The Livy Method Podcast - Maintenance & Mindfulness - October 7, 2024

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

Gina Livy's Facebook Live from the Maintenance & Mindfulness group hosted on Facebook. This is the live recording from October 7th, 2024. You can find the full video hosted at https://www.facebook.com/groups/ginalivymaintenanceandmindfulnessTopics covered:Intro - Downsizing in MaintenanceThe reasons why you can gain weight back in MaintenanceRevisiting downsizing to get better in tune with your portionsThe powerful connection of making a conscious choice to overeat Eating more than your body needs? - Your body is not a garbage can Resetting and being more in tune when you find yourself on autopilotThe 4 Stages of Maintenance and when to start Testing The WatersLiving life in Maintenance is not trying to see your lowest low every dayFluctuations on the scale and why they are totally normal in MaintenanceHunger is a message and the reasons why you are feeling hungrier The scale in Maintenance - To weigh or not?Gina’s success has been trial and error, listening to her instincts and being authentic The Maintenance App is being worked on - Stay tuned!To learn more about The Livy Method, visit www.ginalivy.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Gina Livy and welcome to the Livy Method podcast. This is where you'll have access to all of the live streams from my 91 day weight loss program. With a combination of daily lives, guest expert interviews and member stories, there is something new almost every day. Miss the morning live? Want to re-listen to one of our amazing guest experts? Well, this is the place. This podcast is hosted on Acast, but it's available on all podcast platforms, including the one you're listening to right now, Spotify, Apple,

and Amazon Music. Welcome to the Monday Maintenance Live. How are we doing? How are we feeling? So if you're doing another round of the program, you're following along in real time here in the maintenance group, we are downsizing this week. And I was just thinking, I think downsizing is a great opportunity to check in with where you're at in those portions, even if you're in maintenance and you've been maintaining for a while, really having a really clear understanding of satisfaction versus unsatisfied. And remember, downsizing is not about feeling starved or deprived. What happens is your body gets used to consuming certain size portions. It gets used to what it's used to at the end of the day. In fact, that's set point, right? Set point theory is your

body functioning at a certain weight, having everything adjusted in and around that weight. And that's your new set point. That's where your body feels comfortable, including the amount of food that you're used to eating. Now, when you are in maintenance and after you've lost your weight in a healthy way and your metabolism is nice and high, you can pretty much enjoy foods and not have to worry about so much about portions because it's a lot easier, a lot harder, sorry, to gain weight than what you think. And so just overeating the healthy, nutrient-rich foods here and there are not going to cause you to gain weight back. Usually it's high stress, lack of sleep, something you got going on in your life, situational change. Again, there are three reasons why people gain weight back. One is they don't put time into maintenance. Two is that they don't adapt to situational change.

And you could have maintained your weight for years and all of a sudden something hits you out of the blue and just throws your whole life out of whack. So adjusting to situational change and then mindfulness, not being mindful of the choices that you're making and how that's affecting your weight at the end of the day. And so it can be a great idea to, you know, check in with those portions, ask those, if it's been a while since you asked yourself those four questions, just kind of assess where you're at with your portions. So we're downsizing this week.

Now you may say, well, what's the point of downsizing if I've already lost my weight? Do I really need to do that? Again, it's just really getting in tune to your portions. Another way of doing that, understanding what it feels like to feel satisfied, understand what it feels like to feel slightly unsatisfied. It's good to know when you're hungry. It's good to know when you're not hungry. It's good to know all the things that can feel like hunger, like eating out of habit triggers, those types of things, right? So it's just really about getting even more in tune with your body's needs. And even though you could have lost your weight and been maintaining it for a

while, you still might be consuming more than you actually need at the end of the day. So it's a great idea to kind of check that. So let me know how you're feeling with downsizing, you know, reconnecting with portion sizes that are right for you, right? This is what this is all about. Before I get into it too much, I do want to let you know that our sign up and registration for our winter program starts tomorrow. So if you know anyone who's interested in doing the program, they can pick it up for 60 bucks, which of course is amazing. And then the price goes back up to 75 after that. And then we're actually increasing our prices in January as well. So if you know anyone, it's a good time to get in. Hi, Karen.

Hi, Frankie. This week is so timely for me regarding portions and mindfulness. That's good. I hear you on that. It's good to kind of check yourself every now and then, check in on your portions and where you're at. Hi, Shelly. I'm catching an actual live, going to walk and listen. I'll have the best walk.

I'm actually going to head out for a walk right after this. Well, I'm going to eat dinner, lunch, sorry. And Tony's upstairs right now making me some scallops. I'm looking forward to that. And then I'm going to go for a walk. I'm not feeling so great today mentally, just kind of off. So I'm going to get out there and go for a walk. I figure my food in the fridge will last longer since my husband and I will be eating leftovers. Yeah, it's true. Everyone talks about how expensive food is, especially when eating healthy. And people find that, as you know,

when they first start the program, but then you start to realize how much food you're not eating, when you're just eating really in tune to your body's needs and how much less processed foods you're eating too. Hi, Judy, I still find myself eating more than I eat when the food is really yummy. Probably eating more than what you need when the food is really yummy. Last evening, I made the Tex-Mex chicken recipe and had a hard time stopping when I was stuck, satisfied. I don't know how I'll do with downsizing the leftovers. So again, right, this is a good kind of, this is why revisiting downsizing can be good to get even more in tune to your portions and just bring self-sense of awareness to that. It's good to know

when you've had too much. You also, on the other side of that, know when you haven't had enough. And I think being very clear, when we say we want to trust when your body tells you when to eat, what to eat, and how much to eat, we want to get you to a place where you don't even have to ask. It's just so second nature, you already know. So then what'll happen is you'll see that portion before you even eat it and already know it's too much for you. So you'll go into that portion knowing approximately how much you will need to eat

in order to feel like you've had enough. And so practice, practice, practice, practice this, right? Sometimes though, it's interesting. Someone talked about this on the live this morning. I talked a bit about this in the weight loss program where someone was saying that their mom made one of their favorite meals and brought it over and it was so good yet they totally overate and they were struggling with that. But there can be those times where you're like, I, I like, I like to me, the fact that you know, like that moment where you know you've had enough and if you go in for more,

then you're going to walk away feeling full. Like I'm jazzed about that. The fact that you can make that connection is great. And I love that you can make a conscious choice. Okay, I know that if I eat more than what I've eaten now, I'm going to walk away feeling full. Sometimes though, it's worth it. Sometimes it's worth it. And if it's worth it, I'm totally cool with that, right? So the fact that you're able to tell that moment of when, okay, I knew I had enough, but I went in for more and then I walked away over eight, but that conscious, to make a conscious choice or conscious decision like that is really huge. To me, that's huge. That's mindful.

You're even then, you know, okay, so maybe it didn't lead to what you expected it to lead to, but you were very mindful in overeating. So you made a conscious choice to do that. I'm all about that. I do that quite often in life. I will make a conscious choice to overeat something that is just for the sheer deliciousness of it. Or because, you know, we've had a, we've tried it, Tony and I like going to nice restaurants. So sometimes it takes a while to get the reservation,

you get the reservation, you have to wait. So it's like a whole night out. We know we're going to eat. Like I know that I'm going to walk away with my belly full, but that that's my whole, I'm going there to indulge and enjoy food. So like, if I'm going to go to, we do tasting menus a lot. And so if I'm going to go and do a tasting menu and that doesn't really, you can't really take home a tasting menu. Um, really? So I will totally go knowing I will wear comfy clothes. I will go, even if it's a nice restaurant, I'll wear a comfy dress, knowing that when I'm going to walk away feeling like an overage. And there's a lot of power in that. There's a lot of power in that. Oops, eating more than I need. Yeah, I know what you meant, Judy. Hi, Risa. Hi, everyone. Really digging deep about this week's tweak. I was afraid again and thinking about past diets,

right? And you can be a pro at dieting and even be crushing the living method and have these feels be popping up again for sure. So far with breakfast and my snack, I don't feel hungry afterwards and definitely have leftovers, which I love. My brother bought me a huge apple to the hospital, but I said I have to have a smaller one and cut off the piece and it was plenty, right? We don't think about that. We think of things like just an apple, you just an apple, eat the whole apple. And yeah, but if you don't need the whole apple, you can always just toss the rest of the apple too, but then that can bring up food waste issues. And again, your body's not a garbage can,

meaning like you're not saving anybody by not eating the rest of that apple. Like unless you're going to go give it to someone who's legitimately hungry, you're not doing the world any kind of service by finishing an apple. Do you know what I mean? Like forcing yourself to eat a big apple when you only needed, you know, a few bites or a little bit. You're not really doing anything for anybody at that, other than walking away, then feeling like you ate too much, you know, um, cutting up those apple slices, man, you don't realize how big an apple is until you cut it up in slices for sure. Um, whoops, what's going on here? I'm leaving my page. That's not what I wanted to do. Uh, my dog, my daughter made a chocolate chip cookies. I had it and told her, yeah, it was worth it. Exactly. Right. So that's exactly it. That's

exactly it. Um, I signed up for the next program already today. Definitely posting, uh, posting, of course I have six family members already now and convincing my brother. Yeah. I mean, so today marks the one year of, of the attacks on Israel. And there's been a lot of, um, there's been a lot going on the world recently. And so we normally do our sale on Monday, but just out of respect for it being a really emotional day for a variety of reasons for a lot of people, we just thought we'd hold off on the hype of our sale until tomorrow. So if you do head over to our website today,

you will be able to pick it up and register for $60. But we're really promoting that as a sale for Tuesday. But we know that our members are used to purchasing it on a Monday. And so we didn't want there to be any confusion there or to put people out if they made the effort to go to the website. So it is open today, but technically the sale starts tomorrow, but you can go today. Insider info. You can go today and get signed up. So tell your friends, tell your family, because like I said, after that, the price goes up. Okay. So unless you guys got any specific questions, I found out that half an apple is a sealed food container, keeps great and works in a salad for the next day. Yeah. Right.

I hear you on this. Odette did pass me over some questions. So unless you guys got some specific questions, add them. But I'm going to go through some of these here. Perfect. Oh, Frankie, I think this is from you. Perfect timing for me regarding downsizing and mindfulness and maintenance. Needed this reminder as I couldn't determine what I was doing wrong. Eating the right things, getting all the water, except the scale kept inching up slowly. Have been on autopilot and not as in tune with my body as I was back in the winter. Portion sizes have also crept up. Okay, I'm going to take it.

So I love that. This is kind of like that reset, that check to be in tune. But I'm also wondering, not that you did anything wrong, but what's going on there? And so what is happening in your life that maybe is creating autopilot or you're not being as in tune? Sorry, you're going to have a sip of my tea there.

Like what is, to me, like there's got to be more of an underlying issue to this. What could it be? Like what's going on? Are you exercising a bit more? Are you being more active? Are you not being as active? Are you maybe dropping the ball a little bit on your water because it's cold, like I'm really cold today. It was chilly. I went out for a walk. I had like a big jacket on. Are you maybe not getting as much water in because maybe you're not feeling like it's cold. So you're dropping the ball a little bit on your water. Do you have some higher stress going on? Are you feeling more emotional? Like what is it? So remember, it's normal for your weight to sit a little bit higher,

especially depending on the processing of your foods and whatnot. Have you added something in like creatine? So you know, adding something like creatine can actually cause your muscles to retain more water, which is really great for your body and hydration. That can actually affect and have your weight up a little bit, not at all real weight gain. But there could be something else in there. So not that you're doing something wrong, because even if your portions are creeping up a little bit, that shouldn't attribute to more weight gain, like actual weight gain, but it could attribute to your body retaining more water in terms of processing and digesting your foods and whatnot.

So again, we don't need more than we need at the end of the day, and we do want to be in tune to that. So I think it's a perfect time to kind of check in on where you're at, rather than falling back into old patterns, falling back into old habits, falling back into mindlessly eating your foods, which, you know, that can just be the start of, you know, you know, things kind of unraveling again when you work so hard to get in tune to your portions. Here's Kathy, I'm trying to maintain, but now and then introduce some foods that I haven't included in my eating plan. I am unsure when to add a piece of bread

or a scone or perhaps a small piece of dessert. I get it in trial and error. Okay. You do not want to do this. So there's four stages, right? There's lose your weight. There's solidify your weight. Then there's like living your life and maintenance and then just living your life, right? So that testing the waters. So you don't want to do it while you're doing the program necessarily. You don't want to, I mean, you just want to try to do the things you can do. Obviously it's not about being perfect, but you want to get there sooner rather than later. You don't want to be adding things in when you're in that solidifying stage. So those three months after you've reached your goal weight, you don't want to be messing around with this, you just you want to do another,

you either want to personalize the plan and be super serious about it, or you want to do another round of the program again, which to me is like the better way to go. And then when you get to that third stage, so after you've been maintaining your weight for three months, that is when you can start to add those things in. Now, some people lose weight and do the program and eat bread the whole time, right? Some people lose weight, do the program and have a scone, scone, scone, I don't know how you say it. Every now and then, it's not a big deal. It's what happens after you have that. So this is why when you have it while you're following the program, then you are like you you're just, you keep moving forward,

right? You don't let one little thing throw off your whole day. So when you, when, if you're going to start to like trying to maintain, it's not trying to maintain, you would be like, you're in maintenance, right? Like you're either solidifying your weight or you're in that third stage of maintaining your weight, or you're just like, obviously living your life. You have these things, whatever you want, you use back on track whenever you need. So this would be the testing the water stage that you're in. So if you're in that tested that third stage of testing the water, so you've lost your weight, you put in time to solidify your weight, and now you're just kind of seeing what like what maintenance looks like and feels like to you, then this is where you start adding that in like so. So breakfast is always totally always

silly. That's where I'm at today. Always stilly. Will always be a benefit to start your day higher in protein, but that doesn't mean that you can't throw some bread in there as well. Lunch can be a good time to add in some bread. It's earlier in your day. I would avoid bread at dinner. You just don't need it so late at night. It's just not really going to do anything for you other than sit like a dough ball in your guts. Um, you know, but if you're at a nice dinner out, then, you know, this is where you, maybe you, maybe you do want a little bread. I don't know the experience, how it makes you feel, how your sleep is when you, when you eat that kind of thing. So that's what that, that testing the water stage is really about trying to figure out when to add these back in,

how you feel. You may want to add them back in and then realize like, oh, I just, it's not really, the scone is not really doing anything for me. I don't really need it. Right? So that is when you would add that in. It is trial and error. It's not trial and error. It's more testing the waters is what we like to say. Testing the waters. Add it in and then, you know, if you feel like you need to use back on track, use back on track. but definitely not in the losing stage. We'll minimize it anyway. And definitely not in the solidifying stage, at least minimize it anyway. But testing the waters is where you would add those back in. Now, adding those back in not going to stop, it's not going to cause you to gain weight. Eating bread is not going to cause you to gain weight. It's just all about how you feel.

And then the mindset happens. Having that scone is not going to cause you to gain weight. It's just all about how you feel. And then the mindset happens. Having that scone is not going to cause you to gain weight. But if then you feel like you have to deprive yourself after you skip some meals and snacks, you know, or, you know, because you have it or having that starting your day of sugar, if you have it for breakfast causes you to eat more sugar, you're being aware of things like that, right? Here's one for Joan. I seem to be going backwards. Okay.

I was at 164 when I ended my last program did two programs back to back started M&M just a month ago a year later weight is at 164 165 I was maintaining since starting the program I've been jumping up and down from 166 to 168 so that sounds about right so when you reach your lowest, you are living a life of trying to reach your lowest low while following the program, maximizing, doing all these things, consistently doing this, doing that, whatever, right? We assume that when you're in maintenance, you're not trying to live a life of seeing your lowest low. And so your weight can fluctuate a lot, just like it does when you're trying to lose weight. Although when you are trying to lose weight,

you're probably also minimizing things that can cause natural fluctuations on the scale. When you're trying to get better sleep, so you know, a crappy night's sleep can have the scale up, right? You're making an effort to get your water in because being dehydrated can have the scale up. You're not having a lot of processed foods. When you have them, they, you know, can cause inflammation in the body, can cause your body to hold on to excess water weight and whatnot, right? So when you're doing the program for the sake of losing, it's all the things that you're doing in combination that are adding up to you seeing your lowest low. When we're in maintenance, we tend not to be as diligent in doing all of those things. And that's where you'll see your weight go up a little bit when you're saying it's going up and down 166, 168. So anywhere from like a three to seven pound increase in your weight is normal

in maintenance. Like when I, my weight, so my weight, well, I would say it's probably a little bit higher after the last couple of years. It's been consistently high because I've been consistently under an insane amount of stress and dealing with health issues beyond on top of that hormonal issues. So the last couple of years kind of been a really systematic breakdown of my body and I'm working to build that back up again. And as I do, my weight is coming back down. But for about 30 years, my weight went between 119, let's say 119 and 130. So that was my range on any given day throughout months. Some months I stayed more towards the lower range. Other months I was up towards the higher range and my weight would just kind of fluctuate in that 10 pound range, which is totally normal. So just like

your weight fluctuates while you're losing, weight fluctuates while you are living your life as well. So if you aren't as being as diligent in doing the things that can maintain like your lowest low, right, minimize fluctuations, and chances are, you're going to see fluctuations on the scale. So for example, maybe there's, you know, dairy that, you know, you minimized it, but you know, it's not that you can't have dairy, but maybe you have a food sensitivity to it. Right? Maybe your hormones are you're going through some hormonal changes and you're starting to notice your body adjusting to that. Maybe you're under a lot of stress. Maybe things in your life have changed. This is sort of things that you can look at and be like, okay, what could that be? But it's also at the end of the day, totally normal for your weight to be sitting

about three to seven pounds above your lowest low. Doesn't mean you've gained weight back. That's just normal, your body processing foods, normal fluctuations, because again, you aren't as diligent as like managing all the things at the same time. So, so since during the program, so I wouldn't say you're going backwards. I would just say this is totally normal. So 164, 165, 678, that's only a four pound fluctuation in your weight. And because you're going up and down, I'm going to guess that's exactly what it is. I don't know if you are, when you started M&M, if you're doing another repeat of the program, also remember you could have more weight to lose. And even though you're doing the program for the sake of maintenance, it wouldn't be

unusual for your weight to go up before it drops as well. So you, you know, you might be losing so it could be a variety of different things. But that to me is not out of that norm. That's totally normal to have your weight be up a few pounds in a maintenance. In maintenance. I've been using the journal and being more mindful and realizing I was still using sugar and chocolate to cope with stress. I try to go for a walk and do more breathing instead. Right? Sometimes we don't even realize we're doing these things or we don't realize until we're like really bringing them to the forefront of our mind in different ways. And journaling can be a lot different than just kind of checking something off in the app. It can be a lot different than setting intentions and end

day reflections really in the moment, allowing you to be like, oh shit, I'm having this. I'm having that. Oh, why am I doing this? Why am I doing that? Love that. Sense of awareness, right? Sense of awareness. Okay, here's Debra. I recently added an avocado to my egg at breakfast and I've noticed that I feel hot. So let me go back to Joan for a second. If you're actually gaining weight, you should know why you're gaining weight. It should be really obvious, really evident, something going on with your health, you're feeling it, you know it based on your food choices, stress levels through the roof, you're

not sleeping. There's reasons for that, right? Otherwise, this is where you might, it's normal for people to realize that when they're in maintenance, they felt a lot better when they were focused on losing weight, because they were a little bit more diligent about doing all the things that they could to feel their best every single day. And so this could be where maybe like you start kind of going through maybe that pull up that old maximizing post and be like, okay, let me look at all the things that I can do. Am I back to watching Netflix all night long? Or, was I doing when I was losing? And maybe I was taking

my sleep a little bit more. I was making it more of a priority than I am now. Maybe I was making an effort to move my body a little bit more when I was trying to lose. And now that I'm maintaining, I'm not doing that as much. That's where you might want to take a look at that. Okay, Debra, I recently added half an avocado to my egg at breakfast and I have noticed that I feel hungrier during the day. I think it might be better at lunch. I have noticed that whenever I eat anything other than an egg that it affects my day. I am hungrier. I know this is part of being mindful about what affects me and it is part of the reason why I love the basic food plan so much. I've just been experimenting. Back to the

basics, I feel the best when I do that. I don't crave other foods, not on the plan when I stay on track. Any comments about the avocado at breakfast? Yeah. So avocado is great fat, right? It's good fat. It feeds into your satiety hormones. This could just be coincidental that this time I'm thinking this time of year, I would love to know how long you've been doing that for. So our appetites tend to increase at this time of year, as opposed to summer, where when it's really hot out, our body keeps us naturally lower energy and is looking for foods that break down quite easily. This is where you bump up your fruits, lower your heavier carbs, you're looking for more salads, fruits, those kind of lighter foods. In the wintertime,

your body starts to crave heavier, heartier foods, things that are actually harder to digest, that help create heat internally. So this is where all of a sudden everyone will start craving potatoes, right? Fruit, maybe not all that appealing. Salads, maybe not all that appealing. Everyone is hungrier. It's a different kind of your, your, it's a different kind of like your body's working a little harder or it's looking for those heavier to digest. So it could be coincidental. It could be also water. If you, again, it's a little bit harder to get your water in, in the cooler months. So it could be that you're not drinking as much water. So you have an underlying like that hunger, but really your body's looking for more water. It could just,

it could be also your metabolism is higher. After your body's had time to adjust to the weight that you've lost, your metabolism is increasing. And so your energy output is more. And so this is why you might notice have great energy during the day, but more, more tired at night. Plus your body could be adapting to the changes in time. So it's getting like it gets dark now at like 637 when it used to be like nine o'clock 930 at night, it you know, it was still light outside. And so this can mess with sleep patterns. And if your sleep needs some rejigging, or depending on how you're sleeping, maybe you haven't had such great sleep recently, that can leave you hungrier in the morning. So it could be maybe you started a new routine, maybe you started taking a

little bit of juice or something before maybe like it could be a variety of different things. But here's what I do know is that hunger is never a bad thing. Hunger is a sign that your body is communicating with you. Hunger is a sign that your body is expecting you to give it what it needs. You can also notice that you have more pronounced hunger signals, but also might notice that you feel fuller faster. So I wouldn't that that's what I would say kind of, it kind of like doesn't make a lot of sense that having the avocado with your egg is making you feel like you are hungrier, although giving your body what it needs and being in tune to that. And giving your body that more sustaining energy is like feeding into your metabolism. So it's like your body's working harder from the get go. And so adding that protein and fat can is just more

nutrient value that really feeds into that. Let me see. I mean, so you know, you can always move it to lunch and see how you feel. Whenever I eat anything other than an egg, it affects my day. But also it could be that when you decide to have something else added to your egg, that you're already waking up naturally hungrier. So it could be just a day where you're feeling extra hungry. And so that's why you're choosing to add something else with your egg, right? It's also what your body knows. So if you're just kind of used to physically, mentally having that egg, there's not a lot of like focus around that. Whereas this may be adding something else is causing you to be a little hyper-focused on what you're having. So I try having it for lunch and see how you feel. But the bottom line and the biggest takeaway I think is

that you should never be afraid of hunger. There's always like, okay, I'm hungry. I'm feeling extra hungry. Why am I feeling extra? Am I drinking my water? Did I get a good night's sleep? Am I craving something specific? Is it sugar? Is it salt? What's going on there? Maybe I'm extra stressed. Need to bump up my good fat. Craving sugar. Need to increase my water. What's happening there? How am I feeling? You know, like what's what's happening with that other than that hunger, you know, it's just, you'll be amazed how you'll get really hungry, but then you'll also notice you'll get satisfied a lot quicker on the foods that you are eating. So if you are extra hungry, just make sure you're

asking those four questions and being in tune to those portions. But there's nothing wrong with feeling hungry. But play around with that. I love this whole idea of, you know, figuring out what works best for you. I love that. I love that. I alternate eggs and avocado with spreader love for breakfast. Yeah, just try switching it up. Maybe you're looking for something a little bit heavier or heartier. I love eggs. Don't get me wrong. I love that. Um, who's talking about maintenance and using the scale, your feelings about using the scale and maintenance. I maintained another programs and my biggest avoidance was the scale. Okay. I definitely was in denial when I knew I had gained, but then avoided the scale. I promised myself I would continue to

weigh myself in maintenance. Yeah, so here's what I want for people. So listen, you can be done losing your weight and still have a lot of issues you got to work through. Like the fact to me, right away, my biggest avoidance was a scale, right? So I knew you knew you had gained, but you avoid you avoided the scale. So to me, it's just not about the scale, you're avoiding the reality of your situation. Now, I don't know what you did on other programs or whatever there, but I can talk about the scale. I sometimes the scale is check yourself before you wreck yourself. Right? Sometimes it brings a reality. It's like right in your face, only you see the number on the scale, which is so what's so fascinating about it's just a hunk of metal. And only you know the

number. No one else knows your number doesn't matter to anybody else. At the end of the day, it's just you. So I think it's really fascinating, the thoughts and the feels that can be brought up by getting on the scale or knowing you got to get on the scale because it is what it is. It doesn't, getting on the scale, not getting on the scale doesn't change how you feel, doesn't change the choices that you made, doesn't change what the number is going to show. And so I'm a big, like I really, I don't want to say I like, but my way of living is approaching life head on. I go, I'm not afraid of feelings. I think we're here to feel feelings. And I like to call

myself out. No one's got to call me out because I call myself out before anybody else would even notice what I'm doing. And so to me, it's all messages. It's all messages. This is obviously something that's really important to you. You care a lot about the choices that you're making, how you're feeling and what that number on the scale says, because I think that number on the scale is reflection. You may feel of what you're doing and what you're not doing. And again, it's to me, it's not a measure of success. That's the first thing. I function from a place that the scale is not a measure of success. It's not, but it's very handy. Put your shit in your face kind of tool. And so if you're feeling ways at all in maintenance, when using the scale, you have some more work to do when it comes to the scale.

You have some more work to do with your weight loss journey because you have some stuff, unresolved issues. It's unresolved issues, right? Why are you not just, why are you letting a scale dictate you? Now you could play out of sight, out of mind, but that's like, that's like shoving your feelings deep down inside and being like, okay, well, if I don't think about my feelings, I won't have to feel them. But as we know, things tend to pop up until we deal with them and they come back around. You keep getting hit over the head with that two by four until you deal with your shit, or you have that aha moment, or you work through past. But you have to resolve, resolve things. Again, you could just ignore it and never get on a scale and whatever. But I think you should

embrace the feels and be like, what is this about? Like, I'm amazing. I've lost all this weight. I'm doing as hard as I possibly can. Why am I feeling the way that I'm feeling about the scale? Why am I not getting on the scale? What am I afraid that the scale, what truth in this scale am I afraid to face? Why am I afraid to get on the scale? Why am I ignoring it? Why? Why? And that's like, you got to go deep into that, right? Well, I feel like, you know, maybe I'm still afraid I can get that way back. I feel like I have no control. I feel like I'm a failure. I feel like I should do better. I feel this, I feel whatever that is. I don't know what that is for you. It could be a variety of things. And it could, it could be have something that actually has nothing to do with your weight

journey and is actually bigger than that. I find that the things that we struggle with in weight, not weight loss are the same things that we struggle in life with. It doesn't matter whether weight loss is our goal or something else is our goal or weight loss is the thing we're trying to change or something else we're trying to change. I find the issues are universal and they affect us in all areas of our life. And so it's probably something even deeper than what you really realize. Now, with that said, I think, I think you know what you're going to weigh without getting on the scale. And I think a fun, I don't know, necessarily fun, but maybe a great practice would be guess your weight before you

get on the scale. Like, just like no one has to tell me. Like, to me, okay, let's say I'm dealing with something and it takes a friend saying, hey, Gina, are you okay? Like, what's going on here? Right? That's someone else is showing up in my life and being like, hey, Gina. And this is where I say, no one has to point shit out because I'm already aware, right? I'm already, I don't need to get on the scale to be aware and know

what I'm dealing with and how I'm feeling. I don't, I don't need someone telling me that this is what I'm dealing with and this is what I'm doing. I already know. I don't need someone to say, Gina, God, you're a bitch today. What's wrong with you? I woke up and I'm like, I will say to myself, God, I'm a bitch today. What is going on with me? So a scale, I think a lot of times people look for the scale to tell you how you're feeling or what you're doing. You already know that. You already know. So you don't need the scale to tell you. So I would suggest in a maintenance when you're ready for it is try to guess your weight. Before you get on the scale, guess what your weight is. And then you get on, you're probably right nine times out of 10, which will tell you at the end of the day, you don't need the scale to tell you how

you're feeling that day. Right? You don't you don't need it. So I I've come to realize there are two camps. There are people though, who continue to use a scale because they feel like it's a check yourself before you wreck yourself. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing knowing yourself. Nothing like knowing yourself. It's so easy to fall back into old habits. I love that. That's a great strategy. There are some people get on the scale every day because they are so proud of what they've done. They like to be reminded of what they've done. They actually love getting on the scale, even when it's up. They're like, look at me. This is great. Right? And then there are some people obviously still dealing with and feel somewhat tortured by the scale in which

there's probably still more for you to unpack. But I think I would love for everyone to get to a place where they don't need a scale. I did not. I maintained my weight easily for 25, six something years. You know, it hasn't really been until the last couple of years that I've struggled a little bit. I wouldn't say struggled, but I've had to pay extra attention. But that was due to health issues, stress, my kid's dad dying, the kind of stress that I'm dealing with at work, although I love it still more than I've ever done before. So it's situational change for me. Situational change for me has been an issue the last couple of years. But outside of that, I never had a scale, didn't have a scale. I was a weight loss expert, lost over a hundred and something pounds, never used a scale afterwards. Right? I didn't think I ever needed

it because I was very aware of the choices I was making, what was going on in my life, and how I was feeling and able to put two and two together. And that's where I would like for everyone else to get to. Now, let's take a look at the last couple years of my life. I think I was a bit in denial in the sense that I had to just keep, I had to keep trucking, I had to keep going on. And so I started to ignore some cues because I, something had to give and I didn't, I, you know, a lot of stress was a lot of stuff going on. And, you know, I, I didn't listen. I stopped being mindful and in tune because I just went into survival mode. But when you have the wherewithal to, to deal with the scale, I was going to say conquer the scale, work through the scale, whatever your word is for the scale, I think it's a good practice to work on it and to bring to light the things that you are still dealing with, even do know the number or definitely within a pound or two,

right? So it's so it's not about the number. It's like, it's in your face. Well, this is what you're doing. So avoidance, I had same thing for me, I think in order for me to continue to function, I had to kind of like, the thing is, when we avoid, we avoid everything. When we disconnect, we disconnect from everything. Like we can't just pick and choose these things, you know, that we're focused on. It's how we function across the board with everything in your life. So if you disconnect from one thing, you're disconnecting from everything. If you're avoiding one thing, chances are there are other areas of your life that you are avoiding dealing with. You know, my weight goes up a couple pounds every weekend and then back down in a day or two.

Yeah, right. Like I think so. Right. Here's one reality check. I avoided the scale too much this summer and knew the number. Lots of past issues related to weight and the scale over many years. Still unlearning that getting there slowly. Yeah.

Let's also add in life and the capacity to deal with this shit. Sometimes we're not in a place where we're like, I don't need to get on the scale today. Like, you know, sometimes I will say to my life, give me just pause a second, like as much as I love working. So here's life. Life is like, oh, you deal with this shit. You clear this shit. Oh, yay me me. And then the world's like, yay, you. More shit piles on top. And then you clear that shit and more shit and clear shit and then more shit. That's life, right?

Learning, growing, evolving, all of that. Feeling, all the stuff that comes with that. But sometimes it's good. Sometimes I will like, okay, universe, I see you. Thank you very much for all your life lessons. I just need a break right now. In fact, I'm saying it right now. Like universe, I see you. Cause I'm like, I got a lot going on. I'm like, I'm going to handle it like a champ. Bring it on. I got this. I am deciding right now in this moment, I'm just

telling the universe to just chill a little bit. I have just like a couple of days, just a couple of days. I just need a couple of days where I'm not, I just need a couple of days just to be, I don't need any aha moments. I don't need no life lessons. I don't need no stuff to work through. I just need to, I just feel like I need a couple of days today. And the scale can be the same thing. You can say to the scale, you know what? I just, I need a couple of days. I just don't, I don't need to be dealing with that right now. I just take a couple of days. I'm going to take a couple of days. I was exercising and listening. I was just thinking how strong I feel today. I can't wait to go to bed to get up and weigh myself. Truly want to see the efforts paying off. Does everyone else feel this way? That's a whole vibe. I love that. I love that too. You know,

when you're feeling really great and things are aligning, you are excited about your life. You're excited about what you are doing. You're excited about getting up and facing the things you need to face that day, right? There are days, many of us, let's not forget we have those days too. For all the days that we feel like, oh my gosh, we have those days where we're like, we are rock stars. Look at me. I'm doing it. I'm feeling it. I love that. On that note, that's a great note to end on. A great note to end on. How did you get so smart, Gina Libby? Trial and error.

We were discussing how much knowledge and incredible advice and strategies you have, not to mention how you interview your guests are just beyond amazing. So I really worked at this, to be honest. I have always been very self-aware. I had a guru back in the day. He passed away. Gosh, it's got to be like 10 years, 10, 15 years he's passed. And I was really into the messages that why I was really into figuring out why I was feeling the way I was feeling, why I was struggling

with the things I was struggling with and what did I need to do to get to move through some of these things that I was dealing with? And I really came to have appreciation that the universe always is on your side. It's always trying to guide you. Just a lot of times we don't listen. We're not listening to the soft whispers. We're not listening to our intuition. We're not paying attention in our lives. It actually went back to, I was able to track in my life when I was young, I would just do what I wanted to do, do what makes you happy. My motto in life is do what makes you happy and you can't go wrong. Except that sometimes doing what makes you happy can upset other people. And it's not easy for other people when you do what makes you happy. And sometimes something has to give and you can't always prioritize yourself. But when I did, I remember my life went really smoothly. I remember I felt great in the

choices I was making. I lived my life very much instinctual. I didn't listen to other people. And it wasn't until I started to listen to other people that I started to get lost. And I feel like a lot of us feel lost in our lives at some point. And I really was able to tie it back to when I started, oh, you can't do that. Oh, you can't do this. Oh, you'd be crazy not to do that. And I made some really pivotal life choices in my life based on what other people told me I should do out of their fear for what would happen if they didn't make that choice. Or I didn't make choices based on other people because they couldn't have made that choice because it wasn't right for them. And it took me a long time to realize that a lot of people will offer advice

to you based on what they would do and wouldn't do, not actually what is right for you. I think it's a real skill to be able to offer someone advice or suggestions based on what would work best for them, not what I would do, not what works for me, but what really truly is best for the other person. It's hard to do that. And so I got to a point where I was really fascinated in this and really wanted to understand why I was feeling the way I was feeling, why I was having a hard time in certain situations, why I couldn't get past certain things in life and why things were happening in my life. And I was able to get to a point where I could really internalize them. I also studied things

like metaphysics. I also am a Reiki master, which is like a hands-on ancient healing art. I don't do it connecting people physically with hands, but I do it connectively. Like when I read your comment, I really try to think of the person, even though I may not know you, the person writing the comment, and then I try to interpret it based on what the intention behind it. I know this may sound really strange. That's why a couple of times in my weight loss program, I've had some issues with people because I would respond to something in a way that didn't sit right with some people. So I remember specifically last year, there was someone had wanted to quit. And I had heard this person, like I was sort of

following their journey because I pay attention in the groups. I'm reading all the comments. I don't comment a lot because I get kicked out of my own program. And I remember I've seen a couple of comments from this person and they were like, I just want to, I just want to quit. I'm so frustrated. I don't want to quit. And I sat with it for like 20 minutes and I thought about the person and all the different angles that they're coming from. And I went with the one that I felt best. And I said to them, well, you should quit then. You should just quit. And man, I had people write me letters like hate letter. I can't believe you said that to that person. And so many people were triggered by that, but that comment wasn't for them. It was interesting to see how many people came in. I can't believe you're saying that. What kind of weight loss expert are you? Will you? I

just, I, people put me through the ringer and it made, made me question my, what did I, did I do the right thing? And I was like, no, Gina, you sat with this. You thought about what this person needed to hear. You said from your heart, what you felt like they needed. Well, days went by and my whole team was like, what do we do about this? Like people are not happy. And I said, well, if people aren't happy, give them their money back. I don't care. It wasn't directed at them. If they would have asked a question, I probably responded differently. That woman reached out to me by way of email and said, thank you so much for saying that to me. That was exactly what I needed to hear. No,

I am not going to quit, but I think I needed to be allowed to quit. I think I needed someone to tell me it was okay if I quit. And now I know for sure quitting is not the way I want to go. Thank you for being real. Thank you for being honest. Thank you for saying exactly what I needed to hear. And so that was a real takeaway for me that I just have to sit up here and be authentic. And I really actually do care. I really do care. I want everyone to be really successful. And so, you know, sometimes you may, sometimes I surprise myself with the shit that comes out of my mouth. I'm like, what is that? But I just have to have faith that the universe is guiding me as crazy as that may sound into sharing my knowledge. And that's

my mission. I sit up here every day and how do I share what I've learned with the people who are, who are here to pick up what I'm putting down. So I know I didn't need to go into that. Empath. Yeah. Like you can call that I'm, you know, I don't, you can call it an empath into whatever you want to call it. I, I've kind of just learned to accept that that's my gift in life is to share my knowledge and to help people work through things that they're working through. I like to focus on weight loss. It helps me stay more in my lane. And weight loss is really the outlet. But I think beyond weight loss, the things that you are learning, the things that you have learned, this is going to be attributed across the board in your life. Make no mistake at the end of the day, this isn't about weight loss. It's about working through the

hard things. It's about doing the things that you need to do to make any kind of change in your life. And that gets me really excited, which is why I love this maintenance group because you're past the weight loss part of it. So this is where you're really digging into the rest of it. I got to go. I can smell my scallops. Tony has been cooking a storm upstairs and I'm excited to go eat for lunch. I hope that you have a great rest of your day. Thanks for joining me today. Some of you asking about our maintenance app.

I am working on a maintenance app for the maintenance program itself. Hoping to get that out January. I don't know our timeline on that app though. Just a reminder of our sale tomorrow. If you're interested in heading over to our website. I don't know any friends and family or whatnot. Be sure to let them know. Have a great rest of your day, everyone.

Thanks so much for joining me and I will see you on Wednesday for our Way in Wednesday conversation. Bye.