The Livy Method Podcast - Spill the Tea - Winter 2026: Week 6 with Dawne Warkentin

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

In this episode of Spill the Tea, Gina sits down with Dawne Warkentin, a 57-year-old member of the Livy Community who shares her powerful journey from decades of dieting and scale obsession to finally finding peace with her body. After losing weight again and again only to regain it, Dawne made the bold decision to stop weighing herself altogether and focus instead on releasing fat in a sustainable way with The Livy Method. Now down from a size 18 to a size 8, she opens up about shame, trusting the process, learning her body’s patterns without relying on a number, and what it really means to maintain your weight with confidence.You can find the full video hosted at:https://www.facebook.com/groups/livymethodwinter2026To learn more about the Livy Method, visit www.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. Learning to love myself a little bit more.

Just keep yourself time and space. I have all the tools to adapt to whatever lights throws at me. Your program is an amazing community of support. Sit back and grab a tea or drink of your choice. I'm already in love with my guest today. We had about 30 seconds to meet right before the program. Today I'm talking to Don. So she's 57 years old.

She started her first program in the spring of last year. So she's done two in a bit programs. She's gone from a size 18 to a size 10 without weighing herself. Now, she was just saying, well, I don't know if I want to talk about that. I'm like, yeah, heck yeah. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about that. And so much more, here's Dawn.

I got to tell you, since the third started the third program, I'm down to an eight. I don't like being called at 10 anymore. own it. Own it. Own it. Do we start? I don't even know where to start. Oh, my goodness. When I was reading your, when, I mean, this is everything. And if you haven't read Dawn's bio, it's available in the group. So you can just store in the guides if you want to give it a read. I think it was probably like the shame, like the weight of the shame that you carried. I don't even know where to start. Let's start with why did you. you weigh yourself? Let's start with that. And then we'll backtrack. I've been obsessed with the scale since I was 10 years old. I've been dieting off and on. I've lost huge amounts of weight every decade and regained. And the scale has always dictated my life. And to tell you the truth, if I was to choose a goal weight, I don't even know. Like now that you've taught me, the goal is to release fat from your body. Yeah. I don't even know what that number looks like.

I have no idea. So I was at the doctor in January. And first I was something. totally unrelated. I only go like once every two years, but he had noticed I gained weight. And he said, hop on the scale. And I said, okay, but I don't know what I don't want to know what it is. So he didn't tell me. He wrote it down. He said, listen, Don, I think it's time to consider GLP once. So he gave me a script and I took it home and I thought about it. And I, yeah, I thought and thought about it. And I'm like, you know, I saw a picture of my friend Jane who did Gina Livy and she's maintained her weight now for three years. I wrote her. She said, Don, it changed my life.

It's worth a try. And then some other people said the same thing. And then I started doing some research. And then I noticed on your Instagram, you talked about losing weight in a sustainable way. And I'm like, wow, that's like, it's amazing. I thought it was amazing that you would sell your program by saying you can lose weight other ways. It's a bunch of ways to lose weight. But this is how you can maintain and sustain.

I'm like, wow. Wow. And then I was too late to join. in the January program because I hound and honed and dicked around, right? And then, so that I bought your book and I started on my own March 17. So exactly a month next, like a year next month. It'll be a year that I started on my own and that I joined you in April. You know, so first of all, that's why I'm constantly letting people know when we have a sale or when the program's on.

So many people miss the opportunity to sign up. I love that you grabbed the book and got started right away. Oh, my God. I am all about sustainable weight loss. It's like, yeah, it's not people, people don't have a hard time losing weight. You've been very successful at losing weight. It's doing it in a way you can actually maintain and sustain. In the maintenance program, we talk about the scale and how I would love for people to just

be able to guess what the number is on the scale without getting on the scale, right? Like you don't need that number in your face to know if you indulge last night and you're feeling bloated or your weight is up. You shouldn't need the scale to show you that. it's up to know that, you know, you've been following along and the scales on the way down. So what has that experience been like for you? Are you picking up on your body's patterns? Do you feel it makes you more in tune? Oh, Gina. Like, I don't want to sell not weighing yourself, but you do make it an option. And I got to tell you, you do. And it blends beautifully with becoming in tune with your body. You have said so many things like, oh, you'll know your weight's about to move.

but if you feel bloated for a couple of days before you go to bed, well, all of a sudden your weight drops and you feel better. Well, I don't need the scale to show me that. I'm feeling bloated, a little bit bloated. I haven't eaten off program. I'm like, oh, I'm going to feel like a lot fitter in a couple days. And it happens. Yeah.

And then, oh, I like, I don't feel full all the time anymore. I can sleep because I'm not like I'm not full. I can wake up in the morning first thing because my gut, I'm not full and heavy. And just learning to know. what that feels like is incredible. Sitting on the toilet. I have an apron belly. Like seeing how much my belly hangs when I sit on the toilet.

Like that means more to me than any number on the scale. And Gina Libby, just this week for the first time. So I have the apron belly and I was standing puck naked in front of the mirror. And I saw her. The hoo-ha is now visible. I'm like, hello. It's a good non-scale victory. That's a great non-scale victory.

Yeah. The number is just data, right? Like that, if you're going to weigh yourself, do it every day or not at all. So I honestly could not love this more. I just think it's too maddening when people are just weighing every now and then. You're not getting the full picture. I really think not weighing yourself can remove that kind of barrier. There's a lot of thoughts and feels that come up with the scale.

So how are you working through those, though? Do you find that you're working through just as much of the mental part by not weighing yourself? There definitely is a mental part. that's absent this time, like battling the scale and finding more joy in the process. So I'd have to say, like, when in thinking about my past ventures with losing weight, when I was so focused on the scale, I actually had a blog that was called 365 days to a new me and I was going to lose 100 pounds in a year. And I had quite a large following, large enough that I had, I was asked to be in a,

article for Moore magazine. This was like 2011, I think, when blogging was in, right? And the whole weight lost blog was a big deal. Yeah, yeah. Well, I lived for that scale and I didn't reach my goal. I use the word, I only lost 84 pounds instead of 100 and felt like a complete failure because of a scale, because of a number. Isn't that ridiculous? Like, and I just like the joy the scale has robbed me of. And my goal isn't to be a number. My goal is to be a number. My goal is to really least the visible fat that's on my body and I learned that from you. Well, anyone who's ever reached their goal when I asked them about it afterwards in maintenance,

we talked about this a lot. It's never the number. They are just, it's never, it's never, ever, ever been the number. It's some people lose more than their goal.

Some people decide to lose less than their goal. They're always like, I just knew. It just felt. And some people continue to chase the scale. And then they realize, I'm just chasing the scale. I'm actually really happy with where I'm at.

Why am I continuing to chase the scale every day when I can just like, I'm good. I'm good, right? So, oh, I love this for so many reasons. You've done all the diets. Oh, all of them. Yeah. I was even a funster.

Love Dr. Flann. I didn't pay for his program. Like, there is a program that you can pay for. I just did. Like, I did the fasting,

follow the book. And I joined the Facebook group. And to be quite honest, So like you're doing a lot of days of not eating, right? And you're really encouraged by other, like maybe not by him, but by other members. You know, how long can you fast? Can you go four? Can you go five days?

And I've lost weight quicker on the living method eating six times a day as opposed to starving myself for four days in a row. I don't get it. I can't explain it. I'm not a scientist. Yeah. It is unbelievable. And my face isn't gaunt.

When I was fasting, I did it for almost a year and, you know, got to a, what I assumed was a healthy weight for me, but very gaunt face. And I haven't had that with this. Oh, I love that. Jason Fung, of course, we all, I love Jason Fung. Me too. When I was, yeah, when I was searching his program, I mean, fasting is just his method. He is also about hormones. He's also about understanding your hunger levels.

His new book is, I think it's going to be a game changer because he talks a lot about why you're hungry. which is, of course, is what we talk about here. But there's a lot of things like not eating after dinner. Like really, if you choose not to eat after dinner and then you don't eat until breakfast or, you know, you choose not to have breakfast and you go mid-morning snack, it kind of is very similar principles. That's a big fasting window. It's all the other things. It's the stress and the movement and all of that. How much emphasis did you put on that this time around? What was different? What was different? Well, I'm not in this stressful time in my life because I'm older now.

And I stopped working. I also lived abroad a few times. Like I lived in Bangladesh, raised kids there. And I also recently moved back from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. So just living abroad gives you stress, right? And dealing with all that. So right now I'm not working except for looking after my grandchildren. And so it was like a lack of stress.

So it is a nice time in life. Okay. I got to admit the stress is released. I've always been a good sleeper. I like to eat. I'm hungry, Gina. And your program taught me why I'm hungry. And I'll forever be grateful.

It's not because I'm a gluttonous pig who just can't control herself. And I felt the shame, deep, deep shame of that. And it wasn't, I feel shame. Like I felt shame for my kids for my husband. Like my husband, it's fit. six foot hot as and it's got this great body right in here he's had this overweight wife and then she's skinny and then she's overweight i have athletic children my daughter's a emergency room physician she's in the health world and she has to bring her mother along to things to babysit and i'm the

only obese person there like that doesn't really feel good you know what i feel shame i feel shame for them and i didn't want them to have to feel that shame you know we talk about this stuff we go pretty deep here in the program, but what do you think the shame is about? I think it's like that, like, why can't she get it together? Like, she has an education. She's like, she's not a, what piece of her life is she not happy with? Why can't she get, and to myself, why can't I get together? Why do I go from starving?

Like, when you describe, like, the person who's overweight who eats a muffin and then a pizza pizza that one me okay that's that's not me i'm a bagel in the morning oh a little snack and then you know lunch i'm a good cook and i've always um like i my kids did not grow up with um like if i was going to make chicken nuggets they'd be homemade but i'm a volume eater you know i and i didn't realize um like i wasn't eating pure whole foods so i didn't realize that you know having pasta once a week even though it didn't affect my kids and my husband, it was affecting me and causing me to want to eat more. So I'm absolutely a volume eater and a nighttime eater. So you got into veggies.

Veggies. This program has had me change my life with vegetables. They are now, like I can cook a mean veggie anything and make it look like the star of the show that everyone wants to eat. And I'm very proud of it. Oh, thank you. You're going to need to share some recipes for us. You started you started dieting at the age of, like that's where I asked where the shame is coming from. Like, did it's, you think it's something that started early? Like you started dieting when you're like 10 years. Did you have a weight issue when you're 10 years old and you started dieting? So if you look back, you would say no,

but you know what? I got my period when I was nine and I had fucking hooters. Like you look back and you're like, how is she the same, like in a class picture? how was she the same age as the kids around her? So I just was big. I was tall. Everyone caught up to me once I got to, I don't know, high school. Right now I'm short. I'm only five, four.

Yeah. I had an overweight family. My mom and dad live next door. They're 84 and they've just started the Mediterranean diet. I am not going into my 80s battling weight. I'm not. I am stopping it now. You say it takes two years to be at, for your body to adjust and that point.

Yeah. So I'm 57. I am not going into my 60s battling this. Right. And that, yeah. And like that's, imagine spending. There's something that you said, oh, where was it? It was something that you said here about your, that every decade of your life was robbed by your weight. It was.

It's robbed. Yeah. You know, like not being able to, like I have been places like I've got to travel the world. I've had their privilege because we lived abroad. And now I get to travel with my daughter because she's a global emergency medicine person. So like I'll go and babysat. So, you know, we were recently in Ethiopia, not recently, like before I started living right before that. In Ethiopia and I am being robbed of some of the joys of hiking and stuff, even though I tried to do it all.

It's high elevation there. I'm being robbed of some of the joys of travel because, A, my bigger size. and B, how I'm feeling about myself just makes it not fun. Yeah. Yeah. It is, right. And this is why, you know, we just had Family Day here and there's always something going on.

And this is why it's about learning to navigate through these moments. What was your thought process with following? Were you just like, are you a type? You just followed everything to a T. Like what would you say the secret to your success is? So, yeah, I do follow things to a T. Like I started a year ago, like I said, next month, and I haven't once eaten after dinner, not once since then. Like I wouldn't.

So, but, you know, I've done that before. But I think there is a difference this time in that I'm eating six times a day. Yeah. Right. And that and that snack, it completely, like it helps me eat a smaller dinner for sure, for sure. Yeah. It's also important. People don't really, really understand.

So I love the Science Saturday Post. What's your favorite part of the program? 100% guest, well, you too, Gina. But the guest experts, I can tell you how many times. So I keep a journal. I wonder if I can show it. I keep a journal of everything they say. I don't know if you can kind of see it.

And I try and make it fancy. And like I do little doodles and like do the big words. And I have everything that they have said. that has meant something to me. Like Dr. Olinka, some of the things she have said, it's like she's spread healing solid over my body and soul. Like there's a hormonal reason why I'm like this. Yeah.

It's not just that I'm out of control and can't control myself. It's not moral. Sean Wharton, I can fall thinking about the way he talks to people. And I remember the very first program you went alive just took, this really compassionate, compassionate answer to someone. And I immediately got on the computer to my friend. Did you hear what Gina just said to her? And I'm just like, that kind of compassion is healing to someone who has struggled with

Shane like I have. It's healing in a, it's like being seen for more than what you think the world sees you for. I think that the world sees me as someone who has tried to lose weight and gain it back over and over and over again. And I guarantee you there are people in my life who are seeing this now and saying, oh, there she goes again. You know, there she goes again. Oh, I'm going to prove that wrong. So what is different this time? Can you bottle that up? Yeah, 100% the reasons besides eating too much that I struggle with weight, understanding them, addressing them, having reasons for it.

The supplements, I know you always say the supplements aren't mandatory. I think they should be mandatory. Like they literally, like they legit, I feel so different on them. I've never taken supplements in my life. So except for if I was like, you know, eating chalk tablets or something for a crazy diet that I was on. I did the all meat diet too. That was something. That gross.

I think, I think, I'm sure you can tell stories of the diets they'd done. I'm a massive believer in that deeper level of understanding. It helps you connect the dots. And if you understand why, you're like, ah, uh, okay, I get it. I want to thank you there for a second. When you mentioned about hear me be compassion, because talk about feeling seen. I'm like wondering what am I doing here. You know, I have this title weight loss expert on my Instagram handle.

And I'm just like, is how what I am? Or am I this person who's just sharing everything that I've learned. And I've learned a lot myself, but I've learned so much from our guest experts. Like, what is it that I do? I'll tell you that my daughter says you're a flipping genius and she wishes that she had thought of it. She said the fact that you have taken all these elements of weight problem, all these elements of obesity, and you brought them all together with guest experts, with the science. There's nothing that, this is what I say when I tell people about your program,

there's nothing that I'm going to face on my weight loss journey and my maintenance and path to health. that you don't address at some point during your program. Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. It's genius. Well, this was like, you know, growing up watching Oprah and, you know, being in the fitness industry and hearing people and, you know, every week she had someone new on.

And I feel like it's just like gotten worse with Instagram and social media. Every week there's something new going on. And I was like, well, can't we just bring it all together? I would just pick the good parts of everything and create something that's really all I've ever done. I feel seen. I feel seen Don. Well, you know what I think you need to do? So when I asked my friends what, like,

so I had a bunch of friends who were doing it. They tried to convince me. Shout out to the girls from Niagara who tried to get me into it. I'm like, I'm not doing another diet. It's ridiculous. And they couldn't describe how it was different. Well, you just have to trust. You just have to try.

You need a tagline that explains it. And then it would take people like me a little bit quicker to get to it. I don't know what that tagline is, but someone brilliant has to come up with it. It's been six years trying to figure out a tagline for these girls. I can't, but explain the living method. You got an hour? But you get it.

You get it. Oh, my goodness. What's, like, what, like, what's next for you? Well, you know, you do talk about, um, in, not, yeah, like, enjoying and embracing the plateaus. I don't know, like, because I don't weigh myself. I don't know. feel like I'm plateauing. I actually feel like I'm, well, I know I'm losing because my size eights are getting a little

bit, not big, but they're certainly not tight. So I'm feeling it right now. I guess for now, I'm just going to keep enjoying the process and just keep watching my belly go down. What, what do you do with all your clothes? What are you doing? Oh, you know, I'm a bit of a close person. So that has actually been really hard for me.

So in the past, when I've gone through this, I've either totally gotten rid of stuff or I have saved it for the next time I gain it, and I wasn't doing that. But I had some really nice stuff that I recently bought. I found this amazing Taylor, and I had the things that I really like taken in. So he took off six inches. Oh, my God, that's incredible. Isn't that cool? And those were my biggest clothes.

Like, you know, those were like my size like 12s and stuff that I had gotten in way like when I started. And yeah, he's just like, oh, wow. apparently you can alter anything four sizes, he told me. Oh, okay. That's good to know. Yeah, we're going to have Tanya come back and share some tips because, like, it's not cheap to be buying a new wardrobe, you know, as your weight changes.

No one, no one thinks about that. Do you have tips for our members to share? Like, what's your, like, what do you, you keep it journal? I love that. You take supplements. What supplements do you like swear by? So I take the three that you recommend plus the D complex. Omega three, vitamin D, magnesium.

be complex? Yeah. That's a game changer. Yeah. Yeah. So that's what I take. And I have really bad ocular rosasia and that omega-3 has really addressed that hugely. Yeah. What's your doctor say? Well, I haven't seen them. So this is the thing. Like I don't, I don't want to get way, but I want it to, I want it on record of what I lost in a year. Just so there's data eventually when I'm successful and I have kept it off for two years. I want to say, yeah, I love. lost this. So I'm going on March 17th for him to weigh me. I'm not going to find out what it is. And then I'll get weighed again. But I can't wait to have that. I can't wait for him to ask me what I did. Like I cannot wait to tell him about the program. And because he's, you know what, when Dr.

Wharton talked about how he's educating physicians to be compassionate. This guy's totally compassionate. Well, he's kind of shoving himself. So. Yeah. It helps. I mean, it does. Having a compassion doctor, you don't need any more shame. That's for sure. Yeah, no, I've been, I have, I've had it with the shame. It's not a moral issue. I always hear Sandra Alia's words, too. It is not a moral issue.

No, she's coming on tomorrow, actually. She's going to come on tomorrow. Yeah, she's going to talk about emotional eating and Kobe. Do you notice any of that at all happening with food? Yeah, like in the past, I've definitely had emotional eating, but this program I have it, you keep me fed. There's something about being said that takes that has eliminated that for me. When I'm constantly worried, you've calmed me right down.

Like obviously you can probably tell them. I've been a, you know, excitable person. So if you're telling me to measure my flour or my butter, like I'm measuring it to the eighth degree, okay? Like I'm being very serious about it. And I would stress that night when I go to bed. well, I made this recipe and I can't tell how much flour was in that. And oh my gosh, is the scale going to be up?

And then if the scale was up, oh my gosh, I blew it. Like living with that day in and day out, it robs you of the joy. Here I have this beautiful life that I'm robbed because of a tablespoon of flour. That's that food noise. That's that food noise. And you've made a dent in that? Oh, huge dent because you're feeding me. That's why.

Yeah. And you're feeding me without me having to measure. Or have that restrictive mindset. Correct. Yeah. It's life changing. So Helen asked me, and I told her, I don't even know who Helen is, but she's on the thing. She wanted to know what I ate before and how I changed it.

So I just want to tell her that I did not, I did eat, like I cooked my own meals. I don't eat a lot of high processed stuff, but I definitely, my plate would have been a lot of carb, sometimes healthy carb. And then some meat and like just a little bit of vegetables. I like vegetables, but I wasn't preparing them now. Now I'd say that by the time you get your leafy greens and your veg in, my plate is three-quarter vegetables and they are darn good vegetables. You taught me how to make a salad, not just cucumber and lettuce and tomato. My salads are amazing.

I bet they are. Do you want to do a shout out to your squad? I hear you got like people from all over the world in your squad. Yes. So I forced two of my friends to join with me. So Kim lives in Shelburne, Ontario. And then our other friend Liz lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Love it.

And then this time round we got our friend in Fort Worth, Texas, Debra, to join us. And she's killing it. And we are, we like have video chats and we just encourage one another. And it's amazing to do it together. And they all love you to you, Gina. Oh, well, I am so excited. Thank you. You just filled my cup today.

You've filled my cup today. I appreciate you. Oh, you actually have to change my life so it's the least I can do. It's true. You did that. You'll have to come on and bring your squad on. We'll have a little fun chat. Oh, wait, do you meet Deborah from Texas?

You will die. I love it. Final words for everyone who's watching or listening today, Deborah, Donne, before we go? Oh, the consistency piece. Yeah. Get your meals and snacks then. It takes away your cravings. It takes away the food noise.

Had I known that the answer was this easy? Where were you? Where were you all these decades of me suffering? Oh, thank you so much. Okay, Dawn, thank you. Thank you. I can't. I told you. We're besties at 30 seconds before we started in this segment. I popped on. I love her. Talk about amazing energy. I can't. You've got to spend time. And I mean, if you love the segment today and you have not done it yet, read her bio. Get to know her a little bit more. You're just, you'll have some mad respect even more than you did today. Great tips. Great energy. As she mentioned, Sandra, uh, uh, Leah is going to, us tomorrow. She can talk about compulsive eating, emotional eating, and then Dr. Olinka is going to join us to finish the conversation that we had today. If you did not have an opportunity to check it out, make sure you do it is now in the guides in the group, also in the app as well. I'm so happy we have the rest of the week because we have a lot to talk about. Okay, I have a great yesterday

night. Thanks for joining me and I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.