The Livy Method Podcast - Maintenance & Mindfulness: Midweek Motivation - November 26, 2025

Episode Date: November 26, 2025

Welcome to your Midweek Motivation!In this week’s episode, Gina, Odette and Kim connect for a powerful conversation about maintenance, mindset, and why awareness is everything. Gina shares her reaction to a vulnerable community post from a member who is struggling, offering a compassionate yet honest look at what it really takes to maintain. The team digs into the difference between participating in The Program versus just going through the motions, and reminds listeners that maintenance isn’t about being perfect, it’s about staying present and doing the deeper work.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.

It's your maintenance midweek motivation. Some of my favorite conversations are taking place here. Wake up, look good, feel good, no matter what life throws out you. You've got this. Hi. Oh. Surprise. Surprise.

Hi. I'm here too. She is. I'm trying to find I am so late and scattered and I'm trying to find something to wear. Anyways, hi, happy to be here. It's like, what? I don't know. I'm going to call from Odette after like, why didn't you tell me you were coming?

I feel like we don't handle pivoting as well as we talk about. We handle pivoting. I mean, I'm fine. I was here and ready. well you know i i didn't want to miss this because i missed last week and you know these are my favorite conversations and you know i would love to do so much more in the maintenance program i got to figure out a way how i can do that and thank god for you your odette and your passion and um but and i can't do all the things and you know um you know i love you both and so i was just like feeling

super stressed i hadn't showered so spoiler alert i'm about to go to indigo and i am working I'm on doing an exclusive book deal. I don't know if I can even tell anybody or not. I don't know. I'm telling, well, you're all friends. So that's like a pretty, and it's not the book deal that's exciting for me. The reason why I'm signing on with them is so that. Oh, well, I guess.

You should just go, Gina, because you're just going to mess this up. Anyways, I got a really important meeting, but I wanted to be here. And then, of course, I'm winning that award tomorrow for, Canada's top 100 most powerful women, which is crazy and insane. But I just want to say hi. So I called Kim and I'm like, oh my God, can you, you know, come in and pinch it? Or what do you call that? Base runner.

Pinch it for me? Jody says yes, we get two thumbs up from the baseball fans. Is that what it is? Yeah. But I, you know, so what are you talking about today? It was week 11. What is, oh, you wanted to talk about the comment that I responded to last night. You wanted to start with that.

Yeah. So we got a comment in the group last night. And I loved it for so many reasons. I loved it for the member who shared it. And I loved it for our members greeting it. So it was a comment that came in late last night. And it goes after two and a half years of being on the program, I've gained all my weight back. I drink all my water. Do my snacks and everything. I'm quite discouraged. Following the program day in and day out does not feel sustainable. I do not know where to go. I feel as well. I feel as. though I'm at the beginning of my journey. And I don't want to say I love this for the member because they came their way back. That's not what I meant. I love this for the member because they came here, set it out loud, and have this awareness that they need to do something about it. Like what is really going on here without maybe them even recognizing that they're saying what is going on here.

So I wanted to get into this. Yeah, so I'll go first. I actually did respond. I took a bit of time with that because there's a lot going on here when someone says I'm still drinking my water and doing all the thing. Like you don't want to be still following a plan years later. And so I wonder what was missed. So the big thing here is it is not about your water or your food.

It is about why did you gain your weight back? And so what happened in your life? There's three reasons why you gain weight back. One, not putting time into maintenance. That's a big one. You've got to give your body time. I mean, we know it takes about two years for your body to adjust to your new weight, although the whole point in the maintenance program is you're able to fast track that.

Two, situational change that has you. So one, not putting time into maintenance means going back into old habits. Two, situational change. Something's going on in your life. You fall back on old habits. Three, you're not being mindful. You fall back into old habits. I would also add a fourth that health issues, like all of a sudden going through menopause, hormones,

and other health issues can cause weight gain as well. So the first thing that you want to do is be like, why did I gain my weight back? Because you can lose your weight again. If you don't deal with that, you're going to gain it all back again. Not to be really negative, but that's the conversation.

I also wonder how much participation has taken place in the actual maintenance program itself. Because, you know, the maintenance program has evolved and we've learned, you know, we didn't just create a maintenance program. We did that based on the pillars from Ruth. And so I agree. I love that she's here and she's asking, but is she asking or is she just expressing? And I think that's, there's two different things.

And I think there was a call out, like, is anyone else feel this way or whatever? And this is why we do this because we know. there's a good chance you're going to gain your weight back if you fall back in old habits. It's a good chance you're going to gain your weight back if you're not mindful. Good chance you're going to gain your weight back if you don't put enough time into maintenance. And so this is what this whole program is about, right? And so the starting over, yeah, that sucks. But what do you need to learn, do, and work through so that when you lose your weight again,

even if you were to take, let's say, weight loss medications, right? The minute you stop them, you're going to gain that weight back again. So that doesn't fix anything. And so what else are you going to do? So you got to figure out why you gain with that weight back and be really honest and real about that and figure that out. And so yes, it sucks that you feel like you're starting again. You're not. You're starting with all that knowledge you had before.

And that set back was the set up for you truly losing your weight in a way that you can live your life without spending the rest of it trying to lose weight. That's what I got to say there. Yeah. Did I say, did that cover it? yeah no that was good i think that was the that was the point for the member to this member that made the comment and and also that um something you said in your reply was um the waking is a signal it's a signal of something else happening it's not it's it's it's the signal that an adjustment needs to be made that something needs to happen so it's not just doing the same

thing over and over again it's this it's this place of being um curious and digging deep and figuring out what's going on. Not what's wrong with you, but what's going on. I think that was such a point point that the weight gain is a signal. And once you get that signal, you can choose to see it glaring brightly and follow it, or you can ignore that signal. It's like the stop sign, right? You wouldn't ignore a red stop sign. That's your signal. You wouldn't just blow through the sign, the light. You would, you know, take that signal as a turning point. I think this is where if you feel like that weight is coming back that is your sign that is your signal that something needs to change i i just want to i got a good going but i want to add there so and i know you guys have heard this before but i was able to fairly easily

maintain my set point range for 30 something years of my life and then my weight started to go up and up and up what felt like uncontrollably i was dealing with grief and stress and loss i was dealing with running a business which was very stressful and the pressure of that i was also going through menopause and it wasn't until I actually made some I really made some serious changes like I it wasn't food right it wasn't water it was saying yes to things it was how I internalized stress there was some health issues also that I was dealing with that I actually needed help with I probably needed an actual doctor some a psychologist or at the very least to actually be on a gratitude journal. I had to be, it was the hardest work I've ever done. And it took me about two

years, two years for me to get back at a place where I was feeling good again. So like, I just want to say like even as a weight loss expert, I had to go real deep with, I couldn't continue to drink the wine. I can drink it now. It doesn't bother me. But I've also managed my stress better. I had to say no to things. I pissed people off. I made some hard choices. I went for walks when I didn't feel like it. I continue to get out and work out when I don't feel like it. I, you know, so you have to, you sometimes you have to make choices that you really, it's not the water and it's not, it's not the food, right?

Yeah. Yeah. So I just, I loved it for this member that they came back, that they didn't just, that they don't feel like they're doing it on their own. And I love it for our other members too because I know you got to go, Gina. So if you want to jet now, I can talk to. No, I mean, totally, I do have to go, but I want to hear. you have to say about this.

Yeah, I just feel like it's, it's this reinforcement to our current members to that the work that they're doing here in the maintenance program is so important. Like, you know, we've been able to lose our weight with the liby method, but the living method is not the magic pill. We've said that over and over again. We're teaching you. We're trying to elevate you. We're trying to educate you so that when you come into this maintenance program, yeah,

you understand the components of a meal. You understand nutrient dense food. You understand those things. and now here in this maintenance program is where the real work can start and you can might think like, I don't want to talk about fear. I don't want to talk about trusting myself. I don't want to talk about these things. But this is where that magic is going to happen. Maybe this is that magic pill, this work that you're doing now. And so I think that this comment is that reminder that you just be here and do this work and listen to these conversations and make yourself uncomfortable so that this doesn't have to be your cycle and your pattern as well. Yeah, this is so normal that we created a whole maintenance program because of it. Like, this is the sole reason and existence for this maintenance program.

And this is taking part of the conversations. This is why when I say, I wonder what was missed. Not that you didn't do the work, but I wonder truly the conversations that you missed out on that were, because we talk about this almost every day, right? And so this is what this program is built for. But I also want to validate the emotions too, right? You have to walk through that fire. You have to feel those emotions, that feeling like, oh, fuck.

You know, you came so close and whatever. And that means that there's still, you know, there's still more to learn and work through. And you absolutely can do it. You can do it. Every great success story is riddled with setbacks and feeling like a failure and second guessing and questioning. And it's all about putting one foot in front of the other and continuing to move forward. And reach out for help.

You are not alone. You are not alone, right? And so when I saw this member's name and I said, Odette, I don't recognize the name. Like, you guys know, I know so many names around here and I don't mean any disrespect, but I don't recognize the name. And I'm sad about that because we do truly want to help, you know? So make yourself, make it so you are so engaged. Everybody knows who you are, right?

And that's really going to help. Okay, I really got to go. I love you. Thanks, everyone. Okay, I will, I'll catch up with you later. I'll see you guys. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Okay. That was a little, a little beautiful snippet from Gina on that. And I think I, what that comment resonated with me too, because we see members, this is where members are going from the weight loss group and what they're heading into. And we had Stacey Naiman last week on Spill the Tea. And we have another.

guest who's in maintenance. That is going to be joining us next week to talk about that topic. I don't know if I'm allowed to spill the beans on who it is, but she might pop into the comments and say something. But I think this is the big thing is that heading into that, this is super common and this is, to Gina's point, the struggle with, you know, there's a lot of weight loss programs out there. And a lot of people in the world have been successful at losing weight at having this number on the scale go down at, you know, at downsizing the amount of body fat that they have, whatever you want to look at the angle for losing weight. But this is where a lot of the work, and I think this happens a lot for the people who,

and not saying that this weight came off easy for this member, because I don't know that I don't have the background. But this is something that a lot of people that had an easier time with the weight loss or it came off quite easily, they've come across. they come into maintenance because it was just that very easy to follow the plan. I followed the plan, the weight came off. They followed the plan, the weight came off. And at some point, if you don't have to do that mental work, if you weren't faced with a lot

of challenges, you didn't have situational change, you didn't have these kind of barriers or challenges come up through your weight loss program, they're still going to come up at some point and you're going to have to learn that lesson of how to manage it and how you need to deal with it and how to continue to be mindful and support your body when the conditions aren't optimal or the conditions are perfect. And, you know, that's a big piece of what you are helping everyone work through here in the maintenance program. Yeah. And I wanted to just touch on that point that that Gina said before she left about the feelings being valid, right? The emotions being valid. I want to read this comment from Sue here. And she said, I feel for this member so much. Having lost and gained so

many times it's so discouraging and it becomes a personal character statement. I'm so stupid. I'm a loser. What's wrong with me? Instead of questioning all the things you just mentioned. I think what's Sue meant by just mentioned is like, you know, what's going on? What's changed? What is that signal? And it's true. I mean, we can fall into that pattern, into that cycle of, gosh, like, how do I let this happen to me again? What's wrong with me? Or I am such a loser or, you know, and those thoughts and those comments come forward. And that's when you start to feel that discouragement. That's when you start to feel like this is a lost cause, all of this work.

And I think, you know, that mindful training that we try and do here, that reprogramming, that, you know, putting that neuroplasticity in action where we're, you know, I don't even know, like firing all those different things and thinking in a different way. This is where, you know, here in the maintenance group and in this program is why we want you to be so engaged, Why we want you to say these things out loud, because the more that you can say them out loud, the more you're going to believe them, you know, the more that you're going to be able to trust them and understand them and be okay with, you know, who you are and where you are now and be okay with letting go of those of that past diet dialogue of, you know, I'm such a loser. I didn't again. You know, I failed once more. Yeah, anything taking, looking into it as learning moments, like what are you learning? What have you learned? And that was something that was something that. that, you know, Stacy shared yesterday in the segment, if anybody, you know, wants to pop into the podcast and listen, it was that the moments when she knew she was getting off track or

old habits were creeping up is what she learned from that. And that's her work that she's doing in maintenance right now. And I think a lot of members will resonate with that is that when these things come up, it's learning how to deal with things for a new time. So for this member, you have learned what doesn't work for you for maintaining your weight. So the work moving forward is figuring out what do I need to do in order to maintain it. You know that it's not just the water and food, you know, eating the snacks and meals and the food and following the food plan right now. And to your point, you know, to their point, it's not sustainable to think about that rigid regime for the rest of your life. But this is where digging into that mindfulness and

thinking, you know, taking the time each day to think like, what do I, really need to do to support my body? What do I really need to support my mind today so that I can feel my best? It's such an impactful point of the program and it's such an impactful week and you know, this is the week that does bring up a lot of those feels, you know, with moving away from the structure of the program, although it's still very structured, moving away from the structure of the program, a lot of our members, all they know is a structure of the program or the chaos of old habits. So this part in here can feel a little bit uncomfortable. It can feel a little bit unnerving. And this can be the point where you might want to tuck away a little bit. You might

want to bury your head a little bit and not face that. Because not only is it the fear of failure that can pop up. It's also that fear of success. I think maybe I'm going off tangent a little bit here, but it's also that fear of success, right? So we're in this place of, of chaos a little bit. And it's like, oh my gosh, like if I don't pay attention and do all the things, I'm going to fail. But then if I do all the things, I could be successful at the end. And what does that look like then? What's my label? Then who am I? Then what am I doing? So, you know, we hope that this week also brings that up a little bit and makes you have to look at that and think about that at the same time. I just, yeah, there's so much.

So I just want to get into this, like really fine-tuning this personalizing the plan. We had a member comment about, you know, are we going back to two snacks in the afternoon? And I thought what I pulled out of that was, you know, are we going back to two snacks in the afternoon? And I wanted to just say, like, this personalizing implant, it's not about we at all. It's about me. It's about you. It's about what you need and what you're doing. It's not about following what everybody else is doing.

So I think if we can just think of it like that, it's not a we week. It's a me week. It's what do I need. It's not what is the program telling me to do. The program told me what to do for 10 weeks plus prep week to lead me and guide me to this place. where now the week is about me. It's about what I'm doing, what I need. So I really wanted to just point that part out.

Yeah, we actually talked about this on the tweet this morning, Gina and I, just about that, you know, members going into this from the weight loss perspective. And for some people, they need that structure or they feel they need that structure of that food plan. And with the personalizing the plan, if that is sort of your usual and your normal to sort of follow a similar or schedule or plan.

That can be one thing, but this is about checking in at that time. It's not about having two snacks every afternoon. It's not about having a veggie snack and then a nut snack. It's about checking in at those times and actually really digging into what you need. Like, do I eat? Okay, breakfast is high protein. Great. I'm going to have that.

You know, I want to focus on that. You get to the fruit snack and it's not about whether you have fruit or not have fruit. It's about asking yourself that question. Okay, it's the AM snack. Normally, I have fruit at that this time. is this what I need today versus just blindly having fruit because that's what's on the food plan. Yeah. I know, and we talked with this on Monday too, how the food plan is really your foundation here.

It's that foundation of that house. It's that it's that framework that you can lean on. But it's not something that you need to, it shouldn't be something that you need to. Oh, hello, dog. Kim's dog just came across the screen for those that are listening. She wasn't expecting a second live segment today, so she's disputing my attention being split. Yeah, that's okay. I mean, that's how we roll around here, right?

Doorbells ring, dog's bark. That's how it goes. Lose your train of thought, which I just did. Oh, the food plan being that foundation where you're using that, like you said, you're checking in at each meal on snack time. So there is that structure. If you're feeling like you still need structure, there is your structure. But then within that structure, you have the flexibility with intention. to make the decisions that are right for you.

I just wanted to read this comment from Kim, actually, just to go back to talking about the emotions. I know there can be a lot of shame, embarrassment, disappointment, you name it when it comes to gaining weight back. But good on this member for reaching out for help. Putting a voice out loud to these negative feelings makes them less powerful and overwhelming and makes room for solutions. 100%.

It's those solutions, right? It's reaching out and trying to figure out what is. going on what's happening don't let this old pattern be my pattern again let's make long-term choices here or let's make long-term change here um and that happens with doing the work of course there is that there's that disappointment and that embarrassment you feel like you know oh i've been so proud i've put my weight loss out there on display for everybody you know everybody's seen the changes and now you know i'm the weight starting to creep back creep back up again oh am i an imposter am i a fraud but am I embarrassed because I'm letting this happen when I said I would never let it happen again.

And I think this is where, yeah, like Kim said, put it out there. Put those feelings and those thoughts out there. Take the power away from them so that you're not sitting with them on your own and you're able to work through them. And I think as long as you're being productive and open with those thoughts and not letting them define you, not letting them define you as I'm gaining my weight back or I have gained my weight back. I am a failure. I can't do this. Instead of letting that be what the end result of it is, think about, okay, I am gaining

my weight back, but I'm aware of it. Dig into the work that needs to be done in order to keep doing it because just because your weight went back up does not mean you were a failure. You are absolutely successful losing it. you know what you need to do to lose at that part of it you've got locked in because you have lost your weight but this whole maintenance thing is uncharted territory for most of us most of the people that are here most of the people in the weight loss group i mean obviously they're there because despite years some people are coming to us with sharing that they've had 50 years of

trying to lose weight and 50 years of dying over that 50 years they have never ever maintained their weight this is brand new it might take longer than three months it might take longer than a year to relearn the habits and to re relearn what you need to do in order to keep that off so it's you know it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a it's just you realizing that your weight has gone back up is the starting point of the next step for you it's not the end result of what's going to happen from your weight loss journey. Yeah. And I like what we said about earlier too about, you know, you're not a failure. This is just a blip in the road, right? It's like I'm not, I'm not a loser here. I just need to learn from what is going on for me. I think, you know, we talk about those words

having power. It's how are you labeling yourself? What are you saying about yourself? You are not those things. These are just things that are happening to you that maybe you need to be proactive about or react to or, you know, make change because of. This is not who you are. You are this person that can make change because you have. You are this person that, you know, can take power out of these labels because you have already done that. So I think it's, yeah, it's taking away that power and making them less, making those

words and labels less overwhelmed. Well, I'm not, I don't know if we really helped anybody with personalizing the plan today. I mean, I know we were to dive into it and answer some questions. I think the real lesson for today, and I love that this conversation went there, is just, it is a lot of learning. It's a lot of real raw emotions. That's a lot of real honest talk. It's about, you know, holding on to that, you know, power for yourself and not giving it away to labels and words and feeling like there's something wrong with you. I think that, you know, maybe that's the lesson here.

And spoiler alert, we're still doing personalizing the plan next week. I can't believe next week is week 12. So we're leaning into that and we're leaning into what next steps are and then figuring out what the next steps might be for you, whether it's another round of this program, whether it's, you know, kind of moving away from the program and really personalizing that plan and maybe testing things out a little bit if that's where our members are at. or maybe they're feeling like they're ready to just go and live that living away, take that learning with them and live it.

So we're going to be talking a lot about that next week as well. Next week. So we talked a couple weeks ago. It was Gina and I, Kim. We talked about really getting to know our members and what their experience has been here in the maintenance program, in the maintenance group, whether they've been here just 91 days or if they've been here since we started in 2022. So we have a survey coming out.

Monday. We really want to hear everybody's voice. Everybody's voice matters. So not only does it matter for you and your own personal experience, we want to hear what your experience is and, you know, it's a great opportunity for you to also give feedback. You know, what do you think, you know, you'd like to see more of or less of, or what's worked well or what hasn't worked well. But what this also helps us do is support those members that are here now, but it also helps us to create and mold this program for new people coming in and help it evolve and better so that, you know, everyone can have this experience of maintaining the late, long term. So that's everybody coming in on Monday and we'll be open for a little while that we want

to make sure that everybody has an option to fill that out. Yeah, it's going to be good. I'm looking forward to seeing the results of that because, like you said, this whole program that you've created has been based on the feedback and the experience. of the members. So, you know, checking it every once in a while and finding out how that experience is. Yeah. And to say this, I hope there's a question on who's your favorite guests with ODIS on the midweek motivation and everybody's going to get bonus points if they put Kim on that one. I can add that. I can ask Ruth. So just as an aside, the survey is actually coming from Dr. Ruth, Kane and her research team. We didn't make this survey. It's this information

that they are also going to use to help, you know, really evolve this program. So, yeah, it's, it was really a lot of science behind it. So we hope everyone has a chance to fill that out. Well, Cam, I'm going to just wrap this up now because I feel like we talked on some real, real, had some real talk today. We just dive, we did dive a little bit into personalizing the plan and how to fine-tune it. But if members, if you have any questions, you know, I know a few came up and there was a few the group we were going to get to. Just pop them into the group. The team is here. I'm there.

As you guys know, Gene is there too because she answered that one last night. So she's there. We're all reading the comments and reading your questions. I support you. So, Kim, thank you so much. It's such a lovely surprise pop-in. Maybe not so much for your dog, but she'll be fine. She'll be fine. She'll handle it. Okay. Thanks everyone for joining us live. And for those who are listening after, we appreciate you all being. Bye. Bye. Thank you. Thank you.