The Livy Method Podcast - The Reward Mindset No One is Talking About

Episode Date: April 27, 2026

What's your reward when the scale isn't the be-all and end-all?Gina Livy and Maintenance Program Manager Odette break down what it really takes to transition from weight loss into maintenance, sharing how to shift out of a diet mindset and into a calm, confident “just live your f***ing life” approach. They explore why scale fluctuations are normal, how to manage food noise, and what it means to build trust with your body after reaching your goal weight. Sustainable weight loss takes deep work, like finding new forms of personal reward beyond the scale, and recognizing those self-sabotage patterns. If you are focused on maintaining weight loss, building healthy habits, and creating long-term success, this is a must-listen.This episode aligns with day 8 of our Spring 2026 maintenance program. 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 going to be honest with you, this podcast is unapologetically a hot mess because that is what midlife feels like sometimes. Why, though? And how do we make it better? Do we all just need facelifts and gLP ones? I mean, let's talk about it. No bullshit, no wellness wankery here because we're trying to make real change and change is hard. But we're in this together. Welcome to the Living Method podcast.

I was excited about week one of our maintenance program. Yeah. I'm excited. Are you excited? I'm excited. Yeah. I didn't hear what you said. No, I'm, I was going to let you be excited first. Go. Oh, yeah, I'm very excited. So I'm excited not only because members are excited, because I'm really excited about members honesty. So if they're not feeling excited or they're not feeling like they have it all figured out yet, they're being totally honest about that. And that is what's making me excited. That's that mindset. that's that awareness, that's that normalcy of not having it all figured out in perfection. So I'm loving the honesty that's happening. Love that. Yeah.

Not having figured it out and perfection. What the fuck are we doing here and why? Let's be super intentional about that. You want to be able to maintain and sustain your weight so you do not have to spend any more time of your life trying to do this, right? You have lost your weight. you have done that part. Now you want to fight tooth and nail to make sure you're able to transform yourself into this person who's no longer someone trying to lose weight, who's not even a person

trying to maintain their weight. It's just you're this person living your best life. Calm around food physically, mentally. You can trust when to eat, what to eat, how much to eat. You are able to ebb and flow with life. Like this is like the last thing you need to worry about. And you can just focus on enjoying life. And then having everything you do feed into being as healthy as possible. Staying alive. Being happy.

Right? Like yeah. And nobody else is out there having these conversations. Nobody else is out there having conversation. This is why it's possible. And you're going to be able to do this because this, these conversations, these are the conversations no one is having and that need to have. So I love that mindset.

That's the mindset. What do you need to do, work on, work through to be able to maintain and sustain your weight easily for the rest of your life? That's what it's about. That's what's about. I'm into it. And, you know, we were, and, you know, we had members thinking like, what is, or saying, like, what does this mean, this mindset, mind? shift mind what is it called mindset shift I don't know oh doubt what does that even mean like what does it even mean yeah to think that I'm in I have this maintenance mindset now and you know had me

thinking like yeah what does it mean to our members and I think it what comes to mind for me it it's accepting that there's going to be changed there's going to be a change in your routine there's going to be a change in thinking it's going to be a change in thinking it's going to be a change in your expectations. So I think you need to have different expectations because what you're doing now is different than what you were doing when you were choosing, when you were losing weight. So you can't expect the same things to happen externally. You can't expect the scale to be your measure of it being a good week or a bad week.

Those external factors can't happen. I think your expectation needs to come from, you know, having a different awareness. having those light bulb moments, you know, they're not going to be these big, grand things that are going to be super obvious. So you have to change that expectation because having an aha moment is not the same as the scale telling you something that is just data. So you can't just be like, okay, there's my, I expected this number on the scale. There it is. You have to get that from those moments, those pieces of awareness, those. the connecting of the dots. That's what the expectation is going to be now, where it has to be now.

I just see this comment from Christine up six ounces for no reason not spriling into giving up. The new me. Yeah. And you're not, you don't have to control or moderate yourself, right? And you're going to see fluctuations on your scale. Like that's just how it is. Like it's just, you know, depending on what time of day you're weighing yourself, what's going on, inflammation, sleep, hydration. You can have done a workout, right? So you could have done a workout. Right. So you could have done a workout and your muscles are sore. So I did some golfing. Um, was it yesterday I golfed the day before. Saturday I golfed. My muscles are sore. For sure, my weight is up. Right. Like, so it's understanding that. But, but, but I just want to say, so many of us, our lives have been spent

trying to lose weight, constantly in a state of, of, of trying to lose, or thinking that you're not good enough, constantly trying to make change, how you feel every day, all tied into this trying to lose weight. And now that you're in maintenance, I want to challenge you or ask you to pay attention to your mindset. So when you wake up every morning, what is the first thing that pops into your mind? When you get on that scale, is it a weight loss mindset that's showing up? Are you still expecting it to move? Are you disappointed if it's up? Are you disappointed if it hasn't dropped, even though you're no longer trying to make it drop. What is your mindset around food, food choices, all of that? And I know some of you are actively working on helping your body

maintain and sustain your weight by doing the maintenance program, right? Because there's people who've been here maintaining the weight for three or four years and they're in a different mindset. But can you see the difference between a weight lost mindset and a maintenance mindset? Mine's just a live my life mindset, right? Like, I'm not thinking about weight loss. I don't think about maintain. my weight. I'm just living my life. If I make a crappy choice, you know, I feel like shit afterwards. Okay, Gina, maybe, you know, for example, going through a stressful time and I want to drink, so I'm fighting that every night, and it's so easy to want to eat chips. And so I'm fighting that. But I'm not thinking about weight loss maintenance. I'm like, what is going on in my life right

now that I'm stress drinking? I'm stress eating and is that the best way for me to manage. It's not at all tied into my weight. And yes, as I'm stressed eating and drinking my weight is going up, but I'm not like, oh my God, I've gained weight and now I have to lose it. I have to be like, I got to get my shit together or I will eventually gain weight, right? So that's the difference. There's a weight loss mindset. There's an active maintenance mindset. And then there's a live your life navigating life. Mindsets. And so they're very distinct. Like I don't live my life ever thinking about losing weight, gaining weight, maintaining my weight. I'm just. just living my life, knowing how my body reacts to what I am eating, not eating, doing,

not doing. And I'm confident in that. Right. So that's, that's, we're in the middle of that. Yeah, we are in the middle of that. And, and this is the place where we're trying to get, right? So when our members are saying, you know, I'm, I'm still looking at the scale. I'm still thinking about that.

Well, of course you are because we're just starting here. We're just starting to make that transition. We're just starting to fall into this new, this new belief system, these new patterns. And I think the key to with Christine's comment there, she said, you know, up six ounces, up six ounces for no reason in quotation marks. There's always a reason. There's always, you know, there's always a reason. Like it could be, like you said, lack of sleep working out.

Your body's always working. It's always giving you messages. The reason is not that you messed up. The reason is not that you did something wrong. The reason is because your body is a living being. It's going through, you know, different things every single day. So there's always a reason. But the reason is never, you know, you don't need to be freaking out about what that reason is.

And, you know, your body's, like we say, your body's always detoxing. Your body is always doing something. It's always working. So there will always be a reason why it's up or it's down or whatever. And the reason is it's just being alive at this point, just working at this point. That's a long-winded way of saying your body's just trying to stay. alive and do what it needs to do. I think that's like it was normalize that, right?

Because we're so stuck on the scale. I see Christine here, my old diet mindset is going to take a long time to battle. That's why you have to be intentional about shifting that mindset into a more of a maintenance mindset. Right. Here's Sue, hi, Sue, it's such a good comment about the scale. I still do have a sense of dread almost.

It's not just the scale, but the fear of falling back so far than I'm 60 pounds heavier again. Fear is fuck. right and so yeah like that you fear is actually good in that way that your body you're fearful that you're going to fall back into that I don't know that fear is is the bad thing but it's it's beyond you okay the fear is in your face get it so that's a good feeling because it's stopping you right it's stopping you from doing those things but more than that you have to adopt a new that's keeping you stuck right where you're at you're frozen in fear oh my god you actually have to move beyond that

into the full-on maintenance mind. So you lost the weight, you were a lost mindset, loser mindset. Now you're like, you achieved it. Now you're stuck there. Fear has you stuck there. And then you want to move forward into a maintenance mindset, right?

And then you want to even move even more forward to that. So I love that. I love that comment. Fear is also why you get out of the way if a Mack truck is barreling down the road. Yeah. Right. But the thing about fear is it can keep you really stuck.

so you need to move to the others and embrace that, get excited about it. What are you learning about yourself? What is this telling you? Like say if you go and you, like, you go to the ball, I went to the ball game on the weekend, which was so fun with Melanie I see here, gifted us some seats. It was so fun. And so they have this free snack bar. And like since when do we ever get to enjoy that? And so I had pop rocks. I had like candy. You know those ones that fizzle in your mouth? Like I had those. I had like one of those like pop rock rings. I had like I had a cookie. I had popcorn. I had like all that. I felt like garbage afterwards. Would I do it again? Absolutely fucking lootly I would. Right. Like it's knowing those moments catching myself, oh my God, I shouldn't be eating this.

And I'm like, what? Who the fuck cares? I'm having it. And then getting home later and then being like, oh my God, am I even hungry like whatever? And I'm like, no, I just need to have a little something, something. Shut her down. I'm not going to keep the party going. Yes. I'm not going to keep the party going and make it worse just because, because now it's no longer an excuse of like, I did that. It was fun. I enjoyed it. Now it was just like, oh, I fucked everything up. I feel like garbage. I might as well make myself feel worse. So I was like, you're not making yourself feel worse, Gina. You are, you know, drinking some water. You're going to go to bed. You're going to get up the next day and carry on your routine. Now, am I feeling it today? Absolutely. I am because you always will.

but I'm not thinking, I got to get caught up. I've ruined anything. I whatever. Just today is a new day. And that's that ebb and low. Eb and flow, you're going to make choices that make you feel like garbage. And then you need to be like, okay, I had enough of that. Let's get back to feeling good. And then you're just trying to, that's life. That's life, right? So yeah, so you want to get past that weight loss mindset. really embrace the maintenance mindset so you can let it all go and move into that, just live your life kind of ebb and flow mindset. Yeah. And I think, you know, that's going to come, like we were saying right up the very top, that's going to come from not looking for external proof to like when it comes to the scale. Like you have to, like that mindset has to be from, like you said,

from this place of growth, from this place of learning, from this place of thinking, okay, I did this yesterday and now I feel like this. today. It's okay. I learned from that. I'm just going to move forward. I don't need the scale or I don't need, you know, something else to tell me how I'm going to feel or that I did something wrong. That's not it. I'm just going to move forward from here. And I've learned something from this. I think we say so much, too, in this maintenance program that there's so many learning opportunities. It's not just doing. We're not just doing things to do things. We're doing things to get to have this deeper sense of awareness. We're doing things to help ourselves build trust and build confidence. So that maintenance

mindset comes earlier. So it's not like, what the heck does that maintenance mindset even mean? You're going to, it'll just start to happen for you, but like, okay, I get that now. I understand that now. This is where I am. I don't need to think about it this way. I don't need to talk to myself in that way. That's when that mindset will start to shift and happen. It's also, let's call it what it is. It's transitioning out of food noise. Yeah. Right? Or changing the conversation to eventually transition yourself out of the food noise, constantly thinking about what you're eating, not eating, every minute of the day. And that's what I mean about calm around food. You can absolutely have lost your weight and reach your goal and still be dealing with food noise.

Yeah. Right? You can absolutely have lost your weight and reach your goal and still have issues tied into foods. Still be using food to cope. Still be, do you know what I mean? So this is like what is the rest? You did the physical part of it. What's the rest of it you need to work on and work through to truly get to a place where you are calm, physically, mentally.

You can say without a shadow of a doubt, I know 100% I will be a. able to maintain and sustain my weight. It is not wishful thinking. It is not, none of that. I actually have the tools and skills to ebb and flow with life. I got this. I understand how I got here. I understand what I need to do. I understand my issues. I know, I know myself, right? I know myself. And sometimes it's a, it's a bit of a, sometimes you lose yourself for a bit. You know, something traumatic happens, you know, when you just are like, fuck. And maybe you go back into what's familiar old coping mechanisms, but then you're like, okay, this is enough. Let me get back. Let me get back. I like this comment by Trudy. I got to admit that I feel a little bit like an imposter.

Yeah. Well, I know that maintenance is essential for success. I'm struggling to focus on all the things and not get sidetracked by the scale. I think this comes from this place where you were just talking. Like, you're like, yes, I believe I'm going to, I believe I can maintain and sustain my weight. I know that I can do this. I know that this maintenance process is important, but why can't I get rid of that old? So old dialogue. Like, yes, there's the food noise, but there's also that diet history noise and that diet dialogue noise. And, you know, that's also something that is going to keep coming up. That's something that's going, it's part of your history.

It's part of who you are. And, you know, this is not the first time we've heard this about the imposter syndrome or feeling like an imposter. Like, I know that this is where I need to be, but I just don't believe it yet. So what am I doing here and how am I going to work through this? Yeah, it's kind of read this again. Got to admit I feel a bit like an imposter. While I know that maintenance is essential for success,

I'm struggling to focus on all the things and not get sidetracked by this scale. So this is what maintenance is, right? Like this, I'm struggling to focus on all the things. All the things is not what you need to focus on. it's the fact that you're getting sidetracked by the scale is the focus for you in maintenance. And I know what you mean. You might be saying eat all the meals and snacks and do all that. It's so easy to make it a priority when you are trying to lose weight, right? There's a payoff. There's a dopamine hit. There's a payoff. The scale moves. There's no dopamine hit here, right? Like you do the hard work, you food prep. You eat all your meals and snacks. You do all the tweaks each week. And you just get to stay the fucking same. Right? Because you're just, it's all measured by the scale. And so this is where you've got to have a why that's stronger than reaching a number on the scale because you've already done that.

And so I don't know, everyone around me is dying and getting diagnosed with cancer these days. I don't want to do that, right? I want to feel my best. I want to live my longest, healthiest life. Like, what is your motivator? And it also could be the framing and like really seeing, like help your body adjust to your new weight. That could be your why. I like to fight to make to do this so you don't gain your way.

wait back, right? Like, if that's your focus, it's getting sidetracked by the scale, what's the fear there? So are you, what, why is that? Why is that the focus? How are you getting sidetracked by the scale? So one, you're focused on what's happening on the scale, but two, not actually doing the things you need to do. So that's a disconnect. I'm not doing the things I need to do because I'm so sidetracked by the scale. If you did the things that you needed to do, you wouldn't be getting sidetracked by the scale. So this is that we're getting in our own way. This could be a sabotage thing, a self-sabotage thing where you're looking at the, you're looking at the wrong thing. Like, that's not where you need to look. That's not where you need to go. So for you, the program is,

why are you getting sidetracked on the scale and what you're going to do about it? Why is that keep happening to you? What is it? Is it sabotage? Is it fear of this? Is it what is it, what, why is that your focus? Is that you don't, you don't have the patience, maybe is what I'm kind of like, you don't want to do the work to change your, change your brain. Because that's just fucking work. And you don't have capacity for that. Like what, why is the scale just easier to be pissy about the scale every fucking day? Like that is easy, right? Fuck, fucking scale. Like so easy. You stay stuck on the scale. You are not doing any of the things moving you forward. And that could be a conscious choice because maybe don't have capacity for all the things moving you forward. You just want to

stay stuck on the fucking scale because you got some big feels about it and you're scared and you're fearful and you're whatever and you want to just just do that because that's the easy part. Did that make any fucking sense? It made sense. It made sense on two levels, actually. So what I want to say to that is what something that you said about, you know, feeling, like looking at the scale and looking that that's at your success. And remind me of something that Dr. Beverly said last week. And if you members haven't had a chance that's on the podcast, it's also in the app if you're part of the membership, you have access. so that Dr. Beverly said something that we are conditioned for reward.

We are conditioned to be rewarded, to feel rewarded or want to be rewarded. So when we take away that reward of going for that lowest low, that's what our whole journey has been tied to. Where is that reward now? Where is that coming from? Because it's not going to come from that scale. So when it's not rewarding you, when it's not telling you that you're doing things well, who's going to tell you that?

Where are you going to get that from? Where's that going to come from? And I think that's when she said that about we're conditioned to be rewarded and you take away that point of it. I mean, she didn't talk about it in taking away the scale. But now that we're here in maintenance, this is how it applies. We're taking that reward away. How are you going to reward yourself now?

Where is that going to come from for you? And maybe that is the underlying piece to helping you find your why. What is my reward? Maybe not what's my why, but what's my? reward now and I have to do it for myself. I have to find that myself because the scale is not going to give it to me. It already gave me the ultimate reward. It already, I already got to where I wanted to be with that piece of equipment. Now, now where is my reward going to come from? And then, so that part of it. Can I just, we got to pause there, Odette. I think that's really

big, right? You've been chasing this weight loss, chasing the scale for the reward, that dopamine hit of reach my goal. I've arrived. And then what happens is with people, they gain it back. And then they do it again. They get it back and they do it again, right? We don't want you to gain it back and do it again. Like, so this is it.

And there is no payoff for maintenance. There is no payoff. It's just there is no reward. The reward is you get to live a life without trying to lose weight every fucking five minutes. The reward is feeling great, calm and comfortable in your own skin. but that is really big. I think we need to sit with the weight of that, I think, because how do we stay motivated when there's no reward to what we're doing here, no perceived reward, daily dopamine hits.

Woo, fuck. And I think that that's, but that can also tie into this week of that, of that mindset shift. Like, maybe your reward needs to come from this place where you are, maybe you're not an intention center or maybe you were like like a like a passive intention center maybe that's where your reward has to come from now instead of writing you know 20 intentions for today pick two pick one and did you did you accomplish that that's your reward i did that today i that that's that was my success today that's what i can that's what i can um say i have accomplished and i'm going to reward myself for that but not reward yourself and a brownie. That's not what I mean. But reward yourself with with the the accomplishment,

that feeling of accomplishment, that feeling of working, you know, getting closer to that, that building that confidence and that trust. Like those are the kinds of rewards we have to think of now. Your reward is the why. You accomplish your why, right? Like that, I think the reward when maintenance is so much bigger. Like it's so small when you're in weight loss because it's just that scale. I mean, obviously there's a bigger why under there. But I think, Now your reward is being able to sit in an airplane seat and book a trip and not have to stress about the exceed, extender or fitting in the seat, right?

Your reward is now not stressing about what you're eating and, you know, having that be your whole thought while you're sitting at dinner with friends, right? Maybe your reward now is you get up and everything fits in your closet. Your reward is you just feel happier, more joyful. Like, it's such a reward now is so much bigger picture of thinking. and when it's weight loss is so, I mean, we talk about non-scale victories all the time in weight loss. It's such a narrow-minded way to, like, just the scale and measuring everything by the scale is so narrow-minded. But there is a massive dopamine hit to it when you achieve your goal.

Yeah. And that's like that doesn't exist when you're maintaining your goal. That's like you get that new job, right? You apply for a job. You get your new job. You celebrate pop champagne. I got my new job. Then you got to fucking show up every day. And you've got to go to work. And that's where very quickly a job that you were so excited to get becomes this mundane, like just show up, do the minimum, la, la, la, la. And if there is no promotion in your view, there is no next step, it's kind of like, then what? Then what?

Well, this is a big conversation. And I think to make this, it's different for everybody, right? Yeah, I'm different for everybody. You know, the stuff to think about this week. Oh, dad, what's the takeaway? But you want people to work on or work through or think about... I mean, yeah, I mean, do we have another 20 minutes? Because I have like...

Well, I know. We're going to pick one thing. So, yeah. Yeah, I think now, just since this conversation, it really is thinking about what your reward could be. Like what, you know, we talk about your fresh eyes. we talk about your why, and maybe if that sounds so too big for you, and that sounds like it's too much right now, you're just trying to figure out what the next week is going to look like. Maybe it's just stepping back and thinking, how do I want to feel this week?

What is how, what's my reward this week? If I accomplish this one thing this week, will that be enough to feel rewarded? You know, maybe it's going to be not snacking after dinner. And I just want to say that because we have seen that come up a lot this week about that snack. after dinner and that's still happening or I can't, that's the one habit I can't cut. Maybe if that is tangible for you, maybe that's, maybe that's something that you want to work out. That's your intention this week.

Figure out what your one reward can be for the week or for the day. Yeah, because that's a lot of times the reward people use is a treat and a snack. Knock it off. If you are still snacking every night and you're feeling like garbage the next day and you are your scale just fucking knock it off like understand that when you go to bed with a belly full of food your body can't focus on repair rebuild regenerate rejuvenate detox do any of those things you're going to feel like garbage every fucking time knock it off and if you're like well Gina how that's the that's the focus for you what are you using that is it a coping mechanism

right what else can you do to help yourself cope is it a habit thing switch up your routine your habit. Like that's for you to figure out. Is it that is you just craving sugar every night? Because you know you're not drinking enough water. What is it? Knock it off. Right. Like that's sabotage. You keep eating after dinner. We losing weight, maintaining weight. Like once you, I, you know, I eat chips and stuff all the time. It's we're not, when you get to that place of living your life, you're going to be able to have some chips, have some popcorn, have some stuff. But you can't do it every night if you feel like shit and it adds up. So you have to be like, okay, I'm not feeling great. So, you know, switch that up. That's that ebb and flowness. But if you know you keep doing that,

why do you keep, that's where you got to go. Why? You can't just be like, oh, it's so hard. Okay. Are you doing anything about it? Like, are you actually just, it's hard. Okay, fine. Are you just coping right now and that's the best you can do? Okay, great. Then lay off the pressure that you're putting on yourself. That's fine. Right. Like that I'm going to drink. I'm going to chips and drink wine every night for the next couple weeks ago a lot going on okay own that own it right but lay off the pressure on yourself so this is where you got to do the thing this is that this is the what it is at this level it's not more work it's deeper work right so that's yeah and listen i'm right i'm not i'm not a martyr here and i i'm not handling it any better than anybody else does when

life shit hits the fan but this we got to do the we have to go there what's the thing you're avoiding you know. And I love it. They do know it. And I love that they come to the group and verbalize it and be like, I know I'm, I know I'm doing this. Okay. You know you're doing this. What's the next step now for you?

You know you're doing it. What's the next step? And I think that just coming there, coming here, having it validated, saying it out loud, okay, you're ready now. You know, you're ready to do something about it. You can put it out there and get real about it. It allows other people permission to put it out there and get real about it, right? Like this is, we are having conversation nobody else is having because this is the conversations

you need to have. And this is exactly the place. This is not a can I put cream in my coffee? That's not what we're doing here, right? This is a place for, for you to share, to set intentions, to reflect, to share, to not feel alone, to look for support. Like, I think you don't even need an answer to, oh, this is what I keep doing. Why?

You just got to put it out there. And then you'll be like, oh, you'll probably figure it. out yourself, right? Yeah. Yeah, I love the honesty. Let's, yes, more of it. And I think this is the place to come to just own your shit too, because I think there's a lot of time like, oh, I know I need to own it, but if I don't say it out loud, then I don't own it. Once you've said it out loud, now you own it. Now it's yours to move on from, to deal with, to move forward from to, you know, and just be on, like you said, be honest with it. Yes. Why am I doing those things? Yeah, that's it. That's where we want to go. We're not, we're not fluffing this. And listen, you don't have to be like all in,

all serious, right? Like, this is not meant for you to walk away of the to-do list or walk away feeling like you're not doing this, not doing that. This is just throwing shit out of wall and having a very open conversation and seeing what resonates for you. Was there a moment where you're like, oh, or oh, or how? Oh, okay, right? Like, that's, I don't know what language I'm speaking in today on. Well, I think you're speaking a language that a lot of people understand, so. I know what you were saying with that. You know what I'm saying. This is your place.

We are so happy that you're here. We're so grateful that you show up for everyone who shows up lives. We see your comments, your questions. Thank you to anyone who's listening or watching it after the fact. Speaking of questions, you are going live again tomorrow night, 7 p.m. In the group. I love that. Like it was so fun.

I know. Members have questions. You have answers. So, yeah. I'm here for it. I'm here for this conversation. This is where we want to be. Thanks, everyone, for joining us live today.

I hope you have a fantastic week. I'll see you tomorrow. Odette, I will see you on Wednesday. Have a great week. Bye. Thanks, everyone.