The Livy Method Podcast - You don't DO intentions, you LIVE them.

Episode Date: May 13, 2026

In this episode, Gina Livy and Maintenance Program Manager Odette discuss the pressure to “do it all” when it comes to weight loss, wellness, and personal growth. From endless to-do lists to setting 17 different “intentions” in a day, they unpack the difference between being intentional and simply overwhelming yourself with more things to manage. Along the way, they chat about mindset shifts, non-negotiables, consistency, and why sustainable weight loss is less about perfection and more about paying attention to what actually matters. It’s about rethinking intentions rather than adding “To-dos”.This episode aligns with day 24 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 g-lp-1s? 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 Livy Method podcast.

Oh, are you drinking a beer? I am. Nice. I didn't know that was an option. during the workday. So, yeah, I am drinking a beer. I'm still in my pajamas. It is actually, you want to see?

I'll show you. Yeah. Yeah. So you're a little frozen for me. Oh, they can go. Oh, you're at honor. I love that. So I think I shared on Monday that I broke my toe a couple weeks ago.

So the first thing I do in the morning, I get up and I put my running shoes on because it helps to keep it like stable and tight. Yeah. But oftentimes I have my pajamas on when I put my running shoes on. Well, all the times. Not oftentimes. All the time. So they just stay on because I don't have to pull them up, pull them over my shoes.

Okay. That makes sense. There you go. You might as well have a whole broken leg, right? Like, serious. Yeah. How did you break it? Did you tell me and I just forgot?

I stubbed it. So I have like a little cat tree for our cat. And it's right near the stairs. Yeah. and I just stubbed my toe on that running up the stairs. Oh, that's fairfoot. What a fuck? That's a piss off.

It's a piss off. And I remember, so last time I broke a bone, God, we're really all over the place today. Last time I broke a bone was my pinky finger because I was rage cleaning. You know, like, and my pinky finger went rogue and like got caught on something. Yeah. I think the moral of the story is slow down, don't run, don't rage clean. and a bit of calmness will keep your bones intact. Yeah, because it's always we do things,

we do stupid shit when we're not paying attention. Yeah. Yeah. I'm here for it. That's a good message today. We'll see you next week. Right? Quality over quantity.

Yeah. What do you want to talk about? Beer at lunch. Those would be, yeah. Yeah, beer at lunch. Right. Yeah. Yeah, we're headed out to,

um, it's like weird. I'm in the Cotswolds, right? And I went for a walk. God, it reminds me of Ontario. Like in so many places, it's so, it's so similar. And it's kind of like sunny and then rainy and sunny and rainy. And yeah, we're headed out for dinner soon. But what do you want to talk about?

I want to talk about. So you said something on Monday. And you've been saying it actually a few times this week. I've heard it in your lives about to-do list. We don't need another to-do list. We talked about this on the live. You and I have talked about it behind the scenes. You've talked about it on your lives in the weight loss group.

I just feel like this vibe of a to-do list is coming up. And off the heels of last week where we were talking optimizing, not doing everything, but doing the things that matter and doing them intentionally. And I started reading some comments in the group about our members setting intentions. I didn't hit all my intentions today. I didn't. And I was able to knock off three.

Another member said I had 17 intentions today. I didn't get to them all. And then I thought, wait a minute. we need to break down what intentions are versus to-do lists versus, you know, what are non-negotiables. Like I think, I think we have to change our language around intentions or be more mindful and also our approach when it comes to those, when it comes to those things. Okay. That's so interesting because, yeah, where's it coming from for me?

I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing here. Like we have an amazing weight loss program. It works. It works. It's amazing. It works. Like without a shadow of a doubt, we know that. We proved it.

It works. We have a great maintenance program. It works. But what are we really trying to do here? You know, like the living, it's not rocket science, what we're trying to do. But it's, and we don't need more to do list. Like with the internet now and, you know, you go on Instagram, everyone's giving you five things to do two three two things to do like it's just like i don't think we need more to do list

it's not what it's about i think we just need to have more aha moments or more understanding of where we're at what we're trying to do and that's why i think about a list of 17 intentions you can't you can't do seven you can't intend like it's not about it's not an intention to do because this is interesting because it's not a to do list but it is it's not an intention to do things it's being intentional about the things that you are doing so this is really interesting what is the difference between i think let's break it down what do and people who are watching watching right now can chime in what's the difference between a to-do list and a setting intentions versus holding yourself accountable to non-negotiables?

And I think it's understanding how each of those fit into where you are now. Like I think about what a list of 17, what could that have on it? Maybe it's I want to get my water in. I want to drink supplements. Sorry, take my supplements. I want to do movement. Well, those aren't necessarily intentions. Those are the non-negotiables.

That's part of who you are now. You are just somebody that, you know, stays hydrated. You are somebody that just moves your body. So while we want to think of them as, you know, maybe goals for the day, they shouldn't be part of a to-do list. I think part of that to-do list is, you know, I'm going to be intentional. about being curious about how I'm feeling today. I'm going to be intentional about asking myself, if I don't want to move, why don't I want to move? I think that's where you want to be present and in

tune with those intentions. And then those other things, if we can start using the language of, this is just part of who I am, this is what I do, this is a non-negotiable. I'm somebody that gets up and takes my supplements. So I'm going to make sure that those are front and center for me in the morning. That's an action I'm going to take. Or, yeah, or I'm going to, move tomorrow because that's just what I do. So I'm going to put my shoes so they're in a place where I can put them on. Yeah, I'm working this out. So my intention is to become someone who takes my supplements consistently each day and enjoys it. It embraces it rather than take this supplement, that supplement, this supplement, that supplement. My intention is to become a person who has a really

awesome morning routine, right? I want to get up. I want to, you know, do some stretching, some meditation. I want to prepare breakfast. Whatever. It's the to-do list is all the things that you might be doing in that. But my intention is to stay present in the moment. And you can't make a to-do list for that. Right? I like Judy's here. I started separating my intentions from my to-do list. For me, intentions are related to my important goals. Yes, those bigger ones, right, in life. And the to-do list is things I have to get done, like the cleaning and stuff. I always, I always prioritize the intentions. Yeah. Yeah. So it's important to reframe. Yeah, I think those intentions are what's going to move you forward, right? It's what's going to move you forward into this life that you've been

creating into the space that you've been creating, you know, how do I get there? Well, I'm going to be intentional about my thoughts on getting there. I'm going to be intentional about being curious and being present so I can figure out how to get there. The, you know, the supplements, the water, the movement, the good sleep. Yes, those are all things that you should be doing. But I don't think you should need to intend to do those every day. They should just be part of the day. They should just be part of who you are. And maybe it's something like you're not going to set an alarm necessarily to ask yourself to be curious about something. But you could set an alarm to drink your water, because that's just an action that's going to become part of your regular routine. But those

intentions are more, you know, in the morning, you're getting up, you're thinking about what is my focus going to be today? What do I have to think about today? Your intention could be to be more curious about things today. And the end of the day, how did I do on that? What did I really spend time being curious. Did I really spend, what was I curious about? Did I see things from a different perspective? You know, if my intention is to be more in the moment, how did I make out with that today? Because we don't need, like you said, we don't need these longer to do lists. And at the end of the day, you're like, I didn't, I didn't check off my water box. I didn't check off my movement box. I didn't do this. I didn't do this. What kind of mindset is that going to put you in? Now does that just get

added to tomorrow's? Like, do you feel like now like, oh, now? I need to double up on that. Now I need to put my focus and my energy there versus, you know, allowing my mind to just be present and be in tune. Yeah, like I'm trying to be in the moment, but there's like something banging on my window and I don't know what it is. Is it a bird? There are birds down there. Do you see them? There's like these little. Yes, I can see them. See my back. Look at, you can see a castle in the back there. It's so crazy. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, it's the window blubbing. Oh, my. God, let me just close the window.

It's the wind blowing the wind. Fixed. Oh, my God. There you go. It's been bugging me for like two days. Take action. What is that noise? This is the wind.

Yeah. I love that. I think this is, yeah. This is really important, too, for our members who've been with us for a while. Like, what kind of old habit thinking have you fallen into where you have a to-do list. I love that she shared that she has an intention list of 17 things. Like I love that she shared that and that's like never was my intention, never was my intention ever to have someone put 17 things on a list because it's just not, it's not,

like, I love big goals, but like that's, that's like failure every day. You're going to fail at that. Every day you're going to feel like you failed. And intentions shouldn't be something that you feel you failed at. It's not a, I didn't get this done. That's not, that's not it. That's an intention. You cannot fail at your intention. You can fail at your to do list because you made a list.

I need to pick up carrots and I needed to go to the gym and you can, of course, not follow through on those things. But the intention shouldn't be something that is recognizable as something that you would fail on that day. Maybe I didn't spend enough time being in the moment. And then the reflection is, what can I do? How can I set? What can I do better?

What do I need to do tomorrow? How can I best set myself up for success to be more in the moment tomorrow? What happened today that I wasn't able to be in the moment? Is there something I could have done differently? What can I do tomorrow to best set myself up to be more intentional about the things I want to be intentional? I'm doing. God, this is deep. And I think, sorry, go ahead. You're going to ask that question?

No, go ahead. Oh, I was going to say, too, when you are, when you've, when you're talking in this, when you have this language and this mindset of my intention is to, I'm going, I keep using the same three examples, my intention is to drink water. That could actually be holding you back from believing that's who you, that's just who you are and what you do now. because if you have to just always say to yourself, oh, I have to make sure I do that. It's almost like telling yourself, well, I wouldn't do that anyways.

I wouldn't do it because it's important to me. I wouldn't do it because it's good for me. So I have to make sure that I put it on my to-do list. So it's not really part of my routine and who I am and what I'm doing. That could have that opposite of we keep saying, you know, believe who you are now, see who you are now. if you're constantly having to put these little habits on your to-do list, it could be having you thinking, you know, the opposite, having you not believe that that's just what you do.

Now that's not who you are. Like I don't have an, like, you know, like my water's here. My intention is not to, I don't say I'm going to drink, you know, this. My intention every day is to look at this water and drink it. No, I just do. I just have water here and I just drink it. I just drink it. You know, it's not like I have to think about it every day because I've seen.

you've set yourself up for those small actions. The intention in the moment is really something you have to stop and pause and, you know, have that reflection on at the end of the day, too. Like you said. Yeah, I love, I love Kathy. She says, a bad starts my day yesterday. So when I created my intentions, I said, find my calm. And then I was able to reflect on that at the end of the day.

Oh, who knew? This was a much needed conversation, O'Day. Yeah, I just, you know, like I said, we've talked so much about to-do list. And I was thinking, like, to our members, feel like they have this 20 box to do list, all of these things that I have to do, I have to accomplish, I have to make sure I'm thinking about, I have to, you know, all these things about if I'm not taking the boxes, I'm not living a life in maintenance. I'm not living that life that I feel like I, I, I think that I'm here. But if I'm not doing these things, then maybe I'm not really here. You know, so I just want to

help them reframe that and rethink that and what, you know, just doing these things because it's who you are and it's just what you do versus having to make that list. Like you said, my to do list is picking up carrots, but that's not an intention. That's just something that you're going to do. Your, your to do list does not have to be drinking water. That's just what you do. What do we need to, yeah, there is what we need to do and what do we need to embrace and what do we need to recognize and what do we need to be aware of? What do we need to unlearn and learn and relearn? Like really, it's about trying to reach a goal here. And the goal, here in maintenance has become a person who doesn't stress about their weight, who knows what they

need to do to be able to maintain their weight. Who knows if they fall off the rails and start to gain weight back what to do to recognize that and get back on track. That's what this is all about. You will never, ever, ever get there by following a to-do list. And I think that recenters the conversation or grounds us in a new perspective. Like this is not ticking, ticking things off the boxes is not, it's not going to get you where you want, it's not going to get you to where you want to be. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And that's why I love that term, those non-negotiables.

Those are just the things that you just, you don't negotiate with every day. You know, those are the things that you just do. You just do those things. And you set yourself up to do those things. And maybe that's the intention. My intention today is to set myself up to do the things that I need to do. And what does that look like? You know, think of it on that bigger picture.

My intention today is to set myself up for success. And then that could mean your action there could mean having your water bottle filled, having your supplements on the counter, having your timer set, having your, you know, grocery list ready to go get those nutrient rich foods. That's the intention. You're setting yourself up for success. And then this is just how you go about it. Yeah.

My non-negotiable was making sure I was active in moving every day. Like I'm on here for five days, which is not a long time. But, um, you know, I, I, I set my intention to follow the Livy method a couple weeks back. And I've been eating on track. I was feeling fantastic. Went away for business last week. And I'm away again. So I had mother's day. And then I'm away again this week. And it's amazing. And I'm so grateful. Like, how awesome is this that I get to, I'm still working, but work from where I'm working. But I didn't exercise yesterday and I didn't move. And today would have been so like there's not a lot of sidewalks here in Cotswolds and there's like single lane traffic and it's pretty like you don't want to

go walking down the road and so this morning I woke up and I was like that's it going one day without following my non-negotiable is like okay but like two days is too much and so I got up this morning and I put my runners on and I walked out the door anyway I found a path that's a walkway that led me to like a cowfield which led me to like this like whatever and I came back and I just, it wasn't about feeling good after exercise. It was like I committed to myself. And that's what a non-negotiable is.

I committed to myself. I held the promise to myself that I was going to do this and I did it. That's that non-negotiable. Like in my life, this is what's important to me. I've got to get out. I got to move.

I got to walk. I got to do something. I'm not putting the pressure on myself of a to-do list of do three hit classes today and walk, walk, you know, 10 miles and that wasn't it. That's the difference with a non-negotiable, I think. Is this like, I'm committing to moving my body every day, 10 minutes, two hours, whatever that might be.

That's that promise to yourself. This is like if someone says, I'm committing to not cheat on you, you know, and the person keeps cheating on you, like eventually you're going to not trust yourself. Yeah. There's so much power on the follow through. You know, there's so much power in that. It's such a strong reinforcement to yourself. You know, if you're having these moments of doubt or you're having these moments of not believing

or you're having these moments of not trusting yourself, that follow through is just that reinforcement. It is your reminder. And at the end of it, you may not say, I feel fantastic because I got 8,000 steps in. And you might say, I feel fantastic because I did this. Like I followed through with this. And I know that tomorrow I'm going to be able to follow through again or the next day I'm going to be able to follow through again. And that feeling, that's what's going to be your motivation.

That's what's going to be your catalyst to do the thing, to move forward, to follow through. Yeah, because I think the biggest thing that people struggle with in maintenance so dead is trusting themselves and owning who they are now and being able to trust it. I think if you're truly owned, this is who I am and this is how I do things, this is how I live. These are the choices I make. But then being able to trust yourself to be able to do that is a big part of that. Yeah, they don't trust themselves. Many of them don't trust themselves because they haven't have that, they haven't had that lived experience yet. They've never done it before.

I've never, oh, I've never seen a pink penguin, so there just must not be one. You know, like, but maybe there is. You know, I've never kept my weight off. So I just am never going to do that. But what if you can? You know, so that trust piece is there. And until you, until you can build that trust, can see that end game, it's just a matter of doing, just doing, just going and just believing.

So, yeah, I agree. There is a real lack, a lack of self-trust. But that also comes from experience and past issues and past history. Yeah, because if you don't have a reference for that, and that is that living. experience. You have the lived experience of someone who's living, like living in a larger body, trying to lose weight, all that. You don't have lived experience as a person that's maintaining and sustaining their weight and having a good relationship with themselves and good relationship with food and be able to trust themselves. And so I guess trusting is a big part of that because you

don't know what you don't know and how do you believe in it if you don't trust it and you don't know it, right? So this is where this, I guess this comes to what I said. We know the living method works. We know the maintenance program works. I lost my way. I've been maintaining it for 30 years. It's a lot easier said than done, of course, because there's ebbs and flows with life. But if you don't, like, think about that. And this is why I always say, I'm always coming from a place of how do we get people to believe? How do we get people to follow through? How do we get people to know that they can do this? How do we get them? I mean, I guess that's the big, that's the big question. at the end of the day. I know. I mean, I think the way that we get them there is to,

is to guide them, but then have them lead themselves there. I mean, we can tell them what they need to know. We can, we can show them all the posts. We can show them the data. But there's this point where, you know, they have to also lead themselves there. Like we, we, but we will take you. We will hold your hand if that's what you need. We will take you there until you believe it. We're going to say the same things over and over again until it becomes your new norm until this until these approach and this language is who you are but yeah how do we get them there how do we get them to do that and i think you know time experience but also i mean my goodness community and um just knowing that we're all on this going to the same place together that's how you know if you don't trust yourself right now

maybe put a little bit of trust into your community and to those that have been there before you and to, you know, even the data, if you're a science person, put your trust into the data for now. Yeah. I think I'm trying to remember of a quote or something that I heard that if you spend 100 hours doing something or a thousand hours doing something, it makes you more of an expert than like 90% of the people out there. And I take this back to like parenting, maybe like, maybe before kids you didn't know anything about parenting. You read some books. People told you some stuff, but you, you know, you assume that you'd be a good parent, but you didn't know, right? And you just, you figured it out along the way. And I, you know, I've got four kids and they're all

grown now. And I don't even know if I did it right. Like, I still don't know if I'm a good parent, right? Like I did the best I said good. Um, so I'm trying to think of like in relation to to other things, becoming this person who's lost your way to achieve this goal. That's kind of like having kids, knowing you're going to be able to continue to raise them into good kids is like, you do your best, you know what not to do, right? You sometimes you're really good at it. Some days you suck at it, but you just keep going. And then, you know, I'm trying to equate what we're trying to do here to anything else we do in our lives.

Well, it's the number is actually 10,000 hours. It's 10. Well, fuck you. I know. I'm like, oh, God, 100 hours. Wouldn't that be nice? 100 hours. And the reason I know this is because we did.

did a post on it, I don't know, last year or two years ago in the maintenance group about it taking 10,000 hours. And I don't know if it came from James Clear or who it came from, but it was this idea or maybe it was Malcolm, what's his name, Malcolm Gladwell? Maybe that's him, the tipping point guy. I can't remember. Anyway, we did a post on it because it was 10,000 hours, but you think, you know, athletes practice for 10,000 hours. Students learn for 10,000 hours. That's what it takes. It's putting that time in. It's that practice. It's that repetition. And Dr. Beverly actually said this morning on the live that you had in the weight loss group that's available, podcast, everybody can listen to it. She said, the more we repeat, the better we get. And I don't

even remember what she was talking about if it was sleep or what it was. But like for that quote, she said, the more we repeat, the better we get. And I wrote it down right away because I thought, okay, that's true. You know, we were talking about this with the four steps of mindful eating this week. I feel like I'm doing them wrong. I'm not doing them. I can't get it. I don't still feel satisfaction. Yeah.

The more you repeat, the better you'll get. And that's exactly right. It might take you 10,000 times of asking those questions. It might take you 10,000 hours of asking those questions. But the more you repeat, the better you get. The more you follow through, the more you take action, the more you take these little steps of setting intentions and following through and then believing in yourself, the better you'll get at doing that.

So it might take you 10. thousand hours. May it take you 20,000 hours. Well, listen, what we can all agree on is we're all experts at trying to lose weight. Yeah. Because we've been doing that a lot longer than 10,000 hours. Like, think about that. We're all experts in trying to lose weight. In fact, we're all experts in weight loss. We've all lost weight only to gain it back. Lost it, gained it all back. What do we need to learn to be able to sustain and maintain it?

That's a little different. What are the changes that we need to make? To be someone to be an expert at maintaining your weight, that's where you're trying to be. an expert at maintaining your weight. So stop trying to lose. So turn the page. What do you need to do to be an expert at maintaining? 10,000 fucking hours. Jeez.

We got it. We can do it. No big deal. It feels like it's been that long already. Yeah, time goes by. How many hours are in a year? I don't know. I think there's like, I don't know.

Well, there's 24 hours a day, but you're only awake for really like 15 of those hours, maybe. Yeah. I think there's like 12 hours a day. I don't know. I think there's like 1,400 in a month or something. 1440. I don't know. 12 hours. Someone figured out that out. Drew, whoever's the lady. Here we go. Thank you. I knew someone would be back there doing it for us. Always the question. In a year? Yes. How many hours in a year? 8,700.

8,000. So a couple years. Yeah. Because it takes a little two years to be able to maintain and sustain your weight. So that makes sense. And so we're helping you fast track that. So it's not. going to take you 10,000 hours. 8,760. Yeah. In a year. Yeah. Oh, okay.

I just was going to say, is Jody there? Bring Jody on. Oh, no. Yeah. Is that Jody? Yeah, I wasn't prepared. Did you do that for us? Brought myself on.

Well, so is that you who did the math on that? Was it driving you crazy? Oh, no, Drew is doing the math. Drew to the math. Oh, Drew's doing the math. Yeah. Anyway, before we go, you guys all know, we're always talking to Jody behind the scenes.

He's joined us many times. Today is going to be his last live with us because he is moving on. He's changing his careers. He's going to become the best fucking teacher on the planet. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Hopefully. Yeah.

Yeah. That's the goal. Just the best on the planet. I just need a 10,000 hours and I'll get there. Let me go. You have a few years to figure it out. Look at this. We're doing more stats.

So. we sleep for two yeah so we're asleep okay if we just sleep less yeah after the sleep talk this morning I wonder about how much of our time we spent stressing we probably we probably stress for 8000 of those 8,060 um anyway jody what are you going to miss the most uh coming on as a surprise for these lives you've gone much better at coming on as a surprise I think you always have it in the back your mind that it could happen. So if I, I'm actually blocking the dirty, all the junk on the couch behind me here with my arm.

So it's not super good. Oh, Jody, look. Let's be real. Look at my couch. It's so clean. It's not even made. Yeah. I think it's a weighted vest or something.

I don't know. I should be using it. But it's over there. Anyway, Jody, we, you probably have nightmares about keying things in on time for us. But you become part of, become part of our process. over the years and we're going to miss you. Well, thank you. That's been a pleasure. It's been a, I've gotten to know a lot of people.

A lot of people here, obviously, but a lot of members I got to meet as well at some of the events. So guest experts, it's a, yeah, it's a great team, great group, great people, great community. So it's been awesome. Well, we're going to miss. We'll still invite you if we do some fun, cool stuff. Yes, please. Yeah. Yeah. All right. What do you want to say to the community before we go?

We'll let you have the last word, Jody. No pressure. No pressure. People are trying to change their lives here, so no pressure. It's fine. Yeah, it's fine. I'm not, I don't have a good acronym or anything ready. Like I'm, uh, oh, Drew's hitting the music and.

Great. That was really well-time, Drew. Good job. I think just keep being here for each other. I think that's all I'll say. If there's one thing I've gathered, it's like everyone, even the experts this morning, we're talking about, like, being experts in their field and they still struggle.

and they try and hold it together and they have to look good. And so I think that regardless of where you are, whether it be in weight loss maintenance or just in your life, community is everything. So just like be that gentle voice for yourself, be that gentle voice for people around you, lift people up and support. And I think that if we do that for each other,

then everyone's in a good spot, even when you're not. Oh, yeah. I love that. Wait, wait, we should have had Joe to come on with us this whole time. Who knew? I have one good thought, like a year, and that's it. We all had a beer. We could have cheers you out?

I did prepare somewhere over here. I had the cheers thing ready to go. I think I believed it. Did you? Yeah. Oh, anyway. Oh, well, you can pass that on, teach Drew how to do that. Thanks, Jody, we love you.

Thanks, everyone for joining us. Thanks, O'Dette. We'll see you next time. Bye.