The Livy Method Podcast - Maintenance & Mindfulness: Maintenance Monday - October 27, 2025

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

In this episode, Gina shares real talk on how to support your metabolism in maintenance, shake up old habits with the tweak, and stay grounded through cravings and celebrations. She reminds listeners that feeding the body isn’t about eating more food, but eating more often to sustain energy and function. From reflecting on the “why” behind indulgences to staying curious with the four questions, today's episode centres around staying mindful and owning your choices, especially with the holidays on the horizon. Gina also walks through practical tips for planning ahead, managing triggers, and using this week’s homework as a tool to feel empowered, not overwhelmed.You can find the full video hosted at:https://www.facebook.com/groups/ginalivymaintenanceandmindfulnessTo learn more about The Livy Method and our Maintenance & Mindfulness group, visit livymethod.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 for 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, everyone, and welcome to maintenance Mondays. I'm kicking it old school today, back how we used to do it back in the day. Odette, as you may or may not know, is away. I believe today is the funeral for her father that passed away last week. So I'm stepping in solo for her today. We are all sending her love and wrapping her in a big, ginormous, hug and thinking about her today. But I'm thinking about you today with where we're at feeding the metabolism. It's all about feeding the metabolism and optimizing this week

in the group. So optimizing, of course, is our version of maximizing, which is focusing on your stress and your sleep and all those other things. And yes, not using them to get and keep the scale moving anymore, but they are important for helping our body function on a more optimal level, and that's what it's all about. Again, we are solidifying your set point, you're making your new weight, your new set points, and of course, focusing on being as healthy as possible. So what does feeding the metabolism mean now that we're in maintenance? So we are taking the same portion, same meals and snacks, all of that that you were doing last week while we were downsizing. And for the first three days of the week, we are back to eating

dissatisfaction, of course, paying attention to our portions hot off the heels of downsizing last week. Where we're at, what we got going on in our lives, right? I don't know about you, but I am tired. The J's got me feeling excited, but also tired. You're more susceptible to cravings. Maybe you're feeling more bloated. You're just kind of feeling off if you're off your normal routine. So what can you do to help offset that? And then midweek on Thursday, we're going to be splitting up those meals and snacks. Now, you may be saying, okay, why? Why this when we are in maintenance? Again, a lot of this is about the mindset, rewiring the body physically and also rewiring the mind mentally. And so we are shaking things up physically and shaking things up mentally. So not eating more food,

just eating more often, which makes the body work really hard, which feeds into its metabolism. Also, when you eat that first portion and then you wait that 15, 20 minutes before you have that second portion, you're giving your body time to process and digest that food. So it's reminding you to take a minute and understand what that feels like. And then when you're separating your proteins from your carbs, understanding really how protein and fat, how it feels when it's feeding into your satiety hormones and the difference between how you feel when you have protein versus carbs. And then also, you take people who have tried not to eat for so many years while following

on a diet, and now you have to eat. And so that part is just constantly thinking about that is just rewiring your brain. So really shaking things up. So I want you to look at feeding the metabolism as something fun. It's all about the system, the system, and the structure. And it's like helping you dig deeper, level up even more. That's the whole point of these tweaks. It's like fast tracking.

So we've been talking lately about how research is showing that it takes an average of two years for people to be able to actually maintain and sustain their weight after they lose their weight. Now, this is people who've just been chaotically counting and weighing and measuring as a way to actually be able to lose their weight. So there was so much more to the Libby method and how you were going about losing weight, the skills and the tools and whatnot that you need to be able to maintain and sustain your weight. But doing the maintenance program is like fast tracking that two years using that system, using the method to really start to unravel the things that you need to unravel and work through and do when it comes to being able to maintain and sustain your weight. So it's all about the intention behind the tweaks each week. This tweak, of course, also really inconvenient. Just the thought of eating more often.

is, you know, it can be a little bit stressful, a little bit unnerving because you have so many other things to do. Again, you want to do the things you need to do now so that you can just live a life, living your life. And it's no longer about losing it or maintaining it. It's you just living your life. So this is where you might want to say to yourself, okay, when I'm reading the guidelines this week, how am I feeling about this tweak? What are some of the thoughts and feels that immediately pop up mentally? And then how does my body feel physically? Right? And so that's, that's where you're, that's where you are at. That's where you're at.

It's just really the taking the time to be in tune with that and be like, okay, what is this week? When am I, when I'm reading the guidelines, what am I thinking about it? Oh, fuck. Oh my God. It's going to be like whatever. And I got here and I got there and I got, you know, all that going on. And then does your body feel tired?

I don't want to wait until I'm done my meals. Maybe you've created a routine of eating when you're distracted and rushing through meals and you don't have time. If I don't have time is popping up, why don't you have time? and then recognize, okay, maybe there's not, there's not anything you could do about that, but recognizing how you not having time is affecting your whole life and how you are living. So it's an opportunity to shake things up, which can shake up your perspective on where you're at, what you're doing, and why.

So I know we're going to talk midweek about the actually splitting up the meals and snacks part. Odette will be back for that on Wednesday. So we're going to run you through that. Of course, Jay's game is the Jay's. have been playing. I don't know about you. I'm staying up late, which has involved some bites of bits. I went to the game on Saturday. Got to enjoy, you know, a nice big footlong hot dog, all of that. That celebratory, let's, like whether you're going to watch parties or just watching it at home, it's fun to watch the game when you got some bites of bits and things, right? Celebratory.

And, you know, this is an opportunity for you to be like, how am I going to navigate moments like this in the future? Because we want you to enjoy life and all the yummy bites of bits of bits of. bits that come with living it. And food is a big part of that. In fact, food can be a very memorable part. We think J's game. We think hot dogs. We think peanuts and popcorn. That's what we go to the movies. We have popcorn. It's part of our experience. And it's not, we don't want it to be so that you just don't do that ever again. We want you to be able to go and have the hot dog. But maybe if you're feeling full halfway through eating the hot dog, you're like, okay, I've had enough. Maybe your plan was eat the hot dog and popcorn, but you ate the hot dog and now you're feeling full. So you're like,

yeah, maybe I'll skip the popcorn, right? Maybe you get both. You have some bites of your hot dog, or maybe you share it with the person that you're with. And then you have popcorn and you share that with the person that you're with, right? Rather than mindlessly eating and then walk away and just physically feeling like having the physically feeling like you ate too much ruin your memory of that moment. So this is what this is all about. It's an opportunity to really learn. Understand when you do stay up late and you had some bites of bits, you wake up, you don't feel good the next day. And that doesn't mean that wasn't worth it, but just recognizing how that affects how you're feeling mentally, physically, the choices that you make that day.

And you don't want to be indulging the night before and then starving and depriving yourself and punishing yourself for it. That's not healthy for us. Physically, it's a recipe for regain. And it's not great mentally either. So this is an opportunity to be like, okay, how am I going to navigate these moments, right, in a way that really works for me rather than works against me. So it's an opportunity to do that. So if you're finding yourself stressing or in moments where you're stressing around food, there are some things that you can do if you go to a watch party. And, you know, the reality is some of the foods that we do choose to eat processed foods in moments like this are very addicting. And so that's where you might

have one chip and dip and you're going back for another and another because they're designed to be addicting in the moment. That's why, you know, you can't just eat one. You've got to eat the whole bag. And so this is where you might notice that and have strategies for yourself. So, you know, put the bag of chips further away from you. I always, you know, tell Tony, hey, take these, take these. I've had enough. I recognize I've had enough. I don't actually want anymore. That's hard to say no right now. So take the bag. If you're at a party, sit further away from the food, right? So easy to stand around and just pick and eat at the food. Try to indulge and shift your behavior into indulging in the conversation or indulging and watching the

game or whatever that might be. Also, Halloween is coming up too. I see Halloween is coming up. I don't know how we're feeling about that. I know some of you have been with us for a while. You're like, I got this. Many of you will notice that even just having the Halloween candy isn't as pleasurable as you once thought it was because you realize it's not really doing anything for you. So again, not the hot dog at the Jay's game. You know, it's not the Halloween candy on Halloween night or, you know, the chocolate on Valentine's Day or whatever, it's the everyday stuff. And so I find the problem that people have with the Halloween candy is they have little bits every day. And that just keeps the whole thing going. And when you have sugar,

you want more sugar. And that's where it becomes problematic. And so if you're going to have Halloween candy, then what I would suggest is have Halloween candy on Halloween, right? Like we're grownups. We can go, we bought the candy ourselves. We're not like we have to. go trick-treating. It's not like we have to go door to door to earn the candy, you know, and our parents are watching what we eat or not. Like we can eat as much as we want. We bought the candy ourselves. And so that's that old mentality or mindset. So if you want to have the count that couple pieces of Halloween candy on Halloween, I want you to be able to do that, enjoy it. Pick the ones that are your favorites. You know, really enjoy it. And they'd be like,

okay, I had that great, move it along. Right. So usually it's the, it's the just it's sticking around. for weeks afterwards and just a little piece here and a little piece there. It's really, I'd rather you eat the whole bowl of candy in one night than to have the little bits over the next couple weeks. That at the end of the day is sort of the most problematic part of Halloween, not actually the having of the candy part of it. And then recognize, let's say you do have a lot of candy, Halloween night. You wake up the next day.

Chances are you will be craving more carbs and more sugar. So this is where you really want to dig into that higher protein breakfast. Protein and fat tends to kind of neutralize those sugar cravings in a sense in the most simplistic term. So that's where you want to make a plan for the next day. You know, make sure you're bumping up your proteins and fats, making sure you're getting those in throughout the day and the next day just to offset any of the cravings that you're having. So a bit of a double whammy because we do have the Jay's game and Halloween happening on the same night. so chances are you'll be eating hot dogs and eating Halloween candy and staying up extra late for that but I'm not worried about you I'm not worried about you at the end of the day

hi everyone I don't see anyone in the comments section it could be my comments are just not working today we've had a few issues with Facebook today but I'm not if you have any questions but other than that we are back to eating dissatisfaction but really building on everything that we've done up into this point. So fresh perspective on doing another round of the program for the sake of maintenance, right? It's all about that intention. And so you really want to be digging into those four sets of mindful eating questions. But more than that, it's at the end. Like you want to eventually be able to trust when to eat. I'm actually hungry versus I am eating out a habit or because I always have something to eat at this time or because you're

triggered you saw a sign for whatever it is on the way home or you know or it's it's coping mechanism you had a stressful day so that's you know what you're so when to eat really clear on i'm hungry i need to eat the second one is what am i hungry for and this is where when you're asking those questions right and the whole point is still asking them is so that you don't have to ask them one day you just know and so you want to be really intentional about not just asking the questions but What's what's the outcome? What are the messages you're looking for? And so that what am I hungry for? And yes, you may be putting your meals together and maybe what you're hungry for isn't part of the meal because maybe it's lunchtime and you're looking for some fruit. And this is

where maybe you have the luxury of making food at home. You can throw some berries on a salad or whatever that might be, right? Although we tend not to crave that. There's like frost on the ground this morning. Frost on the ground this morning. So I've been a little bit cold. So the last thing I feel like, or what I've been feeling like last couple days, like soup. This is the time of year also where the weather is transitioning and you're probably wanting more heavier carbs, like, you know, potatoes, fatty meats, warm foods, like soups and stews and whatnot. So, you know, if you're forcing that's a good example. If you've made a salad for yourself today and you're looking at it and you're just like, this is not doing it for me today. Like am I hungry for this salad?

No, I am not hungry for this salad. Okay, what would be most appealing for me right now? I don't want a salad. I want a nice, I want a clam chowder. Right? I want a chili for dinner tonight. Like that's how I'm, oh, I'm actually, I'm going to make some chili for dinner tonight. I mean, I actually go out and grab some stuff.

I'm going to make chili for dinner today. Yeah, so that's like that's the what to eat. Or, you know, I need a fruit or I need a leafy greens or like whatever that is. and then the and then the how much to eat so when to eat what to eat how much to eat so you're not just like is this enough you're really tuning into understanding the exact moment when you realize that as opposed to asking yourself that that's the difference so we're asking those four sets of questions and like not how did I know I was done you're looking for the exact moment where you just knew you don't even have to ask yourself how you knew you were done because you know the minute

that you've had enough. So that's where we're leveling up, right? It's not just like, four questions. This is really about it being intentional and the messages that you are looking for when asking those four sets. And this is where,

when it comes to splitting up the meals and snacks, you get to really approach this from a different perspective because when you take that same meal that you've been eating to satisfaction over these next couple of days and you split that in two, you can really be asking those four questions and really be aware of how you feel after you're done

that first portion. Like, you might even feel that you're satisfied before you even eat. Like, it's a totally different ballgame when you know you have another portion to eat. It just takes the pressure of deprivation off you. And so you may find that you're actually starting to feel satisfied on that first portion. and that allows you the opportunity to do that or maybe you're like oh shit i am still really hungry here i can't wait till like that time 20 minutes goes by and i can eat this second portion right and so so that gives you an opportunity to really dig into that feeling of how you are feeling

when you have your whole other second portion to eat it and this is where you've already had a portion you wait that you wait that time until you have your second portion and then be like okay how am i actually feeling now? Am I hungry for this? Do I actually need it? And yes, you still have to have those token amounts, right? But pay attention. Pay attention because that's what's so fascinating about it. You take the same meals and snacks and, you know, you get the idea. And portion sizes you've been consuming over these next couple days, eating enough to feel satisfied. And then you take those same portions and you break them into. And like I said, then if you want to separate your proteins from your carbs, your leafy greens and healthy fats go either way. Then you're really

digging into how you are actually feeling by eating your protein first. And then when you just eat the protein on its own and then you give your body time to process and digest your foods, you're like, oh, yeah. It just hits different. And that's where, you know, in this week, people are starting to feel like it's not eating more food. It's eating more often, which will actually lead you to eating less food at the end of the day. So really want to be intentional about that. What else? What else? What else? I think we have, we're rolling into the holidays at some points. And we want to be thinking big picture. So you know how chaotic this week with the Jay's game? And then we got the, you know, the Halloween going on, hot off the heels of Thanksgiving. As we

start to roll into the holidays, that can add a whole other layer of pressure, the most wonderful time of year. There can be a lot going on. A lot of thoughts and feels already starting to bubble up as we start to see holiday themed stuff in the stores. And we start to talk about what are our plans for the holidays. And it's not just whatever you're celebrating. It's the work parties. It's the stuff your kids got going on. It's what you're doing with your families and trying to get together. It's the travel that happens. Like it's busy and there's a lot. There's also a lot of underlying layers to it, spending time with family, the financial burden that some people feel during the holidays. There can be a lot going on. There could be a lot of triggering moments, many of us dealing

with grief and missing our loved ones and just taking a moment to step back and be like, okay, how do I want to navigate that? How do I want to feel? Because this is all about approaching life in a new way. And so after you've lost your weight, focused on maintaining your weight, how does this new version of you navigate through the holidays? How do you cope without using food, right? What are some of the strategies that you're going to be implementing? Because what's the plan for January, right? The plan for January is to feel really calm and confident in your body

and being really secure in who you are now and how you navigate life. So the holidays can be a great opportunity and time for that. But you are so self-aware and so in tune that you want to be able to pick up on like, what's going on with me? I'm feeling stressed. Oh, yeah. I'm like, what am I stressed about? And being able to put a name to it. Because at this point in the program with where we're at, it's really just about continuing to show up. You know it's not as content heavy. It's really showing up every day, working through the things that you need to work through, solidifying the things that you need to solidify, not just physically, but that mindset

as well. So that is my time for today. I see that you guys don't have any questions or my questions are not working, probably is what's going on. So if you are trying to ask questions. I can't see them. I apologize for that. Let me bump out and bump in. But as far as I can see, there are. Oh, yeah, here they are. I see the questions now. Hi, Judy. I'll be babysitting at my granddaughter's Halloween night so I know I'll be digging into their stash once they're in bed. Right? Be really selective of that. Like, I love that. That's so fun, right? I do this with my kids where I used to, I like the caramel chews. I like the caramel ones. I love all. also the crunchy bar with the with the toffee inside and I love I don't know about you guys but

I love the old school Halloween like I don't know what they're called but they're the chewis that stick in your teeth and they got the actually Halloween wrapper but they have to be the original ones those are hands down my favorite those are my favorite um do do do do hi sue I'm I'm still, after all these years, still shocked at how addictive the sugar cycle is and how fast it happens. Holy moly, it's hard to detox. I seem to be better with protein and any junk food. Yeah, it's so much easier with the pro, like the chippies and the junk foody stuff rather than the sugar. And our bodies just aren't designed. And I don't like to vilify foods, but, you know, sugar does have addictive qualities to it. I know they've talked about how it has the same like

pleasure principles as cocaine and drugs and all of that. The reality is, is that food is being designed now to be addictive. And what's really interesting with all of these new GLP-1s and weight loss medications, they are actually redesigning food to get people who are not interested into food into wanting to have food, which is really interesting. I mean, they're just trying to make sales at the end of the day. And it is really affecting the food industry. So it is is a real thing that they are designing food to be addicted. There are all sorts of scientists in labs across the world trying to figure out how to get you to eat more, more of this, more of that, buy more, all of that. I mean, even this concept of Halloween, this construct of Halloween

and I'm all for it, you know, I think it's fun. But really, you know, think about that, knocking on strangers' door and, you know, asking for candy. I was raised. I was raised not to talk to strangers and not to take candy from strangers, all the crazy people driving around and white vans back in the day trying to duct us when we were younger. But yeah, there's an emotional addictive element to it. There's a dopamine coping element to it. And then there's an actual physical, this shit is addicting element to it. So we kind of, there's no way around that. We kind of just have to recognize that that is reality. I think, I think that's part of it. is like we have to accept that that is food is designed like that and that's where you know

this is where I might give a bag of chips to Tony and be like I'm I'm eating it I can eat it there's no reason I can't eat it but I'm not feeling I know I'm not feeling good anymore from it and this is where I'll be like can you just take this bag right or I'll wrap it up and put it in my drawer and that's where you have to be like okay I don't I don't actually want I'm recognizing my body is like more and more, more, more, more, please, but I, my brain is catching on to, I'm not feeling this. So what can I do right now in this moment to alleviate this and help me with this? And sometimes that is like, put it away, whatever. Like if you're at a party, sit further away from the food, you know, drink some water, like whatever you can to be like, recognize, okay,

this is addicting. My body wants more of it, but eating more of it's going to make me feel like shit. So what can I do about that, right? Um, the saying, your food ain't cheese. and cheap food ain't good allows me to consider better chocolate for the few trick or treaters I get. Yes, if there are leftovers, they can sit in the cupboard for emergency purposes. I love the old jersey milk. I don't even know if they make it anymore. It was the white package, not the dairy milk, because that can be more processed and additives and stuff. Artificial flavor, artificial color. I try not to buy those types of things because if you are going to have these things in your house, you want the best quality of those things in your house. Or is something to be said for that?

Not that you want to be going and spending a fortune on like all of your Halloween candy from the health food store. This is one of the things that I used to switch out and my kids were younger where I would buy like healthier versions and kind of switch that out. And now I realize, okay, whatever, it's one night. No big deal. But there is something to be said for that. You know, you want to be the kind of person that you can have some chocolate or some candy in a cupboard that you're not obsessing about every day. And then the one time where you're like, I feel like something, you're like, oh, shit, yeah, I got that. That's, that's part of the calm around food. That just because we have it doesn't mean we need to eat it right now today and

eat all of it. And that might have been how we were raised as kids. Like, I don't know about your generation, but we didn't have a bunch of junk food in the house all the time. I think my dad maybe bought some chips, a case of pot. When it was gone, it was gone. And we had to wait until grocery day to get any right and we I wasn't we weren't going to the stores we weren't going to go take out we weren't like there was no convenience spending on foods it was like we got the food from the grocery store once a week that was it um and so this this need to eat all of it at one time um you know we don't need to do that we don't need to do that so to be able to have it sit there in our house and then be like when you really want it be like oh yeah i have that right that's

the fact that's cool is right that calm that's the calm uh watch it for the half price candy on november first yeah every year i'm like i should have just it doesn't fucking expire i should just buy it all the day after halloween and then keep it in my you know garage or my basement until the next Halloween just throw it into the Halloween hot throw it doesn't like most of it doesn't expire so throw it into the Halloween box with all my decorations and pull it out next year that's how we should all do it is shit is expensive man it is so expensive i'm like buying these boxes like 30 for what and then you never know how many kids you're going to get it's a crapshoot one year like the year before last we didn't have anybody and then last year like we the kids just kept

coming and coming which i love by the way i love seeing all the kids come and go okay i got run thanks everyone i'm glad you i'm glad i found your comments um go jays go i'm excited about that something to think about what this week right what's your intention with this week uh think that um i'll be back on wednesday with odette thanks for joining me today and i'll see you then bye everyone