The Livy Method Podcast - Maintenance & Mindfulness: Mindset Mondays - January 5, 2026

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

Maintenance Mindset Mondays is all about cracking open the conversation about what REAL maintenance looks like – beyond the scale and deep into personal transformation. Join Gina and Odette as they dive into the week’s focus, share insights on all things maintenance, and answer your questions. Whether you’re new or experienced, there’s something for everyone!In this Mindset Monday episode, Gina and Odette return after a break to connect with the Livy Maintenance Community and speak directly to those navigating the often overlooked reality of maintenance. They get candid about the evolution of the Maintenance Program, from a simple support group to a structured, research-backed 91-day journey, and why maintaining weight is a whole new ballgame compared to losing it. Gina addresses the app changes with honesty and clarity, explains the true cost of support tools, and reinforces the commitment to helping members solidify their set point and shift from "dieter" to "maintainer." It's real talk, layered with transparency, context, and the bigger picture behind every tweak and tool.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. Anyone else peeing up a storm

and getting back on drinking their water? Like, honest to God, I feel like I'll have to go to the bathroom every five minutes. Hi, Odette. Hello. Hi. I think my body is having this real reaction to the raw vegetables again. Like they're like, what are these? I don't understand what this is. You can always cook them or stay in them. I know. I can. Maybe I should get a little third there first. Welcome back. I'm excited to be back. Hello to all of our new members joining us in maintenance. Odette, everybody. She runs our maintenance program. She has

for the last three years, three years or four years now? How long have we had this maintenance program? Yeah, well, the program has just been, the program proper has just been just over a year, like 18 months-ish, but this group has been running since July 2022. Yeah, so it originally started as, and I think this is an important backstory for people to understand how we arrived here. I know there's a lot of conversation going on with the app, and we're going to address that, but that's really secondary to us right now.

it's all about reading over the the guidelines for maintenance. But this group originally started, people had asked me about doing a maintenance program maintenance group. I'm like, we tell you everything that you need to know in maintenance at the end of the weight loss program. And now we've come to realize maintenance is a whole other beast, right? It's one thing to be able to lose your weight just because you've lost your weight doesn't mean that you're done working through the issues and associations and traumas and habits

and all of that. We've come to really appreciate the conversation here in the maintenance program. Then what happened, people just joined it as a group. So there was no program. It was just a group to pop in, talk about maintenance. And then we've had Ruth Kane and our team at the University of Ottawa studying maintenance and people in maintenance. What's the difference between people who are successful in maintenance and people aren't? And that's where we came up or she came up with these six pillars, which now the maintenance program has been based on.

So back in the day, to be able to solidify your weight, you just used to do another round of the weight loss program, right? But you did it with the intention of maintaining rather than with the intention of losing. So the maintenance program, although the steps are kind of very similar, it's its own thing at the end of the day. And so now we've been offering the maintenance program as an actual 91-day program for the last year and a bet. So we might as well get in and talk about the app. So here's one of the things I want to to make very clear. The maintenance group and program never had an app. It never had an app, which is why you were able to purchase it for practically nothing at the end of the day. What you were doing if you were using an app was using our weight loss app in general tracking mode, which we always knew was going to change one day. But I was like, well, if we have to go and create a whole new app anyway. Why can't we just let people use it if it's going to help them? The reality is it costs money to run the app. And for the $75, you know, 60, 50, however much you got into the maintenance program for at this point, the maintenance group loses

money. Let me be very clear about that. This group doesn't make us any money here at the end of the day. We run it because maintenance is really important to us. We want you to be successful at maintaining your weight. But I have to be honest, the app was never part of that. If you go to the purchase part of our website, it is very clear. It is Facebook only. Now, that doesn't mean that you can't be frustrated or upset about losing access to the app. You can now use the app in its freemium mode. So you don't lose all your data. You can go back into your previous programs and see your data. I just talked to Tony today after talking to Odette, and we're going to see what we can do about our maintenance members being able to use the app, not just in freemium mode,

but in a way where you can actually see your graphs. Every time you watch a video, every time you do anything, it costs money. You use the AI. It costs money. So it's just not feasible to have everyone be able to use the app for free. And what you don't know is people who did the program three years ago, we're still using our app in general tracking mode following along in the weight loss program for free. And the only way that we can keep the program affordable for everybody is to actually be able to make some money. So I just want to give you the be really transparent and give you the backstory on all of that. So if you can just kind of be patient and bear with us, we want you to be successful, which is why we offered the

maintenance program in the first place. Right now you can use the app in freemium mode, but I do have to address the elephant in the room. It was never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, offered up as part of maintenance. So I just want to be clear on that. We are also working on a maintenance version of the app for Spring, which will have AI, all of the program, all of that as well. And we're going to give you more information on that. So we are. kind of, you know, hearing your feedback. Nothing is going to change this week. I can guarantee you that. But Tony's going to check with the team, see what we can do, see what makes sense for us at the end of the day. So that's that. I don't know, Odette, if there's anything else you want to add.

Like, we get it. We get it. Right? You're used to what you're used to. But also at the end of the day, you know, I guess that's my issue is people saying you promised us. And I really didn't. it wouldn't make any sense for me to promise you an app to use with the maintenance program. And if you go into, we haven't changed anything in terms of signing up, if you go and read it, it doesn't say anything about an app. It's just the Facebook group. So super transparent on that, right? Like it's, we're not trying to, someone called me shady.

I was like, yeah, I'm really fucking shady for offering you. And she's been using the program for a year and she's an active member. I'm like, you know us. like what shady are you kidding me right now like well you promised i'm like man we so didn't promise that so so that's where we're at full transparency um i really get it i get it right and i want you guys to enjoy the process and the program and all of that so i do want to dress that at the top i'm going to ask odette what she thinks but i really want to move on for that because there are people who are here they're excited about maintenance and i really just don't want to put you know

that kind of like this negative spin on starting our day today so i don't know if you want to add anything. I'll depth that. I'm with you. Like, I understand that change is hard, right? When you're used to, when you're used to having it one way and it has to change and move to another way, that can be hard. It's hard to adjust. It's hard to find that routine. I know, you know, going in and being able to see your graphs and that progress, you know, it can be very important. But, you know, if the app is not working the exact way that it worked before, there are other methods that maybe can fill the gap for now. You know, maybe it's going back to journaling. Maybe it's going to a pen and paper. I know that might seem like we're regressing a little bit,

but there are ways. I think we don't want to allow ourselves to be held back by not being able to use, you know, a technical device. And I think what we want members to know, too, is that we are doing this to build something better. You know, when we talk about this app technology, we want to be able to support a smarter AI system. We want to be able to include all of the maintenance program and all of the maintenance information. And that makes a huge app. That makes a lot of data. And so, you know, having these small changes now is because we're building into something better to be able to give you something better in the spring. And I think we don't always, I mean, I don't even know what I'm doing tomorrow or the next day. So think about what I'm doing

in the spring. It seems so far away. So I can understand that that change can feel uncomfortable. both, but I think that if we can look at it as change that's happening for something bigger in the spring, I think that's where we just love to shift everybody to. And yeah, change is hard. And I don't want anyone to feel like, yeah, you're shady. I'm shady. We're taking things away. We're duping you. We're trying to make this harder for you. We have this group here. And I want to continue to be here. And I want to continue to be able to lead this group. And to do that, you know, we have to be, you have to put a. it out there. We have to be financially smart about it. And we're going to be here in the group.

Nobody is losing access to the information. Nobody is losing access to the program. Nobody is losing access to you, to me, to the team, to the community. That's all going to stay the same. So I think if we can just focus on that for now, we'll get through this change and it'll be better after. But I think that's all I want to say about it. I want to bring back and talk about the excitement of not only new members, like you said, there's new members. The excitement for members coming back after being off for a few weeks and not being part of an active community is just, it's beyond, it's through the roof. And that's what we really want to focus on.

Yes, there's this blip with the app, but there's so much good that's happening in the group. We have brand new members that are coming in and being like, what the heck is this place? And they're having to look around and are like, oh, my gosh, this place is something else that's quite amazing. let's remember what we're doing here in prep week as well and, you know, what we want to focus on here. Great. And we will continue to be transparent. And if you want to reach out behind the scenes to customer service, you are more than welcome to do that. But like, let's get focused on where we are at. Because it is really exciting. We've had people who have been in maintenance for years who

love to connect with the community here. We have people who are brand new. They're just coming in hot off the fall weight loss program and you're looking for maintenance. So here's what I can tell you. you don't even know what you're getting into. I love the conversations in maintenance. They're my favorites. One, because you've worked really hard to get here. But two, it's a whole other can of worms. It's a whole other beast.

It's a whole other thing. Like I said, just because you're done losing your weight doesn't mean that you are done helping your body solidify your weight and solidify that mindset as well. So you're going from someone who was focused on losing, losing, losing. now you're going to go to focus on maintaining, maintaining, maintaining, so that you can eventually just get to living, living, living. So just like in the weight loss program, everything is bigger picture. So everything we're talking about in the maintenance program is bigger picture to get you to that

place where you are just living your life. You feel calm around foods. You are waking up, looking good, feeling good, self-aware. You're able to trust when to eat, what to eat, and also how much to eat. So the biggest advice I can give you on day one, read the information. It is different. Don't assume that you think that you know. Read over all of the information and all of the post because they are geared towards the maintenance program.

That's one of the things too with the app. People just kept rereading the guidelines from the weight loss program. It is not the same. There's so much science and research that's gone into our maintenance program. So you want to make sure you are reading those posts. Okay, where do you want to start us off with today? What do you want to talk about Odette? So I want to talk anybody that's new in the group and where to start, what to do.

Like you said, read the information. So yes, it's a 91-day program. It's broken up into those weeks in the maintenance guide. They can go in there and they can see the program overview. So there you'll get a review of those pillars. How did this maintenance program come to be? What is the information that it's based on? So go there.

also information on how to navigate the group. It's a little bit different. It's same but different. So you want to feel super comfortable. And then each week, those guidelines are coming out. So those guidelines, yes, they're going to be that roadmap of how you're eating, what you're eating, what to focus on. But we're also, those guidelines are also going to pinpoint what the focus is beyond the food that week. What are we getting into when it comes to maintenance? What challenges do people face in their journey what feelings come up what new habits and coping mechanisms and triggers may arise and how to work through that so I think every week yes it like you said it might look familiar like it's prep week it's week one but you want to read those guidelines and understand

what are we doing here and what do I need to focus on yeah same but very different same but very different um and things should look and feel a little different for you in maintenance it's not that it's going to be less work. It should just be a different kind of work. And I think what do you think the hardest thing is for people? Maybe some of our members who are conjoining us right now can kind of chime into. What do you think is the hardest thing when it comes transitioning from the weight loss program into the maintenance program for people? So two things actually come to mind right away. And one was actually sparked by a member in the group. I think her name was Roxanne. I'm going to look at my notes. Yes, Roxanne. So she said it's her first time in maintenance. She's a little bit

nervous because she doesn't feel like she knows what she's working towards. Like, there's no end goal. And I think that, that happens to a lot of people. They come in, they're like, what am I doing here? What am I working towards? What am I trying to accomplish? Why should I, you know, keep doing the work? I think that can be one of the biggest challenges because they don't have that end goal yet, yet in sight. They don't know what they're working towards. They can't envision or see what life beyond weight loss can be. If I'm not a, if I'm not a dieter, what am I, am I doing? What am I working towards? Why am I doing this? Why am I continuing to be mindful? So when people first start, I think that is a big challenge. And then I think the other challenge is

losing that, that spark of hitting the goal starts to wear off. You know, like you're like, I hit my number. I hit where I want to be. And then you're like, oh, now I got to start a new program and start all over again. And they don't connect the two. So I think those are the two biggest challenges for anybody new coming in. And it's completely normal. We see it. over and over and over again. So that's completely normal. Yeah, this is a good time to talk about your why too. It's important to have a why in maintenance and know why you're showing up every day because when you're no longer, you know, trying to drink water to lose weight, no longer trying to move your body to lose weight, no longer trying to manage your sleep to lose weight. Why are you

doing those things, right? So really having a really strong why. I just want to read some over the comments. First of all, I want to say, where does I just see that? Gene, welcome. Thank you, Gina and O'Dad for the whole program. Never shady. Well, first of all, thanks for that. But first day in M&M, I've lost 140 pounds really to maintain it. You have worked so hard to lose your weight all of you. It's so important. It's not losing weight. It's being able to maintain it. So here's what the research is now saying. It takes about two years for your body to adjust to weight loss. Now, that is, if you've just counted weight, measured, haphazardly, lost your weight however you have lost it, all of that. With the maintenance program, we are

like systematically helping your body be able to sustain and maintain your weight. So that two years is just by doing nothing, living your life, right? So you can absolutely fast track that process. I love that. Welcome. My word of the year, here's Judy, hi, Judy, is depth because I intend to really dig deep during this program and to work hard on dealing with all of the mental and emotional stuff I need to work through to maintain my progress. And this is it, right? It's not losing your weight. I'm not trying to like discount the hard work that you put into doing that, but it really is about maintaining and sustaining your weight. And this is a big one of why do people gain weight back, right? They don't put enough time into helping their body adjust

to their new weight. Right. So you've lost all this weight. You've released all this fat. The sides of your heart needs to adjust. You lose 140 pounds. Your heart is a muscle. It needs to adjust to the weight that you've lost, right? You, your blood flow, your body temperature, your hormones, your body fat was factored into all of that. So you need to give your body a hot minute to adjust and function at your new weight, right? Number two reason why people gain way back is situational change. They don't make adjustments in their life.

They, you know, encounter new stress, things happen. And then what happens? You fall back into old habits, right? Fall back into old habits. Not being mindful, right? Not continuing to be mindful and self-aware. Why? What happens?

Fall back into old habits, right? So it's really about reinforcing the change that you've made and really reinforcing those new habits. Here's Michelle. Hardest thing for me is trusting myself. This comes up so much that you work so hard to lose the weight, but you don't trust it. And then you don't trust yourself to make the choices that you need to make. That's a big one.

That's a big one. for sure. Hi, Kat. This is my third maintenance program. Originally, I thought I was just keeping an equilibrium. Love that. And quickly learn that maintenance is work. I need to focus and don't take things for granted. Yeah, right? I'm a bit, here's the hand. I'm a bit nervous about losing the dopamine hit of the scale going down. Right. So, so this is where what you can do and what I love, personally when it comes to the scale. Some people choose to continue to weigh. Some people don't. is try to guess your weight. So get on the scale and try to get that dopamine hit by guessing your weight, right?

So what do you think your weight is today? At this point, you know yourself, right? You can tell if you feel a little bloated and a little aw, because you had some chippies or drank some wine or, you know, been indulging over the holidays. You could probably guess what it is. And so try to guess your weight before you get on the scale. And what you're doing is really just trying to trust how you feel

rather than needing that scale for validation, right? I mean, there's other tips. We're going to talk about the scale as well. But we've had so many conversations with people, Aodet, who face the scale. And they're disappointed if they don't see a low number, even though they're happy to be where they are. I know I'm doing a lot of talking, but probably the other thing to recognize is when it comes to the scale, your goal weight and your set weight is a range. It's a range. So you're going to notice it's normal for your weight to fluctuate. So it's not like you've just reached your goal weight. And if you did, you did that by doing all the things to see your lowest low. When you're in maintenance, you're going to find it, you're not really at your lowest low every day unless you're doing the things you need to do to see that lowest low. And I don't know that seeing your lowest low every day is the way to go either. But your set point is a range. So all right, what else? What else we got to talk about? I think I just want to go back to that point on trust because it does. come up so much and the trust is going to I know we can say it and you might not believe it but the

trust is going to come from the doing and see and seeing those patterns and taking action and understanding that when you take action um there is a reaction or there is a consequence so I think that's where that trust is going to slowly come you shouldn't trust it because you you've never done it before like that would be like that blind trust like why should I have never done it before but now as you're here and you're doing and you're learning and you are picking up new things and you're developing these tools and these habits on your own. We're going to lay things down. But it's it's the members that are picking it up and taking it and building those tools and habits. That's where that trust is going to come from because you're able to say, yeah, I did that. Yes, I can do this.

At this point, you don't know that yet. So it's going to, it's going to take time. Yeah, I love that. You don't know. You don't know until you know. A lot of our members are returning from after the holidays. here's Darcy, over the break, old habits started to come back. I love that. I love that you're so aware of that, right? And that's the thing, like, you can lose your weight. And then you're going to go through a whole year of celebratory days and weekends and travel and birthdays and anniversaries and memorial days, you know, where you're working through some really big fields. And it's about kind of navigating through all of that, right? And that awareness, it's okay that over the break you fell back into old habits. It's okay that over the break you indulge.

That's what the holidays are for. So it's a matter of again, getting back at it. And back at it doesn't mean necessarily doing all the things. It's doing the things that you need to do to get back to feeling your best. So we really need to normalize that. There are times in my life where I'm on the lower end of my weight because everything's aligning. Life is good. Maybe I'm on a workout kick and I'm eating healthy.

And then other times life is just shit and I'm hanging on by the skin in my teeth. My weight is up at the higher end. So that awareness. Over the break old habits started to come back. I had to constantly remind myself why. I started this journey and go back to eating mindfully. I still have a lot of work to do, but I'm here for it, right? That's it.

And so even with asking like the four sets of mindful eating questions, which obviously you're going to want to be doing when it comes to kind of, you know, getting yourself in check with those portions, the goal is to do that. So it becomes second nature so that you don't even need to ask anymore. You just look at your portions. You know if it's enough or too much. You know the exact moment when if you take one more bite, you're going to overeat, you're going to be able to, if you choose to indulge, catch yourself

all of a sudden going into that, why do they do that and, you know, be able to correct that behavior and that mindset, right? So, I mean, that's where we want to go with this. And that, that takes work. So it's second nature. Hi, Sue, you're not late. You're right on time here. Hello. Right on time. Yeah, I think that that's, that's important to that, you know, we say in weight loss, it's the, you're learning the tools to be able to maintain your weight or to lose your weight and then maintain your weight. And then what you're learning in maintenance, you're learning those tools and habits that are going to be able to carry you through,

you know, to live your life forever to move on from this. And it's going to take time and it's going to feel uncertain sometimes. It's going to feel you're going to feel nervous sometimes. And sometimes you're going to feel amazing. I think like you said, it's remembering your why. So not only why are you doing this,

but how did you feel when you were at your best? You know, do I want to go back to my routines just because I want my scale to be down? or do I want to go back to my routines because I felt so good when I was there and I felt like I was accomplishing something and I was doing what was important to me. And is that why I want to get back to my routines? Now, not just to get the scale back down. I mean, if that's your goal and that's what's driving you, absolutely, you know, hang on to that. But if it's beyond that for you now at this point, you know, maybe it's like, I want to get back to my routines and have it's because I want to feel as good as I did before. I want to feel as good as I did just before those holidays

started to creep up. So I think it's really just exploring that and going a little bit deeper with that one too. Yeah. Well, Diane just popped on and said, I started to beat myself up when my weight reflected the upward trend of eating Christmas junk. Then I remembered to enjoy what I'd indulged in, but realize how bloated I felt, et cetera, and told myself I enjoyed or didn't enjoy and then get back on track, right? Yeah, it's, you know, so there's a, there's a lot to talk about here. So Odette and I are going to be joining you every Monday and Wednesday. I saw someone's comments talking about coming in up, the weight loss program. There's a lot of excitement and hype over there.

Like, we do want to transition you away from that, but we also understand that, you know, you love the community. And so why we are working on our third sort of lifestyle program, too, that now that you've lost the way, when you've got to the point where you've maintained your weight, you still want to stay connected. So that definitely is something that we're working on. but Odette also has a great lineup of guests that are going to be joining us over here in the maintenance program as well, right?

I know it's hard to not have foam over what's going on in the weight loss program. Remember, you do still have access to all of those guest experts if you want to listen by way of our podcast as well. So you do have access to all of those. But Odette's got a great lineup. Do you want to talk about maybe what's going to happen over the next 91 days here in the maintenance program? Yeah. Oh, my goodness.

So much happens. So I just want to also say that we know a lot of our members, you know, moving over from weight loss to this, to the maintenance group, they feel like their whole routine is gone. They feel like everything is shifting. And we always say there's a rhyme and a reason why we do things. And there's a rhyme and a reason behind everything. And, you know, a change in routine might shake things up for you a little bit. It might encourage you, I don't want to say force you. It might encourage you to look at things a little bit differently, to be a able to make adjustments where you need to make them. So yeah, not a lot has changed in, you know, what you're eating, when you're eating, but there's slight shifts in your routine here. Like, oh, I always listen to the 9 a.m. live and go for a walk. But what else can you do now while you go for a walk? Maybe it's a different podcast. Maybe it's listening to something else, you know, for that 9 a.m. walk or whatever it might be. That's just an example. So yes, your routine might shift, but how can you adjust that routine so it still works for you?

it's these real life situations, not everything is going to be the same forever. You're not going to hear the same conversations forever. So I think that's an important point to don't let this change in routine make you feel like it's, you know, it's this big whole shift. It's just about having you think about adjusting, making the changes that you need to make. Yeah, it is transitioning. It's building them what you've already done and you're no longer a loser anymore. Now you're focused on being a maintainer.

So eventually you can just be a liver. I used to always say you shouldn't need a lifetime membership for weight loss, right? Now, obviously, I've come to understand the power of community that we have here and whatnot and wanted to stay connected to what we do. I think what we have is really special. But it should be, there should be forward movement there. And it should be changing. And it should be the routine, for example, like it is very similar to the weight loss program.

So that should feel pretty easy to you. That should feel very routine on a physical perspective. which will really allow you to do a lot of the mental work, which is really the heavy lift here when it comes to the program. So it should be a little different. Before we go today, I just want to talk about how you have a whole team of people here to support you. Feel free to ask the questions that you need. We're going to try to help connect our members as much as possible over the next 91 days.

So you're not alone. Spoiler alert or like just between us, these are my favorite conversations. I love talking weight loss, but I live for our maintenance conversations. And we're going to really get into it. And we know we're going to ask you to share in the journey with us. If you can join us live for the 12 o'clock, we love that. If you can't join us live, you can always listen to them afterwards. They're going to be available in the guides in the group.

And then you can also download and listen by way of our Living Method podcast. So it's on the same podcast as the Weight Loss program. They're going to be, you're going to be able to find them. just labeled maintenance so you can check those out. Okay. Yeah. So I just, yeah, I just wanted to say, too, you know, we were just talking about, should I just lost my train of thought. I'm laughing at Sue.

I love, you can just be a liver. As soon as I said that, I was like, I paused and I was like, okay. I don't know if we're going to put that on T-shirts today, but. Just be a liver? Just be a liver. I'll take it. I'd wear one. All right. It's time for us to go. Thanks, everyone. Please bear with us with the app. We're going to try to figure things out. We hear you. We see you. We're going to, we obviously, we don't want you to be disappointed or frustrated or any of those things. We're going to see what we can come up with. We appreciate you. We really do. We're going to be really transparent. We'll keep the conversation open. Like I said, if you want to reach up behind the scenes customer service, feel free to do that. You know, we care. This whole program has been built on member feedback. It's been member feedback. Some of our,

original members and maintenance from years ago, it was all feedback that we received. This is where we want to hear feedback. I know in the weight loss program, we're like, fill out the survey in the end, right? You're so focused on losing weight. But this is where we love hearing your feedback here, right? So don't be shy about sharing your feedback. We appreciate you. Yep. We're here for you. We got you. We got you. And you know, you said earlier, I got my train of thought back. You said earlier, ask all the questions you have. The team is here. And this is also the place where you can, even if you don't have a question. Share. What else do you need from us? If you don't need a question, what do you need? Do you need guidance? Do you need support? Do you just want to share to share? Yeah. That,

you know, that's what this group is all about too. So yes, ask all those questions that you need to feel good. But this is also a place where you can share and our members connect with each other. Yeah. So you get feeling good. Feels good to be back. Thanks, everyone joining us live. Thanks, everyone who's listening after The fact, as always, Adet. Thanks so much. I'll see you on Wednesday. Have a great. Rest your day, everyone. See you then. Bye.