Binging: The Overlooked Eating Disorder & What You Need To Know About It

Today, I sit down with Ronni Robinson to explore her powerful story of binge eating disorder, the emotional roots behind it, and her recovery. She begins by describing how her disordered eating started in early childhood, triggered by feelings of being overlooked, unimportant, or emotionally unsupported. As she walks me through her earliest memories of sneaking food, hiding wrappers, rearranging food on plates, and developing secretive eating patterns, she explains how coping mechanisms can form long before someone understands why they need comfort in the first place. 

As our conversation continues, Ms. Robinson shares how these patterns followed her into adulthood, eventually shaping her self-worth, relationships, and identity. She discusses the moment she realized that binge eating was not a lack of discipline but a trauma response—an attempt to find safety, numb stress, and fill emotional voids that had never been addressed. We talk about the misconceptions surrounding binge eating disorder, how shame keeps people silent, and why many individuals struggle privately for years before seeking help. She also explains how writing her book allowed her to confront the layers of her story and offer hope to others who feel trapped in similar cycles. 

We then shift into the turning points that led Ms. Robinson toward healing. She describes the importance of therapy, accountability, pattern recognition, and the willingness to speak honestly about struggles that many people hide from the world. We explore the connection between childhood experiences and adult coping mechanisms, the role of faith and community in recovery, and the reality that healing is rarely linear. Throughout our conversation, she offers practical insight into managing triggers, reframing self-talk, and rebuilding a sense of identity that isn’t defined by shame or secrecy. 

https://www.ronnirobinson.com/coaching-info

Website: https://coupleonukes.com

Exodus, Honor Your Heart, & Nulu Knives: https://www.coupleonukes.com/affiliates/

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*Couple O' Nukes LLC and Mr. Whiskey are not licensed medical entities, nor do they take responsibility for any advice or information put forth by guests. Take all advice at your own risk.

Transcript

 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Couple nus. As always, I'm your host, Mr. Whiskey. And today's episode is what I would call, um, uncanny non-traditional, I don't know how to describe it, but my first ever cruise guest, not from the work crew. So to give you some context, there is a, there was a cruise called the Podcasters Cruise, which got rebrand into the new media cruise that's under the guidance of Captain Neely.

And while on that cruise, which took place on the celebrity Beyond I Met, I met a lot of people, uh, including today's guests who were such an interesting pair of people that I was like, I want to have them on the show because the lifestyle that they're currently living is one that I've heard about, never really seen in person, and it's one I may do myself.

And I would love to unpack it for everyone listening so that maybe you can start. To spoil it traveling the world on a budget. So y'all are here and, uh, I'm not even gonna give your names. I'm gonna let you go ahead and introduce yourselves 'cause I'm sure y'all are pretty used to introducing yourselves to people as you've met a lot of people in your travels.

Great. So my name is Cookie Mallets. Um, and this is Bob Brody. And, um, we, we began this journey, uh, back about three and a half years ago. And I'll let Bob tell you why we began the journey. Oh, just to be tough. So, on March 22nd, 2022, I'm one, I was the baby of four boys. And I say I was, 'cause my oldest brother passed away.

Uh, he was 79 and we were the closest of the brothers in my opinion. And it was just a shock. He was still working, had his own company starting. He was in digital stuff, what all that is. Starting companies with his son again, buying them, selling them, buying them back. And it was a very interesting life. I loved him and looked up to him and stuff.

'cause he helped me a lot in my, uh, early years of being an adult and stuff. Uh, and he just dropped dead. He called his wife. He said, I'm going to lunch. I said, I love you. He walked into Panera's and hit the floor. Wow. And just cardiac arrest, which in one thing was good 'cause he didn't even know what happened and stuff.

And this was in Connecticut and we were living in Florida. And of course it was a crazy nut trip to get there with. Doing what we're doing with only summer closed at that point, getting to Connecticut and some things, it, it was a nightmare actually for things that happened during the trip and on the way home and stuff.

'cause we loved to travel. We, we were doing mostly just car tricks actually, and, and lot of cruising and like, looked at each other and said, why are we sitting here? You know, you could go anytime. We're not in control of that. And that's what started this journey of not having a home. But I'll let Cookie tell you all about that.

So, um, both of us as young adults, uh, in our late teens, early twenties, did a lot of crazy traveling. We traveled on our own and it was pretty intense. Um, we had a great time, uh, as kids. So life took over and we didn't travel as much either one of us. Um, so we made this decision and we, uh, have two social security checks and a very small pension.

Uh, and sometimes we go over a little, but we're, uh, it's all under control. It, we got a timeshare that happened crazily. Uh, and pretty much everything in our life is based on one word. So, uh, Bob and I actually met 10 years ago, 10 and a half years, a little over 10 years ago on a September 26th. I remember the date.

Met Tinder. We met on Tinder. Really? And really? Yes. Uh, it cracks everybody up. Um, we went, uh, we met at Starbucks. In the Bronx. And uh, after three hours of talking, Bob jumps up and he says, oh my God, I only have a two hour meter. And the world was working. Oh my God. Yes. So we run to the car and there's no ticket, which in New York is very unusual, right?

But usually out there a minute before is the thing, right? So there's a word in Hebrew called Behar be spirit is meant to be. So I taught Bob this word. I said, well, I guess it's Behar. And he looked at me, he said, well, I'd like to see you again. I said, okay. He said, what are you doing tomorrow?

Hey, we weren't young. So we spent the day together, uh, and we have spent. There have been two or three times where we've been almost a week apart, maybe. Uh, and one time when we, I went on a girl trip and, um, but other than that we've been, uh, pretty much inseparable. During the beginning of COVID, we were in a 700 square foot apartment.

Uh, and people went, if they can make it through that, uh, then they're, they're set. And we did, we, uh, but we then decided to move down to Florida. Um, but yeah, so that's how we started this journey and everything that's happened. It's funny you had mentioned something about rainbows. So my, one of my children's names is Noah, and I always say to people.

That's why I love rainbows, or I love rainbows and that's why he's Noah. And they go, I don't get it. And I'm like, how do you not get it? Rainbows, the arc, Noah, the, so, um, I looked for if somebody comes into a ship and on the beyond they did that, somebody came in and said, there's a rainbow. I will run outside with my phone and take a million pictures and when there's a double one, one time I saw a triple rainbow.

Yeah, that's a beautiful rare site for sure. It's, I mean, it's just amazing to see. So, um, rainbows are very important to me. I will always look for a rainbow. Uh, but I believe that philosophically too, I believe you can look for the rain and the storm, but if you don't look for the rainbow afterwards, you're missing the whole point of it.

So, so that's how we got started. Um, in the meantime, we have done two trips to Australia, New Zealand, Vora and stuff. Uh, we do go to the casino. We play just enough so that they offer us free cruises and like, you got it. Uh, you can say, say playing just roulette, roulette. I just showed up and they want you back.

Played it for the first time. And, uh, 'cause normally I play craps and then I found roulette was a lot easier. Um, and you know, it was just more fun. But I also really like craps. I like both. I mean, both are kind of, you know, chance games. I mean all, almost all of the gambling is, but you know, it was just, uh, it just is how it was.

And they bring you free drinks the whole time that I don't know if they actually have alcohol on them or not. You know, it might just be a. I think it's just a, a placebo effect. You know, you're in a casino, you're winning money. Here's your free drink, sir, here's your free drink, sir. Here's your free drink, sir.

I would tell them, no, I'm good. I don't want anything. And then they would just bring me straight bourbon with no ice, nothing like, here for you, Mr. Whiskey. We know you like. And I was like, ah. I mean I, I said no. Can I tell you a crap story? Oh, a hundred percent. A hundred percent. Yeah. So I love craps. If I win money at another table, I like to give it back at the craps table.

It's the most, the adrenaline flow is insane. So Cookie likes to play once in a while also. So we're on a ship actually, and it was took turn to rolls and I said to the cpa, be careful. Keep an eye on her eye 'cause she don't know where the dice are gonna go. But he did not listen to me. 'cause she's got something with her elbow.

My elbow's reversed. She throws the dice and she nailed them right in the middle of the forehead with, it

wasn't doing, everybody was roaring. It was unbelievable. But yes, I agree with you about craps. They say, uh, I guess you took it quite literally when they said shoot the dice, they meant roll it. You don't actually shoot it as someone, but they just said shoot the cup. Yeah, yeah. It's um, it, no, but it was funny because, um, we had a guy try to roll the dice with a drink in his hand and he said, no, no, no.

Drinking and driving. No drinking and driving. You can't be, you can't be driving and steering this whole table while drunk. So, yeah, it's just frustrating. It's, you know, it's how everything in life goes. I bet on hard six, which for those who don't know, you have to both die, have to be on exactly three. Bet on it.

Bet on it. Nothing, nothing, nothing. I finally don't put a bet on it and I throw, and guess what I get? Of course. It's, it's just, you can't make it up. It is just, you gotta be consistent in these games. I'm betting in the field, it's called gambling. Yeah. But it's like, sometimes it's just blows your mind. We had this chick show up to the table rolls of five, three times in a row.

We have a person rolls of seven three times in a row. It's like, how does it happen? Sometimes it just, and, and even roulette sometimes you'll get the same number multiple times in a row and you're like, this, statistically, this should be like impossible. It was, uh, we were on a cruise ship and we were of course in the casino and we, I was playing ultimate Texas Hold them.

Expensive. Yeah. It was a $5 table. Thank you. Oh, okay. It's like a might against everybody on the ship we were on. It's like a hundred dollars a hand, you know? Well that, yeah. So. It was, it wasn't that much for you. Not even half of that. But, so Ivan was the dealer and I got a royal flush with him being the dealer and a $5 bet paid 3000.

So later we're back at Ivan's at the roulette, at the uh, yeah, roulette. I was at the roulette table. Yeah. And Ivan says, you gotta play my birthday. So I put down the normal numbers in Ivan's birthday. And what do you think hit Ivan's? Ivan's birthday.

Ivan's birthday. I put it sometimes on the lottery tickets. Ticket. Superstition for gamblers is very big. Oh yeah, that's for sure. We, we had this gentleman, he was betting on the number 26 all day. He would put, like, he would put 30, 40, 50, $70 on it. Every single turn. And about three hours in, finally it hit and he won.

You know, uh, he won a lot of money and he went crazy. The whole casino went crazy because, I mean, this was like day five of betting on the same number, you know? And, uh, it's, it's just when it happens, it happens. It sometimes you just decide to throw a, you know, throw some cash on a number at random, and then it hits, and, you know, you're like, oh, okay.

But it's, it's interesting for sure when the drinkers, they don't like we, our big drinks are coffee, or I drink tea. He drinks coffee, water, and seltzer sober. Yes. But we, I mean, we, we, we don't, uh. For health reasons and don't drink very much. But it's just always funny. 'cause at a, after you've been in a casino for one or two times, uh, obviously I always tip the guy, the waiter, but they'll come over.

You want these Apple watches? Sorry. They, anyway, they'll come, they'll come up and they'll give us, um, you want two seltzers? Yeah. Yeah. You want two waters? Yeah. Yeah. You want two or four waters. People are looking, going, that's all you drink. Is water going? It's fine. I need my water. I'm perfectly happy with that.

You're happy with your drink? I'm happy with my drink. So, right. Exactly. But we've, um, what we did is we made these little, um, cards. You've seen the card that we made, uh, because we have a goal in life. Um, for me, leaving my job, uh, was very difficult. I'm a type A personality. I am, you know. I'm like a bull in a China shop.

When I'm working, I go straight this way and I hire people who pick up the pieces along the way. That's what I did my whole life. Um, so leaving that was very difficult. Um, I didn't have a purpose and, uh, I tried coaching. Uh, my daughter suggested coaching a, uh, uh, weight weight loss program, and I tried that.

It just wasn't me. That's not what I'm intro. This has been exciting because what we did say on our little card is our goal is to hear other people's story and share ours because maybe from sharing ours, uh, somebody will be inspired to do more. Uh, we, we like to talk to people. We like to hear what their perspective is.

We try not to talk politics very much, um, but we don't cut off the conversation. The idea is we, both of us believe that conversation is essential. People just, it's what's missing with not a lot of technology. Um, it's missing for kids. Um, the, the summer camp industry was fascinating because, uh, maybe 20 years ago they made the decision to not allow cell phones at camps because they felt it was important for children to learn to talk to each other and staff to have that conversation.

And it's amazing how many people don't do that. We, we are. Of the in inkling that we can start conversations with people. Uh, there are lots of things now, when I was a young woman, believe it or not, because on stage I could do whatever I wanted, uh, in person was a little harder for me. And I read the book, uh, how to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, I think is what it's called, the the Andrew Carnegie.

I think it, and one of the things it talked about, and I went to some workshops and stuff, is how do you start conversations? And I learned this in my twenties and I have kept this and given this to other people, and it's, uh, the who, what, when, where, why, if you're ever stuck. For a conversation. And there are many people who get to a social situation and they don't know what to say.

'cause they, you know, it might be a bunch of doctors and they're not a doctor. It might be a bunch of lawyers and they're not a lawyer. So what do you do when you're in that situation? And I've taught people to, to do that. And it's amazing how many people come back and they go, it's so simple. I feel like I'm, I've got something to say.

You know, if you think of that word, forget, how did we meet? So you got the last spot in a van sitting next to me and I say to myself, I talk a lot to myself. I got a cowboy next to me

that I said, I gotta talk to him. And we just, I think I asked, I asked you where you were from and stuff, and it ends up now we're doing this. And everything. It's just a simple thing put before us. Don't lose the, the opportunity to do something. Well, and that's what I've really been talking about. You know, every cruise I've gone on, the people are so friendly, hospitable, everyone's talking to one another.

I said, yeah, in quote, the real world, the non cruise world, once you get off this ship, it's like that goes away. And I talk a lot about growing up in New Jersey and living in, in the south for my adult life. The hospitality and culture is extremely different. Up north is, is much colder personality wise, you know, and, and physically, you know, and, uh, the people are just rude.

Especially, I mean, I grew up in New Jersey, which is probably one of the least friendly states. So, you know, maybe I'm biased, but in general, the Northeast is pretty. You know, you'd kind of mind your own business down south. It's a lot of waving and friendly, and nowadays, not as much as it used to be, just because society in general, like you mentioned, is getting closed off from communication.

It's all, you know, on the phone screens, and even then it's mostly hateful content. But I think it's so interesting because working in suicide prevention, you know, we always say a single conversation can change a life. And I, from a, a business perspective and from a, you know, what I do is I network people and I meet one another and connect people with one another.

You never know who knows who. So I never withhold conversation from anyone or from talking to someone because you never know what they're going through and what they might need from you. And you never know what they might have for you or for someone, you know. And I, I think it can never hurt to know too many people, um, as long as they're, you know, good people in line with what you're doing.

But even if they're not. Align with what you're doing. If it's aligned with people you know, then it's just another resource to have. I think, you know, it's like saying, oh, you never read too many books or watch too many shows because you're still, like you mentioned with the rainbows and the storms, as long as you're learning and taking something away from it, uh, you know it's not gonna harm you unless it's something harmful.

It's interesting 'cause I've always had a mantra, if you're not growing, you're dying. Um, because I believe that it doesn't matter how old you are. My father at 87 learned to play Monopoly on the computer against other people. Wow. Okay. Yes. Uh, my and my mother's father at 84 decided to go to law school. He was one of the oldest people ever to attend law school.

Um, so. Learning is so important, but it's very interesting. I, I'll give you a little anecdote. We're in Paris and preconceived notion, we always tell people, be careful of that. So we sat that down next to a couple and she was wearing a head scarf. And my first thing is to move away. I don't know who they are, but being who we are, we just started talking to them.

Uh, and it was this lovely, it was a, uh, a, a brother and sister and they were, um, she, she, I think was starting college in, in, uh, Paris. And it was just everything you, preconceive was totally wrong. And we had that again, we were in Alaska. Oh, okay. The cruise in Alaska. So again, there was a woman with a headscarf and.

Wasn't sure. And what happened was her brother told her if she graduated college mm-hmm. He would take her on a cruise to Alaska. And so I'm thinking that's so inspiring that he thought enough of her education to make a deal with her, that if she got her degree, she would then get this wonderful trip.

And it, it's, it shows you, you have to be careful about preconceived notions. Um, it's important we all look at, you know, Facebook and TikTok and Twitter and all that stuff and YouTube, and it's important to recognize that, um, the one-on-one with people is so much more powerful than anything online.

Because you don't know the perspective of people online, but when you can actually have a one-on-one with somebody and look into their eyes, it's, it's sort of like what, when I was training young people to be staff and leadership, I would tell them, now the first thing you're gonna do, I know you, since you've been four years old, you're gonna come in for an interview with me.

I said, then I've known you. But if you don't walk in and look me straight in the eye, put out your hand, tell me your name and shake mine, I won't hire you. I don't care if I've known you since you've been four. People have lost the ability to have that communication. And I think it's, it's so important.

You can't get that from ai. You need a person, a face-to-face, uh, and it, it is traveling. Has taught us so much. Um, and you realize that look, everybody is born, everybody dies, uh, what they do in the middle. It's amazing how many people share the same experiences you do, but you won't know unless you ask. So we've talked, uh, we also don't, um, care whether somebody is a busboy or somebody is a CEO.

Uh, we went to a, a Burger King. There's nothing near us for breakfast. We went to a Burger King waiting to get on a train. Actually, yes, a train from, uh, ton Virginia down to Orlando. And this young kid, we're trying to figure out, you know, the. The screen and figure out what we wanted. Whatever, right. Comes over because he can't order with a real person anymore, anywhere.

And nowadays that's right. So this young kid comes over, he says, can I help you? And so we said, he goes, I just basically want a cup of coffee and you know, we'll get a little bit else. And he goes, no problem. Here, let me get you a cup of coffee. Gives him a cup of coffee and then helps us with the thing.

Now I, we, we walked away and we sat down eating our breakfast and I kid had a great smile. I called him over, I said, I just wanna give you a little something. So I gave him a little tip and I said, I'm doing this for a reason. I said, you have so much potential. You have potential because you listen and you help and you have a great smile.

I said, you are going places in your, in your life. Just keep those things. With you. And he was just so shocked, you know? But again, is, was he the CEO? No, but who knows whether years later he's going to be a c just because we admired his traits, the things he was able to do without him spending a dime. So again, it's, it's been so exciting meeting some of the people we've met.

Um, uh, we went on, this was great. We, we were in aa, we New New Zealand. Okay. Uh, which is magnificent. So we decided, we got, we're on a cruise and we get off the cruise and there's a little kiosk, and I think it said either 15 or $20 for a per person for three hour, three hour boat ride. Okay. We'll do it. So we go up to the top and there's supposed to be like 30 people on this, but there were only 15.

And we're sitting there and there's this couple with a young kid, a kid was 10 and um, she had this book and she was looking at all of the wildlife, uh, she was noticing birds and fish and things. She'd go, oh look, that's this fish. Oh look, that's that bird. And then we started talking to them. Well, it turns out he's a Maori.

Well, I'm gonna interrupt for a second. Sure. What happened on, we were on the top of the ship and in New Zealand, you don't want to be in the sun a long time without protection. And the dad was an original Maori from the 16 hundreds. He could trace back when they came over on the canoes and everything.

And he said, do you have sunscreen on? I said, no. He said, here, you need sunscreen. I said, no, that's okay. He didn't stop until I put his sunscreen on me and stuff. And then his daughter, and it was just an amazing cruise, what he taught us about the history, history and stuff, and of New Zealand and the, but the daughter was amazing.

And the, and the original Maori, Maori, you know, the indigenous people to that land. And it was just, it was really, I mean, where would we have been that we would've had that kind of discussion in depth for three hours? This, this family was so fascinating. Um, and it wasn't about politics, it wasn't about religion, it wasn't about anything, but people sharing with other people.

Now he could have just sat there and enjoyed the cruise. Let him, right, let him burn and do the cruise. Right. Uh, but instead he chose, the gentleman chose to share, uh, the history of the place. It was the most informative, fascinating, uh, boat ride and the surgeon that we had ever done seeing how he treated his wife and his daughter.

And, I mean, it was just, everybody's the same, you know? Actually that was very cool. So we've had, it's like one story after another, one place after another. We've been to where, you know, do we have mishaps or we have mishaps. We were in Barcelona and we had a suit. We realized we were about to take a train ride.

We were gonna do, and this was in October. We were doing three weeks traveling through Europe on trains. Well, we realized we had too much stuff. And it was gonna be hard to get it on and off of the train. So we, we talked to the hotel and they said, we can ship it to South Hampton. Where are you gonna get on?

Oh no. Yeah, you got it. So it was, uh, it's three days beforehand. I called the company up. I said, so it's going to get here in three days, right. They said, actually there was a problem. We went, what's the problem? Well, they have customs because it's no longer the eu. I'm like, oh my God. So what are you gonna do?

He goes, I don't know. Your suitcase is here with all of our summer clothing. Because it was, we had cold weather clothing. 'cause it was cold there. Well, it turned out that some friends of ours went back to that hotel. They picked up our suitcase and brought it back with us. We, of course, then had to go out and buy clothing because we're about to be on, uh, a cold weather.

There warm weather cruise, going to Florida and had nothing without worried about it coming back because it was on a carnival cruise and we thought our luggage would be drunk by the time. Yeah. Our friends, our friends took it on a carnival cruise. Lot of alcohol. But uh, it was very funny. So happened, um, he was trying to get off the train.

The door started to close with him on the train and me off the train and one more bag of luggage. But the, the key if people wanna do this is one patience and one state, Tom, when it happens. 'cause it's gonna happen. I went on, I think we told you I went into AFib on a celebrity cruise two days away in the Pacific from Honolulu.

Stay calm. The cruise was great and over time everything's great, but don't, it's hard not to freak out. Really try to stay within yourself and everything. You'll think better of what to do. One of the three rides we did, we have a, we, we named some of our bags. So the bag with medicine is called Trixie.

It's long story. But anyway, so Trixie has our refrigerated medication that we have, so that we have, medication has refrigerated, it's, there's injectionables in there that you have, you know, and you can't replace 'em. Just easy. So we gone from the little waiting area to go get the ticket and they had a little tram they brought us.

Uh, and we get there and he's about to buy the ticket. And I go, oh, I left Trixie in the other room where Trixie, I left Trixie somewhere. So the guy brings us, and we're looking all along the way to see if the thing is there. It's not there. Uh, we're freaking out. We get to the, the little waiting area, and there it was.

But in the meantime, it is about flexibility. It's about saying, okay, if he goes, if I have to deal without this medication or a few weeks, it'll be fine if I have to do this. So doing this kind of stuff, it's um, it's about patience and flexibility. Uh, you, we were gonna go one place and it turns out that COVID was really bad in that place.

Uh, and we went, you know what? Let's go somewhere else. And it's, it's not always easy. That's not the easiest thing to do. Right? But you then realize that, um, well maybe it was meant to be, for whatever reason we switched to this and now we have this opportunity. Um, you always, my master's thesis was called Turning Lemon into Lemonade.

So it's something I've always believed in. You can do it. It isn't easy. And that's, I think the, the most important message. It isn't always about the easiest thing. It's about learning to, to really take your time, even when things are rushed and whatever. You take a breath and you go, okay, what are my options?

And then you move from there. So two days ago we got off a crew, we got off the apex again. In or, uh, a Port Canaveral and her cousins, there's unbelievable people. They'd take us to the port, they'd pick us up. They just loved getting out. So when they came to pick us up, they didn't let it, we were the last off when we wanted to be, basically.

So they didn't let anyone in to pick up aisle anymore because Oh wow. Go up to store your cousin. So if he goes to across and he said, you go get him, and they wouldn't let him come back. So I had to take the suitcases. So I get over, I got all the, the two suitcases, the backpack, he opens the trunk, I'm putting it in, it's, oh my God, my backpack with everything in it that I really need.

The drugs, I don't have it. So I go back and it's again, there was a guy there who saw us and stuff the whole time we were all waiting, kept an eye on that back so people wouldn't take it. He told me and I got back and there it was again. So it's again, it, it's to explain it. You just, it's a work out. So the biggest thing that I think everyone wants to know, which is how do you do the budgeting?

How do you plan so many trips? How do you figure it out financially? Is there some kind of secret calculator? Yes. Is, is, is one of y'all the calculator? You know, or one of y'all the calculator. So the key to this whole thing is one of you, one of the people doing it has to be very good. So I do nothing but carry the luggage.

That's my job. Tactical. Tactical and, and pack the car and cookie does for, so I don't know if you can see, but this is my spreadsheet. Everything is, this is from May, 2022. Wow. It gives the which cruise, which hotel, which friends we stayed with. Um, this is, we actually share this with family and friends.

Some don't even pay attention. Some will go, wait, wait, aren't you supposed to be here? I'm going, yes, we are. But we just switched it. Look at the spreadsheet again. And then we have a separate spreadsheet that's finances. And so that one nobody sees. That's just the two of us. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and it's, we use a lot of points.

We follow the, um, daily drop in the point sky, uh, and a couple called the world Travel, adventurous, great couple travel with their kids all over the world since they're young. Right. Um, so we use that. Um, and they do podcasts out of it all the time. Right. And that's how they get all that great stuff sort of humorous.

I mean, what, we'll, we don't always get the best place. Uh, we were in Paris, we ended, we, I didn't, I don't know parents enough. So we booked this place that was supposed to be really nice. Um, we get in and there's a bed and next to the bed is a glass shower next to the bed and, and the sink. And I'm going, where's the toilet?

And there's this little teeny closet and there's just a toilet in it. No closet, no closets, just that. And I went, this is different. It did though, have a beautiful nighttime view of the Eiffel Tower. So you just don't know sometimes what you're gonna do. But we did it with points. But you have to learn something from it also.

So what Cooking's gonna do, or I help actually, is when we have to book something where we've never been, we are gonna ask chat GBT, where this hotel is. 'cause we've had a few hotel issues. One was 50, one was a hundred, 200 year old hotel, 150. French France to get there by taxing, which was a lot of money.

$200 to get to the 15 minutes. Yes. So, um, you, you learn you should go along. You have to. Yeah. Um, I will try. I do sometimes try to take notes to put down like, okay, this is, this was not a good idea, this was a good idea. I wish I'd done more of it. Um, but I, I'll tell you one other interesting one. We were on a train and to, so sometimes I'll do a figure on the map and go, let's come here.

So we were going from, we wanted to see Switzerland. We saw Switzerland, and then I wanted to go from there to, um, to John. Well, we wanted to go to through Paris, through London to Bath, uh, that's in England. And. I said, well, we wanna stay with, let's not stay in Paris for too long. Just two nights there, it's not a place to stay.

We went, well, the train goes by Dijon went, okay, we're going to Dijon. And he went, okay. And on the train we met this guy and he starts telling us about, you know, there's an owl in Deja on a cornerstone. And everybody goes, and with their left hand, they touch the owl and they kiss it and it's good luck.

Big. Okay, big wish. And he said, and there's these little brass triangles that have an owl in it. You could follow those all around the whole town and it'll bring you to all the special spots. And so now if we had not talked to the guy on the train, I don't think we would've known that. It seems like a local thing that they know about.

Um, but it was great. And that's, again, it's about be willing to open yourself up. Look, do some people not wanna talk to you. Sure. I will say most people, when we tell them we have no home, that we have a legal residence in Florida. We are legal residents in Florida, and we spend a lot of time in the Florida area.

Like right now we're in Pompano Beach at our timeshare. Uh, the timeshare helped us do all this. That was a big one because anytime we're on land, the timeshare is all over the country. Even over the world, we have places to go to. So, um, that helped a lot. Um, and we try not to spend a lot on food. Uh, we will spend money on health.

That's a real important one. Um, if we need. In urgent care. We've been to urgent cares in New Zealand, Napier New Zealand, and uh, uh, other places in the world. Right? And you have, you have to know that that's a possibility. Um, we have conversations, and this is real important, especially when you're our age.

We have conversations with all of our doctors ahead of time. We talk about what medication should I take with me just in case, and they'll give us the medication. If you have a good doctor and they know you have issues, like, I have breathing issues, they'll give me all the medication I need just in case.

So that's a real important thing. You also wanna make sure all your doctors know what's going on. So we go back to our doctors once every three to six months. So what we do that's important. Like when we see 'em, now we make appointments for three months. Now what do we, we don't even know what we're doing.

Right? Because it always came for it in time. Those appointments. I think it's Thursday we have next, no, it's next week. Next week. We have four doctor appointments in one day, the first week in January, but Right. You gotta stack them. Oh yeah, we stack 'em. And then the other one is, I have a spreadsheet that has, um, my, all my medical information and I share it with my kids and with him, it has my blood type, it has all the medications I'm on, the surgeries I've had.

Um, that's important. We do something called, uh, med jet. They, we have lots of medications. A lot of them are for just emergency purposes only. Right. Um, we, we have something called Med Jet. Um, I think it's $1,100 for three years for two people. And you will get airlifted anywhere in the world. That's important to have.

You really need to have a good conversation with your insurance company, your health insurance. Find out if they cover in certain areas. Some have an, like ours has an international insurance, um, thing. Uh, so we automatically it covered, but it's about doing that ahead of time to prepare. Um, we don't like to fly, so we cruise just about everywhere.

If we have to fly, we deal with it. Um, but we take our time. That's not always available to people. Um, we went to a wonderful seminar, uh, I forget, I think it was on the Apex. Yeah, on the apex. On the Apex. Coming back, uh, talking about what, three words? I don't know if you ever heard of that one. Well, the, the reason we went, these people lived on a sailboat for six years.

So we, I, we just had to hear their story and their story included all these apps they have. And if you, if you heard of the one cookie, just, uh, mentioned what three words, you should look it up. Somebody who created this app, brilliant, divided the world into three square meters places. And each square meter, those three square meters had three words dedicated to them.

And no three exact words are anywhere else in the world. And now, EMA, uh, emergency medical people are using it for people. One of their stories was, uh, a couple were hiking and the guy fell down 20 feet and she couldn't, he couldn't move. He, I think he broke his leg or something and she called 9 1 1. She had service and they asked her, do you have my three words?

And she did. Within two minutes they were there. The helicopter, they know exactly where that. If they just put those three words in. So we use it when we get off the cruise ship now. 'cause we forget sometimes to take pictures of where we are or stuff like that. It gives us the three words, right, where we have to be.

And we go out and then we put those three words in. A compass comes up and takes us right back and stuff. So it's, uh, if I'm understanding correctly, it's just a more simple way for people to understand longitude and latitude and magnitude. Basically all the nu without all the numbers and complications.

It's just, here's a word, it's three words. You hit it and it and you do it. It's a totally free app. Uh, we actually downloaded three to four apps they told us about we never heard of. Mm-hmm. One, one is great. It's called Flush. Can you imagine what that one's for? I don't wanna ask. It's the bathroom.

Anywhere in the world. And, uh, let me tell you, wait until you get older. And then the other one is hotspot. I forget the name of that app, but it's, it shows you all of the wifis anywhere where you are. Uh, it won't give you the, some will actually give you the, uh, password, but most of 'em will just give you where there's free wifi, right?

Where you have to pay for wifi and stuff like that. But it's very interesting. Um, the other thing is we are always learning, and that's, again, it's so important to recognize that it doesn't matter whether somebody's older or younger than you. Uh, everyone can have something, some takeaway when you talk to them.

And, um, so again, it's all about sharing with people, getting that physical. Interaction with people because you never know what's going to save your own life. You just never know. Um, and then, um, so that's, that's one of the other things is, you know, being prepared with that. Um, one of the things we travel with is something called a morphy.

You know what those are? They're the battery charger. It's a battery charger. It's about the size of my phone, a little smaller. It can fit in my pocket. Uh, it has holds longer charge than the phone does, so that if you're somewhere and your phone is dying and there's no plug, you can plug that in and that'll keep you going for another like 10 hours.

And there's five different types of plugs on it. You just, right. Um, we're lucky because a lot of the places we go to have laundry services, people are like, where do you do your laundry? I'm like, well, what we do is we. A lot of the cruise ships, we can get free laundry because we stay with the same company a lot.

Uh, all of our timeshares have free laundry in them. So we just, you know, there were times we got on a cruise ship and we have two full bags of laundry from, from traveling through Europe where there was nothing. And we said, okay. Uh, we learned that in Europe, they don't have refrigerators in the room. Oh, wow.

So that's unfortunate. Yeah. Yeah. If you're carrying junk, uh, you have to be refrigerator. Refrigerator, so they'll refrigerator for you. But you have to know to ask for that and you have to make sure they don't freeze it. We have one freezer of drugs. Right. That was not a good thing. Um, so those are some of the great things that we learned along the way.

Um, you know, we're perfectly happy doing inside rooms. Some people. Can't. Some people need their balcony. Yeah, I know. Yep. Some people wanna need their balcony, but it costs a lot more money. So, and my thing is, at least with me, with how social and, and interactive I am, I mean, I barely spend time in the room to begin with.

No one spends time, you know, just, um, and there's so many outdoor lounge areas and stuff like that, and you could, I don't think it's worth the money. Now, if you're just going on a cruise for vacation, then by all means, treat yourself to a balcony, but to do it as much as y'all do, which I have to ask, how many cruises have y'all been on?

Well, last year, not in a row. We were 200 days at sea. So Cookie shall I, we, I've done 90 cruises and he's done 71, but I've done 71 only since 20 17, 17. We had COVID for two years, at least a year. A year we had where it was closed. Yeah. But a year and a half I guess. But yeah, so we've got a lot of cruises and some, I mean, one was uh, uh, 20, some are 26 day cruises, like the, the transatlantic ones, not transatlantic crew.

Usually about 13, 14 days. Mm. Uh, this was transpacific we did from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia. That was 26 days. Oh, that's interesting. That's a lot of sea days. Well, it's a few stops, but we don't care. Sea days are great. Everyone's by the pool if it's good weather, which a lot of times it's not. But yeah, there's, yeah, that's how it always seems to be is, you know, like my last cruise.

Rain, rain, rain when we're on the beach in port, and then as soon as the ship's about to, you know, disembark from the port, suddenly it's bright sun and gorgeous weather. And it's like, what's the whole port call? The sun was hiding, you know, and it, it, it hurts us and it hurts all the vendors as well to that degree.

That is for sure. Every time I went to go use the pool, it was raining. And every time I was doing an event, I would look outside and it was like, gorgeous out. And I was like, of course, come on. We, we've learned they're there to take care of you. The crews, they're not gonna, the captain's not gonna do something stupid.

We, he spent, he tried twice to, uh, dock at Turks and Caicos? No, BIM Bimini. Oh, Bimini. Right. Bimini. And, well, it was 40 knot wins, so he's not gonna do it. And we missed. Some port we really wanted to go to, but it was too dangerous. You couldn't, you can't get upset at those things. They're small things, really.

And I know some people just do one cruise a year and this is it. But if you can't take some of these things, you shouldn't be cruising. You should be flying somewhere. Even then you could have stuff and you know, you just, it is what it is. We're not in control. Yeah. I've had more mishaps flying than cruising, so I think I'll stick to, to cruising.

I, I can't take airports anymore. I can't. And the people, if something happens to the people when they walk into an airport, get on a plane, it, it, to me it's insanity. So we were on one cruise, we were meeting friends. Yeah. Very good. In Montenegro. Well, we're outside of Montenegro. We get this. Message, 50 mile an hour winds.

We aren't stopping in Montenegro, there is what's called a, um, non cyclone across the US all the way to Europe and we missed a couple ports there wins. We were meeting another couple and we totally bypassed Lisbon One right down to Canary Island. Canary Island. Well, we bit to the Canary Island. Okay, well that's cool.

Um, and it's, again, it's about, um, making lemon at lemonade. Lemonade at lemon. I one one, we always laugh. We we're in Clearwater a lot. My parents lived in St. Petersburg, Florida. I love the area. Clearwater was my mother's favorite. Um, just favorite beach you'll see. These people who are here on vacation, it's 45, 50 degrees and they're in that water.

And I'm sitting there going, they paid for that water. It could be raining. It could be mm-hmm. Almost frost. They're gonna get in that water because they're in Florida. And by the way, I think I told you, I know Savannah is, uh, is your, your home, whatever. And Savannah was name, my purgatory name. Yeah. My, my mother's favorite place in the world was Savannah.

She loved it. What's next?

We back, I, I got issues with, uh, aa. Yeah. But it's, a lot of this is about when to learn to do things cheaper and when to learn not to. Um, and so that's part of this, you know, you can't, um. You can't ever scrimp on your medical stuff. Never. That's like whatever it is. Always have a credit card with you that can handle if you need to.

You, you know, if you need an emergency, uh, have an emergency backup like this med jet. Okay. Uh, and it's not only for older people, 'cause one of my friends in her forties, um, she had, uh, something and she had to be airlifted. Um, so it really, it depends. Um, we have a post-it right on the door when we go out here, she puts it on.

When we get here, check the safe. We've left stuff in the safe a few times. Check gear, make sure you have your drugs. And there was this one Roku, and we can't Roku now. That's nice. So when we go to hotels. We can watch what we like on TV and stuff. And they got all, you know, they got everything on Roku and it's great.

So we do that, but it's, there's a post-it right there at on the door that I made copies of it. Uh, one other thing I like to do, I take, you know, address labels and I put on all the same, you know, our address, I make a couple sheets of it and I put our phone number on it so that right when I go to put the information on the luggage tag, I just snap it right on.

Not writing, writing on every single thing. Mm. Uh that's helpful. And, and people can read it. Yes. My handwriting is horrible, so you're not gonna read my handwriting anyway. Um, the other thing is I always carry laundry soap with me. 'cause you never know, you know, you get that one shirt that you really like and you get something on it.

You know, I take care of it there and not have to deal cruise ships. All the walls, all the walls inside the room are magnetic, so we magnets with us. Yeah. So we could hang things up there that we use all the time, or you know, some cruise ships, the inside cabins don't have a lot of celebrity. I'll push them.

Luckily it's amazing. Their inside cabins are huge. Yeah. So, um, so again, it's about that, um, flexibility. Uh, it's about planning. Um, it's also about the impromptu of it too. We'll go somewhere and we'll go, why don't we try this? Um, it wasn't quite, we were in Bath. We were only gonna spend two nights there or three nights.

And we were talking to the woman at the front desk and she said, well, where are you going after I said to, uh, south Hampton to the, she goes. Only spend the night there, or not even, 'cause it's not a great place. She was from there, she was from South Hampton. She said, spend the extra nights here. So we switch things around, did our points, spent the nights there instead.

And we asked him where we eat. It was somewhere, was a walk right, too. It was an Italian restaurant. He was the, the chef was trained in Greece and Italy. Italy. Italy. We ate there five nights in a row. Something different every night. Even pizza one night and Wow, amazing and inexpensive. And so you could find nice things by asking people.

That's again, it has to do with talking to people. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to talk to people, even if it's another language. Um, you know, uh, on your phone, right? I had a whole conversation with a guy in Reese who, who was from Albania. He's from Albania, and he, he typed stuff in to his Google app and he'd explained to me where something, and I typed back to him in my Google app and we would talk back and forth like this.

So, yeah. Um, use your phone, don't abuse your phone, right? Use it for pictures, things like that. Um, I also suggest keeping location on for pictures, because we'll be somewhere and I'll say, have we ever been here before? It doesn't look like something I remember. And I type in the name of the place and no pictures come up.

And then I go, oh, we haven't been here before. Hmm. So, um, yeah. Do you have any other questions for us? No for, for this episode in particular, we'll, we'll end things here. I mean, I know you two have a lot to talk about, but I think this is great To summarize, you know, one of the things you talked about the most is asking questions, having conversation, just human connection, uh, obviously for medical and health, take care of what you need to.

And then I think researching, of course. But most importantly, I think like even just talking to y'all, I know about some apps, but there, I think it's easier now than ever to travel. I think with all the technology and all these new apps, and there are Facebook groups dedicated to traveling. There are. You know, LinkedIn pages and all kinds of accounts.

I know that there are accounts for each cruise ship and each, each individual like cruise. And so there's a lot of information out there. You just have to do the research. And I hope that this has inspired people to travel around. Like you said, I think one of the most important things you said in my first opinion is know when to cheap out and when not.

Because sometimes you end up spending more money taking care of something that you try to cheap out on. And then I think sometimes it's better to just spend a little more money up front or into something. Yeah. And have a overall nicer quality time. So really that comes back to doing your research wisely.

And again, nowadays with technology, it's easier than ever before to do research. And then there's also people like you that we can talk to, ex talk to people who have traveled before. I know when I was on the cruise, there was a lot of people who had never been on a cruise before and they were asking me and you know, I was like, I've only been on two other ones, but.

I could answer all their questions. So always ask people around you, uh, for advice if you haven't done it before. And they have. But I wanna thank you two so much for coming on the show today, catching you in between your travels and, um, just, just to leave us entertaining where you off to next? The Norwegian aqua for New Year's Eve Cruise with friends.

She met on a cruise ship nine years ago and we're like, they're like sisters now actually. And you don't know what's gonna happen, really, where it's gonna go. They're the most incredible couple these people and they travel way more than us. He travels a lot for business. So, but anyway, yeah, we're, and then we don't plan more than about two, three months out, uh, but we know we wanna go back to Europe.

We just haven't gotten that far in the planning yet. All right, well, 2026, we'll see where the adventures of Bob and Cookie go. Absolutely a cruise ship with you again, Mr. Whiskey. Hopefully So. Hopefully so. Great to meet you. So thank you. Take care. Yes.