The Livy Method Podcast - Maintenance & Mindfulness: Mindset Mondays - September 22, 2025

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

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 episode, Gina shares a raw and honest account of a turbulent weekend that shook her—literally. After experiencing a terrifying mid-air scare on a flight, she opens up about reverting to old coping habits, including drinking and eating off-plan. But instead of spiralling, Gina uses this moment to spotlight the messy middle of maintenance—the space where life throws curveballs and the “new you” is still learning to catch them. She and Odette unpack what it really means to support your new identity, how to sit with hard moments without letting them define you, and the power of self-awareness to pull you back to centre. A grounded conversation about grace, growth, and not needing to be perfect to keep moving forward.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.

Week to supporting the new you. Welcome to our maintenance mindset Mondays. Hello, Adet. Hi. Hi. How are you? Hang it in there. I know I was listening to your live this morning over in the weight loss group.

It sounded like you had quite an eventful weekend and travel day. Yeah, I was at the Women in Dentistry Conference in Arizona, which was really interesting because, first of all, it's a group of super talented, incredible women. And it was beyond dentistry. And you might wonder how that fits in, where your oral health is so important in your overall health. and it was also sort of work-life balance and I was there obviously to talk about weight loss

and making change and whatnot. But yeah, on our way there, our plane kind of dropped from the sky and went on its side and people screamed. And I'm sure I didn't almost die because, you know, I survived clearly. But I really thought that I, that was the end for me. It was quite traumatic and it shook me up a little bit. And now I'm just happy to be here today. We're happy you're here. Well, it led to, I wasn't going to, I was sharing on the morning live, I wasn't going to drink, I wasn't going to drink because I'm not, I'm into kind of minimizing my alcohol intake these days. And I just feel like shit when I don't. And I was feeling so fantastic going there. And this thing happened. I was so shook up, probably a little bit in shock. And then so I was like, I need some scotch. So I drank. And then of course, you know, then I drank. So then I drank some more. And then I drank some more. And that, you know, that went from Thursday night to Friday night to Saturday night. to Saturday night and boy, I had a great time because you're just celebrating being alive, but I'm paying for it today. And, you know. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that you're, I mean,

your experience is definitely unique, but I think that, you know, reverting to these coping mechanisms and, you know, having having that feel like your comfort place and that comfortable spot in the moment when you when there's something so traumatic happens you know whatever it might be i think you just you want to be in a familiar safe place and even though in the moment it's you're not thinking like this i'm going to feel like shit tomorrow i just need to feel safe right now and i think that is common for for a lot of people i think that you know until they've found what that new safe place is or what that new safe um mechanism can be of it's natural to revert to something that you know that's familiar that's calm that's going to make you feel good well and i think this is where

you know our talk today and this week like supporting the new you is when we say you know who is the gina that felt really fantastic like you know before that happened okay that happened the whole weekend I was really struggling with it and I just that was the best I did in the moment and I think so many of us I'm just using this example because this is what happened to me in recently but I was thinking about everyone's mindset and we woke up it was rainy today and people aren't feeling well and that we have this whole big long road ahead of us and sometimes it's just like you just aren't like I love I love showing up and I love working and I love all of that and I'm excited about the rest of the time that we all have together, but the same time today is a day where I'm just

like, meh. And I hope I'm not being a downer for anyone who's crushing having their best day to day. I fucking love that for you. But it's the big feels. And it's about like, okay, that happened. That's the best I did in that moment. But that doesn't ruin anything that I've done. And now it's okay. Let's get back at it today. Let's drink your water. Let's do, let's not keep that going. And that's that awareness piece, right? I don't want to be the Gina that succumbs to drinking or eating i also ate or doing any of the things that make me feel like shit um but sometimes shit happens and it's how you continue when you recover from that so so it's yeah this i mean this is bigger picture of what we're doing here right things are going to happen your life you don't want

to revert back into old habits for very long for very long and that's actually that's one of the points that i wanted to make right off the top today is that members they're coming into the group this week into week two and they're feeling you know confident and calm and intentional but that's not to say that they aren't feeling um tested and challenged by life happening around them and the messaging that we're getting from them or what we're getting from our members is yeah this is happening my routine is off i am being challenged by life this is going on around me but my awareness and my self-talk is what's getting me through it so i'm not allowing myself to fester in it for too long. I'm able to pull myself out of it. I'm able to talk to

myself and get myself out of it, allowing it to happen, honoring it's happening, knowing it's there, but then having that awareness and that confidence in themselves to talk themselves out of it. Yeah. And you just have to keep moving forward. But I think now what I love about where all of our members are at and hi everyone who's watching us and joining us live, um, is it. that you have that ability to be self-aware. And that's what this becomes about. It's not, it's not going through the emotions. I know we talked about that last week and the week before. It's about what is going on in my life and how am I navigating that and how you are navigating life, the things that you're eating and what's happening with your stress and your sleep and how you're managing that.

That's the maintaining part. Like that's it. That's the maintaining part. No, I, I, you know, my thing is drinking. And, you know, that's the example I use. but it could also have been someone eating right like that they just had that stress happened so they're like oh my god fuck it let me just go get eat this let me like you know that obviously was a coping mechanism for me a lot of people use food as coping mechanism self-soothing um we talked about in the weight loss program to reward treating and all of that and so this is where you really understand your connection with food and you have an opportunity to reconnect um now let's say what could I have done differently, right? Or this is like just a mindset rather than being like I need

a drink. Now, my was a situation where I was stuck in the airport and had to get on the plane again. And I realized it was a big, big feels I was dealing with. But I don't think I did any deep breathing exercises. I probably could have just been in like a moment of like deep breathing. I tried to call Tony. All I ended up doing was crying, calm me down a little bit. You know, I could have gone for a walk or stopped and did some meditation or something like that. And so, you know, I don't know if that realization is going to help me the next time. But I think the more of my, I'm recognizing, oh, how did that way of coping work for me? It didn't. And so I mean, I'm not solving it today, but it's that recognizing that way of coping is not the best way. Now, I might have a couple

things in the future come up that I do the same thing. But each time I take time to reflect and learn, I have a better chance of changing the way I am coping with things. Right. So we're doing the same with food. You guys are going to be able to maintain and sustain your weight. What's going to challenge you is life and going back into old habits or that old mindset that you've ruined everything, start yourself, punish yourself, all of that. And I think you said something, I can't, I can't remember. in prep week it might have been even in the spring group and it stuck with me and it and it's about you know doing this maintenance program yeah we're here to solidify our weight but we're here we're here for growth as well and i remember you saying that we're here for growth as well because

it's not going to be perfect i'll probably i would like to say ever like i don't know if there's ever going to be like that perfect moment where you feel perfect and everything is going your way it's going to feel calm and aligned and stable, but maybe not perfect. So we're here for growth. We're here for these experiences that are going to happen to us. And maybe we don't react as as we really want to in the moment. But we're going to come out of that with, yeah, maybe a different thought process. Maybe the next moment where it's where it happens again, you're going to be a bit more prepared. Maybe again, you won't react exactly the way you want to, but you'll be a bit more prepared you'll expect it i think we can't chase these moments where we think i'm going to maintain my

weight and it's going to be just to be perfect i'm going to know what to do i'm going to do exactly what i need to do every single time and that's how that's what i'm striving for i think what we're striving for is to you know embrace those those moments of growth and those moments of realization and know that down the road they're going to help us maybe in the moment it wasn't the best you know choice or the way you wanted it to go but later on it's going to it's going to serve you Yeah, I think it's that evident flow, that flexibility. I hear Linda here. I was at a surprise party on Saturday.

I ate and drank over much, too much. And now trying to keep the perspective that I can't linger in rumination, just go forward. Reflection leads to deep an awareness. And that's what it's about. And it's about your, like, it's just like your weight, your set point is not one number that you're going to stay up for the rest of your life. There's like a range, right? And you're going to fluctuate.

There are going to be times in your life where you're on the lower end. of your your goal weight and then there's going to be times you're going to be teetering on the higher end probably reflective of what is going on in your life and it's not all doom and gloom right like i remember when i started dating tony we were like eating going out to eat and drinking and i you know i wasn't doing my workouts because i was spending my time with him and my weight went on the higher and i felt fantastic having a great time but then i was like okay i got to rein this in a little bit because this is not just a fling, you know, in a weekend somewhere. This is like my life moving forward.

So I need to, there was a time where I moved to the lake and I rented this little house on a lake. And I was drinking coronas every day and eating like I was at the cottage. And I was like, whoa, this is not a weekend. This is not a week at the cottage. It's my life now. And so there's got to be that flexibility for things to ebb and flow. Like maybe you dip into old habits, then you bring it back.

and you feel amazing and then something happens, right? Whether it's work or family or something like grief is a big one too. Like a lot of us are functioning through life with this underlying level, layer of grief and just trying to get through our days, let alone on top of all this. There has to be that wiggle room for, for ebbs and flows, forwards and backwards. Like that's how you, you're right.

This is, this is, it's not just static. it's not like you lost your weight here's your goal this is where you stay it's it's not static right so let's be able to adjust i think that is um massive but you just said there um this is my life now um you know this is a this is a pretty fat like i've been vocal about this is going to be my therapy session now for a minute thank you Gina you got the floor go for it go for it so you know last year my son um we got a pretty significant diagnosis and this week is the you know everything has the oh awareness week awareness month awareness this is the week for his condition it's a bleeding disorder i don't mind putting it out there um and when that happened last year it was how do i cope with this

what do i do and you're like well you know this is my life now so it's always going to be shit it's always going to be terrible i'm always going to have this worry i'm always what's the point of anything else and you struggle with that and you um you know and it impacts you it it can it can be way heavy and you just saying that this is my life now that that's not that's not how my life now has to be my life now can be what i still want it to be i can still live the way i need to live to take care of me. Yes, that is part of my life now, but it's not my life now. And I think just saying that out loud, I think is going to be impactful for our members when they are saying, what is my life now? You know, my life now is this person that I can still take care of myself. I can still be

important. And if something traumatic happens or if something heavy happens, that's just part of my life now. It doesn't have to be my life now in totality. You know, there are other parts to it that can still be amazing and happy and worth living and taking care of yourself for. I think that's pretty, that's pretty profound. And when we talk about supporting the new you, it's what happens when, you know, it's supporting how you need to take care of yourself now. You don't want to take care of yourself the way you took care of yourself back then because that didn't work. and those coping mechanisms didn't work back then to have you feeling your best. And now, who are you now and how can you support yourself now?

Is it, you know, is it managing these stressful situations in a different way? Like for you, you said, you know, maybe you should have been deep breathing. Maybe that's your way you know. And somebody else knows deep breathing doesn't work for them. They need to meditate. They need to move. They need to write and reflect. So it's really thinking about who you.

are now and what works for you now in this moment. Getting to know yourself and what you need and how to take care of yourself and how to support yourself. You've done the hard work. You lost the weight. Maintaining that means what? Maintaining that means that awareness of knowing what you need. And it's okay if you fall back and you have a, you know, you just, you need to have a, I'm

just surviving here in the moment. Like it's okay to have big feels and then deal with it. however you fucking need to deal with it it's also that wherewithal to be like okay it's my job to take care of myself and this is like where you're taking care of yourself it's it's beyond maintaining your weight you taking care of yourself will help you maintain your weight right and so so yeah that that supporting you supporting supporting supporting the new you is like okay you've done the weight loss part how do you show up for yourself on a day to day basis how how do you be self-aware about yourself to understand what you need in this moment and really recognize where

you're at. So today it was like, okay, my dog. So I had that happen. I got home late yesterday. My dog is like, she got this sundowning thing where it's just she's huffing and puffing and all the medication in the world is not helping her. And she's just anxiety every five minutes. Today we're trying CBD oil. Someone suggested. And we didn't get any sleep last night. We can't have her in the room, but we're scared to have her outside of the room. So we made our kids sleep with her because we're like you don't have a job you don't have to go to school you go you have sleep at night and so I knew today was going to be a shit show and so interesting I started off and telling the people listen this is where I'm at um you know giving yourself grace

and understanding that no matter how you are feeling like if you are so even if you are like feeling amazing own that shit be so proud of like don't downplay it if you are like I feel fantastic today, I am doing so well. Man, revel in that. Be like, I'm so proud of myself. Maybe you fear, like, next week will be different or it'll be taken away or whatever that is. We have to like own that too, right? Like, this is not just about, oh, I'm having a shitty day and I'm a hot mess. Like, you want to really own where you are at. Celebrate when you want to celebrate and then, you know, meet yourself where you're at if you're not. And a lot of that is that grace and forgiveness and patients that Dr. Beverly talks about, right?

I love Sue, developing parts of a new identity takes energy and courage. And maybe there's that strength that you didn't know that you needed, right? Like you're going through something in your life or you didn't, like, you've got to be strong in ways you didn't expect to be, right? You can do this and who are you and how do you support yourself in that? This conversation is heavy, man. I saw a sign once when I am dealing with very difficult day and I'm not sure how I can get through it. I remind myself that so far my ability to get through tough days is 100%. And that's not so bad.

Yeah. Right? Every time you get through it every time. Yeah. And I think this, you know, when we're talking, just bringing it back to the group a little bit, you know, we were talking, today we are talking optimizing. And we've used this word now for a couple rounds, you know, instead. of maximizing. And optimizing is this place where meeting yourself where you are at. It's this place where recognizing that you don't have to do all the things all the time to make this

massive change. But what we're doing is meeting ourselves where we're at and we're being really aware of what does need our attention, what areas do need our attention. And we're optimizing those areas. Maybe it's your sleep routine that needs. a bit of, um, needs a bit of attention. Maybe it's the way you deal with stress. If you notice you've been feeling a little bit stress lately. I mean, that's where you need to put your attention this week. So it's looking at those areas, not necessarily all the areas all the time, because that's just not sustainable or real life to go, go, go, go, go, go all the time. Now we're at this place where we're settling in, we're calm, not settling, but just settling into this place where we're

calm and really looking at those areas that might need a bit of extra attention. And that's what's going to support you in the moment and where you are now. So really taking a look at those areas. And that's what I think members were like, what's optimizing? What is maximizing? Why are they different? How are they the same? And that's, you know, that's how you can really get into supporting your needs in the moment is looking at those areas that need attention. And that's where your energy goes. Well, I love that you say that because it's not just doing all the things. It's work smarter, not harder. It's work smarter, not harder. And I, I know we're going to get into talking about journaling, doing all the things versus doing what matters. I love that. And then this sort of

trickles into a comment that someone made about journaling where two people kind of say them the same thing. I've never journaled. Maybe I should try that though. Where do I start? Do I keep track of what I'm eating? How it makes me feel or what it includes. Thanks. Seems like a lot. It seems like it will take a bit of time to journal all of this. Need to think of how I can make it faster and easier and that's it like what what i would need to journal maybe would be different than what odette needs to journal or what someone else needs to journal right so it's not like writing everything down and how is that going to benefit you so like why are you journaling what there are lots of benefits to journaling how do you think that's going to help you and in what way is going

work best for you you know whether maybe yours is just like a gratitude maybe yours is like your intentions and then reflecting at night and it's not we're not talking tracking i think there's a big difference between tracking and journaling and so it's about figuring out what's going to what's going to work best for you that's going to benefit you so that's why you have to figure out sort of why are you doing it and what do you want out of it and um you know definitely here's what i know if you're feeling stressed about journaling, that's problematic. It shouldn't stress you out. It should be a form of stress release.

So, you know, supporting yourself is not, I'm going to start a journal and make myself write everything out. And if you don't really understand why you're doing it or what the benefit is for you, you know. Yeah. And I think it's, it's important, too, to just, you know, we love to give extensive lists around here. We love to give you options to say these are the things that you could journal.

These are the things you could talk about, but it really is, like you said, finding what is, is what you need in the moment. So maybe it's just taking a minute before you journal, be like, okay, what thoughts came up over and over again today? Or why is that? Or my stomach was off today. I was in the bathroom a lot. Why? Like, what do I think is going on there? What did I eat?

You know, like making connections that way. Or, you know, I feel so tired and shitty today. Why? Why was my sleep off? Did I not do my normal routine? did I notice myself getting up two or three times last night? What can I do to change that? I think that's, you know, just taking a minute to think about what came up for you that day,

what thoughts came up, what feelings came up. It can be totally physical or it could be just, you know, like I said, thoughts running through your head. Why did that keep coming up today? What do I think about this? And you don't have to have any answers. You don't have to answer your questions. It's just a matter of putting it down on paper and writing it out.

Maybe an answer will come. Maybe not. I like Sue said, it might help to use a scale for some things like, one to five around one to ten how am i feeling how it's my energy today i'm the scale of one to ten what's my stress today right like um i love the concept of optimizing because i'm one of those people who gets overwhelmed with my to do list it gets too long then nothing gets done right and you're just like um so picking what areas to focus on is so much easier to tackle versus trying to do everything all at once yeah right and that's this this need to do it all like when we say all the things i like

So we put out maximizing list in the weight loss program. We're talking optimizing here. I love that. I think it's like it's just looking for areas of opportunity. Okay, how can I grow? How can I evolve? How can I continue to build on what I've done before and move forward rather than just going through the motions?

But it's not a to do list and it's not about stressing yourself out. It should be something that gets you really excited where or you at least see the benefit in it. And you, you know, maybe the end is exciting. I don't know, but I don't know how exciting journaling is. But, you know, get yourself a beautiful pen, get yourself a beautiful journal, you know, make it part of your evening routine or your morning routine rather than picking up your phone before you get out of Ben's throat scrolling, maybe grab your journal and write out, you know, three things that you're grateful for.

One thing you're grateful for today, right? So, yeah, the need to do it all, they need to do it perfectly. There's got to be an in-between. There's got to be an in-between because you don't just want to coast and go through the motions. But it doesn't have to be like a lot of work either. So this is where you need to figure out what's going to work best for you. And maybe what's working best for you is not the, I just thought of this. Maybe what works best for you isn't the end of the day.

Maybe you're writing little notes down as the day goes. on. You know, maybe you're, maybe something happens at 10 in the morning. You're like, oh, that's, that's worth noting, you know, and you come back to it. And maybe that prompts you later on in the evening. But just getting those thoughts down that in it can have you reflecting and thinking, I think that's all part of all part of journaling. Yeah, lots to think about on this fine Monday. I know you wanted to touch on supplements and what, you know, this is it really interesting here because the big question we always get is now that I've lost my way, do I have to take supplements. And I mean, I take all of the supplements. There's so much coming out about

the importance of omega-3, vitamin D, magnesium. We really stick to the basics that really help the body function on the optimal level. And stress can really be depleting of your vitamins and minerals and all of that. And so I continue to take all the supplements just for my basic health and wellness. It's not like if you stop taking the supplements, you're not going to gain your weight back. but you might want to reassess what you're taking and why and it's a good time to take stock of that maybe we add something new in or you know something that you might not think is making a difference anymore maybe start leaving it out so what did you want to say about supplements yeah so i think supplements is we get this question a lot like you said do i stop do i continue

what do i do and i think this is a very personal place to be and so tomorrow that supplements post is coming out and like you said supplements are not just for weight loss you're not going to gain your way back if you stop taking them. So we're going a bit deeper into the benefits beyond weight loss, while you might want to consider taking them. I think the big takeaway here, too, is if you are taking them, now's a good time. Chances that your body has changed a lot,

the way it works has changed. You know, now might be a good time to talk to your health care provider or, you know, a professional in your life that can help you curate a plan that might be a bit better for you, you know, that might fit into where you are now. who you are now. Like, you know, you may have started taking probiotics because you needed general gut health, but maybe now you want to level it up with certain strains of probiotics. Maybe that's the next step of this conversation.

You know, not only am I taking a probiotic, but what strain am I taking? Like, I take one every day that's specific to women's health, you know, supports all the stuff we have going on, you know, to make sure that we stay healthy. So, you know, my strain has evolved because that's. That's, you know, where I'm going now. You can get strains for all different things, for mood, for gut health, for skin, for everything. So, you know, it's looking a bit deeper into what supplements could you take to the next level that support you where you are now. Yeah, I mean, this is like as simple as magnesium.

Like the magnesium citrate is really great for supporting detox in the body and great for bowel movements when you're switching up your foods. And then maybe you might want to take something like a bisclinate, which is great for, like there's ones now that are jet let really help with sleep. There's, you know, you can really be nuanced about it. And then also like why when before maybe you were taking them to lose weight now that you no longer need that, maybe this is shifting your why around the supplements like for more optimal health, longevity, you know, brain health, heart health. Like there's a lot, there's a, there's a lot of reasons and a lot of back, like science backed reasons for the benefits of adding in supplements far beyond just what we were talking about for weight loss. I know we got to wrap it up here. You're doing a giveaway. You want to enter the giveaway? Well, I want to tell today's homework is being looped into the giveaway. Okay, great. Love that. Yeah.

So the giveaway, you know, we have some amazing partnerships with supplement companies. So we are doing a giveaway here in the group starting tomorrow. It'll come out tomorrow. And we're asking you what healthy means to you. So I think, yeah, I think, and we ask it all the time. And our members love it too because it really has them start to think. So it's not just at the end of it, I want to be healthy. What does that mean?

What, like, what visualize it, see it. Is it a feeling? Can you see it? Can you feel it? What does healthy actually mean? Is it a strong body? Is it an agile body? Is it a calm mind?

You know, what is it? What is healthy actually means to you? So that's really your homework is just to think about that. You don't have to rush in to putting it down on the giveaway tomorrow. It'll run for a full week. So think about what healthy means to you. And this can also help you establish. your why long term you know i think we're just new here to this maintenance program we're saying think

about what your why is now it's not to lose weight it's not to see a number on the scale what is it so maybe if you can define and see and feel what healthy means like for you then you're going to be able to come up with that why a little just a little bit easier what is healthy means to you define that that's going to be a game changer for people um before i go i saw tabitha you're asking thoughts on creatine i heard it's good for brain health yeah so you know You know, creatine, as we know, is really great when it comes to building, maintaining muscle mass. It's probably the one of the most studied supplements out there. There's not a lot of research.

It's promising that it could be not only great for brain health but gut health. The science isn't really. The studies aren't there. That's not to say it isn't. There's lots of people who are saying it can be a game changer for brain health, but the science isn't there. So it'd be one of those things that you took because why not? I can afford it. It can be beneficial.

One thing I would say about creatine is just start. start with a lower dose because it can make you feel bloated if you're having too much. Stick to the five grams, five grams a day, I think is what it is. So yeah, but we'll talk more about that. I take creatine every day. Yeah, both my doctor and dietitian recommended. It's highly recommended. There are sorts of benefits, but specifically on their brain health, the science is there.

But that's the thing about science. Science says until the science changes. And, you know, same thing. People used to poo-poo supplements because they thought you just peed them out or they were useless. And now we know better when now we know better. So creatine will have your scale up though, too, in the beginning. So just know that.

Yeah. Because people don't expect it, right? Oh, they're just taking a supplement, but it can as your body adjusts to it a little bit. Not real weight gain. Not real weight gain. No. But just to just be aware. Thanks, Odette.

Thanks to everyone who joined us this morning. I hope we all have a fantastic week. No matter where we're at, what we're dealing with. We're all in it together. We're all showing up every day trying to do our best. Have a great rest of your day, and we will see you on Wednesday. Thanks, Lidette. Okay, bye.