The Livy Method Podcast - Maintenance & Mindfulness - May 6, 2024

Episode Date: May 6, 2024

Gina Livy's Facebook Live from the Maintenance & Mindfulness group hosted on Facebook. This is the live recording from May 6, 2024. You can find the full video hosted at https://www.facebook.com/groups/ginalivymaintenanceandmindfulnessTopics covered:Cravings - addressing cravings, why we have them and how we can lessen themHunger - being more in tune with our hunger levels and cuesMind-body connection - continuing to practice the 4 Questions to deepen our connection with our bodyRecipe and meal ideas - watch Gina’s stories, check out our @livylosers account on Instagram and Gina Livy on PinterestFood sensitivities - developing awareness around how certain foods affect youIndulgences - recognizing why we have them and how they make us feel Solidifying your weight in Maintenance - please share your insights with usConsistency and Maximizing - what it looks like in MaintenanceWho do you want to be? - focus on who you want to be and how you want to feel and good health will be the outcomeWeight In Wednesday - this Wednesday at 4 pm EST, let us know what you want to weigh in on! 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, happy Monday. Welcome to the M&M Live. It's Monday. This is the Maintenance and Mindfulness Group, and therefore I'm going live. If you're joining me live and you have any questions, be sure to let me know. Although Odette has made a list for me of some of the questions that you are asking. Remember, if you can't join us live and you would love for me to talk more in depth about a certain topic or you have a question, you can add those to the post that is posted on Sunday. So you don't have to join us live to participate. I mean, if you are, by all means, ask away, let's chat. But if you can't catch the lives live

Monday at 12pm, you can still participate by sending in some of the questions that you might have. Okay, so I want to talk about cravings. Someone popped into the group and they asked about cravings. They said that they are having issues with night cravings. What is the difference between hunger and cravings? Okay. So cravings are just a message from the body trying to communicate its needs. Usually if you're craving sugar, it's because you've either had sugar, so your body wants more sugar, or it's because you're

dehydrated and you're not drinking enough water. So your body's trying to get you to consume high water content foods. High water content foods are things like fruits. Fruits are sweet and you think I need sugar. When it comes to salty cravings, generally your body associates salty foods with high fat foods. Generally, you'll notice when you are craving salty foods that you are probably a little stressed out, maybe more active than normal, or you're not incorporating enough good fat into your diet. So salty food is more of a call for increasing your good or healthy fat intake. Hunger is complicated because it can mean a variety of different things. So cravings would be more specific, right?

I want some sugar. I want some chips. I want something sweet. I want something salty. So that's cravings. I mean, this can be particular, right? Like a lot of times when women, for example, when they're pregnant, that whole you crave pickles, you probably need some more salt, help the body retain water. Like there's sometimes people, some cravings can signal a deficiency. Sometimes, for example, people crave dirt, eating dirt, which can be a major sign of some serious deficiencies

going on. So I mean, there's a whole list, you can search the internet of what people think like certain cravings mean. But generally, when it comes to our purposes, we're talking about sweet stuff and salty stuff. Hunger can be a variety of different things. Hunger can be triggered, you see something you're driving in your car, you see a Big Mac, McDonald's, whatever, Dairy Queen ice cream, you think, oh, yummy, delicious. Let's have that. Usually in our head associated with some fun moments or memory or our association with these foods and not because we're actually hungry. And this is where you ask yourself, am I actually hungry? Okay. No, I'm not. I just got triggered. Now you could also be hungry. Am I actually hungry? Yes, I am. Do I really want a Big Mac or a DQ?

Actually, no, I don't. So this is where you're out of your head into your belly. So back to again, the four reasons why we asked the four, the four, the reasons why we asked the four questions is not just to get in tune to our portions, but to get into in tune to our bodies cues in general. Hunger can be because you are bored and you know, related to how you utilize food to cope. So if you are sad, if you are stressed, if you are bored, you can associate that with old coping mechanisms. Okay, I need something to eat, I need something to distract me need something to keep my mind off of. Hunger can be after you eat something that is like high in sugar or too large of a portion because your insulin levels to go up,

energy levels come crashing down, all of a sudden, you're hungry, again cause your insulin levels to go up. Energy levels come crashing down. All of a sudden you're hungry again, looking for a pick me up. Um, hunger can be around that three, four o'clock time where your body's taking a dip in energy. So you're feeling your energy kind of dip a little bit, but you need to keep functioning. So you're looking for a pick me up. Hunger can be, uh, get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and you're noticing like your tummy rumbling. That's usually your migrating motor complex and not actually hunger. So you know when you've eaten something and then you hear your tummy rumbling, you think, oh my goodness, I'm hungry, I just ate. No, that's usually just your migrating motor complex kicking in.

So you will know when you are hungry because drinking a glass of water, which I have my glass of water with some digestive bitters in it here, you will know when you are hungry because drinking a glass of water, which I have my glass of water with some digestive bitters in it here, you will know when you're hungry because drinking water doesn't fix it and there's no specific craving. You're just like, okay, I need something to eat. You might be a little bit irritable and whatnot. And, you know, at the end of the evening, for example, if you're finding that you're consistently hungry in the evening, this is where you're going to be like, okay, what's going on?

You know, am I craving something salty? My stress levels are through the roof this week. So let me bump up my good fats. Let me add in an omega-3 if you aren't taking one. Hunger in the evening could also be change of timing. So it can be like the days are getting longer. So maybe you, you know, you're eating your dinner at five o'clock, but now rather than just kind of winding down and heading to bed, you are out gardening after dinner, or you're being more active, you're out going for a walk, you know, so could be that you're up

a little bit later. So it could be that you need to kind of assess what you're eating and when to accommodate the extra hours of daylight in your day, because now it's taking longer for your body to start winding down and producing that melatonin. Usually when it gets dark outside, your body's producing that melatonin. So the fact that it's like in the wintertime, it gets dark at like 430. And now I think it's getting dark around 830 at night. So that's a big difference. That's a big difference. So it could be that maybe you need to also make your food choices a little bit more nutrient rich during the day. So maybe you got you fell into like maybe skipping breakfast, because that's easy, and which will always be a benefit, whether you're

losing weight, maintaining your weight, whatever. Maybe you are, you know, you're just kind of back into the routine of life, you're not like thinking about your snacks or whatever. And so you're just, you know, grabbing something really quick, but not making an effort to make it nutrient rich, adding in enough good proteins and fats to feed into your satiety hormone. So that's the difference between cravings are usually specific. Hunger is like, it's kind of like a slow, like a, I need something to eat. Sometimes you might even find yourself getting a little bit irritable, like, okay, distracted. Like I're just go, go, go. We're not actually taking the time to ask ourselves, okay, I'm hungry. I got to take time to eat something. And then usually we don't

slow down enough to be like, okay, what am I hungry for? What's going to make me feel more satisfied? Do I need some vegetables, some fruits, some protein? Do I need some cheese? What is it, right? So that's sort of the difference. Believe it or not, it's taken me this long to nail the four questions and really dial into how my portions feel. I'm a slow learner. I mean, years and years and years of disconnecting, right? Even from a young age. Well, you know, mom, I'm hungry or dad, I'm hungry. Okay, well, dinners in three hours, you can wait. Right? I mean, like, even in with like, now you now you take your kids to soccer, for example, and now they bring snacks, everyone brings snacks

everywhere. You know, when I was young, it was just like, yeah, you can wait dinners in like four hours, whatever, you know, so we're taught kind of to wait to eat, you know, or eat everything on our plate goes the other way. We are nor we learn through diets to starve, deprive, to completely disconnect. And this happens like being in tune, you can't just disconnect to one thing, like you're disconnecting, say from people, You're disconnecting from, you know, whatever that might be. You're disconnecting. You can disconnect in so many ways, far beyond just not recognizing your body's cues. Say you have too much going on in your life.

So you just like shut her down. I'm just like, I'm not, I'm done. You know, it's too much. It's too much. And so you almost disconnect yourself from everything. So it can take a while to get back into your tune with your body to listen, you could have a lot going on, there's a lot of noise and to cut through that. And then it's really just about practicing. And so often we are in our head, in our head, in our head, in our head, in our head.

And when it comes to like physical cues, when it comes to what to eat and when and how much that's in our belly, that's like a visceral, a visceral, like a response where we are, we are in tune to our bodies. It's not something that you can do in your brain. A lot of people are very disconnected from their body. So, uh, it can definitely take a while. It can take a, definitely take a while. It's a great day. Jessica Coombs. Hello. Hi. It's a great day to celebrate. A thousand days. Stop it right now.

Stop it right now. Can I just tell you, I have so much bad respect. So Jessica, if you're new to maintenance or new to the program, she's been with us for a while. A thousand days following the living method. We've had her on. We had her on a spill the tea, which you know what? We should like really pull that back up again and have you back on. We should actually have you back on and come join us. Um, Jessica talked about, you know, just sort of approaching the whole thing as

one big continuous journey, which was a big aha moment for a lot of people. Um, I love the commitment. I love the consistency. So she's over on Instagram. If you don't follow her over there, um, what is it? Rouge? What? Oh, I should know this. Cause't follow her over there. What is it, Rouge? I should know this because I see it every day. What's your Instagram handle, Rouge? What is it? What is it? I should know this.

I've got a lot going on this week. Rouge Empath, is that what it is? Tony's going to check because he follows you too. So much mad respect. So Rouge Empath. Yeah, it is. It's Rouge Empath. Rouge underscore Empath. Um, you know, good days, bad days, just showing up every single day. Man, you should write a book. Honestly, you should write a book about this. Like a thousand days of prioritizing myself,

a thousand days or whatever. Honestly, so many people would benefit from your insight. No doubt that you have learned through showing up for yourself a thousand days. That's craziness. I love it. Okay. So are we clear on, so are we clear on hunger versus cravings? What else we want to talk about? Someone asked me where to look for recipes. So as you guys know, I'm not a big cooker person, but I am starting to follow some really cool, it's really cool what's going on. I may be writing one currently, right? Yes. It's been a wild ride. So worth it. I love that. Yes, please do. Please do. So some really cool things are happening over on Instagram with some like food influencers that are doing some pretty cool stuff with good, healthy, nutrient-rich whole foods. Like I found a wrap the other day just made from eggs and spinach.

Like what? That's amazing. I mean, if you're into that, you can also keep it super simple. You do want to be mindful that you are not looking, falling back into the habit of you're getting bored. So you're looking for foods that are exciting again, right? Like there is something to be said about getting to a place where you're just like, yeah, I mean, food is food. And that's really where I'm at. Like I can take it, I can leave it. I don't really get

wowed by food on a daily basis. I'm not looking for it to be super exciting. I'm not like waiting for my lunch and waiting for my dinner or any of those things. It's like really not a big priority in my life, believe it or not. But that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy going to a nice restaurant and definitely indulging in certain foods, right? Like Tony and I do this all the time. Like there's definitely a time and place where I love to indulge, but on the daily, I'm just food is kind of really secondary. In my life, like I'm living my life, I'm doing my things, I'm dealing with my kids, I'm doing my business stuff. I'm, you know, friends, family, whatever I'm doing, food isn't

really like the major player in my life. It's not like taking center stage. It's more kind of like I eat because I need to eat. And if the food is delicious, great. So you do want something to be said about that mindset, because that can be something that people fall back into. All of a sudden, you're adding in that square piece of chocolate every day, and you're looking forward to this, and you're looking forward to that. Not that you can't enjoy a piece of chocolate. But that need, you don't want to, we really worked hard in the weight loss program to get in tune to your body's actual needs over your wants. So make sure you're not falling back and confusing the two, confusing the two anymore, right? But if you're just looking for like,

you know, some recipe ideas, because we have those share pages over the weight loss group, but we don't have them here in the maintenance group. You know, where's a good, a good place to look is Pinterest. People don't think about Pinterest. Um, so Pinterest is an app you can actually, there's a lot of people over on Pinterest sharing living method recipes. Um, Pinterest is a great place to find all sorts of cool recipes. Um, there's some great influencers, um, yummy whole food recipes. That's a good one. Yummy whole food recipes that's a good one yummy whole food recipes she's actually done the program um she's the dyi mommy but she also did our program and now she does these uh whole yummy whole food recipes so there's some great people doing some

really cool stuff out there you might you could follow me over on Instagram and see who I'm following food wise. I like to follow sometimes like gluten-free people, dairy-free people, plant-based people, like I do a variety, not that I'm gluten-free or dairy-free or plant-based, but I like to kind of see a variety of different foods. So just kind of going, perusing the Instagram, not, I was going to say the internet, um, but Instagram and Pinterest are two really great places to be inspired. Just search up healthy food, search up living food, living method, living method in food. You'll be surprised. Also, if you're not following, we have a whole Instagram account called Livvy losers account, which is all member generated

content. And so a lot of them follow some really great, uh, food, food influencers and whatnot. So that's a, that's a great place. I am still recovering from eggs being read on my food sensitivity test. I was addicted to eggs. So the break is probably good. Yeah. So, so what happens a lot of times with these food sensitivity tests is because the state of your body, we're all human. We all have a body. We all have very similar sensitivities. Like really none of us should be eating gluten and none of us really should be eating really dairy. Just because we can tolerate it and consume it doesn't mean that our bodies are designed to process and digest it. It's like cows. Cows have a very complex like digestive system,

right? Like four different stomachs, something crazy like that, that is meant to process and digest grass. But we feed them corn, and we feed them soy, we feed them all sorts of other things. So just because we can eat something doesn't mean our bodies are specifically designed to consume said food. And so this is why when it comes to gluten, it's like some people tolerate it really well. And some people don't tolerate it well at all. Some people tolerate dairy really well. And some people don't tolerate it really well. And so it really comes down to our microbiome and how strong our digestive system is. So I've seen this many times where people will go to their naturopath or their healthcare provider, they'll get the food sensitivities testing. It's usually the eggs, the nuts, like the grains, there's usually a list of like certain foods,

almonds, especially for nuts, which are harder for your digestive system to digest. See, eggs, because they are so high in protein, they're like great for revving up the body, but they're also, they can be hard for some people to digest. So this can be due to the strength, how strong your digestive system is and how healthy your microbiome is. And so I've worked with a lot of clients who go get testing done, they have to lay off all of these things. But then when they simultaneously put time into strengthening your digestive system, probiotics, prebiotics, bitters, enzymes, whatever you're adding in there, and you give your body time,

and it gets used to processing and digesting and creating natural digestive enzymes, you're decreasing your sugar intake, your trans fats, whatever, and your body's getting healthier and your body's had time to repair and rebuild and all those things, it's not unusual for people to be able to add those back in. And then all of a sudden their digestive system is strong and healthy enough to be able to easily digest eggs, maybe even add in some gluten and whatnot, but obviously it can take time. And then if you are sensitive to certain foods, you do have to remove them for quite a long period of time, at least three months, 12 weeks, which is why the

programs are 12 weeks long, because it takes at least that much time in order to make real sort of foundational change in the body. And then here's where you're at. This is where people, they try to take out gluten, but they still are adding in little bits here and there, and they can really keep that inflammation going. Hi, Tammy. Yes, the cravings have dramatically subsided. I thought it was unusual that I no longer get that dopamine hit from the junky treats. I still enjoy the occasional, but it doesn't feel the same as it once did. Maybe I need to start running to experience that old high in a healthy way. You know, there's something to be said for this. So it's not actually having the thing, right? You know that it's not from having whatever it is,

it's the anticipation of having it. Have you read the book Atomic Habits? It's really interesting because it gets into kind of triggers and that dopamine hit. So it's really right before we have the thing that's like, Ooh, I'm going to have that. And it's not actually having the treat and it's not what happens after it's the anticipation of that coming. And that's really where we're getting that dopamine hit, which is really interesting. Um, there is something to be said for, you know, um, the chemical reaction that happens in our bodies when we are being really active and we're getting that heart rate up and we're feeling really good. And we're like, okay, yeah, I did that for sure. There's a lot of chemical reactions, especially happening in the brain that people, this is why a lot of people get addicted to like

running. And then once you start like creating a habit of that routine, you're like, whew, yeah, I feel good. You may be dragging your ass to the treadmill or dragging your ass to go for a walk or whatever. And then once you're out there, you're like, you feel so good. That feeling itself can be addicting, which is why it gets easier and easier and easier. The more sort of you make it a routine, right? Um, but yeah, it's that, it's that hit. It's not the actual treat. Yeah. That tastes so good. It's the thought of it. That's exactly it. That, and then that triggers, and then we usually have the follow through. And then that's where we don't pay attention to what happens. Are we actually, do we actually enjoy the thing? Not usually, right? We're like, once we have it, we're like, Oh my God, I'm having it, whatever. And then afterwards, we usually follow it with

like, why did I have regret? And then we berate ourselves. And then the next day we punish ourselves. And so, yeah, so it's, it's all about what we're triggered in our memory to the thing or, or, or treating ourselves. So if you can imagine, so many of us have spent a lifetime restricting ourselves and now we're going to like, oh, oh, it's our opportunity to like to treat, get away with, or, you know, have that thing. And then we forget about the aftermath of what happens of having the thing. And so this is why you will get to a place where like, you can be, say donuts were your thing or cookies are your thing or chips or whatever your thing is. You'll just be like, oh yeah.

Like, it's like if you allow yourself to have it and that's it, just have it if you want it. It's just like, no. Okay. Well I don't like, so when I was young, of course, you know, when you're young and you start drinking alcohol or smoking cigarette, I tried to smoke. It lasted seven days. I had to smoke menthol. I was so sick. I was not cool. I couldn't do it. That was like when smoking was really cool. I tried, I couldn't do it. And then my friends got into drinking alcohol and my parents said to me, do whatever you want. Just don't lie about it. If you're going to stay out late, make sure you, you know, you call us, you let us know where you're going. If you're going to drink, make sure you are not driving.

Like they knew, right? Like I'm going to do it anyway. So they're just like, as long as you don't lie about it, do whatever you want, you know, and be a good person, all of that. And so that took the fun right out of drinking for me. It took, I always end up just being the driver and being the DD because, you know, I used to go to like field parties back in the day. You know, you're in the middle of the woods somewhere, forest somewhere, and everyone's drinking, getting drunk, and then you don't have a ride home. Then you had to walk for like 16 hours home. I hated that. I hated walking. I hate being cold. I hated like being in the middle of the night, like trying to figure out how to get home. So I always drove because my parents took the fun out of it. There was just no reason for

me to drink because I was allowed to drink. Whereas my friends, they were like stinking it and you know, they weren't allowed to have it. And so like, this was this thing that they were doing and getting away with and all of that. Oh yeah, we went out, got so drunk and whatever. And you know, my parents could have let me drink in front of them and not cared. They just really cared about lying. So, yeah, so that dopamine hit, like that need to do something was just completely taken away. And you're kind of going to get to this place with food, too. When you allow yourself to have it, okay, well, like, all right.

Like, I can go upstairs. There's brownies on my counter if I want. I can go have one if I want it. Okay. Well, like, all right. Like I can go upstairs. There's brownies on my counter. If I want, I can go have one if I want it. You know, I can have whatever it is that I want. This is like wine, right? Like, so I stopped drinking wine, of course, because I stopped drinking wine. I wanted wine every night for like three months. Funny enough, I actually had some wine. When did I have it? It was the other day. The other day, I was away at that conference. On Thursday night, I had some wine and I was just like, whatever, you know? So something to be said about that. I'm always fascinated why I still go for some things when I know it won't feel good. Work in progress, I guess. I haven't learned the lesson. It can take a while just because you recognize it. Like once you

recognize, okay, this is no longer working for me. This, I know I don't feel good after I have that. When you're tired, where you're, when you're like, things are really noisy, you know, when you're in an environment like, you know, I was at, for example, the wine. So I was at a really interesting conference of women and innovation and health and AI and technology. It was super cool. My God, what's happening out there in the health industry is really cool. What we're doing, also really cool.

So I was at this table. It was like, we're at the Pearl Hotel in Burlington, beautiful hotel on the water. And like, it was kind of like the sun was going down. And you know, when you have that, like the blue, purpley, pinky sky, it was just gorgeous. And the food was great. And there's like all these just like, you know, amazing, brilliant women. And they're like, do you want red wine or white? And I'm just like, red, please. You know, and then it's there. And then I am drinking it and you know, whatever. So a lot of times it's like you're, it was just, I got so caught up in the moment. And so that won't tend to happen to, you'll just get caught up in the moment. You won't think it, you'll just go for it,

you know, whatever. Um, but it's really recognizing that, you know, it's okay. I keep having this thing. And then if it, if I'm noticing it's not making me feel good or it's not working for me, you might continue to do that every now and then until you realize, you know what, it's just, yeah, eventually you will make the association that it's not appealing. And that can take a few times because you have, you're right in the sense when you say like lessons learned. So you recognize it's not working for you. You recognize it's not appealing to you, but it might take you a few more times for you to kind of create that. Yeah, no thanks.

The association now is like, yeah, have it. This is good. I love that. This is good. Like, you know, I'm okay with this too. Yeah. You know, every time I have that, I'm just like, no, thanks. I'm good.

And, but that doesn't mean that you can't be situations like, you know, you go to a party, and one day, there's like, maybe some beautiful desserty things. And you're just like, yeah, no, thanks. I'm great. And then the next time you're like, Oh, that looks really good. That looks really interesting. I'm going to have that so you haven't enjoy it. Or hors d'oeuvres. Right? So where was I the other day at this conference thing afterwards, and they had hors d'oeuvres. And I just they came around and I just, they had served a really nice lunch and this was only a couple hours later and they had some great hors d'oeuvres and I went to go take one and realized, yeah, no, actually I don't, no, I'm good.

But it would have might've been a different situation. So I didn't like not, I didn't like purposely like, I'm not having hors d'oeuvres. I literally was like, no, thanks. I'm good. They looked great, but I just was like, no, thanks. And so that is sort of where you get, that's that calm piece, right? And even though you've lost your weight physically, that mental piece can take a while. That mental piece can take a while.

Of course, different types of triggers there as well. Different types of triggers there as well. Is that a half hour? It's gone by so quickly. What else did I want to talk about? Odette wanted me to talk about week two today. So if you're following along, solidifying with the weight loss program or doing another round of the program, which I'm so excited to, we're currently in real time creating our new maintenance program, which is going to have all

this kind of same information, but geared towards solidifying your maintenance. And I know some of you have been here for a lot longer than that. You're on different stages of your maintenance as you see Odette kind of rolling out this information. So if you are, listen, do me a favor, will you, if you feel so inclined and you are a member who's been with us in maintenance for a while, and you see some of these posts coming up, would love your insight, what you think about this conversation relevant to where we're at in maintenance. Odette and I are working on that maintenance program. So a lot of information that she's posting right now will go into the maintenance program for people. So people who've lost their weight, they're ready to move on and they will use the app to follow along day by day by day, but all the information will be maintenance

related and it will pop up and link into the maintenance group as opposed to doing another round of the weight loss program, which is going to be so super cool. So if you guys feel so inclined to share your thoughts on those posts, I know Odette would appreciate that. So we're talking consistency and maximizing. So what the heck does consistency mean when you are in maintenance? What does that even mean to you? Right? Maybe this could be like consistently being mindful to get that water in because this happens to me. I don't get my water in, then all of a sudden I'm drinking it late at night and then I'm up peeing and then I'm not sleeping great. And then I got digestive bitters in here, which

is probably why I haven't drank it yet because they're gross. My stomach from having wine on Thursday is not feeling so hot. So I'm working on getting it back, getting my digestive system back on track. And maximizing. So, you know, we talk about this a lot and we've discussed this in our Way and Wednesday conversations where you are no longer like maximizing to lose weight anymore. So, you know, and it's great. People can easily maintain their

weight, but then they don't feel as good as they felt when they were doing their program. Because we don't think about maximizing our sleep and maximizing our stress and, you know, focusing on sleep and stress and movement. We're just like we lost our weight, we're good. We're good. And then we start to realize that we don't feel as great as we felt when we were doing all those other things to maximize our efforts when it comes to getting and keeping that scale moving, right? So this focus, now that you've lost your weight and you're focused on maintaining, is sort of maximizing, like getting the most out of living your life and doing the most things that you can do on a daily

basis to make you feel your best, physically, mentally, all of it, right? And then this is where you might have different seasons in your life where you have to step up and really focus on those things more than others. Or maybe this is just a time where you need to, you know, your stress level, you're an accountant, your stress levels are really high because it's like tax season or, you know what I mean? Like it's a matter of like figuring out, maximizing isn't necessarily having to do all the things. It's like if you are making an effort to get better sleep, are you doing all the things

that you can do to actually reach that goal of getting better quality sleep? You know, are you noticing your hormones a little bit out of whack? And so are you doing all the things that you can to kind of like calm that body down again and get a good handle on that? So talking about maximizing and consistency this week. Maybe I'll have, I'll read this one comment here. Consistency. Being consistent involves the development of new habits, including eating habits. Yeah. Or consistently doing, repeating those habits so they become your new habits, right? Like supporting your new habits

that you've created. Exactly. Consistency helps us to train or educate our brains and bodies to prefer healthy foods and to have an appropriate snack to balance our daily eating and help deal with any hunger in between meals. I don't know that I would say that. I would say consistency in terms of being in tune to your body's needs. And it helps to, that's what I would say that it is, right? You don't want to get into a routine necessarily of doing this and a routine necessarily of doing that.

Consistency though, when you are obviously making change does help to that, the body loves routine, right? The body loves routine. So consistency can be like if you're doing another round of the program consistently being consistent and doing the things that you need to do, or you can be consistently mindful, which is doing the things which you which can change every single day, right? Some additional benefits I've noticed about being consistent, including being able to save money on groceries, on focusing on more fresh foods and fewer processed or frozen prepared foods. Yeah, not falling back into old

habits, you know, making time for yourself, being consistently prioritizing yourself. So you are consistently making time for yourself. So you are consistently making better choices for yourself, right? And that trickles down to food and food costs where you're not just like ordering like Uber Eats and eating processed foods and all of that, right? And being able to easily prepare healthy meals for myself. Yeah, prioritizing yourself. I love that. Karen, in maintenance, I've realized that my focus is about maintaining my health and feeling good more so than maintaining my weight. Well, if you focus on maintaining feeling really good, that'll help you instant, like basically instantaneously manage your weight as well. In other words, maintaining my weight is only a piece of it.

And so I want to be consistent with the things that help me maintain my health, my well being, including clean eating, allowing indulgent pleasures mindfully. I watch that clean, right? But I know what you mean healthy eating, supplements, exercise, sleep, stress, spirituality, spiritual practice. Oh, I love that. That is one that we actually should add to our maximizing post. Yes. We don't talk about that enough. However, um, I do, however, get that the goal is to have them all come more effortlessly and naturally as we solidify our new and improved healthy habits so that we aren't talking about them all the time. Yeah. See, what you're doing is like you have an idea of how you want to feel and essentially who you want to be, right? And really along the way, you are designing the life of your dreams. You are creating your life in real time. I want to be the kind of person

who can wake up at five o'clock in the morning, but I bounce out of bed. I'm excited for my day. I have a really cool routine where I'm moving my body. I'm taking time to meditate. I'm doing some deep breathing before I open up my phone and start my day. And then I feel like I'm in a really good space to handle whatever life throws at me that day. I want to be that person. I want to be the kind of person that when stress comes, I'm like, okay, you know, I got this. I can deal with this. You know, they're like, I want to be that person who gets up and just feels like their body is freely moving rather than, oh my God, my fucking back. And like, which is me right now. I'm rolling out of bed. You know, I'm still dealing with my back injury and I'm just like, I'm like, I make me right now. I'm rolling out of bed. You know, I'm still dealing with my back injury. And I'm just like, I make all the noises when I get out of bed.

Right. And I say to myself, if I continue this, I am not going to be in a great place. So I got to get up. I did the treadmill. That's why I'm in my workout clothes. Still, I did the treadmill. You know, I, last week when I was walking, cause my back is so messed up. I felt like I was like a toddler learning how to walk again.

Today I got on there and I'm like, okay, I'm feeling stronger from the inside out. So I'm actually able to, you know, like walk a little bit faster. I'm feeling really good. You know, like I'm recognizing if my shoulders are slumping forward, I'm having shoulder pain now, unless I do something about it, it's only going to get worse. You know, so how do I want to look? How do I want to feel when I'm like 100 and something years old? You know, like, I want to have ease of movement. I don't want to be like hunched back with my shoulders forward and you know,

backache and or, you know, shoulder that doesn't function and inability to do the things I want to do in my life. And it's no different. Like we all have certain variations, you know, or certain things that we want to focus on and you know, have an idea of who we want to be and how we want to move throughout the world, how we want to think, how we want to feel, how we want to move throughout the world, you know, so I gotta go. I gotta go. I gotta go, you guys. Thanks for joining me today. Thanks for joining in on the conversation. I love that. Thanks for everyone who's tuning in and listening. I hope that you're feeling a great place, but where you are. And ask yourself, I love this every Monday, right? Ask yourself, how am I doing? How am I feeling? What's my state of mind these days? What's going on with me? Can I use a little bit

more support? Like, what do I, okay, I'm feeling like this. What do I need to do to not feel like that? Okay, I'm feeling like this. Why am I feeling like this? Okay, let's do more of this. Really like ground yourself, take a nice deep breath, you know, on a Monday, find some time today and just assess your situation and where you're at. Ask yourself what you need, what you can do, what you need to focus on,

right? Take a minute and think about like what you're trying to do here, what you're trying to achieve, where you're going, where you're trying to get to, you know, just take the time to do that. It can really not only set up your whole day, your whole week, your whole next year. Hello, it's got some big plans. Have an amazing day, everybody. And I will see you, I believe, weigh-in Wednesday this week. So we've changed our format a little bit. Definitely sort of more interactive. So if you can join us, great. We would love for you to join us.

I'm not sure what we're weighing in on this week. I'm sure Odette is compiling some topics. So if there's anything specific you would like us to weigh in on, let us know in the comments. Bye, everyone. Have a great day. Bye.