Enjoying Life OTR

#47 Healing Adventure and Exploration with Gemma Ford

• Cindy Tunstall/ Gemma Ford • Episode 47

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Ever wondered how a life-altering event can pivot your career and lead to an inspiring new journey? Meet Gemma Ford, a former ER trauma nurse who transformed her grief into an adventurous life as a long-haul truck driver. Listen as she recounts her journey from the ER to the open road after the sudden loss of her husband. Gemma shares her experiences of discovering new places, savoring local cuisines, and making significant lifestyle changes, like quitting smoking and losing 40 pounds, to enjoy a healthier life with her grandchildren.

What does it take to push past social anxiety and embrace new experiences on the road? A fellow truck driver opens up about their transformative journey from initial hesitation to stepping out of their truck and exploring iconic landmarks, geocaching, and even enduring a daunting 14-mile walk back to their vehicle. This segment underscores the importance of overcoming social anxieties to enrich your life with memorable adventures, even in the often isolating profession of truck driving.

Maintaining a positive mindset is crucial during long work hours, and this episode delves into strategies like positive self-talk and empathy to combat loneliness and anxiety. From simple interactions that uncover deeper stories to the benefits of healthier lifestyle choices, including keto diets and intermittent fasting, the episode offers practical advice for truckers. Tune in to discover the power of community support, personal anecdotes, and the importance of staying engaged with our podcast and online groups for a fulfilling life on the road.

Gemma Ford is a leader in the Enjoying Life OTR Facebook group, so you can connect with her there.  She has shared so many great OTR adventures.  

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Enjoying Life OTR—because LIVING WELL is worth the effort. We’re sparking curiosity, adventure, & resilience while honoring drivers and embracing a healthier trucking life. Discover creative life hacks & practical strategies to make the most of your time on the road. Join the movement!Explore, enjoy the food, snap the pic, and share tips on saving money along the way.

This podcast is for new and veteran drivers looking to stay mentally, physically, and financially strong while embracing the freedom of the road. We bring you real stories, expert advice, & practical tools to help you thrive, not just survive, in the trucking life.

Connect with Us: Join the Enjoying Life OTR Facebook Group – Share your journey, find trip recommendations, & connect with fellow drivers. Follow our Facebook page – Get the latest podcast episodes, trucking tips, & entertaining content. Visit our website – Explore our journey, see community highlights, and access resources for a healthier, more balanced OTR life.

For questions or to be a guest, email our host, Cindy Tunstall at EnjoyingLifeOTR@gmail.com #HealthierTruckers #EnjoyingLifeOTR #TruckerWellness #OTRLife #WorkLifeBalance



Cindy Tunstall:

Enjoying Life Over the Road, a community that champions adventure, innovation and well-being. Welcome back to Enjoying Life, otr. My name is Cindy Tunstall and I'm your host. Today's guest has so many great tips for enjoying life. Otr.

Cindy Tunstall:

She's really taking advantage of the opportunity to travel, even while being a team driver. She's committed to working her hours doing a great job with her trucking career, but she also wants to get out and explore. She doesn't want to miss the opportunity to get out and see the sights while she has an opportunity to do such a thing On the company dime, no less right, they're paying her way. We might as well get outside the truck and enjoy some of this beautiful country. So she had some great tips to share. She also talked about quitting smoking.

Cindy Tunstall:

Recently she also lost 40 pounds while an OTR driver shared some practical tips the way that she made it happen and finding a way that made it work for her and it wasn't too painful just some minor adjustments along the way, but big impact. She wants to be healthier, not just lose the weight, but be healthy in the longterm so she could enjoy her grandkids. Well, I love this episode. She's actually one of the leaders in the Enjoying Life OTR Facebook group so she shares about getting to share posts in there and the fun adventures that she's doing. So I know that you're going to want to connect with her in the group as well after you hear her story. We talked about so many great topics. I know you're going to love this episode.

Gemma Ford:

Her name is Gemma Ford. Welcome to the show, gemma. Hi, cindy, thank you for having me. I'm so excited. It's about time. I know We've been trying. We've been talking about it, so I'm so thrilled to have you on the show.

Cindy Tunstall:

You're one of my favorite OTR drivers, so I really love the way that you take advantage of the opportunity to travel and, like all of us, we can't do something fun every weekend, every reset, but when you can, you really take advantage of the opportunity to travel. I'm excited for our audience to get to hear about some of your adventures. Before we get into all that, why don't you just give us a brief overview about your career in trucking, how long you've been running, what type of freight you run and where you run, just so they could get to know you just a little bit more?

Gemma Ford:

Okay, I'm a team OTR driver for a mega company. I've been with them for almost five years and they're my only company. They keep me safe. I have the best DBL in the world. Shout out to Heather she keeps me safe, gives me my miles, gets me home on time and I can't complain. Um, I'm a widow. Uh, my husband passed away going on eight years and I'm a mother of three beautiful daughters and five fantastic grandchildren. You see, like a lot of my on my page. They're always on my page. You know they're, they're my world. I have a great family. Um's, see, I'm 48.

Gemma Ford:

Been pretty much everywhere and, like you said, I try I have to get out the truck. I, you know, cause I mean, I'm a team driver and I just have random co-drivers. It's not like a spouse, you know. So when I, when we reset, I have to get out, cause we just book it. We get from cross country and I need to stretch my legs, I need to see people and, you know, talk to people. I'm a chatty Cathy, so you know I just. And then I love food, so I like trying different food and I figured God's blessed me with this opportunity. I need to see what he has to offer out here, you know, and get myself out of a bubble. So, yeah, that's pretty much my first career, though for 30 years.

Gemma Ford:

I was a ER trauma nurse for 30 years and my husband bought a business and he was like you can retire, so I did, and we traveled and had a good time. He had an unexpected death and from that point it took me for about three years I went to, I grieved. My grieving process was very dangerous to me. I went into a really, really black place and you know, one day I woke up and was like, well, god's not taking me, it's not my time. So I had a friend who was a driver. He was local, and one day I was like, hmm, I'm going to do this Crazy, because I hate driving period. I never thought I swear. I mean, I have, you know, vehicle narcolepsy. Get in the car, you can't even hit the first left and I'm falling asleep, you know. So I said I'm going to do this, you know. And I did it and I was just like whoa, okay, you know I don't know if I can cuss, but I was like you're a badass, I love it. You definitely can cuss. I did, I was. So I still do that to this day.

Gemma Ford:

When I see the treks or the truck stop and at my OC pass me by and I'm sitting there, I'm like you drive that thing. I mean you actually maneuver it safely. You know, I'm so proud of myself. You know, and got my life back together, like I said, got out that dark place and found my faith, you know, and love for life again, and you know, so that's pretty much. You know the short end of how I got into it and what I do. You know, so that's pretty much. You know the short end of how I got into it and what I do, you know.

Cindy Tunstall:

Well, I love your story. That little intro has me with a million questions, so let me just go to tick these off.

Gemma Ford:

I didn't know where to go with that.

Cindy Tunstall:

I have so many questions. Okay, first thing, let's address the team driving. Because you drive, I never, just up until very recently, did I realize that you were a team driver, Because typically team drivers don't get to get out and explore. You know you don't reset usually so, or that's just unusual. So how is the schedule working out where you have time to go and do exploring while driving teams? How does that work?

Gemma Ford:

Well, I drive 12 pm to 12 am and Perfect Desemblance yesterday set up, I brought it in to we were dropping a relay so I brought it into the relay While he was in reset. We started him on a reset and I had all day, and today he'll start driving tonight. So I'll take off for the whole day today and enjoy myself, go back, take a shower, do my laundry and I sleep tomorrow. So then I start driving at noon.

Cindy Tunstall:

So it works. I make it work for me. Yeah, I love that. I love that you have a determination to take advantage of the opportunity to travel despite the schedule challenges, because I'm I was impressed before with how much you do outside the truck before I realized you were a team driver, but now I'm just like, okay, this is next level.

Gemma Ford:

Oh, yeah, I'll make it happen in 24 hours. That's awesome. And when I joined your group well, actually, I didn't join the group first I saw a post you had made on one of the groups that we're in I think it's she Trucking, yeah, and it was about your podcast, yeah. So I was like, okay, let me listen and thank God, thank you for that. Your podcast is awesome, thank you. The funniest one was one that she had early on. I can't remember quite the gentleman, but he had been driving forever and he got in. Oh, I can't remember quite the gentleman, but he'd been driving forever and he got in. Oh, I can't remember, but it was an awesome episode it was. He was really funny and I got stuck on it.

Cindy Tunstall:

Is it the one with the guy that was in the um the um potatoes and got dumped in the back of the potato?

Gemma Ford:

Yes, that one right there Great episode, awesome, so great. And I you know so. Then I joined your group and I was like okay, I love this when I tell people about it. What I love about the page is everybody is so positive. You know, I mean, I'm part of even my companies and they're just. You know, you've got these trolls saying negative and people are asking honest questions and you know you're shooting them down. Everybody is just so kind. Your group and your podcast is definitely a blessing to me and it gave me ideas, because when I first started driving, I had a co-driver named Sarah.

Gemma Ford:

She's my best friend for life and we go on vacations together. Well, she left to drive with her husband, but she got me into geocaching and she would always go hey, we're not going to park it in OC, we're going to go here, we go, we're going to go alligator wrestling and zip lining of alligators and I'm like well, what you know? I was like okay, I guess that's what we're going to do, you know. And I mean, she was like I know this, right here, we're going to Beale street and we're in West Memphis. We're going to Beale street and hanging out with motorcycles, you know it was. It was like okay, so it was prior to her. I drove a couple of months but I didn't do that. I never even got out the truck, you know, and I was like there's got to be more to this.

Gemma Ford:

And then she left and I got another co-driver, a young man, emmanuel, and I drove with him. He we still talk, he's like my son, and he left because he wanted local work and he was down for what Sarah taught me to do. So he would, we would sit there and research and go oh, you know what we're, we can rent a car and go, stay at the Shining we're. You know, we're only like 50 miles away, let's have this bill, you know. So he would, you know, and he's like oh wait, the stockyards are right around the corner. We're here, let's go to the stockyards.

Gemma Ford:

So I then ended up getting another co-driver. This co-driver that I have now and I've had for a while, he's a great guy, but he doesn't like to do things. So I had to go ahead and put you know, cause I get social anxiety. But I was like you know what? These people don't know? You go out there, this is your life, you know. And so I had to do it on my own and that's what I started doing and I was like okay, yeah, because it gets lonely out here, you know, and, like I said, my co-driver now he's. You know, we drive together, we get along, we respect each other, but we don't have a camaraderie, you know. Okay, I have a question about that.

Cindy Tunstall:

Okay, so I think you would describe something you know, I think, a lot of truck drivers. I kind of had this theory that most truck drivers are introverts just because you would choose to, you know, do a job where you're not doing a lot of peopling. So I kind of I think it's a pretty safe assumption that a lot of them are introverts and, you know, maybe even have some social anxiety. So when you first started that transition, can we just talk about that just a little, because I think that there are a lot of drivers that have, you know, want to get out and explore and see things. I'm a people person. I could go talk to a tree. I mean for real.

Cindy Tunstall:

I would start a conversation with somebody and I don't have that issue. So for me it wasn't. I didn't have to overcome that. And then I also grew up in a family that were big adventurers, so I kind of was just comfortable, you know, moving to new places and talking to strangers and being around them, so I didn't have that personally to overcome. But when I'm out on the road I meet drivers and they go. I don't truck like you do, I don't go do those things, you know, and they're talking to me because I'm starting the conversation. But right, so tell us a little bit about that process. For other drivers that have maybe been driving, you know, a short time, or have been driving for years and never really did much outside the truck, can you tell about your process a little bit more specifically, about how you forced yourself through those feelings and what that transition was like for you?

Gemma Ford:

Well, you know, what I did was for me. I just knew, because at the beginning it was like I did have this social anxiety and I was just like what if I do this wrong? Perfect example was that time when I was in North Bend and I couldn't get an Uber back and I had from Rattlesnake Lake and I had to walk 14 miles and eight hours later I got to my truck because I couldn't get an Uber back, those kind of things. When I did that, I was still like you know, take the joy out of this. You know not that, oh my God, you're stuck. You know, no, take the joy out of it, take the walk, you can get back. Just get back before it gets dark and be in the moment.

Gemma Ford:

You know, and I know, for me it's either get over my social anxiety or stay in the truck and be depressed and hate this job. You know what I mean, because for the first 70 hours that I'm driving not that I hate it, but it's stressful Because I'm trying to keep you know, I tell my co-drivers you've got three jobs and so do I, and that is to get me home to my family, get the motoring public home to their family and deliver this load. It never changes in the order. So with that mentality, for 70 hours I'm thinking, work, work, work, work, work and, you know, looking about, can I even back into this place? You know, I mean just all of it, you know. And then if I didn't get out of that funk for the at my reset, for even a couple of hours, it would just wear me down. It would just wear me down and it would get me into, I think for myself, a depressive state to where I would just quit and not do this, you know, and be like okay, I'm just, this is just too depressing, it's too much. It's just like with people who have nine to fives and they had the weekend and they plan to do something, it's to get out of that nine to five.

Gemma Ford:

You know funk, and I mentally would tell myself these people don't know me, you know what I mean, nobody's gonna harm me, it just. And then it's like I'm a likable person, you know. So why shouldn't I be out in the public meeting people? So I have these talks, seriously, these talks, with my head all the time. Yeah, I do, and I'm just like, oh that, you know everybody's coupled off or it's families and you're the only solo person people are going to think you're the only solo person. People are going to think you're strange People. I have to tell myself people aren't looking at you like that. They really don't care like that. Okay, I have to stop you there just for a minute.

Cindy Tunstall:

Because I think this is such a brilliant strategy that you have and whatever your issue is like. You described this as a solution for social anxiety. But this is a solution for social anxiety. But this is a solution for any type of issue, whatever it might be. You know, we have this self-talk that we're playing in our ears, like you were saying.

Cindy Tunstall:

You know there's couples out there I have that as well and I'm like, oh, there's all families and they could put me in a funk that I'm not home with my family or I'm out here alone. I could say I'm lonely. I'm like I'm not lonely. I could talk to a tree and I'm going to go up and talk to this family. I'm going to offer to take their picture, ask them where they're from, and I just meet these most amazing people. But you have to be aware of that self-talk that you're hearing and then have another message that you want to say instead of it.

Cindy Tunstall:

So I think that is such practical advice for people that struggle that wouldn't consider themselves people. You know people. People you know that aren't energized by't consider themselves people. You know people, people you know that like aren't energized by people. So just to get out and like, like you said, people aren't thinking of you in that way, and actually quite the opposite. I think they most often are like, oh wow, you're a truck driver and you get to go all over and this is your first time at Niagara Falls, isn't it great, absolutely.

Gemma Ford:

So yeah, absolutely, so yeah, absolutely. Because I know my co-drivers laugh at me because I will get so much information just from the security guard If I'm waiting and he's checking my trailer, I mean I've already known he's working for somebody else today because his co-worker had to go get a tooth pulled and he has a dog at home. They're like, how did you? And I'm like I just said hi, how's your day going? And it opens it up. You know, and I don't mind, you know, I know one time I went to we were at a shipper and my co-driver came back to the truck and he was like, oh, the guy at Lion Hall was rude and yada, yada, yada. And I'm like, oh well, I mean, people have their days.

Gemma Ford:

So I went to go check on our load and it's the same gentleman and I said, hi, not to bug you, and I I get it, but I just want to know so I can kind of trip plan um, my clocks and stuff, um, do you happen to know when our load will be ready? And um, and I go, by the way, how's your day going? And he goes, it's horrible. My dad died yesterday and he just started crying. I'm like whoa. I'm like, oh my God, you know. But then I so I told my co-driver, I said, see, you never know what somebody is going through. You know, nine out of 10 times they're not being rude to you to be rude to you, you know, and just somebody being, you know, kind or saying how are you doing? You know he's at work, you know, and I mean maybe it wasn't the prior day, but you know his dad had yeah, it was very recent enough for him to start crying and then he thanked me for asking.

Gemma Ford:

You know, and I I have to think to myself like that with you know, like people out here, because if we're walking past each other, I'm going to say hi to you. If we're meeting eye to eye I was raised that way, you know, if you're looking at somebody, hi, how you doing and keep walking. You know people that don't say hi to me, I turn around and go. I said hi. You know. I mean I try to. There's so much ugly in the world right now, cindy, it's just and I try to be one of those not ugly if not for everybody else, at least for myself. You know, I go to bed every night and I thank God that I'm going to bed and wake up and I thank him for waking me up and how can we make this a good day? You know?

Cindy Tunstall:

Well, I love that you're looking at, you know, I love that you look at people like this and, just generally speaking, that we don't know what other people are going through. I just recently lost a loved one and I was telling my family I was like, you know, it's so strange. I went and I experienced this trauma and this loss and my heart is breaking. And then the next day I went to work, you know, and I had been off work for a couple of weeks and you know people on the docks I was at a regular shipper and they're like how was your vacation? And I was like it was good to be out of the Texas heat, you know, and I was like, and I was pushing back tears going. You know, they're just being polite and casual and you know they don't need to hear my heartbreak, you know. So I was like I share with other people, but I was just trying to and I told my daughter I was like, you know, we don't know what people are going through. I think that's been my big takeaway in this season of my life and it's like, you know, we just really don't know what people are going through and we have to be intentional, I think to assume the best of other people and it's one of the things I love about our group. You know we have a great leadership team, which you are a part of that, and you know the leadership would take some time to moderate the groups and to keep it a positive, but pretty quickly people get the hint that what kind of culture we have here. And even in the name Enjoying Life, otr, I'm like you kind of see that's going to attract a certain type of personality. But you know we have to assume the best. You know so many trucking groups and there's groups for everything you know, and I love them.

Cindy Tunstall:

I'm in a bunch of groups myself, but you know some of them, just like you know that's not my vibe. And you know that's not my vibe. And you know there's bad-mouthing drivers and making fun of drivers making mistakes, and I'm just like you know I want to assume. When I see a truck parked on the side of the road that's wonky and doesn't look safe in the way they parked it, I want my first thought to be I wonder what happened to them and I hope that they're okay.

Cindy Tunstall:

You know, because we don't know what. You know, maybe a four-wheeler pulled out in front of them and they're a hero that they didn't dump that load, you know. But we don't think like that. So I want to surround myself with people like you that are assuming the best of others, and so I want to just take this opportunity to thank you for being a part of our community and our lead team, and I'm so very grateful for you, and the group is what it is because of you know our lead team as well and people like you that are making a positive contribution, so I'm very grateful.

Gemma Ford:

Well, I'm grateful for you. Oh, and I love Melinda, my condolences to also. I I feel you on the on the grief. I do have one advice that one thing of advice that I have is feel it. Feel it, cindy. It hurts. It hurts Cause at first, when my husband passed away and that was my guy, that was, uh, there, we were two peas in a pod and we loved each other and, most more importantly, we liked each other a lot, and um, it was sudden.

Gemma Ford:

It was sudden and um was not expected. The last thing he said to me was I love you. Last thing I said to him was I love him. And I didn't feel it, though I didn't feel the grief and it took me to a really, really dark place that my faith brought me out of. You know, because then, shortly after that, my mom passed away my little potato, she passed away Um, and it was hard for me just to grasp that. You know I've got to take another breath without them. You know it was I mean, and I even in my head said, oh, the rest of my family is fine, my girls are successful, they have great families, they don't need me, you know, I mean. I mean it was. I was self-sabotaging everything. It was just bad, um, and. But back to the group. Let's lighten it up. But back to the group. Melinda is awesome. I love her new um, her new Facebook page. Uh, go to her. Has anybody ever told you that you two sound alike?

Cindy Tunstall:

no, I haven. I haven't, but I mean, I think there's some similarities. There really is.

Gemma Ford:

When I listen to her podcast because I go to listen to her podcast because, of course, I'm going to support anything that's positive and I love her dog but I was like, wait a minute, why does she sound like Cindy? You guys do have similar voices. And, the crazy thing, when I listened to her interview with you, me and her have a lot of things in common. In regards to the medical company we were with, of course I didn't branch out like she branched out, you know, on her own. But, yeah, in the medical field, the weight loss journey, everything, because I had a medical scare last year and, um, I stopped. So I smoked cigarettes, so I stopped smoking, um, it was a cardiac issue.

Gemma Ford:

I took out 40 pounds by, um, yes, by doing, uh, an altered keto. Not I keep the bad carbs out. Um, I do still eat good carbs, you know, fruit and things like that. And I'm big on the if you know, the intermittent fasting and, of course, the walking. I try to get in a lot of steps, definitely on my resets, but if I'm not a shipper, instead of driving to find an empty trailer or a loaded one, I'll park and I'll walk the entire lot. Oh, wow, that's. And then pre-trip it and then come back. I figure out ways to take steps, you know. So I took off 40 pounds and how long did it take you?

Cindy Tunstall:

to do that? I'm curious about that. That's a great amount of weight loss.

Gemma Ford:

Well, I went, I got my medical scare in July, and so now, right now. So from now to July, nine months, 10 months, oh, wow, wow, yeah, 10 months. Take down 40 pounds, wow, and four inches around my waist, wow, good for you. So yeah, I was, you know. And the keto, the altered keto, I don't know what you call it. I do my own keto. If I want a banana, I'm going to eat a banana.

Cindy Tunstall:

I know there's carbs in it but they're healthy carbs, so you're not doing French fries.

Gemma Ford:

Yeah, I'm not doing French fries, I'm Filipino, so I'm also not doing rice. That hurts, that's painful for me, but I'll do the cauliflower rice. Now I do treat myself on a reset or when I'm at home I will go ahead and treat myself to a really nice Thai you know meal or a nice Italian meal or something like that, and then when I go back on the road I'll do a hard fast because I'm cheated and, more importantly, not the weight. I feel so good about myself. In regards to my energy, I'm up there in age, I'm 55 and I have I used to get brain fog, you know. Now I don't get brain fog. I have lots of energy, I sleep better. My legs don't swell up after a day of driving 11 hours, I don't have tangles. So I like better living choices that I've made, because before I thought I'm going to eat once a day but I'm eating a Big Mac or some fast food and a bag of Cheetos. But it's eat once a day but I'm eating, you know, a Big Mac or you know some fast food and a bag of Cheetos, but it's only once a day. So I can't. This can't be bad.

Gemma Ford:

And then it was bad. You know, I was bad and I was like, you know, make healthier choices, so that my big goal is I don't want to retire and then not be able to enjoy my grandkids, you know, and go on vacations and not be able to walk, or, you know. And same with the smoking thing. I didn't want to have emphysema or COPD because, you know, I like to smoke, I hate the smell, but that was such a great de-stressor, you know. But it's like, yeah, de-stress unhealthy, was such a great de-stressor, you know, but it's like, yeah, de-stress, unhealthy. So, you know, I just had to change a lot. A lot of it had to do with the way I thought about things, cause I really had at one time, um had a, you know, just screw it, f it, I don't care, this is my life, let me do what the hell I want to do, you know. Then I realized you know those, you know, not me, you know. So, yeah, I enjoy Melinda's. She has a lot of healthy information.

Cindy Tunstall:

A lot of healthy information, very practical for us as drivers. Yes, she comes at a place you know, because she's an OTR driver herself lost 60 pounds while on the road and she just has a lot of practical tips that can equip us to, you know, make healthier choices along the way. Can we talk about intermittent fasting? I have some questions. Okay, I do intermittent fasting as well. I try I do really well.

Cindy Tunstall:

With the eating window of like 3 to 9 pm I'll usually eat. My first meal will be when I first break my fast will be a large healthy choice meal. I try not to. I do some. I did a fast food yesterday but I was like today I was like well, and I could tell after one meal of fast food I'm like I really like my healthier choices. So I tried to do a healthy meal and then I'll have a light snack toward the end of my eating window. What kind of um eating window do you have, like when? How rigid are you on the um, the structure of that? I know you said you have some some um days where you take a little bit of a break from the journey. But um, what's your typical eating window?

Gemma Ford:

for fasting. My typical eating window for fasting is I break, I. I. I only give myself four hours.

Gemma Ford:

Okay, so I will start my fast at 8 PM and I'll only drink water, um, and then I then I will. So, since I drive at noon, I start my shift at noon, I'm still fasting. I take my lunch or dinner around 4, 30, 5 o'clock and that's when I when I break my fast. And so what I break my fast with is I take I Linda just posted one right now with the avocados, the halved avocado. Okay, I do that, but not with the meat. I just put cream cheese, the salmon cream cheese, in it and sprinkle it with some mozzarella and hot sauce and I break my fast with that. Then I have a protein meal After that, whether it's some salmon, I don't know, just something more protein with some cauliflower rice.

Gemma Ford:

And then, if I feel like I'm not full usually I'm full, but if I'm not full, I'll have some cheese to um munch on while I'm driving up until eight, eight PM, and then at eight PM I stop. And I don't do that as much the 8 pm stop for the fasting part as I do for if I eat anything after, because I'm finished driving at 12 o'clock in the morning. So if I found my body, if I eat something, let's say at 10 o'clock at night, I don't care what it could be a carrot, I'm up till three or four o'clock in the morning, yeah. So I make sure at 12 or at eight, because then I've got that four hours to let everything just go ahead and you know my sugars to go down and everything, and then I fall asleep about one o'clock, wake up at about eight o'clock in the morning, get a good night's rest.

Cindy Tunstall:

What I love about what you shared is a couple of things. I think that probably your fasting the four-hour fasting window probably sounds crazy for people that have never done it, but it really is not that difficult if you do a really clean fast and you know how to do it properly. So we could talk about that in a minute. But what I love that you shared is like the lack of brain fog and this really great consistent energy throughout the day and then just the sharpness, the mental clarity is insane to me. I'm just like I go no, you don't understand. Like, how do you? Like I'll sometimes have physical labor days.

Cindy Tunstall:

You know where I'm really having to work hard and be in the back of my truck and doing some heavy lifting for me and I'm a small frame so it doesn't take much for it to be heavy lifting for me.

Cindy Tunstall:

But you know where I'm actually doing some physical activity with my load or even long hours. But I have such a great mental clarity in my driving and my energy is good and I don't feel like I get shaky or weak or you know any of those things. It's just incredible how your body adapts to that. I think that that's probably explains a lot about how you've been able to lose so much weight over the time, just making some small tweaks and eating healthier fats. Avocado is such a healthy fat, so really good sustained energy from that. Also that you're getting such great rest. You've paid attention to your body and you know that if I eat later that it affects my sleep. I mean, and there's so much that's happening during those sleep hours that our body needs to recover. You're getting really great rest at night. So I love all of the things that you shared, because it sounds so extreme, but actually when you're doing it it's not like that, sorry, I'm walking this trail.

Gemma Ford:

I got you to say there's another couple walking past me and I said hi to them. Sorry, tell everybody where you are. I'm in Utah and I am on the immigration trail right by the zoo. I went in the zoo and then I was like wait, it's kind of loud, she's like this isn't going to go good. So I walked across the street and now you have me talking. It's nice and quiet and it's beautiful, but you have me walking this mountain. Basically, I'm not mad, though I'll go back to the zoo and finish my zoo visit and you know. But I'm'm sorry, what were you saying before I?

Cindy Tunstall:

no, it's fine, I just. I was just saying I mean I love how you've done the fasting. Can you tell me about how you started the fast and like what makes it? You know, I know for me it's important that my fast is clean, like I only drink a really good, clean, organic coffee, black coffee, no creamer, right? What do you drink during your fasting hours, if anything, and could you give them a list or something they want to try?

Gemma Ford:

When I'm fasting, black coffee, I have to have my coffee. Everybody that knows me knows that don't even talk to me until I have caffeine. So I wake up in a good mood, but just don't talk, but I will. And then water, what got me? Okay? So I was fasting before that, but not a clean fast. So when Tell everybody what you mean by that I would fast. But then when I was ready to eat, I was eating whatever the heck I want. I'm a Cheetos, I love crunchy Cheetos. So I'd have a bag of crunchy Cheetos and I in my head I thought, okay, I'm fasting, so four hours I can eat whatever I want.

Gemma Ford:

But that wasn't. You know, I was wrong. I was so wrong I wasn't even eating fruit, okay, so, um, or vegetables, or you know nothing in that. Well, when I had my health scare, sarah and her husband were doing the keto fast, so she turned me on to the keto, basically, and then I think she's big into it, they've been very successful with it. And so I was like, okay, let me try this along, you know, get. Because I was like well, I was really not happy about not being able to pig out on fruit. Yeah, so that was you know, but I eat fruit now. At first I wasn't. Then I was like, wait a minute, you can't convince me that fruit is bad for you.

Cindy Tunstall:

You know, in moderation you could do moderation, yeah, in moderation, everybody.

Gemma Ford:

But I'm not gonna gain 20 pounds, I'm not gonna, you know, um, continue with the heart problems or anything like that. If I eat a peach, yeah, you're gonna be okay if you eat a peach one day, you know. Or a mango, uh, where I wouldn't do it because I'm like, oh yeah, no, you can't do. You can't do that, you can't, you know. So I kind of I eased up on that and same with, you know, vegetables.

Gemma Ford:

I've eased up on being I called it a keto Nazi, you know, and it was like you know. I was like I need to stop being a keto Nazi because what's going to happen is I've got to get into the. I made my mindset change from being a keto Nazi, um, to actually just being healthy and making healthy choices. Um, instead of damning myself and feeling guilty because you know I ate that mango, you know it's like, oh shit, now, tomorrow, you can't eat for 20. This, what I was doing in my head, is for 20, you gotta do a 24 hour fast now Cause you ate that mango. Oh, wow, you know, that's not, that's not cool, that's not healthy either, yeah, not sustainable either.

Cindy Tunstall:

Yeah, it's not mentally.

Gemma Ford:

It was getting me, so I was like and where you know where I getting me. So I was like and where you know where I where my light came on at the uh interview that I listened to with melinda. She interviewed a dietitian, yeah, and they were talking about keto and mentioning it, and so she the points that both of them had in regards to you know, melinda was basically saying it frustrates her that people think that fruit and vegetables are bad for you. Yeah, you know, and I picked that up and then after that I listened to that and then I was like you know, she's got a point. I love that. She's got a great point. So let's go ahead and, like Melinda said, let's go ahead and make healthier choices, healthier lifestyles, sustainable lifestyles.

Cindy Tunstall:

Well, it's obviously working for you. You've lost a lot of weight and you feel good, you're having sustained energy, you're sleeping well, you're staying focused at work. I mean it's obviously you listen to your body, you keep tweaking, you're making adjustments and that's the best we could do, right, and it's sustainable.

Gemma Ford:

You could continue. So I love that. And everybody's journey's different. You know everybody's journey's different. Some people don't like fruit and vegetables right, fine, with just eating steak, you know I mean I, you know that it's everybody's is different and nobody's is wrong. You know, um, I was just doing what was wrong for me. Yeah, you know I was doing what was wrong for me and um, and it know I was doing what was wrong for me and it's helped.

Gemma Ford:

And I've talked to a couple of other, like drivers at our OC that you know I've kept in touch with them and stuff, and they were asking like how do you, what do you do? And you know, and I've told him that my routine, you know, and my friend Chaz, he's like you know your routine's working for me. My friend Chaz, he's like you know your routine's working for me. And I was like, well, great, and you know, now do your routine? You know you can shift it some. And he's like, no, you know, I've lost 20 pounds. It's been three months but I took down 20 pounds. And you're right about the physical and mental, you know, feeling that you get from him. He's like, if I want to make a bad choice, like wait a minute. Am I willing to wake up tomorrow with my knees aching? Yes, you know, or am I going to? You know that fatigue that hits me in midday on my shift, that's the worst.

Cindy Tunstall:

Yeah, yeah, it's like well.

Gemma Ford:

I need to take it. You know, take a nap real quick, but the last four days when I was doing clean eating, I was great, you know, and then I slept good at night. You know, because he's trying to get off his CPAP machine and he's tried all kinds of things outside of, like you know, medical things to do it. And I'd seen him a year ago and then I saw him again. He's like oh my god, you look great, you lost a lot of weight. And so, you know, we got in the conversation and he's been working on it, you know, and I said get out the truck, man, quit gaming. You know, get off the truck and walk. And we have gyms at some of our OCs, but I'm not a treadmill person. It's boring to me. Yeah, I can't do it either I cannot do it.

Cindy Tunstall:

I'll go hike all day, but I cannot do 30 minutes on a treadmill. I walk around a dirt lot at an operating center before I get on a treadmill. I walk around a warehouse, even on the concrete, before I walk on the treadmill. Okay, I have one more thing I want to add about intermittent fasting. I love the things that you share because I want to share my journey, because I think um cause it ties into this conversation.

Cindy Tunstall:

When I first started fasting and I heard about it, I was trying to do an eating window and similar to what I'm doing now, like I was making it my goal to eat between three and nine and that works really well for my job schedule and all and um. But every now and then I'd pop in a piece of gum and I realized and I didn't. I read a book about this and it helped me understand the science of what was happening when I would pop into sugar-free gum or I would have a flavored tea or something you know, no sugar added, but I had. I wasn't. I wasn't clean fasting like cause. Only it has to be black coffee or a tea that has no flavors in it, and definitely even if it's sugar-free sodas or sugar-free sports drinks, zero calorie sports drinks, it still triggers your mind to think that food is coming and it actually breaks the fast. So I just for people that are new to fasting.

Cindy Tunstall:

If you pop in that sugar-free gum it totally breaks your fast. Your body does not think you're fasting and you start to. You know you're not tapping into your fat stores like you would if you had a clean fast. So it sounds like you're already naturally been doing that. But I did it for months and I was like I my brother had told me about intermittent fasting and he had lost all this weight and I was like it is not working for me.

Cindy Tunstall:

I'm eating this sugar-free gum to help me get through my, my shift, but it's like I'm still having really bad cravings. But when I went really clean fasting with just water, just black coffee, no creamers, no sugars, no artificial sweeteners in any way, which I really I was already drinking black coffee. I like good, really clean black coffee, but so that part wasn't hard for me. But when I figured that out, that's when I got where the energy was sustained and made a huge difference for me and my and I occasionally will feel hungry Like I'll. You know, I'll call a friend, I go.

Cindy Tunstall:

I'm feeling like I want to eat. It's actually not hunger that I'm feeling, I'm really just bored, you know. So I make sure I don't have food that's near the driver's seat and you know I make it a little bit. If I'm going to break, you know, my fasting time, I'm going to have to go to a little bit of a trouble to do it, and most of the time when I'm driving I'll go. No, that's actually not hunger. I know what hunger feels like and you know sometimes I get lightheaded, I get a headache, I get dizzy, I feel shaky. There's times where I'm really experiencing true hunger and obviously the grumbling in my tummy, but other time, most of the time, it's not. I'm just bored and I'm wanting to snack on something while I'm driving. And once I realized that connection, this is not hunger, this is boredom, and I'm like I could press through and it just takes a few minutes for it to go away usually. So anyway, it's worked really well for me as well.

Gemma Ford:

And now that you say that, that's funny, because I know when I started doing that too, I was doing the gum, but the gum for the smoking sensation and I don't do that. I can't do that because of dental, I can't chew gum because of dental issues. But yeah, and the dental issues came after the chewing gum problem. But I didn't realize that You're right, because I would do the chewing and I'm thinking I'm still fasting and I'm good, but I need to chew gum because I don't want to pop a cigarette in my mouth. You know, but I didn't know that it was correlated to that either. Yeah, oh, good, glad I can't chew gum.

Cindy Tunstall:

No, more, because I'd still be chewing gum. I know, I know it's good. Well, I just I want to wrap up the show, but I want to give you a chance, if there's anything else that you want to share, any of your fun adventures that you've been able to do, that you might want to encourage other drivers to get out and try while they're out of the truck you know, just get out there and do it.

Gemma Ford:

You won't regret it. Just get out there and do it and put your big girl boots on, you know, and or just your big boots, and just go out there and do it and and just really enjoy life, ottr, because it's more about it's more than just making money. You got time and you only got one life and, you know, one day you might be like dang. You know, I was over here at the solids, niagara. I didn't even go see it. Yeah, yeah, you know, and it's free for the most part. The travel part it is. It is, it's free. You know, it's paid for by the company, so just do it. And the other thing I want to say thank you to you again and everybody in the group. You guys, everybody, this group is awesome. It really is, so I appreciate everything.

Cindy Tunstall:

Well, thanks for coming on the show. This is like so way overdue and I know I'm gonna have you on the show again.

Gemma Ford:

Thank, you and sorry for being out of breath, but I had to walk down that mountain.

Cindy Tunstall:

Well, thanks for coming on today. I sure appreciate you. Thank you for all you do. You're welcome and I'll do my photo dump.

Gemma Ford:

I'll go in my photo dump.

Cindy Tunstall:

Yes, I love it when you do that. I love it when you do that, thank you, thanks for coming on. I Thanks for coming on.

Gemma Ford:

I appreciate you, my friend. Thank you, Cindy. God bless you and your family and my condolences again.

Cindy Tunstall:

Thank you, I appreciate that kindness very, very much. Thank you, take care, okay, you too. Okay, bye-bye. Be sure to check out the Enjoy Life OTR Facebook group. We have a lot of great people like Gemma Ford in there posting and sharing their adventures, their things that they are doing to enjoy life over the road and ways to save money some fun things that they've been able to do. You can search the states that you're going to be traveling through and see if there's other drivers that have posted some fun things to do or some good stops or good restaurants that have truck parking. So be sure to check that out and also stay tuned. Next week we have the Healthier Truckers segment with Mel. Also stay tuned. Next week we have the healthier trucker segment with melinda fox wellington next week. You know I say this all the time, but I think every truck driver in america needs to know melinda fox wellington. She's breaking the myth that trucking has to be an unhealthy lifestyle and she's just sharing really practical tips and ways that we can improve our health and well-being while on the road. So stay tuned for that.

Cindy Tunstall:

Enjoy life otr podcast. Subscribe if you haven't already done that. So make sure you don't miss that episode and join our Facebook groups Also. The Healthier Truckers Facebook group is another great group for you. So so many great things happening and we want you to be a part of it. Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you all next time.

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Cindy Tunstall

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