The Livy Method Podcast - Why You're Still Keeping the Bigger Jeans "Just in Case"

Episode Date: July 8, 2026

Are you willing to be bad at something before you get good at it? In this Midweek Motivation, Gina Livy and Odette get into the fear that quietly runs the show when the structure starts to loosen: fear of failing, fear of succeeding, and the "just in case" jeans still hanging in your closet. They break down why personalizing the plan isn't going rogue, how to actually tell the difference between hungry, could eat and should eat, the one meal you can skip without worrying about going too long and why nuts won't give you that hot-day energy boost but watermelon will.This episode aligns with day 80 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 wangery 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.

Before we get into our conversation today and no doubt it's going to be great, I want to remind you that we have the most. amazing weight loss program and maintenance program on the market. And our next live session for the fall is on sale right now. But if you don't want to wait until the fall, you can sign up today by joining our membership. For more information, go to liby method.com. I was just talking to Tony behind the scenes. Tony is learning how to run our live sessions because Drew, Drew needs some holidays. And so he's like, oh shit. I'm like, what? Learning new things. We're learning new things. You think by week 11 we'd be organized and sad.

I'm still like figuring out like I've got to get the comments up. Where's my notepad? And the music's going. I'm like by week 11 I should be ready to go, but not so much. Well, I'm just going to build on this because I see you're talking about festering and fear. Are you willing to be the worst at something? This is something when I was younger. I just thought I was like young and didn't know any better.

And that when I got older or, you know, if people are running something that's bigger, they'll have the shit figured out. They don't. It doesn't matter where you are, what age you are. We're just trying to figure it out as we go. We're scrambling around last minute. We continue to make mistakes. Like, you know, especially when I, like, so when I was younger, I used to host my own show on this small cable network called Aurora Cable. And I thought, okay, well, when I get to the big time, the city TVs and the whatever, it's going to be so much better because there's more money. it's more organized and smarter people. No. No, just a bigger shit show.

Just a bigger shit show. Yeah. I think, do you think it's online, social media, and this idea of being perfect and all that, it's fucking us up? I feel like it. Sorry. Yeah, no, I feel like it.

I mean, it's that like Instagram versus reality, right? Like I have it all figured out. It's like that old picture of the Apple looking at itself in the mirror. Do you remember this one? I don't know if anybody that's listening or watching it, it's the Apple looking at itself. in the mirror and it's bright and shiny and red is the reflection, but the actual back of the apple has this big brown bite out of it. Right? So it's all like, and everything always seems to

work out. You know, like whether you believe it or not, whether you think it's going to or not, it may not be perfection. It may not be perfect, but what does happen from it generally is a good thing, even if it's not perfection. And I think this is exactly, I mean, I mean, I wasn't going to lean into personalizing the plan right away, but I think this is exactly, this is exactly the point, right? Like, we're here to figure it out. Like, try and learn more about ourselves as we go, try and connect the dots. I mean, we've sent that so much over the last 12 weeks, you know, including prep week.

I know we're in a week 11 prep week. So let's connect the dots, keep learning, keep figuring it out. And that's what personalize the plan is too. It's not about perfection. It's not about making the right choice every time. It's about learning from the choice that does get made. And yeah, you might have to be not so great at it before you get great at it. So I started doing these workouts this week.

They're not even, I don't even want to call them workouts. I want to call it. Yeah, we'd like to know what you're calling them. I don't, I don't know. Sean sent me a list. People are suggesting list of what they might call it. And I was just like, I don't want it to be a workout because it just puts too much pressure on me. other people, like whatever. Who knows what the heck I'm going to end up calling it. But I wanted to do

something a little different. And I used to be such a good personal trainer and aerobic instructor. Like, I was really good. People paid a lot of money. I would teach over 100 people in classes. I would be on stage. I'd be doing all this stuff. And it's just been so long. And I feel like I'm not coordinated anymore. I lost my flexibility. I can't touch my toes. But this is, something I see other people out there doing and I'm like, why am I not doing this? And so this is something I was good at. I'm not good at anymore, but I'm willing to put myself out there to try to be as the best I can be at it now. And so I started these and I'm like, okay, it just kept nagging me. Just do this thing, do this thing. And people who know me might be like, well, you don't have to do

more. You're already doing enough. It wasn't about that. And it was just about doing something new and showing up, showing up for myself and connecting with members. And so I started out. Monday was a shit show. I didn't even do it because I was just like, I can't. Turns out I probably had whiplash and and, you know, I wasn't feeling so hot. Just thought I was being lazy and tired, but I wasn't. I, you know, but Tuesday, I was like, okay, I got to do this because my team called me out on it. They're like, you said you were going to do this. Why didn't you do it? And someone was waiting for me on doing it. So I was like, okay, I got to do this. And I didn't know what I was going to do. and I showed up when it was messy.

And then today I was like, I don't know what I'm going to do. And I'm like, just fucking show up. Just show up. And that's what this is about. So to bring it back to personalizing the plan, this is designed to see what you got. It's designed to have the thoughts and feels pop up. This is not you on your own. This is still the guidelines, all of the guard rails.

This is not chips and choosing donuts. This is still understanding what you need to do. but you want to bring up those thoughts and feels. You want to change. You want to evolve and you want to learn the things you need to learn to be able to maintain and sustain your weight and go live your life. And everything that you're experiencing on this program is all about that. I love what you said there about the guardrails because it's true you're not doing this on your own. It's not like go figure it out if you mess it up.

Well, then you got to start all over again. That's not what this is. There's still, you know, I think there's this fear and the sphere or this unfamiliarity, uncertainty of stepping away from structure, stepping away from a plan that they know works, where you're not really stepping away from the plan. You're just moving those goalposts a little bit wider. You're broadening those guardrails a little bit. It's not like you're just not doing anything that you were doing before and going on your own and trying to figure it out. You're still very much staying within those guidelines. My goodness, and you think of all the time

and everything that you've learned and everything that you've worked through, you don't just toss that aside to go it on your own. You're using all of that to guide you in this next part. So it's remembering that, yes, we're stepping away from a food plan. You have more freedom and flexibility, but you're not going rogue. This is not what that is. This is still remembering everything you've done. So yes, Garberos is probably the perfect word for it.

You know, you're working within these parameters within this. maybe it's like a floating structure, you know, but it's still within the structure. Yeah. And if you're perceiving that, you know, this is now an excuse to eat donuts and chips, then ask yourself why. Because that's not what this is about. I love, there's a couple comments here. I love.

Sue, all the best things in my life have been on the other side of anxiety and fear. I am brave, she says. I love this. Judy, I love personalizing the plan. I don't know if I was afraid to try it. maybe I was. And then she says, I signed up to join a charity dragon boat team. And I'm terrified about it. It's not happening until mid-August, but I'm already anticipating the fear. Fuck yeah, you are. Yeah. You do it. And you're going to be amazing. And it's going to be the exact

experience that you need. And we need to step out of our comfort zones. We want to experience life. We want to learn. We want to grow. We want to evolve. Right. So it's so easy. Why do we? we gain our way back, we keep falling for whatever reason into old, familiar patterns and habits that created where we were in the first place. And so you have to break those. You have to create new ones and you have to maintain and sustain them. And there's a lot of feels around that. This is this, this little tweak is just a little tasty taste of that. Yeah. And it's all, stepping into your comfort zone might also teach you exactly what you might confirm exactly what you did think like oh maybe this and I'm not saying this is going to happen for for the dragon boating

but you might get there and be like yeah this is not for me this is I didn't think it was going to be for me and it's not for me maybe that's not your thing but maybe you give it a chance you try it a few times you know like it I think it's just it's it's it's going to can go one way or the other you can think like oh I want a water ski like I thought one year I was going to I'm going to water ski and I try and I'm like that this is not for me I don't enjoy it it hurts I don't want to do it but I tried it and I knew and now I paddle board instead yeah it's good to know it's good to know it works for you it's also good to know what doesn't yeah yeah right so I think that that's why this this week is really about that really learning and being curious and figuring it out

well I did that with my whole company right like I thought I wanted to have the number one weight loss company in the world I love big dreams I was confident I'm going to do this I'm going to do that and it turns out it's not at all what I want. And so in so many areas of our life, you're allowed to change your mind, right? But you want to do that from experience. You want to do that from knowledge. How are you going to know if you like it or not if you don't at least try it? And if you're nervous about trying it is why? Is it a fear of failing? Is it like, what is that fear coming from? Is that you really don't like it? Or like, is it valid that this isn't for you or is that coming from something deeper? Yeah, fear of failing or

fear of succeeding and then oh shit now I got to do the thing because I do it really well and it feels really good so now I have to change you know so that might be part of it too like where is that coming from like we had a member saying that I'm just talking about fear Karen says I still keep a pair of larger pants in my closet just in case because that can almost keep her in this safe place like okay well I have these just in case you know I don't want to give myself that loophole but here's my safety net just in case because it's, you just don't believe that you're there yet, right? Your past experiences, your past expectations, what you've been told from the outside, what you've learned is I need to stay safe.

So this is, you know, doing things that keep you safe and keep you familiar is are easier. Yeah. There's nothing wrong with that because one, I keep two sizes of every gene because I'll have skinny days and I'll have not so skinny days. So I love having a range of jeans. if I want to wear them snug or I want to wear them baggy. But if you're keeping those jeans around just in case, just in case what you gain your weight back, how do you not gain your weight back? So that's really being really knowledgeable about what causes you to gain weight back, right?

So one, not giving your body time to adjust to your new weight without challenging it. Like take the maintenance program seriously, right? Each do as many rounds of the live session as needed to make sure you are super confident and everything that you need to do. Be really self-aware, right? Like, understand the only way you're going to gain weight is if you go back and recreate the situation that cause you to gain the weight in the first place,

which is going back into old habits. Like, everyone focuses on the food and what to eat and all that stuff, but it's not. It's like, okay, where is this fear coming from? Is it valid? Yes. Lost your weight before. You gained it back, right?

Why? So how did you lose it? That's really important because just the way you lose it on the Libby Method, gives you a fighting chance of being able to maintain and sustain it. What was going on in your life when you gained your weight back? You do not gain your weight back and not notice. So if you're not being self-aware about the things that you need to do to not just lose weight, but maintain your weight, chances are you weren't being self-aware when you gain that weight back because you were just not noticing, right? Or you noticed maybe, but you didn't have the tools

to be able to do anything about it. And now you do. And that's what this tweak is for. Let it fuck you up. let it mess with your head. Let it do that and see it for what it is. Oh, I'm not there yet. I need to practice this. I need to learn this. I need to understand this. So many people are so fearful.

They're like, just let me do the basic food plan. Let me do the basic food plan. What do you learn from just staying stuck? Now, if you don't have capacity, I get that. Like, right, if you've got a lot of stuff going on in your life, you don't have capacity, that's a totally different thing. But if you were just not doing this tweak or moving forward out of speech, then you ain't ever going to get there until you work through that.

That's why you can't, you got to walk through the fire. You can only go around it. So, you know what I mean? You got to just, you got to walk through that fire. Yeah. And I think this is a also, I know I'm probably going to repeat myself a little bit, but it's also you're doing it with in a safe way. You're doing it in a way that we're not,

you're not just jumping out of the nest like a baby bird. You know what I mean? And like figure it out. You have like, Like, again, those guidelines, you have those guardaroles, you know, okay, you know, what am I, am I hungry? Yes, I'm hungry. What am I going to eat?

Well, I'm not going to eat a donut because I know that doesn't make me feel good, but I could eat yogurt. I could eat fruit. I could have, you know, whatever it might be within the parameters of the grocery list of the food plan. So it's not like you have to decide between chips and an apple. No, you're going to choose between a fruit and something else or a protein. and something else that, you know, so it's that you still have those parameters there until you

are out there on your own and then you can, you know, you decide to make those choices and you're like, okay, I'm going to have a donut. Okay, how did that make me feel? Is that really what I wanted? You know, you're not quite there yet. But I think if you just keep those principles in your mind, and that'll give you a bit more confidence that you know, you're not just, you know, going rogue and going on your own. And fight for it and be intentional. Fight for it and be intentional. Fight for it and be intentional. Carolyn's the same, right? I always had that fear in the back of my head of gaining the way back. Okay, what the fuck do you need to do to not do that? And this is the place to work on this, right? This is the place. Listen, I'm not going to bring up the membership because, you know, people

paid to get in and they're here in the Facebook group, but, you know, having access to the app, to the AI, to all the conversations and all of that and people just not investing in, and I've been broke ass. So if it's about money, I didn't forget that. But, you know, I keep saying I was just in PEI and, you know, had a lobster roll and it was $24, $24, one lobster roll that was done in probably six minutes along with the fries, right? It's like, be intentional about what I'm, what I'm doing here and be all in and how can I make the most of it. This is like, did you just stop journaling? Did you stop setting intentions? Did you like, are you actually, are you actually just so like, I'm going to do this?

I'm going to learn everything I need to learn. I'm going to walk through that fire. I'm going to get this shit done. I'm going to get back to that place. I'm going to get to that place where I'm no longer losing. I'm no longer maintaining. I am living and what do I need to do to get there. So I love that I love that I've always had the fear in the back of my head of gaining the weight back.

That's like step number one. Yeah. Which is so great. Step number one. Okay. That's what I'm dealing with. That's why I love this realization. Yeah.

And that fear will stay there until you prove to yourself it doesn't have to be. that way. And the only way you approve to yourself is by, you know, moving, making those decisions, pushing past that comfort zone. Yeah. And, and, and, and, and, and, and removing old experiences and expectations with new experiences and outcomes. That's how you're going to, to slowly remove that fear, because your body remembers that. It remembers experiences. It remembers cycles. And it's going to prepare you for that to happen again. It's going to make sure that you are ready for that. worst case scenario. So of course it's going to stay there until you start to show yourself and prove to yourself and reprogram your mind that that is not your reality anymore. Yeah. The way you think

is the way your mind has been programmed. And we got to reprogram now. We've rewired it physically, our body mentally, our minds and weight loss. Now we're reprogramming it. That's what we're doing here. You want to talk about fine-tuning, personalizing the plan when and how to use, you know, you're hungry and need to eat, could eat or should eat. This is talk about like really being self-aware because you have to actually take time and be in the moment and assess how you are feeling where you're at, what you need. Like what does that actually mean, right? And this is just not eating on a schedule or routine.

This is checking in. Some days when you follow personal plans of plan, it might look like the basic food plan. Yeah. But this is where you are in being intentional about actually knowing for sure. Am I actually hungry? No. Okay, no, I'm not. Well, that's because I just ate something like 15 minutes ago.

You know, and not in your head, in your, in your body, in your belly. Am I actually hungry? Yes, I am. Okay, what have I learned is the best thing for me to eat right now, right? So if it's breakfast, focusing on that protein, if you want to have some fruit, add a protein and fat to it. If it's a meal time, you know, focusing on the protein or the vegetables, leafy green, healthy fats, if we want heavier carbs at them at lunch, right? So that's that.

That's that. Am I actually hungry? Yes. What am I hungry for? Right? What could eat is, I don't know. Like I could eat something, right? So let me have a small little token amount.

Same thing of what is the best choice from what you've learned up to this point. And then there's the should eat. And this is where it could and should could be combined. Like, I'm not really all that hungry. but if I don't eat something now, then I'm going to risk going to risk going too long without eating. So I should probably have a small token amount, right? Or I'm not hungry, but if I don't eat, I would have gone too long without eating. So I should have a small token amount, right?

And so the only thing you're doing here that's really different is just not forcing yourself to eat if and when you're not hungry. And that includes not just snacks, but all meals and even dinner. Like if you've eaten enough throughout the day, you're not hungry through dinner. But this is also mindful that your hunger levels are going to change day to day. So this is about getting in tune to that. And then you will also maybe notice changes in hunger levels. If you're used to eating those snacks in the afternoon, for example, and now you choose not to have one, mentally you might be like, oh, well, I wasn't hungry for my snack. But what if I didn't eat enough?

And oh, my gosh, am I actually going to be hungry later? And all of that, right? So there's still so much that we're. There's so much. We had a member asked that about dinner. They like feel like that they should have dinner because they think it's going to be so long until my breakfast, but I'm not hungry. So what should I do? Should I eat it? Should I not eat it? Should I not eat it and see how you feel? This is where we have this, this trial and error that you might have to see that you might have to work through. And, you know, it's it's that point where. eating after dinner, if you know you're going to bed in a few hours and you're genuinely not hungry, then that's fine. But if you don't have dinner and then you find yourself a few hours later really hungry, that food noise is starting to come back, you're feeling uncomfortable, then maybe that's an indication that that's where that should should come in. I know my pattern now.

I've done this for a couple weeks. I know my pattern. I know that I should have dinner because if not later on yeah i'm gonna you know be in the spot i don't want to be in and that could be eating out of habit eating out of um you know being triggered or coping whatever not because you're actually hungry but yeah if you keep choosing not to have dinner and then it's you keep in eating after dinner then you you should have something to eat because you know that's going to cause you whether it's an actual physical hunger or you just mentally you're like i didn't eat dinner so I'm hungry, you should probably then have something for a day. Yeah, it's really interesting that question that you had for me the other day

or that we had here that was about someone was concerned about, well, if I choose not to have dinner, that I'm going too long without eating. And is that going to cause my body to feel the need to store fat? So never in 30 groups. Has anyone ever asked that or talked about that? But that's the one, I guess, place where you don't have to worry about going too long, like is after dinner.

If you choose not to have dinner, then you can go 10. 15, 17 hours without eating. This is where, though, you ideally want to get breakfast within two and a half hours of waking. And then if you miss that window, you want to make sure you're getting a snack in mid-morning to replenish your glycogen store. So, like, that's the one place is after dinner. You don't have to worry about going too long without eating. I thought that was really interesting.

I was like, huh, learn something new. Yeah. So, yeah, I think this week really is about just, you know, being intentional, being intentional with a tweet, giving it a try. of course we feel a bit unfamiliar, uncertain, but just, you know, this is what you have to work through. This is where you want to go. We want you to be at this place, whether it's two weeks from now or six weeks from now or two years from now, where you're feeling more comfortable with your own patterns with that trust is grown, that confidence is growing. You're ready to just to live your life. What do you need? What do you need? Are you there yet? Are you at a place where you feel like you can live your life? Trust that you have all the tools and skills that you need to be able to maintain your weight. And if not, that's okay.

That means that you probably should do another round. You should stick a while a little longer. You should be really intentional. Get back to if this summer you're not joining us in the summer club or not signing up for membership, then give back to journaling every day, right? Do whatever you need to do to maybe track the things that you are doing, to set intentions and the day reflections. Maybe check your why.

Why are you showing up to do all these things? Because I'm not there yet. And I am fearful of gaining my way back. And I want to make sure I'm doing all the things to not. right so really understand where you're at and what you need and but we're not done yet right so we still this week next week we're going to be practicing personalizing the plan so this is the time this is like you sign up for a class to learn something let's say you sign up to learn photography and you have been showing up and you know you've been learning and then practicing your photography at home and doing

whatever you need to do and there are still two weeks left of this photography class you wouldn't blow it off you would probably continue to show up and what more is there for you to learn and you would continue to do your homework and the things that you need to do, right? And then maybe over the summertime, if the course is done, it's like, okay, I went and took this course so I can be a photographer. Now it's time for me to practice being a photographer. And maybe on my own, my photos are shit. So I'm going to sign up for another class in the fall. Right? Like that's, you know what I mean? Kind of. Like it's the same thing. Before we go, you want to talk about leveling up, maximizing and maximizing your personal plan. I love this because we get into shit that no one talks.

about when it comes to not just weight loss, obviously, maintaining your weight, but just understanding how your body processes and digest foods and how the choices that you are making affect you, right? Like everyone was on that high protein tip. And I'm starting to see people now being like, okay, well, I was eating high protein. Now I'm laying off the amount of protein that I'm eating. Well, yeah, because no one needed that amount of protein, you know, but you do want to make sure you're getting in protein. You do want to understand sort of like that. not just when to eat without what to eat piece, right? Like understanding that different foods take a lot longer to break down in your system.

So let's say it's really hot outside and you are feeling your energy drain and you want, okay, I want something quick that's going to like give me a pick me up. Well, nuts are not going to do that. Nuts may be quick and convenient because they're right there. You don't have to do anything with them. But nuts are going to take about an hour and a half at least for your body to break down. They're hard to digest, process to digest, get nutrients and energy from those. Not to mention that they're protein and fats and the chances of they're not going to give you that energy boost you're looking for.

Whereas fruit, watermelon, for example, although it does take some work trying to chop it, I still have not perfected chopping watermelon. I prefer the spoon right out of the fucking thing. But anyways, that breaks down like 20 minutes. You're going to get instant energy from that, right? So if my energy is draining, it's a hot day. I'm kind of tired. I need to pick me up. nuts might be really convenient, but nuts are going to take me a lot longer to get the nutrients

and probably not the right choice for the energy that I need, whereas fruit would be a much better option. Now, if you combine the fruits and the nuts, you're going to get that fruit energy right away and that more sustaining energy from the nuts. So just understanding, like if every day you're eating fish for lunch and then all of a sudden, you know, and then you're hungry like an hour later, two hours later, and then on Friday you have steak for lunch, then you're not even hungry for your dinner that night. That's because steak takes a lot longer to process and digest through your system, not that one is better than the other. It's just that's how it is. So I love that, I love that conversation. Yeah, I think it's just really, you know, situation dependent,

scenario dependent. And it's just another part of feeling empowered, right? It's that, it's that having that knowledge to be able to make those choices where like, yeah, okay, I'm going on a road trip for three hours or four hours. Yes, yes. If I have a piece of fruit, I'm going to be hungry in an hour and a half and have to stop or have to pull out another snack or have to pull over where I know I'm going to be in a car for four hours driving to wherever I'm driving. I needed something a bit more sustaining.

So I'm going to choose that. I think having that knowledge and that power too is going to really help you feel confident in making those choices. I love that use case scenario. We should break that down into a post for like, say you're going on a road trip. How do you prepare for that? I love that. We got to get going. I got to take my kid to the bus stop. She's going to go downtown and hang out with her sister.

And I love that. I love that she's leaving the house. So I want to make sure she gets to her train on time. But what is the homework for people for the rest of the week? Or what's the conversation with the takeaway from today? Yeah, I think the conversation, the takeaway is just to be intentional with this tweak. Just, you know, be intentional with trying it. Be intentional with being open to learning what it's going to bring up for you. be intentional with telling yourself it could feel uncomfortable.

I get that, but I'm going to do it anyways. I think just be, just make that choice, make that choice to give it a try and make that choice a step away from the structure of the food plan. And just just that, that's it. Just give it a try. Don't, don't let that fear hold you back. Love it. Or the uncertainty hold you back.

Great. I love that. Well, thanks, everyone for watching and joining us in your comments and your questions. Judy and Sue. We appreciate you. We will see you next week. Oh my goodness. Our final week. Yeah. So Monday, we'll be together on Monday. And then Wednesday, we're shaking things up a little bit next week. That's right. Yeah. So we won't be going live at noon for midweek motivation. We're going to be doing a crossover with Kim in the weight loss group. And we're going live at 9 a.m. And we're going to be talking summer. We're going to break it down. Of course, we'll talk a little bit about those week that we're in and the week that we're in next. but also really talking about the summer and the summer club and what next steps might be for you. Love it. Can't wait. Okay. Bye, everyone. Thanks.