens to your cells in a cellular function when you go into a fasting is actually pretty interesting there. Fasting, though, however, as a diet in order to lose weight, it's just, it doesn't work. Because the way people are fasting I'm in Ottawa right now. There's a bunch of I don't know what's going on. We're actually right beside the Parliament

So so fasting has its health benefits but fasting as a as a weight loss method is problematic because people it's too closely tied to starving and depriving yourself and It's just eating less or trying to go all day without eating. So probably many of you listening right now, for example, used to go long periods of time without eating, and how has that worked? Like, dieting essentially has been fasting, the way that I have known people and myself to diet. I'm going to go all day long and not eat.

I'm going to see how long I can go and not eat, and eat less and exercise even more. So in that sense, it's not really an effective weight loss tool, although there are health benefits to it. And so I think if you're doing about a fasting, so if you're doing like a two day fast or whatever that might be for the sake of like,

you know, clearing your cells and the benefits that fasting can give you, I think that can be a benefit. I know Ramadan, I think, is coming up too, and so that's sort of a more religious fast. If you've got any questions about that, you can let me know. So more and more science is coming out,

and I've been telling people not to eat after dinner for a long time. And it's not that your metabolism is slightly slower in the evening, but the problem with eating in the evening is that it messes with your sleep and your body's ability to repair, rebuild, and regenerate, rejuvenate while you are fasting at night.

So breakfast is break fast. That's where breakfast comes from, is break the fast. And so your body does its own kind of fasting at night. And we've talked to Dr. Beverly about this, what's happening with the psychology of your brain and what's happening with your body. So throughout the night, your body's kind of cleansing itself through its fast. And so the better health benefits that you get when you do these longer fasting is happening every night in your body and your brain as you sleep.

And so that's the fast. And so we know that when it gets dark outside, your body starts producing melatonin, right? The change of the light and Depending what time you get up in the morning, right? And the rise of your cortisol in the morning and the fall of your cortisol in the evening as your melatonin increases It sets the stage for your body to go into a fasting mode And so that's why you don't want to eat after dinner and mess that up because it's so important because that's when your body makes Change and so I do believe in the benefits. Absolutely we

know this even though you could still eat chips after dinner, you can have snacks after dinner and not gain weight, there is still a benefit to not eating after dinner in the evening just health-wise. And so if you want to not eat after dinner when it gets dark, right, and then the next day you don't need breakfast. We were taught that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but it's not the most important meal of the day. It does break the fast.

So this is why if you're choosing to have breakfast and go high protein is super beneficial because you're breaking the fast and you're doing it with protein, which doesn't cause your insulin levels to go up. And so we know the benefits of having protein first thing in the morning to break the fast. But it's not like when you wake up

if you eat something and you go do something you're not using the energy from the food. You're using the energy that your body stored the previous day. So this is why you can choose not to have breakfast. So for a certain hour window, but the fact that people call that fasting This is why you can choose not to have breakfast. So for a certain hour window, but that's, the fact that people call that fasting

is a little bit ridiculous because it's just how we should live. If you eat throughout the day, you get tired at night, the last thing your body's interested in doing is eating. We wanna eat in the evening because we're watching TV or we're on our phone or we're still up or we're doing whatever. But or we're still up, or we're doing whatever. But if we were just living primitively

in which our bodies still function, we wouldn't be wanting to eat at night when it's dark. And then we would just sleep, and then we would wake up, and then as soon as we get hungry again, we would start to eat. So the word fasting in general has just overcomplicated, and then people's twist on fasting to as weight loss has become problematic.

So those are my thoughts. So you could say on the living method, you are doing a kind of fast by not eating after dinner. But this is why it's very important if you don't get breakfast in that you've got to replenish your glycogen stores otherwise your body is going to start dipping into fat sources we want to replenish those glycogen stores and get that fruit snack there in the morning so the problem with people is they want to fast until like one

o'clock in the afternoon and then they want to have a larger window to eat so they can push it later into the evening which just doesn't make any sense because it just doesn't jive with your body So there there you go. And that's how I feel about fasting Sucks for weight loss health benefits, but sucks sucks for weight loss. So it's really lost. Okay, I gotta go. Um Kids can eat snacks with some teachers now during class. Yeah, I love that. I love that. I love that Do I have to stop adding maple syrup to my yogurt? It's my only sugar in the day. I don't know as long as you're not complaining about what's going on in the scale. If you're adding your maple syrup, you want to go higher protein.

There's so much research. You don't want to be adding sugar. You don't want to be adding any sugar, but also, I don't know. As long as you're happy with what's going on in the scale, that's fine. Some people adding blood sugar, you know, where they're messing with their blood sugar and adding in extra sugar, that's problematic for them. Other people can handle more or less.

So if you're happy with what's going on in the scale and you're adding some maple syrup to your yogurt, there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that. Just make sure you're focusing on protein. So along with, if you're having a yogurt, along with adding in the maple syrup, you wanna add in some protein, some nuts and some seeds

and something in there to bump up that protein value. I gotta go guys, thanks so much for joining me. I will be back tomorrow, so week six downsizing, make sure you're all in. This is where it is. This is the conversations that we're having, right? Just show up. Do what you need to do.

As long as you keep showing up, you can't mess it up. You'll be a success story. You're here now, week six. Chances are you're gonna be here at the end. So it's just a matter of every day trying to make as many choices as possible that fall along with your goals. Have an amazing rest of your day.

Heads up on the menopause add-on. So we're restarting. We did some posts today to let you know. We've had people asking again. We kind of made it a self-legged course, but we're gonna run you through the six weeks. So if you're interested, that starts on Monday. Head over to our website, genelevieivy.com. Um, otherwise have a

fantastic day and I'll see you later. Bye. Let's take a minute to hear from our podcast sponsor today because this new year, why not let audible expand your life by listening kind of like what you're doing right now. So you can explore audio books, podcasts, even exclusive audible originals that are no doubt going to inspire you, but more so motivate you. All you have to do is open up the app, tap into your well-being, and you can hear advice and get insight from leading influencers, experts and professionals. Whatever your focus really or interest, there's a listen for you. You can find titles on better health like personal fitness or maybe some relaxation. You can hear ways to improve your relationships both in your work and personal life or what if you're looking to embark on a new career strategy or maybe you want to overhaul your financial

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