The Livy Method Podcast - Livy Method Day 54 - Fall 2024

Episode Date: November 1, 2024

Gina Livy's Facebook Lives from The Livy Method Fall 2024 Support Group hosted on Facebook. This is a recording of the Day 54, 9 AM live. You can find the full video hosted at:https://www.facebook.com/groups/livymethodfall2024Topics covered:When you have sugar you want more sugar - Don’t keep indulging - Have it and move on!Food associations and social situations Everything we are doing is factoring into your end-gameReasons why the scale can be upSplitting your meals and snacks tweak is super effectiveIs food addiction a real thing? We’ll talk about this with an expert next weekPortions and how much food you don’t need - The volume of food isn’t as important as the nutrient valueDon’t compare yourself to others when it comes to portions - be in tune with your own needsTrust yourself and what your body is telling you it’s needsLet’s normalize not wanting to indulge Creating new traditionsReflecting on indulging - Are you berating yourself? Learning to rewire your brainThe little choices you’re making are all adding upSit in the uncomfortableness of not giving into the habit of giving into sweet treats and reflect on what you’re body is communicating with youThe big picture is losing your weight in a way that you’re calm around foodHow do you want to feel? Ask yourself - “How’s this working for me?”The app is more than a trackerYou can have just as much fun without indulgingSo many great conversations we had this week!To learn more about The Livy Method, visit www.ginalivy.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Gina Livy and welcome to the Livy 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 re-listen 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. Hello, hello. It is day 54 of the program, also the day after Halloween. Did you have fun last night? Did you eat all the things, all the candy? How are you feeling today? We had a bit of a Halloween party. Man, was it fun. Hence why I did not check in this morning, although I did not drink. I'm still on my not drinking thing. Feeling pretty fantastic today. I had a few like fun bites of bits. Not the usual, like not the usual, the candy bars and whatever, but we had some fun like party types of food. So I indulged, feeling a bit salted up today. I've got a lot of water in. So the worst thing you can do with the Halloween stuff is keep it going. So have it Halloween. If you yesterday, today, shut her down. When you have sugar, you want more sugar. So you got to watch that. And then adding that little bit in every day, that's, that's going

to be problematic. Having it all in one go and then being done with it. Totally fine. That's what Halloween is for. Uh, we had so much candy. We didn't get a lot of kids. I hear some people got hundreds. We didn't get a lot. So we were trying to like, Tony was trying to send the candy out of the house at the end of the day. I don't know what we're going to do with it. Donate it. It's always a great idea too. I don't know.

But don't keep indulging in it. That's problematic. All those insulin spikes. Not to be dramatic about insulin, but you want to be mindful of that. So in it. That's problematic. All those insulin spikes, not to be dramatic about insulin, but you want to be mindful of that. So have it, move on from it. And this is why we got to navigate these times because Halloween is going to keep coming. Christmas is coming, holiday season, then you got, you know, all the holidays where you're going to find yourself indulging. Life is too short to not enjoy them. Honestly,, life is too short to not enjoy them. Honestly, life is way too short to not enjoy them. You don't want to be stressing around food,

but it's a great idea to maybe take stock of how you are feeling and be like, oh, okay, when I eat that, this is how I feel. And this is part of the association. So you create associations to food as you go. When you think of something like food, what do you think of? That's fun, that's yummy, that's whatever reminds you of something. The concept of comfort food, for example, comes from when we tend to overindulge in yummy, delicious food, it tends to be in social situations where there's lots of love and friends and family and we're chatting, we're having a great time and we're laughing and that makes us feel really good. And so it's not that it's a bad thing to associate certain foods, like the smell of something reminds you of something or you taste some good homemade food that reminds you of

someone who cooks something similar that you loved in your life. And so there's nothing wrong with that. But sometimes it's that association where we think food is going to do something for us that it doesn't actually do. And then the problem is, is the berating afterwards. And that's the problematic part is that we associate something as fun, and then we berate ourselves for hours afterwards, then we punish ourselves the next day, right? So we want to make new connections and associations with our food. And that's that's part of the process along the way. Moving on wasn't feeling great, ate a bit off plan, but had too many KitKat bars, and they tasted kind of like plastic. Yeah, right? You thought, Oh, my gosh, these are so delicious. And then you're like, huh, your taste buds are also changing to. You'll notice that the foods that you thought were kind of, you know, good.

I had, I love coffee crisp. I had two last night. They did not appeal to me. I guess I'm changing my mind. So exactly, you're changing your association to these foods that you realize maybe aren't so yummy and aren't like, don't taste great and don't make you feel good. Like that's, and this is how we rewire, not just how our bodies come to function in this process, but rewire how our brain has come to function as well. Just returned from a 17 day trip to Italy,

bucket list trip. Love that. Got on the scale and actually down three pounds. Can we just talk about this? Exactly. Did a lot of walking. You probably indulged in some delicious foods. And so it's not the foods that you're having in these moments. It's not the foods that you're eating on vacation. It's not the foods that you're eating during these holidays. It's your every day. Usually it's lack of, um, lack of sleep, high stress, you know, long periods of time without eating the, the indulging and then starving and depriving part of it. Right. Like that's, that's the part that's problematic. That's the part that's problematic. All right, let's get into some of your questions today. See what you got going on here. Good morning. Uh, proud of myself from not even caring to have any treats. Yeah. Like everything that we're doing is factoring into the end game,

which is you having lost your weight and feeling really calm and confident about being able to maintain your weight and just being in tune to your body's needs. And I want you to be able to be surrounded by all of your favorite foods and be like, yeah, you know, I'm good. I don't need it. I had it before. Know what it tastes like. Not really interested.

Or, oh, I'm going to have some. This is delicious. Maybe you finish it. Maybe you don't. That's it. That's it. No stuff happening in your brain afterwards, right? Like that's where we want to get to.

Hi, Michelle. Good morning. After a steady decrease in weight the past two weeks, today was my first increase. I know it was the sugar last night and a rushed dinner without hitting all the points. So high sugar, inflammation, stuff like that can have your weight up. Could be not getting enough water in. It could also just be that bounce back where you see that scale go down low, low, low, low, low, and then you'll see it come up for a bit and then it might stay there and then it's going to drop back down to your lowest low. So your lowest low is always a low. I wasn't expecting an increase, so it wasn't a shock. I was expecting an increase, so it wasn't a shock, but definitely helps build new associations that will help in the

grand scheme of things. Got my walk in this morning, a good protein filled breakfast and lots of water. And I know being back on the plan will get me back on track quickly. Yes, exactly. Happy Friday. Hope everyone has a great weekend. So here we are rolling into the weekend too, right? So just because you indulged last night or Halloween doesn't mean that you have to blow off your whole weekend, right? Well, fuck it. I ate all the stuff Halloween. Let me keep it. Let me keep that process going. So you can already feel the energy of that. Let's just say for shits and giggles, you decide to do that. And let's, let's fast forward to how we're going to feel on Monday. Let's get out of our heads, get into our bellies and think if we're going to keep this process going, how's that? How are we going to feel on Monday? Right? How are we going

to feel on Monday? A down point to this morning, which is shocking to me is last night I indulged in pizza, candy, and red wine. So the force is strong with the Libby method and with momentum and with the shit you're doing every single day that adds up and makes a big difference when your body decides, and this is why it's not food. Like it's not like those indulgences necessarily that are going to hold you back because it's all the stuff that you're doing day in, day out that will add up. And once that body decides to release that fat, it's going to go for it. And it's hard to interrupt that process.

You really have to do a number on yourself. And one night of indulging is not going to do anything. So today, what you want to do, and this is why, after you indulged yesterday, you don't want to pull back, scale back, starve yourself, deprive yourself today. You want to just let your body know, like, hey, today's another day. All this good nutrient-rich food is going to continue to come in. We don't need this fat that makes us fat. Carry on.

Let's go. And you'll hear this more and more and more because we are at the point in the program where your efforts are truly adding up and you're really building on that momentum. You'll hear so many people say, well, I indulged this weekend and my weight is down today. What gives with that? Well, what gives is all the hard work you're putting into it day in, day out is what is really what's making the big difference, right? So this is why we never, ever, ever blow off your whole day because a few bites of bits,

your whole weekend because of a few bites of bits, right? Last night went out for our traditional Halloween walk with three friends, kept it up after our kiddos didn't need us to trick or treat anymore. Oh, I love that. Took my peppermint, chocolate peppermint tea and no treats wanted or needed. Oh, I love that. I love, I, I love Halloween. So we had our first Halloween party last night. It was so fun. I can't even tell you. I remember my parents going to Halloween parties and I've wanted to have one for like years and years and years. Um, but more fun than that was just seeing all the, I don't know.

It's great. You see the people in the neighborhood. The kids are so excited. I love everything about it. I love that you got out and went for a walk because that's one of the things that I was like, oh, I'd love to be out there. The kids all went out. All my teens went out.

And I was like, what's it like out there? Is it fun? What's going on? So I love that you went for a walk. I love that. Got two Kit Kat bars for my mom yesterday. Nostalgia. Yeah. Right. Like this. And there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with nostalgia. There's nothing wrong with, I love, um, I love a good crunchy bar. The ones with the, with the top is a crunchy, the one with the toffee in the inside. Like I'm very particular about my chocolate bars. I like the one, but damned if I couldn't eat the whole thing.

Like I couldn't. I was just so sweet. All the like toffee was like in my teeth. And I was like, oh my God, this thing's like, but it didn't stop me. Didn't stop me from breaking, opening one up and breaking a piece off. You know, I was like, and I'm not wasting it because I'm not putting it in my body and eating the whole thing. I got a lot of enjoyment, a lot of nostalgia out of that one. For sure.

You know what I love, though, and nobody gave out? What I love, and I know this is very polarizing, I love the traditional Halloween, like chewies, the one that comes in the hat. They don't, they've changed the formula. So it's not the same, but you know, the, the chewy Halloweeny, the ones that dentists love, um, with the Halloween wrappers on it, the chunks of like toffee. Those are my favorite. Those are my favorite. Those are my favorite. Those are my favorite. Best Halloween following the program. I successfully split my meals. Those are my favorite. Those are my favorite. Best Halloween following the program. I successfully split my meals. Yes. Okay. So let me just be, let me just be real. Splitting up your meals and snacks is terribly inconvenient. Super effective. It's weird as fuck.

Super effective this week. It's really cool if you embrace like really what's happening in your mind when you're splitting up your meals and snacks and then physically in your body, really understand you can take the same portion, split it in two and feel like pretty satisfied on that first portion without the pressure of knowing you can't have it because you do have to have that second portion. You know it's coming. You almost get to a point like, oh, I get to eat again. And that's what I love.

We take people who for years and years and years, starved, deprived, tried not to eat. Halloween kisses. Yeah, that's it. Tried not to eat. And now we're making you eat so often. You're just like, oh, I got to eat again. Oh, I got to eat again. Think about that.

Think about that. This is what's going to like rewire how you're all, all of these tweaks are designed to rewire how your brain has come to function and your thought process about eating and get you really connected in tune with your body's actual needs. Right. And, and, and really being in tune. Oh yeah. Those are gross.

I told you they're, they're, they're polarizing those Halloween kisses. I love them. Uh, Back to you, Lynette. I successfully split my meals, got all my water in before indulging in some Halloween chippies last night. The scale is one pound down. Trouble is I see the bags here this morning. Should I get rid of the rest or deal with this food association? I want you to be able to be in a room full of your favorite foods and not, I want you to have the Halloween candy in the house. I want the chocolate in the house. I want it all you to be, but I also recognize you might not be there yet. There is something to be said about out of sight, out of mind, but this food does not control you. Now, I actually have a guest joining me, Sandra Elia, next week. We're going

to talk about food addiction. Is it a real thing? It's something that is not really recognized by the Canadian Obesity Society in terms of like an addiction, like as addiction in terms of drugs, but there is something there. There is something there. So I have a great guest that's going to talk to us about that next week. But there is something to be said about out of sight, out of mind, for sure. But I also want you to be like, look at it and be like, I know what that tastes like. I know how I'm going to feel if I have that. I'm going to have that and I'm going to eat it and I'm going to just enjoy it. That's it. Imagine that. Imagine if you just ate it and you enjoyed it and that's it. Didn't punish yourself, berate yourself, get on yourself, or feel like you need to eat 10 more because you've ruined

everything. Right? So there's no perfect way to navigate this. So you can give it all away. Tony wants to give it all away because he, because Tony's been indulging in it like for weeks now. It's been beside our bed every night. He's like, he probably realizes he's had enough. I can have it sit in the house and be like, yeah, whatever. So I actually, as he's giving it away, I snuck some bars myself to put in my drawer. I found a bag that has some of my favorites. I love O'Henry's.

O'Henry's and the Crunchies. Those are my two favorite. And so I found a bag. I was like, oh, I didn't even know we had these. So I took a bag and snuck it in myies. Those are my two favorite. And so I found a bag. I was like, oh, I didn't even know we had these. So I took a bag and stuck it in my drawer. Don't tell my kids, don't tell Tony, because that will probably last me a really long time. So I stuck that because I'm like, I want some of those. I don't want it now. I didn't eat it last night. I'm like, I don't want it now. But one day I will be like, oh, I wish I had like an Oh Henry bar or something little chocolatey. So that's me. Tony, on the other hand, in knowing

that he's had enough has like tried to like literally was giving it like no one could leave the house without taking candy. He was throwing it at people. So there's no way to there's no perfect way to navigate this. And, you know, so if you haven't, you decide, okay, maybe I just can't have this right now, then want me to bring some to the women's show for you. We have tons. I know. Hunger levels can change based on so many variables. Is that something that changed for you recently? What's someone talking about? What kind of conversation you guys got over here? Let me see what you guys are talking about. Let me see. I'm not very hungry these days. And it's a mind struggle between listening to my body and wondering if it's enough. So, so here's the thing, right? Like a lot of you will get freaked out by how much food

you don't need based on what you were eating before, based on what you see in society, based on the servings that you get at restaurants, based on what you see on commercials on TV, what, what the people in TV are eating, what influencers are showing when someone shows you a recipe. You know what I mean? Like you will be shocked at how much food you really don't need. People, let me just say something. People can eat a lot of food. It doesn't mean it's nutrient rich food that is giving their body the nutrients that it needs. So the volume of food isn't as important as the quality and the nutrient value of the foods that you are consuming. And so because it's a diet,

people are concerned they're not eating enough. Now you will know we do have to have an honest conversation. There are people who have who have disordered eating. And but you know, they're trying not to eat, right? I think you naturally not being hungry and being in tune to the fact like, oh, shit, I'm actually maybe, maybe you're not being triggered as much. Maybe you're not feeling as compulsive when it comes to eating foods, because you have to eat on program and plan. Maybe you're just getting to a place where you're starting to feel calm around foods, as you're not being triggered and hungry and all of that. Maybe you're taking an omega three supplement, which is actually giving your body that good fat it needs. So you're not craving typically the salty foods because you're high stress because you're managing that, right? Maybe your cortisol levels have dropped. So you're

not as ravenous all day long and jacked up before you go to bed every night looking for a sweet treat, right? Like maybe there's actually foundational change that's happening in your body that is causing you to be more in tune to your body's needs. How you know that you are eating enough is by you being in tune to your body. And so we're eating so often throughout the day. It's really what your body's getting throughout the day, not in any one meal or snack. The concept of larger meals is flawed. You don't need significantly more food at certain times throughout the day. You don't, that's a social thing. That's what we've created. It's not how the body works. It's not like your body, tick tock, 12 o'clock, everyone

needs a large meal. That's not it. That's not it. So I think you're probably just being like, oh shit, I'm actually not. And especially with having to feed the metabolism this week, you're like, oh fuck, I gotta eat. It's exhausting. Just the thought of having to eat so often, it's exhausting. Whereas downsizing, you may have been more freaked out about, oh my God, I'm not gonna be able to eat. It's not enough. It's triggering. It's like dieting.

And then you think, oh my God, I'm fucking starving every day. And now this week, you're like, oh my God, I don't want to eat. Big part of that is mental. But physically, you're probably just getting really in tune to your body's needs and recognizing that maybe for every day that you're not hungry, you'll have a day that you're extra hungry. And that is really normal. That is really normal. And so it's not a mind struggle. It's probably you're having a hard time accepting that, right? So again, back to disordered eating, there are people who are trying to eat less. They know that they're hungry. They're not giving their body what it needs, right? This is a little different. And so how's your energy levels? How are you feeling?

I'll have people say, oh, I'm just really concerned I'm not eating enough. I'm like, based on what? Well, what my portions look like. Okay, but how do they feel? Like, are you hungry in the moment? Are you eating enough to feel like, yeah, in the moment I'm satisfied? Well, jamming more food in you isn't going to help anything. And then people will be like, well, someone said, someone noticed my portions were small. Okay. So someone said, all right. Or just based on dieting, I think I should, I think I should be eating more. Well, why? Why? Because, well, what I'm eating compared to everybody else is, is like, is so much smaller. Okay. It's not you, It's everybody else eating those extra large

portions that they don't need at the end of the day. Right? So that can be hard for so many reasons. It can be hard for your brain to reconcile. Have you ever had that? You ever had that thing where you feel like you're extra hungry, you'll get that extra hungry. And then you go eat and you're like satisfied real quick. And you're like, what? I was really hungry. Why am I? Because what you'll find is you're getting really in tune to your body's cues. Your body will let you know when you're like, what? I was really hungry. Why am I? Because what you'll find is you're getting really in tune to your body's cues. Your body will let you know when you're hungry. You're not broken. You're not flawed. Your chances are you're probably eating more than enough throughout the day, even though you're spreading it out throughout the day. You're eating good nutrient-rich foods that your body actually, your body will become more efficient at breaking down and actually

getting the nutrients from your foods as well as the stronger your digestive system gets. So we're really putting a focus on, with all these nutrient-rich foods, probiotics, prebiotics, supplements that you're taking, strengthening your digestive system, your microbiome. So there isn't such a thing as like when you eat foods, your body's not actually breaking them down, not getting the nutrients that they need. And as you increase your metabolism and you help your body get healthier, your body's actually get able to get more nutrients from smaller portions because you're not overwhelming your digestive system by eating way too much. So if you're

wondering if it's enough, ask yourself why, what is quantifying you wondering if it's enough? Is it all mental or is it physical? Like, do you have great energy? Are you sleeping great? Is your body changing? Like, what's causing you to wonder? Just the fact that you're on a diet? Is that it? And what you're seeing with your portions or what someone's saying?

Do you know what I mean? Or comparing to what you used to eat? So that's where you have to ask yourself, why am I asking? Why is it? And the reason why I've spent so much time on that is because a lot of people feel like that. And as we as we chip away and actually get in tune to your body's actual needs, people are freaked out by how much food they don't need. And so towards the end of the program, we still have some more tweaks coming down the pipeline far from done. At the end of the program, what we're going to be doing is checking in at every meal and snack time and assessing your situation. Am I hungry and need to eat? Right? Could I eat? I don't know. I'm a little hungry, not hungry. Or should I eat? If I'm not hungry, yes. But if I don't eat, I'm going to go a long period of time without eating. And that's why we have those parameters, half hour to three and a half hours, three and a half, four hours. You really don't want to go any longer than that. So that's that barrier in there that you know, you're not going any longer than three and a half, four hours without getting some more nutrient

rich foods in. So you're good. You're good. You're good. And I and then again, if anyone was to come in and take any one thing that I was saying out of context, they'd probably think I'm some crazy diet lady. But I know all the nutrient-rich foods you're eating. I know that we've done a whole process of eating dissatisfaction up until this point, right? So I know how we're just getting in tune. So I can, like, you know, again, taking out of context, people are like,

oh my God, she's telling people they don't need to eat food, blah, blah, blah. But I'm not. To be honest, I don't crave processed or junk foods anymore. My body actually craves healthy nutrients for foods. We had a great conversation with how fabulous, oh, I just love Dr. Ruth Kane. She joined us yesterday. This is one of the things she talked about. Your body wants you to feel good. Your body knows what makes it feel good. Your body knows what doesn't make it feel good. It's not trying to screw you over, make you fat, make you miserable, none of those things. It's on your side. A lot of people just don't trust

themselves. They don't trust that if I'm in a room full of candy bars, I'm not going to eat all of them. But your body doesn't want you to eat all of them. And so given the choice, do you want this or do you want that? Your body, nine times out of 10, is going to choose the healthy foods. Unless, of course, you're dehyd dehydrated or you've had sugar or you're stressed out or any of those things, right? Or you're being triggered or falling back into coping mechanisms or whatever. And so this is why it's not just about the food. It's working through those issues and associations and triggers and beliefs and coping mechanisms

all at the same time. All at the same time. All at the same time. I was sitting beside the box of chips and my favorite chocolate bars as the neighbors were all sitting outside on our lawns dishing out candy and I didn't eat one thing. That was huge non-scale victory. I kept thinking, if I'm going to indulge, this isn't what I would want. Can we just normalize? We might not want the Halloween candy. We might not want it. We're at someone's birthday party. We might not want the cake. Birthday parties are interesting because that is the one place that, you know, if you think about

it, you don't have to eat the cake, right? You got to take the cake. You got to take the piece of cake, but you can have one bite. Like always at birthday parties, just pieces of cake left around. It's like, it's interesting birthday parties. So you have to have the cake, but you can have one bite. Like always at birthday parties, just pieces of cake left around. It's like, it's interesting birthday parties. So you have to have the cake, but you don't actually have to eat the cake. It's just like, we've normalized taking the cake, but like not eating the whole piece, right? We don't say to someone, how come you're not eating all your cake? It's interesting. But yeah, let's just normalize, normalize, normalize that. Normalize we're grownups. We can go buy all of our own candy whenever we want, whenever we want, right? Except maybe those Halloween kisses that no one seems to have. They don't even really sell that.

They're hard to find. No one wants the traditional Halloween kisses. Those only come out at Halloween. Split my meals and snacks yesterday. Went trick-or-treating with my grandsons, got in over 11,000 steps, right? Yes. This, you know, it's like this. It's like, and this is an opportunity for new traditions. Going out for a walk, getting your steps in Halloween. That's fun, right? Going out for a walk after Thanksgiving dinner as a family. I remember during the pandemic,

everybody, nothing warms my heart than on a nice, beautiful day. And everyone's out walking. It's great. I started walking the neighborhood lately, getting my steps in. And it's interesting because I see the same people doing their steps because I do the kind of same loop. Hi again. Oh, hello. It's nice. It's nice. So this is new traditions. Like what's your new tradition, right? Maybe after Halloween, we go for a nice walk. It's nice out there, except when it's raining and snowing, which it normally is. But maybe it's going for a walk Thanksgiving, doing something active around the holidays, whatever that is, right? Whatever that is. I had a box of chocolate-covered almonds on my desk for weeks and haven't eaten it.

I'm so impressed. I don't even feel triggered by it. Right? This is where we want. This is where we want you guys to get to. This is where we want you guys to get to is this place where you're not being triggered. Everyone seems to have done well last night. I did not. I ate tons of chocolate and beat myself up all night. Well, let's talk about that, right? Let's talk about that for a second. Let's normalize that, right? So this is expected. This is expected. And so let's reflect on that. And this is an opportunity to be like, okay, so that happened. How'd that make me feel? What did I expect? What did I, and this is why it's not about being perfect. It's progress over perfection. And how did I expect myself to feel last night?

And so why did I have the candy? Did I feel triggered by it? Did I feel like I deserved it? Did I mindlessly eat it? And then when I started to eat it, right? Like, did I actually enjoy it? And then what made me have another piece was that mentality? Well, fuck it, I've ruined everything. Anyway, I might as well just continue to trash myself. Right? Or were you did you keep going back for more expecting like it was going to do

something for you? Or because you know, like what happens is your taste buds start to shut down. And at the end, you're not even really tasting the candy anymore. Right? So, so what, what, what happened there? So, so how were you feeling? Did you have a stressful day? Was it like a lot of rushing around stressful and you were just like, Oh man, like, you know, there's a lot going on. Like, great. It's the great when we have these fun moments, but that doesn't mean that life isn't still hard, you know, with all the shit you're dealing with in your life and everything that you got going on. It's great. Halloween came, but you're still living your life. You still got to deal with all the stresses in your life. So what was happening yesterday? Right? What was your association? Did you think it was fun? Or are you just like, oh, my fucking day just was like,

let me give me this fucking can. I'm going to eat it. Like what was, what was really happening in your brain? Or did you think, oh, I haven't had these in a while. Like, I don't know. Right? So I'm just like saying, so what was going on in your life? What was your environment? What was your thought process that day? How did you feel yesterday? Right. Well, how did you feel the last, this last week? What was going on? Did you have a lot going on this week? What's going on there? And then what did you think the food was? Like, why did you indulge? Right. And it could have been because I love it. It's yummy. It's whatever. And then when you're eating it, was there a certain point where you're like, okay, like I'm not really enjoying this. How quickly did it take for your

mind to take over? And did you start berating yourself? Like what was going on in your mind when you're having it? What were your thoughts? I've ruined everything. I, you know, whatever, I'll just deal with it tomorrow. And then what happened like when you were going to bed, how did you feel? Cause it's important to associate when we're rewiring our brain, we need to recognize so that the next time we're faced with this, we're like, oh, yeah, it doesn't make me feel good. Don't want it mentally, physically. No, I'm good. Right. So this is how this is how we break those associations to food and rewire or reassociate with them in other ways. And so then how did you feel today? So then you don't, you just don't want to move on. You don't want to let it go, move on. You don't learn anything from letting it go and moving on.

Like, yeah, okay. You can plow through. The problem is it's going to happen again and again and again and again and again and again. And Halloween is just represented, representative of those moments in your life. So when you had a rough day, when you were stressed, when you're around food, whatever that might, whatever that is that it might be. And you don't want to feel controlled by food. You want to feel like I'm totally in control of my body, of my thoughts, of my choices, all of that, right? And so, and we're not trying to control what we're eating. We're not trying to control. It's not about controlling or moderating. It's about controlling our choices, but we're in total control when it comes to our choices. At least we want to feel like we are.

And so then how did you feel today? And you're okay. Like today, what was my thought process in the moment? Why did I have that? What did I have going on? Oh, I had a really rough day. Okay. Oh, I thought, you know, like I've been working really hard on this program and I thought

I deserved it. All right. Well, do you deserve to feel like crap today? Do you deserve to berate yourself? No, you don't. So you made a choice maybe that you thought was going to be fun. And then you berated yourself for hours, woke up today. Now you're super disappointed in yourself or whatever, however you're feeling. Right. And so you want to own those feels, but you can't, what you can't do is like, think of it like a friend and be like, well, you can't be like, look what you did, you loser. You're never going to lose this weight and you've ruined everything.

Like you would never speak to a friend like that. But what you can do is like, okay, why did I make that choice? Like what was going on with me that I made those choices? And then today I'm being really hard on myself about the fact that I made those choices. And so what, what do I need to learn here to not make that choice again? Now you might still make that choice again, but every time you put yourself through this, you, all of a sudden your association to that is you're going to choose something different. You're going to choose something different, maybe not right away, but, but eventually you'll be like, oh, and that's how

you get there. So let me remind you too. And I'm glad Carol that you mentioned this because there are people that this is not their first rodeo. This is not their first Halloween. We've had some people doing the program for years, working towards their weight loss goal. So they, or they, or they had an opportunity during Thanksgiving or birthdays or whatever it is or whatever it was to get to this place where they're like, oh, I just, you know, I handled that really well. So yeah, so let's, let's normalize that. But this is why don't blow

it off, whether it's just an average weekend and you've done this, right. And this is how you feel on a Monday or it's a birthday or holiday, celebratory, whatever it is. It's, and that might seem like a lot of work, but let's just be real. There's a lot of work to losing our weight in a way that is going to mean finally in forever. And this is the stuff that you need to work through to get to a place where you are calm. Because if you're being triggered on Halloween, chances you're being triggered at other times, right? And so this is where we want to, we want to work through all that.

This is where we want to work through that. So, so, um, darn UTI and feeling miserable. Not sure if I should follow sickness protocol or not. I love this week and I feel torn. Hi, Joni, picking up a prescription soon and hopefully it kicks in. So if you don't have an appetite because you are feeling physically unwell, mentally unwell, sickness protocol, this is your body saying, yeah, I don't like, there's a big difference between not being hungry and not feeling well. Like, you know, when you're just like, I know I'm not doing okay. I don't, I don't feel well physically, mentally. I don't feel well as opposed to like being fully functioning and just not having much of an appetite, two totally different

things. So absolutely, uh, absolutely, um, absolutely, uh, follow the sickness protocol. I stood over the candy bowl, took a piece, hubby came behind me, gave me a big hug and said, what would Gina say? She would say, remember your why. Candy went back in the bowl and support from him meant more than that candy. Yeah. Right. And so some people can just be like, yeah, whatever.

And then some people are like, okay, this is a big moment for me. Right. Like this, this is being tested. This is being challenged, right? We're challenged in moments. And you may think, okay, it's just fucking Halloween, right? But it isn't. It's about you're being challenged all day, every day sometimes. And the little choices that you're making add up. But sometimes what you think is like a bad choice ends up being such an aha learning opportunity for you that it's absolutely worth doing. So if you did find yourself indulging, I'm glad that you did. There's a lot to learn from that. If you found that you're like, oh my God,

look at me. I just didn't even like whatever. Okay. Amazing. That's the hard work you've been putting in, paying off. And you're somewhere in between good you're on your way you're somewhere in between you know you're so you're somewhere in between I still have sugar cravings after lunch is it okay if I have a sugar-free yogurt so you don't want to do that you do not want to do that you absolutely do not want to do that what you are trying to do is treat yourself, give into. And so you have to sit in the uncomfortableness of not having it. You don't need a sweet treat after lunch. So what's happening?

That's a habit you created. That's a trigger and expectation. That's a buying into the need to treat, right? You want to get in tune. And is it a big deal? No, but you want to get in tune to your body's wants over your actual needs. And what you want to say to myself is, why am I craving something sweet after lunch? Again, if this is something you've always done, it could be the habit of that.

Maybe you are starting your day off with too high carbs and not enough protein. So I would reevaluate what you're having at breakfast, or maybe you're skipping breakfast altogether. And then what your fix for that would be to start having a high protein breakfast, whether it's like something simple like an egg or whatever that is, don't have to be super fancy about it. I would tend to guess that you are not having breakfast, running through your day, probably starting your day with some coffee, going for that fruit,

and then you're looking for something sweet for your lunch. It could also be that you're not getting enough protein and fat in your lunch and you've laid off making your food choices as nutrient-rich as they could possibly be at lunch. It could be also you're not starting your water till later in the day and you're systematically being dehydrated maybe because the temperature has dropped. You're not getting as much water in as you had before and that's why you're having those cravings for something sweet. So have your high protein breakfast. Make sure you get your water on

early. Make sure you are making your lunch choices nutrient rich as possible. Adding in like I'm not I'm just not into that. Like let's fucking get to the bottom of it. Let's make changes that are going to be sustainable, maintainable. You don't need to. And also if you're going to have a yogurt, have a full fat, whatever yogurt, right? Like we don't want to eat like, you know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? Here's what I can tell you. If you like yogurt is that in a couple of weeks, you can start adding some yogurt to your afternoon. Like with the tweak that we have, you can start adding some yogurt to your afternoon. So if you just like yogurt and you want to get it in, that'll make

for a great snack later in the day. Not now, not now, but later in the day. So yeah, you don't want to perpetuate that. So what do you do about that? So you address, why am I craving something sweet? Because you just, you don't want to be doing that. Your body doesn't want that either. You want to, your body, trust me, your body doesn't want to. So why am I craving something sweet? Address that.

And then if it's a habit or something that you like, you're gonna have to sit. What you're doing is you're trying to get a dopamine hit. You're trying to like, you're trying to make your lunch something that you enjoy. You get a little hit of something afterwards, little, you know, artificial sweetener also triggers the brain in the same way that sugar does. So there's, I don't want to get into that, but that's, that's the reality of that. And so you want to sit in the uncomfortableness of not having it. And then what's going to happen is you're used to a dopamine hit. That's what you look forward to. That's what

you want. That's your little treat, right? Doesn't matter if it's super sweet treat or kind of sort of sweet treat. If you see it as a treat, it's a treat. And so you have to lower your dopamine, your need for that dopamine hit. And you do that by sitting in the uncomfortableness of not indulging in it. And then after a couple of days, you're going to find that you don't need that. You don't need that anymore. You don't need that anymore. Now, again, if you were to take that out of context, is that crazy diet woman is telling someone that they can't have like a sugar-free, you know, yogurt at the end of lunch, or that's the end of the world. Yeah, take it out of context. But again, all of this big picture is losing your weight in a way where you're really calm

around food. And if you want to have a yogurt after your lunch, once you've done lost your weight, maintain it, you can, but you're not looking at it as a treat. You're not looking for something sweet. You're just like, I enjoy having a yogurt. I don't need it. But I enjoy having a yogurt. No big deal, right? So it's all about being that calm around foods. At the end of that. Yeah, the dopamine hit seems more necessarily when I don't get enough sleep. Yeah, you are you're looking for that you are looking for that pick me up when you're not getting that's where I run that three or four o'clock time during the day. You're looking for that pick me up because

your body's wired to take a dip in energy. Most of us can't chill out, take a nap if they keep working. So we look for that caffeine hit, that dopamine hit, same thing. Your body's more sensitive to sugars, for lack of a better word, or your metabolism is slower on days where you are tired, didn't get enough sleep. And the way your body process your foods, you're more sensitive to insulin the next day as well. Sugar causes me joint pain. Yeah, so hard for me to stay with yet so hard for me to stay away from it. So sugar causes inflammation in the body. So that you know, there's a couple of reasons why your weight might be up. Chances are, it's not actually from actual weight gain, but inflammation in the body caused from some of these foods that you are eating for sure. Um, do, do, do I consider full fat anything that isn't zero fat? Yeah, that's okay. So it's like, it's, so it's like yogurt. It's like milk, right?

There's homo milk, uh, 2% milk, skim milk. Some people just prefer skim milk and then wouldn't think about drinking homo milk. And some people land somewhere in between. With yogurt, it changes the consistency. So with low fat, no fat, if you think about a full fat yogurt, it's all creamy. Do you know what I mean? And low fat, no fat yogurt basically has no consistency. So they add like modified starch in there. They add fillers in there to help make it thicker again.

And so that's not what you want. That's not what you want. You want the good fat. Had difficulty with the treats this week, disappointed, but saying to myself, what can I learn from this and know that I want to figure it out and dig deep into the feels. It's habit one. Thanks for the comments as I typed dopamine hits. Hit is a big one for me. This, and this is it. This is, this is exactly it. There's no, there's no stress in this. There's no stress in this. There's no disappointment in this there. And you're allowed to feel that though. I'm not trying to dismiss your feels. This is just, Oh, I did that. Okay. Why? Okay. What can I do to,

like, I don't want to do that again. How's that? How's that working for me? This is what I, this is what, this is what I use in a lot of things. Whenever I'm trying to make a choice, how would I feel if I did this? How if I feel if I did that, if I made it, if I'm trying to make a choice, how would I feel if I did this? How if I feel if I did that? If I made it, if I'm trying to make a choice based on or I'm unhappy with the choice I made, I'd be like, okay, how's that working for me? And so I'm using this a lot with alcohol, right? So I know that drinking through menopause is not helping me. It messes with my stomach. It messes with my sleep. It messes with my minds. And I also understand that I have the luxury to quit because I don't have like an addiction

addiction. So I'm very mindful when I talk about not drinking alcohol that there are people who really struggle with that. And I want to be respectful on that. But for me, and maybe I do have a bit of a problem because I've used alcohol as a coping strategy for some very difficult times as a single mom. Through a lot of things in my life, I've used wine has been my go-to. I easily could crush a bottle a night, sometimes like a bottle and a half a night.

That's sort of where I got to on my own. So again, last night, I had a bunch of friends over. I chose not to drink. And so I reflect on this a lot. How, how do I want to feel tomorrow? So I'm like, okay, I, cause I can drink if I want. I make my own rules in my life. No one's going to judge me, not Tony, not my friends, not my kids. No one's going to judge me. If I decide to drink, they're going to be like, Tony will be like, do you want another glass? Um, this is really me and how I feel the next day. I feel very disappointed in myself. I just

mentally do not feel well on, on just thinking about it now can make me feel just thinking about how I would feel if I drink. And the next day almost makes me like I could bring up the feels right now. I could bring up the feels. I feel tired. My body doesn't feel good. I almost feel like crying. Um, but I don't have to drink to know how that's going to feel. And so what I will say to myself is how, how would I feel like you can drink Gina, but how are you going to feel? You know, sure. It might, you might enjoy a couple of drinks and then later on you get that pasty mouth, start to not feel great, a little headachy. And then the next day, right? So how am I, how am I going to feel if I choose choose that sometimes we have to let ourselves make the choice like I can have it if I want it do I actually really want it and how am I

going to feel if I have it and I'm like yeah no I'm good no I'm good thanks I don't need it that's how I make any choice in life how would I feel if I make this choice? How does it feel? Not in my head, my body, visually. How does it feel to me? How would I feel if I make that choice? Oh, yeah, that choice feels better. How would I feel if I wore this dress? How would I feel if I, oh, this dress. Do you know what I mean?

Sometimes we get so in our head, but this is what doing the living method does. It gets you in tune to your intuition, really what works for you, what doesn't work for you. And the living method is going to help you not just get in tune with what foods work for you and don't work for you, social situations, work environments, people in your life, choices that you're making. And this is like, when I say that you are actually changing physically and mentally, you're changing the energy that you're putting out there in the world. You're changing the choices that you're making. You're changing the decisions that you're making

based on who you are. This person that's more self-assured, more confident, more in tune, more grounded, all of those things, right? Because you're just, you're reconnecting with yourself in so many ways. And food is a big part of that. Okay. That's my mantra too. How do I want to feel this morning? Right? How do I want to feel? I write. Did the app always ask in the past if you split your meals or not? Yes, it did. So you'll notice the app itself, it guides you through the actual, but the app is more than just a tracker. The app is more than your weight and your foods and your fluids and your moods and whatever. It actually guides you through. So does the journal. You'll notice in the journal that there's a place to split your meals in the journal as well.

So the app itself, not in general tracking mode, but when you do the program, the app itself, there's options to split. There's options to skip. Eventually you choose not to have. There's options to write your notes in. It does quite a bit. We're also working on some new features. So to accumulate all the data that you are collecting, not the data, we don't, we don't, we have privacy issues. We can't, we don't have access to your stuff, but the data that you are collecting, what you're eating and when to be able to see how that's adding up throughout the day. I'm really excited about that new feature.

So can we, can we normalize that we can still have fun at a party or without friends without having alcohol? Yeah. You bet your ass. I am super fun. We had a lot of fun last night. I didn't, I didn't drink at all. Drinking did not, did not, would not have made my night funner last night. And yes, I use the word funner and neither will, neither will indulging in the food. If you go out for a dinner with friends, you are going to have just as good a time if you choose to eat foods that make you feel good as you do indulging the foods. And I beg to differ. You will have a better time because you will feel better. You will walk away feeling better about the choices that you made and not walk away feeling like you berated yourself or whatever.

Unless of course you are specifically going to eat certain foods, right? Like you maybe had reservations at a restaurant and you are literally going there to eat all the food. You are stuffing your face. You know you are walking away. This is a total food moment. That is different, but on a, just a regular casual night out, whatever, you know, I think, I think as an adult, we could all say that you would have just as much

fun last night at Halloween without having any of the candy, without having it. The candy was not what made it fun for you. It was the costumes and the fun and the laughs and the wet, whatever that was. And that's, I'm just talking Halloween because it happened to be yesterday. That's anything that's, that's a weekend away. That's a holiday. That's a, you know, whatever celebratory day that is regular meet your girlfriend on a Friday afternoon for lunch day. The food is not going to be what makes the experience. It's the conversation. It's the company, all those things. Although again, like I said, there's nothing wrong with indulging food, but I want to get you to a place where you can indulge in the food, not berate yourself,

get on yourself, feel disappointed, feel like you ruined everything afterwards, just straight up. That was worth it. Oh my gosh. That was delicious. End of story. Um, okay. We had some great conversations this week. Wow. What a week. My goodness. Um, what a week we had a, we had a fantastic, uh, Tammy started us off this week with our spotlight. And if you have not taken time to show her some love, please show Tammy some love. And then on Tuesday we had Dr. Dina and Dr. Beverly join us. Melissa for our Real People, Real Journey conversation, Erin Degagne, Pelvic Health conversation. Yesterday, Dr. Ruth Cain joined us like what a week, what a week. If you're over in the menopause add on that we did there, we introduced a new guest expert, Dr. Jennifer Zelovitsky. She's an MD. She's also

going to be joining us in this group next program as well. So we have an MD joining us. She's fabulous. What a great week. I hope that you enjoy the tweak, the splitting up the meals and snacks. Don't stress out about it. It's meant to get you thinking. It's meant to have you think, oh my God, I got to split up my meals and snacks. Remember, it's just another way in to getting into it. Have fun with it. Have fun. We're only doing it for a few more days.

And then on Monday, we're back to satisfaction for another few days. And then one more time, then we're going to completely switch gears for week nine and 10 of the program. A lot of time left. Have an amazing day, everyone. I will not be going live this weekend, but I'll be checking in. So yeah, have a great rest of your day. Have a great weekend. I'll see you on Monday. Bye.